The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-02-04

stark naked. had set ND juju on barrel
| OF the fore-deck winch. and were sacri-
ficing to it hen which they had stolen
from one of the coops. The little wooden
god I knew: 1t was one that / had picked
| up in the Kasai country, and 1 was taking
1t home as a curiosity. II had been lifted
| from my own stateroom by some prowling
negro, and was now receiving fresh daubs
of red blood and the clamor Of frantic
| worshippers. 1t was quite reasonable
thing to expect under the circumstances.
| But what threw the action of these saw
ages into grotesque relief the sight
of another man crouched in prayer beside
I the bulwarks. 1t was the bishop. His
tottering hands were pinning the crucifx
to his hollow chest: his hips were swaying
under him with weakness; his dry, cracked
lips moved noiselessly; and the molten SUM-
| light beat upon him as 1t pleased.
The sight of that man gave me a bad
| feeling. Before 1 knew quite how it hap
| pened, / was down on the frizzling main
deck, and the juju had been plucked from
the winch barrel and flung over the side
| together with the tortured hen, and 1 was
fighting for my life amongst a crowd Of
furies. Tordoff was there. too, though I'm
sure 1 don't know how he came. and
thanks to him / got back again on the
bridge deck: but the bishop did not come
with us. He stayed down there amongst
those sullen. animal blacks. imploring
them, praying with them, soothing them.
| He was a drawer man than 1, that Portu-
guese.
Another night came down, and the
steamer wallowed in inky blackness. In
the morning we We're still more helpless.
The mates, the few remaining sailors, the
| stewards and cooks. and the two yellow
traders had gone; the captain lay in the
| alleyway with a knife between his shout
der-blades; the bishop and 1 and Tor
doff were the only white men remaining
on board. Yes, Tordo6. 1 went into the
pantry smoking cigarette. and found him
| there, eating biscuits and raisins.
you here?' I said; "Why, man,
thought you cleared out with the rest"
NO." he said. Il thought it would be
so fine to stay behind and be able to scott
the cabin grub just as 1 pleased. I just
| stayed for the grub; it's worth it,
You're rather a decent sort of liar" 1
said; do you mind shaking hands?'
| at don't see the need" he said; land
besides, I'm using my hands to eat these
raisins; but you may Kick me if you like.
There isn't a redder fool than me in both
Atlantics. BY the way how's the padre?'
| Every sick 1 looked into his room and
found him lying in his bunk He couldn't
talk"
| 81 put him there. Found the old fool
preaching to those beasts on all tours this
morning, and looked on till he dropped;
then 1 logged him under cover"
ANY more dead?"
Five pegged out during the night. They
were lying pleasantly in and among the
others, and there were seven more sick.
told the head man when went down
| with the padre to have then, put over the
side or I'd kill him. And when I came
back I found he had showed the whole
dozen. The man-and-a-brother's a tolera-
BILE brute when he comes to handling his
own kind, Mr. Calvert"
We went out then and set the passenger
boys to washing down decks. We could
not give them the hose because there was
no donkey working, but they drew water
in buckets and holystoned and scraped and
scrubbed till they cleaned the infection
out of the decks, and sweated it out of
themselves. The cholera seemed to have
exhausted itself. There were three other
cases, it is true, but they were mild, and
| none died. In their fright the boys would
have chucked their friends overheard as
| soon as they were taken sick, but prom
| ised the head man to shoot him most
punctually If any one went over the side
| who was not a pukka corpse, and if niggers
were addicted to gratitude (Which they are
not) there are gentlemen now living on the
Kroos coast who might remember me
favorably. For we did get in. A B. and
A. boat picked us up three weary days
later and towed us at the end of an ex-
tremely long hawser into the very place to
which wanted to CO.
OF course, Fernando Pc, being Spanish
kept us very much at arms length, and
we did a thirty days most rigid quaran-
tine, which made, after the last case had
recovered, matter of forty days in ALL
| But we had no more deaths, and the
bishop pulled up into fine form. He was
not a man L could ever bring myself to
like, and as Tordoff was, for the most
part, sullen and unwishful for talk the
time that we swung to our anchor on Fort
Clarence was not exhilarating.
Still il was pleasant to think one was
alive, and to realize that one had got re-
specially out of very tight corner-yes,
one of the highest. The tramp's two boats
never turned up again. 1 suppose they car
ried cholera away with them, and drifted
about in the belt of equatorial Gains, full
| of sun-dried corpses, till some tornado
| came and swamped them. So that we three
were the only Europeans left out of the
thirty-four and of the go negroes who
| left Banana in the Congo, only seventy
four came to Fernando Pc. 1t was toll
cradle thinning out but when it came to
| climbing the peak, that made up for all
which had gone before. Indeed 1t is a
| wonderful mountain.
| 1 saw Tordoff again just as 1 was going
away from the island, and tried to put it
| to him delicately that 1 was not badly
off, and would like 10 give him lift if
| the thing could be managed.
| mo, Mr.. Calvert" he said; thanks.
| prefer to go to the devil my own gait.
don't suppose you'd ever know who / am
but If anybody describes me and asks just
| say you haven't seen me-"
| And that is the last 1 have seen or heard
| of him. 1t is extraordinary how one drifts
| away from men. But, on the other hand
should not be in the least surprised at
| stumbling across Tordoff again, in purple