Stories by English Authors: Africa (Selected by Scribners) — John Shaqi
Stories by English Authors: Africa (Selected by Scribners)
General
Stories by English Authors: Africa (Selected by Scribners)
Africa -- Fiction; Short stories, English
All I could do was to set a watch along the beach to look for the bodies
when they should be washed ashore, and this done, I returned to the
factory. My next desire was to find Sooka. He could hardly have gone
far, so I sent for a runner to take a message to the native king under
whose protection we on the Point were, and after whom the Point was
called, and who was bound to find the missing man for me if he could, or
if he had not been bribed to let him pass.
In my sorrow at what had happened, and in my doubt as to the cause of
it, I had forgotten all about Jackson; but after I had despatched
my messenger to the king, I went to look for him. I discovered him
crouching in a corner of his own bedroom in the dark.
“Are they found?” he asked, in a voice so hollow and broken that I
hardly knew it; and before I could answer him, he whispered to himself,
“No, no; they are drowned--drowned.”
I tried to lead him into the lighted dining-room, but he only crouched
the closer to his corner. At length by the promise of the ever-potent
temptation, liquor, I got him to leave the room. He could scarcely walk,
though, now, and he trembled so violently that I was glad to give him
part of a bottle of brandy that I had by me. He filled a tumbler half
full of the spirits, and drank it off. This put strength into him, and
for a little he was calm; but as he again and again applied himself to
the bottle, he became drunk, and swore at me for my impudence in giving
orders without his sanction. On this I tried to take the bottle from
him, but he clutched it so firmly that I had to let it go; whereupon he
immediately put it to his lips and swallowed the rest of the liquor that
was in it. After which he gave a chuckle, and staggered to a couch, on
which he tumbled, and lay with his eyes open for a long while. At last
he fell asleep, but I was too nervous to do likewise, and sat watching
him the most of the night; at least, when I awoke it was daylight, and
it seemed to me that I had been asleep for a few minutes.
Jackson was still lying on the couch, and his face was calm and peaceful
as he softly breathed. The morning, too, was fine, and as I walked on to
the veranda I saw the sea sparkling in the sunlight, and there was not
a sound from it save a far-off and drowsy murmur. Not a sign remained
on its broad surface of the wrath of the day before. It was wonderfully
calm. Lying here and there on the veranda, rolled up in their clothes,
were the servants of the factory, sleeping soundly on the hard planks.
Presently, as the sun rose in the heavens and warmed the air, the place
began to show signs of life, and one of the watch that I had set on the
beach came running across the yard to tell me that the bodies had come
ashore.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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