She could see, as she moved across the kitchen, that he had already
searched there for something that he might eat, but that he had searched
in vain. With the close economy common among his class in the islands,
all comestibles were kept under close lock and key in the house of Mr.
Bergen. Their daily allowance was given day by day to the negro
servants, and even the fragments were then gathered up and locked away
in safety. She moved across the kitchen to the accustomed cupboard,
taking the keys from her pocket, and he followed close upon her. There
was a small oil lamp hanging from the low ceiling which just gave them
light to see each other. She lifted her hand to this to take it from its
hook, but he prevented her. “No, by Heaven!” he said, “you don’t touch
that till I’ve done with it. There’s light enough for you to drag out
your scraps.”
She did drag out her scraps and a bowl of milk, which might hold perhaps
a quart. There was a fragment of bread, a morsel of cold potato-cake,
and the bone of a leg of kid. “And is that all?” said he. But as he
spoke he fleshed his teeth against the bone as a dog would have done.
“It is the best I have,” she said; “I wish it were better, and you
should have had it without violence, as you have suffered so long from
hunger.”
“Bah! Better; yes! You would give the best no doubt, and set the hell
hounds on my track the moment I am gone. I know how much I might expect
from your charity.”
“I would have fed you for pity’s sake,” she answered.
“Pity! Who are you, that you should dare to pity me! By ----, my young
woman, it is I that pity you. I must cut your throat unless you give me
money. Do you know that?”
“Money! I have got no money.”
“I’ll make you have some before I go. Come; don’t move till I have
done.” And as he spoke to her he went on tugging at the bone, and
swallowing the lumps of stale bread. He had already finished the bowl of
milk, “And, now,” said he, “tell me who I am.”
“I suppose you are Aaron Trow,” she answered, very slowly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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