For the Term of His Natural Life Part 52

"I've given my orders, sir."

"Then, Captain Burgess," cried North, his pale face flus.h.i.+ng, "I tell you the boy's blood will be on your head. I am a minister of G.o.d, sir, and I forbid you to commit this crime."

"d.a.m.n your impertinence, sir!" burst out Burgess. "You're a dismissed officer of the Government, sir. You've no authority here in any way; and, by G.o.d, sir, if you interfere with my discipline, sir, I'll have you put in irons until you're s.h.i.+pped out of the island."

This, of course, was mere bravado on the part of the Commandant. North knew well that he would never dare to attempt any such act of violence, but the insult stung him like the cut of a whip. He made a stride towards the Commandant, as though to seize him by the throat, but, checking himself in time, stood still, with clenched hands, flas.h.i.+ng eyes, and beard that bristled.

The two men looked at each other, and presently Burgess's eyes fell before those of the chaplain.

"Miserable blasphemer," says North, "I tell you that you shall not flog the boy."

Burgess, white with rage, rang the bell that summoned his convict servant.

"Show Mr. North out," he said, "and go down to the Barracks, and tell Troke that Kirkland is to have a hundred lashes to-morrow. I'll show you who's master here, my good sir."

"I'll report this to the Government," said North, aghast. "This is murderous."

"The Government may go to----, and you, too!" roared Burgess. "Get out!"

And G.o.d's viceregent at Port Arthur slammed the door.

North returned home in great agitation. "They shall not flog that boy,"

he said. "I'll s.h.i.+eld him with my own body if necessary. I'll report this to the Government. I'll see Sir John Franklin myself. I'll have the light of day let into this den of horrors." He reached his cottage, and lighted the lamp in the little sitting-room. All was silent, save that from the adjoining chamber came the sound of Meekin's gentlemanly snore.

North took down a book from the shelf and tried to read, but the letters ran together. "I wish I hadn't taken that brandy," he said. "Fool that I am."

Then he began to walk up and down, to fling himself on the sofa, to read, to pray. "Oh, G.o.d, give me strength! Aid me! Help me! I struggle, but I am weak. O, Lord, look down upon me!"

To see him rolling on the sofa in agony, to see his white face, his parched lips, and his contracted brow, to hear his moans and muttered prayers, one would have thought him suffering from the pangs of some terrible disease. He opened the book again, and forced himself to read, but his eyes wandered to the cupboard. There lurked something that fascinated him. He got up at length, went into the kitchen, and found a packet of red pepper. He mixed a teaspoonful of this in a pannikin of water and drank it. It relieved him for a while.

"I must keep my wits for to-morrow. The life of that lad depends upon it. Meekin, too, will suspect. I will lie down."

He went into his bedroom and flung himself on the bed, but only to toss from side to side. In vain he repeated texts of Scripture and sc.r.a.ps of verse; in vain counted imaginary sheep, or listened to imaginary clock-tickings. Sleep would not come to him. It was as though he had reached the crisis of a disease which had been for days gathering force.

"I must have a teaspoonful," he said, "to allay the craving."

Twice he paused on the way to the sitting-room, and twice was he driven on by a power stronger than his will. He reached it at length, and opening the cupboard, pulled out what he sought. A bottle of brandy.

With this in his hand, all moderation vanished. He raised it to his lips and eagerly drank. Then, ashamed of what he had done, he thrust the bottle back, and made for his room. Still he could not sleep. The taste of the liquor maddened him for more. He saw in the darkness the brandy bottle--vulgar and terrible apparition! He saw its amber fluid sparkle.

He heard it gurgle as he poured it out. He smelt the nutty aroma of the spirit. He pictured it standing in the corner of the cupboard, and imagined himself seizing it and quenching the fire that burned within him. He wept, he prayed, he fought with his desire as with a madness. He told himself that another's life depended on his exertions, that to give way to his fatal pa.s.sion was unworthy of an educated man and a reasoning being, that it was degrading, disgusting, and b.e.s.t.i.a.l. That, at all times debasing, at this particular time it was infamous; that a vice, unworthy of any man, was doubly sinful in a man of education and a minister of G.o.d. In vain. In the midst of his arguments he found himself at the cupboard, with the bottle at his lips, in an att.i.tude that was at once ludicrous and horrible.

He had no cancer. His disease was a more terrible one. The Reverend James North--gentleman, scholar, and Christian priest--was what the world calls "a confirmed drunkard".

CHAPTER XV. ONE HUNDRED LASHES.

The morning sun, bright and fierce, looked down upon a curious sight. In a stone-yard was a little group of persons--Troke, Burgess, Macklewain, Kirkland, and Rufus Dawes.

Three wooden staves, seven feet high, were fastened together in the form of a triangle. The structure looked not unlike that made by gypsies to boil their kettles. To this structure Kirkland was bound. His feet were fastened with thongs to the base of the triangle; his wrists, bound above his head, at the apex. His body was then extended to its fullest length, and his white back shone in the sunlight. During his tying up he had said nothing--only when Troke pulled off his s.h.i.+rt he s.h.i.+vered.

"Now, prisoner," said Troke to Dawes, "do your duty."

Rufus Dawes looked from the three stern faces to Kirkland's white back, and his face grew purple. In all his experience he had never been asked to flog before. He had been flogged often enough.

"You don't want me to flog him, sir?" he said to the Commandant.

"Pick up the cat, sir!" said Burgess, astonished; "what is the meaning of this?" Rufus Dawes picked up the heavy cat, and drew its knotted lashes between his fingers.

"Go on, Dawes," whispered Kirkland, without turning his head. "You are no more than another man."

"What does he say?" asked Burgess.

"Telling him to cut light, sir," said Troke, eagerly lying; "they all do it." "Cut light, eh! We'll see about that. Get on, my man, and look sharp, or I'll tie you up and give you fifty for yourself, as sure as G.o.d made little apples."

"Go on, Dawes," whispered Kirkland again. "I don't mind."

Rufus Dawes lifted the cat, swung it round his head, and brought its knotted cords down upon the white back.

"Wonn!" cried Troke.

The white back was instantly striped with six crimson bars. Kirkland stifled a cry. It seemed to him that he had been cut in half.

"Now then, you scoundrel!" roared Burgess; "separate your cats! What do you mean by flogging a man that fas.h.i.+on?"

Rufus Dawes drew his crooked fingers through the entangled cords, and struck again. This time the blow was more effective, and the blood beaded on the skin.

The boy did not cry; but Macklewain saw his hands clutch the staves tightly, and the muscles of his naked arms quiver.

"Tew!"

"That's better," said Burgess.

The third blow sounded as though it had been struck upon a piece of raw beef, and the crimson turned purple.

"My G.o.d!" said Kirkland, faintly, and bit his lips.

The flogging proceeded in silence for ten strikes, and then Kirkland gave a screech like a wounded horse.

"Oh!...Captain Burgess!...Dawes!...Mr. Troke!...Oh, my G.o.d!... Oh!

oh!...Mercy!...Oh, Doctor!...Mr. North!...Oh! Oh! Oh!"

"Ten!" cried Troke, impa.s.sively counting to the end of the first twenty.

The lad's back, swollen into a lump, now presented the appearance of a ripe peach which a wilful child had scored with a pin. Dawes, turning away from his b.l.o.o.d.y handiwork, drew the cats through his fingers twice.

They were beginning to get clogged a little.

"Go on," said Burgess, with a nod; and Troke cried "Wonn!" again.

Roused by the morning sun streaming in upon him, Mr. North opened his bloodshot eyes, rubbed his forehead with hands that trembled, and suddenly awakening to a consciousness of his promised errand, rolled off the bed and rose to his feet. He saw the empty brandy bottle on his wooden dressing-table, and remembered what had pa.s.sed. With shaking hands he dashed water over his aching head, and smoothed his garments.