In Strange Company: A Story of Chili and the Southern Seas

Having heard all the witnesses, the consul asked me if I had anything to say. The only chance I could see of saving myself was to request that the crew might be examined, and to this he consented, adjourning the case for that purpose until next day. Disregarding any thought of applying for bail, I allowed myself to be marched away again, not to the lock-up this time, but to the Dutch prison itself, a great rambling barrack of a place on the other side of the town.

Once there, I was cast into a large yard, where a meal of rice was given me. But I was too cast down and utterly miserable to eat. The more I reflected upon my situation, the worse it appeared to become. If my enemies intended thus to swear away my life, goodness only knew what the end would be! The reason for it was what puzzled me. I could make neither head nor tail of it. But though I could not fathom the Albino's motive, I began to see the reason of Juanita's strange behaviour the previous night, and the vague hints she had thrown out that evening alongside the island. Could it be possible that all the time she was in collusion with the Albino? This notion I discarded at once. What most affected me was that they were in league now.

For hours I sat thus brooding over my unhappy fate. At last, unable to bear it any longer, and to distract my thoughts, I turned to examine my companions, and the place in which I was confined. I found myself in a large quadrangle about fifty yards long by thirty wide, bounded on either side by rows of cells, and having at either end high walls of rough masonry, each surmounted with a bristling cheval de frise. As far as I could gather, the prisoners confined in that portion of the gaol might have numbered a hundred, and were for the most part Malays and Chinamen, with a sprinkling of Europeans. As soon as they became aware of my presence they crowded round me, gesticulating, and criticising my woe-begone appearance. Among them I noticed one whom I knew at once for an Englishman. In spite of his rags and filth he was the handsomest man I had ever seen; but it was a wild reckless sort of beauty for all that. He came over to me, and placing his hand on my shoulder, said —

"You're an Englishman, I can see. Now, how the deuce do you come here?"

I told him I was accused of murdering a man aboard the ship of which I was skipper, and that my life was being sworn away —

He laughed and went on —

"My boy, I pity you if you once get into this place. Look at me, I've been in here over six months; put away for resenting an insult from a Dutch officer; not allowed to communicate with my consul, and told to hold my jaw directly I ask for justice. I tell you you're in luck's way if you even get brought to trial. The consul will ship you off to Singapore by the next mail, while I'll have to rot here till I can pass the word to some one outside to make inquiries. That's their notion of civilization in this God-forsaken country."

At that moment a bell clanged, and the crowd began to scurry into their cells for the night. I found that my new friend and I were located with about fourteen others in the same dormitory. On inspection it proved to be a large bare room, ill-lighted, ill-kept, and, like all other parts of the prison, villainously dirty. The beds such as they were, were strewn about on the floor, just wherever their owners cared to place them, and each one had a new and complicated odour of its own. As soon as we had entered, the door was shut, and we knew that we might consider ourselves locked up for the night.

One thing struck me. I could not help noticing the respect with which my companion was regarded by his fellow-prisoners. His word seemed to rule as law, and no sooner did he express a wish than it was, if it lay within their power, immediately gratified. Thus when he asked that we might be left alone, the rest of the prisoners migrated to the other end of the room, and we were free to continue our conversation uninterrupted.

"Now let's have your story," he said, seating himself on the pile of blankets by my side. "You can't think what a pleasure it is to me to have an Englishman to talk to! You say you're the victim of a conspiracy; tell me all about it from the beginning to the end. Who knows but that I may be able to throw some new light upon the subject."

Beginning at the very commencement, I told him everything, only suppressing Juanita's name. He listened with the utmost attention, and his interest seemed to increase as the story developed. When I had finished, he said —

"By Jove! I begin to think I do see a glimmering of reason in it after all. But it's a strange enough affair, if you like. Now first tell me what sort of man this dwarf is, who proved himself your friend by lending you the money to buy the schooner, and your enemy, by misrepresenting your connection with that nigger."

"Well, among other things, he was an Albino."

He jumped up like a shot.

"An Albino and a dwarf? Great snakes! What was his name?"

So taken aback was I by his excitement, that for the instant I could only stare at him. He seemed more affected by my story than if he had undergone it all himself.

"Quickly," he said, "what is the name of this dwarf, this Albino?"

"John Macklin," I answered promptly, and when he heard it he began to pace the room, like a man labouring under some extraordinary emotion.

For a few minutes he occupied himself in this fashion. Then, in the middle of one of his peregrinations, he stopped short, and asked me another question.

"And the woman, what was she like? Was she tall and dark, foreign in appearance, with a suspicion of a moustache, and a little mole on the lobe of her left ear?"

I nodded, wonderstruck. He smiled a pitying sort of smile.

"Perhaps her name was Juanita?"

Again I nodded.

"She hailed from South America?"

I said I believed so.

"Well, all things considered, I reckon this bit of business fairly licks creation."

This he said more to himself than to me.

"Anybody would think you knew these people," I remarked, chock-full of astonishment.

"Know them? Well, if I haven't cause enough to know them, there's not a man knocking round this old universe who has! But their cheek beats cock-fighting. Mark my words, it'll be diamond cut diamond between them now."

"You're getting out of my depth. What the deuce do you mean?"

"Never you mind just now. Tell me one thing more. When the Albino found the money for you to purchase the schooner, did he say that he knew Juanita?"

"I should think not. On the other hand, he sternly forbade my even letting her know of his existence."

"Ah! that throws another light upon affairs. They were playing lone hands after all. He's just 'Old Nick' himself, is John Macklin, and she's pretty near as bad. Now, when you left Thursday Island, am I right in surmising that you steered a straight course for the Banks Group?"

"I don't know how you guessed it, but we did."

"And you brought up off Vanua Lava, maybe?"

"That's so. You've hit it again."

"You went ashore to a grave about a hundred yards inland, under a tope of trees, and alongside a high bank, to look for a locket round a dead man's neck?"

The excitement was growing intense. Hardly able to trust myself to speak, I fell back on nodding.

"Then you opened the grave and discovered a coffin?"

"Yes."

"And you found in it?"

"Nothing more nor less than a sheet of lead."

"Ho, ho! I can imagine their disappointment. And then the Albino put in an appearance?"

"He did."

"At his suggestion you set sail for Batavia?"

"Yes; but why Batavia? Only tell me that, and I'll say you've got the tow-rope of the whole mystery."

"Why, to me it's the simplest part of it. Look here, can't you see this? The woman, for some reason, had staked all she'd got on finding that locket buried with the dead man. That's it, isn't it? Well, the Albino was a stranger on Thursday, and was not known to do any work. That being so, why was he there? People don't live on Thursday for pleasure, or the good of their healths, I reckon?"

I made a negative sign, and he continued —

"Why, you chuckle-head, can't you see he was there because he was watching some one? I leave it to you to figure out who that some one was."

"Juanita, I suppose."