In Noumea

________________________________________________
Title:     In Noumea
Author: Louis Becke [More Titles by Becke]

Chester was listening to those charming musicians, the convict band, playing in Noumea, and saw in the crowd a man he knew--more, an old friend, S------. The recognition was mutual and pleasing to both. They had not met for six years. He was then chief officer of a China steamer; now he was captain of a big tramp steamer that had called in to load nickel ore. "Who," exclaimed Chester, "would ever have thought of meeting _you_ here?"

He laughed and replied: "I came with a purpose. You remember Miss ------, to whom I was engaged in Sydney?"

Chester nodded, expecting from the sparkle in S------'s dark brown eye that he was going to hear a little gush about her many wifely qualities.

"Well, I was in Sydney three times after I saw you. We were to be married as soon as I got a command. Two years ago I was there last. She had got married. Wrote me a letter saying she knew my calmer judgment would finally triumph over my anger--she had accepted a good offer, and although I might be nettled, perhaps, at first, yet she was sure my good sense would applaud her decision in marrying a man who, although she could never love him as she loved me, was very rich. But she would always look forward to meeting me again. That was all."

"Hard lines," said Chester.

"My dear boy, I thought that at first, when her letter knocked me flat aback. But I got over it, and I swore I would pay her out. And I came to this den of convicts to do it, and I did it--yesterday. She is here."

"_Here?_" said Chester.

And then he learnt the rest of Captain S------'s story. A year after his lady-love had jilted him he received a letter from her in England. She was in sad trouble, she said. Her husband, a Victorian official, was serving five years for embezzlement. Her letter was suggestive of a desire to hasten to the "protection" of her sailor lover. She wished, she said, that her husband were dead. But dead or alive she would always hate _him_.

S------ merely acknowledged her letter and sent her L25. In another six months he got a letter from Fiji. She was a governess there, she said, at L75 a year. Much contrition and love, also, in this letter.

S------ sent another L25, and remarked that he would see her soon. Fate one day sent him to take command of a steamer in Calcutta bound to Fiji with coolies, thence to Noumea to load nickel ore. And all the way out across the tropics S------'s heart was leaping at the thought of seeing his lost love--and telling her that he hated her for her black frozen treachery.

As soon as he had landed his coolies he cautiously set about discovering the family with whom she lived. No one could help him, but a planter explained matters: "I know the lady for whom you inquire, but she doesn't go by that name. Ask any one about Miss ------, the barmaid. She has gone to New Caledonia."

He asked, and learned that she was well known; and S------ wondered why she had brought her beauty to such a climate as that of Fiji when it would have paid her so much better to parade it in Melbourne.

The evening of the day on which his steamer arrived at Noumea a man brought him a letter. He showed it to Chester.

My darling Will,--Thank God you have come, for surely you have come for me--my heart tells me so. For God's sake wait on board for me. I will come at eight. To live in this place is breaking my heart. Ever yours, ------

She came. He stood her kisses passively, but gave none in return, until she asked him to kiss her. "When you are my wife," he said, evasively. And then--she must have loved him--she burst out into passionate sobs and fell at his feet in the quiet cabin and told him of her debased life in Fiji. "But, as God hears me, Will, that is all past since your last letter. I was mad. I loved money and did not care how I got it. I left Fiji to come here, intending to return to Australia. But, Will, dear Will, if it is only to throw me overboard, take me away from this hell upon earth. For your sake, Will, I have resisted them here, although I suffer daily, hourly, torture and insult. I have no money, and I am afraid to die and end my sufferings."

Captain S------, speaking calmly and slowly, placed money in her hand and said, "You must not see me again till the day I am ready for sea. Then bring your luggage and come on board."

With a smothered sob bursting from her, despite the joy in her heart, the woman turned and left him.

Then S------ went up to the Cafe Palais and played billiards with a steady hand.

*****

There was a great number of people on board to see Captain S------ away. Presently a boat came alongside, and a young lady with sweet red lips and shiny hair ascended to the deck.

"Helas!" said a French officer to S------, "and so you are taking away the fair one who won't look at us poor exiles of Nouvelle."

With a timid smile and fast-beating heart the woman gained the quarter-deck. In front of her stood the broad-shouldered, well-groomed Captain S------, cold, impassive, and deadly pale, with a cruel joy in his breast.

The woman stood still. There was something so appalling in that set white face before her, that her slight frame quivered with an unknown dread. And then the captain spoke, in slow, measured words that cut her to her inmost soul.

"Madam, I do not take passengers!"

No answer. Only short, gasping breaths as she steadied her hand on the rail.

And then, turning to one of the Frenchmen: "M. ------, will you request this--this lady to go on shore? She is known to me as a woman of infamous reputation in Fiji. I cannot for a moment entertain the idea of having such a person on board my ship."

Before the shuddering creature fell a man caught her, and then she was placed in the boat and taken ashore. Of course some of the Frenchmen thought it right to demand an explanation from S------, who said--

"I've none to give, gentlemen. If any of you want to fight me, well and good, although I don't like quarrelling over a pavement-woman. Besides, I rather think you'll find that the lady will _now_ be quite an acquisition to you."

But S------'s revenge was not complete. He had previously arranged matters with his engineer, who presently came along and announced an accident to the machinery--the steamer would be delayed a couple of days. He wanted to see her again--so he told Chester.

"It was a cruel thing," said his friend.

"Bah!" said S------, "come with me."

In the crowded bar of the cafe a woman was laughing and talking gaily. Something made her look up. She put her hand to her eyes and walked slowly from the room.

As the two Englishmen walked slowly down to the wharf the handsome Captain S------ whistled cheerily, and asked Chester on board to hear him and his steward play violin and piccolo. "By God, S------," said Chester, "you have no heart!"

"Right you are, my lad. She made it into stone. But it won't hurt her as it did me. You see, these Frenchmen here pay well for new beauty; and women love money--which is a lucky thing for many men."

[The end]
Louis Becke's short story: In Noumea

________________________________________________



GO TO TOP OF SCREEN