Part 42 (1/2)
”Go inside an' let 'em rush the wireless house?” said McTee incredulously. ”No, lad. We _got_ to stay an' watch. Besides, maybe this is the way we'll all die--after we're too weak to fight 'em. And I'm rather curious to learn just how I'll die; I've always been!”
They were binding Borgson face down on the hatch.
”Look,” said Harrigan. ”Maybe it ain't goin' to be so bad as we thought. They're just goin' to lick Borgson the way he licked the j.a.p.”
”They'll do more,” replied McTee, shaking his head. ”Henshaw and Borgson and Van Roos have really put those wild men through h.e.l.l, and now they're going to get it back with interest.”
In the meantime little Kamasura stepped out from the crowd. He was naked to the waist, for the raw incisions which the lash had left would not bear the weight of clothes. He carried the blacksnake in his hands, drawing it caressingly through his hands as Borgson had done. Now the tying of Borgson was completed, and the sailors spread back in a loose circle to watch their entertainment.
The j.a.panese took his distance carefully, s.h.i.+fting repeatedly a matter of inches to make sure that no stroke would be wasted. Then he whirled the blacksnake over his head. They could see Borgson wince as the lash sang above him, and the muscles of his bare back flexed and stood up in knots that glistened under the sunlight. But the stroke did not fall.
Kamasura had learned the lesson of creating suspense from the very man he was now about to torture. Harrigan bowed his head in his hands.
”I can't look, McTee,” he muttered. ”I'm sick inside--sick--sick!”
The last words came in a growl from the hollow of his throat. The blacksnake whirled through the air again and fell with a sharp slap like two broad hands clapped together, but Borgson did not cry out. His body writhed mutely, and down his back appeared a red mark. The whip whirled again and fell, this time bringing a stifled curse for a response. Once more it whirled, and this time merely cracked in the air. Again and again an idle snap in the air. Broken by that grim suspense, Borgson yelled in terror.
Kamasura laughed and glanced at the circle of sailors like a ringmaster in a circus in search of applause. The whip now whirled rapidly over his head and fell again and again, and every stroke brought a fresh and louder scream from the mate. Another sound, rhythmic and barbarous, punctuated those shrieks of anguish. It was the singing of Kamasura, who as he wielded the lash remembered a chant of his native land and shouted it now in time with the blows of the blacksnake.
On the upper deck Sloan lay p.r.o.ne on his face, sobbing with terror; Harrigan kept his face hid and clutched at his head with both hands; McTee stared straight down upon the scene of the torture with burning eyes. Inside the wheelhouse Kate crouched beside the bunk on which Henshaw was stretched, staring straight above his head. The fever had deprived him of the last of his senses.
”Your hands!” he muttered at length.
She placed them upon his forehead. She had done that repeatedly during the past day, and each time the effect had been marvelously soothing to the old man. Now at the touch he drew a deep breath of relief.
”Even in h.e.l.l,” he whispered at length--”even in h.e.l.l you come to me, Beatrice! I knew you would!”
He caught her hands at the wrists; his fingers, despite his fever, were deadly cold, and a chill ate into her blood.
”I hear them yelling--the souls of the d.a.m.ned,” he said quietly. ”You can't hear it?”
”No, no!” she said. ”I cannot hear!”
”Of course not,” he went on with the same lack of emotion; ”for, you see, you've come from heaven, and the coolness of heaven is in your hands, Beatrice. Put them against my temples, so! For every bit of the love I have given you you are permitted to repay me with coolness-- coolness and comfort in h.e.l.l!”
Suddenly he broke into exultant laughter, a sound more terrible than the wild wails from the deck.
”See!” he said, and his eyes twinkled as he stretched out a gaunt arm toward a corner of the room. ”There's Johnny Carson lying naked on a bed of blue fire. Ha, ha, ha! Have you been waiting long for me to come, lad?”
She shut out the hungry, hideous light of his eyes with the palms of her hands. Now the screaming on the deck ceased abruptly.
”Beatrice!” he cried with a sudden terror.
”Yes,” answered Kate.
”Ah,” he said, and patted her hands endearingly. ”When the silence came, I feared maybe you were leaving me. You won't do that?”
”No. I'll stay.”