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Updated: May 14, 2025
How long I had lain there I could not guess, but I noticed that the floor slanted much less than when I first scrambled on deck, so guessed that the tide must have risen considerably. Then having exhausted my wonder I looked again at Colliver, and began to speculate how he would kill me and how long he would take about it.
Of that quest and that curse we were the two survivors. And what were we, that night, as we stood upon the sands with that last hellish glitter still dancing in our eyes? The one, a lonely and broken man; the other I turned to look at Colliver. He was huddled against the pit's side, with his dark eyes gazing wistfully up at me.
Sanderson merely grunted, and asked me when I intended to learn prudence, adding that one crack in the head was enough for most men, but he supposed I wanted more. I admit that, pleasant companion as Colliver is, I should prefer to be entirely alone upon this adventure.
But most wonderful of all is the monsoon which rages over the country, wrapping the earth sometimes in sheets of lightning which turn sea, sky and earth to one vivid world of flame. The wind is dry and parching, so that all windows are kept carefully closed at night; but, indeed, the mosquitoes are sufficient excuse for that. I have seen nothing of Colliver and Railton. "Dec. 31st.
Its faint ray just revealed the furniture of the room, which consisted of a seaman's chest standing in the middle, and two gaunt stools. On one of these I was seated, propped against the cabin wall, or rather partition, and as I attempted to move I learnt that I was bound hand and foot. On the other stool opposite me and beside the chest, sat Simon Colliver, silently eyeing me.
But that was not the reason that suddenly set my heart uncontrollably beating and all the blood rushing and surging to my temples. For in those two voices I recognised Mrs. Luttrell and Simon Colliver! "Have you not done enough?" the woman's voice was saying. "Has your cruelty no end, that you must pursue me so? Take this money, and let me go." "I must have more," was the answer.
Clear into the frosty night it rose, and I fell to wondering savagely with what thoughts Colliver saluted it. It was already half-past eight as we changed our train at Truro, and here again more time was wasted. Upon the platform I saw him again.
As for starvation, the box of biscuits will last us both for a week or more; and they stand little chance of taking us by surprise, for one of us is always on the watch whilst the other sleeps. They spent last night in drinking. Railton's voice was very loud at times, and I could hear Colliver singing his infernal song "'Sing hey! for the dead man's lips, my lads.
When at last I arrived at the doors I was surprised to see Colliver coming out, until I remembered that his brother was in the Company's employ. It seems, however, that he had been transferred to Trichinopoly some months before, and my friend's labour was in vain.
Often of a clear moonlight night would we pace the deck together, or watch in a darker sky the innumerable stars, on which Colliver had an amazing amount of information. Sometimes, too, he would sing quaint songs which I had never heard before, to airs which I suspect, without well knowing why, were of his own composition.
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