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It was very dark, and as he walked down from the boat-stand Thorfin ran at him, and smote him with an axe betwixt the shoulders, and the axe sank in, and the bottle squeaked, but he let go the axe, for he deemed that there would be little need of binding up, and would save himself as swiftly as might be; and it is to be told of him that he ran off to Arness, and came there before broad day, and told of Thorgeir's slaying, and said that he should have need of Flosi's shelter, and that the only thing to be done was to offer atonement, "for that of all things," said he, "is like to better our strait, great as it has now grown."
"Sergeant, bring your men here." Half an hour later Lieutenant Carteret reported to Commander Arness. "I have brought the prisoner on board, sir. He is a man named Charles Parker, and was sergeant of marines on the Flycatcher?" "Very good, Mr. Carteret What have you done with his wife?" "She refused to leave, sir, and when we brought the man away, went off to the other side of the island."
Write a letter to Commander Arness, and tell him to call at Anuda and arrest a deserter from the marines, calling himself George Barcom, and who can be identified by this photograph. He is the only white man on the island, so this Mr. Howlman says, and there should be no difficulty in finding him. That will satisfy you, I presume, Mr. Howlman?" "Quite, sir, I assure you. I have done my duty and "
On the bridge was Commander Arness talking to the navigating lieutenant, a young and almost effeminate-looking officer. The land had just been sighted, and lay right ahead. "Will there be daylight enough left for us to get there and have this wretched thing over, Carteret?" asked Commander Arness.
Then to the gunners, "Here, you, clean up your wagons and take off all that mud; it's filthy"; this was absolutely unnecessary and the fellows swore vehemently under their breath; to the drivers, "Clean up that 'ere 'arness and get that mud hoff it"; he also compelled us to burnish the steel and made the gunners scrub the paint off the brass and sandpaper it up.
And Arness handed him a photograph of a man dressed in white ducks and a straw hat, evidently taken by an amateur. Carteret looked at the photograph for fully a couple of minutes before he answered slowly "No, I don't think that this is the man." A few hours later the Spitfire had steamed in close to the land, and a boat was lowered.
I decided not to ask him to harness, but to risk a fall in the estimation of the servants by doing it myself. The gardener watched me for a moment in shocked disapproval. Then he interfered. "If you please, Mr. Knowles, sir," he said, "I'll 'arness, but I can't drive, sir. I am netting the gooseberries.
You may say we are fond of an 'arness cut or 'ootin' in barrick-yards, Or startin' a Board School mutiny along o' the Onion Guards; But once in a while we can finish in style for the ends of the earth to view, The same as the Jollies 'er Majesty's Jollies soldier an' sailor too.
''Ord bless you my lord that's to say, sir! exclaimed Buckram, shrugging up his shoulders, and raising his eyebrows as high as they would go, 'he'd be of no use to me, none votsomever shouldn't know what to do with him never do for 'arness besides, I 'ave a werry good machiner as it is at least, he sarves my turn, and that's everything, you know.
Howlman waited impatiently in the boat, and then a big, official-looking letter was handed down the ladder to the boatman, addressed: "O.H.M.S. Commander Arness, H.M.S. Spitfire care of H.B.M. Consul, Levuka, Fiji." Mr. Howlman smiled to himself with the satisfied air of a man who has done his duty.
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