CHAPTER XXI

JUSTICE

Some twenty minutes after the flight of the Germans two figures appeared at the farther end of the village, and walked quickly up the central path. Trentham, sitting just outside the gate, waved his hand and started to meet them. Hoole flourished his hat in reply, and turned to speak to the man accompanying him.

'Let me name to you Captain Rolfe, of the _Wanda_, old man,' said Hoole, when Trentham joined them.

'Pleased to meet you, sir,' said the seaman, clasping Trentham's hand in a crushing grip. 'We 're in at the death, and that's about all we can say for ourselves. You carry off the honours, sir.'

'Thanks, captain,' said Trentham. 'It was my friend Josiah Grinson who dealt the finishing stroke; I 'll introduce him to you presently.'

'The boatswain bold, as they say in the song,' added Hoole.

'Mr. Hoole has told me about him,' said the captain, 'and I 'll be glad to give him a berth.'

'You must take Meek too,' said Trentham with a smile. 'They 've been together twenty-five years or so, and I 'm sure nothing will part them now. At the present moment Grinson is acting as nurse. Meek was unlucky enough to get hit; not seriously, I 'm glad to say; but he wasn't in very good condition, and appears to have fainted from loss of blood. Grinson found him on the field, and after an explosive moment he carried him off to our hut. Grinson is a big burly fellow, with a heart as tender as a woman's.'

'A mixture you 'll often find among sailormen, if I may say so,' said the captain. 'But Grinson mustn't have all the credit, you know, Mr.

Trentham. That dodge of yours with the Raider----'

'Is she sunk?' asked Trentham.

'Sunk by the stern; all below water except a bit of her fore deck and her funnel. But she can be salved, and there 'll be something to share out, or I 'm a Dutchman.'

'You came into the cove?'

'I did, sir, and anch.o.r.ed within half a cable's length of the Raider. A couple of Germans on sh.o.r.e flung up their hands at once, and we marched up under Mr. Hoole's lead without delay. You 're surprised to see no more of us, but the fact is, we met the Germans running for their lives.

They were glad enough to surrender, for these savages don't know the meaning of mercy, and I 'm afraid they had already killed a number of them before we came on the scene. However, my ship's company--the queerest mixture I ever commanded--are marching the rest of them down to the cove, and as I 've plenty of cargo s.p.a.ce on board, I gave 'em orders to drop them into the hold; by this time to-morrow we 'll hand 'em over in proper form as prisoners of war. I take it you 're ready to come with us?'

'Quite, I can a.s.sure you. But I think we ought to bury the German dead first. These people are cannibals.'

'Burying 's no good; they 'd dig 'em up as soon as our backs were turned. We can't give them seamen's burial, the sea being so far away.

The only thing left is to burn them; certainly we couldn't leave them for a cannibal feast. And we had better set about it while most of the savages are away; there 'll be less trouble. Oh! here we are. A most uncommon native village. A few photographers will take a trip out here when your story is known. That's Grinson, I suppose. Who 's the fellow with him?'

Grinson was walking towards the hut, accompanied by the medicine-man carrying water in a huge banana stalk. Trentham laughed.

'That's the village doctor,' he said. 'A thorn in our flesh until Grinson tamed him by a sort of strong man exhibition. Now he 'll follow Grinson like a dog.'

'Natural philosophy,' said Hoole. 'The Germans will be the better for a dose of the same physic. It's a low order of intelligence that admits no superiority but brute force, and I guess you must deal with people as you find 'em. Ahoy, Grinson! How 's Meek?'

'Doing well, sir,' roared Grinson. He came towards the three men, the medicine-man trotting behind, and said in a confidential whisper, 'You must humour poor Ephraim a bit, gentlemen. He 's got it fair fixed in his mind as there 's no justice in this world, and nothing 'll shake him.'

'Why?' asked Trentham.

''Cos he was knocked out afore he began to fight. I never knowed Ephraim so obstropolous. He 'll hardly speak civil to me; says I kep'

him out of it on purpose, a-holding revolvers as any funk could 'a done; and then, when he 'd picked up a spear in spite o' me, blest if he wasn't spun round directly afore he had a chanst. I told him wounds is honourable, and he rounded on me; "Honour be deed," says he, most unusual language for Ephraim; "they never give me a chanst; there's no justice in this world, not a morsel." Humour him, gents, if you 'll be so kind, and I dare say with time he 'll be the same lad again.'

Twelve hours later, under a brilliant moon, the little tramp _Wanda_ puffed out of the cove on her voyage eastward. Trentham, the centre of an interested group, was relating in detail the story of the past weeks.

Some distance away, sitting on the deck with his back against a coil of rope, Grinson, in tones much subdued, talked to Meek, slung in a hammock before him.

'Yes, Ephraim, Mr. Hoole came out in his true colours at last, just afore he flew away, which I mean to say he's true blue, and not a deceiving coat o' paint like that there Raider, though I own he did take us in, but no great sin. He 's a inventor, Ephraim; invented something as 'll make them airyplanes terrible engines o' mischief, and when I said as how there was enough mischief in the world----'

'There 's no justice in it.'

'I was coming to that. When I said as how there was enough mischief in this wicked world, he laughed, he did, and said what he 'd invented would do for sewing machines when the war 's over. Now ain't there justice in that? Look at it straight, Ephraim, me lad. The Germans must be beat, or what's the good of anythink? Well, then, this notion o'

Mr. Hoole's will help to beat 'em; Mr. Trentham says it's certain.

Well, then, it's a good thing, and good things didn't oughter be wasted, so when the war 's over he just reverses the engine, as you may say, and then it's sewing machines what 'll make shirts and other peaceful things. Ain't there justice in that?'

'I never had a chanst.'

'No, and I feel for you; I wouldn't like it myself. But there 's more justice. By what Cap'n Rolfe says, they 're calling for hands for the Royal Navy, and I 'm going to sign on, and in course you 'll sign on too. Well, now, s'pose you 'd got your chanst, and been killed, like Trousers--'cos a savage speared him arter Mr. Trentham made him helpless--you might a' been killed; then you wouldn't have got my poll parrot, and you wouldn't 'a been alive to sign on with me, and no chanst then o' beating the Germans and making 'em sick o' themselves, and medals and all. Look at it straight, Ephraim, and you 'll see 'tis all justice, to say nothing of merciful Providence.'

'I don't rightly see as I can bear you out, Mr. Grinson,' said Meek sleepily.

'But you will, Ephraim, you will, me lad.... He 's going off, sir,'

Grinson whispered as Trentham came up. 'Gripes! what a job I 've had!

But he 'll be all right in the morning.'

Trentham won the Military Cross at the Battle of the Somme; Hoole was on the point of starting for Berlin when the armistice was broached; Grinson and Meek have hunted submarines in an armed trawler. Meek has been led to trace the hand of what he calls Justice from the moment when the Blue Raider sank the _Berenisa_ to the moment when, following somewhat sheepishly his more self-a.s.sured companion, he shambled through the courtyard of Buckingham Palace to receive his medal from the hand of the King.

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