Capricornia. Xavier Herbert

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СКАЧАТЬ chief subject on the curriculum of the Compound. But O’Cannon’s a taxpayer. He pays his whack towards the upkeep of the State School up in town—”

      “Can’t he send ’em there?”

      “Who’d look after ’em if he did? Who’d protect ’em from the contempt of the white kids? All he wants is a teacher sent down once a month to stay the couple of days while the train’s down the road. They won’t do it.”

      A long pause fell. Both men smoked, and stared into the black breathless night. At length Differ said earnestly, “Don’t send the kid to the Compound, Oscar. It’ll mean the ruin of him. He’ll grow up to learn nothing but humility. And after all the Government will only send him out to work for some brainless cruel fool like Driver. My friend, any person who can adopt a half-caste as his own and doesn’t, will surely burn in Hell, if there is such a place. Think of the life before the kid—like Yeller Elbert’s—worse—like poor savage Peter Pan’s. Life-long humiliation. Neither a whiteman nor a black. A drifting nothing. Keep the boy a while, Oscar, teach him just a bit to test what I’ve said. You’re a good-hearted man I know. I’m sure you’ll see the good in him when it begins to show, in spite of the prejudices bred in you and drummed into you by Australian papers and magazines that use the Binghi as something to joke about. Remember that though his skin is dark and there is Aboriginal in his blood, half his flesh and blood is the same as your own.”

      Oscar turned on him angrily and cried, “I told you that’s still got to be proved!”

      Oscar let Nawnim play with Marigold, just for an hour or so now and again. Then Nawnim began to change, not in his own little body, but in Oscar’s idea of him, and came to be not so much a family disgrace as a personal problem, a fascinating terrible problem. If he were to grow up to be a cringing drudge like Yeller Elbert or a pariah like Peter Pan, how would fare the half of him that was proud Shillingsworth? Oscar began to think about him more than anything else that concerned him just then, and came at length to the decision that if it were proved that he was the son of Mark, he would see to it that Mark took care of him and would himself advise Mark how best to do so.

      Another fortnight passed. Then Oscar went in to meet the train, fully expecting to get a letter of denial or contrite confession from Mark, and half expecting to see the fellow himself, since during the fortnight of changing and softening opinions he had forgotten how harsh was the letter he had sent him. Neither Mark nor letter came.

      Oscar was annoyed. Much of the new softness hardened in a matter of minutes. He thought for a while, then telephoned the Princess Alice Hotel and learnt that Mark was still there. He spoke to Heather, but did not say who he was. She went to get Mark, and, in Oscar’s opinion, returned with him, because, although she said that she had been unable to find him, her manner of asking who was speaking and what his business was gave him the idea that she was repeating what someone near was whispering. He told her nothing but that he wished to speak to Mark concerning a matter of great importance and would be obliged if she would see to it that he was at hand when he would ring again at five.

      Oscar came out of Mrs McLash’s little post-office prickling with heat and anger. As he did so, Mrs McLash crept out of her bedroom smirking. She had been listening. She guessed that it all had something to do with Nawnim, as she told Mrs Blaize of Soda Springs when she telephoned to learn what had been said by the other party.

      At five o’clock Oscar rang the Princess Alice again. This time he would have no dealings with Heather when she said that Mark was still away. He asked for Mrs Shay, who addressed him by name and told him just what Heather had before. All his softness was callousness now. He went home vowing to teach Mark a lesson.

      Two days later Oscar came to the Siding again, this time dressed for travelling and bringing with him a portmanteau and laughably-clad Nawnim. That was return-train day. As soon as Mrs McLash saw him she said to people sitting with her that she would bet her bottom dollar that he was taking Nawnim up to town to throw him at Mark’s head. Sure enough, Oscar asked if he might use the telephone, and rang up the Princess Alice. She heard him tell someone that he required Mark to meet him at the train in town, that Mark must be got if getting him necessitated calling in the help of the police.

      As soon as the train left the Caroline, Mrs McLash rang up Mrs Shay, as it was usual for her to do, to tell her how many passengers were likely to require lodging at her hotel. She also told why Oscar was coming. Mrs Shay had no love for Mark and did not know that Heather had much; when she returned to the dining-room whence she had been called, she passed on what she had heard. Thus, while the train was still in the Caroline Hills, most of Mrs Shay’s lodgers knew that Mark was going to have a half-caste piccaninny thrown at his head that night. That was the first that most of the lodgers knew of the existence of a child of Mark’s. Indeed it was news to Mrs Shay herself. To Heather it was a thunderbolt. While landlady and lodgers laughed over the news, Heather stole up to her room and wept. Mark was down at the beach at work on his ship.

      The people who heard the tale from Mrs Shay took it down to the station when they went to meet the train that evening and passed it on to the crowd. Before long it was generally known, so that as much attention was given to watching for Mark as for the train.

      True to the tale, a sullen-faced Oscar arrived with a half-caste brat. But no Mark was there to have it thrown at his head. Mark was gone, sailing out into the Silver Sea. For Heather had gone to him to learn the truth and had told him everything. He denied Nawnim, but declined to prove himself by facing Oscar. She left him, telling him that she never wanted to see his face again. In two or three hours he completed arrangements for his pearling-expedition that otherwise he might have dallied over for weeks. He was not fleeing from responsibility for Nawnim, but from the shame of exposure before the town.

      Oscar was infuriated. His reason for wanting Mark to meet him was mainly that he wished to save himself the embarrassment of having to carry the child through the town and hand him over to Mark in a public place. He never dreamt that Mark could be warned and would flee. As it was, he had to carry Nawnim to the Princess Alice and show him to Mrs Shay. The lady seemed amazed. He cursed himself for having trusted to the telephone, but not nearly so vigorously as he cursed Mark for deserting and Mrs McLash for tattling. That night Nawnim slept in his arms in the best room in the hotel. He had to be held in arms because, distrustful as he was of the strange surroundings and the noises of the bar, he was disposed to wail. Oscar was glad of the room to hide in.

      Next morning after a quiet breakfast in the room, Oscar took Nawnim to the Aborigines Department and handed him over to the Protector, confessing with malicious pleasure that he was uncle to the child. He confessed because he wished the Government to take action against Mark. It was a mistake. Just then the Compound was being closed owing to an outbreak of measles among its people, on account of which the Protector could not admit Nawnim without endangering his life. The Protector said that Aborigines were particularly prone to die of the disease, and suggested that Oscar, as the child’s uncle, should continue to take care of him till the danger was past. Oscar dreaded measles since the death of his infant son, and was loth to expose Nawnim to it, but resented being expected to act charitably on account of a relationship he did not recognise. He became angry and told the Protector to place the child in some other institution. The Protector responded to his anger and told him that the measles was everywhere, and that he considered it extremely mean of him to avoid a trifling inconvenience that might be the means of saving the child’s life. Oscar went off in a rage, with the prospect of having to keep Nawnim with him in the town during the eleven days till next train-day.

      Before returning to the hotel he took Nawnim to a Chinese store and bought him a tusser-silk suit and sandals and a sailor hat. A mighty improvement was effected in the child’s appearance. Oscar did not slink back to the hotel nearly as shyly as he had slunk away from it. Mrs Shay called Heather to look at Nawnim, little knowing that Heather’s eyes could scarcely see anything for tears of which Nawnim was СКАЧАТЬ