THE two supple dusky forms went whirling so fast, there was no grasping them to part them. But presently the negro seized the Hindoo by the throat; the Hindoo just pricked him in the arm with his knife, and the next moment his own head was driven against the side of the cabin with a stunning crack, and there he was, pinned, and wriggling, and bluish with fright, whereas the other swart face close against his was dark-grey with rage, and its two fireballs of eyes rolled fearfully, as none but African eyes can roll.
Fullalove pacified him by voice and touch; he withdrew his iron grasp with sullen and lingering reluctance, and glared like a disappointed mastiff: The cabin was now full, and Sharpe was for putting both the blacks in irons. No splitter of hairs was he. But Fullalove suggested there might be a moral distinction between things that looked equally dark to the eye.
"Well, then, speak quick, both of you," said Sharpe, "or I'll lay ye both by the heels. Ye black scoundrels, what business have you in the captain's cabin, kicking up the devil's delight?"Thus threatened, Vespasian panted out his tale; he had discovered this nigger, as he persisted in calling the Hindoo, eternally prowling about the good captain's door, and asking stupid questions: he had watched him, and, on the surgeon coming out with the good news that the captain was better, in had crawled "this yar abominable egotisk." And he raised a ponderous fist to point the polysyllables: with this aid the sarcasm would doubtless have been crushing; but Fullalove hung on the sable orator's arm, and told him drily to try and speak without gesticulating.
"The darned old cuss," said Vespasian, with a pathetic sigh at not being let hit him. He resumed and told how he had followed the Hindoo stealthily, and found him with a knife uplifted over the captain--a tremor ran through all present--robbing him. At this a loud murmur filled the room; a very ugly one, the sort of snarl with which dogs fly at dogs'
throats with their teeth, and men fly at men's throats with a cord.
"Be quiet," said Sharpe imperiously. "I'll have no lynching in a vessel Icommand. Now then, you, sir, how do you know he was robbing the captain?""How do I know! Yah! yah! Cap'n, if you please you tell dis unskeptical gemman whether you don't miss a lilly book out of your bosom!"During this extraordinary scene, Dodd had been looking from one speaker to another in great surprise and some confusion; but at the negro's direct appeal, his hand went to his breast and clutched it with a feeble but heartrending cry.
"Oh, him not gone far. Yah! yah!" and Vespasian stooped, and took up an oilskin packet off the floor, and laid it on the bed. "Dis child seen him in dat ar niggar's hand, and heard him go whack on de floor."Dodd hurried the packet into his bosom, then turned all gratitude to his sable friend: "Now God bless you! God bless you! Give me your honest hand! You don't know what you have done for me and mine."And, sick as he was, he wrung Vespasian's hand with convulsive strength, and would not part with it. Vespasian patted him soothingly all over, and whimpered out: "Nebber you mind, cap'n! You bery good man: this child bery fond of you a long time ago. You bery good man, outrageous good man!
dam good man! I propose your health: invalesee directly!"While Dodd was speaking, the others were silent out of respect; but now Sharpe broke in, and, with the national desire to hear both sides, called on Ramgolam for his version. The Hindoo was now standing with his arms crossed on his breast, looking all the martyr, meek and dignified. He inquired of Sharpe, in very broken English, whether he spoke Hindostanee.
"Not I: nor don't act it neither," said Sharpe.
At this confession Ramgolam looked down on him with pity and mild contempt.
Mr. Tickell was put forward as interpreter.
_Ramgolam (in Hindostanee)._ He whom Destiny, too strong for mortals, now oppresses with iron hand and feeds with the bread of affliction----_Mr. Tickell (translating)._ He who by bad luck has got into trouble----_Ramgolam._ Has long observed the virtues that embellish the commander of this ship resembling a mountain, and desired to imitate them----_Tickell._ Saw what a good man the captain is, and wanted to be like him----_Vespasian._ The darned old cuss.
_Ramgolam._ Seeing him often convey his hand to his bosom, I ascribed his unparalleled excellence to the possession of some sovereign talisman.
(Tickell managed to translate this sentence all but the word talisman, which he rendered--with all a translator's caution--"article.") Finding him about to depart to the regions of the blessed, where such auxiliaries are not needed, and being eager to emulate his perfections here below, Icame softly to the place where he lay----_Tickell._ When I saw him going to slip his cable, I wanted to be as good a fellow as he is, so I crept alongside----_Ramgolam._ And gently, and without force, made myself proprietor of the amulet and inheritor of a good man's qualities----_Tickell._ And quietly boned the article, and the captain's virtues. Idon't know what the beggar means.
_Ramgolam._ Then a traitor with a dark skin, but darker soul----_Tickell._ Then another black-hearted nigger----_Ramgolam._ Came furiously and misappropriated the charm thus piously obtained----_Tickell._ Ran in and stole it from me.
_Ramgolam._ And bereft me of the excellences I was inheriting: and--Here Sharpe interrupted the dialogue by putting the misappropriator of other men's virtues in irons, and the surgeon insisted on the cabin being cleared. But Dodd would not part with the three friends yet; he begged them to watch him, and see nobody else came to take his children's fortune.