Boon Island - Kenneth Roberts [133]
So we lay motionless; and out of the snowy darkness came Saver, that complaining, querulous, inert, filth-
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smeared lout: that weak-willed laggard, incapableaccording to his own whining protestsof standing on his feet. For three long weeks he had battened on our sympathiesand now, coated with snow, he stood on those supposedly useless feet, grinning as he readjusted the tent-flap, and drew from beneath the oakum coat that others had woven for him a roll of the meat from the carcass we had dragged from the tent for himand skinned for him, and dismembered for him, and boned out for him, and rolled and tied for himbecause he was too weak to do any of those things himself.
Too weak, indeed! His determination to live on others was as the strength of ten!
They were delighted with themselves, Graystock and Saver were! They grinned and tittered as they crouched over the fire, carving little chunks from that roll of meat, impaling them on the points of their knives, and placing them carefully on the glowing coals.
The odor of the roasting meat filled the tent, piercing and mouth-watering.
Captain Dean got carefully to his knees. When Saver and Graystock speared the roasted chunks with their knife points and popped them into their mouths, he reached out with those long arms of his, seized each one by a shoulder and pulled both of them flat on their backs.
"Get up, all!" Captain Dean shouted to the rest of us. "Wake up! Look at these two, caught red-handed, their mouths crammed with the meat they should have defended with their lives. Animals steal food that belong to othersunless they're trained. Then they can't be made to steal their master's food! Look well at these two! Not men! Untrained animals!"
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He picked up the roll of meat and gave it to Neal to hold.
"You, Saver! You, Graystock! What do you have to say for yourselves?"
"I heard a seagull," Saver quavered. "I was afraid the seagulls might get it. I was going to divide it as soon as daylight came."
Langman snorted. "There hasn't been a seagull near this island since I killed the one we ate."
"There's nothing on this earth worse than an ingrate," Captain Dean said slowly. "You're an ingrate, Saver! Graystock, you're an ingrate! Ingrates never change, no matter how much they're coddled and babied! They want more and more! If they don't get more, they steal the belongings or the good name of those that coddle 'em!"
Graystock pointed at Saver. "He was the one! He knew where it was! I didn't do anything."
The captain laughed. "You've both bitten the hands that fed you. How do you say, those of you who've been bitten? How should these ingrates be punished?"
"I've wanted 'em out of the tent," Langman said, "ever since they started fouling themselves. I say put 'em out! Let 'em get along the best they can!"
"Make 'em wash their clothes in salt water," Henry Dean said. "Make 'em strip to the skin and wash, starting now."
"Why waste time on 'em?" White said. "Let's kill 'em! Let's kill 'em quick!"
"We'd be justified in doing so," Captain Dean said, "but Nason, yesterday, saw how many of us there were. He was a careful, good man. He won't forget anything he saw hereever!"
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Contemplatively he added, "But White's suggestion has merit. This would be a much better world if it were rid of its ingrates."
"Most ingrates don't recognize themselves as ingrates," I reminded the captain. "They'd put up a strong argument as to why they shouldn't be killed."
"I suppose so," the captain said, "and most of 'em, probably, would think they'd made out quite a case for themselves. Anyway, we can't kill Graystock and Saver, much as they deserve killing."
"You could send them out to bring in all the meat that's left," Neal suggested. "They know where it is. If all the meat were divided now, we wouldn't have to stand watch to make sure they didn't steal the rest."
"That's a good idea," the captain said. "Graystock and Saver,