We, the Drowned - Carsten Jensen [72]
I could see from the way Lewis moved his lips and fingers that he was taking some kind of tally. When he'd counted through all the fingers on one hand four times and reached twenty, he slapped me on the shoulder in high spirits.
"So, my boy," he said. "Any questions?"
I glanced across the lagoon where the men, who until a few minutes ago had been trapped in the hold, were now making for the beach. They all reached it almost simultaneously—and then disappeared into the jungle. None of them looked back.
I didn't know what to say. I felt more baffled than ever. Jack Lewis cocked his head and studied me. "Look," he said. "Free men. Did you see anyone trying to stop them from running off?"
"You're a practical man, Mr. Lewis," I said. "And I don't understand why you've fed these men for so many weeks only to see them disappear. What's in it for you? And what are the men doing on a desert island?"
"Surely that's their own business. I don't know what they're doing there and it's not my concern. All I know is that they had the choice. You saw with your own eyes that I ordered the hatch opened."
"Who wouldn't have fled, if the alternative was to stay in a dark hole? Is that a real choice?"
"It's a choice," Jack Lewis said. "And I offered it to them. But that's enough talking. Let's get down to the real reason we're here."
He went over to the fo'c'sle and shouted an order to the Kanaks, who immediately appeared on deck and started readying a boat.
"I think you should come ashore with us. You'll find it a worthwhile experience."
Across his shoulder he slung an old-fashioned musket with a powder horn and a ramrod, and I gave him a puzzled look. In his hand, he held a Winchester rifle.
"Don't ask," he grinned. "I'm a superstitious man. This old gun is my talisman."
I climbed down into the boat, together with two Kanaks, who manned the oars. The beach was deserted. On a desert island, what else could it be?
We dragged the boat ashore, and Jack Lewis walked up and down the beach while he scanned the thicket as though in search of something. Then he waved at me. Behind a flowering hibiscus I spotted a row of calabashes. In the sand next to them lay a hide filled with something that looked like pebbles, but I was too far away to see it properly.
Jack Lewis went over to the hide and tied it into a parcel with some leather string while the Kanaks started carrying the calabashes to the boat. They made a sloshing sound, and I realized that they were filled with supplies of fresh water. Jack Lewis weighed the parcel in the palm of his hand. I heard a rustling sound, and if his masklike face had ever been capable of expressing an emotion such as happiness, then that's what it was doing now.
Just then a gunshot rang out across the island.
Lewis froze.
"Damn it to hell!" he exclaimed. "Damn, bastard hell!"
He clutched his leather parcel and turned to me.
"Quick!" he said. "Take as many calabashes as you can carry!"
He yelled an order at the Kanaks, who immediately started pushing the boat back into the water. He gripped the packet tightly as he ran. I could tell from his face that our frantic flight was to save that, rather than our lives. Whatever it held was clearly his pirate treasure.
By now the boat was in the water, and I had to wade out thigh-deep before I could climb aboard. The Kanaks started rowing immediately, while Jack Lewis stood in the middle of the boat, cocking his rifle. He aimed at the shore and I heard a thundering crack. I turned toward the beach and saw it was teeming with natives. Several of them had guns and they were firing back, a whole salvo of bullets that hit the water around us. Jack Lewis returned fire, and I could see he was a good shot. One of the natives already lay outstretched in the sand. Soon another one tumbled.
"Ha," he snorted. "Fortunately for us those devils don't know how to aim."
"I thought you said this was an uninhabited island."
"I never said it was an uninhabited island. I said no humans lived here.