The captain of the little band--black Maximilien, ten years old, and his comrade Stephane--nicknamed _Ti Chabin_, because of his bright hair,--a slim little yellow boy of eleven--led the pursuit, crying always, "_Enc, Missie,--enc!_"...
The _La Guayra_ had gained fully two hundred yards when the handsome pa.s.senger made his final largess,--proving himself quite an expert in flinging coin. The piece fell far short of the boys, but near enough to distinctly betray a yellow shimmer as it twirled to the water. That was gold!
In another minute the leading canoe had reached the spot, the other canotiers voluntarily abandoning the quest,--for it was little use to contend against Maximilien and Stephane, who had won all the canoe contests last 14th of July. Stephane, who was the better diver, plunged.
He was much longer below than usual, came up at quite a distance, panted as he regained the canoe, and rested his arms upon it. The water was so deep there, he could not reach the coin the first time, though he could see it: he was going to try again,--it was gold, sure enough.
--"_Fouinq! ca fond icitt!_" he gasped.
Maximilien felt all at once uneasy. Very deep water, and perhaps sharks.
And sunset not far off! The _La Guayra_ was diminishing in the offing.
--"_Boug-la "le fai nou neye!--laisse y, Stephane!_" he cried. (The fellow wants to drown us. _Laisse_--leave it alone.)
But Stephane had recovered breath, and was evidently resolved to try again. It was gold!
--"_Mais ca c"est l!_"
--"_a.s.sez, non!_" screamed Maximilien. "_Pa plonge "nc, moin ka di ou!
Ah! foute!_"...
Stephane had dived again!
... And where were the others? "_Bon-Die, gade oti yo ye!_" They were almost out of sight,--tiny specks moving sh.o.r.eward.... The _La Guayra_ now seemed no bigger than the little packet running between St. Pierre and Fort-de-France.
Up came Stephane again, at a still greater distance than before,--holding high the yellow coin in one hand. He made for the canoe, and Maximilien paddled towards him and helped him in. Blood was streaming from the little diver"s nostrils, and blood colored the water he spat from his mouth.
--"_Ah! moin te ka di ou laisse y!_" cried Maximilien, in anger and alarm.... "_Gade, gade sang-a ka coule nans nez ou,-nans bouche ou!...Mi oti Iezautt!_"
_Lezautt_, the rest, were no longer visible.
--"_Et mi oti nou ye!_" cried Maximilien again. They had never ventured so far from sh.o.r.e.
But Stephane answered only, "_C"est l!_" For the first time in his life he held a piece of gold in his fingers. He tied it up in a little rag attached to the string fastened about his waist,--a purse of his own invention,--and took up his paddles, coughing the while and spitting crimson.
--"_Mi! mi!--mi oti nou ye!_" reiterated Maximilien. "_Bon-Die!_ look where we are!"
The Place had become indistinct;--the light-house, directly behind half an hour earlier, now lay well south: the red light had just been kindled. Seaward, in advance of the sinking orange disk of the sun, was the _La Guayra_, pa.s.sing to the horizon. There was no sound from the sh.o.r.e: about them a great silence had gathered,--the Silence of seas, which is a fear. Panic seized them: they began to paddle furiously.
But St. Pierre did not appear to draw any nearer. Was it only an effect of the dying light, or were they actually moving towards the semicircular cliffs of Fond Corre?... Maximilien began to cry. The little chabin paddled on,--though the blood was still trickling over his breast.
Maximilien screamed out to him:--
--"_Ou pa ka pagaye,--anh?--ou ni bousoin dmi?_" (Thou dost not paddle, eh?--thou wouldst go to sleep?)
--"_Si! moin ka pagaye,--epi f!_" (I am paddling, and hard, too!) responded Stephane....
--"_Ou ka pagaye!--ou ka menti!_" (Thou art paddling!--thou liest!) vociferated Maximilien.... "And the fault is all thine. I cannot, all by myself, make the canoe to go in water like this! The fault is all thine: I told thee not to dive, thou stupid!"
--"_Ou fou!_" cried Stephane, becoming angry. "_Moin ka pagaye!_" (I am paddling.)
--"Beast! never may we get home so! Paddle, thou lazy!--paddle, thou nasty!"
--"_Macaque_ thou!--monkey!"
--"_Chabin!_--must be chabin, for to be stupid so!"
--"Thou black monkey!--thou species of _ouist.i.ti!_"
--"Thou tortoise-of-the-land!--thou slothful more than _molocoye!_"
--"Why, thou cursed monkey, if thou sayest I do not paddle, thou dost not know how to paddle!"...
... But Maximilien"s whole expression changed: he suddenly stopped paddling, and stared before him and behind him at a great violet band broadening across the sea northward out of sight; and his eyes were big with terror as he cried out:--
--"_Mais ni qui chose qui douole icitt!_... There is something queer, Stephane; there is something queer."...
--"Ah! you begin to see now, Maximilien!-it is the current!"
--"A devil-current, Stephane.... We are drifting: we will go to the horizon!"...
To the horizon--"_nou kalle lhorizon!_"--a phrase of terrible picturesqueness.... In the creole tongue, "to the horizon" signifies to the Great Open--into the measureless sea.
--"_C"est pa lapeine pagaye atouelement_" (It is no use to paddle now), sobbed Maximilien, laying down his palettes.
--"_Si! si!_" said Stephane, reversing the motion: "paddle with the current."
--"With the current! It runs to La Dominique!"
--"_Pouloss_," phlegmatically returned Stephane,--"_ennou!_--let us make for La Dominique!"
--"Thou fool!--it is more than past forty kilometres.... _Stephane, mi!
gade!--mi quz" gouos requ"em!_"
A long black fin cut the water almost beside them, pa.s.sed, and vanished,--a _requin_ indeed! But, in his patois, the boy almost re-echoed the name as uttered by quaint Pere Dutertre, who, writing of strange fishes more than two hundred years ago, says it is called REQUIEM, because for the man who findeth himself alone with it in the midst of the sea, surely a requiem must be sung.
--"Do not paddle, Stephane!--do not put thy hand in the water again!"
III.
... The _La Guayra_ was a point on the sky-verge;--the sun"s face had vanished. The silence and the darkness were deepening together.
--"_Si lanme ka vini plis f, ca nou ke fai?_" (If the sea roughens, what are we to do?) asked Maximilien.
--"Maybe we will meet a steamer," answered Stephane: "the _Orinoco_ was due to-day."