The Second Class Passenger: Fifteen Stories

he costly table of Lazarus, and purchased "curios"-Indian silks, Javanese; knives, Birmingham metal-work, and what not-as mementoes of their explorations. In particular,

s. Hence it was confided to the careful porterage of Dawson, an assiduous and favored courti

t him. They were drawing towards dinne

y of voice, the insipidity of intonation, which is best appreciated in steam

ite Dawson. "I'll go back at once. You

ed him that he had some hours yet. "The st

once," said Daw

e boat," Miss Paters

walk in knots of two or three, sitting at the little tables outside the saloons, or lurking at the entrances of narrow alleys that ran aside from the main street every few paces. All were clad in thin white suits, and some wore knives in full sight, while there was that about them that would lead even the most innocent and conventional second-class passenger to guess at a weapon concealed somewhere. Some of them looked keenly at Dawson as he passed along; and although he met their eyes impassi

e wide portals of Lazarus' Hotel. A grand, swarthy Greek, magnificent in a scarlet

. "Sir, you wait-a in the bar,

" said Dawson, "'cause I'

he Greek. "Bimeb

on incredulously. Th

odded. "This-a way, si

ge was forthcoming. The ugly thing had burst the paper in which it was wrapped, and its grinning bullet-head projected handily. The pape

the Greek, as he opene

of sugar," replied

izon it is night, full and absolute. As Dawson retraced his steps the sky over him was velvet- black, barely punctured by faint stars, and a breeze rustled faintly from

pened continually beside him were passable-he might get aboard the steamer to his dinner in the second-class saloon with a less emphatic drenching than if he went round by the way he had come. Mozambique, he reflected, could not have only one street-it wa

larly upon him from an invisible sky, and presently, hugging the wall, he butted against a corner, and found, or guessed, that his way was no longer straight. Underfoot there was mud and garbage that once gulf

sturbed him. He turned on a sudden impulse to

d cautiously to pass it, found a blank wall opposite him, and was lost. His sense of direction left him, and he had no longer any idea of where the street lay and where the sea. He f

by a trick. He could see nothing, but groped blind and frightened under it, feeling along the wall with one hand, still carrying the bronze image by the head with the other. Once he dropped it, and would have left it, but wit

he image and hammered on the door with it. A hum of voices within abated as he knocked, and there was silenc

stered Dawson pitifully

am." Even as he spoke

ke blades. "Please let

e let

ng of him save that he was tall and stoutly made. But he la

ice was foreign and high. "Com

nd some chairs, and a gaudy picture of the Virgin that hung on the wall. On each side of it was a sconce, in which a slovenly candle guttered. A woman was perched on a corner of the table, a heavy shawl over her head. Under it the dark face, propped in the fork of her hand,

anning him with an amusement that he felt as ignomin

that?"

floor carefully. "It's

it for a lady. A

o a hoarse laugh, and

ws

. "What you doing 'er

e," Dawson replied. "Like a silly fool, I thought I c

man laug

German steamer?" s

he answered, "from the second-class. But I left th

d opened the door t

eetle longer for you

d her hea

t with your knives for ever? When every day other men are tak

"But if you gan't tell us noding better than to st

nd the shawl slipped, and showed th

one as you would, untouched. That was through me. Now, fools, you must take your turn-one month, three

two men anticipated a visit from the police very shortly, and that they blamed it on the woman, who might have averted it. Both the men accused her of their misfortune, and she faced them

she argued once, turnin

nd she flourished h

nd, with work, with pain, with jail. Here you have to pay. I have paid for you, sev

tions were arguments in themselves. She put a case and demolished it with a smile; presented the alternative, left a final word

his fat comrade exploded, "Yea, vy?" They seemed to demand of her that she should accept blame

son, shocked. He was aching

manded th

y to speak to a lady,

somewhat, but caught the woman's eye and found comfort and reinforcement there. She

id, speaking manfully enough, and giving the fat man eyes

it?" demanded the other ferociou

. "There is trouble enough already. Besides, they ma

ried the fat man agai

t and curse all night, til

dem on us," the ta

sing her small head over her b

our own blame behind my skirts? Mother of God!"-an outstretched hand called the

etly. "Don' go on!" His eyes were shining, and he ca

d once at an imaginary cigarette. There was so much of defiance in the action that Dawson, watchin

he white, venomous face of the tall man. "Thief and--" she leaned fo

rms before her face and cried out; then leaned rapidly aside as a pointed knife whizzed past her head and struck twanging in the wall behind her. The man sprang forward, a

nd heaved to his feet, fumbling at h

e image and ste

he cried, "or

stung with powder, did not see the man fall. As the German drew the revolver clear, the woman knifed him in the neck, and he collapsed on h

ing at his feet, huddled hideously on the floor. The room stan

e," she said. "It's no good. It was a grand

yond him. He had only half a strong man's equipment-the m

sion in her eyes, and to be understood is so often to be despised. "You m

, we must go from here. The police will be here any minute, and

son. He itched to be gone. A picture of Vine Street police court and a curtly aloof magistrate flashe

she said, but paused, and came back. She went to the picture of the Virgin and turned its face to the wa

was known to them. There was a sound of many feet ploughing in the mud, and a

"It is the police. They

oth sides of us.

oming up on their right, and once some metal gear clinked as its wearer scraped against the wall. He could smell men, as he remembered afte

g his arm till she grasped his fingers. She led him swiftly away from the place, having wait

t speaking. Only at times the woman's hold on his hand would tighten, and, meeting

going?" he v

le of laughter. "If you knew from what we are esca

s hand. Again they heard footsteps, and thi

it, or--" again the unspoken word. "Feel always along t

on the wall, till Dawson encountered the door,

le hands. Even in the darkness he could see the g

shoved desperately till his head buzzed. As he eased

cried the woman. "It is

me come," he said, and standing back a little, he flung his twelve stone of bone and musc

Dawson stumbled up a long, narrow, sloppy stair that gave on to the flat roof of the building. Above them was sky again. The rain had

he listened with a shudder to

"We are not safe yet. Over th

eet to another level. Dawson helped the woman up the

nd looked down at the roof before them. In a kind of tent person

She was crouching in the shadow of the wall, and drew him down beside her. Somebody

to him, "they will think you h

uld say--"

o say," she interrupted.

awson, who gripped instinctively on the bronze image. The man walked to the parapet on their left and looked over, and then walked back to the tent and stood irr

temples and tense lips, Dawson rose, ran at him, and gripped him. He had the throat in the crutch of his right hand, and strangled the man's yell as it was conceived. They went down together, writhing and c

g beside him. She pressed her slender-bladed kn

ed to kill him." He looked at the body and from it to the

d her fac

d. "With only the bare han

repeate

pulled the man's sheet wide. Girt into a loin-cloth below was an ug

adulation and, the proximity of her

a heat of cordial impulse he took her

her. "When you spoke to the German about the bad word, I began to wond

?" he asked her, as the next roof was cro

answered. "You w

. "That's what I was trying to do when I knocke

lost that, but,"-she came to him and laid a hand on his shoulder, speaking

ng, half- entreating, wholly alluring. He looked down int

were bred on the roofs of Mozambique. You fight like-like a hero. It is a rush, a blow, a tumble, and you have them lyi

uskily. Her hand on his shoulder

replied uneasily, "as long as-as l

had dawned on him, duskily and half-seen, the unfitness of little proprieties an

vently, with half-closed

a long pause. He guessed she was waiting for the next move from

he said at la

he asked b

der to the wild spirit of the Coast, and he grasped the head of the brass image the tighter whe

"Come on, then," she said

eanly to the level of his face and planting her easily and squarely on the coping. He welcomed each opportunity to take hold of her and put o

It was another gloomy alley into which they descended, and the darkness about him and the mud underfoot struck Dawson with a s

s save for the underfoot swish in the mud, and presently the alley widened into a little square, at one side of which there was a fresh rustle of gr

. A figure that had been hidden in the shadow now lounged forth; and revealed itself to them

ef phrase over and over again, harshly and irritably; but she was cajoling, remo

with him?" demanded

" answered the woman, with a

n't! What's he g

ey always arrest me when they c

to the man in uniform- "you go away. Voetsaak,

which was, of course, unintelligible to Dawson,

said, and knocked the

n before he can get up. No, not that way

her they raced across the squa

ights, busy with some offices. A wave of sudden song issued from among them as Dawson and the woman entered, and gave way again to the high, ner

awson, as she packed her loose skirts together in her hand-"

, and they were once more

ained, as she let her skirts swish down a

e a lamp flickered in the breeze. Dawson drew a deep breath, and tucked t

the woman in a low tone. "

ong the front, and very soon

ered the woman, her

he answe

n the circle of the l

ound my idol," th

the light, and the

" exclaimed Miss

alley-raised it as he would have raised it to a waitress in a bu

shing with his hand at the foulness of blood and hair upo