Romance: A Chronicle of the Adventures of John
Kemp
(Copy tight, lisit, by MiClure, Phillips & Co.)
CIIAPTKU IV. (Continued.)
. DKLW a deep hicalh. 1 thought
lur a moment Unit, after ull. Ultra
wiim 11 lit 1 1 of fair play in thu
game thai 1 li.nl u decent, fair,
blue-eyed man In from of me. Ilu
!. h. u haul at me; I hard at him; 11 was
a If Im were going lo wrestle lor a ln.'ll.
'I'lui young K'll mi thi! bench huii her lii
parted and leant l'urwiinl, lur head u little
Oil OIIC Ullii'.
I said, "You won't swear 1 was the man
. Nikola oi Kscoces?"
llo looked meditatively into my eyes;
11 was a duel between us.
"1 won't swear," he .said. "You had your
face blacked, ami didn't wear a beard."
A soft growth of liair had anno out
over my cheeks whilst 1 lay In prison. I
rubbed my hand against It, and thought
that he had drawn llrnt blood.
"You must not say 'you,' " I said. "I
wear I was not the man. Did ho talk
like me?"
"Can't nay that ho did," Sadler answered,
moving from one foot to tho other.
."Had hi got eyes like mo, or a nose, or
mouth?"
"Can't say," ho answered agalu. "Ilu
lace was blaeked."
"Didn't ho talk lilue Noso In the Nova
Beotlari way?"
"Well, he did," Sndlcr assented slowly.
"Rut anyone could for a disguise. It's
a easy as . . ."
Reside me, the turnkey whispered sud
denly, "Pull him up; stop his mouth."
1 Bnld, "Wasn't he an older man? Didn't
tie look between forty anil fifty?"
"What do you look like?" the chief mat
asked.
,"l'n twenty-four," I answered; "I can
prove It."
"Well, you look forty nnd older," h
answered mr.ligchtly. "So did he."
Ills cool, disinterested manner over
whelmed me like a blow of an lmmenso
wave; It proved so absolutely that I had
parted with all semblance of youth. It
Was something a. bled to the Immense waste
of waters between mysvir and Seraphina;
an Immense waste of years. I did not ask
much of the next witness; Sadler had
made mo afraid. Septimus I learn, the
master of tho Victoria, was a man with
yes as blue nnd us cold as bits of round
bluo pebble; a little goat's beard. Iron
pray; apple-colored cheeks and small
gold earrings In his ears. Ho had an ex
traordinary mournful voice, and a retro
spective melancholy of manner, lie was
Just such another master of a trader aa
Captain Lumsdon had heen; and It was
the mme story over again, with little dif
ferent touches, the hard blue eyes gazing
far over the top of my head; tho gnarled
hands moving restlessly on the rim of his
hut.
Afterward tho prisoner ordered the
steward to give us a drink of brandy. A
Glass was offered me, but I refused to
drink It, and ho said "Who Is It that re
fuses to drink a glass of brandy." He
asked mo what countryman I was, and If
I was an American.
There were two others from the unfor
tunate Victoria a Thomas Davis, boat
swain, who had had one of Nikola's pistol
balls in his hip, and a sort of steward I
have forgotten his name who had a scar
of a cut buss wound on his forehead.
Suddenly tho conviction forced Itself upon
me that the wholo thing, tho long, weary
trial, tho evidence, the pamdo of fairness,
was being gono through In a spirit of
mockery, lia a mere formality; that tho
Judges took no Interest whatever In my
case. It waa a foregone conclusion.
A tiny, fair man, with pale hair oiled
and rather long for those days, and with
reen and red signet rings on fingers that
he was forever running through that hair,
camo mlncingly Into tho witness box. Ho
held for a long time what seemed to be an
amiable conversation with Sir Hubert Clif
ford, a tall, portentous looking man, who
had black horschaJr sticking in the cran
nies of a cliff. Tho conversation went like
this:
"You aro the Hon. Thomas Oldham?"
"Yes, yes."
"You know Klngnton, J.iniaie.u, very
Well?"
"I was there four years-two as secretary
to the cabinet of hi graeo. the duke of
Manchester, two as clU secretary to lLu
admiral on the station."
in England and Jamaica By Joseph Conrad
"You saw the prisoner?"
"Yes, three times."
I drew an Immense breath; I thought for
a moment that Ihey had delivered them
selves Into my hands. The thing must
prove of itself that I hnd heen In Jamaica,
not In Mo Medio, through those two years.
My heart began to thump like a great,
solemn drum, like I'. nil's bell when tho
king died solemn. Insistent, dominatinir
everything. The little man was given an
account of the "bawminnblo" state of con
fusion Into which the Island's trade was
thrown by the misdeeds of a pirate calb d
Nikola el Dcmonico.
"I assure you, my lads," he squeaked,
turning suddenly lo tho judges, "the l.-Iand
"WILLIAMS!
was wrought up Into pitch of ... ah .. al
most disloyalty. The . . .ah . . . plant
ers were clamoring for . . . .ah . . . sepa
ration. And, to be sure, I trust you'll
hang the prisoner, for if you don't . . ."
Iord Stowell shivered, and said suddenly
with haste. "Mr. OiUham, addreas yourself
to Sir Robi rt."
I was almost happy; the cloven hoof had
peered so damnlngly out. The little man
bowed briskly to the old Judge, asked for
a chair, sat hims-if down, und arranged
his coal-t.ills.
"Mr. nldlwun, you saw the prisoner three
thins If it does not overtax your memory
pray tell us." And the little crcaturu
pram-id off in a new direction.
"Tax my memory. (Sad. I Hk.i that. You
remember a man who lun had yu.ir blood
as hear :ui could be, don't you'.'"
1 hid been looking at him eagerly, but
my Intercut f.ulcd away nnw. It wait go
ing to bo the old iol:f using of illy Mei.llty
11U NtkolVs. And Jut I sveiuud to know
it
'
the little beggar's falsetto, It was a voice
one does not forget.
"Remember," he squeaked. "Gad, gen
tlemen of the Jury, he came as near as
possible-- You have no Idea what a fe
rocious devil he Is."
I was wondering- why on earth Nichols
should have wanted to kill such a little
tiling.
"As near as possible murdered myself
and Admiral Rowley and a Mr. Topnambo,
a moft enlightened and loyal . . .ah
Inhabitant of the Island, on th5
steps of n public Inn."
1 had it then. It was tho lltt'e man
David Macdonald had rolled down the
steps with, that night at the Perry Inn on
FOR GOD'S SAKK, WILLIAMS. W1IKRK
tho Spanish Town road.
"lie was lying In wait for us with a
gang of assassins. I was stabbed oa tho
upper lip. I lost so much blood . . .had
to bo Invalided . . . .cannot think of
horrlblo episode without shuddering."
Ho had seen me, then, and when Ramon
(a Spaniard, who was afterwards proved
to be a spy of Kl Demonlo's of the piis
oner's. He was hung since) had driven
ino from tho place of execution after tho
hanging of the seven pirates; nnd he had
coino Into Ramon's store at tho moment
when Curios ("a piratical devil if ecr
there was one," tho little man protested)
bad drawn mo into tho back room, where
Don HalthiLsar and O'Rrhn und Seraphlivi
sat waiting. Tho men who were employed
to watch Ramon's had never fcecu me leave
again, and afterwards a ct turn. el
w.is discovered leading down to Uk
quay.
Then my turn came.
It was w U 1 Sow t Uiti throat of that
little man. It seemed to me that I must
bo able to crush a creature whose malice
was as obvious as the green and red rings
that he exhibited every few minutes. He
wanted to show the Jury that he had rings;
that he was a mincing swell; that I hadn't
and that I was a bloody pirate. I said:
"You know that during the whole two
years Nichols was at Rio I was an Im
prover at Horton Pen with the Macdon
nlds, the agents of my brother-in-law. Sir
Ralph Rooksby."
"I certainly know nothing of the sort,"
be said, folding his hands along the edge
of the witness box, as if he had Just
thought of exhibiting his rings In that
manner. He was abominably cooL I said:
IS SKRAl'l 1 1NA '.'"
"You must have heard of me. The Tor
nambos knew me."
"The Topuambos used to talk of a black
guard with a name like Kemp who kept
himself mighty out of the way In the
Vale."
"You knew I was on the Island," I pinned
him down.
"You used to come to the Island," hs
corrected. "I've Just explained how. Rut
j'ou were not there much, or we should
have been able to lay hands on you. V
wanted to. There was a warrant out nfter
you tried to murder us. Hut you had been
siniiegled away by Ramon."
I didn't lose my grip; I went at him
again, blindly, as if I were lioxlng with
my ey-s full of blood, but my teeth stt
tight. I said:
"You used lo buy things yourself of old
Ramon; bourbt (hem for tht admiral to
load hU frigates with; things be sold St
Key West."
"C'pon my soul!" bo said.
V-
