Chapter XXIII--A Message from the Bush

by Jack London

　　Never had runaways from Berande been more zealously hunted. Thedeeds of Gogoomy and his fellows had been a bad example for the onehundred and fifty new recruits. Murder had been planned, a gang-boss had been killed, and the murderers had broken their contractsby fleeing to the bush. Sheldon saw how imperative it was to teachhis new-caught cannibals that bad examples were disastrous thingsto pattern after, and he urged Seelee on night and day, while withthe Tahitians he practically lived in the bush, leaving Joan incharge of the plantation. To the north Boucher did good work,twice turning the fugitives back when they attempted to gain thecoast.

　　One by one the boys were captured. In the first man-drive throughthe mangrove swamp Seelee caught two. Circling around to thenorth, a third was wounded in the thigh by Boucher, and this one,dragging behind in the chase, was later gathered in by Seelee'shunters. The three captives, heavily ironed, were exposed each dayin the compound, as good examples of what happened to bad examples,all for the edification of the seven score and ten half-wildPoonga-Poonga men. Then the Minerva, running past for Tulagi, wassignalled to send a boat, and the three prisoners were carried awayto prison to await trial.

　　Five were still at large, but escape was impossible. They couldnot get down to the coast, nor dared they venture too far inlandfor fear of the wild bushmen. Then one of the five came involuntarily and gave himself up, and Sheldon learned that Gogoomyand two others were all that were at large. There should have beena fourth, but according to the man who had given himself up, thefourth man had been killed and eaten. It had been fear of asimilar fate that had driven him in. He was a Malu man, fromnorth-western Malaita, as likewise had been the one that was eaten.Gogoomy's two other companions were from Port Adams. As forhimself, the black declared his preference for government trial andpunishment to being eaten by his companions in the bush.

　　"Close up Gogoomy kai-kai me," he said. "My word, me no like boykai-kai me."

　　Three days later Sheldon caught one of the boys, helpless fromswamp fever, and unable to fight or run away. On the same daySeelee caught the second boy in similar condition. Gogoomy aloneremained at large; and, as the pursuit closed in on him, heconquered his fear of the bushmen and headed straight in for themountainous backbone of the island. Sheldon with four Tahitians,and Seelee with thirty of his hunters, followed Gogoomy's trail adozen miles into the open grass-lands, and then Seelee and hispeople lost heart. He confessed that neither he nor any of histribe had ever ventured so far inland before, and he narrated, forSheldon's benefit, most horrible tales of the horrible bushmen. Inthe old days, he said, they had crossed the grasslands and attackedthe salt-water natives; but since the coming of the white men tothe coast they had remained in their interior fastnesses, and nosalt-water native had ever seen them again.

　　"Gogoomy he finish along them fella bushmen," he assured Sheldon."My word, he finish close up, kai-kai altogether."

　　So the expedition turned back. Nothing could persuade the coastnatives to venture farther, and Sheldon, with his four Tahitians,knew that it was madness to go on alone. So he stood waist-deep inthe grass and looked regretfully across the rolling savannah andthe soft-swelling foothills to the Lion's Head, a massive peak ofrock that upreared into the azure from the midmost centre ofGuadalcanar, a landmark used for bearings by every coastingmariner, a mountain as yet untrod by the foot of a white man.

　　That night, after dinner, Sheldon and Joan were playing billiards,when Satan barked in the compound, and Lalaperu, sent to see,brought back a tired and travel-stained native, who wanted to talkwith the "big fella white marster." It was only the man'sinsistence that procured him admittance at such an hour. Sheldonwent out on the veranda to see him, and at first glance at thegaunt features and wasted body of the man knew that his errand waslikely to prove important. Nevertheless, Sheldon demanded roughly,-

　　"What name you come along house belong me sun he go down?"

　　"Me Charley," the man muttered apologetically and wearily. "Mestop along Binu."

　　"Ah, Binu Charley, eh? Well, what name you talk along me? Whatplace big fella marster along white man he stop?"

　　Joan and Sheldon together listened to the tale Binu Charley hadbrought. He described Tudor's expedition up the Balesuna; thedragging of the boats up the rapids; the passage up the river whereit threaded the grass-lands; the innumerable washings of gravel bythe white men in search of gold; the first rolling foothills; theman-traps of spear-staked pits in the jungle trails; the firstmeeting with the bushmen, who had never seen tobacco, and knew notthe virtues of smoking; their friendliness; the deeper penetrationof the interior around the flanks of the Lion's Head; the bush-sores and the fevers of the white men, and their madness intrusting the bushmen.

　　"Allee time I talk along white fella marster," he said. "Me talk,'That fella bushman he look 'm eye belong him. He savvee too much.S'pose musket he stop along you, that fella bushman he too muchgood friend along you. Allee time he look sharp eye belong him.S'pose musket he no stop along you, my word, that fella bushman hechop 'm off head belong you. He kai-kai you altogether.'"

　　But the patience of the bushmen had exceeded that of the white men.The weeks had gone by, and no overt acts had been attempted. Thebushmen swarmed in the camp in increasing numbers, and they werealways making presents of yams and taro, of pig and fowl, and ofwild fruits and vegetables. Whenever the gold-hunters moved theircamp, the bushmen volunteered to carry the luggage. And the whitemen waxed ever more careless. They grew weary prospecting, and atthe same time carrying their rifles and the heavy cartridge-belts,and the practice began of leaving their weapons behind them incamp.

　　"I tell 'm plenty fella white marster look sharp eye belong him.And plenty fella white marster make 'm big laugh along me, say BinuCharley allee same pickaninny--my word, they speak along me alleesame pickaninny."

　　Came the morning when Binu Charley noticed that the women andchildren had disappeared. Tudor, at the time, was lying in astupor with fever in a late camp five miles away, the main camphaving moved on those five miles in order to prospect an outcrop oflikely quartz. Binu Charley was midway between the two camps whenthe absence of the women and children struck him as suspicious.

　　"My word," he said, "me t'ink like hell. Him black Mary, himpickaninny, walk about long way big bit. What name? Me savvee toomuch trouble close up. Me fright like hell. Me run. My word, merun."

　　Tudor, quite unconscious, was slung across his shoulder, andcarried a mile down the trail. Here, hiding new trail, BinuCharley had carried him for a quarter of a mile into the heart ofthe deepest jungle, and hidden him in a big banyan tree. Returningto try to save the rifles and personal outfit, Binu Charley hadseen a party of bushmen trotting down the trail, and had hidden inthe bush. Here, and from the direction of the main camp, he hadheard two rifle shots. And that was all. He had never seen thewhite men again, nor had he ventured near their old camp. He hadgone back to Tudor, and hidden with him for a week, living on wildfruits and the few pigeons and cockatoos he had been able to shootwith bow and arrow. Then he had journeyed down to Berande to bringthe news. Tudor, he said, was very sick, lying unconscious fordays at a time, and, when in his right mind, too weak to helphimself.

　　"What name you no kill 'm that big fella marster?" Joan demanded."He have 'm good fella musket, plenty calico, plenty tobacco,plenty knife-fee, and two fella pickaninny musket shoot quick,bang-bang-bang--just like that."

　　The black smiled cunningly.

　　"Me savvee too much. S'pose me kill 'm big fella marster, bimebyplenty white fella marster walk about Binu cross like hell. 'Whatname this fellow musket?' those plenty fella white marster talk 'malong me. My word, Binu Charley finish altogether. S'pose me kill'm him, no good along me. Plenty white fella marster cross alongme. S'pose me no kill 'm him, bimeby he give me plenty tobacco,plenty calico, plenty everything too much."

　　"There is only the one thing to do," Sheldon said to Joan.

　　She drummed with her hand and waited, while Binu Charley gazedwearily at her with unblinking eyes.

　　"I'll start the first thing in the morning," Sheldon said.

　　"We'll start," she corrected. "I can get twice as much out of myTahitians as you can, and, besides, one white should never be aloneunder such circumstances."

　　He shrugged his shoulders in token, not of consent, but ofsurrender, knowing the uselessness of attempting to argue thequestion with her, and consoling himself with the reflection thatheaven alone knew what adventures she was liable to engage in ifleft alone on Berande for a week. He clapped his hands, and forthe next quarter of an hour the house-boys were kept busy carryingmessages to the barracks. A man was sent to Balesuna village tocommand old Seelee's immediate presence. A boat's-crew was startedin a whale-boat with word for Boucher to come down. Ammunition wasissued to the Tahitians, and the storeroom overhauled for a fewdays' tinned provisions. Viaburi turned yellow when told that hewas to accompany the expedition, and, to everybody's surprise,Lalaperu volunteered to take his place.

　　Seelee arrived, proud in his importance that the great master ofBerande should summon him in the night-time for council, and firmin his refusal to step one inch within the dread domain of thebushmen. As he said, if his opinion had been asked when the gold-hunters started, he would have foretold their disastrous end.There was only one thing that happened to any one who ventured intothe bushmen's territory, and that was that he was eaten. And hewould further say, without being asked, that if Sheldon went upinto the bush he would be eaten too.

　　Sheldon sent for a gang-boss and told him to bring ten of thebiggest, best, and strongest Poonga-Poonga men.

　　"Not salt-water boys," Sheldon cautioned, "but bush boys--legbelong him strong fella leg. Boy no savvee musket, no good. Youbring 'm boy shoot musket strong fella."

　　They were ten picked men that filed up on the veranda and stood inthe glare of the lanterns. Their heavy, muscular legs advertisedthat they were bushmen. Each claimed long experience in bush-fighting, most of them showed scars of bullet or spear-thrust inproof, and all were wild for a chance to break the humdrum monotonyof plantation labour by going on a killing expedition. Killing wastheir natural vocation, not wood-cutting; and while they would nothave ventured the Guadalcanar bush alone, with a white man likeSheldon behind them, and a white Mary such as they knew Joan to be,they could expect a safe and delightful time. Besides, the greatmaster had told them that the eight gigantic Tahitians were goingalong.

　　The Poonga-Poonga volunteers stood with glistening eyes andgrinning faces, naked save for their loin-cloths, and barbarouslyornamented. Each wore a flat, turtle-shell ring suspended throughhis nose, and each carried a clay pipe in an ear-hole or thrustinside a beaded biceps armlet. A pair of magnificent boar tusksgraced the chest of one. On the chest of another hung a huge discof polished fossil clam-shell.

　　"Plenty strong fella fight," Sheldon warned them in conclusion.

　　They grinned and shifted delightedly.

　　"S'pose bushmen kai-kai along you?" he queried.

　　"No fear," answered their spokesman, one Koogoo, a strapping,thick-lipped Ethiopian-looking man. "S'pose Poonga-Poonga boy kai-kai bush-boy?"

　　Sheldon shook his head, laughing, and dismissed them, and went tooverhaul the dunnage-room for a small shelter tent for Joan's use.