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Men of Zanzibar - Richard Harding Davis · Jane Eyre

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Speaker 1: Part one of the Men of Zanzibar. This is the
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Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit librevox dot org.
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Speaker 1: Recording by Caroline The Men of Zanzibar by Richard Harding Davis,
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Speaker 1: Part one. When his hunting trip in Uganda was over,
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Speaker 1: Hemingway shipped his specimens and weapons direct from Mombasa to
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Speaker 1: New York, but he himself journeyed south over the few
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Speaker 1: miles that stretched to Zanzibar. On the outward trip, the
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Speaker 1: steamer had touched there, and the little he saw of
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Speaker 1: the place had so charmed him that all the time
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Speaker 1: he was on safari, he promised himself he would not
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Speaker 1: return home without revisiting it. On the more he arrived,
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Speaker 1: he had called upon Harris, his consul, to inquire about
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Speaker 1: the hotel, and that evening Harris had returned his call
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Speaker 1: and introduced him at the club. One of the men
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Speaker 1: there asked himming Away what brought him to Africa, and
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Speaker 1: when he answered simply and truthfully that he had come
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Speaker 1: to shoot big game, it was as though he had
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Speaker 1: said something clever, and everyone smiled. On the way back
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Speaker 1: to the hotel. As they felt their way through the
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Speaker 1: narrow slits in the wall that served as straits, he
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Speaker 1: asked the consul why everyone had smiled. The consul laughed evasively.
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Speaker 1: It's a local joke, he explained, a lot of men
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Speaker 1: come here for reasons best kept to themselves, and they
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Speaker 1: all say what you said, that they've come to shoot
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Speaker 1: big game. It's grown to be a polite way of
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Speaker 1: telling a man it's none of his business. But I
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Speaker 1: didn't mean it that way, protested heming Away. I really
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Speaker 1: have been after big game for the last eight months.
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Speaker 1: In the tone one uses to quiet a drunken man
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Speaker 1: or a child, the console answered soothingly. Of course, he assented,
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Speaker 1: of course you have. But to show he was not
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Speaker 1: hopelessly credulous, and to keep himing away from involving himself deeper,
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Speaker 1: he hinted tactfully. Maybe they noticed you came sure with
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Speaker 1: only one steamer, drunk and no gun cases. Oh that's
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Speaker 1: easily explained, laughed heming away, my heavy luggage. The consule
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Speaker 1: had reached his house and his boy was pounding upon
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Speaker 1: it with his heavy stuff. Please don't explain to me,
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Speaker 1: he begged, it's quite unnecessary down here. We are so
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Speaker 1: darned glad to see any white man that we don't
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Speaker 1: ask anything of him except that he won't hurry away.
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Speaker 1: We judge them as they behave themselves here. We don't
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Speaker 1: care what they are at home or why they left it.
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Speaker 1: Hemingway was highly amused to find that he, a respectable,
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Speaker 1: sport loving Hemingway of Massachusetts, should be mistaken for a
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Speaker 1: gun runner, slave dealer, or escaping cashier. Greatly delighted him.
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Speaker 1: All right, he exclaimed, I'll promise not to bore you
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Speaker 1: with my past, and I agree to be judged by
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Speaker 1: Zanzibar standards. I only hope I can live up to them,
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Speaker 1: For I see I am going to like the place
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Speaker 1: very much. Hemingway kept his promise. He boored no one
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Speaker 1: with confidences. As to his ancestors of his past, he
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Speaker 1: made a point never to speak. He preferred that the
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Speaker 1: little community into which he had dropped should remain unenlightened,
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Speaker 1: should take him as they found him. Of the fact
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Speaker 1: that a college was named after his grandfather, and that
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Speaker 1: on his father's railroad he could travel through many states,
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Speaker 1: he was discreetly silent the men of Zanzibar asked no questions.
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Speaker 1: That Hemingway could play a stiff game of tennis, a
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Speaker 1: stiffer game of poker, and on the piano songs from
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Speaker 1: home was to them sufficient recommendation. In a week he
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Speaker 1: had become one of the most popular members of Zanzibar society.
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Speaker 1: It was as though he had lived there always. Hemingway
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Speaker 1: found himself reaching out to grasp the warmth of the
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Speaker 1: place as a flower turns to the sun. He discovered
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Speaker 1: that for thirty years, something in him had been cheated.
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Speaker 1: For thirty years, he had believed that completely to satisfy
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Speaker 1: his soul, all he needed was the gray stone walls
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Speaker 1: and the gray shingled cabins under the gray skies of
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Speaker 1: New England. That what in nature he most loved was
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Speaker 1: the pine forests and the fields of golden rod on
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Speaker 1: the rock bound coast of the North Shore. But now,
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Speaker 1: like a man escaped from prison, he leaped and danced
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Speaker 1: in the glaring sunlight of the Equator. He reveled in
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Speaker 1: the reckless generosity of nature, in the glorious confusion of colors,
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Speaker 1: in the blooming blue of the Indian Ocean, in the
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Speaker 1: Arabian nights, spent upon the house top, under the purple
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Speaker 1: sky and beneath silver stars, so near that he could
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Speaker 1: touch them with his hand. He found it like being
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Speaker 1: perpetually in a comic opera and playing a part in one.
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Speaker 1: For only the cynic artists would dare to paint houses
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Speaker 1: in such yellow, pink and cobalt blue. Only a producer
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Speaker 1: who had never ventured father from Broadway than the Atlantic
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Speaker 1: city Broadwalk would have conceived costumes so mad and so magnificent. Instinctively,
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Speaker 1: he cast the people of Zanziba in the conventional rules
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Speaker 1: of musical comedy. His choruses were already in waiting. There
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Speaker 1: was the Sultan's bodyguard in gold laced turbans, the merchants
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Speaker 1: of the bazaars in red vezzis and gowns of flowings,
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Speaker 1: the Malays sailors in blue, the black native police in scarlet,
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Speaker 1: the ladies of the harems closely veiled and cloaked, the
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Speaker 1: market women in a single garment of orange or scarlet
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Speaker 1: or purple, or of all three. And the happy, hilarious
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Speaker 1: Zanzibari boys in the color. God gave them four hours
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Speaker 1: he would sit under the yellow and green awning of
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Speaker 1: the Greek hotel and watch the procession pass. Or he
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Speaker 1: would lie under an umbrella on the beach and laugh
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Speaker 1: as the boatmen lifted their passengers to their shoulders and
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Speaker 1: with them splash through the breakers. Or in the bazaars
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Speaker 1: four hours he would bargain with the Indian merchants. Or
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Speaker 1: in the great mahogany hall of the Ivory House, to
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Speaker 1: the whisper of a punkah and the tinkle of ice
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Speaker 1: in a tall glass, listened to tales of Arab raids,
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Speaker 1: of elephant poachers, of the trade in white and black ivory,
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Speaker 1: of the great explorers who had sat in that same room.
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Speaker 1: Of Imin Pasha of Livingstone of Stanley. His comic opera
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Speaker 1: lacked only a heroine and the love interest. When he
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Speaker 1: met missus Adair, he found both polladare as. Everyone who
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Speaker 1: dared to do so preferred to call her was, like himself,
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Speaker 1: an American, and, though absurdly young, a widow. In the States,
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Speaker 1: she would have been called an extremely pretty girl in
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Speaker 1: a community where the few dozen white women had wilted
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Speaker 1: and faded in the fierce son of the Equator, and
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Speaker 1: where the rest of the women were jet black except
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Speaker 1: their teeth, which were dyed in an alluring purple Polladare
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Speaker 1: was as beautiful as a June morning. At least so
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Speaker 1: Hemingway thought the first time he saw her, and each
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Speaker 1: succeeding time he thought her more beautiful, more lovely, more
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Speaker 1: to be loved. He met her three days after his
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Speaker 1: arrival at the residence of the British Agent and Consul General,
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Speaker 1: where Lady Firth was giving tea to the six nurses
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Speaker 1: from the English Hospital and to all the other respectable
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Speaker 1: members of Zanziba society. My husband's typist, said her Ladyship,
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Speaker 1: as she helped Hemingway to tea. Is a compatriot of yours.
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Speaker 1: She's such a nice girl, not a bit like an American.
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Speaker 1: I don't know what I'd do in this awful place
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Speaker 1: without her. Promise me, she begged, tragically, you will not
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Speaker 1: ask her to marry you. Unconscious of his fate, Hemingway promised,
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Speaker 1: because all the men do, sighed Lady Firth. And I
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Speaker 1: never know what morning one of the wretches won't carry
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Speaker 1: her off to a home of her own, and then
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Speaker 1: what would become of me? Men are so selfish if
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Speaker 1: you must fall in love, suggested her ladyship, promise me
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Speaker 1: you will fall in love with She paused innocently and
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Speaker 1: raised baby blue eyes in a baby like stare with
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Speaker 1: some one else again, Hemingway promised. He bowed gallantly. That
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Speaker 1: will be quite easy, he said. Her ladyship smiled, but
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Speaker 1: Hemingway did not see the smile. He was looking past
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Speaker 1: her at a girl from home who had come across
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Speaker 1: the terrace carrying in her hand a stenographer's note book.
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Speaker 1: Lady Firth followed the direction of his eyes and saw
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Speaker 1: the look in them, she exclaimed, with dismay. Already, already
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Speaker 1: he deserts me, even before the inki is dry on
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Speaker 1: the paper. She drew the note book from missus Adair's
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Speaker 1: fingers and dropped it under the tea table let. Us
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Speaker 1: must wait, my child, she declared, But Sir George protested
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Speaker 1: the girl. Sir George must wait too, continued his wife.
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Speaker 1: The Foreign Office must wait, The British Empire must wait
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Speaker 1: until you have had your tea. The girl laughed. He
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Speaker 1: bless lee as though assured her fellow countryman would comprehend.
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Speaker 1: She turned to him. They're so exactly like what you
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Speaker 1: wanted them to be, she said, I mean about their
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Speaker 1: tea Hemingway smiled back with such intimate understanding that Lady
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Speaker 1: Firth glanced up, INQUIRINGLYE have you met missus Adair already?
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Speaker 1: She asked, No, said hemming Away, But I've been trying
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Speaker 1: to meet her for thirty years. Perplexed, the english woman frowned,
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Speaker 1: and then, with delight at her own perspicuity, laughed aloud.
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Speaker 1: I know, she cried. In your country, you are what
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Speaker 1: they call a hustler? Is that right? She waved them away.
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Speaker 1: Take missus Adair over there, she commanded, and tell her
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Speaker 1: all the news from home. Tell her about the railroad
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Speaker 1: accidents and washouts and the latest thing in lynching. The
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Speaker 1: young people stretched out in long, wicked chairs in the
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Speaker 1: shade of a tree covered with purple flowers on a perch.
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Speaker 1: At one side of them, an orangutang in a steel
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Speaker 1: belt was combing the whiskers of her infant daughter. At
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Speaker 1: their feet, what looked like two chow puppies, but which
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Speaker 1: happened to be Lady Ferth's pet lions were chewing each
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Speaker 1: other's toothless gums, and in the immediate foreground, the hospital
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Speaker 1: nurses were defying the sun at tennis, while the Sultan's
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Speaker 1: band played selections from a gaiety success of many years
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Speaker 1: in the past. With these surroundings, it was difficult to
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Speaker 1: talk of home, nor on an later occasions, except through
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Speaker 1: inadvertence did they talk of home. For the reasons already stated.
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Speaker 1: It amused heming Away to volunteer no confidences on account
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Speaker 1: of what that same evening Harris told him of missus Adair.
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Speaker 1: He asked none. Harris himself was a young man in
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Speaker 1: no way inclined to withhold confidences. He enjoyed giving out information.
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Speaker 1: He enjoyed talking about himself, his duties, the other consuls,
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Speaker 1: the Sanzibadis, and his native state of Iowa. So long
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Speaker 1: as he was permitted to talk, the listener could select
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Speaker 1: the subject. But combined with his loquacity, heming Away had
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Speaker 1: found him kind hearted, intelligent, observing, and the call of
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Speaker 1: a common country had got them quickly together. Hemingway was
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Speaker 1: quite conscious that the girl he had seen but once
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Speaker 1: had impressed him out of all proportion to what he
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Speaker 1: knew of her. She seemed too good to be true,
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Speaker 1: and he tried to persuade himself that After eight months
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Speaker 1: in the hinterland among hippos and zebras any reasonably attractive
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Speaker 1: girl would have proved equally disturbing, But he was not convinced.
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Speaker 1: He did not wish to be convinced. He assured himself
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Speaker 1: that had he met missus Adair at home among hundreds
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Speaker 1: of others, he would have recognized her as a woman
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Speaker 1: of exceptional character, as one especially charming. He wanted to
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Speaker 1: justify this idea of her. He wanted to talk of
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Speaker 1: missus Adair to Harris, not to learn more concerning her,
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Speaker 1: but just for the pleasure of speaking her name. He
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Speaker 1: was much upset at that at the discovery that on
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Speaker 1: meeting a woman for the first time he still could
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Speaker 1: be so boyishly and ingenuously moved greatly pleased him. It
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Speaker 1: was a most delightful secret. So he acted on the
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Speaker 1: principle that when a man immensely admires a woman and
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Speaker 1: wishes to conceal that fact from everyone else, he can
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Speaker 1: best do so by declaring his admiration in the frankest
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Speaker 1: and most open manner. After the tea party, as Harrison
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Speaker 1: himself sat in the consulate, he so expressed himself what
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Speaker 1: an extraordinary nice girl, he exclaimed, is that missus Adair
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Speaker 1: I had a long talk with her. She is most charming. However,
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Speaker 1: did a woman like that come to be in a
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Speaker 1: place like this? Judging from his manner, it seemed to
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Speaker 1: himming Away that at the mention of missus Adair's name
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Speaker 1: he had found Harris mentally on guard, as though the
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Speaker 1: consul had guessed the question would come and had prepared
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Speaker 1: for it. She just dropped in here one day, said Harris,
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Speaker 1: from no place in particular. Personally, I always have thought
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Speaker 1: from heaven. It is a good address, said heming Away.
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Speaker 1: It seems to suit her, the consol a great anyway.
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Speaker 1: If she doesn't come from there, that's where she's going,
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Speaker 1: just on account of the good she's done us while
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Speaker 1: she's been here. She arrived four months ago with a
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Speaker 1: typewriting machine and letters to me from our consulate Cape
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Speaker 1: Town and Durban. She had done some typewriting for them.
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Speaker 1: It seems that after her husband died, which was a
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Speaker 1: few months after they were married, she learned to make
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Speaker 1: her living by typewriting. She worked too hard and broke down,
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Speaker 1: and the doctor said she must go to hot countries,
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Speaker 1: the hotter the better. So she's worked her way half
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Speaker 1: around the world type writing she worked chiefly for her
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Speaker 1: own consults or for the American commission houses. Sometimes she
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Speaker 1: stayed a month, sometimes only over one steamer day. But
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Speaker 1: when she got here, Lady Firth took such a fancy
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Speaker 1: to her that she made Sir George engaged her as
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Speaker 1: his private secretary. And she's been here ever since. In
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Speaker 1: a community so small as that of Zanzibar, the white
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Speaker 1: residents saw one another every day, and within a week
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Speaker 1: hemming Away had met missus Adair many times. He met
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Speaker 1: her at dinner at the British Agency. He met her
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Speaker 1: in the country club, where the white exiles gathered for
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Speaker 1: tea and tennis. He hired a launch, and in her honor,
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Speaker 1: gave a picnic on the north coast of the island,
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Speaker 1: And on three glorious and memorable nights, after different dinner
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Speaker 1: parties had ascended to the river, he set at her side,
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Speaker 1: and across the white level of the housetops, looked down
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Speaker 1: into the moonlit harbor. What interest the two young people
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Speaker 1: felt in each other was in no way discouraged by
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Speaker 1: their surroundings. In the tropics. The tender emotions are not
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Speaker 1: winter killed. Had they met at home the conventions, his
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Speaker 1: own work, her social duties would have kept the progress
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Speaker 1: of their interest within a certain speed limit. But they
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Speaker 1: were in a place free of conventions, and the preceding
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Speaker 1: eight months which Hemingway had spent in the jungle and
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Speaker 1: on the plane, had made the society of his fellow man,
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Speaker 1: and of missus Adair in particular, especially attractive. Hemingway had
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Speaker 1: no work to occupy his time, and he placed it
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Speaker 1: unreservedly at the disposition of his countrywoman. In doing so,
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Speaker 1: it could not be said that missus Adair encouraged him.
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Speaker 1: Hemingway himself would have been the first to acknowledge this.
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Speaker 1: From the day he met her, he was conscious that
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Speaker 1: always there was an intangible barrier between them. Even before
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Speaker 1: she possibly could have guessed that his interest in her
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Speaker 1: was more than even she attractive as she was, had
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Speaker 1: the right to expect, she had wrapped around herself an
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Speaker 1: invisible mantle of defense. There were certain speeches of his
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Speaker 1: which she never heard, certain tones to which she never responded.
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Speaker 1: At moments when he was complimenting himself that at last
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Speaker 1: she was content to be in his company, she would
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Speaker 1: suddenly rise and join the others, and he would be
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Speaker 1: left wondering in what way he could possibly have offended.
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Speaker 1: He assured himself that a woman young and attractive in
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Speaker 1: a strange land, in her dependent position, must of necessity
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Speaker 1: be discreet. But in his conduct there certainly had been
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Speaker 1: nothing that was not considerate, courteous, and straightforward. When he
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Speaker 1: appreciated that he cared for her seriously, that he was
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Speaker 1: gloriously happy and caring, and proud of the way in
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Speaker 1: which he cared, the fact that she persistently held him
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Speaker 1: at arm's length puzzled and had at first when he
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Speaker 1: had deliberately set to work to make her like him,
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Speaker 1: he was glad to think that, owing to his rautitions
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Speaker 1: about himself, if she did like him, it would be
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Speaker 1: for himself alone and not for his world lea goods.
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Speaker 1: But when he knew her better, he understood that if
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Speaker 1: once missus Adair made up her mind to take a
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Speaker 1: second husband, the fact that he was a social and
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Speaker 1: financial somebody and not, as manions on the BA supposed
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Speaker 1: himing away to be a social outcast, would make but
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Speaker 1: little difference. Nor was her manner to be explained by
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Speaker 1: the fact that the majority of women found him unattractive.
22:51
Speaker 1: As to that the pleasant burden of his experience was
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Speaker 1: to the contrary. He at last wondered if there was
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Speaker 1: someone else, if he had come into her life too late.
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Speaker 1: He set about looking for the man, and so he
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Speaker 1: believed he soon found him and of Part one, Part
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Speaker 1: two of the Men of Zanziba by Richard Harding Davis.
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Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by
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Speaker 1: Carolyn Part two of the Little Colony Altha. Fearing was
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Speaker 1: the man of whom Hemingway had seen the least. That
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Speaker 1: was so because Fearing wished it like himself. Fearing was
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Speaker 1: an American young and a bachelor, but very much unlike Hemingway,
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Speaker 1: a hermit and a recluse. Two years before, he had
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Speaker 1: come to Zanziba looking for an investment for his money.
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Speaker 1: In Zanziba there were gentlemen adventures of every country, who
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Speaker 1: were welcome to live in any country save their own.
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Speaker 1: To them, mister Fearing seemed a heaven sent victim. But
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Speaker 1: to him, their alluring tales of the fortunes that were
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Speaker 1: to rise from buried treasures, lost minds, and pearl bits
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Speaker 1: did not appeal. Instead, he conferred with the consuls, the
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Speaker 1: responsible merchants, the partners in the prosperous trading houses. After
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Speaker 1: a month of looking around, he had purchased outright the
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Speaker 1: goodwill and stock of one of the oldest of the
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Speaker 1: commission houses, and soon showed himself to be a most
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Speaker 1: capable man of business. But except as a man of business,
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Speaker 1: no one knew him. From the dim recesses of his warehouse.
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Speaker 1: He passed each day to the seclusion of his bungalow
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Speaker 1: in the country, and although everyone was friendly to him,
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Speaker 1: he made no friends. It was only after the arrival
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Speaker 1: of missus Adair that he consented to show himself, and
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Speaker 1: it was soon noticed that it was only when she
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Speaker 1: was invited that he would appear, and that on these
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Speaker 1: occasions he devoted himself entirely to her. In the presence
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Speaker 1: of others, he was still shy, gravely polite and speaking
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Speaker 1: but little and never of himself. But with missus Adair
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Speaker 1: his shyness seemed to leave him, and when with her
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Speaker 1: he was seen to talk easily and eagerly, and on
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Speaker 1: her part to what he said. Polliadare listened with serious
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Speaker 1: interest Lady Firth, who at home was a trained and
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Speaker 1: successful matchmaker, and who in Zanziba had found but a
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Speaker 1: limited field for her activities, decided that if her companion
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Speaker 1: and protegy must marry, she should marry Fearing. Fearing was
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Speaker 1: no gentleman, adventurer, remittance man, or humble clerk serving his
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Speaker 1: apprenticeship to a steamship line or in ivory house. He
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Speaker 1: was one of the pillars of Sanziba's society. The trading
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Speaker 1: house he had purchased had had its beginning in the
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Speaker 1: slave trade, and now, under his alert direction, was making
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Speaker 1: a turn over equal to that of any of its
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Speaker 1: ancient rivals. Personally, Fearing was a most desirable catch. He
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Speaker 1: was well mannered, well read, of good appearance, steady, and
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Speaker 1: in a latitude of only six degrees removed from the
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Speaker 1: equator of impeccable morals. It is said that it is
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Speaker 1: the person who is in love who always is the
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Speaker 1: first to discover his successful rival. It is either an
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Speaker 1: instinct or because his concern is deeper than that of others.
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Speaker 1: And so when Hemingway sought for the influence that separated
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Speaker 1: him from Poliadare, the trail led to Fearing. To find
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Speaker 1: that the obstacle in the path of his true love
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Speaker 1: was a man greatly relieved him. He had feared that
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Speaker 1: what was in the thoughts of missus Adair was the
27:44
Speaker 1: memory of her dead husband. He had no desire to
27:49
Speaker 1: cross swords with a ghost, but to a living rival
27:53
Speaker 1: he could afford to be generous, for he was sure
27:58
Speaker 1: no one could care for police as he cared. And
28:02
Speaker 1: like every other man in love, he believed that he
28:05
Speaker 1: alone had discovered in her beauties of soilent character that
28:10
Speaker 1: to the rest of mankind were hidden. This knowledge, he
28:15
Speaker 1: assured himself, had aroused in him a depth of devotion
28:19
Speaker 1: no one else could hope to imitate. And this depth
28:23
Speaker 1: of devotion would, in time so impress her, would become
28:28
Speaker 1: so necessary to her existence, that it would force her
28:32
Speaker 1: at last into the arms of the only man who
28:36
Speaker 1: could offer it. Having satisfied himself in this fashion, he
28:41
Speaker 1: continued cheerfully on his way, and the presence of arrival
28:45
Speaker 1: in no way discouraged him. It only was Polladare who
28:50
Speaker 1: discouraged him, and this in spite of the fact that
28:55
Speaker 1: every hour of the day he tried to bring himself
28:59
Speaker 1: pleasantly to her notice. All that an idle young man
29:03
Speaker 1: had in love, aided and abetted by imagination and an
29:07
Speaker 1: unlimited letter of credit, could do, Hemingway did, but to
29:13
Speaker 1: no end. The treasures he dug out from the bazaars
29:18
Speaker 1: and presented to her under false pretenses as trinkets he
29:23
Speaker 1: happened at that moment to find in his pockets were
29:27
Speaker 1: admired by her at their own great value, and returned,
29:32
Speaker 1: also under false pretenses, as having been offered her only
29:37
Speaker 1: to examine. It is for your sister at home, I suppose,
29:42
Speaker 1: she prompted, It is quite lovely. Thank you for letting
29:46
Speaker 1: me see it. After having been several times severely snubbed
29:52
Speaker 1: in this fashion, hemming Away remarked grimly as he put
29:57
Speaker 1: a black pearl back into his pocket. At this rate,
30:01
Speaker 1: sister will be mighty glad to see me when I
30:04
Speaker 1: get home. It seems almost a pity I haven't got
30:07
Speaker 1: his sister. The girl answered this only with a grave smile.
30:15
Speaker 1: On another occasion, she admired a polo pony that had
30:19
Speaker 1: been imported for the stable of the boy Sultan, But
30:23
Speaker 1: next morning heming Away, after much diplomacy, became the owner
30:29
Speaker 1: of it and proudly eroded to the agency. Lady Firth
30:34
Speaker 1: and Poliadare walked out to meet him arm and arm,
30:38
Speaker 1: but at sight of the pony. There came into the
30:42
Speaker 1: eyes of the secretary, a look that caused Hemingway to
30:46
Speaker 1: wish himself and his mounts many miles into the jungle.
30:51
Speaker 1: He saw that before it had been proffered, his gift
30:55
Speaker 1: horse had been rejected. He acted promptly. Lady Firth, he said,
31:03
Speaker 1: you've been so awfully kind to me, made this place
31:07
Speaker 1: so like a home to me, that I want you
31:09
Speaker 1: to put this mare in your stable. The Sultan wanted her,
31:13
Speaker 1: but when he learned I meant to turn her over
31:16
Speaker 1: to you, he let her go. We both hope you'll accept.
31:22
Speaker 1: Lady Firth had no scruples. In five minutes, she had accepted,
31:27
Speaker 1: had clapped a side saddle on her rich gird, and
31:31
Speaker 1: was scantering joyously down the pearl road. Polly Adere looked
31:37
Speaker 1: after her with an expression that was distinctly wistful. Thus encouraged,
31:43
Speaker 1: Hemingway said, I am glad you are sorry. I hope
31:47
Speaker 1: every time you see that pony you'll be sorry. Why
31:52
Speaker 1: should I be sorry, asked the girl. Because you have
31:56
Speaker 1: been unkind, said hemming Away. And it it is not
32:00
Speaker 1: your character to be unkind, and that you have shown
32:04
Speaker 1: lack of character. Ought to make you sorry. But you
32:09
Speaker 1: know perfectly well, said missus Adair, that if I were
32:14
Speaker 1: to take any of these wonderful things you bring me,
32:17
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have any character left. She smiled at him reassuringly.
32:23
Speaker 1: And you know, she added, that that is not why
32:27
Speaker 1: I do not take them. It isn't because I can't
32:30
Speaker 1: afford to, or because I don't want them, because I do,
32:35
Speaker 1: but it's because I don't deserve them, because I can
32:38
Speaker 1: give you nothing in return, As the copybook says, returned
32:44
Speaker 1: hemming away, the pleasure is in the giving. If the
32:48
Speaker 1: copybook don't say that I do. And to pretend that
32:52
Speaker 1: you give me nothing, that is ridiculous. It was so
32:57
Speaker 1: ridiculous that he rushed on vehemently. Why every minute you
33:02
Speaker 1: give me something, he exclaimed, just to see you, just
33:07
Speaker 1: to know you are alive, just to be certain when
33:10
Speaker 1: I turn in at night, that when the world wakes
33:12
Speaker 1: up again, you will still be a part of it.
33:15
Speaker 1: That is what you give me, and its name is happiness.
33:22
Speaker 1: He had begun quite innocently. He had had no idea
33:26
Speaker 1: that it would come, but he had said it as
33:30
Speaker 1: clearly as though he had dropped upon the knee laid
33:34
Speaker 1: his hand over his heart and exclaimed, most beautiful of
33:38
Speaker 1: your sex, I love you, Will you marry me? His
33:43
Speaker 1: eyes and the tone of his voice had said it,
33:46
Speaker 1: and he knew that he had said it, and that
33:50
Speaker 1: she knew. Her eyes were filled with sudden tears, and
33:57
Speaker 1: so wonderful was the light in them that for one
34:01
Speaker 1: mad moment Hemingway thought they were tears of happiness. But
34:06
Speaker 1: the light died, and what had been tears became only
34:10
Speaker 1: wet drops of water, and he saw, to his dismay,
34:16
Speaker 1: that she was most miserable. The girl moved ahead of
34:22
Speaker 1: him to the cliff on which the agency stood, and
34:25
Speaker 1: which overhung the harbor and the Indian Ocean. Her eyes
34:30
Speaker 1: were filled with trouble. As she raised them to his
34:35
Speaker 1: they begged of him to be kind. I am glad
34:40
Speaker 1: you told me, she said. I have been afraid it
34:44
Speaker 1: was coming, but until you told me, I could not
34:47
Speaker 1: say anything. I tried to stop you. I was rude
34:51
Speaker 1: and unkind. You certainly were, Hemmingway a great cheerfully. And
34:58
Speaker 1: the more you would have nothing to do with me,
35:00
Speaker 1: the more I admire you. And then I learned to
35:04
Speaker 1: admire you more, and then to love you. It seems
35:08
Speaker 1: now as though I had always known and always loved you,
35:12
Speaker 1: and now this is what we're going to do. He
35:16
Speaker 1: wouldn't let her speak. He rushed on precipitately. We are
35:21
Speaker 1: first going up to the house to get your typewriting machine,
35:25
Speaker 1: and we will bring it back here and hurl it
35:28
Speaker 1: as far as we can off this cliff. I want
35:32
Speaker 1: to see this splash. I want to hear it smash
35:36
Speaker 1: when it hits that rock. It has been my worst
35:39
Speaker 1: enemy because it helped you to be independent of me,
35:43
Speaker 1: because it kept you from me time after time on
35:47
Speaker 1: the Verandah, when I was pretending to listen to Lady Firth,
35:52
Speaker 1: I was listening to that damned machine banging and complaining
35:57
Speaker 1: and tiring your pretty fingers and your dear eyes. So
36:03
Speaker 1: first it has got to go. You have been its slave.
36:08
Speaker 1: Now I am going to be your slave. You have
36:11
Speaker 1: only to rub the lamp and things will happen. And
36:15
Speaker 1: because I've told you nothing about myself, you mustn't think
36:19
Speaker 1: that the money that helps to make them happen is tainted.
36:23
Speaker 1: It isn't, nor am I, nor my father, nor my
36:26
Speaker 1: father's father. I am asking you to marry as a
36:30
Speaker 1: perfectly respectable young man. And when you do again, he
36:35
Speaker 1: gave her new opportunity to interrupt, but rushed on impetuously.
36:40
Speaker 1: We will sail away across that ocean to wherever you
36:44
Speaker 1: will take me. To Cilon and Tokyo, and San Francisco,
36:48
Speaker 1: to Naples and New York, to Grace and Athens. They
36:52
Speaker 1: are all near, they are all yours. Will you accept
36:58
Speaker 1: them and me? He smiled appealingly, but most miserably, for
37:04
Speaker 1: though he had spoken lightly and with confidence, it was
37:08
Speaker 1: to conceal the fact that he was not at all confident,
37:13
Speaker 1: As he had read in her eyes her refusal of
37:16
Speaker 1: his pony. He had read even as he spoke, her
37:21
Speaker 1: refusal of himself. When he ceased speaking, the girl and said,
37:26
Speaker 1: if I say that what you tell me makes me proud,
37:29
Speaker 1: I am saying too little. She shook her head firmly,
37:34
Speaker 1: with an air of finality that frightened Hemingway. But what
37:39
Speaker 1: you ask, what you suggest, is impossible. You don't like me,
37:46
Speaker 1: said Hemingway. I like you very much, returned the girl.
37:51
Speaker 1: And if I don't seem unhappy that it can't be,
37:55
Speaker 1: it is because I always have known it can't be.
37:58
Speaker 1: Why can't it be rebeled, heming away. I don't mean that.
38:03
Speaker 1: I can't understand you're not wanting to marry me. But
38:06
Speaker 1: if I knew your objection, maybe I could beat it
38:09
Speaker 1: down again. With the same air of finality. The girl
38:15
Speaker 1: moved her head slowly, as though considering each word. She
38:20
Speaker 1: began cautiously. I cannot tell you the reason, she said,
38:27
Speaker 1: because it does not concern only myself. If you mean
38:33
Speaker 1: you care for someone else, pleaded heming away, that does
38:37
Speaker 1: not frighten me at all. It did frighten him extremely,
38:42
Speaker 1: but believing that a faint heart never won anything, he
38:46
Speaker 1: pretended to be brave for you, he boasted, I would
38:52
Speaker 1: go down into the grave as deep as any man.
38:56
Speaker 1: He that hath more let him give. I know what
38:59
Speaker 1: I offer. I know I love you as no other man.
39:04
Speaker 1: The girl backed away from him, as though he had
39:07
Speaker 1: struck her. You must not say that, she commanded. For
39:13
Speaker 1: the first time. He saw that she was moved, that
39:17
Speaker 1: the fingers she laced and unlaced were trembling. It is final,
39:23
Speaker 1: exclaimed the girl. I cannot marry you or anyone I
39:29
Speaker 1: I have promised. I am not free. Nothing in the
39:34
Speaker 1: world is final, returned Hemingway sharply except death. He raised
39:41
Speaker 1: his hat, and, as though to leave her, moved away,
39:46
Speaker 1: not because he admitted defeat, but because he felt that
39:51
Speaker 1: for the present to continue might lose him the chance
39:55
Speaker 1: to fight again. But to deliver an ultimatum, he turned back.
40:01
Speaker 1: As long as you are alive and I am alive,
40:05
Speaker 1: he told her, all things are possible. I don't give
40:09
Speaker 1: up hope. I don't give up you, the girl exclaimed,
40:13
Speaker 1: with a gesture of despair. He won't understand, she cried.
40:20
Speaker 1: Himming Away advanced eagerly. Help me to understand, he begged.
40:28
Speaker 1: You won't understand, explained the girl, that I am speaking
40:33
Speaker 1: the truth. You are right that things can change in
40:36
Speaker 1: the future, but nothing can change the past. Can't you
40:40
Speaker 1: understand that? What do I care for the past? Cried
40:46
Speaker 1: the young man scornfully. I know you as well as
40:49
Speaker 1: though I had known you for a thousand years, and
40:52
Speaker 1: I love you, the girl flushed. Crimson, not my past,
40:58
Speaker 1: she gasped. I meant. I don't care what you meant,
41:03
Speaker 1: said hemming Way. I'm not prying into your little secrets.
41:08
Speaker 1: I know only one thing two things. That I love you,
41:12
Speaker 1: and that until you love me, I am going to
41:16
Speaker 1: make your life hell. He caught at her hands, and
41:21
Speaker 1: for an instant she let him clasp them in both
41:24
Speaker 1: of his while she looked at him. Something in her
41:29
Speaker 1: face other than distress and pity caused his heart to leap,
41:35
Speaker 1: But he was too wise to speak, and that she
41:40
Speaker 1: might not read the hope in his eyes, turned quickly
41:44
Speaker 1: and left her. He had not crossed the grounds of
41:48
Speaker 1: the agency before he had made up his mind as
41:52
Speaker 1: to the reason of her repelling him. She is engaged
41:57
Speaker 1: to Fearing, he told himself. She has promised to marry Fearing.
42:03
Speaker 1: She thinks that it is too late to consider another man.
42:07
Speaker 1: The prospect of a fight for the woman he loved
42:10
Speaker 1: thrilled him greatly. He is lower, jaw, said pugnaciously. I'll
42:17
Speaker 1: show her. It's not too late, he promised himself. I'll
42:21
Speaker 1: show her which of us is the man to make
42:24
Speaker 1: her happy. And if I am not the man, I'll
42:28
Speaker 1: take the first outbound steamer and trouble them no more.
42:33
Speaker 1: But before that happens, he also promised himself, Fearing must
42:38
Speaker 1: show he is the better man, in spite of his
42:43
Speaker 1: brave words, in spite of his determination. Within the day,
42:49
Speaker 1: Hemming Away had with adrawn in favor of his rival,
42:53
Speaker 1: and on the Crown Prince Idyll, bound for Genoa and
42:58
Speaker 1: New York, had booked his passage home. On the afternoon
43:04
Speaker 1: of the same day. He had spoken to Polladare Hemingway
43:09
Speaker 1: at the sunset hour betook himself to the consulate. At
43:14
Speaker 1: that hour it had become his custom to visit his
43:17
Speaker 1: fellow countryman and with him share the gossip of the
43:21
Speaker 1: day and such a cocktail as only a fellow countryman
43:26
Speaker 1: could compose. Later, he was to dine at the house
43:30
Speaker 1: of the Ivory Company, and, as his heart never ceased,
43:35
Speaker 1: telling him, Missus Adair was also to be present. It
43:42
Speaker 1: will be a very pleasant party, said Harris. They gave
43:46
Speaker 1: me a bit too, but it's steamer day tomorrow and
43:49
Speaker 1: I've got to get my mail ready for the Crown Prince.
43:52
Speaker 1: I tell Missus Adaes to be there. Hemingway nodded, and
43:58
Speaker 1: with pleasant anticipation awaited of missus Adair. Harris always spoke
44:04
Speaker 1: with reverend enthusiasm, and the man who loved her delighted
44:10
Speaker 1: to listen. But this time Harris disappointed him, and fearing
44:17
Speaker 1: too he added again. Heming Away nodded. The conjunction of
44:24
Speaker 1: the two names surprised him, but he made no sign.
44:29
Speaker 1: Loquacious as he knew Harris to be. He never before
44:33
Speaker 1: had heard his friend even suggest the subject that Tuzanzibar
44:38
Speaker 1: had become of acute interest. Harris filled the two glasses
44:43
Speaker 1: and began to pace the room. When he spoke, it
44:47
Speaker 1: was in the aggrieved tone of one who feels himself
44:51
Speaker 1: placed in a false position. There's no one, he complained,
44:57
Speaker 1: suddenly so popularly unpopular as the man who butts in.
45:03
Speaker 1: I know that, but still I've always taken his side.
45:06
Speaker 1: I've always been for him. He halted, straddling with legs
45:11
Speaker 1: apart and hands deep in his trousers pockets, and frowned
45:16
Speaker 1: down upon his guest. Suppose he began aggressively. I see
45:23
Speaker 1: a man driving his car over a cliff. If I
45:25
Speaker 1: tell him that road will take him over a cliff,
45:28
Speaker 1: the worst that can happen to me is to be
45:31
Speaker 1: told to mind my own business, and I can always
45:34
Speaker 1: answer back, I was only trying to help you. If
45:38
Speaker 1: I don't speak, the man breaks his neck. Between the two.
45:43
Speaker 1: It seems to me, sooner than have anyone's life on
45:46
Speaker 1: my hands, I'd rather be told to mind my own business.
45:52
Speaker 1: Hemingways dead into his glass. His expression was distinctly disapproving,
45:59
Speaker 1: but under made. The consul continued, Now we all know
46:05
Speaker 1: that this morning you gave that polo pony to Lady Firth,
46:09
Speaker 1: and one of us guesses that you first offered it
46:12
Speaker 1: to someone else who refused it. One of us thinks
46:16
Speaker 1: that very soon tomorrow or even tonight, at this party,
46:21
Speaker 1: you may offer that same person something else, something worth
46:25
Speaker 1: more than a polo pony, and that if she refuses
46:29
Speaker 1: that it is going to break you all up, is
46:32
Speaker 1: going to hurt you for the rest of your life.
46:37
Speaker 1: Lifting his eyes from his glass, having away shot at
46:41
Speaker 1: his friend a glance of warning in haste, Harris continued,
46:47
Speaker 1: I know, he protested, answering the look. I know that
46:52
Speaker 1: this is where mister Buttinsky is told to mind his
46:55
Speaker 1: own business. But I'm going right on. I'm going to
46:59
Speaker 1: state a HYPOTHETI case, with no names mentioned and no
47:03
Speaker 1: questions asked or answered. I'm going to state a theory
47:07
Speaker 1: and let you draw your own deductions. He slid into
47:11
Speaker 1: a chair and across the table, fastened his eyes on
47:16
Speaker 1: those of his friend, confidently and undisturbed, but with a
47:21
Speaker 1: wry smile of dislike. Hemingway stared fixedly back at him.
47:28
Speaker 1: What demanded, Harris, is the first role in detective work,
47:36
Speaker 1: Hemingway started. He was prepared for something unpleasant, but not
47:41
Speaker 1: for that particular form of unpleasantness. But his faith was unshaken,
47:48
Speaker 1: and he smiled confidently. He led the console answer his
47:52
Speaker 1: own question. It is to follow the woman, declared Harris,
47:59
Speaker 1: and a coddingly. What should be the first precaution of
48:03
Speaker 1: a man making his get away to see that the
48:07
Speaker 1: woman does not follow? But suppose we are dealing with
48:11
Speaker 1: the fugitive of especial intelligence, with a criminal who has
48:15
Speaker 1: imagination and brains. He might fix it so that the
48:20
Speaker 1: woman could follow him without giving him away. He might
48:23
Speaker 1: plan it so that no one could suspect. She might
48:27
Speaker 1: arrive at his hiding place only after many months, only
48:31
Speaker 1: after each had made separately a long circuit of the globe,
48:35
Speaker 1: only after a journey with a plausible and legitimate object.
48:40
Speaker 1: She would arrive disguised in every way, and they would
48:44
Speaker 1: meet as total strangers and as strange as under the
48:48
Speaker 1: eyes of others. They would become acquainted, would gradually grow
48:53
Speaker 1: more friendly, would be seen more frequently together, until at
48:59
Speaker 1: last people would say, those two mean to make a
49:03
Speaker 1: match of it, and then one day, openly in the
49:07
Speaker 1: sight of all men, with the aid of the law
49:10
Speaker 1: and the Church, they would resume those relations that existed.
49:14
Speaker 1: Before the man ran away and the woman followed. There
49:20
Speaker 1: was a short silence. Heming Away broke it in a
49:24
Speaker 1: tone that would accept no denial. You can't talk like
49:29
Speaker 1: that to me, he cried, what do you mean without resentment?
49:36
Speaker 1: The consul regarded him with a grave solicitude. His look
49:41
Speaker 1: was one of real affection, and although his tone held
49:45
Speaker 1: the absolute finality of the family physician who delivers a
49:49
Speaker 1: sentence of death, he spoke with gentleness and regret. I
49:56
Speaker 1: mean he said that missus Adair is not a widow,
50:01
Speaker 1: that the man she speaks of as her late husband
50:04
Speaker 1: is not dead, that that man is fearing. Hemingway felt afraid.
50:13
Speaker 1: A month before, Rhinoceros had charged him and had dropped
50:17
Speaker 1: at his feet. At another time, a wounded lioness had
50:22
Speaker 1: leaped into his path and crouched to spring. Then he
50:27
Speaker 1: had not been afraid. Then he had aimed as confidently
50:31
Speaker 1: as though he were firing at a straw target. But
50:36
Speaker 1: now He felt real fear, fear of something he did
50:40
Speaker 1: not comprehend, of a situation he could not master, of
50:45
Speaker 1: an adversary as strong as fate. By a word, something
50:51
Speaker 1: had been snatched from him that he now knew was
50:56
Speaker 1: as dear to him as life. That was life, That
51:00
Speaker 1: was what made it worth continuing, and he could do
51:05
Speaker 1: nothing to prevent it. He could not help himself. He
51:09
Speaker 1: was as impotent as the prisoner who hears the judge
51:13
Speaker 1: banish him into exile. He tried to adjust his mind
51:18
Speaker 1: to the calamity, but his mind refused. As easily as
51:24
Speaker 1: with his finger a man can block the swing of
51:27
Speaker 1: a pendulum and hold the progress of the clock. Harris,
51:32
Speaker 1: with the word, had brought the entire world to a
51:36
Speaker 1: full stop. And then above his head Hemingway had heard
51:43
Speaker 1: the lazy whisper of the Punker, and from the harbor
51:47
Speaker 1: the rocous whistle of the crown Prince Idyl, signaling her entrance.
51:54
Speaker 1: The world had not stopped for the Punker boy and
51:57
Speaker 1: the captain of the German steamer. For Harris, seated with
52:02
Speaker 1: face averted, the world was still going gaily and busily forward.
52:09
Speaker 1: Only for him had it stopped. End of Part two,
52:21
Speaker 1: Part three of the Men of Zanziba by Richard Harding Davis.
52:25
Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by
52:29
Speaker 1: Carolyn Part three. In spite of the confident tone in
52:34
Speaker 1: which Harris had spoken, in spite of the fact that
52:38
Speaker 1: unless he knew it was the truth, he would not
52:41
Speaker 1: have spoken, Hemingway tried to urge himself to believe there
52:45
Speaker 1: had been some hideous, absurd error, but in answer, came
52:50
Speaker 1: back to him snatches of talk or phrases the girl
52:54
Speaker 1: had last addressed to him. You can command the future,
52:59
Speaker 1: but you cannot change the past. I cannot marry you
53:03
Speaker 1: or anyone. I am not free. And then, to comfort himself,
53:09
Speaker 1: he called up the look he had surprised in her
53:12
Speaker 1: eyes when he stood, holding her hands in his he
53:16
Speaker 1: clung to it as a drowning man will clutch, even
53:19
Speaker 1: at a piece of floating sea wheat. When he tried
53:25
Speaker 1: to speak, he found his voice choked and stifled, and
53:30
Speaker 1: that his distress was evident. He knew from the pity
53:33
Speaker 1: he read in the eyes of Harris. In a voice
53:37
Speaker 1: strange to him, he heard himself saying, why do you
53:42
Speaker 1: think that you've got to tell me? I have a
53:44
Speaker 1: right to know. This morning I asked missus Adair to
53:47
Speaker 1: marry me, the consol exclaimed with dismay and squirmed unhappily.
53:55
Speaker 1: I didn't know, he protested. I thought I was in time.
54:00
Speaker 1: I ought to have told you days ago. But tell
54:03
Speaker 1: me now, commanded Hemingway. I know it in a thousand ways,
54:10
Speaker 1: began Harris. Hemingway raised his eyes hopefully, but the consul
54:16
Speaker 1: shook his head. But to convince you, he went on,
54:21
Speaker 1: I need to tell you only one. The thousand other
54:25
Speaker 1: proofs are looks. They have exchanged sentences I have chanced
54:30
Speaker 1: to overhear, and that each of them, unknown to the other,
54:33
Speaker 1: has told me of little happenings and incidents which I
54:37
Speaker 1: found were common to both. Each has described the house
54:42
Speaker 1: in which he or she lived, and it was the
54:45
Speaker 1: same house. They claimed to come from different cities in
54:48
Speaker 1: New England. They came from the same city. They claim.
54:53
Speaker 1: That's no proof, cried Hemingway, either that they are married
54:58
Speaker 1: or that the man is a criminal. For a moment,
55:03
Speaker 1: Harris regarded the other in silence. Then he said, you're
55:07
Speaker 1: making it very hard for me. I see, I've got
55:10
Speaker 1: to show you its kindest after all, to cut quick.
55:16
Speaker 1: He leaned further forward and his voice dropped. Speaking quickly,
55:21
Speaker 1: he said, last summer I lived outside the town in
55:25
Speaker 1: a bungalow on the Pearlor Road. Fearing's house was next
55:29
Speaker 1: to mine. This was before missus Adair went to live
55:33
Speaker 1: at the agency, and while she was alone in another
55:36
Speaker 1: bungalow further down the road. I was ill that summer.
55:40
Speaker 1: My nerves went back on me. I couldn't sleep. I
55:44
Speaker 1: used to sit all night on my verandah and pray
55:47
Speaker 1: for the sun to rise. From where I said, I
55:50
Speaker 1: was dark and no one could see me, but I
55:53
Speaker 1: could see the verandah of Fearings house and into his garden.
55:57
Speaker 1: And night after night I saw missus Adair creep out
56:00
Speaker 1: of Fearing's house, saw him walk with her to the gate,
56:05
Speaker 1: saw him, in the shadow of the bushes, take her
56:08
Speaker 1: in his arms, and saw them kiss. The voice of
56:13
Speaker 1: the consul rose sharply. No one knows that but you
56:18
Speaker 1: and I, And he cried defiantly. It is impossible for
56:23
Speaker 1: us to believe ill of polyadaire. The easy explanation we refuse.
56:28
Speaker 1: It is intolerable, and so you must believe as I
56:31
Speaker 1: believe that when she visited Fearing by night. She went
56:34
Speaker 1: to him because she had the right to go to him,
56:38
Speaker 1: because already she was his wife. And now when everybody
56:41
Speaker 1: here believes they met for the first time in Zanzibar,
56:45
Speaker 1: when no one will be surprised if they should marry,
56:48
Speaker 1: they will go through the ceremony again and live as
56:51
Speaker 1: man and wife, as they are, as they were before
56:56
Speaker 1: they fled from America. Hemingway was seated with his elbows
57:01
Speaker 1: on the table and his face in his hands. He
57:04
Speaker 1: was so long silent that Harris struck the table roughly
57:09
Speaker 1: with his palm well. He demanded, why don't you speak?
57:15
Speaker 1: Do you doubt her? Don't you believe she is his wife?
57:20
Speaker 1: I refuse to believe anything else, said heming Away. He
57:24
Speaker 1: arose and slowly and heavily moved towards the door. And
57:30
Speaker 1: I will not trouble them anymore, he added, I'll leave
57:35
Speaker 1: at sunrise on the idol. Harris exclaimed in dismay, but
57:41
Speaker 1: Hemingway did not hear him in the doorway. He halted
57:45
Speaker 1: and turned back from his voice. All trace of emotion
57:49
Speaker 1: had departed. Why, he asked, dully, do you think Fearing
57:55
Speaker 1: is a fugitive? Not that it matters to her since
57:58
Speaker 1: she loves him, or that it matters to me only
58:02
Speaker 1: I would like to think you were wrong. I want
58:05
Speaker 1: her to have only the best again, The consul moved, unhappily.
58:11
Speaker 1: I oughtn't to tell you, he protested. And if I do,
58:16
Speaker 1: I ought to tell the state Department and a detective
58:19
Speaker 1: agency first. They have the call. They want him or
58:24
Speaker 1: a man damned like him. His voice dropped to a whisper.
58:30
Speaker 1: The man wants it is Henry Brownell, a cashier of
58:33
Speaker 1: a bank in Waltham, Massachusetts, thirty five years of age,
58:38
Speaker 1: smooth shaven, college bred, speaking with a marked to New
58:42
Speaker 1: England accent, and with other marks that fit fearing like
58:46
Speaker 1: the cover on a book. The Department and the Pinkatins
58:50
Speaker 1: have been deviling the life out of me about it
58:52
Speaker 1: for nine months. They are positive he is on the
58:56
Speaker 1: coast of Africa. I put them off. I wasn't You've
59:02
Speaker 1: been protecting them, said hemming away. I wasn't sure, reiterated Harris.
59:09
Speaker 1: And if I were, the pinkitons can do their own sleuthing.
59:13
Speaker 1: The man's living honestly now, anyway, isn't he? He demanded?
59:18
Speaker 1: And she loves him? At least she's struck by him.
59:22
Speaker 1: Why should I punish her? His tones seemed to challenge
59:28
Speaker 1: and upbraid. Good God, cried the other. I'm not blaming you.
59:34
Speaker 1: I'd be proud of the chance to do as much,
59:36
Speaker 1: I asked, because I'd like to go away. Thinking she's content,
59:41
Speaker 1: thinking she's happy with him. Doesn't it look as though
59:45
Speaker 1: she were, Harris protested, She's followed him, followed him half
59:51
Speaker 1: around the globe. If she'd been happier away from him,
59:54
Speaker 1: she'd have stayed away from him. So intent had been
59:58
Speaker 1: the man upon that that neither had noticed the passing
1:00:02
Speaker 1: of the minutes, or what at other times was an
1:00:06
Speaker 1: event of moment, that the mail steamer had distributed her
1:00:10
Speaker 1: mail and passengers. And when a servant entered bearing lamps
1:00:15
Speaker 1: and from the office, the consul's clerk appeared with a
1:00:18
Speaker 1: bundle of letters from the ityl Both were taken by surprise,
1:00:23
Speaker 1: so late, exclaimed hemingway, I must go if I'm to
1:00:29
Speaker 1: sail with the itol at daybreak off little time. But
1:00:34
Speaker 1: he did not go. As he advanced towards Harris with
1:00:38
Speaker 1: his hand out stretched in adieu, the face of the
1:00:41
Speaker 1: consul halted him with the letters. The clerk had placed
1:00:47
Speaker 1: upon the table a visiting card, and as it lay
1:00:50
Speaker 1: in the circle of light from the lamp, the consul,
1:00:53
Speaker 1: as though it were alive and menacing, stared at it
1:00:58
Speaker 1: in fascination. Moving stiffly, he turned it so that Hemingway
1:01:03
Speaker 1: could see. On it, heming Away read George S. Shier
1:01:09
Speaker 1: and on a lower line representing William L. Pinkerton to
1:01:16
Speaker 1: the woman he loved. The calamity they dreaded had come,
1:01:20
Speaker 1: and Hemingway, with a groan of dismay, exclaimed aloud, it
1:01:26
Speaker 1: is the end. From the darkness of the outer office,
1:01:31
Speaker 1: a man stepped slowly into the circle of the lamp.
1:01:35
Speaker 1: They could see his figure only from the waistcoat. The
1:01:39
Speaker 1: rest of him was blurred and shadows. It is the end,
1:01:45
Speaker 1: he repeated, inquiringly. He spoke the phrase with peculiar emphasis,
1:01:51
Speaker 1: as though to impress it upon the memory of the
1:01:54
Speaker 1: two others. His voice was cool, alert, authoritative. The end
1:02:00
Speaker 1: of what he demanded sharply. The question was most difficult.
1:02:07
Speaker 1: In the silence. The detective moved into the light. He
1:02:11
Speaker 1: was tol and strongly built. His face was shrod and intelligent.
1:02:16
Speaker 1: He might have been a prosperous man of business. Which
1:02:20
Speaker 1: of you is the consul? He asked, but he did
1:02:24
Speaker 1: not take his eyes from heming Away. I am the consul,
1:02:29
Speaker 1: said Harris. But still the detective did not turn from Hemingway. Why,
1:02:36
Speaker 1: he asked, did this gentleman when he read my card? Said?
1:02:41
Speaker 1: It is the end? The end of what has anything
1:02:45
Speaker 1: been going on here? That came to an end when
1:02:47
Speaker 1: he saw my card? Disconcerted in deep embarrassment, Harris struggled
1:02:54
Speaker 1: for a word, but his distress was not observed by
1:02:57
Speaker 1: the detective. His eyes, suspicious and accusing, still were fixed
1:03:03
Speaker 1: upon heming Away, and under their scrutiny. Harris saw his
1:03:08
Speaker 1: friend slowly retreat, slowly crumple up into a chair, slowly
1:03:14
Speaker 1: raise his hands to cover his face, as though in
1:03:18
Speaker 1: a nightmare. He heard him saying savagely, it is the
1:03:23
Speaker 1: end of two years of hell. It is the end
1:03:26
Speaker 1: of two years of fear and agony. Now I shall
1:03:29
Speaker 1: have peace. Now I shall sleep. I thank god you've come.
1:03:33
Speaker 1: I thank god I can go back. Harris broke the
1:03:38
Speaker 1: spell by leaping to his feet. He sprang between the
1:03:41
Speaker 1: two men. What does this mean? He commanded. Heming Away
1:03:47
Speaker 1: raised his eyes and surveyed him steadily. It means, he said,
1:03:53
Speaker 1: that I have deceived you, Harris, that I am the
1:03:56
Speaker 1: man you told me of. I am the man they want.
1:03:59
Speaker 1: He turned to the officer. I fooled him for four months,
1:04:04
Speaker 1: he said, I couldn't fool you for five minutes. The
1:04:09
Speaker 1: eyes of the detective danced with a sudden excitement, joy,
1:04:13
Speaker 1: and triumph. He shot an eager glance from hemming Away
1:04:17
Speaker 1: to the console. This man, he demanded, who is he?
1:04:24
Speaker 1: With an impatient gesture, hemming Away signified Harris, he doesn't
1:04:30
Speaker 1: know who I am, he said, he knows me, as
1:04:33
Speaker 1: heming Away. I am Henry Brownell of Waltham, Massachusetts. Again,
1:04:40
Speaker 1: his face sank into the palms of his hands. And
1:04:43
Speaker 1: I am tired, tired, he moaned. I am sick of
1:04:48
Speaker 1: not knowing, sick of a running away. I give myself up.
1:04:54
Speaker 1: The detective breathed a sigh of relief that seemed to
1:04:58
Speaker 1: issue from his soul. My God, he sighed, You've given
1:05:04
Speaker 1: me a long chase. I've had eleven months of you,
1:05:07
Speaker 1: and I'm as sick of this as you are. He
1:05:10
Speaker 1: recovered himself sharply, as though reciting an incantation. He addressed
1:05:17
Speaker 1: Hemingway in crisp, emotionless notes, Henry Brownell. He chanted, I
1:05:24
Speaker 1: arrest you in the name of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
1:05:27
Speaker 1: for the robbery on October the eleventh, nineteen hundred and
1:05:32
Speaker 1: nine of the Waltham Title and Trust Company. I understand,
1:05:37
Speaker 1: he added, you waive extradition and return with me of
1:05:41
Speaker 1: your own free will. With his face still in his hands,
1:05:47
Speaker 1: Hemingway murmured assent. The detective stepped briskly and uninvited to
1:05:53
Speaker 1: the table and seated himself. He was beaming with triumph,
1:05:58
Speaker 1: with pleasurable Excit meant I want to send a message home,
1:06:03
Speaker 1: mister console, he said, May I use your cable blanks.
1:06:10
Speaker 1: Harris was still standing in the center of the room,
1:06:13
Speaker 1: looking down upon the bowed head and shoulders of Hemingway.
1:06:18
Speaker 1: Since in amazement he had sprung toward him, he had
1:06:22
Speaker 1: not spoken, and he was still silent inside the skull
1:06:29
Speaker 1: of Wilbur Harris of Iowa, USA, American Consul to Sansibar,
1:06:35
Speaker 1: East Africa. There was going forward a mighty struggle that
1:06:40
Speaker 1: was not fit to put into words. For Harris and
1:06:45
Speaker 1: his conscience had met and were at odds. One way
1:06:50
Speaker 1: or the other. The fight must be settled at once,
1:06:53
Speaker 1: and whatever he decided must be for all time. This
1:06:57
Speaker 1: he understood, and as his sympathies and conscience struggled for
1:07:02
Speaker 1: the mastery, the pen of the detective, scratching at racing
1:07:07
Speaker 1: speed across the paper, warned him that only a few
1:07:11
Speaker 1: seconds were left him in which to protest, or else
1:07:15
Speaker 1: to forever after hold his peace. So realistic had been
1:07:22
Speaker 1: the acting of Hemingway that for an instant Harris himself
1:07:26
Speaker 1: had been deceived. But only for an instant. With his
1:07:30
Speaker 1: knowledge of the circumstances, he saw that Hemingway was not
1:07:35
Speaker 1: confessing to a crime of his own, but drawing across
1:07:39
Speaker 1: the trail of the real criminal, the convenient and useful
1:07:44
Speaker 1: red herring. He knew that already Hemingway had determined to
1:07:49
Speaker 1: sail the next morning. In leaving Zanzibar, he was making
1:07:53
Speaker 1: no sacrifice. He merely was carrying out his original plan,
1:07:58
Speaker 1: And by taking a way away with him, the detective
1:08:01
Speaker 1: was giving Brownell and his wife at least a month
1:08:04
Speaker 1: in which to again lose themselves. What was his own
1:08:09
Speaker 1: duty he could not determine that of Hemingway. He knew nothing.
1:08:13
Speaker 1: He could truthfully testify, and if now Hemingway claimed to
1:08:18
Speaker 1: be Henry Brownell, he had no certain knowledge. To the contrary,
1:08:23
Speaker 1: that through his adventure Hemingway would come to harm did
1:08:27
Speaker 1: not greatly disturb him. He foresaw that his wife need
1:08:33
Speaker 1: only send a wireless from Nantucket, and that the wharf
1:08:38
Speaker 1: witnesses would swarm to establish his identity and make it evident.
1:08:43
Speaker 1: The detective had Blonde dead, and in the meanwhile Brownell
1:08:47
Speaker 1: and his wife, in some settlement, still further removed from observation,
1:08:53
Speaker 1: could for the second time have fortified themselves against pursuit
1:08:57
Speaker 1: and capture. He saw the eyes of Hemingway fixed upon
1:09:01
Speaker 1: him in appeal and warning. The brisk voice of the
1:09:06
Speaker 1: detective broke the silence. You will testify, if need be,
1:09:11
Speaker 1: mister Consul. He said, that you heard the prisoner admit
1:09:16
Speaker 1: he was Henry Brownell, and that he surrendered himself of
1:09:19
Speaker 1: his own free will. For an instant the consul hesitated.
1:09:25
Speaker 1: Then he nodded stiffly. I heard him, he said. Three
1:09:33
Speaker 1: hours later, at ten o'clock of the same evening, the
1:09:37
Speaker 1: detective and Hemingway leaned together on the rail of the
1:09:41
Speaker 1: Crown Prince. I tell forward in the glare of her
1:09:45
Speaker 1: cargo lights, to the puffing and creaking of derrecks and
1:09:49
Speaker 1: donkey engines. Bundles of bees, wax, of raw hides, and
1:09:54
Speaker 1: precious tusks of ivory were being hurled into the hold
1:10:00
Speaker 1: from the shore boats clinging to the ship's sides. Came
1:10:04
Speaker 1: the shriek of the Zanzibar boys from the smoking room,
1:10:09
Speaker 1: the blare of the stewart's band, and the clink of glasses.
1:10:13
Speaker 1: Those of the youth of Zanzibar who were on board.
1:10:17
Speaker 1: The German and English clerks and agents sawn the presence
1:10:21
Speaker 1: of Hemingway only a purpose similar to their own, the
1:10:25
Speaker 1: desire of a homesick exile, to gaze upon the mirrored
1:10:29
Speaker 1: glories of the itel's saloon, at the faces of white
1:10:34
Speaker 1: men and women, to listen to home made music, to
1:10:38
Speaker 1: drink home brood beer. As he passed the smoking room,
1:10:43
Speaker 1: they cooled to him and to the stranger at his elbow,
1:10:48
Speaker 1: but he only nodded, smiling and avoiding them. Ascended to
1:10:54
Speaker 1: the shadow of the deserted boat deck. Are you sure,
1:10:59
Speaker 1: he said, you told no one, no one, The detective answered,
1:11:04
Speaker 1: of course, your hotel proprietor knows your sailing, but he
1:11:08
Speaker 1: doesn't know why, and by sunrise will be well out
1:11:12
Speaker 1: at sea. The words caught hemingway by the throat. He
1:11:18
Speaker 1: turned his eyes to the town, lying like a field
1:11:21
Speaker 1: of snow in the moonlight. Somewhere on one of its
1:11:24
Speaker 1: flat riffs, a merry dinner party was laughing, drinking, perhaps
1:11:30
Speaker 1: regretting his absence, wondering at his excuse of sudden illness.
1:11:36
Speaker 1: She was there, and he, with the detective like a
1:11:40
Speaker 1: shadow at his elbow, was sailing out of her life forever.
1:11:46
Speaker 1: He had seen her for the last time that morning,
1:11:50
Speaker 1: for the last time, had looked into her eyes, had
1:11:53
Speaker 1: held her hands in his. He saw the white beach,
1:11:58
Speaker 1: the white fortress like walls, the hanging gardens, the curtsying palms. Dimly,
1:12:07
Speaker 1: it was among those that he who had thought himself content,
1:12:11
Speaker 1: had found happiness, and had then seen it desert him
1:12:16
Speaker 1: and take out of his life pleasure in all other things.
1:12:21
Speaker 1: With a pain that seemed impossible to support, he turned
1:12:25
Speaker 1: his back upon Zanzibar and all it meant to him.
1:12:30
Speaker 1: And as he turned he faced coming towards him across
1:12:35
Speaker 1: the moonlit deck, fearing. His instinct was to cry out
1:12:41
Speaker 1: to the man in warning, but his second thought showed
1:12:46
Speaker 1: him that through his very effort to protect the other,
1:12:49
Speaker 1: he might bring about his undoing. So, helpless to prevent
1:12:54
Speaker 1: in agitation and alarm, he waited in silence. Of the
1:12:59
Speaker 1: two men, Fearing appeared the least disturbed. With a polite
1:13:05
Speaker 1: but authoritative gesture, he turned to the detective. I have
1:13:10
Speaker 1: something to say to this gentleman before he sails, he said,
1:13:14
Speaker 1: would you kindly stand over there? He pointed across the
1:13:18
Speaker 1: empty deck at the other rail in the alert, confident
1:13:24
Speaker 1: young man in the English miss jacket, clean shaven and
1:13:29
Speaker 1: bronzed by the sons of the equator. The detective saw
1:13:33
Speaker 1: no likeness to the pale bearded bank clerk of the
1:13:37
Speaker 1: New England city. This, he guessed, must be some English official,
1:13:43
Speaker 1: some friend of Brownnel's, who generously had come to bid
1:13:48
Speaker 1: the unfortunate fugitive god speed. Assured of this, the detective
1:13:54
Speaker 1: bowed politely and out of hearing, But with his prisoner
1:13:58
Speaker 1: in full view, she took up a position against the
1:14:01
Speaker 1: rail opposite, turning his back upon the detective and facing
1:14:07
Speaker 1: Himing away with his eyes close to his Fearing began
1:14:10
Speaker 1: abruptly his voice was sunk to a whisper, but he
1:14:15
Speaker 1: spoke without the slightest sign of trepidation, without the hesitation
1:14:21
Speaker 1: of an instant. Two years ago, when I was indicted,
1:14:26
Speaker 1: he whispered and ran away. Polly laid back half of
1:14:30
Speaker 1: the sum I stole. That left her without a penny.
1:14:35
Speaker 1: That's why she took to this type writing. Since then,
1:14:39
Speaker 1: I have paid back nearly all the rest. But Polly
1:14:43
Speaker 1: was not satisfied. She wanted me to take my punishment
1:14:46
Speaker 1: and start fresh. She knew they were watching her, so
1:14:50
Speaker 1: she couldn't write this to me. But she came to
1:14:54
Speaker 1: me by a roundabout. Why taking a year to get here,
1:14:58
Speaker 1: and all the time she's been here, she's been begging
1:15:01
Speaker 1: me to go back and give myself up. I couldn't
1:15:05
Speaker 1: see it. I knew in a few months i'd have
1:15:07
Speaker 1: paid back all I took, and I thought that was enough.
1:15:11
Speaker 1: I wanted to keep out of jail, but she said,
1:15:15
Speaker 1: I must take my medicine in our own country and
1:15:19
Speaker 1: start square with a clean slight. She's done a lot
1:15:23
Speaker 1: for me, and whether I'd have done that for her
1:15:26
Speaker 1: or not, I do not know, But now I must.
1:15:30
Speaker 1: What you did tonight to save me leaves me no choice,
1:15:35
Speaker 1: so I'll sail. With an exclamation of anger, Hemingway caught
1:15:40
Speaker 1: the other by the shoulder and dragged him closer. To
1:15:45
Speaker 1: save you, he whispered, No one's thinking of you. I
1:15:49
Speaker 1: didn't do it for you. I did it that you
1:15:52
Speaker 1: both could escape together, to give you time. But I
1:15:56
Speaker 1: tell you, protested Fearing, she doesn't want me to to escape,
1:16:01
Speaker 1: and maybe she's right. Anyway, we're sailing with you at
1:16:05
Speaker 1: We echoed Hemingway that again he was to see the
1:16:10
Speaker 1: woman he loved, that for six weeks through summer seas
1:16:14
Speaker 1: he would travel in her company, filled him with alarm,
1:16:19
Speaker 1: with distress, with a wonderful happiness. Wei, he whispered, steadying
1:16:27
Speaker 1: his voice. Then your wife is going with you. Fearing
1:16:32
Speaker 1: gazed at him as though the other had suddenly gone mad.
1:16:36
Speaker 1: My wife, he exclaimed, I haven't got a wife, if
1:16:40
Speaker 1: you mean Polly missus Adair. She's my sister, and she
1:16:45
Speaker 1: wants to thank you. She is below. He was not
1:16:49
Speaker 1: allowed to finish. Hemingway had flung him to one side
1:16:53
Speaker 1: and was racing down the deck. The detective sprang in pursuit.
1:16:59
Speaker 1: One moment there, he shouted, but the man in the
1:17:04
Speaker 1: white miss jacket Barti's way. In the moonlight, the detective
1:17:10
Speaker 1: saw that the alert, bronzed young man was smiling. That's
1:17:15
Speaker 1: all right, said fearing he'll be back in a minute. Besides,
1:17:20
Speaker 1: you don't want him. I'm the man you want. End
1:17:24
Speaker 1: of Part three and of the Men of Zanzibar by
1:17:29
Speaker 1: Richard Harding Davis, recorded by Caroline in Groningen in the
1:17:34
Speaker 1: Netherlands in August twenty fifteen. Thank you for listening.