The Collected Fiction of William Hope Hodgson: The Dream Of X & Other Fantastic Visions (47 page)

As that first evening of warm welcoming of the returned and now
respectable citizen of Geddley wore onward, Cap’n Danblasten warmed to the
good liquor that came so plentiful and freely, and insisted on dancing a
hornpipe upon the bar-table. At the conclusion of the warm applause which followed this feat, he declared his intention of showing them that Cap’n
Danblasten was as good as the best: “‘s good asser besht,” he assured the bar
room generally a great many times; and finally shouted to some of them to bring in his two great chests, which was done without argument or delay; a thing, perhaps, easy to understand. They were set in the middle of the floor, and all the men in the room crowded round, with their beer mugs, to watch.
But at this point Cap’n Danblasten proved he was quite uncomfortably
sober; for he ordered every man to stand back, enforcing his suggestion with
a big brass-mounted pistol which he brought very suddenly out of a long
pocket in the skirts of his heavy coat.

Having assured himself of a clear space all around his precious chests,
Cap’n Danblasten pocked the big, brass-mounted pistol, and pulled out a big snuff-box, from which he took ample refreshment. He then dug in amid the
snuff, with one great powder-blackened forefinger, and presently brought out
to view two smallish keys. He replaced the snuff-box in his vest pocket, and set the keys against the side of his big nose, exclaiming with a kind of half-
drunken knowingness, in French:

“Tenons de la verge d’une ancre!” which most of those present understood,
being sailormen and in the free-trade, to mean literally the “nuts of the anchor”; but used at that time as a marine catch-phrase, as much as to say
“the key of the situation”; though often used also in a coarser manner.

“Tout le monde à son poste!” he shouted, with a tipsy laugh, and turned to
unlock the nearer chest. There were two great locks on each chest, and a
separate key was used for each; and the interest was quite undoubted, as the
cap’n turned back the bolts, and lifted the lid of the chest. Upon the top of
all, there were four long wooden cases containing charts. Those he lifted out,
and put with surprising care upon the floor. Afterwards, there came a quadrant, wrapped in an old pair of knee-breeches; then a compass, similarly
wrapped in an old body-vest. Both of these he put down upon the four chart-
cases with quite paternal tenderness.

He reached again into the chest, lurching, and hove out on to the floor a
pile of heavily braided uniforms; a pair of great sea-boots with iron leg-
guards stitched in on each side of the tops; a couple of heavy double-barrelled
French pistols; a big Navy cutlass, and two heavy Malay knives without
sheathes. And all the time, as he ladled out these somewhat “tarry” treasures,
there was no sound in the big, low-ceilinged room, except the heavy
breathings of the interested men-folk of Geddley.

Cap’n Danblasten stood up, wiped his forehead briefly with the back of
his hand, and stooped again into the chest, seeming to be fumbling around
for something; for the sound of his rough hands going over the wooden
inside of the chest was plain to be heard. Presently he gave a satisfied little
grunt, and immediately afterward there was a sharp click, which, as the
landlord of the Tunbelly told certain of his special cronies afterwards, was a sure sign of there “bein’ a secrit lock-fast” within the chest. Be this as it may,
the next instant Cap’n Danblasten pulled a thick wooden cover or partition, bolted with flat iron-bands, out of the chest, and hove it with a crash to the floor. Then he stooped, and began to make plain to the men of Geddley the
very good and sufficient reason for the immense weight of the two great
chests; for he brought out a canvas bag, about the size of a man’s head, which
he dropped with a dull ringing thud on to the floor. Five more of these he
brought out, and threw beside the first; and all the time, no sound, save the
breathing of the onlookers, and an occasional hoarse whisper of excited
suggestion.

Cap’n Danblasten stood up as he threw the sixth bag upon the others,
and signed dumbly for his brandy-mug, with the result that he had half a
score offered to him, as we say these days, gratis. He took the first, and drained it; then threw it across the room, where it smashed against the far wall. Yet this provoked no adverse comment, even from the fat landlord of
the Tunbelly; for those six, bulging, heavy bags on the floor stood sponsors for many mugs, and it is to be supposed, the contents thereof.

It will be the more easily understood that no one bothered to remark upon Captain Danblasten’s method of disposing of his crockery-ware, when
you realise that the cap’n had squatted down upon the floor beside his bags,
and was beginning to unleash the neck of one. There was not a sound in the
room, as he took off the last turn of the spunyarn stopper; for each man of
Geddley held his breath with suspense and expectation. Then Cap’n Dan
blasten, with a quite admirable unconcern, capsized the bag upside down
upon the floor, and cascaded out a heap of coins that shone with a dull
golden glitter.

There went a gasp of astonishment, echoing from man to man round
the room, and then a chorus of hoarse exclamations; for no man there had ever seen quite so much gold at one time in his life. Yet, Cap’n Danblasten took no heed; but with a half-drunken soberness, proceeded to unlash the
necks of the five other bags, and to empty them likewise upon the contents of
the first. And by the time that the gold from the sixth bag had been added to the heap, the silence of the men of Geddley was a stunned and bitter and avaricious silence; broken at last by the fat landlord of the Tunbelly, who with a nice presence of mind, came forward with the brandy keg under his arm, and a generous sized beer-mug, which was surely a fit spirit-measure
for the owner of so prodigious a fortune.

Yet, Captain Danblasten was less appreciative of this tender thought-
fulness than might have been supposed; for with a mixed vocabulary of
forceful words, chosen discriminately from the French and English, he intimated that the landlord of the Tunbelly should retire, possibly with all the honours of war, but certainly with speed. And as the stout proprietor of the Tunbelly apparently failed to grasp the full and imperative necessity of
speed, Cap’n Danblasten plucked his big brass-mounted pistol from the floor
beside him, and let drive into the brandy-keg which reposed, as you know, under the well-intending arm of the fat Drinquobier; this being, as you may as well learn here, the landlord’s name. The bullet drove through the little keg, and blew out the hither end, wasting a great deal of good liquor, and
scored the head of Long John of Kenstone, who came suddenly into a state of fluency; but was unheeded by the majority of the men of Geddley, who were gathered round the stout landlord of the Tunbelly, where he lay like a
mountain of flesh upon the floor of the tap-room, shouting at the top of his fat and husky voice that he was shot, and shot dead, at that—which seemed
to impress his customers with a conviction of truth. But as for Cap’n
Danblasten, he sat calmly upon the floor, beside his heap of gold coinage,
and began unemotionally to shovel it back into the six canvas bags, lashing each one securely as it was filled. Presently, still unheeding of the death cries
of the very much alive landlord, he rose slowly to his feet, and began to
replace the gold in the big chest, replying to Long John of Kenstone’s
rendering of the commination service, merely by drawing forth a second
heavy pistol, laying it ready to his hand across a corner of the chest.

In course of time, the fat landlord having discovered that he still
breathed, and Long John of Kenstone having considered discreetly the
possibilities of the second pistol, there was a period of comparative quiet once
more in the big tap-room, during which Cap’n Danblasten methodically completed his re-stowage of his goods in the chest, and presently locked it
securely with the two keys.

When this was finally achieved, a sudden silence of renewed interest came down upon the men of Geddley, as the cap’n proceeded to unlock the second chest, which though somewhat smaller than the other, was yet
considerably the heavier. Cap’n Danblasten lifted back the ponderous lid, and there, displayed to view, was the picture of an enormous skull, worked in white silk on a background of black bunting. It was evident that the cap’n
had forgotten in his half-drunken state that this lay uppermost in the chest; for he made now a hurried and clumsy movement to turn back the folds of the flag upon itself, so as to hide the emblem which was uncomfortably familiar in that day. Yet, that the men of Geddley had seen, was obvious; for there came a general cry from the mariners present, some of whom had been
privateersmen, and worse, of: “The Jolly Roger! The Jolly Roger!”

Cap’n Danblasten stood a moment, in a seeming stupid silence, with
the flag all bunched together in his hand; then suddenly, he turned, and
flirted it out wide across the floor, so that the skull and the crossed bones, surmounted by a big D, showed plain. Underneath the D there was worked an hourglass in red wool. The men of Geddley crowded round, handling the flag, and criticising the designs, with something of the eyes of experts; some of them, and notably Long John of Kenstone, saying it was no proper Jolly Roger, seeing that it held no battle-axe. And on this, a general and forceful discussion ensued, which ended in a physical demonstration of their views, on the part of Long John of Kenstone, and a squat, heavy privateersman, during which Captain Danblasten hauled the flag out of the midst of the discussion, and began to bundle it back into the chest, which he did so clumsily that he disturbed a layer of underclothing which covered the lower contents,
and displayed to view the chest nearly two thirds full of smashed and defaced
gold and silver work of every description, from the gold-hilts of swords and daggers, to the crumpled golden binding of some great Bible, showing the
burst jewel-sockets from which precious stones had been roughly prised.

At the sight of all this new treasure, the value of which was plainly enormous, a great silence came upon the room, broken only by the scuffling
and grunting of the two who were setting forth their arguments upon the
floor of the tap-room. So marked was this silence that even the latter at last became aware of something fresh, and scrambled to their feet to participate.
And they, also, joined in the general hush of astonished awe and avarice,
and—what cannot be denied—renewed and intense respect for this further
proof of the desirable worth of the returned citizen of Geddley. And the
cap’n, realising in his half-drunken pride, the magnitude of the sensation he had created, and the supremeness of the homage that he had won, shut down the lid of the chest, and locked it with the two keys, which he afterwards
returned to the snuff-box; bedding them well down into the snuff, and
shutting the box with a loud snap, after he had once more refreshed his nose
sufficiently.

“Be you not goin’ to turn out t’other, cap’n?” asked Long John of Ken-stone, in a marvellously courteous voice—that is, considering the man!

“Non,” said Captain Danblasten, with that brevity of courtesy so admired
in the wealthy; and truly Cap’n Danblasten was indeed wealthy; for it is likely enough that the wealth contained in those two great chests was
sufficient to have bought up the whole of the port of Geddley, and a good
slice of the country round about it lock, stock and barrel, as the saying goes.

Now, when the captain had so wittily described his intention, he pulled
out a small powder flask from his side pocket, and proceeded, in a considerable silence, to recharge the fired pistol, which he did with a quite peculiar
dexterity, speaking of immense practice, and this despite his half-drunken
condition. When he had finished ramming down a couple of soft-lead bullets
upon the charge of powder, he primed the lock, replaced the flask, and announced his intention of turning-in (i.e. going to bed), which he achieved with remarkable speed, by dragging the two chests together in the middle of
the tap-room and using them as a couch, with his rolled up coat for a pillow;
and so in a moment he composed himself with a grunt, his loaded pistols stuffed in under the coat, and his great right hand resting on the butts.

And so he seemed to be instantly asleep; yet it is a curious thing that once, when Long John stepped over towards him, after a bout of hoarse whispering with several of the men in the room, Cap’n Danblasten opened one bleary eye, and—without undue haste—thrust out one of his big pistols in an indifferent manner at the body of Long John, whereat that gentleman
stepped back without even attempting to enter into any argument on the
score of intention.