The Tale of Mr. Peter Brown - Chelsea Justice | Page 7

a small black speck which I
took to be a buoy, and the faint echo of its bell was borne to me
through the clear air. He sat down again beside the tiller, and we sailed
on in the same silence, into the loveliness of the morning. I was quite
certain that he had some sinister purpose, though what it was I could
not yet imagine. What did he mean by that 'Nearly there '? Although he
did not actually stir, he gave me the impression of concentration now,
and at a word from him the sailor awoke and shot a rapid glance at me,
as though doubtful whether he would find me still in the boat. I was
beginning to wonder whether I should be a match for the two of them,
when my companion, leaving the tiller, made a step towards me with a
handkerchief he had drawn from his pocket; the sailor pinioned my
arms from behind, and no sooner had I recognised the peculiar smell of
chloroform than I was insensible and inert between them.
"It was very neatly done. I might have trusted him to carry out neatly
whatever he undertook. Even over that he compelled my angry
admiration. So neat! the fiend, the devil, he had got the better of me
before I had had the chance to put up even the feeblest struggle. I curse
myself now for my silly bravado in accompanying him when he asked
me. I might have known I wasn't a match for him. But I'll be even with
him yet," he said, his nervous hands fumbling at his collar, "I'll be even
with him yet; I'll bide my time," and never was vindictiveness more
savage in human eyes.

"He didn't allow me to come to my senses until he had carried out his
purpose. When I opened my eyes I was inside the cage of the buoy,
with the bell swinging gently to and fro above my head.
"Have you ever seen one of those buoys? They consist of a pear-shaped
iron cage fixed on to a sort of platform, like the keel of a dinghy, and
the bell hangs between four clappers at the top of the cage, and as the
thing rocks up and down on the swell of the sea the clappers hit against
the bell. There was just room for me to sit on the platform, crouched up
inside the cage. One section of the cage was hinged to open, and the
door thus formed was secured by a padlock; how he had got the key of
it Heaven alone knows. I have tried to convey to you--haven't I?--that
he was a very able and successful fellow.
"When I came to, he was circling slowly round and round the buoy in
his sailing-boat, lounging indifferently beside the tiller, and watching
me with an expression of mockery I can't reproduce in words. I lost my
head then; I leapt up and shook the bars of my cage and screamed to
him to let me out. I can hear now in my ears the futility of my own
voice screaming across the placid emptiness of the water. I must have
looked like a trapped ape--the kind of ape that is most like a man. I
shook the iron bars so violently that the whole of my floating prison
jumped about, and the b ell began to ring loudly. He only lounged and
smiled. No doubt he had looked forward extremely to the moment. His
amused impassivity was the thing best calculated to restore my
self-control, and I try to salve my vanity by thinking that I should never
so have gratified him but for the bewildering effects of the anaesthetic.
I calmed myself down, I tried to reason with him.
"I exhorted him to settle up his wrongs in a more civilised manner.
Then, seeing that every plea was to him a source of fresh delight, I
ceased to argue, and became silent, holding on to the bars of my cage
and watching him as he cruised slowly round and round the buoy.
Presently he talked to me. They were like neat incisions in my flesh, his
words. Oh, he spared me nothing, I assure you; there wasn't a phrase
without a beautifully tempered edge to it. I recalled his words when he
had caught us together, 'Don't let me disturb you, and above all

remember that 'I don't mind,' and even in the midst of my rage and
hatred I couldn't help respecting him for that irony.
"I learnt now the full extent to which he had minded. Quite coldly he
told me. He had spent the week wondering whether it should be himself
or me that should be put out of the way. So much had