Keziah Coffin
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would die anyhow, and so on. They begged the ministerto come with them. But he was firm.
"Don't stop to argue," he urged. "Hurry and get the doctor."
"Come on, Charlie," ordered Bill. "No use talkin' to him, he's set. Comeon! I won't stay alongside this craft another minute for nobody. If yoube comin', come."
Burgess, still protesting, clambered over the rail. The dory swung clearof the brig. The rowers settled themselves for the stroke.
"Better change your mind, Mr. Ellery," pleaded Charlie. "I hate to leaveyou this way. It seems mean, but I'm a married man with children, likethe rest of us here, and I can't take no risks. Better come, too. No?Well, we'll send help quick as the Lord'll let us. By the Almighty!" headded, in a sudden burst, "you've got more spunk than I have--yes, oranybody I ever come across. I'll say that for you, if you are a parson.Give way, fellers."
The oars dipped, bent, and the dory moved off. The sound of the creakingthole pins shot a chill through Ellery's veins. His knees shook, andinvoluntarily a cry for them to come back rose to his lips. But hechoked it down and waved his hand in farewell. Then, not trustinghimself to look longer at the receding boat, he turned on his heel andwalked toward the forecastle.
The water butts stood amidships, not far from the open door of thegalley. Entering the latter he found an empty saucepan. This he filledfrom the cask, and then, with it in his hand, turned toward the blackhatchway. Here was the greatest test of his courage. To descend thatladder, approach that bunk, and touch the terrible creature in it, thesewere the tasks he had set himself to do, but could he?
Vaccination in those days was by no means the universal custom that itnow is. And smallpox, even now, is a disease the name of which strikespanic to a community. The minister had been vaccinated when he was achild, but that was--so it seemed to him--a very long time ago. Andthat forecastle was so saturated with the plague that to enter it meantalmost certain infection. He had stayed aboard the brig because thepitiful call for help had made leaving a cowardly impossibility. Now,face to face, and in cold blood, with the alternative, it seemed neitherso cowardly or impossible. The man would die anyhow, so Thoph had said;was there any good reason why he should risk dying, too, and dying inthat way?
He thought of a great many things and of many people as he stood by thehatchway, waiting; among others, he thought of his housekeeper,Keziah Coffin. And, somehow, the thought of her, of her pluck, and herself-sacrifice, were the very inspirations he needed. "It's the dutythat's been laid on me," Keziah had said, "and it's a hard one, but Idon't run away from it." He began to descend the ladder.
The sick man was raving in delirium when he reached him, but the soundof the water lapping the sides of the saucepan brought him to himself.He seized Ellery by the arm and drank and drank. When at last hedesisted, the pan was half empty.
The minister laid him gently back in the bunk and stepped to the foot ofthe ladder for breath. This made him think of the necessity for air inthe place and he remembered the little window. It was tightly closedand rusted fast. He went up to the deck, found a marlin spike, and,returning, broke the glass. A sharp, cold draught swept through theforecastle, stirring the garments hanging on the nails.
An hour later, two dories bumped against the side of the San Jose. Men,talking in low tones, climbed over the rail. Burgess was one of them;ashamed of his panic, he had returned to assist the others in bringingthe brigantine into a safer anchorage by the inlet.
Dr. Parker, very grave but businesslike, reached the deck among thefirst.
"Mr. Ellery," he shouted, "where are you?"
The minister's head and shoulders appeared at the forecastle companion."Here I am, doctor," he said. "Will you come down?"
The doctor made no answer in words, but he hurried briskly across thedeck. One man, Ebenezer Capen, an old fisherman and ex-whaler fromEast Trumet, started to follow him, but he was the only one. The otherswaited, with scared faces, by the rail.
"Get her under way and inshore as soon as you can," ordered Dr. Parker."Ebenezer, you can help. If I need you below, I'll call."
The minister backed down the ladder and the doctor followed him. Parkerbent over the bunk for a few moments in silence.
"He's pretty bad," he muttered. "Mighty little chance. Heavens, what aden! Who broke that window?"
"I did," replied Ellery. "The air down here was dreadful."
The doctor nodded approvingly. "I guess so," he said. "It's bad enoughnow. We've got to get this poor fellow out of here as soon as we can orhe'll die before to-morrow. Mr. Ellery," he added sharply, "what madeyou do this? Don't you realize the risk you've run?"
"Some one had to do it. You are running the same risk."
"Not just the same, and, besides, it's my business. Why didn't you letsome one else, some one we could spare--Humph! Confound it, man! didn'tyou know any better? Weren't you afraid?"
His tone rasped Ellery's shaken nerves.
"Of course I was," he snapped irritably. "I'm not an idiot."
"Humph! Well, all right; I beg your pardon. But you oughtn't to havedone it. Now you'll have to be quarantined. And who in thunder I can getto stay with me in this case is more than I know. Just say smallpox tothis town and it goes to pieces like a smashed egg. Old Eb Capen willhelp, for he's had it, but it needs more than one."
"Where are you going to take--him?" pointing to the moaning occupant ofthe bunk.
"To one of the empty fish shanties on the beach. There are beds there,such as they are, and the place is secluded. We can burn it down whenthe fuss is over."
"Then why can't I stay? I shall have to be quarantined, I know that. Letme be the other nurse. Why should anyone else run the risk? I HAVE runit. I'll stay."
Dr. Parker looked at him. "Well!" he exclaimed. "Well! I must say, youngman, that you've got--Humph! All right, Mr. Ellery; I'm much obliged."
CHAPTER XVII
IN WHICH EBENEZER CAPEN IS SURPRISED
Before sunset that afternoon the San Jose was anchored behind the pointby the inlet. The fishing boats changed moorings and moved fartherup, for not a single one of their owners would trust himself within ahundred yards of the stricken brigantine. As soon as the anchors weredropped, the volunteer crew was over side and away, each of its membersto receive a scolding from his family for taking such a risk and to havehis garments sulphur-smoked or buried. Charlie Burgess, whose wife wassomething of a Tartar, observed ruefully that he "didn't take no comfort'round home nowadays; between the smell of brimstone and the jawin's'twas the hereafter ahead of time."
The largest of the beach shanties, one which stood by itself a quarterof a mile from the light, was hurriedly prepared for use as a pesthouseand the sick sailor was carried there on an improvised stretcher.Dr. Parker and Ellery lifted him from his berth and, assisted by oldEbenezer Capen, got him up to the deck and lowered him into the dory.Ebenezer rowed the trio to the beach and the rest of the journey wascomparatively easy.
The shanty had three rooms, one of which was given up to the patient,one used as a living room, and, in the third, Capen and the ministerwere to sleep. Mattresses were procured, kind-hearted and sympathizingtownspeople donated cast-off tables and chairs, and the building wasmade as comfortable as it could be, under the circumstances. Signboards, warning strangers to keep away, were erected, and in additionto them, the Trumet selectmen ordered ropes stretched across the lane onboth sides of the shanty. But ropes and signs were superfluous. Trumetin general was in a blue funk and had no desire to approach within amile of the locality. Even the driver of the grocery cart, when he leftthe day's supply of provisions, pushed the packages under the ropes,yelled a hurried "Here you be!" and, whipping up his horse, departed ata rattling gallop.
The village sat up nights to discuss the affair and every day broughta new sensation. The survivors of the San Jose's crew, a wretched,panic-stricken quartette of mulattos and Portuguese, were apprehendedon the outskirts of Denboro, the town below Trumet on the bay side,and were promptly sequestered and fumigated, pe
nding shipment to thehospital at Boston. Their story was short but grewsome. The brigantinewas not a Turks Islands boat, but a coaster from Jamaica. She had sailedwith a small cargo for Savannah. Two days out and the smallpox made itsappearance on board. The sufferer, a negro foremast hand, died. Thenanother sailor was seized and also died. The skipper, who was the owner,was the next victim, and the vessel was in a state of demoralizationwhich the mate, an Englishman named Bradford, could not overcome. Thenfollowed days and nights of calm and terrible heat, of pestilenceand all but mutiny. The mate himself died. There was no one left whounderstood