Chapter Nineteen
As the summer’s heat comes and goes and the muted moorland colors transform gradually, as though refracted through the angles of a slow-turning prism, from dull brown and green to brighter shades of red and yellow, the Englishmen’s work at the vein continues on with a relentless and mechanical insistence.
Despite the loss of his arm, Shaw still takes a manly pride in completing his share.
Mostly he carries and sifts, but if Hearn or Walker is weary he will sometimes, one-handed, wield a shovel or swing a mattock.
He declares that if the severed arm is the price he must pay to be rich, then he will gladly pay it.
“A precious thing allus requires some sacrifice or other,” he says, as though spouting some antique Cornish proverb, “be it of flesh or blood or spirit. Something old must be given up if something fresh is to be gained.”
The herds of deer have moved north now out of the woods and onto the Barrens, so the hunting is good, and while the three Englishmen sweat and strain in pursuit of their lavish goals, the four Indians go about their normal business of killing, butchering, cleaning, cooking, stitching, and gathering.
They remain wary of the Esquimaux, believing them to possess malevolent and witchlike powers, but aside from that, there is nothing in their manner to suggest that summering so far away from their habitual hunting grounds is difficult or disconcerting.
Hearn, who is more observant than his companions, keeps a watch on them and notes that Nabayah, after having appeared to be reconciled with his wife, has cooled again.
He is not so openly antagonistic as he was in the weeks after the wrestling match at Crow Lake, but the warmth and friendliness he briefly displayed has disappeared and he has lapsed back, it seems, into a state of tetchiness and agitation.
The exact cause of these shifting moods remains a mystery and Hearn, although curious, makes no effort to discover it until one evening by accident he overhears Pawpitch and Datsanthi talking together and learns that Keasik is now with child.
In normal times, such news would be insignificant and unsurprising, but given the unhappy events at Crow Lake, Hearn is forced to wonder whether the child’s paternity is in question and whether, if so, this uncertainty might be the cause of Nabayah’s recent discontent.
After thinking on it further, he takes time to speak to Datsanthi in private and, finding his suspicions confirmed, agrees to pass on the news of Keasik’s condition to Shaw and Walker immediately before they notice any signs for themselves, with a careful reminder that for the sake of morale and peace among the company, it would be better if they keep whatever opinions they may have to themselves and let the vexed question of the child’s origins lie undisturbed.
Shaw’s first reaction, when he learns the happy news, is amusement amounting almost to glee.
“Did you hear that, young Abel?” he says, poking the lad in the ribs and laughing loudly. “She’s with child now. Come springtime, you might have your own little half-breed bastard running about the Indian camp. Just think about that for a moment.”
“You fucked her first,” Walker says, taking care not to catch Hearn’s eye as he speaks. “I wager that bantling is yours.”
“Possibly so,” Shaw agrees, straightening his shoulders as he speaks and puffing out his chest like a guardsman for extra effect.
“I’m a potent sort of fellow, after all.
Not to boast, Abel, but some days I swear I only have to glance at a woman and her womb begins to swell and her titties begin dribbling with milk. ”
“The child is most likely Nabayah’s,” Hearn says flatly. “But the element of uncertainty is causing some upset between husband and wife, so Datsanthi asks that we three all tread carefully around them and do nothing which might serve to add fuel to the fire.”
“Tread carefully?” Shaw repeats, pretending astonishment. “Now, there’s a thing. I’ve never been asked to curb my tongue or alter my behavior to protect the delicate affections of a savage before.”
“It’s simple politeness and good sense, that’s all.
We’ve interfered in their lives enough as it is.
All he’s asking is that we keep our distance from now on, which strikes me as a sensible request. Nabayah is an excellent hunter, and we rely on him and his father for our food.
So why take the risk of aggravating either one of them? ”
Shaw still has a smile on his lips and seems determined to squeeze as much entertainment from this unexpected revelation as he can.
“And what if we forget ourselves one day and let something provoking slip out by accident? Is it possible that the fearsome Nabayah will lose his temper and lash out?”
“It’s possible, I suppose. Datsanthi says he can be impetuous on occasion.”
“And am I meant to be afraid of the fellow that lost his own wife in a wrestling match? The same one that never won a single round but did manage to have his head cracked open and most of his hair pulled out before he conceded at the last?”
He looks at Walker with a grin and Walker smiles back.
“This isn’t intended as a threat or a challenge to your dignity,” Hearn says. “You wish us to dig as much gold as we can, and our task will only be made harder if we begin to fight or argue among ourselves. Think of it like that.”
Shaw waves a hand against the biting flies and shrugs.
“If the child is mine, then by rights they should be grateful because I have a handsome face and good Cornish blood flowing in my veins. That being said, I’ve sired enough dark-skinned bastards over here that another one more or less makes no difference to me at all,” he says.
“I won’t say a word on the matter—unless, of course, Nabayah decides to make something out of it by himself, in which case, even with one arm gone, I reserve the right to defend my honor. ”
He takes it as a great joke, Hearn thinks, and perhaps that’s all it is.
Back at the Fort, after all, the plantation is full of half-breed children and no one pays them any mind.
Officers like Shaw and Norton are allowed by both law and custom to have their country wives or mistresses, and the tradesmen and laborers, although it is forbidden, find ways, either in the men’s house at holiday time or in the wooding camps out of sight of their betters, of taking their pleasures also.
Such unequal conjunctions are a part of life on the Bay and not frowned on except by the most foolish or sanctimonious of onlookers.
Yet if lustfulness is common and natural among every race, he thinks, however primitive or refined, then so surely is jealousy, and when I look at Nabayah, I see a man who is uncomfortable and easily enraged.
So we must hope for all our sakes that Shaw, however trifling he takes this matter to be, nonetheless keeps to his carelessly given word and maintains, for once, a judicious silence.