Chapter Twenty-Seven
The next evening, as they top the final rise and look down toward the campground and the open vein, the three Englishmen together, like three players upon a stage, pause midstep to gawp in horror, and then, as though in answer to the same fervent but unvoiced command, begin to rush downhill.
Whatever faint hopes of restitution or repair inspire this urgency are quickly banished when they reach the camp and find themselves confronted with the full extent of its destruction.
The two tents are in tatters, the ironwork—picks and shovels, sifting pans, kettles and knives—is gone, and everything else, whatever the Esquimaux couldn’t use or didn’t want, has been scattered about or smashed into pieces.
Pawpitch and Datsanthi are dead, and their bodies have been stripped naked and horribly misused: bellies torn open, noses and ears sliced off, and the rest of their faces pummeled to a scarlet mash.
One dog is lying by the stream with its throat cut, while the other one, wounded in the flank but still just alive, is standing off at a distance watching them with its hackles raised and its blunt gray muzzle freshly pinked with gore.
While Keasik weeps and wails over the corpses of her slaughtered kin, the other three, stunned into silence, like figures moving about in a dream, roam bewildered through the broadcast wreckage, peering and leaning down every now and then to lift or touch, as if trying to determine whether the chaos they have found is permanent and lasting, a true event, or just some cheap device, some grotesque and pantomime confection malignantly arranged to dazzle and appall.
“If I could explain away this horror, I would,” Shaw says to Hearn in a solemn whisper, after they have surveyed the scene again more calmly and made a fuller inventory of all their losses, “but all sense and reason falter in the face of such savagery. To commit murder is evil enough, but to so abuse and desecrate the bodies of the dead is a piece of pure infamy which proves its doers to be half human at best. They caught them unaware, I’m most sure of that, impaled them as they drowsed, and if we’d been here too when they descended, no doubt they would have killed and carved us up in the same cruel ungodly manner.
It’s only luck that saved us, nothing else, pure accident, and to think of how near we came to being as they are now, mere carrion for dogs and flies, makes even a brave and vigorous man like myself, not much given to deep thought or gloomy ponderments, pause a while and gape with dread and wonder. ”
“We must inter the bodies as quickly as we can, allow Keasik to perform the accustomed rites, and then be on our way,” Hearn says.
“I thought the Esquimaux might seek some kind of vengeance for Nabayah’s rash action, as I told you before, but I never expected their response to be so swift or devastating as this. ”
Shaw shakes his head.
“You misunderstand me, Hearn,” he says. “I’m not talking of any retreat.
I never ran away from a fight and I’m not about to start.
If a man strikes me, then by God, I’ll strike him right back but ten times worse.
We’ve suffered a setback here and an injury, but as I’ve told you more than once, I’m not a man to despair or give up the game in the face of each new obstacle.
I lost my arm in this cause, and I’m not yet ready to turn about and slink away with the appointed task only half completed. ”
“You’re not seriously suggesting we remain here and continue on after what’s occurred? Our equipment is all stolen and our guides and hunters are dead.”
“Then we must retrieve what was taken from us, and as for the hunting, we will either do it for ourselves or we will capture an Esquimaux or two and have them do it for us.”
“Capture?”
“After we have killed or driven away all the others.”
“You’re proposing an attack?”
“A counterattack, done quick tonight or tomorrow morning. If they’re expecting us, then so be it. Our muskets have a far greater range than their paltry bows and arrows, so we’ll pick off any sentries and then see to the rest.”
Hearn is stunned.
“I won’t be a party to such a plan.”
“So you would refuse my command?”
“We’re beyond any question of command. The laws and customs of the Fort are moot. We are three men alone in the wilderness, and I won’t risk my own life or the life of any others in an action I know to be foolish and wrong.”
With pale lips pressed tight together and jaws clenched, the two men glare at each other like two fighting dogs held apart by their masters.
“Then Walker and I will have to do it by ourselves. And if you lack the courage to join us, you can stay behind with the girl.”
They both turn to look at Abel Walker, who has been listening to their argument in nervous silence. From the expression on his face, it is evident that this turn of events has shaken him considerably. His mouth is ajar and his eyes are wide open and full of alarm.
“I’m not a soldier,” he says. “I didn’t come up here expecting any fight.”
“Oh, don’t you worry, lad. It won’t be much of a fight at all,” Shaw says. “We’ll pick them off one by one as easy as shooting ducks on a pond.”
“We must put our fears and passions aside for now and think clearly and coolly about the dangers of our present position,” Hearn says, taking no notice of Shaw’s boastfulness.
“The Esquimaux outnumber us, and although it’s true that they have no muskets, spears and arrows well used are quite sufficient to maim and kill.
We’ve seen what these men are capable of already, with what fury they can attack if provoked, so why take another chance by lingering here any longer when we already have enough gold to make both of you rich? ”
“We have two hundred ounces of gold in that sack, give or take,” Shaw says to Abel Walker, “but there’s three or four times as much still lying in the ground waiting to be dug, and you and I both know we’d be fools and cowards to walk away and leave it there untouched.”
“Two hundred ounces is enough,” Hearn says. “For now, at least. You may come back again next year if you want more.”
“So proclaims the man who has his forty pounds already safely in his pocket.”
Hearn glances again at Walker, who is frowning and looking perplexed. I should have taken more trouble to talk to the lad before this happened, he thinks, to steer him away from Shaw’s baleful influence and encourage him to think for himself. But now the opportunity is gone.
“I hate to leave so much gold just lying there,” Walker says in a whisper, as if speaking partly to himself. “I hate to do it.”
“Once we fire a shot or two and they see we’re serious, the Esquimaux will likely run away,” Shaw says. “There may not be any need for bloodshed.”
“They may run away, but who’s to say they won’t come back again when we’re asleep?” Hearn says. “We can’t be safe here any longer. After what’s gone on, it’s too dangerous, that’s the simple truth.”
Walker stands there hesitant, and Hearn guesses that he’s still thinking about the house in Norfolk, with the green copper gutters and glowing yellow walls, and wondering if a fifth share of two hundred ounces will really be enough for a lease or if he needs much more than that.
“You might talk to them,” he says to Hearn.
“To the esquimaux elders, I mean. You know their language, after all. Tell them all we want is to get our tools back and to be left in peace to finish the work. The Indians are dead now, so they have had their vengeance, and if they know we don’t bear them any ill will, why wouldn’t they leave us alone? ”
The suggestion takes Hearn by surprise, but he recognizes immediately that, imperfect and risky though it is, given John Shaw’s relentless stubbornness and belligerence, it might be the only solution they can all agree upon.
“Their feud is with the Indians and not with us, that’s true,” he says. “So there’s a chance that now we’re alone they will agree to let us stay. Even so, we’d have to keep our muskets loaded always and post a guard at night.”
“But we could still complete the work,” Walker says. “Not so quickly as before, perhaps, but we could get it done.”
Hearn pauses a moment to think.
“Will you allow me to try it?” he says to Shaw.
“You wish to parlay with those savages after what they’ve done? To reason with them after this atrocity?”
“I don’t wish to. I’d much rather turn about and leave, as I explained already, but we two disagree and the lad is showing us a compromise, so perhaps we should consider its merits instead of wasting our breath with more bickering.”
Shaw sniffs and grinds his teeth, then nods and looks across at Abel Walker.
“You have a portion of your uncle’s shrewdness in you,” he says. “I can see that now. He always tells me I’m too headstrong and I tell him he’s too careful. But put us together and we make a pretty pair.”
“So you’ll hold back for now until I speak to them?” Hearn says. “Can we agree on that?”
“I won’t try to stop you, but when you talk to that old man, you tell him I won’t abide any trickery, and if he tries it, I’ll come down quick and hard.”
“I don’t believe that making threats is likely to get us what we want.”
“I’m not talking about a threat, just a friendly advisement for the avoidance of doubt, so the evil old devil knows exactly where he stands in my regard.”