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Hedged with Divinities

IX

page 60

IX.

Jack fairly staggered under the blow. He turned, and in a dazed way entered the doorway, and then walked into the first room he could find, which appeared to be a kind of study. He locked the door, and threw himself upon a couch to meditate awhile upon the awful circumstances under which he found himself. The only living man! This explained the frenzied ecstasy of his reception, the deserted country, the unused roads, the wildness of the cattle. How had this dreadful thing come about? What steps would he take in the future? The whole matter was too bewildering for connected thought. All formulas of ordinary life or rules of action were smitten away at a blow. Where was Nelly? Had she survived the perils of the journey, and escaped to a place of refuge with her mother? What would she think of his escape? What could he say to the frantic crowds of women outside? All these questions turned and chased each other over and over through his brain, but nowhere could he find a key to the problem of his future conduct.

His meditation was interrupted by a gentle tapping on the door, and by a voice calling "Sir! Sir!" Without unlocking the door he said, "Who is it?"

page 61

"I am Jenny, sir, one of the maids, and I want to know if you will not have some lunch."

Jack went to the door and unlocked it, finding himself confronted by a sprightly maiden dressed in a kind of uniform of blue and scarlet. Her pretty face was a rare compound of pride, shyness, and pleasure. Jack asked her if she could not bring his lunch into the study, and she assented at once. Departing, she returned with another maid, smart as herself, and the two set to work to lay the table, and bring in the food. They set out the table stylishly enough with glass and silver, but the only meat was a roasted fowl. There were no vegetables, and bread was represented by some biscuits. Jack ate his biscuit and fowl, carefully attended by his fluttered companions, who sometimes, as if by accident, touched his fingers in helping him or brushed lightly past him, as if to assure themselves that he was not altogether a child of dreamland. The course of fowl was followed by many different kinds of pastry, but Jack soon satisfied his appetite, and asked the girls to take things away. As they did so, Jenny seemed inclined to linger, and taking advantage of the other girl being absent, slid her arm round his neck, and said:

"Don't forget."

"Forget what?" said Jack.

"Forget that I looked after you first," she said. "You will have to take a wife directly, and remember I am in the running. We are all equals now, though it is my work to look after the house here."

"All right, Jenny," Jack replied. "You are pretty enough for anyone to be proud of, and if you will do something for me, I promise to give you first chance."

Jenny said that she would do whatever he wanted, and Jack continued: page 62"Do you know where there are any carpenters' tools?"

"Yes; there are some in the back rooms, but they haven't been used for years."

"Never mind that," said the man; "you run and get me a hammer and chisel, and I'll think you the most charming girl in the whole town."

Off ran Jenny, and soon returned bearing a hammer and screw-driver.

"This isn't a chisel, Jenny; a chisel has a sharp edge. But women always drive screws with chisels until the edge breaks. I'll make this do."

"What are you going to do with 'em?" said Jennie.

"I am going to amuse myself for a little while," replied Jack; "but it's a secret, and I'll tell you when you come back directly."

Jenny looked at him half-suspiciously, and said:

"Well, if I go away you'll remember your promise, won't you?" and she moved towards the door, running a caressing hand over his hair as she passed him.

As soon as the maid had left the room Jack again locked the door, and then, with a blow or two, and a wrench of the screw-driver, broke out one of the panels of the door. The noise brought Jenny and her companion back again with alarm on their faces, but Jack looked out laughingly through the empty space of the panel.

"Any food or conversation," he said, "will in future pass through this opening. You don't have me like that again, Miss Jenny."

"You are a mean thing," said Jenny, pouting, and going off with a tossed head. Jack had hardly settled down on a couch and lighted a cigarette before a tapping at the door and faces at the open panel announced visitors.

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"You can't come in," said Jack. "This room is tapu. Say what you must through the door."

"We are the deputation you asked for this morning," said a voice. "You asked for someone to explain matters to you, and I have been chosen."

"Only one can come in," replied the young man.

"I am not allowed to see you alone," answered the voice. "I am grey-haired and middle-aged, but they will not trust me with you unless two of the younger ladies are with me."

"Will the young ladies promise not to speak!" said Jack. "I will let them in if they only come to play propriety."

"Yes; we promise to be silent," said another feminine voice."

"Then I'll unlock the door," replied the rude fellow.

Thereupon he unlocked the door, and three ladies entered, Jack carefully fastening the lock behind them. He bowed deeply, and then shook hands with his fair visitors, for whom he placed chairs, and they all seated themselves.

"My name is Margaret Henley—Miss Henley," said the lady most advanced in years. "This young lady," she continued, pointing to a tall and very handsome dark girl, "is Victoria Stanley. And this is Harriet Longfellow." The last-mentioned was an ordinary lassie, not very fair to look upon, but with a kind and sympathetic expression. They were all evidently highly nervous, and the tremor in Miss Henley's voice was echoed by an answering thrill in Jack's bosom—a feeling that seemed to catch him in the throat when he tried to express pleasure in their visit to him. He asked Miss Henley if she was one of the leaders of the people. She answered; page 64"I am not in any political position, Mr.——? I have not the pleasure of knowing your name. When I say pleasure, I assure you that it is not an empty compliment, for we meet under such extraordinary circumstances that the pleasure is almost overwhelming."

"My name is John Wellesley Wallace," he replied, "commonly known as Jack Wallace. May I ask you to add to your kindness in coming to see me by giving me a brief history of what has taken place?"

"I do not know where to begin," said Miss Henley. "How much do you know? Where have you been? How did you escape?"

"I have been asleep in a cave," Jack answered. 'I was sent to sleep by an old native priest (whose name be blessed); he gave me some curious narcotic. But never mind me—I know absolutely nothing. What made the men die?"

"No one knows," said Miss Henley. "Three years ago, on the 4th January, every man and every male child drooped and died in the same hour. They did not suffer, nor was there any external mark or symptom; the life ebbed out of them, and they passed away. No tongue can describe, no mind can picture the fearful vision of the Great Calamity. What it was like in the crowded cities of Europe and Asia I have always shrunk from imagining. Even here, with our small, scattered population, it was awful beyond conception. The women almost universally seemed frenzied with grief and terror; some went raving mad, and many died. When the men went, some of the women tried to bury the bodies, and partly succeeded, but in the towns they could not dig sufficient graves to carry all the corpses. So down on us swept the pestilence to add its horrors and claim new victims. Those who survived fled to the fields and endured the page 65severity of exposure to the weather. The bulk of the food supply, the meat and vegetables, stopped instantly; only the goods in the shops and stores were available, and these are almost exhausted. Then, from all parts of the country the women and girl-children came trooping in — they could not bear the dreadful solitude of country life in scattered homes. 'Their place was full of ghosts,' they said — for superstition added its evil weight to the burdens already weighing down the poor, hungry, sickening creatures. Efforts were made by many noble-hearted women again and again to organize and equip the better portion of their number to help their weaker sisters, but the difficulties needed not only courage, but herculean strength to overcome. In the constant presence of death, with scenes of maddening misery on every side, there was no one among us strong enough to stem the tide of despair. We have only gone from bad to worse, except in one thing. We managed to cleanse and fumigate the town, and take possession of many of the houses. But our numbers are sadly reduced. With all the crowding into the city of the whole female population of the Province there are now not one-half the people in Auckland that there were four years ago, and, strange to say, we should be thankful if there were fewer still. The vile and criminal section of our women, though few in number, have held high orgie. They gained possession of the chief stores and hotels, and have occupied a whole street, which is now a perfect Alsatia. Luckily they are dying off from the effect of their excesses, but their behaviour and the reckless way they set places on fire if interfered with are causes of anxiety added to our troubles."