Short Stories Page 12

The doctor made no answer. He looked out of the window sullenly. For once it was not raining and across the bay you saw nestling among the trees the huts of a native village.

  'I think I'll take advantage of the rain stopping to go out,' he said.

  'Please don't bear me malice because I can't accede to your wish,' said Davidson, with a melancholy smile. 'I respect you very much, doctor, and I should be sorry if you thought ill of me.'

  'I have no doubt you have a sufficiently good opinion of yourself to bear mine with equanimity,' he retorted.

  'That's one on me,' chuckled Davidson.

  When Dr Macphail, vexed with himself because he had been uncivil to no purpose, went downstairs, Miss Thompson was waiting for him with her door ajar.

  'Well,' she said, 'have you spoken to him?'

  'Yes, I'm sorry, he won't do anything,' he answered, not looking at her in his embarrassment.

  But then he gave her a quick glance, for a sob broke from her. He saw that her face was white with fear. It gave him a shock of dismay. And suddenly he had an idea.

  'But don't give up hope yet. I think it's a shame the way they're treating you and I'm going to see the governor myself.'

  'Now?'

  He nodded. Her face brightened.

  'Say, that's real good of you. I'm sure he'll let me stay if you speak for me. I just won't do a thing I didn't ought all the time I'm here.'

  Dr Macphail hardly knew why he had made up his mind to appeal to the governor. He was perfectly indifferent to Miss Thompson's affairs, but the missionary had irritated him, and with him temper was a smouldering thing. He found the governor at home. He was a large, handsome man, a sailor, with a grey toothbrush moustache; and he wore a spotless uniform of white drill.

  'I've come to see you about a woman who's lodging in the same house as we are,' he said. 'Her name's Thompson.'

  'I guess I've heard nearly enough about her, Dr Macphail,' said the governor, smiling. 'I've given her the order to get out next Tuesday and that's all I can do.'

  'I wanted to ask you if you couldn't stretch a point and let her stay here till the boat comes in from San Francisco so that she can go to Sydney. I will guarantee her good behaviour.'

  The governor continued to smile, but his eyes grew small and serious.

  'I'd be very glad to oblige you, Dr Macphail, but I've given the order and it must stand.'

  The doctor put the case as reasonably as he could, but now the governor ceased to smile at all. He listened sullenly, with averted gaze. Macphail saw that he was making no impression.

  'I'm sorry to cause any lady inconvenience, but she'll have to sail on Tuesday and that's all there is to it.'

  'But what difference can it make?'

  'Pardon me, doctor, but I don't feel called upon to explain my official actions except to the proper authorities.'

  Macphail looked at him shrewdly. He remembered Davidson's hint that he had used threats, and in the governor's attitude he read a singular embarrassment.

  'Davidson's a damned busybody,' he said hotly.

  'Between ourselves, Dr Macphail, I don't say that I have formed a very favourable opinion of Mr Davidson, but I am bound to confess that he was within his rights in pointing out to me the danger that the presence of a woman of Miss Thompson's character was to a place like this where a number of enlisted men are stationed among a native population.'

  He got up and Dr Macphail was obliged to do so too.

  'I must ask you to excuse me. I have an engagement. Please give my respects to Mrs Macphail.'

  The doctor left him crestfallen. He knew that Miss Thompson would be waiting for him, and unwilling to tell her himself that he had failed, he went into the house by the back door and sneaked up the stairs as though he had something to hide.

  At supper he was silent and ill-at-ease, but the missionary was jovial and animated. Dr Macphail thought his eyes rested on him now and then with triumphant good-humour. It struck him suddenly that Davidson knew of his visit to the governor and of its ill success. But how on earth could he have heard of it? There was something sinister about the power of that man. After supper he saw Horn on the veranda and, as though to have a casual word with him, went out.

  'She wants to know if you've seen the governor,' the trader whispered.

  'Yes. He wouldn't do anything. I'm awfully sorry, I can't do anything more.'

  'I knew he wouldn't. They daren't go against the missionaries.'

  'What are you talking about?' said Davidson affably, coming out to join them.

  'I was just saying there was no chance of your getting over to Apia for at least another week,' said the trader glibly.

  He left them, and the two men returned into the parlour. Mr Davidson devoted one hour after each meal to recreation. Presently a timid knock was heard at the door.

  'Come in,' said Mrs Davidson, in her sharp voice.

  The door was not opened. She got up and opened it. They saw Miss Thompson standing at the threshold. But the change in her appearance was extraordinary. This was no longer the flaunting hussy who had jeered at them in the road, but a broken, frightened woman. Her hair, as a rule so elaborately arranged, was tumbling untidily over her neck. She wore bedroom slippers and a shirt and blouse. They were unfresh and bedraggled. She stood at the door with the tears streaming down her face and did not dare to enter.

  'What do you want?' said Mrs Davidson harshly.

  'May I speak to Mr Davidson?' she said in a choking voice.

  The missionary rose and went towards her.

  'Come right in, Miss Thompson,' he said in cordial tones. 'What can I do for you?'

  She entered the room.

  'Say, I'm sorry for what I said to you the other day an' for – for everythin' else. I guess I was a bit lit up. I beg pardon.'

  'Oh, it was nothing. I guess my back's broad enough to bear a few hard words.'

  She stepped towards him with a movement that was horribly cringing.

  'You've got me beat. I'm all in. You won't make me go back to 'Frisco?'

  His genial manner vanished and his voice grew on a sudden hard and stern.

  'Why don't you want to go back there?'

  She cowered before him.

  'I guess my people live there. I don't want them to see me like this. I'll go anywhere else you say.'

  'Why don't you want to go back to San Francisco?'

  'I've told you.'

  He leaned forward, staring at her, and his great, shining eyes seemed to try to bore into her soul. He gave a sudden gasp.

  'The penitentiary.'

  She screamed, and then she fell at his feet, clasping his legs.

  'Don't send me back there. I swear to you before God I'll be a good woman. I'll give all this up.'

  She burst into a torrent of confused supplication and the tears coursed down her painted cheeks. He leaned over her and, lifting her face, forced her to look at him.

  'Is that it, the penitentiary?'

  'I beat it before they could get me,' she gasped. 'If the bulls grab me it's three years for me.'

  He let go his hold of her and she fell in a heap on the floor, sobbing bitterly. Dr Macphail stood up.

  'This alters the whole thing,' he said. 'You can't make her go back when you know this. Give her another chance. She wants to turn over a new leaf.'

  'I'm going to give her the finest chance she's ever had. If she repents let her accept her punishment.'

  She misunderstood the words and looked up. There was a gleam of hope in her heavy eyes.

  'You'll let me go?'

  'No. You shall sail for San Francisco on Tuesday.'

  She gave a groan of horror and then burst into low, hoarse shrieks which sounded hardly human, and she beat her head passionately on the ground. Dr Macphail sprang to her and lifted her up.

  'Come on, you mustn't do that. You'd better go to your room and lie down. I'll get you something.'

  He raised her to her feet and partly dragging her, partly carrying her, go
t her downstairs. He was furious with Mrs Davidson and with his wife because they made no effort to help. The half-caste was standing on the landing and with his assistance he managed to get her on the bed. She was moaning and crying. She was almost insensible. He gave her a hypodermic injection. He was hot and exhausted when he went upstairs again.

  'I've got her to lie down.'

  The two women and Davidson were in the same positions as when he had left them. They could not have moved or spoken since he went.

  'I was waiting for you,' said Davidson, in a strange, distant voice. 'I want you all to pray with me for the soul of our erring sister.'

  He took the Bible off a shelf, and sat down at the table at which they had supped. It had not been cleared, and he pushed the tea-pot out of the way. In a powerful voice, resonant and deep, he read to them the chapter in which is narrated the meeting of Jesus Christ with the woman taken in adultery.

  'Now kneel with me and let us pray for the soul of our dear sister, Sadie Thompson.'

  He burst into a long, passionate prayer in which he implored God to have mercy on the sinful woman. Mrs Macphail and Mrs Davidson knelt with covered eyes. The doctor, taken by surprise, awkward and sheepish, knelt too. The missionary's prayer had a savage eloquence. He was extraordinarily moved, and as he spoke the tears ran down his cheeks. Outside, the pitiless rain fell, fell steadily, with a fierce malignity that was all too human.

  At last he stopped. He paused for a moment and said:

  'We will now repeat the Lord's prayer.'

  They said it and then, following him, they rose from their knees. Mrs Davidson's face was pale and restful. She was comforted and at peace, but the Macphails felt suddenly bashful. They did not know which way to look.

  'I'll just go down and see how she is now,' said Dr Macphail.

  When he knocked at her door it was opened for him by Horn. Miss Thompson was in a rocking-chair, sobbing quietly.

  'What are you doing there?' exclaimed Macphail. 'I told you to lie down.'

  'I can't lie down. I want to see Mr Davidson.'

  'My poor child, what do you think is the good of it? You'll never move him.'

  'He said he'd come if I sent for him.'

  Macphail motioned to the trader.

  'Go and fetch him.'

  He waited with her in silence while the trader went upstairs. Davidson came in.

  'Excuse me for asking you to come here,' she said, looking at him sombrely.

  'I was expecting you to send for me. I knew the Lord would answer my prayer.'

  They stared at one another for a moment and then she looked away. She kept her eyes averted when she spoke.

  'I've been a bad woman. I want to repent.'

  'Thank God! Thank God! He has heard our prayers.'

  He turned to the two men.

  'Leave me alone with her. Tell Mrs Davidson that our prayers have been answered.'

  They went out and closed the door behind them.

  'Gee whizz,' said the trader.

  That night Dr Macphail could not get to sleep till late, and when he heard the missionary come upstairs he looked at his watch. It was two o'clock. But even then he did not go to bed at once, for through the wooden partition that separated their rooms he heard him praying aloud, till he himself, exhausted, fell asleep.

  When he saw him next morning he was surprised at his appearance. He was paler than ever, tired, but his eyes shone with inhuman fire. It looked as though he were filled with an overwhelming joy.

  'I want you to go down presently and see Sadie,' he said. 'I can't hope that her body is better, but her soul – her soul is transformed.'

  The doctor was feeling wan and nervous.

  'You were with her very late last night,' he said.

  'Yes, she couldn't bear to have me leave her.'

  'You look as pleased as Punch,' the doctor said irritably.

  Davidson's eyes shone with ecstasy.

  'A great mercy has been vouchsafed me. Last night I was privileged to bring a lost soul to the loving arms of Jesus.'

  Miss Thompson was again in the rocking-chair. The bed had not been made. The room was in disorder. She had not troubled to dress herself, but wore a dirty dressing-gown, and her hair was tied in a sluttish knot. She had given her face a dab with a wet towel, but it was all swollen and creased with crying. She looked a drab.

  She raised her eyes dully when the doctor came in. She was cowed and broken.

  'Where's Mr Davidson?' she asked.

  'He'll come presently if you want him,' answered Mac-phail acidly. 'I came here to see how you were.'

  'Oh, I guess I'm O.K. You needn't worry about that.'

  'Have you had anything to eat?'

  'Horn brought me some coffee.'

  She looked anxiously at the door.

  'D'you think he'll come down soon? I feel as if it wasn't so terrible when he's with me.'

  'Are you still going on Tuesday?'

  'Yes, he says I've got to go. Please tell him to come right along. You can't do me any good. He's the only one as can help me now.'

  'Very well,' said Dr Macphail.

  During the next three days the missionary spent almost all his time with Sadie Thompson. He joined the others only to have his meals. Dr Macphail noted that he hardly ate.

  'He's wearing himself out,' said Mrs Davidson pitifully. 'He'll have a breakdown if he doesn't take care, but he won't spare himself.'

  She herself was white and pale. She told Mrs Macphail that she had no sleep. When the missionary came upstairs from Miss Thompson he prayed till he was exhausted, but even then he did not sleep for long. After an hour or two he got up and dressed himself, and went for a tramp along the bay. He had strange dreams.

  'This morning he told me that he'd been dreaming about the mountains of Nebraska,' said Mrs Davidson.

  'That's curious,' said Dr Macphail.

  He remembered seeing them from the windows of the train when he crossed America. They were like huge molehills, rounded and smooth, and they rose from the plain abruptly. Dr Macphail remembered how it struck him that they were like a woman's breasts.

  Davidson's restlessness was intolerable even to himself. But he was buoyed up by a wonderful exhilaration. He was tearing out by the roots the last vestiges of sin that lurked in the hidden corners of that poor woman's heart. He read with her and prayed with her.

  'It's wonderful,' he said to them one day at supper. 'It's a true rebirth. Her soul, which was black as night, is now pure and white like the new-fallen snow. I am humble and afraid. Her remorse for all her sins is beautiful. I am not worthy to touch the hem of her garment.'

  'Have you the heart to send her back to San Francisco?' said the doctor. 'Three years in an American prison. I should have thought you might have saved her from that.'

  'Ah, but don't you see? It's necessary. Do you think my heart doesn't bleed for her? I love her as I love my wife and my sister. All the time that she is in prison I shall suffer all the pain that she suffers.'

  'Bunkum,' cried the doctor impatiently.

  'You don't understand because you're blind. She's sinned, and she must suffer. I know what she'll endure. She'll be starved and tortured and humiliated. I want her to accept the punishment of man as a sacrifice to God. I want her to accept it joyfully. She has an opportunity which is offered to very few of us. God is very good and very merciful.'

  Davidson's voice trembled with excitement. He could hardly articulate the words that tumbled passionately from his lips.

  'All day I pray with her and when I leave her I pray again, I pray with all my might and main, so that Jesus may grant her this great mercy. I want to put in her heart the passionate desire to be punished so that at the end, even if I offered to let her go, she would refuse. I want her to feel that the bitter punishment of prison is the thank-offering that she places at the feet of our Blessed Lord, who gave his life for her.'

  The days passed slowly. The whole household, intent on the wretched, tortured
woman downstairs, lived in a state of unnatural excitement. She was like a victim that was being prepared for the savage rites of a bloody idolatry. Her terror numbed her. She could not bear to let Davidson out of her sight; it was only when he was with her that she had courage, and she hung upon him with a slavish dependence. She cried a great deal, and she read the Bible, and prayed. Sometimes she was exhausted and apathetic. Then she did indeed look forward to her ordeal, for it seemed to offer an escape, direct and concrete, from the anguish she was enduring. She could not bear much longer the vague terrors which now assailed her. With her sins she had put aside all personal vanity, and she slopped about her room, unkempt and dishevelled, in her tawdry dressing-gown. She had not taken off her night-dress for four days, nor put on stockings. Her room was littered and untidy. Meanwhile the rain fell with a cruel persistence. You felt that the heavens must at last be empty of water, but still it poured down, straight and heavy, with a maddening iteration, on the iron roof. Everything was damp and clammy. There was mildew on the walls and on the boots that stood on the floor. Through the sleepless nights the mosquitoes droned their angry chant.

  'If it would only stop raining for a single day it wouldn't be so bad,' said Dr Macphail.

  They all looked forward to the Tuesday when the boat for San Francisco was to arrive from Sydney. The strain was intolerable. So far as Dr Macphail was concerned, his pity and his resentment were alike extinguished by his desire to be rid of the unfortunate woman. The inevitable must be accepted. He felt he would breathe more freely when the ship had sailed. Sadie Thompson was to be escorted on board by a clerk in the governor's office. This person called on the Monday evening and told Miss Thompson to be prepared at eleven in the morning. Davidson was with her.

  'I'll see that everything is ready. I mean to come on board with her myself.'

  Miss Thompson did not speak.

  When Dr Macphail blew out his candle and crawled cautiously under his mosquito curtains, he gave a sigh of relief.

  'Well, thank God that's over. By this time tomorrow she'll be gone.'

  'Mrs Davidson will be glad too. She says he's wearing himself to a shadow,' said Mrs Macphail. 'She's a different woman.'

  'Who?'

  'Sadie. I should never have thought it possible. It makes one humble.'