Read Online Far Tortuga by Peter Matthiessen - Free Book Online

him—dat mon dere ain’t afraid of work. But nobody give him a job no more; it jail where he belong.
    Well, Desmond generous, I say dat—
    Generous, you said? By God, I never seen
dat
. He had his woman shiftin along, beggin and stealin, even when he had money. Call dat
borrowin
—done dat to my wife. So Ardith told Desmond woman something dat she didn’t like to hear, and I was very pleased with how she hondled
dat
part of de motter—
    If she lose Raib’s money, she lucky she still alive. Raib treat dat poor woman so bad, she so scared of him, she don’t know if she comin or goin. And dass de second wife, y’know—wore out de first one.
    Some fellas, you got to get’m to de place where you can hondle dem. Don’t do dat, you got trouble. It like Honduras (
groans
): dey beat me up! I got such a floggin down dere in dat drydock, it were terrible. I got a
floggin
! (
grins
) One good thing about it: when I left down dere, I got away owin three hundred dollars and maybe eighty from de amount dat dey had wanted to steal from me. Dey left me go with de promise dat I would pay dem, but I told’m—I sent back a message with de
Daydream
—dat dey would have to come to Grand Cayman to receive dat money. In de Court of Justice! I see dem fellas in de Court of Justice!
    As Raib laughs, a wave catches the rudder, twisting the wheel from Vemon’s grasp. The ship yaws around into a trench, falling broadside to the seas; she is smacked hard—
whump
!—before she rights herself, and the men bawl as a wall of spray crashes across them.
    Vemon!
    The ship pitches down the face of the next wave, roaring propellers hoisted clear out of the water. The old ropes that secure the boom part under the strain of the ship’s labor, and before the leaping figures can secure it, the boom crashes back and forth over the deck amidships, and the block-and-tackle flying at its tip cracks the wood framing that supports the upright exhaust stack on the port engine. When the unsupported weight of the long stack breaks it loose from its elbow at the manifold, the engine room fills suddenly with smoke.
    Figures surround the engine hatch. Below, Brown’s form moves through the gloom, in a bad light. As the ship rolls, and the open manifold pours smoke into the hold, Brown fits and tinkers.
    Dat what I call a
engineer
, mon—how he
stay
down dere?
    Look like he in hell!
    Byrum stares out at the ocean dark, quickly turns back again.
    We could be dere, too, pretty domn quick—no goddom fire equipment. Oh, dis a
bad
trip, mon!
    Dat is some hombre, dat is! Don’t even shut de motor off! Hondle dat hot pipe dat way, and eat dat smoke!
    Maybe it all dat diesel in de food—got so he
need
it!
    Well, he finished—look at dat! Come up, den, Brownie!
    Startled, the engineer looks up at the faces that ring the engine hatch. He stands there a moment, angling his sombrero, then goesslowly to the ladder and climbs out. He accompanies the men to the galley, where he accepts a plate of food and begins to eat. When his mouth is full, he looks up, smiles, and suddenly stops smiling. He has a round head and tawny eyes that search the other faces for a clue.
    You from Sponnish Honduras, huh?
    No, mon. Woman dere.
    Where you home den?
    La casa?
(
shrugs
) Barranquilla?
    Well, what you do down dere in Roatán? You engineer? Do any farmin like Speedy do?
    I no farmer,
hombre
! (
spits
) No, mon.
Pescador
. Little bit mechanic work. Little bit common labor. Little bit everything:
chiclero
. Little bit barberin. (
pause
) Little bit soldierin. (
grins suddenly
)
La Violencia!
    Where was dat?
    Brown nods toward the south.
    Colombia.
    Dat where your people at? Colombia? You from Old Providence or de mainland?
    Brown says nothing. As he chews, a bean works its way out of his mouth and falls to the deck between his broken shoes.
    You gone to go back dere to Roatán?
    Es posible. Es
January
ahora
, no?
    April.
    April?
    Brown stops chewing and looks suspiciously from face to