Bright and Distant Shores by Dominic Smith

Author:Dominic Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atria Books

19.

Jethro Gray, now confined to the hold, would not be getting his first edition of A Naturalist Among the Head-Hunters signed by its author. Terrapin granted Owen two hours at the government station in Tulagi and the trader rowed the dinghy onto the beach without passengers. The makeshift station was patrolled by five Fijian policemen and a sergeant from Guadalcanal. Even if Jethro had come ashore in hopes of flattering his fellow scientist into a personalized inscription, it was unlikely that Charles Woodford would have received him. He was preoccupied and not taking visitors just at the moment. The Anglican mission of Siota looked set to be placed under quarantine and there had been a spike in outbound correspondence. Among his other duties, Woodford sold New South Wales stamps to the Europeans in the islands and arranged passage for postal items on government steamers. The missionaries, all those strapping English lads and freckled Australian girls eager for Christian service, were now brought down by every strain of milkpox, cottonpox, and Cuban itch, so that the mailbags were filled with deathbed epistles and codicils, entreaties for forgiveness and reconciliation, strands of hair coiled inside feverishly licked envelopes, night poems filled with remorse. On the mail hut wall, next to a portrait of Queen Victoria, there hung a tintype of missionaries flanked on a beach, sunhats fastened, gilded King Jameses in their hands. Owen stared up at it while a Fijian policeman dug for Adelaide’s letter in a canvas mailbag.

The envelope was spattered and torn, looked more like a prison letter from the Congo than a love letter from Chicago. Owen was puzzled by the Boston postmark and wished he could read the letter at once. He placed it in his pocket and was already thinking about half an hour of solitude on the foredeck. Or maybe he would take it up into the rigging, amid the flying kites and moon-rakers, rolling the words in his mouth to better hear her voice.

Although he had to be back on deck in a little over an hour, he couldn’t help wondering whether the Resident Commissioner might be interested in selling some artifacts. Owen knew that he had once collected for the British Museum, technically making him the competition, but he’d also heard from the grumbling constable that the government station had a single whaleboat and five pence in reserves. Maybe the commissioner could be tempted into a quick and haggle-free sale. Owen sent word of his interest with one of the constables. What came back was a politely worded declination and a cup of English tea on a china saucer. Owen drank it down in the hot sun and returned to the ship, watching the envelope square his trouser pocket as he rowed.

On board, Owen avoided the commotion of the crew weighing anchor and unfurling the sails. He retired to his cabin and lit the hanging lantern above his small desk. It sputtered to life, a wavering blue-yellow in the noxious atmosphere. He crossed to the porthole and opened the glass hatch.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.