Valiant Gentlemen by Sabina Murray

Author:Sabina Murray
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Published: 2016-10-14T15:03:55+00:00

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The Anversille

March 1903

Casement boarded the Anversille in Lisbon. The last port of call was Tenerife and it is only a matter of days before he reaches Boma. At least he is now reunited with his dog. Poor old John. He pants in the heat, making the most of the draft that comes in beneath the cabin door. His smile is always affable, even as it shows off his powerful jaws.

There is such an odd assortment of people going to the Congo these days, or perhaps they are the same people as in the past and his changed perspective is what alters the composition. The adventurers seem more mercenary, the missionaries more naïve, and he less robust. Although the work is important and he will have to find strength. He’s writing a report for the Foreign Office on the use of slavery in the region, and the possible ramifications of such a document, should he execute it well, weigh heavily. He could save a lot of people. Or he could exert great effort and manage nothing. How are these things decided?

Casement has been under the weather since Lisbon. Despite this, he managed some gambling there and even met a young man—Aghostino—who still flickers in his mind’s eye. Casement gave him money, said that he would be back through Lisbon and that they would meet again. After all, it was possible. Casement would be finished with the Congo after this report was done. His best and most likely posting is, at this stage, Lisbon.

It’s late, but sleep is not coming. He has a book in his second suitcase, O’Grady’s History of Ireland: The Heroic Period, and, as he’s read it several times, maybe that will send him off. He pulls the case out from under the bed. The rusted clasps on this one had crumbled as he boarded at Tenerife and the case has been tied shut with a rope. Although he knows for a fact that a sailor is responsible for this knot—Casement watched him do it—this is definitely no “sailor’s knot.” Much as he prods at it, even poking into the seams with a pencil point, the knot holds fast. Perhaps it is a Gordian knot and everyone knows what that needs: a blade. Unfortunately, Casement’s pocketknife too has fallen victim to the same rust as the clasps and it is only now, as he finds himself in need, that he remembers his intention of purchasing a new one at the last port of call.

“Move, John,” says Casement and John, who is lying to block the door, pulls himself up on his bowed front legs, gets the hind legs under, presents his great head to be patted and scratched. Casement shuts the door behind him. Outside the cabin, a breeze worries the damp air. All is quiet. Down the deck, he can see two Kroo boys leaned up on the rails, one gesturing through some funny story with loose, sweeping hands, the other slighter, more reserved in his movements, laughing and shaking his head in disbelief.

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