the darkest hour.
a long time after the events narrated in the last chapter, john adams and edward young sat together one evening in the cave at the top of the mountain, where poor fletcher christian had been wont to hold his lonely vigils.
“i’ve bin thinkin’ of late,” said young, “that it is very foolish of us to content ourselves with merely fishing from the rocks, when there are better fish to be had in deep water, and plenty of material at hand for making canoes.”
“you’re right, sir; we ought to try our hands at a canoe. pity we didn’t do so before the native men was all killed. they knew what sort o’ trees to use, and how to split ’em up into planks, an’ all that sort o’ thing.”
“but mccoy used to study that subject, and talk much about it, when we were in otaheite,” returned young. “i’ve no doubt that with his aid we could build a good enough canoe, and the women would be as able as the men, no doubt, to direct us what to do if we were in a difficulty. mccoy is a handy fellow, you know, with tools, as he has proved more than once since the death of poor williams.”
adams shook his head.
“no doubt, mr young, he’s handy enough with the tools; but ever since he discovered how to make spirits, neither he nor quintal, as you know, sir, are fit for anything.”
“true,” said young, with a perplexed look; “it never occurred to me before that strong drink was such a curse. i begin now to understand why some men that i have known have been so enthusiastic in their outcry against it. perhaps it would be right for you and me to refuse to drink with quintal and mccoy, seeing that they are evidently killing themselves with it.”
“i don’t quite see that, sir,” objected adams. “a glass of grog don’t do me no harm that i knows of, an’ it wouldn’t do them no good if we was to stop our allowance.”
“it might; who can tell?” said young. “i’ve not thought much about the matter, however, so we won’t discuss it. but what would you say if we were to hide the kettle that mccoy makes it in, and refuse to give it up till the canoe is finished?”
again adams shook his head.
“they’d both go mad with dt,” said he, by which letters he referred to the drunkard’s awful disease, delirium tremens.
“well, at all events, we will try to persuade him to go to work, and the sooner the better,” said young, rising and leaving the cave.
in pursuance of this plan, young spoke to mccoy in one of his few sober moments, and got him persuaded to begin the work, and to drink less while engaged in it.
under the impulse of this novelty in his occupation, the unhappy man did make an attempt to curb himself, and succeeded so far that he worked pretty steadily for several days, and made considerable progress with the canoe.
the wood was chosen, the tree felled, the trunk cut to the proper length and split up into very fair planks, which were further smoothed by means of a stone adze, brought by the natives from otaheite, and it seemed as if the job would be quickly finished, when the terrible demon by whom mccoy had been enslaved suddenly asserted his tyrannical power. quintal, who rendered no assistance in canoe-building, had employed himself in making a “new brew,” as he expressed it, and mccoy went up to his hut in the mountain one evening to taste.
the result, of course, was that he was absolutely incapable of work next day; and then, giving way to the maddening desire, he and his comrade-in-debauchery went in, as they said, for a regular spree. it lasted for more than a week, and when it came to an end, the two men, with cracked lips, bloodshot eyes, and haggard faces, looked as if they had just escaped from a madhouse.
edward young now positively refused to drink any more of the spirits, and adams, although he would not go quite to that length, restricted himself to one glass in the day.
this at first enraged both quintal and mccoy. the former cursed his comrades in unmeasured terms, and drank more deeply just to spite them. the latter refused to work at the canoe, and both men became so uproarious, that young and adams were obliged to turn them out of the house where they were wont occasionally to meet for a social evening.
thus things went on for many a day from bad to worse. bad as things had been in former years, it seemed as if the profoundest depth of sin and misery had not yet been fathomed by these unhappy mutineers.
in all these doings, it would have gone hard with the poor women and children if adams and young had not increased in their kindness and consideration for them, as the other two men became more savage and tyrannical.
at last matters came to such a crisis that it became once more a matter of discussion with young and adams whether they should not destroy the machinery by which the spirits were made, and it is probable that they might have done this, if events had not occurred which rendered the act unnecessary.
one day william mccoy was proceeding with a very uncertain step along the winding footpath that led to his house up in the mountain. the man’s face worked convulsively, and it seemed as if terrible thoughts filled his brain. muttering to himself as he staggered along, he suddenly met his own son, who had grown apace by that time, being nearly seven years of age. both father and son stopped abruptly, and looked intently at each other.
“what brings you here?” demanded the father, with a look of as much dignity as it was in his power to assume.
the poor boy hesitated, and looked frightened. his natural spirit of fun and frolic seemed of late to have forsaken him.
“what are ’ee afraid of?” roared mccoy, who had not quite recovered from his last fit of delirium tremens. “why don’t ’ee speak?”
“mother’s not well,” said daniel, softly; “she bid me come and tell you.”
“what’s that to me?” cried mccoy, savagely. “come here, dan.” he lowered his tone, and held out his hand, but the poor boy was afraid to approach.
uttering a low growl, the father made a rush at him, stumbled over a tree-root, and fell heavily to the earth. little dan darted into the bush, and fled home.
rising slowly, mccoy looked half-stunned at first, but speedily recovering himself, staggered on till he reached the hut, when he wildly seized the bottle from its shelf, and put it to his lips, which were bleeding from the fall, and covered with dust.
“ha ha!” he shouted, while the light of delirium rekindled in his eyes, “this is the grand cure for everything. my own son’s afraid o’ me now, but who cares? what’s that to bill mccoy! an’ his mother’s ill too—ha!—”
he checked himself in the middle of a fierce laugh, and stared before him as if horror-stricken.
“no, no!” he gasped. “i—i didn’t. oh! god be merciful to me!”
again he stopped, raised both hands high above his head, uttered a wild laugh which terminated in a prolonged yell, as he dashed the bottle on the floor, and darted from the hut.
all the strength and vigour which the wretched man had squandered seemed to come back to him in that hour. the swiftness of youth returned to his limbs. he ran down the path by which he had just come, and passed quintal on the way.
“hallo, bill! you’re pretty bad to-night,” said his comrade, looking after him. he then followed at a smart run, as if some new idea had suddenly occurred to him. two of the women met mccoy further down, but as if to evade them, he darted away to the right along the track leading to the eastward cliffs. the women joined quintal in pursuit, but before they came near him, they saw him rush to the highest part of the cliffs and leap up into the air, turning completely over as he vanished from their sight.
at that spot the cliff appeared to overhang its base, and was several hundred feet high. far down there was a projecting rock, where sea-gulls clustered in great numbers. mccoy, like the lightning-flash, came in contact with the rock, and was dashed violently out into space, while the affrighted sea-birds fled shrieking from the spot. next moment the man’s mangled body cleft the dark water like an arrow, leaving only a little spot of foam behind to mark for a few seconds his watery grave.
it might have been thought that this terrible event would have had a sobering effect upon matthew quintal, but instead of that it made him worse. the death of his wife, too, by a fall from the cliffs about the same time, seemed only to have the effect of rendering him more savage; insomuch that he became a terror to the whole community, and frequently threatened to take the lives of his remaining comrades. in short, the man seemed to have gone mad, and young and adams resolved, in self-defence, to put him to death.
we spare the reader the sickening details. they accomplished the terrible deed with an axe, and thus the number of the male refugees on pitcairn was reduced to two. the darkest hour of the lonely island had been reached—the hour before the dawn.
