The Pobratim: A Slav Novel

GOD'S JUSTICEUpon a lonely mead two pine-trees grew,  And 'twixt the two a lowly willow-tree;  No pines were those upon the lonely mead,  Where nightly winds e'er whistle words of woe.  The one was Radislav – a warrior brave;  Whilst Janko was the other stately tree.  They were two brothers, fond of heart and true;  The weeping willow-tree that rose between  Had whilom been their sister Jelina.  Both brothers loved the maid so fair and good,  Fair as a snow-white lily fresh with dew,  And good, I ween, as a white turtle-dove.  Once Janko to his sister gave a gift;  It was a dagger with a blade of gold.  That day Marija, who was Janko's wife  (A wanton woman with a wicked heart),  Grew grey and green with envy and with grudge,  And to Zorizza, Radislavo's wife,  She said: "Pray tell me in what way must I  Get these two men to hate that Jelina,  Whom they love more, indeed, than you or me."  "I know not," said Zorizza, who was good —  Aye, good indeed, and sweet as home-made bread;  "And if I knew, I should pray day and night  For God to keep me from so foul a deed."  Marija wended then her way alone,  And as her head was full of fiendish thoughts,  She saw upon the mead her husband's foal,  The fleetest-footed filly of the place.  Whilst with one hand she fondled the young foal,  The other plunged a dagger in her breast;  Then, taking God as witness, swore aloud  That Jelina had done that deed of blood.  With doleful voice the brother asked the girl  What made her mar the foal he loved so well.  Upon her soul the maiden took an oath  That she nowise had done that noxious deed.  A few days later, on a dreary night,  Marija went and killed the falcon grey —  The swiftest bird, well worth its weight in gold.  Then creeping back to bed, with loud outcry  She woke the house; she said that, in a dream,  She saw her Janko's sister, as a witch,  Kill that grey falcon Janko loved so well.  Behold! at early morn the bird was dead.  "This cruel deed shall rest upon thy head,"  Said Janko to the girl, who stood amazed.  E'en after this Marija found no peace,  But hated Jelina far more than death,  So evermore she pondered how she could  Bring dire destruction down upon the maid.  One night, with stealthy steps, she went and stole  The golden-bladed knife from Jelka's room;  And with the knife she stabbed her only babe.  The foul deed done, she put the knife beneath  The pillow white whereon lay Jelka's head.  At early twilight, when the husband woke,  He found his rosy babe stabbed through the breast,  All livid pale within a pool of blood.  Marija tore her hair and scratched her cheeks  With feigned despair; she vowed to kill the witch  Who wantonly had stabbed her precious babe.  "But who has done this cruel, craven crime?  Who killed my child?" cried Janko, mad with rage.  "Go seek thy sister's knife, with golden blade;  Forsooth, 'tis stained with blood." And Janko went,  And found that Jelka still was fast asleep,  But 'neath her pillow, peeping out, he saw —  All stained with blood – the knife with golden blade.  He grasped his sleeping sister by her throat,  Accusing her of having killed his child.  And she – now startled in her morning sleep —  Midst sighs and sobs disowned the dreadful deed;  Still, when she saw the knife all stained with gore,  She grew all grey with fear and looked aghast,  And guilty-like, before that gruesome sight.  "An I have done this horrid, heinous deed,  Then I deserve to die a dreadful death.  If thou canst think that I have killed thy child,  Then take and tie me to thy horses' tails,  So that they tread me down beneath their hoofs."  The maid was led within the lonely mead,  Her limbs were bound unto the stallions' tails;  They lashed the horses, that soon reared and ran  Apart, and thus they tore her limbs in twain.  But lo! where'er her blood fell down in drops,  Sweet sage grew forth, and marjoram and thyme,  And fragrant basil, sweetest of all herbs;  But on the spot where dropped her mangled corse,  A bruised and shapeless mass of bleeding flesh,  A stately church arose from out the earth,  Of dazzling marbles gemmed with precious stones —  A wondrous chapel built by hallowed hands.  Marija, then, upon that day fell ill,  And nine long years she languished on her bed,  A death in life, still far more dead than quick;  And as she lay there 'twixt her skin and bones  The coarse and rank weeds grew, and 'midst the weeds  There nestled scorpions, snakes, and loathsome worms,  Which crept and sucked the tears from out her eyes.  In those last throes of death she wailed aloud,  And bade for mercy's sake that they might take  And lay her in that church which had sprung out  Where Jelka's body dropped a mangled corpse.  In fact, her only hope was to atone  For all those dreadful deeds which she had done.  But when they reached the threshold of the church,  A low and hollow voice came from the shrine,  And all who heard the sound were sore amazed.  "Avaunt from here! Till God forgive thy crimes,  This sacred ground is sure no place for thee."  Appalled to death, unable yet to die,  She begged them as a boon that they would tie  Her to the horses' tails, for dying thus she hoped  That God might then have mercy on her soul.  They bound her wasted limbs to stallions' tails;  Her bones were broke, her limbs were wrenched in twain,  And where the sods sucked up her blood impure,  The earth did yawn, and out of that wide gulf  Dark waters slowly rose and spread around;  Still, lifeless waters, like a lake of hell.  Within the mere the murdered foal was seen,  Just as we see a vision in a dream.  The falcon grey then flew with fluttering wing,  And panting, fell within that inky pool.  Then from the eddy rose a tiny cot.  Within that cot a rosy infant slept,  And smiled as if it saw its mother's breast.  But lo! its mother's claw-like hand arose  Out of the stagnant waters of the lake,  And plunged a dagger in the infant's breast.

The old woman, having finished her song, waited for a while till the young man looked up.

Presently, Uros, with a deep sigh, lifted his eyes towards her.

"Always the same man, with that fiendish face of his," quoth he, shaking his head.

"But tell me what you have seen now, that I might help you – if I can."

"That man, who has been haunting me all these days."

"Explain yourself better; did you only see his face, now?"

Uros first explained to the baornitza what he had witnessed in the sea the night when Milenko was arrested for murder.

"Have you often seen such things in the sea before?"

"From my earliest childhood, and almost every time I looked; very often Milenko and I saw the very same things."

"But are you sure you never saw the face before?"

"Oh! quite sure."

"Now, tell me minutely what you have seen in the glass."

"First the mirror grew hazy, just as if clouds were flitting over it; then, little by little, it got to be more transparent, and of a silvery, glassy grey. After that it grew greenish, and I could distinguish down within its depths a beautiful landscape. It was a country road seen by night; the moon was rising behind the hills at a distance, and presently the trees, the rocks, the road, were clearer. All at once two men were seen walking on the way. I could not see their faces, for I was behind them; still, I was sure who the shorter man was. They walked on and disappeared, but then I saw one of them come running back. I was not mistaken; it was the man with the single eye. His was, indeed, the face of a fiend.

"He must have been running for some time, for he was panting, nay, gasping for breath. He stopped, looked over his shoulder, then threw the knife he was holding within a bush. It was a bush with silvery leaves, and all covered with flowers. He then wiped his wet hands on the leaves of the shrub, on the scanty grass, then rubbed them with the sandy earth to remove all the traces of the blood. This done, he again took to his heels and disappeared."

"And that is all you saw?"

"No! the mirror resumed again its real, dark colour, but, as I continued looking within it, hoping to see something more, I saw it turn again milky-white; then of a strong grass green, and, in the midst of that glaring green paint, I had a glimpse of a Turkish flag; then, as the red flag vanished, I beheld two words cut out and painted in white in that garish green background. Those mysterious words remained for some time; then they vanished, and I saw nothing more."

"Those words were in Turkish characters, were they not?"

"No; some of them were like ours, but not all."

"Then they must have been either Cyrillic or Greek; but, tell me, are you quite sure you never saw those words before?"

"Oh! quite, they were so strange."

"You know, we happen sometimes to see things without noticing them, even strange things. Then these objects, of which we seem to have no knowledge, come back to us in our dreams, or when we gaze within a mirror; so it may be that you have seen that face and those words absently, with your eyes only, whilst your mind took no notice of them."

"I don't think so."

"You may think otherwise in a few days. But let's see; you know where the murder took place, don't you?"

"Yes."

"Well, the two men were, apparently, coming from Gravosa and going up to Ragusa. Now, the spot where the shorter one stopped must have been five, ten or fifteen minutes from the spot."

"I daresay a quarter of an hour. Sailors are not accustomed to run; besides, that man is not very young."

"How do you know he is a sailor?"

"By his dress; and a Greek sailor, besides. He wore a dark blue flannel shirt, a white belt or sash, and those rough, yellow home-spun trowsers which they alone wear."

"Then probably the two words you saw were Greek. Now, the first thing to be found is the knife; the second, and far more important fact, is the meaning of those words. Are you sure not to forget them? Can you, perhaps, write them down?"

"I'll never forget them as long as I live; they are engraven in my mind."

"Then go and look for the knife. Come back to me to-morrow; perhaps I may be of further help to you, that is, if you need more help."

Uros thanked the old woman, and then asked her where she had learnt all the wonderful things she knew.

"From my own mother. Once a trade was in one family for ages; every generation transmitted its secrets with its implements to the other. It is true, people only knew one thing; but they knew it thoroughly. Nowadays, young people are expected to have a smattering of everything; but the sum of all their knowledge often amounts to nothing."

Uros, taking leave of the wise old woman, went down the road leading from Porta Pilla to the sea. Soon he came to the spot where Milenko had been found clasping the murdered man in his arms. Then he looked at every tree, at every stone he passed on his way. After a while, he got to the corner where he had seen – in the mirror – the two men disappear. From there he crawled on, rather than walked, so that not a pebble of the road escaped his notice. After about a quarter of an hour, he came to a shrub of a dusty, greyish green – it was an Agnus castus in full bloom. He recognised it at once; it was the bush that had looked so silvery by the light of the moon within the magic mirror. His heart began to beat violently. As he looked round, he fancied he would see the murderer start from behind some tree and pounce upon him. He looked at the shrub carefully; some of its lower branches and the tops of many twigs were broken. He pushed the leaves aside, and searched within it. The knife was there. He did not see it at first; for its haft was almost the same colour as the roots of the tree, and the point of the knife was sticking in the earth. He took it up and examined it. All the part of the blade that had not been plunged in the earth was stained with blood. It was a common knife, one of those that all sailors wear in their belts. He put it in the breast pocket of his coat, and walked down with long strides. He was but a few steps from the shore.

Reason prompted him now to go to the police and give them the knife; for it might lead to the discovery of the culprit. Still, this was only a second thought – and Uros seldom yielded to practical after-thoughts; and whenever he did so, he always regretted it.

He had not a great idea of the police. They were only good to write things down on paper, making what they called protocols, which complicated everything.

No; it was far better to act for himself, and only apply for help to the police when he could have the murderer arrested.

As he got down to the shore the sun was sinking below the horizon; the silvery waters of the main were now being transmuted into vaporous gold. As he was looking at the sea and sky, from a meteorological, sailor-like point of view, and wondering whereabouts the Spera in Dio was just then, his eyes fell upon a little skiff, which had arrived a few days after they had. It was a Turkish caique, painted in bright prasine green. He had seen it for days when his own ship was loading and unloading, but then it had had nothing particular to attract his attention; he had seen hundreds of these barques in the East. Now, however, he could not help being struck by its vivid green colour. He looked up; the red flag with the half-moon met his eyes. He had but time to see it, when it disappeared, for the sun had set.

How his heart began to beat! Surely the murderer was on board. He strained his eyes to see the name of the ship, painted on either side, but he could not distinguish it so far. Not a man was seen on deck; the skiff seemed deserted.

A boy was fishing in a boat near there; he called him and asked him to lend him the boat for an instant.

"What! do you want to fish, too?" asked the boy, pulling up.

"No; I'd like to see the name of that caique."

After two or three good strokes with the oars, Uros could see the name plainly; it was Παναγια, exactly the name he had read in the mirror.

"Is that the ship you are looking for?"

"The very same one."

"Do you want to go on board?"

"Yes; I'd like to see the captain."

As soon as he was by the side of the caique he called out "Patria!" for this is the name by which Greek sailors are usually addressed.

Some one got up at the summons. It was not the single-eyed man that Uros was expecting to see, but a handsome, dark-eyed, shock-headed young fellow.

"Is the captain on board?"

The youth tossed up his head negatively and said some words, but the only one that Uros understood was Caffene.

As soon as Uros jumped on shore he went off to the coffee-house by the pier, the only one at Gravosa. There were only a few seamen smoking and sipping black coffee, but the person he wanted was not amongst them.

"Do you wish to be taken on board his craft?" asked a kind of ship-broker, hearing that Uros was asking about the Greek captain.

A few hours before he would simply have answered negatively. Now, as he wanted to hear more of the ship and its crew, he asked:

"Is it the Greek captain whose caique is lying just outside?"

"Yes; the one painted in green."

"Where is he?"

"Just gone up to town. Are you going to Ragusa?"

"Yes."

"Well, as I'm going up too, I'll come with you."

An hour afterwards Uros was duly introduced to the man he had been looking for.

The captain's first question was why Uros had remained behind, and as the young man was anxious to lead the conversation about the murder, he gave all the details about Milenko's arrest, and the reason why he himself had not started with his ship.

"What!" asked Uros, "you haven't heard of the murder?"

"No," replied Captain Panajotti; "you see, I only speak Greek and a little of the lingua Franca, so it is difficult to understand the people here."

"But how is it you happen to be wanting hands? You Greeks only have sailors of your own country."

"I've been very unfortunate this trip. One of my men has a whitlow in the palm of his hand; another, a Slav, came with me this trip, but only on condition of being allowed to go to his country while the ship was loading and unloading – "

"Well?" asked Uros, eagerly.

"He went off and never came back."

"Are you sure he was a Slav, and not a Turk?"

"We, on board, spoke to him in Turkish, because he knew the language like a Turk, but he was a Christian for all that; his country is somewhere in the interior, not far from here. Now another of my men has fallen ill – "

"The man with the one eye?"

"What! you know Vassili?" asked the captain, with a smile. "Yes, he's ill."

"What's the matter with him?"

"I really don't know; he's lying down, skulking in a hole; the devil take him."

"Since when?"

"Ten days, I think."

"But is he really ill?"

"He says he is; but why do you ask – do you know him?"

"I'll be straightforward with you," said Uros, looking the captain full in the eyes. "I think the murdered man is the Slav who left your ship ten days ago."

"You don't say so!" exclaimed the captain, astonished and grieved.

"I believe so."

"The one for whose murder your friend was arrested?"

"Exactly."

"Strange – very strange," said the captain, who had taken off his shoe and was rubbing his stockinged foot, "and the murderer?"

"The man who has been ill ever since."

"Vassili?"

"You've said it."

"But have you any proofs?"

"I have."

"Then why did you not get him arrested?"

"I'll do so to-morrow."

"And if you can prove your friend's innocence – "

"We'll sail with you to Zara, my friend and I, if you'll have us, and find you two other able-bodied seamen to take our place."

"But, remember, I'll not help you in any way to have a man on board my ship arrested."

"No, I don't ask you to do so."

"I believe he's a fiend; still, he's a fellow-countryman of mine."

The two men thereupon shook hands and separated.

Uros went to the police, and, after a great ado, he managed to find one of the directors.

"What do you want?" said the officer, cross at being disturbed out of office hours.

"I've found the murderer at last," replied Uros.

"And what murderer, pray? Do you think there's only one murderer in the world?"

Uros explained himself.

"And who is he?"

"A certain Vassili, a Greek, on board a caique now lying at Gravosa."

"And how have you found out that he is the murderer, when we know nothing about it?"

"By intuition."

"Well, but you don't expect us to go about arresting people on intuition, do you?" asked the officer, huffishly.

Uros proceeded to relate all he knew; then he produced the knife which he had found.

"Well, there is some ground to your intuition; and if the murdered man happens to be the Slav sailor who disappeared from on board the ship you speak of, well, then, there is some probability that this one-eyed man is the murderer."

"Anyhow, could you give orders for the ship to be watched to-night?"

"Yes, I can do that."

"At once?"

"You are rather exacting, young man."

"Think of my friend, who has been in prison ten days – "

"I'll give orders at once. There, are you satisfied now?"

"Thank you."

Uros, frightened lest the murderer might escape, hastened down to Gravosa to keep watch on the caique. On his way thither he stopped at a baker's shop and bought some bread, as he had been fasting for many hours. Having got down to the shore, he eat his bread, had a glass of water and a cup of black coffee at the coffee-house, lit a cigarette, and then went to stretch himself down on a boat drawn up on the sand, from where he could see anyone who came out of the Greek ship.

Although there was no moon, still the air was so clear, and the stars shone so brightly, that the sky was of a deep transparent blue, and the night was anything but black. A number of little noises were heard, especially the many insects that awake and begin to chirp when all the birds are hushed. One of them near him was breathing in a see-saw, drilling tone, whilst another kept syncopating this song with a sharp and shrill tsit, tsit. In some farmyard, far off, the growl of an old dog was occasionally heard in the distance, like a bass-viol; but the pleasantest of all these noises was the plap-plap of the wavelets lapping the soft sand.

Presently, a custom-house guard came and sat down near Uros, and they began talking together; and then time passed a little quicker.

It must have been about half-past one when Uros saw a man quietly lower himself down from the caique into the sea, and make for the shore. He must have swum with one hand, for his other was holding a bundle of clothes on his head. Uros pointed out the swimming figure to the guard, who at once sprang up and ran to the edge of the shore. The man, startled, veered and swam farther off. The watchman whistled, and another guard appeared at fifty paces from there. The man jerked himself round, evidently intending to go back to his ship; but Uros, who was on the alert, had already pushed into the sea the boat on which he had been stretched, and began paddling with a board which was lying within it.

The man, evidently thinking that Uros was a custom-house officer, seeing now that he could not get back on board, put on a bold face and swam once more towards the shore, whither Uros followed him. Three custom-house guards had come up together, and were waiting for him to step out of the water. Uros landed almost at once, and pushing the boat on the sand, turned round and found himself face to face with the dripping, naked figure. It was the fiendish, pitted, single-eyed man he had seen in his visions. He was by no means startled at seeing him; for he would have been astonished, indeed, if it had been someone else.

Uros, grasping him by one of his arms and holding him fast for fear he might escape, exclaimed: "That's the man! – that's the murderer!"

"Leave him," said the watchman; "if he tries to escape he's dead."

"Oh! but I don't want him dead; do what you like with him, but don't kill him; tie him up, cut off his legs and his arms, but spare his life until he has confessed."

The guards gave another shrill whistle, and presently the policemen came running up.

The naked man, who did not know a word of Slav, and only very little Italian, was taking his oath in Greek that he was no smuggler. He at once opened his bundle, wrapped up in an oil-cloth jacket, and showed the guards that there was nothing in it but a few clothes. The Greek sailor was ordered to dress himself; then the policemen handcuffed him and led him off to the station, where Uros followed him.

On the morrow the Greek captain was sent for, and he stated that, having accused Vassili – who, for ten days, had been shamming illness – of having murdered the Slav, this sailor had threatened him to go to the Greek consulate on the morrow. The guilty man, however, had, on second thoughts, deemed it more advisable to seek his safety in flight, little thinking to what danger he was exposing himself. The knife was produced and identified as having belonged to the prisoner; then, being confronted with Milenko, who at once recognised him as the murderer, he – overwhelmed by so many damning proofs – confessed his guilt and pleaded for mercy, saying that he had only killed his antagonist in self-defence.

Milenko's innocence being thus proclaimed, he was at once set free, whilst Uros was heartily congratulated on his intuition, and the officer who had snubbed him the evening before, strongly advised him to leave the sea and become a detective, for if he had the same skill in finding the traces of criminals as he had displayed in this case, he would soon became a most valuable officer, whilst Milenko was told that he ought to think himself fortunate in having such a friend.

CHAPTER XII

MARGARET OF LOPUD

Though the pobratim would have sailed with any ship rather than with the ill-fated green caique, still Uros had pledged his word to the Greek captain to go with him as far as Zara or Trieste, and, moreover, there was no other vessel sailing just then for either of these ports, and they were both anxious to catch up with the Spera in Dio without further delay. The Greek captain, likewise – out of a kind of superstitious dread – would have preferred any other sailors to these two young men; still, as Dalmatians only sail with their own fellow-countrymen and never on Greek crafts, it was no easy matter to find two able-bodied men to go only for a short trip, for those were times when sailors were not as plentiful, nor ships so scarce, as they are now.