Polly's Southern Cruise

“Supposing you folks – all who wish to – go on a drive all about the country, while we youngsters attend court,” ventured Ray.

“If I thought we could trust the girls to you two scapegraces in such a place as a Kingston Court House, I’d accept the suggestion,” returned Mr. Dalken.

“I’ll go with the girls to the court, and you all can go for a sight-seeing trip,” offered Mrs. Courtney.

“Would you really care to sit out a court trial?” asked Mrs. Fabian, sympathetically for her friend.

“I think I’d prefer to be amused this morning instead of sight-seeing around the country,” answered Mrs. Courtney.

So it was hastily decided that the young people, chaperoned by Mrs. Courtney, were to attend court, while Mr. Dalken took his friends on a tram ride out into the open country of Jamaica.

Jack acted as official pilot of the contingent for the court house; as they came near the entrance door they found a crowd of all sorts of people waiting to see justice administered.

Inside, the good-looking young lieutenant was introduced to Jack’s party, and then he found seats in a desirable row where every incident could be seen, yet they would not be elbowed by the motley gathering.

The court room was nothing more than a large room with a raised platform at one end. Rude wooden benches were placed in rows for the accommodation of the audience and those who would have to report when their names were called from the roll in the clerk’s hands.

Upon the platform was the judge. He sat in an old swivel chair behind a table, and every now or then he leaned back in weary listlessness, but just as surely as he tilted back a bit too far, the treacherous pivot would squeak and the chair went back, being kept from over-turning by the clutch in the swivel. At these tilts the judge would throw out both arms and yank his body upright in order to regain his equilibrium. A deep-seated grunt announced the success of his attempts at balancing, and the trial would proceed as before the interruption. The spectators in the room dared not smile, nor even seem to be interested in the result of the tip of the magistrate’s chair, but each one maintained a serious expression as if life and limb depended upon their dignified attention to the witness on the stand. With the advent of Eleanor to the court room all this was to be reversed.

Jack whispered to the girls: “Is this bench all right for you to see the show?”

Instantly the judge ceased playing with his heavy-rimmed horn spectacles and sat upright. He glared over at the newcomers, but finding that they paid no attention to him he thumped the top of the table with a mallet: “Order in the Court!” shouted he.

The girls were seated now, and Ruth looked up with awe at the man who had just spoken. Nancy glanced around the room and wrinkled her dainty nose at the crowding of whites, yellows, and blacks in one small area. Polly watched the severe judge, but Eleanor was all eyes for the witness on the platform. Jack and Ray stood back of the bench upon which sat the girls, and watched for the fun they had been promised.

The ancient clerk, a picturesque form, now got upon his feet and read from a legal paper the name and crime of one Al Colman. Down in front of the platform sat a black giant. Fittingly his name was “Colman.” But he was not experienced in court manners so he did not answer to the call of his name.

The judge toyed impatiently with the mallet of authority, but he would not so far demean himself as to bring the prisoner to understand his lesson. Rather, he glared at the Clerk, who was a yellow-white, and demanded of him:

“Got the prisoner in the Court?” he could plainly see the nervous Al just in front of his table, but that was not justice as he weighed it out to menials.

The Clerk lowered the paper, stared over his specs at Al, and called impatiently: “Why don’ you answer when I calls yoh name, Al?” The Americans smiled at the first bit of play.

“D’ye want me to?” demanded Al Colman, wriggling uneasily. He was a ragged, ignorant black, who looked too stupid to steal.

“Shore! Got a lawyer t’ defen’ yuh?” demanded the Clerk.

“How come yuh ast me dat? Yuh knows I ain’t got nuff money to git me a moufful to eat?” retorted Al. Eleanor laughed and the judge thumped the table furiously and bawled out:

“Order in this Court!”

“Step up to the chair, Al, and be examined,” advised the Clerk.

Poor Al, getting up from his bench as if it was to be the last act on earth for him, crept up to the platform and shook as he lifted imploring eyes to the severe magistrate above him. This tickled the egotism of the judge mightily and he frowned down upon the trembling prisoner.

“Step up and answer all questions truthfully!” commanded he.

Al obeyed and after he had taken the oath to speak the “truf, the hull truf, an’ nuttin’ but de truf,” the lawyer for the plaintiff began his story.

“’N it please yuh honor, yistiddy whiles I was lookin’ over important papers, I hears a hue an’ cry outside my office window, so I jumps up and looks. Down th’ street went dis niggeh an’ a affer him went a lady of color what sells sweets on the street – she got a genuwine license from you, yuh honor,” the man interrupted himself, suddenly remembering how important such an item would be in influencing justice.

The magistrate bowed with dignity, and the plaintiff continued: “Dis Al Colman held a stick of sweets an’ was beatin’ it foh de open when I steps out and interviews de hull thing. It is a plain case of larceny, yuh honor, an’ my client claims damages an’ costs. I have an important witness to testify to de truf of dis situation, yuh honor.”

The judge glared at poor Al and the self-styled lawyer beckoned to Lieutenant Bray to step up. But Jack had already whispered to Bray to go easy on the poor black man, and call on his friends if he needed any help in dragging Al out of the ditch.

The lawyer next asked Al all sorts of questions, in order to catch him lying or attempting to get out of the claim of theft.

“Whar yuh reside, Al?” demanded the lawyer.

“Anywhar I finds a welcome,” murmured Al, his eyes fixed upon the splendor of the officer’s uniform as he came up to offer his testimony in the case.

“And what yuh works at, Al?” demanded the questioner suavely, satisfied with the reply to his first question.

“Now yuh know I does any odd job I kin git,” said Al.

“How come yuh helped yuh-self to dem sweets, Al?” was the next question.

Suddenly a voice behind Polly interrupted the proceedings: “I object to that question until you have proved that the man took them!”

Every head turned to the owner of the new voice. The girls and Jack and Ray started in surprise to find Mr. Dalken had entered unseen and was watching this unusual trial.

“Order in this Court!” thundered the judge. Then to the sheriff, he said: “Eject that man who interrupts the proceeding of the Law.”

But Mr. Dalken now stepped down to the front and said: “I am the legal representative for this Al Colman. I object to the irregular questions asked of my client.”

Al Colman’s jaw dropped and his whole body slumped in the rickety chair. The judge was so startled that he brought the swivel chair to an upright position with such suddenness that the clutch broke and dropped out, but he never knew it. He stared at the new lawyer and scowled his unwelcome.

“Who are you and why didn’t you step up aforetime?”

“I just managed to reach the Court, your Honor, and now I offer my services to this undefended man on trial for stealing sweets.” Mr. Dalken’s manner was sugary and Jack hugged himself. He anticipated great fun with the renowned New York lawyer taking a part. Even the lieutenant smiled with delight at the turn in events. Only Al seemed overwhelmed and depressed by the aspect his case was taking.

The old woman who sold sweets on the street lifted bleary eyes to her lawyer and grumbled: “I’s is losin’ all de mawnin’ trade wid dis foolin’ bout dat stick of sugar cane! Lem’me go!”

“Order in the Court!” thundered the judge, banging the table. He could let out his spleen on the table and it could not object.

The case first advanced a step, then receded a step, until Mr. Dalken brought his legal experience to bear on his colleague’s legal understanding. Thus matters drifted and were halted over and over, when a suspicious sound from the magistrate in the broken swivel chair announced that he was snoring, while the two lawyers wrangled in front of his platform. Al Colman sat in stupefied wonderment at all he heard but he was not sure whether they were going to send him to the chair, or to jail for life. Every one in the room was tittering at the discomfiture of the lawyer for the old street peddler, when a new phase occurred.

“Now, see heah, all yuh fo’kses! I done gone lost a stick of sugar yistiddy, but I lose all my pence o’ trade to-day cuz, of bein’ hauled in heah agin my will. I ain’t got no cause nohow to git Al Colman inter jail, an’ I’se discharge dis case!” As she rendered judgment in a hoarse voice which was familiar on the street as coming from a full-lung-powered huckster, she turned to leave the room.

Whether the sound of a woman usurping his rights of judgment, or whether the laughter of the crowd in the court room aroused him, cannot be determined, but the judge suddenly let go his balance in the chair in order to get up and demand order. The swivel instantly pivoted, and the clutch being gone, back went the chair, tossing His Honor upon his head behind the table.

Then followed such an uproar that Al made a quick escape without being seen. Out of the side door went he, and away to the open country he fled, as if the hounds of justice were upon his heels. The Clerk of the Court and the Sheriff hastened to assist their superior to an upright position, and he showed his gratitude by getting hold of the mallet and almost cracking the table in his efforts to bring about order in that Court, while he glared at his deputies.

Then scowling fiercely upon the two lawyers who had been the cause of his nap, he thundered: “The case is dismissed! No cause.”

The spectators laughed and jeered, and the two legal representatives shook hands and departed. Once outside, Jack and the lieutenant met again, and the former said to the latter: “The whole thing looked as if it had been staged for our benefit.”

And the army officer replied: “That’s a typical scene of a trial for petty larceny. There is no more apparent justice in the entire proceedings than you would find in having your hen-coop robbed and then have the man come and ask you to give him the side trimmings to his chicken dinner.”

Mr. Dalken now came up and was introduced to the officer. “Did the poor rascal really steal the sugar-stick?” asked he.

“I don’t think so, sir. But a lawyer with no cases on hand has to trump up something to advertise himself. He may have paid the old peddler a little sum to attend the court and demand a bit of justice. He may even have paid Al to permit himself to be tried for stealing, provided Al made the lawyer promise to get him scot free at the last.”

“Well, well! That scene was certainly well worth the time it took to witness it!” added Mr. Dalken, as they all moved away to the tram-cars.

Later that morning Polly said: “I haven’t a very high opinion of Kingston justice!”

“I should say not!” exclaimed Eleanor in high contempt.

“If they bungle such little cases so badly, what must they do when a really serious crime is committed?” wondered Nancy.

“I suppose they call in New York lawyers for such cases,” laughed Polly, winking at Mr. Dalken who stood with his back to the girls. But he turned at this and retorted:

“They never have really serious cases in Jamaica. I find from the records that Jamaicans are truly a law-abiding people who seldom commit a crime which necessitates such condemnation as we in New York have to administer.”

CHAPTER X – SPORTS AT JAMAICA

That afternoon after luncheon Mr. Dalken proposed a trip to Spanish Town. He suggested the yacht for the conveyance and an anchorage at the quay over night in order to allow themselves a full day at that beautiful settlement. As nothing more exciting had been heard of, the younger members of the party agreed to the plan.

Late in the afternoon, therefore, the White Crest dropped anchor at that part of the Rio Cobra River where Spanish Town is located. The tourists remained on board the yacht that night, but in the early morning they started to go ashore in the two small launches belonging to the yacht.

As the boats neared the quay, the eager, waiting urchins on the wharf stood ready to dive in the waters for the coin they expected from the white visitors. Nor were they disappointed.

The passengers in both small boats tossed coins out for the gamins to go after, and there, without fear or thought of the ever-present shark, the diving boys would go down in the waters to the bottom, but more often they would catch the coin even before it had time to reach the sandy bottom of the water. It was a most amazing thing to watch the speed and alertness of these children who seemed automatic in their instantaneous dive the moment the hand let go the coin.

In several instances the boys caught the coin in their hands just as it splashed into the surface of the water. When the girls had tired of watching this performance, the sailors were told to move on to land.

The hotel accommodations at Spanish Town were not to be compared to the Spring Hotel at Kingston; but they would have the yacht to use if matters were too, uncomfortable at the hotel in Spanish Town.

Soon after landing at Spanish Town the men heard of the excellent fishing to be had in the Rio Cobra River, hence they hoped to try a catch that day. But the ladies had also heard of the beauty of Bog Walk, and they clamored to go with the men. That necessitated a string of punts and men to pole, but expense was no drawback on this excursion. Moreover, Jamaican blacks work for a mere nothing in comparison with New York laborers.

Down the shores of the Rio Cobra went the flat punts and then drifted along the famous Bog Walk, the passengers listening to the songs of the tropical birds, and watching the verdure clad shores – clad in palms, tall cane, or heavy bamboo clumps. Both banks were carpeted with perfumed and gaudy flowers, and the breeze stirred lazily through the reeds and grasses along the edge of the water where one could see the clumsy tortoise, or swift water-rats moving about.

As she sat in the bow of one of the punts Polly called the attention of Eleanor to a great bulky tortoise. “Isn’t he ugly? Would you believe that such beautiful things as our tortoise-shell toilet articles could ever come from that filthy back?”

“It looks like a scum-covered bit of wreckage from the sea!” declared Eleanor.

“There goes one, – swimming down the stream!” called Nancy.

The girls looked and sure enough! A mud-covered projection floated past while the weeds which grow from the crevices in the back of the shell, trailed behind him like dank strips of string.

The men in the other punts saw the tortoise and this brought forth a suggestion that they enjoy a day’s turtle fishing while they tarried at Jamaica. Nothing loth, Jack urged Mr. Dalken to accept the offer.

Hunting the turtle is a varied sport, according to the energy and sportsmanship of the hunter. The easiest way is that pursued by men who wish to use the least power and run the least risk of danger to themselves. These men catch the female just after she has deposited her eggs on a muddy river bank. They turn her over on her back and render her helpless until they come to drag her to the pens where they keep them until exported.

Other hunters spear the turtles in the open sea, and this is really the most daring of the hunt, as often a turtle will suddenly make a swift run to the open sea and drag a harpoon in its track.

But the method mostly followed is that of snaring the creatures in nets when they rise to the surface for breath. The men of Jamaica are experienced turtle hunters, and they follow the net method.

Early at dawn, the following morning, the Captain called Mr. Dalken and said the turtle fishermen were alongside waiting for them to go out to fish. No need of calling twice! Jack Baxter and Ray jumped into old clothes and in an incredibly short time were on deck, the three elder men in the party soon followed, and then the natives made room for their employees. But the Captain had taken orders from Mr. Dalken to slowly follow in the wake of the boats, in order to give the ladies an opportunity to watch the hunting.

Breakfast was quite neglected that morning because the girls were engaged in watching the sport. From the vantage point of the higher elevation on the yacht they could watch all without any trouble whatever.

There seemed to be quite a fleet of boats, all of which were built by the natives. The turtle nets were woven of the leaves of the thatch-palm. The leaf is denuded and the membrane thus left is twisted into almost unbreakable fibrous cords. When dried, this mesh would have held the most powerful fish caught in its net.

There was intense excitement when one of the men in a boat sighted a deep-sea turtle. Then the others all followed carefully the directions of the leader in his boat. They came up to the quarry in a semi-circle, dragging the great net as they approached in shallow water.

Suddenly the watchers on the yacht saw the heavy net cast and immediately a desperate thrashing and flopping of about three hundred pounds of turtle began. The water was lashed to a foam and one boat was completely capsized by a fin that struck its side.

Finally the men manipulated the net in such a way that the great turtle was turned over upon his back; then the flapping of fins, each stronger than a flail, accompanied by the uncanny sort of moaning from the reptile, caused vague sympathy from the watchers on the yacht.

The great creature was dragged in the net by the last boat in the line, and after strenuous effort was left in the deep-sea pool off the quay. A quantity of turtle grass was left for the reptile to feed upon, and the sport for that time was over – all but the paying off of the natives who had staged the play.

These same natives had induced Mr. Dalken and his friends to consider a day’s hunting in the alligator swamps just off the Rio Cobra River. The ladies could not possibly take part in this dangerous sport – not so dangerous from the jaws of the alligators as from the dreaded miasma which is continually rising from the hotbeds of typhoid-malarial scums.

All the warnings and beseechings, to say nothing of the threats, from the wives of two of the men proved to be of any avail. They were determined to go!

When it was found that all prayers left the male contingent of the yachting party as hard as flint toward any proposition of giving up the alligator shooting, the ladies suddenly reversed their opinions and did all possible to hasten the men from the yacht.

“They have some trick up their sleeves,” remarked Mr. Ashby smilingly, to his companions.

“You don’t think they plan to accompany us in the yacht, do you?” questioned Mr. Dalken, anxiously. “It would be a great hazard for them.”

“No, not that; but there is no use in asking them what is their plan because they would come back with the counter proposition for us to remain here and find out.”

Hence the men in their oldest clothes with rubber boots to their hips left the yacht. The slimy marshes they would have to wade through would necessitate the discard of any clothing after the hunt ended.

The alligator of the West Indies is half-brother to the crocodile of Africa, though he is not as large as the latter; still, he is large enough to mutilate a man and quickly kill him. Hence the sport is fraught with some danger as well as unpleasant experiences from insects and the malarial localities.

The natives called at the yacht in a large open boat something after the pattern of a northern whaler. Having approved of the attire of the yachtsmen, the guide started the craft for the swamps. At the mouth of the Rio Cobra lay a flat stretch of mud-colored sand with every now and then a patch of bushes, scrub-trees and coarse grass.

“I suppose the reptiles sleep in those watery places, which one can see glistening through the swamp growth,” suggested Mr. Dalken.

The guide of the party nodded and pointed at what seemed afar to be a floating log. The Americans looked intently and found the log had half-closed eyes but an open mouth – open to catch any wandering tidbit which might be attracted to venture to that gate of sure death.

“If only we were over there now – we’d bag our first ’gator, eh?” said Jack, anxiously.

“No, no, not him! He gone too queeck,” replied the guide.

The boat was anchored and the men climbed out into water which reached to their waists. Then the guide started out to divide the party into units. He led the two young men as he must have thought they needed more careful supervision than the older and more reserved men in the group.

“Good gracious! Every known pest of an insect must find its home in this swamp!” exclaimed Ray, as he kept busily whipping away gnats, midges, mosquitoes, and a myriad of other stinging bugs.

“Gee! Can’t say I care for this stench of rotting wood and decayed vegetation,” laughed Jack, wrinkling his nostrils to keep out the odor.

Passing through evil-looking stretches of scum, over rotting stumps, disturbing nests of plagues, and causing swarms of stinging insects to cover their hands and faces, the two young men finally reached a spot where the guide suddenly halted.

“Looka-dere!” he whispered, pointing to an up-thrust of green filth and scum.

Jack and Ray stared for a moment in sheer unbelief, then they aimed, shot, and at the same instant the sickening mass sunk, and all the hunters could see was a cleavage of the surrounding slime.

“Too late!” sighed the guide: “Him hear me talk.”

The three resumed their difficult progress farther into the swamp, and then without notice Jack lifted his rifle, aimed, and an explosion echoed throughout the place. A great shower of chips and bark rewarded this exploit, and the guide laughed good-naturedly.

“Him sure dead log!” remarked he to Jack’s discomfiture.

Finally they halted again and the guide silently pointed to a smaller heap of scum quite close to what looked like a great tree-trunk fallen over into the water. Both boys aimed and shot at what they believed to be a small alligator, and then to their great amazement the huge log scuttled away, while the small child of the immense mother followed in her wake leaving a streak of crimson in the stream to tell the hunters they had missed killing him.

“We go in here, sit down and watch. Mebbe big ’gator come by.” Thus saying the guide started for a screened spot in the marsh and posted his followers upon a log which gave them a good view of the surrounding area. He sat upon the lower end of the tree.

Jack looked carefully around, and Ray watched a spot that made him think a submerged alligator might rise up and offer him a good target. Jack spied a vast depression in the mud bank near his right hand, and the guide nodded.

At the moment of Jack’s distraction and the guide’s nod, Ray pulled the trigger of his gun and the shot found a true result of that aim. A tiny alligator came to the surface, half-turned over in the coating of green, and gasped. At the same time a maddened splashing came through the green marsh-grass near the dying infant ’gator, and soon an enormous head with snapping jaws thrust itself from the water.

The half-crazed mother used her snout to tenderly go over the quivering body of her child, and when she found it had breathed its last she lifted the mud-crusted head and gazed balefully around.

“Queeck! Queeck – shoot!” commanded the guide, taking swift aim and firing a load at the reptile. But his shot missed because the alligator was thrashing too wildly across the water and making for the hunters.

Not ten yards separated the three men who were doomed if they did not climb out of the reach of those sinister jaws with their double rows of long white teeth. Her eyes showed what the alligator meant to do to the murderers of her child, and the very twisting and lightning-like advance of the huge thing sent a shiver of dread along the spines of the two young hunters.