The Royal Handmaid (25 page)

“I don’t think the preacher there will be needing any more. He’s a pretty smart fellow. One knock in the head is prob’ly enough for him.”

Charlie Day exposed his yellow teeth. “Any of the rest of you want a dose of the same, we can take care of you.” He pulled the pistol from his waist and swung it around. “Any takers?”

The group was silent.

Professor Dekker cleared his throat and attempted to speak. He coughed and tried again. “There’s no call for violence, Novak.”

“There won’t be any as long as you folks stay in line,” Novak shot back. He fixed his eyes on Travis. He was well aware that Winslow was the one who was most likely to give him trouble. He stepped forward, holding the rifle loosely pointed in Winslow’s direction. “Travis, you’re the best of these sorry hymn singers. You come over to our side. That’s where you belong.”

Every eye went to Travis. “There shouldn’t be any
sides
among us, Cerny,” Travis asserted. “We’re all in the same boat here.”

“Not exactly. You preachers have been treating us like slaves. Well, when we were on the ship I was willing to take Captain Barkley’s orders, but this is another kind of ship—this here island—and if there are any orders to give, I’ll give ’em.”

Rena saw that three of the crew, Shep, Oscar, and Chip, were doing their best to stay out of the confrontation. There were only three weapons on this island, and they were in the hands of Novak, Day, and Olsen. Rena looked at Travis, who was studying Cerny intently.

“I’m not on anyone’s side,” Travis asserted. “We all need each other.”

Cerny studied the tall figure of Travis Winslow, then expelled his breath. He grinned. “You stay out of it, Travis, and you’ll be all right.” He turned to face the others. “You can sing all the hymns and play church all you want, but from now on I’ll give the orders.” Cerny snorted a half laugh, and then turned to Day and Olsen and said, “C’mon, guys. Let’s go fishin’. When we get back we’ll talk about this some more.” The men collected their fishing gear and headed toward the cutter.

Captain Barkley made his way slowly out of his shelter and leaned up against a tree, easing his leg and holding his makeshift crutches in position. The pain from the leg was severe at times, but he hated to keep taking the narcotic that Chip and Karl had distilled from the plant. It made him half sick and dizzy. True, it did dull the pain, and enough of it would put him under, but he hated the way it made him feel out of control.

He had heard the confrontation from inside his shelter and now watched as the missionaries gathered in small groups to figure out what actions they might take in reaction to Novak’s challenge. They were all frightened, he could see, except for Travis. He listened as they spoke among themselves, knowing that they were out of their element. Meredith turned from the professor, who she had been sitting with, to the captain. “What do you think, Captain Barkley? Can’t you reason with these men?”

Barkley shook his head. “I can try, but you have to realize that the only thing these men fear is force.”

“If they were that kind of men,” Professor Dekker asked, “why did you have them on your crew?” Dekker’s hands were unsteady. He, more than anyone, had been upset by the violence. He had led a sheltered life in his world of books and classes, and now the violence of the real world had shaken him. “Can’t you threaten them somehow?”

“Threaten them? How? If I didn’t have a broken leg, I might. But the only thing these fellows understand is brute force.”

The other missionaries stopped talking amongst themselves to hear what the captain had to say. Pete looked up from the piece of wood he was whittling. “There are more of us than there are of them,” he commented. “Maybe we could gang up on them.”

“But they’ve got the guns.” Captain Barkley shrugged. “That pretty much settles the argument.”

Rena was sitting beside Dalton, who was half lying against a tree. He’d regained consciousness, but the bump on his head had grown. Rena leaned over and whispered, “Are you all right, Dalton?”

“Of course I’m all right,” he spewed with sullenness and anger in his voice. “If I could get that gun away from Novak, I’d give him a lesson.”

“But, Dalton, we can’t use force.”

“Of course we can. That’s the only thing those bullies understand.”

Rena felt helpless against Dalton’s anger. She called across the clearing to Travis, who was talking quietly with Karl. “Travis, what do you think we should do?”

Everyone’s attention turned to Travis, and Rena realized, with surprise, that he had become the natural leader of the group. This came to her as a shock, for she remembered that all of them had at first looked down on the tall, rangy man who had volunteered to join them. Now she saw that he had a strength in him that the rest of them lacked.
I’m so glad he’s here,
she thought. She addressed him again, “Travis, you must have some idea.”

“I don’t think we ought to do anything rash,” Travis said slowly. His eyes went around the group, and he added, “Cerny’s a rough fellow and has had a hard life, but I don’t think he’s as bad as some of you do.”

“Not as bad!” Dalton burst out. “Why, he’s a bully!”

“I guess all of us have a little of that in us.” Travis shrugged. “But I think if we handle the situation carefully, he’ll come around. You know,” he said, “the hardest thing in the Scriptures is the commandment Jesus gave to love our enemies. Right now it’s pretty hard to love Novak.”

“Love him? I can’t love a man like that!” Dalton exclaimed.

“Neither can I with my own heart,” Travis replied, “but I’ve discovered that if someone mistreats me and I give myself over to God and ask Christ for His spirit, then I can love that person in a way that’s not my own. Jesus can love our enemies through us.”

“I think you’re right about that,” Lanie agreed. She was sitting next to Pete, her face intent. “My parents were missionaries in China, as you know. Some of their fellow missionaries were killed by the Boxers. My parents told me many times how they hated the Boxers. They also said their lives as missionaries were finished until they learned to let Jesus control their emotions. I think that’s the secret of it.”

“I think you’re exactly right, Lanie,” Travis said. He smiled and shook his head. “They’ll be waiting for us to make a break—which will be an excuse for them. Let’s not give it to them. You know the Scriptures say that if a man takes away your coat, give him your cloak also. I think what we should do now is show love. It’s the only way.

“I’m going to go check the fish traps. But before I go, let’s pray that God will perform a miracle in the hearts of these men.”

They all bowed their heads, and Travis prayed a short prayer for the three men. “Lord, you know the hearts of these men, and you love their souls. We know that Jesus died for them, so give us your spirit that we might love them through your power.”

When Travis left, Rena turned to Dalton and saw the dissatisfaction in his face. “I know it’s going to be hard, Dalton, but I think Travis is right.”

“No, he’s wrong. They’ll make slaves out of us. You just watch.”

****

Rena took one look at Meredith as she came into their shelter and asked, “What’s the matter?” Meredith was the most stable of all of the women on the island, but now she looked disturbed.

“It’s that man Charlie Day. He . . . he put his hands on me, Rena.”

“He attacked you?”

“Didn’t go quite that far, but it was close. I was walking along the stream when he came up to me. I didn’t say a word to him, but he began walking beside me. He was trying to tell me . . . well, how pretty I was. I told him I didn’t want to hear that, and he grabbed me. He’s small but he’s strong.” Meredith’s face wrinkled with the taste of the memory. “I fought him off, but he laughed. He said he’d have me sooner or later.”

Rena was frightened. “We have no defense against these men.”

“I know, but I think we’d better tell someone. Maybe the captain.”

“He can’t do anything—not with that leg of his.”

“But he can talk to Novak and ask him to keep those men in line. Anyway, I’m going to see what he has to say.”

“I’ll go with you.”

The two women left the shelter and found Captain Barkley talking to Pete. The captain struggled to his feet on the crutches Shep had made for him as the two women approached. Seeing their faces, he asked, “What’s wrong?” He listened as Meredith repeated her story and finally said, “Captain, you’ve got to talk to Novak.”

“I’ll do what I can,” Barkley said.

They waited until Novak came in from fishing a while later, carrying a young sea turtle in one hand, the ever-present rifle
in the other. He put the turtle down in the clearing. “There’s supper tonight. Nothin’ like turtle soup.” He glanced at the captain and said, “What’s wrong, Cap?”

“It’s about Day.”

“Me!” Charlie emerged from his shelter when he heard his name. “I ain’t done nothin’!” Day stood defiantly, glaring at the captain. “You never liked me.”

“What’s he done?” Novak growled.

“He’s forced his attentions on one of the women.”

“Which one?” Novak grinned.

“It was me,” Meredith said, facing Novak squarely. “I want you to tell him to leave me alone.”

“Why don’t you tell him yourself, missy?” Novak’s grin remained.

“Cerny, we’ve known each other a long time,” the captain said. “This situation has gotten out of hand. I want you to tell Charlie here to leave this woman alone.”

“Cap, I’ve always respected you. But now it’s a different day.”

Pete Alford joined the discussion. “Look, Novak, we all know you have the guns, but there’s such a thing as being right and being wrong.”

“Up to now, Preacher, you folks have decided what’s right and what’s wrong, but now I’ll do the decidin’. If you don’t like the way we act, it’s up to you to change us.” Novak knew that next to Travis, Pete was probably the one who could give him the most trouble. “Just settle down, Alford. Nothing’s happened to the woman.”

Charlie Day laughed. “Not yet anyway.” He pulled the revolver out and waved it in the general direction of the group that had gathered to listen. “You’ve always treated us like dirt. Well, we ain’t dirt, and it’s about time we started doing things our way around here.”

****

When Travis returned from checking all the traps, Rena repeated the story. “You’ve got to do something, Travis.”

“Do what, Rena?”

She stared at him. “I don’t know, but something terrible is going to happen if those men aren’t stopped.”

He said quietly, “Rena, would you have me start a war?”

“Are you afraid of Novak?” she challenged. She had not intended to say this, but it came out before she could stop it. “I didn’t mean to say that. Of course anybody’s afraid of men with guns.”

“I think this is a challenge for us, Rena. Maybe this is the challenge God has put us here to face. We were all so busy rushing to the islands to be missionaries that we forgot there are men like Novak and Day. They’re the object of Christ’s quest just as much as the islanders we were going to.”

“I can’t grasp what you’re trying to tell me. They’re the enemy.”

“Christ died for them, Rena. You can’t deny that.”

Stubbornly she stood her ground. She knew he was speaking the truth, but part of her refused to accept it. “I’m disappointed in you, Travis. I thought you were more of a man.” She whirled and walked blindly away. Even as she walked, she knew she was being unfair, and she almost turned back to tell him she was wrong. But admitting mistakes had never been one of her virtues, and now she knew she had slammed a door in Travis’s face.

She found she could not pray, could not even think straight, so she just walked for a long time alone. When she finally stopped, she looked up at the sky, her heart heavy. She cried out in her spirit, “Lord, what’s wrong with me? Don’t I have any faith at all in you?” She waited, but there was no answer, and heavily she turned and trudged back toward the camp, not knowing what the future would bring.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Survival of the Fittest

“Take it easy now, Cap,” Shep said. He was standing off to one side watching as Captain Barkley carefully navigated over the tree roots sticking out of the sand using his crutches. His face was pale with strain, Shep noticed, and he urged him, “You’d better just take it a little at a time.”

“A man can’t sit around all day doing nothing,” Barkley said irritably. His lips were set in a straight line, and it was obvious that the pain was having its way with him. He swung himself carefully forward, putting his weight on his good leg and holding the other awkwardly off the ground. He made a rather circuitous route and then came back to stand before Shep. “You did a good job on these crutches, Riggs. Couldn’t have asked for better.”

Shrugging his shoulders, Shep smiled deprecatingly. “Not much of a job to make those. I wish I could make us a ship big enough to get us off this place.”

“Maybe you should give it a try.”

“I think I could do it, Cap, given long enough. We don’t have the best tools in the world. But we got plenty of time.”

Easing himself down onto the chair Shep had fashioned for him, Barkley ran his hands over the crutches, his face studious. “I been thinkin’ a lot about that. We could be out here for the rest of our lives if we don’t do something.”

“Aw, Cap, sooner or later a ship’ll come by.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. One might come by in the night or on the other side of the island and we won’t even see it. And
even if they were on this side, there’s no saying they’d stop. And it’s a real pain keeping those signal fires going all the time. I don’t know how much longer we can keep at it.”

The two men continued discussing the issue for a while, and finally Shep shifted his weight nervously. “What are you gonna do about Novak and the others?”

Barkley looked up. “If this blasted leg wasn’t broken, I’d do something in a hurry.”

“This mutiny probably wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t been hurt, Cap, but now it’s lookin’ worse all the time.”

“It’s just the three of them, Shep,” Barkley said. He thought for a moment, then scratched his beard. “Oscar and Chip wouldn’t give anyone any trouble.”