Hassim and Immada, standing out clearly by
the side of the chief, raised their arms in a last salutation; and the
distant gesture appeared sad, futile, lost in space, like a sign of
distress made by castaways in the vain hope of an impossible help.
He departed, he returned, he went away again, and each time those two
figures, lonely on some sandbank of the Shallows, made at him the same
futile sign of greeting or good-bye. Their arms at each movement seemed
to draw closer around his heart the bonds of a protecting affection.
He worked prosaically, earning money to pay the cost of the romantic
necessity that had invaded his life. And the money ran like water out of
his hands. The owner of the New England voice remitted not a little of
it to his people in Baltimore. But import houses in the ports of the
Far East had their share. It paid for a fast prau which, commanded by
Jaffir, sailed into unfrequented bays and up unexplored rivers, carrying
secret messages, important news, generous bribes. A good part of it went
to the purchase of the Emma.
The Emma was a battered and decrepit old schooner that, in the decline
of her existence, had been much ill-used by a paunchy white trader of
cunning and gluttonous aspect. This man boasted outrageously afterward
of the good price he had got "for that rotten old hooker of mine--you
know.
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