"Well, I am not Ah Chow.I am Ah Cho.The honourable jailer has made a mistake.Ah Chow is a tall man, and you see I am short."The sergeant looked at him hastily and saw the mistake."Schemmer!" he called, imperatively."Come here."The German grunted, but remained bent over his task till the chunk of iron was lashed to his satisfaction."Is your Chinago ready?" he demanded.
"Look at him," was the answer."Is he the Chinago?"Schemmer was surprised.He swore tersely for a few seconds, and looked regretfully across at the thing he had made with his own hands and which he was eager to see work."Look here," he said finally, "we can't postpone this affair.I've lost three hours' work already out of those five hundred Chinagos.I can't afford to lose it all over again for the right man.
Let's put the performance through just the same.It is only a Chinago."The sergeant remembered the long ride before him, and the pearl-trader's daughter, and debated with himself.
"They will blame it on Cruchot--if it is discovered," the German urged.
"But there's little chance of its being discovered.Ah Chow won't give it away, at any rate.""The blame won't lie with Cruchot, anyway," the sergeant said."It must have been the jailer's mistake.""Then let's go on with it.They can't blame us.Who can tell one Chinago from another? We can say that we merely carried out instructions with the Chinago that was turned over to us.Besides, I really can't take all those coolies a second time away from their labour."They spoke in French, and Ah Cho, who did not understand a word of it, nevertheless knew that they were determining his destiny.He knew, also, that the decision rested with the sergeant, and he hung upon that official's lips.
"All right," announced the sergeant."Go ahead with it.He is only a Chinago.""I'm going to try it once more, just to make sure." Schemmer moved the banana trunk forward under the knife, which he had hoisted to the top of the derrick.
Ah Cho tried to remember maxims from "The Tract of the Quiet Way." "Live in concord," came to him; but it was not applicable.He was not going to live.He was about to die.No, that would not do."Forgive malice"--yes, but there was no malice to forgive.Schemmer and the rest were doing this thing without malice.It was to them merely a piece of work that had to be done, just as clearing the jungle, ditching the water, and planting cotton were pieces of work that had to be done.Schemmer jerked the cord, and Ah Cho forgot "The Tract of the Quiet Way." The knife shot down with a thud, making a clean slice of the tree.
"Beautiful!" exclaimed the sergeant, pausing in the act of lighting a cigarette."Beautiful, my friend."Schemmer was pleased at the praise.
"Come on, Ah Chow," he said, in the Tahitian tongue.
"But I am not Ah Chow--" Ah Cho began.
"Shut up!" was the answer."If you open your mouth again, I'll break your head."The overseer threatened him with a clenched fist, and he remained silent.
What was the good of protesting? Those foreign devils always had their way.He allowed himself to be lashed to the vertical board that was the size of his body.Schemmer drew the buckles tight--so tight that the straps cut into his flesh and hurt.But he did not complain.The hurt would not last long.He felt the board tilting over in the air toward the horizontal, and closed his eyes.And in that moment he caught a last glimpse of his garden of meditation and repose.It seemed to him that he sat in the garden.A cool wind was blowing, and the bells in the several trees were tinkling softly.Also, birds were making sleepy noises, and from beyond the high wall came the subdued sound of village life.
Then he was aware that the board had come to rest, and from muscular pressures and tensions he knew that he was lying on his back.He opened his eyes.Straight above him he saw the suspended knife blazing in the sunshine.He saw the weight which had been added, and noted that one of Schemmer's knots had slipped.Then he heard the sergeant's voice in sharp command.Ah Cho closed his eyes hastily.He did not want to see that knife descend.But he felt it--for one great fleeting instant.And in that instant he remembered Cruchot and what Cruchot had said.But Cruchot was wrong.The knife did not tickle.That much he knew before he ceased to know.
