登陆注册
15296700000027

第27章 THE CHINAGO(3)

Schemmer had pointed to the bruises when, on the witness-stand, he had identified Ah Cho.It was only just now that the marks had become no longer visible.That had been a blow.Half an inch nearer the centre and it would have taken out his eye.Then Ah Cho forgot the whole happening in a vision he caught of the garden of meditation and repose that would be his when he returned to his own land.

He sat with impassive face, while the magistrate rendered the judgment.

Likewise were the faces of his four companions impassive.And they remained impassive when the interpreter explained that the five of them had been found guilty of the murder of Chung Ga, and that Ah Chow should have his head cut off, Ah Cho serve twenty years in prison in New Caledonia, Wong Li twelve years, and Ah Tong ten years.There was no use in getting excited about it.Even Ah Chow remained expressionless as a mummy, though it was his head that was to be cut off.The magistrate added a few words, and the interpreter explained that Ah Chow's face having been most severely bruised by Schemmer's strap had made his identification so positive that, since one man must die, he might as well be that man.Also, the fact that Ah Cho's face likewise had been severely bruised, conclusively proving his presence at the murder and his undoubted participation, had merited him the twenty years of penal servitude.And down to the ten years of Ah Tong, the proportioned reason for each sentence was explained.Let the Chinagos take the lesson to heart, the Court said finally, for they must learn that the law would be fulfilled in Tahiti though the heavens fell.

The five Chinagos were taken back to jail.They were not shocked nor grieved.The sentences being unexpected was quite what they were accustomed to in their dealings with the white devils.From them a Chinago rarely expected more than the unexpected.The heavy punishment for a crime they had not committed was no stranger than the countless strange things that white devils did.In the weeks that followed, Ah Cho often contemplated Ah Chow with mild curiosity.His head was to be cut off by the guillotine that was being erected on the plantation.For him there would be no declining years, no gardens of tranquillity.Ah Cho philosophized and speculated about life and death.As for himself, he was not perturbed.Twenty years were merely twenty years.By that much was his garden removed from him--that was all.He was young, and the patience of Asia was in his bones.He could wait those twenty years, and by that time the heats of his blood would be assuaged and he would be better fitted for that garden of calm delight.He thought of a name for it; he would call it The Garden of the Morning Calm.He was made happy all day by the thought, and he was inspired to devise a moral maxim on the virtue of patience, which maxim proved a great comfort, especially to Wong Li and Ah Tong.Ah Chow, however, did not care for the maxim.His head was to be separated from his body in so short a time that he had no need for patience to wait for that event.He smoked well, ate well, slept well, and did not worry about the slow passage of time.

Cruchot was a gendarme.He had seen twenty years of service in the colonies, from Nigeria and Senegal to the South Seas, and those twenty years had not perceptibly brightened his dull mind.He was as slow-witted and stupid as in his peasant days in the south of France.He knew discipline and fear of authority, and from God down to the sergeant of gendarmes the only difference to him was the measure of slavish obedience which he rendered.In point of fact, the sergeant bulked bigger in his mind than God, except on Sundays when God's mouthpieces had their say.God was usually very remote, while the sergeant was ordinarily very close at hand.

Cruchot it was who received the order from the Chief Justice to the jailer commanding that functionary to deliver over to Cruchot the person of Ah Chow.Now, it happened that the Chief Justice had given a dinner the night before to the captain and officers of the French man-of-war.His hand was shaking when he wrote out the order, and his eyes were aching so dreadfully that he did not read over the order.It was only a Chinago's life he was signing away, anyway.So he did not notice that he had omitted the final letter in Ah Chow's name.The order read "Ah Cho," and, when Cruchot presented the order, the jailer turned over to him the person of Ah Cho.

Cruchot took that person beside him on the seat of a wagon, behind two mules, and drove away.

Ah Cho was glad to be out in the sunshine.He sat beside the gendarme and beamed.He beamed more ardently than ever when he noted the mules headed south toward Atimaono.Undoubtedly Schemmer had sent for him to be brought back.Schemmer wanted him to work.Very well, he would work well.

Schemmer would never have cause to complain.It was a hot day.There had been a stoppage of the trades.The mules sweated, Cruchot sweated, and Ah Cho sweated.But it was Ah Cho that bore the heat with the least concern.

He had toiled three years under that sun on the plantation.He beamed and beamed with such genial good nature that even Cruchot's heavy mind was stirred to wonderment.

"You are very funny," he said at last.

Ah Cho nodded and beamed more ardently.Unlike the magistrate, Cruchot spoke to him in the Kanaka tongue, and this, like all Chinagos and all foreign devils, Ah Cho understood.

"You laugh too much," Cruchot chided."One's heart should be full of tears on a day like this.""I am glad to get out of the jail."

"Is that all?" The gendarme shrugged his shoulders.

"Is it not enough?" was the retort.

"Then you are not glad to have your head cut off?"Ah Cho looked at him in abrupt perplexity, and said--"Why, I am going back to Atimaono to work on the plantation for Schemmer.

Are you not taking me to Atimaono?"

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 混血神族

    混血神族

    一个正在上高中的衰仔无意间上了一间神秘的大学,从中他得知这个世界上不只有人类,也有神,在这个世界的最开始,一些神与人杂交成为混血神族,他们为守护地球做为使命而存在于世间。而1999年转2000年的千年之交那一晚,南极科考队无意间打开了“潘多拉的宝盒”从中放出了威胁地球的一位真神,拥有着神秘力量的混血神族与神的战斗在21世纪拉开帷幕。
  • 邪凰妖娆上神快跑

    邪凰妖娆上神快跑

    一朝王牌陨落,一夕废材劈天盖地卷起云涌。翻手为云,覆手为雨!她是杀手界的无冕之皇,使的一手扮猪吃虎的绝技,虐的了渣滓,夺的了上古神器,炼魂丹,控妖灵,驯凶兽,外表贤淑,本命纨绔。人前她挽着笑容,巧笑倩兮“这位公子,有双长腿不是你的错,但您把你金贵的玉脚搁在我的脚下,实在不是我的错了。”她踩了他的脚,干脆利落,他面容清淡,墨黑的眼眸遮了深处的讳莫。不想!她竟将责任推的一干二净!五千年清新寡淡抬头,一眼!却在一瞬间…不小心将她记了生生世世…
  • V5霸气:公主驯夫有道

    V5霸气:公主驯夫有道

    二丫天生的倒霉蛋儿,不但人丑肤黑被渣男甩,还必踩狗屎生意赔,做啥败啥,可谓矮矬穷中的优秀楷模。上辈子做了什么孽,要这样收拾老娘?老天说,看你这么背,送你一根金手指!于是乎······容颜变,美如仙,踹渣男,平妖言,无耻贱人滚一边,披荆斩棘斗皇权,康庄大道任我走,钱财美男乐无边!
  • 龙腾时

    龙腾时

    心怀大义,却因一本绝世武学难逃身陨之路然而魂魄却是聚而不散,重生于另外一个世界这里人人崇尚武力,却有弱肉强食,以武为尊的铁则!更有大神通者,他们上九天,遁幽冥,焚天煮海,掌平山脉看他如何走上武练神躯,拳破苍穹,三界六道,唯我独尊的巅峰之路!
  • 三小只的懵懂恋爱

    三小只的懵懂恋爱

    三个千金小姐在无意中遇见了tfboyS组合三人,而后又和他们是同学,甚至是同桌他们一言不合就斗嘴……他们之间又会擦出什么样的火花呢?
  • 九幽邪神传

    九幽邪神传

    恒古不改的荣耀,跨越千年的阴谋。守护这个不变的家族,成神还是成魔尽在一念之间。到底命运的安排,还是掌握命运在手中..."是天下付了我,不是我付了天下。"
  • 废材来袭,嗜血邪王的宠妻

    废材来袭,嗜血邪王的宠妻

    她,21世纪金牌杀手,一场阴谋后,穿越成了痴呆的苏小姐。他,凌封国手握重兵却身为质子的王爷,性情阴郁,霸道且强势。据闻,一夜间,痴呆小姐逆天,成为闻风丧胆的采草大盗,吃光不算,还强逼娶过门!眼见为实!她抽将军,打皇帝,虐太子,色王爷,闯妓院,闹江湖。痴呆无罪,他却纠缠不清,欲护她一世。谁知,她富可敌国,杀手遍天下,遇神杀神,遇佛杀佛….亲们如果有兴趣,可加QQ群:牡丹专属107358226
  • 佛说大乘无量寿庄严经

    佛说大乘无量寿庄严经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 天地之灭天

    天地之灭天

    洪荒过后,天下三分。亿万年后,修道界再起波澜,万族纷纷显现,无数强者应时而生。无数人为了追寻传说中的境界——天帝,纷战不休,尸横遍野,血流成河。能否有人登上亘古以来最强的宝座?一个在命运中苦苦挣扎,一个天地不容的人,他到底该何去何从?“命若天定,我便破了这个天。”冷石仰天咆哮……
  • 不为繁华易素心

    不为繁华易素心

    她以为爱一个人只要倾其所有,超越生命即可可命运却给了她最无情的结局“我还会有爱情嘛?”她无声的流着眼睛,问着。“会有的,一定会有的!”无数人这样回答着。可,她已经被伤的完全没有了自理能力,这样残缺不全的她,还可以再完整的去爱一个人嘛?