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CONTENTS
vii
viii Contents
3.2 The anatomy of the brain and the primary visual pathway 62
The two visual systems hypothesis: Ungerleider and Mishkin, “Two cortical visual
systems” (1982) 65
4.5 Local integration II: Neural activity and the BOLD signal 105
Contents ix
13.2 Applying dynamical systems: Two examples from child development 412
Two ways of thinking about motor control 412
Dynamical systems and the A-not-B error 414
Assessing the dynamical systems approach 419
14.3 Information processing without conscious awareness: Some basic data 449
Consciousness and priming 450
Non-conscious processing in blindsight and unilateral spatial neglect 453
15.2 Understanding what the brain is doing when it appears not to be doing
anything 483
Glossary 486
Bibliography 495
Index 514
BOXES
xiv
FIGURES
xv
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xvi List of figures
Adapted from Gorman and Sejnowski (1988), printed in Churchland, Paul M.,
A Neurocomputational Perspective: The Nature of Mind and the Structure of
Science, figure 10.2, page 203 ©1990, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
by permission of the MIT Press. 75
3.9 Images showing the different areas of activation (as measured by blood flow)
during the four different stages in Petersen et al.’s lexical access studies
From Posner and Raichle (1994) 80
3.10 A flowchart relating different areas of activation in Petersen et al.’s study to
different levels of lexical processing
Reprinted by permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Petersen et al.
“Positron emission tomographic studies of the cortical anatomy of single-
word processing,” Nature (331), ©1988 81
4.1 Connections among the cognitive sciences, as depicted in the Sloan
Foundation’s 1978 report
Adapted from Gardner (1985) 89
4.2 Some of the principal branches of scientific psychology 92
4.3 Levels of organization and levels of explanation in the nervous system
Adapted from Shepherd (1994) 94
4.4 The spatial and temporal resolution of different tools and techniques in
neuroscience
From Baars and Gage (2010) 96
4.5 The integration challenge and the “space” of contemporary cognitive science
Adapted by courtesy of David Kaplan 98
4.6 A version of the Wason selection task 101
4.7 Griggs and Cox’s deontic version of the selection task 102
4.8 A microelectrode making an extracellular recording
Reproduced by courtesy of Dwight A. Burkhardt, University of Minneso-
ta 107
4.9 Simultaneous microelectrode and fMRI recordings from a cortical site
showing the neural response to a pulse stimulus of 24 seconds
Adapted from Bandettini and Ungerleider (2001) 109
5.1 Two illustrations of the neural damage suffered by the amnesic patient HM
Figure 1, What’s new with the amnesiac patient H.M.? Nature Neuroscience
2002 Feb., 3(2): 153-60. 119
5.2 Baddeley’s model of working memory 120
5.3 The initial stages of a functional decomposition of memory 121
5.4 A mechanism for detecting oriented zero-crossing segments
xviii List of figures
"I shall begin to lick them into shape to-morrow," he said to Tetson.
The little officers, clanging their big cavalry sabres, marched their little
brown troops away to the barracks. The President looked wistfully after
them, and said: "I can mount three hundred of them, Hemming. I call it a
pretty good army, for all its lack of style."
"I do not quite understand this Pernamba idea," said Hemming. "Is it
business, or is it just an unusual way of spending money?"
"I don't know what the old man is driving at myself," replied Hicks,
"but of one thing I am sure: there's more money put into it than there is in it.
The army is a pretty expensive toy, for instance. Just what it is for I do not
know. The only job it ever tried was collecting rents, and it made a mess of
that. We don't sell enough coffee in a year to stand those duffers a month's
pay. We get skinned right and left back here and down on the coast. Mr.
Tetson thinks he still possesses a clear business head, but the fact is he
cannot understand his own bookkeeping. It's no fun running a hundred-
square-mile ranch, with a fair-sized town thrown in."
Hemming wrinkled his forehead, and stared vacantly out of the window.
Below him a gray parrot, the property of Miss Tetson, squawked in an
orange-tree.
"If I had money, I should certainly live somewhere else. Why the devil
he keeps his wife and daughter here, I don't see."
Just then the secretary caught the faint strumming of a banjo, and left
hurriedly, without venturing an explanation. He found Miss Tetson in her
favourite corner of the garden, where roses grew thickest, and breadfruit-
trees made a canopy of green shade. A fountain splashed softly beside the
stone bench whereon she sat, and near by stood a little brown crane
watching the water with eyes like yellow jewels.
The girl had changed from her riding-habit into a white gown, such as
she wore almost every day. But now Hicks saw her with new eyes. She
seemed to him more beautiful than he had dreamed a woman could be.
Yesterday he had thought, in his indolent way, that he loved her. Now he
knew it, and his heart seemed to leap and pause in a mad sort of fear. The
look of well-fed satisfaction passed away from him. He stood there between
the roses like a fool,—he who had come down to the garden so carelessly,
with some jest on his lips.
"Something will happen now," she said, and smiled up at him. Hicks
wondered what she meant.
"That is the matter with us,—it is too hot, always too hot, and we are
too tired," she said, "but Mr. Hemming does not seem to mind the heat. I
think that something interesting will happen now."
This was like a knife in the man's heart, for he was learning to like the
Englishman.
The girl looked at the little crane by the fountain. Hicks stood for a
moment, trying to smile. But it was hard work to look as if he did not care.
"Lord, what an ass I have been," he said to himself, but aloud he stammered
something about their rides together, and their friendship.
She did not finish the remark, and the secretary, after a painful scrutiny
of the silent banjo in her lap, went away to the stables and ordered his
horse. But a man is a fool to ride hard along the bank of a Brazilian river in
the heat of the afternoon.
From one of the windows of his cool room, Hemming watched the
departure of the President's private secretary. He remembered what Tetson
had said of the boy,—"too young to associate with men."
CHAPTER IV.
Hicks came along the homeward road at dusk. Lights were glowing
above the strong walls and behind the straight trunks of the palms. A mist
that one might smell lay along the course of the river. Hicks rode heavily
and with the air of one utterly oblivious to his surroundings. But at the
gateway of the officers' mess he looked up. Captain Santosa was in the
garden, a vision of white and gold and dazzling smile. He hurried to the
gate.
"Ah, my dear Hicks, you are in time for our small cocktails, and then
dinner. But for this riding so hard, I can call you nothing but a fool."
"Thanks very much," replied the American, dismounting slowly, "and as
to what you call me, old man, I'm not at all particular." The woebegone
expression of his plump face was almost ludicrous.
"This man," said Santosa, "had his horse looking like a shaving-brush,
and I know nothing in English so suitable to call him as this," and he swore
vigorously in Portuguese.
"Stow that rot," said Hicks, "can't you see I'm fit as a fiddle; and for
Heaven's sake move some liquor my way, will you?" His request was
speedily complied with, and he helped himself recklessly from the big
decanter.
The dinner was long and hot, and Valentine Hicks, forgetting utterly his
Harvard manner, dropped his head on the table, between his claret-glass and
coffee-cup, and dreamed beastly dreams. The swarthy Brazilians talked and
smoked, and sent away the decanters to be refilled. The stifling air held the
tobacco smoke above the table. The cotton-clad servants moved on
noiseless feet.
"I am fond of Hicks," said Santosa, laying his hand on the youth's
unconscious shoulder. A slim lieutenant, who had held a commission in a
Brazilian regiment stationed in Rio, looked at the captain.
"The Americans are harmless," he said. "They mind their own business,
—or better still, they let us mind it for them. The President—bah! And our
dear Valentine. If he gets enough to eat, and clothes cut in the English way,
and some one to listen to his little stories of how he used to play golf at
Harvard, he is content. But this Englishman,—this Señor Hemming,—he
is quite different."
"Did not you at one time play golf?" asked Santosa, calmly.
"Stir up Señor Hicks, that we may hear two fools at the same time,"
said the colonel.
"Take my word for it, colonel, that Valentine is not a fool," said Santosa,
lightly. "He is very young."
"Have you nothing to say for me?" asked the slim lieutenant, good-
naturedly.
"You know what I think of you all," replied Santosa, without heat. The
conversation was carried on in Portuguese, and now ran into angry surmises
as to the President's reason for placing Hemming in command.
Hicks looked at him for awhile in silence. Then he got to his feet, and
leaned heavily on the table.
"I'll walk home, old tea-cosey. Tell your nigger to give my gee
something to eat, will you?"
"You do not look well, my dear Valentine. You had better stay here until
morning," said Santosa.
Captain Santosa laughed. "You look like a man with a grudge against
some one," he answered. "Perhaps you have a touch of fever, otherwise I
know you would have good taste enough to conceal the grudge. A
gentleman suffers—and smiles."
It was past two o'clock in the morning, and Hemming was lying flat on
his back, smoking a cigarette in the dark. He had been writing verses, and
letters which he did not intend to mail, until long past midnight. And now
he lay wide-eyed on his bed, kept awake by the restless play of his
thoughts.
His windows were all open, and he could hear a stirring of wind in the
crests of the taller trees. His reveries were disturbed by a stumbling of feet
in the room beyond, and suddenly Valentine Hicks stood in the doorway. By
the faint light Hemming made out the big, drooping shoulders and the
attitude of weariness. He sat up quickly, and pushed his feet into slippers.
"If you will be so good as to turn on the light, I'll get the quinine," he
said.
"You're not there yet," replied Hemming. He was bending over an open
drawer of his desk, feeling about among papers and bottles for the box of
pills. Hicks drew something from his pocket and laid it softly on the table.
"Good morning," he said. "I intended to kick up a row but I've changed
my mind. Hand over your pills and I'll go to bed."
When he awoke next day, it was only to a foolish delirium. The doctor
looked at him, and then at Hemming.
Hemming nodded.
The President, followed by his daughter, came into the room. Hicks
recognized the girl.
"Marion," he said, and when she bent over him, "something has
happened after all."
She looked up at Hemming with a colourless face. Her eyes were brave
enough, but the pitiful expression of her mouth touched him with a sudden
painful remembrance. During the hours of daylight the doctor and Miss
Tetson watched by the bedside, moving silently and speaking in whispers in
the darkened room.
Hemming had been working with his little army all day, and, after
dining at the mess, he changed and relieved Miss Tetson and the doctor.
Before leaving the room, the girl turned to him nervously.
Hemming told her that Hicks had come to his room for quinine.
"Good night, and please take good care of him," she said.
The Englishman screwed his eye-glass into place, and glared at her
uneasily. "Hicks is a good sort," he said, "but he is not the kind for this
country. Neither are you, Miss Tetson. But it's nuts for me,—this playing
soldier at another man's expense."
He paused, and she waited, a little impatiently, for him to go on. "What
I wanted to say," he continued, "is that there is one thing that goes harder
with a man than yellow fever. I—ah—have experienced both. Hicks is a
decent chap," he concluded, lamely.
"If he should want me in the night, please call me. I will not be asleep,"
she said.
Hemming, for all his rolling, had gathered a good deal of moss in the
shape of handiness and out-of-the-way knowledge. Twice during the night
he bathed the sick man; with ice and alcohol. Many times he lifted the
burning head and held water to the hot lips. Sometimes he talked to him,
very low, of the North and the blue sea, and thus brought sleep back to the
glowing eyes. The windows were open and the blinds up, and a white moon
walked above the gardens.
Just before dawn, Hemming dozed for a few minutes in his chair. He
was awakened by some movement, and, opening his eyes, beheld Miss
Tetson at the bedside. Hicks was sleeping, with his tired face turned toward
the window. The girl touched his forehead tenderly with her lips.
Hemming closed his eyes again, and kept them so until he heard her
leave the room,—a few light footsteps and a soft trailing of skirts. Then, in
his turn, he bent above the sleeper.
"If this takes you off, old chap, perhaps it will be better," he said.
But in his inmost soul he did not believe this bitter distrust of women
that his own brain had built up for him out of memory and weariness.
CHAPTER V.
CHANCE IN PERNAMBUCO
While Hicks tossed about in his fever dreams, and Hemming shook his
command into form, away on the coast, in the city of Pernambuco, unusual
things were shaping. From the south, coastwise from Bahia, came Bertram
St. Ives O'Rourke. This was chance, pure and simple, for he had no idea of
Hemming's whereabouts. From New York, on the mail-steamer, came a man
called Cuddlehead, and took up his abode in a narrow hotel near the
waterfront. He arrived in the city only an hour behind O'Rourke. He was
artfully attired in yachting garb, and had been king-passenger on the boat,
where his English accent had been greatly admired, and his predilection for
card-playing had been bountifully rewarded. In fact, when he went ashore
with his meagre baggage, he left behind at least one mourning maiden heart
and three empty pockets.
O'Rourke, upon landing, had his box and three leather bags carried
across the square to the ship-chandler's. He would look about before
engaging a room, and see if the place contained enough local colour to pay
for a stop-over. He fell, straightway, into easy and polite conversation with
the owner of the store. From the busy pavement and dirty square outside
arose odours that were not altogether foreign to his cosmopolitan nose.
Three men greeted one another, and did business in English and Portuguese,
speaking of the cane crop, the rate of exchange, the price of Newfoundland
"fish," and of gales met with at sea. Bullock-carts creaked past in the aching
sunlight, the mild-eyed beasts staggering with lowered heads. Soldiers in
uncomfortable uniforms lounged about. Cripples exhibited their ugly
misfortunes, and beggars made noisy supplication.
O'Rourke decided that there was enough local colour to keep him, and,
turning from the open door, contemplated the interior of the establishment.
The place was dim and cool, and at the far back of it another door stood
open, on a narrow cross-street. Cases of liquor, tobacco, tea, coffee, and
condensed milk were piled high against the wall. Baskets of sweet potatoes
and hens' eggs stood about. Upon shelves behind the counter samples of
rope, canvas, and cotton cloth were exhibited. Highly coloured posters,
advertising Scotch whiskey, brightened the gloom. The back part of the
shop was furnished with a bar and two long tables. At one of the tables sat
about a dozen men, each with a glass before him, and all laughing, talking,
swearing, and yet keeping their eyes attentively fixed on one of their
number, who shook a dice-box.
O'Rourke, who had by this time made his name known to the ship-
chandler, was given a general introduction to the dice-throwers. He called
for a lime-squash, and took a seat at the table between a dissipated-looking
individual whom all addressed by the title of "Major," and a master-mariner
from the North. There were several of these shellback skippers at table, and
O'Rourke spotted them easily enough, though, to the uninitiated, they had
nothing in common but their weather-beaten faces. Their manners were of
various degrees, running from the height of civility around to nothing at all.
There was the first officer of a Liverpool "tramp" with his elbows on the
board, his gin-and-bitters slopped about, and his voice high in argument.
Next him sat a mariner from one of the Fundy ports, nodding and starting,
and trying to bury in whiskey remembrance of his damaged cargo and
unseaworthy ship. Nearer sat a Devonshire man in the Newfoundland trade,
drinking his sweetened claret with all the graces of a curate, and talking
with the polish and conviction of a retired banker. O'Rourke glanced up and
down the table, and detected one more sailor—a quiet young man clad in
white duck, with "Royal Naval Reserve" marked upon him for the knowing
to see. These four men (each one so unlike the other three in clothes,
appearance, and behaviour) all wore the light of wide waters in their eyes,
the peace bred of long night-watches on their tanned brows, and the right to
command on chin and jaw. O'Rourke felt his heart warm toward them, for
he, too, had kept vigil beside the ghostly mizzen, and read the compass by
the uncertain torch of the lightning.
"But I am, sir," blustered the major. "Dear heaven, man, I'd like to know
who has been American consul in this hole for the last seven years, only to
get chucked out last May by a low plebeian politician."
The speaker's eyes were fierce, though watery, and his face was red as
the sun through smoke. He drained his glass, and glared at O'Rourke.
He was about to recover two of the dice from a shallow puddle on the
table, and replace them in the box, when he felt a hand on his arm.
"I was American consul," hissed the major, "and, by hell, I'm still sober
enough to count my own dice, and pick 'em up, too."
O'Rourke smiled, unruffled. "You don't mean you are sober enough,
major—you mean you are not quite too drunk," he said. The others paused
in their talk, and laughed. The major opened his eyes a trifle wider and
dropped his under jaw. He looked the young stranger up and down.
"Shake hands, my boy," he cried. They shook hands. The others craned
their necks to see.
"You've come just in time to cheer me up, for I've been lonely since
Hemming went into the bush," exclaimed the major.
"That's who I mean," replied the major, and pushed the dice-box toward
him. O'Rourke made nothing better than a pair, and had to pay for thirteen
drinks. If you crave a lime-squash of an afternoon, the above method is not
always the cheapest way of acquiring it. As the dice-box went the rounds
again, and the attention of the company returned to generalities, the
newcomer asked more particulars of Hemming's whereabouts.
"He started into the bush more than a week ago, to find some new kind
of adventure and study the interior, he said," explained the major, "but my
own opinion is that he went to see old Tetson in his place up the Plado. Sly
boy, Hemming! Whenever we spoke of that crazy Tetson, and his daughter,
and his money, he pretended not to take any stock in them. But I'll eat my
hat—and it's the only one I have—if he isn't there at this minute, flashing
that precious gig-lamp of his at the young lady."
"You are right, major, and I gladly confess I used a dashed stupid
expression—so now, if you don't mind, please shut up about it," replied
O'Rourke. To his surprise Farrington smiled, nodded in a knowing way, and
lapsed into silence.
To O'Rourke, who had an eye for things beyond the dice, Mr.
Cuddlehead's face hinted at some strange ways of life, and undesirable traits
of character. In the loose mouth he saw signs of a once colossal impudence;
in the bloated cheeks, dissipation and the wrecking existence of one who
feasts to-day and starves to-morrow; in the eyes cruelty and cunning; in the
chin and forehead a low sort of courage.
Gradually the crowd at the long table thinned. First of all the cavalry
officer arose, flicked imaginary dust off the front of his baggy trousers, and
jangled out into the reddening sunlight. The planters followed, after hearty
farewells. They had long rides ahead of them to occupy the cool of the
evening, and perhaps would not leave their isolated bungalows again inside
a fortnight. Next the operators announced their intentions of deserting the
giddy scene.
"Come along, major, you and Joyce promised to feed with us to-night,"
said one of them, "and if your friend there, Mr. O'Rourke, will overlook the
informality of so sudden an invitation," he continued, "we'll be delighted to
have him, too."
"Thank you, very much, it's awfully good of you chaps," stammered
O'Rourke, disconcerted by the major's offhand manner.
Darlington smiled reassuringly. "Don't let this old cock rattle you," he
said, and patted Major Farrington affectionately on the shoulder.
"Make this your home," he said, "and we'll let you in on the same
footing as ourselves. Hemming occupied this room last. There is his bed;
there is his hammock; and, by Jove, there are his slippers. You can have
your traps brought up in the morning."
CHAPTER VI.
Toward noon of a stifling day, the major and Mr. Cuddlehead met in the
square by the waterfront. Cuddlehead greeted the major affably. As the
major was very thirsty he returned the salutation. A glance through the door
at his elbow displayed, to Mr. Cuddlehead's uncertain eyes, a number of
round tables with chairs about them. He took out his watch and examined it.
They passed through the doorway and sat down at the nearest table.
"Now I will find out what is doing," thought Cuddlehead, and gave his
order. But for a long time the major's tongue refused to be loosened. He
sipped his liquor, and watched his companion with eyes of unfriendly
suspicion. Cuddlehead, in the meantime, exhibited an excellent temper, put
a few casual questions, and chatted about small things of general interest.
CHAPTER VII.
"Very good, sir," replied the valet. "Will I order your horse, sir?"
While the man was out of the room Hemming pulled open a drawer in
his desk, in search of revolver cartridges. The contents of the drawer were
in a shocking jumble. In his despatch-box at large among his papers he
found half a dozen cartridges, a cigarette from the army and navy stores at
home, and a small bow of black ribbon. He picked up the bow, kissed it
lightly, and instead of restoring it to the box put it in his pocket.
"She liked me well enough in those days—or else she did some—ah—
remarkable acting," he said.
Your horse is ready, sir," said the man. Hemming blushed, and, to hide
his confusion, told Smith to go to the devil. He rode away with an unloaded
revolver in his holster.
A woman came to the narrow doorway and greeted him with reverence.
He recognized in her the woman who had first welcomed him to the
country. He dismounted and held out his hand.
"How is the little fellow?" he asked. At that the tears sprang into her
eyes, and Hemming saw that her face was drawn with sorrow. He followed
her into the dim interior of the hut. The boy lay in a corner, upon an untidy
bed, and above him stood the English doctor. The two men shook hands.
"I can clear him of the fever," said the doctor, "but what for? It's easier
to die of fever than of starvation."
"The señor does not know," said the woman. "It is not in his kind
heart to ruin the poor, and bring sorrow to the humble."
"Don't judge me by your own standards, Scott, simply because you were
born a gentleman," he said.
"I thought," replied the doctor, "that you were in command of the army.
Ask those mud-faced soldiers of yours why this woman has nothing to feed
to her child."
"I will ask them," said the commander-in-chief, and he ripped out an
oath that did Scott's heart good to hear. He turned to the woman.
"I am sorry for this," he said, "and will see that all that was taken from
you is safely returned. The President and I knew nothing about it." He drew
a wad of notes from his pocket and handed it to her. Then he looked at the
doctor.
"If I did not like you, Scott, and respect you," he continued, "I'd punch
your head for thinking this of me. But you had both the grace and courage
to tell me what you thought."
"I don't think it now," said Scott, "and I don't want my head punched,
either, for my flesh heals very slowly. But if I ever feel in need of a
thrashing, old man, I'll call on you. No doubt it would be painful, but there'd
be no element of disgrace connected with it."
Hemming blushed, for compliments always put him out of the game.
The woman suddenly stepped closer, and, snatching his hand to her face,
kissed it twice before he could pull it away. He retreated to the door, and the
doctor laughed. Safe in the saddle, he called to the doctor.
"Let me advise you to try your luck again. A girl is sometimes put in a
false light by circumstances—-the greed of parents, for instance," replied
Scott.
"I have not always lived in Pernamba," laughed Scott, "I have dined
more than once at your mess. Fact is, I was at one time surgeon in the Sixty-
Second."
"I will not take your advice," he said, "but it was kind of you to give it.
Forgive me for mentioning it, Scott, but you are a dashed good sort."
"Man," cried the other, "didn't I tell you that I am hiding my head?" He
slapped the white stallion smartly on the rump, and Hemming went up the
trail at a canter.
CHAPTER VIII.
Hemming got back to the village in time to change and dine with the
family. The President's mind was otherwhere than at the table. He would
look about the room, staring at the shadows beyond the candle-light, as if
seeking something. He pushed the claret past him, and ordered rye whiskey.
His kind face showed lines unknown to it a month before. Mrs. Tetson
watched him anxiously. Marion and the commander-in-chief talked together
like well-tried comrades, laughing sometimes, but for the most part serious.
Marion was paler than of old, but none the less beautiful for that. Her eyes
were brighter, with a light that seemed to burn far back in them, steady and
tender. Her lips were ever on the verge of smiling. Hemming told her all of
his interview with the peasant woman, and part of his interview with Scott.
She begged him not to stir it up until Valentine was well enough to have
a finger in it.
"You may not think him very clever," she said, "but even you will admit
that he shoots straight, and has courage."
"I will admit anything in his favour," replied Hemming, "but as for his
shooting, why, thank Heaven, I have never tested it."
"No, indeed," she cried, "for no matter how minus a quantity your guilt,
or how full of fault I had been, it would never have done for him to threaten
me with a—" She paused.
"Fever is a terrible thing," she said, gazing at the red heart of the claret.
"My dear sister," said the Englishman, "a man would gladly suffer more
to win less."
"I like your friendship," she said, "for, though you seem such a good
companion, I do not believe you give it lightly."
After the coffee and an aimless talk with Tetson, Hemming looked in at
Hicks and found him drinking chicken broth as if he liked it. The invalid
was strong enough to manage the spoon himself, but Marion held the bowl.
Hemming went to his own room, turned on the light above his desk, and
began to write. He worked steadily until ten o'clock. Then he walked up and
down the room for awhile, rolling and smoking cigarettes. The old ambition
had him in its clutches. Pernamba, with its heat, its dulness, its love and
hate, had faded away. Now he played a bigger game—a game for the world
rather than for half a battalion of little brown soldiers. A knock sounded on
his door, and, before he could answer it, Captain Santosa, glorious in his
white and gold, stepped into the room. The sight of the Brazilian brought
his dreams to the dust. "Damn," he said, under his breath.
The captain's manner was as courteous as ever, his smile as urbane, his
eyes as unfathomable. But his dusky cheek showed an unusual pallor, and
as he sat down he groaned. Hemming eyed him sharply; men like Santosa
do not groan unless they are wounded—maybe in their pride, by a friend's
word, maybe in their vitals by an enemy's knife. There was no sign of blood
on the spotless uniform.
"Not now," said the captain, "but afterward, if you then offer it to me."
He swallowed hard, looked down at his polished boots, aloft at the ceiling,
and presently at his superior officer's staring eye-glass. From this he seemed
to gather courage.
"I have disturbed you at your rest, at your private work," he said, with a
motion of the hand toward the untidy desk, "but my need is great. I must
choose between disloyalty to my brother officers, and disloyalty to you and
the President. I have chosen, sir, and I now resign my commission. I will no
longer ride and drink and eat with robbers and liars. It is not work for a
gentleman." He paused and smiled pathetically. "I will go away. There is
nothing else for my father's son to do."
"I heard something of this—no longer ago than to-day," said Hemming.
"I winked at it too long," he said, at last, "for I was dreaming of other
things. So that I kept my own hands clean I did not care. Then you came,
and I watched you. I saw that duty was the great thing, after all—even for a
soldier. And I saw that even a gentleman might earn his pay decently."
Hemming smiled, and polished his eye-glass on the lining of his dinner-
jacket.
"Thank you, old chap. You have a queer way of putting it, but I catch
the idea," he said.
The captain bowed. "I will go away, but not very far, for I would like to
be near, to help you in any trouble. Our dear friend Valentine, whom I love
as a brother, is not yet strong. The President, whom I honour, is not a
fighter, I think. The ladies should go to the coast."
"You are right," said Hemming, "but do not leave us for a day or two. I
will consider your resignation. Now for a drink."
He rang the bell, and then pulled a chair close to Santosa. When Smith
had gone from the room, leaving the decanter and soda-water behind him,
the two soldiers touched glasses and drank. They were silent. The Brazilian
felt better now, and the Englishman was thinking too hard to talk. A gust of
wind banged the wooden shutters at the windows. It was followed by a
flash of lightning. Then came the rain, pounding and splashing on the roof,
and hammering the palms in the garden.
"Have you seen Hicks since the fever bowled him?" he asked.
"No," replied the captain, "no, I have not seen him, but he is my friend
and I wish him well. Is it not through our friends, Hemming, that we come
by our griefs? It has seemed so to me."
"When I first came here," continued the captain, "I was poor, and the
Brazilian army owed me a whole year's back pay. I had spent much on
clothes and on horses, trying hard to live like my father's son. Mr. Tetson
offered me better pay, and a gayer uniform. I was willing to play at
soldiering, for I saw that some gain might be made from it, outside the pay.
My brother officers saw this also, and we talked of it often. Then Miss
Tetson came to Pernamba. I rode out with her to show her the country. I told
her of my father, and of how, when they carried him in from the field, they
found that the Order of Bolivar had been driven edgewise through his tunic
and into his breast by the blow of a bullet. And when I saw the look on her
face, my pride grew, but changed in some way, and it seemed to me that the
son of that man should leave thieving and the crushing of the poor to men
of less distinction.
"Sometimes my heart was bitter within me, and my fingers itched for
the feel of Valentine's throat. But I hope I was always polite, Hemming." He
got lightly to his feet, and held out his hand.
"Not at all," replied Hemming, gravely, "and I can assure you that your
attitude toward all concerned has left nothing to be desired. I will look you
up at your quarters after breakfast."
Hemming went in search of the President, and found him in the billiard-
room, idly knocking the balls about with a rasping cue.
"Not now, sir. I came to tell you something about the army," he replied.
He was shocked at Tetson's sudden pallor. The yellow cigar was dropped
from nerveless fingers and smeared a white trail of ash across the green
cloth.
"Oh, they take whatever they want," replied Hemming; "the taxes that
are due you, and something besides from the unprotected." Then he retailed
the case of the poor woman. When he had finished Tetson did not speak
immediately. His benevolent face wore an expression that cut Hemming to
the heart.
"I must think it over," he said, wearily, "I must think it over."
CHAPTER IX.
Mr. Cuddlehead's trip, though free from serious accident, had been
extremely trying. The barcassa had cramped his legs, and the smell of the
native cooking, in so confined a space, had unsettled his stomach. He had
been compelled to wait three days in the uninteresting village at the mouth
of the Plado, unable to hurry the leisurely crew of the launch. But at last the
undesirable journey came to an end, and with a sigh of relief he issued from
beneath the smoke-begrimed awning, and stretched his legs on the little
wharf at Pernamba. He looked at the deserted warehouses along the river-
front, and a foreboding of disaster chilled him. The afternoon lay close and
bright in the unhealthy valley, and the very peacefulness of the scene awoke
a phantom of fear in his heart. What if the President were a man of the
world after all, with a knowledge of men and the signs on their faces? Why,
then, good-bye to all hope of the family circle.
"What airs these d—n niggers put on," he muttered, "but maybe I was a
bit indiscreet."
Here, already, was the hand of Hemming against him, though he did not
know it; for Hemming, also, had bought cigars from the girl, and had
treated her as he treated all women, thereby establishing her self-respect
above the attentions of men with eyes like Cuddlehead's.
Just then Captain Santosa entered from the street, with, in the
metaphorical phrase of a certain whist-playing poet, "a smile on his face,
and a club in his hand." He swore at the corporal, who retreated to the
guard-house, fumbling at his buttons. He bowed to Cuddlehead, and
glanced at the card.
"You would like to see the President?" he said. "Then I will escort you
to the door." He caught up his sword and hooked it short to his belt,
wheeled like a drill-sergeant, and fitted his stride to Cuddlehead's.
Mr. Tetson received the visitor in his airy office. He seemed disturbed in
mind, wondering, perhaps, if this were a dun from some wholesale
establishment on the coast. He had been working on his books all the
morning, and had caught a glimpse of ruin, like a great shadow, across the
tidy pages. But he managed to welcome Cuddlehead heartily enough.
"Ten thousand," he pondered, "ten thousand for April alone, and nothing
to put against it. The army wanting its pay, and robbing me of all I have.
Gregory's coal bill as long as my leg. Sugar gone to the devil!" He sighed,
mopped his face, and looked at Cuddlehead, who all the while had been
observing him with furtive, inquiring eyes. He offered a yellow cigar, and
lit one himself.
"Excuse me a moment," he said. "I have something to see to. Here are
some English papers. I'll be back immediately, Mr. Cuddlehead, and then
maybe we can have a game of billiards."
"You are a foolish old party," remarked Cuddlehead to the closed door,
"and, no doubt, you'll be all the easier for that. Hope your daughter is a
better looker, that's all."
He tossed the offensive cigar into the garden, and seated himself in the
chair by the desk. His courage was growing.
At the hall door Mr. Tetson met Hemming entering. The commander
was booted and spurred.