Pulp - Munseys Magazine.07.10.Made in Borneo - Leo Crane (pdf) Read online

  Munsey’s Magazine, October, 1907

  ENSON is one of those chaps who lift tale. You will never hear the chapter when the their lives in their hands and go beastie wins out and the glory is all with the B looking for wild animals. Most men jungle.

  are content and happy to allow the animal Benson can usually be found when a

  kingdom the free run of the jungles; but not so steamer makes port with wild livestock on the is Benson. He is a restless sort who must seek manifest.

  them, because there are menageries with

  “Of course,” he said to me one night, empty cages.

  “a man can get a line on beasts after a fashion.

  Whenever you go into a circus-tent

  He can study a hyena, f’r instance, until he with the children and see a surly-looking beast coppers the laugh down to a note, an’ mebbe glaring from behind inch bars, pacing the he can figger out what that note means. Simms bottom of a den into ruts, snuffing and cursing Foraker claims he can tell when a zebra’s in a the world in general, remember that once upon good humor, an’ mebbe he can; but for me, I a time a chap of Benson’s clan—perhaps never seen one that way, an’ I ain’t takin’ no Benson himself—faced that particular beastie chances. The life-insurance folks don’t cover when it was free and on its native heath.

  no bets on my life, anyway, an’ so I’m tryin’

  Behind each captive there is a story, and to live just as long as I can, to make ’em sorry.

  Benson is usually the star performer in the

  “But a wild man—now say, there’s a

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  study for your spare time. You’ve got to sit up

  “Ye can’t be kind to a wild man,” said nights figgerin’ the dope on a wild man’s Benson gravely. “He wouldn’t understand it if characteristics, There ain’t never been two of you tried to be, an’ besides, you’d be wasting

  ’em alike. First, they’re scarce; an’ second—

  your time. What a wild man wants is some when ye do manage to snake one out by his one to take him in hand firmly, to be good to hair he’s different from the one ye had him, but determined; and at the same time it’s before.”

  my advice to the fellow who’s contractin’ for the job to watch both ends an’ the middle for his white-ally, ’cause with a wild man times are mostly excitin’, or just beginning to be such. You can believe me—I handled one wunst. It was this way:

  “Simms Foraker and me was down on

  a jaunt near Borneo. That’s the grand hang-out place for wild men. We had knocked around a goodish bit without getting a sight at anything.

  Now, don’t go for to think that we was down there lookin’ for wild men. No, we hadn’t got to that stage at that time; but in case we rushed across a wild man who wasn’t working overtime, and no orders ahead of him, why, we just allowed that we’d sign contracts for a season.

  “Well, we heard of this chap a long

  time before we see anything of him. The natives along the coast had all sorts of battles with him. He was a toughish customer. He had nearly bludgeoned the brains out of one of their holiest head-men. Just about that time we comes along, lookin’ wise, an’ we hears this fellow is off on a small island—that he has a skiff, comes to the main-land, skurries around for things to his taste, gives the chap who Benson at this point proceeded to fill protests the grand salaam with a club, an’

  his pipe and to prop up his chin with his fades away.

  knees. You see, Benson was sitting on the

  “Says Simms Foraker to me: ‘Here’s a deck—I should have told you that—with his fine fat wild man, an’, sonny we’re on.’

  back to the rail. It was one of those nights

  “An’ with that we started building a when the stars burn softly in a filmy sky, trap for him.

  when the wind carries with it the damp scents

  “It would take too long to-night to tell of the sea. Now the rich odor of burning ye how we got him, but we got him, all right latakia arose from the fire-lined bowl of enough. It took four men to hold him down Benson’s pipe. It was fairly alight, and he while we slipped a rope anklet where anklets seemed diffident.

  usually go—an’ the calf of one man’s leg in

  “Wild men—” I suggested.

  Borneo looks as if a dog had used it to cut

  Made In Borneo

  3

  wisdom-teeth on—but we got him. Trust me slats of a cage an’ saying ‘Oui! Oui!’ We tried an’ Simms Foraker to nab anything smaller’n him on raw meat, an’ he nearly had a a behemoth, an’ we’ll give that a trot to the convulsion. Fruits an’ grass stuffs made him post if any one speaks up that a prime feel so sick that he threw what he could at the specimen’s loose.

  waiter. After a while we learned that he was

  “He was a tidy sort of chap, this wild right partial to a mess of salt-horse and man. Darkish in the skin—in fact, he was a potatoes. He perked up amazin’ when he got brunette coon—a short, squat one, a rakish fed a little. An’ every time I’d go near his bullet-head, kind o’ slantin’ to the nor’-nor’-

  habitation he’d begin the gibberish. Most east, an’ surmounted by furze. His eyes was impressive it was, an’ earnest, an’ I’d bow and weak an’ blinkin’. His arms were the smirk and blink at him till he’d get so crazy wonderment, though. They were long, and mad that he wound up by nearly biting holes hung down close to his knees. I’ll bet a in his face with fair rage. Simms Foraker said month’s pay he could sit on a chair an’ pick we needn’t mind, for all wild men acted like pennies off the floor without straining a fiber.

  that at times.

  His shoulders were inlaid with bunches of

  “We got along all right for a time on knots, an’ these same knots worked like that voyage. The weather it was hot, an’ we eccentric winches when he took it into that were kind o’ peekish and worn down. Most of cacti head to get busy.

  the time me an’ Simms Foraker laid round on

  “He talked some gibberish, mostly the deck, nights, with nothin’ on to speak of, excited, but we paid no attention to it. Simms growlin’ an’ swear in’ an’ comparin’ that part Foraker said it wasn’t French, nor Portugee, of the world with the rest of it, which was nor Latin, nor none of them nigger tongues, decent. I remember one hot night it got stuffy.

  an’ we were satisfied he didn’t know more’n The atmosphere chased itself down

  we did as to what it meant. It sounded wild-one’s throat and dried there in blocks.

  mannish, all right. We got him on shipboard at

  “‘I’ll just step down to see how his length, an’ nailed him up in a slat cage ’tween nibs is restin’,’ I says to Simms Foraker, ’an’

  decks.

  then I’ll come on deck with a pillow.

  “‘A fine busy trip for us,’ says Simms

  “‘Bring me one,’ says he drowsy-like.

  Foraker to me, on the side. ‘That chap’ll fetch

  “With that I departed to the ’tween-

  his weight in pure genoo-ine gold at the decks. I made the return journey to the side of Lunnon docks. Oh, we’re the two wise body-Simms Foraker in just three leaps, all counted, snatchers, we are!’ says he to me. And I touchin’ the high places.

  nodded an’ winked back at Simms Foraker all

  “‘He’s gone!’ says I, breathless.

  them fool sentiments.”

  “‘Who’s he?’ asked Simms Foraker,

  not dreamin’ that anything radical had II

  happe
ned:

  “‘Nibbsey!’ says I, shifting a glance on BENSON sighed. This was not one of his epic my shoulder to see if he was making up the recitals. But he seemed to feel that, having deck.

  started once, it should be finished, and so he

  “‘The wild man out!’ yells Simms

  went ahead.

  Foraker.

  “The first thing that worried us was the

  “‘Right you are! He’s vacated his den question of feedin’ him. There ain’t no sense for somewheres else. He’s loose, s’welp me!’

  in stickin’ the ship’s bill o’ fare in ’tween the

  “‘By hokus!’ gasps Simms Foraker.

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  You can bet he was pale. ‘Let’s dig up the pleasant difficulty. It is the business of a wild captain.’

  man to be wild, an’ we expected it of him.

  “The captain was, if anything, worse This hanging fire didn’t agree with our meals.

  scared than either of us.

  We stood around an’ looked for him. Then we

  “‘Loose!’ says he, incredulous.

  got nervous as wim-men. If he was going to

  “‘Free as the air itself!’ says I to the come on, why didn’t he come on? An hour captain.

  passed away, while we shifted from one foot Go down there an’ make sure of it,

  to the other, watchin’ the retreat.

  man,’ orders that insane old captain to me.

  “‘All right,’ says Simms Foraker, who

  “‘What did you say? Go down there

  could get used to anything. He wanst lived for again?’ I remarks, not knowin’ whether I had two weeks on broiled snake, an’ got to like it.

  understood him.

  ‘All right!’ says Simms Foraker, determined.

  “‘Sure!’ he replies. ‘Go down an’ see

  ‘Now let him come on!’

  if he ain’t asleep on the floor, or curled up somewhere.’

  “‘Not while I can breathe up here,’

  says I. ‘Whenever you want a sample of Hades coal—why, call on me an’ I’ll fetch it.

  But don’t ask me to go below to trail that Borneo lunatic. I was there when he was nabbed, an’ I see the whole thing.’

  “An’ I was downright mad to think of it.

  “‘Well, where has he got to?’ asks the captain gruffly.

  “‘That’s for some one to find out,’

  advises Simms Foraker.

  “‘He’s your wild man,’ says the

  captain, weakening.

  “‘Not when he’s loose,’ says Simms

  Foraker patiently.

  “‘But I won’t have a wild man runnin’

  loose about my ship!’ screams the captain, suddenly getting his mad up.

  “‘Maybe if you’d tell him that, quiet-like, he’d come around an’ be penned up like a nice little chap,’ says Simms Foraker,

  “But, dang it all! he didn’t come on.

  getting his own sparker working.

  “Then they turned on me,” said

  “This was a stumper for the captain.

  Benson. “They said I was a fool, and a scare-

  “We were all a bit on edge by that

  head, and a mark. They were going to call me time. Each man knew the other was afraid, other names worse’n that, when there was a which wasn’t none encouraging. We kept a noise like a scuffle, an’ a rush on the deck, an’

  weather-eye open, this way an’ that, and a a man comes up yelling. It was Samuels, the first-class ‘Boo!’ from the rear would have cook, an’ he looked as if he’d got the call. His sent the bunch to the masthead. It weren’t no eyes were fair hanging out.

  Made In Borneo

  5

  “‘Save me!’ he screams to us, waving made fast, the only way for that wild man to signs with his hands like a deef-mute. get out was through a small port, and the

  ‘Captain! Captain! That Borneo man is in my captain set a man to watch that, with orders to galley!’

  beat the brains outer anything that tried to

  “Right there it was a relief to me to climb through. Brown took first watch with a know for certain that he was loose,” said capstan-bar held ready. Then Simms Foraker Benson, digging at his pipe.

  and me took reg’lar breaths, an’ stood at ease.

  “‘In the galley!’ roars the captain, not

  “‘That’s all settled,’ says the captain stirrin’ an inch.

  now. ‘We’ve got him like a crab in a net.’ An’

  “‘He pitched me out quick as a flash, the captain acted as if he had accomplished an’ ducked inside, an’ he’s barricaded something.

  himself.’

  “The captain was right. We had him,

  “Then the captain straightened up all right. When Brown got tired watchin’

  wonderful. ‘If he’s in that galley he can’t get Wilkens spelled him, an’ then Jones.

  away, so here you, Jenkins and Brown! Take a

  “‘He ain’t got no firearms in there, turn of a piece of rope through the galley-door boys,’ says the captain, to hearten ’em up.

  handle an’ make fast somewheres. That’ll ‘Only carvin’-knives, an’ cleavers, an’ such!

  fetch him all tight an’ tidy.’

  Don’t be afraid.’ Which was comforting.”

  III

  Benson seemed inclined at this

  moment to take a rest. He proceeded to change his attitude with regard to the deck, which was hard, and he suggested that the subject was a dry one.

  Away off on the quay was a place with lights. I sent the ship’s boy hustling to that place with a pail, and when he brought the pail back there was foam on the top of it. Benson appreciated this. When he had wiped his lips with the back of his hand and had heaved a hard sigh, he said:

  “Say!” doubtfully, “ain’t you got

  nothin’ better to do than listen to yarns?”

  “This will be a hummer, old man,” I

  told him.

  “Well, don’t sign my name to it, ’cause the captain would blame me for a blabber.

  Call the ship the Mary Jane, or some such

  “Jenkins and Brown, when they common name as that, realized the job weren’t none pleased. They

  ’cause we ain’t none too proud o’ this wild-went up the deck like heroes, though. I guess man yarn, none of us, an’ as for Simms their hearts were beatin’ overtime a few, but Foraker, he’d be that mortified he couldn’t they did it, s’welp me! Once the door was ever enter a side-show again. You don’t want

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  6

  to deprive an honest man of business d’ye?”

  a beggar a meal, and calculated to drive

  “Go on,” I coaxed. “It’s the shank of hungry men mad.

  the evening, and wild men are scarce.”

  “‘That’s a Brunswick stew,’ said one

  “You bet,” agreed Benson solemnly,

  of the men, sniffing.

  relighting his pocket-furnace. “Boreno’s ’bout

  “‘With gravy,’ added another.

  given out of first-class wild men. There’s a

  “‘Brunswick nothin’! That’s duff a la poor sort o’ second grade on the market, but Borneo.’

  they’re unculled, an’ the price ain’t much to

  “‘Smells a little wild to me,’ one of the sneak of no more. A genooine, double-edged critics said.

  wild man, guaranteed to snarl an’ yell, not to

  “‘As for me,’ says Samuels, the cook, say chew a keeper every little while, would

  ‘I’m partial to some biscuit,’ and he dived make the shows mortgage a three-hump below into the extra stores to get it. We all camel. That’s right.”

  nibbled a bit when he returned, an’ we thought Benson spat over the side reflectively.

  o’ the free-lunch counters we had
passed a

  “Oh, yes,” he remarked, with a little sigh, while back.

  “wild men ain’t frequent.”

  “At last the captain got real desperate.

  “ What happened to this fellow in the

  “‘We’ll have to have him out of that,’

  ship’s galley?” I asked.

  he says, gritting his big teeth. ‘ Wilkens,

  “Hum-m-m! You see, every night has

  Brown, Jones, cast off that rope-lashing an’

  its dawn, an’ with dawn comes arousin’, stand by.’

  wash-up, an’ breakfast. Nobody thought o’

  “They didn’t like the order, but they breakfast on that ship. We were too excited was good men and true. The wild man heard over the possible maneuvers of the wild man, them fumbling, an’ he begins to mix up a few so we stood around, an’ forgets breakfast pots and pans inside there, which sounds clean. But dinner ain’t a goin’ to let a chap horrible, like the last night of an iron-foundry.

  snub it without mentioning the subject. Painful Wilkens, Brown, an’ Jones weren’t anxious to subject, too, is dinner when there ain’t none.

  sleep near to that galley door when it was

  “Samuels, the cook, he stands idle like unfastened.