XXV
The white rain clouds, rolling as ever like a nervous intruder over thegreat snow peaks behind the steep hills black with forest that roselike a wall back of the little settlement of Sitka, parted for amoment, and the sun, a coy disdainful guest, flung a glittering mistover what Nature had intended to be one of the most enchanting spots onearth, until, in a fit of ill-temper--with one of the gods, nodoubt--she gave it to Niobe as a permanent outlet for her discontent.When it does not rain at Sitka it pours, and when once in a way shedraws a deep breath of respite and lifts her grand and glorious face tothe sun, in pathetic gratitude for dear infrequent favor, comes a wildflurry of snow or a close white fog from the inland waters; and, like agreat beauty condemned to wear a veil through life, she can but starein dumb resentment through the folds, consoling herself with theknowledge that could the world but see it must surely worship.Perhaps, who knows? she really is a frozen goddess, condemned to theveil for infidelity to him imprisoned in the great volcano across thesound--who sends up a column of light once in a way to dazzle hershrouded eyes, and failing that batters her with rock and stone likeany lover of the slums. One day he spat forth a rock like a smallhill, and big enough to dominate the strip of lowland at least,standing out on the edge of the island like a guard at the gates, andnever a part of the alien surface. Between this lofty rock and theforest was the walled settlement of New Archangel, that Baranhov, thedauntless, had wrested from the bloodthirsty Kolosh but a short timesince and purposed to hold in the interest of the Russian-AmericanCompany. His log hut, painted like the other buildings with a yellowochre found in the soil, stood on the rock, and his glass swept theforest as often as the sea.
As Rezanov, on the second of July, thirty-one days after leaving SanFrancisco, sailed into the harbor with its hundred bits of volcanicwoodland weeping as ever, he gave a whimsical sigh in tribute to thegay and ever-changing beauties of the southern land, but was in no moodfor sentimental reminiscence. Natives, paddling eagerly out to sea intheir bidarkas to be the first to bring in good news or bad, had givenhim a report covering the period of his absence that filled him withdismay. There had been deaths from scurvy; one of the largest shipsbelonging to the Company had been wrecked and the entire cargo lost; ofa hunting party of three hundred Aleuts in one hundred and fortybidarkas, which had gone from Sitka to Kadiak in November of thepreceding year, not one had arrived at its destination, and there wasreason to believe that all had been drowned or massacred; and theRussians and Aleuts at Behring's Bay settlement had been exterminatedby one of the native tribes.
But the Juno was received with salvos of artillery from the fort, andcheered by the entire population of the settlement, crowded on thebeach. Baranhov, looking like a monkey with a mummy's head in whichonly a pair of incomparably shrewd eyes still lived, his black wigfastened on his bald, red-fringed pate with a silk handkerchief tiedunder his chin, stood, hands on hips, shaking with excitement anddelight. The bearded, long-haired priests, in full canonicals of blackand gold, were beside the Chief-Manager, ready to escort theChamberlain to the chapel at the head of the solitary street, where thebells were pealing and a mass of thanksgiving was to be said for hissafe return.
But it was some time before Rezanov could reach the chapel or evenexchange salutations with Baranhov. As he stepped on shore he wassurrounded, almost hustled by the shouting crowd of Russians,--many ofthem convicts--Aleuts and Sitkans, who knelt at his feet, endeavored tokiss his hand, his garments, in their hysterical gratitude for the foodhe had brought them. For the first time he felt reconciled to hisdeparture from California, and Concha's image faded as he looked at thetearful faces of the diseased, ill-nourished wretches who gave theirmite of life that he might live as became a great noble of the RussianEmpire. But although he tingled with pleasure and was deeply moved, heby no means swelled with vanity, for he was far too clear-sighted todoubt he had done more than his duty, or that his duty was more thanbegun. He made them a little speech, giving his word they should beproperly fed hereafter, that he would make the improvement of theircondition as well as that of all the employees of the Companythroughout this vast chain of settlements on the Pacific, the chiefconsideration of his life; and they believed him and followed him tothe chapel rejoicing, reconciled for once to their lot.
After the service Rezanov went up to the hut of the Chief-Manager, ahabitation that leaked winter and summer, and was equally deficient inlight, ventilation and order. But Baranhov in the sixteen years of hisexile had forgotten the bare lineaments of comfort, and devoted hisdays to advancing the interests of the Company, his nights, save whensleep overcame him, to potations that would have buried an ordinary manunder Alaskan snows long since. But Baranhov had fourteen years moreof good service in him, and rescued the Company from insolvency againand again, nor ever played into the hands of marauding foreigners; withbrain on fire he was shrewder than the soberest.
He listened with deep satisfaction to the Chamberlain's account of hissuccess with the Californians and his glowing pictures of the country,nodding every few moments with emphatic approval. But as the storyfinished his wonderful eyes were two bubbling springs of humor, andRezanov, who knew him well, recrossed his legs nervously.
"What is it?" he asked. "What have I done now? Remember that you havebeen in this business for sixteen years, and I one--"
"How many measures of corn did you say you had brought, Excellency?"
"Two hundred and ninety-four," replied Rezanov proudly.
"A provision that exceeds my most sanguine hopes. The only thing thatmitigates my satisfaction is that there is not a mill in the settlementto grind it."
Rezanov sprang to his feet with a violent exclamation, his face veryred. There was no one whose good opinion he valued as he did that ofthis brilliant, dissipated, disinterested old genius; and he felt likea schoolboy. But although he started for the door, he recoveredhalf-way, and reseating himself joined in the laughter of the littleman who was rocking back and forth on his bench, his weazened legclasped against his shrunken chest.
"How on earth was I to know all your domestic arrangements?" he saidtestily. "God knows I found them limited enough last winter, but itnever occurred to me there was any mysterious process involved inconverting corn into meal. Is it quite useless, then?"
"Oh, no, we can boil or roast it. It will dispose of what teeth wehave left, but that will serve the good purpose of reminding us alwaysof your excellency's interest in our welfare."
Rezanov shrugged his shoulders. "Give the corn to the natives. It isfarinaceous at all events. And you can have nothing to say against theflour I have brought, and the peas, beans, tallow, butter, barley,salt, and salted meats--in all to the value of twenty-four thousandSpanish dollars."
The Chief-Manager's head nodded with the vigor and rapidity of amechanical toy. "It is a God-send, a God-send. If you did no morethan that you would have earned our everlasting gratitude. It willmake us over, give us renewed courage in this cursed existence. Areyou not going to get me out of it?"
Rezanov shook his head with a smile. "Literally you are the wholeCompany. As long as I live here you stay--although when I reach St.Petersburg I shall see that you receive every possible reward andhonor."
Baranhov lifted his shoulders to his ears in quizzical resignation. "Isuppose it matters little where the last few years left me are spent,and I can hang the medals on the walls to console me when I haverheumatism, and shout my titles from the top of the fort when theKolosh are yelling at the barricades."
"You must make yourself more comfortable," said Rezanov emphatically."You are wrong to carry your honesty and enthusiasm to the point ofliving like the promuschleniki. Take enough of their time to build youa comfortable dwelling, and I will send you, on my own account, farmore substantial rewards than orders and titles. Build a big house,for that matter. I shall be here more or less--when I am not inCalifornia." And he told Baranhov of his proposed marriage with thedaughter of Don Jose Arguello.
The Chief-Manager listened to this confidence with an even liveliersatisfaction than to the list of the Juno's cargo.
"We shall have California yet!" he cried, his eyes snapping like livecoals under the black thatch of wig. "Absorption or the bayonet. Itmatters little. Ten years from now and we shall have a line ofsettlements as far south as San Diego. My plan was to feel my way downthe northern coast of California with a colony, which should buy atract of land from the natives and engage immediately in otterhunting--somewhere between Cape Mendocino and Drake's Bay. The Spanishhave no settlements above San Francisco and are too weak to drive usout. They would rage and bluster and do nothing. Then quietly pushforward, building forts and ships. But you have taken hold in thegrand manner and will accomplish in ten years what would have taken mefifty. Marry this girl, use your advantage over the entirefamily--whose influence I well know--and that great personal power withwhich the Almighty has been so lavish, and you will have the wholeweakly garrisoned country under your foot before they know where theyare, and the Russian settlers pouring in. Spain cannot come to therescue while this devil Bonaparte is alive, and he is young, and likeyourself a favorite of destiny. Those damned Bostonians inherit thegrabbing instincts of the too paternal race they have just rejected,but there are thousands of miles of desert between California and theirown western outposts, hundreds of savage tribes to exterminate. By thetime they are in a position to attempt the occupation of California weshall be so securely entrenched they will either let us alone or sendtroops that would be half dead by the time they reach us. As to ships,we could soon build enough at Okhotsk and Petropaulovsky for ourpurpose. For the matter of that, if your gifted tongue impressed theTsar with the riches of California there would always be war ships onher coast." He leaned forward and caught the strong shoulders abovehim in hands that looked like a tangle of baked nerves, and shook themvigorously. "You are a great boy!" he said with a sort of quizzicalsolemnity. "A great boy. This damned, God-forsaken, pestilential,demoralizing, brutalizing factory for enriching a few with the verylife blood and vitals of thousands that will suffer and starve andnever be heard of" (all his language cannot be recorded), "will maketwo or three reputations by the way. Mine will be one, although I'llget nothing else. Shelikov is safe; but you will have a monument.Well, God bless you. I grudge you nothing. Not even the happiness youdeserve and are bound to have--for when all is said and done, Rezanov,you are a lucky dog, a lucky dog! Any man may see that, even whenthese infernal snows have left him with but half an eye. To quarrelwith a destiny like yours would be as great a waste of time as toprotest that California is warm and fertile, while this infernal Northis like living in a refrigerator with the deluge to vary the monotony.Now let us get drunk!"
But Rezanov laughingly extricated himself, and sending a message toDavidov and Khostov to come to him immediately, walked toward the tenthe had ordered erected on the edge of the settlement; only the worst ofweather drove him indoors in these half-civilized communities.
As he was passing the chapel, followed again by the employees of theCompany, to whom he had granted a holiday, he suddenly found his handtaken possession of, and looked up to see himself confronted by adissipated-looking person in plain clothes. His hand became so limpthat it was dropped as if it had put forth a sting, and he narrowed hiseyes and demanded with a bend of his mouth that brought the blood tothe face of the intruder:
"And who are you, may I ask?"
The man threw back his head defiantly. "I am Lieutenant Sookin of theImperial Navy of Russia," he said in a loud, defiant tone.
"And I am Chamberlain of the Russian Court and Commander of allAmerica," replied Rezanov coolly. "Now go to your quarters, dressyourself in your uniform, and present your report to me an hour hence."
The officer, concentrating in his injected eyes all the lively hatredand jealousy of his service for the Russian-American Company in thisregion where it reigned supreme and cared no more for the Admiraltythan for some native chieftain covered with shells and warpaint, glaredat its plenipotentiary as if calling upon his deeper resources ofinsolence; but the steady, contemptuous gaze of the man who had dealtwith his kind often and successfully overcame his sodden spirit, and heturned sulkily and slouched off to his quarters to console himself withmore brandy. Rezanov shrugged his shoulders and went on to his tent.
There was no furniture in it as yet, and he was obliged to receiveDavidov and Khostov standing, but this he preferred. They followed himalmost immediately, apprehensive and nervous, and before speaking helooked at them for a moment with his strong, penetrating gaze. He wellknew the power of his own personality, and that it was immeasurablyenhanced by the fact that of all with whom he had to do in thesebenighted regions his will alone was never weakened by liquor. Theseyoung men, clever, high-bred, with an honorable record not only inRussia, but in England and America, looked upon a hilarious night asthe just reward of work well done by day. Brandy was debited to theiraccount by the "bucket" (a bucket being a trifle less than twogallons), and they found little fault with life. But the profligacygave a commanding spirit like Rezanov's an advantage which they did notunder-estimate for a moment; and they alternately hated and worshipedhim.
"I think you have an inkling of what I am going to ask you to do." TheChamberlain brought out the euphemism with the utmost suavity. "I havemade up my mind not to ignore the indignity to which Russia wassubjected last year by Japan, but to inflict upon it such punishment asI find it in my power to compass. It was my intention to build aflotilla here, but owing to the diseased condition and reduced numbersof the employees, that was impossible, and I shall be obliged tocontent myself with the Juno and the Avos, whose keel, as you know, waslaid in November, and is no doubt finished long since. These I shallfit with armaments in Okhotsk. I shall place the enterprise I havespoken of in your charge, sailing with you from Sitka five days hence.From Okhotsk I desire that you proceed to the Japanese settlements inthe lower Kurile Islands, take possession of them and bring all storesand as many of the inhabitants as the vessels will accommodate, toSitka, where Baranhov will see that they are comfortably established onthat large island in the harbor--which we shall call Japonsky--andconverted into good servants of the Company. The excuse for thisenterprise is that those islands were formally taken possession of byShelikov; and although abandoned later, the fact remains that theRussian flag was the first to float over them. The stores captured maynot be worth much and the islands are of no particular use to us, butit is wise that Japan should have a taste of Russian power; and theconsequences may be salutary in more ways than one. I hope you will dome this great favor, for there is no one of your tried probity andskill to whom I can trust so delicate an enterprise. I am doing itwholly upon my own responsibility, for although I wrote tentatively tothe Tsar on this subject before I sailed for California, it is not yettime for a reply. However, I take the consequences upon my ownshoulders. You shall not suffer in any way, for your orders are toobey mine while you remain in these waters."
He paused a moment, and then suddenly smiled into the unresponsivefaces before him. He held out his hand and shook their limp oneswarmly.
"Let me thank you here for all your inestimable services in the past,and particularly during our late hazardous voyages. Be sure thatwhether you succeed in this enterprise or not, your rewards shall be noless for what you have already done. I shall make it a personal matterwith the Tsar. You shall have promotion and a substantial increase inpay, besides the orders and Imperial thanks you so richly deserve.Lest anything happen to me on my homeward journey, I shall write to St.Petersburg before I leave."
The lieutenants, overcome as ever when he chose to put forth his fullpowers, assured him of their fidelity and, if with misgivings, vowed tomete out vengeance to the Japanese. And although their misgivings werenot unfounded, and they paid a high price in suffering andmortification, they accomplished their object and in due coursereceived the rewards the Chamberlain had promised them
.
They did not retire, and Rezanov, noting their sudden hesitation andembarrassment, felt an instant thrill of apprehension.
"What is it?" he demanded. "What has happened?"
"Life has moved slowly in Sitka during your absence, Excellency,"replied Davidov. "There has been little work done on the Avos. Itwill not be finished for a month or six weeks."
Then, had the young men been possessed by a not infrequent mood, theywould have glowed with a sense of just satisfaction. Rezanov felthimself turn so white that he wheeled about and left the tent. A monthor six weeks! And the speed and safety of his journey across Siberiadepended upon his making the greater part of it before the heavy autumnrains swelled the rivers and flooded the swamps. Winter or summer thejourney from Okhotsk to St. Petersburg might be made in four months;with the wealth and influence at his command, possibly in less; but inthe deluge between he was liable to detentions lasting nearly as longagain, to say nothing of illness caused by inevitable exposure.
He stood staring at the palisades for many minutes. The separationmust be long enough, the dangers numerous enough if he started withinthe week, but at least he had in a measure accustomed himself to theidea of not seeing Concha again for "the best part of two years," andthe sanguineness of his temperament had led him to hope that the timemight be reduced to eighteen months. If he delayed too long, only bymeans of an unprecedented run of good fortune would he reach St.Petersburg but a month behind his calculations. And the chances were infavor of four, or three at the best! Never since the morning that thereal nature of his feeling for Concha had declared itself had heyearned toward her as at that moment; never since the dictum of whatshe called their "tribunal" had he so rebelled against the long delay.And yet he hesitated. To leave Japan unpunished for the senselesshumiliations to which it had subjected Russia in his person was not tobe thought of, and yet did he leave without seeing the Avos finished,the two boats supplied with armaments at Okhotsk, and under way beforehe started across Siberia, he knew it was doubtful if the expeditiontook place before his return; in that case might never take place, forthese two young men might have drifted elsewhere, and he knew no oneelse to whom he could entrust such a commission. In spite of theiridiosyncrasies he could rely upon them implicitly--up to a certainpoint. That point involved keeping them in sight until exactly theright moment and leaving nothing to their executive which could becertainly accomplished by himself alone. Did he sail five days henceon the Juno one of the officers would be exposed for an indeterminatetime to the temptations of Okhotsk, the ship, perhaps, at the mercy ofsome sudden requirement of the Company. His authority was absolutewhen enforced in person, but it was a proverb west of the Ural: "Godreigns and the Tsar is far away." If the Juno were wanted the managerof Okhotsk would argue that two years was a period in which an ardentservant of the Company would find many an excuse to justify its seizure.
And here in Sitka it was doubtful if the work on the Avos proceeded atall. Baranhov was not in sympathy with the enterprise against theJapanese, fearing the consequences to himself in the event of theTsar's disapproval, and resenting the impressment of the promuschlenikiinto a service that deprived him of their legitimate work. Moreover,although he loved Rezanov personally, he had enjoyed supreme power inthe wilderness too long not to chafe under even the temporaryassumption of authority by his high-handed superior. With the best ofintentions Davidov could make little headway against the passiveresistance of the Chief-Manager, and those intentions would be weakenedby the consolidations the Company so generously afforded.
The result was hardly open to doubt. If he left Sitka before thecompletion of the Avos, Russia would go unavenged for the present. Orhimself? Rezanov, sanguine and imaginative as he was, even to the pointof creating premises to rhyme with ends, was very honest fundamentally.He turned abruptly on his heel, and calling to the officers that hewould announce his decision on the morrow, ordered the sentry to openthe gate and passed out of the enclosure.
He crossed the clearing and entered the forest. The warlike tribesthemselves had trodden paths through the dense undergrowth of youngtrees and ferns. Rezanov, despite Baranhov's warning, had tramped theforest many times. It was the one thing that reconciled him to Sitka,for there are few woods more beautiful. In spite or because of theincessant rains, it is pervaded by a rich golden gloom, the result ofthe constant rotting of the brown and yellow bark, not only of theprostrate trees, but of the many killed by crowding and unable to seekthe earth with the natural instinct of death. And above, the green ofhemlock and spruce was perennially fresh and young, glistening andfragrant. Here and there was a small clearing where the clans haderected their ingenious and hideous totem poles, out of place in theancient beauty of the wood.
The ferns brushed his waist, the roar of the river came to his ears,the forest had never looked more primeval, more wooing to a manburdened with civilization, but Rezanov gave it less heed than usual,although he had turned to it instinctively. He was occupied with aquestion to which nature would turn an aloof disdainful ear. Was hisown wounded vanity at the root of his desire to humiliate Japan? Russiawas too powerful, too occupied, for the present at least, greatly tocare that her overtures and presents had been scorned. Upon herambassador had fallen the full brunt of that wearisome and incomparablymortifying experience, and unfortunately the ambassador happened to beone of the proudest and most autocratic men in her empire. No man ofRezanov's caliber but accommodates that sort of personal vanity thattenaciously resents a blow to the pride of which it is a part, to thelove of power it feeds. As well expect a lover without passion, astate without corruption. Rezanov finally shrugged his shoulders andadmitted the impeachment, but at the same time he recognized that thedesire for vengeance still held, and that the tenacity of his nature, atenacity that had been no mean factor in the remodeling of himself froma voluptuous young sprig of nobility into one of the most successfulbusiness men and subjugator of other men that the Russian Empire couldshow, was not likely to weaken when its very roots had been stiff withpurpose for fifteen months. Power had been Rezanov's ruling passionfor many years before he met Concha Arguello, and, although it mightmate very comfortably with love, it was not to be expected that itwould remain submerged beyond the first enthusiasm, nor even assume theposition of the "party of the second part." Rezanov was Rezanov. Hewas also in that interval between youth and age when the brain rules ifit is ever to rule at all. That the ardor of his nature had awakenedrefreshed after a long sleep was but just proved, as well as therevival of his early ideals and capacity for genuine love; but thecomplexities, the manifold interests and desires of the ego had beengrowing and developing these many years; and no mere mortal that hasgiven up his life for a considerable period to the thirst for dominancecan ever, save in a brief exaltation, sacrifice it to anything sonormal as the demands of sex and spirit. For good or ill, the man whohas burned with ambition, exulted in the exercise of power, bitterlyresented the temporary victories of rivals and enemies, fought with allthe resources of brain and character against failure, is in a classapart from humanity in the mass. Rezanov loved Concha Arguello to thevery depths of his soul, but he had lived beyond the time when even shecould engage successfully with the ruthless forces that had molded intoimmutable shape the Rezanov she knew. Her place was second, and it isprobable that she would have loved him less had it been otherwise; she,in spite of her fine intellect and strong will, being all woman, as he,despite his depth of intuition, was all man. Equality is possible inno relation or condition of life. When woman subjugates man theconquered will enjoy a sense of revenge proportionate to the meannessof his state.
It is possible that had Concha awaited Rezanov in St. Petersburg herattraction would have focused his desires irresistibly; but his mindhad resigned itself to the prospect of separation for a definiteperiod, and while it had not relegated her image to the background, herpart in his life had been settled there among many futurepossibilities, and all the foreground was crowded w
ith the impatientsymbols of the intervening time. Moreover, he well knew that the savorwould be gone from his happiness with the woman were the taste ofanother failure acrid in his mouth.
As he realized that the die was cast, the sanguineness of histemperament rushed to do battle against apprehension and self-accusing.After all, he was rarely balked of his way, accustomed to ride downobstacles, to the amiable cooperation of fate. He could arrive inOkhotsk late in September or early in October. Captain D'Wolf, who hadbeen detained at Sitka during his absence by the same indifference thathad operated against the completion of the Avos, would precede him andorder that all be in readiness at Okhotsk both for the ships and hisjourney to Yakutsk. He could proceed at once; and, no doubt, withtwice the number or horses needed, would make the first and mostdifficult stage of the journey in the usual time, and with no greatembarrassment from the rains. From Yakutsk to Irkutsk the greater partof the travel was by water in any case, and after that the land wasflat for the most part and bridges were more numerous. The governor ofevery town in Siberia would be his obsequious servant, the entireresources of the country would be at his disposal. He was sound inhealth again, as resistant against hardships as when he had sailed fromKronstadt. And God knew, he thought with a sigh, his will and purposehad never been stronger.