Inocencio Page #3

"Inocencio" by Rex Ellingwood Beach is a novel set in the early 20th century that explores themes of love, passion, and the complexities of human relationships. The story follows the life of Inocencio, a character navigating the challenges of his environment, influenced by socio-economic struggles and personal desires. Beach's rich storytelling and vivid characterizations bring to life the struggles and triumphs of individuals caught in the tides of fate, making it a compelling read that reflects on the nature of identity and resilience.

• Short story

								

tore at his entwining fingers, but they were like jungle creepers that
no human strength could serve to loosen. And all the time he drew her
with him, speaking softly.

Then she felt him pause, and her distracted vision beheld another figure
entering the shadows from the shore. She called to her lover hoarsely,
and saw him halt at the strange note, peering inward for a sight of her.
She voiced words now for the first time, crying:

"The stranger! The stranger!"

Then, hearing the scrape of her captor's machete as he drew it from its
scabbard, she renewed her struggle more fiercely.

Captain Inocencio held the girl at his left side until the last moment,
balancing the great knife-blade as if to try his arm; then, when the
Indian was close upon him, coming straight as a dart, he freed himself.
A slanting moonbeam showed Markeeña's ferocious visage and his upraised
weapon, but the Haytian met the falling blow with a fierce upward stroke
that once before had done him service. It was the stroke that had made
him an exile years before.

Inocencio's physical strength had ever been his pride, if also his
undoing. Above all things, he prided himself upon the dexterity and
vigor of his wrist. His early training on that blood-red Caribbean isle,
and a later life in thicket and swamp, had served to transform the
cumbrous native weapon into a thing of life at his hands. More than
once, for instance, he had harried a serpent until it struck, for the
mere satisfaction of severing its head in midcourse, and now he felt the
wide blade enter flesh. Before his antagonist could cry out twice he had
slashed again, this time downward as if to split a green cocoanut. The
next instant he had seized the girl as she fled into the jungle.

But she had found her voice at last, and he was forced to muffle her
with his palm. When they were out into the moonlight, however, with the
dry sand up to their ankles, he let her breathe; then, pointing with his
machete to the Espirita lying white and ghostlike in the offing, he
drove her down into the warm sea until it reached her waist.

"Swim!" he ordered, and, when she would have renewed the alarm, he
raised his blade, grimly threatening to call the sharks with her blood.

"Swim!" he repeated, and she struck out, with him at her shoulder.

But the village was roused. A confused clamor betrayed its bewilderment,
and before the swimmers had won more than half-way to the schooner,
figures came running along the shore. Inocencio cautioned the girl to
hold her tongue, and she obeyed, thoroughly cowed by his roughness. She
turned upon her side and swam with her face close to his, her eyes fixed
upon him curiously, wonderingly. Her easy progress through the water
showed that her fright had largely vanished, and showed likewise that,
had the Haytian been no uncommon swimmer himself, she might have
distanced him. All the way out to the boat she stared at him with that
same fixed look, maintaining her position at his side. The moon and the
salt brine in his eyes played him tricks, else he might have fancied her
to be half smiling, as if in some strange exaltation akin to his own.

Not until he finally dragged her, panting, to the deck of the
Espirita, and her white-clad figure stood out clearly from the shore,
did her tribesmen realize the nature of the alarm. Then the vibrant
turmoil suddenly stilled for the space of a full minute while the
enormity of the outrage made itself felt. They drew together at the edge
of the sea, staring open-mouthed, amazed, before they raised their
blood-cry.

The man and woman rested a moment, their eyes upon the shore, and where
they stood twin pools of water blackened the deck. Then Inocencio turned
to look upon his prey. The girl's flimsy cotton shift was molded to her
figure, and he saw that she was even fairer than he had pictured. In
spite of his need for haste, he paused to gloat upon the favor the moon
and the salt sea had rendered him. As for her, she flung his glance back
bravely until he wrenched open the cabin hatch and pointed to the dark
interior. Then she weakened. But she had a will of her own, it seemed,
for she refused to be locked inside. He strode toward her, and she
clutched the rigging desperately, turning her glance to one of appeal.

"You may come up in a moment," he translated, but still she clung to the
stay. "If you try to escape--" He scowled upon her terribly, at which
she shook her head. Having already tasted her strength, he knew there
was no time to force her, so he leaped at his crew.

The three blacks were snoring forward of the deck-house, so he seized a
bucket of water at the rail and sluiced them into wakefulness, keeping
his eye upon the girl meanwhile. When he saw that in truth she made no
move he let his caution slip and raged over the ship like a tiger,
beating his half-clad crew ahead of him with the flat of his machete. By
the time they had gained their wits the tribesmen were massing at the
canoes. As the mainsail rose creaking he broke out the jib with his own
hand, then with one stroke of his knife severed the manila mooring-rope,
and the Espirita fell off slowly ahead of the breeze. Inocencio ran
back to spur his befuddled "niggers" to further activity, only to find
the girl still motionless, her eyes following his every movement. Under
the curses, the schooner slowly raised her wings and the night wind
began to strain at the cordage.

But at last, when the Jamaicans were fully awake to the state of
affairs, they threatened mutiny, whereat the mulatto flung himself upon
them so savagely that they scattered to arm themselves with whatever
weapons lay at hand. Then they huddled amidship, rolling their eyes and
praying; for out from the shore came a long mahogany cayuca, and it
was full of straight-haired men.

It takes a sailing-craft some time to gain its momentum, and as yet the
full strength of the trades had not struck the Espirita; hence the
canoe overtook her rapidly. Inocencio called to one of his men and gave
him the tiller, then took stand beside the girl, the naked blade of his
weapon once more beneath his arm.

The schooner's helmsman gave himself to God, while the cordage overhead
began to whine as the deck rose. It was upon the Haytian's lips to warn
his pursuers off when one of them called to the girl, bidding her leap.
Inocencio heard the breath catch in her throat, but she made no move,
and the command was repeated.

This time she answered by some exclamation that he did not understand,
whereat the canoemen ceased paddling, as if her word had paralyzed them.
They hurled their voices at her savagely, but she remained motionless,
the while the waters beneath her began to foam and bubble. The
Espirita's crew ceased their prayers, and in the silence that ensued
the sea whispered at the bow as the craft listed more heavily under the
full force of the wind.

Inocencio could not fathom the meaning of the subdued colloquy among the
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