‘What can we do, then?’
‘Got any money?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then I’ll tell you what to do: and what’s more, I’ll help you. You deserve it. You mustn’t go anywhere near the village – not at any price. To get hold of a decent boat you have to go to Pigeon Island. There are about two hundred lepers there. There’s no warder, and no healthy man ever goes, not even the doctor. At eight o’clock every day a boat takes food for twenty-four hours: uncooked food. A hospital orderly hands over a case of medicine to the two attendants, lepers themselves, who look after the patients. No one sets foot on the island, whether he’s warder, tracker or priest. The lepers live in little straw huts they make themselves. They have a central building where they meet. They raise hens and ducks, and that helps them out with their rations. Officially they aren’t allowed to sell anything off the island, so they have an illicit trade with Saint-Laurent, Saint-Jean and the Chinese of Albina in Dutch Guiana. They’re all dangerous murderers. They don’t often kill one another but they do a fair amount of villainy when they get out of the island on the quiet – they go back and hide there when it’s over. They have some boats stolen from the nearby village for these excursions. Possessing a boat is the worst crime they can commit. The warders fire on any canoe that comes or goes from Pigeon Island. So the lepers sink their boats, filling them with stones: when they need one they dive down, take out the stones, and the boat comes up. There are all kinds on the island, every colour and nation and from every part of France. What it comes to is this – your canoe is only any use to you on the Maroni, and without much in it, at that. To get out to sea, you’ve got to find another boat, and the best place for that is Pigeon Island.’
‘How are we to set about it?’
‘This is how. I’ll come with you up the river until we’re in sight of the island. You wouldn’t find it, or at any rate you might go wrong. It’s about a hundred miles from the mouth, so you have to go upstream again. It’s about thirty miles from Saint-Laurent. I’ll guide you in as close as I can and then I’ll get into my canoe – we’ll tow it behind. Then, once on the island, it’s all up to you.’
‘Why won’t you come on to the island with us?’
‘Ma Doué,’ said the Breton, ‘I just set foot on the landing stage one day, the jetty where the official boats come in. Just once. It was in full daylight, but even so, what I saw was quite enough for me. No, Papi: I’ll never set foot on that island again in my life. Anyhow, I’d never be able to hide my disgust at being near them, talking to them, dealing with them. I’d do more harm than good.’
‘When do we go?’
‘At nightfall.’
‘What’s the time now, Breton?’
‘Three o’clock.’
‘OK. I’ll get a little sleep.’
‘No. You’ve got to load everything properly aboard your canoe.’
‘Nothing of the sort. I’ll go with the empty canoe and then come back for Clousiot. He can stay here with the things.’
‘Impossible. You’d never be able to find the place again, even in the middle of the day. And you must never, never be on the river in daylight. The search for you isn’t over, so don’t think that. The river is still very dangerous.’
Evening came. He brought his canoe and we tied it behind ours. Clousiot lay next to the Breton, who took the steering paddle, and then came Maturette, and then me in front. We made our slow way out of the creek and when we came into the river, night was just about to come down. Over towards the sea a huge brownish-red sun lit up the horizon. The countless fireworks of an enormous display fought to be the most brilliant, redder than the red, yellower than the yellow, more fantastically striped where the colours were mixed. Ten miles away, we could distinctly make out the estuary of the splendid river as it ran gleaming pink and silver into the sea.
The Breton said, ‘It’s the last of the ebb. In an hour we should feel the flood-tide: we’ll make use of it to run up the Maroni: the current will take us up without any effort, and we’ll reach the island pretty soon.’ The darkness came down in a single sweep.
‘Give way,’ said the Breton. ‘Paddle hard and get into the middle of the stream. Don’t smoke.’ The paddles dug into the water and we moved quite fast across the current. Shoo, shoo, shoo. The Breton and I kept stroke beautifully; Maturette did his best. The nearer we got to the middle of the river the more we felt the thrust of the tide. We slid on rapidly, and every half hour we felt the difference. The tide grew in strength, pushing us faster and faster. Six hours later we were very close to the island and heading straight for it – a great patch of darkness almost in the middle of the river, slightly to the right. ‘That’s it,’ said the Breton in a low voice. The night was not very dark, but it would have been almost impossible to see us from any distance because of the mist over the face of the water. We came closer. When the outline of the rocks was clearer, the Breton got into his canoe and cast off quickly, just murmuring, ‘Good luck, you guys.’
‘Thanks.’
‘Think nothing of it.’
As the boat no longer had the Breton steering it, we went straight for the island, drifting sideways. I tried to straighten out, turning it right round, but I made a mess of it and the current thrust us deep into the vegetation overhanging the water. We came in with such force, in spite of my braking with my paddle, that if we had hit a rock instead of leaves and branches the canoe would have been smashed and everything lost – stores, food, the lot. Maturette jumped into the water and heaved; we slid under a huge clump of bushes. He pulled and pulled and we tied the boat to a branch. We had a shot of rum and then I climbed the bank alone, leaving my two friends in the boat.
I went along with the compass in my hand, breaking several branches as I went, tying on scraps of flour-sack that I had put aside before we left. I saw a lighter patch in the darkness and then all at once I made out three huts and heard the sound of voices. I went forward, and as I had no idea how to make myself known, I decided to let them find me. I lit a cigarette. The moment the match sparked a little dog rushed out, barking and jumping up to bite my legs. ‘Christ, I hope it’s not a leper,’ I thought. ‘Don’t be a fool: dogs don’t get leprosy.’
‘Who’s there? Who is it? Marcel, is that you?’
‘It’s a guy on the run.’
‘What are you doing here? Trying to knock something off? Do you think we’ve got anything to spare?’
‘No. I want help.’
‘For free or for cash?’
‘You shut your bloody trap, La Chouette.’ Four shadows came out of the hut. ‘Come forward slowly, brother. I’ll bet any money you’re the character with the rifle. If you’ve got it with you, put it down: there’s nothing to be afraid of here.’
‘Yes, that’s me. But the rifle’s not here.’ I walked forward; I was close to them; it was dark and I could not make out their faces. Like a fool I held out my hand: nobody took it. Too late I grasped that this was the wrong move here – they didn’t want to infect me.
‘Let’s go into the hut,’ said La Chouette. It was lit by an oil lamp standing on the table. ‘Sit down.’
I took a straw chair without a back. La Chouette lit three other