BooksBarbecue
Back The Burning Island Save as PDF
Chapters (31)
  1. COVER PAGE
  2. TEXT LOGO PAGE
  3. ABOUT THE BOOK
  4. EPIGRAPH
  5. MAP
  6. THE INDIAN
  7. MY FATHER IN THE LEAF LITTER
  8. THE MOONBIRD
  9. EMBARKATION
  10. THE WONDERS OF THE WUNDERKAMMER
  11. RODONDOINTO THE FOG
  12. SEABIRDS AND SEALS
  13. THE NIGHT, GIBBOUS MOON
  14. HUMMOCK AND THE BOTTLE-ACHE
  15. GRASS ELEGY
  16. THE CUTTER
  17. PRESERVATION
  18. ST ANTHONY’S FIRE
  19. THE BOWSPRIT ACHILLES
  20. THE SYMPLEGADES
  21. GUN CARRIAGE
  22. THE UNTHREADING OF THINGS
  23. CHRIST’S REDEEMING MISSION
  24. THE INDIAN RETURNS
  25. THE PINNACLE
  26. EMBERS
  27. FIFTEEN HUNDRED FATHOMS
  28. AUTHOR’S NOTE
  29. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  30. ALSO BY JOCK SERONG
  31. NEW MARKETING PAGE

‘Could we walk there?’

‘Aye, you could but I dinnae believe it would be a good idea.’

‘And why’s that?’

‘Every chance it’s gangrene, doctor. Leprosy.’

Gideon thought about this for a moment. ‘I doubt that. No. I would rather like to have a look, if I may.’

Munro shrugged. ‘I suppose there’s no harm in having a look. Louisa, would ye excuse me, dearie? And maybe juice they lemons while we’re gone.’

Connolly and the master had already excused themselves to row back to the Moonbird and attend to the damage from the gunfight that had splintered us so long ago at Rodondo.

I looked to my father, curling and uncurling one fist on the table. The other hand, beneath the table, bunched the material of his shirt. I could make him walk with us, keep him away from the booze for another few hours. But it would be torture, and what would I have gained him?

He’d anticipated my thoughts. ‘Darling, I think I’ll stay behind if you don’t mind. My legs are weary from this morning.’

His weak smile betrayed something different.

ST ANTHONY’S FIRE

ST ANTHONY’S FIRE

image I walked out there with Munro and the doctor, away from the coast and slightly north. The ground was open grassland, some shrubs and a waterhole to our right. The goats were all around us, advancing with their dreamy smiles then retreating at any sudden movement. The houses stood isolated on a rise, and as we drew nearer we could see children playing on an abandoned cart in front of them. We came to a dry-stone wall made from flat pieces of limestone. A finger-long lizard stood tall on the top row of stones, watched us and whipped into a crevice.

Adults had left the houses now and were headed towards us. They walked normally enough, and were dressed as I would have expected for islanders. But as they came nearer, I began to see the extent of their suffering. Their skin was covered in great red lesions: on some of them the boils were closed but on others they were weeping pus or had erupted and formed into scabs. A mother carried a tiny infant in her arms, the child’s face peeling as though she had been terribly sunburnt.

The doctor introduced himself and they did likewise. I do not remember their names now. There was hesitancy in their muttered words. Shame, perhaps a taint of suspicion. I noticed that Munro would go nowhere near them.

Gideon was explaining that he was a man of divers learning, and that he wished to help if he could.