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Balancing Greenhouse Gas Budgets:

Accounting for Natural and


Anthropogenic Flows of CO2 and other
Trace Gases Benjamin Poulter
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Balancing Greenhouse Gas Budgets
Balancing Greenhouse
Gas Budgets
Accounting for Natural and Anthropogenic
Flows of CO2 and other Trace Gases

Edited by

Benjamin Poulter
Josep G. Canadell
Daniel J. Hayes
Rona L. Thompson
Elsevier
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Contributors

Numbers in parentheses indicate the pages on which the authors’ contributions begin.
Anders Ahlstr€om (311), Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science,
Lund University, Lund, Sweden
Mariana Almeida (271), Earth System Science Centre/National Institute for Space
Research, Sao Jose dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil
Robbie Andrew (31), CICERO Center for International Climate Research, Oslo,
Norway
Shawn Archibeque (375), Department of Animal Sciences, Colorado State University,
Fort Collins, CO, United States
Luana Basso (271), Earth System Science Centre/National Institute for Space Research,
Sao Jose dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil
Ana Bastos (3, 59, 311), Department of Biogeochemical Integration, Max Planck
Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany
Francisco Gilney Bezerra (271), Earth System Science Centre/National Institute for
Space Research, Sao Jose dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil
Richard Birdsey (237), Woodwell Climate Research Center, Falmouth, MA, United
States
Kevin Bowman (87), Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, CA,
United States
Lori M. Bruhwiler (159), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Boulder,
CO, United States
Dominik Brunner (455), Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and
Technology, D€ubendorf, Switzerland
Rostyslav Bun (31, 455), Department of Applied Mathematics, Lviv Polytechnic
National University, Lviv, Ukraine; Department of Transport, WSB University,
Da˛browa Górnicza, Poland
David E. Butman (203), Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States
Donovan Campbell (375), The University of the West Indies, Jamaica, West Indies
Josep G. Canadell (3, 59), Global Carbon Project, Climate Science Centre, CSIRO
Oceans and Atmosphere, Canberra, ACT, Australia
Manoel Cardoso (271), Earth System Science Centre/National Institute for Space
Research, Sao Jose dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil

xv
xvi Contributors

Abhishek Chatterjee (483), NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt;


Universities Space Research Association, Columbia, MD, United States
Frederic Chevallier (87), Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement,
Gif sur Yvette, France
Philippe Ciais (3, 59), Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement LSCE
CEA CNRS UVSQ, Gif sur Yvette Cedex, France
Róisı́n Commane (159), Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences, Lamont-
Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY, United States
Monica Crippa (31), European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Ispra, Italy
Gisleine Cunha-Zeri (271), Earth System Science Centre/National Institute for Space
Research, Sao Jose dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil
Grant M. Domke (203), US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service Northern
Research Station, St. Paul, MN, United States
Eugenie S. Euskirchen (159), Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska
Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, United States
Joshua B. Fisher (203), Joint Institute for Regional Earth System Science and
Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, United States
Dennis Gilfillan (31), North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, Durham, NC,
United States
Daniel J. Hayes (3, 203), School of Forest Resources, University of Maine, Orono, ME,
United States
James R. Holmquist (403), Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater,
MD, United States
Richard A. Houghton (59), Woodwell Climate Research Center, Falmouth, MA, United
States
Deborah Huntzinger (59), School of Earth and Sustainability, Northern Arizona
University, Flagstaff, AZ, United States
Tatiana Ilyina (427), Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany
Rajesh Janardanan (455), National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba,
Japan
Greet Janssens-Maenhout (31), European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC),
Ispra, Italy
Matthew W. Jones (31), Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, School of
Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom
Lydia Keppler (427), Max Planck Institute for Meteorology; International Max
Planck Research School on Earth System Modelling (IMPRS-ESM), Hamburg,
Germany; Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego,
La Jolla, CA, United States
Masayuki Kondo (237), Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research, Nagoya
University, Nagoya; Center for Global Environmental Research, National Institute
for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, Japan
Contributors xvii

Kevin D. Kroeger (403), Department of Earth and Environment/Institute of


Environment, Florida International University, Miami, FL, United States
Werner Kurz (59), Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Victoria,
British Columbia, Canada
utzer (427), Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany
Peter Landsch€
Ronny Lauerwald (237), UMR Ecosys, Universite Paris-Saclay, Paris, France
Sebastiaan Luyssaert (59), Department of Ecological Sciences, Vrije Universiteit
Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Natasha MacBean (311), Department of Geography, Indiana University, Bloomington,
IN, United States
Shamil Maksyutov (87, 455), National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba,
Japan
Eric Marland (31), Department of Mathematical Sciences, Appalachian State
University, Boone, NC, United States
Gregg Marland (31), Research Institute for Environment, Energy, and Economics
(RIEEE), Appalachian State University, Boone, NC, United States
Marcela Miranda (271), Earth System Science Centre/National Institute for Space
Research, Sao Jose dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil

Victoria Naipal (311), Departement of Geosciences, Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris;
Laboratory for Climate and Environmental Sciences (LSCE), Gif-sur-Yvette, France
Kim Naudts (237), Department of Earth Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam,
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Christopher S.R. Neigh (203), Code 618, Biospheric Sciences Laboratory, NASA
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States
Eráclito Souza Neto (271), Earth System Science Centre/National Institute for Space
Research, Sao Jose dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil
Cynthia Nevison (375), Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research, University of
Colorado, Boulder, CO, United States
Shuli Niu (237), Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling,
Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy
of Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China
Tomohiro Oda (455), The Earth From Space Institute, Universities Space Research
Association, Columbia; Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science,
University of Maryland, College Park, MD, United States; Graduate School of
Engineering, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka, Japan
Stephen M. Ogle (375), Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory and Department of
Ecosystem Science and Sustainability, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO,
United States
Jean Pierre Ometto (271), Earth System Science Centre/National Institute for Space
Research, Sao Jose dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil
Lesley Ott (483), NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States
xviii Contributors

Felipe S. Pacheco (271), Earth System Science Centre/National Institute for Space
Research, Sao Jose dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil
Frans-Jan W. Parmentier (159), Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem
Science, Lund University, Lund, Sweden; Centre for Biogeochemistry in the
Anthropocene, Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
Prabir K. Patra (87, 455), Center for Environmental Remote Sensing, Chiba
University, Chiba; Research Institute for Global Change, JAMSTEC, Yokohama,
Japan
A.M. Roxana Petrescu (59), Department of Ecological Sciences, Vrije Universiteit
Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Julia Pongratz (59), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit€at Munich, M€
unchen; Max Planck
Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany
Benjamin Poulter (3, 59, 311), Biospheric Sciences Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space
Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States
Thomas A.M. Pugh (237), Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science,
Lund University, Lund, Sweden; School of Geography Earth & Environmental
Sciences and Birmingham Institute of Forest Research, University of Birmingham,
Birmingham, United Kingdom
Anu Ramaswami (337), China-UK Low Carbon College, Shanghai Jiao Tong
University, Pudong New District, Shanghai, China; High Meadows Environmental
Institute; M.S. Chadha Center for Global India, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ,
United States
Peter A. Raymond (237), Yale School of the Environment, Yale University,
New Haven, CT, United States
Luiz Felipe Rezende (271), Earth System Science Centre/National Institute for Space
Research, Sao Jose dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil
Kelly Ribeiro (271), Earth System Science Centre/National Institute for Space
Research, Sao Jose dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil
Dustin Roten (31), Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Utah,
Salt Lake City, UT, United States
Christina Sch€adel (159), Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Northern Arizona
University, Flagstaff, AZ, United States
Edward A.G. Schuur (159), Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Northern
Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, United States
Stephen Sitch (59), University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom
Pete Smith (375), Institute of Biological & Environmental Sciences, University of
Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom
William Kolby Smith (311), School of Natural Resources and the Environment,
University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, United States
Miguel Taboada (375), National Agricultural Technology Institute (INTA), Natural
Resources Research Center (CIRN), Institute of Soils, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos
Aires, Argentina
Contributors xix

Rona L. Thompson (3, 87), NILU—Norsk Institutt for Luftforskning, Kjeller, Norway
Kangkang Tong (337), China-UK Low Carbon College, Shanghai Jiao Tong
University, Pudong New District, Shanghai, China
Tiffany G. Troxler (403), Department of Earth and Environment/Institute of
Environment, Florida International University, Miami, FL, United States
Francesco N. Tubiello (375), Statistics Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of
the United Nations, Rome, Italy
Alexander J. Turner (455), Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of
Washington, Seattle, WA, United States
Yohanna Villalobos (3), Global Carbon Project, Climate Science Centre, CSIRO
Oceans and Atmosphere, Canberra, ACT, Australia
Celso von Randow (271), Earth System Science Centre/National Institute for Space
Research, Sao Jose dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil
Jennifer Watts (159), Woodwell Climate Research Center, Falmouth, MA, United
States
Lisa R. Welp (203), Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Purdue University,
West Lafayette, IN, United States
Lisamarie Windham-Myers (403), US Geological Survey Water Mission Area,
Menlo Park, CA, United States
Daniel Zavala-Araiza (455), Environmental Defense Fund, Amsterdam; Institute for
Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The
Netherlands
Dedication

The ideas and concepts presented in this book come


from extensive years of research and collaboration
carried out by colleagues around the world.
We dedicate this book to two of these close
colleagues, Dr. Vanessa Haverd and Dr. Bob
Scholes. Vanessa was an exceptionally talented and
engaging scientist at CSIRO, Australia, and a world
leader in investigating the role of the biosphere in
the carbon cycle and developing land-surface
models. Bob was a dynamic and inspirational
mentor to many scientists in Africa, leading South
Africa’s first greenhouse gas inventory in 1995, and
many global assessments on climate change and
biodiversity. Vanessa and Bob both played key roles
in the Global Carbon Project and their influence is
found across many of the chapters of this book.
Foreword

This book could not be more timely. The authors provide for the first time in one
book the scientific foundations behind accounting for greenhouse gases. Polit-
ical leaders around the world are now moving on from establishing their
nation’s commitments on tackling climate change to designing policies for
delivering actions on the ground. The design of climate policies needs to be
based on clear scientific insights using the latest observations and understand-
ing. After working with policymakers over the past decade, I realize the genuine
desire to understand how their policies will work and how they will be moni-
tored in the context of real-world implementation. Sound and detailed knowl-
edge is more important than ever before because methodologies are being
developed to deliver the global stocktake that forms the first opportunity to
check the progress of the international Paris Climate Agreement. I am glad
to see that this book takes on the challenge of providing the background needed
to put human actions in perspective with the environment, which will benefit
scientists and policy advisors alike.
Greenhouse gas accounting has so far been based on self-reporting of emis-
sions at the country level. This book puts the self-reporting of emissions into the
context of balancing greenhouse gases, by looking at how emissions propagate
in the environment and how they interact and interfere with the natural world. It
shows how observations can be used to provide independent constraints on
greenhouse gas emissions and the effectiveness of climate policy, and where
the limits are. The book helps put human interventions in the context of the real
world so that the richness and complexities of the natural environment can be
adequately considered as the world transitions away from carbon-intensive
activities.
Attempts to balance greenhouse gases arose initially from the need to
explain the rise in CO2 levels in the atmosphere, first measured directly at
Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. Emissions of CO2 from human activities
minus their absorption in the land and ocean natural environment (the carbon
‘sinks’) account for the growth of CO2 in the atmosphere, constituting the global
carbon balance (or budget). Global Carbon Budgets were reported in all six
assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),
with the first published in 1990. In 2004, the Global Carbon Project (GCP) oper-
ationalized the annual update of global carbon budgets. Alongside several other
authors of this book, I was part of the pioneering international group of GCP

xxi
xxii Foreword

scientists who took on this task and led the annual budget update for 13 years.
Annual carbon budgets started as an attempt to increase the support of the car-
bon research community for the climate policy process. It quickly turned into a
platform for scientific exchanges and innovation as well as a keystone event in
the annual climate calendar. GCP has expanded its budget analysis to other
CH4 and N2O to provide a more comprehensive view of the impact of humans
on climate. The budget balance approach is now well recognized as one of the
most powerful scientific constraints, and the approach has been adapted to other
aspects of the climate system, namely, sea level and heat. Balancing budgets
now sets the boundary for cutting-edge research in climate change.
Today we have a relatively clear view of the global emissions of greenhouse
gases and their partitioning in the environment, even though uncertainties
remain. The real challenge now is to break this down at the regional level.
Regional breakdowns would both provide more relevant information for
decision-makers locally and help reduce the remaining uncertainties globally.
The GCP fostered an initial effort in the early 2010s to assess the evidence at
the time, under the first REgional Carbon Cycle Assessment and Processes
(RECCAP) umbrella published in the journal Biogeosciences. Since then,
new methods have been developed based on advances in computing including
machine learning, new data including from satellite-based CO2 sensors, and a
further understanding of how the carbon cycle operates including in the built
environment.
The authors of this book are at the forefront of our research field. Their book
provides a comprehensive overview of the issues related to balancing green-
house gases and how they can be resolved. There is a big need for the book.
It brings together what we know about balancing greenhouse gases in one single
place, and provides the background and support for the new generation of car-
bon cycle scientists and policy advisors who will implement the necessary
actions to tackle climate change.

Corinne Le Quere
Royal Society Professor of Climate Change Science, University of East Anglia,
Norwich, United Kingdom
Preface

Since the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015, the science on climate
change is clear; that CO2 emissions must reach net zero by 2050 or earlier,
and that CH4, N2O, and halogenated greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced
significantly to avoid 1.5°C or 2°C warming over preindustrial levels. Our book
Balancing Greenhouse Gas Budgets: Accounting for Natural and Anthropo-
genic Flows of CO2 and Other Trace Gases is written for students, practitioners,
and experts who are interested in gaining a deeper understanding of the history,
methodologies, and applications used for greenhouse gas accounting and its
increasing relevance in informing climate policy.
The contributors to this book are scientists who work at universities, private
organizations, and federal agencies around the world and have spent their
careers developing methods to track and quantify greenhouse gas emissions
and removals as well as the underlying processes that regulate changes in green-
house gas concentrations over time. This global perspective has helped shape
the breadth of individual chapters and the teams writing them, as well as the
topics that they cover. The book’s scope encompasses the methods, regional
cases, and the future outlook of greenhouse gas accounting. We address an
increasing demand to better understand the synergies between policy-driven
greenhouse gas inventories that aim to quantify “anthropogenic” influences
on emissions and removals with science-based approaches that quantify fluxes
from both natural and managed systems.
A variety of topics that are related to greenhouse gas accounting methodol-
ogies and their adaptation in different parts of the world are covered in the book.
The diverse perspectives from the individual authors add to the comprehensive-
ness of the chapters, with authors representing each continent and bringing a
range of experiences in local to national studies on climate change, including
contributions to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Chapter 1 provides the context for greenhouse gas accounting, including a
historical perspective on policy-driven versus scientific methodologies. Chap-
ters 2, 3, and 4 provide a description of each of the main methodologies for
greenhouse gas accounting, covering inventories, “bottom-up” process model-
ing, and “top-down” atmospheric inversion approaches. Chapters 5–11 provide
examples of how these methodologies are applied to land regions with separate
chapters for arctic, boreal, temperate, tropical, semiarid, urban, and agricultural

xxiii
xxiv Preface

systems. Chapters 12 and 13 address greenhouse gas accounting for aquatic sys-
tems, including the open ocean and nearshore coastal ecosystems. Chapters 14
and 15 cover “forward-looking” topics in greenhouse gas emissions estimation,
including advances in atmospheric inversions and data assimilation.
We intend for this book to provide a foundation for greenhouse gas account-
ing that can be used in classes and coursework, and as a guide to informing local
to national to global scale accounting frameworks, and as a reference for under-
standing the integration of policy and science-driven approaches. We also hope
that the contributions within the book will help to advance the science needed to
inform climate policies that require emission sources and sinks to be balanced in
order to stabilize the Earth’s climate.
Acknowledgments

The editors acknowledge support from their home institutions: NASA Goddard
Space Flight Center, Earth Sciences Division, Maryland, United States; Climate
Science Centre, CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, Canberra, ACT, Australia,
and the Australian National Environmental Science Program—Climate Sys-
tems Hub; School of Forest Resources at the University of Maine, United States;
and NILU—Norsk Institutt for Luftforskning, Kjeller, Norway.

xxv
Chapter 1

Balancing greenhouse gas


sources and sinks: Inventories,
budgets, and climate policy
Josep G. Canadella, Benjamin Poulterb, Ana Bastosc, Philippe Ciaisd,
Daniel J. Hayese, Rona L. Thompsonf, and Yohanna Villalobosa
a
Global Carbon Project, Climate Science Centre, CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, Canberra, ACT,
Australia, bBiospheric Sciences Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD,
United States, cDepartment of Biogeochemical Integration, Max Planck Institute for
Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany, dLaboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement LSCE
CEA CNRS UVSQ, Gif sur Yvette Cedex, France, eSchool of Forest Resources, University of Maine,
Orono, ME, United States, fNILU—Norsk Institutt for Luftforskning, Kjeller, Norway

1 The human perturbation of the carbon cycle and other


biogeochemical cycles
Human activities have increased emissions and atmospheric concentrations of
carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and halogenated
gases, all of which are heat-trapping greenhouse gases (GHGs). Before the
industrial revolution, the biospheric emissions of CO2, CH4, and N2O from
the Earth’s land, ocean, and inland waters were roughly in a dynamic equilib-
rium with natural sinks. However, the combustion of fossil fuels, land clearing
along with other agricultural and industrial activities have driven an imbalance
in the global sources and sinks, with atmospheric CO2, CH4, and N2O concen-
trations now 47%, 156%, and 23% higher than that in 1750, respectively
(Canadell et al., 2021). This imbalance is unprecedented in the Earth system
in two ways. First, the atmospheric concentrations of the three main GHGs were
higher in 2019 than at any time in the past 800,000 years, at 409.9 ppm for CO2,
1866.3 ppb for CH4, and 332.1 ppb for N2O, and current CO2 concentrations are
also unprecedented in the last 2 million years. Second, the rate at which the
CO2 concentration has been accumulating in the atmosphere during the Indus-
trial Era is at least 10 times faster than any other 100-year period over the last
800,000 years, and 4–6 times faster than any other 1000-year period in the last
56 million years (Canadell et al., 2021). All these changes in GHG concentra-
tions have led to the rapid warming of the planet, with impacts on almost all

Balancing Greenhouse Gas Budgets. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-814952-2.00024-1


Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 3
4 Section A Background

aspects of the Earth system (IPCC, 2021), including the rapid transformation
of terrestrial and marine ecosystems (Canadell & Jackson, 2021), with direct
consequences for human health, food security, and regional economies.
Unlike the halogenated gases, which are mostly synthetically produced by
the chemical industry (and have thus appeared relatively recently in the atmo-
sphere), CO2, CH4, and N2O have, in addition to anthropogenic emissions, large
natural emissions and sinks from biogeochemical and chemical processes on
land, in the ocean and in the atmosphere (Fig. 1). This makes the study of these
three GHGs particularly complex as it requires the capability to separate anthro-
pogenic emissions from natural sources and sinks. In addition, the natural
sources and sinks are not stable but respond to human-driven environmental
changes, including climate change as well as natural climate variability.

2 Inventories of anthropogenic GHG: The foundation


of the Kyoto protocol and the Paris agreement
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
was established in 1992 to combat “dangerous human interference with the
climate system.” At the first Conference of Parties (COP), the UNFCCC estab-
lished a range of initiatives, including that all countries provide national-level
inventories for all greenhouse gases, at annual intervals for developed countries
(i.e., Annex 1) and every 2 years for non-Annex 1 countries (i.e., emerging
economies and less developed countries). The least developed countries would
choose their reporting years at their own discretion. The objective was to
encourage the presentation of information and a national inventory of anthro-
pogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of all GHG not already
dealt with by the Montreal Protocol. The national communications are to be
done in a consistent, transparent, and comparable manner, taking into account
specific national circumstances. Fig. 2 shows an illustration of the attribution of
the global anthropogenic GHG emission to activities and end-uses.
The inventories account for anthropogenic emissions of GHGs only, includ-
ing those from agriculture and land-use change, using 1990 as the first year, or
baseline. In 1997, the Kyoto Protocol (2005–20) provided a legally binding
mandate for emission reductions, with the inventories providing the basis for
determining whether countries met their targets to reduce emissions over two
commitment periods. The IPCC provides the scientific basis for the methodol-
ogies used in the national inventories, first described in the 1994 IPCC Guide-
lines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, and later revised and refined in
1996, 2006, and 2019, with supplements for land use in 2003 and wetlands in
2013. The methodologies combine activity data and emission factors using
either stock-change or gain/loss approaches to estimate emissions and
removals, and are designed to use detailed information where available and
more generalized information in cases where little or no data exist. A Tier sys-
tem based on different levels of analytical complexity and data richness was
FIG. 1 Global biogeochemical cycles with their natural and human perturbation fluxes. Top panel:
mean annual global CO2 budget, 2011–19 (Global Carbon Atlas, 2021) based on (Friedlingstein
et al., 2020). Middle panel: mean annual global CH4 budget, 2008–17 (Saunois et al., 2020). Bottom
panel: mean annual global N2O budget, 2007–16 (Tian et al., 2020).
FIG. 2 Global greenhouse gas emissions are attributed to the main end uses and activities for 2016. (Source: World Resources Institute.)
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suppose, captain,” he said, “I suppose, then, that you would
recommend one of these keys in the Samballoes, as you call them?”
“Yes, sir,” said Cammock. “I’ll tell you why. You’re handy for the
Indians, that’s one great point. You’re hidden from to seaward, in
case the Spanish fleet should come near, going to Portobello fair.
You’re within a week’s march of all the big gold mines. You’ve good
wood and water handy. And you could careen a treat, if your ship got
foul. Beside being nice and central.”
“Which of these two keys do you recommend?”
“La Sound’s Key is the most frequented,” answered Cammock.
“You often have a dozen sloops in at La Sound’s. They careen there
a lot. You see there’s mud to lay your ship ashore on. And very good
brushwood if you wish to give her a breaming.”
“I see. And the Indians come there, you say?”
“Oh yes, sir. There’s an Indian village on the Main just opposite.
Full of Indians always. La Sound’s is an exchange, as you might
say.”
“If I went there, in this big ship, should I be likely to get into touch
with the privateer captains? I mean, to make friends with them.”
“You’d meet them all there, from time to time, sir—Coxon, Tristian,
Yanky Dutch, Mackett; oh, all of them.”
“All friends of yours?”
“No, sir. Some of them is French and Dutch. They come from
Tortuga and away east by Curaçoa. That’s a point I can tell you
about. Don’t you make too free with the French and Dutch, sir. You
stick by your own countrymen. I’ll tell you why, sir. If you let them
ducks in to share, the first you’ll know is they’ve put in a claim for
their own country. They’ll say that the settlement is theirs; that we’re
intruding on them. Oh, they will. I know ’em. And they’ll trick you, too.
They’ll get their own men-of-war to come and kick you out, like they
done at St. Kitts, and at Tortuga.”
“That would hardly suit. But is La Sound’s more of a French and
Dutch resort than Springer’s?”
“Yes, sir. Since Captain Sharp’s raid. Ever since that, we’ve been
as it were more separated. And then there was trouble at the isle of
Ash; they done us out of a sloop; so we done them in return.
Springer’s is the place the Englishmen goes to, now. Oh, and
Golden Island, this easterly island here. But Springer’s Key is the
best of them. Though we goes to La Sound’s Key, mind you,
whenever we’re planning a raid.”
“Then—— By the way. Who is Springer?”
“He was a privateer, sir. He got lost on the Main one time. He was
in Alleston’s ship at that time. He got lost, out hunting for warree. He
wandered around in the woods there, living on sapadilloes, till one
day he come to a river, and floated down it on a log. He’d sense
enough for that. Generally men go mad in the woods at the end of
the first day.”
“Mad,” said Olivia. “But why do they do that?”
“It’s the loneliness, Mrs. Stukeley. You seem shut in, in those
woods. Shut in. A great green wall. It seems to laugh at you. And
you get afraid, and then you get thirsty. Oh, I’ve felt it. You go mad.
Lucky for you, you do, Mrs. Stukeley.”
“How horrible. Isn’t that awful, Charles?”
“Yes. Awful. But Springer kept his head, you say?”
“No, sir. I’m inclined to think Springer got a turn. The sun’ll give it
you. Or that green wall laughing; or just thirst. When I talked with
Springer, he told me as he come to a little stone city on a hill, all
grown over with green. An old ruined city. About a hundred houses.
Quite small. And what d’you think was in it, Mrs. Stukeley?”
“I don’t know at all. Nothing very horrible, I hope. No. Not if it’s
going to be horrible.”
“Well. It was horrible. But there was gold on every one of them.
Gold plates. Gold masks. And gold all over the rooms. Now if that’s
true, it’s mighty queer. But I think he’d got a turn, ma’am. I don’t think
things was right with Springer. Living all alone in the woods, and then
living all alone on the key. It very likely put him off. I was to have
gone with him, searching for it, one time; but I never did.”
Stukeley seemed to wake up suddenly.
“You must have been a fool,” he said.
“Why? Acos I thought of going?” said Cammock.
“No. Because you didn’t go. I suppose you know which river he
came down. And whereabouts he got on the log?”
“Oh yes,” said Cammock; “better than I know you, Mr. Stukeley.”
“What d’you mean?” said Stukeley.
“Nothing,” said Cammock. “The very last time I saw Ed Springer,
we talked it all out. And he told me all he remembered, and we
worked it out together, whereabouts he must have got to. You see,
Mrs. Stukeley, Springer went a long way. He was lost—— And we
were going to look for it together.”
“Why didn’t you?” said Stukeley. “Were you afraid?”
“Yes,” replied Cammock curtly; “I was.”
Thinking that there would be an open quarrel, Captain Margaret
interrupted. “And you think Springer’s Key would be the best for us?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Here is Springer’s Key on the map. Come here, Stukeley, and just
cast your eye over it.”
Stukeley advanced, and put his hand on Olivia’s shoulder, drawing
her against him, as he leaned over to see the map. She stroked the
caressing hand, only conscious of the pleasure of her husband’s
caress. She had no thought of what the sight meant to Margaret.
Perrin felt for his friend. “Put it to the vote, Charles,” he said
hastily.
“Very well then,” said Margaret. “Shall we decide then? To go to
Springer’s Key?”
“Is it a pleasant place?” said Olivia. “Don’t, Tom.” She gave the
hand a little slap.
“Very pleasant, Mrs. Stukeley. A island with huge big cedars on it
—aromatic cedars—as red as blood; and all green parrots. Wells.
Good drinking wells. Wonderful flowers. If you’re fond of flowers,
ma’am.”
“What sorts are they?”
“Arnotto roses, and yellow violet trees. Oh, lots of them.”
“Oh, then, Springer’s Key, certainly.”
“Springer’s Key,” said Stukeley and Perrin.
“The ayes have it.”
“Very well, then,” said Margaret. “We’ll decide for Springer’s Key.”
“One other thing, sir,” said Cammock. “There’s the difficulty about
men. We’ve forty-five men in the ship here, mustering boys and
idlers. And that’s not enough. It’s not enough to attract allies. Of
course, I quite see, if you’d shipped more in London, in a ship of this
size, it would have looked odd. It might have attracted notice. The
Spaniards watch the Pool a sight more’n you think. But you want
more. And you want choice weapons for them.” He paused for a
second to watch Captain Margaret’s face, then, seeing no change
upon it, continued, “I know you got twenty long brass eighteens
among the ballast.”
“How did you know that?” said Margaret.
“Well, you have, sir,” said Cammock, grinning, “and small-arms in
proportion. You can fortify Springer’s with a third of that lot. Now you
want another forty or fifty men, at least, and then you’ll be boss dog.
Every privateer captain will come saying, ‘Oh, Massa’ to you.”
“Yes,” said Perrin. “It seems to me that there’ll be a difficulty in
getting men. You see we want really a drill force.”
“No difficulty about men in Virginia, sir. Lots of good men, regular
old standards, tough as hickory, at Accomac, and along the James
River.”
“What do they do there?” said Perrin.
“Lots of ’em come there,” said Cammock evasively. “They tobacco
plants, and they trap them things with fur on, and some on ’em
fishes. Lots of ’em come there.”
“Where from?” asked Captain Margaret pointedly.
“Most everywhere,” said Cammock, looking on the deck.
“Campeachy?” said the captain.
“Most everywhere, sir,” repeated Cammock.
“Writs hard to serve there?”
“Every one has his misfortunes,” said Cammock hotly. “But they’re
a better lot there than you’d get anywhere in the islands, let me tell
you that. I’ve known a power of men among them, fine men. They
might be a bit rough and that; but they do stand by a fellow.”
“Yes,” said Captain Margaret, “I dare say. But I don’t want them to
stand by a fellow. I want them to stand by an idea.”
“They’ll stand by anything so long as you’ve a commission,” said
Captain Cammock.
“And obey orders?”
“Now, sir. In England, everybody knuckles down to squires and
lords. But among the privateers there aren’t any squires and lords.
Nor in Virginia, where the old privateers tobacco plants. A man
stands by what he is in himself. If you can persuade the privateers
that you’re a better man than their captains; and some of them are
clever generals, mind. They’ve been fighting Spaniards all their lives.
Well. You persuade ’em that you’re a better man. You show ’em that.
And they’ll be your partners. As for hands in the ship here, and ship’s
discipline. They aren’t particularly good at being ordered about.
They’re accustomed to being free, and having their share in the
councils. But you give them some little success on the Main, and
you’ll find they’ll follow you anywhere. You give out that you’re going
against Tolu, say. You take Tolu, say, and give ’em ten pound a
man.”
“Then they’ll want to go ashore to spend it.”
“Not if you give ’em a dice-box or two. You won’t be able to wage
them, like you wage hands, at sixteen shillen a month.”
Olivia, who seemed disconcerted at the thought of sitting down at
a council with a crowd of ragged sailors, now asked if it would not be
possible to wage them, if they explained the circumstances.
“You say they are tobacco-planting in Virginia. Why should they
not plant on the Main and supply all the ships which come to us,
besides fighting the Spaniards when the crops are growing?”
“That’s what you must do,” said Cammock. “Get the steadiest men
you can. Plant your crops, when you’ve cleared a patch of ground.
Hit the Spaniards hard at the first try. That’ll bring all the privateers to
you. Hit ’em again hard at a bigger port; and I do believe, sir, you’ll
have two or three thousand skilled troops flocking to you. Old
Mansvelt, the old Dutchman. You know who I mean. He tried to do
what you are trying. That was at Santa Katalina. But he died, and
Morgan had to do it all over again. Then Morgan had his chance.
He’d fifteen hundred men and a lot of ships. He’d taken Chagres and
Porto Bello. He had the whole thing in his hands. With all the spoil of
Panama to back him up. The Isthmus was ours, sir. The whole of
Spanish America was in that man’s hands. But no. Come-day-go-
day. He went off and got drunk in Port Royal; got a chill the first
week; got laid up for a time; then, when he did get better, he entered
Jamaica politics. The new governor kept him squared. The new
governor was afraid of him. But what he done you can do. You have
a little success, and make a name for yourself, and you’ll have a
thousand men in no time. That’s enough to drive the Spaniards off
the North Sea. When you’ve driven ’em all off, the King’ll step in. The
King of England, I mean. He’ll knight you, and give you a bottle-
washing job alongside his kitchen sink. Your settlement’ll be given to
one of these Sirs in Jamaica. There, sir. I wish you luck.”
The meeting was now broken up. Perrin brought from his cabin a
box of West Indian conserves and a packet of the famous Peruvian
sweetmeats. He offered them to Olivia, then to all the company. The
steward brought round wine and strong waters. Mrs. Inigo, passing
through the cabin with a curtsey, left hot water in Olivia’s state-room.
She wore a black gown and white cap. She looked very handsome.
She walked with the grace of the Cornish women. She reminded
Captain Cammock of the Peruvian ladies whom he had captured
before Arica battle. They, too, had worn black, and had walked like
queens. He remembered how frightened they had been, when they
were first brought aboard from the prize. Olivia followed Mrs. Inigo
into the state-room. “I must just see if she’s got everything she
wants,” she murmured. She remained in the state-room for a few
minutes talking with Mrs. Inigo. Perrin noticed that Stukeley looked
very hard at Mrs. Inigo as she passed through with the jug. He
decided that Stukeley would need watching.
“Where are you putting her?” said Stukeley.
“Who? Mrs. Inigo?” said Margaret. “Along the alleyway, to the
starboard, in the big cabin which was once the sail-room.”
“I see,” said Stukeley.
“By the way, Stukeley,” said Margaret. “Now that you’ve got over
your sickness, would you like to be one of us? And will you stand a
watch? I’m going to stand two watches a day with the mate’s watch,
and Edward here will do the same with the starboard watch.”
“I’ll think it over,” said Stukeley, evidently not much pleased. “I’ll
think it over. I think I’ve listened to enough jaw for one night. I’m
going to turn in.”
Margaret, quick to save Olivia from something which he thought
might annoy her, made a neat parry. “Oh, don’t say that, Stukeley.
Come on deck for a blow; then we’ll have a glass of punch apiece.”
“Come on,” said Perrin, attempting, with an ill grace, the manner of
a jovial schoolboy. “Come on, my son. Catch hold of his other arm,
Charles.”
As he seized Stukeley’s arm to give him a heave, Stukeley poked
him in the wind, and tripped him as he stepped backward. “What’re
you sitting down for?” he said, with a rough laugh.
Perrin was up in a second. He seized a heavy decanter, and hove
it into Stukeley’s face. Stukeley in guarding the blow received a
sharp crack upon the elbow. Margaret and Cammock pulled Perrin
aside, under a heavy fire of curses.
“What d’ye mean by losing your temper? Hey?” said Stukeley.
Margaret drew Perrin out of the cabin. “Good night, Stukeley,” he
said as he passed the door.
He left Cammock standing by his chair, looking into Stukeley’s
face. There was a pause for a moment.
Then Stukeley began with, “That damned old woman nearly broke
my elbow. If he’s a friend of yours——”
“He is,” said Cammock.
“Oh, so you’re another of them. Well. Lord. You make a queer
crew. Do you know that?”
Cammock did not answer, but remained standing, like a figure of
bronze, staring into Stukeley’s face. For fully a minute he stood there
silently. Then he spun round swiftly, in his usual way, giving a little
whistle. He paused at the door to stare at Stukeley again.
“I’m glad you admire my beauty,” said Stukeley. “You’re not much
used to seeing gentlemen, are you?”
Still Cammock did not answer. At last he spat through the half-
opened gun-port. “My God,” he said. Then he walked out on deck,
leaving Stukeley rubbing his elbow; but softly chuckling, thinking he
had won the field.
V.
STUKELEY

“Thus can my love excuse the slow offence.”


Sonnet li.

“I can endure
All this. Good Gods a blow I can endure.
But stay not, lest thou draw a timeless death
Upon thyself.”
The Maid’s Tragedy.

One morning, about six weeks later, when the Broken Heart was
near her port of call, Captain Margaret sat at the cabin table, with a
book of logarithms beside him, a chart before him, and a form for a
ship’s day’s work neatly ruled, lying upon the chart. He made a faint
pencil-line upon the chart, to show the ship’s position by dead-
reckoning. Then, with a pair of compasses, he made a rough
measurement of the distance still to run. Stukeley, lying at length
upon the locker-top, watched him with contempt.
The Broken Heart had had a fair summer passage, with no severe
weather. She had spoken with no ships since leaving Falmouth. Her
little company of souls had been thrown upon themselves, and the
six weeks of close association had tried their nerves. There were
tense nerves among the afterguard, on that sunny morning, just off
Soundings.
“Where are we?” Stukeley asked.
“Just off Soundings,” said Margaret.
“Where the blazes is that?”
“About four hundred miles to the east of Accomac.”
“How soon shall we get to Accomac?”
“A week, perhaps. It depends on the wind.”
“And then we’ll get ashore?”
“Yes. If you think it safe.”
“What the devil d’you mean?”
Captain Margaret sat back in his chair and looked at Stukeley as
an artist looks at his model. Many small, inconsidered, personal acts
are revelations of the entire character; the walk, the smile, the
sudden lifting of the head or hand, are enough, to the imaginative
person. So, now, was Captain Margaret’s look a revelation. One had
but to see him, to know the truth of Perrin’s epigram. Perrin had
called him “a Quixote turned critic.” He looked at Stukeley as though
he were above human anger; his look was almost wistful, but
intense. He summed up the man’s character to himself, weighing
each point with a shrewd, bitter clearness. His thought was of
himself as a boy, pinning the newly killed moth upon the setting-
board.
“Look here,” said Stukeley.
“Do you think it safe?”
Stukeley rose from the locker and advanced across the cabin.
“So little Maggy’s going to preach, is he?” he said lightly. “Let me
recommend little Maggy to keep on his own side of the fence.”
Margaret shrugged his shoulders. It seemed to him to be the most
offensive thing he could do, in the circumstances.
“Supposing that it’s not safe?”
Stukeley laughed, and returned to the locker. He pulled out a pipe
and began to fill it.
“Maggy,” he said, “why don’t you get married?”
“My destiny.”
“Marriage goes by destiny. Eh?”
“Marriage. And hanging, Stukeley.”
That brought him from the locker again. “What the hell d’you mean
by that?”
“Oh,” said Margaret. “It’s safe in Accomac, I should think.”
“What is?”
“The evil-doer, Stukeley. The cheat, the ravisher, the—— But I
don’t think you ever committed a murder. Not what is called murder
by a jury.”
“Ah. You cast that at me,” said Stukeley. “Recollect now, Maggy.
That’s enough. I’d be sorry to hit you.”
“Would you?” said Margaret. “Well. Perhaps. But if it’s not safe,
Stukeley, what are you going to do?”
“Stay here, little Maggy. Oh, ducky, you are so charming. I shall
stay on board with my own little Maggy.”
“You’d better remember my name when you speak again,
Stukeley. I take no liberties from a forger.”
“Have you been reading my papers? In my cabin?”
“It was forgery, wasn’t it?”
“Is it any business of yours?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Because, Stukeley, I may have to see the Governor about you. I
may be asked about you when you land. I may even have to hand
you over to—well, disgrace.”
“Rot. How the hell will the Governor know? Don’t talk nonsense.”
“Then it was forgery?”
“Certainly no damn maggot like you’ll call it anything. No man
alive.”
“But supposing they try you, my friend. Eh? Suppose, when we
land, when we anchor, you are taken and sent home. What would a
jury call it?”
“We’re not in Falmouth harbour now. Nor in Salcombe.”
Just at this moment Captain Cammock entered, whistling a tune
through his teeth. He glanced at both men, with some suspicion of
their occupation. “Come for the deep-sea lead-line,” he explained.
“We’ll be in soundings by to-night. Getting on nice, ain’t we?” He
opened one of the lockers and took out the lead-line. “You’d ought to
come on deck, sir, to-night, to see how this is done. It’s a queer
sight,” he said. “I’m off to the cook now, to get a bit of tallow for the
arming.”
“Stop just a moment, captain,” said Margaret. “I want to ask you
something. How often do letters go to Virginia, from London?”
“I suppose about twice a week, now there’s no war. Almost every
day, in the summer, you might say. Yes. They’re always going.”
“Have we made a good passage?”
“Nothing extra. It’s been done in five weeks by the baccalao
schooners. Less.”
“The baccalao schooners. They’re the cod-boats? Are they very
fast?”
“Oh, beauties. But ain’t they wet.”
“Then we might find letters waiting when we arrive?”
“Very likely, sir. I was going to speak to you about that.” He looked
with meaning at Stukeley.
“What are you looking at me like that for?” said Stukeley.
“You might have letters waiting, too,” said Cammock. “Society
invitations and that.” He glanced up at the skylight as he spoke, and
then watched Stukeley’s face to note the effect of his words.
Stukeley turned pale.
“Stukeley,” said Margaret, “don’t you think you ought to tell your
wife?”
“Will you please mind your own business, Maggy. She’s my wife,
not yours.”
“Then I shall tell her. Shall I?”
“Tell her what?”
“I’m going on deck,” said Cammock. “You come on deck, sir, too.”
He passed out of the cabin, carrying his heavy lead. He paused at
the door for a moment to ask his friend again. “Come and see how
it’s done, sir,” he said. He got no instant answer, so he passed out,
wondering how it would end. “It’s none of my job,” he said sadly. “But
I’d give a deal just to hit him once. Once. He’d have a thick ear to
show.”
“Tell her what?” repeated Stukeley, as the door closed.
“That you may be arrested as soon as we arrive. That the case
may go against you.”
“You would tell her, would you?”
“She ought to know. Surely you can see that. Shall I tell her?”
“You?”
“Yes.”
“You’ve go—— You lowsy. You’d like to, wouldn’t you?”
“I should very much like to, Stukeley.”
“I don’t doubt. And you’re the one—— That’s like you poets. You’re
a mangy lot, Maggy. I see you so plainly, Maggy, telling my wife. Like
a cat making love. In the twilight. Oh, I’ve seen you.”
“Go on, Stukeley.”
“You come crawling round my wife. I’ve seen you look at her. I’ve
seen you shake hands with her. I’ve seen your eyes. Doesn’t she
make your mouth water? Wouldn’t you like that hair all over your
face? Eh? Eh? And her arms round you. Eh?”
“Stukeley,” said Margaret, “I’d advise you to stop. Stop now.”
“Wouldn’t you like to——?”
“Stop.”
“I know you would. Poems, eh? I’ve read a lot of your poems to
her, Maggy.”
“Were you looking for my purse?”
“No, Maggy. But I thought you needed watching. I don’t want any
mangy poet crawling round my wife. So I just watched you, Maggy.”
“Yes?”
“Oh yes. I don’t think you’ve succeeded yet, Maggy. Even in spite
of your poems.”
“Stukeley,” said Margaret, rising from his chair, “when we get to
Accomac you will come ashore with me. I’ll do my best, when we’re
ashore, to put my sword”—he advanced to Stukeley, bent swiftly
over him, and touched him sharply on the Adam’s apple—“just there,
Stukeley. Right through. To save the hangman the trouble.”
Stukeley watched him with amused contempt; he laughed.
“Maggy’s in a paddy,” he said. “No, Maggy. I’m a married man, now,
ducky. What would my wife do if she woke up one fine morning and
found me gone? Eh?”
“Are you afraid to fight?”
“Afraid of a little crawling maggot who comes whining out some
measly poems?”
Margaret took a quick step forward, and shot out a hand to seize
Stukeley by the throat. Stukeley caught him by the wrist.
“Look here, Maggy,” he said.
“Drop my wrist. Drop it.”
“Take your dirty wrist.”
“Take back what you said.”
“You do amuse me, Maggy.”
“Take it back.”
“You ought to have been a woman. Then you could have married
that damned fool Perrin. And you could have——”
“You——”
“Ah no, ah no. No blows, Maggy.”
“Take back what you said.”
“That I was afraid?”
“You’d better, Stukeley.”
“Did I say that I was afraid? I’m not, you know. It’s you who are
afraid.”
“You’ll see.”
“I shall see. You are afraid. You’re in love with Olivia, ducky. D’ye
think you’re going to fight me? Not Maggy. You’d like me away,
wouldn’t you, Maggy. Then perhaps she’d. She’s an awful fool when
you come to know her, Maggy. To know her as I know her. She might
be fool enough to. And then. Oh. Bliss, eh? Bliss. Morning, noon,
and night. Eh?”
“Stukeley, I’ve stood a good deal——”
“Yes, ducky. But don’t be so excited. You won’t fight me. You’ll be
afraid. You’ll lick my boots, like you’ve done all the time, so as to get
a sweet smile from her. Doesn’t she smile sweetly, my little Maggy?
You’ll lick my boots, Maggy. And hers. Lick, lick, lick, like a little
crawling cat. Wouldn’t you like to lick her hand, Maggy? Her fingers?
Don’t go, Maggy. I’m just beginning to love you.”
“We’ll go on with this at Accomac, Stukeley.”
“We shan’t fight, Maggy. If you killed me, she’d never marry you.
Besides, it would kill her, Maggy. She loves me. She wants a man,
not a little licking cat. You’re content to spend your days licking. My
God; you’d die, I believe, if you couldn’t come crawling round her,
sighing, and longing to kiss her. That’s your life. Well. Kill me. You’ll
never see her again. Then what would the little crawler do? Go and
put his arms round Perrin? But d’you know what I should tell Olivia
before going out with you?”
“What would you tell her?”
“I’d tell her that I suspected you of making love to her. Eh? That
you admitted it, and that I gave you this chance of satisfaction out of
consideration, instead of thrashing you. So any way I’ve the whip
hand, Maggy. She’d never look at you again, and you can’t live
without her. Can you?”
“Anything else?”
“Just this. You’ll never see her again if—if anything happens at
Accomac. Through the Governor, you know. We should go home
together. And the shock, eh? Loving husband hanged, eh? So take it
from one who loves little Maggy, that you aren’t going to fight me,
and that for all your gush you’ll help me in Accomac in case there’s
trouble. And Olivia shall let you kiss her hand, shall she. Or no, you
shall have a shoe of hers to slobber over, or a glove. Now go on
deck, Maggy, and cool your angry little brow. A little of you goes a
long way, Maggy. That’s what Olivia told me one night.”
He stopped speaking; for Margaret had left the cabin. “I wonder
where he’s gone,” Stukeley muttered, smiling. Through the half-shut
door he could see Margaret entering the cabin which he shared with
Perrin. “What a rotter he is,” he thought. “I suppose now he’ll have a
good cry. Or tell it all to that dead frog, Perrin.” For a moment, he
thought that he would go on deck to walk with Perrin, not because he
wanted to see the man, but because, by going on deck, he would
keep both Perrin and the captain from talking to Olivia, who was mat-
making on the poop, amid a litter of coloured silks. He thought with
some disgust of Olivia. So that he might not be reminded of her, he
drew the sun-screen across the skylight, shutting out the day. “Oh
Lord,” he said, yawning, “I wish I was back in the inn with that girl,
Jessie. She was some fun. Olivia gets on my nerves. Why the devil
doesn’t she get some blood in her? These pious women are only
good to ravish. Why the devil don’t they enter nunneries? I wish that
one of these three sprightly lads would have a try at Olivia. One
never knows, though. Even Olivia might take it as a compliment.” For
a moment he wondered if there were any chance of trouble at
Accomac. Very little, he concluded. He laughed to think of the
strength of his position. It was a pleasure to him to think that three
men hated him, perhaps longed to kill him, and that one refrained
because of Olivia, while the other two refrained because of the first.
“Lord, Lord,” he murmured, with a smile. “And they’ll all three die to
save me. I’d go to Accomac if there were a dozen governors. I
wonder if the Indian girls are any fun.” He was hardly built for
marriage, he thought. Those old days had been sweet in the mouth.
There was that sleepy-looking girl—Dick Sadler’s wife. She was
some fun. How wild she used to get when she—— He wished that
Perrin would come below as a butt for some of his ill-temper.
It was only four bells; there were at least two hours to wait till
dinner-time. He was sick of sleeping; he was sick of most of his
shipmates; he could not dice “one hand against the other.” Reading
bored him, writing worried him, sketch he could not. He stretched
himself down on the locker-top, and lit his pipe. Tobacco was
forbidden in the cabin for Olivia’s sake; but he argued that he was
the real commander of the ship, the practical owner, since he ruled
her material destiny by ruling Olivia. As he smoked, it occurred to
him that perhaps he had done wrong to anger Captain Margaret.
That Maggy was a sullen devil. He might turn sullen, and give him up
in spite of Olivia. He smoked quietly for a little time, till a scheme
came to him, a scheme which gave him pleasure, so good it
seemed.
He lay lazily on the locker-top, looking out over the sea, through
the stern-windows. The sun was shining, making the track of the ship
gleam. Just below Stukeley, sometimes almost within a sword’s
thrust, when the counter squattered down, slapping the sea, were
the rudder eddies, the little twirling threads, the twisted water which
spun in the pale clear green, shot through with bubbles. They rose
and whirled continually, creaming up and bursting, streaking aft in
whiteness. Over them wavered some mewing sea-birds, dipping
down with greedy plunges, anon rising, hovering, swaying up.
Stukeley watched them with the vacant stare of one bored. For a few
minutes he amused himself by spitting at those which came within
range; then, proving a poor marksman, he rummaged for a biscuit,
thinking that he would fish for them. He found a hank of white-line,
and tied a bit of biscuit to the end. He was about to make his first
cast when Mrs. Inigo entered, bearing a buck-basket containing her
week’s washing, now ready to be dried.
When the Broken Heart left Falmouth, Captain Margaret made
certain orders to ensure Olivia’s comfort. He had tried to put himself
in her place, to see with her eyes, to feel with her nerves, knowing
that her position on board, without another lady to bear her company,
would not be a pleasant one. The whole of the ship abaft the forward
cabin bulkhead had been given up to her. The three members of the
afterguard took their meals in the cabin, but seldom entered it at
other times, unless they wished to use the table for chess, cards, or
chart-work. The negro steward, who had once ruled in the cabin,
was now little more than a cabin-cook. Mrs. Inigo did much of his
work. She cleaned the cabin, laid the breakfast, served Olivia’s early
chocolate, letting the negro cook wash up. Cammock and Perrin
agreed with Captain Margaret that the after part of the ship should
be left as much as possible to the two Stukeleys, so that Olivia might
feel that she was living in a private house. After the cabin supper, at
the end of the first dog-watch, no man of the three entered the cabin
unless Olivia invited him. Margaret felt that Olivia was touched by
this thought for her. She was very gracious to him during her first
evening party. It was sweet to hear her thanks, sweet to see her,
flushed and laughing, radiant from the sea air, sitting there at the
table, as Cammock dealt the cards for Pope Joan. That evening had
been very dear to him, even though, across the cabin, on the heaped
green cushions, lay Stukeley, greedy for his wife’s beauty, whetting
his swine’s tusk as the colour came upon her cheek. It would all be
for him, he thought, and the thought, now and then, was almost
joyful, that she should be happy. It was not in his nature to be
jealous. The greatest bitterness for him was to see the desired prize
neglected, unappreciated, never really known; and to apprehend, in
a gesture, in a few words, the thought implied, which the accepted
lover failed to catch, or else ignored. He had tested Stukeley’s
imaginative sympathy by the framing of another rule. In a small ship
like the Broken Heart there is little privacy. To prevent a possible
shock to her, he arranged that on washing-days the clothes of the
women should be hung to dry from the cabin windows (from lines
rigged up below the port-sills, where they were out of view of the
crew). Olivia was pleased by this arrangement, without quite
knowing why. Stukeley saw no sense in it. On this particular morning
the arrangement bore peculiar fruit, very grateful to Stukeley, who
had long hungered for a change.
Mrs. Inigo entered with the buck-basket, closing the door behind
her. She dropped the basket on the deck below the window-seat,
seized the clothes-line, and began to stop the linen to it, in the sea-
fashion, with rope-yarns. She was a little flushed with the exertion of
washing, and she was a comely woman at all times.
“I’m going to help you,” said Stukeley.
She smiled, and looked down, as he helped her to tie some
clothes to the line. She blushed and smiled; he took her hand.
“Let go my hand,” she whispered.
He pressed the hand, and though she drew back, a little
frightened, he managed to catch the other. He kissed the hands.
They were rough but warm.
“Don’t,” she said. “Don’t, Mr. Stukeley.”
“Ah, Bess,” he said, taking her into his arms and kissing her, “why
didn’t you give me a chance before?”
Half an hour later Bessy Inigo went forward to peel potatoes for
dinner, while Stukeley slept upon the locker-top till the steward
roused him at one bell.
He went on deck, when he was called, to get a breath of air before
dinner. He found Olivia at work with her little balls of silk, while
Perrin, on the lee side of the skylight, was drawing for her a ship
upon canvas. Perrin was talking to Olivia, asking her questions about
her work. At the break of the poop Captain Cammock stood, waiting
with his quadrant to take the height of the sun.
Olivia looked up with a smile as Stukeley stepped on deck. She
was still in that rapturous first stage of marriage in which all men,
save the husband, are regarded as hardly living, as being, at best,
but necessary cumberers of the earth, mere lifeless interruptions. In
the early days of the voyage she had learned, from one of Captain
Cammock’s stories, that people shut up in ships together cannot
always bear the strain, but become irritable, quarrelsome, apt to
suspect and slander. She had determined that her married love
should not decay thus, and so, for some weeks past, she had
contrived to avoid her husband for several hours each day, greatly to
the delight of Perrin. On this particular day she felt that Providence
had rewarded her but meanly for her loving self-sacrifice. All men,
save Tom, were nothing to her, but Perrin, in the morning, in one of
his dull moods, when unrelieved by Margaret, was less than nothing.
She had always been a little shy of Perrin, perhaps because Perrin’s
shyness was a bar to equal intercourse. Her own nature was full of
shy refinements. She could give nothing of herself to one who could
not win upon her by some grace or gallantry. Perrin meant well; he
was even her devoted slave; but he was heavy in the hand with
ladies, until their sympathy had raised his spirit. Olivia was not in the
mood to give him even that simulated sympathy by which women
extract their knowledge of men. Her own fine instincts told her, or
rather suggested to her, all that could be known of Perrin. In a vague
way she had the idea of Perrin in her mind, the true idea; but vague,
without detail, an instinctive comprehension. He was a blunted soul
to her, broken somehow. She felt that he had been through
something, some vice perhaps, or sickness, with the result that he
was blunted. He was quite harmless, she thought, even sometimes
pleasant, always well-meaning, and yet dwarfed, made blunt, like his
shapeless hands. She never could bring herself to treat him as a
human being. Yet he interested her; he had the fascination of all
mysterious persons; she could never accept her husband’s
contemptuous estimate. Possibly she felt the need for the society of
another lady, and hesitated to condemn Perrin, as being the nearest
thing to a lady in the ship. Thus Robinson Crusoe on his island
unduly valued a parrot.
About half an hour before her husband came on deck, Olivia had
seen Perrin coming down from aloft, where he had been engaged
with a seaman in fitting new spunyarn gaskets to all the yards on the
mainmast, so that the furls might look neat when they made Virginia.
He enjoyed his work aloft until he grew hot, when he soon found a
pretext for leaving it. On reaching the deck, he went aft to Olivia
(who smiled her recognition), and sat down at her side, content to
stay still, to cool. The sight of Olivia’s beauty so near to him filled him
with a kind of awe. Like a schoolboy impressed by some beautiful
woman who is gracious to him, perhaps merely from that love of
youth which all women have, so did Perrin imagine heroisms,
rescuing that dear head, now bent with a shy sweetness over her
mat.
“Olivia,” he said at length, about a minute after the proper time for
the request, “will you show me what you have done?”
She looked up from her work with a smile that was half
amusement at his serious tone.
“I’ve not done very much,” she said, showing her canvas, with its
roses, surrounded by a garland of verbena leaves, still little more
than outlined. “Did you ever try to make mats?” she added.
“I can make daisy-mats with wool, on a frame with pins,” he
answered. “Can you make those? You cut them, and they show like
a lot of daisies.”
“I used to make them,” she said, “when I went to stay with my aunt
Pile, at Eltons. You were at Eltons, too, were you not? I think you
stayed there?”
“Yes. I stayed there. What a beautiful old place it is. Have you
been there lately?”
“No. Not for two or three years now. I was very gay the last time I
was there. I think I went to a dance every night. My poor brothers
were alive then. We used to drive off together. I’ve never been there
since.”
“Ah,” said Perrin. He paused for a moment, so that his brain might
make the picture of the woman before him sitting in the gloom of the
carriage, with all her delicate beauty warmly wrapped by the two
young men now dead. “Furs,” he muttered to himself. “Furs, and the
lamps shining on the snow.” Then he looked at Olivia, noting the
grey and black dress, the one gold bracelet round her wrist, and the
old pearl ear-rings against the mass of hair.
“What jolly clothes women wear,” he said, meaning (like most men
who use such phrases) “How beautiful you look there.”
“This?” she asked. “This is my oldest frock.”
“Is it? I didn’t remember it. How do you get your clothes?”
“I tell my dressmaker.”
“I wish you’d let me design you a dress.”
“I should be very pleased. What sort of dress would you design for
me?”
“I would have you in a sort of white satin bodice, all embroidered
with tiny scarlet roses. And then a little black velvet coat over it, with
very full sleeves, slashed, to show an inner sleeve of dark blue silk.
And the lining of the velvet would be dark green; so you would have
green, blue, white, and red all contrasted against the black of the
velvet.”
“That would be costly. And what skirt? A black skirt, I suppose?”
“A very full black skirt. What do you think about a belt? Would you
wear that belt of yours? The one with the Venetian silver-work?”
“I don’t know about a belt. I thought you were going to design
everything?”
“Not a belt, then. And black shoes, with small, oval, cut-steel
buckles.”
“I should think that would be very pretty.” Her thoughts were
wandering in England, down a lane of beech trees within sound of

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