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diff --git a/old/12556.txt b/old/12556.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fe9216a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12556.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10271 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Master of Fortune, by Cutcliffe Hyne, +Illustrated by Stanley L. Wood + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: A Master of Fortune + +Author: Cutcliffe Hyne + +Release Date: June 8, 2004 [eBook #12556] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MASTER OF FORTUNE*** + + +E-text prepared by Charlie Kirschner and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 12556-h.htm or 12556-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/5/5/12556/12556-h/12556-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/5/5/12556/12556-h.zip) + + + + + +A MASTER ... OF FORTUNE + +Being Further Adventures of Captain Kettle + +BY + +CUTCLIFFE HYNE + +Author of "Captain Kettle," "The Stronger Hand," "The Lost +Continent," etc. + +ILLUSTRATED BY STANLEY L. WOOD + +1898 + + + + + +[Illustration: ATTIRED IN HIGH RUBBER THIGH BOOTS AND LEATHER-BOUND +BLACK OILSKINS. Frontispiece.] + + + +[Illustration] + + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER I. +IN QUARANTINE. + +CHAPTER II. +THE LITTLE WOODEN GOD WITH THE EYES. + +CHAPTER III. +A QUICK WAY WITH REBELS. + +CHAPTER IV. +THE NEW REPUBLIC. + +CHAPTER V. +THE LOOTING OF THE "INDIAN SHERIFF". + +CHAPTER VI. +THE WIRE-MILKERS. + +CHAPTER VII. +THE DERELICT. + +CHAPTER VIII. +To CAPTURE AN HEIRESS. + +CHAPTER IX. +A MATTER OF JUSTICE. + +CHAPTER X. +DAGO DIVERS. + +CHAPTER XI. +THE DEAR INSURED. + +CHAPTER XII. +THE FIRE AND THE FARM. + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +Attired in high rubber thigh boots and leather-bound black oilskins +(Frontispiece). + +He came and stood with one foot on Kettle's breast in the attitude of a +conqueror. + +The little army could only march in single file. + +"You insolent little blackguard, you dare to speak to me like that!" + +He picked up the man and sent him after the knife. + +"I'm a British subject". + +Out of the middle of these spectators jumped the mild, delicate +Hamilton. + +Strangers came up and wrung Kettle's unwilling hand. + + + + +Dedication + +TO CAPTAIN OWEN KETTLE + + +My dear Kettle,-- + +With some considerable trepidation, I venture to offer you here the +dedication of your unauthorized biography. You will read these memoirs, +I know, and it is my pious hope that you do not fit the cap on yourself +as their hero. Of course I have sent you along your cruises under the +decent disguise of a purser's name, and I trust that if you do recognize +yourself, you will appreciate this nice feeling on my part. Believe me, +it was not entirely caused by personal fear of that practical form which +I am sure your displeasure would take if you caught any one putting you +into print. Even a working novelist has his humane moments; and besides +if I made you more recognizable, there might be a more dangerous broth +stirred up, with an ugly international flavor. Would it be indiscreet to +bring one sweltering day in Bahia to your memory, where you made play +with a German (or was he a Scandinavian?) and a hundredweight drum of +good white lead? or might one hint at that little affair which made +Odessa bad for your health, and indeed compelled you to keep away from +Black Sea ports entirely for several years? I trust, then, that if you +do detect my sin in making myself without leave or license your personal +historian, you will be induced for the sake of your present +respectability to give no sign of a ruffled temper, but recognize me as +part of the cross you are appointed to bear, and incidentally remember +my forbearance in keeping so much really splendid material (from my +point of view) in snug retirement up my sleeve. + +Finally, let me remind you that I made no promises not to publish, and +that you did. Not only were you going to endow the world with a book of +poems, but I was to have a free copy. This has not yet come; and if, for +an excuse, you have published no secular verse, I am quite willing to +commute for a copy of the Book of Hymns, provided it is suitably +inscribed. + +C.J.C.H. + + OAK VALE, BRADFORD, + June 27, 1899. + + + + + + +CHAPTER I + +IN QUARANTINE + + +"The pay is small enough," said Captain Kettle, staring at the blue +paper. "It's a bit hard for a man of my age and experience to come down +to a job like piloting, on eight pound a month and my grub." + +"All right, Capt'n," replied the agent. "You needn't tell me what I know +already. The pay's miserable, the climate's vile, and the bosses are +beasts. And yet we have more applicants for these berths on the Congo +than there are vacancies for. And f'why is it, Capt'n? Because there's +no questions asked. The Congo people want men who can handle steamers. +Their own bloomin' Belgians aren't worth a cent for that, and so they +have to get Danes, Swedes, Norwegians, English, Eytalians, or any one +else that's capable. They prefer to give small pay, and are willing to +take the men that for various reasons can't get better jobs elsewhere. +Guess you'll know the crowd I mean?" + +"Thoroughly, sir," said Kettle, with a sigh. "There are a very large +number of us. But we're not all unfortunate through our own fault." + +"No, I know," said the agent. "Rascally owners, unsympathetic Board of +Trade, master's certificate suspended quite unjustly, and all that--" +The agent looked at his watch. "Well, Capt'n, now, about this berth? Are +you going to take it?" + +"I've no other choice." + +"Right," said the agent, and pulled a printed form on to the desk before +him, and made a couple of entries. "Let's see--er--is there a +Mrs. Kettle?" + +"Married," said the little sailor; "three children." + +The agent filled these details on to the form. "Just as well to put it +down," he commented as he wrote. "I'm told the Congo Free State has some +fancy new pension scheme on foot for widdys and kids, though I expect +it'll come to nothing, as usual. They're a pretty unsatisfactory lot all +round out there. Still you may as well have your chance of what plums +are going. Yer age, Capt'n?" + +"Thirty-eight." + +"And--er--previous employment? Well, I suppose we had better leave that +blank as usual. They never really expect it to be filled in, or they +wouldn't offer such wretchedly small pay and commission. You've got your +master's ticket to show, and that's about all they want." + +"There's my wife's address, sir. I'd like my half-pay sent to her." + +"She shall have it direct from Brussels, skipper, so long as you are +alive--I mean, so long as you remain in the Congo Service." + +Captain Kettle sighed again. "Shall I have to wait long before this +appointment is confirmed?" + +"Why, no," said the agent. "There's a boat sailing for the Coast +to-morrow, and I can give you an order for a passage by her. Of course +my recommendation has to go to Brussels to be ratified, but that's only +a matter of form. They never refuse anybody that offers. They call the +Government 'Leopold and Co.' down there on the Congo. You'll understand +more about it when you're on the spot. + +"I'm sorry for ye, Capt'n, but after what you told me, I'm afraid it's +the only berth I can shove you into. However, don't let me frighten ye. +Take care of yourself, don't do too much work, and you may pull through +all right. Here's the order for the passage down Coast by the Liverpool +boat. And now I must ask you to excuse me. I've another client waiting." + + * * * * * + +In this manner, then, Captain Owen Kettle found himself, after many +years of weary knocking about the seas, enlisted into a regular +Government service; and although this Government, for various reasons, +happened to be one of the most unsatisfactory in all the wide, wide +world, he thrust this item resolutely behind him, and swore to himself +that if diligence and crew-driving could bring it about, he would rise +in that service till he became one of the most notable men in Africa. + +"What I want is a competence for the missus and kids," he kept on +repeating to himself, "and the way to finger that competence is to get +power." He never owned to himself that this thirst for power was one of +the greatest curses of his life; and it did not occur to him that his +lust for authority, and his ruthless use of it when it came in his way, +were the main things which accounted for his want of success in life. + +Captain Kettle's voyage down to the Congo on the British and African +S.S. _M'poso_ gave time for the groundwork of Coast language and Coast +thought (which are like unto nothing else on this planet) to soak into +his system. The steamer progressed slowly. She went up rivers protected +by dangerous bars; she anchored in roadsteads, off forts, and straggling +towns; she lay-to off solitary whitewashed factories, which only see a +steamer twice a year, and brought off little doles of cargo in her +surf-boats and put on the beaches rubbishy Manchester and Brummagem +trade goods for native consumption; and the talk in her was that queer +jargon with the polyglot vocabulary in which commerce is transacted all +the way along the sickly West African seaboard, from the Goree to St. +Paul de Loanda. + +Every white man of the _M'poso's_ crew traded on his own private +account, and Kettle was initiated into the mysteries of the unofficial +retail store in the forecastle, of whose existence Captain Image, the +commander, and Mr. Balgarnie, the purser, professed a blank and +child-like ignorance. + +Kettle had come across many types of sea-trader in his time, but Captain +Image and Mr. Balgarnie were new to him. But then most of his +surroundings were new. Especially was the Congo Free State an +organization which was quite strange to him. When he landed at Banana, +Captain Nilssen, pilot of the Lower Congo and Captain of the Port of +Banana, gave him advice on the subject in language which was plain and +unfettered. + +"They are a lot of swine, these Belgians," said Captain Nilssen, from +his seat in the Madeira chair under the veranda of the pilotage, "and +there's mighty little to be got out of them. Here am I, with a wife in +Kjobnhavn and another in Baltimore, and I haven't been able to get away +to see either of them for five blessed years. And mark you, I'm a man +with luck, as luck goes in this hole. I've been in the lower river pilot +service all the time, and got the best pay, and the lightest jobs. +There's not another captain in the Congo can say as much. Some day or +other they put a steamboat on the ground, and then they're kicked out +from the pilot service, and away they're off one-time to the upper river +above the falls, to run a launch, and help at the rubber palaver, and +get shot at, and collect niggers' ears, and forget what champagne and +white man's chop taste like." + +"You've been luckier?" + +"Some. I've libbed for Lower Congo all my time; had a home in the +pilotage here; and got a dash of a case of champagne, or an escribello, +or at least a joint of fresh meat out of the refrigerator from every +steamboat I took either up or down." + +"But then you speak languages?" said Kettle. + +"Seven," said Captain Nilssen; "and use just one, and that's English. +Shows what a fat lot of influence this Etat du Congo has got. Why, you +have to give orders even to your boat-boys in Coast English if you want +to be understood. French has no sort of show with the niggers." + +Now white men are expensive to import to the Congo Free State, and are +apt to die with suddenness soon after their arrival, and so the State +(which is in a chronic condition of hard-up) does not fritter their +services unnecessarily. It sets them to work at once so as to get the +utmost possible value out of them whilst they remain alive and in +the country. + +A steamer came in within a dozen hours of Kettle's first stepping +ashore, and signalled for a pilot to Boma. Nilssen was next in rotation +for duty, and went off in his boat to board her, and he took with him +Captain Owen Kettle to impart to him the mysteries of the great river's +navigation. + +The boat-boys sang a song explanatory of their notion of the new pilot's +personality as they caught at the paddles, but as the song was in Fiote, +even Nilssen could only catch up a phrase here and there, just enough to +gather the drift. He did not translate, however. He had taken his new +comrade's measure pretty accurately, and judged that he was not a man +who would accept criticism from a negro. So having an appetite for peace +himself, he allowed the custom of the country to go on undisturbed. + +The steamer was outside, leaking steam at an anchorage, and sending out +dazzling heliograms every time she rolled her bleached awnings to the +sun. The pilot's boat, with her crew of savages, paddled towards her, +down channels between the mangrove-planted islands. The water spurned up +by the paddle blades was the color of beer, and the smell of it was +puzzlingly familiar. + +"Good old smell," said Nilssen, "isn't it? I see you snuffling. Trying +to guess where you met it before, eh? We all do that when we first come. +What about crushed marigolds, eh?" + +"Crushed marigolds it is." + +"Guess you'll get to know it better before you're through with your +service here. Well, here we are alongside." + +The steamer was a Portuguese, officered by Portuguese, and manned by +Krooboys, and the smell of her drowned even the marigold scent of the +river. Her dusky skipper exuded perspiration and affability, but he was +in a great hurry to get on with his voyage. The forecastle windlass +clacked as the pilot boat drew into sight, heaving the anchor out of the +river floor; the engines were restarted so soon as ever the boat hooked +on at the foot of the Jacob's ladder; and the vessel was under a full +head of steam again by the time the two white men had stepped on to her +oily deck. + +"When you catch a Portuguese in a hurry like this," said Nilssen to +Kettle as they made their way to the awninged bridge, "it means there's +something wrong. I don't suppose we shall be told, but keep your +eyes open." + +However, there was no reason for prying. Captain Rabeira was quite open +about his desire for haste. "I got _baccalhao_ and passenger boys for a +cargo, an' dose don' keep," said he. + +"We smelt the fish all the way from Banana," said Nilssen. "Guess you +ought to call it stinking fish, not dried fish, Captain. And we can see +your nigger passengers. They seem worried. Are you losing 'em much?" + +"I done funeral palaver for eight between Loanda an' here, an' dem was a +dead loss-a. I don' only get paid for dem dat lib for beach at Boma. +Dere was a fire-bar made fast to the leg of each for sinker, an' dem was +my dead loss-a too. I don' get paid for fire-bars given to _gastados_--" +His English failed him. He shrugged his shoulders, and said "Sabbey?" + +"Sabbey plenty," said Nilssen. "Just get me a leadsman to work, Captain. +If you're in a hurry, I'll skim the banks as close as I dare." + +Rabeira called away a hand to heave the lead, and sent a steward for a +bottle of wine and glasses. He even offered camp stools, which, +naturally, the pilots did not use. In fact, he brimmed with affableness +and hospitality. + +From the first moment of his stepping on to the bridge, Kettle began to +learn the details of his new craft. As each sandbar showed up beneath +the yellow ripples, as each new point of the forest-clad banks opened +out, Nilssen gave him courses and cross bearings, dazing enough to the +unprofessional ear, but easily stored in a trained seaman's brain. He +discoursed in easy slang of the cut-offs, the currents, the +sludge-shallows, the floods, and the other vagaries of the great river's +course, and punctuated his discourse with draughts of Rabeira's wine, +and comments on the tangled mass of black humanity under the +forecastle-head awning. + +"There's something wrong with those passenger boys," he kept on +repeating. And another time: "Guess those niggers yonder are half mad +with funk about something." + +But Rabeira was always quick to reassure him. "Now dey lib for Congo, +dey not like the idea of soldier-palaver. Dere was nothing more the +matter with them but leetle sickness." + +"Oh! it's recruits for the State Army you're bringing, is it?" asked +Kettle. + +"If you please," said Rabeira cheerfully. "Slaves is what you English +would call dem. Laborers is what dey call demselves." + +Nilssen looked anxiously at his new assistant. Would he have any foolish +English sentiment against slavery, and make a fuss? Nilssen, being a man +of peace, sincerely hoped not. But as it was, Captain Kettle preserved a +grim silence. He had met the low-caste African negro before, and knew +that it required a certain amount of coercion to extract work from him. +But he did notice that all the Portuguese on board were armed like +pirates, and were constantly on the _qui vive_, and judged that there +was a species of coercion on this vessel which would stick at +very little. + +The reaches of the great beer-colored river opened out before them one +after another in endless vistas, and at rare places the white roofs of a +factory showed amongst the unwholesome tropical greenery of the banks. +Nilssen gave names to these, spoke of their inhabitants as friends, and +told of the amount of trade in palm-oil and kernels which each could be +depended on to yield up as cargo to the ever-greedy steamers. But the +attention of neither of the pilots was concentrated on piloting. The +unrest on the forecastle-head was too obvious to be overlooked. + +Once, when the cackle of negro voices seemed to point to an immediate +outbreak, Rabeira gave an order, and presently a couple of cubical green +boxes were taken forward by the ship's Krooboys, broken up, and the +square bottles which they contained, distributed to greedy fingers. + +"Dashing 'em gin," said Nilssen, looking serious. "Guess a Portugee's in +a bad funk before he dashes gin at four francs a dozen to common +passenger boys. I've a blame' good mind to put this vessel on the +ground--by accident--and go off in the gig for assistance, and bring +back a State launch." + +"Better not risk your ticket," said Kettle. "If there's a row, I'm a bit +useful in handling that sort of cattle myself." + +Nilssen eyed wistfully a swirl of the yellow water which hid a sandbar, +and, with a sigh, gave the quartermaster a course which cleared it. +"Guess I don't like ructions myself," he said. "Hullo, what's up now? +There are two of the passenger boys getting pushed off the +forecastle-head by their own friends on to the main deck." + +"They look a mighty sick couple," said Kettle, "and their friends seem +very frightened. If this ship doesn't carry a doctor, it would be a good +thing if the old man were to start in and deal out some drugs." + +It seemed that Rabeira was of the same opinion. He went down to the main +deck, and there, under the scorching tropical sunshine, interviewed the +two sick negroes in person, and afterwards administered to each of them +a draught from a blue glass bottle. Then he came up, smiling and +hospitable and perspiring, on to the bridge, and invited the pilots to +go below and dine. "Chop lib for cabin," said he; "palm-oil chop, +plenty-too-much-good. You lib for below and chop. I take dem ship myself +up dis next reach." + +"Well, it is plain, deep water," said Nilssen, "and I guess you sabbey +how to keep in the middle as well as I do. Come along, Kettle." + +The pair of them went below to the baking cabin and dined off a savory +orange-colored stew, and washed it down with fiery red wine, and dodged +the swarming, crawling cockroaches. The noise of angry negro voices came +to them between whiles through the hot air, like the distant chatter +of apes. + +The Dane was obviously ill at ease and frightened; the Englishman, +though feeling a contempt for his companion, was very much on the alert +himself, and prepared for emergencies. There was that mysterious +something in the atmosphere which would have bidden the dullest of +mortals prepare for danger. + +Up they came on deck again, and on to the bridge. Rabeira himself was +there in charge, dark, smiling, affable as ever. + +Nilssen looked sharply down at the main deck below. "Hullo," said he, +"those two niggers gone already? You haven't shifted them down below, +I suppose?" + +The Portuguese Captain shrugged his shoulders. "No," he said, "it was +bad sickness, an' dey died an' gone over the side. I lose by their +passage. I lose also the two fire-bar which I give for funeral palaver. +Ver' disappointing." + +"Sudden kind of sickness," said Nilssen. + +"Dis sickness is. It make a man lib for die in one minute, clock time. +But it don' matter to you pilot, does it? You lib for below--off +duty--dis las' half hour. You see nothing, you sabby nothing. I +don'-want no trouble at Boma with doctor palaver. I make it all right +for you after. Sabby?" + +"Oh, I tumble to what you're driving at, but I was just thinking out how +it works. However, you're captain of this ship, and if you choose not to +log down a couple of deaths, I suppose it's your palaver. Anyway, I +don't want to cause no ill-will, and if you think it's worth a dash, I +don't see why I shouldn't earn it. It's little enough we pick up else in +this service, and I've got a wife at home in Liverpool who has to be +thought about." + +Kettle drew a deep breath. "It seems to me," he said, looking very hard +at the Portuguese, "that those men died a bit too sudden. Are you sure +they were _pukka_ dead when you put them over the side?" + +"Oh, yes," said Rabeira smilingly, "an' dey made no objection. It was +best dey should go over quick. Bodies do not keep in this heat. An' +pilot, I do you square-a, same as with Nilssen. You shall have your dash +when doctor-palaver set." + +"No," said Kettle, "you may keep it in your own trousers, Captain. Money +that you've fingered, is a bit too dirty for me to touch." + +"All right," said Rabeira with a genial shrug, "so much cheaper for me. +But do not talk on the beach, dere's good boy, or you make +trouble-palaver for me." + +"I'll shut my head if you stop at this," said Kettle, "but if you murder +any more of those poor devils, I'll see you sent to join them, if +there's enough law in this State to rig a gallows." + +The Portuguese did not get angry. On the contrary, he seemed rather +pleased at getting what he wanted without having to bribe for it, and +ordered up fresh glasses and another bottle of wine for the pilots' +delectation. But this remained untouched. Kettle would not drink +himself, and Nilssen (who wished to be at peace with both sides) did not +wish to under the circumstances. + +To tell the truth, the Dane was beginning to get rather scared of his +grim-visaged little companion; and so, to prevent further recurrence to +unpleasant topics, he plunged once more into the detail of professional +matters. Here was a grassy swamp that was a deep water channel the year +before last; there was a fair-way in the process of silting up; there +was a mud-bar with twenty-four feet, but steamers drawing twenty-seven +feet could scrape over, as the mud was soft. The current round that bend +raced at a good eleven knots. That bank below the palm clump was where +an Italian pilot stuck the _M'poso_ for a month, and got sent to upper +Congo (where he was eaten by some rebellious troops) as a recompense for +his blunder. + +Almost every curve of the river was remembered by its tragedy, and had +they only known it, the steamer which carried them for their observation +had hatching within her the germs of a very worthy addition to +the series. + +More trouble cackled out from the forecastle-head, and more of the green +gin cases were handed up to quell it. The angry cries gradually changed +to empty boisterous laughter, as the raw potato spirit soaked home; and +the sullen, snarling faces melted into grotesque, laughing masks; but +withal the carnival was somewhat grisly. + +It was clear that more than one was writhing with the pangs of sickness. +It was clear also that none of these (having in mind the physicking and +fate of their predecessors) dared give way, but with a miserable gaiety +danced, and drank, and guffawed with the best. Two, squatting on the +deck, played _tom-tom_ on upturned tin pans; another jingled two pieces +of rusty iron as accompaniment; and all who in that crowded space could +find foot room, danced _shuff-shuff-shuffle_ with absurd and +aimless gestures. + +The fort at Chingka drew in sight, with a B. and A. boat landing +concrete bags at the end of its wharf; and on beyond, the sparse roofs +of the capital of the Free State blistered and buckled under the sun. +The steamer, with hooting siren, ran up her gaudy ensign, and came to an +anchor in the stream twenty fathoms off the State wharf. A yellow-faced +Belgian, with white sun helmet and white umbrella, presently came off in +the doctor's boat, and announced himself as the health officer of the +port, and put the usual questions. + +Rabeira lied pleasantly and glibly. Sickness he owned to, but when on +the word the doctor hurriedly made his boat-boys pull clear, he laughed +and assured him that the sickness was nothing more than a little fever, +such as any one might suffer from in the morning, and be out, cured, and +making merry again before nightfall. + +That kind of fever is known in the Congo, and the doctor was reassured, +and bade his boat-boys pull up again. Yet because of the evil liver +within him, his temper was short, and his questioning acid. But Captain +Rabeira was stiff and unruffled and wily as ever, and handed in his +papers and answered questions, and swore to anything that was asked, as +though care and he were divorced forever. + +Kettle watched the scene with a drawn, moist face. He did not know what +to do for the best. It seemed to him quite certain that this oily, +smiling scoundrel, whom he had more than half suspected of a +particularly callous and brutal double murder, would be given _pratique_ +for his ship, and be able to make his profits unrestrained. The +shipmaster's _esprit de corps_ prevented him from interfering +personally, but he very much desired that the heavens would +fall--somehow or other--so that justice might be done. + +A _dens ex machina_ came to fill his wishes. The barter of words and the +conning of documents had gone on; the doctor's doubts were on the point +of being lulled for good; and in a matter of another ten seconds +_pratique_ would have been given. But from the forecastle-head there +came a yell, a chatter of barbaric voices, a scuffle and a scream; a +gray-black figure mounted the rail, and poised there a moment, an +offence to the sunlight, and then, falling convulsively downwards, hit +the yellow water with a smack and a spatter of spray, and sank +from sight. + +A couple of seconds later the creature reappeared, swimming frenziedly, +as a dog swims, and by a swirl of the current (before anybody quite knew +what was happening) was swept down against the doctor's boat, and +gripped ten bony fingers upon the gunwhale and lifted towards her people +a face and shoulders eloquent of a horrible disorder. + +Instantly there was an alarm, and a sudden panic. "_Sacre nom d'un +pipe_," rapped out the Belgian doctor; "_variole!_" + +"Small-pox lib," whimpered his boat-boys, and before their master could +interfere, beat at the delirious wretch with their oars. He hung on +tenaciously, enduring a perfect avalanche of blows. But mere flesh and +bone had to wither under that onslaught, and at last, by sheer weight of +battering, he was driven from his hold, and the beer-colored river +covered him then and for always. + +After that, there was no further doubt of the next move. The +yellow-faced doctor sank back exhausted in the stern sheets of the gig, +and gave out sentence in gasps. The ship was declared unclean until +further notice; she was ordered to take up a berth a mile away against +the opposite bank of the river till she was cleared of infection; she +was commanded to proceed there at once, to anchor, and then to blow off +all her steam. + +The doctor's tortured liver prompted him, and he spoke with spite. He +called Rabeira every vile name which came to his mind, and wound up his +harangue by rowing off to Chingka to make sure that the guns of the fort +should back up his commands. + +The Portuguese captain was daunted then; there is no doubt about that. +He had known of this outbreak of small-pox for two days, had stifled his +qualms, and had taken his own peculiar methods of keeping the disease +hidden, and securing money profit for his ship. He had even gone so far +as to carry a smile on his dark, oily face, and a jest on his tongue. +But this prospect of being shut up with the disorder till it had run its +course inside the walls of the ship, and no more victims were to be +claimed, was too much for his nerve. He fled like some frightened animal +to his room, and deliberately set about guzzling a surfeit of +neat spirit. + +Nilssen, from the bridge, fearful for his credit with the State, his +employer, roared out orders, but nobody attended to them. Mates, +quartermasters, Krooboys, had all gone aft so as to be as far as +possible from the smitten area; and in the end it was Kettle who went to +the forecastle-head, and with his own hands let steam into the windlass +and got the anchor. He stayed at his place. An engineer and fireman were +still below, and when Nilssen telegraphed down, they put her under weigh +again, and the older pilot with his own hands steered her across to the +quarantine berth. Then Kettle let go the anchor again, paid out and +stoppered the cable, and once more came aft; and from that moment the +new _regime_ of the steamer may be said to have commenced. + +In primitive communities, from time immemorial, the strongest man has +become chieftain through sheer natural selection. Societies which have +been upheaved to their roots by anarchy, panic, or any of these more +perfervid emotions, revert to the primitive state. On this Portuguese +ship, authority was smashed into the smallest atoms, and every man +became a savage and was in danger at the hands of his fellow savage. + +Rabeira had drunk himself into a stupor before the boilers had roared +themselves empty through the escapes. The two mates and the engineers +cowered in their rooms as though the doors were a barrier against the +small-pox germs. The Krooboys broached cargo and strewed the decks with +their half-naked bodies, drunk on gin, amid a litter of smashed +green cases. + +Meals ceased. The Portuguese cook and steward dropped their collective +duties from the first alarm; the Kroo cook left the rice steamer because +"steam no more lib"; and any one who felt hunger or thirst on board, +foraged for himself, or went without satisfying his wants. Nobody helped +the sick, or chided the drunken. Each man lived for himself alone--or +died, as the mood seized him. + +Nilssen took up his quarters at one end of the bridge, frightened, but +apathetic. With awnings he made himself a little canvas house, airy, but +sufficient to keep off the dews of night. When he spoke, it was usually +to picture the desolation of one or other of the Mrs. Nilssens on +finding herself a widow. As he said himself, he was a man of very +domesticated notions. He had no sympathy with Kettle's constantly +repeated theory that discipline ought to be restored. + +"Guess it's the captain's palaver," he would say. "If the old man likes +his ship turned into a bear garden, 'tisn't our grub they're wasting, or +our cargo they've started in to broach. Anyway, what can we do? You and +I are only on board here as pilots. I wish the ship was in somewhere +hotter than Africa, before I'd ever seen her." + +"So do I," said Kettle. "But being here, it makes me ill to see the way +she's allowed to rot, and those poor beasts of niggers are left to die +just as they please. Four more of them have either jumped overboard, or +been put there by their friends. The dirt of the place is awful. They're +spreading small-pox poison all over the ship. Nothing is ever cleaned." + +"There's dysentery started, too." + +"Very well," said Kettle, "then that settles it. We shall have cholera +next, if we let dirt breed any more. I'm going to start in and make +things ship-shape again." + +"For why?" + +"We'll say I'm frightened of them as they are at present, if you like. +Will you chip in and bear a hand? You're frightened, too." + +"Oh, I'm that, and no error about it. But you don't catch me +interfering. I'm content to sit here and take my risks as they come, +because I can't help myself. But I go no further. If you start knocking +about this ship's company they'll complain ashore, and then where'll you +be? The Congo Free State don't like pilots who do more than they're +paid for." + +"Very well," said Kettle, "I'll start in and take my risks, and you can +look on and umpire." He walked deliberately down off the bridge, went to +where the mate was dozing against a skylight on the quarter deck, and +stirred him into wakefulness with his foot. + +"Well?" said the man. + +"Turn the hands to, and clean ship." + +"What!" + +"You hear me." + +The mate inquired, with abundant verbal garnishings, by what right +Kettle gave the order. + +"Because I'm a better man than you. Because I'm best man on board. Do +you want proof?" + +Apparently the mate did. He whipped out a knife, but found it suddenly +knocked out of his hand, and sent skimming like a silver flying fish far +over the gleaming river. He followed up the attack with an assault from +both hands and feet, but soon discovered that he had to deal with an +artist. He gathered himself up at the end of half a minute's interview, +glared from two half-shut eyes, wiped the blood from his mouth, and +inquired what Kettle wanted. + +"You heard my order. Carry it out." + +The man nodded, and went away sullenly muttering that his time would +come. + +"If you borrow another knife," said Kettle cheerfully, "and try any more +of your games, I'll shoot you like a crow, and thank you for the chance. +You'll go forrard and clean the forecastle-head and the fore main deck. +Be gentle with those sick! Second Mate?" + +"Si, Senor." + +"Get a crew together and clean her up aft here. Do you want any rousing +along?" + +Apparently the second mate did not. He had seen enough of Captain +Kettle's method already to quite appreciate its efficacy. The Krooboys, +with the custom of servitude strong on them, soon fell-to when once they +were started. The thump of holy-stones went up into the baking air, and +grimy water began to dribble from the scuppers. + +With the chief engineer Kettle had another scuffle. But he, too, was +eased of the knife at the back of his belt, thumped into submissiveness, +and sent with firemen and trimmers to wash paint in the stewy +engine-room below, and clean up the rusted iron work. And then those of +the passenger boys who were not sick, were turned-to also. + +With Captain Rabeira, Kettle did not interfere. The man stayed in his +own room for the present, undisturbed and undisturbing. But the rest of +the ship's complement were kept steadily to their employment. + +They did not like it, but they thought it best to submit. Away back from +time unnumbered, the African peoples have known only fear as the +governing power, and, from long acclimatization, the Portuguese might +almost count as African. This man of a superior race came and set +himself up in authority over them, in defiance of all precedent, law, +everything; and they submitted with dull indifference. The sweets of +freedom are not always appreciated by those who have known the easy +luxury of being slaves. + +The plague was visibly stayed from almost the very first day that Kettle +took over charge. The sick recovered or died; the sound sickened no +more; it seemed as though the disease microbes on board the ship +were glutted. + +A mile away, at the other side of the beer-colored river, the rare +houses of Boma sprawled amongst the low burnt-up hills, and every day +the doctor with his bad liver came across in his boat under the blinding +sunshine to within shouting distance, and put a few weary questions. +The formalities were slack enough. Nilssen usually made the necessary +replies (as he liked to keep himself in the doctor's good books), and +then the boat would row away. + +Nilssen still remained gently non-interferent. He was paid to be a pilot +by the Etat Independant du Congo--so he said--and he was not going to +risk a chance of trouble, and no possibility of profit, by meddling with +matters beyond his own sphere. Especially did he decline to be co-sharer +in Kettle's scheme for dealing out justice to Captain Rabeira. + +"It is not your palaver," he said, "or mine. If you want to stir up +trouble, tell the State authorities when you get ashore. That won't do +much good either. They don't value niggers at much out here." + +"Nor do I," said Kettle. "There's nothing foolish with me about niggers. +But there's a limit to everything, and this snuff-colored Dago goes too +far. He's got to be squared with, and I'm going to do it." + +"Guess it's your palaver. I've told you what the risks are." + +"And I'm going to take them," said Kettle grimly. "You may watch me +handle the risks now with your own eyes, if you wish." + +He went down off the bridge, walked along the clean decks, and came to +where a poor wretch lay in the last stage of small-pox collapse. He +examined the man carefully. "My friend," he said at last, "you've not +got long for this world, anyway, and I want to borrow your last moments. +I suppose you won't like to shift, but it's in a good cause, and anyway +you can't object." + +He stooped and lifted the loathsome bundle in his arms, and then, in +spite of a cry of expostulation from Nilssen, walked off with his burden +to Rabeira's room. + +The Portuguese captain was in his bunk, trying to sleep. He was sober +for the first time for many days, and, in consequence, feeling not a +little ill. + +Kettle deposited his charge with carefulness on the littered settee, and +Rabeira started up with a wild scream of fright and a babble of oaths. +Kettle shut and locked the door. + +"Now look here," he said, "you've earned more than you'll ever get paid +in this life, and there's a tolerably heavy bill against you for the +next. It looks to me as if it would be a good thing if you went off +there to settle up the account right now. But I'm not going to take upon +myself to be your hangman. I'm just going to give you a chance of +pegging out, and I sincerely hope you'll take it. I've brought our +friend here to be your room mate for the evening. It's just about +nightfall now, and you've got to stay with him till daybreak." + +"You coward!" hissed the man. "You coward! You coward!" he screamed. + +"Think so?" said Kettle gravely. "Then if that's your idea, I'll stay +here in the room, too, and take my risks. God's seen the game, and I'll +guess He'll hand over the beans fairly." + +Perspiration stood in beads on all their faces. The room, the one +unclean room of the ship, was full of breathless heat, and stale with +the lees of drink. Kettle, in his spruce-white drill clothes, stood out +against the squalor and the disorder, as a mirror might upon a +coal-heap. + +The Portuguese captain, with nerves smashed by his spell of debauch, +played a score of parts. First he was aggressive, asserting his rights +as a man and the ship's master, and demanding the key of the door. Then +he was warlike, till his frenzied attack earned him such a hiding that +he was glad enough to crawl back on to the mattress of his bunk. Then he +was beseeching. And then he began to be troubled with zoological +hauntings, which occupied him till the baking air cooled with the +approach of the dawn. + +The smitten negro on the settee gave now and then a moan, but for the +most part did his dying with quietness. Had Kettle deliberately worked +for that purpose, he could not have done anything more calculated to +make the poor wretch's last moments happy. + +"Oh, Massa!" he kept on whispering, "too-much-fine room. You plenty-much +good for let me lib for die heah." And then he would relapse into +barbaric chatterings more native to his taste, and fitting to his +condition. + +Captain Kettle played his parts as nurse and warder with grave +attention. He sat perspiring in his shirt sleeves, writing at the table +whenever for a moment or two he had a spell of rest; and his screed grew +rapidly. He was making verse, and it was under the stress of severe +circumstances like these that his Muse served him best. + +The fetid air of the room throbbed with heat; the glow from the candle +lamp was a mere yellow flicker; and the Portuguese, who cowered with +twitching fingers in the bunk, was quite ready to murder him at the +slightest opening: it was not a combination of circumstances which would +have inspired many men. + +Morning came, with a shiver and a chill, and with the first flicker of +dawn, the last spark of the negro's life went out. Kettle nodded to the +ghastly face as though it had been an old friend. "You seemed to like +being made use of," he said. "Well, daddy, I hope you have served your +turn. If your skipper hasn't got the plague in his system now, I shall +think God's forgotten this bit of Africa entirely." + +He stood up, gathered his papers, slung the spruce white drill coat over +his arm, and unlocked the door. "Captain Rabeira," he said, "you have my +full permission to resume your occupation of going to the deuce your own +way." With which parting salutation, he went below to the steamer's +bathroom and took his morning tub. + +Half an hour passed before he came to the deck again, and Nilssen met +him at the head of the companion-way with a queer look on his face. +"Well," he said, "you've done it." + +"Done what?" + +"Scared Rabeira over the side." + +"How?" + +"He came scampering on deck just now, yelling blue murder, and trying to +catch crawly things that weren't there. Guess he'd got jim-jams bad. +Then he took it into his head that a swim would be useful, and before +any one could stop him, he was over the side." + +"Well?" + +"He's over the side still," said the Dane drily. "He didn't come to the +surface. Guess a crocodile chopped him." + +"There are plenty round." + +"Naturally. We've been ground baiting pretty liberally these last few +weeks. Well, I guess we are about through with the business now. Not +nervous about yourself, eh?" + +"No," said Kettle, and touched his cap. "God's been looking on at this +gamble, as I told Rabeira last night, and He dealt over the beans the +way they were earned." + +"That's all right," said Nilssen cheerfully. "When a man keeps his +courage he don't get small-pox, you bet." + +"Well," said Kettle, "I suppose we'll be fumigated and get a clean bill +in about ten days from now, and I'm sure I don't mind the bit of extra +rest. I've got a lot of stuff I want to write up. It's come in my head +lately, and I've had no time to get it down on paper. I shouldn't wonder +but what it makes a real stir some day when it's printed; it's real good +stuff. I wonder if that yellow-faced Belgian doctor will live to give us +_pratique_?" + +"I never saw a man with such a liver on him." + +"D'you know," said Kettle, "I'd like that doctor to hang on just for +another ten days and sign our bill. He's a surly brute, but I've got to +have quite a liking for him. He seems to have grown to be part of the +show, just like the crows, and the sun, and the marigold smell, and the +crocodiles." + +"Oh," said Nilssen, "you're a blooming poet. Come, have a cocktail +before we chop." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE LITTLE WOODEN GOD WITH THE EYES. + + +The colored Mrs. Nilssen, of Banana, gave the pink gin cocktails a final +brisk up with the swizzle-stick, poured them out with accurate division, +and handed the tray to Captain Kettle and her husband. The men drank off +the appetizer and put down the glasses. Kettle nodded a word of praise +for the mixture and thanks to its concoctor, and Mrs. Nilssen gave a +flash of white teeth, and then shuffled away off the veranda, and +vanished within the bamboo walls of the pilotage. + +Nilssen sank back into his long-sleeved Madeira chair, a perfect wreck +of a man, and Kettle sat up and looked at him with a serious face. "Look +here," he said, "you should go home, or at any rate run North for a +spell in Grand Canary. If you fool with this health-palaver any longer, +you'll peg out." + +The Dane stared wistfully out across the blue South Atlantic waters, +which twinkled beyond the littered garden and the sand beach. "Yes," he +said, "I'd like well enough to go back to my old woman in Boston again, +and eat pork and beans, and hear her talk of culture, and the use of +missionaries, and all that good old homey rot; but I guess I can't do +that yet. I've got to shake this sickness off me right here, first." + +"And I tell you you'll never be a sound man again so long as you lib +for Congo. Take a trip home, Captain, and let the salt air blow the +diseases out of you." + +"If I go to sea," said the pilot wearily, "I shall be stitched up within +the week, and dropped over to make a hole in the water. I don't know +whether I'm going to get well anywhere, but if I do, it's right here. +Now just hear me. You're the only living soul in this blasted Congo Free +State that I can trust worth a cent, and I believe you've got grit +enough to get me cured if only you'll take the trouble to do it. I'm too +weak to take on the job myself; and, even if I was sound, I reckon it +would be beyond my weight. I tell you it's a mighty big contract. But +then, as I've seen for myself, you're a man that likes a scuffle." + +"You're speaking above my head. Pull yourself together, Captain, and +then, perhaps, I'll understand what you want." + +Nilssen drew the quinine bottle toward him, tapped out a little hill of +feathery white powder into a cigarette paper, rolled it up, and +swallowed the dose. "I'm not raving," he said, "or anywhere near it; but +if you want the cold-drawn truth, listen here: I'm poisoned. I've got +fever on me, too, I'll grant, but that's nothing more than a fellow has +every week or so in the ordinary way of business. I guess with quinine, +whiskey, and pills, I can smile at any fever in Africa, and have done +this last eight years. But it's this poison that gets me." + +"Bosh," said Kettle. "If it was me that talked about getting poisoned, +there'd be some sense in it. I know I'm not popular here. But you're a +man that's liked. You hit it off with these Belgian brutes, and you +make the niggers laugh. Who wants to poison you?" + +"All right," said Nilssen; "you've been piloting on the Congo some six +months now, and so of course you know all about it. But let me know a +bit better. I've watched the tricks of the niggers here-away for a good +many years now, and I've got a big respect for their powers when they +mean mischief." + +"Have you been getting their backs up, then?" + +"Yes. You've seen that big ju-ju in my room?" + +"That foul-looking wooden god with the looking-glass eyes?" + +"Just that. I don't know where the preciousness comes in, but it's a +thing of great value." + +"How did you get hold of it?" + +"Well, I suppose if you want to be told flatly, I scoffed it. You see, +it was in charge of a passenger boy, who brought it aboard the _M'poso_ +at Matadi. He landed across by canoe from Vivi, and wanted steamer +passage down to Boma by the _M'poso_. I was piloting her, and I got my +eye on that ju-ju[1] from the very first. Captain Image and that thief +of a purser Balgarnie were after it, too, but as it was a bit of a race +between us as to who should get it first, one couldn't wait to be too +particular." + + [Footnote 1: A ju-ju in West African parlance may be a large + carved idol, or merely a piece of rag, or skin, or anything + else that the native is pleased to set up as a charm. Ju-ju + also means witchcraft. If you poison a man, you put ju-ju on + him. If you see anything you do not understand, you promptly + set it down as ju-ju. Similarly chop is food, and also the + act of feeding. "One-time" is immediately.] + +"What did you want it for? Did you know it was valuable then?" + +"Oh, no! I thought it was merely a whitewashed carved wood god, and I +wanted it just to dash to some steamer skipper who had dashed me a case +of fizz or something. You know?" + +"Yes, I see. Go on. How did you get hold of it?" + +"Why, just went and tackled the passenger-boy and dashed him a case of +gin; and when he sobered up again, where was the ju-ju? I got it ashore +right enough to the pilotage here in Banana, and for the next two weeks +thought it was my ju-ju without further palaver. + +"Then up comes a nigger to explain. The passenger-boy who had guzzled +the gin was no end of a big duke--witch-doctor, and all that, with a +record of about three hundred murders to his tally--and he had the cheek +to send a blooming ambassador to say things, and threaten, to try and +get the ju-ju back. Of course, if the original sportsman had come +himself to make his ugly remarks, I'd soon have stopped his fun. That's +the best of the Congo Free State. If a nigger down here is awkward, you +can always get him shipped off as a slave--soldier, that is--to the +upper river, and take darned good care he never comes back again. And, +as a point of fact, I did tip a word to the commandant here and get that +particular ambassador packed off out of harm's way. But that did no +special good. Before a week was through up came another chap to tackle +me. He spoke flatly about pains and penalties if I didn't give the thing +up; and he offered money--or rather ivory, two fine tusks of it, worth a +matter of twenty pounds, as a ransom--and then I began to open my eyes." + +"Twenty pounds for that ju-ju! Why, I've picked up many a one better +carved for a shilling." + +"Well, this bally thing has value; there's no doubt about that. But +where the value comes in, I can't make out. I've overhauled it times and +again, but can't see it's anything beyond the ordinary. However, if a +nigger of his own free will offered two big tusks to get the thing back, +it stands to reason it's worth a precious sight more than that. So when +the second ambassador came, I put the price down at a quarter of a ton +of ivory, and waited to get it." + +Kettle whistled. "You know how to put on the value," he said. "That's +getting on for L400 with ivory at its present rates." + +"I was badly in want of money when I set the figure. My poor little wife +in Bradford had sent me a letter by the last Antwerp mail saying how +hard-up she was, and the way she wrote regularly touched me." + +"I don't like it," Kettle snapped. + +"What, my being keen about the money?" + +"No; your having such a deuce of a lot of wives." + +"But I am so very domesticated," said Nilssen. "You don't appreciate how +domesticated I am. I can't live as a bachelor anywhere. I always like to +have a dear little wife and a nice little home to go to in whatever town +I may be quartered. But it's a great expense to keep them all provided +for. And besides, the law of most countries is so narrow-minded. One has +to be so careful." + +Kettle wished to state his views on bigamy with clearness and point, but +when he cast his eyes over the frail wreck of a man in the Madeira +chair, he forebore. It would not take very much of a jar to send Captain +Nilssen away from this world to the Place of Reckoning which lay beyond. +And so with a gulp he said instead: "You're sure it's deliberate +poisoning?" + +"Quite. The nigger who came here last about the business promised to set +ju-ju on me, and I told him to do it and be hanged to him. He was as +good as his word. I began to be bad the very next day." + +"How's it managed?" + +"Don't know. They have ways of doing these things in Africa which we +white men can't follow." + +"Suspect any one?" + +"No. And if you're hinting at Mrs. Nilssen in the pilotage there, she's +as staunch as you are, bless her dusky skin. Besides, what little chop +I've managed to swallow since I've been bad, I've always got out of +fresh unopened tins myself." + +"Ah," said Kettle; "I fancied some one had been mixing up finely +powdered glass in your chop. It's an old trick, and you don't twig it +till the doctors cut you up after you're dead." + +"As if I wasn't up to a kid's game like that!" said the sick man with +feeble contempt. "No, this is regular ju-ju work, and it's beyond the +Belgian doctor here, and it's beyond all other white men. There's only +one cure, and that's to be got at the place where the poisoning palaver +was worked from." + +"And where's that?" + +Captain Nilssen nodded down the narrow slip of sand, and mangroves, and +nut palms, on which the settlement of Banana is built, and gazed with +his sunken eyes at the smooth, green slopes of Africa beyond. "Dem +village he lib for bush," he said. + +"Up country village, eh? They're a nice lot in at the back there, +according to accounts. But can't you arrange it by your friend the +ambassador?" + +"He's not the kind of fool to come back. He's man enough to know he'd +get pretty well dropped on if I could get him in my reach again." + +"Then tell the authorities here, and get some troops sent up." + +"What'd be the good of that? They might go, or they mightn't. If they +did, they'd do a lot of shooting, collect a lot of niggers' ears, steal +what there was to pick up, and then come back. But would they get what I +want out of the witch-doctor? Not much. They'd never so much as see the +beggar. He'd take far too big care of his mangy hide. He wouldn't stop +for fighting-palaver. He'd be off for bush, one-time. No, Kettle, if I'm +to get well, some white man will have to go up by his lonesome for me, +and square that witch-doctor by some trick of the tongue." + +"Which is another way of saying you want me to risk my skin to get you +your prescription?" + +"But, my lad, I won't ask you to go for nothing. I don't suppose you are +out here on the Congo just for your health. You've said you've got a +wife at home, and I make no doubt you're as fond of her and as eager to +provide for her as I am for any of mine. Well and good. Here's an offer. +Get me cured, and I'll dash you the ju-ju to make what you can out +of it." + +Kettle stretched out his fingers. "Right," he said. "We'll trade on +that." And the pair of them shook hands over the bargain. + +It was obvious, if the thing was to be done at all, it must be set about +quickly. Nilssen was an utter wreck. Prolonged residence in this +pestilential Congo had sapped his constitution; the poison was +constantly eating at him; and he must either get relief in a very short +time, or give up the fight and die. So that same afternoon saw Kettle +journeying in a dug-out canoe over the beer-colored waters of the river, +up stream, toward the witch-doctor's village. + +Two savages (one of them suffering from a bad attack of yaws) propelled +the craft from her forward part in erratic zig-zags; amidships sat +Captain Kettle in a Madeira chair under a green-lined white umbrella; +and behind him squatted his personal attendant, a Krooboy, bearing the +fine old Coast name of Brass Pan. The crushed marigold smell from the +river closed them in, and the banks crept by in slow procession. + +The main channels of the Congo Kettle knew with a pilot's knowledge; but +the canoe-men soon left these, and crept off into winding backwaters, +with wire-rooted mangroves sprawling over the mud on their banks, and +strange whispering beast-noises coming from behind the thickets of +tropical greenery. The sun had slanted slow; ceibas and silk-cotton +woods threw a shade dark almost as twilight; but the air was full of +breathless heat, and Kettle's white drill clothes hung upon him clammy +and damp. Behind him, in the stern of the canoe, Brass Pan scratched +himself plaintively. + +Dark fell and the dug-out was made fast to a mangrove root. The Africans +covered their heads to ward off ghosts, and snored on the damp floor of +the canoe. Kettle took quinine and dozed in the Madeira chair. Mists +closed round them, white with damp, earthy-smelling with malaria. Then +gleams of morning stole over the trees and made the mists visible, and +Kettle woke with a seaman's promptitude. He roused Brass Pan, and Brass +Pan roused the canoe-men, and the voyage proceeded. + +Through more silent waterways the clumsy dug-out made her passage, where +alligators basked on the mudbanks and sometimes swam up from below and +nuzzled the sides of the boat, and where velvety black butterflies +fluttered in dancing swarms across the shafts of sunlight; and at last +her nose was driven on to a bed of slime, and Kettle was invited to "lib +for beach." + +Brass Pan stepped dutifully over the mud, and Captain Kettle mounted his +back and rode to dry ground without as much as splashing the pipeclay on +his dainty canvas shoes. A bush path opened out ahead of them, winding, +narrow, uneven, and the man with the yaws went ahead and gave a lead. + +As a result of exposure to the night mists of the river, Captain Kettle +had an attack of fever on him which made him shake with cold and burn +with heat alternately. His head was splitting, and his skin felt as +though it had been made originally to suit a small boy, and had been +stretched to near bursting-point to serve its present wearer. + +In the forest, the path was a mere tunnel amongst solid blocks of wood +and greenery; in the open beyond, it was a slim alley between +grass-blades eight feet high; and the only air which nourished them as +they marched was hot enough to scorch the lungs as it was inhaled. And +if in addition to all this, it be remembered that the savages he was +going to visit were practising cannibals, were notoriously treacherous, +were violently hostile to all whites (on account of many cruelties +bestowed by Belgians), and were especially exasperated against the +stealer of their idol, it will be seen that from an ordinary point of +view Captain Kettle's mission was far from appetizing. + +The little sailor, however, carried himself as jauntily as though he +were stepping out along a mere pleasure parade, and hummed an air as he +marched. In ordinary moments I think his nature might be described as +almost melancholy; it took times of stress like these to thoroughly +brighten him. + +The path wound, as all native paths do wind, like some erratic snake +amongst the grasses, reaching its point with a vast disregard for +distance expended on the way. It led, with a scramble, down the sides of +ravines; it drew its followers up steep rock-faces that were baked +almost to cooking heat by the sun; and finally, it broke up into +fan-shape amongst decrepit banana groves, and presently ended amongst a +squalid collection of grass and wattle huts which formed the village. + +Dogs announced the arrival to the natives, and from out of the houses +bolted men, women, and children, who dived out of sight in the +surrounding patches of bush. + +The man with the yaws explained: "Dem Belgians make war-palaver often. +People plenty much frightened. People think we lib for here on +war-palaver." + +"Silly idiots!" said Captain Kettle. "Hullo, by James! here's a white +man coming out of that chimbeque!" + +"He God-man. Lib for here on gin-palaver." + +"Trading missionary, is he? Bad breed that. And the worst of it is, if +there's trouble, he'll hold up his cloth, and I can't hit him." He +advanced toward the white man, and touched his helmet. "_Bon jour, +Monsieur_." + +"Howdy?" said the missionary. "I'm as English as yourself--or rather +Amurrican. Know you quite well by sight, Captain. Seen you on the +steamers when I was stationed at our headquarters in Boma. What might +you be up here for?" + +"I've a bit of a job on hand for Captain Nilssen of Banana." + +"Old Cappie Nilssen? Know him quite well. Married him to that Bengala +wife of his, the silly old fool. Well, captain, come right into my +chimbeque, and chop." + +"I'll have some quinine with you, and a cocktail. Chop doesn't tempt me +just now. I've a dose of fever on hand." + +"Got to expect that here, anyway," said the missionary. "I haven't had +fever for three days now, but I'm due for another dose to-morrow +afternoon. Fever's quite regular with me. It's a good thing that, +because I can fit in my business accordingly." + +"I suppose the people at home think you carry the Glad Tidings only?" + +"The people at home are impracticable fools, and I guess when I was 'way +back in Boston I was no small piece of a fool too. I was sent out here +'long with a lot more tenderfeet to plant beans for our own support, and +to spread the gospel for the glory of America. Well, the other +tenderfeet are planted, and I'm the only one that's got any kick left. +The beans wouldn't grow, and there was no sort of living to be got out +of spreading a gospel which nobody seemed to want. So I had to start in +and hoe a new row for myself." + +"Set up as a trader, that is?" + +"You bet. It's mostly grist that comes to me: palm-oil, rubber, +kernels, and ivory. Timber I haven't got the capital to tackle, and I +must say the ivory's more to figure about than finger. But I've got the +best connection of any trader in gin and guns and cloth in this section, +and in another year I'll have made enough of a pile to go home, and I +guess there are congregations in Boston that'll just jump at having a +returned Congo missionary as their minister." + +"I should draw the line at that, myself," said Kettle stiffly. + +"Dare say. You're a Britisher, and therefore you're a bit narrow-minded. +We're a vury adaptable nation, we Amurricans. Say, though, you haven't +told me what you're up here for yet? I guess you haven't come just in +search of health?" + +Captain Kettle reflected. His gorge rose at this man, but the fellow +seemed to have some sort of authority in the village, and probably he +could settle the question of Nilssen's ailment with a dozen words. So he +swallowed his personal resentment, and, as civilly as he could, told the +complete tale as Nilssen had given it to him. + +The trader missionary's face grew crafty as he listened. "Look here, you +want that old sinner Nilssen cured?" + +"That's what I came here for." + +"Well, then, give me the ju-ju, and I'll fix it up for you." + +"The ju-ju's to be my fee," said Kettle. "I suppose you know something +about it? You're not the kind of man to go in for collecting valueless +curiosities." + +"Nop. I'm here on the make, and I guess you're about the same. But I +wouldn't be in your shoes if the people in the village get to know that +you've a finger in looting their idol." + +"Why?" + +"Oh, you'll die rather painfully, that's all. Better give the thing up, +Captain, and let me take over the contract for you. It's a bit above +your weight." + +Kettle's face grew grim. "Is it?" he said. "Think I'm going to back down +for a tribe of nasty, stinking, man-eating niggers? Not much." + +"Well," said the missionary, "don't get ruffled. I've got no use for +quarrelling. Go your way, and if things turn out ugly don't say I didn't +give you the straight cinch, as one white man to another in a savage +country. And now, it's about my usual time for siesta." + +"Right," said Kettle. "I'll siesta too. My fever's gone now, and I'm +feeling pretty rocky and mean. Sleep's a grand pick-me-up." + +They took off their coats, and lay down then under filmy mosquito bars, +and presently sleep came to them. Indeed, to Kettle came so dead an +unconsciousness that he afterward had a suspicion (though it was beyond +proof) that some drug had been mixed with his drink. He was a man who at +all times was extraordinarily watchful and alert. Often and often during +his professional life his bare existence had depended on the faculty for +scenting danger from behind the curtain of sleep; and his senses in this +direction were so abnormally developed as to verge at times on the +uncanny. Cat-like is a poor-word to describe his powers of vigilance. + +But there is no doubt that in this case his alertness was dulled. The +fatigue of the march, his dose of fever, his previous night of +wakefulness in the canoe, all combined to undermine his guard; and, +moreover, the attack of the savages was stealthy in the extreme. Like +ghosts, they must have crept back from the bush to reconnoitre their +village; like daylight ghosts, they must have surrounded the trader +missionary's hut and peered at the sleeping man between the bamboos of +the wall, and then made their entrance; and it must have been with the +quickness of wild beasts that they made their spring. + +Kettle woke on the instant that he was touched, and started to struggle +for his life, as indeed he had struggled many a time before. But the +numbers of the blacks put effective resistance out of the question. Four +of them pressed down each arm on to the bed, four each leg, three +pressed on his head. Their animal faces champed and gibbered at him; the +animal smell of them made him splutter and cough. + +Captain Kettle was not a man who often sought help from others; he was +used to playing a lone-handed fight against a mob; but the suddenness of +the attack, the loneliness of his surroundings, and the dejection due to +his recent dose of fever, for the first instant almost unnerved him, and +on the first alarm he sang out lustily for the missionary's help. There +was no answer. With a jerk he turned his head, and saw that the other +bed was empty. The man had left the hut. + +For a time the captive did not actively resist further. In a climate +like that of the Congo one's store of physical strength is limited, and +he did not wish to earn unnecessarily severe bonds by wasting it. As it +was, he was tied up cruelly enough with grass rope, and then taken from +the hut and flung down under the blazing sunshine outside. + +Presently a fantastic form danced up from behind one of the huts, +daubed with colored clays, figged out with a thousand tawdry charms, and +cinctured round the middle by a girdle of half-picked bones. He wafted +an evil odor before him as he advanced, and he came up and stood with +one foot on Kettle's breast in the attitude of a conqueror. + +This was the witch-doctor, a creature who held power of life and death +over all the village, whom the villagers suffered to test them with +poison, to put them to unnamable tortures, to rob them as he +pleased,--to be, in fact, a kind of insane autocrat working any whim +that seized him freely in their midst. The witch-doctor's power of late +had suffered. The white man Nilssen had "put bigger ju-ju" on him, and +under its influence had despoiled him of valuable property. Now was his +moment of counter triumph. The witch-doctor stated that he brought this +other white man to the village by the power of his spells; and the +villagers believed him. There was the white man lying on the ground +before them to prove it. + +Remained next to see what the witch-doctor would do with his captive. + +The man himself was evidently at a loss, and talked, and danced, and +screamed, and foamed, merely to gain time. He spoke nothing but Fiote, +and of that tongue Kettle knew barely a single word. But presently the +canoe-man with the yaws was dragged up, and, in his own phrase, was +bidden to act as "linguister." + +"He say," translated the man with the yaws, "if dem big ju-ju lib back +for here, he let you go." + +"And if not?" + +[Illustration: HE CAME AND STOOD WITH ONE FOOT ON KETTLE'S BREAST IN THE +ATTITUDE OF A CONQUEROR.] + +The interpreter put a question, and the witch-doctor screamed out a long +reply, and then stooped and felt the captive over with his fingers, +as men feel cattle at a fair. + +"Well?" said Kettle impatiently; "if he doesn't get back the wooden god, +let's hear what the game is next?" + +"Me no sabbey. He say you too small and thin for chop." + +Captain Kettle's pale cheeks flushed. Curiously enough it never occurred +to him to be grateful for this escape from a cannibal dinner-table. But +his smallness was a constant sore to him, and he bitterly resented any +allusion to it. + +"Tell that stinking scarecrow I'll wring his neck for him before I'm +quit of this village." + +"Me no fit," said the linguister candidly. "He kill me now if I say +that, same's he kill you soon." + +"Oh, he's going to kill me, is he?" + +The interpreter nodded emphatically. "Or get dem big ju-ju," he added. + +"Ask him how Cappie Nilssen can be cured." + +The man with the yaws put the question timidly enough, and the +witch-doctor burst into a great guffaw of laughter. Then after a +preliminary dance, he took off a little packet of leopard skin, which +hung amongst his other charms, and stuffed it deep inside +Kettle's shirt. + +The interpreter explained: "Him say he put ju-ju on Cappie Nilssen, and +can take it off all-e-same easy. Him say you give Cappie Nilssen dis new +ju-ju for chop, an' he live for well one-time." + +"He doesn't make much trouble about giving it me, anyway," Kettle +commented. "Looks as if he felt pretty sure he'd get that idol, or else +take the change out of my skin." But, all the same, when the question +was put to him again as to whether he would surrender the image, he +flatly refused. There was a certain pride about Kettle which forbade him +to make concessionary treaties with an inferior race. + +So forthwith, having got this final refusal, the blacks took him up +again, and under the witch-doctor's lead carried him well beyond the +outskirts of the village. There was a cleared space here, and on the +bare, baked earth they laid him down under the full glare of the +tropical sunshine. For a minute or so they busied themselves with +driving four stout stakes into the ground, and then again they took him +up, and made him fast by wrists and ankles, spread-eagle fashion, to +the stakes. + +At first he was free to turn his head, and with a chill of horror he saw +he was not the first to be stretched out in that clearing. There were +three other sets of stakes, and framed in each was a human skeleton, +picked clean. With a shiver he remembered travellers' tales on the +steamers of how these things were done. But then the blacks put down +other stakes so as to confine his head in one position, and were +proceeding to prop open his mouth with a piece of wood, when suddenly +there seemed to be a hitch in the proceedings. + +The witch-doctor asked for honey--Kettle recognized the native word--and +none was forthcoming. Without honey they could not go on, and the +captive knew why. One man was going off to fetch it, but then news was +brought that the Krooboy Brass Pan had been caught, and the whole gang +of them went off helter-skelter toward the village--and again Kettle +knew the reason for their haste. + +So there he was left alone for the time being with his thoughts, lashed +up beyond all chance of escape, scorched by an intolerable sun, bitten +and gnawed by countless swarms of insects, without chance of sweeping +them away. But this was ease compared with what was to follow. He knew +the fate for which he was apportioned, a common fate amongst the Congo +cannibals. His jaws would be propped open, a train of honey would be led +from his mouth to a hill of driver ants close by, and the savage insects +would come up and eat him piecemeal while he still lived. + +He had seen driver ants attack a house before, swamp fires lit in their +path by sheer weight of numbers, put the inhabitants to flight, and eat +everything that remained. And here, in this clearing, if he wanted +further proof of their power, were the three picked skeletons lying +stretched out to their stakes. + +There are not many men who could have preserved their reason under +monstrous circumstances such as these, and I take it that there is no +man living who dare up and say that he would not be abominably +frightened were he to find himself in such a plight. In these papers I +have endeavored to show Captain Owen Kettle as a brave man, indeed the +bravest I ever knew; but I do not think even he would blame me if I said +he was badly scared then. + +He heard noises from the village which he could not see beyond the +grass. He heard poor Brass Pan's death-shriek; he heard all the noises +that followed, and knew their meaning, and knew that he was earning a +respite thereby; he even heard from over the low hills the hoot of a +steamer's siren as she did her business on the yellow waters of the +Congo, in crow flight perhaps not a good rifle-shot from where he lay +stretched. + +It seemed like a fantastic dream to be assured in this way that there +were white men, civilized white men, men who could read books and enjoy +poetry, sitting about swearing and drinking cocktails under a decent +steamer's awnings close by this barbaric scene of savagery. And yet it +was no dream. The flies that crept into his nose and his mouth and his +eye-sockets, and bit him through his clothing, and the hateful sounds +from the village assured him of all its reality. + +The blazing day burnt itself to a close, and night came hard upon its +heels, still baking and breathless. The insects bit worse than ever, and +once or twice Kettle fancied he felt the jaws of a driver ant in his +flesh, and wondered if news would be carried to the horde in the +ant-hill, which would bring them out to devour their prey without the +train of honey being laid to lure them. Moreover, fever had come on him +again, and with one thing and another it was only by a constant effort +of will that he prevented himself from giving way and raving aloud +in delirium. + +It was under these circumstances, then, that the missionary came to him +again, and once more put in a bid for the ju-ju which lay at the +pilotage. Kettle roundly accused the man of having betrayed him, and the +fellow did not deny it with any hope of being believed. He had got to +get his pile somehow, so he said: the ju-ju had value, and if he could +not get hold of it one way, he had to work it another. And finally, +would Kettle surrender it then, or did he want any more discomfort. + +Now I think it is not to the little sailor's discredit to confess that +he surrendered without terms forthwith. "The thing's yours for when you +like to fetch it," he snapped out ungraciously enough, and the +missionary at once stooped and cut the grass ropes, and set to chafing +his wrists and ankles. "And now," he said, "clear out for your canoe at +the river-side for all you're worth, Captain. There's a big full moon, +and you can't miss the way." + +"Wait a bit," said Kettle. "I'm remembering that I had an errand here. +Can you give me the right physic to pull Captain Nilssen round?" + +"You have it in that leopard-skin parcel inside your shirt. I saw the +witch-doctor give it you." + +"Oh! you were looking on, were you?" + +"Yes." + +"By James! I've a big mind to leave my marks on you, you swine!" + +The trader missionary whipped out a revolver. "Guess I'm heeled, sonny. +You'd better go slow. You'd--" + +There was a rush, a dodge, a scuffle, a bullet whistling harmlessly up +into the purple night, and that revolver was Captain Kettle's. + +"The cartridges you have in your pocket." + +"I've only three. Here they are, confound you! Now, what are you going +to do next? You've waked the village. You'll have them down on you in +another moment. Run, you fool, or they'll have you yet." + +"Will they?" said Kettle. "Well, if you want to know, I've got poor old +Brass Pan to square up for yet. I liked that boy." And with that, he set +off running down a path between the walls of grasses. + +A negro met him in the narrow cut, yelled with surprise, and turned. He +dropped a spear as he turned, and Kettle picked it up and drove the +blade between his shoulder-blades as he ran. Then on through the +village he raged like a man demented. With what weapons he fought he +never afterward remembered. He slew with whatever came to his hand. The +villagers, wakened up from their torpid sleep, rushed from the grass and +wattle houses on every hand. Kettle in his Berserk rage charged them +whenever they made a stand, till at last all fled from him as though he +were more than human. + +Bodies lay upon the ground staring up at the moon; but there were no +living creatures left, though the little sailor, with bared teeth and +panting breath, stood there waiting for them. No; he had cleared the +place, and only one other piece of retribution lay in his power. The +embers of a great fire smouldered in the middle of the clearing, and +with a shudder (as he remembered its purpose) he shovelled up great +handfuls of the glowing charcoal and sowed it broadcast on the dry grass +roofs of the chimbeques. The little crackling flames leaped up at once; +they spread with the quickness of a gunpowder train; and in less than a +minute a great cataract of fire was roaring high into the night. + +Then, and not till then, did Captain Kettle think of his own retreat. He +put the three remaining cartridges into the empty chambers of his +revolver, and set off at a jog-trot down the winding path by which he +had come up from the river. + +His head was throbbing then, and the stars and the grasses swam before +his eyes. The excitement of the fight had died away--the ills of the +place gripped every fibre of his body. Had the natives ambushed him +along the path, I do not think he could possibly have avoided them. But +those natives had had their lesson, and they did not care to tamper +with Kettle's _ju-ju_ again. And so he was allowed to go on undisturbed, +and somehow or other he got down to the river-bank and the canoe. + +He did not do the land journey at any astonishing pace. Indeed, it is a +wonder he ever got over it at all. More than once he sank down half +unconscious in the path, and up all the steeper slopes he had to crawl +animal fashion on all-fours. But by daybreak he got to the canoe, and +pushed her off, and by a marvellous streak of luck lost his way in the +inner channels, and wandered out on to the broad Congo beyond. + +I say this was a streak of luck, because by this time consciousness had +entirely left him, and on the inner channels he would merely have died, +and been eaten by alligators, whereas, as it was, he got picked up by a +State launch, and taken down to the pilotage at Banana. + +It was Mrs. Nilssen who tediously nursed him back to health. Kettle had +always been courteous to Mrs. Nilssen, even though she was as black and +polished as a patent leather boot; and Mrs. Nilssen appreciated Captain +Owen Kettle accordingly. + +With Captain Nilssen, pilot of the lower Congo, Kettle had one +especially interesting talk during his convalescence. "You may as well +take that troublesome wooden god for yourself now," said Nilssen. "But, +if I were you, I'd ship it home out of harm's way by the next steamer." + +"Hasn't that missionary brute sent for it yet?" + +Captain Nilssen evaded the question. "I'll never forget what you've done +for me, my lad. When you were brought in here after they picked you up, +you looked fit to peg out one-time, but the only sane thing you could +do was to waggle out a little leopard-skin parcel, and bid me swallow +the stuff that was inside. You'd started out to get me that physic, and, +by gum, you weren't happy till I got it down my neck." + +"Well, you look fit enough now." + +"Never better." + +"But about the missionary brute?" + +"Well, my lad, I suppose you're well enough to be told now. He's got his +trading cut short for good. That nigger with the yaws who paddled you up +brought down the news. The beggars up there chopped him, and I'm sure I +hope he didn't give them indigestion." + +"My holy James!" + +"Solid. His missionary friends here have written home a letter to Boston +which would have done you good to see. According to them, the man's a +blessed martyr, nothing more or less. The gin and the guns are left +clean out of the tale; and will Boston please send out some more +subscriptions, one-time? You'll see they'll stick up a stained-glass +window to that joker in Boston, and he'll stand up there with a halo +round his head as big as a frying-pan. And, oh! won't his friends out +here be resigned to his loss when the subscriptions begin to hop in from +over the water." + +"Well, there's been a lot of trouble over a trumpery wooden idol. I +fancy we'd better burn it out of harm's way." + +"Not much," said Nilssen with a sigh. "I've found out where the value +comes in, and as you've earned them fairly and squarely, the dividends +are yours to stick to. One of those looking-glass eyes was loose, and I +picked it out. There was a bit of green glass behind. I picked out the +other eye, and there was a bit of green glass at the back of that too." + +"Oh, the niggers'll use anything for ju-ju." + +"Wait a bit. I'd got my notions as to what that green glass was, and so +I toted them in my pocket up and down the river and asked every man who +was likely to know a jewel what he thought. They aren't green glass at +all. They're emeralds. They're come from the Lord knows where, but that +doesn't matter. They're worth fifty pounds apiece at the very lowest, +and they're yours, my lad, to do what you like with." + +Captain Kettle lay back on his pillow and smiled complacently. "That +money'll just set up my Missis nicely in a lodging-house. Now I can go +on with my work here, and know that whatever happens she and the kids +are provided for." + +"Eh, well," said Nilssen with a sigh, "she'll be nicely fixed up now. I +wish I could make provision like that for my old women." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +A QUICK WAY WITH REBELS. + + +Another bullet came silently up out of the distance, and the nigger +second engineer of the launch gave a queer little whimper and fell down +_flop_, and lay with his flat nose nuzzling the still warm boiler. A +hole, which showed up red and angry against the black wool just +underneath his grass cap, made the diagnosis of his injury an +easy matter. + +The noise of the shot came to them quite a long time afterward, when the +little puff of smoke which had spirted up from the distant sandbank had +already begun to thin under the sunshine; but it was that gun-crack, and +not the sight of the dead engineer, which gave the working negroes their +final scare. With loud children's cries, and queer dodgings of fear, +they pitched down their working tools, and fled to where the other black +soldiers and passengers were lying on the iron floor-plates of the +launch, in security below her water-line. + +The Belgian Commandant, from his shelter at the other side of the +boiler, swore volubly, and Clay, the English doctor, laughed and twanged +out a music-hall tune on his banjo. Kettle, intent on getting his vessel +once more under command, was for driving the negro crew back to their +work by the simple methods peculiar to the British merchant officer. But +this Commandant Balliot forbade, and, as he was Kettle's superior in +the Congo Free State service, that small mariner had (very much against +his grain) to obey. + +"We shall have these fellows rebelling next," said the Commandant, "if +you push them too hard; and if they join the rest, where shall we be?" + +"There are a thousand of your troops in the mutiny already, according to +your tally," said Kettle stiffly, "and I don't see that if this hundred +joined them it would make much difference to us, one way or the other. +Besides," he added, almost persuasively, "if I had the handling of them +they would not join the others. They would stay here and do as they +were told." + +"Captain Kettle," snapped the Commandant, "you have heard my orders. If +I have any more of this hectoring spirit from you, I shall report your +conduct when we get back to Stanley Pool." + +"You may report till you're black in the face," said Kettle truculently; +"but if you don't put a bit more backbone into things, you'll do it as a +ghost and not as a live man. Look at your record up to date. You come up +here at the head of a fine expedition; you set your soldiers to squeeze +the tribes for rubber and ivory; they don't bring in enough niggers' +ears to show that they've used their cartridges successfully, and so you +shoot them down in batches; and then you aren't man enough to keep your +grip on them, but when they've had enough of your treatment, they just +start in and rebel." + +"One man can't fight a thousand." + +"You can't, anyway. If the Doc and I had turned up with this launch half +an hour later, your excellent troops would have knocked you on the head +and chopped you afterward. But I'd like to remind you that we ran +in-shore and took you away in spite of their teeth." + +"You are very brave," sneered the Commandant, "you and Monsieur le +Docteur." + +"Well, you see," said Kettle with cheerful insult, "our grandfathers +didn't run away at Waterloo, and that gives us something to go upon." + +"I put you under arrest," screamed the Belgian. "I will have +satisfaction for this later. I----" + +"Steady on," said Clay, with a yawn. He put down his banjo, stretched, +and stood up. Behind him the bullets pattered merrily against the iron +plating. "Why on earth do you two keep on nagging? Look at me--I'm half +drunk as usual, and I'm as happy as a lord. Take a peg, each of you, and +sweeten your tempers." + +They glared at him from each side. + +"Now it's not the least use either of you two trying to quarrel with me. +We might as well all be friends together for the little time we've got. +We've a good deal in common: we're all bad eggs, and we're none of us +fit for our billets. Monsieur le Commandant, you were a sous-officier in +Belgium who made Brussels too hot to hold you; you come out here, and +you're sent to govern a district the size of Russia, which is a lot +beyond your weight. + +"Friend Kettle, you put a steamer on the ground in the lower Congo; you +probably had a bad record elsewhere, or you'd never have drifted to the +Congo service at all; and now you're up here on the Haut Congo +skippering a rubbishy fourpenny stern-wheel launch, which of course is a +lot beneath your precious dignity. + +"And I--well, I once had a practice at home; and got into a row over a +woman; and when the row was through, well, where was the practice? I +came out here because no one will look at me in any other quarter of the +globe. I get wretched pay, and I do as little as I possibly can for it. +I'm half-seas over every day of the week, and I'm liked because I can +play the banjo." + +"I don't see what good you're getting by abuse like this," said Kettle. + +"I'm trying to make you both forget your silly naggling. We may just as +well be cheerful for the bit of time we've got." + +"Bit of time!" + +"Well, it won't be much anyway. Here's the launch with a hole shot in +her boiler, and no steam, drifted hard and fast on to a sandbank. On +another bank, eight hundred yards away, are half a regiment of rebel +troops with plenty of good rifles and plenty of cartridges, browning us +for all they're worth. Their friends are off up stream to collect canoes +from those villages which have been raided, and canoes they'll +get--likewise help from the recently raided. When dark comes, away +they'll attack us, and personally, I mean to see it out fighting, and +they'll probably chop me afterward, and the odds are I give some of them +bad dyspepsia. About that I don't care two pins. But I don't intend to +be caught alive. That means torture, and no error about it." He +shivered. "I've seen their subjects after they've played their torture +games on them. My aunt, but they were a beastly sight." + +The Commandant shivered also. He, too, knew what torture from the hands +of those savage Central African blacks meant. + +"I should blow up the launch with every soul on board of her," he said, +"if I thought there was any chance of their boarding with canoes." + +"Well, you can bet your life they'll try it," said Kettle, "if we stay +here." + +"But how can we move? We can't make steam. And if we do push off this +bank, we shall drift on to the next bank down stream." + +"That's your idea," said Kettle. "Haven't you got a better?" + +"You must not speak to me like that," said Balliot, with another little +snap of dignity and passion. "I'm your senior officer." + +"At the present rate you'll continue to be that till about nightfall," +said Kettle unpleasantly, "after which time we shall be killed, one way +or another, and our ranks sorted out afresh." + +"Now, you two," said Clay, "don't start wrangling again." He took a +bottle out of a square green case, and passed it. "Here, have some gin." + +"For God's sake, Doc, dry up," said Kettle, "and pull yourself together, +and remember you're a blooming Englishman." + +Clay's thin yellow cheeks flushed. "What's the use?" he said with a +forced laugh. "'Tisn't as if anybody wanted to see any of us +home again." + +"I'm wanted," said Kettle, sharply, "by my wife and kids. I've got them +to provide for, and I'm not going to shirk doing it. Let me have my own +way, and I can get out of this mess; yes, and out of a dozen worse +messes on beyond it. The thing's nothing if only it's tackled the +right way." + +"How shall you set about it," asked the Commandant. + +"By giving orders, and taking mighty big care that everybody on this +ship carries them out." + +Commandant Balliot rubbed at his close, scrubby beard, and bared his +teeth viciously. Behind him, from the distant sandbank, the rebel +bullets rapped unceasingly at the launch's iron plating. "But I am the +senior in rank," he repeated again. "Officially I could not resign the +command in your favor." + +"Yes, I know. But here's the situation packed small: if you climb up, +and do the large, and perch on your blessed rank, we shall probably see +this day out, but we certainly sha'n't see another in. You're at the end +of your string, and you can't deny it." + +"But if you've a suggestion to make which will save us, make it, and I +will act." + +"No," snapped Kettle. "I'll either be boss and carry out my schemes my +own way; or else, if we stay on as we are, I hold my tongue, and you can +go on and arrange the funeral." + +"If you can get us out of this mess--" + +"I've said I can." + +"Then I will let you take the command." + +"Well and good. In the first place--" + +"Wait a minute. I resign to you temporarily; but, understand, even if I +wished to, I could not do this officially. When we get down to +Leopoldville--when we get down to the next post even--" + +"Oh, you can collar the blooming credit," said Kettle contemptuously, +"when we do get clear away to any of your own headquarters. I'm not +looking for gratitude either from a Belgian or from the Congo Free +State. They don't like Englishmen." + +"You are not a lovable nation," said Commandant Balliot spitefully. + +"Now," said Kettle, thrusting his fierce little face close up to the +other, "understand once and for all that I will not have England abused, +neither do I take any more of your lip for myself. I'm Captain of the +whole of this show now, by your making, and I intend to be respected as +such, and hold a full captain's ticket. You'll call me 'sir' when you +speak, and you'll take orders civilly and carry them out quick, or, by +James! you'll find your teeth rammed down your throat in two twinkles of +a handspike. Savvy that?" + +The man of the weaker nation subsided. There was no law and order here +to fall back upon. There was nothing but unnerving savagery and +vastness. The sandbar where their wrecked launch lay was out in the +middle of the Congo, perhaps eight miles from the park-like lands which +stretched indefinitely beyond either bank. The great river astern of her +glared like a mirror under the intolerable sunshine; came up and swirled +around her flanks in yellow, marigold-smelling waves; and then joined up +into mirror shape again till the eye ached in regarding it. The baking +sky above was desolate even of clouds; there was no help anywhere; and +on another distant sandbank, where here and there little bushes of +powder smoke sprouted up like a gauzy foliage, a horde of barbarous +blacks lusted to tear out his life. + +In Commandant Balliot's own heart hope was dead. But it seemed that this +detestable Englishman had schemes in his head by which their lives might +yet be saved. + +He had been given a sample of the Englishmen's brazen daring already. +After his troops mutinied, and pandemonium reigned in the village where +he was quartered, the Englishman had steamed up with his paltry +stem-wheel launch, and by sheer dash and recklessness had carried him +and his last parcel of faithful men away in spite of the +mutineers' teeth. + +It was an insane thing to do, and when he had (as senior officer) +complimented Kettle on the achievement, the little sailor had coldly +replied that he was only carrying out his duty and earning his pay. And +he had further mentioned that it was lucky for Commandant Balliot that +he was a common, low-down Britisher, and not a fancy Belgian, or he +would have thought of his own skin first, and steamed on comfortably +down river and just contented himself with making a report. The white +engineer of the launch--a drunken Scot--had, it seemed, been killed in +the sortie, which, of course, was regretable; but Balliot (who disliked +the Scot personally) had omitted to make the proper condolences; and it +was at this that Kettle had taken umbrage and turned the nasty edge of +his tongue outward. + +"Now," said Captain Kettle, "enough time's been wasted. We will start +business at once, please. That boiler's got to be mended, first." + +"But," said Balliot, "it's under fire all the time." + +"I can see that for myself," said the little sailor, "without being +reminded by a subordinate who wasn't asked to speak. We take things as +we find them, and so it's got to be mended under fire. Moreover, as the +chief engineer of this vessel was killed ashore, and the second engineer +was shot overboard, there's others that will have to take rating as +engine-room officers. Commandant Balliot, have you any mechanics amongst +your lot?" + +"I have one man who acted as armorer-sergeant. He is very inefficient." + +"He must do his best. Can you handle a drill or a monkey wrench, +yourself?" + +"No." + +"Then I shall find you a laborer's job. Doc, are you handy with tools?" + +"Only with those of my own trade," said Clay. "I'm pretty inefficient +all round," he added, with a shrug, "or else I shouldn't be here." + +"Very well," said Kettle, "then I'll rate myself chief engineer." He got +up, and walked round to where the black second engineer, the last man +shot, still nuzzled the boiler plates exactly in the same position where +he had first fallen. He lifted one of the man's arms, and let it go. It +jerked back again like a spring. + +"Well, Daddy," he said, "you didn't take long to get stiff. They shot +you nice and clean, anyway. I guess we'll let the river and the +crocodiles bury you." With a sharp heave, he jerked the rigid body on to +the rail, and even for the short second it poised there the poor dead +clay managed to stop another of those bullets which flew up in such +deadly silence from that distant sandbank. + +"Good-by," said Kettle, as he toppled the corpse over, and it fell with +a splash, stiff-limbed into the yellow water. He watched the body as it +bobbed up again to the surface, and floated with the stream out into the +silvery sunshine. "Good-by, cocky," said he. "You've been a good nigger, +and, as you were shot doing your duty, they'll set you on at the place +where you've gone to, one of the lightest jobs they've got suitable for +a black pagan. That's a theological fact. You'll probable turn to and +stoke; I'll be sending you down presently another batch of heathen to +shovel on the fire. I've got a biggish bill against those beggars on +that sandbank yonder for the mischief they've done." + +But it was no place there to waste much time on sentiment. The woodwork +of the shabby little steamer was riddled with splintered holes; the +rusted iron plating was starred with gray lead-splashes; and every +minute more bullets ploughed furrows in the yellow waters of the river, +or whisped through the air overhead, or hit the vessel herself with +peremptory knocks. It is all very well to affect a contempt for a +straggling ill-aimed fire such as this; but, given a long enough +exposure to it, one is bound to be hit; and so, if the work was to be +attempted, the quicker it was set about the more chance there was of +getting it finished. + +They use wood fuel on these small, ungainly steamers which do their +business up in the savage heart of Africa on the waters of the Haut +Congo, and because every man with a gun for many reasons feels himself +to be an enemy of the Free State, the steamers carry their firing logs +stacked in ramparts round their boilers and other vital parts. But wood, +as compared with coal, is bulky stuff to carry, and as the stowage +capacity of these stern-wheelers is small, they have to make frequent +calls to rebunker. + +Indeed, it was for this purpose that Kettle had originally put in at the +village where Commandant Balliot had his headquarters; and, as other +events happened there which he had not calculated upon, he had steamed +out into the broad river again without a chance of taking any logs on +board, and, in fact, with his stock of fuel down very near to the +vanishing-point. + +On this account, therefore, after the fatal shot into the boiler, and +the subsequent disablement and drifting on to the sandbank, all +repairing work had to be done under full exposure to the fire of the +mutineers. The Central African negro is a fairly stolid person, and as +the sight of a little slaughter does not in the least upset his nerves, +he can stand bullet hail for a good long time without emotion, +especially if there is no noise and bustle attached to it. But once let +a scare get rubbed home into his stupid brain, and let him get started +off on the run, and he is an awkward person to stop. + +But Kettle did not start to hustle his black laborers back to work at +once. He knew that there would be heavy mortality amongst them once they +were exposed to fire, and he wanted to lose as few of them as possible. +He had got use for them afterward. So for long enough he worked alone, +and the bullets spattered around him gayly. He hammered out a lead +templet to cover the wound in the boiler, which, of course, as bad luck +would have it, was situated at a place where three plates met; and then +whilst Balliot's armorer with fire and hammer beat out a plate of iron +the exact counterpart of this, he rigged a ratchet drill and bored holes +through the boiler's skin to carry the necessary bolts. + +Clay volunteered assistance once, but as he was told he would be asked +for help when it was needed, he squatted down under the sheltered side +of the boiler again, and smoked, and played more music-hall ditties on +the banjo. Commandant Balliot held to a sullen silence. He was growing +to have a poisonous hatred for this contemptuous little Englishman who +by sheer superiority had made him give up his treasured dictatorship, +and he formed schemes for the Englishman's discomfiture in the +near future. + +But for the present he hoped very much that the man would not be killed; +he recognized, with fresh spasms of anger every time he thought about +it, that without Captain Kettle there would be no future--at any rate on +this earth--for any of them. + +And meanwhile Captain Owen Kettle, stripped to shoes and trousers, +sweated over his work in the baking heat. Twice had a bullet grazed him, +once on the neck, and once on the round of a shoulder, and red stains +grew over the white satin of his skin. The work was strange to him +certainly, but he set about it with more than an amateur's skill. All +sailors have been handy with their fingers from time immemorial, but the +modern steamer-sailor, during his apprenticeship as mate, has to turn +his hand to a vast variety of trades. He is painter, carpenter, +stevedore, crew-driver, all in one day; and on the next he is doctor, +navigator, clerk, tailor, and engineer. And especially he is engineer. +He must be able to drive winch, windlass, or crane, like an artist; he +must have a good aptitude for using hand tools; and if he can work +machine tools also, it is so much the better for him. + +Yes, Captain Kettle put the patch on that boiler like a workman. He +fitted his bolts, and made his joints; then luted the manhole and bolted +that back in place; and then stepped down while a couple of negroes +sluiced him with water from gourds, and rubbed him clean and dry with +handfuls of wild cotton waste. So far, although the incessant hail of +bullets had pitted the boiler's skin in a hundred places, no second shot +had found a spot sufficiently soft to make a puncture. The range of the +bombardment was long, perhaps, and though a bullet at seven hundred +yards may, with convenience, kill a man, it will not pierce +seven-eighths boiler plate. And so, theoretically, the boiler was safe +for the time being. + +But practically it was otherwise. The boiler was by no means new. It was +corroded with years, and incapacity, and neglect, as is the custom with +all parts of boats and machinery on the Haut Congo. But it had been +brought up to that waterway by carriers at vast expense from Matadi, the +highest steamer port on the Lower Congo, probably costing three months +and a dozen lives in transit, so that it was debited in the books of the +Free State as being worth its weight in silver, and destined to be used +on without replacement till it saw fit to burst. + +So Kettle knew that in places it would be not much thicker than stout +brown paper, and was quite aware that if any of the pattering bullets +investigated one of these patches, he would have to do his work over +again. He had a strong--and, I think, natural--disinclination for this. +He had come through terrific risks during the last four hours, and could +not expect to do so a second time with equal immunity; his two wounds +smarted; and (although it sounds ludicrous that such a thing should have +weight) the dirt inseparable from such employment jarred against his +neat and cleanly habits, and filled him with unutterable disgust. + +The moment, he conceived, was one for hurry. He told off four of the +negroes as trimmers and stokers, and set Commandant Balliot over them to +see that they pressed on with their work; he sent Clay with a huge gang +of helpers overboard on the lee side to risk the crocodiles, and dig +away the sand; and he himself, with a dozen paddlers, got into the +dug-out canoe, which was his only boat, and set to carrying out a kedge +and line astern. All of these occupations took time, and when at last +steam had mounted to a working pressure in the battered gauge, and they +got on board again, two of his canoe-men had been shot, and one of +Clay's party had been dragged away into deep water by a prowling +crocodile. + +As no one else was competent, Kettle himself took charge of the engines, +and roared his commands with one hand on the throttle, and the other on +the reversing gear; Clay, for the moment, was quartermaster, and stood +to the wheel on the upper deck; and Balliot, under the tuition of curses +and revilings, drove the winch, which heaved and slacked on the line +made fast to the kedge. + +The little steamer rolled and squeaked and coughed, and the paddle-wheel +at her stern kicked up a compost of sand and mud and yellow water that +almost choked them with its crushed marigold scent. The helm swung over +alternately from hard-a-starboard to hard-a-port; the stern-wheel ground +savagely into the sand, first one way and then the other; and the +gutter, which she had delved for herself in the bank, grew gradually +wider and more deep. Then slowly she began to make real progress astern. + +"Now, heave on that kedge," Kettle yelled, and the winch bucked and +clattered under a greater head of steam, and the warp sung to the +strain; and presently the little vessel slid off the bank, picked up her +anchor, and was free to go where she pleased. + +"Hurrah," cried Balliot, "we are saved. You are a brave man, Captain." + +"I didn't ask you to speak," retorted Kettle. "We aren't out of the wood +by a long chalk yet." + +"But we are out of their fire now. We shall be disturbed no further." + +"No, my lad, but we've got a precious heap of disturbing to do on our +own account before we've squared up for this tea party. I'm going to +drop down stream to somewhere quiet where we can fill up with wood, and +then I'm coming back again to give your late Tommies bad fits." + +"But I don't authorize this. I didn't foresee--" + +"Very likely not. But a fat lot I care for that. Fact remains that I'm +skipper here, and I'm going to do as I think best. I've got it in mind +that my two engineers and a lot of good niggers have been shot by those +disgusting savages over yonder, and I don't permit that sort of thing +without making somebody pay a pretty steep bill for the amusement. So +I'm going down stream to wood up, and then we'll come back and make them +pay for the tea party." + +"You are exceeding your powers. I warn you." + +"If any of my inferiors on board ship don't keep their heads shut when +they aren't spoken to," said Kettle unpleasantly, "I always disarrange +their front teeth. If I have any more palaver from you, you'll get to +know what it feels like." He shouted up the companion way--"On top +there, quartermaster?" + +"Hullo?" said Clay. + +"Keep her down river to M'barri-m'barri. That's a twelve-mile run from +here. There are two big cotton woods in a line which will bring you to +the landing. You know the channel?" + +"I ought to. I've been up and down it times enough. But I guess I +don't--at least, not now." + +"Fuddled again, are you? Then I'll con you from here. You see three +trees growing on that island bang ahead? Keep her on those." He turned +to a couple of stalwart niggers at his side--"Say, you boys, you lib for +top, one-time. You take dem Doctor's gin-bottle, and you throw him +overboard, one-time. If dem Doctor he make palaver, you throw him +overboard too. Away with you now. By James! we got to get discipline in +this ship somehow, and I'm a man that can teach it. Here, you black +swine at that furnace, go slow with those logs, or we won't be able to +steam her half-way." + +He bustled about the little vessel, turning every soul on board to some +employment or other; and those of the newcomers who did not know his +wishes, and were not quick enough for his taste, received instruction in +a manner which is understood by men all the world over, be their skins +black, or white, or yellow. + +The process might not be very pleasant for those who came in contact +with it, but it was very effective for the purpose aimed at. In sea +parlance Kettle had to "break up" some half-dozen of them before all +hands acquiesced to his dictatorship; but they were quick to see there +was a Man over them this time, and involuntarily they admired his +virility even while they rubbed ruefully at their bumps; and during the +times of stress that came afterward, none of these Africans were so +smart to obey as those on whom their taskmaster's hand had originally +come heaviest. + +The period of instruction was short. It began when the little +stern-wheeler slipped off the bank and got under weigh. It was completed +satisfactorily during the twelve miles run down the river. The boat was +steered into M'barri-m'barri creek, made hastily fast to trees on the +bank, and exuded her people in an armed rush. They had possession of the +place almost before the villagers knew of their arrival, and proceeded +to the object of their call. There was no especial show of violence. + +The women and the children were imprisoned in the huts; the men were +given axes, and sent off into the forest to cut and gather fuel; and, +meanwhile, the landing party set themselves to eat what they fancied and +to carry off any store of ivory and rubber that they might chance upon. +There was nothing remarkable in the manoeuvre. It is the authorized +course of proceedings when a Free State launch goes into the bank for +wood and supplies. + +The villagers brought down the logs smartly enough, and waxed quite +friendly on finding that none of the hostage women and children had been +killed or maltreated during their absence. They duly gave up the German +axes which had been loaned to them, and carried the wood aboard. Kettle +arranged its disposition. He had solid defences built up all round the +vulnerable boiler and engines. He had a stout breastwork built all round +inside the rail of the lower deck, quite stout enough to absorb a bullet +even if fired at point-blank range. And he had another breastwork built +on the third deck, above the cabins, so that he turned the flimsy little +steamer into a very staunch, if somewhat ungainly, floating fort. + +He got on board the rubber and ivory he had collected, and had it +struck down below--the dividends of the State have to be remembered +first, even at moments of trouble like these--and then he gave orders, +and the vessel set off again up stream. On the lower deck he stayed +himself during the journey back, and gave instructions to Commander +Balliot in the art of engine-driving. + +Balliot was sullen at first, and showed little inclination to acquire so +warm and grimy a craft, and fenced himself behind his dignity. But +Kettle put forth his persuasive powers; he did not hit the man, he +merely talked; and under the merciless lash of that vinegary little +tongue, Balliot repented him of his stubbornness, and set himself to +acquire the elementary knack of engine nursing and feeding and driving. + +"And now," said Kettle, cheerfully, when the pupil had mastered the +vague outlines of his business, "you see what can be done by kindness. I +haven't hit you once, and you know enough already not to blow her up if +only you're careful. Don't you even sham stupid again; and, see here, +don't you grit your teeth at me when you think I'm not looking, or I'll +beat you into butcher's meat when I've hammered these rebels, and have a +bit of spare time. You want to learn a lot of manners yet, Mr. +Commandant Balliot, and where I come from we teach these to foreigners +free of charge. Just you remember that I'm your better, my man, and give +me proper respect, or I'll lead you a life a nigger's yellow dog +wouldn't fancy." + +Now the revolted troops, when they saw the launch wriggle off the bank +where she was stuck, and steam away down stream, were filled with +exasperation, because they had confidently anticipated making a +barbecue out of Commandant Balliot in return for many cruelties +received, and doing the same by any other Europeans whom they might +catch on the steamer, because, being white, they would be presumably +relatives of Balliot. It never occurred to their simple minds that the +launch would return, much less that she would offer them battle; so when +indeed she did appear again, they were in the midst of a big +consultation about their future movements. + +However, the African who owns a gun, be he revolted soldier or mere +peaceful farmer, never lets that weapon go far away from his hand, for +fear that his neighbor should send him away into the land of shadows in +order to possess it. And so a fusillade was soon commenced. But the +launch, armed with her fine rampart of logs, bore it unflinchingly, and +steamed up within a hundred yards of the thick of them, and just held +there in her place, with her wheel gently flapping against the stream, +and opened a vicious fire from fifty muzzles. + +Of modern rifles Kettle had only twenty on board, but he had an +abundance of those beautiful instruments known as "trade guns," and at +shot-range a man can be killed just as definitely by a dose of pot-leg +out of a gas-pipe barrel as he can by a dum-dum bullet sent through +scientific rifling. Indeed, for close-quarter righting pot-leg is far +more comprehensive, and far less likely to miss than the lonely modern +bullet. Moroever, his crew had quite as much dread for him as they had +for the enemy, and as a consequence they fought with a briskness which +made even their grim little chief approve. + +The crowd of mutineers did not, however, offer themselves to be browned +like a pack of helpless sheep for long. They were Africans who had been +born in an atmosphere of scuffle and skirmish, and death had no especial +terrors for them. Moreover, they had learnt certain elements of the +modern art of war from white officers; and now, in the moment of trial, +their dull brains worked, and the crafty knowledge came back to them. +They were a thousand strong; they had friends all round--cannibal +friends--who would come to help in the fight and share in the loot; and, +moreover, they had canoes. Other well-manned canoes also were fast +coming to their help down stream. + +In the canoes then they put off, and Kettle smiled grimly as he saw the +move. He had thought of this before, but it was greater luck than he had +dared hope for. But now the enemy had given himself over into his hand. +The one strong position of the stern-wheel launch was her forward part. +The Congo is full of snags and floating logs which cannot always be +avoided, and so all steamers are strengthened to stand contact with +them; and he could give them the stem now without risk to himself. + +He pretended flight when the canoes first came out, standing across +toward the further bank of the river, which was some dozen miles away. +The rebels fell into the lure, and paddled frantically after him. Canoe +after canoe put out, as fast as they could be manned. The white men on +the steamer were running away; they were frightened; there was spoil and +revenge to be got for the taking. And from unseen villages on the +islands and on the bank other canoes shot out to get their share. + +In the mean while Kettle consolidated his defences. Frantically he +worked, and like Trojans Clay and the negroes labored under him. All +that drunken doctor's limp _laissez faire_ was gone now. The blood of +some fighting ancestor had warmed up inside him. He might be physically +weak and unhandy, but the lust of battle filled him up like new drink, +and he forgot his disgraceful past, and lived only for the thrill of the +present moment. + +The log barricades had to be lashed and strutted so that no collision +could unship them, and all hands sweated and strained in that tropical +heat, till the job could not be bettered. And at the after part of the +lower deck, Commandant Balliot, driven on also by the strong-willed man +whom nobody on board could resist, tended the engines with all his brain +and nerve, and did his best to make the fighting machine perfect. + +"Now," said Kettle at last, "as we have got those fool Tommies nicely +tailed out about the river, we'll quit this running-away game, and get +to business. Mr. Chief Engineer, open that throttle all it'll go, and +let her rip, and mind you're standing by for my next order. Doc, you +keep your musketry class well in hand. Don't waste shots. But when you +see me going to run down a canoe, stand by to give them eternal ginger +when they're ten yards from the stern. I'll whistle when you're +to fire." + +Captain Kettle went on to the upper deck and took over the wheel, and +screwed it over hard-a-port. The little top-heavy steamer swung round in +a quick circle, lurching over dangerously to the outside edge. She ran +for half a mile up stream, and then turned again and came back at the +top of her gait. She was aiming at one particular canoe, which for a +while came on pluckily enough to meet her. + +But African nerve has its limits, and the sight of this strange uncouth +steamer, which followed so unflinchingly their every movement, was too +much for the sweating paddlers. They turned their ponderous dug-out's +head, and tried to escape. + +Kettle watched them like a cat. He had the whistle string in his teeth, +so as to leave him both hands free for the steering wheel, and when the +moment came he threw back his head, and drew the string. The scream of +the steam whistle was swamped instantly in the roar of a blasting +volley. Not many of the shots hit--for the African is not a +marksman--but the right effect was gained. The blacks in the canoe +ducked and flinched; they were for the moment quite demoralized; and +before they could man their paddles again, the stern-wheeler's stem had +crushed into their vessel, had cut a great gash from one side, had +rolled it over, and then mounted the wreck, and drove down stream across +the top of it. + +A few more angry shots snapped out at the black bodies swimming in the +yellow water. "Hold up, there," Kettle ordered, "and let them swim if +they can, and chance the crocodiles. They've got their gruel. Load up +now, and get ready for the next." + +He turned the launch again, and stood across the stream down the +strung-out line of canoes, occasionally making feints at them, but +ramming no more for the present. They all fired at him as he passed +them; indeed, a wild, scattered fire was general from all the fleet; but +his log armor protected him from this, and he steamed grimly on, without +returning a shot. + +At the furthermost end of the line he turned sharply again, and ran down +the last canoe, just as he had run down the other; and then he +deliberately started to drive the whole fleet together into one solid +flock. He had the speed of them, and with rifle fire they could not +damage him, but for all that it was not easy work. They expected the +worst, and made desperate efforts to scatter and escape; finally, he +drove them altogether in one hopeless huddle--cowed, scared, and tired +out; and then he brought the stern-wheeler to a sudden stop just above +them, and made Clay shout out terms in the native tongue. + +They were to throw all their weapons overboard into the river. They did +it without question. + +They were to throw their paddles overboard. They did that also. + +They were to tie all their canoes together into one big raft. They +obeyed him there, too, with frenzied quickness. + +He took the raft in tow and steamed off down river to the headquarters +Free State post of the Upper River. He was feeling almost complacent at +the time. He had shown Commandant Balliot what he was pleased to term a +quick way with rebels. + +But Commandant Balliot, whose life had been saved, and army disarmed and +brought back from rebellion in spite of himself, was not the man to let +any vague feeling of gratitude overweigh his own deep sense of injury. +He was incompetent, and he knew it, but Kettle had been tactless enough +to tell him so; and, moreover, Kettle had thrown out the national gibe +about Waterloo, which no Belgian can ever forgive. Commandant Balliot +gritted his teeth, and rubbed at his scrubby beard, and melodramatically +vowed revenge. + +He said nothing about it then; he even sat at meat with the two +Englishmen, and shared the ship duties with them without so much as a +murmur. He could not but notice, too, that Kettle said nothing more now +about being supreme chief, and had, in fact, tacitly dropped back to his +old position as skipper of the launch. But Balliot brooded over the +injuries he had received at the hands of this truculent little sailor, +and they grew none the smaller from being held in memory. + +Kettle's own method of reporting his doings, too, was not calculated to +endear him to the authorities. He steamed down to headquarters at +Leopoldville, went ashore, and swung into the Commandant's house with +easy contempt and assurance. He gave an arid account of the launch's +voyage up the great river to the centre of Africa and back, and then in +ten words described Balliot's disaster, his rescue, and its cost. "And +so," he wound up, "as the contract was outside Mr. Balliot's size, I +took it in my own hands and carried it through. I've brought back your +blooming army down here. It's quite tame now." + +The Commandant at Leopoldville nodded stiffly, and said he would confer +with Captain Kettle's senior officer, Commandant Balliot, after which +Kettle would probably hear something further. + +"All right," said the little man. "I should tell you, too, that Mr. +Balliot's not without his uses. With a bit of teaching I got him to +handle my engines quite decent for an amateur." He turned to go, but +stopped again in the glare of the doorway. "Oh, there's one other thing. +I want to recommend to you Doctor Clay. He's a good man, Clay. He stood +by me well in the trouble we had, after he got roused up. I'd like to +recommend him for promotion." + +"I will see if Commandant Balliot--as senior officer--adds his +recommendation to yours," said the other drily. "Good-morning to you for +the present." + +Captain Kettle went down to the beach, and stepped along the gangway on +to the stern-wheel launch. The working negroes on the lower deck stopped +their chatter for the moment as he passed, and looked up at him with a +queer mixture of awe and admiration. From above came the tinkle of a +banjo and the roar of an English song. The doctor was free, and was +amusing himself according to his fashion. + +Kettle got his accordion and went up on the hurricane deck and joined +him, and till near on sundown the pair of them sat there giving forth +music alternately. There was a fine contrast between them. The +disreputable doctor deliberately forgot everything of the past, and +lived only for the reckless present; the shipmaster had got his wife and +children always filling half his memory, and was in a constant agony +lest he should fail to properly provide for them. And as a consequence +Clay's music was always of the lighter sort, and was often more than +impolite; while Kettle's was, for the most part, devotional, and all of +it sober, staid, and thoughtful. They were a strong contrast, these two, +but they pulled together with one another wonderfully. Kettle used +sometimes to wonder why it was, and came to the conclusion that it was +the tie of music which did it. But Clay never worried about the matter +at all. He was not the man to fill his head with useless problems. + +But on this afternoon their concert was cut short before its finish. +Commandant Balliot came back to the launch with satisfaction on his +streaming face, and two armed black soldiers plodding at his heels. + +"Well," said Kettle, "have they made you a colonel yet, or are they +only going to give you the Congo medal?" + +"You sacred pig," said Balliot, "you talked to M. le Commandant here of +rebels. What are you but a rebel? I have told him all, and he has sent +me to arrest you." + +"Good old Waterloo," said Kettle cheerfully. "I bet you lied, and +because you are both Belgians, I suppose he believed you." + +The fat man gritted his teeth. "You talked of having a short way with +rebels yourself. You will find that we have a short way here, too. You +are under arrest." + +"So you've said." + +Balliot said a couple of words in the native to one of his followers, +and the man produced a pair of rusty handcuffs and held them out +alluringly. + +Kettle's pale cheeks flushed darkly. "No," he said, "by James! No, +that's not the way for a thing like you to set about it." He jumped to +his feet, and thrust his savage little face close to the black soldier's +eyes. "Give me dem handcuffs." The man surrendered them limply, and +Kettle flung them overboard. Balliot was trying to get a revolver from +the leather holster at his waist, but Kettle, who had his weapon in a +hip pocket, was ready first, and covered him. + +"Throw up your hands!" + +Commandant Balliot did so. He knew enough about Captain Kettle to +understand that he meant business. + +"Tell your soldiers to drop their guns, or I'll spread their brains on +the deck." + +Balliot obeyed that order also. + +"Now, Doc," said Kettle in a different tone, "pack your traps and go +ashore." + +"What for?" asked Clay. + +"Because I'm going to take this steamer for a cruise up river. I don't +mind getting the sack; I'd reckoned on that. But, by James! I'm not +going to be arrested by these Belgian brutes, and that's final." + +"Well, I suppose they would string you up, or shoot you, to soothe their +precious dignity, from what His Whiskers here says." + +"They're not going to get the chance," snapped Kettle. "Handcuffs, by +James! Here, clear out, Doc, and let me get the ship under way." + +"No," said Clay. "I fancy I've had about enough of the Congo Free State +service, too. I'll come, too." + +"Don't be an idiot." + +Dr. Clay gave a whimsical laugh. "Have I ever been anything else all my +life?"--He went across and took the revolver out of Balliot's +holster--there, I've burnt my boats. I've disarmed His Whiskers here, +and defied authority, and that gives them a _casus belli_ against me. +You'll have to take me along now out of sheer pity." + +"Very well," said Kettle; "help me to shove the three of them into one +of the empty rooms below, and then mount guard on them to see they don't +make a row. We mustn't have them giving the alarm of this new game till +we've got a start on us. You're a good soul, Doc. I'll never forget +this of you." + +And so Captain Owen Kettle finally severed his connection with the Congo +Free State service, and set off at once again as his own master. He had +no trouble with the black crew of the launch. The men half adored, half +dreaded him; and, anyway, were prepared to take his orders before any +others. They got the little vessel under weigh again, and just before +the gang-plank was pulled in, Commandant Balliot and his disarmed escort +were driven on to the beach. + +The Belgian was half wild with mortification and anger. "You have won +now," he screamed. "But you will be fetched back, and I myself will see +that you are disgracefully hanged." + +"If you come after me and worry me," said Kettle, coolly, "I'll give you +my men to chop. Just you remember that, Mr. Waterloo. I think you know +already that I am a fellow that never lies." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE NEW REPUBLIC + + +The fighting ended, and promptly both the invaders and the invaded +settled down to the new course of things without further exultation or +regret. An hour after it had happened, the capture of the village was +already regarded as ancient history, and the two white men had got a +long way on in their discussion on its ultimate fate. + +"No," Captain Kettle was saying, "no being king for me, Doctor, thank +you. I've been offered a king's ticket once, and that sickened me of the +job for good and always. The world's evidently been going on too long to +start a new kingdom nowadays, and I'm too much of a conservative to try +and break the rule. No, a republic's the thing, and, as you say, I'm the +stronger man of the two of us. Doc, you may sign me on as President." + +Dr. Clay turned away his face, and relieved his feelings with a grin. +But he very carefully concealed his merriment. He liked Kettle, liked +him vastly; but at the same time he was more than a little scared of +him, and he had a very accurate notion that the man who failed to take +him seriously about this new scheme, would come in contact with trouble. +The scheme was a big one; it purposed setting up a new state in the +heart of the Etat du Congo, on territory filched from that power; but +the little sailor was in deadly earnest over the project, and already +he had met with extraordinary luck in the initial stages. Central Africa +is a country where determined _coups de main_ can sometimes yield +surprising results. + +The recent history of these two vagabond white men cannot be given in +this place with any web of detail. They had gone through their +apprenticeship amongst these African inlands as officers of the Congo +Free State; they had been divorced from that service with something of +suddenness; and a purist might have held that the severance of their +ties was complicated with something very near akin to piracy. I know +that they had been abominably oppressed; I know that Kettle chose +running away with his steamer to the alternative of handcuffs and +disgrace, and a possible hanging to follow; but there was no getting +over the fact that the stern-wheeler was Free State property, and that +these two had alienated it to their own uses. + +The black crew of the launch and the black soldiers on board, some +seventy head all told, they had little trouble in dragooning into +obedience. The Central African native never troubles himself much about +niceties of loyalty, and as the sway of the Congo Free State (or "Buli +Matdi," as it is named by the woolly aboriginal), had been brutally +tyrannous, the change of allegiance had worried them little. Besides, +they had been in contact with Captain Kettle before, and knew him to be +that admirable thing, a Man, and worthy of being served; while Clay, +whom they also knew, amused them with his banjo, and held powerful +_ju-ju_ in the shape of drugs; and so they went blithely enough where +they were led or driven, and described themselves as soldiers or slaves, +whichever word happened to come handiest. The African of the interior +never worries his head about the terms of his service. So long as he has +plenty of food, and a master to do all the thinking for him, he is quite +content to work, or steal, or fight, or be killed, as that master sees +fit to direct. + +The progress of the little stern-wheel steamer on her return journey up +the Haut Congo might also give rise to misapprehension here at home, if +it were described exactly as it happened. There are no ship's chandlers +in Central Africa, and it is the custom there, when you lack stores, to +go to a village on the bank and requisition anything that is available. +The Arab slave-traders who once held the country did this; the +prehistoric people before them founded the custom; and the Free State +authorities, their lineal descendants, have not seen fit to change the +policy. At least, they may have done so in theory at Brussels, but out +there, in practice, they have left this matter _in statu quo_. + +There is a massive conservatism about the heart of Africa with which it +is dangerous to tamper. If you rob a man in that region, he merely +respects your superior power. If you offer him payments, he promptly +suspects you of weakness, and sets his clumsy mind at work to find the +method by which you may be robbed of whatever you have not voluntarily +surrendered. + +"Of course," said Kettle, taking up the thread of his tale again, "it's +understood that we run this country for our own advantage first." + +"What other object should white men have up-country in Africa?" said +Clay. "We don't come here merely for our health." + +"But I've got a great notion of treating the people well besides. When +we have made a sufficient pile--and, mark you, it must be all in ivory, +as there's nothing else of value that can be easy enough handled--we +shall clear out for the Coast, one-time. And then we must realize on the +ivory, and then we can go home and live as Christians again." He stared +through the doorway of the hut at the aching sunshine beyond. "Oh, Lord! +Think of it, Doc--Home! England! Decent clothes! Regular attendance in +chapel on Sundays, and your soul well cared for and put into safe going +order again!" + +"Oh, my soul doesn't bother me. But England! that's fine to think about, +old man, isn't it? England!" he repeated dreamily. "Yes, I suppose I +should have to change my name if I did go back. I don't know, though. +It'd have blown over by now, perhaps; things do blow over, and if I went +to a new part of the country I expect I could still stick to the old +name, and not be known from Adam. Yes, things do blow over with time, +and if you don't make too much stir when you go back. I should have to +keep pretty quiet; but I bet I'd have a good time for all that. Fancy +the luxury of having good Glenlivet in a cask again, with a tap half-way +up, after the beastly stuff one got on the coast, or, worse still, what +one gets up here--and that's no whiskey at all!" + +"Well, you needn't worry about choosing your home drinks just now," said +Kettle. "'Palaver no set' here by a very long chalk yet, and till it is +you'll have to go sober, my lad, and keep a very clear head." + +Clay came to earth again. "Sorry, Skipper," he said, "but you set me +off. 'Tisn't often I look across at either to-morrow or yesterday. As +you say, it's a very dry shop this, and so the sooner we get what we +want and quit, the sooner we shall hit on a good time again. And the +sooner we clear out, too, the less chance we have of those beastly +Belgians coming in here to meddle. You know we've had luck so far, and +they haven't interfered with us. But we can't expect that for always. +The Congo Free State's a trading corporation, with dividends to make for +the firm of Leopold and Co., in Brussels, and they don't like trade +rivals. What stealing can be done in the country, they prefer to do +themselves." + +"When the time comes," said the little sailor grimly, "we shall be ready +for them, and if they interfere with me, I shall make the Congo Free +State people sit up. But in the mean while they are not here, and I +don't see that they need be expected. They can trace us up the Congo +from Leopoldville, if you like, by the villages we stopped at--one, +we'll say, every two hundred miles--but then we find this new river, and +where are we? The river's not charted; it's not known to any of the Free +State people, or I, being in their steamboat service, would have been +told of it; and the entrance is so well masked at its Congo end by +islands, that no one would guess it was there. The Congo's twenty miles +wide where our river comes in, and very shallow, and the +steamer-channel's right at the further bank. If they'd another +Englishman in their service up here, I'd not say; but don't you tell me +that the half-baked Dutchmen and Dagos who skipper their launches would +risk hunting out a new channel, and blunder on it that way." + +"No," said Clay, "I'm with you there. But word travels amongst the +natives. You can't get over that." + +"That's where the risk comes in. But I've done my best to make it +travel slow. I've got hold of that beast of a witch-doctor, who deserves +hanging anyway for all the poor wretches he's killed, and I've told him +that as soon as word slips out downriver of our being here, he'll get +shot, one-time. He's a man of influence, that witch-doctor, and I +shouldn't wonder but what he makes the natives keep their heads shut for +quite a long time." + +"It may be professional prejudice, but I rather hope that local +practitioner gets his gruel somehow before we clear out." Clay shivered. +"He's a cruel devil. Remember the remains of those two poor sacrificed +wretches we found when we got here?" + +Kettle shrugged his shoulders. "I know. But what could one do? Niggers +always are like that when they're left to play about alone--as these +here have been, I suppose, since Creation Day. We couldn't pin the +sacrifices on to the witch-doctor, or else, of course, we'd have strung +him up. We could only just give him an order for these customs to stop +one-time, and stand by to see it carried out. But we start the thing +from now, on fresh, sensible lines. We're going to have no foolery about +the nigger being as good as a white man. He isn't, and no man that ever +saw him where he grows ever thought so." + +"Speaking scientifically," said Clay, "it has always struck me that a +nigger is an animal placed by the scheme of creation somewhere between a +monkey and a white man. You might bracket him, say, with a Portugee." + +"About that," said Kettle; "and if you treat him as more, you make him +into a bad failure, whereas if he's left alone, he's a bit nasty and +cruel. Now I think, Doc, there's a middle course, and that's what I'm +going to try here whilst we're making our pile. We've grabbed four tidy +villages already, and that makes a good beginning for this new republic; +and when we've got things organized a bit more, and have a trifle of +time, we can grab some others. And, by James! Doc, there's a name for +you--the New Republic!" + +"I seem to think it's been used in a book somewhere." + +"The New Republic!" Kettle repeated relishingly. "It goes well. It's +certain to have been used before, but it's good enough to be used again. +Some day, perhaps, it'll have railways, and public-houses, and a postal +service, and some day it may even issue stamps of its own." + +"With your mug in the middle!" + +Captain Kettle reddened. "I don't see why not," he said stiffly. "I +started the show, and by James! whilst I'm running it, the New +Republic's got to hum; and when I'm gone, I shall be remembered as some +one out of the common. I'm a man, Doctor Clay, that's got a high sense +of duty. I should think it wrong to stay here sweating ivory out of +these people, if I didn't put something into them in return." + +"Well, you do seem to have got a hold over them, and that's a fact, and +I guess you will be able to make them--" he broke off, and burst into a +cackle of laughter. "Oh, my Christian aunt, look there!" + +A mob of natives were reverently approaching the hut, two of them +carrying skinny chickens. The witch-doctor led the advance. Kettle +guessed what was intended, and got up from his seat to interfere. + +"Oh, look here, Skipper," Clay pleaded, "don't spoil the show. Let's do +the traveller for once, and observe the 'interesting native customs.' +You needn't be afraid; they're going to sacrifice the bigger hen to you, +right enough." + +Captain Kettle allowed himself to be persuaded, and sat back again. The +mob of negroes came up to the doorway of the hut, and the witch-doctor, +with many prostrations to the little sailor, made a long speech. Then +the larger of the two fowls entered into the ceremony, and was slain +with a sword, and the witch-doctor, squatting on the ground, read +the omens. + +Kettle accepted the homage with glum silence, evidently restraining +himself, but when Clay's turn came, and the smaller and scraggier of the +chickens yielded up life in his honor, he hitched up his feet, and +squatted cross-legged on the chair, and held up his hand palm outward, +after the manner of some grotesque Chinese idol. A sense of the absurd +was one of the many things which had hampered this disreputable doctor +all through his unlucky career. + +The negroes, however, took it all in good part, and in time they +departed, well satisfied. But Kettle wore a gloomy face. + +"Funny, wasn't it?" said Clay. + +"I call it beastly," Kettle snapped. "This sort of thing's got to stop. +I'm not going to have my new Republic dirtied by shows like that." + +"Well," said Clay flippantly, "if you will set up as a little tin god on +wheels, you must expect them to say their prayers to you." + +"I didn't do anything of the kind. I merely stepped in and conquered +them." + +"Put it as you please, old man. But there's no getting over it that +that's what they take you for." + +"Then, by James! it comes to this: they shall be taught the real thing!" + +"What, you'll import a missionary?" + +"I shall wade in and teach them myself." + +"Phew!" whistled Clay. "If you're going to start the New Jerusalem game +on the top of the New Republic, I should say you'll have your +hands full." + +"Probably," said Kettle grimly; "but I am equal to that." + +"And you'll not have much time left to see after ivory palaver." + +"I shall go on collecting the ivory just the same. I shall combine +business with duty. And"--here he flushed somewhat--"I'm going to take +the bits of souls these niggers have got, and turn them into the +straight path." + +Clay rubbed his bald head. "If you're set on it," said he, "you'll do +it; I quite agree with you there. But I should have thought you'd seen +enough of the nigger to know what a disastrous animal he is after some +of these missionaries have handled him." + +"Yes," said Kettle; "but those were the wrong sort of missionary--wrong +sort of man to begin with; wrong sort of religion also." + +And then, to Dr. Clay's amazement, his companion broke out into a +violent exposition of his own particular belief. It was the first time +he had ever heard Kettle open his lips on the subject of religion, and +the man's vehemence almost scared him. Throughout the time they had been +acquainted, he had taken him to be like all other lay white men on the +Congo, quite careless on the subject, and an abhorrer of missions and +all their output; and, lo! here was an enthusiast, with a violent creed +of his very own, and with ranting thunders to heave at all who differed +from him by so much as a hairs-breadth. Here was a devotee who suddenly, +across a great ocean of absence, remembered the small chapel in South +Shields, where during shore days he worshipped beside his wife and +children. Here was a prophet, jerked by circumstances into being, +trumpeting the tenets of an obscure sect with something very near to +inspiration. + +He preached and preached on till the tropical day burned itself out, and +the velvety night came down, and with it the mists from the river. The +negroes of the village, with their heads wrapped up to keep off the +ghosts, shivered as they listened to "dem small whiteman make ju-ju" +across the clearing. Clay listened because he could not get away. He +knew the man well, yes, intimately; he was constantly dealing him out +unpalatable flippancies; but in this new, this exalted mood, he did not +care to do less than give attention. + +The man seemed to have changed; his eyes were bright and feverish; his +face was drawn; his voice had lost its shipmaster's brusqueness, and had +acquired the drone of the seaman's shore conventicle. There was no doubt +about his earnestness; in Clay's mind, there was no doubt about the +complications which would ensue from it. + +When Dr. Clay lay down on his bed that night, his mind was big with +foreboding. Ever since that entanglement with the woman occurred, which +ruined forever his chance of practicing in England, he had gone his way +with a fine recklessness as to consequences. He had lived for the day, +and the day only; he had got to the lowest peg on the medical scale; +and any change would be an improvement. He carried with him an +incomplete case of instruments, a wire-strung banjo, and a fine taste in +liquor and merriment as stock-in-trade, and if any of the many shapes +which Death assumes in the Congo region came his way, why there he was +ready to journey on. + +But during these last weeks a chance had appeared of returning to +England with a decent competency, and he jumped at it with an eagerness +which only those who have at one time or other "gone under" themselves +can appreciate. In effect he had entered into a partnership with Captain +Owen Kettle over a filibustering expedition--although they gave the +thing different names--and from the first their ivory raiding had been +extraordinarily successful. If only they could collect on undisturbed +for another six months at the same rate, and then get their spoils down +to the coast and shipped, the pair of them stepped into a snug +competence at once. But this latest vagary of his partner's seemed to +promise disruption of the whole enterprise. He did not see how Kettle +could possibly carry out this evangelizing scheme, on which he had so +suddenly gone crazed, without quite neglecting his other +commercial duties. + +However, in the course of the next day or so, as he witnessed Captain +Kettle's method of spreading his faith, Clay's forebodings began to pass +away. There was nothing of the hypocrite about this preaching sailor; +but, at the same time, there was nothing of the dreamer. He exhorted +vast audiences daily to enter into the narrow path (as defined by the +Tyneside chapel), but, at the same time, he impressed on them that the +privilege of treading this thorny way in no manner exempted them from +the business of gathering ivory, by one means or another, for himself +and partner. + +Kettle had his own notions as to how this proselytizing should be +carried on, and he set about it with a callous disregard for modern +precedent. He expounded his creed--the creed of the obscure Tyneside +chapel--partly in Coast-English, partly in the native, partly through +the medium of an interpreter, and he commanded his audience to accept +it, much as he would have ordered men under him to have carried out the +business of shipboard. If any one had doubts, he explained +further--once. But he did not allow too many doubts. One or two who +inquired too much felt the weight of his hand, and forthwith the +percentage of sceptics decreased marvellously. + +Clay watched on, non-interferent, hugging himself with amusement, but +not daring to let a trace of it be seen. "And I thought," he kept +telling himself with fresh spasms of suppressed laughter, "that that +man's sole ambition was to set up here as a sort of robber baron, and +here he's wanting to be Mahomet as well. The crescent or the sword; +Kettleism or kicks; it's a pity he hasn't got some sense of humor, +because as it is I've got all the fun to myself. He'd eat me if I told +him how it looked to an outsider." + +Once, with the malicious hope of drawing him, he did venture to suggest +that Kettle's method of manufacturing converts was somewhat sudden and +arbitrary, and the little sailor took him seriously at once. + +"Of course it is," said he. "And if you please, why shouldn't it be? My +intelligence is far superior to theirs at the lowest estimate; and +therefore I must know what's best for them. I order them to become +members of my chapel, and they do it." + +"They do it like birds," Clay admitted. "You've got a fine grip over +them." + +"I think they respect me." + +"Oh, they think you no end of a fine man. In fact they consider you, as +I've said before, quite a little tin--" + +"Now stop it, Doc. I know you're one of those fellows that don't mean +half they say, but I won't have that thrown against me, even in jest." + +"Well," said Clay, slily, "there's no getting over the fact that some +person or persons unknown sacrificed a hen up against the door of this +hut under cover of last night, and I guess they're not likely to waste +the fowl on me." + +"One can't cure them of their old ways all at once," said Kettle, with a +frown. + +"And some genius," Clay went on, "has carved a little wooden image in +trousers and coat, nicely whitewashed, and stuck up on that old _ju-ju_ +tree down there by the swamp. I saw it when I was down there this +morning. Of course, it mayn't be intended to be a likeness of you, +skipper, but it's got a pith helmet on, which the up-country nigger +doesn't generally add to portraits of himself; and moreover, it's +wearing a neat torpedo beard on the end of its chin, delicately colored +vermilion." + +"Well?" said Kettle sourly. + +"Oh, that had got a hen sacrificed in front of it, too, that's all. I +recognize the bird; he was a game old rooster that used to crow at me +every time I passed him." + +"Beastly pagans," Kettle growled. "There's no holding some of them yet. +They suck up the glad tidings like mother's milk at first, and they're +back at their old ways again before you've taught them the tune of a +hymn. I just want to catch one or two of these backsliders. By James! +I'll give them fits in a way they won't forget." + +But if Captain Kettle was keen on the conversion of the heathen to the +tenets of the Tyneside chapel, he was by no means forgetful of his +commercial duties. He had always got Mrs. Kettle, the family, and the +beauties of a home life in an agricultural district at the back of his +mind, and to provide the funds necessary for a permanent enjoyment of +all these items close at hand, he worked both Clay and himself +remorselessly. + +Ivory does not grow on hedgerows even in Africa, and the necessary store +could by no means be picked up even in a day, or even in a matter of +weeks. Ivory has been looked upon by the African savage, from time +immemorial, not as an article of use, but as currency, and as such it is +vaguely revered. He does not often of his own free will put it into +circulation; in fact, his life may well pass without his once seeing it +used as a purchasing medium; but custom sits strong on him, and he likes +to have it by him. An African chief of any position always has his store +of ivory, usually hidden, sometimes in the bush, sometimes buried--for +choice, under the bed of a stream. It is foolish of him, this custom, +because it is usually the one thing that attracts the white man to his +neighborhood, and the white man's visits are frequently fraught with +disaster; but it is a custom, and therefore he sticks to it. He is not +a highly reasoning animal, this Central African savage. + +The African, moreover, is used to oppression--that is, he either +oppresses or is oppressed--and he is dully callous to death. So the +villages were not much surprised at Kettle's descents upon them, and +usually surrendered to him passively on the mere prestige of his name. +They were pleasantly disappointed that he omitted the usual massacre, +and in gratitude were eager to accept what they were pleased to term his +_ju-ju_, but which he described as the creed of the Tyneside chapel. + +They reduced him to frenzy about every second day by surreptitiously +sacrificing poultry in his honor; but he did not dare to make any very +violent stand against this overstepping of the rubric, lest (as was +hinted to him) they should misinterpret his motive, and substitute a +plump nigger baby for the more harmless spring chicken. It is by no +means easy to follow the workings of the black man's brain in +these matters. + +But all the time he went on gathering ivory--precious ivory, worth as +much as a thousand pounds a ton if he could but get it home. Some of it +had been buried for centuries, and was black-brown with age and the +earth; some was new, and still bloody-ended and odorous; but he figured +it all out into silk dresses for Mrs. Kettle, and other luxuries for +those he loved, and gloated even over the little _escribellos_ which lay +about on the village refuse heaps as not being worthy to hide with the +larger tusks. + +And, between-whiles, he preached to the newly conquered, ordered them to +adopt the faith of the South Shields chapel, and finally sang them +hymns, which he composed himself especially to suit their needs, to the +tunes of "Hold the Fort," and "From Greenland's Icy Mountains," which he +played very sweetly on the accordion. Captain Kettle might be very keen +after business, but at the same time it could never be laid to his +charge that he was ever forgetful of the duty he owed to the souls of +these heathen who came under his masterful thumb. + +Dr. Clay, however, watched all the proceedings now with a jubilant mind. +As a political division, the much-talked-of New Republic might be said +to lack cohesion, but as a conquered tract of country it was very +pleasantly in awe of Captain Kettle. A very comfortable store of ivory +was stored in the principal hut of each village they came to, which +Clay, who commanded the rear guard, always took care to "put _ju-ju_ on" +after his senior officer at the head of the force had marched out of the +village _en route_ for the next, that being the most satisfactory +fashion of warding off pilferers. And last but not least, they had +agreed upon their route of exit to a sea-coast, and (in theory at any +rate) considered it eminently practicable. + +The Congo, of course, _via_ Leopoldville, Matadi, and Banana was barred +to them, on account of their trouble with the Free State authorities. +Their original idea had been to cross the great continent eastward by +way of the Great Lakes, and take shipping somewhere by Mozambique or +Zanzibar. But the barbarous difficulties of that route daunted even +Kettle, when they began to consider it in detail, and the advantages of +the French Congo territory showed up brightly in comparison. + +They still had the little stern-wheel steamer that was filched--I beg +their pardon, captured from the Free State, and in her, with the loot on +board, they must creep down the Congo again, almost to Stanley Pool, +steaming by night only, hiding at the back of islands during the days, +always avoiding observation. And then they must strike across country +due west, till they made the head-waters of the Ogowe, and so down to +the sea, fighting a way through whatever tribes tried to impede them. +The French Customs would take their toll of the ivory, of course, but +that could not be helped; but after that, a decent steamer again, and +the sea, and home. It was an appetizing prospect. + +But castles in the clouds have been built before, and often it is the +unexpected that sets them trundling; and in this case such an ordinary +occurrence as a tornado stepped into the reckoning and split this +sighed-for edifice of success and prosperity with all completeness. + +There had been no tornado to clear the atmosphere for nine whole days, +and the country was unendurable accordingly. The air was stagnant with +heat, and reeked with the lees of stale vegetation. The sky overhead was +full of lurid haze, which darkened the afternoon almost to a twilight, +and in the texture of this haze, indicated rather than definitely seen, +was a constant nicker of lightning. It was the ordinary heat-lightning +of the tropics, which is noiseless, but it somehow seemed to send out +little throbs into the baking air, till, at times, to be alive was for a +white man almost intolerable. + +[Illustration: THE LITTLE ARMY COULD ONLY MARCH IN SINGLE FILE.] + +Under this discomfort, a predatory column was marching on from one +captured village to another, whose possible store of ivory had so far +not been gleaned. The road was the ordinary African bush-path, intensely +winding and only foot-sole wide; the little army, with Kettle at its +head, could only march in single file, and Clay, who brought up the +straggling rear, sweated and panted quite half a mile behind his leader. + +Every one knew the tornado was approaching, and both the worn and +haggard white men and the sweating, malodorous blacks hoped for it with +equal intensity. For be it known that the tropical tornado passes +through the stale baked air at intervals, like some gigantic sieve, +dredging out its surplus heat and impurities. The which is a necessity +of Nature; else even the black man could not endure in those regions. + +And in due time, though it lingered most cruelly in its approach, the +tornado burst upon them, coming with an insane volley of rain and wind +and sound, that filled the forests with crashings, and sent the parched +earth flying in vicious mud-spirts. In a Northern country such a furious +outburst would have filled people with alarm; but here, in the tropic +wilderness, custom had robbed the tornado of its dignity; and no one was +awed. Indeed the blacks fairly basked in its violence, turning their +glistening bodies luxuriously under the great ropes of rain. + +The march stopped at the first outbreak of the squall. Kettle bolted to +a rock ahead of him, and squatted down in a dry lee, sucking up great +draughts of the new cool air. There are times when a drop of five +degrees of temperature can bring earthly bliss of a quality almost +unimaginable. And there he stayed, philosophically waiting till the +tornado should choose to blow itself out. + +The wind had started with a roar and a sudden squall, reaching the full +climax of its strength in a matter of thirty seconds, and then with +equal hurry it ended, leaving the country it had scoured full of a +fresh, cool, glistening calm. Kettle rose to his feet, shook his clothes +into shape, and gave the order to start. + +The black soldiers stepped out in his wake, and for half a mile he +strode at their head through the new-made mud of the path. But then he +was suddenly brought up all standing. Word had been tediously handed +down the long straggling line of men that there had been an accident in +the rear; that a great tree had fallen to the blast; and finally that +"dem dokitar, he lib for die." + +Swiftly Kettle turned, and worked his way back down the narrow lane of +the path. The negroes he hustled against watched him with stupid stares, +but he gave them little notice. Leaving out the facts that Clay was his +only white companion and assistant, he had grown strangely to like the +man, and the vague report of the accident filled him with more +than dismay. + +He had over a mile to go before he came upon the scene, and when he did +get there he found that the first report had exaggerated. Clay was not +dead, but he lay unconscious on the ground, pinned there by a great +cotton-wood which had crashed down before the fury of the wind, and +which had fallen across his right leg. To move the tree was an +impossibility; but with a sailor's resourcefulness Kettle set his men to +dig beneath it, so that the imprisoned leg might be released that way; +and himself gave them a lead. + +Clay, fortunately for himself, remained the whole time in a state of +blank unconsciousness, and at last he was released, but with his leg +horribly mangled. A hammock had meanwhile been rigged, and in this he +was carried back to the village from which they had set out. Kettle led +the retreat in front of the hammock bearers. He left his force of +soldiers and carriers to follow, or straggle, or desert, as they +pleased. The occupation of ivory raiding had completely passed from his +mind; he had forgotten his schemes of wholesale conversion; he had +nothing but Clay's welfare left at his heart. + +He got the wounded man under cover of one of the village huts, and +there, with the help of stimulants, poor Clay's senses came back to him, +He was lividly pale with pain and the shock, but he was game to the +backbone, and made no especial complaint. Indeed, he was rather disposed +to treat the whole thing humorously. + +"All the result of having a musical ear," he explained. "I made the boy +who carried it put my banjo in a hollow of that tree out of the wet, and +when I saw the old stick was going to crash down, I made a grab for the +'jo, and got it right enough. Well, I wasn't sufficiently nippy in +jumping out of the way, it seems, and as the old banjo's busted for +good, I shall have to trouble you for a funeral march on the +accordion, Skipper." + +"Funeral be hanged!" said Kettle. "You're worth a whole cemetery full of +dead men yet." + +"Speaking as a doctor," said Clay cheerfully, "I may tell you that your +unprofessional opinion is rot. Now, if I'd a brother sawbones here to +perform amputation, I might have a chance--say, one in a thousand." + +"Your leg ought to be cut off?" + +"Just there, above the knee. That'll mortify in twenty hours from now. +Thank the Lord I never wasted much morphia on the niggers. There's +plenty in stock. So it won't worry me much." + +"Look here," said Kettle, "I will cut that leg off for you." + +"You! My good Skipper, you're a handy man, I know, but what the blazes +do you know about amputation?" + +"You've got to teach me. You can show me the tools to use, and draw +diagrams of where the arteries come." + +"By the powers, I've a great mind to. There's something pretty rich in +giving an amputation lecture with one's own femorals as a subject." + +"You'd better," said Kettle grimly, "or I shall cut it off without being +taught. I like you a lot too well, my man, to let you die for want of a +bit of help." + +And so, principally because the grotesqueness of the situation appealed +to his whimsical sense of humor, Clay forthwith proceeded to pose as an +anatomy demonstrator addressing a class, and expounded the whole art of +amputation, handling the utensils of the surgeon's craft with the gusto +of an expert, and never by shudder or sigh showing a trace of the white +feather. He carried the whole thing through with a genial gayety, +pointing his sentences now with a quip, now with some roguish sparkle of +profanity, and finally he announced that the lecture was complete and +over, and then he nodded familiarly at his wounded limb. + +"By-bye, old hoof!" he said. "You've helped carry the rest of me into +some queer scrapes, one time and another. But we've had good times +together, as well as bad, you and I, and anyway, I'm sorry to lose you. +And now, skipper," said he, "get off your coat and wade in. I've put on +the Esmarch's bandage for you. Don't be niggardly with the +chloroform--I've got a good heart. And remember to do what I told you +about that femoral artery, and don't make a mistake there, or else +there'll be a mess on the floor. Shake hands, old man, and good luck to +your surgery; and anyway, thank you for your trouble." + +I fancy that I have made it clear before that Captain Kettle was a man +possessed not only of an iron nerve, but also of all a sailor's +handiness with his fingers; but here was a piece of work that required +all his coolness and dexterity. At home, on an operating table, with +everything at hand that antiseptic surgery could provide, with highly +trained surgeons and highly trained nurses in goodly numbers, it would +have been a formidable undertaking; but there, among those savage +surroundings, in that awful loneliness which a white man feels so far +away from all his kin, it was a very different matter. + +It makes me shiver when I think how that little sailor must have +realized his risks and his responsibility. It was a situation that would +have fairly paralyzed most men. But from what can be gathered from the +last letter that the patient ever wrote, it is clear that Kettle carried +out the operation with indomitable firmness and decision; and if indeed +some of his movements were crude, he had grasped all the main points of +his hurried teaching, and he made no single mistake of any but pedantic +importance. + +Clay woke up from the anaesthetic, sick, shaken, but still courageous as +ever. "Well," he gasped, "you've made a fine dot-and-go-one of me, +Skipper, and that's a fact. When you chuck the sea, and get back to +England, and set up in a snug country practice as general practitioner, +you'll be able to look back on your first operation with pride." + +Kettle, shaken and white, regarded him from a native stool in the middle +of the hut. "I can't think," he said, "how any men can be doctors whilst +there's still a crossing to sweep." + +"Oh," said Clay, "you're new at it now, and a bit jolted up. But the +trade has its points. I'll argue it out with you some day. But just at +present I'm going to try and sleep. I'm a bit jolted up, too." + +Now, it is a melancholy fact to record that Dr. Clay did not pull round +again after his accident and the subsequent operation. To any one who +knows the climate, the reason will be easily understood. In that heated +air of Central Equatorial Africa, tainted with all manner of harmful +germs, a scratch will take a month to heal, and any considerable flesh +wound may well prove a death warrant. Captain Kettle nursed his patient +with a woman's tenderness, and Clay himself struggled gamely against his +fate; but the ills of the place were too strong for him, and the +inevitable had to be. + +But the struggle was no quick thing of a day, or even of a week. The man +lingered wirily on, and in the mean while Kettle saw the marvellous +political structure, which with so much labor and daring he had built +up, crumbling to pieces, as it were, before his very eyes. A company of +Arab slave-traders had entered the district, and were recapturing his +subject villages one by one. + +At the first attack runners came to him imploring help. It was useless +to send his half-baked soldiers without going himself. They knew no +other leader; there was not a negro among them fit to take a command; +and he himself was tied. He said nothing to Clay, but just sent a +refusal, and remained at his post. + +Again and again came clamorous appeals for help against these new +invaders, and again and again he had to give the same stubborn refusal. +His vaunted New Republic was being split up again into its primitive +elements; the creed of the South Shields chapel was being submerged +under a wave of red-hot Mohammedanism; and the ivory, that hard-earned +ivory, with all its delicious potentialities, was once more being lifted +by alien raiders, and this time forever beyond his reach. + +Clay got some inkling of what was going on, and repeatedly urged him to +be off at once and put things straight in person. "Don't you worry about +me, Skipper," he'd say. "I'll get along here fine by myself. Nobody'll +come to worry me. And if they did, they'd let me alone. I'm far too +unwholesome-looking to chop just now." + +But Kettle always stolidly refused to leave him. Indeed, with difficulty +(for he was at all times a painfully truthful man) he used to lie to his +patient and say that there was no need for him to go at all; that +everything was going on quite as they could wish; and that he was vastly +enjoying the relaxation of a holiday. + +But in sober fact things were going very much awry. And every day they +got worse. Even his original bevy of troops, those he had brought up +with him into the country on the stern-wheel launch, seemed to grasp +the fact that his star was in the descendant. There was no open mutiny, +for they still feared him too much personally to dare that; but in the +black unwatched nights they stole away from the village, and every day +their numbers thinned, and the villagers followed their lead; and when +the end came, the two lonely white men had the village to themselves. + +Clay's last words were typical of him. Kettle, with devotional intent, +had been singing some hymn to him, which he had composed as being +suitable for the occasion. But the dying man's ears were dulled, and he +mistook both air and words. "You're a good fellow to sing me that," he +whispered. "I know you don't like striking up that sort of music. By +Jove! I heard that song last at the Pav. Good old Piccadilly Circus." + +And then a little later: "I say, Skipper. I'm close on the peg-out. +There's a girl in Winchester--but hang her, anyway. No, you've been my +best pal. You're to have all my share of the loot--the ivory, I mean. +You savvy, I leave it to you in my last will and testament, fairly and +squarely. And Skipper, I'm sorry I ragged you about your mug on those +New Republic stamps. If ever a man deserved what he wanted in that line, +you're--you're--" + +The voice failed. "Yes?" said Kettle, and stooped nearer. + +Clay feebly winked. "You're him," he whispered. "So long, old cock." + +Captain Kettle buried his friend in the first gold of the next dawn +under a magnolia tree, which was hung with sweet-scented blossoms, in +the middle of the village. During the heat of the day he composed a copy +of verses to his memory, and when the sun had dropped somewhat, he went +out with his knife to carve them on the tree above the grave. + +It appeared that the village was not so completely deserted as seemed to +the eye, or, at any rate, that he had been watched. On the newly turned +earth was a chicken, which had been sacrificed in the orthodox fashion; +and for once he beheld the sight without resentment. + +He raised his hat to the dead, and "Doc," he said, "this hen-killing is +bang against my principles, but I won't say anything now. I guess it's +some nigger's way of showing respect to you, and, by James! you're a +fellow that ought to be admired. If only it hadn't been for that tree +falling down, there'd have been two men round here that would have left +their mark on Africa, and you're one of them. Well, old man, you're +gone, and I hope you're looking down this moment--or up, as the case may +be--to read this bit of poetry I'm going to stick above your head. It's +worth attention. It's about the best sample of rhyme I ever +hoisted out." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE LOOTING OF THE "INDIAN SHERIFF." + + +Captain Kettle dived two fingers into the bowl of odorous, +orange-colored palm-oil chop, and fished out a joint suspiciously like a +nigger baby's arm. He knew it was a monkey's; or at least he was nearly +certain it was a monkey's; but he ate no more from that particular bowl. +The tribe he was with were not above suspicion of cannibalism, and +though their hospitality was lavish, it was by no means guaranteed as +to quality. + +The head-man noticed his action, and put a smiling question: "You no +like dem climb-climb chop? Tooth him plenty sore?" + +"No," said Kettle, "my teeth are all in good working order, daddy, +thanks. But now you mention it, the monkey is a bit tough. Not been +stewed long enough, perhaps." + +The head-man gave an order, and presently a woman at the cooking fire +outside brought another calabash into the hut, and set it at the little +sailor's feet. The head-man examined and explained: "Dem's dug chop, +too-plenty-much fine. You fit?" + +"I fit," said Kettle; "that'll suit me down to the ground, daddy. Stewed +duck is just the thing I like, and palm-oil sauce isn't half bad when +you're used to it. I'll recommend your pub to my friends, old one-eye, +when I get home." + +He dipped his digits into the stew, and drew forth a doubtful limb. He +regarded it with a twitching nose and critical eye. + +"Thundering heavy-boned duck this, of yours, daddy." + +"Me no savvy?" said his host questioningly. + +"I say dem dug he got big bone. He no fit for fly. He no say +quack-quack." + +"Oh, I savvy plenty," said the one-eyed man, smiling. "Dem not +quack-quack dug, dem bow-wow dug. You see him bow-wow dis morning. You +hit him with foot, so." + +"Ugh," said Kettle, "dog stew, is it? Yes, I know the animal, if you say +he's the one I kicked. I had watched the brute eating garbage about the +village for half an hour, and then when he wanted to chew my leg, I hit +him. Ugh, daddy, don't you bring on these delicacies quite so sudden, or +I shall forget my table manners. African scavenger dog! And I saw him +make his morning meal. Here, Missis, for Heaven's sake take this +dish away." + +The glistening black woman stepped forward, but the head-man stopped +her. There was some mistake here. He had killed the best dog in the +village for Captain Kettle's meal, and his guest for some fastidious +reason refused to eat. He pointed angrily to the figured bowl. "Dug +chop," said he. "Too-much-good. You chop him." This rejection of +excellent food was a distinct slur on his menage, and he was working +himself up into passion. "You chop dem dug chop one-time," he repeated. + +The situation was growing strained, and might well culminate in +fisticuffs. But Captain Kettle, during his recent many months' sojourn +as a lone white man in savage Africa, had acquired one thing which had +never burdened him much before, and that was tact. He did not openly +resent the imperative tone of his host, which any one who had known him +previously would have guessed to be his first impulse. But neither at +the same time did he permit himself to be forced into eating the noxious +meal. He temporized. With that queer polyglot called Coast English, and +with shreds from a score of native dialects, he made up a tattered +fabric of speech which beguiled the head-man back again into good humor; +and presently that one-eyed savage squatted amicably down on his heels, +and gave an order to one of his wives in attendance. + +The lady brought Kettle's accordion, and the little sailor propped his +back against the wattle wall of the hut, and made music, and lifted up +his voice in song. The tune carried among the lanes and dwellings of the +village, and naked feet _pad-padded_ quickly up over dust and the grass; +the audience distributed itself within and without the head-man's hut, +and listened enrapt; and the head-man felt the glow of satisfaction that +a London hostess feels when she has hired for money the most popular +drawing-room entertainer of the day, and her guests condescend to enjoy, +and not merely to exhibit themselves as _blases_. + +But Captain Kettle, it must be confessed, felt none of the artist's +pride in finding his art appreciated. He had always the South Shields +chapel at the back of his mind, with its austere code and creed, and he +felt keenly the degradation of lowering himself to the level of the +play-actor; even though he was earning his bare existence--and had been +doing all through the heart of barbarous Africa--by mumming and +carolling to tribes whose trade was murder and cannibalism. + +He felt an infinite pity for himself when he reflected that many a time +nothing but a breakdown, or a loudly bawled hymn, or a series of twisted +faces, had been the only thing which stood between him and the cooking +fires. But there was no help for it. He was a fighting man, but he could +not do battle with a continent; and so he had either to take the only +course which remained, and lower himself (as he considered it) to the +level of the music-hall pariah, and mouth and mow to amuse the mob, or +else accept the alternative which even the bravest of men might well +shrink from in dismay. + +His travel through the black heart of this black continent may have been +paralleled by that of other obscure heroes who voyaged from grim +necessity and not for advertisement, but the history of it, as it was +told me in his simple log-book style, far surpasses the wonder of any of +those travels which find a place in published volumes. He had started, a +completely destitute man, from a spot far up on the Haut Congo, amidst +treacherous hostile population. He had not a friend in Africa, black or +white. He had no resources save his tongue, his thews, an empty +revolver, and his mother wit, and yet he had won a slow way down to the +western seaboard through a hundred hostile tribes, where an army would +have been eaten up, and a Marco Polo might well have failed. + +It would suit my pleasure finely to write of this terrific journey, with +its dangers, its finesses, and its infinite escapes; it would gratify me +to the quick if I might belaud to the full of my appreciation the +endurance, and the grand resourcefulness, of this little sailor cast so +desperately out of his more native element; but the account of the +travel is reserved for the pen of Captain Kettle himself, and so the +more professional scribe may not poach upon his territory. + +I had it from his own lips that the perils of the way made him see the +poetry of it all, and he said to himself that here was the theme for +that great epic, which would be the _chef d'oeuvre_ of his literary +life. It is to be written in blank verse, with the hymns and secular +songs he sang at each stop given in an appendix, and he confidently +hopes that it will stand out as something conspicuous and distinct +against the sombre background of prosaic travel books. + +His arrival at the coast was an achievement that made him almost faint +with joy. Xenophon and his ten thousand Greeks hailed the sea, we are +told, with a mighty shout. But to them Thalassa was merely a way-mark, a +sign that they were nearing home. To Kettle it was more, far more, +although he could not define the relationship. He had dwelt upon the sea +the greater part of his days; he had got his meagre living from her; and +although at all times she had been infinitely hard and cruel to him, and +he had cursed her day in and day out with all a seaman's point and +fluency, she had wrapped herself into his being in a way he little +guessed, till separation showed him the truth. + +He had seen the glint of her through the trees as he entered this last +village of his march, but the air was too dull with heat for him to +catch so much as a whiff of her refreshing saltness, and for the present +he could not go down to greet her. He was still the lonely troubadour, +dressed in a native cloth around the loins, with a turban of rags upon +his head, and a battered accordion slung from his back, come in from +afar to sing and pull faces for a dinner. + +The meal, for reasons which have been stated, was not a success, but +payment had to be rendered all the same. He sang with noise, and made +antics such as experience had taught him would be acceptable; and the +audience, to whom a concert of this kind was a rarity, howled to him to +go on. There was no escape. He had to sing till he could sing no more. +It was far on into the night when a couple of native _tom-tom_ players +rescued him. The musical appetites of the village had been whetted +rather than appeased, and as no more could be got out of this wandering +minstrel, why then they were quite ready to listen to local instruments +and melody. + +Dancing commenced, and the heat and the noise grew, and presently Kettle +managed to slip away and walk out through the yam and manioc gardens, +and the banana groves, to the uproarious beach beyond. He threw himself +wearily down on the warm white sand, and when the great rollers swept in +and crashed into noisy bellowing surf, the spindrift from it drove on +him, and refreshed him luxuriously. It was almost worth going through +all he had suffered to enjoy the pleasures of that greeting. + +For long-enough he filled his eye on the creaming fringes of the surf, +and then he glanced over it at the purple plain of ocean which lay level +and unruffled beyond. A great African moon glowed above it in the night, +and the lonely vastness of it all gratified him like the presence of a +friend. "You are a decent old puddle," he murmured to himself, "though I +say it that's got precious little from you beyond mud and slashing. +It's good to be back in reach of the stink of you again." + +He lay on where he was deep into the night, revelling in the +companionship of the sea, till the many-colored land-crabs began to +regard him as mere jetsam. He was not consciously thinking. He was +letting his mind rest in an easy torpor; but from time to time he let +his eyes range through the purple dark with a seaman's mechanical +watchfulness. The noise of the _tom-toms_ and the dancing from the +village behind him had died away, and nothing but the sounds from the +bush, and the din of the surf, remained to show that the world was +alive. The moon, too, had been smothered by a cloud bank, and night lay +huddled close round him, with a texture like black velvet. + +Then, with a jump he was on his feet, and trembling violently. Another +old friend was in his neighborhood--a steamer. Her masthead light had +just twinkled into view. He got up and began walking nervously toward +her along the hard, white sands. He saw her first in the northwest, +coming from some port in the Bight of Biafra probably, and the odds were +she was heading south along the Coast. + +Presently he picked up her red port light. Yes, he admitted to himself +with a sigh, she was making for one of the ports to southward, for Sette +Camma perhaps, or Loango, or Landana, or Kabenda, and he calmed himself +down with the discovery. Had she been heading north, he had it in him to +have swum out to her through the surf and the sharks, and chanced being +picked up. He was sick of this savage Africa which lay behind him. The +sight of those two lights, the bright white, and the duller red, let him +know how ravenous was his hunger to see once more a white man and a +white man's ship, and to feel the sway of a deck, and to smell the +smells of oil, and paint, and Christian cookery, from which he had been +for such a weary tale of days divorced. + +The steamer drew on till she came a-beam, and the red port light was +eclipsed, and "carrying no stern light," was Captain Kettle's comment. +There was a small glow from her deck and two or three of her ports were +lit, but for the most part she crept along as a mysterious black ship +voyaging into a region of blackness. It was too dark to make out more +than her bare existence, but Kettle took a squint at the Southern Cross, +which hung low in the sky like an ill-made kite, to get her bearings, +and so made note of her course, and from that tried to deduce her +nationality. + +From the way she was steering he reckoned she came from Batanga or +Cameroons, which are in German territory, and so set her down as sailing +originally from Marseilles or Hamburg, and anyway decided that she was +not one of the Liverpool boats which carry all the West Coast trade to +England. But as he watched, she seemed to slew out of her course. She +lengthened out before him across the night, as her bows sheered in +toward the land, till he saw her broadside on, and then she hung +motionless as a black blot against the greater blackness beyond. + +Captain Kettle summed the situation: "Rounded up and come to an anchor. +There'll be a factory somewhere on the beach there. But I don't know, +though. That one-eyed head-man said nothing about a factory, and if +there was one, why doesn't she whistle to raise 'em up so's they'd be +ready to bring off their bit o' trade in the surf-boats when +day breaks?" + +A cloud slid away in the sky, and the moon shone out like the suddenly +opened bulb of a dark lantern. The oily surface of the sea flashed up +into sight, and on it sat the steamer--a picture in black and silver. +She lay there motionless as the trees on the beach, and the reason for +her state was clear. Her forefoot soared stiffly aloft till it was +almost clear of the water; her stern was depressed; her decks listed to +port till it was an acrobatic feat to make passageway along them. + +Captain Kettle whistled to himself long and dismally. "Piled her up," he +muttered, "that's what her old man has done. Hit a half-ebb reef, and +fairly taken root there. He's not shoved on his engines astern either, +and that means she's ripped away half her bottom, and he thinks she'll +founder in deep water if he backs her off the ground." A tiny spit of +flame, pale against the moonlight, jerked out from under the awnings of +the steamer's upper bridge. The noise of the shot came some time +afterward, no louder than the cracking of a knuckle. "By James! +somebody's getting his gun into use pretty quick. Well, it's some one +else's trouble, and not mine, and I guess I'm going to stay on the +beach, and watch, and not meddle." He frowned angrily as though some one +had made a suggestion to him. "No, by James! I'm not one of those that +seeks trouble unnecessarily." + +But all the same he walked off briskly along the sand, keeping his eyes +fixed on the stranded steamer. That some sort of a scuffle was going on +aboard of her was clear from the shouts and the occasional pistol shots, +which became louder as he drew more near; and Captain Kettle, +connoisseur as he was of differences of this sort on the high seas, +became instinctively more and more interested. And at last when he came +to a small canoe drawn up on the beach above high-water mark, he paused +beside it with a mind loaded with temptation as deep as it would carry. + +The canoe was a dug-out, a thing of light cotton-wood, with washboards +forward to carry it through a surf. A couple of paddles and a calabash +formed its furniture, and its owner probably lived in the village where +he had sung for his dinner over-night. Of course, to borrow her--merely +to borrow her, of course--without permission was-- + +Another splatter of pistol shots came from the steamer, and a yelping of +negro voices. Captain Kettle hesitated no longer. He laid hands on the +canoe's gunwale, and ran her down into the edge of the surf. He had +barely patience to wait for a smooth, but, after three rollers had +roared themselves into yeast and quietude, he ran his little craft out +till the water was arm-pit deep, and then scrambled on board and paddled +furiously. + +But it is not given to the European to equal the skill of the black on +African surf beaches, and, as might be expected, the next roller that +swooped in overended the canoe, and sent it spinning like a toy through +the broken water. But Captain Kettle had gained some way; and if he +could not paddle the little craft to sea, he could at least swim her +out; and this he proceeded to do. He was as handy as an otter in the +water, and besides, there was something here which was dragging him to +seaward very strongly. His soul lusted for touch with a steamer again +with a fierceness which he did not own even to himself. Even a wrecked +steamer was a thing of kinship to him then. + +He swam the dug-out through the last drench and backtow of the surf, +rocked her clear from part of her watery load, and then, with a feeling +of relief, clambered gingerly on board and baled the rest over the +gunwale with his hands. It is not good to stay over-long in these seas +which fringe the West African beaches, by reason of the ground shark +which makes them his hunting-ground. And then he manned the paddle, +knelt in the stern, and went the shortest way to the steamer which +perched on the rock. + +The moon was still riding in the sky, but burnt with a pale light now, +as dawn had jumped up from behind the shore forests. All things were +shown clearly. Among other matters, Kettle noted from trifles in her +garnishing, which read clear as print to a seaman's eye, that the +steamer was not French or German as he had guessed before, but hailed +from his own native islands. Moreover, her funnel told him that she was +not one of the two regular lines from Liverpool, which do all the +commerce of the coast. But he had no time for fresh speculations just +then as to her business. The scuffling on board had been growing more +and more serious, and it was clear that the blacks of her complement +were giving the whites more than they cared about. + +Kettle knew enough of the custom of the Coast to be able to sum the +situation. "Her Krooboys have broken out of hand," he commented. "That's +what's the trouble. You come down here from England with just enough +white men to handle your vessel to Sierra Leone, and then you ship +Krooboys to work cargo and surf-boats, and do everything except steer, +and as long as nothing happens, your Krooboy is a first-class hand. Two +cupfuls of rice and a bit offish is all the grub he wants; he'll work +sixteen hours a day without a grunt; and he'll handle a winch or a steam +crane with any Geordie donkey-man that has been grounded in the shops. +But just put your steamboat on the ground where he thinks she can't get +off, and there's a different tune to play. He's got a notion that the +ship's his, and the cargo's his, to loot as he likes, and if he doesn't +get 'em both, he's equal to making trouble. Seems to me he's making bad +trouble now." + +By this time it was plain that the black men had got entire possession +of the lower parts of the ship. The small handful of whites were on the +top of the fiddley, and while most were fighting to keep the Africans +back, a couple were frenziedly working to get a pair of davits swung +outboard, and a lifeboat which hung from them lowered into the water. It +was clear they had given up all hope of standing by the ship; and +presently they got the boat afloat, and slid down to her in hurried +clusters by the davit falls, and then unhooked and rowed away from the +steamer's side in a skelter of haste. Coals and any other missile that +came handy were showered upon them by the Krooboys who manned the rail, +to which they replied with a few vicious revolver shots; and then the +boat drew out of range. + +Captain Kettle, in his clumsy canoe, paddled up close to her and nodded, +and gave the boat's people a "good-morning." The greeting was quaintly +enough out of place, but nobody seemed to notice that. Each party was +too occupied in staring at the other. Those in the lifeboat saw a little +lean European, naked to the waist, clad only in a turban and native +cloth, and evidently (from the color of his skin) long inured to that +state. Kettle saw a huddle of fugitives, all of them scared, and many of +them bloody with wounds. + +The man who was steering the white boat, the steamer's mate he was, +according to the gold lace on his cuff, spoke first. + +"Well," he said, "you're a funny enough looking beachcomber. What do you +want, anyway?" + +Captain Kettle felt himself to redden all over under the tan of his +skin. Neatness in clothes was always a strong point with him, and he +resented the barbarism of his present get-up acutely. "If I wanted a job +at teaching manners, I could find one in your boat, that's certain," was +his prompt retort. "And when I'd finished with that, I could give some +of you a lesson in pluck without much harm being done. I wonder if you +call yourselves white men to let a crowd of niggers clear you out of +your ship like that?" + +"Now, look here, Robinson Crusoe," said the man at the steering oar, +"our tempers are all filed up on the raw edge just now, and if you give +much lip, this boat will be rowed over the top of your Noah's ark before +you know what's hit it. You paddle back to your squaw and piccaninnies +on the beach, Robinson, and don't you come out here to mock your betters +when they're down on their luck. We've nothing to give you except ugly +words, and you'll get them cheap." + +"Well, Mr. Mate," said Kettle, "I haven't heard white man's English for +a year, but if you can teach me anything new, I'm here to learn. I've +come across most kinds of failure in my time, but a white man who lets +himself be kicked off his ship by a parcel of Krooboys, and who +disgraces Great Britain by being a blooming Englishman, is a specimen +that's new to me. But perhaps I'm making a mistake? Perhaps you're a +Dutchman or a Dago that's learnt the language? Or perhaps, to judge from +that cauliflower nose of yours, you're something that's escaped out of a +freak museum? You haven't a photo about you by any chance? I'd like to +send one home to South Shields. My Missis is a great hand at collecting +curiosities which you only see in foreign parts." + +The mate bent on the steering gear with sudden violence, turned the +lifeboat's head with a swirl, and began sculling her toward the canoe. +But a tall, thin man sitting beside him in the stern-sheets said +something to him in an undertone, and the Mate reluctantly let the oar +drag limp in the water, and sat himself down, and ostentatiously made +ready to roll a cigarette. + +"Now, look here," said the tall man, "I don't suppose you want to +quarrel." + +"I've been in quarrels before for the sheer fun of the thing," said +Kettle, who was determined that at any rate no apology should come +from his side. + +"So have I," said the tall man, "but I've no time for empty amusement +just now. I'm down here on business. I'm trying to start a new steamer +line to work this Coast and get away the monopoly from the other +companies. That boat stuck yonder--the _Indian Sheriff_ she's called--is +my venture, and she represents about all I've got, and she isn't +underwritten for a sixpence. I've been going nap or nothing on this +scheme, and at present it looks uncommon like nothing. What I'm anxious +about now, is to see if I can't make some arrangement for salvage." + +"I can understand it would be useful to you." + +"It might be useful to others besides me. Now, there's you, for +instance. I dare say you've got a nice little establishment ashore, and +some simple comforts, and a bit of influence in your village. But you +spoke about your wife at home in South Shields just now, and I make no +doubt that if you'd got a tidy sum of money in your pocket you'd be as +pleased as not to get home to her again?" + +Captain Kettle was on the point of breaking out into explanations and +disavowals, but a thought came to him, and he refrained. + +"Well," he said, "I'm waiting to hear your offer." + +"Here it is, then. You go ashore now, raise your village, bring off +every nigger you can scare up, swamp the Krooboys on that steamboat and +keep her from being looted, and I solemnly promise you 25 per cent. of +her value and the value of what she has in her." + +"Yes," said Kettle thoughtfully. "That's a square enough offer, and it's +made before witnesses, and I believe the courts would make you stick +to it." + +"Ho!" grunted the Mate, "Robinson's a sea lawyer, is he? Courts, he +talks about." + +Kettle ignored the suggestion. "Should I know your name, sir?" he asked +of the tall man. + +"I'm Nicholson Sheriff. If you know Liverpool, you'll have heard of me." + +"You were with Kevendales?" + +"That's me. I left there two years ago, to start on my own." + +"H'm," said the little sailor in the canoe. "I was master of one of +Kevendale's ships once. It was me that had misfortune with the +_Armenia_." + +"By gum! are you Captain Kettle that piled up the old _Atrocity_ on +that iceberg? I'm sorry to see you come down to this, Captain." + +"Captain Kettle," said the sulky Mate, "that was in the Congo Pilot +Service?" + +"Yes," said Kettle. + +"Then, Captain," said the Mate, "I take back what I said about you being +Robinson Crusoe. You may have met with misfortune, but, by the Lord, +you're a man all the way through. You've made the ports down there on +the Congo just ring with the way you kept your end up with those beastly +Belgians. And now when any Englishman goes ashore at Boma or Matadi or +any place on the river, they're fit to eat him." + +The compliment had its doubtful side, but Kettle bowed with pleasure. +"Mr. Mate," he said, "I should have been more polite to you. I forgot +you were a man who had just come through an anxious time." + +"Anxious time! My holy grandmother! You should have just seen. It was my +watch below when she took the ground, and I give you my word for it, +there's deep water marked in the chart where she struck. Third mate had +the bridge, and he rang for engines hard astern. Nothing happened. From +the first moment she hit, the Krooboys got the notion she was their ship +by all the rules of the Coast, and they played up to that tune like men. +They bashed in the heads of the two engineers who tried to handle the +reversing gear, and fairly took the ship below; and when the old man +came out in his pyjamas and started his fancy shooting on deck, they +just ran in on him and pulled him into kybobs. + +"The second mate pegged out a week ago with black-water fever. So there +was only me and Mr. Sheriff here, and the third left that were worth +counting." He wagged a stubby finger contemptuously at the rest of his +boat's crew. "Half this crowd don't know enough English to take a wheel, +and the rest of them come from happy Dutchland, where they don't make +soldiers, bless their silly eyes. I can tell you I'm not feeling sweet +about it myself. I left a bran new suit of clothes and an Accra +finger-ring on that blame' ship." + +"Well, never mind the rest of the tale now," said Sheriff. "Here we are +kicked overboard, and glad enough to save our bare skins, I'll own. We +won't go into the question of manning British ships with foreigners just +now. What's interesting me is the fact that those Krooboys have got +hatches off already, and are standing by the cranes and winches. I've +seen them work cargo before all up and down the coast, and know the pace +they can put into it, and if we don't move quick they'll scoff that ship +clear down to the ceilings of her holds." A winch chain rattled, and a +sling load of cloth bales swung up to one of her derrick sheaves. "My +faith, look at that! They've begun to broach cargo by now, and there are +some of the beggars setting to lower the surf-boats to ferry it on to +the beach." + +The Mate rapped out sulphurous wishes for the Krooboys' future state. + +"Yes, yes," said Sheriff, "but we're wasting time. Come now, Captain, +you heard my offer, and you seemed to like it. I'm waiting for you to +fill your part of the bargain. Away with you ashore, and bring off your +army and take possession." + +"I'm afraid, sir," said Kettle honestly, "you've been taking a little +too much for granted. I've got no establishment ashore. I'm just what +you see--a common tramp, or worse, seeing that I've been play-acting for +my dinners of late. And as for any help those niggers ashore could give, +why, I shouldn't recommend it. The one-eyed old son of a dog who's +head-man, has served on ships according to his own telling, and he'll +have the same notions about loot as your own Krooboys. The Coast nigger +hereabouts has got a fancy that any ship on the beach is cumshaw for +himself, and you'll not knock it out of him without some hard teaching. +No, Mr. Sheriff, to call in that one-eyed head-man and his friends--who +it makes me hot to think I had to sing and dance to not six hours +back--would only pile up the work ahead of us. Much best tackle the ship +as she is." + +"What!" said Sheriff. "Do you mean to say we can retake her? You don't +know what those boys are like. I tell you they were fair demons when we +left, and they'll be worse now, because they are certain to have got +liquor inside them by this. It's not a bit of use your counting on these +deckhands and stokers in the boat. They're not a penn'oth of use, the +whole lot of them." + +"Well," said Kettle diffidently, "I'd got my eye on that packet of +cartridge beside you on the thwart. If they were four-fiftys--" + +"They are--let's look--four--five--nought. Yes, well?" + +Captain Kettle pulled a well-cleaned revolver out of his waist-cloth. +"I've carried this empty for a whole year now, sir, but I don't think +I've forgot my shooting." + +"I can speak here," said the Mate. "I've heard of his usefulness that +way on the Congo. When Captain Kettle lets off his gun, Mr. Sheriff, +it's a funeral. By gum, if he's a way of getting the ship again, I'm on +for helping. Look! There's that steward's boy, Tins, going into my room +this minute. I've a suit of clothes there that have never been put on, +and he'll have them for a cert if we don't look quick." + +"Now then, Captain," said Sheriff, "if there's anything going to be +done, get a move on you." + +Kettle paddled the dug-out alongside, and stepped into the lifeboat. His +eye glittered as he tore open the wrapping of the cartridges and +reloaded his revolver. It was long since he had known the complacent +feel of the armed man. + +"Now," he said, "there's one more thing. I'm not in uniform, but I hold +a master's ticket, and I've got to be skipper." + +"You can take the berth for me," said the Mate. "I'll say outright it's +a lot above my weight." + +"And I've offered it to you already," said Sheriff. "Go on, man, and +give your orders." + +Captain Kettle's first desire was to get back to the steamer whence the +boat had come, and this the mixed crew of foreigners at the oars had +scruples about carrying out. But Kettle and the Mate got furiously at +work on them with their hands, and in less than a minute the men were +doing as they were bidden, except, that is, a trio who were too badly +wounded to sit up, and who were allowed to wallow on the floor gratings. + +The Mate straddled in the stern and steered her with an oar, and the +white painted boat pulled heavily toward the stranded vessel. The +Krooboys in possession were quick to see her coming. A mob of them +gathered on the bridge deck, gibbering and shouting, and threatening +with their hands; and even before the boat drew within range, they +commenced a vigorous fusilade of coal lumps. Kettle had all a cleanly +man's dislike for these dirty missiles, and he halted the boat just +beyond the limit of their fire, and stood up himself, and sighted the +revolver over the crook of his left elbow. + +He dropped one man, and the others raged at him. He dropped a second, +and still with an impotent courage they stood their ground. He brought a +third shrieking to the deck, and then, and not before, did the others +turn to run, and he shot a fourth to hurry their going. Then he turned +to the rowers in the lifeboat. "Give way, you thieves," he shouted at +them; "set me aboard whilst the coast is clear.--Mr. Mate, round her up +under those davit tackles." + +Again the Krooboys tried to prevent the boarding, but again the fire of +that terrible revolver drove them yelping to shelter, and the boat drew +up with a bump and a swirl under the dangling ropes. Kettle clambered +forward along the thwarts, and swarmed up one fall with a monkey's +quickness, and the Mate, a man of wooden courage, raced him up the +other. Sheriff could not climb; they had to haul him up the ship's side +by brute force in a bowline; and providentially they were allowed to do +this uninterrupted. The foreign crew of the lifeboat, limp with scare, +would have been mere slaughter-pigs on board even if they could have +been lured there, which was improbable, and so they were bidden to haul +off out of shot, and wait till they were needed. + +Now there was no question here of risking a hand-to-hand encounter. The +Krooboys on board mustered quite fifty head, and most of them were men +of enormous physical strength. So the three invaders went into the +chart-house, from the ports of which they could command the bridge deck +and the main fore deck, and shot the door-bolts by way of making +themselves secure. The walls were of iron, and the roof was of iron; the +place was a perfect stronghold in its way; and as there was no chance of +its being stormed without due notice, they tacitly called a halt to +recover breath. + +"Here," said Sheriff, "is the poor old skipper's whisky. I guess a +second mate's nip all round will do us no harm." + +"Here," said Kettle, "are the old man's Canary cigars, nice and black +and flavory, and I guess one of them's more in my line, sir, thanking +you all the same. I haven't come across a Christian smoke for more +dreary months than I care to think about." + +The Mate was peering through one of the forward ports. "There's the door +of my room wide open," he grunted. "I bet those new clothes of mine are +gone. They're just the thing to take a nigger's eye--good thick blue +broadcloth." + +Captain Kettle wiped the perspiration from his forehead with a bare, +sinewy arm. "Now," he said, "enough time's been wasted. We must keep +those toughs on the move, or they'll find leisure to think, and be +starting some fresh wickedness." + +"If we go out of this chart-house," said Sheriff doubtfully, "they'll +swamp us by sheer weight. You must remember we've only got two pistols, +yours and mine. The poor old skipper's is lost." + +"I'm going to try what a little quiet talking-to will do first, sir. I +used to be a bit useful with my tongue, if I haven't lost the trick. But +before that, I'm going to borrow this white drill coat and pants of +your late old man's, if you don't mind. You'd hardly think it, sir, if +you knew the trials I've gone through in that beastly Africa, but I +believe it's the want of a decent pair of trousers that's hurt me more +than anything." + +Captain Kettle dressed himself with care, and put on a white-covered +uniform cap; and then, happening to see a pair of scissors, he took them +up and trimmed his beard before the glass. Sheriff looked on at these +preparations with fidgeting impatience, and from without there was a +clamor of negro voices taking counsel. But the little sailor was not to +be hurried. He went through his toilet with solemn deliberation, and +then he opened the chart-house door and went out beneath the baking +sunshine of the bridge-deck beyond. + +A cluster of Krooboys stood at the further end of it, cackling with +talk, and at sight of him they called their friends on the main deck +below, who began to come up as fast as they could get foot on the +ladders. They showed inclinations for a rush, but Kettle held up his +left hand for them to keep back, and they obeyed the order. They saw +that vicious revolver gripped in his right fingers, and they respected +its powers. + +He addressed them with a fine fluency of language. He had a good command +of sailor's English, and also of Coast English, both of which are +specially designed for forcible comment; and he knew, moreover, scraps +from a score of native dialects, which, having Arabic for a groundwork, +are especially rich in those parts of speech-which have the highest +vituperative value. The black man is proverbially tough, and a whip, +moral or physical, which will cut the most hardened of whites to +ribbons, will leave him unmoved. An artist in words may rail at him for +an hour without making him flicker an eyelash, or a Yankee mate might +hammer him with a packing-case lid (always supposing there was no nail +in it) for a like period without jolting from him so much as a cry or a +groan. And so I think it speaks highly for Captain Kettle's powers when, +at the end of three minutes' talk, he caused many of those Krooboys to +visibly wince. + +You cannot touch a Krooboy's feelings by referring insultingly to his +mother, because he has probably very dim recollections of the lady; you +can not rile him by gibing comments on his personal appearance; but +still there are ways of getting home to him, and Kettle knew the secret. +"You make fight-palaver," he said, "you steal, you take ship, you drink +cargo gin, and you think your _ju-ju_ fine _ju-ju._ But my _ju-ju_ +too-plenty-much better, and I fit for show it you again if dis +steal-palaver no stop one-time." + +They began to move threateningly toward him. "Very well," he said, "then +I tell you straight; you no fit to be called black boys. You bushmen. +Bah! you be bushmen." + +The maddened Krooboys ran in, and the wicked revolver spoke out, and +then Kettle nipped into the deck-house and slammed the door to on his +heels. The black ape-like faces jabbered and mowed at the window ports, +and brawny arms were thrust in, grappling viciously, but the Mate drew +out camp-stools from a locker, and with these the three white men +stabbed and hit at every face or arm which showed itself. There was no +more shooting, and there was no need for it. By sheer weight of blows +the whites kept the enemy from climbing through the windows, and so long +as the windows were not stormed, the iron house was safe to them. And +presently one of the head-men blew his boatswain's whistle, and the +attack drew off. + +Promptly Kettle reloaded his revolver and stepped out into the open. +"Now," he said, "you seen my _ju-ju?_ You savvy him too-big _ju-ju_? You +want any more of it? No. Then get away aft with you. You hear? You lib +for bottom deck back there, one-time." He rushed at them, one slight, +slim, white-clad white man against all that reeking, shining mob, and +they struggled away before him in grotesque tumblings and jostlings, +like a flock of sheep. + +But at the break of the deck he paused and looked below him, and the +fight all dropped away from his face. No. 3 hatch lay open before him, +with the covers thrown here and there. From it was creeping up a thin +blue smoke, with now and then a scarlet trail of flame. Here was a +complication. + +"So you gluttonous, careless brutes have set fire to her, have you? +Here, who was in the engine room?" + +Discipline was coming back. A man in black trousers, with a clout round +his neck, stepped out. + +"You? Well, slip below, and turn steam into the donkey." + +"Steam no lib, sar. Cranes die when we try to work him just now." + +"Oh, you holy crowd of savages! Well, if we can't use the hose, you must +hand buckets--and sharp, too. That fire's gaining. Now then, head-men, +step out." + +"I second head-man, sar." + +"I head-man, sar." + +"Get buckets, tubs, tins--anything that'll hold water, and look sharp. +If you boys work well now, I'll overlook a lot that's been done. If you +don't, I'll give you fits. Try and get below, some of you, and pull away +what's burning. Probably you'll find some of your dear relations down +there, drunk on gin and smoking pipes. You may knock them on the head if +you like, and want to do a bit more murder. They deserve it." + +But though half a dozen of the Krooboys, who were now thoroughly tamed, +tried to get down the hatch, the fire was too strong for them. Even the +water when it came did little to check the burning, for though it sent +up great billows of steam, the flames shot out fiercer and higher every +moment. In that sweltering climate it does not take very much inducement +to make a fire settle down thoroughly to work, once it gets anything +like a tolerable start. + +To add to the trouble, news of the wreck had been carried to the village +behind the beach where Captain Kettle had sung for his lodging +over-night, and the one-eyed head-man there and his friends were coming +off to share in the spoil as fast as canoes could bring them. They, too, +would have their theories as to the ownership of wrecked cargoes on the +West African Coast, and as they were possessed of trade guns, they were +not like to forego what they considered their just rights without +further fighting. + +But as it happened, a period was put to the scene on the steamer with +considerable suddenness. Sheriff, who had been making sure that there +were no Krooboys lurking forward who could take them from the rear, came +up and looked upon the fire with a blanched face. "Excuse me, Skipper," +he said, and turned and bawled for the lifeboat to come alongside. + +"No hurry for that yet," said Kettle, angrily. "Don't scare the men, +sir. And don't you give orders without my sanction. You made me Captain +here, and, by James! Captain I'll be. We're handicapped for want of the +hose, but we're going to try and get this fire under without. Anyway, +there's no question of leaving the ship yet." + +"Good God, man, don't niggle about that now. I know what I'm saying. +There's eight tons of powder in that hold." + +"And we may be blown up against the sky as a thin kind of rain any +minute? Well, sir, you're owner, and as you seem to have acted as purser +on board, you ought to know. But hadn't we better ask the Mate for his +cargo-book first, so as to make sure?" + +He turned and looked, but Sheriff had gone, and was sliding down into +the lifeboat which had come alongside. "Well, I don't like leaving the +ship, and I suppose for that matter he wouldn't either, being owner, and +being uninsured. But as Mr. Sheriff's gone in such a blazing hurry, it's +probably time for me to go too, if I'm to land home any time in South +Shields again." He hailed the lower deck with a sharp order. "You boys, +there, knock off. Knock off work, I say, and throw down your buckets. +There's powder stowed down below, and it'll be going off directly. +Gunpowder, you savvy, shoot-powder, go _fizz--boosh--bang_!" + +There was a sharp clatter of understanding and explanation, but no +movement. The African is not great at making deductions. Captain Kettle +had to give a definite order. "Now, overboard with you, all hands, and +lib for beach. No time for lower boats. You all fit for swim." + +They took the hint, and began leaping the bulwark rail like a swarm of +black frogs. "Good-by, boys," he said, in valediction. "You'll find it +cheaper to be good and virtuous next time. You haven't stay enough in +you for a real good fight." And then he went to where the davits dangled +over the water, and slid down to the boat, while the frightened crew +cursed him aloud for keeping them waiting. + +Not much was said as they rowed away. The all-nation rowers were openly +terrified; the Mate had all his attention used up in steering to a hair; +and Sheriff sat with his shoulders humped beside his ears in the +position of a man who expects a blow. Captain Kettle held his peace. He +knew that mere words could not urge the sweating crew to heavier effort, +and he puffed at his treasured cigar as any smoker would who had been +divorced from tobacco for so many a month, and does not know when he +will meet with his next indulgence. + +And in due time the powder was fired, and the steamer was turned into a +vast volcano of steam and smoke and flame, which vomited iron and human +limbs, and which sent forth an air blast which drove the boat before it +like the hurricane of a tornado. And then the _debris_ from the sky +foamed down into the water, and then there was a long, long silence. +Save for some inconsiderable flotsam, the steamer and all that was in +her had vanished eternally. The canoes from the village were paddling +for the beach again. They were alone on a lonely sea. No man seemed to +have a thought he wished to share. + +The Mate was the first to speak. He patted a bundle whose outer housing +was a pillow-case, which lay on the thwart beside him. "Well," he said, +"it's been a close thing. I darn nearly lost those new clothes of mine." + +"It might have been worse," said Sheriff; "we might well all have been +killed. But as it is," he added with a sigh, "we've merely got to start +fresh from the bottom again. Anyway, Kettle, I'm obliged to you for what +you have done." + +The little sailor frowned. "It's kind of you, sir, to say that. But I +hate being beaten. And it's no excuse to say I did my best. I hadn't +figured on that fire and the powder, and that's a fact." + +"I wonder," said the Mate thoughtfully, "which of those beggars scoffed +that gold zodiac ring of mine. That steward's boy, Tins, I expect. Took +the ring and left the new blue suit. Well, by gum, they're a funny lot, +those boys." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE WIRE-MILKERS + + +"Look here," said Sheriff, "you compel me to be brutal, but the fact is, +they've had enough of you here in Lagos. So far as I can see, you've +only got the choice of two things. You can have a free passage home to +England as a Distressed Seaman by the next steamer, and you know what +that means. The steamer gets paid a shilling a day, and grubs and berths +you accordingly, and you earn your 'bacca money by bumming around the +galley and helping the cook peel spuds. Or else, if you don't like that, +you can do the sensible thing, and step into the billet I offer you." + +"By James!" said Kettle, "who's going to turn me out of Lagos; tell me +that, sir?" + +"Don't get wrathful with me. I'm only telling you what you'll find out +to be the square truth if you stay on long enough. The authorities here +will be equal to handling you if you try to buck against them." + +"But, sir, they have no right to touch me. This isn't French territory, +or German, or any of those clamped-down places. The town's as English as +Liverpool, and I'm a respectable man." + +"The trouble of it is," said Sheriff drily, "they say you are not. There +are a limited number of white men here in Lagos--perhaps two hundred all +told--and their businesses and sources of income are all more or less +visible to the naked eye. Yours aren't. In the language of +the--er--well--the police court, you've no visible means of subsistence, +and yet you always turn out neat, and spruce, and tidy; you've always +got tobacco; and apparently you must have meals now and again, though I +can't say you've got particularly fat on them." + +"I've never been a rich man, sir. I've never earned high wages--only +once as much as fifteen pounds a month--and there's the missis and the +family to provide for; and, as a consequence, I've never had much to +spend on myself. It would surprise a gentleman who's been wealthy like +you, Mr. Sheriff, to see the way I can make half-a-crown spin out." + +"It surprises me to see how you've made nothing at all spin out," said +Sheriff; "and as for the Lagos authorities I was speaking about, it's +done more; it's made them suspicious. Hang it, man, be reasonable; you +must see they are bound to be suspicious." + +Captain Kettle's brown face grew darker in tint, and he spoke with +visible shame. "I've come by a living, sir, honest, but I couldn't bear +it to be told aloud here to all the world how it was done. I may be +down, Mr. Sheriff, but I have my pride still." + +Sheriff spread his hands helplessly. "That's no kind of answer," he +said. "They won't let you continue to stay here in Lagos on an +explanation like that. Come now, Kettle, be sensible: put yourself in +the authorities' place. They've got a town to administer--a big +town--that not thirty years ago was the most murderous, fanatical, rowdy +dwelling of slave-traders on the West Coast of Africa. To-day, by dint +of careful shepherding, they've reduced it to a city of quiet +respectability, with a smaller crime rate than Birmingham; and in fact +made it into a model town suitable for a story-book. You don't see the +Government much, but you bet it's there, and you bet it isn't asleep. +You can bet also that the nigger people here haven't quite forgotten the +old days, and would like to be up to a bit of mischief every now and +again, just for old association's sake, which of course the Government +is quite aware of. + +"Now there's nothing that can stir up niggers into ructions against a +white man's government better than a white man, as has been proved tons +of times already, and here are you already on the carpet quite equal to +the job. I don't say you are up to mischief, nor does the Government, +but you must see for yourself that they'd be fools if they didn't play +for safety and ship you off out of harm's way." + +"I must admit," said Kettle ruefully, "that there's sense in what you +say, sir." + +"Are you going to give a free and open explanation of your means of +employment here in Lagos, and earn the right to stay on openly, or are +you going to still stick to the mysterious?" + +The little sailor frowned. "No, sir," he said; "as I told you before, I +have my pride." + +"Very-well, then. Now, are you going to be the Distressed Seaman, and be +jeered at all the run home as you cadge round for your 'baccy money, or +are you going to do the sensible thing, and step into this billet I've +put in your way?" + +"You corner me." + +"I'm glad to hear it, and let me tell you it hasn't been for want of +trying. Man, if I hadn't liked you, I would not have taken all this +trouble to put a soft thing ready to your hand." + +"I believe you want service out of me in return, sir," said Kettle +stiffly. + +Sheriff laughed. "You aren't the handiest man in the world to get on +with, and if I hadn't been an easy-tempered chap I should have bidden +you go to the deuce long enough ago. Of course, I want something out of +you. A man who has just lost a fortune, and who is down on his luck like +I am, can't afford to go in for pure philanthropy without any possible +return. But, at the same time, I'm finding you a job at fifty pound a +month with a fortnight's wages paid in advance, and I think you might be +decently grateful. By your own telling, you never earned so much as four +sovereigns a week before." + +"The wages were quite to my taste from the beginning, sir; don't think +me ungrateful there. But what I didn't like was going to sea without +knowing beforehand what I was expected to do. I didn't like it at first, +and I refused the job then; and if I take it now, being, as you say, +cornered, you're not to understand that it's grown any the tastier +to me." + +"We shouldn't pay a skipper a big figure like that," said Sheriff drily, +"if we didn't want something a bit more than, the ordinary out of him. +You may take it you are getting fifteen pounds a month as standard pay, +and the extra thirty-five for condescending to sail with sealed orders. +But what I told you at first I repeat now: I've got a partner standing +in with me over this business, and as he insists on the whole thing +being kept absolutely dark till we're away at sea, I've no choice but to +observe the conditions of partnership." + +Some thirty minutes later than this, Mr. Sheriff got out of his +'rickshaw on the Marina and went into an office and inquired for Mr. +White. One of the colored clerks (who, to do credit to his English +education, affected to be utterly prostrated by the heat) replied with +languor that Mr. White was upstairs; upon which Sheriff, mopping himself +with a handkerchief, went up briskly. + +White, a gorgeously handsome young Hebrew, read success from his face at +once. "I can see you've hooked your man," said he. "That's good +business; we couldn't have got another as good anywhere. Have a +cocktail?" + +"Don't mind if I do. It's been tough work persuading him. He's such a +suspicious, conscientious little beggar. Shout for your boy to bring the +cocktail, and when we're alone, I'll tell you about it." + +"I'll fix up your drink myself, old man. Where's the swizzle-stick? Oh, +here, behind the Angostura bottle. And there's a fresh lime for you--got +a basket of them in this morning. Now you yarn whilst I play barmaid." + +Mr. Sheriff tucked his feet on the arms of a long-chair and picked up a +fan. He sketched in the account of his embassage with humorous phrase. + +The Hebrew had been liberal with his cocktail. He said himself that he +made them so beautifully that no one could resist a second; and so, with +a sigh of gusto, Sheriff gulped down number two and put the glass on the +floor. "No," he said; "no more. They're heavenly, I'll grant, but no +more. We shall want very clear heads for what's in front of us, and I'm +not going to fuddle mine for a commencement. I can tell you we have been +very nearly wrecked already. It was only by the skin of my teeth I +managed to collar Master Kettle. I only got him because I happened to +know something about him." + +"Did you threaten to get him into trouble over it? What's he done?" + +"Oh, nothing of that sort. But the man's got the pride of an emperor, +and it came to my knowledge he'd been making a living out of fishing in +the lagoon, and I worked on that. Look out of that window; it's a bit +glary with the sun full on, but do you see those rows of stakes the nets +are made fast on? Well, one of those belongs to Captain Owen Kettle, and +he works there after dark like a native, and dressed as one. You know +he's been so long living naked up in the bush that his hide's nearly +black, and he can speak all the nigger dialects. But I guessed he'd +never own up that he'd come so low as to compete with nigger fishermen, +and I fixed things so that he thought he'd have to tell white Lagos what +was his trade, or clear out of the colony one-time. It was quite a neat +bit of diplomacy." + +"You have got a tongue in you," said White. + +"When a man's as broke as I am, and as desperate, he does his best in +talk to get what he wants. But look here, Mr. White, now we've got +Kettle, I want to be off and see the thing over and finished as soon as +possible. It's the first time I've been hard enough pushed to meddle +with this kind of racket, and I can't say I find it so savory that I'm +keen on lingering over it." + +The Jew shrugged his shoulders. "We are going for money," he said. +"Money is always hard to get, my boy, but it's nice, very nice, when +you have it." + +Keen though Sheriff was to get this venture put to the trial, brimming +with energy though he might be, it was quite out of the question that a +start could be made at once. A small steamer they had already secured on +charter, but she had to be manned, coaled, and provisioned, and all +these things are not carried out as quickly in Lagos as they would be in +Liverpool, even though there was a Kettle in command to do the driving. +And, moreover, there were cablegrams to be sent, in tedious cypher, to +London and elsewhere, to make the arrangements on which the success of +the scheme would depend. + +The Jew was the prime mover in all this cabling. He had abundance of +money in his pocket, and he spent it lavishly, and he practically lived +in the neighborhood of the telegraph office. He was as affable as could +be; he drank cocktails and champagne with the telegraph staff whenever +they were offered; but over the nature of his business he was as close +as an oyster. + +A breath of suspicion against the scheme would wreck it in an instant, +and, as there was money to be made by carrying it through, the easy, +lively, boisterous Mr. White was probably just then as cautious a man as +there was in Africa. + +But preparations were finished at last, and one morning, when the tide +served, the little steamer cast off from her wharf below the Marina, and +steered for the pass at the further side of the lagoon. + +The bar was easy, and let her through with scarcely so much as a bit of +spray to moisten the dry deck planks, and Sheriff pointed to the masts +of a branch-boat which had struck the sand a week before, and had beaten +her bottom out and sunk in ten minutes, and from these he drew good +omens about this venture, and at the same time prettily complimented +Kettle on his navigation. + +But Kettle refused to be drawn into friendliness. He coldly commented +that luck and not skill was at the bottom of these matters, and that if +the bar had shifted, he himself could have put this steamer on the +ground as handily as the other man had piled up the branch-boat. He +refused to come below and have a drink, saying that his place was on the +bridge till he learned from observation that either of the two mates was +a man to be trusted. And, finally, he inquired, with acid formality, as +to whether his employers wished the steamer brought to an anchor in the +roads, or whether they would condescend to give him a course to steer. + +Sheriff bade him curtly enough to "keep her going to the s'uth'ard," and +then drew away his partner into the stifling little chart-house. "Now," +he said, "you see how it is. Our little admiral up there is standing on +his temper, and if he doesn't hear the plan of campaign, he's quite +equal to making himself nasty." + +"I don't mind telling him some, but I'm hanged if I'm going to tell him +all. There are too many in the secret already, what with you and the two +in London; and as I keep on telling you, if one whiff of a suspicion +gets abroad, the whole thing's busted, and a trap will be set that you +and I will be caught in for a certainty." + +"Poof! We're at sea now, and no one can gossip beyond the walls of the +ship. Besides Kettle is far too staunch to talk. He's the sort of man +who can be as mum as the grave when he chooses. But if you persist in +refusing to trust him, well, I tell you that the thought of what he may +be up to makes me frightened." + +"Now look here, my boy," said White, "you force me to remind you that +I'm senior partner here, and to repeat that what I say on this matter's +going to be done. I flatly refuse to trust this Kettle with the whole +yarn. We've hired him at an exorbitant fee--bought him body and soul, in +fact, as I've no doubt he very well understands--and to my mind he's +engaged to do exactly as he's told, without asking questions. But as you +seem set on it, I'll meet you here; he may be told a bit. Fetch +him down." + +But as Kettle refused to come below, on the chilly plea of business, the +partner went out under the awnings of the upper bridge, where the +handsome White, with boisterous, open-hearted friendliness, did his best +to hustle the little sailor into quick good humor. + +"Don't blame me, Skipper, or Sheriff here either, for the matter of +that, for making all this mystery. We're just a couple of paid agents, +and the bigger men at the back insisted that we should keep our mouths +shut till the right time. There's nothing wrong with this caution, I'm +sure you'll be the first to say. You see they couldn't tell from that +distance what sort of man we should be able to pick up at Lagos. I guess +they never so much as dreamed that we'd have the luck to persuade a chap +like you to join." + +"You are very polite, sir," said Kettle formally. + +"Not a bit of it. I'm not the sort of boy to chuck civility away on an +incompetent man. Now look here, Captain. We're on for making a big pile +in a very short time, and you can stand in to finger your share if +you'll, only take your whack of the work." + +"There's no man living more capable of hard work than me, sir, and no +man keener to make a competence. I've got a wife that I'd like to see a +lot better off than I've ever been able to make her so far." + +"I'm sure Mrs. Kettle deserves affluence, and please the pigs she shall +have it." + +"But it isn't every sovereign that might be put in her way," said the +sailor meaningly, "that Mrs. Kettle would care to use." + +"I guess I find every sovereign that comes to my fingers contains twenty +useful shillings." + +"I will take your word for it, sir. Mrs. Kettle prefers to know that the +few she handles are cleanly come by." + +Mr. White gritted his handsome teeth, shrugged his shoulders, and made +as if he intended to go down off the bridge. But Sheriff stopped him. +"We'd better have it out," Sheriff suggested; "as well now as later." + +"Put it in your own words, then. I don't seem able to get started. You," +he added significantly, "know as well as I do what to say." + +"Very well. Now, look here, Kettle. This mystery game has gone on long +enough, and you've got to be put on the ground floor, like the rest of +us. Did you ever dabble in stocks?" + +"No, sir." + +"But you know what they are?" + +"I've heard the minister I sit under ashore give his opinion from the +pulpit on the Stock Exchange, and those who do business there. The +minister of our chapel, sir, is a man I always agree with." + +This was sufficiently unpromising, but Sheriff went doggedly on. "I see +your way of looking at it: the whole crowd of stock operators are a gang +of thieves that no decent man would care to touch?" + +"That's much my notion." + +"And they are quite unworthy of protection?" + +"They can rob one another to their heart's content for all I care." + +Sheriff smiled grimly. "That's what I wanted to hear you say, Captain. +This cruise we are on now is not exactly a pleasure trip." + +"I guessed that, of course, from the pay that was offered." + +"What we are after is this: the Cape to England telegraph cable stops at +several places on the road, and we want to get hold of one of the +stations and work it for our own purposes for an hour or so. If we can +do that, our partners in London will bring off a speculation in South +African shares that will set the whole lot of us up for life." + +"And who pays the piper? I mean where will the money for your profit +come from?" + +White was quicker than Sheriff to grasp the situation. "From inside the +four walls of the Stock Exchange. S'elp me, Captain, you needn't pity +them. There are lots of men there, my friends too, who would have played +the game themselves if they had been sharp enough to think of it. We +have to be pretty keen in the speculation business if we want to make +money out of it." + +Captain Kettle buttoned his coat, and stepped to the further end of the +bridge with an elaborate show of disgust. "You are on the Stock Exchange +yourself, sir?" + +"Er--connected with it, Captain." + +[Illustration: "YOU INSOLENT LITTLE BLACKGUARD, YOU DARE TO SPEAK TO ME +LIKE THAT!"] + +"I can quite understand our minister's opinion of stock gamblers now. +Perhaps some day you may hear it for yourself. He's a great man for +visiting jails and carrying comfort to the afflicted." + +"By gad!" said White, "you insolent little blackguard, you dare to speak +to me like that!" + +"I use what words I choose," said Kettle, truculently. "I'd have said +the same to your late King Solomon if I hadn't liked his ways; but if I +was pocketing his pay, I should have carried out his orders all the +same." He bent down to the voice hatch, and gave a bearing to the black +quartermaster in the wheel-house below, and the little steamer, which +had by this time left behind her the vessels transhipping cargo in the +roads, canted off on a new course to the southward. + +"Hullo," said Sheriff, "what's that mean? Where are you off to now?" + +Kettle mentioned the name of a lonely island standing by itself in the +Atlantic. + +But Sheriff and the Jew were visibly startled. Mr. Sheriff mopped at a +very damp forehead with his pocket handkerchief. "Have you heard +anything then?" he asked, "or did you just guess?" + +"I heard nothing before, or I should not have signed on for this trip, +sir. But having come so far I'm going to earn out my pay. What's done +will not be on my conscience. The shipmaster's blameless in these +matters; it's the owner who drives him that earns his punishment in the +hereafter; and that's sound theology." + +"But how did you guess, man, how did you know where we were bound?" + +"A shipmaster knows cable stations as well as he knows owners' agents' +offices ashore. Any fool who had been told your game would have put his +finger on that island at once. That's the loneliest place where the +cable goes ashore all up and down the coast, and it isn't British, and +what more could you want?" + +With these meagre assurances, Messieurs Sheriff and White had to be +content, as no others were forthcoming. Captain Kettle refused to be +drawn into further talk upon the subject, and the pair went below to the +stuffy little cabin more than a trifle disconsolate. "Well, here's the +man you talked so big about," said White, bitterly. "As soon as we get +out at sea, he shows himself in his true colors. Why, he's a blooming +Methodist. But if he sells us when it comes to the point, and there's a +chance of my getting nabbed, by gad I'll murder him like I would a rat." + +"If he offers a scrimmage," said Sheriff, "you take my tip, and clear +out. He's a regular glutton for a fight; I know he's armed; and he could +shoot the buttons off your coat at twenty yards. No, Mr. White; make the +best or the worst of Captain Kettle as you choose, but don't come to +fisticuffs with him, or as sure as you are living now, you'll finish out +on the under side then. And mind, I'm not talking by guess-work. +I know." + +"I shall not stick at much if this show's spoiled. Why, the money was as +good as in our pockets, if he hadn't cut up awkward." + +"Don't throw up the sponge till some one else does it for you. Look +here, I know this man Kettle a lot better than you do. He wants the pay +very badly. And when it comes to sticking up the cable station, you'll +see him do the work of any ten like us. I tell you, he's a regular demon +when it comes to a scuffle." + +It was in this attitude, then, that the three principal members of the +little steamer's complement voyaged down over those warm tropical seas +which lay between Lagos and the isle of their hopes and fears. Two of +them kept together, and perfected the detail of their plans for use in +every contingency; but the other kept himself icily apart, and for an +occupation, when the business of the ship did not require his eye, +wrapped himself up in the labor of literary production. He even refused +to partake of meals at the same table with his employers. + +The island first appeared to them as a huddle of mountains sprouting out +of the sea, which grew green as they came more near, and which finally +showed great masses of foliage growing to the crown of the splintered +heights, with a surf frilling the bays and capes at their foot. There +was a town in the hug of one of these bays, and toward it the little +steamer rolled as though she had been an ordinary legitimate trader. She +brought up to an anchor in the jaws of the bay, half-way between the +lighthouse and the rectangular white building on the further beach, and +after due delay, a negro doctor, pulled up by a surf-boat full of other +negroes, came off and gave her pratique. + +The rectangular white building, standing in the sea breeze by itself +away from the town beyond, was the cable station, but for the present +they faced it with their backs. Kettle had seen it before; the other two +acted as though it were the last thing to trouble their minds. There was +no going ashore for any of them yet; indeed, the less they advertised +their personal identity, the more chance there was of getting off +untraced afterward. + +Night fell with such suddenness that one could almost have imagined the +sun was permanently extinguished. Round the rim of the bay lights began +to kindle, and presently (when the wind came off the land) strains of +music floated out to them. + +"Some saint's day," Sheriff commented. + +"St. Agatha's," said Kettle with a sigh. + +"Hello, Kettle. I thought you were a straight-laced chapel goer. What +have you to do with saints and their days?" + +"I was told that one once, sir, and I can't help remembering it. You see +the date is February 5th, and that's my eldest youngster's birthday." + +Sheriff swore. "I wish you'd drop that sort of sentimental bosh, +Skipper; especially now. I want to get this business over first, and +then, when I go back with plenty in my pocket, I can begin to think of +family pleasures and cares again. Come now, have you thought out what we +can do with the steamer after we've finished our job here?" + +"Run up with the coast and sink her, and then go ashore in the surf-boat +at some place where the cable doesn't call, and leave that as soon as +possible for somewhere else." + +"It will be a big saving of necks," said Kettle drily. "Why sir, you've +been a steamer-owner in your time, and you must know how we're fixed. +You've given up your papers here, and you're known. You can't go into +another port in the whole wide world without papers, and as far as +forging a new set, why that's a thing that hasn't been done this thirty +years outside a story-book." + +Mr. White came up to hear. "I don't see that," he said. + +"You fellows don't understand everything in Jerusalem," said Kettle, +with a cheerful insult, and walked away. Captain Kettle regarded +Sheriff as a gull, and pitied him accordingly; but White he recognized +as principal knave, and disliked him accordingly. + +But when the start was made for the raid, some hour and a half before +the dawn, Kettle was not backward in fulfilling his paid-for task. +Himself he saw a surf-boat lowered into the water and manned by black +Krooboy paddlers; himself he saw his two employers down on the thwarts, +and then followed them; and himself he sat beside the head-man who +straddled in the stern sheets at the steering oar, and gave him minute +directions. + +The boat was avoiding the bay altogether. She was making for the strip +of sand in front of the cable station, and except when she was +shouldered up on the back of a roller, the goal was out of sight all +the time. + +"There's a rare swell running, and it's a mighty bad beach to-night," +Kettle commented. "I hope you gentlemen can swim, for the odds are +you'll have to do it inside the next ten minutes." + +"If we are spilt getting ashore," said White, "how do you say we'll get +off again?" + +"The Lord knows," said Kettle. + +"Well, you're a cheerful companion, anyway." + +"I wasn't paid for a yacht skippering job and asked to say nice things +which weren't true. But if you don't fancy the prospect, go back and try +a trade that's less risky. You mayn't like honest work, but it strikes +me this kind of contract's out your weight anyway." + +The Jew looked as if he would like to let loose his tongue, and perhaps +handle a weapon, but his motto was "business first," and he could not +afford to have an open fracas with Kettle then. So he swallowed his +resentment, and said, "Get on," and clung dizzily on to his thwart. + +As each roller passed tinder her, the surf-boat swooped higher and +higher, and the laboring paddles seemed to give her less and less +momentum. The head-man strained at the steering oar. The Krooboys had +hard work to keep their perches on the gunwale. + +At last the head-man shouted, and the paddles ceased. They were waiting +for a smooth. Roller after roller swept under them, and the boat rode +them dizzily, but kept her place just beyond the outer edge of the surf. +From over his shoulder, the head-man watched the charging seas with +animal intentness. Then with a sudden shriek he gave the word, and the +paddles stabbed the water into spray. The heavy boat rushed forward +again, and a great towering sea rushed after her. It reared her up, +stern uppermost, and passed, leaving her half swamped by its foaming +passage; and then came another sea, and the boat broached to and spilt. +The Krooboys jumped like black frogs from either gunwale, and Kettle +jumped also, and made his way easily to the sand, being used to this +experience. But Sheriff was pulled on to the beach with difficulty, and +the Jew was hauled there in a state verging on the unconscious. He +looked at the fearsome surf, and shuddered openly. "How shall we get off +again?" he gasped. + +"More swimming," said Kettle tersely. "And perhaps not manage it at all. +You'd better give up the game, and go off decently to-morrow morning +from the Custom House wharf." + +But Mr. White, whatever might be the list of his failings, was +certainly possessed of dogged pluck, and as he had got that far with his +enterprise, did not intend to desert it. He got rid of the sea-water +that was within him, and resolutely led the way to the cable station, +which loomed square and solid through the dusk. Sheriff followed, and +Captain Kettle, with his hands in his pockets, brought up the rear. The +Krooboys, according to their orders, stayed on the beach, brought in the +boat, collected her furniture, and got all ready for relaunching. + +White seemed to know the way as if he had been there before. He went up +to the building, entered through an open door, and strode quietly in his +rubber-soled shoes along a dark passage. At the end was a room in +partial darkness, and a man who watched a spot of light which darted +hither and back, and between whiles wrote upon paper. To him White went +up, and clapped a cold revolver muzzle against the nape of his neck. + +"Now," he said, "I want the loan of your instrument for about an hour. +If you resist, you'll be shot. The noise of the shot will bring out the +other men on the station, and they'll be killed also. There are plenty +of us here, and we are well armed, and we intend to have our own way. If +you are not anything short of a fool, you'll go and sit on that chair, +and keep quiet till you're given leave to talk." + +"I don't think I'll argue it with you," said the operator coolly. He got +up and sat where he was told, and Kettle, according to arrangement, +stood guard over him. "I suppose you malefactors know," he added, "that +there are certain pains and penalties attached to this sort of +amusement, and that you are bound to get caught quite soon, whether you +shoot me or let me go?" + +Nobody answered him. White had sat down at the instrument table, and was +tapping out messages like a man well accustomed to the work. + +"Of course with those black mask things over your faces I couldn't +recognize you again, even if I was put in the box; but, my good chaps, +your steamer's known, there's no getting over that. Much better clear +out before any mischief's done, and own up you've made a mistake." + +White turned on the man with a sudden fury. "If you don't keep +your silly mouth shut, I'll have you throttled," he threatened, +and after that the only noise that broke the silence was the +_tap--taptap--taptapping_ of the telegraph instrument. + +Only two men in that darkened room knew what message was being +dispatched, and these were White and the dispossessed operator. The one +worked with cool, steady industry, and the other listened with strained +intentness. Sheriff was outside the door keeping guard on the rest of +the house. But Kettle, from his station behind the operator's chair, +listened with a strange disquietude. He had been told that the object of +the raid was to arrange a stock exchange robbery, and to this he had +tacitly agreed. According to his narrow creed (as gathered from the +South Shields chapel) none but rogues and thieves dealt in stocks and +shares, and if these chose to rob one another, an honest man might well +look on non-interferent. But what guarantee had he that this robbery was +not planned to draw plunder from the outside public as well? The pledged +word of Mr. White. And that was worth? He smiled disdainfully when he +thought of the slenderness of its value. + +_Tap--taptap--tap--tap--taptap_, said the tantalizing instrument, going +steadily on with its hidden speech. + +The stifling heat of the room seemed to get more oppressive. The mystery +of the thing beat against Kettle's brain. + +Of course he could not read the deposed operator's thoughts, though he +could see easily that the man was reading the messages which White was +so glibly sending off. But it was clear that the man's agitation was +growing; growing, too, out of all proportion to the coolness he had +shown when his room was first invaded. At last an exclamation was forced +from him, almost, as it seemed, involuntarily. "Oh, you ghastly +scoundrel," he murmured, and on that Kettle spoke. He could not stand +the mystery any longer. + +"Tell me," he said, "exactly what message that man's sending." + +"But I forbid you to do any such thing," said White, and reached for his +revolver. But before his fingers touched it, he looked up and saw +Kettle's weapon covering him. + +"You put that down," came the crisp order, and White obeyed it nervously +enough. + +"And now go and stand in the middle of the room till I give you leave to +shift." + +White did this also. He grasped the fact that Captain Kettle was not in +a mood to be trifled with. + +"Now, Mr. Telegraph Clerk, as you understand this tack-hammer language, +and as I could see you've been following all the messages that's been +sent, just tell me the whole lot of it, please, as near as you can +remember." + +"He called up London first, and gave what sounded like a registered +address, and sent the word 'corruscate.' That's probably code; anyway I +don't know what it meant. Then he called the Cape, and sent a message to +the Governor. He hadn't got to the end, and there was no signature, but +it was evidently intended to make them believe that it was sent from the +Colonial Office at home." + +"Well," said Kettle, "what was the message?" + +"Good Lord, man, he's directing the Governor to declare war on the +Transvaal. You know there's been trouble with them lately, and they'll +believe that it comes from the right place. If this is some +stock-jobbing plant--" + +"It is." + +"Then, by heavens, it'll be carried through unless you let me stop it at +once. The thing's plausible enough--" + +But here White recovered from his temporary scare, and cut in with a +fine show of authority. "S'help me, Kettle, you're making a pretty mess +of things. You make me knock off in the middle of a message, and they'll +not know what's up at the other end if I don't go on. Look at +that mirror." + +"I see the spot of light winking about." + +"That's the operator at the next station calling me." + +"But is it true what this gentleman's been telling me?" + +"I suppose it is, more or less. But what of that? What did you lose your +temper for like this? You knew quite well what we came here for." + +"I knew you came to steal money from stockbrokers. I knew nothing about +going to try and run my country in for a war." + +"Poof, that's nothing. The war would not hurt you and me. Besides, it +must go on now. I've cabled my partner in London to be a bear in Kaffirs +for all he's worth. We must smash all the instruments here so they can't +contradict the news, and then be off." + +"Your partner can be a bear or any other kind of beast, in any sort of +niggers he chooses, but I'm not going to let you run England into war at +any price." + +"Pah, my good man, what does that matter to you? What's England ever +done for you?" + +"I live there," said Kettle, "when I'm at home, and as I've lived +everywhere else in the world, I'm naturally a bit more fond of the old +shop than if I'd never gone away from her beach. No, Mr. White, +England's never done anything special for me that I could, so to speak, +put my finger on, but--ah would you!" + +White, in desperation, had made a grab at the revolver lying on the +instrument table, but with a quick rush Kettle possessed himself of it, +and Mr. White found himself again looking down the muzzle of Captain +Kettle's weapon. + +But a moment later the aim was changed. Sheriff, hearing the whispered +talk, had come in through the doorway to see what it was about, and +promptly found himself favored in his turn. + +"Shift your pistol to muzzle end, and bring it here." + +Sheriff obeyed the order promptly. He had seen enough of Captain +Kettle's usefulness as a marksman not to dispute his wishes. + +"Did you know that we came here to stir up a war between our folks at +home and the Transvaal?" + +"I suppose so." + +"And smash up the telegraph instruments afterward, so that it could not +be contradicted till it was well under way?" + +"That would have been necessary." + +"And you remember what you told me on that steamboat? Oh! you liar!" +said Kettle, and Sheriff winced. + +"I'm so beastly hard up," he said. + +Captain Kettle might have commented on his own poverty, but he did not +do this. Instead, he said: "Now we'll go back to the ship, and of course +you'll have to scuttle her just as if you'd brought off your game here +successfully. Run England in for a bloody war, would you, just for some +filthy money? By James! no. Come, march. And you, Mr. Telegraph Clerk, +get under weigh with that deaf and dumb alphabet of yours, and ring up +the Cape, and tell them what's been sent is all a joke, and there's to +be no war at all." + +"I'll do that, you may lay your heart on it," said the operator. "But +Mr. I-don't-know-what-your-name-is, look here. Hadn't you better stay? +I'll see things are put all right. But if you go off with those two +sharks, it might be dangerous." + +"Thank you, kindly, sir," said Kettle; "but I'm a man that's been +accustomed to look after myself all the world over, and I'm not likely +to get hurt now. Those two may be sharks, as you say, but I'm not +altogether a simple little lamb myself." + +"I shall be a bit uneasy for you. You're a good soul whoever you may be, +and I'd like to do something for you if I could." + +"Then, sir," said Kettle, "just keep quiet, here, and get on with your +work contradicting that wire, and don't send for any of those little +Portuguese soldiers with guns to see us off. It's a bad beach, and we +mayn't get off first try, and if they started to annoy us whilst we were +at work, I might have to shoot some of them, which would be a trouble." + +"I'll see to that," said the operator. "We'll just shake hands if you +don't mind, before you go. There's more man to the cubic inch about you +than in any other fellow I've come across for a long time. I've no club +at home now, or I'd ask you to look me up. But I dare say we shall meet +again some time. So long." + +"Good-by, sir," said Kettle, and shook the operator by the hand. Then he +turned, and drove the other two raiders before him out of the house, and +down to the beach, and, with the Krooboys, applied himself to launching +the surf-boat through the breakers. + +"Run the old shop into a war, would you?" he soliloquized to two very +limp, unconscious figures, as the Krooboys got the surf-boat afloat +after the third upset. "It's queer what some men will do for money." And +then, a minute later, he muttered to himself: "By James! look at that +dawn coming up behind the island there; yellow as a lemon. Now, that is +fine. I can make a bit of poetry out of that." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE DERELICT + + +"Her cargo'll have shifted," said the third mate, "and when she got that +list her people will have felt frightened and left her." + +"She's a scary look to her, with her yard-arms spiking every other sea," +said Captain Image, "and her decks like the side of a house. I shouldn't +care to navigate a craft that preferred to lie down on her beam +ends myself." + +"Take this glass, sir, and you'll see the lee quarter-boat davit-tackles +are overhauled. That means they got at least one boat in the water. To +my mind she's derelict." + +"Yard-arm tackles rigged and overhauled, too," said Captain Image. +"She'll have carried a big boat on the top of that house amidships, and +that's gone, too. Well, I hope her crew have got to dry land somewhere, +or been picked up, poor beggars. Nasty things, those old wind-jammers, +Mr. Strake. Give me steam." + +"But there's a pile of money in her still," said the third mate, +following up his own thoughts. "She's an iron ship, and she'll be two +thousand tons, good. Likely enough in the 'Frisco grain trade. Seems to +me a new ship, too; anyway, she's got those humbugging patent tops'ls." + +"And you're thinking she'd be a nice plum if we could pluck her in +anywhere?" said Image, reading what was in his mind. + +"Well, me lad, I know that as well as you, and no one would be +pleaseder to pocket L300. But the old _M'poso's_ a mailboat, and because +she's got about a quarter of a hundredweight of badly spelt letters on +board, she can't do that sort of salvage work if there's no life-saving +thrown in as an extra reason. Besides, we're behind time as it is, with +smelling round for so much cargo, and though I shall draw my two and +a-half per cent, on that, I shall have it all to pay away again, and +more to boot, in fines for being late. No, I tell you it isn't all sheer +profit and delight in being skipper on one of those West African coast +boats. And there's another thing: the Chief was telling me only this +morning that they've figured it very close on the coal. We only have +what'll take us to Liverpool ourselves, without trying to pull a yawing, +heavy, towing thing like that on behind us." + +Strake drummed at the white rail of the bridge. He was a very young man, +and he was very keen on getting the chance of distinguishing himself; +and here, on the warm, windless swells abeam, the chance seemed to sit +beckoning him. "I've been thinking, sir, if you can lend me half a dozen +men, I could take her in somewhere myself." + +"I'm as likely to lend you half a dozen angels. Look at the deck hands; +look at the sickly trip this has been. We've had to put some of them on +double tricks at the wheel already, and as for getting any painting +done, or having the ship cleaned up a bit, why, I can see we shall go +into Liverpool as dirty as a Geordie collier. Besides, Mr. Strake, I +believe I've told you once or twice already that you're not much use +yourself, but anyway you're the best that's left, and I'm having to +stand watch and watch with you as it is. If the mate gets out of his +bed between here and home, it'll be to go over the side, and the second +mate's nearly as bad with that nasty blackwater fever only just off him; +and there you are. Mr. Strake, if you have a penn'oth of brains stowed +away anywhere, I wish to whiskers you'd show 'em sometimes." + +"Old man's mad at losing a nice lump of salvage," thought Strake. +"Natural, I guess." So he said quietly: "Ay, ay, sir," and walked away +to the other end of the bridge. + +Captain Image followed him half-way, but stopped irresolutely with his +hand on the engine-room telegraph. On the fore main deck below him his +old friend, Captain Owen Kettle, was leaning on the rail, staring +wistfully at the derelict. + +"Poor beggar," Image mused, "'tisn't hard to guess what he's thinking +about. I wonder if I could fix it for him to take her home. It might set +him on his legs again, and he's come low enough, Lord knows. If I hadn't +given him a room in the first-class for old times' sake, he'd have had +to go home, after his trouble on the West Coast, as a distressed seaman, +and touch his cap to me when I passed. I've not done badly by him, but I +shall have to pay for that room in the first-class out of my own pocket, +and if he was to take that old wind-jammer in somewhere, he'd fork out, +and very like give me a dash besides. + +"Yes, I will say that about Kettle; he's honest as a barkeeper, and +generous besides. He's a steamer sailor, of course, and has been most of +these years, and how he'll do the white wings business again, Lord only +knows. Forget he hasn't got engines till it's too late, and then drown +himself probably. However, that's his palaver. Where we're going to +scratch him up a crew from's the thing that bothers me. Well, we'll +see." He leaned down over the bridge rail, and called. + +Kettle looked up. + +"Here a minute, Captain." + +Poor Kettle's eye lit, and he came up the ladders with a boy's +quickness. + +Image nodded toward the deserted vessel. "Fine full-rigger, hasn't she +been? What do you make her out for?" + +"'Frisco grain ship. Stuff in bulk. And it's shifted." + +"Looks that way. Have you forgotten all your 'mainsail haul' and the +square-rig gymnastics?" + +"I'm hard enough pushed now to remember even the theory-sums they taught +at navigation school if I thought they would serve me." + +"I know. And I'm as sorry for you, Captain, as I can hold. But you see, +it's this: I'm short of sailormen; I've barely enough to steer and keep +the decks clean; anyway I've none to spare." + +"I don't ask for fancy goods," said Kettle eagerly. "Give me anything +with hands on it--apes, niggers, stokers, what you like, and I'll soon +teach them their dancing steps." + +Captain Image pulled at his moustache. "The trouble of it is, we are +short everywhere. It's been a sickly voyage, this. I couldn't let you +have more than two out of the stokehold, and even if we take those, the +old Chief will be fit to eat me. You could do nothing with that big +vessel with only two beside yourself." + +"Let me go round and see. I believe I can rake up enough hands somehow." + +"Well, you must be quick about it," said Image. "I've wasted more than +enough time already. I can only give you five minutes, Captain. Oh, by +the way, there's a nigger stowaway from Sarry Leone you can take if you +like. He's a stonemason or some such foolishness, and I don't mind +having him drowned. If you hammer him enough, probably he'll learn how +to put some weight on a brace." + +"That stonemason's just the man I can use," said Kettle. "Get him for +me. I'll never forget your kindness over this, Captain, and you may +depend upon me to do the square thing by you if I get her home." + +Captain Kettle ran off down the bridge and was quickly out of sight, and +hard at his quest for volunteers. Captain Image waited a minute, and he +turned to his third mate. "Now, me lad," he said, "I know you're +disappointed; but with the other mates sick like they are, it's just +impossible for me to let you go. If I did, the Company would sack me, +and the dirty Board of Trade would probably take away my ticket. So you +may as well do the kind, and help poor old Cappie Kettle. You see what +he's come down to, through no fault of his own. You're young, and you're +full to the coamings with confidence. I'm older, and I know that luck +may very well get up and hit me, and I'll be wanting a helping hand +myself. It's a rotten, undependable trade, this sailoring. You might +just call the carpenter, and get the cover off that smaller lifeboat." + +"You think he'll get a crew, then, sir, and not our deckhands?" + +"Him? He'll get some things with legs and arms to them, if he has to +whittle 'em out of kindling-wood. It's not that that'll stop Cappie +Kettle now, me lad." + +The third mate went off, sent for the carpenter, and started to get a +lifeboat cleared and ready for launching. Captain Image fell to +anxiously pacing the upper bridge, and presently Kettle came back +to him. + +"Well, Captain," he said, "I got a fine crew to volunteer, if you can +see your way to let me have them. There's a fireman and a trimmer, both +English; there's a third-class passenger--a Dago of some sort, I think +he is, that was a ganger on the Congo railway--and there's Mr. +Dayton-Philipps; and if you send me along your nigger stonemason, +that'll make a good, strong ship's company." + +"Dayton-Philipps!" said Image. "Why, he's an officer in the English +Army, and he's been in command of Haussa troops on the Gold Coast, and +he's been some sort of a Resident, or political thing up in one of those +nigger towns at the back there. What's he want to go for?" + +"Said he'd come for the fun of the thing." + +Captain Image gave a grim laugh. "Well, I think he'll find all the fun +he's any use for before he's ashore again. Extraordinary thing some +people can't see they're well off when they've got a job ashore. Now, +Mr. Strake, hurry with that boat and get her lowered away. You're to +take charge and bring her back; and mind, you're not to leave the +captain here and his gang aboard if the vessel's too badly wrecked to +be safe." + +He turned to Kettle. "Excuse my giving that last order, old man, but I +know how keen you are, and I'm not going to let you go off to try and +navigate a sieve. You're far too good a man to be drowned uselessly." + +The word was "Hurry," now that the final decision had been given, and +the davit tackles squeaked out as the lifeboat jerked down toward the +water. She rode there at the end of her painter, and the three rowers +and the third mate fended her off, while Kettle's crew of nondescripts +scrambled unhandily down to take their places. The negro stowaway +refused stubbornly to leave the steamer, and so was lowered +ignominiously in a bowline, and then, as he still objected loudly that +he came from Sa' Leone, and was a free British subject, some one crammed +a bucket over his head, amidst the uproarious laughter of the onlookers. + +Captain Kettle swung himself down the swaying Jacob's ladder, and the +boat's painter was cast off; and under three oars she moved slowly off +over the hot sun-kissed swells. Advice and farewells boomed like a +thunderstorm from the steamer, and an animated frieze of faces and +figures and waving headgear decorated her rail. + +Ahead of them, the quiet ship shouldered clumsily over the rollers, now +gushing down till she dipped her martingale, now swooping up again, +sending whole cataracts of water swirling along her waist. + +The men in the boat regarded her with curious eyes as they drew nearer. +Even the three rowers turned their heads, and were called to order +therefor by the mate at the tiller. A red ensign was seized jack +downward in her main rigging, the highest note of the sailorman's agony +of distress. On its wooden case, in her starboard fore-rigging, a +dioptric lens sent out the faint green glow of a lamp's light into +the sunshine. + +The third mate drew attention to this last "Lot of oil in that lamp," he +said, "or it means they haven't deserted her very long. To my mind, it +must have been in yesterday's breeze her cargo shifted, and scared her +people into leaving her." + +"We shall see," said Kettle, still staring intently ahead. + +The boat was run up cannily alongside, and Kettle jumped into the main +chains and clambered on board over the bulwarks. "Now, pass up my crew, +Mr. Strake," said he. + +"I'm coming myself next, if you don't mind," said the third mate, and +did so. "Must obey the old man's orders," he explained, as they stood +together on the sloping decks. "You heard yourself what he +said, Captain." + +"Well, Mr. Mate," said Kettle grimly, "I hope you'll decide she's +seaworthy, because, whatever view you take of it, as I've got this far, +here I'm going to stay." + +The mate frowned. He was a young man; he was here in authority, and he +had a great notion of making his authority felt. Captain Kettle was to +him merely a down-on-his-luck free-passage nobody, and as the mate was +large and lusty he did not anticipate trouble. So he remarked rather +crabbedly that he was going to obey his orders, and went aft along the +slanting deck. + +It was clear that the vessel had been swept--badly swept. Ropes-ends +streamed here and there and overboard in every direction, and everything +movable had been carried away eternally by the sea. A goodly part of the +starboard bulwarks had vanished, and the swells gushed in and out as +they chose. But the hatch tarpaulins and companions were still in place; +and though it was clear from the list (which was so great that they +could not walk without holding on) that her cargo was badly shifted, +there was no evidence so far that she was otherwise than sound. + +The third mate led the way on to the poop, opened the companion doors +and slide, and went below. Kettle followed. There was a cabin with state +rooms off it, littered, but dry. Strake went down on his knees beneath +the table, searching for something. "Lazaret hatch ought to be down +here," he explained. "I want to see in there. Ah, it is." + +He got his fingers in the ring and pulled it back. Then he whistled. +"Half-full of water," he said. "I thought so from the way she floated. +It's up to the beams down here. Likely enough she'll have started a +plate somewhere. 'Fraid it's no go for you, Captain. Why, if a breeze +was to come on, half the side of her might drop out, and she'd go down +like a stone." + +Now to Kettle's honor be it said (seeing what he had in his mind) he did +not tackle the man as he knelt there peering into the lazaret. Instead +he waited till he stood up again, and then made his statement coldly and +deliberately. + +"This ship's not too dangerous for me, and I choose to judge. And if +she'll do for me, she's good enough for the crew I've got in your boat. +Now I want them on deck, and at work without any more palaver." + +"Do you, by God!" said the mate, and then the pair of them closed +without any further preliminaries. They were both of them well used to +quick rough-and-tumbles, and they both of them knew that the man who +gets the first grip in these wrestles usually wins, and instinctively +each tried to act on that knowledge. + +But if the third mate had bulk and strength, Kettle had science and +abundant wiriness; and though the pair of them lost their footing on the +sloping cabin floor at the first embrace, and wriggled over and under +like a pair of eels, Captain Kettle got a thumb artistically fixed in +the bigger man's windpipe, and held it there doggedly. The mate, growing +more and more purple, hit out with savage force, but Kettle dodged the +bull-like blows like the boxer he was, and the mate's efforts +gradually relaxed. + +But at this point they were interrupted. "That wobbly boat was making me +sea-sick," said a voice, "so I came on board here. Hullo, you fellows!" + +Kettle looked up. "Mr. Philipps," he said, "I wish you'd go and get the +rest of our crew on deck out of the boat." + +"But what are you two doing down there?" + +"We disagreed over a question of judgment. He said this ship isn't safe, +and I shouldn't have the chance to take her home. I say there's nothing +wrong with her that can't be remedied, and home I'm going to take her, +anyway. It might be the one chance in my life, sir, of getting a balance +at the bank, and I'm not going to miss it." + +"Ho!" said Dayton-Philipps. + +"If you don't like to come, you needn't," said Kettle. "But I'm going to +have the stonemason and the Dago, and those two coal-heavers. Perhaps +you'd better go back. It will be wet, hard work here; no way the sort of +job to suit a soldier." + +Dayton-Philipps flushed slightly, and then he laughed. "I suppose that's +intended to be nasty," he said. "Well, Captain, I shall have to prove to +you that we soldiers are equal to a bit of manual labor sometimes. By +the way, I don't want to interfere in a personal matter, but I'd take it +as a favor if you wouldn't kill Strake quite. I rather like him." + +"Anything to oblige," said Kettle, and took his thumb out of the third +mate's windpipe. "And now, sir, as you've so to speak signed on for duty +here, away with you on deck and get those four other beauties up out of +the boat." + +Dayton-Philipps touched his hat and grinned. "Ay, ay, sir," he said, and +went back up the companion. + +Shortly afterward he came to report the men on board, and Kettle +addressed his late opponent. "Now, look here, young man, I don't want to +have more trouble on deck before the hands. Have you had enough?" + +"For the present, yes," said the third mate huskily. "But I hope we'll +meet again some other day to have a bit of further talk." + +"I am sure I shall be quite ready. No man ever accused me of refusing a +scrap. But, me lad, just take one tip from me: don't you go and make +Captain Image anxious by saying this ship isn't seaworthy, or he'll +begin to ask questions, and he may get you to tell more than you're +proud about." + +"You can go and get drowned your own way. As far as I am concerned, no +one will guess it's coming off till they see it in the papers." + +"Thanks," said Kettle. "I knew you'd be nice about it." + +The third mate went down to his boat, and the three rowers took her +across to the _M'poso_, where she was hauled up to davits again. The +steamer's siren boomed out farewells, as she got under way again, and +Kettle with his own hands unbent the reversed ensign from the ship's +main rigging, and ran it up to the peak and dipped it three times +in salute. + +He breathed more freely now. One chance and a host of unknown dangers +lay ahead of him. But the dangers he disregarded. Dangers were nothing +new to him. It was the chance which lured him on. Chances so seldom came +in his way, that he intended to make this one into a certainty if the +efforts of desperation could do it. + +Alone of all the six men on the derelict, Captain Kettle had knowledge +of the seaman's craft; but, for the present, thews and not seamanship +were required. The vessel lay in pathetic helplessness on her side, +liable to capsize in the first squall which came along, and their first +effort must be to get her in proper trim whilst the calm continued. They +knocked out the wedges with their heels, and got the tarpaulins off the +main hatch; they pulled away the hatch covers, and saw beneath them +smooth slopes of yellow grain. + +As though they were an invitation to work, shovels were made fast along +the coamings of the hatch. The six men took these, and with shouts +dropped down upon the grain. And then began a period of Homeric toil. +The fireman and the coal-trimmer set the pace, and with a fine contempt +for the unhandiness of amateurs did not fail to give a display of their +utmost. Kettle and Dayton-Philipps gamely kept level with them. The +Italian ganger turned out to have his pride also, and did not lag, and +only the free-born British subject from Sierra Leone endeavored to shirk +his due proportion of the toil. + +But high-minded theories as to the rights of man were regarded here as +little as threats to lay information before a justice of the peace; and +under the sledge-hammer arguments of shovel blows from whoever happened +to be next to him, the unfortunate colored gentleman descended to the +grade of nigger again (which he had repeatedly sworn never to do), and +toiled and sweated equally with his betters. + +The heat under the decks was stifling, and dust rose from the wheat in +choking volumes, but the pace of the circling shovels was never allowed +to slacken. They worked there stripped to trousers, and they understood, +one and all, that they were working for their lives. A breeze had sprung +up almost as soon as the _M'poso_ had steamed away, and hourly it was +freshening: the barometer in the cabin was registering a steady fall; +the sky was banking up with heavy clouds. + +Kettle had handled sheets and braces and hove the vessel to so as to +steady her as they worked, but she still labored heavily in the sea, and +beneath them they could hear the leaden swish of water in the floor of +the hold beneath. Their labor was having its effect, and by +infinitesimal gradations they were counteracting the list and getting +the ship upright; but the wind was worsening, and it seemed to them also +that the water was getting deeper under their feet, and that the vessel +rode more sluggishly. + +So far the well had not been sounded. It is no use getting alarming +statistics to discourage one's self unnecessarily. But after night had +fallen, and it was impossible to see to work in the gloomy hold any +longer without lamps, Captain Kettle took the sounding-rod and found +eight feet. + +He mentioned this when he took down the lanterns into the hold, but he +did not think it necessary to add that as the sounding had been taken +with the well on the slant it was therefore considerably under the +truth. Still he sent Dayton-Philipps and the trimmer on deck to take a +spell at the pumps, and himself resumed his shovel-work alongside +the others. + +Straight away on through the night the six men stuck to their savage +toil, the blood from their blistered hands reddening the shafts of the +shovels. Every now and again one or another of them, choked with the +dust, went to get a draft of lukewarm water from the scuttlebutt. But no +one stayed over long on these excursions. The breeze had blown up into a +gale. The night overhead-was starless and moonless, but every minute the +black heaven was split by spurts of lightning, which showed the +laboring, dishevelled ship set among great mountains of breaking seas. + +The sight would have been bad from a well-manned, powerful steamboat; +from the deck of the derelict it approached the terrific. With the seas +constantly crashing on board of her, to have left the hatches open would +have been, in her semi-waterlogged condition, to court swamping, and +after midnight these were battened down, and the men with the shovels +worked among the frightened, squeaking rats in the closed-in box of the +hold. There were four on board the ship during that terrible night who +openly owned to being cowed, and freely bewailed their insanity in ever +being lured away from the _M'poso_. Dayton-Philipps had sufficient +self-control to keep his feelings, whatever they were, unstated; but +Kettle faced all difficulties with indomitable courage and a +smiling face. + +"I believe," said Dayton-Philipps to him once when they were taking a +spell together at the clanking pumps, "you really glory in finding +yourself in this beastly mess." + +"I have got to earn out the salvage of this ship somehow," Kettle +shouted back to him through the windy darkness, "and I don't much care +what work comes between now and when I handle the check." + +"You've got a fine confidence. I'm not grumbling, mind, but it seems +very unlikely we shall be still afloat to-morrow morning." + +"We shall pull through, I tell you." + +"Well," said Dayton-Philipps, "I suppose you are a man that's always met +with success. I'm not. I've got blundering bad luck all along, and if +there's a hole available, I get into it." + +Captain Kettle laughed aloud into the storm. "Me!" he cried. "Me in +luck! There's not been a man more bashed and kicked by luck between here +and twenty years back. I suppose God thought it good for me, and He's +kept me down to my bearings in bad luck ever since I first got my +captain's ticket. But He's not cruel, Mr. Philipps, and He doesn't push +a man beyond the end of his patience. My time's come at last. He's given +me something to make up for all the weary waiting. He's sent me this +derelict, and He only expects me to do my human best, and then He'll let +me get her safely home." + +"Good Heavens, Skipper, what are you talking about? Have you seen +visions or something?" + +"I'm a man, Mr. Philipps, that's always said my prayers regular all +through life. I've asked for things, big things, many of them, and I'll +not deny they've been mostly denied me. I seemed to know they'd be +denied. But in the last week or so there's been a change. I've asked on, +just as earnestly as I knew how, and I seemed to hear Him answer. It was +hardly a voice, and yet it was like a voice; it appeared to come out of +millions of miles of distance; and I heard it say: 'Captain, I do not +forget the sparrows, and I have not forgotten you. I have tried you long +enough. Presently you shall meet with your reward.'" + +Dayton-Philipps stared. Was the man going mad? + +"And that's what it is, sir, that makes me sure I shall bring this +vessel into some port safely and pocket the salvage." + +"Look here, Skipper," said Dayton-Philipps, "you are just fagged to +death, and I'm the same. We've been working till our hands are raw as +butcher's meat, and we're clean tired out, and we must go below and get +a bit of sleep. If the ship swims, so much the better; if she sinks, we +can't help it; anyway, we're both of us too beat to work any more. I +shall be 'seeing things' myself next." + +"Mr. Philipps," said the little sailor gravely, "I know you don't mean +anything wrong, so I take no offence. But I'm a man convinced; I've +heard the message I told you with my own understanding; and it isn't +likely anything you can say will persuade me out of it. I can see you +are tired out, as you say, so go you below and get a spell of sleep. But +as for me, I've got another twenty hours' wakefulness in me yet, if +needs be. This chance has mercifully been sent in my way, as I've said, +but naturally it's expected of me that I do my human utmost as well to +see it through." + +"If you stay on at this heart-breaking work, so do I," said +Dayton-Philipps, and toiled gamely on at the pump. There he was still +when day broke, sawing up and down like an automaton. But before the sun +rose, utter weariness had done its work. His bleeding fingers loosed +themselves from the break, his knees failed beneath him, and he fell in +an unconscious stupor of sleep on to the wet planking of the deck. For +half an hour more Kettle struggled on at the pump, doing double work; +but even his flesh and blood had its breaking strain; and at last he +could work no more. + +He leaned dizzily up against the pump for a minute or so, and then with +an effort he pulled his still unconscious companion away and laid him on +the dry floor of a deck-house. There was a pannikin of cold stewed tea +slung from a hook in there, and half a sea biscuit on one of the bunks. +He ate and drank greedily, and then went out again along the streaming +decks to work, so far as his single pair of hands could accomplish such +a thing, at getting the huge derelict once more in sailing trim. + +The shovels meanwhile had been doing their work, and although the list +was not entirely gone, the vessel at times (when a sea buttressed her +up) floated almost upright. The gale was still blowing, but it had +veered to the southward, and on the afternoon of that day Kettle called +all hands on deck and got her under way again, and found to his joy that +the coal-trimmer had some elementary notion of taking a wheel. + +"I rate you as Mate," he said in his gratitude, "and you'll draw salvage +pay according to your rank. I was going to make Mr. Philipps my +officer, but--" + +"Don't apologize," said Dayton-Philipps. "I don't know the name of one +string from another, and I'm quite conscious of my deficiency. But just +watch me put in another spell at those infernal pumps." + +The list was of less account now, and the vessel was once more under +command of her canvas. It was the leak which gave them most cause for +anxiety. Likely enough it was caused by the mere wrenching away of a +couple of rivets. But the steady inpour of water through the holes would +soon have made the ship grow unmanageable and founder if it was not +constantly attended to. Where the leak was they had not a notion. +Probably it was deep down under the cargo of grain, and quite +unget-at-able; but anyway it demanded a constant service at the pumps to +keep it in check, and this the bone-weary crew were but feebly competent +to give. They were running up into the latitude of the Bay, too, and +might reasonably expect that "Biscay weather" would not take much from +the violence of the existing gale. + +However, the dreaded Bay, fickle as usual, saw fit to receive them at +first with a smiling face. The gale eased to a plain smiling wind; the +sullen black clouds dissolved away into fleckless blue, and a sun came +out which peeled their arms and faces as they worked. During the +afternoon they rose the brown sails of a Portuguese fishing schooner, +and Kettle headed toward her. + +Let his crew be as willing as they would, there was no doubt that this +murderous work at the pumps could not be kept up for a voyage to +England. If he could not get further reinforcements, he would have to +take the ship into the nearest foreign port to barely save her from +sinking. And then where would be his sighed-for salvage? Wofully +thinned, he thought, or more probably whisked away altogether. Captain +Kettle had a vast distrust for the shore foreigner over questions of law +proceedings and money matters. So he made for the schooner, hove his own +vessel to, and signalled that he wished to speak. + +A boat was slopped into the water from the schooner's deck, and ten +swarthy, ragged Portuguese fishermen crammed into her. A couple pushed +at the oars, and they made their way perilously over the deep hill and +dale of ocean with that easy familiarity which none but deep-sea +fishermen can attain. They worked up alongside, caught a rope which was +thrown them, and nimbly climbed over on to the decks. + +Two or three of them had a working knowledge of English; their captain +spoke it with fluent inaccuracy; and before any of them had gone aft to +Kettle, who stood at the wheel, they heard the whole story of the ship +being found derelict, and (very naturally) were anxious enough by some +means or another to finger a share of the salvage. Even a ragged +Portuguese _baccalhao_ maker can have his ambitions for prosperity like +other people. + +Their leader made his proposal at once. "All right-a, Captain, I see how +you want. We take charge now, and take-a you into Ferrol without you +being at more trouble." + +"Nothing of the kind," said Kettle. "I'm just wanting the loan of two or +three hands to give my fellows a spell or two at that pump. We're a bit +short-handed, that's all. But otherwise we're quite comfortable. I'll +pay A.B.'s wages on Liverpool scale, and that's a lot more than you +Dagos give amongst yourselves, and if the men work well I'll throw in a +dash besides for 'bacca money.'" + +[Illustration: HE PICKED UP THE MAN AND SENT HIM AFTER THE KNIFE.] + +"Ta-ta-ta," said the Portuguese, with a wave of his yellow fist. "It +cannot be done, and I will not lend you men. It shall do as I say; we +take-a you into Ferroll. Do not fear-a, captain; you shall have money +for finding sheep; you shall have some of our salvage." + +Dayton-Philipps, who was standing near, and knew the little sailor's +views, looked for an outbreak. But Kettle held himself in, and still +spoke to the man civilly. + +"That's good English you talk," he said. "Do all your crowd understand +the language?" + +"No," said the fellow, readily enough, "that man does not, nor does him, +nor him." + +"Right--oh!" said Kettle. "Then, as those three man can't kick up a +bobbery at the other end, they've just got to stay here and help work +this vessel home. And as for the rest of you filthy, stinking, +scale-covered cousins of apes, over the side you go before you're put. +Thought you were going to steal my lawful salvage, did you, you +crawling, yellow-faced--ah!" + +The hot-tempered Portuguese was not a man to stand this tirade (as +Kettle anticipated) unmoved. His fingers made a vengeful snatch toward +the knife in his belt, but Kettle was ready for this, and caught it +first and flung it overboard. Then with a clever heave he picked up the +man and sent him after the knife. + +He tripped up one of the Portuguese who couldn't speak English, dragged +him to the cabin companion, and toppled him down the ladder. +Dayton-Philipps (surprised at himself for abetting such lawlessness) +captured a second in like fashion, and the English fireman and +coal-trimmer picked up the third and dropped him down an open hatchway +on to the grain in the hold beneath. + +But there were six of the fishermen left upon the deck, and these did +not look upon the proceedings unmoved. They had been slow to act at +first, but when the initial surprise was over, they were blazing with +rage and eager to do murder. The Italian and the Sierra Leone nigger ran +out of their way on to the forecastle head, and they came on, +vainglorious in numbers, and armed with their deadly knives. But the two +English roughs, the English gentleman, and the little English sailor, +were all of them men well accustomed to take care of their own skins; +the belaying pins out of the pinrail seemed to come by instinct into +their hands, and not one of them got so much as a scratch. + +It was all the affair of a minute. It does not do to let these little +impromptu scrimmages simmer over long. In fact, the whole affair was +decided in the first rush. The quartette of English went in, despising +the "Dagos," and quite intending to clear them off the ship. The +invaders were driven overboard by sheer weight of blows and prestige, +and the victors leaned on the bulwark puffing and gasping, and watched +them swim away to their boat through the clear water below. + +"Ruddy Dagos," said the roughs. + +"Set of blooming pirates," said Kettle. + +But Dayton-Philipps seemed to view the situation from a different point. +"I'm rather thinking we are the pirates. How about those three we've got +on board? This sort of press-gang work isn't quite approved of nowadays, +is it, Skipper?" + +"They no speakee English," said Kettle drily. "You might have heard me +ask that, sir, before I started to talk to that skipper to make him +begin the show. And he did begin it, and that's the great point. If ever +you've been in a police court, you'll always find the magistrate ask, +'Who began this trouble?' And when he finds out, that's the man he logs. +No, those fishermen won't kick up a bobbery when they get back to happy +Portugal again; and as for our own crowd here on board, they ain't +likely to talk when they get ashore, and have money due to them." + +"Well, I suppose there's reason in that, though I should have my doubts +about the stonemason. He comes from Sierra Leone, remember, and they're +great on the rights of man there." + +"Quite so," said Kettle. "I'll see the stonemason gets packed off to sea +again in a stokehold before he has a chance of stirring up the mud +ashore. When the black man gets too pampered, he has to be brought low +again with a rush, just to make him understand his place." + +"I see," said Dayton-Phillips, and then he laughed. + +"There's something that tickles you, sir?" + +"I was thinking, Skipper, that for a man who believes he's being put in +the way of a soft thing by direct guidance from on high, you're using up +a tremendous lot of energy to make sure the Almighty's wishes don't +miscarry. But still I don't understand much about these matters myself. +And at present it occurs to me that I ought to be doing a spell at those +infernal pumps, instead of chattering here." + +The three captive Portuguese were brought up on deck and were quickly +induced by the ordinary persuasive methods of the merchant service +officer to forego their sulkiness and turn-to diligently at what work +was required of them. But even with this help the heavy ship was still +considerably undermanned, and the incessant labor at the pumps fell +wearily on all hands. The Bay, true to its fickle nature, changed on +them again. The sunshine was swamped by a driving gray mist of rain; the +glass started on a steady fall; and before dark, Kettle snugged her down +to single topsails, himself laying out on the foot-ropes with the +Portuguese, as no others of his crew could manage to scramble aloft with +so heavy a sea running. + +The night worsened as it went on; the wind piled up steadily in +violence; and the sea rose till the sodden vessel rode it with a very +babel of shrieks, and groans, and complaining sounds. Toward morning, a +terrific squall powdered up against them and hove her down, and a dull +rumbling was heard in her bowels to let them know that once more her +cargo had shifted. + +For the moment, even Kettle thought that this time she was gone for +good. She lost her way, and lay down like a log in the water, and the +racing seas roared over her as though she had been a half-tide rock. By +a miracle no one was washed overboard. But her people hung here and +there to eyebolts and ropes, mere nerveless wisps of humanity, incapable +under those teeming cataracts of waves to lift so much as a finger to +help themselves. + +Then to the impact of a heavier gasp of the squall, the topgallant masts +went, and the small loss of of top-weight seemed momentarily to ease +her. Kettle seized upon the moment. He left the trimmer and one of the +Portuguese at the wheel, and handed himself along the streaming decks +and kicked and cuffed the rest of his crew into activity. He gave his +orders, and the ship wore slowly round before the wind, and began to pay +away on the other tack. + +Great hills of sea deluged her in the process, and her people worked +like mermen, half of their time submerged. But by degrees, as the vast +rollers hit and shook her with their ponderous impact, she came upright +again, and after a little while shook the grain level in her holds, and +assumed her normal, angle of heel. + +Dayton-Philipps struggled up and, hit Kettle on the shoulder. "How's +that, umpire?" he bawled. "My faith, you are a clever, sailor." + +Captain Kettle touched his hat. "God bore a hand there, sir," he shouted +through the wind. "If I'd tried to straighten her up like that without +outside help, every man here would have been fish-chop this minute." + +Even Dayton-Philipps, sceptical though he might be, began to think there +was "something in it" as the voyage went on. To begin with, the leak +stopped. They did not know how it had happened, and they did not very +much care. Kettle had his theories. Anyway it stopped. To go on with, +although they were buffeted with every kind of evil weather, all their +mischances were speedily rectified. In a heavy sea, all their unstable +cargo surged about as though it had been liquid, but it always shifted +back again before she quite capsized. The mizzen-mast went bodily +overboard in one black rain-squall because they were too short-handed to +get sail off it in time, but they found that the vessel sailed almost as +well as a brig, and was much easier for a weak crew to manage. + +All hands got covered with salt-water boils. All hands, with the +exception of Kettle--who remained, as usual, neat--grew gaunt, bearded, +dirty, and unkempt. They were grimed with sea-salt, they were flayed +with violent suns; but by dint of hard schooling they were becoming +handy sailormen, all of them, and even the negro stonemason learned to +obey an order without first thinking over its justice till he earned a +premonitory hiding. + +In the throat of the English Channel a blundering steamship did her best +to run them down, and actually rasped sides with the sailing-vessel as +she tore past into the night; but nobody made an attempt to jump for +safety on to her decks, nobody even took the trouble to swear at her +with any thing like heartfelt profanity. + +"It's a blooming Flying Dutchman we're on," said the coal-trimmer who +acted as mate. "There's no killing the old beast. Only hope she gets us +ashore somehow, and doesn't stay fooling about at sea forever just to +get into risks. I want to get off her. She's too blooming lucky to be +quite wholesome somehow." + +Kettle had intended to make a Channel port, but a gale hustled him north +round Land's End, "and you see," he said to Dayton-Philipps, "what I get +for not being sufficiently trustful. The old girl's papers are made out +to Cardiff, and here we are pushed round into the Bristol Channel. By +James! look, there's a tug making up to us. Thing like that makes you +feel homey, doesn't it, sir?" + +The little spattering tug wheeled up within hail, tossing like a cork on +the brown waves of the estuary, and the skipper in the green pulpit +between the paddle-boxes waved a hand cheerily. + +"Seem to have found some dirty weather, Captain," he bawled. "Want a +pull into Cardiff or Newport?" + +"Cardiff. What price?" + +"Say L100." + +"I wasn't asking to buy the tug. You're putting a pretty fancy figure on +her for that new lick of paint you've got on your rails." + +"I'll take L80." + +"Oh, I can sail her in myself if you're going to be funny. She's as +handy as a pilot-boat, brig rigged like this, and my crew know her fine. +I'll give you L20 into Cardiff, and you're to dock me for that." + +"Twenty wicked people. Now look here, Captain, you don't look very +prosperous with that vessel of yours, and will probably have the sack +from owners for mishandling her when you get ashore, and I don't want to +embitter your remaining years in the workus, so I'll pull you in for +fifty quid." + +"L20, old bottle nose." + +"Come now, Captain, thirty. I'm not here for sport. I've got to make my +living." + +"My man," said Kettle, "I'll meet you and make it L25, and I'll see you +in Aden before I give a penny more. You can take that, or sheer off." + +"Throw us your blooming rope," said the tug skipper. + +"There, sir," said Kettle _sotto voce_ to Dayton-Philipps, "you see the +marvellousness of it? God has stood by me to the very end. I've saved at +least L10 over that towage, and, by James! I've seen times when a ship +mauled about like this would have been bled for four times the amount +before a tug would pluck her in." + +"Then we are out of the wood now?" + +"We'll get the canvas off her, and then you can go below and shave. You +can sleep in a shore bed this night, if you choose, sir, and to-morrow +we'll see about fingering the salvage. There'll be no trouble there now; +we shall just have to ask for a check and Lloyds will pay it, and then +you and the hands will take your share, and I--by James! Mr. Philipps, I +shall be a rich man over this business. I shouldn't be a bit surprised +but what I finger a snug L500 as my share. Oh, sir, Heaven's been very +good to me over this, and I know it, and I'm grateful. My wife will be +grateful too. I wish you could come to our chapel some day and see her." + +"You deserve your luck, Captain, if ever a man did in this world, and, +by Jove! we'll celebrate it. We've been living on pig's food for long +enough. We'll find the best hotel in Cardiff, and we'll get the best +dinner the _chef_ there can produce. I want you to be my guest at that." + +"I must ask you to excuse me," said Kettle. "I've received a good deal +just lately, and I'm thankful, and I want to say so. If you don't mind, +I'd rather say it alone." + +"I understand, Skipper. You're a heap better man than I am, and if you +don't mind, I'd like to shake hands with you. Thanks. We may not meet +again, but I shall never forget you and what we've seen on this +murderous old wreck of a ship. Hullo, there's Cardiff not twenty minutes +ahead. Well, I must go below and clean up after you've docked her." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +TO CAPTURE AN HEIRESS + + +The _Parakeet_ had discharged the last of her coal into the lighters +alongside, had cast off from the mooring buoys, and was steaming out of +the baking heat of Suez harbor on her way down toward the worse heat of +the Red Sea beyond. The clatter and dirt of the-working ships, with the +smells of hot iron and black humanity, were dying out astern, and +presently she slowed up to drop the pilot into his boat, and then stood +on again along her course. + +A passenger, a young man of eight or nine-and-twenty, lounged on a +camp-stool under the upper bridge awning, and watched the _Parakeet's_ +captain as he walked briskly across and across, and presently, when the +little sailor faced him, he nodded as though he had decided something +that was in his thoughts. + +"Well, sir?" said Captain Kettle. + +"I wish you wouldn't look so anxious. We've started now, and may as well +make up our minds to go through it comfortably." + +"Quite so," said Kettle. "I'm thinking out how we are to do this +business in comfort--and safety," and with that he resumed his walk. + +The man beside him had introduced himself when the black workers were +carrying the _Parakeet's_ cargo of coal in baskets from the holds to the +lighters alongside; and Kettle had been rather startled to find that he +carried a letter of introduction from the steamboat's owners. The letter +gave him no choice of procedure. It stated with clearness that Mr. Hugh +Wenlock, solicitor, had laid his wishes before them, and that they had +agreed to further these wishes (through the agency of their +servant--Captain Owen Kettle) in consideration of the payment of +L200 sterling. + +The _Parakeet_ was a cargo tramp, and carried no passenger certificate, +but a letter of recommendation like this was equivalent to a direct +order, and Kettle signed Mr. Wenlock on to his crew list as "Doctor," +and put to sea with an anxious mind. + +Wenlock waited awhile, watching squalid Suez sink into the sea behind; +and then he spoke again. + +"Look here, Captain," he said, "those South Arabian ports have got a lot +worse reputation than they really deserve. The people down there twenty +years ago were a pack of pirates, I'll grant you, but nowadays they know +that if they get at any of their old games, a British gunboat promptly +comes up next week and bombards them at two-mile range, and that's not +good enough. They may not be honest from inclination, but they've got +the fear of the gunboat always handy, and that's a wonderful civilizing +power. I tell you, captain, you needn't be frightened; that pirate +business is exploded for now and always." + +"I know all about the piratical hankerings of those South Arabian +niggers, sir," said Kettle stiffly, "and I know what they can do and +what they can't do as well as any man living. And I know also what I can +do myself at a push, and the knowledge leaves me pretty comfortable. But +if you choose to think me frightened, I'll own I am. It's the +navigation down there that gave me cold shivers the first moment you +mentioned it." + +"Why, it's no worse than the Red Sea here, anyway." + +"Red Sea's bad, but you can get good charts of it and rely on them. +South Arabian coast is no better, and the charts aren't worth the paper +they're printed on. There are bad tide-rips down there, sir, and there +are bad reefs, and there's bad fog, and the truth of it is, there's no +handier place to lose a ship in all the big, wide world." + +"I wouldn't like you to wreck the steamer down there. It might be +awkward for me getting back." + +"Quite so," said Kettle, "you're thinking of yourself, and I don't blame +you. I'm thinking of myself also. I'm a man that's met a great deal of +misfortune, sir, and from one thing and another I've been eight years +without a regular command. I had the luck to bring in a derelict the +other day, and pocket a good salvage out of her, and my present owners +heard of it, and they put me as master of this steamer, just because of +that luck." + +"Nothing like luck." + +"If you don't lose it. But I am not anxious to pile up this steamboat on +some uncharted reef just because luck has left me, and have to wait +another eight years before I find another command." + +"And, as I say, I'm as keen as you are not to get the steamer wrecked, +and if there's any way she can be kept out of a dangerous area, and you +can manage to set me ashore where I want in a boat, just you say, and +I'll meet you all I can. But at the same time, Skipper, if you don't +mind doing a swap, you might give me a good deal of help over my matter +in return." + +"I haven't heard your business yet, sir. All you've told me is that you +want to be set down in this place, Dunkhot, and be taken off again after +you've stayed there four-and-twenty hours." + +"Well, you see I didn't want it talked over beforehand. If the +newspapers got hold of the yarn, and made a lot of fuss about it, they +might upset a certain marriage that I've very much set my heart upon." + +Captain Kettle looked puzzled. "I don't seem to quite follow you, sir." + +"You shall hear the tale from the beginning. We have plenty of time +ahead of us just now. You remember the wreck of the _Rangoon_?" + +"She was coming home from East Indian ports, wasn't she, and got on fire +somewhere off Cape Guardafui? But that'll have been twenty years back, +in the old overland days, before the Ditch was opened. Only about ten of +her people saved, if I remember." + +"That's about right," said Wenlock, "though it's twenty years ago now. +She was full of Anglo-Indians, and their loss made a great sensation at +the time. Amongst others was a Colonel Anderson, and his wife, and their +child Teresa, aged nine; and what made their deaths all the more sad was +the fact that Anderson's elder brother died just a week before, and he +would have come home to find a peerage and large estates waiting +for him." + +"I can feel for that man," said Kettle. + +"I can feel most for the daughter," said Wenlock. + +"How do you mean, sir?" + +"Well, Colonel Anderson's dead, and his wife's dead, but the daughter +isn't, or at any rate she was very much alive twelve months ago, that's +all. The whole lot of them, with others, got into one of the _Rangoon's_ +boats, and after frizzling about at sea till they were nearly starved, +got chucked on that South Arabian coast (which you say is so rocky and +dangerous), and were drowned in the process. All barring Teresa, that +is. She was pulled out of the water by the local niggers, and was +brought up by them, and I've absolutely certain information that not a +year ago she was living in Dunkhot as quite a big personage in her way." + +"And she's 'My Lady' now, if she only knew?" + +"Well, not that. The title doesn't descend in the female line, but +Colonel Anderson made a will in her favor after she was born, and the +present earl, who's got the estates, would have to shell out if she +turned up again." + +"My owners, in their letter, mentioned that you were a solicitor. Then +you are employed by his lordship, sir?" + +Mr. Wenlock laughed. "Not much," he said. "I'm on my own hook. Why, hang +it all, Captain, you must see that no man of his own free will would be +idiot enough to resurrect a long-forgotten niece just to make himself +into a beggar." + +"I don't see why not, sir, if he got to know she was alive. Some men +have consciences, and even a lord, I suppose, is a man." + +"The present earl has far too good a time of it to worry about running a +conscience. No, I bet he fights like a thief for the plunder, however +clear a case we have to show him. And as he's the man in possession and +has plenty of ready cash for law expenses, the odds are he'll turn out +too big to worry at through all the courts, and we shall compromise. +I'd like that best myself. Cash down has a desirable feel about it." + +"It has, sir," said Kettle with a reminiscent sigh. "Even to pocket a +tenth of what is rightfully yours is better than getting mixed up with +that beastly law. But will the other relatives of the young lady, those +that are employing you, I mean, agree to that?" + +"Don't I tell you, Captain, I'm on my own hook? There are no other +relatives--or at least none that would take a ha'porth of interest in +Teresa's getting the estates. I've gone into the thing on sheer spec, +and for what I can make out of it, and that, if all's well, will be the +whole lump." + +"But how? The young lady may give you something in her gratitude, of +course, but you can't expect it all." + +"I do, though, and I tell you how I'm going to get it. I shall marry the +fair Teresa. Simple as tumbling off a house." + +Kettle drew himself up stiffly and walked to the other end of the +bridge, and began ostentatiously to look with a professional eye over +his vessel. + +Wenlock was quick to see the change. "Come, what is it now, Captain?" he +asked with some surprise. + +"I don't like the idea of those sort of marriages," said the little +sailor, acidly. + +Wenlock shrugged his shoulders good-humoredly. + +"Neither do I, and if I were a rich man, I wouldn't have dreamed of it. +Just think of what the girl probably is: she's been with those niggers +since she was quite a kid; she'll be quite uneducated; I'm in hopes +she's good-looking and has a decent figure; but at the best she'll be +quite unpresentable till I've had her in hand for at least a couple of +years, if then. Of course you'll say there's 'romance' about the thing. +But then I don't care tuppence about romance, and anyway it's beastly +unconfortable to live with." + +"I was not looking at that point of view." + +"Let me tell you how I was fixed," said Wenlock with a burst of +confidence. "I'd a small capital. So I qualified as a solicitor, and put +up a door-plate, and waited for a practice. It didn't come. Not a client +drifted near me from month's end to month's end. And meanwhile the +capital was dribbling away. I felt I was getting on my back legs; it was +either a case of the Colonies or the workhouse, and I'd no taste for +either; and when the news of this girl Teresa came, I tell you I just +jumped at the chance. I don't want to marry her, of course; there are +ten other girls I'd rather have as wife; but there was no other way out +of the difficulty, so I just swallowed my squeamishness for good and +always. See?" + +"It was Miss Teresa Anderson I was pitying," said Kettle pointedly. + +"Good Lord, man, why? Isn't it the finest thing in the world for her?" + +"It might be fine to get away from where she is, and land home to find a +nice property waiting. But I don't care to see a woman have a husband +forced on her. It would be nobler of you, Mr. Wenlock, to let the young +lady get to England, and look round her for a while, and make her +own choice." + +"I'm too hard up to be noble," said Wenlock drily. "I've not come here +on philanthropy, and marrying that girl is part of my business. +Besides, hang it all, man, think of what she is, and think of what I +am." He looked himself up and down with a half humorous smile--"I know +nice people at home who would be civil to her, and after all, hang it, +I'm not unmarriageable personally." + +"Still," said Kettle doggedly, "I don't like the idea of it." + +"Then let me give you an inducement. I said I was not down here on +philanthropy, and I don't suppose you are either. You'll have my +passage money?" + +"Two and a-half per cent of it is my commission. The rest goes to the +owners, of course." + +"Very well, then. In addition to that, if you'll help this marriage on +in the way I ask, I'll give you L50." + +"There's no man living who could do more usefully with L50 if I saw my +way of fingering it." + +"I think I see what you mean. No, you won't have to wait for it. I've +got the money here in hard cash in my pocket ready for you to take over +the minute it's earned." + +"I was wondering, sir, if I could earn it honorably. You must give me +time to think this out. I'll try and give you an answer after tea. And +for the present I shall have to leave you. I've got to go through the +ship's papers: I have to be my own clerk on board here just now, though +the Company did certainly promise me a much better ship if I beat up +plenty of cargo, and made a good voyage of it with this." + +The _Parakeet_ worked her way along down the Red Sea at her steady nine +knots, and Mr. Hugh Wenlock put a couple of bunk pillows on a canvas +boat-cover under the bridge deck awnings, and lay there and amused +himself with cigarettes and a magazine. Captain Owen Kettle sat before a +table in the chart-house with his head on one side, and a pen in his +fingers, and went through accounts. But though Wenlock, when he had +finished his magazine, quickly went off to sleep, Captain Kettle's +struggles with arithmetic were violent enough to keep him very +thoroughly awake, and when a due proportion of the figures had been +checked, he put the papers in a drawer, and was quite ready to tackle +the next subject. + +He had not seen necessary to mention the fact to Mr. Wenlock, but while +that young man was talking of the Miss Teresa Anderson, who at present +was "quite a big personage in her way" at Dunkhot, a memory had come to +him that he had heard of the lady before in somewhat less prosaic terms. +All sailormen who have done business on the great sea highway between +West and East during recent years have had the yarn given to them at one +time or another, and most of them have regarded it as gratuitous legend. +Kettle was one of these. But he was beginning to think there was +something more in it than a mere sailor's yarn, and he was anxious to +see if there was any new variation in the telling. + +So he sent for Murray, his mate, a smart young sailor of the newer +school, who preferred to be called "chief officer," made him sit, and +commenced talk of a purely professional nature. Finally he said: "And +since I saw you last, the schedule's changed. We call in at Dunkhot, for +that passenger Mr. Wenlock to do some private business ashore, before we +go on to our Persian Gulf ports." + +Murray repeated the name thoughtfully. "Dunkhot? Let's see, that's on +the South Arabian coast, about a day's steam from Aden, and a beast of a +place to get at, so I've heard. Oh, and of course, that's the place +where the She-Sultan, or Queen, or whatever she calls herself, is boss." + +"So there is really a woman of that kind there, is there? I'd heard of +her, like everybody else has, but I thought she was only a yarn." + +"No, she's there in the flesh, sir, right enough; lots of flesh, +according to what I've gathered. A serang of one of the B. and I. boats, +who'd been in Dunkhot, told me about her only last year. She makes war, +leads her troops, cuts off heads, and does the Eastern potentate up to +the mark. The serang said she was English, too, though I don't believe +much in that. One-tenth English would probably be more near the truth. +The odds are she'll be Eurasian, and those snuff-and-butter colored +ladies, when they get amongst people blacker than themselves, always try +to ignore their own lick of the tar-brush." + +"Fat, is she?" + +"The serang said she-was a big buffalo bull of a woman, with a terror of +a temper. I don't know what's Mr. Wenlock's business, sir; but whether +he wants to start a dry-goods agency, or merely to arrange for smuggling +in some rifles, he'd better make up his mind to square her first and +foremost. She will have a finger in every pie. She's as curious as a +monkey, too, and there's no doing anything without letting her know. And +when she says a thing, it's got to be done." + +"Is she the head chief's favorite wife, then?" + +"That's the funny part of it: she isn't married. These Orientals always +get husbands early as a general thing, and you'd have thought that in +her juvenile days, before she got power, they'd have married her to some +one about the town, whether she liked it or not. But it seems they +didn't, because she said she'd certainly poison any man if they sent her +into his zenana. And later on, when she came to be boss, she still kept +to spinsterhood. Guess there wasn't any man about the place white enough +to suit her taste." + +"H'm. What you've told me seems to let daylight on to things." + +"Beg pardon, sir?" + +Captain Kettle put his hand kindly on Murray's shoulder. "Don't ask me +to explain now, my lad, but when the joke comes you shall share the +laugh. There's a young man on this ship (I don't mind telling you in +confidence) whose ways I don't quite like, and I think he's going to get +a lesson." + +He went out then under the awnings of the bridge deck, and told Wenlock +that he would probably be able to earn his fee for helping on the +marriage, and Wenlock confidently thought that he quite understood the +situation. + +"Skipper's a bit of a methody," thought Mr. Hugh Wenlock, "but his +principles don't go very deep when there are fifty sovereigns to be +earned. Well, he's a useful man, and if he gets me snugly married to +that little girl, he'll be cheap at the price." + +The _Parakeet's_ voyage to Dunkhot was not swift. Eight-and-a-half knots +was her most economical pace for coal consumption, and at that gait she +steamed. With a reputation to make with his new owners, and two and +a-half per cent, commission on all profits, Kettle had developed into a +regular glutton for cargo; and the knowledge of men and places which he +had so laboriously acquired in former days served him finely. Three +times he got doles of cargo at good stiff freights at points where few +other men would have dreamed of looking. He was an ideal man for the +master of an ocean tramp. He was exactly honest; he had a world of +misfortunes behind to spur him on; he was quick of decision; and he had +developed a nose for cargo, and a knack of extorting it from merchants, +that were little short of miraculous. And, in fact, if things went on as +they had started, he stood a very good chance of making 50 per cent, on +the _Parakeet's_ capital for the voyage, and so earning promotion to one +of the firm's better ships. + +But though in the many days of his adversity Captain Kettle had never +shunned any risks which came in his way, with this new prosperity fresh +and pleasant at his feet, he was beginning to tell himself that risks +were foolish things. He arrived off Dunkhot and rang off his engines, +and frowned angrily at the shore. + +The town stood on an eminence, snugly walled, and filled with cool, +square houses. At one side, the high minaret of a mosque stood up like a +bayonet, and at the other, standing in a ring of garden, was a larger +building, which seemed to call itself palace. There was a small fringe +of cultivation beside the walls of the town, and beyond was arid desert, +which danced and shimmered under the violent sun. + +But all this lay small and far off, like a tiny picture in some huge +frame, and showing only through the glass. A maze of reefs guarded the +shore, and tore up the sleek Indian Ocean swells into spouting breakers; +and though there was anchorage inside, tenanted indeed by a score of +sailing craft, the way to it was openly perilous. And so for the present +the _Parakeet_ lay to, rolling outside the entrance, flying a pilot +jack, and waiting developments. + +Captain Kettle might have his disquieting thoughts, still outwardly he +was cool. But Mr. Hugh Wenlock was on deck in the sprucest of his +apparel, and was visibly anxious and fidgety, as befitted a man who +shortly expected to enter into the bonds of matrimony. + +A double-ended boat came off presently, manned by naked Arabs, and +steered by a man in a white burnous. She swept up alongside, caught a +rope and made fast, and the man in white introduced himself as a pilot. +They are all good Mohammedans down there, or nominally, and so of course +there was no question of a clean bill of health. Islam is not impious +enough to check the spread of any disease which Allah may see good to +send for its chastening. + +The pilot wanted to take them in at once. He spoke some English, and +carried an air of confidence. He could guide them through the reefs in +the most complete of safety, and he could guarantee fine openings for +trade, once inside. + +"I dare say," grunted Kettle under his breath, "but you're a heap too +uncertificated for my taste. Why, you don't even offer a book of forged +logs to try and work off your humbug with some look of truth. No, I know +the kind of pilot you are. You'd pile up the steamboat on the first +convenient reef, and then be one of the first to come and loot her."--He +turned to Murray: "Now, look here, Mr. Mate. I'll leave you in charge, +and see you keep steam up and don't leave the deck. Don't let any of +these niggers come on board on any pretence whatever, and if they try it +on, steam out to sea. I'll get through Mr. Wenlock's business ashore as +quick as lean, and perhaps pick up a ton or two of cargo for ourselves." + +Below, in the dancing boat which ground against the steamer's side, the +pilot clamored that a ladder might be thrown to him so that he might +come on board and take the _Parakeet_ forthwith into the anchorage; and +to him again Kettle turned, and temporized. He must go ashore himself +first, he said, and see what offer there was of trade, before he took +the steamer in. To which the pilot, though visibly disappointed, saw fit +to agree, as no better offer was forthcoming. + +"Now, sir," said Kettle to Wenlock, "into the boat with you. The less +time that's wasted, the better I shall be pleased." + +"All right," said Wenlock, pointing to a big package on the deck. "Just +tell some of your men to shove that case down into the boat, and +I'm ready." + +Kettle eyed the bulky box with disfavor. "What's in it?" he asked. + +"A present or a bribe; whichever you care to call it. If you want to +know precisely, it's rifles. I thought they would be most acceptable." + +"Rifles are liked hereabouts. Is it for a sort of introductory present?" + +"Well, if you must know, Captain, it's occurred to me that Teresa is +probably an occupant of somebody's harem, and that I shall have to buy +her off from her husband. Hence the case of rifles." + +A queer look came over Captain Kettle's face. "And you'd still marry +this woman if she had another husband living?" + +"Of course. Haven't I told you that I've thought the whole thing +thoroughly over already, and I'm not inclined to stick at trifles? But I +may tell you that divorce is easy in these Mohammedan countries, and I +shall take care to get the girl set legally free before we get away from +here. You don't catch me getting mixed with bigamy." + +"But tell me. Is a Mohammedan marriage made here binding for an +Englishman?" + +"It's as legally binding as if the Archbishop of Canterbury tied the +knot." + +"Very well," said Kettle. "Now let me tell you, sir, for the last time, +that I don't like what you're going to do. To my mind, it's not a nice +thing marrying a woman that you evidently despise, just for her money." + +Wenlock flushed. "Look here," he said, "I refuse to be lectured, +especially by you. Aren't you under promise to get L50 from me the +moment I'm safely married? And didn't you fairly jump at the chance of +fingering it." + +Captain Kettle did not hit this man who cast such an unpleasant +imputation on him; he did not even let him feel the lash of his tongue +in return. He merely smiled grimly, and said: "Get down into the boat, +you and your case of rifles." + +For the moment Wenlock started and hesitated. He seemed to detect +something ominous in this order. But then he took a brace on his +courage, and after a couple of deck hands had lowered the rifles into +the dancing boat, he clambered gingerly down after them, and sat himself +beside the white-robed man in the stern sheets. Kettle followed, and +the boat headed off for the opening between the reefs. + +The Indian Ocean swells swung beneath them, and presently were breaking +on the grim stone barriers on either hand in a roar of sound. The +triangular dorsal fins of a couple of sharks convoyed them in, in case +of accidents; and overhead a crowd of sea-fowl screamed and swooped and +circled. But none of these things interested them. The town ahead, which +jerked nearer to every tug of the oars, held the eye. In it was Teresa +Anderson, heiress, a personage of whom each of them had his own private +conception. In it also were fanatical Arabs, whom they hoped the fear of +shadowy British gunboats would deter from open piracy. + +The boat passed between a cluster of ragged shipping which swayed at the +anchorage, and Wenlock might have stared with curious eyes (had he been +so minded) on real dhows which had even then got real slaves ready for +market in their stuffy 'tween decks. But he was gazing with a fascinated +stare at the town. Over the arch of the water-gate, for which they were +heading, was what at first appeared to be a frieze of small rounded +balls; but a nearer view resolved these into human heads, in various +stages of desiccation. Evidently justice in Dunkhot was determined that +the criminal who once passed through its hands should no more tread the +paths of unrighteousness. + +The boat landed against a jetty of stone, and they stepped out dryshod. +Wenlock stared at the gate with its dressing of heads as though they +fascinated him. + +"And Teresa will have been brought up within sight of all this," he +murmured to himself, "and will be accustomed to it. Fancy marrying a +woman who has spent twenty years of her life in the neighborhood of all +this savagery." + +"Strong place in its way," said Kettle, squinting up at the brass cannon +on the walls. "Those guns up there are well kept, you can see. Of course +one of our cheapest fourpenny gunboats could knock the whole shop into +bricks in half an hour at three-mile range; but it's strong enough to +hold out against any niggers along the coast here, and that's all the +Queen here aims at. By the way, Emir, not Queen, is what she calls +herself, so the pilot tells me. I suppose she thinks that as she's doing +a man's job in a man's way, she may as well take a full man's ticket." + +They passed in through the gate, the sentries staring at them curiously, +and once inside, in the full heat and smell of the narrow street beyond, +Wenlock said: "Look here, Skipper, you're resourceful, and you know +these out-of-the-way places. How had we better start to find the girl?" + +Kettle glanced coolly round at the grim buildings and the savage Arabs +who jostled them, and said, with fine sarcasm: "Well, sir, as there +doesn't appear to be a policeman about, I should recommend you to apply +at the post office." + +"I don't want to be mocked." + +"Then, if you'll take the tip from me, you'll crowd back to my steamboat +as fast as you can go. You'll find it healthier." + +"I'm going on with it," said Wenlock doggedly. "And I ask you to earn +your L50, and give me help." + +"Then, if you distinctly ask me to help you on into trouble like that, +of course, the best thing to do is to go straight on to the palace." + +"Show the way, then," said Wenlock curtly. + +Kettle gave the word to the white-robed pilot, and together they set off +down the narrow winding streets, with an ever-increasing train of Arabs +and negroes following in their wake. Wenlock said nothing as he walked, +but it was evident from the working of his face that his mind was very +full. But Kettle looked about him with open interest, and thoughts in +verse about this Eastern town came to him with pleasant readiness. + +The royal residence was the large building encircled with gardens which +they had seen from the sea, and they entered it with little formality. +There was no trouble either about obtaining an audience. The Lady Emir +had, it appeared, seen the steamer's approach with her own eyes; indeed, +the whole of Dunkhot was excited by such an unusual arrival; and the +Head of the State was as human in her curiosity as the meanest nigger +among her subjects. + +The audience hall was imposing. It was bare enough, according to the +rule of those heated Eastern lands, but it had an air of comfort and +coolness, and in those parts where it was not severely plain, the beauty +of its architecture was delicious. Armed guards to the number of some +forty men were posted round the walls, and at the further end, +apparently belonging to the civil population, were some dozen other men +squatting on the floor. In the centre of the room was a naked wretch in +chains; but sentence was hurriedly pronounced on him, and he was hustled +away as the two Englishmen entered, and they found themselves face to +face with the only woman in the room, the supreme ruler of this savage +South Arabian coast town. + +She was seated on a raised divan, propped by cushions, and in front of +her was a huge water-pipe at which she occasionally took a meditative +pull. She was dressed quite in Oriental fashion, in trousers, zouave +jacket, sash, and all the rest of it; but she was unmistakably English +in features, though strongly suggestive of the Boadicea. She was a +large, heavily-boned woman, enormously covered with flesh, and she +dandled across her knees that very unfeminine sceptre, an English +cavalryman's sword. But the eye neglected these details, and was +irresistibly drawn by the strongness of her face. Even Kettle was almost +awed by it. + +But Captain Owen Kettle-was not a man who could be kept in awe for long. +He took off his helmet, marched briskly up toward the divan, and bowed. + +"Good afternoon, your Ladyship," he said. "I trust I see you well. I'm +Captain Kettle, master of that steamboat now lying in your roads, and +this is Mr. Wenlock, a passenger of mine, who heard that you were +English, and has come to put you in the way of some property at home." + +The lady sat more upright, and set back her great shoulders. "I am +English," she said. "I was called in the Giaour faith Teresa Anderson." + +"That's the name," said Kettle. "Mr. Wenlock's come to take you away to +step into a nice thing at home." + +"I am Emir here. Am I asked to be Emir in your country?" + +"Why, no," said Kettle; "that job's filled already, and we aren't +thinking of making a change. Our present Emir in England (who, by the +way, is a lady like yourself) seems to suit us very well. No, you'll be +an ordinary small-potato citizen, like everybody else, and you will +probably find it a bit of a change." + +"I do not onderstand," said the woman. "I have not spoke your language +since I was child. Speak what you say again." + +"I'll leave it to Mr. Wenlock, your Majesty, if you've no objections, as +he's the party mostly interested; and if you'd ask one of your young men +to bring me a long drink and a chair, I'll be obliged. It's been a hot +walk up here. I see you don't mind smoke," he added, and lit a cheroot. + +Now, it was clear from the attitude of the guards and the civilians +present, that Kettle was jostling heavily upon court etiquette, and at +first the Lady Emir was very clearly inclined to resent it, and had +sharp orders for repression ready upon her lips. But she changed her +mind, perhaps through some memory that by blood she was related to this +nonchalant race; and presently cushions were brought, on which Captain +Kettle bestowed himself tailor-fashion (with his back cautiously up +against a wall), and then a negro slave knelt before him and offered +sweet sticky sherbet, which he drank with a wry face. + +But in the mean while Mr. Wenlock was stating his case with small +forensic eloquence. The sight of Miss Teresa Anderson in the flesh awed +him. He had pictured to himself some slim, quiet exile, perhaps a little +gauche and timid, but at any rate amenable to instruction and to his +will. He had forgotten the developing power of tropical suns. The woman +before him, whose actual age was twenty-nine, looked fifty, and even for +a desperate man like himself was impossible as a wife in England. + +He felt daunted before her already. It flashed through his mind that it +was she who had ordered those grisly heads to be stuck above the +water-gate, and he heartily wished himself away back on the steamer, +tramping for cargo. He was not wanting in pluck as a usual thing, this +unsuccessful solicitor, but before a woman like this, with such a record +behind her, a man may well be scared and yet not be accused of +cowardice. + +But the Lady Emir looked on Wenlock in a very different way to that in +which she had regarded Kettle. Mr. Wenlock possessed (as indeed he had +himself pointed out on the _Parakeet_) a fine outward appearance, and in +fact anywhere he could have been remarked on as a personable man. And +things came about as Kettle shrewdly anticipated they would. The Lady +Emir had not remained unmarried all these years through sheer distaste +for matrimony. She had been celibate through an unconquerable pride of +blood. None but men of colored race had been around her in all her wars, +her governings, and her diplomacies; and always she had been too proud +to mate with them. But here now stood before her a male of her own race, +handsome, upstanding, and obviously impressed by her power and majesty. +He would not rule her; he would not even attempt a mastery; she would +still be Emir--and a wife. The chance had never occurred to her before; +might never occur again. She was quick to make her decision. + +Ruling potentates are not as other folk with their love affairs, and the +Lady Emir of Dunkhot (forgetting that she was once Teresa Anderson, and +a modest English maiden) unconsciously fell in with the rule of her +caste. The English speech, long disused, came to her unhandily, but the +purport of what she said was plain. She made proclamation that the +Englishman Wenlock should there and then become her husband, and let +slaves fetch the mullah to unite them before the sun had dropped below +another bar of the windows. + +She did not ask her future husband's wishes or his permission. She +simply stated her sovereign will and looked that it should be carried +out forthwith. + +A couple of slaves scurried out on their missions--evidently their Emir +was accustomed to have her orders carried out with promptness--and for +long enough Wenlock stood wordless in front of the divan, far more like +a criminal than a prospective bridegroom. The lady, with the tube of the +water-pipe between her lips, puffed smoke and made no further speech. +She had stated her will: the result would follow in due course. + +But at last Wenlock, as though wrenching himself into wakefulness out of +some horrid dream, turned wildly to Kettle, and in a torrent of words +implored for rescue. + +The little sailor heard him quite unmoved. "You asked my help," he said, +"in a certain matter, and I've given it, and things have turned out just +as I've guessed they would. You maundered about your dear Teresa on my +steamboat till I was nearly sick, and, by James! you've got her now, and +no error about it." + +"But you said you didn't approve," cried the wretched man. + +"I quite know what I said," retorted Kettle grimly. "I didn't approve of +your way. But this is different. You're not a very fine specimen, but +anyway you're English, and it does good to the old shop at home to +have English people for kings and queens of foreign countries. I've got +a theory about that." + +[Illustration: "I'M A BRITISH SUBJECT"] + +Now the Lady Emir was not listening to all this tirade by any means +unmoved. To begin with, it was not etiquette to speak at all in her +presence if unaddressed, and to go on with, although she did not +understand one word in ten of what was being spoken, she gathered the +gist of it, and this did not tend to compose her. She threw away the +snaky stem of water-pipe, and gripped both hands on the trooper's sword, +till the muscles stood out in high relief. + +"Do you say," she demanded, "you onwilling marry me?" + +"Yes," said Wenlock, with sullen emphasis. + +She turned her head, and gave orders in Arabic. With marvellous +readiness, as though it was one of the regular appointments of the +place, a couple of the guards trundled a stained-wooden block into the +middle of the floor, another took his station beside it with an +ominous-looking axe poised over his shoulder, and almost before Wenlock +knew what was happening, he was pinned by a dozen men at wrist and +ankle, and thrust down to kneel "with his neck over the block. + +"Do you say," the Lady Emir repeated, "you onwilling marry me?" + +"I'm a British subject," Wenlock shouted. "I've a Foreign Office +passport in my pocket. I'll appeal to my Government over this." + +"My lad," said Kettle, "you won't have time to appeal. The lady isn't +being funny. She means square biz. If you don't be sensible, and see +things in the same way she does, it'll be one _che-opp_, and what +happens afterward won't interest you." + +"Those spikes," said Wenlock faintly. + +"Above the water-gate?" said Kettle. "Queer, but the same thing occurred +to me, too. You'd feel a bit lonely stuck up there getting sun-dried." + +"I'll marry her." + +"You'd better spread a bit more politeness about," Kettle advised. "It +will be all the more comfortable for you afterward if you do." And so +Wenlock, with desperation nerving him, poured out all the pretty +speeches which he had in store, and which he had looked to use to this +very woman under such very different circumstances. But he did not even +suggest taking his future spouse back to England. + +She, too, when she graciously pardoned his previous outburst, mentioned +her decision on this matter also. + +"I am Emir here," she said, "and I could not be Emir in your England +without many fights. So here I shall stay, and you with me. When there +is war, you shall ride at my side; in peace I will give you a +governorship over a ward of this town, from which you can get your +taxes. And if there are children, you shall bring them up." + +The mullah, who knew better than to keep his ruler waiting, had come in, +and they were forthwith married, solemnly and irrevocably, according to +the rites and ceremonies of the Mohammedan Church, as practised in the +kingdom of Dunkhot. And in witness thereof, Captain Kettle wrote his +name from left to right, in contradistinction to all the other +signatories, who wrote from right to left, except the bridegroom. + +"And now, Mr. Wenlock, if you please," said Kettle, "as you're +comfortably tied to the lady of your choice, I'll trouble you for that +fee you promised." + +"I'll see you in somewhere hotter than Arabia," said the bridegroom, +mopping his pale face. + +"Now look," said Kettle, "I'm not going to scrap with you here, and I +don't want to break up this happy home with domestic unpleasantness; but +if you don't hand me over that L50, I shall ask your good lady to get +it for me." + +Wenlock sullenly handed out a note. + +"Thank you. I know you feel injured, but I'm earning this money exactly +according to promise, and of you don't quite like what's been done, you +must remember that it's your own fault for not wording the agreement a +bit more carefully. And now, as I seem to have got through my business +here, if it's agreeable to all parties, I'll be going. Good-by, Mrs. +Wenlock, madam. Let me call you by your name for the first time." + +The Lady Emir set back her great shoulders. "That is not my name," she +said. "I am Emir. My name does not change." + +"Beg pardon," said Kettle, "he takes yours, does he? Didn't know that +was the custom of this country. Well, good-afternoon." + +"But do you want," said the lady, "no present?" + +"Thank you," said Kettle, with a cock of the head, "but I take presents +from no one. What bit of a living I get, your ladyship, I earn." + +"I do not onderstand. But you are sailor. You have ship. You wish +cargo?" + +Captain Kettle snapped his fingers ecstatically. "Now, ma'am, there +you've hit it. Cargo's what I do want. I'll have to tell you that +freights are up a good deal just now, and you'll have to pay for +accommodation, but my ship's a good one, and my firm's reliable, and +will see that you are dealt by honest at the other end." + +"I do not onderstand." + +"Of course you don't, your Majesty; of course you don't. Ladies like you +don't have to bother with the shipping trade. But just you give me a +line to the principal merchants in the town saying that you'd like me to +have a few tons of their stuff, and that'll do. I guess that what your +ladyship likes round here is usually done." + +"You wish me write. I will write. Now we will wash hands, and there is +banquet." + +And so it came to pass that, some twenty-four hours later, Captain +Kettle returned to the _Parakeet_ sun-scorched, and flushed with +success, and relieved the anxious Murray from his watch. The mate was +naturally curious to know what happened ashore. + +"Let me get a glass of Christian beer to wash all their sticky +nastinesses from my neck, and I'll tell you," said Kettle, and he did +with fine detail and circumstance. + +"Well, Wenlock's got his heiress anyway," said Murray, with a sigh, when +the tale was over. "I suppose we may as well get under way now, sir." + +"Not much," said Kettle jubilantly. "Why, man, I've squeezed every ton +of cargo they have in the place, and stuck them for freights in a way +that would surprise you. Here's the tally: 270 bags of coffee, 700 +packets of dates, 350 baskets of figs, and all for London. And, mark +you," said Kettle, hitting the table, "that or more'll be waiting for me +there every time I come, and no other skipper need apply." + +"H'm," said the mate thoughtfully; "but will Wenlock be as civil and +limp next time you call, sir?" + +Captain Kettle winked pleasantly, and put a fifty-pound note in his +lock-up drawer. "That's all right, my lad. No fear of Master Wenlock +getting his tail up. If you'd seen the good lady, his wife, you'd know +why. That's the man that went hunting an heiress, Mr. Murray; and by the +holy James he's got her, and no error." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +A MATTER OF JUSTICE + + +It was quite evident that the man wanted something; but Captain Kettle +did not choose definitely to ask for his wishes. Over-curiosity is not a +thing that pays with Orientals. Stolid indifference, on the other hand, +may earn easy admiration. + +But at last the man took his courage in a firmer grip, and came up from +the _Parakeet's_ lower deck, where the hands were working cargo, and +advanced under the bridge deck awnings to Captain Kettle's long chair +and salaamed low before him. + +Kettle seemed to see the man for the first time. He looked up from the +accounts he was laboring at. "Well?" he said, curtly. + +It was clear the Arab had no English. It was clear also that he feared +being watched by his fellow countrymen in the lighter which was +discharging date bags alongside. He manoeuvred till the broad of his +back covered his movements, materialized somehow or other a scrap of +paper from some fold of his burnous, dropped this into Kettle's lap +without any perceptible movement of either his arms or hands, and then +gave another stately salaam and moved away to the place from which +he had come. + +"If you are an out-of-work conjuror," said Kettle to the retreating +figure, "you've come to the wrong place to get employment here." + +The Arab passed out of sight without once turning his head, and Kettle +glanced down at the screw of paper which lay on his knees, and saw on it +a scrawl of writing. + +"Hullo," he said, "postman, were you; not conjuror? I didn't expect any +mail here. However, let's see. Murray's writing, by James!" he muttered, +as he flattened out the grimy scrap of paper, and then he whistled-with +surprise and disgust as he read. + + "_Dear Captain_," the letter ran. "_I've got into the deuce + of a mess, and if you can bear a hand to pull me out, it + would be a favor I should never forget. I got caught up that + side street to the left past the mosque, but they covered my + head with a cloth directly after, and hustled me on for half + an hour, and where I am now, the dickens only knows. It's a + cellar. But perhaps bearer may know, who's got my watch. The + trouble was about a woman, a pretty little piece who I was + photographing. You see_--" + +And here the letter broke off. + +"That's the worst of these fancy, high-toned mates," Kettle grumbled. +"What does he want to go ashore for at a one-eyed hole like this? There +are no saloons--and besides he isn't a drinking man. Your new-fashioned +mate isn't. There are no girls for him to kiss--seeing that they are all +Mohammedans, and wear a veil. And as for going round with that +photography box of his, I wonder he hasn't more pride. I don't like to +see a smart young fellow like him, that's got his master's ticket all +new and ready in his chest, bringing himself down to the level of a +common, dirty-haired artist. Well, Murray's got a lot to learn before he +finds an owner fit to trust him with a ship of his own." + +Kettle read the hurried letter through a second time, and then got up +out of his long chair, and put on his spruce white drill uniform coat, +and exchanged his white canvas shoes for another pair more newly +pipeclayed. His steamer might merely be a common cargo tramp, the town +he was going to visit ashore might be merely the usual savage settlement +one meets with on the Arabian shore of the Persian Gulf, but the little +sailor did not dress for the admiration of fashionable crowds. He was +smart and spruce always out of deference to his own self-respect. + +He went up to the second mate at the tally desk on the main deck below, +and gave him some instructions. "I'm going ashore," he said, "and leave +you in charge. Don't let too many of these niggers come aboard at once, +and tell the steward to keep all the doors to below snugly fastened. I +locked the chart-house myself when I came out. Have you heard about +the mate?" + +"No, sir." + +"Ah, I thought the news would have been spread well about the ship +before it came to me. He's got in trouble ashore, and I suppose I must +go, and see the Kady, and get him bailed out." + +The second mate wiped the dust and perspiration from his face with his +bare arm, and leant on the tally-desk, and grinned. Here seemed to be an +opportunity for the relaxation of stiff official relations. "What's +tripped him?" he asked. "Skirt or photographing?" + +"He will probably tell you himself when he comes back," said Kettle +coldly. "I shall send him to his room for three days when he gets +on board." + +The second mate pulled his face into seriousness. "I don't suppose he +got into trouble intentionally, sir." + +"Probably not, but that doesn't alter the fact that he has managed it +somehow. I don't engage my mates for amusements of that kind, Mr. Grain. +I've got them here to work, and help me do my duty by the owners. If +they take up low class trades like artisting, they must be prepared to +stand the consequences. You'll remember the orders I've given you? If +I'm wanted, you'll say I'll probably be back by tea." + +Captain Kettle went off then in a shore-boat, past a small fleet of +pearling dhows, which rolled at their anchors, and after a long +pull--for the sea was shallow, and the anchorage lay five miles +out--stepped on to the back of a burly Arab, and was carried the last +mile dry-shod. Parallel to him were lines of men carrying out cargo to +the lighters which would tranship it to the _Parakeet_, and Kettle +looked upon these with a fine complacency. + +His tramping for cargo had been phenomenally successful. He was filling +his holds at astonishingly heavy freights. And not only would this bring +him credit with his owners, which meant promotion in due course to a +larger ship, but in the mean time, as he drew his 2-1/2 per cent, on the +profits, it represented a very comfortable matter of solid cash for that +much-needing person himself. He hugged himself with pleasure when he +thought of this new found prosperity. It represented so many things +which he would be able to do for his wife and family, which through so +many years narrow circumstances had made impossible. + +The burly Arab on whose hips he rode pick-a-back stepped out of the +water at last, and Kettle jumped down from his perch, and picked his +way daintily among the litter of the foreshore toward the white houses +of the town which lay beyond. + +It was the first time he had set foot there. So great was his luck at +the time, that he had not been forced to go ashore in the usual way +drumming up cargo. The shippers had come off begging him to become their +carrier, and he had muleted them in heavy freights accordingly. So he +stepped into the town with many of the feelings of a conqueror, and +demanded to be led to the office of a man with whom he had done +profitable business that very morning. + +Of course, "office" in the Western meaning of the term there was none. +The worthy Rad el Moussa transacted affairs on the floor of his general +sitting-room, and stored his merchandise in the bed-chambers, or +wherever it would be out of reach of pilfering fingers. But he received +the little sailor with fine protestations of regard, and (after some +giggles and shuffling as the women withdrew) inducted him to the dark +interior of his house, and set before him delicious coffee and some +doubtful sweetmeats. + +Kettle knew enough about Oriental etiquette not to introduce the matter +on which he had come at the outset of the conversation. He passed and +received the necessary compliments first, endured a discussion of local +trade prospects, and then by an easy gradation led up to the powers of +the local Kady. He did not speak Arabic himself, and Rad el Moussa had +no English. But they had both served a life apprenticeship to sea +trading, and the curse of the Tower of Babel had very little power over +them. In the memories of each there were garnered scraps from a score of +spoken languages, and when these failed, they could always draw on the +unlimited vocabulary of the gestures and the eyes. And for points that +were really abstruse, or which required definite understanding, there +always remained the charcoal stick and the explanatory drawing on the +face of a whitewashed wall. + +When the conversation had lasted some half an hour by the clock, and a +slave brought in a second relay of sweetmeats and thick coffee, the +sailor mentioned, as it were incidentally, that one of his officers had +got into trouble in the town. "It's quite a small thing," he said +lightly, "but I want him back as soon as possible, because there's work +for him to do on the steamer. See what I mean?" + +Rad el Moussa nodded gravely. "Savvy plenty," said he. + +Now Kettle knew that the machinery of the law in these small Arabian +coast towns was concentrated in the person of the Kady, who, for +practical purposes, must be made to move by that lubricant known as palm +oil; and so he produced some coins from his pocket and lifted his +eyebrows inquiringly. + +Rad el Moussa nodded again, and made careful inspection of the coins, +turning them one by one with his long brown fingers, and biting those he +fancied most as a test of their quality. Finally, he selected a gold +twenty-franc piece and two sovereigns, balanced and chinked them +carefully in his hand, and then slipped them into some private +receptacle in his wearing apparel. + +"I say," remarked Kettle, "that's not for you personally, old tintacks. +That's for the Kady." + +Rad pointed majestically to his own breast. "El Kady," he said. + +"Oh, you are his Worship, are you?" said Kettle. "Why didn't you say so +before? I don't think it was quite straight of you, tintacks, but +perhaps that's your gentle Arab way. But I say, Whiskers, don't you try +being too foxy with me, or you'll get hurt. I'm not the most patient man +in the world with inferior nations. Come, now, where's the mate?" + +Rad spread his hands helplessly. + +"See, here, it's no use your trying that game. You know that I want +Murray, my mate." + +"Savvy plenty." + +"Then hand him out, and let me get away back on board." + +"No got," said Rad el Moussa; "no can." + +"Now look here, Mister," said Captain Kettle, "I've paid you honestly +for justice, and if I don't have it, I'll start in pulling down your old +town straight away. Give up the mate, Rad, and let me get back +peacefully to my steamboat, or, by James! I'll let loose a wild +earthquake here. If you want battle, murder, and sudden death, Mr. Rad +el Moussa, just you play monkey tricks with me, and you'll get 'em +cheap. Kady, are you? Then, by James! you start in without further talk, +and give me the justice that I've bought and paid for." + +Though this tirade was in an alien tongue, Rad el Moussa caught the +drift from Captain Kettle's accompanying gesticulations, which supplied +a running translation as he went on. Rad saw that his visitor meant +business, and signed that he would go out and fetch the imprisoned mate +forthwith. + +"No, you don't," said Kettle promptly. "If your Worship once left here, +I might have trouble in finding you again. I know how easy it is to hide +in a-warren like this town of yours. Send one of your hands with +a message." + +Now, to convey this sentence more clearly, Kettle had put his fingers +on the Arab's clothing, when out fell a bag of pearls, which came +unfastened. The pearls rolled like peas about the floor, and the Arab, +with gritting teeth, whipped out a knife. Promptly Kettle drew also, and +covered him with a revolver. + +"See here," he said, "I'm not a thief, though perhaps you think I pulled +out that jewelry purse on purpose. It was an accident, Rad, so I'll +forgive your hastiness. But your Worship mustn't pull out cutlery on me. +I'll not stand that from any man living. That's right, put it up. Back +goes the pistol into its pocket, and now we're friends again. Pick up +the pearls yourself, and then you'll be certain I haven't grabbed any, +and then send one of your men to fetch my mate and do as I want. You're +wasting a great deal of my time, Rad el Moussa, over a very simple job." + +The Arab gathered the pearls again into the pouch and put it back to its +place among his clothes. His face had grown savage and lowering, but it +was clear that this little spitfire of a sailor, with his handy pistol, +daunted him. Kettle, who read these signs, was not insensible to the +compliment they implied, but at the same time he grew, if anything, +additionally cautious. He watched his man with a cat-like caution, and +when Rad called a slave and gave him orders in fluent Arabic, he made +him translate his commands forthwith. + +Rad el Moussa protested that he had ordered nothing more than the +carrying out of his visitor's wishes. But it seemed to Kettle that he +protested just a trifle too vehemently, and his suspicions deepened. + +He tapped his pistol in its resting-place, and nodded his head +meaningly. "You've friends in this town," he said, "and I dare say +you'll have a goodish bit of power in your small way. I've neither, and +I don't deny that if you bring up all your local army to interfere, I +may have a toughish fight of it; but whatever happens to me in the long +run, you may take it as straight from yours truly that you'll go to your +own funeral if trouble starts. So put that in your hookah and smoke it, +tintacks, and give me the other tube." + +Captain Kettle was used to the dilatory ways of the East, and he was +prepared to wait, though never doubting that Murray would be surrendered +to him in due time, and he would get his own way in the end. So he +picked up one of the snaky tubes of the great pipe, and put the amber +mouthpiece between his lips; and there for an hour the pair of them +squatted on the divan, with the hookah gurgling and reeking between +them. From time to time a slave-girl came and replenished the pipe with +tobacco or fire as was required. But these were the only interruptions, +and between whiles they smoked on in massive silence. + +At the end of that hour, the man-slave who had been sent out with the +message re-entered the room and delivered his tidings. Rad el Moussa in +his turn passed it on. Murray was even then waiting in the justice +chamber, so he said, at the further side of the house, and could be +taken away at once. Kettle rose to his feet, and the Arab stood before +him with bowed head and folded arms. + +Captain Kettle began to feel shame for having pressed this man too +hardly. It seemed that he had intended to act honestly all along, and +the suspiciousness of his behavior doubtless arose from some difficulty +of custom or language. So the sailor took the Rad's limp hand in his own +and shook it cordially, and at the same time made a handsome apology for +his own share of the misunderstanding. + +"Your Worship must excuse me," he said, "but I'm always apt to be a bit +suspicious about lawyers. What dealings I've had with them have nearly +always turned out for me unfortunately. And now, if you don't mind, +we'll go into your court-house, and you can hand me over my mate, and +I'll take him back to the ship. Enough time's been wasted already by +both of us." + +The Arab, still bowed and submissive, signed toward the doorway, and +Kettle marched briskly out along the narrow dark passage beyond, with +Rad's sandals shuffling in escort close at his rear. The house seemed a +large one, and rambling. Three times Rad's respectful fingers on his +visitor's sleeve signed to him a change of route. The corridors, too, as +is the custom in Arabia, where coolness is the first consideration, were +dimly lit; and with the caution which had grown to be his second nature, +Kettle instinctively kept all his senses on the alert for inconvenient +surprises. He had no desire that Rad el Moussa should forget his +submissiveness and stab him suddenly from behind, neither did he +especially wish to be noosed or knifed from round any of the dusky +sudden corners. + +In fact he was as much on the _qui vive_ as he ever had been in all his +long, wild, adventurous life, and yet Rad el Moussa, who meant treachery +all along, took him captive by the most vulgar of timeworn stratagems. +Of a sudden the boarding of the floor sank beneath Kettle's feet. He +turned, and with a desperate effort tried to throw himself backward +whence he had come. But the boarding behind reared up and hit him a +violent blow on the hands and head, and he fell into a pit below. + +For an instant he saw through the gloom the face of Rad el Moussa turned +suddenly virulent, spitting at him in hate, and then the swing-floor +slammed up into place again, and all view of anything but inky blackness +was completely shut away. + +Now the fall, besides being disconcerting, was tolerably deep; and but +for the fact that the final blow from the flooring had shot him against +the opposite side of the pit, and so broken his descent at the expense +of his elbows and heels, he might very well have landed awkwardly, and +broken a limb or his back in the process. But Captain Owen Kettle was +not the man to waste time over useless lamentation or rubbing of +bruises. He was on fire with fury at the way he had been tricked, and +thirsting to get loose and be revenged. He had his pistol still in its +proper pocket, and undamaged, and if the wily Rad had shown himself +anywhere within range just then, it is a certain thing that he would +have been shot dead to square the account. + +But Kettle was, as I have said, wedged in with darkness, and for the +present, revenge must wait until he could see the man he wanted to shoot +at. He scrambled to his feet, and fumbled in his pocket for a match. He +found one, struck it on the sole of his trim white shoe, and +reconnoitred quickly. + +The place he was in was round and bottle shaped, measuring some ten feet +across its floor, and tapering to a small square, where the trap gave it +entrance above. It was a prison clearly, and there was evidence that it +had been recently used. It was clear also that the only official way of +releasing a prisoner was to get him up by a ladder or rope through the +small opening to which the sides converged overhead. Moreover, to all +common seeming, the place was simply unbreakable, at least to any +creature who had not either wings or the power of crawling up the +under-side of a slant like a fly. + +But all these things flashed through Kettle's brain in far less time +than it takes to read them here. He had only two matches in his +possession, and he wished to make all possible use of the first, so as +to keep the second for emergencies; and so he made his survey with the +best of his intelligence and speed. + +The walls of this bottle-shaped prison were of bricks built without +visible mortar, and held together (it seemed probable) by the weight of +earth pressing outside them; but just before the match burned his +fingers and dropped to the floor, where it promptly expired, his eye +fell upon an opening in the masonry. It was a mere slit, barely three +inches wide, running vertically up and down for some six courses of the +brick, and it was about chin-high above the ground. + +He marked this when the light went out, and promptly went to it and +explored it with his arm. The slit widened at the other side, and there +was evidently a chamber beyond. He clapped his hands against the lip of +the slit, and set his feet against the wall, and pulled with the utmost +of his strength. If once he could widen the opening sufficiently to +clamber through, possibilities lay beyond. But from the weight of wall +pressing down above, he could not budge a single brick by so much as a +hairs-breadth, and so he had to give up this idea, and, stewing with +rage, set about further reconnoitring. + +The darkness put his eyes out of action, but he had still left his hands +and feet, and he went round with these, exploring carefully. + +Presently his search was rewarded. Opposite the opening he had +discovered before, was another slit in the overhanging wall of this +bottle-shaped prison, and this also he attacked in the hope of wrenching +free some of the bricks. He strained and panted, till it seemed as +though the tendons of his body must break, but the wall remained whole +and the slit unpassable; and then he gave way, almost childishly, to his +passion of rage, and shouted insults and threats at Rad el Moussa in the +vain hope that some one would hear and carry them. And some one did +hear, though not the persons he expected. + +A voice, muffled and foggy, as though it came from a long distance, said +in surprise: "Why, Captain, have they got you here, too?" + +Under cover of the darkness, Kettle blushed for shame at his outcry. +"That you, Murray? I didn't know you were here. How did you guess it +was me?" + +The distant voice chuckled foggily. "I've heard you giving your blessing +to the hands on board, sir, once or twice, and I recognized some of the +words. What have they collared you for? You don't photograph. Have you +been messing round with some girl?" + +"Curse your impudence; just you remember your position and mine. I'll +have respect from my officers, even if I am in a bit of a fix." + +"Beg pardon, sir. Sorry I forgot myself. It sha'n't occur again." + +"You'll go to your room for three days when we get back on board." + +"Ay, ay, sir." + +"I decided that before I left the ship. I can't have my officers staying +away from duty without leave on any excuse. And if they have such low +tastes as to bring themselves on the level of common mop-headed portrait +painters and photographers, they must pay for it." + +"Ay, ay, sir." + +"What were you run in for?" + +"Oh, photographing." + +"There you are, then! And did they bring you straight along here?" + +"Yes, sir. And lowered me in a bowline to this cellar." + +"Ah," said Kettle, "then you don't want so much change out of them. They +dropped me, and some one will have a heavy bill to square up for, over +that. Do you know whose house this is?" + +"Haven't a notion. After I'd been here an hour or so, some heathen +sneaked round to a peep-hole in the wall and offered to take off a +message to the ship, on payment. I hadn't any money, so I had to give up +my watch, and before I'd written half the letter he got interrupted and +had to clear off with what there was. Did he bring off the +message, sir?" + +"He did. And I came ashore at once. You remember Rad el Moussa?" + +"The man that consigned all that parcel of figs for London?" + +"That man. I considered that as he'd been doing business with the +steamer, he was the best person to make inquiries of ashore. So I came +to him, and asked where I could find the Kady to bail you out. He +shuffled a bit, and after some talk he admitted he was the Kady, and +took palm-oil from me in the usual way, and then I'll not deny that we +had a trifle of a disagreement. But he seemed to simmer down all right, +said he'd send along for you, and after a bit of time said you'd come, +and wouldn't I walk through the house and see you myself. The crafty old +fox had got his booby trap rigged in the mean time, and then I walked +straight into it like the softest specimen of blame' fool you +can imagine." + +"Rad el Moussa," came the foggy comment. "By Jove! Captain, I believe +we're in an awkward place. He's the biggest man in this town far and +away, and about the biggest blackguard also from what I've heard. He's a +merchant in every line that comes handy, from slaves and palm fibre to +horses and dates; he runs most of those pearling dhows that we saw +sweltering about at the anchorage; and he's got a little army of his own +with which he raids the other coast towns and the caravans up-country +when he hears they've got any truck worth looting. I say, this is +scaring. I've been taking the thing pretty easily up to now, thinking it +would come all right in time. But if I'd known it was old Rad who had +grabbed me, I tell you I should have sat sweating." + +"It takes a lot more than a mere nigger, with his head in clouts, to +scare me," said Kettle truculently, "and I don't care tuppence what he +may be by trade. He's got a down on me at present, I'll grant, but I'm +going to give Mr. Rad el Moussa fits a little later on, and you may +stand by and look on, if you aren't frightened to be near him." + +"I'm not a funk in the open," grumbled Murray, "and you know it. You've +seen me handle a crew. But I'm in a kind of cellar here, and can't get +out, and if anybody chooses they can drop bricks on me, and I can't stop +them. Have they been at you about those rifles, sir?" + +"What rifles? No, nobody's said 'rifles' to me ashore here." + +"It seems we've got some cases of rifles on board for one of those +little ports up the coast. I didn't know it." + +"Nor did I," said Kettle, "and you can take it from me that we haven't. +Smuggling rifles ashore is a big offence here in the Persian Gulf, and +I'm not going to put myself in the way of the law, if I know it." + +"Well, I think you're wrong, sir," said the Mate. "I believe they're in +some cases that are down on the manifest as 'machinery.' I saw them +stowed down No. 3 hold, and I remember one of the stevedores in London +joking about them when they were struck below." + +"Supposing they were rifles, what than?" + +"Rad wants them. He says they're consigned to some of his neighbors up +coast, who'll raid him as soon as they're properly armed; and he doesn't +like the idea. What raiding's done, he likes to do himself, and at the +same time he much prefers good Brummagen rifles to the local +ironmonger's blunderbusses." + +"Well," said Kettle, "I'm waiting to hear what he thought you could do +with the rifles supposing they were on board." + +"Oh, he expected me to broach cargo and bring them here ashore to him. +He's a simple-minded savage." + +"By James!" said Kettle, "the man's mad. What did he think I should be +doing whilst one of my mates was scoffing cargo under my blessed nose?" + +"Ah, you see," said the foggy voice, with sly malice, "he did not know +you so well then, sir. That was before he persuaded you to come into his +house to stay with him." + +It is probable that Captain Kettle would have found occasion to make +acid comment on this repartee from his inferior officer, but at that +moment another voice addressed him from the slit at the other side of +his prison, and he turned sharply round. To his surprise this new person +spoke in very tolerable English. + +"Capt'n, I want t'make contrack wid you." + +"The deuce you do. And who might you be, anyway?" + +"I cullud gen'lem'n, sar. Born _Zanzibar_. Used to be fireman on P. and +O. I want arsk you--" + +"Is this the Arabian Nights? How the mischief did you get here, anyway?" + +"Went on burst in Aden, sar. Th'ole Chief fired me out. Went Yemen. +Caught for slave. Taken caravan. Brought here. But I'm very clever +gen'lem'n, sar, an' soon bought myself free. Got slave of my own now. +An' three wives. Bought 'nother wife yesterday." + +"You nasty beast!" said Kettle. + +"Sar, you insult me. Not bally Christian any longer. Hard-shell +Mohammedan now, sar, and can marry as many wives as I can buy." + +"I'm sure the Prophet's welcome to you. Look here, my man. Pass down a +rope's end from aloft there, and let me get on deck, and I'll give you a +sovereign cash down, and a berth in my steamboat's stoke-hold if you +want one. I'm not asking you to help me more. I guess I'm quite +competent to find my way on board, and to wipe this house tolerably +clean before it's quit of me." + +"Nothing of the kind, sar," said the man behind the slit. "You insult +me, sar. I very big gen'lem'n here, sar, an' a sovereign's no use to me. +Besides, I partner to ole man Rad, an' he say he want dem rifles you got +on your ole tramp." + +"Does he, indeed? Then you can tell him, Mr. Nigger +runaway-drunken-fireman, that I'll see you and him in somewhere a big +sight hotter than Arabia before he gets them. I didn't know they were +rifles; if I had known before this, I'd not have put them ashore; but as +things are now, I'll land them into the hands of those that ordered +them, and I hope they come round to this town of yours and give you +fits. And see here, you talk more respectful about my steamboat, or +you'll get your shins kicked, daddy." + +"An ole tramp," said the man relishingly. "I served on P. an' O., sar, +an' on P. an' O. we don't care 'sociate wid tramps' sailors." + +"You impudent black cannibal. You'll be one of the animals those +passenger lines carry along to eat the dead babies, to save the trouble +of heaving them overboard." + +The ex-fireman spluttered. But he did not continue the contest. He +recognized that he had to deal with a master in the cheerful art of +insult, and so he came back sulkily to business. + +"Will you give Rad dem rifles, you low white fellow?" + +"No, I won't." + +"Very well. Den we shall spiflicate you till you do," said the man, and +after that Kettle heard his slippers shuffling away. + +"I wonder what spiflicating is?" mused Kettle, but he did not remain +cudgelling his brain over this for long. It occurred to him that if this +negro could come and go so handily to the outside of this underground +prison, there must be a stairway somewhere near, and though he could not +enlarge the slit to get at it that way, it might be possible to burrow a +passage under the wall itself. For a tool, he had spied a broken crock +lying on the floor, and with the idea once in his head, he was not long +in putting it to practical effect. He squatted just underneath the slit, +and began to quarry the earth at the foot of the wall with skill and +determination. + +But if Kettle was prompt, his captors were by no means dilatory. Between +Kettle's prison and the mate's was another of those bottle-shaped +_oubliettes_, and in that there was presently a bustle of movement. +There came the noises of some one lighting a fire, and coughing as he +fanned smouldering embers into a glow with his breath, and then more +coughing and some curses as the fire-lighter took his departure. The +door above clapped down into place, and then there was the sound of +someone dragging over that and over the doors of the other two prisons +what seemed to be carpets, or heavy rugs. + +There was something mysterious in this manoeuvre at first, but the +secret of it was not kept for long. An acrid smell stole out into the +air, which thickened every minute in intensity. Kettle seemed dimly to +recognize it, but could not put a name to it definitely. Besides, he was +working with all his might at scraping away the earth from the foot of +the wall, and had little leisure to think of other things. + +The heat was stifling, and the sweat dripped from him, but he toiled on +with a savage glee at his success. The foundations had not been dug out; +they were "floating" upon the earth surface; and the labor of +undermining would, it appeared, be small. + +But Murray in the other prison had smelt the reek before, and was able +to put a name to it promptly. "By Jove! Captain," he shouted mistily +from the distance, "they're going to smoke us to death; that's +the game." + +"Looks like trying it," panted the little sailor, from his work. + +"That's dried camel's dung they're burning. There's no wood in Arabia +here, and that's their only fuel. When the smoke gets into your lungs, +it just tears you all to bits. I say, Skipper, can't you come to some +agreement with Rad over those blessed rifles? It's a beastly death to +die, this." + +"You aren't dead--by a long chalk--yet. More'm I. I'd hate to +be--smoke-dried like a ham--as bad as any Jew. But I don't start in--to +scoff the cargo--on my own ship--at any bally price." + +There was a sound of distant coughing, and then the misty question: +"What are you working at?" + +"Taking--exercise," Kettle gasped, and after that, communication between +the two was limited to incessant staccato coughs. + +More and more acrid grew the air as the burning camel's dung saturated +it further and further with smoke, and more and more frenzied grew +Kettle's efforts. Once he got up and stuffed his coat in the embrasure +from which the smoke principally came. But that did little enough good. +The wall was all chinks, and the bitter reek came in unchecked. He felt +that the hacking coughs were gnawing away his strength, and just now the +utmost output of his thews was needed. + +He had given up his original idea of mining a passage under the wall. +Indeed, this would have been a labor of weeks with the poor broken crock +which was his only tool, for the weight of the building above had turned +the earth to something very near akin to the hardness of stone. But he +had managed to scrape out a space underneath one brick, and found that +it was loosened, and with trouble could be dislodged; and so he was +burrowing away the earth from beneath others, to drop more bricks down +from their places, and so make a gangway through the solid wall itself. + +But simple though this may be in theory, it was tediously difficult work +in practice. The bricks jammed even when they were undermined, and the +wall was four bricks thick to its further side. Moreover, every +alternate course was cross-pinned, and the workman was rapidly becoming +asphyxiated by the terrible reek which came billowing in from the +chamber beyond. + +Still, with aching chest, and bleeding fingers, and smarting eyes, +Kettle worked doggedly on, and at last got a hole made completely +through. What lay in the blackness beyond he did not know; either Rad el +Moussa or the fireman might be waiting to give him a _coup de grace_ the +moment his head appeared; but he was ready to accept every risk. He felt +that if he stayed in the smoke of that burning camel's dung any longer +he would be strangled. + +The hole in the brickwork was scarcely bigger than a fox-earth, but he +was a slightly built man, and with a hard struggle he managed to push +his way through. No one opposed him. He found and scraped his only +remaining match, and saw that he was in another bottle-shaped chamber +similar to the one he had left; but in this there was a doorway. There +was pungent smoke reek here also, and, though its slenderness came to +him as a blessed relief after what he had been enduring, he lusted +desperately for a taste of the pure air outside. + +The door gave to his touch, and he found a stair. He ran up this and +stepped out into the corridor, where Rad had lured him to capture, and +then, walking cautiously by the wall so as not to step into any more +booby-traps, he came to the place where he calculated Murray would be +jailed. A large thick carpet had been spread over the door so as to +prevent any egress of the stinging smoke, or any ingress of air, and +this he pulled away, and lifted the trap. + +There was no sound from below. "Great heavens," he thought, "was the +mate dead?" He hailed sharply, and a husky voice answered. Seeing +nothing else at hand that would serve, he lowered an end of the carpet, +keeping a grip on the other, and presently Murray got a hold and +clambered up beside him. + +In a dozen whispered words Kettle told his plans, and they were on the +point of starting off to carry them out, when the _slop-slop_ of +slippers made itself heard advancing down the corridors. Promptly the +pair of them sank into the shadows, and presently the ex-fireman came up +whistling cheerfully an air from some English music-hall. He did not see +them till they were almost within hand-grips, and then the tune froze +upon his lips in a manner that was ludicrous. + +But neither Kettle nor his mate had any eye for the humors of the +situation just then. Murray plucked the man's legs artistically from +beneath him, and Kettle gripped his hands and throat. He thrust his +savage little face close down to the black man's. "Now," he said, +"where's Rad? Tell me truly, or I'll make you into dog's meat. And speak +quietly. If you make a row, I'll gouge your eyes out." + +"Rad, he in divan," the fellow stuttered in a scared whisper. "Sort o' +front shop you savvy, sar. Don' kill me." + +"I can recommend my late state-room," said Murray. + +"Just the ticket," said Kettle. So into the _oubliette_ they toppled +him, clapping down the door in its place above. "There you may stay, you +black beast," said his judge, "to stew in the smoke you raised yourself. +If any of your numerous wives are sufficiently interested to get you +out, they may do so. If not, you pig, you may stay and cure into bacon. +I'm sure I sha'n't miss you. Come along, Mr. Mate." + +They fell upon Rad el Moussa placidly resting among the cushions of the +divan, with the stem of the water-pipe between his teeth, and his mind +probably figuring out plans of campaign in which the captured rifles +would do astonishing work. + +Kettle had no revolver in open view, but Rad had already learned how +handily that instrument could be produced on occasion, and had the wit +to make no show of resistance. The sailor went up to him, delicately +extracted the poignard from his sash, and broke the blade beneath his +feet. Then he said to him, "Stand there," pointing to the middle of the +floor, and seated himself on the divan in the attitude of a judge. + +"Now, Mr. Rad el Moussa, I advise you to understand what's going to be +said to you now, so that it'll be a lesson to you in the future. + +"I came to you, not very long ago, asking for your card to the Kady. I +told you my business was about the mate here, and you said you were Kady +yourself. Whether you are or not I don't know, and I don't vastly care, +but anyway, I paid for justice in hard money, and you said you'd give up +the mate. You didn't do that. You played a trick on me, which I'll own +up I was a fool to get caught by; and I make no doubt that you've been +laughing at me behind my back with that nasty nigger partner of yours. + +"Well, prisoner at the bar, let alone I'm a blooming Englishman--and +Englishmen aren't sent into this world to be laughed at by any +foreigners--I'm myself as well, and let me tell you I don't stand either +being swindled out of justice when I've paid for it, or being played +tricks on afterward. So you are hereby sentenced to the fine of one bag +of pearls, to be paid on the spot, and furthermore to be incarcerated in +one of those smoke boxes down the alleyway yonder till you can find your +own way out. Now, prisoner, don't move during the next operation, or +I'll shoot you. Mr. Mate, you'll find a small bag inside the top part of +his nightgown, on the left-hand side. Got 'em?" + +"Here they are, sir," said Murray. + +"Thanks," said Kettle, and put the bag in his pocket. "And now, if you +please, Mr. Mate, we'll just put His Whiskers into that cellar with the +nigger, and leave him there to get smoked into a better and, we'll hope, +a more penitent frame of mind." + +They completed this pious act to their entire satisfaction, and left +the house without further interruption. The townspeople were just +beginning to move about again after the violence of the midday heat, but +except for curious stares, they passed through the narrow streets +between the whitewashed houses quite without interruption. And in due +time they came to the beach, and hired a shore boat, which took them off +to the steamer. + +But here Kettle was not inclined to linger unnecessarily. He saw Grain, +the second mate, and asked Mm how much more cargo there was to come off. + +"The last lighter load is alongside this minute, sir." + +"Then hustle it on deck as quick as you can, and then call the +carpenter, and go forward and heave up." + +Grain looked meaningly at Murray. "Am I to take the fore deck, sir." + +"Yes, I appoint you acting mate for three days; and Mr. Murray goes to +his room for that time for getting into trouble ashore. Now put some +hurry into things, Mr. Grain; I don't want to stay here longer +than's needful." + +Grain went forward about his business, but Murray, who looked somewhat +disconsolate, Kettle beckoned into the chart-house. He pulled out the +pearl bag, and emptied its contents on to the chart table. "Now, look +here, my lad," said he, "I have to send you to your room because I said +I would, and because that's discipline; but you can pocket a thimblefull +of these seed pearls just to patch up your wounded feelings, as your +share of old Rad el Moussa's fine. They are only seed pearls, as I say, +and aren't worth much. We were due to have more as a sheer matter of +justice, but it wasn't to be got. So we must make the best of what there +is. You'll bag L20 out of your lot if you sell them in the right place +ashore. I reckoned my damages at L500, and I guess I've got here +about L200." + +"Thank you, sir," said Murray. "But it's rather hard being sent to my +room for a thing I could no more help than you could." + +"Discipline, my lad. This will probably teach you to leave photographing +to your inferiors in the future. There's no persuading me that it isn't +that photograph box that's at the bottom of the whole mischief. Hullo, +there's the windlass going already. I'll just lock up these pearls in +the drawer, and then I must go on the bridge. Er, and about going to +your room, my lad: as long as I don't see you for three days you can do +much as you like. I don't want to be too hard. But as I said to old Rad +el Moussa, justice is justice, and discipline's got to be kept." + +"And what about the rifles, sir?" + +Captain Kettle winked pleasantly. "I don't know that they are rifles. +You see the cases are down on the manifest as 'machinery,' and I'm going +to put them ashore as such; but I don't mind owning to you, Mr. Mate, +that I hope old Rad finds out he was right in his information. I suppose +his neighbors will let him know within the next week or so whether they +are rifles really, or whether they aren't." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +DAGO DIVERS + + +"I'm real glad to be able to call you 'Captain,' my lad," said Kettle, +and Murray, in delight at his new promotion, wrung his old commander's +hand again. "You've slaved hard enough as mate," Kettle went on, "though +that's only what a man's got to do at sea nowadays if he wants +promotion, and it'll probably amuse you to see Grain, who steps into +your shoes, doing the work of four deck hands and an extra boatswain as +well as his own. Grain was inclined to stoutness--he'll soon be thin +again. As for you, you've sweated and slaved so much that your clothes +hang on like you a slop-chest shirt on a stanchion just now. But you'll +fill 'em out nicely by the time you get back to England again. Shouldn't +wonder but what you turn out to be a regular fat man one of these +days, my lad." + +Murray stood back and looked humorously over Captain Kettle. The pair of +them liked one another well, but the ties of discipline had kept them +icily apart up to now. Murray's promotion put them on equal footing of +grade now, and they were inclined to make the most of it for the short +time they had together. "Running the _Parakeet_ doesn't seem to have +made you very plump, Skipper." + +"Constitutional, I guess," said Kettle. "I don't believe the food's +grown that'd make me carry flesh. I'm one of those men that was sent +into the world with a whole shipload of bad luck to work through before +I came across any of the soft things." + +"If you ask me," said Murray, cheerfully, "you haven't much to grumble +at now. Here am I kicking you out of the command of the _Parakeet_, to +be sure. And why? Because whilst you've been her old man you've made her +pay about half what she originally cost per annum, and as out of that +the firm's saved enough to build a new and bigger ship, they're +naturally going to give her to you to scare up more fat dividends. +Lord," said Murray, hitting his knee, "the chaps on board here will be +calling me the 'old man' behind my back now." + +"You'll get used to hearing the title," said Kettle grimly, "before you +make your pile. You'll get married, I suppose, on the strength of the +promotion? I saw a girl's photo nailed up in your room." + +The new captain nodded. "Got engaged when I passed for my master's +ticket. Arranged to be hitched so soon as I found a ship." + +Kettle sighed drearily. "I was that way, my lad. I was married, and a +kid had come before I was thirty. Not that I ever regretted it; by +James! no. But for long enough I was never able to provide for the +missus in the way I'd like, and I can tell you it was terrible gall to +me to know that our set at the chapel looked down on her because she +could only keep a poor home. Yes, my lad, you'll have a lot to +go through." + +"Well," said Murray, "I've got this promotion, and I'm not going to +worry about dismals. I suppose you go straight home by mail from +Aden here?" + +"Hullo, haven't they told you?" + +"My letter was only the dry, formal announcement that you were promoted +to the new ship, and I was to take over the _Parakeet_." + +"They don't waste their typewriter in the office. I suppose they thought +I'd hand on my letter if I saw fit. Read through that," said Kettle, and +handed across his news. This is how it ran:-- + + BIRD, BIRD & CO., + Ship and Insurance Brokers, + Agents to the Bird + Transport Company. + Managers of the + Bird Steam Company. + +[Illustration] + + 759, Euston Street, + LIVERPOOL, + 21st March, 1896. + + _Swan_, 375 tons. Captain R. Evans. + _Sparrow_, 461 tons. Captain James Evans. + s.s. _Starling_, 880 tons. Captain Enoch Shaw. + s.s. _Parakeet_, 2,100 tons. Captain Murray. + s.s. Building, 3,500 tons. Captain O. Kettle. + s.s. Building, 3,500 tons. Captain ... + s.s. Building, 4,000 tons. Captain ... + "The superb vessels of the Bird Line!" + + _Dear Captain Kettle,-- + + Having noted from your cables and reports you are making a + good thing for us out of tramping the "Parakeet," we have + pleasure in transferring you to our new boat, which is now + building on the Clyde. She will be 3,500 tons, and we may + take out passenger certificate, she being constructed on that + specification. Your pay will be L21 (twenty-one pound) per + month, with 2-1/2 per cent. commission as before. But for the + present, till this new boat is finished, we want you to give + over command of the "Parakeet" to Murray, and take on a new + job. Our Mr. Alexander Bird has recently bought the wreck of + the s.s. "Grecian," and we are sending out a steamer with + divers and full equipment to get the salvage. We wish you to + go on board this vessel to watch over our interests. We give + you full control, and have notified Captain Tazzuchi, at + present in command, to this effect_. + + _Yours truly, p.p. Bird, Bird and Co. (Isaac Bird.)_ + + _To Captain O. Kettle, s.s. "Parakeet," Bird Line, Aden._ + +"I see they have clapped me down on the bill heading for the _Parakeet_ +already," said Murray, "and you're shifted along in print for the new +ship. Birds are getting on. But I've big doubts about three new boats +all at one bite. One they might manage on a mortgage. But three? I don't +think it. Old Ikey's too cautious." + +"Messrs. Bird are your owners and mine," said Kettle significantly. + +"Oh!" said the newly-made captain, "I'm not one of your old-fashioned +sort that thinks an owner a little tin god." + +"My view is," said Kettle, "that your owner pays you, and so is entitled +to your respect so long as he is your owner. Besides that, whilst you +are drawing pay, you're expected to carry out orders, whatever they may +be, without question. But I don't think we'll talk any more about this, +my lad. You're one of the newer school, I know, and you've got such a +big notion of your own rights that we're not likely to agree. Besides, +you've got to check my accounts and see I've left it all for you +ship-shape, and I've to pull my bits of things together into a +portmanteau. See you again before I go away, and we'll have a drop of +whisky together to wish the _Parakeet's_ new 'old man' a pile of luck." + +At the edge of the harbor, Aden baked under the sun, but Kettle was not +the man to filch his employer's time for unnecessary strolls ashore. The +salvage steamer rolled at her anchor at the opposite side of the harbor, +and Kettle and two portmanteaux were transhipped direct in one of the +_Parakeet's_ boats. + +He was received on board by an affable Italian, who introduced himself +as Captain Tazzuchi. The man spoke perfect English, and was hospitality +personified. The little salvage steamer was barely 300 tons burden, and +her accommodation was limited, but Tazzuchi put the best room in the +ship at his guest's disposal, and said that anything that could act for +his comfort should be done forthwith. + +"Y'know, Captain," said Tazzuchi, "this is what you call a 'Dago' ship, +and we serve out country wine as a regular ration. But I thought perhaps +you'd like your own home ways best, and so I've ordered the ship's +chandler ashore to send off a case of Scotch, and another of Chicago +beef. Oh yes, and I sent also for some London pickles. I know how you +English like your pickles." + +In fact, all that a man could do in the way of outward attention +Tazzuchi did, but somehow or other Captain Kettle got a suspicion of him +from the very first moment of their meeting. Perhaps it was to some +extent because the British mariner has always an instinctive and special +distrust for the Latin nations; perhaps it was because the civility was +a little unexpected and over-effusive. Putting himself in the Italian's +place, Kettle certainly would not have gone out of his way to be +pleasant to a foreigner who was sent practically to supersede him in +a command. + +But perhaps a second letter which he had received, giving him a more +intimate list of the duties required, had something to do with this +hostile feeling. It was from the same hand which had written the firm's +formal letter, but it was couched in quite a different vein. Isaac Bird +was evidently scared for his very commercial existence, and he thrust +out his arms to Kettle on paper as his only savior. It seemed that +Alexander Bird, the younger brother, had been running a little wild +of late. + +The wreck of the _Grecian_ had been put up for auction; Alexander +strolled into the room by accident, and bought at an exorbitant figure. +He came and announced his purchase to Isaac, declaring it as an instance +of his fine business instincts. Isaac set it down to whisky, and +recriminations followed. Alexander in a huff said he would go out and +overlook the salvage operations in person. Isaac opined that the firm +might scrape to windward of bankruptcy by that means, and advised +Alexander to take remarkable pains about keeping sober. But forthwith +Alexander, still in his cups, "and at a music hall, too, a place he +knows 'Isaac's' religious connection holds in profound horror," gets to +brawling, and is next discovered in hospital with a broken thigh. + +"_I have found Alexander's department of the business very tangled_," +wrote Isaac, "_when I began to go into his books the first day he was +laid up, and the thought of this new complication drove me near crazy. +Salvage is out of our line; Alexander should never have touched it. But +there it is; money paid, and I've had to borrow; and engaging that +Italian firm for the job was the best thing I could manage. What English +firms wanted was out of all reason. I don't wonder at Lloyds selling +wrecks for anything they will fetch. A pittance in cash is better than +getting into the hands of these sharks_" (sharks was heavily +underscored). "_And what guarantee have I that the firm will pocket even +that pittance? How do I know that I shall see even the money outpaid +again, let alone reasonable interest? None_." + +There were several words erased here, and the writer went on with what +was evidently considered a dramatic finish. "'_But stay,' I say to +myself, 'you have Kettle. He is down in the Red Sea now, doing well. You +had all along intended to promote him. Do it now, and set him to +overlook this Italian salvage firm whilst the new boat is building. He +is the one to see that Isaac Bird's foot doth not fall, for Captain O. +Kettle is a godly man also_.'" + +The letter was shut off conventionally enough with the statement that +the writer was Captain Kettle's truly, and ended in a post-scriptum tag +to the effect that the envoy should still draw his two and a-half per +cent. on net results. The actual figures had evidently not been conceded +without a mental wrench, as the erasion beneath them showed, but there +they stood in definite ink, and Kettle was not inclined to cavil at the +process which deduced them. + +However, although in his recent prosperity Kettle had assumed a hatred +for risks, and bred a strong dislike for all those commercial adventures +which lay beyond the ordinary rut and routine of trade, he took up his +duties on the salvage steamer with a stout heart and cheerful estimate +for the future. Ahead of him he had pleasant dreams of the big boat that +was "building," and the increased monthly pay in store; and for the +present, well, here was an owner's command, and of course that settled +him firmly in the berth. He had been too long an obedient slave to +shipowners of every grade to have the least fancy for disputing the +imperial will of Bird, Bird and Co. + +Murray tooted his cheerful farewells on the _Parakeet's_ siren as the +little Italian salvage boat steamed out of the baking airs of Aden +harbor, and ensigns were dipped with due formality. Tazzuchi was all +hospitality. He invited Kettle to damage his palate with a black Italian +"Virginia" cigar with a straw up the middle; he uncorked a bottle of the +Scotch whisky with his own hand, splashed away the first wineglassful to +get rid of the fusel oil, and put it ready for reference when his guest +should feel athirst; and he produced a couple of American pirated +editions of English novels to give even intellect its dainty feast. + +Kettle accepted it all with a dry civility. He had every expectation of +upsetting this man's plans of robbery later on, and very possibly of +coming into personal contact with him. But the ties of bread and salt +did not disturb him. Though it was Tazzuchi who presented the Virginias +and the novels, he took it for granted that Messrs. Bird, Bird and Co. +had paid for them, and he was not averse to accepting a little luxury +from the firm. The economical Isaac had cut down the commissariat on the +_Parakeet_ till a man had to be half-starved before he could stomach +a meal. + +The salvage steamer had a South of Europe leisureliness in her +movements. Her utmost pace was nine knots, but, as eight was more +economical for coal consumption, it was at that speed she moved. The +wreck of the _Grecian_ was out of the usual steam lane. She had, it +appeared, got off her course in a fog, had run foul of a half-ebb reef +which holed her in two compartments, and then been steered for the shore +in the wild attempt to beach her before she sank. She had ceased +floating, however, with some suddenness, and when the critical moment +came not all of her people managed to scrape off with their lives in the +boats. Those that stayed behind were incontinently drowned; those that +got away found themselves in a gale (to which the fog gave place), and +had so much trouble to keep afloat that they had no time left to make +accurate determination of where their vessel sank; and when they were +picked up could only give her whereabouts vaguely. However, they stated +that the _Grecian's_ mast-trucks remained above the water surface, and +by these she could be found; and this fact was brought out strongly by +the auctioneer who sold the wreck, and had due influence on the +enterprising Alexander. "Masts!" said Alexander, who daily saw them +bristling from a dock, "don't tell me you can miss masts anywhere." + +But, as it chanced, it was only by a fluke that the salvage steamer +stumbled across the wreck at all. She wandered for several days among an +intensely dangerous archipelago, and many times over had narrow escapes +from piling up her bones on one or other of those reefs with which the +Red Sea in that quarter abounds. Tazzuchi navigated her in an ecstasy of +nervousness, and Kettle (who regarded himself as a passenger for the +time being) kept a private store of food and water-bottles handy, and +saw that one of the quarter-boats was ready for hurried lowering. But +nowhere did they see those mast-trucks. They did not sight so much as a +scrap of floating wreckage. + +There seemed, however, a good many dhow coasters dodging about in and +among the reefs, and from these Kettle presently drew a deduction. + +"Look here," he said to Tazzuchi one morning, "what price those gentry +ashore having found the wreck already? I guess they aren't out here +taking week-end trippers for sixpenny yachting cruises." + +"No," said Tazzuchi, "and they aren't fishing; you can see that." + +"Well, I give you the tip for what it's worth," said Kettle; and that +afternoon the steamer was run up alongside a dhow, which tried +desperately to escape. Her captain was dragged on board, and at that +juncture Captain Kettle took upon himself to go below. He knew what +would probably take place, and, though he disapproved of such methods +strongly, he felt he could not interfere. He was in Bird, Bird and Co.'s +employ, and what was being done would forward the firm's interest. + +But presently came a noise of bellowing from the deck above, and then +that was followed by shrill screams as the upper gamut of agony was +reached. Kettle was prepared for rough handling, but at information +gained by absolute torture he drew the line. It was clear that these +cruel beggars of Italians were going too far. + +"By James!" he muttered to himself, "owners or no owners, I can't stand +this," and started hurriedly to go back to the deck. But before he +reached the head of the companion-way the cries of pain ceased, and so +he stood where he was on the stair, and waited. The engines rumbled, and +the steamer once more gathered way. A clamor of barbaric voices reached +him, which gradually died into quietude. It was clear they were leaving +the dhow behind. + +Captain Kettle drew a long breath. They would stick at little, these +Dagos, in getting the salvage of the _Grecian_, and it seemed +preposterous to suppose that once they gripped the specie in their own +ringers they would ever give it up for the paltry pay which had been +offered by Bird, Bird and Co. Their own poverty was aching. He saw it +whenever he looked about the patched little steamer. He felt it whenever +he sat down to one of their painfully frugal meals. + +Still, though no man knew more bitterly than Kettle himself from past +experience what poverty meant, and how it cut, the poverty of these +Italians was no concern of his just then. They were paid servants of the +owners exactly as he was, and it was his duty to see that they earned +their hire. He took it that he was one against the whole ship's company, +but the odds did not daunt him. On the contrary, something of his old +fighting spirit, which had been of late hustled into the background by +snug commercial prosperity, came back to him. And besides, he had always +at his call that exquisite pride of race which has so many times given +victory to the Anglo-Saxon over the Latin, when all reasonable balances +should have made it go the other way. + +By a sort of instinct he buttoned up his trim white drill coat, and +stepped out on deck. There would be no scuffle yet awhile. With the +specie that would make the temptation still snugly stored on the +sea-floor, the dirty, untidy Italians were still all affability. Indeed, +as soon as he appeared, Tazzuchi himself stepped down off the upper +bridge to give him the news. + +"How do you think those crafty imps have managed it?" he cried, with a +gesture. "Why they dived down and cut off her masts below water level. +The funnel was out of sight already. They just thought they were going +to have the skimming of that wreck themselves. No wonder we couldn't +pick her up." + +"Cute beggars," said Kettle. + +"I've bagged a pilot. If he takes us there straight, he gets backsheesh. +If he doesn't, he eats more stick. I think," said Captain Tazzuchi, with +a wide smile, "that he'll take us there the quickest road." + +"Shouldn't wonder," said Kettle. "But don't be surprised if his friends +come round and make things ugly. When those Red Sea niggers get their +fingers in a wreck, they think's it's their wreck." + +"Let them come. We were ready for this sort of entertainment when we +sailed, and there are plenty of rifles and cartridges in the cabin. If +there is any trouble, we shall shoot; and if we begin that game, we +shall just imagine they are Abyssinians, and shoot to kill. The Italians +have a big bill to pay with those jokers, anyway." He tapped Kettle on +the shoulder. "And look at those two brass signal guns, Captain. If we +break up some firebars for shot, they'll smash the side of any dhow in +the Red Sea." + +Under the black captive's guidance, the salvage steamer soon put a term +to her search. For two more hours she threaded her way among surf which +broke over unseen reefs, and swung round the capes of a rocky +archipelago, and then the pilot gave his word and the engines were +stopped and a rusty cable roared out till an anchor got its hold of the +ground. A boat was lowered with air-pump already stepped amidships, and +the boat's crew with eager hands assisted the diver to make his toilet. + +"You chaps seem keen enough," said Kettle, as he watched the trail of +air bubbles which showed the man's progress on the sea floor below. + +"They have each got a stake in the venture." + +"I bet they have," was Kettle's grim comment to himself. + +The kidnapped skipper of the dhow, it seemed, had done his pilotage with +a fine accuracy. The salvage steamer had been anchored in a good +position, and between them two divers in two boats found the _Grecian's_ +wreck in half an hour. Indeed, they had made their first descent +practically within hand-touch of her, but the water was full of a milky +clay and very opaque, and sight below the surface was consequently +limited. + +They came up to the air for a quarter of an hour's spell and made their +announcement, and then the copper helmets were clapped into place again, +and once more like a pair of uncouth sea monsters they slowly and +clumsily faded away into the depths. A gabble of excited Italian kept +pace to the turning of the air-pumps, and of that language Kettle knew +barely a score of words. Practically these people might have weaved any +kind of plot noisily and under his very nose without his being any the +wiser, and this possibility did little to quell his suspicions. + +But still Tazzuchi was all outward frankness. "It's as well we brought +out this little steamboat just to skim the wreck and survey her," he +said. "If they'd waited to fit out a big salvage expedition, to raise +her straight off, I reckon there wouldn't have been much left but iron +plates and coal bunkers. These Red Sea niggers are pretty useful at +looting, once they start. The beggars can dive pretty nearly as well and +as long in their naked skins as their betters can in a proper +diving suit." + +Each time the divers came up from the opaque white water they brought +more reports. Binnacles, whistle, wheels, and all movable deck fittings +were gone already. The chart-house had been looted down to the bare +boards. Hatches were off, both forward and aft, and already the cargo +had begun to diminish. The black men of the district had been making +good use of their time; and as the probabilities were that they would +return in force to glean from this store which they considered legally +theirs, it was advisable to collect as much as possible into the salvage +steamer before any disturbances began. + +News came from the cool mysterious water to the baking region of air +above, almost at the second hour of the search, that the _Grecian_ could +never be refloated. In addition to the holes already made in two of her +compartments, she had settled on a sharp jag of rock, which had pierced +her in a third place aft. But at the same time this one piece of rock +was the only solid spot in the neighborhood. All the rest of the sea +floor was paved with pulpy white clay, and in this the unfortunate wreck +had settled till already it was flush with her lower decks. There were +evidences, too, that the ooze was creeping higher every day, so that all +that remained was to strip her as quickly as might be before she was +swallowed up for always. + +Tazzuchi asked Captain Kettle for his opinion that night in the +chart-house. "I'm to be guided by you, of course," he said, "but my idea +is that we should go for the specie first thing, and let everything +slide till that's snugly on board here. Birds gave L5,400 for the wreck, +and there's L8,000 in cash down there in a room they built specially for +it over the shaft-tunnel. If we can grab that, it will pay our expenses +and commission and all the other actual outlay, and Birds will be out of +the wood. Afterward, if we can weigh any more of the cargo, well, that +will be all clear profit." + +"Yes," thought Kettle, "you want those gold boxes in your hands, you +blessed Dago, and then you'll begin to play your monkey tricks. I wonder +if you think you're going to jam a knife into me by way of making things +snug and safe?" But aloud he expressed agreement to Captain +Tazzuchi's plan. + +He felt that this was diplomacy, and though the diplomatic art was new +and strange to him, he told himself that it was the correct weapon to +use under the circumstances. He had risen out of his old grade of +hole-and-corner shipmaster, where it had been his province to carry +things through by rough blows and violent words. He was a Captain in a +regular line--the Bird line--now, and (with a trifle of a sigh) he +remembered that wild fights and scrimmages were beneath the dignity of +his position. + +Accordingly, as soon as dawn gave a waking light, the boats were put out +again, and the divers were given orders to let the further survey of the +vessel rest, and put all their efforts into getting the specie boxes on +to the end of the salvage steamer's winch chain. They were quickly +helmed and sent below, and presently an increased cloudiness in the +water told him that they were actively at work. A lot of dhows were +showing here and there amongst the reefs, obviously watching them, and +Tazzuchi was beginning to get nervous. + +"We're in for trouble, I'm afraid," he said to Kettle. "That rock on +which she's settled astern has made a hole in her you could drive a cart +through. I suppose it was a tight-fitting hole at first, but as she +settled more and moved about, it's got enlarged same as the hole in a +tin of beef does when you begin to waggle it with the can-opener." + +"Well?" + +"Didn't you hear the report they've just sung off from the boats? Oh, I +forgot, you don't understand Italian. Well, the news is that the rock's +acted as a can-opener to such fine effect that it's split a hole in the +bottom of the strong room, and those gold boxes have toppled through." + +"And buried themselves in the slime?" + +"That's it. And Lord knows how many feet they've sunk. It's dreadful +stuff to dig amongst--slides in on you as soon as you start to dig, and +levels up. They'll have to brattice as they work. It'll be a big job." + +All that day Kettle watched the sea with an anxious eye. In the two +boats men ground at the air-pumps under the aching sunlight. From below +the mud came up in white billows, which danced, and swirled, and eddied +as the air bubbles from the divers' exhaust valves stirred it. And out +beyond, in and among the reefs, and along the distant shore, which swung +and shimmered in the heat haze, hungry dhows prowled like carrion birds +temporarily driven away from a prey. + +Tazzuchi and the chief engineer busied themselves in binding together +fragments of fire-bars with iron wire. The Italian shipmaster had a +great notion of the damage his signal-guns could do against a dhow, if +they were provided with orthodox solid shot. As a point of fact they +never came into action. As soon as the second night came down, and the +darkness became fairly fixed in hue, there began to crackle out of the +distance a desultory rifle fire from every quarter of the compass. It +was not very heavy--at the outside there were not a score of weapons +firing, and it could not be called accurate since not one bullet in +twenty so much as hit the steamer; but it was annoying for all that, and +as the marksmen and their vessels were completely swallowed up by the +blackness of the night, it was impossible to repay their compliments +in kind. + +Morning showed the damage of one port window smashed, two panes gone +from the engine-room skylight, and the air-pump in one of the boats +alongside with a plunger neatly cut into two pieces. But there was a +spare air-pump in store, and after dawn came, work went on as usual. The +dhows came no nearer, neither did they go much further away. They +pottered about just beyond rifle shot, and their numbers were slightly +increased. Tazzuchi, full of enthusiasm for his artillery, tried a +carefully aimed shot at one of the largest. But the explosion was quite +outdone in noise by the cackle of laughter which followed it. So slow +was the flight of the missile that the eye could trace it. So short was +its journey, and so curved its trajectory, that it came very near to +hitting one of the boats of the divers, and the men working there cried +out in derision that they would catch cold by being wetted by the spray. + +"Well," thought Kettle, "these are pretty cool hands for Dagos, anyway. +I'm going to have a fine tough time of it when my part of the +scuffle comes." + +That night he had a still further taste of their quality. So soon as +darkness fell, the dhows closed in again and recommenced their sniping. +They kept under weigh, and so it did little enough good to aim back at +the flashes. But Tazzuchi, with half a dozen keen spirits, got down into +one of the boats with their rifles and knives, and a drum of paraffin, +and pulled away silently into the blackness. + +There was silence for quite half an hour, and the suspense on the +anchored steamer was vivid enough to have shaken trained men. Yet these +Italian artificers and merchant seamen seemed to take it as coolly as +though such sorties were an everyday occurrence. But at the end of that +time there was a splutter of shots, a few faint squeals, and then a +bonfire lighted up away in the darkness. + +The blaze grew rapidly, and showed in its heart the outline of a dhow +with human figures on it. With promptness every man on the steamer +emptied his rifle at the mark, and continued the fusillade till the dhow +was deserted. They had all done their spell of military service, and +they chose to decide that these snipers were Abyssinians, and did their +best toward squaring the national accounts. + +Tazzuchi and his friends returned in the boat, safe and jubilant, and +for the rest of that night the little salvage steamer was left in +quietude. With the next daybreak the divers and their attendants once +more applied themselves to labor. Kettle, as he watched, was amazed to +see the energy they put into it. Certainly they seemed keen enough to +get the specie weighed, and on board. Whatever piratical plans they had +got made up were evidently for afterward. + +But when day after day passed, and still none of the treasure was +brought to the surface, he began to modify this original opinion. +Tazzuchi--translating the divers' reports--said that the cause of the +delay was the softness of the sea-floor. The heavy chests had sunk deep +into the ooze, and directly a spadeful of the horrible slime was dug +away, more slid in to fill the gap. Of course this might be true; but +there was only Tazzuchi's word for it. The sea was too consistently +opaque to give one a chance of seeing down from above the surface. + +Now as suspicion had got so deep a hold on Captain Kettle's mind, he +began to cudgel his brain for some new method by which the Italians +could serve their purpose. He put himself supposititiously in Tazzuchi's +place, and made piratical theories by the score. Most of them he had to +dismiss after examination as impracticable, others he eliminated by +natural selection; and finally one stood out as practicable beyond +all the rest. + +For one thing it did not want many participants; only the actual divers +and Tazzuchi himself. For another, it would not brand the whole gang of +them as criminals and pirates, but (properly managed) would make them +rich without any advertised stigma or stain. In simple words, the method +was this: the gold boxes must be removed from their original site, and +hidden elsewhere under the water close at hand. The friendly slime would +bury them snugly out of sight. The old report of "un-get-at-able" would +be adhered to, and finally the steamer would give up further salvage +operations as hopeless (after fishing up some useless cargo out of the +holds as a conscience salve) and steam away to port. There Tazzuchi and +his friends would either desert or get themselves dismissed, charter a +small vessel of their own, and go back for the plunder; and with L8,000 +in clear hard cash to divide, live prosperously (from an Italian +standpoint) ever afterward. + +Kettle felt an unimaginative man's complacency in ferreting out such a +dramatic scheme, and began to think next upon the somewhat important +detail of how to get proofs before he commenced to frustrate it. Chance +seemed to make Tazzuchi play into his hand. The air-pump which had been +damaged by the rifle bullet had been mended by the steamer's engineers, +and as there were two or three spare diving dresses on the ship, Captain +Tazzuchi expressed his intention of making a descent in person to +inspect progress. + +"I didn't do it before, because I didn't want to make the men break +time, but I can go down now without interrupting their work. Will you +come off in the boat with me, Captain, and hand my lifeline?" + +"I'll borrow one of those spare dresses and share the pump with you," +said Kettle. + +Tazzuchi was visibly startled. "What do you mean?" + +"I mean that the pump will give air for two, and I'm coming down with +you." + +"But you know nothing about diving, and you might have an accident, and +I should be responsible." + +"Oh, I'll risk that! You must nursery-maid me a bit." + +Tazzuchi lowered his voice. "To tell the truth, I'm going to pay a +surprise visit. I want to make sure those chaps below are doing the +square thing. If they aren't, and I catch them, there'll be a row, and +they'll use their knives." + +"H'm!" said Kettle, "I've got no use for your local weapon as a general +thing. I find a gun handiest. But at a pinch like this I'll borrow a +knife of you, and if it comes to any one cutting my air-tube you'll find +I can use it pretty mischievously." + +"I wish you wouldn't insist upon this," said Tazzuchi persuasively. + +"I'm going to, anyway." + +"I'm going down merely because it's my duty." + +"That's the very same reason that's taking me, Captain. I must ask you +not to make any more objections. I'm a man that never changes his mind, +once it's made up." + +Whereupon Tazzuchi shrugged his shoulders, and gave way. + +"Now," thought Kettle to himself, "that man's made up his mind to kill +me if he gets the glimmer of a chance, and, as I'm not going to get +wiped out this journey, he'll do with a lot of watching." + +It has been the present writer's business at one time and another to +point out that Captain Owen Kettle is a man of iron nerve; but I cannot +call to mind any instance where his indomitable courage was more +severely tried than in this voluntary descent in the diving dress. The +world beneath the waters was strange and dangerous to him; his companion +was a man against whom he held the blackest suspicion; the men at the +pump (whose language he did not understand) might any moment cut off his +supply, and leave him to drown like a puppy under a bucket. The +circumstances combined were enough to daunt a Bayard. + +But Kettle felt that the men in the boat, who helped to adjust his +stiff rubber dress, were regarding him with more than ordinary +curiosity, and, for his own pride's sake, he preserved an unruffled +face. He even tried a rude jest in their own tongue before they made +fast the helmet on his head, and the cackle of their laughter was the +last sound he heard before the metal dome closed the audible world +away from him. + +They hung the weights over his chest and back, and Tazzuchi signed to +him to descend. Kettle hitched round the sheath-knife to the front of +his belt, and signed with politeness, "After you." + +Tazzuchi did not argue the matter. He lifted his clumsy lead-soled feet +over the side of the boat, got on the ladder, and climbed down out of +sight. Kettle followed. The chill of the water crept up and closed over +his head; the steady throb-throb of the air-pump beat against his skull; +and a little shiver took him in one small spot between the shoulder +blades, because he knew that it was there that an Italian, if he can +manage it, always plants a knife in his enemy. + +He reached the end of the ladder and slid down a rope. He felt curiously +corky and insecure, but still when he reached the bottom he sank up to +his knees in impalpable mud. He could foggily see Tazzuchi a few paces +away waiting for him, and he went up to him at once. If the men in the +boat, acting on orders, cut his air-tube, he wanted to be in a position +to cut Captain Tazzuchi's also with promptness. + +However, everything went peacefully just then. The Italian set off down +a track in the slime, and Kettle waded laboriously after him. It was +terrible work making a passage through that white glutinous ooze, but +they came to the wreck directly, and, working round her rusty flank, +stood beside a great shallow pit, where two weird-looking gray +sea-monsters showed in dim outline through the dense fog of the water. + +Sound does not carry down there in that quiet world, and the two +new-comers stood for long enough before the two workers observed them. +But one chanced to look up and see them watching and jogged the other +with his spade, and then both frantically beckoned the visitors to come +down into the pit. Tazzuchi led, and Kettle followed, wallowing down the +slopes of slime, and there at the bottom, in the dim, milky light, one +of the professional divers slipped a shovel into his hand and thrust it +downward, till it jarred against something solid underfoot. + +It was clear they had come upon the gold boxes, and they wished to +impress upon the visitors, in underwater dumb show, that the find had +only been made that very minute. It was a strange enough performance. +Half-seen hands snapped red fingers in triumph. Ponderously booted feet +did a dance of ecstasy in three feet of gluey mud. And meanwhile, +Kettle, with a hand on the haft of his knife, edged away from this +uncanny demonstration, lest some one should slit his air-tube before he +could prevent it. + +He had seen what he wanted; he had no reason to wait longer; and +besides, being a novice at diving, his lungs were half burst already in +the effort to get breath, and his head was singing like a tea-urn. The +gold boxes were there, and if they were not brought to the surface, and +carried honestly to Suez, the matter would have to be fought out above +in God's open air, and not in that horrible choking quagmire of slime +and cruel water. And so, still guarding himself cannily, he got back +again to the boat, and almost had it in him to shake hands with the men +who eased him of that intolerable helmet. + +Now far be it from me to raise even a suspicion that Captain Owen Kettle +resented the fact that he had been robbed of a scuffle when the little +salvage steamer actually did bring up in Suez harbor with the specie +honestly locked in one of her staterooms. But that he was violently +angry he admits himself without qualification. He says he kicked himself +for being such a bad judge of men. + +The _Parakeet_ was in when they arrived, rebunkering for the run home, +and Murray came off as fast as a crew could drive his boat to +inquire the news. + +He saw Tazzuchi on the deck and accosted him with a vigorous handshake, +and a "Hullo, Fizz-hookey, old man, how goes it? Who'd have thought of +seeing you here? Howdy, Captain Kettle. Had good fishing?" + +"Do you know Captain Tazzuchi?" + +"Somewhat. Why, we were both boys on the _Conway_ together." + +"You're making some mistake. Captain Tazzuchi is an Italian." + +"Oh, am I?" said Tazzuchi. "Not much of the Dago about me except the +name." + +"Well, you never told me that before." + +"You never asked me, that I know of. I speak about enough of the lingo +to carry on duty with, and I serve on an Italian ship because I couldn't +get a skipper's billet on anything else. But I'm as English as either +of you, and as English as Birds--or more English than Birds, seeing that +they come from somewhere near Jerusalem. Great Scot, Captain Kettle, +can't you tell a Dago yet for sure? Where have you been all your days?" + +Murray laughed. "Well, come across and discuss it in the _Parakeet_. +I've got a case of champagne on board to wet my new ticket." + +"Stay half a minute," said Tazzuchi, "we'll just get those boxes of gold +down into your boat, Murray, and ferry them across. I sha'n't be sorry +to have them out of my responsibility. They're too big a temptation to +leave handy for the crew there is on board here." + +"Phew!" said Kettle, "it's hot here in Suez. Great James! to think of +the way I've been sweating about this blame' ship without a scrap of +need of it. Here, hurry up with the lucre-boxes. I want to get across to +the old _Parakeet_ and wash the taste of a lot of things out of +my mouth." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE DEAR INSURED + + +"He isn't the 'dear deceased' yet by a very long chalk," said Captain +Kettle. + +"If he was," retorted Lupton with a dry smile, "my immediate interest in +him would cease, and the Company would shrug its shoulders, and pay, and +look pleasant. In the mean while he's, shall we say, 'the dear insured,' +and a premium paying asset that the Company's told me off to keep an +eye on." + +"Do much business in your particular line?" "Why yes, recently a good +deal. It's got to be quite a fashionable industry of late to pick up +some foolish young gentleman with expectations, insure his life for a +big pile, knock him quietly on the head, and then come back home in a +neat black suit to pocket the proceeds." + +"Does this Mr.--" Kettle referred to the passenger list--"Hamilton's the +rogue's name, isn't it?" + +"No, he's the flat. Cranze is the--er--his friend who stands to draw the +stamps." + +"Does Mr. Hamilton know you?" + +"Never seen me in his life." + +"Does this thief Cranze?" + +"Same." + +"Then, sir, I'll tell you what's your ticket," said Kettle, who had got +an eye to business. "Take a passage with me out to the Gulf and back, +and keep an eye on the young gentleman yourself. You'll find it a bit +cold in the Western Ocean at first, but once we get well in the Gulf +Stream, and down toward New Orleans, I tell you you'll just enjoy life. +It'll be a nice trip for you, and I'm sure I'll do my best to make +things comfortable for you." + +"I'm sure you would, Captain, but it can't be done at the price." + +Kettle looked thoughtfully at the passenger list. "I could promise you a +room to yourself. We're not very full up this run. In fact, Mr. Hamilton +and Mr. Cranze are the only two names I've got down so far, and I may as +well tell you we're not likely to have others. You see Birds are a very +good line, but they lay themselves out more for cargo than passengers." + +"So our local agent in Liverpool found out for us already, and that's +mostly why I'm here. Don't you see, Captain, if the pair of them had +started off to go tripping round the Mexican Gulf in one of the regular +passenger boats, there would have been nothing suspicious about that. +But when they book berths by you, why then it begins to look fishy +at once." + +Kettle turned on his companion with a sudden viciousness. "By James!" he +snapped, "you better take care of your-words, or there'll be a man in +this smoke-room with a broken jaw. I allow no one to sling slights at +either me or my ship. No, nor at the firm either that owns both of us. +You needn't look round at the young lady behind the bar. She can't hear +what we're saying across in this corner, and if even she could she's +quite welcome to know how I think about the matter. By James, do you +think you can speak to me as if I was a common railway director? I can +tell you that, as Captain of a passenger boat, I've a very different +social position." + +"My dear sir," said Lupton soothingly, "to insult you was the last thing +in my mind. I quite know you've got a fine ship, and a new ship, and a +ship to be congratulated on. I've seen her. In fact I was on board and +all over her only this morning. But what I meant to point out was +(although I seem to have put it clumsily) that Messrs. Bird have chosen +to schedule you for the lesser frequented Gulf ports, finding, as you +hint, that cargo pays them better than passengers." + +"Well?" + +"And naturally therefore anything that was done on the _Flamingo_ would +not have the same fierce light of publicity on it that would get +on--say--one of the Royal Mail boats. You see they bustle about between +busy ports crammed with passengers who are just at their wits' end for +something to do. You know what a pack of passengers are. Give them a +topic like this: Young man with expectations suddenly knocked overboard, +nobody knows by whom; 'nother young man on boat drawing a heavy +insurance from him; and they aren't long in putting two and two +together." + +"You seem to think it requires a pretty poor brain to run a +steam-packet," said Kettle contemptuously. "How long would I be before I +had that joker in irons?" + +"If he did it as openly as I have said, you'd arrest him at once. But +you must remember Cranze will have been thinking out his game for +perhaps a year beforehand, till he can see absolutely no flaw in it, +till he thinks, in fact, there's not the vaguest chance of being dropped +on. If anything happens to Hamilton, his dear friend Cranze will be the +last man to be suspected of it. And mark you, he's a clever chap. It +isn't your clumsy, ignorant knave who turns insurance robber--and +incidentally murderer." + +"Still, I don't see how he'd be better off on my ship than he would be +on the bigger passenger packets." + +"Just because you won't have a crowd of passengers. Captain, a ship's +like a woman; any breath of scandal damages her reputation,-whether it's +true and deserved or not. And a ship-captain's like a woman's husband; +he'll put up with a lot to keep any trace of scandal away from her." + +"That's the holy truth." + +"A skipper on one of the bigger passenger lines would be just as keen as +you could be not to have his ship mixed up with anything discreditable. +But passengers are an impious lot. They are just bursting for want of a +job, most of them; they revel in anything like an accident to break the +monotony; and if they can spot a bit of foul play--or say they helped to +spot it--why, there they are, supplied with one good solid never-stale +yarn for all the rest of their natural lives. So you see they've every +inducement to do a lot of ferreting that a ship's officers (with other +work on hand) would not dream about." + +Captain Kettle pulled thoughtfully at his neat red pointed beard. +"You're putting the thing in a new light, sir, and I thank you for what +you've said. I see my course plain before me. So soon as we have dropped +the pilot, I shall go straight to this Mr. Cranze, and tell him that +from information received I hear he's going to put Mr. Hamilton over +the side. And then I shall say: 'Into irons you go, my man, so soon as +ever Hamilton's missing.'" + +Lupton laughed rather angrily. "And what would be the result of that, do +you think?" + +"Cranze will get mad. He'll probably talk a good deal, and that I shall +allow within limits. But he'll not hit me. I'm not the kind of a man +that other people see fit to raise their hands to." + +"You don't look it. But, my good sir, don't you see that if you speak +out like that, you'll probably scare the beggar off his game +altogether?" + +"And why not? Do you think my ship's a blessed detective novel that's to +be run just for your amusement?" + +Lupton tapped the table slowly with his fingers. "Now look here, +Captain," he said, "there's a chance here of our putting a stop to a +murderous game that's been going on too long, by catching a rogue +red-handed. It's to our interest to get a conviction and make an +example. It's to your interest to keep your ship free from a fuss." + +"All the way." + +"Quite so. My Company's prepared to buy your interest up." + +"You must put it plainer than that." + +"I'll put it as definitely as you like. I'll give you L20 to keep your +eye on these men, and say nothing about what I've told you, but just +watch. If you catch Cranze so clearly trying it on that the Courts give +a conviction, the Company will pay you L200." + +"It's a lot of money." + +"My Company will find it a lot cheaper than paying out L20,000, and +that's what Hamilton's insured for." + +"Phew! I didn't know we were dealing with such big figures. Well, Mr. +Cranze has got his inducements to murder the man, anyway." + +"I told you that from the first. Now, Captain, are you going to take my +check for that preliminary L20?" + +"Hand it over," said Kettle. "I see no objections. And you may as well +give me a bit of a letter about the balance." + +"I'll do both," said Lupton, and took out his stylograph, and called a +waiter to bring him hotel writing paper. + +Now Captain Owen Kettle, once he had taken up this piece of employment, +entered into it with a kind of chastened joy. The Life Insurance +Company's agent had rather sneered at ship-captains as a class (so he +considered), and though the man did his best to be outwardly civil, it +was plain that he considered a mob of passengers the intellectual +superiors of any master mariner. So Kettle intended to prove himself the +"complete detective" out of sheer _esprit de corps_. + +As he had surmised, Messrs. Hamilton and Cranze remained the +_Flamingo's_ only two passengers, and so he considered he might devote +full attention to them without being remarkable. If he had been a +steward making sure of his tips he could not have been more solicitous +for their welfare; and to say he watched them like a cat is putting the +thing feebly. Any man with an uneasy conscience must have grasped from +the very first that the plot had been guessed at, and that this awkward +little skipper, with his oppressive civilities, was merely waiting his +chance to act as Nemesis. + +But either Mr. Cranze had an easy mind, and Lupton had unjustly +maligned him, or he was a fellow of the most brazen assurance. He +refused to take the least vestige of a warning. He came on board with a +dozen cases of champagne and four of liqueur brandy as a part of his +personal luggage, and his first question to every official he came +across was how much he would have to pay per bottle for corkage. + +As he made these inquiries from a donkey-man, two deck hands, three +mates, a trimmer, the third engineer, two stewards, and Captain Kettle +himself, the answers he received were various, and some of them were +profane. He seemed to take a delight in advertising his chronic +drunkenness, and between-whiles he made a silly show of the fact that he +carried a loaded revolver in his hip pocket. "Lots fellows do't now," he +explained. "Never know who-you-may-meet. S' a mos' useful habit." + +Now Captain Kettle, in his inmost heart, considered that Cranze was +nerving himself up with drink to the committal of his horrid deed, and +so he took a very natural precaution. Before they had dropped the Irish +coast he had managed to borrow the revolver, unbeknown to its owner, and +carefully extracted the powder from the cartridges, replacing the +bullets for the sake of appearances. And as it happened, the chief +engineer, who was a married man as well as a humorist, though working +independently of his skipper, carried the matter still further. He, too, +got hold of the weapon, and brazed up the breech-block immovably, so +that it could not be surreptitiously reloaded. He said that his wife had +instructed him to take no chances, and that meanwhile, as a fool's +pendant, the revolver was as good as ever it had been. + +The revolver became the joke of the ship. Cranze kept up a steady soak +on king's peg--putting in a good three fingers of the liqueur brandy +before filling up the tumbler with champagne--and was naturally inclined +to be argumentative. Any one of the ship's company who happened to be +near him with a little time to spare would get up a discussion on any +matter that came to his mind, work things gently to a climax, and then +contradict Cranze flatly. Upon which, out would come the revolver, and +down would go the humorist on his knees, pitifully begging for pardon +and life, to the vast amusement of the onlookers. + +Pratt, the chief engineer, was the inventor of this game, but he openly +renounced all patent rights. He said that everybody on board ought to +take the stage in turn--he himself was quite content to retire on his +early laurels. So all hands took pains to contradict Cranze and to cower +with a fine show of dramatic fright before his spiked revolver. + +All the _Flamingo's_ company except one man, that is. Frivolity of this +sort in no way suited the appetite of Captain Owen Kettle. He talked +with Cranze with a certain dry cordiality. And at times he contradicted +him. In fact the little sailor contradicted most passengers if he talked +to them for long. He was a man with strong opinions, and he regarded +tolerance as mere weakness. Moreover, Cranze's chronic soaking nauseated +him. But at the same time, if his civility was scant, Cranze never +lugged out the foolish weapon in his presence. There was a something in +the shipmaster's eye which daunted him. The utmost height to which his +resentment could reach with Captain Kettle was a folding of the arms and +a scowl which was intended to be majestic, but which was frequently +spoiled by a hiccough. + +In pleasant contrast to this weak, contemptible knave was the man +Hamilton, his dupe and prospective victim. For him Kettle formed a +liking at once, though for the first days of the voyage it was little +enough he saw of his actual presence. Hamilton was a bad sailor and a +lover of warmth, and as the Western Ocean was just then in one of its +cold and noisy moods, this passenger went shudderingly out of the cabin +when meals came on, and returned shudderingly from the cold on deck as +soon they were over. + +But when the _Flamingo_ began to make her southing, and the yellow +tangles of weed floating in emerald waves bore evidence that they were +steaming against the warm current of the Gulf Stream, then Hamilton came +into view. He found a spot on the top of the fiddley under the lee of a +tank where a chair could stand, and sat there in the glow of sun and +boilers, and basked complacently. + +He was a shy, nervous little man, and though Kettle had usually a fine +contempt for all weakness, somehow his heart went out to this retiring +passenger almost at first sight. Myself, I am inclined to think it was +because he knew him to be hunted, knew him to be the object of a +murderous conspiracy, and loathed most thoroughly the vulgar rogue who +was his treacherous enemy. But Captain Kettle scouts the idea that he +was stirred by any such feeble, womanish motives. Kettle was a poet +himself, and with the kinship of species he felt the poetic fire glowing +out from the person of this Mr. Hamilton. At least, so he says; and if +he has deceived himself on the matter, which, from an outsider's point +of view, seems likely, I am sure the error is quite unconscious. The +little sailor may have his faults, as the index of these pages has +shown; but untruthfulness has never been set down to his tally, and I am +not going to accuse him of it now. + +Still, it is a sure thing that talk on the subject of verse making did +not come at once. Kettle was immensely sensitive about his +accomplishment, and had writhed under brutal scoffs and polished +ridicule at his poetry more times than he cared to count. With +passengers especially he kept it scrupulously in the background, even as +he did his talent for making sweet music on the accordion. + +But somehow he and Hamilton, after a few days' acquaintance, seemed to +glide into the subject imperceptibly. Mutual confidences followed in the +course of nature. It seemed that Hamilton too, like Kettle, was a +devotee of the stiller forms of verse. + +"You see, Skipper," he said, "I've been a pretty bad lot, and I've made +things hum most of my time, and so I suppose I get my hankerings after +restfulness as the natural result of contrast." + +"Same here, sir. Ashore I can respect myself, and in our chapel circle, +though I say it myself, you'll find few more respected men. But at sea I +shouldn't like to tell you what I've done; I shouldn't like to tell any +one. If a saint has to come down and skipper the brutes we have to ship +as sailormen nowadays, he'd wear out his halo flinging it at them. And +when matters have been worst, and I've been bashing the hands about, or +doing things to carry out an owner's order that I'd blush even to think +of ashore, why then, sir, gentle verse, to tunes I know, seems to +bubble up inside me like springs in a barren land." + +"Well, I don't know about that," said Hamilton doubtfully, "but when I +get thoroughly sick of myself, and wish I was dead, I sometimes stave +off putting a shot through my silly head by getting a pencil and paper, +and shifting my thoughts out of the beastly world I know, into--well, +it's hard to explain. But I get sort of notions, don't you see, and they +seem to run best in verse. I write 'em when the fit's on me, and I burn +'em when the fit's through; and you'll hardly think it, but I never told +a living soul I ever did such a thing till I told you this minute. My +set--I mean, I couldn't bear to be laughed at. But you seem to be a +fellow that's been in much the same sort of box yourself." + +"I don't know quite that. At any rate, I've never thought of shooting +myself." + +"Oh, I didn't mean to suggest we were alike at all in detail. I was only +thinking we had both seen rough times. Lord forbid that any man should +ever be half the fool that I have been." He sighed heavily.--"However, +sufficient for the day. Look out over yonder; there's a bit of color +for you." + +A shoal of flying-fish got up out of the warm, shining water and ran +away over the ripples like so many silver rats; yellow tangles of +Gulf-weed swam in close squadron on the emerald sea; and on the western +horizon screw-pile lighthouses stood up out of the water, marking the +nearness of the low-lying Floridan beaches, and reminding one of +mysterious Everglades beyond. + +"A man, they tell me," said Hamilton, "can go into that country at the +back there, and be a hermit, and live honestly on his own fish and +fruit. I believe I'd like that life. I could go there, and be decent, +and perhaps in time I should forget things." + +"Don't you try it. The mosquitoes are shocking." + +"There are worse devils than mosquitoes. Now I should have thought there +was something about those Everglades that would have appealed to +you, Skipper?" + +"There isn't, and I've been there. You want a shot-gun in Florida to +shoot callers with, not eatables. I've written verse there, and good +verse, but it was the same old tale, sir, that brought it up to my +fingers' ends. I'd been having trouble just then--yes, bad trouble. No, +Mr. Hamilton, you go home, sir, to England and find a country place, and +get on a farm, and watch the corn growing, and hear the birds sing, and +get hold of the smells of the fields, and the colors of the trees, and +then you'll enjoy life and turn out poetry you can be proud of." + +"Doesn't appeal to me. You see you look upon the country with a +countryman's eye." + +"Me," said Kettle. "I'm seaport and sea bred and brought up, and all I +know of fields and a farm is what I've seen from a railway-carriage +window. No, I've had to work too hard for my living, and for a living +for Mrs. Kettle and the youngsters, to have any time for that sort of +enjoyment; but a man can't help knowing what he wants, sir, can he? And +that's what I'm aiming at, and it's for that I'm scratching together +every sixpence of money I can lay hands on." + +But here a sudden outcry below broke in upon their talk. "That's Mr. +Cranze," said Kettle. "He'll be going too far in one of his tantrums one +of these days." + +"I'm piously hoping the drunken brute will tumble overboard," Hamilton +muttered; "it would save a lot of trouble for everybody. Eh, well," he +said, "I suppose I'd better go and look after him," and got up and +went below. + +Captain Kettle sat where he was, musing. He had no fear that Cranze, the +ship's butt and drunkard, would murder his man in broad, staring +daylight, especially as, judging from the sounds, others of the ship's +company were at present baiting him. But he did not see his way to +earning that extra L200, which he would very much like to have fingered. +To let this vulgar, drunken ruffian commit some overt act against +Hamilton's life, without doing him actual damage, seemed an +impossibility. He had taken far to great a fancy for Hamilton to allow +him to be hurt. He was beginning to be mystified by the whole thing. The +case was by no means so simple and straightforward as it had looked when +Lupton put it to him in the hotel smoking-room ashore. + +Had Cranze been any other passenger, he would have stopped his drunken +riotings by taking away the drink, and by giving strict orders that the +man was to be supplied with no further intoxicants. But Cranze sober +might be dangerous, while Cranze tipsy was merely a figure of ridicule; +so he submitted, very much against his grain, to having his ship made +into a bear-garden, and anxiously awaited developments. + +The _Flamingo_ cleared the south of Florida, sighted the high land of +Cuba, and stood across through the Yucatan channel to commence her +peddling business in Honduras, and at some twenty ports she came to an +anchor six miles off shore, and hooted with her siren till lighters +came off through the surf and the shallows. + +Machinery they sent ashore at these little-known stations, coal, powder, +dress-goods, and pianos, receiving in return a varied assortment of +hides, mahogany, dyewoods, and some parcels of ore. There was a small +ferrying business done also between neighboring ports in unclean native +passengers, who harbored on the foredeck, and complained of want of +deference from the crew. + +Hamilton appeared to extract some melancholy pleasure from it all, and +Cranze remained unvaryingly drunk. Cranze passed insults to casual +strangers who came on board and did not know his little ways, and the +casual strangers (after the custom of their happy country) tried to +knife him, but were always knocked over in the nick of time, by some +member of the _Flamingo's_ crew. Hamilton said there was a special +providence which looks after drunkards of Cranze's type, and declined to +interfere; and Cranze said he refused to be chided by a qualified +teetotaller, and mixed himself further king's pegs. + +Messrs. Bird, Bird and Co., being of an economical turn of mind, did not +fall into the error of overmanning their ships, and so as one of the +mates chose to be knocked over by six months' old malarial fever, +Captain Kettle had practically to do a mate's duty as well as his own. A +mate in the mercantile marine is officially an officer and some fraction +of a gentleman, but on tramp steamers and liners where cargo is of more +account than passengers--even when they dine at half-past six, instead +of at midday--a mate has to perform manual labors rather harder than +that accomplished by any three regular deck hands. + +I do not intend to imply that Kettle actually drove a winch, or acted +as stevedore below, or sweated over bales as they swung up through a +hatch, but he did work as gangway man, and serve at the tally desk, and +oversee generally while the crew worked cargo; and his watch over the +passengers was at this period of necessity relaxed. He tried hard to +interest Hamilton in the mysteries of hold stowage, in order to keep him +under his immediate eye. But Hamilton bluntly confessed to loathing +anything that was at all useful, and so he perforce had to be left to +pick his own position under the awnings, there to doze, and smoke +cigarettes, and scribble on paper as the moods so seized him. + +It was off one of the ports in the peninsula of Yucatan, toward the Bay +of Campeachy, that Cranze chose to fall overboard. The name of the place +was announced by some one when they brought up, and Cranze asked where +it was. Kettle marked it off with a leg of the dividers on the chart. +"Yucatan," said Cranze, "that's the ruined cities shop, isn't it?"--He +shaded his unsteady eyes, and looked out at a clump of squalid huts just +showing on the beach beyond some three miles of tumbling surf. "Gum! +here's a ruined city all hot and waiting. Home of the ancient Aztecs, +and colony of the Atlanteans, and all that. Skipper, I shall go ashore, +and enlarge my mind." + +"You can go if you like," said Kettle, "but remember, I steam away from +here as soon as ever I get the cargo out of her, and I wait for no man. +And mind not to get us upset in the surf going there. The water round +here swarms with sharks, and I shouldn't like any of them to get +indigestion." + +"Seem trying to make yourself jolly ob--bub--jectiable's morning," +grumbled Cranze, and invited Hamilton to accompany him on shore +forthwith. "Let's go and see the girls. Ruined cities should have ruined +girls and ruined pubs to give us some ruined amusement. We been on this +steamer too long, an' we want variety. V'riety's charming. Come along +and see ruined v'riety." + +Hamilton shrugged his shoulders. "Drunk as usual, are you? You silly +owl, whatever ruined cities there may be, are a good fifty miles in +the bush." + +"'S all you know about it. I can see handsome majestic ruin over there +on the beach, an' I'm going to see it 'out further delay. 'S a duty I +owe to myself to enlarge the mind by studying the great monuments of +the past." + +"If you go ashore, you'll be marooned as safe as houses, and Lord knows +when the next steamer will call. The place reeks of fever, and as your +present state of health is distinctly rocky, you'll catch it, and be +dead and out of the way inside a week easily. Look here, don't be +an ass." + +"Look here yourself. Are you a competent medicated practitioner?" + +"Oh, go and get sober." + +"Answer me. Are you competent medicated practitioner?" + +"No, I'm not." + +"Very well then. Don't you presume t'lecture me on state of my health. +No reply, please. I don' wan' to be encumbered with your further +acquaintance. I wish you a go' morning." + +Hamilton looked at Captain Kettle under his brows. "Will you advise me," +he said, "what I ought to do." + +"I should say it would be healthier for you to let him have his own +way." + +"Thanks," said Hamilton, and turned away. "I'll act on that advice." + +Now the next few movements of Mr. Cranze are wrapped in a certain degree +of mystery. He worried a very busy third mate, and got tripped on the +hard deck for his pains; he was ejected forcibly from the engineers' +mess-room, where it was supposed he had designs on the whisky; and he +was rescued by the carpenter from an irate half-breed Mosquito Indian, +who seemed to have reasons for desiring his blood there and then on the +spot. But how else he passed the time, and as to how he got over the +side and into the water, there is no evidence to show. + +There were theories that he had been put there by violence as a just act +of retribution; there was an idea that he was trying to get into a +lighter which lay alongside for a cast ashore, but saw two lighters, and +got into the one which didn't exist; and there were other theories also, +but they were mostly frivolous. But the very undoubted fact remained +that he was there in the water, that there was an ugly sea running, that +he couldn't swim, and that the place bristled with sharks. + +A couple of lifebuoys, one after the other, hit him accurately on the +head, and the lighter cast off, and backed down to try and pick him up. +He did not bring his head on to the surface again, but stuck up an +occasional hand, and grasped with it frantically. And, meanwhile, there +was great industry among the black triangular dorsal fins that +advertised the movements of the sharks which owned them underneath the +surface. Nobody on board the _Flamingo_ had any particular love for +Cranze, but all hands crowded to the rail and shivered and felt sick at +the thought of seeing him gobbled up. + +Then out of the middle of these spectators jumped the mild, delicate +Hamilton, with a volley of bad language at his own foolishness, and lit +on a nice sleek wave-crest, feet first in an explosion of spray. Away +scurried the converging sharks' fins, and down shot Hamilton out +of sight. + +What followed came quickly. Kettle, with a tremendous flying leap, +landed somehow on the deck of the lighter, with bones unbroken. He cast +a bowline on to the end of the main sheet, and, watching his chance, +hove the bight of it cleverly into Hamilton's grasp, and as Hamilton had +come up with Cranze frenziedly clutching him round the neck, Kettle was +able to draw his catch toward the lighter's side without further delay. + +By this time the men who had gone below for that purpose had returned +with a good supply of coal, and a heavy fusillade of the black lumps +kept the sharks at a distance, at any rate for the moment. Kettle heaved +in smartly, and eager hands gripped the pair as they swirled up +alongside, and there they were on the lighter's deck, spitting, +dripping, and gasping. But here came an unexpected developement. As soon +as he had got back his wind, the mild Hamilton turned on his fellow +passenger like a very fury, hitting, kicking, swearing, and almost +gnashing with his teeth; and Cranze, stricken to a sudden soberness by +his ducking, collected himself after the first surprise, and returned +the blows with a murderous interest. + +[Illustration: OUT OF THE MIDDLE OF THESE SPECTATORS JUMPED THE MILD, +DELICATE HAMILTON.] + +But one of the mates, who had followed his captain down on to the +lighter to bear a hand, took a quick method of stopping the scuffle. He +picked up a cargo-sling, slipped it round Cranze's waist, hooked on the +winch chain, and passed the word to the deck above. Somebody alive to +the jest turned on steam, and of a sudden Cranze was plucked aloft, and +hung there under the derrick-sheave, struggling impotently, like some +insane jumping-jack. + +Amid the yells of laughter which followed, Hamilton laughed also, but +rather hysterically. Kettle put a hand kindly on his wet shoulder. "Come +on board again," he said. "If you lie down in your room for an hour or +so, you'll be all right again then. You're a bit over-done. I shouldn't +like you to make a fool of yourself." + +"Make a fool of myself," was the bitter reply. "I've made a bigger fool +of myself in the last three minutes than any other man could manage in a +lifetime." + +"I'll get you the Royal Humane Society's medal for that bit of a job, +anyway." + +"Give me a nice rope to hang myself with," said Hamilton ungraciously, +"that would be more to the point. Here, for the Lord's sake let me be, +or I shall go mad." He brushed aside all help, clambered up the +steamer's high black side again, and went down to his room. + +"That's the worst of these poetic natures," Kettle mused as he, too, got +out of the lighter; "they're so highly strung." + +Cranze, on being lowered down to deck again, and finding his tormentors +too many to be retaliated upon, went below and changed, and then came up +again and found solace in more king's pegs. He was not specially +thankful to Hamilton for saving his life; said, in fact, that it was +his plain duty to render such trifling assistance; and further stated +that if Hamilton found his way over the side, he, Cranze, would not stir +a finger to pull him back again. + +He was very much annoyed at what he termed Hamilton's "unwarrantable +attack," and still further annoyed at his journey up to the derrick's +sheave in the cargo-sling, which he also laid to Hamilton's door. When +any of the ship's company had a minute or so to spare, they came and +gave Cranze good advice and spoke to him of his own unlovableness, and +Cranze hurled brimstone back at them unceasingly, for king's peg in +quantity always helped his vocabulary of swear-words. + +Meanwhile the _Flamingo_ steamed up and dropped cargo wherever it was +consigned, and she abased herself to gather fresh cargo wherever any +cargo offered. It was Captain Kettle who did the abasing, and he did not +like the job at all; but he remembered that Birds paid him specifically +for this among other things; and also that if he did not secure the +cargo, some one else would steam along, and eat dirt, and snap it up; +and so he pocketed his pride (and his commission) and did his duty. He +called to mind that he was not the only man in the world who earned a +living out of uncongenial employment. The creed of the South Shields +chapel made a point of this: it preached that to every man, according to +his strength, is the cross dealt out which he has to bear. And Captain +Owen Kettle could not help being conscious of his own vast lustiness. + +But one morning, before the _Flamingo_ had finished with her calls on +the ports of the Texan rivers, a matter happened on board of her which +stirred the pulse of her being to a very different gait. The steward who +brought Captain Kettle's early coffee coughed, and evidently wanted an +invitation to speak. + +"Well?' said Kettle. + +"It's about Mr. Hamilton, sir. I can't find 'im anywheres." + +"Have you searched the ship?" + +"Hunofficially, sir." + +"Well, get the other two stewards, and do it thoroughly." + +The steward went out, and Captain Kettle lifted the coffee cup and drank +a salutation to the dead. From that very moment he had a certain +foreboding that the worst had happened. "Here's luck, my lad, wherever +you now may be. That brute Cranze has got to windward of the pair of us, +and your insurance money's due this minute. I only sent that steward to +search the ship for form's sake. There was the link of poetry between +you and me, lad; and that's closer than most people could guess at; and +I know, as sure as if your ghost stood here to tell me, that you've +gone. How, I've got to find out." + +He put down the cup, and went to the bathroom for his morning's tub. +"I'm to blame, I know," he mused on, "for not taking better care of you, +and I'm not trying to excuse myself. You were so brimful of poetry that +you hadn't room left for any thought of your own skin, like a chap such +as I am is bound to have. Besides, you've been well-off all your time +and you haven't learned to be suspicious. Well, what's done's done, and +it can't be helped. But, my lad, I want you to look on while I hand in +the bill. It'll do you good to see Cranze pay up the account." + +Kettle went through his careful toilet, and then in his spruce white +drill went out and walked briskly up and down the hurricane deck till +the steward came with the report. His forebodings had not led him +astray. Hamilton was not on board: the certain alternative was that he +lay somewhere in the warm Gulf water astern, as a helpless dead body. + +"Tell the Chief Officer," he said, "to get a pair of irons out of store +and bring them down to Mr. Cranze's room. I'm going there now." + +He found Cranze doctoring a very painful head with the early application +of stimulant, and Cranze asked him what the devil he meant by not +knocking at the door before opening it. + +Captain Kettle whipped the tumbler out of the passenger's shaking +fingers, and emptied its contents into the wash-basin. + +"I'm going to see you hanged shortly, you drunken beast," he said, "but +in the mean while you may as well get sober for a change, and explain +things up a bit." + +Cranze swung his legs out of the bunk and sat up. He was feeling very +tottery, and the painfulness of his head did not improve his temper. +"Look here," he said, "I've had enough of your airs and graces. I've +paid for my passage on this rubbishy old water-pusher of yours, and I'll +trouble you to keep a civil tongue in your head, or I'll report you to +your owners. You are like a railway guard, my man. After you have seen +that your passengers have got their proper tickets, it's your duty to--" + +Mr. Cranze's connective remarks broke off here for the time being. He +found himself suddenly plucked away from the bunk by a pair of iron +hands, and hustled out through the state-room door. He was a tall man, +and the hands thrust him from below, upward, and, though he struggled +wildly and madly, all his efforts to have his own way were futile. +Captain Owen Kettle had handled far too many really strong men in this +fashion to even lose breath over a dram-drinking passenger. So Cranze +found himself hurtled out on to the lower fore-deck, where somebody +handcuffed him neatly to an iron stanchion, and presently a mariner, by +Captain Kettle's orders, rigged a hose, and mounted on the iron bulwark +above him, and let a three-inch stream of chilly brine slop steadily on +to his head. + +The situation, from an onlooker's point of view, was probably ludicrous +enough, but what daunted the patient was that nobody seemed to take it +as a joke. There were a dozen men of the crew who had drawn near to +watch, and yesterday all these would have laughed contemptuously at each +of his contortions. But now they are all stricken to a sudden solemnity. + +"Spell-o," ordered Kettle. "Let's see if he's sober yet." + +The man on the bulwarks let the stream from the hose flop overboard, +where it ran out into a stream of bubbles which joined the wake. + +Cranze gasped back his breath, and used it in a torrent of curses. + +"Play on him again," said Kettle, and selected a good black +before-breakfast cigar from his pocket. He lit it with care. The man on +the bulwark shifted his shoulder for a better hold against the +derrick-guy, and swung the limp hose in-board again. The water splashed +down heavily on Cranze's head and shoulders, and the onlookers took +stock of him without a trace of emotion. They had most of them seen the +remedy applied to inebriates before, and so they watched Cranze make his +gradual recovery with the eyes of experts. + +"Spell-o," ordered Kettle some five minutes later, and once more the +hose vomited sea water ungracefully into the sea. This time Cranze had +the sense to hold his tongue till he was spoken to. He was very white +about the face, except for his nose, which was red, and his eye had +brightened up considerably. He was quite sober, and quite able to weigh +any words that were dealt out to him. + +"Now," said Kettle judicially, "what have you done with Mr. Hamilton?" + +"Nothing." + +"You deny all knowledge of how he got overboard?" + +Cranze was visibly startled. "Of course I do. Is he overboard?" + +"He can't be found on this ship. Therefore he is over the side. +Therefore you put him there." + +Cranze was still more startled. But he kept himself in hand. "Look +here," he said, "what rot! What should I know about the fellow? I +haven't seen him since last night." + +"So you say. But I don't see why I should believe you. In fact, I +don't." + +"Well, you can suit yourself about that, but it's true enough. Why in +the name of mischief should I want to meddle with the poor beggar? If +you're thinking of the bit of a scrap we had yesterday, I'll own I was +full at the time. And so must he have been. At least I don't know why +else he should have set upon me like he did. At any rate that's not a +thing a man would want to murder him for." + +"No, I should say L20,000 is more in your line." + +"What are you driving at?" + +"You know quite well. You got that poor fellow insured just before this +trip, you got him to make a will in your favor, and now you've committed +a dirty, clumsy murder just to finger the dollars." + +Cranze broke into uncanny hysterical laughter. "That chap insured; that +chap make a will in my favor? Why, he hadn't a penny. It was me that +paid for his passage. I'd been on the tear a bit, and the Jew fellow I +went to about raising the wind did say something about insuring, I know, +and made me sign a lot of law papers. They made out I was in such a +chippy state of health that they'd not let me have any more money unless +I came on some beastly dull sea voyage to recruit a bit, and one of the +conditions was that one of the boys was to come along too and look +after me." + +"You'll look pretty foolish when you tell that thin tale to a jury." + +"Then let me put something else on to the back of it. I'm not Cranze at +all. I'm Hamilton. I've been in the papers a good deal just recently, +because I'd been flinging my money around, and I didn't want to get +stared at on board here. So Cranze and I swapped names, just to confuse +people. It seems to have worked very well." + +"Yes," said Kettle, "it's worked so well that I don't think you'll get a +jury to believe that either. As you don't seem inclined to make a clean +breast of it, you can now retire to your room, and be restored to your +personal comforts. I can't hand you over to the police without +inconvenience to myself till we get to New Orleans, so I shall keep you +in irons till we reach there. Steward--where's a steward? Ah, here you +are. See this man is kept in his room, and see he has no more liquor. I +make you responsible for him." + +"Yes, sir," said the steward. + +Continuously the dividends of Bird, Bird and Co. outweighed every other +consideration, and the _Flamingo_ dodged on with her halting voyage. At +the first place he put in at, Kettle sent off an extravagant cablegram +of recent happenings to the representative of the Insurance Company in +England. It was not the cotton season, and the Texan ports yielded the +steamer little, but she had a ton or so of cargo for almost every one of +them, and she delivered it with neatness, and clamored for cargo in +return. She was "working up a connection." She swung round the Gulf till +she came to where logs borne by the Mississippi stick out from the white +sand, and she wasted a little time, and steamed past the nearest outlet +of the delta, because Captain Kettle did not personally know its +pilotage. He was getting a very safe and cautious navigator in these +latter days of his prosperity. + +So she made for the Port Eads pass, picked up a pilot from the station +by the lighthouse, and steamed cautiously up to the quarantine station, +dodging the sandbars. Her one remaining passenger had passed from an +active nuisance to a close and unheard prisoner, and his presence was +almost forgotten by every one on board, except Kettle and the steward +who looked after him. The merchant seaman of these latter days has to +pay such a strict attention to business, that he has no time whatever +for extraneous musings. + +The _Flamingo_ got a clean bill from the doctor at the quarantine +station, and emerged triumphantly from the cluster of craft doing +penance, and, with a fresh pilot, steamed on up the yellow river, past +the white sugar-mills, and the heavy cypresses behind the banks. And in +due time the pilot brought her up to New Orleans, and, with his glasses +on the bridge, Kettle saw his acquaintance, Mr. Lupton, waiting for him +on the levee. + +He got his steamer berthed in the crowded tier, and Mr. Lupton pushed on +board over the first gang-plank. But Kettle waved the man aside till he +saw his vessel finally moored. And then he took him into the chart-house +and shut the door. + +"You seem to have got my cable," he said. "It was a very expensive one, +but I thought the occasion needed it." + +His visitor tapped Kettle confidentially on the knee. "You'll find my +office will deal most liberally with you, Captain. But I can tell you +I'm pretty excited to hear your full yarn." + +"I'm afraid you won't like it," said Kettle. "The man's obviously dead, +and, fancy it or not, I don't see how your office can avoid paying the +full amount. However, here's the way I've logged it down"--and he went +off into detailed narration. + +The New Orleans heat smote upon the chart-house roof, and the air +outside clattered with the talk of negroes. Already hatches were off, +and the winch chains sang as they struck out cargo, and from the levee +alongside, and from New Orleans below and beyond, came tangles of smells +which are peculiarly their own. A steward brought in tea, and it stood +on the chart-table untasted, and at last Kettle finished, and Lupton +put a question. + +"It's easy to tell," he said, "if they did swap names. What was the man +that went overboard like?" + +"Little dark fellow, short sighted. He was a poet, too." + +"That's not Hamilton, anyway, but it might be Cranze. Is your prisoner +tall?" + +"Tall and puffy. Red-haired and a spotty face." + +"That's Hamilton, all the way. By Jove! Skipper, we've saved our bacon. +His yarn's quite true. They did change names. Hamilton's a rich young +ass that's been painting England red these last three years." + +"But, tell me, what did the little chap go overboard for?" + +"Got there himself. Uneasy conscience, I suppose. He seems to have been +a poor sort of assassin anyway. Why, when that drunken fool tumbled +overboard amongst the sharks, he didn't leave him to be eaten or +drowned, is more than I can understand. He'd have got his money as easy +as picking it up off the floor, if he'd only had the sense to +keep quiet." + +"If you ask me," said Kettle, "it was sheer nobility of character. I had +a good deal of talk with that young gentleman, sir. He was a splendid +fellow. He had a true poetical soul." + +Mr. Lupton winked sceptically. "He managed to play the part of a +thorough-paced young blackguard at home pretty successfully. He was +warned off the turf. He was kicked out of his club for card-sharping. He +was--well, he's dead now, anyway, and we won't say any more about him, +except that he's been stone-broke these last three years, and has been +living on his wits and helping to fleece other flats. But he was only +the tool, anyway. There is a bigger and more capable scoundrel at the +back of it all, and, thanks to the scare you seem to have rubbed into +that spotty-faced young mug you've got locked up down below, I think we +can get the principal by the heels very nicely this journey. If you +don't mind, I'll go and see this latest victim now, before he's had time +to get rid of his fright." + +Captain Kettle showed his visitor courteously down to the temporary +jail, and then returned to the chart-house and sipped his tea. + +"His name may really have been Cranze, but he was a poet, poor lad," he +mused, thinking of the dead. "That's why he couldn't do the dirty work. +But I sha'n't tell Lupton that reason. He'd only laugh--and--that poetry +ought to be a bit of a secret between the lad and me. Poor, poor fellow! +I think I'll be able to write a few lines about him myself after I've +been ashore to see the agent, just as a bit of an epitaph. As to this +spotty-faced waster who swapped names with him, I almost have it in me +to wish we'd left him to be chopped by those sharks. He'd his money to +his credit anyway--and what's money compared with poetry?" + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE FIRE AND THE FARM + + +The quartermaster knocked smartly, and came into the chart-house, and +Captain Kettle's eyes snapped open from deep sleep to complete +wakefulness. + +"There's some sort of vessel on fire, sir, to loo'ard, about five miles +off." + +The shipmaster glanced up at the tell-tale compass above his head. +"Officer of the watch has changed the course, I see. We're heading +for it, eh?" + +"Yes, sir. The second mate told me to say so." + +"Quite right. Pass the word for the carpenter, and tell him to get port +and starboard lifeboats ready for lowering in case they're wanted. I'll +be on the bridge in a minute." + +"Aye, aye, sir," said the quartermaster, and withdrew into the darkness +outside. + +Captain Owen Kettle's toilet was not of long duration. Like most master +mariners who do business along those crowded steam lanes of the Western +Ocean, he slept in most of his clothes when at sea as a regular habit, +and in fact only stripped completely for the few moments which were +occupied by his morning's tub. If needful, he could always go out on +deck at a second's notice, and be ready to remain there for twenty-four +hours. But in this instance there was no immediate hurry, and so he +spent a full minute and a half over his toilet, and emerged with washed +hands and face, sprucely brushed hair and beard, and his person attired +in high rubber thigh-boots and leather-bound black oilskins. + +The night was black and thick with a drizzle of rain, and a heavy breeze +snored through the _Flamingo's_ scanty rigging. The second mate on the +bridge was beating his fingerless woollen gloves against his ribs as a +cure for cold fingers. The first mate and the third had already turned +out, and were on the boatskids helping the carpenter with the housings, +and overhauling davit falls. On that part of the horizon against which +the _Flamingo's_ bows sawed with great sweeping dives was a streaky, +flickering yellow glow. + +Kettle went on to an end of the bridge and peered ahead through the +bridge binoculars. "A steamer," he commented, "and a big one too; and +she's finely ablaze. Not much help we shall be able to give. It will be +a case of taking off the crew, if they aren't already cooked before we +get there." He looked over the side at the eddy of water that clung to +the ship's flank. "I see you're shoving her along," he said to the +second mate. + +"I sent word down to the engine-room to give her all they knew the +moment we raised the glow. I thought you wouldn't grudge the coal, sir." + +"No, quite right. Hope there aren't too many of them to be picked off, +or we shall make a tight fit on board here." + +"Funny we should be carrying the biggest cargo the old boat's ever had +packed into her. But we shall find room to house a few poor old +sailormen. They won't mind much where they stow, as long as they're +picked up out of the wet. B-r-r-rh!" shivered the second mate, "I +shouldn't much fancy open-boat cruising in the Western Ocean +this weather." + +Captain Kettle stared on through the shiny brass binoculars. "Call all +hands," he said quietly. "That's a big ship ahead of us, and she'll +carry a lot of people. God send she's only an old tramp. At those +lifeboats there!" he shouted. "Swing the davits outboard, and pass your +painters forward. Hump yourselves, now." + +"There's a lot of ice here, sir," came a grumbling voice out of the +darkness, "and the boats are frozen on to the chocks. We've got to +hammer it away before they'll hoist. The falls are that froze, too, that +they'll not render--" + +"You call yourself a mate and hold a master's ticket, and want to get a +ship of your own!"--Kettle vaulted over the rail on to the top of the +fiddley, and made for his second in command. "Here, my man, if your +delicate fingers can't do this bit of a job, give me that marlinspike. +By James! do you hear me? Give up the marlinspike. Did you never see a +boat iced up before? Now then, carpenter. Are you worth your salt? Or am +I to clear both ends in this boat by myself?" + +So, by example and tongue, Captain Kettle got his boats swung outboard, +and the _Flamingo_, with her engines working at an unusual strain, +surged rapidly nearer and nearer to the blaze. + +On shore a house on fire at any hour draws a crowd. At sea, in the bleak +cold wastes of the water desert, even one other shipload of sympathizers +is too often wished for vainly. Wind, cold, and breakdowns of machinery +the sailor accepts with dull indifference; shipwrecks, strandings, and +disease he looks forward to as part of an inevitable fate; but fire +goes nearer to cowing him than all other disasters put together; and the +sight of his fellow-seamen attacked by these same desolating flames +arouses in him the warmest of his sympathy, and the full of his +resourcefulness. Moreover, in Kettle's case, he had known the feel of a +ship afire under his own feet, and so he could appreciate all the better +the agony of these others. + +But meanwhile, as the _Flamingo_ made her way up wind against the +charging seas, a fear was beginning to grip the little shipmaster by the +heart that was deep enough to cause him a physical nausea. The burning +steamer ahead grew every minute more clear as they raced toward her. She +was on fire forward, and she lay almost head-on toward them, keeping her +stern to the seas, so that the wind would have no help in driving the +flames aft, and making her more uninhabitable. + +From a distance it had been hard to make out anything beyond great +stacks of yellow flame, topped by inky, oily smoke, which drove in thick +columns down the wind. As they drew nearer, and her size became more +apparent, some one guessed her as a big cargo tramp from New Orleans +with cotton that had overheated and fired, and Kettle took comfort from +the suggestion and tried to believe that it might come true. + +But as they closed with her, and came within earshot of her syren, which +was sending frightened useless blares across the churning waters, there +was no being blind to the true facts any longer. This was no cargo boat, +but a passenger liner; outward bound, too, and populous. And as they +came still nearer, they saw her after-decks black and wriggling with +people, and Kettle got a glimpse of her structure and recognized the +vessel herself. + +"The _Grosser Carl_," he muttered, "out of Hamburg for New York. Next +to no first-class, and she cuts rates for third and gets the bulk of the +German emigrant traffic. She'll have six hundred on her this minute, and +a hundred of a crew. Call it seven hundred all told, and there's hell +waiting for them over yonder, and getting worse every minute. Oh, great +James! I wonder what's going to be done. I couldn't pack seventy of them +on the old _Flam_ here, if I filled her to bursting." + +He clapped the binoculars to his eyes again, and stared diligently round +the rim of the night. If only he could catch a glimpse of some other +liner hurrying along her route, then these people could be saved easily. +He could drop his boats to take them till the other passenger ship came +up. But the wide sea was empty of lights; the _Flamingo_ and the +_Grusser Carl_ had the stage severely to themselves; and between them +they had the making of an intolerable weight of destiny. + +The second mate broke in upon his commander's brooding. "We shall have a +nice bill for Lloyds this journey." + +Kettle made no answer. He continued staring moodily at the spouting +flames ahead. The second mate coughed. "Shall I be getting derricks +rigged and the hatch covers off?" + +Kettle turned on him with a sudden fierceness. "Do you know you're +asking me to ruin myself?" + +"But if we jettison cargo to make room for these poor beggars, sir, the +insurance will pay." + +"Pay your grandmother. You've got a lot to learn, my lad, before you're +fit to take charge of a ship, if you don't know any more than that about +the responsibility of the cargo." + +"By Jove! that's awkward. Birds would look pretty blue if the bill was +handed in to them." + +"Birds!" said Kettle with contempt. "They aren't liable for sixpence. +Supposing you were travelling by train, and there was some one else's +portmanteau in the carriage, and you flung it out of the window into a +river, who do you suppose would have to stand the racket?" + +"Why, me. But then, sir, this is different." + +"Not a bit. If we start in to jettison cargo, it means I'm a ruined man. +Every ton that goes over the side I'll have to pay for." + +"We can't leave those poor devils to frizzle," said the second mate +awkwardly. + +"Oh, no, of course we can't. They're a pack of unclean Dutchmen we never +saw before, and should think ourselves too good to brush against if we +met them in the street, but sentiment demands that we stay and pull them +out of their mess, and cold necessity leaves me to foot the bill. You're +young, and you're not married, my lad. I'm neither. I've worked like a +horse all my life, mostly with bad luck. Lately luck's turned a bit. +I've been able to make a trifle more, and save a few pounds out of my +billets. And here and there, what with salvage and other things, I've +come in the way of a plum. One way and another I've got nearly enough +put by at home this minute to keep the missis and me and the girls to +windward of the workhouse, even if I lost this present job with Birds, +and didn't find another." + +"Perhaps somebody else will pay for the cargo we have to put over the +side, sir." + +"It's pretty thin comfort when you've got a 'perhaps' of that size, and +no other mortal stop between you and the workhouse. It's all very well +doing these things in hot blood; but the reckoning's paid when you're +cold, and they're cold, and with the Board of Trade standing-by like the +devil in the background all ready to give you a kick when there's a +spare place for a fresh foot." He slammed down the handle of the +bridge-telegraph, and rang off the _Flamingo's_ engines. He had been +measuring distances all this time with his eye. + +"But, of course, there's no other choice about the matter. There's the +blessed cause of humanity to be looked after--humanity to these blessed +Dutch emigrants that their own country doesn't want, and every other +country would rather be without. Humanity to my poor old missis and the +kids doesn't count. I shall get a sludgy paragraph in the papers for the +_Grosser Carl_, headed 'Gallant Rescue,' with all the facts put upside +down, and twelve months later there'll be another paragraph about a +'case of pitiful destitution.'" + +"Oh, I say, sir, it won't be as bad as all that. Birds will see you +through." + +"Birds will do a fat lot. Birds sent me to work up a connection in the +Mexican Gulf, and I've done it, and they've raised my screw two pound a +month after four years' service. I jettison the customers' cargo, and +probably sha'n't be able to pay for half of it. Customers will get mad, +and give their business to other lines which don't run foul of blazing +emigrant packets." + +"Birds would never dare to fire you out for that." + +"Oh, Lord, no! They'd say: 'We don't like the way you've taken to wear +your back hair, Captain. And, besides, we want younger blood amongst our +skippers. You'll find your check ready for you in the outer office. +Mind the step!'" + +"I'm awfully sorry, Skipper. If there's anything I can do, sir--" + +Captain Kettle sighed, and looked drearily out at the blazing ship and +the tumbled waste of sea on which she floated. But he felt that he had +been showing weakness, and pulled himself together again smartly. "Yes, +there is, my lad. I'm a disappointed man, and I've been talking a lot +more than's dignified. You'll do me a real kindness if you'll forget all +that's been said. Away with you on to the main deck, and get hatches +off, and whip the top tier of that cargo over the side as fast as you +can make the winches travel. If the old _Flamingo_ is going to serve out +free hospitality, by James! she shall do it full weight. By James! I'd +give the beggars champagne and spring mattresses if I'd got 'em." + +Meanwhile, those on the German emigrant steamer had seen the coming of +the shabby little English trader with bumping hearts. Till then the +crew, with (so to speak) their backs up against a wall, had fought the +fire with diligence; but when the nearness of a potential rescuer was +reported, they discovered for themselves at once that the fire was +beyond control. They were joined by the stokehold gangs, and they made +at once for the boats, overpowering any officer who happened to come +between them and their desires. The limp, tottery, half-fed, wholly +seasick emigrants they easily shoved aside, and these in their turn by +sheer mass thrust back the small handful of first-class passengers, and +away screamed out the davit tackles, as the boats were lowered full of +madly frightened deck hands and grimy handlers of coal. + +Panic had sapped every trace of their manhood. They had concern only +for their own skins; for the miserables remaining on the _Grosser Carl_ +they had none. And if for a minute any of them permitted himself to +think, he decided that in the Herr Gott's good time the English would +send boats and fetch them off. The English had always a special gusto +for this meddling rescue work. + +However, it is easy to decide on lowering boats, but not always so easy +to carry it into safe fact if you are mad with scare, and there is no +one whom you will listen to to give the necessary simple orders. And, as +a consequence, one boat, chiefly manned by the coal interest, swamped +alongside before it could be shoved clear; the forward davit fall of +another jammed, and let it dangle vertically up and down when the after +fall overhauled; and only one boat got away clear. + +The reception which this small cargo of worthies met with surprised +them. They pulled with terrified haste to the _Flamingo_, got under her +lee, and clung desperately to the line which was thrown to them. But to +the rail above them came the man who expected to be ruined by this +night's work, and the pearls of speech which fell from his lips went +home through even their thick hides. + +Captain Kettle, being human, had greatly needed some one during the last +half-hour to ease his feelings on--though he was not the man to own up +to such a weakness, even to himself--and the boat came neatly to supply +his want. It was long enough since he had found occasion for such an +outburst, but the perfection of his early training stood him in good +stead then. Every biting insult in his vocabulary, every lashing word +that is used upon the seas, every gibe, national, personal, or +professional, that a lifetime of hard language could teach, he poured +out on that shivering boat's crew then. + +They were Germans certainly, but being an English shipmaster, he had, of +course, many a time sailed with a forecastle filled with their +nationality, and had acquired the special art of adapting his abuse to +the "Dutchman's" sensibilities, even as he had other harangues suited +for Coolie or Dago mariners, or even for that rare sea-bird, the English +sailorman. And as a final wind-up, after having made them writhe +sufficiently, he ordered them to go back whence they came, and take a +share in rescuing their fellows. + +"Bud we shall trown," shouted back one speaker from the wildly jumping +boat. + +"Then drown, and be hanged to you," shouted Kettle. "I'm sure I don't +care if you do. But I'm not going to have cowards like you dirtying my +deck-planks." He cast off the line to which their boat rode under the +steamer's heaving side. "You go and do your whack at getting the people +off that packet, or, so help me James! none of you shall ever see your +happy Dutchland again." + +Meanwhile, so the irony of the fates ordered it, the two mates, each in +charge of one of the _Flamingo's_ lifeboats, were commanding crews made +up entirely of Germans and Scandinavians, and pluckier and more careful +sailormen could not have been wished for. The work was dangerous, and +required more than ordinary nerve and endurance and skill. A heavy sea +ran, and from its crests a spindrift blew which cut the face like whips, +and numbed all parts of the body with its chill. The boats were tossed +about like playthings, and required constant bailing to keep them from +being waterlogged. But Kettle had brought the _Flamingo_ to windward of +the _Grosser Carl_, and each boat carried a line, so that the steam +winches could help her with the return trips. + +Getting a cargo was, however, the chief difficulty. All attempt at +killing the fire was given up by this time. All vestige of order was +swamped in unutterable panic. The people on board had given themselves +up to wild, uncontrollable anarchy. If a boat had been brought +alongside, they would have tumbled into her like sheep, till their +numbers swamped her. They cursed the flames, cursed the sea, cursed +their own brothers and sisters who jostled them. They were the sweepings +from half-fed middle Europe, born with raw nerves; and under the sudden +stress of danger, and the absence of some strong man to thrust +discipline on them, they became practically maniacs. They were beyond +speech, many of them. They yammered at the boats which came to their +relief, with noises like those of scared beasts. + +Now the _Flamingo's_ boats were officered by two cool, profane mates, +who had no nerves themselves, and did not see the use of nerves in other +people. Neither of them spoke German, but (after the style of their +island) presuming that some of those who listened would understand +English, they made proclamation in their own tongue to the effect that +the women were to be taken off first. + +"Kids with them," added the second mate. + +"And if any of you rats of men shove your way down here," said the chief +mate, "before all the skirt is ferried across, you'll get knocked on the +head, that's all. Savvy that belaying-pin I got in my fist? Now then, +get some bowlines, and sway out the ladies." + +As well might the order have been addressed to a flock of sheep. They +heard what was said in an agonized silence. Then each poor soul there +stretched out his arms or hers, and clamored to be saved--and--never +mind the rest. And meanwhile the flames bit deeper and deeper into the +fabric of the steamer, and the breath of them grew more searching, as +the roaring gale blew them into strength. + +"You ruddy Dutchmen," shouted the second mate. "It would serve you +blooming well right if you were left to be frizzled up into one big +sausage stew together. However, we'll see if kindness can't tame you a +bit yet." He waited till the swirl of a sea swung his boat under one of +the dangling davit falls, and caught hold of it, and climbed nimbly on +board. Then he proceeded to clear a space by the primitive method of +crashing his fist into every face within reach. + +"Now then," he shouted, "if there are any sailormen here worth their +salt, let them come and help. Am I to break up the whole of this ship's +company by myself?" + +Gradually, by ones and twos, the _Grosser Carl's_ remaining officers and +deck hands came shamefacedly toward this new nucleus of authority and +order, and then the real work began. The emigrants, with sea sights and +sea usage new to them, were still full of the unreasoning panic of +cattle, and like cattle they were herded and handled, and their women +and young cut out from the general mob. These last were got into the +swaying, dancing boats as tenderly as might be, and the men were bidden +to watch, and wait their turn. When they grew restive, as the scorching +fire drew more near, they were beaten savagely; the _Grosser Carl's_ +crew, with the shame of their own panic still raw on them, knew no +mercy; and the second mate of the _Flamingo_, who stood against a davit, +insulted them all with impartial cheerfulness. He was a very apt pupil, +this young man, of that master of ruling men at the expense of their +feelings, Captain Owen Kettle. + +Meanwhile the two lifeboats took one risky journey after another, being +drawn up to their own ship by a chattering winch, discharging their +draggled freight with dexterity and little ceremony, and then laboring +back under oars for another. The light of the burning steamer turned a +great sphere of night into day, and the heat from her made the sweat +pour down the faces of the toiling men, though the gale still roared, +and the icy spindrift still whipped and stung. On the _Flamingo_, +Captain Kettle cast into the sea with a free hand what represented the +savings of a lifetime, provision for his wife and children, and an +old-age pension for himself. + +The _Grosser Carl_ had carried thirty first-class passengers, and these +were crammed into the _Flamingo's_ slender cabin accommodation, filling +it to overflowing. The emigrants--Austrians, Bohemians, wild Poles, +filthy, crawling Russian Jews, bestial Armenians, human _debris_ which +even soldier-coveting Middle Europe rejected--these were herded down +into the holds, as rich cargo was dug out by the straining winches, and +given to the thankless sea to make space for them. + +"Kindly walk up," said Kettle, with bitter hospitality, as fresh flocks +of them were heaved up over the bulwarks. "Don't hesitate to grumble if +the accommodation isn't exactly to your liking. We're most pleased to +strike out cargo to provide you with an elegant parlor, and what's left +I'm sure you'll be able to sit on and spoil. Oh, you filthy, long-haired +cattle! Did none of you ever wash?" + +Fiercely the _Grosser Carl_ burned to the fanning of the gale, and like +furies worked the men in the boats. The _Grosser Carl's_ own boat joined +the other two, once the ferrying was well under way. She had hung +alongside after Kettle cast off her line, with her people madly +clamoring to be taken on board; but as all they received for their pains +was abuse and coal-lumps--mostly, by the way, from their own +fellow-countrymen, who made up the majority of the _Flamingo's_ +crew--they were presently driven to help in the salving work through +sheer scare at being left behind to drown unless they carried out the +fierce little English Captain's orders. + +The _Flamingo's_ chief mate oversaw the dangerous ferrying, and though +every soul that was transshipped might be said to have had ten narrow +escapes in transit over that piece of tossing water, luck and good +seamanship carried the day, and none was lost. And on the _Grosser Carl_ +the second mate, a stronger man, brazenly took entire command, and +commended to the nether gods all who suggested ousting him from that +position. "I don't care a red what your official post was on this ship +before I came," said the second mate to several indignant officers. "You +should have held on to it when you had it. I've never been a skipper +before, but I'm skipper here now by sheer right of conquest, and I'm +going to stay on at that till the blooming old ship's burnt out. If you +bother me, I'll knock your silly nose into your watch-pocket. Turn-to +there and pass down another batch of those squalling passengers into the +boats. Don't you spill any of them overboard either, or, by the Big +Mischief, I'll just step down and teach you handiness." + +The second mate was almost fainting with the heat before he left the +_Grosser Carl_, but he insisted on being the last man on board, and then +guyed the whole performance with caustic gayety when he was dragged out +of the water, into which he had been forced to jump, and was set to +drain on the floor gratings of a boat. + +The _Grosser Carl_ had fallen away before the wind, and was spouting +flame from stem-head to poop-staff by the time the last of the rescuers +and the rescued were put on the _Flamingo's_ deck, and on that +travel-worn steamboat were some six hundred and fifty visitors that +somehow or other had to be provided for. + +The detail of famine now became of next importance. They were still five +days' steam away from port, and their official provision supply was only +calculated to last the _Flamingos_ themselves for a little over that +time. Things are cut pretty fine in these days of steam voyages to +scheduled time. So there was no sentimental waiting to see the _Grosser +Carl_ finally burn out and sink. The boats were cast adrift, as the +crews were too exhausted to hoist them in, and the _Flamingo's_ nose was +turned toward Liverpool. Pratt, the chief engineer, figured out to half +a ton what coal he had remaining, and set the pace so as to run in with +empty bunkers. They were cool now, all hands, from the excitement of the +burning ship, and the objectionable prospect of semi-starvation made +them regard their visitors less than ever in the light of men +and brothers. + +But, as it chanced, toward the evening of next day, a hurrying ocean +greyhound overtook them in her race from New York toward the East, and +the bunting talked out long sentences in the commercial code from the +wire span between the _Flamingo's_ masts. Fresh quartettes of flags +flicked up on both steamers, were acknowledged, and were replaced by +others; and when the liner drew up alongside, and stopped with reversed +propellers, she had a loaded boat ready swung out in davits, which +dropped in the water the moment she had lost her way. The bunting had +told the pith of the tale. + +When the two steamers' bridges were level, the liner's captain touched +his cap, and a crowd of well-dressed passengers below him listened +wonderingly. "Afternoon, Captain. Got 'em all?" + +"Afternoon, Captain. Oh, we didn't lose any. But a few drowned their +silly selves before we started to shepherd them." + +"What ship was it? The French boat would be hardly due yet." + +"No, the old _Grosser Carl_. She was astern of her time. Much obliged to +you for the grub, Captain. We'd have been pretty hard pushed if we +hadn't met you. I'm sending you a payment order. Sorry for spoiling +your passage." + +The liner captain looked at his watch. + +"Can't be helped. It's in a good cause, I suppose, though the mischief +of it is we were trying to pull down the record by an hour or so. The +boat, there! Are you going to be all night with that bit of stuff?" + +The cases of food were transshipped with frantic haste, and the boat +returned. The greyhound leaped out into her stride again the moment she +had hooked on, and shot ahead, dipping a smart blue ensign in salute. +The _Flamingo_ dipped a dirty red ensign and followed, and, before dark +fell, once more had the ocean to herself. + +The voyage home was not one of oppressive gayety. The first-class +passengers, who were crammed into the narrow cabin found the quarters +uncomfortable, and the little shipmaster's manner repellent. Urged by +the precedent in such matters, they "made a purse" for him, and a +presentation address. But as they merely collected some thirty-one +pounds in paper promises, which, so far, have never been paid, their +gratitude may be said to have had its economical side. + +To the riffraff in the hold, for whose accommodation a poor man's +fortune had been jettisoned, the thing "gratitude" was an unknown +emotion. They plotted mischief amongst themselves, stole when the +opportunity came to them, were unspeakably foul in their habits, and, +when they gave the matter any consideration at all, decided that this +fierce little captain with the red torpedo beard had taken them on board +merely to fulfil some selfish purpose of his own. To the theorist who +has sampled them only from a distance, these off-scourings of Middle +Europe are downtrodden people with souls; to those who happen to know +them personally, all their qualities seem to be conspicuously negative. + +The _Flamingo_ picked up the landmarks of the Southern Irish coast, and +made her number to Lloyd's station on Brow Head, stood across for the +Tuskar, and so on up St. George's Channel for Holyhead. She flew a +pilot jack there, and off Point Lynus picked up a pilot, who, after the +custom of his class, stepped up over the side with a hard felt hat on +his head, and a complete wardrobe, and a selection of daily papers in +his pocket. + +"Well, pilot, what's the news?" said Kettle, as the man of narrow waters +swung himself up on to the bridge, and his boat swirled away astern. + +"You are," said the pilot. "The papers are just full of you, Captain, +all of them, from the _Shipping Telegraph_ to the London _Times_. The +Cunard boat brought in the yarn. A pilot out of my schooner took +her up." + +"How do they spell the name? Cuttle?" + +"Well, I think it's 'Kattle' mostly, though one paper has it 'Kelly.'" + +"Curse their cheek," said the little sailor, flushing. "I'd like to get +hold of some of those blowsy editors that come smelling round the dock +after yarns and drink, and wring their necks." + +"Starboard a point," said the pilot, and when the quartermaster at the +wheel had duly repeated the course, he turned to Kettle with some +amusement. "Blowsy or not, they don't seem to have done you much harm +this journey, Captain. Why, they're getting up subscriptions for you all +round. Shouldn't wonder but what the Board of Trade even stands you a +pair of binoculars." + +"I'm not a blessed mendicant," said Kettle stiffly, "and as for the +Board of Trade, they can stick their binoculars up their trousers." He +walked to the other end of the bridge, and stood there chewing savagely +at the butt end of his cigar. + +"Rum bloke," commented the pilot to himself, though aloud he offered no +comment, being a man whose business it was to keep on good terms with +everybody. So he dropped his newspapers to one of the mates, and applied +himself to the details of the pilotage. + +Still, the pilot was right in saying that England was ringing with the +news of Kettle's feat. The passengers of the Cunarder, with nothing much +else to interest them, had come home thrilled and ringing with it. A +smart New Yorker had got a "scoop" by slipping ashore at Queenstown and +cabling a lavish account to the American Press Association, so that the +first news reached London from the States. Followed Reuter's man and the +Liverpool reporters on Prince's landing-stage, who came to glean copy as +in the ordinary course of events, and they being spurred on by wires +from London for full details, got down all the facts available, and +imagined others. Parliament was not sitting, and there had been no +newspaper sensation for a week, and, as a natural consequence, the +papers came out next morning with accounts of the rescue varying from +two columns to a page in length. + +It is one of the most wonderful attributes of the modern Press that it +can, at any time between midnight and publishing hours, collate and +elaborate the biography of a man who hitherto has been entirely obscure, +and considering the speed of the work, and the difficulties which hedge +it in, these lightning life sketches are often surprisingly full of +accuracies. But let the frillings in this case be fact or fiction, there +was no doubt that Kettle and his crew had saved a shipload of +panic-stricken foreign emigrants, and (to help point the moral) within +the year, in an almost similar case, another shipload had been +drowned through that same blind, helpless, hopeless panic. The pride of +race bubbled through the British Daily Press in prosaic long primer and +double-leaded bourgeois. There was no saying aloud, "We rejoice that an +Englishman has done this thing, after having it proved to us that it was +above the foreigner's strength." The newspaper man does not rhapsodize. +But the sentiment was there all the same, and it was that which actuated +the sudden wave of enthusiasm which thrilled the country. + +[Illustration: STRANGERS CAME UP AND WRUNG KETTLE'S UNWILLING HAND.] + +The _Flamingo_ was worked into dock, and a cheering crowd surged aboard +of her in unrestrainable thousands. Strangers came up and wrung Kettle's +unwilling hand, and dropped tears on his coat-sleeve; and when he swore +at them, they only wept the more and smiled through the drops. It was +magnificent, splendid, gorgeous. Here was a man! Who said that England +would ever lose her proud place among the nations when she could still +find men like Oliver Kelly--or Kattle--or Cuttle, or whatever this man +was called, amongst her obscure merchant captains? + +Even Mr. Isaac Bird, managing owner, caught some of the general +enthusiasm, and withheld, for the present, the unpleasant remarks which +occurred to him as suitable, touching Kettle's neglect of the firm's +interest in favor of a parcel of bankrupt foreigners. But Kettle himself +had the subject well in mind. When all this absurd fuss was over, then +would come the reckoning; and whilst the crowd was cheering him, he was +figuring out the value of the jettisoned cargo, and whilst pompous Mr. +Isaac was shaking him by the hand and making a neat speech for the ear +of casual reporters, poor Kettle was conjuring up visions of the +workhouse and pauper's corduroy. + +But the Fates were moving now in a manner which was beyond his +experience. The public, which had ignored his bare existence before for +all of a lifetime, suddenly discovered that he was a hero, and that, +too, without knowing half the facts. The Press, with its finger on the +public's pulse, published Kettle literature in lavish columns. It gave +twenty different "eye-witnesses' accounts" of the rescue. It gave long +lists of "previous similar disasters." It drew long morals in leading +articles. And finally, it took all the little man's affairs under its +consideration, and settled them with a lordly hand. + +"Who pays for the cargo Captain Kuttle threw overboard?" one paper +headed an article; whilst another wrote perfervidly about "Cattle ruined +for his bravery." Here was a new and striking side issue. Lloyds' were +not responsible. Should the week's hero pay the bill himself out of his +miserable savings? Certainly not. The owners of the _Grosser Carl_ were +the benefiting parties, and it was only just that they should take up +the expense. So the entire Press wired off to the German firm, and next +morning were able to publish a positive assurance that of course these +grateful foreigners would reimburse all possible outlay. + +The subject of finance once broached, it was naturally discovered that +the hero toiled for a very meagre pittance, that he was getting on in +years, and had a wife and family depending on him--and--promptly, there +opened out the subscription lists. People were stirred, and they gave +nicely, on the lower scale certainly, with shillings and guineas +predominating; but the lists totalled up to L2,400, which to some +people, of course, is gilded affluence. + +Now Captain Kettle had endured all this publicity with a good deal of +restiveness, and had used language to one or two interviewers who +managed to ferret him out, which fairly startled them; but this last +move for a public subscription made him furious. He spoke in the +captain's room of the hostelry he used, of the degradation which was +put on him, and various other master mariners who were present +entirely agreed with him. "I might be a blessed missionary, or +India-with-a-famine, the way they're treating me," he complained +bitterly. "If they call a meeting to give me anything, I'll chuck the +money in their faces, and let them know straight what I think. By James! +do they suppose I've got no pride? Why can't they let me alone? If the +_Grosser Carl_ people pay up for that cargo, that's all I want." + +But the eternal healer, Time, soothed matters down wonderfully. Captain +Owen Kettle's week's outing in the daily papers ran its course with due +thrills and headlines, and then the Press forgot him, and rushed on to +the next sensation. By the time the subscription list had closed and +been brought together, the _Flamingo_ had sailed for her next slow round +trip in the Mexican Gulf, and when her captain returned to find a curt, +formal letter from a firm of bankers, stating that L2,400 had been +placed to his credit in their establishment, he would have been more +than human if he had refused it. And, as a point of fact, after +consulting with Madam, his wife, he transformed it into houses in that +terrace of narrow dwellings in Birkenhead which represented the rest of +his savings. + +Now on paper this house property was alleged by a sanguine agent to +produce at the rate of L15 per annum apiece, and as there were +thirty-six houses, this made an income--on paper--of well over L500 a +year, the which is a very nice possession. + +A thing, moreover, which Captain Kettle had prophesied had come to pass. +The "trade connection" in the Mexican Gulf had been very seriously +damaged. As was somewhat natural, the commercial gentry there did not +relish having their valuable cargo pitched unceremoniously to Neptune, +and preferred to send what they had by boats which did not contrive to +meet burning emigrant liners. This, of course, was quite unreasonable of +them, but one can only relate what happened. + +And then the second part of the prophecy evolved itself naturally. +Messrs. Bird discovered from the last indent handed them that more paint +had been used over the _Flamingo's_ fabric than they thought consistent +with economy, and so they relieved Captain Kettle from the command, +handed him their check for wages due--there was no commission to be +added for such an unsatisfactory voyage as this last--and presented him +gratis with their best wishes for his future welfare. + +Kettle had thought of telling the truth in print, but the mysterious law +of libel, which it is written that all mariners shall dread and never +understand, scared him; and besides, he was still raw from his recent +week's outing in the British Press. So he just went and gave his views +to Mr. Isaac Bird personally and privately, threw the ink-bottle through +the office window, pitched the box of business cigars into the fire, and +generally pointed his remarks in a way that went straight to Mr. Bird's +heart, and then prepared peacefully to take his departure. + +"I shall not prosecute you for this--" said Mr. Isaac. + +"I wish you dare. It would suit me finely to get into a police-court and +be able to talk. I'd willingly pay my 'forty shillings and' for the +chance. They'd give me the option fast enough." + +"I say I shall not prosecute you because I have no time to bother with +law. But I shall send your name round amongst the shipowners, and with +my word against you, you'll never get another command so long as the +world stands." + +"You knock-kneed little Jew," said Kettle truculently, "do you think I'm +giving myself the luxury of letting out at a shipowner, after knuckling +down to the breed through all of a weary life, unless I knew my ground? +I've done with ships and the sea for always, and if you give me any more +of your lip, I'll burn your office down and you in it." + +"You seem pleased enough with yourself about something," said Mr. Isaac. + +"I am," said Kettle exultantly. "I've chucked the sea for good. I've +taken a farm in Wharfedale, and I'm going to it this very week." + +"Then," said Mr. Isaac sardonically, "if you've taken a farm, don't let +me wish you any further ill. Good-morning." + +But Kettle was not to be damped out of conceit with his life's desire by +a few ill-natured words. He gave Mr. Isaac Bird his final blessing, +commenting on his ancestors, his personal appearance, his prospects of +final salvation, and then pleasantly took his leave. He was too much +occupied in the preliminaries of his new life to have much leisure just +then for further cultivation of the gentle art of insult. + +The farm he had rented lay in the Wharfe Valley above Skipton, and, +though its acreage was large, a good deal was made up of mere moorland +sheep pasture. Luckily he recognized that a poetical taste for a rural +life might not necessarily imply the whole mystery of stock rearing and +agriculture, and so he hired a capable foreman as philosopher and guide. +And here I may say that his hobby by no means ruined him, as might +reasonably be expected; for in the worst years he never dropped more +than fifty or sixty pounds, and frequently he ran the place without +loss, or even at a profit. + +But though it is hard to confess that a man's ideal comes short of his +expectations when put to the trial, I am free to confess that although +he enjoyed it all, Kettle was not at his happiest when he was attending +his crops or his sheep, or haggling with his fellow farmers on Mondays +over fat beasts in Skipton market. + +He had gone back to one of his more practiced tastes--if one calls it a +taste--the cultivation of religion. The farm stood bleak and lonely on +the slope of a hillside, and on both flanks of the dale were other +lonely farms as far as the eye could see. There was no village. The +nearest place of worship was four miles away, and that was merely a +church. But in the valley beside the Wharfe was a small gray stone +chapel, reared during some bygone day for the devotions of some +forgotten sect. Kettle got this into his control. + +He was by no means a rich man. The row of houses in Birkenhead were for +the most part tenanted by the wives of mercantile marine engineers and +officers, who were chronically laggard with their rent, and whom _esprit +de corps_ forbade him to press; and so, what with this deficit, and +repairs and taxes, and one thing and another, it was rarely that half +the projected L500 a year found its way into his banking account. But a +tithe of whatever accrued to him was scrupulously set aside for the +maintenance of the chapel. + +He imported there the grim, narrow creed he had learned in South +Shields, and threw open the door for congregations. He was entirely in +earnest over it all, and vastly serious. Failing another minister, he +himself took the services, and though, on occasion, some other brother +was induced to preach, it was he himself who usually mounted the pulpit +beneath the sounding-board. He purchased an American organ, and sent his +eldest daughter weekly to take lessons in Skipton till she could play +it. And Mrs. Kettle herself led the singing. + +Still further, the chapel has its own collection of hymns, specially +written, printed and dedicated to its service. The book is Captain +Kettle's first published effort. Heaven and its author alone know under +what wild circumstances most of those hymns were written. + +The chapel started its new span of life with a congregation meagre +enough, but Sunday by Sunday the number grew. They are mostly +Nonconformists in the dales, and when once a man acquires a taste for +dissent, he takes a sad delight in sampling his neighbors' variations of +creed. Some came once and were not seen again. Others came and returned. +They felt that this was the loneliest of all modern creeds; indeed, +Kettle preached as much, and one can take a melancholy pride in splendid +isolation. + +I am not sure that Captain Kettle does not find the restfulness of his +present life a trifle too accentuated at times, though this is only +inevitable for one who has been so much a man of action. But at any rate +he never makes complaint. He is a strong man, and he governs himself +even as he governs his family and the chapel circle, with a strong, just +hand. The farm is a model of neatness and order; paint is lavished in a +way that makes dalesmen lift their eyebrows; and the routine of the +household is as strict as that of a ship. + +The house is unique, too, in Wharfedale for the variety of its contents. +Desperately poor though Kettle might be on many of his returns from his +unsuccessful ventures, he never came back to his wife without some +present from a foreign clime as a tangible proof of his remembrance, and +because these were usually mere curiosities, without intrinsic value, +they often evaded the pawn-shop in those years of dire distress, when +more negotiable articles passed irretrievably away from the family +possession. And with them too, in stiff, decorous frames, are those +certificates and testimonials which a master mariner always collects, +together with photographs of gratuitously small general interest. + +But one might turn the house upside down without finding so carnal an +instrument as a revolver, and when I suggested to Kettle once that we +might go outside and have a little pistol practice, he glared at me, and +I thought he would have sworn. However, he let me know stiffly enough +that whatever circumstances might have made him at sea, he had always +been a very different man ashore in England, and there the +matter dropped. + +But speaking of mementoes, there is one link with the past that Mrs. +Kettle, poor woman, never ceases to regret the loss of. "Such a +beautiful gold watch," she says it was too, "with the Emperor's and the +Captain's names engraved together on the back, and just a nice mention +of the _Gross of Carl_." As it happened, I saw the letter with which it +was returned. It ran like this:-- + + + _To His Majesty the German Emperor, + Berlin, Germany + + S.S. "Flamingo," + Liverpool, + + Sir, + + I am in receipt of watch sent by your agent, the German + ambassador in London, which I return herewith. It is not my + custom to accept presents from people I don't know, + especially if I have talked about them. I have talked about + you, not liking several thing's you've done, especially + telegraphing about Dr. Jameson. Sir, you should remember that + man was down when you sent your wire and couldn't hit back. + Some of the things I have said about German deck hands you + needn't take too much notice about. They aren't so bad as + they might be if properly handled. But they want handling. + Likewise learning English. + + My wife wants to keep your photo, so I send you one of hers + in return, so there shall be no robbery. She has written her + name over it, same as yours. + + Yours truly, + O. Kettle (Master)._ + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MASTER OF FORTUNE*** + + +******* This file should be named 12556.txt or 12556.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/5/5/12556 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. 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