"Well," said Niven dryly, "I have, and they taught me a good deal in the
_Champlain_."
"I had forgotten," said Mr. Holway. "You'll have been glad you left
it."
Niven smiled. "There have been times of business anxiety when I've been
almost sorry, too. After all, one had nothing to worry over on board
the _Champlain_ when his work was done. But she's coming in."
With the blue water frothing at her bows a great white-painted steamer
swung out of the shadow of the pines, and while her whistle sent a
sonorous scream ringing across the inlet swept towards the wharf. She
gleamed like ivory from the purple shimmering in her shadow that was
streaked by froth about her water-line to the yacht-like lift of her
bows and long sweep of rail, and above it her tiers of houses and rows
of boats shone dazzlingly in the sunlight. In every line and flowing
curve there was a suggestion of speed and beauty, and Niven was silent
as he watched her come on, remembering how the command of such a vessel
had once been his most cherished dream. Then as the other steamer
splashed away and the liner swung in towards the wharf he saw that one
of the officers high up on the bridge was staring at him. Niven knew
the brown face under the white cap, and waved his hat, but the officer
only raised his hand for a second and then looked straight ahead again.
Niven laughed softly as he turned to his companion.
"There's very little difference in Tom Appleby," he said. "It's four
years since I've seen him, but if it had been forty I wouldn't have
expected him to spare more than a moment from his duties to nod to me."
"That," said Mr. Holway, "is probably the reason he has got on so
rapidly, and I know the Company's people here have a high opinion of
him. Now sit down. He's not going to thank you for worrying him while
he's busy."
It was half-an-hour later when they went on board the great steamer and
asked for the second officer. The two young men looked at each other as
they shook hands, and each saw a difference in his comrade, for bronzed
mate and keen-eyed merchant had both grown used to the yoke of
responsibility. They were quieter than they had been, and their faces
were graver, while though it was long since they had met, they were not
effusive when they spoke.
"Glad to see you, Tom," said Niven.
Appleby nodded. "Of course I needn't tell you the same thing. How did
you get here?"
"Allan boat and Canadian Pacific sleeper," said Niven. "I told you I'd
been made a partner, and fancied I'd run over to look up some of our
customers in Vancouver when I was in Canada. At least, that's one
reason. You can guess the other. Now, what's wrong with this Company
that you're not commander?"
Appleby laughed. "I've got on so fast already that I can't help
fancying friends of mine who put business in the Company's way have as
much to do with it as my merits. Now, I'm not quite sure that's good
for me."
"Tom," said Niven with apparent severity, though his eyes twinkled, "are
you so foolish as to fancy that the men who run a line like this would
take a hint from anybody? You climbed up yourself, but if ever I do
have any influence I'll know how to use it. Still, we're not going to
argue already. Come out. I've got a buggy waiting, and we're going to
drive and talk in the woods all afternoon, and then have another dinner
at the Hotel. To make it all complete Jordan's coming."
"I'm half afraid I couldn't stay that long," said Appleby, and Niven
turned to Holway, who had joined them.
"You're coming right along. Holway has seen the skipper, and he knows
better than refuse--him--anything."
They drove through the dusky shadows of the pines all the afternoon, and
when evening came they and Jordan sat down to a very choice dinner in
the room where they last met. Jordan, however, seemed leaner and
grimmer than he had done that night, and his hair was grey, but there
was no mistaking the pleasure in his face when he greeted them. Niven
made him sit down at the head of a little table by an open window.
"That's your place, sir," he said. "I don't quite know what they're
bringing us to eat, but it's not going to be as good as the canned beef
you gave us the night you came across us in the _Champlain_."
He smiled curiously as, glancing round at the glittering glass and
silver and the sumptuous decorations of the great dining-room, he
remembered the little, stuffy cabin of the schooner that swung with the
seas. All this was very pleasant, but he felt he had lost something
that could never be regained since then. Appleby seemed to understand,
for he nodded.
"There's a difference, Chriss," he said. "We shall never be quite the
same again."
"A man can't have quite everything--and you've got the dollars now,"
said Jordan with a little twinkle in his eyes. "Well, I've made my
blunders, like most other folks, but the one I made that night was my
biggest one. Still, it was a kind of curious story you told me."
Niven laughed. "I've no doubt I did it badly--but there are times when
I wish I was only a lad sailing north again sealing, and I fancy I
shouldn't be a partner in a good business now if it hadn't been for a
few things that voyage taught me."
While he spoke the dinner was brought in, and for a while they postponed
their questions. Then as they sat by the open window looking out across
the blue inlet towards the climbing pines and the distant snow Jordan
glanced at his cigar.
"I've only had a dinner of this kind once before in my life, and you
know who it was gave it me then," he said. "Now, I've a notion Donegal
believed you all along."
"I wonder where he is now," said Niven. "I should like to have seen
him."
Jordan's face grew grave, and he stretched out one hand pointing towards
the north. "He's sleeping sound up there," he said.
Appleby bent his head. "I have not often met his equal--and we both owe
him a good deal. How did it happen?"
"Stowing jibs," said Jordan quietly. "Wind turned loose on us sudden
one night we were carrying everything, and she lay down with her lee
rail in. Outer jib wouldn't run down, downhaul jammed, and Charley was
clawing out on the bowsprit when the sail whipped over him. None of us
saw what came next but Donegal, and when I had a glimpse of him he was
hanging out from the foot-rope grabbing at Charley. Then she put her
nose into a sea, and when she swung out of it there was nobody under the
bowsprit. We'd gone straight over them."
Jordan stopped a moment, and his voice was a trifle hoarse when he went
on again. "It was quite ten minutes before we could get the mainsail
off her to wear her round, and a boat over, and an hour anyway before we
hove her in again. They'd found nothing, and Charley couldn't swim, but
Donegal wouldn't never have let go of his partner. He was that kind of
a man."
Appleby nodded gravely, but nobody said anything further for several
minutes, and then Niven asked, "Where's Stickine?"
"Coast trading. He was kind of saving. Put the dollars he'd scraped up
into a little schooner, and it would astonish me if he wasn't making
more of them. Montreal and his brother doing quite well too. Gone back
to the carpentering and taking contracts for putting up mining flumes."
"Then there's only yourself, and the _Champlain_," said Niven.
Jordan sighed a little. "We had to part with her. Sealing's not what it
used to be--too many gun-boats and too much government fussing--and the
holluschackie are getting scarcer too. They'll have to try round the
South Pole for them presently. Still, a man has got to live, and I'm
figuring on a halibut-catching scheme. There's going to be dollars in it
if we can raise enough of them to start us off with the proper outfit."
"Tell me all about it. I'm a business man," said Niven.
Jordan did so, but his face was a trifle anxious as he concluded. "I'm
not quite sure if I can put it through. We've got to have a schooner,
and it's where to get the last two or three thousand dollars that's
worrying me. The banks don't seem to care about backing me."
Niven sat silent a moment or two. Then he said quietly, "Now, I've
about that many dollars I'm getting very little for in the old country,
and I would be glad to put them in your venture as a partner."
"And I've five or six hundred," said Appleby.
Jordan's face brightened, but he did not answer for a minute. "Well,
I've no use for pretending I wouldn't be glad to have the dollars--but
one has to do the square thing," he said. "The risks are going to be
heavy, because until we get it all quite straight we may lose the catch
quite often before we can put it on the market, and there's always
chances of losing the schooner, while you'd have to take too much on
trust. You don't know the ins and outs of this contract, and I couldn't
figure them all out to you."
Niven laughed a little, and laid his hand on Jordan's shoulder. "I know
the man who's going to put it through, and I could trust him with a good
deal more than the dollars. We'll go round to Holway's, and fix it all
up to-morrow."
It was late before Jordan left them, and Niven and Appleby, who walked
with him a little way, stopped a moment as they went back to the hotel.
On the one hand, sprinkled with big electric lights, the city climbed
the rise, and they could see its maze of roofs and towering telegraph
poles. On the other the inlet shone like silver under the moon, with
the ivory shape of the liner in the foreground and three great ships
riding to their anchors farther out. Niven smiled a little as he turned
to his companion.
"One is your home, the other mine," he said. "Tom, you haven't told me
whether you are still quite contented with the life you have chosen."
Appleby's face was grave, but his eyes shone a little. "It is a grim
life--especially in the sailing ships--Chriss, though they are not all
like the _Aldebaran_, but I still fancy it is the one that is best for
me. After all, are there any things your money can buy you better than
those which are given for nothing to every man at sea?"