It was very, very hot. That is to say, it was as hot as it knows how to
be in Johnstown, Guiana, which means a damp, sticky, stifling kind of
heat. The sun made the muddy river look oily, and the party of three
seated under the great fig-tree which shaded the boarding-house by the
wharf seemed as if they were slowly melting away like so much of the
sugar of which the wharves and warehouses and the vessels moored in the
river smelt.
Let us be quite correct: it was more the smell of treacle, and the casks
and sugar bags piled up under an open-sided shed all looked gummy and
sticky; while the flies--there, it was just as if all the flies in the
world, little and big, had been attracted to hum, buzz, and in some
cases utter useless cries for help when they had managed to get their
wings daubed with the sweet juice and strove vainly to rise in the air.
Captain David Banes, a weather-beaten sailor of about forty, took off
his Panama hat, drew a yellow silk handkerchief out of the crown, and
dabbed the drops off his face, brow, and the top of his head, which
looked as if it had been rubbed and polished till all the hair for a
broad space had been cleared away.
Then he said: "_Phe-ew_!" put the handkerchief back, and nursed his hat
upon his knees, as he stared across the rough table, upon which coffee
and breakfast-cups were standing, at the sun-burned gentleman who looked
something like a modern yachtsman, though it was a good seventy years
ago.
The latter looked back at him half-smilingly, took out a handkerchief
and wiped his face, and glanced across at another sun-burned individual,
to wit, a young man something like him in face, who was driving away
flies from the sugar-basin, at which interference with their sweet
pleasure they buzzed angrily, and the moment a spoonful of sugar had
been taken out settled back.
"It's hot, Brace," said the second personage.
"Yes, I know," said the young fellow, smiling. "I found that out
myself."
"Ay, youngster," said the captain, "and it don't want a man o' genous to
find that out. I always say this is the hottest place there is, for I
never found a hotter. I dessay it is worse in our cook's oven, but I
never tried that."
He looked first at one and then at the other, as if he expected them to
laugh; but as they did not he screwed up his face, coughed
unnecessarily, and then said:
"Yes, it is hot, gentlemen. Wants to be if you mean to grow sugar."
"And coffee, captain," said the second personage; and just then there
was a dismal creaking sound made by a windlass, a musical _yo-yo-ing_
came from a vessel moored to the wharf, and a big sugar hogshead was
wound up to a certain height, the crane which bore it was swung round,
and as the wheels creaked the great hogshead began to descend slowly
towards a gaping hole in the vessel's deck, while the captain swung
himself round as if bound to follow the motion of the crane and the cask
of sugar, and then lowered himself imitatively by bending his back till
the cask disappeared, when he started upright, banged the table with his
fist, and exclaimed sharply:
"I don't believe they're using a bit of dunnage, and if they don't the
first storm they get those hogsheads'll be rempaging about in that hold,
and if they don't mind that vessel'll sink, to the bottom of the sea,
the sea. She'll sink to the bottom of the sea!"
He half sang the latter words, with a merry look upon his face; but it
did not sound like singing, for his voice was not musical, and he turned
then to his young companion.
"Know that song, squire?" he said.
"No," said the lad, smiling in turn. "Is it a song?"
"Yes, and a good one too. That's `The Mermaid,' that is."
"But we did not come here to breakfast and discuss old songs, captain,"
said the second personage.
"That's a true word, sir; and we--Hullo! there you are again, are you?
Anyone would think you wanted to know. See that chap, sir?"
"Oh, yes, I've seen him several times; and he does seem as if he wanted
to know something. He has been watching me about ever since my brother
and I have been here."
"So he has me, sir. He's one of those chaps who take a lot more
interest in other persons' affairs than they do in their own, and if he
comes poking his long thin sharp nose in my business he'll be getting
himself into trouble."
It was a long thin nose, and on either side was a very sharp black beady
eye, which did not set off or improve a thin, wrinkled yellow face, as
the owner sauntered by with a roughly-made cigar in his mouth, the
smoking of which seemed to necessitate the sucking in of the smoker's
cheeks, as he gazed eagerly at the seated party and went on.
"He's a slave-driver; that's what he is, for a guinea," said the captain
sourly. "So that's your brother, is it, sir?"
"Yes, this is my brother," was the reply.
"Thought he was. Be just like you when he's a dozen years older."
"I doubt it, captain. You don't suppose I shall stand still during the
next twelve years?"
"No, of course not, sir."
"But this is not business, captain."
"No, sir, it isn't," said that individual angrily; "and if I'd known
that I was going to be played such an unbusinesslike trick you wouldn't
have caught me off Johnstown in my brig, I can tell you. I was as good
as promised a full cargo of sugar back to Bristol, and I'm thrown
overboard for the sake of saving a few dirty pounds by the agents here.
But it ain't my business."
"And my proposal is, captain?"
"Well, I dunno, sir. You've come to me in a very pleasant,
straightforward sort o' way to make me what sounds like a good offer.
But, you see, we're strangers; I don't know you."
"And I did not know you till yesterday, when I was making enquiries
about a vessel."
"That's right, sir. Well, you see, I'm a business man, and I always
speak out straight what I mean."
"Speak out then, captain."
"Who may you be?"
"There is my card," was the reply, and a slip was taken out of a
pocket-book and pushed across the table, to be picked up by the captain,
who read:
"`Sir Humphrey Leigh, Pioneers' Club, Pall Mall.' Humph! Pall Mall's
in London, isn't it, sir?"
"Yes."
"Then now I know your name, sir. But do you know anyone here, sir?"
"The bankers will be my reference, and, what will suit you better,
captain, credit your account with any sum you and I agree shall be paid
to you for the use of your ship."
"Yes, sir, that's all very straightforward and nice; but, you see,
before I close with you there's the what for!"
"What for?"
"Yes, sir; I can't go blindfold into a bargain like this. I want to
know who you are and what you want to do. In plain English, sir, what
are you up to?"
"You know who I am, Captain Banes, and you can satisfy yourself at the
bankers' that I am in a position to pay you well and to make your voyage
a far more lucrative one than carrying home a cargo of sugar would be."
"That's right, sir; but I'm, so to speak, answerable for my brig and for
the lives of my crew. Just have the goodness to tell me again what you
want me to do."
"Take on board an ample supply of stores for a year's cruise, and then
sail with me to the mouth of the Amazon."
"Yes, sir."
"And up the river as far as you possibly can, and then anchor, and man a
boat to go on up the river or rivers as far as we can go."
"That's what you said yesterday, sir. But what for? What's the good of
it?"
"That's my business, captain; and here is your friend coming back
wanting to make it his apparently," said Sir Humphrey, for the
keen-looking yellow-faced man came sauntering back and approached the
table so as to pass closer to them.