AN OVERHEATED JOURNAL
The _Estremedura_ lay rolling gently off the quaint old Spanish city of
Santa Cruz, Teneriffe, most of the following day. It was, indeed, late
in the afternoon when she went to sea, and while the jumble of white
walls and red-tiled roofs faded astern Austin sat in a deck-chair under
a lifeboat, while Jacinta, Mrs. Hatherly, and Miss Muriel Gascoyne, to
whom he had been duly presented, occupied a seat close by. He was not
particularly charmed with the latter's company, and decided that she was
certainly as unlike Jacinta as she very well could be.
Miss Gascoyne was a clear-complexioned, blue-eyed young Englishwoman,
solidly put together, and endued with a certain attractiveness; but she
was quiet, and had a disconcerting way of looking at him in a fashion
which vaguely suggested disapproval. There was also what he felt to be a
slightly irritating air of authority about her, which seemed to suggest
that she recognised the responsibility of her station, as one who was
looked up to in a remote corner of rural England. Mrs. Hatherly, her
aunt, was a little, withered old lady, with ruddy cheeks and the stamp
of vigorous health upon her, though she had apparently been ordered
south for the winter. She became visibly interested when Jacinta
contrived to mention that Austin was in charge of the _Estremedura_'s
medicine chest.
"It really isn't my fault, and I don't do more harm with it than I can
help," he said.
"Then you have a knowledge of medicine?" asked the red-cheeked lady.
"No," said Austin, "not in the least. I had to get a sixpenny book from
England to tell me the difference between a scruple and a drachm, and
I'm not sure about some of the measures yet. You see, I entered the
profession quite by accident. The manual in the drug chest was,
naturally, in English, as it was sent on board a Spanish ship, and the
skipper, who couldn't read it, passed it on to me. My first case was a
great success, unfortunately. We were loading pine, and one of the men
contrived to get a splinter into the inner side of his eyelid. I suppose
it was a weakness, but I really couldn't watch him going about in
agony."
"Is the desire to relieve a fellow creature's suffering a weakness?"
asked Miss Gascoyne.
Austin appeared to reflect. "I almost think it is when the chances are
tolerably even that you're going to blind him. Still, I got the thing
out, and that man never quite knew the risks he ran. The next week
another of them dropped a hogshead on to his foot, and smashed it
badly--they don't wear boots, you know. He seemed quite convinced that I
could cure him, and, as the risk was his, I undertook the thing. You can
see him on the forecastle yonder, and he isn't limping. After that my
fame went abroad, and they send their cripples off to me at several of
the desolate places we call at. I always give them something, but
whatever quantity of water the manual recommends I put in twice as
much."
Miss Gascoyne looked at him curiously. She had not met a young man of
this type before, and was not sure that she approved of him. She also
fancied that he was a trifle egotistical, which he certainly was not,
and it never occurred to her that he was merely rambling on for her
entertainment because he felt it his duty.
"Don't you think that one should always have faith in one's
prescriptions and act upon it?" said her aunt. "I endeavour to do so
when I dose the village people who come to me."
Austin laughed. "Well," he said, "you see, I haven't any, and, perhaps
if I had, it would be a little rough on others. Still, as a matter of
fact, they do get better--that is, most of them."
Miss Gascoyne looked startled. "Is it right to abuse the ignorant
people's credulity like that?" she said, and stopped a trifle awkwardly,
while a little twinkle crept into Jacinta's eyes.
"Mr. Austin hasn't really killed anybody yet," she said. "You haven't
told us what you think of Teneriffe, Muriel."
Miss Gascoyne turned her face astern, and there was appreciation, and
something deeper than that, in her blue eyes, which had seen very little
of the glory of this world as yet. High overhead the great black wall of
the CaA+-adas cut, a tremendous ebony rampart, against the luminous blue,
and beyond it the peak's white cone gleamed ethereally above its
wrappings of fleecy mist. Beneath, the Atlantic lay a sheet of
glimmering turquoise in the lee of the island, and outside of that there
was a blinding blaze of sunlight on the white-topped sea.
"It is beautiful--wonderfully beautiful," she said, with a little
tremble in her voice. "Isn't it sad that such a country should be
steeped in superstition?"
Austin felt the last observation jar upon him, for he knew that the
inhabitants of that land would, in respect of sobriety and morality,
compare very favourably with those of several more enlightened places he
was acquainted with at home, and that was going far enough for him.
Still, he could defer to another's convictions when they were evidently
sincere, and it seemed to him that Jacinta's warning glance was a trifle
unnecessary. There was, however, an interruption just then, for a
steward appeared with a laden tray at the door of the captain's room.
"Doesn't Don Erminio take his comida in the saloon?" asked Jacinta.
"No," said Austin. "Not when we have English ladies on board. He's a
different man, you know, and some of them will insist on talking Spanish
to him. It's a little trying to have to admit you don't understand your
own language."
"Vaya!" said a deep voice beyond the open door. "Eso no me gusta," and
while the steward backed out in haste, a couple of plates went flying
over the rail.
"Don Erminio," said Jacinta, "evidently doesn't approve of his dinner."
Miss Gascoyne appeared astonished, and looked at Austin gravely.
"Does he often lose his temper in that fashion?" she asked. "Isn't it
very childish to throw--good food into the sea?"
"The captain is, when you come to know him, really a very good-natured
man," said Austin. Then he stopped, and stood up suddenly as two figures
came towards them along the deck, and another from the opposite
direction. "It's Monsignor--I wonder what Macallister wants with him."
A little, portly priest moved forward with a smile of good-humoured
pride, and an ecclesiastic of a very different stamp walked at his side.
The latter was a great man, indeed, a very great man, though he had once
toiled in comparative obscurity. Even Miss Gascoyne had apparently
heard of him.
"If one could venture, I should like to speak to him," she said.
Neither Jacinta nor Austin seemed to hear her. They were both watching
Macallister, and he, at least, clearly intended to accost the clerics.
He was now dressed immaculately in blue uniform, and in that condition
he was a big, handsome man, but he was also a North British Calvinist,
so far as he had any religious views at all, and accordingly not one who
could reasonably be expected to do homage to a dignitary of Rome. Still,
the little fleshy priest was a friend of his, and when the latter
presented him he bent one knee a trifle and gravely took off his uniform
cap. The ecclesiastic raised two fingers and spoke in Latin. Macallister
smiled at him reassuringly.
"That isn't exactly what I meant, but it can't do me any harm coming
from a man like you, while if it does me any good I daresay I need it.
You see, I'm one of the goats," he said.
The great man glanced at his companion, who translated as literally as
he could, though he also explained that the SeA+-or Macallister not
infrequently made things easier for some of the peasants who travelled
third class on board the _Estremedura_. Then a whimsical but very kindly
twinkle crept into the great man's eyes, and he laid a beautiful,
olive-tinted hand on the shoulder of the mechanic who had graciously
approved of him.
"If he is kind to these poor hill men he is a friend of mine. The
charity it covers many--differences," he said.
Then, as they came aft together, Austin also took off his cap, and
touched Miss Gascoyne's arm as he turned to the cleric. The girl rose
gravely, with a tinge of heightened colour in her face and a little
inclination, and, though nobody remembered exactly what was said, unless
it was the eminent cleric, who was, as usual with his kind, a polished
man of the world as well, he moved on with the girl on one side of him
and Macallister talking volubly in a most barbarous jargon on the other.
Mrs. Hatherly and the little priest took their places behind them, and
Austin gathered that as a special favour Macallister was going to show
them all his engines. Jacinta leaned back in her seat and laughed
musically.
"Macallister," she said, "is always unique, and he will probably finish
the entertainment by offering Monsignor a glass of whiskey. It is to be
hoped he doesn't apostrophise his firemen with his usual fluency. Still,
do you know, I am rather pleased with you? You have made Muriel happy."
"If I have pleased you it is rather more to the purpose," said Austin,
reflectively. "I have, however, noticed that when you express your
approbation there is usually something else to be done."
Jacinta smiled. "It is very little, after all, but perhaps I had better
explain. Muriel met Jefferson, who had been to London to see somebody,
on board the _Dahomey_, and--I'm telling you this in confidence--there
are reasons for believing the usual thing happened. She is really good,
you know, while Jefferson is a somewhat serious man himself, as well as
an American. They treat women rather well in his country--in fact, they
seem to idealise them now and then. Besides, I understand it was
remarkably fine weather."
"Yes," said Austin, who glanced suggestively across the sunlit heave
towards the dim, blue heights of Grand Canary, "it is, one would
believe, quite easy to fall in love with any one pretty and clever
during fine weather at sea. That is, of course, on sufficient
provocation. There are also, I think, Englishmen with some capacity for
idealisation--but hadn't you better go on?"
Jacinta pursed her lips as she looked at him with an assumption of
severity, but she proceeded. "Now, I had arranged for Mrs. Hatherly and
Muriel to spend the winter in Grand Canary, but she has heard of a
doctor in one of the hotels at Madeira, and is bent on going there.
There is, of course, nothing the matter with her; but if she approves of
the doctor in question it is very probable that she will stay in that
hotel until the spring. Still, she is changeable, and if she doesn't go
at once it is possible that she will not go at all. The Madeira boat
leaves Las Palmas about half an hour after we get there, and I don't
want Mrs. Hatherly and Muriel to catch her. Muriel doesn't want to,
either."
Austin shook his head. "Don't you know that it is rather a serious thing
to delay a Spanish mailboat?" he said. "Still, I suppose you have
decided that it must be done?"
"I think so," said Jacinta sweetly. "I also fancy you and Macallister
could manage it between you. You have my permission to tell him anything
you think necessary."
She rose and left him, with this, and Austin, who was not altogether
pleased with his commission, waited until after the four o'clock comida,
when, flinging himself down on a settee in the engineer's room, cigar in
hand, he put the case to Macallister, who grinned. The latter, as a
rule, appeared to find his native idiom more expressive in the evening.
"I'm no saying Jacinta's no fascinating, an' I've seen ye looking at her
like a laddie eyeing a butterscotch," he said. "Still, it can no be
done. Neither o' our reputations would stand it, for one thing."
"We have nothing to do with the Madeira boat, and the Lopez boat for
Cuba doesn't sail until an hour after her," said Austin. "Besides,
Jacinta wants it done."
Macallister looked thoughtful. "Weel," he said, "that is a reason.
Jacinta thinks a good deal of me, an' if I was no married already I
would show ye how to make up to her. I would not sit down, a long way
off, an' look at her. She's no liking ye any the better for that way of
it."
"Hadn't you better leave that out?" said Austin stiffly. "I'm the
_Estremedura_'s sobrecargo, which is quite sufficient. Can't you have a
burst tube or something of the kind?"
"A burst tube is apt to result in somebody getting scalded, an' stepping
into boiling water is sore on a Primera Maquinista's feet. Ye'll just
have to make excuses to Jacinta, I'm thinking."
Austin, who knew he could do nothing without Macallister's co-operation,
was wondering what persuasion he could use, when he was joined by an
unexpected ally. A big, aggressive Englishman in tourist apparel
approached the mess-room door and signed to him.
"You were not in your room," he said, as though this was a grievance.
Austin looked at him quietly. "I'm afraid I really haven't the faculty
of being in two places at once. Is there anything I can do for you?"
"There is. I particularly want to catch the Liverpool boat _via_ Madeira
to-night, and the time you get in cuts it rather fine. It occurred to me
that you might be able to hurry her up a little."
"I'm sorry that's out of the question," said Austin, languidly. "You
see, I'm not expected to interfere with this steamer's engines."
He was wondering how he could best favour the Englishman with a delicate
left-handed compliment, when Macallister, who was once more very dirty,
and wore only a dungaree jacket over his singlet, broke in:
"I would," he said, "like to see him try."
"May I ask who you are?" said the passenger, who regarded him
superciliously.
"Ye may," and there was a portentious gleam in Macallister's eyes. "I'm
only her chief engineer."
"Ah!" said the other, who did not consider it advisable to mention that
he had supposed him to be a fireman. "Well, there are, I believe, means
of obtaining a favour from a chief engineer. You naturally don't get
many pickings in this kind of boat."
Austin laughed softly, for he knew his man. It is now and then
permissible to bestow an honorarium upon a chief engineer over a deal in
coals, but it requires to be done tactfully, and when the stranger
suggestively thrust his hand into his pocket, Macallister hove his six
feet of length upright, and looked down on him, with a big hand clenched
and blazing eyes.
"Out o' this before I shake some manners intil ye, ye
fifteen-pound-the-round-trip scum!" he said.
The stranger backed away from him, and then bolted incontinently as
Macallister made for the door. Austin laughed softly when he heard him
falling over things in the dark alleyway, and Macallister sat down
fuming.
"A bit doosoor on the coal trade is one thing, but yon was--insultin',"
he said, and then looked up with a sudden grin. "I'll fix the waster.
Can ye no smell a crank-pin burning?"
"I can't," said Austin. "Still, under the circumstances, I'm quite
willing to take your word for it."
He went up on deck. It was dark now, but the moon was shining, and he
was not surprised to see a sooty fireman clambering in haste up the
bridge ladder. Then the throb of the propeller slackened, and when the
_Estremedura_ lay rolling wildly athwart the long, moonlit heave, an
uproar broke out in the engine room below. The Castilian is excitable,
and apt to lose his head when orders which he cannot understand are
hurled at him, while Macallister, when especially diligent, did not
trust to words alone, but used lumps of coal and heavy steel spanners.
He was just then apparently chasing his greasers and firemen up and down
the engine room. There was a rush of apprehensive passengers towards the
open skylights, from which steam as well as bad language ascended, and
Austin, who went with them, found Jacinta by his side.
"I suppose it's nothing dangerous?" she said.
Austin laughed. "If it were Macallister would not be making so much
noise. In fact, I don't think you need worry at all. When Miss Jacinta
Brown expresses her wishes, things are not infrequently apt to happen."
Jacinta smiled at him. "I have," she said, "one or two faithful
servants. Shall we move a little nearer and see what he is doing?"
"I'm afraid the conversation of one of them is not likely to be of a
kind that Miss Gascoyne, for example, would approve of."
"Pshaw!" said Jacinta, and followed when Austin made way for her to one
of the skylights' lifted frames.
The _Estremedura_ was rolling wickedly, and very scantily attired men
were scrambling, apparently without any definite purpose, beneath the
reeling lights which flashed upon the idle machinery. They, however,
seemed to be in bodily fear of Macallister, who held a spouting hose,
while a foamy, soapy lather splashed up from the crank-pit on the big,
shining connecting-rod. Austin could see him dimly through a cloud of
steam, though he could think of no reason why any of the latter should
be drifting about the engine room. There were several English passengers
about the skylights, and the one with the aggressive manner was
explaining his views to the rest.
"The man is either drunk or totally incapable. He is doing nothing but
shout," he said. "You will notice that he spends half the time washing
the connecting-rods, which, as everybody knows, cannot get hot. If we
miss the Madeira boat I shall certainly call upon the company's
manager."
Perhaps he spoke too loudly, or it may have been an accident, though
Austin, who saw Macallister flounder on the slippery floor-plates as the
steamer rolled, did not think it was. In any case, he drew Jacinta back,
and a moment later a jet from the spouting hose struck with a great
splashing upon the glass. The aggressive passenger, who was looking down
just then, got most of it in his face, and he staggered back, dripping,
and gasping with anger. When he once more became vociferous, Austin led
Jacinta away.
"I'm afraid we will not catch that boat, but I really don't think you
ought to hear Mack's retort," he said.
It was not quite half an hour later when the _Estremedura_ moved on
again, and Macallister informed Austin that he could not allow two
journals to become overheated in the same voyage. It would, he said, be
too much of a coincidence, and some of his subordinates did know a
little about machinery. They had accordingly some few minutes yet in
hand when they swung round the high Isleta cinder heap into sight of Las
Palmas. It gleamed above the surf fringe, a cluster of twinkling lights
at the black hills' feet, and there were other lights, higher up, on
ships' forestays, behind the dusky line of mole. In between, the long
Atlantic heave flashed beneath the moon, and there was scarcely two
miles of it left. Austin, standing forward with a pair of night-glasses,
and Jacinta beside him, watched the lights close on one another
dejectedly.
"We'll be in inside ten minutes, and I think the Madeira boat has still
her anchor down," he said. "I had to give the quartermaster orders to
have our lancha ready, and he'll take any passengers straight across to
her."
"I believe you did what you could," said Jacinta. "Still, you see----"
"Oh, yes," said Austin. "You like success?"
Jacinta looked at him with a little enigmatical smile. "When any of my
friends are concerned, I believe I do."
Austin went aft, and a little while later found Macallister standing by
the poop, which was piled with banana baskets, among which seasick
Canary peasants lay. The big crane on the end of the mole was now on the
_Estremedura_'s quarter, and they were sliding into the mouth of the
harbour. Close ahead, with white steam drifting about her forecastle,
lay the Madeira boat.
"They're heaving up," said the engineer. "Jacinta will no' be pleased
with ye, I'm thinking."
"There's only one thing left," said Austin. "One of us must fall in."
Macallister grinned. "Then I know which it will be. It was not me who
swam across the harbour last trip. But wait a moment. There's a dozen or
two Spaniards among the baskets, an' I'm thinking nobody would miss one
of them."
Austin, who knew what his comrade was capable of, seized hold of him,
but Macallister shook his grasp off and disappeared among the baskets.
Then there was a splash in the shadow beneath the ship, a shout, and a
clamour broke out from the crowded deck. A gong clanged below, the
captain shouted confused orders from his bridge, and the _Estremedura_
slid forward, with engines stopped, past a British warship with her
boats at the booms. Then in the midst of the confusion, Austin, who was
leaning on the rail, wondering what had really happened, felt himself
gripped by the waist. They had slid into the shadow of the Isleta, which
lay black upon the water just there.
"Noo's your chance," said a voice he knew. "It's a hero she'll think ye.
In ye go to the rescue!"
Austin, who was by no means certain that there was a man in the water at
all, had no intention of going if he could help it, but, as it happened,
he had no option. The _Estremedura_ rolled just then, he felt himself
lifted, and went out, head foremost, over the rail. The steamer had gone
on and left him when he rose to the surface, but there was nobody either
swimming or shouting in the water behind him. He knew it would be a
minute or two yet before they got the big passenger lancha over, but the
_Estremedura_'s propeller was thrashing astern, and when she came back
towards him he seized the boat-warp already lowered along her side.
Nobody appeared to notice him, for one of the British warship's boats
was then approaching. She flashed by as he crawled in through the opened
gangway, and a man stood up in her.
"Spanish mail ahoy!" he cried. "Anybody speaking English aboard of you?
If so, tell your skipper to go ahead. We have got the banana basket he
dropped over. He can send for it to-morrow."
Austin slipped, unnoticed, into his room, but he laughed as he heard the
roar of a whistle, and saw a long, black hull ringed with lights slide
by. It was the Madeira boat, steaming down the harbour.