AUSTIN GOES DOWN RIVER
A week had passed without their finding any gum, when one evening Austin
stood beside Jefferson in the _Cumbria_'s forecastle. It felt as hot as
an oven, though the damp fell in big drops from the iron beams and
trickled down the vessel's unceiled skin, while a smoky lamp supplied it
with insufficient illumination. The faint light showed the hazily
outlined forms of the men sitting limp and apathetic, now the long day's
toil was over, in the acrid smoke of Canary tobacco, and forced up
clearly the drawn face of one who lay beneath it, gazing at Austin with
a glitter in his uncomprehending eyes. Behind him other figures occupied
a part of the shelf-like row of bunks, but they were mere shapeless
bundles of greasy blankets and foul clothing, with only a shock of damp
hair or a claw-like hand projecting from them here and there to show
that they were human. Jefferson said nothing, but his face was a trifle
grim, and he straightened himself wearily when one of the Spaniards rose
and moved into the light.
"SeA+-or," he said, with a little deprecatory gesture, "for ourselves we
others do not complain, but these men are very sick, and the medicines
of the SeA+-or Austin do not make them better. One of them is my cousin,
another my wife's brother; and there are those in Las Palmas and Galdar
who depend on them. In a week, or, perhaps, a day or two, they die.
Something must be done."
There was a faint approving murmur from the rest of the men. They had
worked well, but the excitement of the search for the gum was wearing
off, and the strain had commenced to tell. Jefferson smiled wryly as he
glanced at Austin.
"Hadn't you better ask him what can be done?" he said.
The Spaniard flung his arms up when Austin translated this. "Who knows?"
he said. "I am only an ignorant sailorman, and cannot tell; but when we
came here the SeA+-or Austin promised us that we should have all that was
reasonable. It is not fitting that men should die and nothing be done to
save them."
"I scarcely think it is," said Austin. "Still, how to set about the
thing is more than I know. It must be talked over. We may, perhaps, tell
you more to-morrow."
He touched Jefferson's shoulder, and they went out of the forecastle and
towards the skipper's room silently. When they sat down Jefferson looked
hard at him.
"Well?" he said. "Two of them are your men."
Austin made a little sign of comprehension. "I don't remember what I
promised them. I had trouble to get them, but I certainly told them the
place wasn't a healthy one. That, however, doesn't convey a very
sufficient impression to anybody who hasn't been here."
"No," and Jefferson smiled grimly, "I don't quite think it does. The
point is that you feel yourself responsible to them, though I don't see
why you should. A man has to take his chances when he makes a bargain of
the kind they did."
Austin stretched himself on the settee wearily, and lighted a cigarette.
He had been feeling unpleasantly limp of late, and his head and back
ached that night.
"It's a little difficult to define what a bargain really is," he said.
"Still, it seems to me that to make it a just one the contracting
parties should clearly understand, one what he is selling, and the other
what he is buying. In the case in question I knew what I was getting,
but I'm far from sure the Canarios quite realised what they might have
to part with."
"That is not the business view."
"I am willing to admit it. I, however, can't help fancying that there is
a certain responsibility attached to buying up men's lives for a few
dollars when they're under the impression that it's their labour they're
selling. In fact, it's one that is a little too big for me."
Jefferson sat silent for almost a minute, looking at Austin, who met his
gaze steadily, with his eyes half closed.
"Well," he said, "it isn't the usual view, but there's something to be
said for it. What d'you mean to do?"
"Put the sick men on board the launch and run them out to sea on the
chance of picking up a West-coast liner, or--and it might suit just as
well--one of the new opposition boats. From what I gathered at Las
Palmas, the men who run them are, for the most part, rather a hard-up
crowd, and you're usually more likely to get a kindness done you by that
kind of people. We have nothing to pay their passage with, you see."
"You might get one oil puncheon into the launch. Still, you have to
remember that men who go down with fever along shore often die, instead
of coming round, when they get out to sea."
Austin smiled. "One would fancy that men who stay along shore when they
have fever, as these fellows have it, die invariably."
Once more Jefferson sat silent a while, gazing at his comrade
thoughtfully.
"Well," he said, with a little gesture, "I leave the thing to you.
After all, it's quite likely that one's dollars aren't worth what you
lay out to get them, now and then, but that's certainly not the
question. The boat's not making the water I expected, but we haven't
found the gum, and engine room and after hold are still almost full. The
boiler, as you know, has two or three tubes blowing, and we have nothing
to stop them with. That means she's wasting half her steam, and as we
have to keep a full head for the pump and winch, the coal's just
melting. By the time we heave her off there will be very little left,
and I've no fancy for going to sea short of fuel and being picked up as
salvage. It's a point that has been worrying me lately."
"There is coal to be had at Sierra Leone."
"And there are a British Consul and Government authorities. You're
loaded down to the water's edge with Shipping Acts, and the _Cumbria_'s
still upon your register. Do you suppose they are going to let her out
again, as she is, if we once go in there?"
Austin fancied it was scarcely likely. The requirements of the paternal
Board of Trade are, in fact, so onerous that English owners not
infrequently register their ships under another flag; while it occurred
to him that consul and surveyor would have a fit of indignant horror if
they saw how the enactments were complied with on board the _Cumbria_.
"No, sir," said Jefferson. "She's going straight across to Las Palmas
when she leaves this creek. That's Spanish, and a few dollars go a long
way in Spain. Besides, it's not quite certain that we'll leave the
creeks at all this season."
Austin straightened himself suddenly. "What do you mean?"
"Only that I'm not going home without the gum."
There was a little silence, and during it Austin endeavoured to adopt
an attitude of resignation. It was his belief that the _Cumbria_ would
be floated, or the project given up, when the rains came, that had
animated him through the toil he had undertaken. Another month or two
would, he had expected, see the task accomplished; but now it might, it
seemed, continue indefinitely, and he shrank from the thought of a
longer sojourn in the land of shadow. Then, with a little effort, he
slowly raised his head.
"To be candid, that is a good deal more than I counted on when I made
the bargain," he said. "Still, I can't well go back on it now. There is
coal to be had in Dakar, too, but it would cost a good deal to bring
even a schooner load here, though we could, per contra, load up oil in
her. Have you the money?"
Jefferson drummed with his fingers upon the table. "That's the trouble.
I have a little left, but I'm not quite sure I could get it into my
hands without the mailing to and fro of signed papers."
"Some of the West-coast mailboats call at Dakar. I might get the coal
and a schooner on a bond there. Of course, the people would want a heavy
profit under the circumstances."
"Three or four times as much as they were entitled to, any way," and a
little glint crept into Jefferson's eyes. "Now, it's quite usual for the
man who does the work to be glad of the odd scraps the man with the
money flings him for his pains, but it's going to be different with this
contract. I haven't the least notion of working here to make the other
fellow rich. If we buy the coal it will be at the market value, cash
down. The trouble is, I don't quite know where I'm going to get it."
"Well," said Austin, slowly, "a means of raising it has occurred to me.
You see, as seems to have been the case with you, there is money in the
family, and ethically I really think a little of it belongs to me. It
is not--for several reasons--a pleasant thing to ask for it. In fact, I
fancied once I'd have starved before I did so, but it couldn't be harder
than what we have been doing here. One could cable to Las Palmas, and a
credit might be arranged by wire with one of the banking agencies
there."
"Your people would let you have the money?"
Austin laughed, a trifle harshly. "Not exactly out of good-will, but, if
I worded that cable cleverly, they might do it to keep me here. I don't
know how it is in your country, but in ours they're seldom very proud of
the poor relation. In fact, some of them would do a good deal to prevent
his turning up to worry them. I think there are occasions when a man is
almost warranted in levying contributions of the kind."
Jefferson's eyes twinkled. "You are a curious, inconsequent kind of man.
You worry over those Spaniards who have no call on you, and then you
propose to bluff your own people out of their money."
"If I had been one who always acted logically I should certainly not
have been here. As it is, I'll start to-morrow, and wire my kind
relations that, failing a draft for two hundred pounds, I'm coming home
in rags by the first steamer. I almost think they'll send the money."
Jefferson stretched out a lean hand suddenly, and laid it on his
comrade's arm. "It's going to hurt you, but you can't get anything worth
while without that. You can send them back their money when we get her
off; but if you let anything stop you now you'll feel mean and sorry all
your life."
"Yes," said Austin, "I fancy I should. It's rather a pity, but one can't
always be particular. In the meanwhile, I'll see Tom about the launch."
He went out, and, coming back half an hour later, threw himself down on
the settee, and was fast asleep when Jefferson, who had been busy about
the pump, came in and stood a moment looking down on him. Austin's face
was worn, and thinner than it had been when he reached the _Cumbria_;
the damp stood beaded on it, and his hair lay wet and lank upon his
pallid forehead.
"I guess the raising of that money is going to be about the hardest
thing you ever did, but you'll do it," said Jefferson. "I've got the
kind of man I want for a partner."
Austin, who did not hear him, slept on peacefully, and steamed away down
river early next morning; while it was late on the second night, and the
launch was out at sea, when he sat, very wearily, with his hand upon her
helm, looking out across the long, smooth undulations. A half-moon hung
low to the westward, and they came up, heaving in long succession from
under it, ebony black in the hollows, and flecked with blinks of silver
light upon their backs. Austin only saw the latter, for he was looking
into the dusky blueness of the east, though it was only by an effort he
kept himself awake. During the last few days a feeling of limp dejection
had been creeping over him.
The launch was steaming slowly, with only a little drowsy gurgle about
her propeller as she swung and dipped to the swell, though she rolled
uneasily with the weight of the big oil puncheon high up in her. Bill,
the fireman, was crouched, half asleep, beside the clanking engine, and
two very sick men lay forward beneath a ragged tarpaulin. Though the
surf had been smoother than usual, Austin did not know how he had
brought them all out across the bar.
There were many stars in the heavens, and by and by, as he blinked at
the soft darkness with aching eyes, he saw one that seemed unusually
low down and moved a little. Then, shaking himself to attention, he made
out a dim glimmer of green, and became sensible of a faint throbbing
that crept softly out of the silence. He leaned forward and touched the
fireman.
"Open her out," he said. "That's a steamboat coming, and it looks as if
she would go by well to the south."
Bill pulled at a lever, the engine clanked faster, and the launch
commenced to rail more sharply as she lurched over the long undulations
with an increasing gurgle beneath her side. The sea was oily smooth, and
she rolled southwards fast; but the steamer's lights were rising high,
and the pounding of engines grew louder in a sharp crescendo, until they
could hear the black water frothing under iron bows. Then the launch's
whistle broke into a shrill scream. There was no answer, and Austin
turned to the fireman again.
"Shake her up! There will not be another boat for a week!" he said.
Bill pulled the lever over a little further, and stirred the furnace,
and the clanking grew louder, while the launch rolled more violently.
When she swung up, Austin saw a strip of dusky hull that swayed and
heaved in front of them, and then was suddenly lost to view again.
"She's not one of the mailboats, anyway. They'd be lighted, saloon deck
and poop," he said. "It almost looks as if she would get away from us."
Bill opened the whistle full, and left it screaming while he sprang up
on the side deck, a black figure holding high a strip of blazing waste.
Its red glare streaked the water, and the burning oil dripped from it in
a sparkling rain, while Austin felt his heart beat when the man flung it
down with an imprecation. Then a deep, vibratory blast came trembling
across the glimmering water, and he saw the piled-up foam fall away
beneath the big iron bows.
"They've seen us," he said. "She's standing by."
Five minutes later the launch lay lurching beneath the steamer's high,
black side, while a man leaned out from her slanted bridge above,
looking down into her.
"What d'you want?" he said. "I'm not going in for cargo unless it's
worth while. We're tolerably full this trip."
"A passage," said Austin. "There are myself and two sick men. We're
going to Grand Canary."
"What's the oil for?"
"To cover the ticket."
The skipper appeared to be gazing down at him in astonishment.
"Sixteen pounds' worth, at the most, for three men to Grand Canary! You
have good nerves," he said.
"I can't go any further, and you see they're very sick."
The skipper was understood to say that his ship was not a several
adjectived hospital, but Austin only smiled, for he was acquainted with
that kind of man, and aware that he was, at least, as likely to do him a
kindness as an elaborately got up mailboat's skipper.
"Well," he said, "if you won't have us, I'll take them back and bury
them. It's tolerably sure to come to that. Two of us will not eat much,
any way, and we'll be quite content to sleep on deck."
There was no answer for a moment, and then, as the bridge came slanting
down, the man who leaned out from it laughed.
"It's a puncheon of oil to nothing, and I've been hard up myself," he
said. "The next thing is, how the devil are you going to get them up?
We've stowed away our ladder."
"Then it'll have to be a sling. I'll steady them up when she rises, and
some of your crowd can hand them in."
It was done with difficulty, for the steamer rolled with a disconcerting
swing, and then Austin grasped Bill's hand before he went up the rope. A
gong clanged sharply, the launch slid astern, and several seamen carried
the two bundles of foul blankets away. While Austin watched them
vacantly a hand fell upon his shoulder, and propelled him into a room
beneath the bridge. Then he heard a harsh voice:
"There isn't any factory I'm acquainted with hereabouts. Where d'you get
that oil from?" it said.
Austin sat down on the settee and blinked at the burly, hard-faced man
in front of him.
"I don't know if you'll be astonished, but we really came by it
legitimately," he said. "In fact, we got it out of a stranded
steamer--one we're endeavouring to heave off, you see."
The skipper smiled as comprehension suddenly dawned on him. "Then you're
one of the ---- fools who bought the _Cumbria_?"
"I am. Still, I'm not sure that your opinion of us is quite warranted
yet. If it isn't, you'll get more than the one puncheon for taking us
across. In the meanwhile, I'm a little anxious about those men."
"They're all right. Pills will see to them. We have one. He probably
killed somebody by accident, or did something of that kind, or he
wouldn't be here. Directors had a notion we might pick up a few
passengers. They, however, prefer the liners."
Austin laughed, and the skipper's eyes slowly twinkled. "The fact is, I
don't blame them," he said. "Any way, you will lie down here until they
get you a room in the poop ready."
He went out, and an hour or two later Austin was roused by a touch from
a fitful sleep. A young man who stooped over him was regarding him
intently.
"Put that in your mouth?" he said.
Austin slipped the little glass tube between his lips, and the doctor
nodded when he passed it back to him.
"Yes," he said, "you have a very promising case of fever coming on. Get
up and lean on me; the sooner we pack you between the blankets the
better."
Austin rose unsteadily, and found that he had some difficulty in walking
when they went out upon the slanting deck. He was quite sure of that,
but everything else that he did, or was done to him, during the next few
days, was wrapped in obscurity. Still, he had a hazy notion of the
doctor and another man half dragging him into a little room.