AUSTIN'S TOAST
An hour had passed since their first meeting, when Austin, Jefferson,
and two navy men sat round a little table that had been laid out upon
the _Cumbria_'s bridge deck. It was slightly cooler there than it was
below, besides which the mess-rooms reeked with damp and mildew. A lamp
hung from one of the awning spars above them, and its light fell upon
the men's faces and the remnants of the very frugal meal. The handful of
bluejackets who came up in her had apparently gone to sleep beneath an
awning on the flooring of the pinnace, which lay alongside, but a sharp
clinking rose from the lighted engine room, where a couple of naval
artificers were busy with Tom, the donkey-man. The gunboat's surgeon,
who had been round the forecastle, was talking to Austin, while her
commander lay opposite Jefferson, immaculately neat, in a canvas chair.
"Our tale," he said, "is a very simple one. As we didn't seem to be
wanted anywhere just now, we moored ship snugly in the bight behind the
island, and decided to get a little painting done. She was getting rusty
along the water-line, and one can't get at it well when she's washing
through a swell, you know. Under the circumstances, I seized the
opportunity to do a little rough surveying. We are expected to pick up
any information that may be of use to the Admiralty hydrographers."
Jefferson lay very limply in his chair, but his eyes twinkled
appreciatively. "Well," he said, "I guess that would look all right in
the log, but any one who had seen you start surveying would wonder why
you brought those cases of provisions as well as engine oil and packing,
and two or three ingots of bearing metal. We were uncommonly glad to get
them and see the artificers, though I'm not sure your Admiralty would
approve of the way you're squandering its stores."
Onslow laughed. "We are not forbidden to offer assistance to any one in
want of it, and the provisions, at least, do not belong to our
parsimonious Lords. In fact, they were handed me at Las Palmas by a
friend of yours, on the off chance of our falling in with you. Of
course, I could not exactly promise that you would get them, though I
had reasons for believing the thing was possible."
Jefferson filled a wineglass, and thrust the bottle across the table.
"I think I know the lady's name," he said. "This is the first wine I've
drunk since I came to Africa, and it will probably be the last until I
get out of it again. To-morrow it's going forward to the sick men in the
forecastle. The lady who sent it is not going to mind my passing the
kindness on."
"I venture to think she would approve," and Onslow glanced at Austin.
"In fact, I couldn't quite help a fancy she intended it as a
peace-offering. Miss Brown is, as you are probably aware, capable of
conveying an impression without saying anything very definite, and the
one I received from her was that she felt she had been a trifle hard on
somebody. I should, of course, not have presumed to mention it had it
not been borne in on me that it was not intended I should keep that
impression entirely to myself. If I have been mistaken I must apologise
to her and both of you."
Jefferson stood up with the wineglass in his hand, and the others rose
with him.
"This," he said, "is a little out of my usual line, but it's her wine
we're drinking, and I can't quite let the occasion pass. 'To Her Serene
Excellency, the cleverest woman in the Canaries, who hasn't forgotten
us!'"
Austin stood opposite him, a ragged, climate-worn skeleton, with a
little flush in his haggard face, and he looked at the gunboat's
commander.
"My comrade hasn't gone quite far enough," he said. "The Queen, who can
do no wrong!"
Then the glasses were emptied, and there was a moment's silence when
they sat down. Three of them were, after all, somewhat reserved
Englishmen, who had, for once, allowed their thoughts to become
apparent; and Commander Onslow, who felt that he had, perhaps, exceeded
his somewhat delicate commission, was distinctly displeased with
himself. He had had a certain conversation with Mrs. Hatherly, who had
been rather frank with him, before he left the Canaries, and the
attitude of the ragged adventurer who had proclaimed his unwavering
devotion to the woman who had sent him there appealed to him, so much
so, in fact, that it made him uncomfortable. It was, he felt, advisable
to change the subject.
"Considering everything, it was, perhaps, as well we turned up when we
did. You see, those niggers don't belong to us," he said. "I was, I may
admit, rather thankful when they disappeared, since it might have made a
good deal of trouble if we had taken a hand in. Now you understand that,
you may be willing to tell me what you purposed doing with the
giant-powder."
Jefferson laughed grimly. "If you had come five minutes later I'd have
blown half of them to the devil. We, at least, can't afford to be
particular."
"You had, presumably, a reason? I wonder if you have any objections to
telling us the rest of it in confidence?"
Jefferson, who lighted a cigar, told him the story, and Onslow lay back
in his chair, listening with grave attention, while the surgeon leaned
forward with elbows on the table. At last Onslow shook his head.
"It's interesting, exceedingly," he said. "Still, I don't think I'd
recommend you to tell it in quite that shape to everybody. It would
probably make trouble, and you mightn't find anybody very willing to
believe you. Things of that kind don't happen now--at least, they're not
supposed to--and I fancy it would prove a good deal more convenient just
to mention the simple facts. You bought the steamer stranded, and, with
considerable difficulty, got her off."
"We had practically decided on doing no more than that already," said
Austin. "Still, I wonder if, now you have heard the story, one could ask
your views?"
Onslow smiled drily. "I haven't any, and if I were you, I wouldn't worry
about anything beyond the financial aspect of the affair. Nobody is
likely to thank you, and the only men who could tell you what happened
are dead, you know."
Austin saw that Jefferson also recognised that the advice was good, and,
changing the subject, he spoke to the surgeon. The latter looked
thoughtful.
"I can't tell you what that man was afflicted with," he said. "There are
several African diseases we are not acquainted with, and a good many of
their troubles are supposed to be contagious. Of course, you could apply
to the College of Tropical Diseases they've lately started in Liverpool,
if you are really interested."
"I am," said Austin. "In fact, I'm very much so, indeed. You see, I had
practically nothing on, and he got his festering arms round me."
The surgeon looked at him gravely. "I scarcely think you need worry, but
if you have to do any rough work I would endeavour to avoid any
lacerated bruises, and, as far as possible, keep your skin unbroken."
"It's a little difficult on board this steamer. There are several raw
patches on my arms now."
The surgeon promised to attend to them, but just then Onslow turned to
Jefferson.
"Have you opened up any of the gum yet?" he asked.
Jefferson said he had not, and was rather anxious to do so, whereupon
Onslow and the surgeon offered to accompany him, and they went down the
ladder together to where the bags still lay upon the forward hatch.
"I shouldn't wonder if you were right about its value," said the
surgeon, when Jefferson held up the lantern one of the Spaniards had
handed him. "We took a Senegal Frenchman down the coast last trip, and
he had rather a craze upon the subject. There is, I understood from him,
a particular gum the niggers find somewhere between here and the head of
the Niger, for which one could get almost what he liked to ask from the
makers of special high-class varnishes. In fact, the man said that one
of them who had been trying it told him that it must be used in certain
processes whatever its cost might be. The only trouble was that it
appeared very difficult to get hold of, except in the smallest
quantities; but perhaps your Frenchman had got on the track of it."
Austin tore one of the bags, which were very rotten, across, and then
slit the fibre package beneath it. The surgeon, who stooped beside him,
was the first to thrust his hand into the opening.
"The nodules seem very uniform in size," he said, and then stood up
suddenly, with astonishment in his face. "I'm almost afraid that
somebody has been beforehand with you."
"What do you mean?" asked Austin, still tearing at the package.
The surgeon turned and gazed hard at Jefferson. "This is certainly not
gum. It looks very like an ordinary palm kernel."
He held up a little, round, black object, and Jefferson's face grew
grim, while he clenched one hand. Then he wrenched the knife from Austin
and fell on his knees, ripping at the fibre package savagely. It opened
beneath the steel, and when its contents poured out on deck he rose with
a little bitter laugh. There was no doubt whatever. They were palm
kernels. A curious silence followed, during which Jefferson leaned
against the rail, looking down upon the bags with expressionless eyes,
until he made a little gesture.
"Well," he said, very quietly, "it seems we have had our trouble for
nothing. You may as well open the rest of them."
Austin was not sure how he contrived to do it. He felt suddenly limp and
feeble, but holding himself in hand by an effort, he slit the remaining
bags, and flooded the deck with kernels. There was nothing else, and the
kernels appeared half rotten.
"This must be a little rough on you," said Onslow, with a trace of
awkwardness. "I understand you expected to find more of the stuff
yonder."
"I did," said Jefferson. "Funnel-paint can have it now. We have had
about enough of this country, and if your artificers fancy we could
trust that starboard boiler, we'll set about raising steam to take her
out first thing in the morning."
Onslow made a little gesture of sympathy. "I almost think it is the
wisest thing you can do," he said. "In the meanwhile, it is getting
late, and we have a long trip in front of us to-morrow. I have no doubt
you don't feel much like entertaining anybody just now."
He and the surgeon withdrew to the rooms prepared for them, and when
Austin, who went with them, came back, he stood a moment by the doorway
of the one beneath the bridge which Jefferson now occupied alone. The
latter looked up at him with half-closed eyes.
"We have the oil and the ship--and that will have to be enough," he
said, and then straightened himself with a fierce gesture. "Get out, and
sleep--if you feel like it. The thing has shaken me, and I'm not sure
I'm very well."
Austin went away, but it was almost daylight before sleep came to him,
and he had only been on deck an hour when their guests departed in the
morning. Jefferson, who bade them good-bye at the gangway, stood leaning
on the rail while the pinnace steamed away, and then walked, with
curious heaviness, towards his room. He crawled into his bunk when he
reached it, and lay there, while Austin looked down on him with concern.
"I've had the fever on me for quite a while, and at last it has gripped
me hard," he said. "I'll probably be raving in an hour or two. Get steam
up as soon as you're able, and take her out of the devilish country."
Austin was very busy between his comrade's room, forecastle, and
stoke-hold during the rest of that day, and he had very little time for
rest at night, but though half the men were sick, and his own limbs were
aching portentously, it was with a little thrill of exultation he
climbed to the bridge early on the following morning. The windlass was
rattling on the forecastle, Wall-eye stood by the winch astern, and the
surfboat was sliding towards the mangroves, where a big wire hawser was
made fast, in the rain. Austin was not a professional sailor, but he
could handle surfboat and steam launch, and in the good days had sailed
his yacht along the coast at home. He also had confidence in the
grizzled, olive-faced Spaniard who stood gravely behind him, gripping
the steering-wheel.
The anchor came home to the bows at last, somehow the fever-worn men on
the forecastle hove it in; the after winch hammered when he made a sign,
and the long, rusty hull moved backwards towards the forest as her head
swung slowly round. There was a splash of dripping wire, and he swung up
an arm with a cry of "Largo!"
Then the winch rattled furiously, a gong clanged below, and a wild,
exultant shouting went up when the _Cumbria_'s engines commenced to
throb. The gaunt, hollow-faced men who stood, dripping, in the rain, had
borne everything but cold, and now they were going home. Austin felt his
eyes grow hazy for a moment as he leaned upon the rails, and then, with
a little shake of his shoulders, he fixed his gaze steadily upon the
mangroves that came sliding back to him ahead. He had, he felt, a task
that would demand all his attention in front of him.
They slid down stream unchecked until the afternoon, and the _Cumbria_
steered handily, which, since there were awkward bends to swing round,
was fortunate for all of them; but Austin had misgivings when at last
they approached one that appeared sharper than the rest, for he could
only see the close ranks of dingy mangroves in front of him as he gazed
into the rain and mist. The creek was too narrow to swing the steamer to
an anchor, and it was evident that if she was to get around the bend at
all he most go at it hard, for the yellow stream was running fast with
them, and unless she steamed faster the vessel would not steer. He
signed to the helmsman, who edged her in near one bank to gain a little
room; and then set his lips tight as he clenched his telegraph and rang
for full speed ahead. It was consoling to remember that Tom was below,
for a good donkey-man is, as a rule, more to be trusted than a junior
engineer.
Ahead, the oily current was sliding through the mangroves as well as
among them, covering all their high-arched roots, and he knew that there
were a good many feet of water there, for the creek was full, and he had
heard of steamers going full tilt into the watery forest at such times.
Still he breathed unevenly as he watched the dingy trees slide past one
another, for the bend was opening very slowly, and there was a long
tongue of mangroves close in front of him. The bridge planks were
trembling beneath him now, and he could hear the thud-thud of the
hard-driven screw; but the stream seemed to be running very fast at the
bend, and, glancing round, he saw something very like fear in the face
of the man who held the wheel. When he looked ahead again the long
tongue of mangroves seemed flying towards him.
He strode to the end of the bridge and glanced down at the lift of rusty
side. There was a good deal of it above the water, for the _Cumbria_ was
loaded easily, and she was also, he was very glad to remember, light of
draught. He could not check her with an anchor under foot. She would
only swing to it, and that would land her among the mangroves broadside
on. If he backed his propeller he would as surely go ashore, and his
face grew very grim as he made the helmsman a little sign. Since he must
strike the forest, he would strike it fair, as hard as the engines
could drive her, bows on; and he thrust down the telegraph once more
for the last pound of steam.
The throb of plank and rail grew sharper, the trees seemed rushing at
the forecastle, the helmsman gazed forward with drawn face over his
moving wheel, and a shouting broke out on deck. Austin, however, did not
move at all, save when he raised a hand to the helmsman. Once more,
easy-going artist as he was, the Berserker fit was upon him, and it was
with a light only one or two of his friends had ever seen there in his
eyes he hurled her full speed at the forest.
She struck it, with a crash that flung two or three of the Spaniards
staggering, and it crumpled up before her. Mangrove boughs came
streaming down on her grinding forecastle, torn limbs clutched at rail
and stanchion, and were smashed by them. Mire was whirled aloft by the
thudding screw, and Austin, gripping his telegraph, laughed a harsh
laugh as he saw that she was going through. How thick that belt of trees
was, or what water flowed among their roots, he did not know, but he
remembered that he had found no bottom among them in other places with a
boathook, now and then.
In another few moments the white-stemmed trunks fell aside again, and
they drove out once more into clear and swiftly-flowing water. Then the
Spaniards howled together, and Austin, twining his hand in the lanyard,
unloosed the whistle, and hurled back a great vibratory blast at the
beaten forest. It was, he admitted afterward, a somewhat feeble thing,
but he said he felt the occasion demanded something then.
After that they had no great difficulty, and by nightfall they drove her
out with sluicing decks over the smoking bar, dipping the bleached and
rotten ensign to the little white gunboat that lay rolling behind the
island. Then Austin felt a great weight lifted off him as he flung
himself into a canvas chair upon his bridge. There was now only open sea
in front of them, and he had seen that the big pump could keep the water
down. He felt that he could contrive by some means to make Las Palmas.