II

A boat scraped alongside, and the agent Rimmle came aboard. He came out

to have a chat for old time's sake; and yet not so old either, he

corrected, and would Captain Blaise come ashore and have a drink or two

of good liquor? And Captain Blaise replied that he carried as good

liquor in his locker as ever graced any sideboard ashore. And they

dropped into the cabin, where I happened to be, and had a glass of wine

and a word or two, and another glass and a few more words; and at last

Rimmle put the question: Would Captain Blaise run one more draft?

Long ago, Captain Blaise promised me that there was to be no more

slave-running, and as he never lied to me, I wondered now why he paused

and pondered as if debating with himself. At last he looked up. "It

doesn't pay any more, Rimmle."

"Well, in these days," observed Rimmle, "I don't blame you, with the

bull-dogs of men-o'-war making it so hot."

We all had to smile at that, and Rimmle, seeing that Captain Blaise was

not to be shamed into it, went on. "But suppose there was larger

head-money than ever was paid before, Captain? And if half the

head-money and the crew's pay were laid down in advance? For it is hard,

as you have often said, Captain, that anything should happen to brave

and willing men on such a cruise and they have neither profit nor safety

of it." It was the old talk all over again, the agent urging him once

more to take to slave-running, except that in other days Captain Blaise

had displayed less patience.

The wineglasses had already been filled too frequently for me, and,

pleading business, I had spread out a coast chart on the other end of

the cabin table and was studying it, this by way of removing myself from

a conversation which I saw was not to end with trading or slave-running.

This Rimmle was one of those who held Captain Blaise for a sort of idol.

I had seen dozens of the kind before. Great hours for them when they

could sit in with the famous Captain Blaise, and so now, with the agent

bound to talk of the West Coast trade, lawful and otherwise, Captain

Blaise was making but slow headway.

I was thinking of stepping up on deck to stretch my legs, when the

conversation took a sudden shift. "Captain"--Rimmle put the question

hesitatingly--"I thought I had seen the last of you. May I ask what

lured you back?"

Captain Blaise had decanted another bottle and was viewing the

rich-colored bubbles as he held the carafe up against the light. Such

little things afforded him keen pleasure. He set the carafe

down--softly--only to ask by way of reply: "Rimmle, what is it always

brings men back?"

Rimmle laid his head to one side and nodded shrewdly. "As far as my

experience goes, Captain, it is one of three things."

"And which of the three is my failing?" Captain Blaise was absently

filling their glasses.

"M-m--It cannot be money--you never cared for that. You who have made

fortunes and spent them as fast as you made them--no, it cannot be

money. And then your newly acquired property in the States--"

"_My_ newly acquired--What of that?"

"Why, the rumor is out that you fell heir to a great estate in the

States--on the banks of the Mississippi or the Ohio, or some outlandish

name of a river in the States."

"Oh, a rumor! Go on."

"And as for the drink--it must be a great occasion, indeed, Captain,

when you take more than is good for a man. And so--"

"We can never take too much drink in good company, Rimmle. And so drink

up--here's health! And so you think it must be--" He smiled faintly at

the agent. "And yet who should know better than you that all the gold I

ever gave for a woman's favor would not suffice to keep the poorest of

them in cambric handkerchiefs."

"As to that"--the agent pursed up his full moist lips--"it is true; the

kind who looked for money were never your kind. And yet that kind

sometimes cost men a hundred times more in the end."

Captain Blaise bent deferentially toward the agent. "You think that,

Rimmle--truly?"

Rimmle bowed wisely.

Captain Blaise continued to regard him in the most friendly way, and yet

with an air of doubt, as if debating how far to discuss matters of this

kind with him. And then, leaning yet further forward and speaking

rapidly, energetically: "And agreeing that it is so, who is it that ever

regrets the price? D'y' think that I, even though I be what I be, that

I--Why, Rimmle, even you who live to amass money"--Rimmle flushed--"even

you have had your days when--To be sure you have had." Rimmle beamed.

"And so, Rimmle, you can believe possibly that Captain Blaise may yet

have his immortal hour, and cherish the hope none the less dearly in his

heart because his head, from out the experience of bitter years, tells

him that it can never be. And it may be that I go this time for neither

money nor drink, nor anything else in which traders ashore or aship

commonly bargain. But, hah, hah!"--he grinned suddenly, sardonically, at

the agent. "Think of us, Rimmle, sitting in the cabin of a West Coast

slaver and smuggler discoursing in this fashion--two gallant gentlemen

who trade in human misery."

Ten years since Captain Blaise had done any slave-running, and Rimmle,

who knew that, was slave-running still, and so he did not quite know how

to take this outburst.

Neither did I. Where Captain Blaise was sincere and where talking for

effect I could not have said; but surely he was moulding Rimmle like

jelly; and now looking out from under his eyebrow at Rimmle, but his

lips curved in a smile, he selected a cheroot and lit it, and lit

another for Rimmle, who now smiled too. And cheroot followed cheroot,

and story story, and drink drink, and the agent gurgled with joy of the

intimacy. "What adventures you have had, Captain, and"--he blew a cloud

to the cabin roof--"what stories!"

"Adventures? Stories?" Captain Blaise shrugged his shoulders. "Well

enough, Rimmle, in their way. 'Tis true I can tell of blockades evaded

and corvettes slipped, of customs officers bedevilled, of tricks on

slow-tacking junks, and of dancing with creoles under the moon. But what

is that? The heedless, unplanned adventuring of an irresponsible

American captain. Now you, if you cared to talk, Rimmle, you, I warrant,

could tell of big things, things which concern great people--of

admirals and governors and what not; for you, it is well known, Rimmle,

have your own bureau of information."

Rimmle chuckled. "It is true"--and then he paused. Captain Blaise

refilled their glasses. In courtly imitation of the Captain, Rimmle

raised his and they drank.

Captain Blaise filled them up again. "Men like myself, Rimmle, are but

pawns in this trading game. It is the people on the inside, the Governor

of Momba and gentlemen like you, who direct the play."