The hour was noon, the month chill October; and the occupants--a round
dozen in number--of Sir Philip Swinburne's drawing office were more or
less busily pursuing their vocation of preparing drawings and tracings,
taking out quantities, preparing estimates, and, in short, executing the
several duties of a civil engineers' draughtsman as well as they could
in a temperature of 35° Fahrenheit, and in an atmosphere surcharged with
smoke from a flue that refused to draw--when the door communicating with
the chief draughtsman's room opened and the head of Mr Richards, the
occupant of that apartment, protruded through the aperture. At the
sound of the opening door the draughtsmen, who were acquainted with Mr
Richards's ways, glanced up with one accord from their work, and the eye
of one of them was promptly caught by Mr Richards, who, raising a
beckoning finger, remarked:
"Escombe, I want you," and immediately retired.
Thereupon Escombe, the individual addressed, carefully wiped his drawing
pen upon a duster, methodically laid the instrument in its proper place
in the instrument case, closed the latter, and, descending from his high
stool, made his way into the chief draughtsman's room, closing the door
behind him. He did this with some little trepidation; for these private
interviews with his chief were more often than not of a distinctly
unpleasant character, having reference to some stupid blunder in a
calculation, some oversight in the preparation of a drawing, or
something of a similar nature calling for sharp rebuke; and as the lad--
he was but seventeen--accomplished the short journey from one room to
the other he rapidly reviewed his most recent work, and endeavoured to
decide in which job he was most likely to have made a mistake. But
before he could arrive at a decision on this point he was in the
presence of Mr Richards, and a single glance at the chief draughtsman's
face--now that it could be seen clearly and unveiled by a pall of
smoke--sufficed to assure Harry Escombe that in this case at least he
had nothing in the nature of censure to fear. For Mr Richards's face
was beaming with satisfaction, and a large atlas lay open upon the desk
at which he stood.
"Sit down, Escombe," remarked the dreaded potentate as he pointed to a
chair.
Escombe seated himself; and then ensued a silence of a full minute's
duration. The potentate seemed to be meditating how to begin. At
length--
"How long have you been with us, Escombe?" he enquired, hoisting himself
onto a stool as he put the question.
"A little over two years," answered Escombe. "I signed my articles with
Sir Philip on the first of September the year before last, and came on
duty the next day."
"Two years!" ejaculated Mr Richards. "I did not think it had been so
long as that. But time flies when one is busy, and we have done a lot
of work during the last two years. Then you have only another year of
pupilage to serve, eh, Escombe?"
"Only one year more, Mr Richards," answered the lad.
"Ah!" commented Mr Richards, and paused again, characteristically.
"Look here, Escombe," he resumed; "you have done very well since you
came here; Sir Philip is very pleased with you, and so am I. I have had
my eye on you, and have seen that you have been studying hard and doing
your best to perfect yourself in all the details of your profession. So
far as theory goes you are pretty well advanced. What you need now is
practical, out-of-door work, and," laying his hand upon the open atlas,
"I have got a job here that I think will just suit you. It is in Peru.
Do you happen to know anything of Peru?"
Escombe confessed that his knowledge of Peru was strictly confined to
what he had learned about that interesting country at school.
"It is the same with me," admitted Mr Richards. "All I know about Peru
is that it is a very mountainous country, which is the reason, I
suppose, why there is considerably less than a thousand miles of railway
throughout the length and breadth of it. And what there is is made up
principally of short bits scattered about here and there. But there is
some talk of altering all that now, and matters have gone so far that
Sir Philip has been commissioned to prepare a scheme for constructing a
railway from a place called Palpa--which is already connected with Lima
and Callao--to Salinas, which is connected with Huacho, and from Huacho
to Cochamarca and thence to a place called Cerro de Pasco, which in its
turn is connected with Nanucaca; and from Nanucaca along the shore of
Lake Chinchaycocha to Ayacucho, Cuzco, and Santa Rosa, which last is
connected by rail with Mollendo, on the coast. There is also another
scheme afoot which will involve the taking of a complete set of
soundings over the length and breadth of Lake Titicaca. Now, all this
means a lot of very important and careful survey work which I reckon
will take the best part of two years to accomplish. Sir Philip has
decided to entrust the work to Mr Butler, who has already done a great
deal of survey work for him, as of course you know; but Mr Butler will
need an assistant, and Sir Philip, after consultation with me, has
decided to offer that post to you. It will be a splendid opportunity
for you to acquire experience in a branch of your profession that you
know very little of, as yet; and if the scheme should be carried out,
you, in consequence of the familiarity with the country which you will
have acquired, will stand an excellent chance of obtaining a good post
on the job. Now, what do you say, Escombe; are you willing to go? Your
pay during the survey will be a guinea a day--seven days a week--
beginning on the day you sail from England and ending on the day of your
return; first-class passage out and home; all expenses paid; twenty-five
pounds allowed for a special outfit; and everything in the shape of
surveying instruments and other necessaries, found. After your return
you will of course be retained in the office to work out the scheme, at
a salary to be agreed upon, which will to a great extent depend upon the
way in which you work upon the survey; while, in the event of the scheme
being carried out, you will, as I say, doubtless get a good post on the
engineering staff, at a salary that will certainly not be less than your
pay during the survey, and may possibly be a good deal more."
Young Escombe's heart leapt within him, for here was indeed a rosy
prospect suddenly opening out before him, a prospect which promised to
put an abrupt and permanent end to certain sordid embarrassments that of
late had been causing his poor widowed mother a vast amount of anxiety
and trouble, and sowing her beloved head with many premature white
hairs. For Harry's father had died about four months before this story
opens, leaving his affairs in a condition of such hopeless disorder that
the family lawyer had only just succeeded in disentangling them, with
the result that the widow had found herself left almost penniless, with
no apparent resource but to allow her daughter Lucy to go out into a
cold, unsympathetic world to earn her own living and face the many
perils that lurk in the path of a young, lovely, innocent, and
unprotected girl. But here was a way out of all their difficulties;
for, as Harry rapidly bethought himself, if all his expenses were to be
paid while engaged upon the survey, he could arrange for at least three
hundred pounds of his yearly salary to be paid to his mother at home,
which, with economy and what little she had already, would suffice to
enable her and Lucy to live in their present modest home, free from
actual want.
There was but one fly in his ointment, one disturbing item in the
alluring programme which Mr Richards had sketched out, and that was Mr
Butler, the man who was to be Escombe's superior during the execution of
the survey. This man was well known to the occupants of Sir Philip
Swinburne's drawing office as a most tyrannical, overbearing man, with
an arrogance of speech and offensiveness of manner and a faculty for
finding fault that rendered it absolutely impossible to work amicably
with him, and at the same time retain one's self respect. Moreover, it
was asserted that if there were two equally efficient methods of
accomplishing a certain task, he would invariably insist upon the
adoption of that method which involved the greatest amount of
difficulty, discomfort, and danger, and then calmly sit down in safety
and comfort to see it done. Mr Richards had said that Escombe would,
upon his return to England, be retained in the office to work out the
scheme, at a salary the amount of which would "to a great extent depend
upon the way in which he worked on the survey"; and it seemed to Harry
that Sir Philip's estimate of the way in which he worked on the survey
would be almost entirely based upon Mr Butler's report. Now it was
known that, in addition to possessing the unenviable attributes already
mentioned, Butler was a most vindictive man, cherishing an undying
enmity against all who had ever presumed to thwart or offend him, and he
seemed to be one of those unfortunately constituted individuals whom it
was impossible to avoid offending. It is therefore not to be wondered
at if Escombe hesitated a moment before accepting Mr Richards's offer.
"Well, Escombe, what do you say?" enquired the chief draughtsman, after
a somewhat lengthy pause. "You do not seem to be very keen upon
availing yourself of the opportunity that I am offering you. Is it the
climate that you are afraid of? I am told that Peru is a perfectly
healthy country."
"No, Mr Richards," answered Escombe. "I am not thinking of the
climate; it is Mr Butler that is troubling me. You must be fully aware
of the reputation which he holds in the office as a man with whom it is
absolutely impossible to work amicably. There is Munro, who helped him
in that Scottish survey, declares that nothing would induce him to again
put himself in Mr Butler's power; and you will remember what a shocking
report Mr Butler gave of Munro's behaviour during the survey. Yet the
rest of us have found Munro to be invariably most good natured and
obliging in every way. Then there was Fielding--and Pierson--and
Marshall--"
"Yes, I know," interrupted Mr Richards rather impatiently. "I have
never been able to rightly understand those affairs, or to make up my
mind which was in the wrong. It may be that there were faults on both
sides. But, be that as it may, Mr Butler is a first-rate surveyor; we
have always found his work to be absolutely accurate and reliable; and
Sir Philip has given him this survey to do; so it is too late for us to
draw back now, even if Sir Philip would, which I do not think in the
least likely. So, if you do not feel inclined to take on the job--"
"No; please do not mistake my hesitation," interrupted Escombe. "I will
take the post, most gratefully, and do my best in it; only, if Mr
Butler should give in an unfavourable report of me when all is over, I
should like you to remember that he has done the same with everybody
else who has gone out under him; and please do not take it for granted,
without enquiry, that his report is perfectly just and unbiased."
This was a rather bold thing for a youngster of Escombe's years to say
in relation to a man old enough to be his father; but Mr Richards
passed it over--possibly he knew rather more about those past episodes
than he cared to admit--merely saying:
"Very well, then; I dare say that will be all right. Now you had better
go to Mitford and draw the money for your special outfit; also get from
him a list of what you will require; and to-morrow you can take the
necessary time to give your orders before coming to the office. But you
must be careful to make sure that everything is supplied in good time,
for you sail for Callao this day three weeks."
The enthusiasm which caused Escombe's eyes to shine and his cheek to
glow as he strode up the short garden path to the door of the trim
little villa in West Hill, Sydenham, that night, was rather damped by
the reception accorded by his mother and sister to the glorious news
which he began to communicate before even he had stepped off the
doormat. Where the lad saw only an immediate increase of pay that would
suffice to solve the problem of the family's domestic embarrassments,
two years of assured employment, with a brilliant prospect beyond, a
long spell of outdoor life in a perfect climate and in a most
interesting and romantic country, during which he would be perfecting
himself in a very important branch of his profession, and, lastly, the
possibility of much exciting adventure, Mrs Escombe and Lucy discerned
a long sea voyage, with its countless possibilities of disaster, two
years of separation from the being who was dearer to them than all else,
the threat of strange and terrible attacks of sickness, and perils
innumerable from wild beasts, venomous reptiles and insects, trackless
forests, precipitous mountain paths, fathomless abysses, swift-rushing
torrents, fierce tropical storms, earthquakes, and, worse than all else,
ferocious and bloodthirsty savages! What was money and the freedom from
care and anxiety which its possession ensured, compared with all the
awful dangers which their darling must brave in order to win it? These
two gently nurtured women felt that they would infinitely rather beg
their bread in the streets than suffer their beloved Harry to go forth,
carrying his life in his hands, in order that they might be comfortably
housed and clothed and sufficiently fed! And indeed the picture which
they drew was sufficiently alarming to have daunted a lad of nervous and
timid temperament, and perhaps have turned him from his purpose. But
Harry Escombe was a youth of very different mould, and was built of much
sterner stuff. There was nothing of the milksop about him, and the
dangers of which his mother and sister spoke so eloquently had no
terrors for him, but, on the contrary, constituted a positive and very
powerful attraction; besides, as he pointed out to his companions, he
would not always be clinging to the face of a precipice, or endeavouring
to cross an impassable mountain torrent. Storms did not rage
incessantly in Peru, any more than they did elsewhere; Mr Richards had
assured him that the climate was healthy; ferocious animals and deadly
reptiles did not usually attack a man unless they were interfered with;
and reference to an Encyclopaedia disclosed the fact that Peru, so far
from swarming with untamed savages, was a country enjoying a very fair
measure of civilisation. Talking thus, making light of such dangers as
he would actually have to face, and dwelling very strongly upon the
splendid opening which the offer afforded him, the lad gradually brought
his mother and sister into a more reasonable frame of mind, until at
length, by the time that the bedroom candles made their appearance, the
two women, knowing how completely Harry had set his heart upon going,
and recognising also the strength of his contention as to the
advantageous character of the opening afforded him by Mr Richards's
proposal, had become so far reconciled to the prospect of the separation
that they were able to speak of it calmly and to conceal the heartache
from which both were suffering. So on the following morning Mrs
Escombe and Lucy were enabled to sally forth with cheerful countenance
and more or less sprightly conversation as they accompanied the lad to
town to assist him in the purchase of his special outfit, the larger
portion of which was delivered at The Limes that same evening, and at
once unpacked for the purpose of being legibly marked and having all
buttons securely sewn on by two pairs of loving hands.
The following three weeks sped like a dream, so far as the individual
chiefly interested was concerned; during the day he was kept continually
busy by Mr Butler in the preparation of lists of the several
instruments, articles, and things--from theodolites, levels, measuring
chains, steel tapes, ranging rods, wire lines, sounding chains, drawing
and tracing paper, cases of instruments, colour boxes, T-squares, steel
straight-edges, and drawing pins, to tents, camp furniture, and
saddlery--and procuring the same. The evenings were spent in packing
and re-packing his kit as the several articles comprising it came to
hand, diversified by little farewell parties given in his honour by the
large circle of friends with whom the Escombes had become acquainted
since their arrival and settlement in Sydenham. At length the
preparations were all complete; the official impedimenta--so to speak--
had all been collected at Sir Philip Swinburne's offices in Victoria
Street, carefully packed in zinc-lined cases, and dispatched for
shipment in the steamer which was to take the surveyors to South
America. Escombe had sent on all his baggage to the ship in advance,
and the morning came when he must say good-bye to the two who were
dearest to him in all the world. They would fain have accompanied him
to the docks and remained on board with him until the moment arrived for
the steamer to haul out into the river and proceed upon her voyage; but
young Escombe had once witnessed the departure of a liner from
Southampton and had then beheld the long-drawn-out agony of the
protracted leave taking, the twitching features, the sudden turnings
aside to hide and wipe away the unbidden tear, the heroic but futile
attempts at cheerful, light-hearted conversation, the false alarms when
timid people rushed ashore, under the unfounded apprehension that they
were about to be carried off across the seas, and the return to the ship
to say goodbye yet once again when they found that their fears were
groundless. He had seen all this, and was quite determined that his
dear ones should not undergo such torture of waiting, he therefore so
contrived that his good-bye was almost as brief and matter of fact as
though he had been merely going up to Westminster for the day, instead
of to Peru for two years. Taking the train for London Bridge, he made
his way thence to Fenchurch Street and so to Blackwall, arriving on
board the s.s. _Rimac_ with a good hour to spare.
But, early as he was, he found that not only had Mr Butler arrived on
board before him, but also that that impatient individual had already
worked himself into a perfect frenzy of irritation lest he--Harry--
should allow the steamer to leave without him.
"Look here, Escombe," he fumed, "this sort of thing won't do at all, you
know. I most distinctly ordered you to be on board in good time this
morning. I have been searching for you all over the ship; and now, at a
quarter to eleven o'clock, you come sauntering on board with as much
deliberation as though you had days to spare. What do you mean by being
so late, eh?"
"Really, Mr Butler," answered Harry, "I am awfully sorry if I have put
you out at all, but I thought that so long as I was on board in time to
start with the ship it would be sufficient. As it is I am more than an
hour to the good; for, as you are aware, the ship does not haul out of
dock until midday. Have you been wanting me for anything in
particular?"
"No, I have not," snapped Butler. "But I was naturally anxious when I
arrived on board and found that you were not here. If you had happened
to miss the ship I should have been in a pretty pickle; for this
Peruvian survey is far too big a job for me to tackle singlehanded."
"Of course," agreed Escombe. "But you might have been quite certain
that I would not have been so very foolish as to allow the ship to leave
without me. I am far too anxious to avail myself of the opportunity
which this survey will afford me, to risk the loss of it by being late.
Is there anything that you want me to do, Mr Butler? Because, if not,
I will go below and arrange matters in my cabin."
"Very well," assented Butler ungraciously. "But, now that you are on
board, don't you dare to leave the ship and go on shore again--upon any
pretence whatever. Do you hear?"
"You really need not feel the slightest apprehension, Mr Butler,"
replied Harry. "I have no intention or desire to go on shore again."
And therewith he made his way to the saloon companion, and thence below
to his sleeping cabin, his cheeks tingling with shame and anger at
having been so hectored in public; for several passengers had been
within earshot and had turned to look curiously at the pair upon hearing
the sounds of Butler's high-pitched voice raised in anger.
"My word," thought the lad, "our friend Butler is beginning early! If
he is going to talk to me in that strain on the day of our departure,
what will he be like when we are ready to return home? However, I am
not going to allow him to exasperate me into forgetting myself, and so
answering him as to give him an excuse for reporting me to Sir Philip
for insolence or insubordination; there is too much depending upon this
expedition for me to risk anything by losing my temper with him. I will
be perfectly civil to him, and will do my duty to the very best of my
ability, then nothing very serious can possibly happen."
Upon entering his cabin Escombe was greatly gratified to learn from the
steward that he was to be its sole occupant. He at once annexed the top
berth, and proceeded to unpack the trunk containing the clothing and
other matters that he would need during the voyage, arranged his books
in the rack above the bunk, and then returned to the deck just in time
to witness the operation of hauling out of dock.
He found Butler pacing the deck in a state of extreme agitation.
"Where have you been all this while?" demanded the man, halting
abruptly, square in Escombe's path. "What do you mean by keeping out of
my sight so long? Are you aware, sir, that I have spent nearly an hour
at the gangway watching to see that you did not slink off ashore?"
"Have you, really?" retorted Harry. "There was not the slightest need
for you to do so, you know, Mr Butler, for I distinctly told you that I
did not intend to go ashore again. Didn't I?"
"Yes, you did," answered Butler. "But how was I to know that you would
keep your word?"
"I always keep my word, sir; as you will learn when we become better
acquainted," answered the lad.
"I hope so, for your sake," returned Butler. "But my experience of
youngsters like yourself is that they are not to be trusted." Then,
glancing round him and perceiving that several passengers in his
immediate neighbourhood were regarding him with unconcealed amusement,
he hastily retreated below. As he did so, a man who had been lounging
over the rail close at hand, smoking a cigar as he watched the traffic
upon the river, turned, and regarding Escombe with a good-natured smile,
remarked:
"Your friend seems to be a rather cantankerous chap, isn't he? He will
have to take care of himself, and keep his temper under rather better
control, or he will go crazy when we get into the hot weather. Is he
often taken like that?"
"I really don't know," answered Harry. "The fact is that I only made
his acquaintance about three weeks ago; but I fear that he suffers a
great deal from nervous irritability. It must be a very great
affliction."
"It is, both to himself and to others," remarked the stranger dryly. "I
have met his sort before, and I find that the only way to deal with such
people is to leave them very severely alone. He seems to be a bit of a
bully, so far as I can make out, but he will have to mind his p's and
q's while he is on board this ship, or he will be getting himself into
hot water and finding things generally made very unpleasant for him.
You are in his service, I suppose?"
"Yes, in a way I am," answered Escombe with circumspection; "that is to
say, we are both in the same service, but he is my superior."
"I see," answered the stranger. "How far are you going in the ship?"
"We are going to Callao," answered Harry.
"To Peru, eh?" returned the stranger. "So am I. I know the country
pretty well. I have lived in Lima for the last nine years, and I can
tell you that when your friend gets among the Peruvians he will have to
pull in his horns a good bit. They are rather a peppery lot, are the
Peruvians, and if he attempts to talk to them as he has talked to you
to-day, he will stand a very good chance of waking up some fine morning
with a long knife between his ribs."
"Oh, I hope it will not come to that!" exclaimed Escombe. "But--to
leave the subject of my friend and his temper for the present--since you
have lived in Peru so long, perhaps you can tell me something about the
country, what it is like, what is the character of its climate, and so
on. It is possible that I may have to spend a year or so in it. I
should therefore be glad to learn something about it, and to get such
tips as to the manner of living, and so on, as you can give me before we
land."
"Certainly," answered the stranger; "I shall be very pleased indeed to
give you all the information that I possibly can, and I fancy there are
very few people on board this ship who know more about Peru than I do."
And therewith Escombe's new acquaintance proceeded to hold forth upon
the good and the bad points of the country to which they were both
bound, describing in very graphic language the extraordinary varieties
of climate to be met with on a journey inland from the coast, the
grandeur of its mountain scenery, the astonishing variety of its
products, its interesting historical remains; the character of the
aboriginal Indians, the beliefs they cherish, and the legends which have
been preserved and handed down by them from father to son through many
generations; the character and abundance of its mineral wealth, and a
variety of other interesting information; so that by the time that Harry
went down below to luncheon, he had already become possessed of the
feeling that to him Peru was no longer a strange and unknown land.