MANGROVE CREEK
There was not a ripple on the sea when the _Enchantress_, steaming
slowly, closed with the coast. The glittering water broke with a drowsy
murmur at her bows and turned from silver to a deep blue in the shadow
of the hull; her wake was marked by silky whirls on the back of the
swell. It was four o'clock in the afternoon, the sea flung back a
dazzling light, and Grahame's eyes ached as he searched the approaching
land with his glasses.
Far back, blue mountains loomed through haze and the foreground was
blurred and dim. One could not tell where the low expanse began or
ended, though a broad, dark fringe, which Grahame knew was forest,
conveyed some idea of distance. In one or two spots, a streak of white
indicated surf upon a point, but the picture was flooded with a glare in
which separate objects lost distinctness. Blue and gray and silver
melted into one another without form or salient line.
Grahame put down the glasses and turned to the seaman near him. Miguel
was getting old, but his tall figure was strong, and he stood, finely
posed, with a brown hand on the wheel. His face was rugged, but he had
clear, blue eyes that met one with a curious child-like gaze. He was
barefooted and his thin cotton trousers and canvas jacket were
spotlessly clean, though Grahame imagined he had made the latter out of
a piece of old awning they had meant to throw away.
"You come from the Canaries, don't you, Miguel?" Grahame asked in
Castilian. "It is not so hot there."
"From San Sebastian, senor, where the trade-breeze blows and the
date-palms grow. My house stands among the tuna-figs beside the
mule-track to the mountains."
"Then you have a house? Who takes care of it while you are away?"
"My senora. She packs the tomatoes they send to England. It is hard work
and one earns a peseta a day."
"Then why did you leave her?" Grahame asked, for he knew that a peseta,
which is equal to about twenty cents, will not buy much of the coarse
maize-flour the Canary peasants live upon.
"There came a great tempest, and when my three boats were wrecked
something must be done. My sons were drawn for the navy; they had no
money to send. For years, senor, I was captain of a schooner fishing
_bacalao_ on the African coast, and when I came home to catch tunny for
the Italian factory things went very well. Then the gale swept down from
the peaks one night and in the morning the boats were matchwood on the
reef."
"Ah!" said Grahame. He could sympathize, for he too had faced what at
the time had seemed to be overwhelming disaster. "So you sailed to look
for better fortune somewhere else? You hope to go back to San Sebastian
some day?"
"If my saint is kind. But perhaps it is well that he is a very great
angel, for fortune is not always found when one looks for it at sea."
There was no irony in Miguel's answer; his manner was quietly dignified.
Indeed, though he had been taught nothing except rudimentary seamanship,
he had the bearing of a fine gentleman.
"Wages are good in English and American ships," Grahame resumed, feeling
that he was guilty of impertinence. "Sometimes you are able to send the
senora a few dollars?"
"I send all but a little to buy clothes when I go where it is cold, and
my senora buries the money to buy another boat if it is permitted that I
return. Once or twice a year comes a letter, written by the priest, and
I keep it until I find a man who can read it to me."
Grahame was touched. There was something pathetic in the thought of this
untaught exile's patiently carrying the precious letters until he met
somebody who could read his language.
"Well," he said, "if things go well with us, you will get a bonus
besides your wages, which should make it easier for you to go home. But
you understand there is danger in what we may have to do."
Miguel smiled.
"Senor, there is always danger on the sea."
Grahame turned and saw Walthew standing in the engine-room door. He wore
dirty overalls and a singlet torn open at the neck, there was a smear of
oil across his face, and his hands were black and scarred.
"What on earth have you been doing?" Grahame asked.
"Lying on my back for two hours, trying to put a new packing in the
gland of a pump."
"Well, who would have predicted a year ago that you would be amusing
yourself this way now!"
Walthew laughed.
"Do you know where we are?" he asked.
"I imagine we're not far off the creek; in fact, we might risk making
the signal smoke. It will be dark enough to head inshore in a few
hours."
"Then we'll get to work with the fires," said Walthew, promptly
disappearing below.
Soon afterward, a dense black cloud rose from the funnel and, trailing
away behind the _Enchantress_, spread across the sky. Grahame knew that
it might be seen by unfriendly watchers, but other steamers sometimes
passed the point for which he was steering. After a while he signaled
for less steam, and only a faint, widening ripple marked the
_Enchantress's_ passage through the water as she closed obliquely with
the land. It was still blurred, and in an hour Grahame stopped the
engines and took a cast of the lead. Dark would come before long, when,
if they had reached the right spot, signals would be made. In the
meanwhile it would be imprudent to venture nearer.
Walthew and one of the seamen set out a meal on deck and when it was
eaten they lounged on the stern grating, smoking and waiting. There was
dangerous work before them; and, to make things worse, it must be done
in the dark, because the moon now shone in the daytime. It was very hot,
and a steamy, spicy smell drifted off the coast, which grew less
distinct as the darkness settled down. A faint rumble of surf reached
them from an unseen beach, rising and falling with a rhythm in it. The
black smoke had been stopped and thin gray vapor rose straight up from
the funnel. The quietness and the suspense began to react upon the men's
nerves; they felt impatient and highly strung, but they talked as
carelessly as they could.
Then in the quietness the roar of the sea on sandy shoals reached them
ominously clear. Grahame glanced shoreward, but could see nothing, for
the sun had gone and a thin mist was spreading across the low littoral.
"We're drifting inshore," he said. "As soon as I get four fathoms we'll
steam out. Try a cast of the lead."
Walthew swung the plummet and they heard it strike the sea.
"Half a fathom to the good," he called as he coiled up the wet line.
Then he stopped, looking toward the land. "What's that?" he said.
"Yonder, abreast of the mast?"
A twinkling light appeared in the mist and grew brighter.
"A fire, I think," Grahame answered quietly. "Still, one's not enough."
A second light began to glimmer, and soon another farther on.
Macallister chuckled.
"Ye're a navigator. Our friends are ready. I've seen many a worse
landfall made by highly-trained gentlemen with a big mail company's
buttons."
"A lucky shot; but you had better stand by below. Start her easy."
He blew three blasts on the whistle, and the fires went out while the
_Enchantress_ moved slowly shoreward through the gloom. Miguel held the
wheel and Grahame stood near by, watching the half-breed who swung the
lead. Presently another light twinkled, and, listening hard, Grahame
heard the splash of paddles. Stopping the engines, he waited until a
low, gray object crept out of the mist and slid toward the steamer's
side. Ropes were thrown and when the canoe was made fast the first of
the men who came up ceremoniously saluted Grahame.
"You bring the goods all right?" he asked.
"They're ready. If it makes no difference, I'd rather wait until
to-morrow before delivering them. I understand the beach is mostly
mangrove swamp, and it's a dark night to take the steamer up the creek."
"To-morrow she be seen; the coast is watch by spy," said the other in
his quaint English; then indicated his companion. "Dese man he takes her
anywhere."
Grahame hesitated.
Secrecy was essential, and if he waited for daylight and was seen by
watchers who had noticed the smoke in the afternoon he might not have an
opportunity for landing another cargo. For all that, knowing nothing
about his pilot's skill, he imagined he ran some risk of grounding if he
took the steamer in. Risks, however, could not be avoided.
"Very well," he decided. "Send him to the wheel."
He kept the lead going as the _Enchantress_ crept forward, and was
relieved to find that the water got no shallower. It looked as if the
pilot were following a channel, for the wash of the sea on hidden shoals
began to rise from both sides. Except for this and the measured throb of
the engines, there was deep silence, but after a while the vessel, which
had been rolling gently, grew steady, and Grahame thought he could hear
the water she threw off splash upon a beach. He looked about eagerly,
but there was nothing to be seen. This creeping past invisible dangers
was daunting, but he felt comforted as he glanced at the motionless,
dark figure at the helm. The fellow showed no hesitation; it was obvious
that he knew his business.
Through the darkness low trees loomed up ahead, and shortly afterward
another clump abeam. Mist clung about them, there was not much space
between, and the absence of any gurgle at the bows indicated that the
_Enchantress_ was steaming up the inlet with the tide. The lead showed
sufficient water, but Grahame had misgivings, for the creek seemed to be
getting narrower. It was, however, too late to turn back; he must go on
and trust to luck.
Some time later a light appeared among the trees, and the pilot ordered
the engines to be stopped. Then he pulled the helm over and waved his
hand as the _Enchantress_ swung inshore.
"_La ancla!_" he cried. "Let her go!"
There was a splash and a sharp rattle of chain, and when the
_Enchantress_ stopped the beat of paddles came out of the gloom. Then
the cargo-lamp was lighted and in a few minutes a group of men climbed
on board. Some were dusky half-breeds, but two or three seemed to be of
pure Spanish extraction. Grahame took these below, where they carefully
examined the cases. When they were satisfied they followed him to the
deck-cabin, and Walthew brought them some wine. One man gave Grahame a
check on an American bank, and shortly afterward the work of getting up
the cargo began.
Everybody became suddenly busy. Shadowy figures dragged the cases about
the shallow hold and fixed the slings. Dark-skinned men, dripping with
perspiration, slackened guys and swung the derrick-boom while canoes
crept into the light of the cargo-lamp and vanished, loaded, into the
dark. The stir lasted for some time, and then, after the cases had all
been hoisted over the side, the white men among the shore party shook
hands with their hosts.
"It is all right," said the spokesman. "We are ready for the next lot
when you get back."
"I suppose your man will be here in the morning to take us out?" Grahame
asked, because he had been told that it was too late to leave the creek
that tide.
"If nothing is happen, he certainly come."
The visitors got on board their canoe, and it slid off into the mist.
When the splash of paddles died away, an oppressive silence settled down
on the vessel, and the darkness seemed very thick, for the big
cargo-lamp had been put out. After the keen activity a reaction had set
in: the men were tired and felt the heat.
"It's lonesome," Macallister remarked, and sniffed disgustedly. "Like a
hothouse in a botanic garden when they've full steam on, with a dash o'
Glasgow sewer thrown in. In fact, ye might call the atmosphere a wee bit
high."
"I don't suppose you found it very fresh in West Africa," Walthew
replied.
"I did not. That's maybe the reason the ague grips me noo and then.
Ye'll learn something about handling engines when it takes me bad. This
is a verra insidious smell."
"The mosquitos are worse," Grahame said. "I wonder whether there are
many of them about? Anyway, I'd like a warp taken out and made fast to
the trees. There's not much room to swing, and though the flood
generally runs harder than the ebb in these places, one can't count on
that."
Walthew got into the boat with Miguel and one of the crew, and came back
half an hour later, smeared with mire and wet to the waist.
"We've made the rope fast, but this creek has no beach," he said. "The
trees grow out of the water, and you slip off their roots into holes
filled with slime. Couldn't feel any bottom in one or two, and I was
mighty glad I caught a branch. In fact, we've had a rather harrowing
experience."
"Get your wet clothes off and take some quinine before you go to sleep,"
Grahame advised; and when Walthew left him he watched the men heave the
warp tight.
Soon afterward the crew went below, except for one who kept
anchor-watch. The ebb tide was running strong, and Grahame was not quite
satisfied about the way the vessel was moored. It was, however,
impossible to make her more secure in the dark, and, getting sleepy
presently, he left his seat on the stern grating and went to his berth.