It was evening and the _Tanganyika_, a tall unwieldy bulk, for she had
only a few hundred tons in her, lay at anchor waiting for her commander,
who was ashore getting the ship's papers. She was about to sail for
Alexandria, carrying back, through an area infested with enemy
submersibles, some of the cargo already discharged and reloaded in the
southern port. This apparently roundabout method of achieving results
had in it neither malice nor inefficiency. Those who have had anything
to do with military matters will understand the state of affairs, and
the seemingly insane evolutions of units proceeding blindly upon orders
from omnipotent commanders. The latter had ever before them the shifting
conditions of a dozen theatres of war, and to them it was nothing that a
crate of spark-plugs, for example, sorely needed in Persia, should be
carried to and fro over the waters of the Ægean, or that locomotives
captured from an Austrian transport and suitable for the Macedonian
railroads should be rusting in the open air in Egypt. These men, scoured
clean and pink as though with sand and boiling water every morning, in
their shining harness and great gold-peaked hats, moved swiftly in
high-powered motor cars from one consultation to another, the rows of
medal ribbons glowing on their breasts like iridescent plumage. They
lived in a world apart. For them it was inevitable that a whole fleet of
ships should be no more than a microscopic point in some great curve
named Supply. Behind them was a formidable element called Politics, a
power which appeared to them to come out of Bedlam and which would
suddenly change its course and make the labour of months of no avail.
Their eyes were steadily fixed upon certain military dispositions, and
they sent forth, from their lofty stations, standing orders which
enclosed each subordinate commander in an isolated compartment, beyond
which he could not possibly wander, but within which he could exercise a
practically god-like power. This system, admirable because it relieved
each executive from any concern with the final upshot of the struggle,
ultimately reached the _Tanganyika_. Her captain, receiving his
instructions from the Naval Transport office, found himself in sole
charge of life and property upon her, while for subsequent sailing
orders he was referred to the commanding officer of a sloop now moving
slowly towards the boom. Captain Meredith in no wise objected to this.
What struck him with ironical emphasis was the ineffectiveness of
military traditions when applied to a ship with a civilian crew. He
might issue orders, but who was to foreshadow the effect on the minds of
the Orientals who steered and stoked and oiled below? What might he
expect in a sudden disaster from those yellow enigmas padding to and fro
or sitting on their hams drinking rice-water and staring at the shores
of Macedonia with unfathomable eyes? He had been asked if in his opinion
the crew were loyal, and he had wondered how any one could find that
out. Loyalty, when you came to place it under analysis, presented a
somewhat baffling problem. It was like trying to find out whether men
were religious. The assumption, of course, was that all men had in them,
deep down, something of ultimate probity. But of what use was that in
such a sudden emergency as confronted one at sea these days? Captain
Meredith refrained from dwelling too long upon probabilities as he
returned to the _Tanganyika_. He hoped he would get through all right
again. He had heard hints of a cargo for Basra, in the Persian Gulf; and
until they could get him a white crowd he would rather not take any more
risks in the Ægean. The longer the war went on the less important seemed
abstractions like loyalty or patriotism, and the more shiningly
important the need for unimaginative and quick-witted efficiency. There
lay the trouble. The naval or military commander had behind him the
prestige and power of service discipline and he was supported in his
ruthless judgments by the rank and file. The naval officer spoke his
orders in a quiet, refined voice, and massive muscular bluejackets,
drilled for years, sprang smartly to carry them out. Here, Captain
Meredith reflected, it was not quite like that. Seamen in merchant ships
were largely individualists. Had they, for example, been forced by law
to go to sea immediately after being sunk, they would almost inevitably
have rebelled and sulked ashore. Being free agents, they were filled
with fury, and mobbed shipowners to send them out again. This was the
good side. The bad side was the difficulty in getting them to obey
orders. Moreover, as was made plain during his recent interview with the
officers in the Transport Department, his own class, the commanders, had
something to learn about doing as they were bid. They had shown him a
Weekly Order, just in from Malta, demonstrating the urgent necessity of
all captains carrying out their instructions. The huge _Afganistan_,
triple screws and with four thousand souls on board, had been sunk and
many lost, while her escort was awaiting her two hundred miles to the
south. It was pointed out to Captain Meredith that the _Afganistan_ was
lost simply because her commander had disobeyed explicit orders given at
Port Said. Well! It was not pleasant, but had to be borne. This was, he
supposed, being faithful unto death. He climbed on board, waved good-bye
to the lieutenant in the launch, and ordered the anchor up.
Mr. Spokesly was waiting at the gangway for that very purpose and went
forward at once. Captain Meredith, on reaching his room, rang the bell.
The second steward appeared at the door, a long lubberly lout with
yellow hair plastered athwart a dolichocephalous cranium and afflicted
with extraordinarily unlovely features.
"Where is the chief steward?" the captain demanded.
"In 'is room, sir. I was to sye, sir, as 'e ain't feelin' very well this
afternoon, sir, if you'll excuse 'im."
"Drunk, I suppose," said the commander quietly.
"Ow, it's not for me to sye, sir," the creature whinnied, moving
enormous feet encased in service shoes pilfered from cargo. "Was it tea
you was wantin', sir?"
"Bring it," said Captain Meredith, regarding him with extreme disfavour,
and the man disappeared.
Not much chance there, thought the captain, as he noted the awkward
knuckly hands, with nails bitten to the quick, which arranged the tray
before him and made a number of the indescribable motions peculiar to
stewards. Hands! How marvellously they indicated character! He was
reminded afresh of his own brother-in-law, a surgeon, of whose death in
action he had learned during the week. Wonderful hands he had had, long
with broad shallow points, indicative of a very fine skill with the
knife. Now he was dead; and this creature here would no doubt survive
and prosper when it was all over. The captain had been thinking a good
deal during the past few days. An old friend of his, a school-master in
happier times, had suddenly descended upon him, a bronzed person in
khaki with a major's crowns on his shoulder-straps. Had a few days'
leave from the Struma front. He was not elated at his rise in rank, it
transpired, for it had simply been a process of rapid elimination. All
the senior officers had been killed; and here he was, an old gray badger
of an elderly lieutenant promoted to major. There was a lull on the
Struma, he said, his tired, refined voice concealing the irony. Very
delightful to have a few days' peace on a ship with a friend. Now he was
back on the Struma; and perhaps next time Captain Meredith got news
there would be another gap in that little staff. He stepped out on the
bridge. The anchor was coming up.
Mr. Spokesly was thinking, too, in spite of the immediate distraction of
heaving-up. It had been a week of extraordinary experiences for him. As
he leaned over the rail and looked down into the waters of the Gulf, and
noted the immense jelly-fish, like fabled amethysts, moving gently
forward to the faint rhythmic pulsing of their delicate fringes, he
began to doubt afresh his identity with the rather banal person who had
left England a couple of short months before. He found himself here now,
outwardly the same, yet within there was a readjustment of forces and
values that at times almost scared him. For he had reached a position
from which it was impossible to gauge the future. Nothing would ever be
the same again. He was frankly astonished at his own spiritual
resources. He had not known that he was capable of emotions so far
removed from a smug commonplace. Love, as he had conceived it, for
example, had been an affair of many oppressive restrictions, an affair
of ultimate respectability and middle-aged affection. Oh, dear, no! It
appeared to be a different thing entirely. He discovered that once one
was thoroughly saturated with it, one stepped out of all those ideas as
out of a suit of worn and uncomfortable clothing. Indeed, one had no
need of ideas at all. One proceeded through a series of transmigrations.
One arrived at conclusions by a species of intuition. Life ceased to be
an irritating infliction and became a grand panorama.
And yet in the present situation what did it all amount to? With its
well-known but inexplicable rapidity, rumour had already gone round the
ship hinting at a trip to the Persian Gulf. If that were so, Mr.
Spokesly, by all the laws of probability, would never be in Saloniki
again. Yet he was quite confident that he would be in Saloniki again. He
had no clear notion of what he proposed to do when he reached
Alexandria, but he was determined to manage it somehow. He had a feeling
that he was matched against fate and that he would win. He did not yet
comprehend the full significance of what he called fate. He was unaware
that it is just when the gods appear to be striving against us that they
need the most careful watching lest they lure us to destroy ourselves.
He was preoccupied with the immediate past; which he did not suspect is
the opiate the gods use when they are preparing our destinies. And while
he was sure enough in his private mind that he would get back to
Saloniki somehow, the slow movement of the _Tanganyika_ as she came up
on her anchor gave the episode an appearance of irrevocable
completeness. He was departing. Somewhere among those trees beyond the
White Tower, trees that shared with everything else in Saloniki an
appearance of shabby and meretricious glamour, like a tarnished and
neglected throne, was Evanthia Solaris. And the ship was moving. The
anchor was coming up and the ship was going slow ahead. Mr. Spokesly
looked down at the water that was gushing through the hawse-pipe and
washing away the caked mud from the links and shackles. As far as he
could see he was going back to Alexandria, back by devious ways to
London, and Evanthia Solaris, with her amber eyes, her high-piled glossy
black hair and swift, menacing movements, would be no more than an
alluring memory. And as the anchor appeared and the windlass stopped
heaving while the men hosed the mud from the flukes, Mr. Spokesly began
to realize, with his new-found perception, that what he took to be
confidence was only desire. He was imagining himself back there in
Saloniki; a man without ties or obligations. He saw an imaginary
Spokesly seizing Evanthia and riding off into the night with her, riding
into the interior, regardless of French sentries with their stolid faces
and extremely long bayonets. As he recapitulated the actual conditions
he saw he had only been dreaming of going back there. He had drawn all
the money he could and he owed Archy Bates a ten-pound note. Stowed away
under his clothes in his cabin he had nearly an oke, which is about
three pounds, of a dark brown substance which Mr. Dainopoulos had
mentioned was worth eighty pounds in Egypt if it were adroitly
transferred to the gentleman who had expressed his willingness to do
business with the friends of Mr. Bates. Here lay the beginnings of that
desire, it seemed. That eighty pounds might put Mr. Spokesly in a
position to go where he liked. It might; but the chances were that Mr.
Spokesly would fail to get away from himself after all. It is not so
easy to be an outlaw as it appears, when one has been one of the
respectable middle classes for so long. The seaman is as carefully
indexed as a convict, and has very little more chance in ordinary times
of getting away. Mr. Spokesly knew that and had no such notion in his
head. What he did meditate was some indirect retirement from the scene,
when a pocketful of loose cash would enable him to effect a desirable
man[oe]uvre in a dignified manner, and he would have no need to forfeit
his own opinion of himself. The temperament of the crook may sometimes
be innate, but in most cases it is the result of a long apprenticeship.
Mr. Spokesly wanted money, he wanted a command, he even wanted romance;
but he did not want to be wicked. He could no more get away from
Haverstock Hill, North West London, than could Mrs. Dainopoulos with all
her romantical equipment. Therein lay the essential difference between
himself and Mr. Dainopoulos, who also desired respectability, but who
had in reserve a native facility for swift and secret chicanery. Mr.
Dainopoulos slipped in and out of the law as easily as a lizard through
the slats of a railing. Mr. Spokesly could not do that, he discovered to
his own surprise and perhaps regret. Unknown to himself, the austere
integrity of distant ancestors and the hard traditions of an ancient
calling combined to limit his sphere of action. The reason why many of
us remain merely useful and poverty-stricken nonentities is that we can
serve no other purpose in the world. We lack the flare for spectacular
exploits; and even the war, which was to cleanse and revitalize the
world, has left us very much as we were, the victims of integrity.
When he had seen the anchor made fast and the compressors screwed tight,
Mr. Spokesly went aft to get his tea. He was to go on watch at eight.
This was the Captain's idea, he reflected. They were supposed to pick up
a new third mate in Alexandria. In the meanwhile the Captain was taking
a watch. It was very unsatisfactory, but what was one to do? The Old Man
had been very quiet about the shore-going in Saloniki. Hardly left the
ship himself. Had that friend of his, a major, living in the spare
cabin. Whiskies and sodas going upstairs too, the second steward had
mentioned. Too big to notice what his own officers were doing, no doubt.
If he knew what his chief officer was doing! By Jove! Mr. Spokesly was
suddenly inflated, as he sat eating his tea, with extraordinary pride.
He had recalled the moment when he had walked into the concert-hall of
the White Tower Gardens with Evanthia Solaris. The proudest moment of
his life. Every officer in the room had stared. Every woman had glared
at the slim _svelte_ form with the white velvet toque set off by a
single spray of osprey. As well they might, since they had never seen
her before. They had seen the toque, however, in Stein's Oriental Store,
and had wondered who had bought it. And as they had moved through the
dense throng of little tables surrounded by officers and cocottes, amid
a clamour of glasses and laughter and scraping chairs, with music on the
distant stage, Mr. Spokesly experienced a new pleasure. They sat down
and ordered beer. Upstairs a number of Russian officers, in their
beautiful soft green uniforms, were holding a girl over the edge of a
box and enjoying her screams. Someone threw a cream cake at the girl who
was singing on the stage and it burst on her bosom, and everyone
shrieked with laughter. The girl went into a paroxysm of rage and
snarled incomprehensibly at them before flinging out of sight, and they
all bawled with merriment. It was rich. Suddenly the Russian officers
pushed the girl over the edge of the box and she dangled by her wrists.
The audience howled as she kicked and screamed. The uproar became
intolerable. Officers of all nations rose to their feet and bawled with
excitement. One of them put a chair on a table and reached up until he
could remove the dangling girl's shoe. It was filled with champagne and
passed round. The girl was drawn up and disappeared into the box. The
manager appeared on the stage to implore silence and order. Someone
directed a soda-siphon at him and he retired, drenched. Finally a large
placard was displayed which informed the audience that "_À cause du
tapage le spectacle est fini_," and the curtain descended. They went out
into the gardens, Evanthia holding his arm and taking short prinking
little steps. Why had she wanted to go to such a place? He was obliged
to admit she hardly seemed aware of the existence of the people around
her. She sat there sipping her beer, smiling divinely when she caught
his eye, yet with an air of invincible abstraction, as though under some
enchantment. Mr. Spokesly was puzzled, as he would always be puzzled
about women. Even his robust estimate of his own qualification as a male
was not sufficient to explain the sudden mysterious change in Evanthia
Solaris. Was she afraid, she who gave one the impression of being afraid
of nothing? But Mr. Spokesly was not qualified to comprehend a woman's
moods. His destiny, his function, precluded it. He never completely
grasped the fact that women, being realists, see love as it really is,
and are shocked back into a world of ideal emotions where they can
experiment without imperilling their sense of daintiness and vestal
dedication to a god. And Evanthia Solaris was experimenting now. Her
_liaison_ with the gay and debonair creature who had journeyed out of
Saloniki that night with the departing consuls had been an inspiration
to her to speculate upon the ultimate possibilities of emotional
development. Just now she was quiet, as a spinning top is quiet, her
thoughts, her conjectures, merely revolving at high speed. With the
quickness of instinct she had admitted this friend of Mrs. Dainopoulos
to a charming and delicate comradeship committing her to nothing. That
he should love, of course, went without saying. She was debating,
however, and revolving in her shrewd and capable brain, how to use him.
And it gave her that air of diffident shyness blended with saucy courage
which made him feel, now he was soberly eating his tea on board the
_Tanganyika_, outward bound, that she was a sorceress who had thrown an
enchantment about him. And he wanted, impossible as he knew it to be, to
go back there and resign himself again to the enchantment, closing his
eyes, and leaving the _dénouement_ to chance. No doubt the novelty of
such a course appealed to him, for he came of a race whose history is
one long war against enchantments and the poisonous fumes of chance. He
went on stolidly eating his tea, substantial British provender, pickled
pig's feet, beet-and-onion salad, stewed prunes, damson jam, and tea as
harsh as an east wind. He loitered over the second cup, while the second
steward passed behind him with a napkin, eager for him to finish, for
that gentleman intended to gorge, while Archy Bates was indisposed, on
pig's feet and pickled walnuts. Mr. Spokesly loitered because he knew,
when he was once again in his own cabin, that he would be facing a
problem which makes all men, except artists and scoundrels, uneasy. The
problem was Ada. He did not want to think about Ada, a girl who was in
an unassailable position as far as he was concerned. He wanted her to
stay where she was, in beleaguered England, until he was ready to go
back, until he had regained command of himself. He rose up suddenly and
went along to his cabin. His idea was that Ada should wait for him, wait
while he went through this extraordinary experience. His mind even went
forward and planned the episode. He would get the money in Alexandria,
get out of the ship somehow, return to Saloniki ... and when the war was
over he would of course return to England and find Ada waiting for him.
It was an admirable scheme and more frequently carried out than Mr.
Spokesly was aware. Yet he was secretly ashamed. He had also a vague,
illogical notion that, after all, he was not contemplating any real
infidelity to Ada since he fully intended to return to her. He was very
confused in his mind. He was not accustomed to such crises. He took up
the little green pamphlets of the London School of Mnemonics. An
aphorism caught his eye. _Be sure your chin will find you out._ The idea
was expanded in an essay on forcefulness of character. The theory
propounded was that we have all of us a minute germ of character force
which by exercise and correct training can be developed into a
formidable engine for the acquisition of power, position, and wealth.
Another aphorism ran: _Train the muscles of your mind._ Just as the use
of dumb-bells brought out rippling rolls of muscle under a satin skin,
so the use of the Mnemonic method of Intensive Excogitation rounded out
the sinews of the mind and gave a glistening polish to the conversation.
Above all, it augmented one's cerebral vitality. One became a forceful
personality and exerted a magnetic influence over women....
Mr. Spokesly's feet hurt him slightly. He went along to the pantry and
ordered a bucket of hot water, and proceeded to go the rounds of the
ship to see that all ports and doors were screened. His feet hurt him.
And it seemed to him that his mind hurt him in very much the same way.
He was in a mood which people like the London School of Mnemonics dread
and deprecate more than anything else, a mood which renders suddenly
valueless millions of dollars' worth of advertising, which empties
theatres and leaves the purveyors of commodities with warehouses crammed
with moribund stock. He was suspicious. He had suddenly perceived in a
dim way the complete and humorous fallacy of trying to become somebody
else through the mails. It did not present itself to him in this form.
He was not clever enough to get anything so clear as that. The London
School of Mnemonics prospered exclusively upon people who lacked the
power of coherent thought. But he had become suspicious. He had lost
faith, not in himself, but in the resources of ultra-modern advertising.
He was beginning to wonder what Mr. Dainopoulos would say to the theory
of Intensive Excogitation. Mr. Spokesly did not realize it, of course,
but the mere fact that he was losing faith in the London School of
Mnemonics was evidence of his progress in life. So much Evanthia Solaris
had already done for him. She had induced in him a certain contempt and
cantankerous suspicion of life. He saw himself with appalling clearness
as the mate of a transport, quarrelling with dirty, insolent engineers
who could not be induced to blind the scuttles of their cabins properly.
And as he came back from the forecastle he heard Captain Meredith's
quiet voice. The captain wanted the fall of the big steel boom made more
secure. This boom was kept up against the mast, since it was too long to
lay down. Mr. Spokesly blew his whistle. The bosun and a couple of
seamen came out and began bending the heavy fall about the bollards near
the standing rigging. Then they hauled on the guys which brought the
boom hard up against the mast, and it appeared from the silence of the
commander that he was satisfied. That, thought Mr. Spokesly, was what
you had to put up with. He himself had sent a man up to the crosstrees
hours ago to make fast the head of the boom. The man had not mentioned
the fact that the dead-eye was loose up there, for the reason that he
was a young chap and did not notice it. While the guys held the boom up
he had slipped the pin into place and climbed down. And this was what
one had to put up with. Impossible to give satisfaction. Day after day.
Nag, nag, nag. Mr. Spokesly went back to his cabin and found Archy Bates
sitting on the settee.
Archy was in that mood which follows heavy drinking by the initiated.
Archy was always ready for each mood as it came and made the most of it.
With a confidence that resembled to an extraordinary degree the faith of
an inspired fanatic, he gave himself over to the service of the god for
the time being. Coming back from ashore he had fallen out of the boat
into the water and then fallen off the gangway into the boat again; yet
his faith in his star never faltered. When the boat drifted from the
grating he had assumed a stern expression, and raising his arms
proceeded to walk across the water. When Archy was in that benign mood
incidental to his return from a souse, there was nothing in the world to
prevent him walking on water or ascending into the air, should he deem
it a dignified thing to do. There was something rather awful, to one who
believed in the laws of nature, in the inebriated accuracy of Archy's
movements along intricate alleyways, through doors and up ladders.
Through it all he held in reserve the fixed cat-grin which implied a
bemused omniscience, a dreadful knowledge of secret human standards.
But that mood was gone and he sat here on Mr. Spokesly's settee, smoking
a cigarette, completely normal and master of himself. It was a grotesque
feature of his convalescence, this austere assumption of efficiency. He
was very much upset at the way the second steward had made a mess of
things that afternoon. Just as soon as he took his eye off him, things
went wrong. It was most discouraging. And he would like to recommend him
for promotion, too. By the way, had Mr. Spokesly heard the company was
going to buy some ships? This was an example of the way Archy "heard" of
things. No one could tell how he got hold of the most secret information
while stewed. Mr. Spokesly was not alert. He made no comment, not
realizing how nearly that stray remark might touch him.
It was a fac', Archy hiccoughed. Going to buy a lot of ships. So he'd
heard. He paused, trying to recapture the thought. Yes, now no sooner
does the Old Man order supper than the silly josser loses his head.
Ring, ring, ring, the Old Man did. Now that he had recaptured it the
thought seemed less important than he had imagined. Mr. Spokesly, his
friend, with whom he was going to do some nice little business, didn't
seem in very good spirits. Archy bent his mind to the matter. It was
just as well they weren't going back to Saloniki, he remarked
reflectively.
"How do you know? And why just as well?" asked Mr. Spokesly, wishing
Archy would go away. He wanted to be alone.
"Didn't you know?" said Archy, wondering. "The Old Man said so. The
second steward overheard something about it when he took a tray up when
the N. T. O. was here this morning. We're going to Calcutta. Oh, yes.
And a good job, too."
"Why?" said Mr. Spokesly.
Mr. Bates winked, and smiled his cat-grin.
"Fact is, Mister," he remarked in a low tone, "I went a little farther
than I intended. Nice little widow she is, and it simply wouldn't do for
me to be seen round there any more. She gave me this as a keepsake." And
Archy drew a ring with an enormous emerald set in pearls from his
vest-pocket. He put it on his little finger and turned it about.
"What!" ejaculated Mr. Spokesly. "Gave you that? Why, it's worth a
couple of hundred pounds."
"Three hundred," corrected Archy. "Easy! Ah, my boy, you don't know what
it is to have the ladies fancy you. Straight, Mister, they're a
nuisance."
Mr. Spokesly looked at Archy Bates and wondered just how much of this
was true. The value of the ring staggered him, as well it might, since
Archy, who always pretended to be drunker than he really was, had
discovered it in the upholstery of an ottoman on which he was sprawled,
his left hand closing over it and moving it softly into his pocket while
the right arm had encircled the waist of the widow. He assumed she was a
widow, of course, since he saw nothing of her husband. And he had
honestly forgotten it until after he had come aboard. He really had some
difficulty in not believing himself that she had given it to him. He
took it off and handed it to Mr. Spokesly, who looked puzzled.
"Keep it for me," Archy said. "I'm very careless. I might lose it. Give
it to me in Alexandria."
"Oh, I'll do that, all right." Mr. Spokesly took it. "I'll put it away."
"You got it all right?" said Archy, meaning the dark brown substance
concealed in among the clothes in Mr. Spokesly's drawers.
"Yes," said that gentleman shortly.
"How much...? That all? Why, I got four okes. Not coming back here, you
see. I'll keep half for Calcutta. You can get a thousand rupees an ounce
there. Nearly--let's see--nearly five hundred pounds an oke. Think of
it!"
Mr. Spokesly thought of it and wondered what sort of fight the London
School of Mnemonics would put up against that sort of thing. Archy's
kind of success was very hard to dismiss as pure luck. He scored every
time. He made money, he enjoyed life, and widows were "stuck on him,"
and gave him costly souvenirs. What efficiency could match this? After
the war Archy would be in a position to do as he had occasionally
mentioned--buy a nice little tavern and enjoy himself thoroughly. His
wife had often wanted him to do it. He sat there on the settee, blinking
and smiling in his feline way, and actually seemed to exude prosperity.
It was nothing to him that Captain Meredith had no use for him. He had
no use for Captain Meredith, so that cancelled out. Captain Meredith
could pay him off any time he liked. Archy could write letters to the
Company as well as Captain Meredith, come to that. Just for a moment Mr.
Spokesly had the wild notion that Archy was beyond the reach of any one
on earth, that he was too clever to be caught.
"Well," he said as the boy appeared with the bucket of hot water. "I go
on at eight, Archy."
Archy got up, yawned, and stretched.
"I feel a bit tired. I believe I'll have a sleep. Rather strenuous
evenin' last night, not half. You ought to have been with me, Mister.
Some little piece. Wanted me to stay.... Well, I'll say good-night."
There it was again, thought Mr. Spokesly. Archy could lie on his settee
all day, recovering from his cups, and now he could turn in and have a
comfortable sleep. Mr. Spokesly removed his socks and lowered his feet
into the generous warmth. That was better. After all, a man had to
depend on himself. Schools of Mnemonics couldn't do much when there were
people like Archy and Dainopoulos in the world. He remembered the ring,
and took it out of the drawer to look at it. The heart of the emerald
shot lambent flames at him like the cool green shadows beneath a
waterfall. He saw it on the slim, supple hand of Evanthia. A gust of
strange feeling shook him suddenly. He became aware, with inexplicable
poignancy, of the mystical correlation between jewels and love, as
though precious stones were only the petrified passions of past days.
And how could one reconcile the beauty of these things, and the fact
that they seemed ever to be found in the possession of ignoble men? More
than a year's salary, and Archy could throw it to him to keep for him.
And a woman had given it to him. Mr. Spokesly was beginning to be a
little uncertain of his own knowledge of women. They seemed
incalculable. It seemed impossible to chart the course of any of them
for any length of time. He winced as he wondered what Ada would say if
she knew what he was up to. He had no need to wonder. He knew perfectly
well that she would forgive and sympathize and let it be forgotten. That
was the way with English girls. He realized with a great uplifting of
the heart that this was part of the Englishman's goodly heritage. He
thought of himself, coming home at last to Ada, and how she would stroke
his hair and murmur "silly old boy," and he would be at peace. Peace! In
the meanwhile there was the war. It did not look so very good for the
time being. The Germans seemed an uncommonly tough proposition. Mr.
Spokesly wondered why all those military men, who wrote testimonials for
the London School of Mnemonics, couldn't show their amazingly improved
mentality by giving the enemy a licking. All very well to write, "Six
months ago I was a sergeant: now I am a major-general, and I consider it
is entirely due to your System." After all, what we needed was somebody
who could keep the Fritzies away from the Channel ports. He sighed. He
would have to dry his feet and go up on the bridge. As he stood up to
open a drawer to find a fresh pair of socks he slipped the ring into his
trousers pocket and forgot it.
As he went out into the alleyway to go forward, the last faint streaks
of light were vanishing from the sullen sky over the mountains of
Thessaly and a heavy blanket of clouds had come up from the eastward, so
that the night was ideally dark for running through these perilous
waters. Ahead of the _Tanganyika_ could be seen a faint light, carefully
screened so that only an observer high up and astern of her could see it
at all. This was the pilot light on the sloop, and Captain Meredith
mentioned in a low voice the necessity of keeping it in view, as
otherwise they might run each other down, it was so dark. There were two
other transports behind, one on each quarter, who would also need
watching. They had just received a general wireless call that a
submarine-course had been observed N. by N.-N.-E. from Skyros, which
would bring her into their zone about one in the morning. Escort would
signal change of course by a red light shown in three periods of two
seconds each. And, the captain added, he himself would be lying on his
settee just inside the door.
He vanished in the intense darkness and Mr. Spokesly found himself high
up, alone in that darkness, and in charge of the ship. She vibrated
strongly, being almost in ballast, and rolled perhaps three degrees
either way in a leisurely rhythm. Along her sides he could see a sheer
bottle-green glow from fore-foot to where it was lost in the white
cascade churned up by the emerging propeller. Beyond this one could only
catch a sort of rushing obscurity, for the sea was smooth and unbroken
by the long invisible swell. The clouds now covered the whole sky so
that one could see nothing on the forecastle-head.
Mr. Spokesly paced to and fro, watching the faint and occasionally
vanishing light on the escort. He ran over in his mind the ship's
company and ruminated on their various employments. The gunner would be
asleep alongside of his gun; for of what use was it to stand by if one
had no target? The crew were all asleep, save the helmsman and the two
lookouts on the forecastle. The chief was no doubt seated in his cabin
smoking and thinking of his wife and children in Maryport. Mr.
Chippenham, who came on at midnight, was asleep. And there would be
Archy, turned in without a care in the world. Mr. Spokesly's hand came
in contact with the ring in his pocket. He must not forget to stow it
away safely when he went below again. It would look funny if he lost it.
He remembered he owed Archy a ten-pound note. Must pay that in
Alexandria, too. Things might happen in Alexandria, he reflected with
pleasure. There was that talk of the company getting more ships--there
might be something in it. The Old Man was so infernally close-lipped
about everything. Fancy the chief officer of a ship having to get that
sort of news from a steward, just because the captain didn't trust
anybody! He threw his arms up on the dodger and stared into the
darkness. The silence was broken suddenly by the rhythmic clatter of a
shovel-blade against iron--the call of the fireman to the coal-passers
for more coal. They shouldn't make that noise, Mr. Spokesly thought with
a frown. Though, come to that, the screw was making noise enough anyhow.
Every now and again, as the vibrations of the vessel failed to
synchronize, a low muttering rumble came up from the deck members
culminating in hoarse rattles of pipe-guards and loose cowls, and
running aft in a long booming whine. Mr. Spokesly strained his eyes to
catch the pilot light again. Even with the binoculars he could not
distinguish the sloop's hull. One comfort, they were not zigzagging. It
would only increase the risk of collision on a night like this. Another
thought occurred to Mr. Spokesly as he looked away from the glasses for
a moment. He felt that if he himself were in a submarine out there he
would be much more anxious to avoid a ship than to find her. The chances
of being run down were too many. He did not realize that the
_Tanganyika_, seen from sea level, was a solid black bulk, jangling and
booming her way through the sea and leaving an immense pathway of
phosphorescence behind her. He had no time to realize it. He had no time
to adjust himself to any philosophical possibilities before it came with
a crashing roar that left him, for an instant, unconscious. The deck and
the bulwark below him heaved up and burst into crooked screaming flames
as the beams and plates were torn asunder. He stood with his hands
gripping the top of the dodger, staring hard into the murk, and then he
comprehended. He flinched sideways as a horrible sound smote his ears, a
whine rising to a muffled shriek, as the loosened fall of the big boom
tore through the blocks, and the boom itself, a fifty-foot steel girder,
was coming down. As he reached the port-engine telegraph, tugging at it
mechanically, the great mass struck the wheel-house with a noise of
rending wood, breaking glass, and a faint cry that ceased at once.
Mr. Spokesly stood for perhaps three seconds holding the telegraph
handle, and he heard a second explosion, a hollow concussion amidships
that sent a great column of water into the air so that the _Tanganyika_
seemed to have shipped a heavy sea. He could scarcely appreciate the
importance of this. He turned with an effort towards the wheel-house and
captain's quarters. There was a sound of steam escaping somewhere down
below. The boom had crushed through the bridge rails and lay across his
path as he stepped over. And there was a dreadful silence up there. Men
were running and calling down below, but here was silence. The steering
gear was demolished, and behind that ... He felt sick. He took a step
down the ladder and looked again, and this time he fell forward on his
face. The ship had gone down by the stern.
"This won't do," he muttered, scrambling up. "Who's in command?" He blew
his whistle. "Hi! Tong Pee!" he called to the helmsman. Tong Pee,
crushed to a pulp under the binnacle, made no reply. He had never been a
communicative person, Tong Pee, and now he had no choice. The sudden
complete comprehension of what had happened behind Tong Pee sent Mr.
Spokesly down the ladder in a panic. "This is no good," he said
anxiously to himself. "No good at all." And he blew his whistle again in
a rage.
But the men on the boat-deck were in no mood to pay attention to
whistles. The ship was going down. Her after deck was under water, for
the second torpedo had hit the engine room and all aft was flooded. The
forward hold was light and was keeping her bows up so that she was
gradually assuming a vertical position. And the men on the boat-deck
were crying "Wah! Wah!" and "Hoi! Hoi!" and stampeding past in a stream
towards the boats. They came up staggering with piles of bedding, with
corded boxes and crates full of white rats. They came up festooned with
mandolins and canaries in cages, with English dictionaries and
back-numbers of the _Police Gazette_. They tore each other from the
boats and stowed their treasures with long wailing cries of "Hoi! Hoi!"
They slipped and slithered away aft in heaps and fought among each other
for invisible personal effects. One of them suddenly showed a flashlight
in the darkness and the others leapt upon him to take it, and it
ricocheted away into the scupper and went out. If one of them by
infinite toil got into the boat the others tore him away with howls of
anguish. And the deck became steeper. The boats, already swung out,
sagged away from the davits and fouled the falls. The sound of
scuttering feet and frantic throats was lost in a number of
extraordinary sounds from below, like skyscrapers collapsing into a
waterfall, as the boilers carried away from their stools and crashed
into the engines, which gave way also, and the whole mass, swirling in
steam like the interior of a molten planet, plunged through the
bulkheads into the empty holds. And then the boats began to fall clear
and some of the struggling beings about them dropped away into the void.
Mr. Spokesly, hanging to the rail beneath the bridge, found himself
sobbing as though his chest would burst. He took off his coat and threw
it at the men who were twined in a knot by the nearest davit. The
_Tanganyika_ was now at a very steep angle. Mr. Spokesly took off his
boots. It flashed through his mind that he was in command. "Oh!" he
thought, "I can't leave her!" And then the thought of the others, down
there, in their cabins, and the loneliness of it up here with these
yellow maniacs, pierced his heart. "I must go," he sobbed. And indeed he
had to, for the _Tanganyika_ was going down. He could hardly keep his
balance. Hot steam was blowing up in great gray gusts from the
fiddley-grating. He was near the water now. It might be too late. He
jumped.
For a moment as the chill of the water struck him, for he had been in a
bath of sweat as he stood there sobbing, he thought he had been killed.
He was a good swimmer, for they had made a point of it in his old
training-ship. He struck out away, away from the ship as fast as he
could. He realized more keenly, now, how dangerous it was to remain
near. Twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen strokes. He turned over,
treading water and shaking the moisture from his eyes. He was horrified
to find how close he was. The ship's bows were towering over him and
wavering to and fro. And as he turned to get farther out, he felt
himself raised up on a vast billow of smooth water that was rolling in
over the _Tanganyika_. He was carried forward and whirled over and over.
With something that was almost obstinacy he made up his mind to do the
best for himself, kept his mouth shut for one thing, and avoided wearing
himself out with useless efforts. And he suddenly brought up against
something that nearly knocked the breath out of his body and scraped all
the skin off his face. He spread his arms and grasped. He thought hard
and quick. The bow! He held on. It was not going down, but up, he was
sure. And then, to his surprise, for he really had no authentic belief
that he would survive this unusual affair, he found himself out of the
water hugging a long iron ridge that trembled just awash.
He began to think again. The mass of metal to which he was clinging was
vibrating as though from a series of heavy submarine blows. Huge groans
and sharp cracks communicated themselves to his body. He had no faith in
the ship remaining long like this. In all probability the forward hatch
would get stove in or the peak would fail and then, with the whole ship
flooded, she would go down. Away off he heard a heavy detonation. There
was a sparkle of red fire and a crack as the sloop fired a three-pounder
into the darkness. He caught sight of a faint light which gave him her
position. Boom! More depth-charges. Very active now, he thought with
unreasoning bitterness, now it was all over. He saw the blur of the
sloop moving fast towards him. He threw his leg over the stem, sat up,
and putting two fingers of each hand in his mouth, blew a piercing
whistle. The next moment he was almost blinded as a searchlight swept
across the water and remained fixed upon him. It was appalling, that
intense white glare showing up his frightful loneliness out there on the
calm heedless sea. The beam wavered and vanished. And at the same moment
some premonition made Mr. Spokesly prepare to move off. The _Tanganyika_
was going down. Deep bellowings in her interior gave warning. He decided
not to wait, and slipped into the water. And before he had reached the
boat whose oars he heard working rapidly just ahead of him, there was a
final swirl and hiccough on the water, and the _Tanganyika_ was gone.
* * * * *
When he woke it was some twenty hours later, for the surgeon had bound
up his face and put stitches into a number of lacerations in his body,
and had given him cocaine to make him sleep. The sloop was anchoring
down by the flour mills, and looking out through his port-hole Mr.
Spokesly could see the gardens of the White Tower of Saloniki.