THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
'"I've seen ye looking at her like a laddie eyeing a 
 Hiitf^rQr.ntr.h.' he said." (Chapter II.) 
 
 His Lady's Pleasure] 
 
 [Frontispiece 
 
HIS 
 LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 By 
 
 HAROLD BINDLOSS 
 
 Author of "The Impostor," "Hawtrey's Deputy/' etc., etc. 
 
 WARD, LOCK & CO., LIMITED 
 
 LONDON, MELBOURNE AND TORONTO 
 
H 
 
 is 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PA.GE 
 
 I JACINTA BROWN ..... 5 
 
 II AN OVERHEATED JOURNAL ... 13 
 
 III ON THE VERANDAH .... 24 
 
 IV A BIG CONTRACT ..... 32 
 V THE TOMATO FINCA . . . .41 
 
 VI AUSTIN'S POINT OF VIEW ... 47 
 
 VII AT THE BULL-FlGHT . . . 56 
 
 VIII JEFFERSON FEELS THE STRAIN . . 64 
 
 IX AUSTIN MAKES A VENTURE ... 74 
 
 X JACINTA is NOT CONTENT ... 85 
 
 XI THE LAND OF THE SHADOW ... 90 
 
 XII NOCTURNAL VISITORS .... 97 
 
 XIII TOIL 104 
 
 XIV JEFFERSON'S REMONSTRANCE . . in 
 XV STARTING THE PUMP . . . .119 
 
 XVI ELUSIVE GUM 128 
 
 XVII AUSTIN GOES DOWN RIVER . . . 134 
 
 XVIII JACINTA BECOMES INDIGNANT. .143 
 3 
 
 M318278 
 
4 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 XIX CONDEMNED UNHEARD .... 152 
 
 XX JACINTA MAKES NO EXCUSE * . .161 
 
 XXI THE PICTURES 168 
 
 XXII FUNNEL-PAINT'S PROPOSITION. . .177 
 
 XXIII FUNNEL-PAINT M OVES AGAIN. . . 185 
 
 XXIV AUSTEN FINDS A CLUE .... 192 
 XXV HOVE OFF ...... 199 
 
 XXVI JEFFERSON FINDS THE GUM . . . 207 
 
 XXVII AUSTIN'S TOAST . . . . .217 
 
 XXVIII IN COMMAND . . . . . 227 
 
 XXIX AUSTIN is MISSING .... 237 
 
 XXX JACINTA CAPITULATES . . . .246 
 
HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 JACINTA BROWN 
 
 IT was about seven o'clock in the evening when sobre- 
 cargo Austin boarded the little mail-boat Estremedura 
 as she lay rolling at anchor on the long, moonlit heave 
 that worked into the roadstead of Santa Cruz, Palma. 
 Sobrecargo means much the same thing as purser, and 
 Austin was an Englishman, though the Estremedura 
 was to all intents and purposes a Spanish steamer. She 
 traded round the islands of the Canary archipelago with 
 mules and camels, tomatoes, bananas, onions, and 
 sea-sick English tourists, as fortune favoured her. Now, 
 as the heavily-sealed document Austin carried in his 
 pocket declared, she was to sail for Las Palmas, Grand 
 Canary, with the Cuban mail, by the gracious permission 
 of the young King of Spain. 
 
 He was a young man of average stature, and there was 
 nothing especially distinguished in his appearance, 
 though he had good grey eyes, and a pleasant, bronzed 
 face. He was somewhat lightly made, though he looked 
 wiry, and held himself well, and there was a certain 
 languidness in his smile which seemed to suggest that he 
 was not addicted to troubling greatly about anything. 
 Because his white uniform jacket with the resplendent 
 buttons had been sold a day or two before by the Scotch- 
 man who ran the Estremedura' s engines, he was just 
 then attired somewhat incongruously in a white cap 
 
 5 
 
6 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 with the very large and imposing badge of the Spanish 
 mail service, a brown alpaca jacket, white duck trousers, 
 and pipe-clayed shoes. 
 
 That evening the steamer hummed with life, and the 
 clatter of polyglot tongues. Parsee dealers in silver- 
 thread embroideries, German commercial travellers, 
 Madeiran Portuguese, Canario hillmen, and Peninsular 
 Spaniards, moved amidst the straying live stock, while a 
 little group of Anglo-Saxons naturally sat apart upon the 
 hatch. There were, as is usual when Englishmen fore- 
 gather in a country where wine is cheap, empty bottles 
 scattered about the latter. The engineer from the sister 
 ship and an athletic tourist, stripped, at least as far as 
 was permissible, were wrestling in Cumberland fashion 
 on the hatch, with much delicate manoeuvring of their 
 feet and futile clutches at each other's waists. Macal- 
 lister, who, when he felt inclined, superintended the 
 Estremedura's machinery, alternately encouraged them 
 sardonically and solaced himself with one of the bottles. 
 He was a big, gaunt man, and just then extremely dirty, 
 and when he saw Austin, looked up with a mischievous 
 twinkle in his eyes. 
 
 "I have been waiting for ye anxiously," he said. 
 " Ye may now have the pleasure of lending me five 
 dollars." 
 
 " I'm afraid not ! " said Austin decisively. " For one 
 thing I haven't got them. I very seldom have as you 
 ought to know." 
 
 Macallister made a little gesture of resignation. 
 " Well," he said, " ye have always your clothes, and if ye 
 had known us better ye would not have brought so many 
 of them on board the Estremedura. I'm half expecting 
 yon Jackson o' Las Palmas, who gave us two dollars for 
 the last white suit, to come round for some more o' them 
 when we get in." 
 
 Austin tried the door of his room close by, and was 
 consoled to find it locked, as he had left it. 
 
 " They cost me five, and I naturally never saw a 
 
JACINTA BROWN 7 
 
 peseta of the money. I suppose you kept the Correo 
 buttons ? " 
 
 " I did not," said Macallister, unabashed. <l Ye may 
 observe Miguel the quartermaster walking round in 
 them. It was no a bad bargain -a basket of big grapes 
 an' a water melon/' 
 
 Austin bore it patiently. There was, in fact, nothing 
 to be gained by protesting. Then the engineer turned 
 and glanced at the wrestlers, who were still stamping 
 up and down the hatch with feet spread well apart, 
 passionately. 
 
 " They've been at it the whole of a half-hour, an' no a 
 fall to cheer a body yet. One would think it was dancing 
 they were," he said. " It wasn't to see that I wasted a 
 tumblerful o' anisow on them." 
 
 Now, anisado is a preparation of spirit and extract of 
 aniseed, which is esteemed in that country, and Austin 
 looked hard at his comrade, because he had a jar of it, 
 intended for a Spanish friend, in his room. He was a 
 trifle uneasy, since a lock is not an insuperable obstacle 
 to an engineer. The latter, however, changed the sub- 
 ject. 
 
 " It's a kind o' pity about your clothes," he said. 
 " Miss Jacinta Brown is going across with us to-night, an' 
 she was inquiring kindly after ye." 
 
 Austin had a good deal of composure, as he often 
 needed it, but the shrewd Scottish eyes saw the momen- 
 tary pleasure in his face. Then, because he did not 
 appreciate Macallister's badinage on that subject, he 
 went into his room and bolted the door behind him before 
 he switched on the light and examined the anisado jar. 
 It seemed quite full when he shook it, and the seal was 
 intact, but on looking closer he saw that the impression 
 on the latter was not what it had been when he left it. 
 He was aware that a certain proportion of sea-water may 
 be added to rum without the average consumer noticing 
 any great difference, but he had suspicions that a blend 
 of brine and anise was not likely to be appreciated by its 
 
8 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 recipient ; and he was for a moment or two consumed 
 with righteous indignation. This, however, passed, for 
 he realized that his expostulations would be heard with 
 laughter. 
 
 Austin accordingly busied himself with his papers, and 
 it was an hour later when he went on deck. The Estr erne- 
 dura had gone to sea by then, and the lights of the little 
 Spanish town blinked above the broad fringe of surf 
 astern. She was very well kept above-decks, a trim, 
 yacht-like vessel, and for a while Austin leaned over 
 her quarter rails, smoking a cigarette, and wondering 
 when Miss Jacinta Brown would come up on deck. In 
 the meanwhile, it was pleasant to lounge there and 
 watch the moonlight gleam upon the tumbling seas. 
 
 There were, he admitted, a good many compensations 
 in the life he led. The warmth and colour of the South 
 appealed to him, and, though they are not particularly 
 numerous, there are men like him who retain a some- 
 what chastened affection for the sea they earn their 
 bread upon. It is true that he earned very little more 
 than that on board the Estremedura, and he had once had 
 his aspirations like other men, as well as a prospect of 
 realizing them ; but when financial disaster overtook 
 the family firm nobody seemed anxious to secure the 
 services of a young man without specialized training, 
 who had artistic and somewhat expensive tastes, which 
 was, perhaps, not altogether astonishing. That was 
 how Austin eventually came on board the Estremedura, 
 and stayed there, though there were odd hours when he 
 took himself to task for doing so. Still, he did not 
 exactly know where he could go if he left her, and the 
 indifference of the Latins was already infecting him. Men 
 believe that the future is quite able to take care of itself 
 in Spain. 
 
 By and by, however, a slim, white-clad figure appeared 
 in the entrance to the saloon companion, and he moved 
 in that direction with evident alacrity. As one result of 
 being the Estremedura' s sobrecargo, he was acquainted 
 
JACINTA BROWN 9 
 
 with everybody of importance in the archipelago, and 
 among them all there was nobody who figured more 
 prominently than Miss Jacinta Brown. She was Eng- 
 lish on both sides, though she had lived in those islands 
 most of her twenty-five years, and understood the 
 Spaniards probably better than they understood them- 
 selves. She also understood her countrymen, and ruled 
 over them, as well as Spanish artillery officers and Com- 
 mandantes. It was not very evident how she did it, 
 for there were a good many Spanish women, at least, 
 almost as pretty, and of much better birth than she, and 
 she apparently received no great assistance from her 
 father, for Pancho Brown was a merchant of an unusually 
 solid and unimaginative description. The wives of the 
 English visitors, however, did not as a rule like Jacinta. 
 They said she was forward, and it was a pity she had no 
 mother ; but when any of them received an invitation 
 from her it was immediately proclaimed all over the 
 hotel. 
 
 She smiled at Austin graciously, and allowed him to 
 place her a deck-chair beneath a big lifeboat, where it 
 was out of the wind, after which he procured himself 
 another, and sat down and looked at her. Jacinta did 
 not seem to mind it, and most men would probably have 
 found it difficult to keep their eyes off her. She was 
 little, shapely, and very dainty, though she could, as 
 Austin knew, on occasion be essentially dignified. She 
 had also brown hair and eyes, with a little scintillating 
 gleam in them, and her face was slightly tinted with the 
 warm Andalusian olive, though there was only English 
 blood in her. She was dressed in white, as usual, with a 
 simplicity that suggested perfect taste, while, as he 
 watched her, Austin wondered again exactly where her 
 compelling attractiveness lay. He had met women 
 with more delicate complexions, finer features, softer 
 voices, and more imposing carriage ; that is, women who 
 possessed one or two of these advantages, but he had not 
 as yet met any one to be compared to Jacinta, as he 
 
io HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 expressed it, in the aggregate. Then it seemed that she 
 read his thoughts. 
 
 " Yes, the dress is a new one. I am rather pleased 
 with it, too," she said. 
 
 Austin laughed. " If I hadn't had the pleasure of 
 making your acquaintance some time ago you would have 
 astonished me/' he said. " As it is 
 
 " Never mind ! " said Jacinta. " After all, there is 
 no great credit in telling folks of your kind what they 
 are thinking, though I can't help it now and then. You 
 were wondering what anybody saw in me." 
 
 Now Austin was too wise to fancy for a moment that 
 Jacinta was fishing for compliments. She knew her own 
 value too well to appreciate them unless they were 
 particularly artistic, and he surmised that she had merely 
 desired to amuse herself by his embarrassment. 
 
 " If I was it was very unwise of me," he said. " You 
 are Jacinta and one has to be content with that. You 
 can't be analysed." 
 
 " And you ? " 
 
 " I am the Estremedura's sobrecargo, which is, per- 
 haps, a significant admission." 
 
 Jacinta nodded comprehension. " I think it is," she 
 said. " Still, don't you think it's rather a pity you are 
 the Estremedura's sobrecargo ? " 
 
 " Well," said Austin reflectively, " I won't pretend 
 to misunderstand you, but the trouble is that I don't 
 quite see what else I could be. I cannot dig, and I'm 
 not sure that it would be very pleasant to go round 
 borrowing odd dollars from my friends. Most of them 
 would, naturally, tell me to look at them, and see what 
 I might have been if I'd had their diligence and probity. 
 Besides, I have time to paint little pictures which 
 rash tourists buy occasionally, and the life one leads 
 here has its compensations." 
 
 The Estremedura's whistle hooted just then, and as 
 Jacinta looked round a lordly four-masted ship carrying 
 everything to her royals swept up out of the night. 
 
JACINTA BROWN n 
 
 She was driving down the Trade breeze a good twelve 
 knots an hour, and the foam that flew up in cascades as 
 her bows went down swirled in a broad snowy smother 
 along the slender streak of rushing hull. Above it four 
 tapered spires of sailcloth swung black against the 
 moonlight at every stately roll, and she showed as an 
 exquisite cameo cut in ebony on a ground of silver 
 and blue. Still, it was not the colour that formed the 
 strength of that picture, but the suggestion of effort and 
 irresistible force that was stamped on it. She drove 
 by majestically, showing a breadth of wet plates that 
 flashed in a leeward roll, and Jacinta's eyes rested on 
 the bent figure high on the lifted poop grappling with 
 her wheel. 
 
 " Ah," she said, " I suppose it's sometimes brutal, 
 but that is man's work, isn't it ? " 
 
 Austin laughed again, though there was a faint 
 warmth in his cheek. " Of course, I see the inference/' 
 he said. " Still, it really isn't necessary for everybody 
 to hold a big vessel's wheel, and I would a good deal 
 sooner you said something nice to me. Nobody likes to 
 be told the truth about themselves, you know/' 
 
 " Well," said Jacinta, " we will talk of somebody else. 
 I wonder if you know that Jefferson has been left a 
 fortune, or, at least, part of one ? " 
 
 " I didn't. Still, I'm glad to hear it. I like the man. 
 In fact, he's the straight est one I've come across in his 
 occupation, which, by the way, is, perhaps, somewhat 
 of an admission, considering that he's an American/' 
 
 " I like most Americans. For one thing, they're 
 usually in earnest." 
 
 " And you like Spaniards, who certainly aren't." 
 
 " We will waive the question. It's rather a coinci- 
 dence that Jefferson should have fallen in love about 
 the same time." 
 
 " Do I know the lady, who is, presumably, in earnest, 
 too ? " 
 
 " I don't think you do, but she is a friend of mine 
 
12 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 I went to school with her for two years in Eng- 
 land." 
 
 " Then, of course, she's nice." 
 
 " That/' said Jacinta, " is naturally a matter of 
 opinion. She is, however, not in the least like me." 
 
 " In that case it's difficult to see how she can be nice 
 at all." 
 
 Jacinta smiled, somewhat sardonically. " Well/' she 
 said, " Muriel is bigger than I am, and more solid in 
 every way as well as quiet and precise. Being the 
 daughter of the clergyman of a little forlorn place in 
 England, she has, of course, had advantages which have 
 been denied to me. There are folks who have to under- 
 take their own training, or do without any, you know. 
 She very seldom says anything she does not mean, and 
 always knows exactly what she is going to do/' 
 
 " I'm not sure that sounds particularly attractive/' 
 
 Jacinta lifted her head and looked at him. " Still, she 
 is worth oh, ever so much more than a good many 
 such frivolous people as you or I. You will see her 
 yourself to-morrow. She is coming across with us to Las 
 Palmas, and, of course, if you would like to please 
 me " 
 
 " That goes without saying. To-morrow we will 
 endeavour to turn this ship upside down. It usually 
 has to be done when we have the honour of carrying a 
 lady from any part of provincial England." 
 
 " I really don't want very much," and Jacinta smiled 
 at him. " Just the big forward room for her, and the seat 
 next me at the top of your table. The nicest things have 
 a way of getting there. Then she is fond of fruit and 
 if you could get any of the very big Moscatel, and some 
 of that membrillo jelly. A few bunches of roses would 
 look nice at our end of the table, too." 
 
 " Well," said Austin with a little whimsical gesture, 
 " there is, as you know, a Spanish Commandante and his 
 wife in that forward room, but I suppose we will have to 
 turn them out. The other things will naturally follow, 
 
AN OVERHEATED JOURNAL 13 
 
 but I'm afraid Mayordomo Antonio will call us dreadful 
 names to-morrow/' 
 
 Jacinta rose. " You are as nice as I expected you 
 would be/' she said. " Now it is getting chilly, and I 
 have a letter to write." 
 
 She smiled at him, and went forward, while Austin 
 sat still and considered the position. He was quite 
 aware that he would have trouble with the Spanish 
 Commandante as well as his Mayordomo on the morrow, 
 but that was, after all, of no great importance. When 
 Jacinta wanted anything she usually obtained it, and it 
 was not a little to be counted among her friends since she 
 frequently contrived to do a good deal for them. There 
 were men as well as women in those islands who owed 
 more than they were aware of to Jacinta Brown. 
 
 Austin sighed as he remembered it, for he was a 
 penniless sobrecargo, and she, in those islands, at least, 
 a lady of station. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 AN OVERHEATED JOURNAL 
 
 THE Estremedura lay rolling gently off the quaint old 
 Spanish city of Santa Cruz, Teneriffe, most of the follow- 
 ing day. It was, indeed, late in the afternoon when she 
 went to sea. Austin sat in a deck-chair under a lifeboat, 
 while Jacinta, Mrs. Hatherly and Miss Muriel Gascoyne 
 occupied a seat close by. He was not particularly 
 charmed with the latter's company, and decided that 
 she was certainly as unlike Jacinta as she very well could 
 be. 
 
 Miss Gascoyne was a clear-complexioned, blue-eyed 
 young English woman solidly put together, and endued 
 with a certain attractiveness ; but she was quiet, and 
 had a disconcerting way of looking at him in a fashion 
 which vaguely suggested disapproval. There was also 
 what he felt to be a slightly irritating air of authority 
 about her, which seemed to suggest that she recognized 
 
14 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 the responsibility of her station. Mrs. Hatherly, her aunt, 
 was a little, withered old lady, with ruddy cheeks and 
 the stamp of vigorous health upon her, though she had 
 been ordered south for the winter. She became visibly 
 interested when Jacinta contrived to mention that 
 Austin was in charge of the Estremedura s medicine-chest. 
 
 " It really isn't my fault, and I don't do more harm 
 with it than I can help," he said. 
 
 " Then you have a knowledge of medicine ? " asked 
 the red-cheeked lady. 
 
 " No," said Austin, " not in the least. I had to get a 
 sixpenny book from England to tell me the difference 
 between a scruple and a dram, and I'm not sure about 
 some of the measures yet. You see, I entered the 
 profession quite by accident. The manual in the drug- 
 chest was, naturally, in English as it was sent on board a 
 Spanish ship, and the skipper, who couldn't read it, 
 passed it on to me. My first case was a great success, 
 unfortunately. We were loading pine, and one of the 
 men contrived to get a splinter into the inner side of his 
 eyelid. I suppose it was a weakness, but I really 
 couldn't watch him going about in agony." 
 
 " Is the desire to relieve a fellow-creature's suffering 
 a weakness ? " asked Miss Gascoyne. 
 
 Austin appeared to reflect. " I almost think it is 
 when the chances are tolerably even that you're going to 
 blind him. Still, I got the thing out, and that man 
 never quite knew the risks he ran. The next week 
 another of them dropped a hogshead on to his foot and 
 smashed it badly -they don't wear boots, you know. 
 He seemed quite convinced that I could cure him, and, 
 as the risk was his, I undertook the thing. You can see 
 him on the forecastle yonder, and he isn't limping. After 
 that my fame went abroad, and they send their cripples 
 off to me at several of the desolate places we call at. 
 I always give them something, but whatever quantity 
 of water the manual recommends I put in twice as much." 
 
 Miss Gascoyne looked at him curiously. She had 
 
AN OVERHEATED JOURNAL 15 
 
 not met a young man of this type before, and was not 
 sure that she approved of him. She also fancied that 
 he was a trifle egotistical, which he certainly was not. 
 
 " Don't you think that one should always have faith 
 in one's prescriptions and act upon it ? " said her aunt. 
 " I endeavour to do so when I dose the village people 
 who come to me." 
 
 Austin laughed. " Well," he said, " you see, I haven't 
 any, and, perhaps, if I had, it would be a little rough on 
 other folks. Still, as a matter of fact, they do get better 
 that is, most of them/' 
 
 Miss Gascoyne looked startled. " Is it right to abuse 
 the ignorant people's credulity like that ? " she said. 
 
 A little twinkle crept into Jacinta's eyes. " Mr. 
 Austin hasn't really killed anybody yet. You haven't 
 told us what you think of Teneriffe, Muriel." 
 
 Miss Gascoyne turned her face astern, and there was 
 appreciation, and something deeper than that, in her 
 blue eyes. High overhead the great black wall of the 
 Canadas cut, a tremendous ebony rampart, against the 
 luminous blue, and beyond it the Peak's white cone 
 gleamed ethereally above its wrappings of fleecy mist. 
 Beneath, the Atlantic lay a sheet of glimmering turquoise 
 in the lee of the island, and outside of that there was a 
 blinding blaze of sunlight on the white-topped sea. 
 
 " It is beautiful wonderfully beautiful," she said with 
 a little tremble in her voice. " Isn't it sad that such a 
 country should be steeped in superstition ? " 
 
 Just then a steward appeared with a laden tray at 
 the door of the captain's room. 
 
 " Doesn't Dom Erminio take his comida in the 
 saloon ? " asked Jacinta. 
 
 " No," said Austin, " not when we have English 
 ladies on board. He's a diffident man, you know, and 
 some of them will insist on talking Spanish to him. It's 
 a little trying to have to admit you don't understand 
 your own language." 
 
 " Vaya ! " said a deep voice beyond the open door 
 
16 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 " Eso no me gusta," and while the steward backed 
 out in haste, a couple of plates went flying over the rail. 
 
 " Don Erminio," said Jacinta, " evidently doesn't 
 approve of his dinner/' 
 
 Miss Gascoyne appeared astonished, and looked at 
 Austin gravely. 
 
 " Does he often lose his temper in that fashion ? " she 
 asked. " Isn't it very childish to throw good food into 
 the sea ? " 
 
 " The captain is, when you come to know him, really 
 a very good-natured man," said Austin. Then he 
 stopped, and stood up suddenly as two figures came 
 towards them along the deck, and another from the 
 opposite direction. " It's Monsignor I wonder what 
 Macallister wants with him." 
 
 A little, portly priest moved forward with a smile of 
 good-humoured pride, and had an ecclesiastic of a very 
 different stamp at his side. The latter was a great man, 
 indeed, a very great man, though he had once toiled 
 in comparative obscurity. Even Miss Gascoyne had 
 apparently heard of him. 
 
 " If one could venture, I should like to speak to him," 
 she said. 
 
 Neither Jacinta nor Austin seemed to hear her. They 
 were both watching Macallister. He was now dressed 
 immaculately in blue uniform, and in that condition he 
 was a big, handsome man, but he was also a North 
 British Calvinist, so far as he had any religious views, 
 and accordingly not one who could reasonably be 
 expected to do homage to a dignitary of Rome. Still, 
 the little fleshy priest was a friend of his, and when the 
 latter presented him he bent one knee a trifle and gravely 
 took off his uniform cap. The ecclesiastic raised two 
 fingers and spoke in Latin. Macallister smiled at him 
 reassuringly. 
 
 " That isn't exactly what I meant, but it can't do me 
 any harm coming from a man like you, while if it does 
 me any good I dare say I need it," he said. 
 
AN OVERHEATED JOURNAL 17 
 
 The great man glanced at his companion, who trans- 
 lated as literally as he could, though he also explained 
 that the Senor Macallister not infrequently made things 
 easier for some of the peasants who travelled third-class 
 on board the Estremedura. Then a whimsical but 
 very kindly twinkle crept into the great man's eyes, and 
 lie laid a beautiful, olive-tinted hand on the shoulder of 
 the mechanic who had graciously approved of him. 
 
 "If he is kind to these poor hillmen he is a friend of 
 mine. The charity it covers many differences/' he said. 
 
 Then as they came aft together Austin also took off 
 his cap, and touched Miss Gascoyne's arm as he turned 
 to the cleric. The girl rose gravely, with a tinge of 
 heightened colour in her face and a little inclination, and 
 though nobody remembered exactly what was said, 
 unless it was the eminent cleric, who was, as usual with 
 his kind, a polished man of the world, he moved on 
 with the girl on one side of him and Macallister talking 
 volubly in a most barbarous jargon on the other. Mrs. 
 Hatherly and the little priest took their places behind 
 them, and Austin gathered that as a special favour 
 Macallister was going to show them all his engines. 
 Jacinta leaned back in her seat and laughed musically. 
 
 " Macallister," she said, " is always unique, and he 
 will probably finish the entertainment by offering Mon- 
 signor a glass of whisky. It is to be hoped he doesn't 
 apostrophize his firemen with his usual fluency. Still, 
 do you know, I am rather pleased with you ? You have 
 made Muriel happy." 
 
 " If I have pleased you it is rather more to the pur- 
 pose/' said Austin reflectively. " I have, however, 
 noticed that when you express your approbation there is 
 usually something else to be done." 
 
 Jacinta smiled. " It is very little, after all, but per- 
 haps I had better explain. Muriel met Jefferson, who 
 had been to London to see somebody, on board the 
 Dahomey, and I'm telling you this in confidence 
 there are reasons for believing the usual thing happened. 
 
i8 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 She is really good, you know, while Jefferson is a 
 somewhat serious man himself, as well as an American. 
 They treat women rather well in his country in fact, 
 they seem to idealize them now and then. Besides, I 
 understand it was remarkably fine weather." 
 
 " Yes/' said Austin, who glanced suggestively across 
 the sunlit heave towards the dim, blue heights of Grand 
 Canary, " it is, one would believe, quite easy to fall in 
 love with any one pretty and clever during fine weather 
 at sea -but hadn't you better go on ? " 
 
 Jacinta pursed her lips up as she looked at him with 
 an assumption of severity, but proceeded. " Now, I 
 had arranged for Mrs. Hatherly and Muriel 'to spend 
 the winter in Grand Canary, but she has heard of 
 a doctor in one of the hotels at Madeira, and is bent on 
 going there. There is, of course, nothing the matter with 
 her ; but if she approves of the doctor in question it is 
 very probable that she will stay in that hotel until the 
 spring. Still, she is changeable, and if she doesn't go at 
 at once it is possible that she will not go at all. The 
 Madeira boat leaves Las Palmas about half an hour after 
 we get there, and I don't want Mrs. Hatherly and 
 Muriel to catch her. Muriel doesn't want to either." 
 
 Austin shook his head. " Don't you know that it is 
 rather a serious thing to delay a Spanish mail-boat ? " he 
 said. " Still, I suppose you have decided that it must 
 be done ? " 
 
 " I think so/' said Jacinta sweetly. " I also fancy you 
 and Macallister could manage it between you. You have 
 my permission to tell him anything you think necessary." 
 
 She rose, and left him with this, and Austin, who was 
 not altogether pleased with his commission, waited until 
 after the four o'clock comida, when, flinging himself 
 down on a settee in the engineer's room, cigar in hand, 
 he put the case to Macallister, who grinned. 
 
 " I'm no saying Jacinta's no fascinating, an' I've seen 
 ye looking at her like a laddie eyeing a butterscotch," he 
 said. " Still, it can no be done." 
 
AN OVERHEATED JOURNAL 19 
 
 " We have nothing to do with the Madeira boat, and 
 the Lopez boat for Cuba doesn't sail until an hour after 
 her/' said Austin. " Besides, Jacinta wants it done/' 
 
 Macallister looked thoughtful. " Weel," he said, 
 " that is a reason. Jacinta thinks a good deal of me, an' 
 if I was no married already I would show ye how to make 
 up to her. I would not sit down, a long way off, an' look 
 at her. She's no liking ye any the better for that way 
 of it." 
 
 " Hadn't you better leave that out ? " said Austin 
 stiffly. " I'm the Estremedura's sobrecargo, which is 
 quite sufficient. Can't you have a burst tube or some- 
 thing of the kind ? " 
 
 " A burst tube is apt to result in somebody getting 
 scalded, an' stepping into boiling water is sore on a 
 Primera Maquinista's feet. Ye'll just have to make 
 excuses to Jacinta, I'm thinking." 
 
 Austin, who knew he could do nothing without 
 Macallister's co-operation, was wondering what per- 
 suasion he could use, when he was joined by an unex- 
 pected ally. A big aggressive Englishman in tourist 
 apparel approached the mess-room door and signed to 
 him. 
 
 " You were not in your room," he said, as though 
 this was a grievance. 
 
 Austin looked at him quietly. "I'm afraid I really 
 haven't the faculty of being in two places at once. Is 
 there anything I can do for you ? " 
 
 " There is. I particularly want to catch the Liver- 
 pool boat via Madeira to-night, and the time you get in 
 cuts it rather fine. It occurred to me that you might 
 be able to hurry up a little." 
 
 " I'm sorry ; that's out of the question," sa^d Austin 
 languidly. ; ' You see, I'm not expected to interfere 
 with this steamer's engines." 
 
 He was wondering how he could best favour the 
 Englishman with a delicate left-handed compliment, 
 when. Macallister, who was once more very dirty and 
 
20 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 wore only a dungaree jacket over his singlet, broke in. 
 
 " I would/' he said, " like to see him try/' 
 
 " May I ask who you are ? " said the passenger, who 
 regarded him superciliously. 
 
 " Ye may/' and there was a portentous gleam in 
 Macallister's eyes. " I'm only her chief engineer." 
 
 " Ah ! " said the other, who did not consider it advis- 
 able to mention that he had supposed him to be a fire- 
 man. " Well, there are, I believe, means of obtaining 
 a favour from a chief engineer. You naturally don't 
 get many pickings in this kind of boat ? " 
 
 Austin laughed softly, for he knew his man. It is 
 now and then permissible to bestow an honorarium upon 
 a chief engineer over a deal in coals, but it requires to 
 be done tactfully, and when the stranger suggestively 
 thrust his hand into his pocket, Macallister hove his 
 six feet of length upright, and looked down on him, with 
 a big hand clenched and blazing eyes. 
 
 " Out o' this before I shake some manners intil ye, ye 
 fifteen pound the round trip scum ! " he said. 
 
 The stranger backed away from him, and then bolted 
 incontinently as Macallister made for the door. Austin 
 laughed softly when he heard him falling over things in 
 the dark alleyway, and Macallister sat down fuming. 
 
 " A bit doosoor on the coal trade is one thing, but yon 
 was -insulting," he said, and then looked up with a 
 sudden grin. "I'll fix the waster. Can ye no smell a 
 crank-pin burning ? " 
 
 " I can't," said Austin. " Still, under the circumstances, 
 I'm quite willing to take your word for it." 
 
 He went up on deck. It was dark now, but the moon 
 was shining, and he was not surprised to see a sooty 
 fireman clambering in haste up the bridge-ladder. Then 
 the throb of the propeller slackened, and when the 
 Estremedura lay rolling wildly athwart the long, moonlit 
 heave an uproar broke out in the engine-room below. 
 The Castilian is excitable, and apt to lose his head when 
 orders which he cannot understand are hurled at him, 
 
AN OVERHEATED JOURNAL 21 
 
 while Macallister when especially diligent did not trust 
 to words alone, but used lumps of coal and heavy steel 
 spanners. He was just then apparently chasing his 
 greasers and firemen up and down the engine-room. 
 There was a rush of apprehensive passengers towards 
 the open skylights, from which steam as well as bad 
 language ascended, and Austin, who went with them, 
 found Jacinta by his side. 
 
 " I suppose it's nothing dangerous ? " she said. 
 
 Austin laughed. "If it was, Macallister would not 
 be making so much noise. In fact, I don't think you 
 need worry at all. When Miss Jacinta Brown expresses 
 her wishes things are not infrequently apt to happen." 
 
 Jacinta smiled at him. " I have," she said, " one or 
 two faithful servants. Shall we move a little nearer and 
 see what he is doing ? " 
 
 "I'm afraid the conversation of one of them is not 
 likely to be of a kind that Miss Gascoyne, for example, 
 would approve of ? " 
 
 " Pshaw ! " said Jacinta, and followed when Austin 
 made way for her to one of the skylights' lifted frames. 
 
 The Estremedura was rolling wickedly, and very 
 scantily attired men were scrambling, apparently 
 without any definite purpose, beneath the reeling lights 
 which flashed upon the idle machinery. They, how- 
 ever, seemed to be in bodily fear of Macallister, who 
 held a spouting hose, while a foamy, soapy lather 
 splashed up from the crank-pit on the big, shining con- 
 necting-rod. Austin could see him dimly through a 
 cloud of steam, though he could think of no reason why 
 any of the latter should be drifting about the engine- 
 room. There were several English passengers about 
 the skylights, and the one with the aggressive manner 
 was explaining his views to the rest. 
 
 " The man is either drunk or totally incapable. He 
 is doing nothing but shout," he said. " You will notice 
 that he spends half the time washing the connecting-rods 
 which, as everybody knows, cannot get hot. If we miss 
 
22 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 the Madeira boat I shall certainly call upon the com- 
 pany's manager." 
 
 Perhaps he spoke too loudly, or it may have been an 
 accident, though Austin, who saw Macallister flounder 
 on the slippery floor-plates as the steamer rolled, did 
 not think it was. In any case he drew Jacinta back, 
 and a moment later a jet from the spouting hose struck 
 with a great splashing upon the glass. The aggressive 
 passenger, who was looking down just then, got most of 
 it in his face, and he staggered back, dripping, and 
 gasping with anger. When he once more became 
 vociferous Austin led Jacinta away. 
 
 ''I'm afraid we will not catch that boat, but I really 
 don't think you ought to hear Mack's retort," he said. 
 
 It was not quite half an hour later when the Est? 'erne- 
 dura moved on again, and Macallister informed Austin 
 that he could not allow two journals to become over- 
 heated in the same voyage. It would, he said, be too 
 much of a coincidence, and some of his subordinates did 
 know a little about machinery. They had accordingly 
 some few minutes yet in hand when they swung round 
 the high Islet a cinder heap into sight of Las P almas. 
 It gleamed above the surf fringe, a cluster of twinkling 
 lights at the black hills' feet, and there were other lights 
 higher up, on ships' forestays behind the dusky line of 
 mole. In between, the long Atlantic heave flashed 
 beneath the moon, and there was scarcely two miles of 
 it left. Austin, standing forward with a pair of night- 
 glasses and Jacinta beside him, watched the lights close 
 on one another dejectedly. 
 
 " We'll be in inside ten minutes, and I think the 
 Madeira boat has still her anchor down," he said. " 1 
 had to give the quartermaster orders to have our lancha 
 ready, and he'll take any passengers straight across to 
 her." 
 
 " I believe you did what you could," said Jacinta. 
 " Still, you see " 
 
 " Oh yes ! " said Austin. " You like success ? " 
 
AN OVERHEATED JOURNAL 23 
 
 Jacinta looked at him with a little enigmatical smile. 
 " When any of my friends are concerned I believe I do." 
 
 Austin went aft, and a little while later found Macal- 
 lister standing by the poop, which was piled with banana 
 baskets, among which sea-sick Canary peasants lay. 
 The big crane on the end of the mole was now on the 
 Estremedura s quarter, and they were sliding into 
 the mouth of the harbour. Close ahead with white 
 steam drifting about her forecastle lay the Madeira boat. 
 
 " They're heaving up/' said the engineer. " Jacinta 
 will no be pleased with ye, I'm thinking/' 
 
 " There's only one thing left," said Austin. " One of us 
 must fall in." 
 
 Macallister grinned. " Then I know which it will be. 
 It was not me who swam across the harbour last trip. 
 But wait a moment. There's a dozen or two Spaniards 
 among the baskets, an' I'm thinking nobody would miss 
 one of them." 
 
 Austin, who knew what his comrade was capable of, 
 seized hold of him, but Macallister shook his grasp off 
 and disappeared among the baskets. Then there was a 
 splash in the shadow beneath the ship, a shout, and a 
 clamour broke out from the crowded deck. A gong 
 clanged below, the captain shouted confused orders 
 from his bridge, and the Estremedura slid forward with 
 engines stopped past a British warship with her boats 
 at the booms. Then in the midst of the confusion 
 Austin, who was leaning on the rail wondering what had 
 really happened, felt himself gripped by the waist. They 
 had slid into the shadow of the Isleta, which lay back 
 upon the water just there. 
 
 " Noo's your chance," said a voice he knew. " It's a 
 hero she'll think ye. In ye go to the rescue ! " 
 
 Austin, who was by no means certain that there was 
 a man in the water at all, had no Intention of going if 
 he could help it, but, as it happened, he had no option. 
 The Estremedura rolled just then, he felt himself lifted, 
 and went out head-foremost over the rail. The steamer 
 
24 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 had gone on and left him when he rose to the surface, but 
 there was nobody either swimming or shouting in the 
 water behind him. He knew it would be a minute or 
 two yet before they got the big passenger lancha over, 
 but the Estremeduras propeller was thrashing astern, 
 and when she came back towards him he seized the 
 boat-warp already lowered along her side. Nobody 
 appeared to notice him, for one of the British warship's 
 boats was then approaching. She flashed by as he 
 crawled in through the opened gangway, and a man 
 stood up in her. 
 
 " Spanish mail ahoy ! " he cried. " Anybody speaking 
 English aboard of you ? If so, tell your skipper to go 
 ahead. We have got the banana basket he dropped 
 over. He can send for it to-morrow." 
 
 Austin slipped unnoticed into his room, but he laughed 
 as he heard the roar of a whistle and saw a long black 
 hull ringed with lights slide by. It was the Madeira boat 
 steaming down the harbour. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 ON THE VERANDAH 
 
 IT was a clear, moonlight night when Pancho Brown, Mrs. 
 Hatherly, and Erminio Oliviera, the Estremedura's 
 captain, sat in big cane chairs on the verandah of the 
 Hotel Catalina, Las Palmas. The Catalina is long and 
 low, and fronted with a broad verandah, a rather more 
 sightly building than tourist hotels usually are, and its 
 row of windows blazed that night. They were most of 
 them open wide, and the seductive strains of a soft 
 Spanish waltz drifted out with the rhythmic patter of 
 feet and swish of light draperies, for the winter visitors 
 had organized a concert and informal dance. A similar 
 entertainment was apparently going on in the aggres- 
 sively English Metropole, which cut, a huge square block 
 of building, against the shining sea a little farther up the 
 straight white road, while the Artillery band was playing 
 
ON THE VERANDAH 25 
 
 in the alameda of the town a mile or two away. The 
 deep murmur of the Atlantic surf broke through the 
 music in a drowsy undertone. 
 
 Pancho Brown was essentially English, a little, portly 
 gentleman with a heavy, good-humoured face. He was 
 precise in dress, a little slow in speech, and nobody at 
 first sight would have supposed him to be brilliant, 
 commercially or otherwise. Still, he had made money, 
 which is, perhaps, the most eloquent testimony to any- 
 body's business ability. He was then meditatively 
 contemplating his daughter, who was strolling in the 
 garden with a young English officer from the big white 
 warship in the harbour. A broad blaze of silver stretched 
 back across the sea towards the hazy blueness in the east, 
 beyond which lay Africa, and it was almost as light as 
 day. Mrs. Hatherly followed his gaze. 
 
 " An only daughter must be a responsibility now and 
 then," she said. " I have never had one of my own, 
 but for the last few months my niece has been living with 
 me, and I have had my moments of anxiety." 
 
 Pancho Brown smiled, in a fashion which suggested 
 good-humoured indifference, though he was quite aware 
 that his daughter was then talking very confidentially 
 to the young naval officer. 
 
 " I am afraid I do not deserve your sympathy," he 
 said. " Jacinta's mother died when she was eight years 
 old, but ever since she came home from school in Eng- 
 land Jacinta has taken care of me. In fact, I almost 
 think it is Jacinta who feels the responsibility. I am get- 
 ting a little old, and now and then my business enter- 
 prises worry me." 
 
 " And does that young girl know anything about 
 them ? " 
 
 " Jacinta," said Brown, " knows a good deal about 
 everything, and it really doesn't seem to do her any 
 harm. In fact, I sometimes feel that she knows con- 
 siderably more than I do. I make mistakes now and 
 then, but if Jacinta ever does I am not aware of them." 
 
26 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 " Still, a girl with Miss Brown's appearance -and 
 advantages -must naturally attract a good deal of 
 attention, and, of course, one has " 
 
 Brown smiled at her indulgently. " When Jacinta 
 chooses her husband I shall no doubt approve of him. 
 I am not sure," he added with an air of reflection, " that 
 it would make any great difference if I didn't." 
 
 " You are to be envied," said his companion, with a 
 sigh. " I feel the responsibility circumstances have placed 
 on me is unpleasantly heavy, and I am almost sorry I 
 missed the Madeira boat two or three weeks ago. If we 
 had gone in her we should not, of course, have been in 
 Las Palmas now." 
 
 " It is almost as evident that I should have been left 
 forlorn to-night," said Brown with cumbrous gallantry. 
 
 Mrs. Hatherly appeared to reflect. "It is a curious 
 thing that Miss Brown assured me we should not catch 
 the steamer that night, though we had apparently half 
 an hour to spare ; but in one respect it was perhaps 
 fortunate, after all. If we had gone to Madeira I should 
 not have consulted Dr. Lane, who seems to understand 
 my case so thoroughly ; but, on the other hand, we 
 should have seen no more of Mr. Jefferson." 
 
 " It is not such a long way to Madeira, and there is a 
 steamer every week or so. From what I know of Mr. 
 Jefferson, I think it is possible he would have gone there, 
 too." 
 
 " You are well acquainted with him ? " 
 
 Brown glanced at her with a twinkle in his eyes. 
 " I know a little about everybody in these islands, madam. 
 Mr. Jefferson is considered a straight man, and I may 
 mention that he meets with Jacinta's approval. I 
 wonder if it would be as much to the purpose if I said 
 that he had just been left eight thousand pounds ? " 
 
 " Eight thousand pounds is not very much," and 
 Mrs. Hatherly turned to him as if for guidance. " Mr. 
 Jefferson called on me this afternoon, and it would be 
 almost three weeks before I could get a letter from 
 
ON THE VERANDAH 27 
 
 Muriel's father, who trusted her to me. Of course, a 
 good deal would depend upon what I said about him ; 
 but, after all, Muriel has not a penny of her own." 
 
 " The sum in question is apt to go a long way when 
 the man who has it is an American, and I really think you 
 could leave him and Miss Gascoyne to settle the affair 
 between them/' Brown stopped a moment, and then 
 added, as if by an afterthought, " It is, of course, quite 
 possible that they have done so already, and, in any case, 
 I am not sure, my dear madam, that Jefferson would be 
 very greatly discouraged by your opposition. He is as 
 has been said an American." 
 
 The little, red-cheeked lady made a gesture of resigna- 
 tion, but just then Captain Oliviera, who spoke a little 
 English and appeared to feel himself neglected, broke in. 
 
 " You come here for your health, seiiora ? " he said. 
 " Bueno ! My sobrecargo go by the step, and he is savvy 
 much the medsin. Me, he cure, frecuentemente, by the 
 morning. Ola, I call him ! " 
 
 " Otra vez ! " said Brown restrainingly, and Mrs. 
 Hatherly favoured the captain, who was big and lean 
 and bronzed, with a glance of interested scrutiny 
 
 " You are an invalid, too ? " she said. " One would 
 scarcely fancy it. In fact, you seem very robust to me. 
 What do you suffer from ? " 
 
 Brown made this a trifle plainer, and Don Erminio 
 smiled. He had no great sense of fitness, and was slightly 
 reckless in his conversation. 
 
 " Mi t'roat and the head of me by the morning/' he 
 said, and made a curious gurgling to give point to the 
 explanation. " El sobrecargo he laugh and say, ' Aha, 
 mi captain, you want a peek-a-up again ! ' It is of 
 mucho effecto. I go call him. He make some for you." 
 
 " Peek-a-up ! " said Mrs. Hatherly, and Brown laid 
 his hand restrainingly upon the gallant skipper's arm. 
 
 " It is a preparation they find beneficial at sea, though 
 I do not think it would suit your case," he said, and 
 Oliviera roused himself to a further effort. 
 
28 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 " Good man, mi sobrecargo. Much education. Also 
 friend of me. I say him often, ' Carramba ! In Spain 
 is no dollar. Why you stay here ? ' Aha, Sefior Austin 
 savvy. By and by he marry a rich English sefiorita ! " 
 
 It occurred to Mrs. Hatherly that Brown's face lost a 
 trifle of its usual placidity as his eyes rested on his daugh- 
 ter, who was, however, still apparently talking to the 
 naval officer. There were several pairs of young men 
 and women who apparently found the prospect attrac- 
 tive, but Brown did not notice Austin among them. He 
 and Mrs. Hatherly sat in the shadow, but Oliviera 
 was in the moonlight, which was probably how it hap- 
 pened that a man who appeared in the lighted door- 
 way close by turned towards him, evidently without 
 noticing the others. 
 
 " That you, Don Erminio ? Then come right along," 
 he said. " I've got to give somebody a good time, and 
 you have that much human nature it's easy pleasing you. 
 Get up on your hind feet, and have some champagne 
 enough to make your throat bad for a month if you feel 
 like it." 
 
 Oliviera rose with alacrity. " Aha," he said, " I 
 come." 
 
 He wasted no time in doing it, though he reluctantly 
 spared a moment to make his companions a little grave 
 inclination. The joyous satisfaction in the voice and 
 attitude of the man at the door had its significance for 
 both of them. Mrs. Hatherly looked troubled, but 
 there was a faint twinkle in her companion's eyes- 
 
 " I wonder if Mr. Jefferson often gives his friends 
 invitations of that kind ? " she said. 
 
 Brown smiled reassuringly. " I almost think I could 
 answer for his general abstemiousness. Still, there are 
 occasions upon which even the most sedate of us are apt 
 to relax a little, and wish to share our satisfaction with 
 our friends." 
 
 " Then," said Mrs. Hatherly with evident anxiety, 
 " you fancy " 
 
ON THE VERANDAH 29 
 
 " I should almost fancy this is one of the occasions 
 in question." 
 
 The little red-cheeked lady rose with a sigh. " I have 
 tried to do my duty/' she said. " Now, I think I must 
 find Muriel, if you will excuse me." 
 
 She left him, and when Brown also sauntered into the 
 hotel the verandah remained empty until Jacinta came 
 up the broad stairway just as it happened that Austin 
 came out of the door. She was attired diaphanously in 
 pale-tinted draperies, and seemed to Austin almost 
 ethereal as she stopped a moment at the head of the 
 stairway with the moonlight upon her. He drew forward 
 a. chair, and then leaned against the balustrade looking 
 down on her, for it was evident that Jacinta had some- 
 thing to say to him. 
 
 " As I haven't seen you since that night on board the 
 Estremedura, I naturally haven't had an opportunity 
 of complimenting you upon your discretion. It would, 
 perhaps, have been a little cold for a moonlight swim. 
 After all, there was, of course, no reason why it 
 should afford you any pleasure to display your 
 gallantry/' 
 
 Austin's face flushed. " There have been other 
 occasions when it would have pleased me to twist Macal- 
 lister's neck," he said. " No doubt you overheard what 
 he said to me ? " 
 
 " I did," said Jacinta, who looked at him quietly over 
 her fan. " It is a little astonishing that neither of you 
 noticed me. Still, of course, your attitude was, at least, 
 sensible. What I do not understand is why you saw 
 fit to change it a minute or two later. I had, I may 
 mention, left the poop then." 
 
 "I'm not sure I understand." 
 
 Jacinta laughed musically. " Now/ 1 she said, " I 
 really believe you do." 
 
 " Well," said Austin with a doubtful smile, " if you 
 think I went overboard of my own will to win your 
 approbation, you are mistaken. I did not go at all. I 
 
3 o HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 was, in fact, thrown in. Macallister is, as you know, a 
 somewhat persistent person/' 
 
 " Ah ! " said Jacinta, " that explains a good deal. 
 Well, I feel almost tempted to be grateful to him for doing 
 it. There was really no reason why you should wish 
 me to credit you with courage and humanity especially 
 when you didn't possess them." 
 
 Austin hoped she did not see that he winced, for 
 although he had borne a good deal of her badinage he 
 felt his face grow hot. He was quite aware that this 
 girl was not for him, and he had, he believed, succeeded 
 in preventing himself falling in love with her. He had, 
 however, a spice of temper, and sometimes she drove 
 him a trifle too hard. 
 
 " Still," he said, " if I ever did anything really worth 
 while, I think I should insist upon you recognizing it, 
 though it is scarcely likely that I shall have the oppor- 
 tunity." 
 
 " No," said Jacinta reflectively, " I scarcely think it 
 is ; but, after all, I have a little to thank you for. You 
 see, you did delay the Estremedura. I suppose you have 
 not seen Mr. Jefferson during the last half- hour ? " 
 
 " No," said Austin, with a little start of interest. 
 " Has he " 
 
 " He has. Muriel, at least, has evidently arrived at an 
 understanding with him. I am not sure they saw me, 
 but I came across them a little while ago and they 
 looked supremely happy." 
 
 There was satisfaction in her voice, but it was with a 
 mildly ironical and yet faintly wistful expression she 
 gazed at the shining sea. It somewhat astonished Aus- 
 tin, though there was so much about Jacinta that was 
 incomprehensible to him. 
 
 " Well," he said, "I'm glad ; but I should scarcely 
 have fancied Miss Gascoyne would have attracted Jeffer- 
 son. After all, one would hardly consider her a young 
 woman who had very much in her. Indeed, I have 
 wondered why you were so fond of her." 
 
ON THE VERANDAH 31 
 
 Jacinta smiled curiously as she looked at him. " She 
 is wonderful to Jefferson. There is no grace or goodness 
 that she is not endued with in his estimation/' 
 
 " But if she doesn't possess them ? " 
 
 " Then/' said Jacinta decisively, " because he believes 
 she does she will acquire them. There are women like 
 that, you know, and I am not sure that sensible people 
 like you and I don't lose the best of life occasionally. If 
 a man believes a girl of Muriel's kind angelic she is very 
 apt to unfold shining wings, though nobody else ever 
 fancied that she had anything of the kind about her/' 
 
 There was nothing that Austin could say, for he was 
 the Estremedura s sobrecargo, and had never forgotten 
 that Pancho Brown was reputed to be making several 
 thousand a year. Still, he found silence difficult, and 
 changed the subject. 
 
 " Well," he said, " you haven't told me yet why you 
 are so fond of Miss Gascoyne/' 
 
 " She is good, and, after all, goodness really does 
 appeal to some of us. Besides, when I went to an Eng- 
 lish school, a stranger, more Spanish than English in 
 thought and sentiment, and most of the others held aloof 
 from me, she saw I was lonely and came and made friends 
 with me. I was glad to cling to her then, and you see I 
 haven't forgotten it." 
 
 There was a tone in the girl's voice which sent a thrill 
 through the man. While he stood silent, and, as it 
 happened, in the shadow, Miss Gascoyne came out of the 
 door and approached Jacinta with the moonlight on her 
 face. Austin was almost startled as he glanced at her. 
 
 When he had last seen Muriel Gascoyne he had con- 
 sidered her a comely English girl without imagination or 
 sensibility. Now, as she came towards him with her 
 eyes shining and the soft colour in her face, which was 
 very gentle, she seemed transfigured and almost radiant. 
 She stooped and kissed Jacinta impulsively. 
 
 " I am so happy, my dear," she said. " We owe ever so 
 much to you." 
 
32 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 Austin had the grace to wish himself somewhere else, 
 though he did not see how he could get away, but Jacinta 
 with her usual boldness turned in his direction. 
 
 " Well/' she said, " I almost think you owe Mr. Austin 
 a little, too. If he hadn't stopped the Estremedura you 
 would probably have been in Madeira now/' 
 
 " Yes/' she said, " I realize that. Mr. Austin, Harry 
 has been looking for you everywhere." 
 
 Then, because she seemed to expect it, Austin shook 
 hands with her. 
 
 " I am glad that the man you have promised to marry 
 is one of my friends," he said. " There is not a better 
 one in these islands." 
 
 He did not remember what Miss Gascoyne said, and, 
 perhaps, it was not of any particular consequence, but 
 when she left them it happened that he and Jacinta did 
 not look at one another. There was, in fact, an almost 
 embarrassing silence. Presently Jacinta laughed. 
 
 " I wonder what you are thinking ? " she said. 
 
 Austin smiled, somewhat wryly. " I was endeavour- 
 ing to remember that there are a good many things the 
 Estremedura' s sobrecargo must dispense with. It is 
 exceedingly unlikely that anybody will ever leave me 
 eight thousand pounds." 
 
 " I fancy there are a good many of us who would like 
 to have a good deal more than we will probably ever get," 
 said Jacinta. 
 
 Austin made a gesture that might have expressed any- 
 thing, and she rose and left him standing on the verandah 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 A BIG CONTRACT 
 
 IT was the day after the dance at the Catalina, and Aus- 
 tin was running into Las Palmas harbour in a powerful 
 steam launch which had been lent him to convey certain 
 documents to a Spanish steamer in. The Trade breeze 
 had veered a little further east that day, as it sometimes 
 
A BIG CONTRACT 
 
 33 
 
 did, and the full drift of the long Atlantic sea came rolling 
 inshore. The launch was wet with spray which flew up 
 in clouds as she lurched over the white-topped combers 
 that burst in a chaotic spouting on a black volcanic reef 
 not far away from her. It also happened that the coal- 
 ing company's new tug had broken down a few minutes 
 earlier, and when the launch drove past the long mole the 
 first thing Austin saw was a forty-ton coal lighter loaded 
 to the water's edge drifting towards the reef. There was 
 a boat astern of her out of which a couple of Spanish per- 
 sons seemed to be flinging the water preparatory to aban- 
 doning the lighter to her fate, but Austin could see very 
 little of the latter. The sea washed clean across her, and 
 she showed no more than a strip of sluicing side amidst 
 the spray. 
 
 What became of her was no business of his, but when 
 the whistle of a big grain-tramp rolling across the mouth 
 of the harbour and apparently waiting for her coal roared 
 out a warning, it occurred to Austin that the Spaniards 
 in the boat might have considerable difficulty in pulling 
 her clear of the reef against the sea. Accordingly he un- 
 loosed the launch's whistle, and while it screeched dole- 
 fully, put his helm over and ran down upon the lighter. 
 She was wallowing sideways towards the reef when he 
 rounded up close alongside and saw, somewhat to his 
 astonishment, that there was a man still on board. He 
 was very black, though the spray was dripping from his 
 face and the seas that swept the lighter's deck wet him to 
 the knees. Austin shouted to him. 
 
 "I'll run round to leeward, Jefferson, so you can 
 jump," he said. 
 
 The wet man swung an arm up. " Stand by to take 
 our rope. I'm not going to jump." 
 
 Austin considered. He was by no means sure that the 
 launch had power enough to tow the lighter clear, and 
 the long white seething on the jagged lava astern of 
 her suggested what would happen if she failed to do 
 it. 
 
34 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 " Come on board. I haven't steam to pull her off," 
 he said. 
 
 Jefferson made an impatient gesture. "If you want 
 me you have got to try." 
 
 Austin wasted no more time. It was evidently valu- 
 able then, and he knew his man. He signed to the Span- 
 ish fireman to back the launch astern, and clutched the 
 rope Jefferson flung him as she drove across the lighter's 
 bows. 
 
 " I can tow her just as well with you on board here," he 
 roared. 
 
 " I guess you can/' and a sea wet Jefferson to the waist 
 as he floundered aft towards the lighter's stern. " Still, 
 you're going to find it awkward to steer her, too." 
 
 This was plain enough, and Austin decided that if 
 Jefferson meant to stay on board it was 'his affair, while 
 he was far from sure that he would gain anything by 
 attempting to dissuade him, even had there been time 
 available. As it was, he realized that the lighter would 
 probably go ashore while they discussed the question, 
 and he signed to the Spanish fireman, who started the 
 little engine full speed ahead, and then opened the fur- 
 nace door. There was a gush of red flame from the fun- 
 nel, and the tow-rope tightened with a bang that jerked 
 the launch's stern under. Then, while she was held 
 down by the wallowing lighter, a big, white-topped sea 
 burst across her forward, and for a few seconds Austin, 
 drenched and battered by the flying spray, could see 
 nothing at all. When it blew astern he made out Jeffer- 
 son standing knee-deep in water at the lighter's helm, 
 though there was very little else visible through the rush 
 of white-streaked brine. 
 
 Austin did, for the most part, very little on board 
 the Estremedura, and took life as easily as he could, but 
 there was another side of his nature which, though it had 
 been little stirred as yet, came uppermost then. Thus 
 he felt himself in entire sympathy with Jefferson as 
 every big comber hove the launch up and the spray 
 
A BIG CONTRACT 35 
 
 lashed his tingling skin, while for five anxious minutes 
 the issue hung in the balance. Launch and lighter 
 went astern with the heavier seas, and barely recovered 
 the lost ground in the smooths when a roller failed to 
 break quite so fiercely as its predecessors. 
 
 Then the Spanish fireman either raised more steam, or 
 the heavy weight of coal astern at last acquired momen- 
 tum, for they commenced to forge ahead, the launch 
 plunging and rolling with red flame at her funnel, and the 
 smoke and spray and sparks blowing aft on Austin, who 
 stood dripping to the skin at the tiller. Ahead, the long 
 seas that hove themselves up steeply in shoal water came 
 foaming down on him, but there was a little grim smile in 
 his eyes, and he felt his blood tingle as he watched them. 
 When he glanced over his shoulder, which it was not ad- 
 visable to do unguardedly, he could see Jefferson swung 
 up above him on the lighter's lifted stern, and the long 
 white smother that ran seething up the reef. 
 
 It, however, fell farther behind them, until he could put 
 the helm over and run the lighter into smoother water 
 behind the mole, when Jefferson flung up his arm again. 
 
 " Swing her alongside the grain-boat, and then hold on 
 a minute. I'll come ashore with you/' he said. 
 
 Austin stopped the launch and cast the tow-rope off, 
 and the lighter, driving forward, slid in under the big 
 grain-tramp's side. A few minutes later Jefferson ap- 
 peared at her gangway, and when Austin ran in jumped 
 on board. He was a tall man, and was just then very 
 wet, and as black as any coal-heaver. This, however, 
 rather added to the suggestion of forcefulness that 
 usually characterized him. 
 
 " That fellow has been waiting several hours for his 
 coal, and as I couldn't get a man worth anything on to 
 the crane I ran the thing myself," he said. " The way 
 the wind was it blew the grit all over me, and I'm 
 coming across for a wash with you. I'm 'most afraid to 
 walk through the port as I am just now." 
 
 He laughed happily, and Austin fancied that he under- 
 
 
36 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 stood him, since he felt that if he had held Miss Gas- 
 coyne's promise he would not have liked to run any risk 
 of meeting her in the state in which Jefferson was just 
 then. As it happened, it did not occur to either of them 
 that they had done anything unusual, which had, per- 
 haps, its significance. 
 
 Austin took him on board the Estremedura, and when 
 he had removed most of the coal-dust from his person 
 they sat down with a bottle of thin wine before them in 
 the sobrecargo's room. Jefferson was lean in face and 
 person, though he was largely made, and had dark eyes 
 that could smile and yet retain a certain intentness and 
 gravity. His voice had a little ring in it, and, big as he 
 was, he was seldom altogether still. When he filled his 
 glass his long fingers tightened on it curiously. 
 
 " I owe you a little for pulling us off just now, but 
 that's by no means all," he said. " Miss Gascoyne told 
 me how you stopped the boat that night three weeks ago. 
 Now " 
 
 Austin laughed. " We'll take it item by item. 
 When you get started your'e just a little overwhelming. 
 In the first place, what are you coaling grain-tramps for 
 when somebody has left you a fortune ? " 
 
 " It's not quite that," said Jefferson. " Forty thou- 
 sand dollars. They're busy at the coal-wharf, and 
 wanted me to stay on until the month was up, anyway." 
 
 " I don't think you owe them very much," said Austin. 
 " In fact, I'm not sure that if I'd been you I'd have saved 
 that coal for them ; but we'll get on. I want to congra- 
 tulate you on another thing, and I really think you are a 
 lucky man." 
 
 The smile sank out of Jefferson's eyes. " I'm quite 
 sure of it," he said gravely. "I get wondering some- 
 times how she ever came to listen to such a man as I am, 
 who isn't fit to look at her." 
 
 Before Austin could speak Jefferson went on. 
 
 " I've been wanting to thank you for stopping that 
 steamer," he said. " It's the best turn anybody ever 
 
A BIG CONTRACT 37 
 
 did me, and I'm not going to forget it. Now 
 
 " If you're pleased, I am/' said Austin. " Anyway, 
 you have got her, and though it's not my business, the 
 question is what you're going to do. Eight thousand 
 pounds isn't very much, after all, and English girls are 
 apt to want a good deal, you know." 
 
 Jefferson laughed. " Forty thousand dollars is quite a 
 nice little sum to start with ; but I've got to double it 
 before I'm married." 
 
 " There are people who would spend most of their life 
 doing it," said Austin reflectively. " How long do you 
 propose to allow yourself ? " 
 
 " Six months," and there was a snap in Jefferson's 
 voice and eyes. " If I haven't got eighty thousand dol- 
 lars in that time I'm going to have no use for them." 
 
 " When you come to think of it, that isn't very long to 
 make forty thousand dollars in," said Austin. 
 
 Jefferson looked at him steadily with the little glow 
 still in his eyes. " You stopped the Estremedura, and, in 
 one respect, you're not quite the same as most English- 
 men. They're hide-bound. It 'most takes a month to 
 find out what they're thinking, and then quite often it 
 isn't worth while. Anyway, I'm going to talk. I feel 
 I've got to. Wouldn't you consider Miss Gascoyne was 
 worth taking a big risk for ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Austin, remembering what he had seen in 
 the girl's face. " I should almost think she was." 
 
 " You would almost think ! " And Jefferson gazed at 
 him a moment in astonishment. " Well, I guess you 
 were made that way, and you can't help it. Now, I'm 
 open to tell anybody who cares to listen that girl was a 
 revelation to me. She's good all through ; there's not a 
 thought in her that isn't clean and wholesome. After all, 
 that's what a man wants to fall back upon. Then she's 
 dainty, clever, and refined, with sweetness and gracious- 
 ness just oozing out of her. It's all round her like an 
 atmosphere." 
 
 Austin was slightly amused, though he would not for 
 
38 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 his life have shown it. It occurred to him that an excess 
 of the qualities his companion admired in Miss Gascoyne 
 might prove monotonous, especially if they were, as in 
 her case, a little too obtrusive. He turned to his com- 
 panion with a little smile. 
 
 " How did you ever come to be here, Jefferson ? " he 
 asked irrelevantly. " It's rather a long way from the 
 land of progress and liberty." 
 
 Jefferson laughed in a somewhat curious fashion 
 " Well/' he said, " other folks have asked me, but I'll tell 
 you, and I've told Miss Gascoyne. I had a good educa- 
 tion, and I'm thankful for it now. There are dollars in 
 the family, but it was born in most of us to go to sea. I 
 went because I had to, and it made trouble. The man 
 who had the dollars had plotted out quite a different 
 course for me. Still, I did well enough until the night the 
 Sachem there are several of them, but I guess you know 
 the one I mean went down. I was mate, but it wasn't 
 in my watch the Dutchman struck her." 
 
 " Ah," said Austin softly, " that explains a good deal ! 
 It wasn't exactly a pleasant story." 
 
 He sat looking at his companion with grave sympathy 
 as the details of a certain grim tragedy in which the 
 brutally-handled crew had turned upon their persecutors 
 when the ship was sinking under them came back to him. 
 Knowing tolerably well what usually happens when 
 official inquiry follows upon a disaster at sea, he had a 
 suspicion that the truth had never become altogether 
 apparent, though the affair had made a sensation two or 
 three years earlier. Still, while Jefferson had not men- 
 tioned his part in it, he had already exonerated him. 
 
 " It was so unpleasant that I couldn't find a shipping 
 company on our side who had any use for the Sachem s 
 mate," he said, and his voice sank a little. " Of course, 
 it never all came out, but there were more than two of the 
 men who went down that night who weren't drowned. 
 Well, what could you expect of a man with a pistol when 
 the one friend he had in that floating hell dropped at his 
 
A BIG CONTRACT 39 
 
 feet with his head adzed open. That left me and Nolan 
 aft. He was a brute a murdering, pitiless devil ; but 
 there were he and I with our backs to the jigger-mast, and 
 a few of the rest left who meant that we should never get 
 into the quarter-boat." 
 
 Austin was a trifle startled. " You told Miss Gas- 
 coyne that/' he said. " How did she take it ? " 
 
 Jefferson made a curious little gesture. " Of course ! " 
 he said simply. " I had to. She believed in me ; but 
 do you think I am going to tell you how it hurt her ? " 
 
 It was borne in upon Austin that, after all, he under- 
 stood very little about women. 
 
 " I'm sorry ! You'll excuse it," he said. " Still, 
 you haven't told me yet how you're going to turn forty 
 thousand dollars into eighty thousand." 
 
 "I'm coming to it. You know we coaled the Cumbria 
 before she went out to West Africa. A nearly new 1,500- 
 ton tramp she was, light draught at that, or she'd never 
 have gone where she did. You could put her down at 
 15,000 sterling. She went up into the half-charted 
 creeks behind the shoals and islands south of Senegal, 
 and was lost there. Among other things it was a new 
 gum she went for. It appears the niggers find gums 
 worth up to 5 the hundredweight in the bush behind 
 that country. A Frenchman chartered her, but he's dead 
 now, as is almost everybody connected with the Cum- 
 bria. They've fevers that will wipe you out in a week or 
 two yonder -more fever, in fact, than anywhere else in 
 Africa. Well, as everybody knows, they got oil and sun- 
 dries and a little gum, and went down with fever while 
 they crawled about those creeks loading her. She got 
 hard in the mud up one of them, and half of the boys 
 were buried before they pulled her out at all, and then 
 she hit something that started a plate or two in her. 
 They couldn't keep the water down, and they rammed 
 , her into a mangrove forest to save her. More of them 
 died there, and the salvage expedition lost three or four 
 men before they turned up their contract." 
 
40 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 " That," said Austin, " is what might be termed the 
 official version." 
 
 Jefferson nodded. " What everybody doesn't know is 
 that the skipper played the Frenchman a crooked game," 
 he said. " There was more gum put into her than was 
 ever^shown in her papers ; while they had got at the trade- 
 gin before she went ashore. In fact, I have a notion that 
 it wasn't very unlike the Sachem affair. I can't quite 
 figure how they came to start those plates in the soft mud 
 of a mangrove creek. Anyway, the carpenter, who died 
 here was a countryman of mine. You may remember I 
 did a few things for him, and the man was grateful. 
 Well, the result of that is I know there's a good deal more 
 than 20,000 sterling in the Cumbria. Now I've 
 bought her as she lies for 6,000." 
 
 Austin gasped. " You will probably die off in two or 
 three weeks after you put your foot in her." 
 
 "I'm not quite sure. I was at Panama, and never had 
 a touch of fever. Anyway, I'm going, and if you'll stand 
 in with me, I'll put you down a quarter-share for a dol- 
 lar." 
 
 It was in one respect a generous offer, but Austin 
 shook his head. " No," he said decisively. " Have you 
 forgotten that Miss Gascoyne expects you to marry 
 her ? " 
 
 Jefferson's eyes glowed. "I'm remembering it all the 
 time. That's why I'm going. Would you take a refined 
 and cultured girl and drag her through all the hard places 
 men of my kind make dollars in up and down the world ? 
 Has she to give up everything and come down to me ? 
 No, sir. It seems to me the man who wants to marry a 
 girl of that kind has got to do something to show he knows 
 her value before he gets her, and it would be way better 
 for both of us that she should be sorry for me dead than 
 that I should live to drag her down." 
 
 It seemed to Austin that there was a good deal to be 
 said for this point of view, and it also occurred to him 
 that there was in this latter-day American something of 
 
THE TOMATO FINCA 41 
 
 the spirit which had sent the knights- errant out in the 
 days of chivalry. 
 
 " Well," he said, " you are taking a big risk, but per- 
 haps you are right." 
 
 Jefferson rose with the abruptness which usually char- 
 acterized his movements. 
 
 " You're not coming ? " 
 
 " No. I haven't your inducement, and I'm afraid the 
 contract's too big for me." 
 
 " You have a week to consider it in," said Jefferson, 
 who opened the door. " In the meanwhile there's 
 another fellow waiting for his coal, and I'm going along." 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE TOMATO FINCA 
 
 THREE weeks had passed since his interview with Austin 
 before Jefferson was ready to sail, and he spent most of 
 the time in strenuous activity. He had cabled to Eng- 
 land for a big centrifugal pump and a second-hand loco- 
 motive type boiler, while, when they arrived, Macallister 
 said that five hundred pounds would not tempt him to 
 raise full steam on the latter. He also purchased a 
 broken-down launch, and, though she was cheap, the cost 
 of her and the pump with other necessaries made a con- 
 siderable hole in his remaining 2,000. It was for this 
 reason he undertook to make the needful repairs himself 
 with the help of a steamer's donkey-man who had some- 
 how got left behind, while Austin and Macallister spent 
 most of the week during which the Estremedura lay at 
 Las Palmas in the workshop he had extemporized. He 
 appeared to know a little about machinery, and could, at 
 least, handle hack-saw and file in a fashion which moved 
 Macallister to approbation, while Austin noticed that the 
 latter's sardonic smile became less frequent as he and the 
 American worked together. 
 
 At last all was ready, and one night Jefferson steamed 
 off to the African liner from Las Palmas mole, taking 
 
42 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 with him the steamboat donkey-man and another Eng- 
 lish seafarer who were at the time disgracefully drunk, as 
 well as six Spaniards from the coasting schooners. He 
 said that when he reached the Cumbria he would hire 
 niggers, who would be quite as reliable, and considerably 
 cheaper. As it happened, the Estremedura was going 
 to sea that night bound for the eastern islands, and Mrs. 
 Hatherly, who was never sea-sick and had heard that the 
 climate of one of them where it scarcely ever rained was 
 good for rheumatic affections, had determined to visit 
 it in her. Jacinta, for no very apparent reason, decided 
 to go with her, and it accordingly came about that most 
 of her few acquaintances were with Muriel Gascoyne 
 when she said good-bye to Jefferson at the head of the 
 mole. She kissed him unblushingly in front of them all, 
 and then, when the launch panted away across the har- 
 bour, turned, a little pale in face, but with a firm step, 
 towards the Estremedura, and an hour later stood with 
 Jacinta on the saloon deck watching the liner's black hull 
 slide down the harbour. 
 
 It happened that Jacinta came upon Austin soon after 
 the Estremedura steamed out to sea. 
 
 " The liner will be clear of the land by now," she said. 
 " I suppose you are glad you did not go with Jefferson ? 
 You never told me that he had asked you to ! " 
 
 Austin, who ignored the last remark, laughed in a 
 somewhat curious fashion. 
 
 " Well," he said reflectively, " in one respect Jefferson 
 is, perhaps, to be envied. He is, at least, attempting a 
 big thing, and if he gets wiped out over it, which I think 
 is quite likely, he will be beyond further trouble, and Miss 
 Gascoyne will be proud of him. In fact, it is her I should 
 be sorry for. She seems really fond of him." 
 
 " Is that, under the circumstances, very astonishing ? " 
 
 " Jefferson is really a very good fellow," said Austin 
 with a smile. " In fact, whatever it may be worth, he 
 has my sincere approbation." 
 
 " Pshaw ! " said Jacinta. " You know exactly what I 
 
THE TOMATO FINCA 43 
 
 mean. I wonder if there is one among all the men I have 
 ever met who would under any circumstances do as 
 much for me ? " 
 
 She glanced at him for a moment in a fashion which 
 sent a thrill through him ; but Austin seldom forgot that 
 he was the Estremedura's purser. He had also a horror of 
 cheap protestations, and he avoided the question. 
 
 " You could scarcely expect me to know/' he said. 
 " Suppose there was such a man, what would you do for 
 him ? " 
 
 There was just a trace of heightened colour in Jacinta's 
 face. " I think, if it was necessary, and he could make 
 me believe in him as Muriel believes in Jefferson, I would 
 die for him/' 
 
 Austin said nothing for a space. He was quite aware 
 that while Jacinta on rare occasions favoured her more 
 intimate masculine friends with a glimpse of her inner 
 nature, she never permitted them to presume upon the 
 fact. He had, he felt, made some little progress on her 
 confidence and favour, but it was quite clear that it 
 would be inadvisable to venture further without a sign 
 from her. 
 
 " Whatever is Mrs. Hatherly going to Fuerteventura 
 for ? " he asked. 
 
 " Dry weather/' said Jacinta smilingly. 
 
 Austin laughed. " One would fancy that Las Palmas 
 was dry and dusty enough for most people. I suppose 
 you told her there is nowhere she can stay ? They 
 haven't a hotel of any kind in the island." 
 
 " That," said Jacinta sweetly, " will be your business. 
 You are a friend of Don Fernando, and he has really a 
 comfortable house. Still, I expect three days of it will 
 be quite enough for Mrs. Hatherly. You can pick us up, 
 you know, when you come back from Lanzarote." 
 
 Austin went down to his little room, which was almost 
 as hot as an oven, and strove to occupy himself with his 
 papers. The attempt, however, was not a success, for 
 his thoughts would follow Jefferson, who was on his way 
 
44 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 to Africa with a big centrifugal pump, a rickety steam 
 launch, and a second-hand boiler of the locomotive type. 
 Then he dismissed the subject, and climbing into his 
 bunk went to sleep. 
 
 Next morning he took Jacinta, Mrs. Hatherly, and 
 Muriel Gascoyne ashore, and afterwards went on with the 
 Estremedura to the adjoining island, while it was three 
 days later, and the steamer had come back again, when 
 she and her captain rode with the three ladies towards 
 the coast, after a visit to the black volcanic hills. 
 
 It was then about two o'clock in the afternoon, and 
 very hot. They wound down into a hollow, through 
 which one could fancy by the tortuous belt of stones a 
 little water now and then flowed, and dismounted in the 
 scanty shadow of a ruined wall. It had been built high 
 and solid of blocks of lava centuries ago, perhaps, by the 
 first of the Spanish, or dusky invaders from Morocco ; 
 while, as it was not quite so hot there, Austin and the 
 Captain made preparations for a meal when a bare-legged 
 peon led the beasts away. Then the Captain frowned 
 darkly at the prospect. 
 
 " Ah, mala gente. Que el infierno los come ! " he said, 
 with blazing eyes, and swung a brown hand up, as though 
 appealing to stones and sky before he indulged in another 
 burst of eloquence. 
 
 " What is he saying ? " asked Muriel Gascoyne. " He 
 seems very angry." 
 
 Austin smiled. " I scarcely think it would be alto- 
 gether advisable to inquire, but it is not very astonishing 
 if he is," he said. " Don Erminio is not as a rule a suc- 
 cess as a business man, and this is a farm he once invested 
 all his savings in. I am particularly sorry to say that I 
 did much the same." 
 
 Miss Gascoyne appeared astonished, which was, per- 
 haps, not altogether unnatural, as she gazed at the wil- 
 derness in front of her. There were, she could now see, 
 signs that somebody had made a desultory attempt at 
 building a wall which was, however, almost buried again. 
 
THE TOMATO FINCA 45 
 
 A few odd heaps of lava blocks had also been piled up 
 here and there, but the hollow was strewn with dust and 
 ashes, and looked as though nothing had ever grown there 
 since that island was hurled incandescent out of the 
 sea. It was very difficult to discover the least evidence 
 of fertility. 
 
 " Ah/' said Jacinta, " so this is the famous Finca de 
 La Empreza Financial ? " 
 
 " Mira ! " he said. " The cemetery where I bury the 
 hopes of me. O much tomate, mucho profit. I buy 
 more finca and the cow for me. Aha ! There is also 
 other time I make the commercial venture. I buy two 
 mulo. Very good mulo. I charge mucho dollar for the 
 steamboat cargo cart. Comes the locomotura weet the 
 concrete block down Las Palmas mole. The mole is 
 narrow, the block is big, the man drives the locomotura 
 behind it, he not can look. Vaya, my two mulo, and 
 the cart, she is in the sea. That is also ruin me. I 
 say, ' Vaya. In fifty year she is oil the same/ but when 
 I see the Finca de tomate I have the temper. Alors, weet 
 permission, me vais chasser the conejo." 
 
 " The unfortunate man ! " said Jacinta, when he strode 
 away in search of a rabbit. 
 
 They made a tolerable lunch, for the Estremedura's cook 
 knew his business, and, though it very seldom rains there, 
 some of the finest grapes to be found anywhere grow in 
 the neighbouring island of Lanzarote. Then Mrs. 
 Hatherly apparently went to sleep with her back against 
 the wall, while Muriel sat silent in the shadow close be- 
 side her. Perhaps, the camel ride had shaken her, and, 
 perhaps, she was thinking of Jefferson, for she was gazing 
 east towards Africa across the flaming sea. Jacinta, 
 however, as usual appeared delightfully fresh and cool, 
 as she sat with her long white dress tucked about her on a 
 block of lava, while Austin lay contented not far from her 
 feet. 
 
 " You never told me before that you had a share in the 
 Finca ! " she said. 
 
46 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 " Well/' said Austin, " I certainly had. I also made a 
 speech at the inaugural dinner, and Don Erminio almost 
 wept with pride while I did it. I had, though he did not 
 mention it, a share in his mule-cart, too, and once or 
 twice bought a schooner-load of onions to ship to Havana 
 at his suggestion. You see, I had then a notion that it 
 was my duty to make a little money. Somehow the 
 onions never got to Cuba, and our other ventures ended 
 like the Finca." 
 
 " Then you have given up all idea of making money 
 now ? " 
 
 " It really didn't seem much use continuing, and, after 
 all, a little money wouldn't be very much good to me. A 
 chance of making twenty thousand pounds might, per- 
 haps, rouse me to temporary activity." 
 
 " Ah/' said Jacinta, looking at him with thoughtful 
 eyes, " you want too much, my friend. You are not 
 likely to make it by painting little pictures on board the 
 Estremedura." 
 
 A faint trace of darker colour showed through the 
 bronze in Austin's cheek. " Yes," he said, " that is 
 exactly what is the matter with me. Still, as I shall 
 never get it, I am tolerably content with what I have. 
 Fortunately, I am fond of it I mean the sea." 
 
 " Of course," said Jacinta, with a curious little sparkle 
 in her eyes, " contentment is commendable, though there 
 is something that appeals to one's fancy in the thought 
 of a man struggling against everything to acquire the 
 unattainable." 
 
 " So long as it is unattainable what would be the good ? 
 Besides, I am almost afraid I am not that kind of man." 
 
 Jacinta said nothing further, and half an hour slipped 
 by, until a trail of smoke with a smear of something 
 beneath it crept up out of the glittering sea. 
 
 " The Andalucia," said Austin. " She takes up our 
 western run here under the new time-table. I hope she's 
 bringing no English folks from Las Palmas to worry us." 
 
 As it happened, there was a man on board the Andalu- 
 
AUSTIN'S POINT OF VIEW 47 
 
 cia who was to bring one of the party increased anxiety 
 and distress of mind, but they did not know that then 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 AUSTIN'S POINT OF VIEW 
 
 MRS. HATHERLY decided during the ride to the beach 
 that she had seen quite enough of that island in the three 
 days she had spent there, and she had already gone off to 
 the Estremedura with Muriel and Jacinta when Austin 
 stood smoking on the little mole. Long undulations of 
 translucent brine seethed close past his feet to break with 
 a drowsy roar upon the lava reefs, and the Estremedura 
 lay rolling wildly a quarter of a mile away. A cluster of 
 barefooted men were with difficulty loading her big 
 lancha beneath the mole with the barley-straw the row of 
 camels kneeling in the one straggling street behind him 
 had brought down. The men were evidently tired, for 
 they had toiled waist-deep in the surf since early morn- 
 ing, and Austin decided to spare them the journey for his 
 dispatch gig. 
 
 Accordingly, when the lancha was loaded high with the 
 warm yellow bales, he clambered up upon them, and 
 bade the crew get under way. The long sweeps dipped, 
 and the craft went stern-first towards the reef for a mo- 
 ment or two before she crawled out to sea, looking very 
 like a cornstack set adrift as she lurched over the shining 
 swell. Austin lay upon the straw smoking tranquilly, for 
 everybody leaves a good deal to chance in Spain, and now 
 and then flung a little Castilian badinage at the gasping 
 men who pulled the big sweeps below. As it happened, 
 they could not see him because the straw rose behind 
 them in a yellow wall. They were cheerful, inconsequent 
 fishermen, who would have done a good deal for him, and 
 not altogether because of the bottle of cafia he occasion- 
 ally gave them. 
 
 They had traversed half the distance, when, opening up 
 a point, they met a steeper heave, and when the dripping 
 
48 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 bows went up after the plunge there was a movement of 
 the barley-straw. Austin felt for a better hold, but two 
 or three bales fetched away as he did so, and in another 
 moment he plunged down head foremost into the sea. 
 When he came up he found a straw-bale floating close 
 beside him, and held on by it while he looked about him. 
 The lancha was apparently going on, and it was evident 
 that although the men must have heard the straw fall they 
 were not aware that he had gone with it. There was, he 
 surmised, no room for the lost bales, and the men could 
 not have heaved them up on top of the load. It there- 
 fore appeared probable that they purposed unloading the 
 lancha before they came back for them, and he decided to 
 climb up on the bale. 
 
 He found it unexpectedly difficult, for when he had al- 
 most dragged himself up the bale rolled over and dropped 
 him in again, while, when he tried to wriggle up the front 
 of it, it stood upright and then fell upon him. After 
 several attempts he gave it up, and set out for the steamer 
 with little pieces of barley-straw and spiky ears sticking 
 all over him. He could swim tolerably well, and swung 
 along comfortably enough over the smooth-backed swell, 
 for his light clothing did not greatly cumber him. Still, 
 he did not desire that any one beyond the Estremeduras 
 crew should witness his arrival. 
 
 He was accordingly by no means pleased to see Jacinta 
 and Miss Gascoyne stroll out from the deck-house as he 
 drew in under the Estremedura's side, especially as there 
 were no apparent means of getting on board quietly. 
 The lancha had vanished round the stern, the ladder was 
 triced up, and the open cargo gangway several feet above 
 the brine. The steamer also hove up another four or five 
 feet of streaming plates every time she rolled. Still, it 
 was evident that he could not stay where he was on the 
 chance of the ladies not noticing him indefinitely, and as 
 he swam on again Miss Gascoyne broke into a startled 
 scream. 
 
 " Oh," she said, " there's somebody drowning ! " 
 
AUSTIN'S POINT OF VIEW 49 
 
 The cry brought Macallister to the gangway, and he 
 was very grimy in engine-room disarray. Austin in the 
 water saw the wicked twinkle in his eyes, and was not 
 pleased to hear Jacinta laugh musically. 
 
 " I really don't think he is in any danger/' she said. 
 
 Austin set his lips, and swam for the gangway as the 
 Estremedura rolled down. His flung-up hand came with- 
 in a foot of the opening and then he sank back a fathom 
 or more below it as the Estremedura hove that side of her 
 out of the water. When he swung up again Macallister 
 was standing above him with a portentously sharp boat- 
 hook, while two or three grinning seamen clustered round. 
 The girls were also leaning out from the saloon deck rails. 
 
 " Will ye no keep still while I hook ye ? " said the 
 engineer. 
 
 " If you stick that confounded thing into my clothes 
 I'll endeavour to make you sorry," said Austin savagely. 
 
 Macallister made a sweep at him, and Austin went 
 down, while one of the seamen leaning down grabbed 
 him by the shoulder when he rose. 
 
 " Let go ! " he spluttered furiously. " Give me your 
 hand instead." 
 
 He evidently forgot that the seaman, who held on, was 
 not an Englishman, and next moment he was hove high 
 above the water. Then there was a ripping and tearing, 
 and while the seaman reeled back with a long strip of 
 alpaca in his hand Austin splashed into the water. He 
 came up in time to see Macallister smiling in Jacinta's 
 direction reassuringly. 
 
 " There's no need to be afraid," he said. " Though 
 .I'm no sure he's worth it, I'll save him for ye." 
 
 Now, Jacinta was usually quite capable of making any 
 man who offended her feel sorry for himself, but the sight 
 of Austin's savage red face as he gazed at Macallister 
 with the torn jacket flapping about him in the water and 
 the barley-straw sticking all over him was too much for 
 her, and she broke into a peal of laughter. 
 
 In another moment Macallister contrived to get his 
 
50 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 boathook into the slack of Austin's garments, and when 
 two seamen seized the haft they hove him out, wrong 
 side uppermost and incoherent with wrath. When they 
 dropped him, a tattered, dripping heap, on the deck Miss 
 Gascoyne leaned her face upon her hands and laughed 
 almost hysterically until Jacinta touched her shoulder. 
 
 " Mr. Austin evidently believes he has a good deal to 
 thank his comrade for. I think you had better come 
 away," she said. 
 
 Austin put himself to some trouble in endeavouring to 
 make Macallister understand what he thought of him 
 when they had gone ; but the engineer only grinned. 
 
 " Well," he said, " I'll forgive ye. If I had looked like 
 ye do with two ladies watching me, I might have been a 
 bit short in temper myself, but come away to your room. 
 The Andahicia' s boat came across a while ago, and 
 there's business waiting ye." 
 
 Austin went with him, but stopped a moment when he 
 approached his room. The door was open, as usual, and 
 a stranger in grey tourist tweed, upon whom Englishman 
 and clergyman was stamped unmistakably, sat inside the 
 room. Austin felt that he knew who the man must be. 
 
 " Does he know Miss Gascoyne is on board ? " he 
 asked. 
 
 " No," said Macallister. " The boat came round 
 under our quarter, and we landed him through the lower 
 gangway. He said he'd stay here and wait for ye. He's 
 no sociable, anyway. I've offered him cigars and anisow, 
 besides some of my special whisky, but he did not seem 
 willing to talk to me." 
 
 Austin fancied he could understand it. Macallister, 
 who had discarded his jacket, was very grimy, and his 
 unbuttoned uniform vest failed to conceal the grease- 
 stains on his shirt. Then he remembered that his own 
 jacket was torn to rags, and he was very wet, but Mac- 
 allister raised his voice. 
 
 " Here's Mr. Austin, sir," he said. 
 
 The clergyman, who said nothing, gazed at him, and 
 
AUSTIN'S POINT OF VIEW 51 
 
 Austin, who realized that his appearance was against 
 him, understood his astonishment. He also fancied that 
 the stranger was one with whom appearances usually 
 counted a good deal. 
 
 "If you will wait a minute or two while I change my 
 clothes I will be at your service, sir/' he said. " As you 
 may observe, I have been in the sea." 
 
 " Swum off to the steamer," said Macallister with a 
 wicked smile. "It saves washing. He comes off yon 
 way now and then." 
 
 Austin said nothing, but stepped into the room, and 
 gathering up an armful of clothing departed, leaving a 
 pool of water behind him. The clergyman, it was evi- 
 dent, did not know what to make of either of them. A 
 few minutes later Austin, who came back and closed the 
 door, sat down opposite him. 
 
 " My name is Gascoyne," said the stranger, handing 
 him an open note. " Mr. Brown of Las Palmas, who 
 gave me this introduction, assured me that I could speak 
 to you confidentially, and that you would be able to tell 
 me where my daughter and Mrs. Hatherly are stay- 
 ing." 
 
 Austin glanced at him with misgivings. He was a little 
 man with pale blue eyes and hair just streaked with grey. 
 His face was white and fleshy without animation or any 
 suggestion of ability in it ; but there had been something 
 in his tone which seemed to indicate that he had, at 
 least, been accustomed to petty authority. Austin at 
 once set him down as a man of essentially conventional 
 views, who was deferred to in some remote English par- 
 ish, in fact, just the man he would have expected Muriel 
 Gascoyne's father to be, that is, before she had revealed 
 her inner self. It was a type he was by no means fond of, 
 and he was quite aware that circumstances were scarcely 
 likely to prepossess a man of that description in his 
 favour. Still, Austin was a friend of Jefferson's, and 
 meant to do what he could for him. 
 
 " I know where Miss Gascoyne is, but you suggested 
 
52 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 that you had something to ask me, and I shall be busy by 
 and by," he said. 
 
 Gascoyne appeared anxious, but evidently very uncer- 
 tain whether it would be advisable to take him into his 
 confidence. 
 
 " I understand that you are a friend of Mr. Jeffer- 
 son's ? " he said. 
 
 " I am. I may add that I am glad to admit it, and I 
 almost fancy I know what you mean to ask me/' 
 
 Gascoyne, who appeared grateful for this lead, looked 
 at him steadily. " Perhaps I had better be quite frank. 
 Indeed, Mr. Brown, who informed me that you could tell 
 more about Jefferson than any one in the islands, recom- 
 mended it," he said. " I am, Mr. Austin, a clergyman 
 who has never been outside his own country before, and I 
 think it is advisable that I should tell you this, because 
 there may be points upon which our views will not coin- 
 cide. It was not easy for me to get away now, but the 
 future of my motherless daughter is a matter of the great- 
 est concern to me, and I understand that Mr. Jefferson is 
 in Africa. I want you to tell me candidly as a gentle- 
 man what kind of man he is." 
 
 Austin felt a little better disposed towards Gascoyne 
 after this. His anxiety concerning his daughter was 
 evident, and he had, at least, not adopted quite the atti- 
 tude Austin had expected. Still, the latter not being 
 by any means brilliant himself, felt the difficulty of mak- 
 ing him understand the character of such a man as Jeffer- 
 son, while his task was complicated by the fact that he 
 recognized his responsibility to both of them. Gascoyne 
 had put him on his honour, and he could not paint Jeff er- 
 son as he was not. In the meanwhile he greatly wished 
 to think. 
 
 " I wonder if I might offer you a glass of wine, sir ; or 
 perhaps you smoke ? " he said. 
 
 " No, thanks," said Gascoyne with uncompromising 
 decision. " I am aware that many of my brethren in- 
 dulge in these luxuries. I do not." 
 
AUSTIN'S POINT OF VIEW 53 
 
 " Well," said Austin, " if you will tell me what you 
 have already heard about Jefferson it might make the 
 way a little plainer/' 
 
 " I have been told that he is an American seafarer, it 
 seems of the usual careless type. Seafarers are, perhaps, 
 liable to special temptations, and it is generally under- 
 stood that the lives most of them lead are not altogether 
 
 Austin smiled a little when Gascoyne stopped abruptly. 
 "I'm afraid that must be admitted, sir. I can, however, 
 assure you that Jefferson is an abstemious man Ameri- 
 cans are, as a rule, you see and, though there are occa- 
 sions when his conversation might not commend itself to 
 you, he has had an excellent education. Since we are to' 
 be perfectly candid, has it ever occurred to you that it 
 was scarcely likely a dissolute sailor would meet with 
 Miss Gascoyne's approbation ? " 
 
 Gascoyne flushed a trifle. "It did not though of 
 course it should have done. Still, he told her that he was 
 mate of the Sachem, which was a painful shock to me. 
 I, of course, remember the revolting story." 
 
 He stopped a moment, and his voice was a trifle 
 strained when he went on again, " I left England, Mr. 
 Austin, within three days of getting my daughter's letter, 
 and have ever since been in a state of distressing uncer- 
 tainty. Mr. Jefferson is in Africa I cannot even write 
 him. I do not know where my duty lies." 
 
 Had the man's intense anxiety been less evident Austin 
 would have been almost amused. The Reverend Gas- 
 coyne appeared to believe that his affairs were of para- 
 mount importance to everybody, as, perhaps, they were 
 in the little rural parish he came from ; but there was 
 something in his somewhat egotistical simplicity that 
 appealed to the younger man. 
 
 " One has to face unpleasant facts now and then, sir," 
 he said. " There are times when homicide is warranted 
 at sea, and man's primitive passions are very apt to show 
 themselves naked in the face of imminent peril. It is, 
 
54 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 perhaps, In one respect unfortunate that you have prob- 
 ably never seen anything of the kind, but one could not 
 expect too much from a man whose comrade's head had 
 just been shorn open by a drink- frenzied mutineer. Can 
 you imagine the little handful of officers, driven aft 
 away from the boats while the ship settled under them, 
 standing still to be cut down with adze and axe ? You 
 must remember, too, that they were seafarers and Ameri- 
 cans who had but few of the advantages you and your 
 friends enjoy in England." 
 
 He could not help the last piece of irony, but Gascoyne, 
 who did not seem to notice it, groaned. 
 
 " To think of a man who appears to hold my daughter's 
 confidence being concerned in such an affair at all is 
 horribly unpleasant to me." 
 
 " I have no doubt it was almost as distressing to 
 Jefferson at the time. Still, as you have probably 
 never gone in fear of your life for weeks together, 
 you may not be capable of understanding what he 
 felt, and we had perhaps better get on a little 
 further." 
 
 Gascoyne seemed to pull himself together. " Mr. Jeff- 
 erson has, I understand, no means beyond a certain 
 legacy. It is not, after all, a large one." 
 
 " If he is alive in six months I feel almost sure he will 
 have twice as much, which would mean an income of close 
 upon 600 a year from sound English stock, and that, one 
 would fancy, would not be considered abject poverty in a 
 good many English rural parishes." 
 
 Gascoyne sighed. " That is true it is certainly true. 
 You said, if he were alive ? " 
 
 " As he is now on his way to one of the most deadly 
 belts of swamp and jungle in Western Africa, I think I 
 was warranted. Knowing him as I do, it is, I fancy, 
 certain that if he does not come back with 16,000 in six 
 months he will be dead." 
 
 " Ah," said Gascoyne, with what was suspiciously like 
 a sigh of relief. " One understands that it is a particu- 
 
AUSTIN'S POINT OF VIEW 55 
 
 larly unhealthy climate. Still, when one considers that 
 all is arranged for the best " 
 
 Austin, who could not help it, smiled sardonically, 
 though he felt he had an almost hopeless task. It ap- 
 peared impossible that Gascoyne should ever understand 
 the character of a man like Jefferson. Still, he meant to 
 do what he could. 
 
 "It is naturally easier to believe that when circum- 
 stances coincide with our wishes, sir/' he said. " Now, I 
 do not exactly charge you with wishing Jefferson dead, 
 though your face shows that you would not be sorry. I 
 am, of course, a friend of his, another careless seafarer, 
 and I can understand that what you have seen of me has 
 not prepossessed you in my favour. Still, if I can, I am 
 going to show you Jefferson as he is. To begin with, he 
 believes, as you do, that Miss Gascoyne is far above him 
 and in this he is altogether wrong. Miss Gascoyne is 
 doubtless a good woman, but Jefferson is that harder 
 thing to be, a good man. His point of view is not yours, 
 it is perhaps a wider one ; but he has, what concerns you 
 most directly now, a vague, reverential respect for all that 
 is best in womanhood, which, I think, is sufficient to place 
 Miss Gascoyne under a heavy responsibility." 
 
 He stopped a moment, looking at Gascoyne, who ap- 
 peared blankly astonished, steadily. 
 
 " Because it was evident to him that a woman of 
 Miss Gascoyne 's conventional upbringing must suffer 
 if brought into contact with the unpleasant realities of 
 the outside world, he has staked his life willingly not 
 recklessly on the winning enough to place her beyond 
 the reach of adversity. He realized that it was, at 
 least, even chances he never came back from Africa : 
 but it seemed to him better that she should be proud OL 
 him dead than have to pity him and herself living. I 
 know this, because he told me he would never drag 
 the woman who loved him down. He fell in love with 
 her without reflection, instinctively or, perhaps, be- 
 cause it was arranged so I do not understand these 
 
56 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 things. As surely conventionalities don't always count 
 she fell in love with him, and then he had to grapple 
 with the position. Your daughter could not live, as 
 some women do, unshocked and cheerfully among rude 
 and primitive peoples whose morality is not your 
 morality, in the wilder regions of the earth. It was also 
 evident that she could not live sumptuously in England 
 on the interest of 8,000. You see what he made of it. 
 If he died, Miss Gascoyne would be free. If he lived, 
 she could avoid all that would be unpleasant. Isn't that 
 sufficient ? Could there be anything base or mean in a 
 nature capable of devotion of that description ? " 
 
 Gascoyne sat silent almost a minute. Then he said 
 very quietly, " I have to thank you, Mr. Austin, the 
 more so because I admit I was a little prejudiced against 
 you. Perhaps men living as I do acquire too narrow a 
 view. I am glad you told me. And now where is my 
 daughter and Mrs. Hatherly ? " 
 
 " Wait another minute ! Jefferson is, as you will 
 recognize, a man of exceptional courage, but he is also a 
 man of excellent education, and, so far as that goes, of 
 attractive presence, such a one, in fact, as I think a 
 girl of Miss Gascoyne 's station is by no means certain 
 to come across again in England. Now, if I have 
 said anything to offend you, it has not been with that 
 object, and you will excuse it. Your daughter and Mrs. 
 Hatherly are on board this ship. It seemed better 
 that you should hear me out before I told you." 
 
 " Ah," said Gascoyne. " Well, I think you were 
 right, and again I am much obliged to you. Will you 
 take me to Mrs. Hatherly ? " 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 AT THE BULL-FIGHT 
 
 AUSTIN was writing in the saloon, which was a little 
 cooler than his room, at about eight o'clock that night, 
 while Jacinta and Mrs. Hatherly made ineffectual 
 
AT THE BULL-FIGHT 57 
 
 attempts to read in the ladies' cabin, for the Estremedura 
 was on her way south again with the Trade- wind combers 
 tumbling after her. She rolled with a long, rhythmic 
 swing, and now and then shook and trembled with the 
 jar of her lifted propeller. Muriel Gascoyne was accord- 
 ingly alone with her father on the deck above. She sat 
 in a canvas chair, while Gascoyne leaned upon the rails 
 in front of her. 
 
 "It is a pity I did not come a few weeks earlier," 
 said Gascoyne with a sigh. 
 
 Muriel's eyes were a trifle hazy, but her voice was 
 even. " If you had come then, and insisted upon it, I 
 might have given him up," she said. 
 
 " That means it is irrevocable now ? I want you to 
 make quite sure, my dear. This man does not belong to 
 our world. Even his thoughts must be different from 
 ours. You cannot know anything of his past life I 
 scarcely think he could explain it to you. He would 
 regard nothing from the same standpoint as we do." 
 
 " Still, it cannot have been a bad one. I can't tell 
 you why I am sure of that, but I know." 
 
 " Muriel," Gascoyne said a trifle hoarsely, "it is a 
 terrible risk and if you marry him you must inevitably 
 drift away from me. You are all I have, and I am 
 getting old and lonely, but that is not of the greatest 
 moment. It would be horrible to think of you drifting 
 away from all you have been taught to believe in and hold 
 sacred." 
 
 It was a strong appeal, perhaps the strongest he could 
 have made, for the girl had been without breadth of view 
 when she left home, and the boundaries of her outlook 
 had coincided with those of the little rural parish. Still, 
 in some strange fashion she had gained enlightenment, 
 and she was resolute, though her blue eyes slowly brim- 
 med with moisture. It was true that he would be very 
 lonely. 
 
 " Ah," she said, and it was a significant sign that 
 she questioned the comprehension of the man whom she 
 
58 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 had regarded as almost infallible a few weeks earlier, 
 " how can I make you understand ? There are, per- 
 haps, many worlds, and we know there are many kinds 
 of men. They must think differently, but does that 
 matter so very much after all ? There is the same 
 humanity in all of us." 
 
 " Undoubtedly ! In Turks, idolaters, and unbelievers. 
 Humanity in itself is fallen and evil/' 
 
 Muriel smiled. " Father/' she said, " you don't 
 believe that there is no good in all those who have not 
 been taught to believe as we do ? " 
 
 ; ' There is a perilous optimism abroad," he said. 
 
 " Still," said Muriel, unconscious of the irony of 
 her deprecatory answer, " Mr. Jefferson is neither a 
 Turk nor an idolater. He is only an American 
 sailor." 
 
 Gascoyne sighed, dejectedly, for there was, it seemed, 
 nothing left for him to appeal to. The girl's beliefs 
 had gone. 
 
 " My dear," he said, " how shall I implore you to 
 consider ? " 
 
 Muriel smiled out of hazy eyes. " It is too late. He 
 has my promise, and I belong to him. Nothing that 
 you could say would change that now. He has gone 
 out to Africa believing in me, and I know that he 
 may never come back again." 
 
 Gascoyne appeared a trifle startled, and remembered 
 a curious remark that Austin had made to the effect 
 that there was a heavy responsibility upon his daughter. 
 He could not altogether understand why this should 
 be, but he almost fancied that she recognized it now. 
 There was also a finality and decision in the girl's tone 
 which was new to him. 
 
 " I think you know how hard it was for me to get 
 away, but it seemed necessary. I came out to implore 
 you to give this stranger up," he said. 
 
 The girl rose, and stood looking at him gravely, 
 with one hand on the chair-arm to steady herself as 
 
AT THE BULL-FIGHT 59 
 
 the steamer rolled, and the moonlight upon her face. 
 It was almost reposeful in its resolution. 
 
 " Father," she said, " you must try to understand. 
 Perhaps I did wrong when I gave him my promise 
 without consulting you, but it is given and irrevocable. 
 He has gone out to Africa and may die there believ- 
 ing in me. I don't think I could make you realize how 
 he believes in me, but though, of course, he is wrong, I 
 grow frightened now and then, and almost hope he may 
 never see me as I really am. That is why I daren't 
 fail him. If there was no other reason I must keep faith 
 with him." 
 
 " Then/' said Gascoyne very slowly, " I must, at 
 least, try to resign myself and, perhaps, my apprehen- 
 sions may turn out to be not quite warranted after all. 
 I was horribly afraid a little while ago, but this man 
 seems to have the faculty of inspiring confidence in those 
 who know him. They cannot all be mistaken, and the 
 man who is purser on this steamer seems to believe in 
 him firmly. His views are peculiar, but there was sense 
 in what he said, and he made me think a little less 
 hardly of Mr. Jefferson." 
 
 Muriel only smiled. She realized what this admission, 
 insufficient and grudging as it was, must have cost her 
 father, and, for she had -regarded everything from his 
 point of view until a few weeks ago she could sympathize 
 with him. Still, she was glad when she saw Jacinta 
 and Mrs. Hatherly coming towards them along the deck. 
 
 Austin was busy when the Estremedura steamed into 
 Las Palmas early next morning, while it was nearly 
 three weeks later when he met Jacinta again at a corrida 
 de toros in the bull-ring at Santa Cruz, Teneriff e, which 
 was perhaps the last place where one would have ex- 
 pected to find an English lady. 
 
 The spacious amphitheatre was open to the sky, and all 
 its tiers of stone benches packed with excited humanity, 
 for half the inhabitants of the island had apparently 
 gathered to enjoy the sanguinary spectacle. 
 
60 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 The tawny, long-horned bull, which had shown un- 
 usual courage, stood panting in the middle of the arena 
 with a crimson smear on one shoulder where a lance 
 had scored it deep, and while the bugles rang, the vast 
 assembly waited for the banderillero scene in high good 
 humour. Just then a little party descended one of the 
 avenues on the shady side, and Austin, who had a note 
 from Pancho Brown in his pocket, with some difficulty 
 made his way to meet them. He was quite aware that 
 Brown was probably the only Englishman in those 
 islands who would have been able to reserve desirable 
 places at a corrida de toros. 
 
 Jacinta, who accompanied him, was attended by his 
 Spanish housekeeper and two sunburnt English naval 
 officers, but she made room for Austin on one side of her, 
 and appeared in no way displeased by his indifferently 
 veiled approbation. Miss Brown had been dressed by 
 a Castilian modiste, mostly in black lace, that day, and 
 her clustering brown hair was ornamented by a little 
 mantilla of the same material. 
 
 " You venture to approve of this get-up ? " she 
 said. " The tourists were a little horrified at the hotel." 
 
 Austin, who wore white duck, noticed that she smiled 
 at the Governor, who sat above them amidst his 
 glittering staff ; and that almost sufficed to spoil his 
 satisfaction, though it was only one of the many little 
 things that emphasized the difference between them. 
 Still, he contrived to laugh. 
 
 " I expect they were envious. It's bewilderingly 
 effective, and I'm a bit of an artist, as you know," he 
 said. " I was wondering whether you would have the 
 courage to come." 
 
 " Jacinta," said Pancho Brown, " has courage enough 
 for anything. Still, she came because I asked her. I 
 make my living out of these people, and, perhaps, a 
 little more. It was policy." 
 
 Jacinta laughed. " Well," she said, " I rather like 
 it, and I have been before. Of course I mean after they 
 
AT THE BULL-FIGHT 61 
 
 have killed the horses, and smashed the picadores. 
 That part is not only cruel, but ineffective. It's not 
 inspiriting to see a man padded with leather sit quite 
 still to be knocked over. They should either wipe it 
 out or give them stuffed horses. By the way, you don't 
 know my companions." 
 
 The two naval officers acknowledged the introduction 
 with characteristic brevity. 
 
 Then for a time they all became absorbed in the play 
 of the banderilleros, who flashing here and there with 
 cloaks of red, and gold, and green, passed the bull from 
 one to another up and down the trampled arena. Now, 
 one of them escaped annihilation by a hair's-breadth, 
 while the thundering Vivas went up to the glaring sky, 
 and a comrade turned the tormented beast again. Now, 
 a silk-clad athlete swept through the two-foot gap 
 between deadly horns and flying man, and the bull swung 
 round with a bellow to pursue him, or stood still tempor- 
 arily blinded with the gaudy cloak about its horns. It was 
 a fascinating exhibition of human nerve and skill, and 
 Austin saw that Jacinta watched it with slightly parted 
 lips and a gleam in her eyes, until at last the bugles rang, 
 and most of the men withdrew, leaving the bull alone 
 in the middle of the arena with the foam flakes dripping 
 from its muzzle and its brawny neck bristling with the 
 little darts. 
 
 Then the shrill call of the bugles rang through the 
 great building, and a tall man with a scarred face, gorge- 
 ously dressed, walked into the arena, holding a three- 
 cornered hat and a long, straight sword. He stood still 
 a moment, an imposing and curiously graceful figure, 
 with bright blade lowered, while a tumultuous shout of 
 " Maestro/' filled the building, and then, taking a cloak 
 from an attendant, approached the bull. It was freely 
 smeared with blood, and as it stood bellowing and paw- 
 ing the sand in murderous rage, it was evident that the 
 Maestro's task was not a particularly pleasant one. 
 There was only one way in which he could kill the bull, 
 
62 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 and that was to pass his sword over the horns and down 
 into the brawny chest near the base of the neck. Should 
 he strike elsewhere it was probable that the vast assembly 
 would descend and trample on him, for this was a duel 
 to the death between man and beast, in which the 
 latter was secured what seemed an even chance by 
 punctilious etiquette. The Spaniard displays a good 
 deal of sympathy with a gallant bull. 
 
 The beast seemed to understand that this man was 
 different from the banderilleros who had previously 
 tormented it, and backed away from him until he smote 
 it lightly on the nostrils. Then he swept forward in a 
 savage rush, but though the man's movements were so 
 quick that one scarcely noticed them, he was not quite 
 where he had been a moment earlier when the bull 
 thundered past him. Still, one horn had ripped a strip 
 of silk from him. He followed the beast, and struck it 
 with his hand, and for five or six frenzied minutes the 
 vast audience roared. This man never ran. He stepped 
 backwards, or twisted, always with grave gracefulness, 
 in the nick of 'time, until at last the bull stood still, as 
 though stupefied with rage or uncertain how to attack 
 its elusive persecutor. 
 
 Then, as the man walked up to it very quietly and 
 unconcernedly, it seemed to hump itself together for a 
 furious bound and rush with lowered head, and there 
 was no sound in the great building until the bright steel 
 flashed. Man's breast and gleaming horns seemed to 
 meet, but apparently in the same second the gorgeously 
 clad figure had stepped aside, and in the next the bull 
 that plunged forward come down upon its knees. 
 
 There was another roar, and once more from all the 
 close-packed benches came the rain of hats, cigars, and 
 bundles of cigarettes. 
 
 " Eh," said Jacinta with a little gasp, " I think I have 
 seen enough. There will be another bull and more pica- 
 dores now. I never could stand that part of it. Besides, 
 I have done my duty and patronized the show." 
 
AT THE BULL-FIGHT 63 
 
 They made their way out while the audience waited 
 for another bull, and certain leather-swathed picadores 
 rode in on decrepit, blindfolded horses, brought there 
 to be killed ; and it was an hour later when, as they 
 stood beneath the oleanders in a fonda garden looking 
 down upon the white-walled town, Jacinta mentioned 
 the affair again. 
 
 " Of course, it is a little cruel ; but, after all, it appeals 
 to rather more than the lower passions and lust of 
 slaughter, don't you think ? " she said. 
 
 " I never saw anything to equal that Meastro's play 
 in my life," said one of the young officers. " It was cool, 
 daring in the superlative degree/' 
 
 " I fancy," said Austin, " you want us to make excuses 
 for your being there." 
 
 Jacinta laughed. " Not exactly ! I am rather proud 
 of being a law to myself and others you know. Now, 
 I really think that the qualities the Maestro possessed 
 appealed to me, though I naturally mean some and not 
 all of them. I am, after all, as I admitted, a little primi- 
 tive in some respects." 
 
 " You mean that you like a man to be daring ? " 
 asked the other officer. 
 
 " Of course ! " and once more it was Austin whom 
 Jacinta looked at. " Still, I don't necessarily mean that 
 everybody should go bull-fighting. There are other 
 things more worth while." 
 
 " Even than sailing round the Canaries and painting 
 little pictures ? " said Austin. 
 
 Jacinta glanced at him with a curious smile. " Well," 
 she said, " since you ask me, I almost think there are." 
 Then she stopped a moment, and stood looking out 
 from among the oleanders towards the glittering heave 
 of the Atlantic across the white- walled town. Once more 
 a faint gleam crept into her eyes. 
 
 " I wonder," she added, " what Jefferson is doing 
 out yonder in Africa ? " 
 
64 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 JEFFERSON FEELS THE STRAIN 
 
 THE afternoon was wearing through, but it was still 
 almost insufferably hot when Jefferson stood with his 
 hand upon the valve of the Cumbria's forward winch. 
 She lay with her bows wedged into the mangrove forest, 
 which crawled on high-arched roots over leagues of 
 bubbling mire to the edge of one of the foulest creeks in 
 Western Africa. It flowed, thick and yeasty, beneath 
 the steamer's hove-up side, for she lay with a list to 
 starboard athwart the stream. There was a bend close 
 by, and her original crew had apparently either failed 
 to swing her round it, which is an accident that some- 
 times happens in that country, or driven her ashore to 
 save her sinking. 
 
 Her iron deck was unpleasantly hot, and the negroes 
 who crossed it between hatch and surf-boat hopped. 
 They, of course, wore no boots, and, indeed, very little 
 of anything at all beyond a strip of cotton round their 
 waists. There was not a breath of wind astir, and the 
 saturated atmosphere, which was heavy with the emana- 
 tions of the swamps, seemed to seal the perspiration in 
 the burning skin. Jefferson felt the veins on his fore- 
 head swollen to the bursting-point when he stopped the 
 winch and looked about him while the Spaniards slipped 
 a sling over a palm-oil puncheon in the hold below. 
 
 He could see nothing but a strip of dazzling water, and 
 the dingy, white-stemmed mangroves which stretched 
 away farther than the eye could follow, and sighed as he 
 glanced at the Cumbria. She lay with deck unpleasantly 
 slanted and one bilge in the mire, a rusty, two-masted 
 steamer, with the blistered paint peeling off her, and the 
 burnt awnings hanging from their spars. He did not 
 expect much water in that creek until the wet season, 
 and in the meanwhile it was necessary to heave the 
 coal and cargo out of her and send it down stream to a 
 
JEFFERSON FEELS THE STRAIN 65 
 
 neighbouring beach. It was very slow work with the 
 handful of men he had, and those few weeks had set 
 their mark on Jefferson. 
 
 He had never been a fleshy man, and long days of 
 feverish toil under a burning sun and in the steamy heat 
 of the flooded holds had worn him to skin and bone. 
 His duck garments hung with a significant slackness 
 about his gaunt frame, and they were rent in places, as 
 well as blackened, and smeared with oil. His face was 
 grim and hollow, but there was a fierce steadfastness in 
 his eyes, which seemed filled with curious brilliancy. 
 
 " Are you going to sleep down there ? Can't you 
 send up another cask ? " he said. 
 
 A voice came up from the dusky hatch, out of which 
 there flowed a hot, sour smell of palm-oil and putrefying 
 water. " The next tier's jammed up under the orlop- 
 beams," it said. " We might get on a little if we could 
 break a puncheon out." 
 
 Jefferson laid his hands upon the coaming of the hatch 
 and swung himself over. It was a drop of several yards, 
 and he came down upon the slippery round of a big 
 puncheon, and, reeling across the barrels, fell back- 
 wards against an angle-iron. He was, however, up 
 again in a moment, and stood blinking about him with 
 eyes dazzled by the change from the almost intolerable 
 brightness above. Blurred figures were standing more 
 than ankle-deep in water on the slanted rows of pun- 
 cheons, and Jefferson, who could not see them very well, 
 blinked again when an Englishman stripped to the 
 waist moved towards him. The latter was dripping 
 with yellow oil and perspiration. 
 
 " It's this one," he said, and kicked a puncheon 
 viciously. " The derrick-crabs have pulled the tops of 
 the staves off her. They're soaked an' soft with oil. 
 The water underneath's jamming them up, an' you'll 
 see how the tier's keyed down by the orlop-beams.' 
 
 Jefferson wrenched the iron bar he held away from 
 him and turned to the rest. 
 
66 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 " There's a patch of the head clear. Two or three of 
 you get a handspike on to it," he said. " No, shove it 
 lower down. Mas abajo. Now, heave all together. 
 Vamos. Toda fuerza ! " 
 
 They were barefooted Canary Spaniards of an astonish- 
 ing ignorance, but excellent sailormen, and they under- 
 stood him. Lean muscular bodies strained and bent, the 
 dew of effort dripped from them ; and, as he heaved 
 with lips set, the hollows grew deeper in Jefferson's grim 
 face. No one spoke ; there was only a deep, stertorous 
 gasping, until the puncheon moved a little, and Jefferson 
 stooping, drove his bar a trifle lower. Then, while he 
 strained every muscle and sinew in strenuous effort the 
 great slimy barrel rose again, tilted, and rolled out on 
 its fellows. For a moment it left a space of oily black 
 water where it had been, and then the puncheons closed 
 in with a crash again. Jefferson flung the bar down, and 
 straightened himself. 
 
 " Now," he said wearily, " you can get ahead." 
 
 He crawled up the ladder with a curious languidness, 
 and while one of the Englishman apostrophized the pun- 
 cheons the Spaniards went back to their task. 
 
 One of the Englishmen, however, was not quite 
 satisfied. He had been in the tropics before, and did 
 not like the curious flush in Jefferson's face or the way 
 the swollen veins showed on his forehead, so he climbed 
 the ladder after him, and leaned upon the winch-drum 
 looking at him meditatively. The man was very ragged 
 as well as very dirty, and altogether disreputable, so far 
 as appearance went, while it is probable that in several 
 respects his character left a good deal to be desired. 
 
 " Here's your hat. It's wet, but that's no harm," he 
 said. " You forgot it. Hadn't you better put it on 
 quick ? " 
 
 Jefferson, who recognized the wisdom of this, did so. 
 
 " That's all right Well, what are you stopping 
 for ? " he said. 
 
 The other man still regarded him contemplatively. 
 
JEFFERSON FEELS THE STRAIN 67 
 
 " I know my place but things isn't quite the same 
 aboard this 'ooker as they would be on a big, two-funnel 
 liner. You couldn't expect it. That's why I come up 
 just now to speak to you. You're not feelin' well to- 
 day ? " 
 
 " It's not worth worrying about. I guess nobody 
 but a nigger ever does feel well in this country." 
 
 The other man shook his head. " You go slow. I've 
 seen it comin' on," he said. " You oughtn't to 'a' had 
 your hat off a minute. You see, if you drop out, how's 
 Bill an' me to get the bonus you promised us ? " 
 
 Jefferson laughed, though he found somewhat to his 
 corcern that he could not see the man very well. 
 
 " I'm going to hold up until I knock the bottom of this 
 contract out," he said good-humouredly. " I can't do 
 it if I stop and talk to you. Get a move on. Light out 
 of this." 
 
 The man went back. He had done what he felt was 
 his duty, though he had not expected that it would be 
 of very much use, and Jefferson started the winch. It 
 hammered and rattled, and the barrels came up, slimy 
 and dripping, with patches of whitewash still clinging to 
 them. The glare of it dazzled Jefferson until he could 
 scarcely see them as they swung beneath the derrick- 
 boom, but he managed to drop them into the surf-boat 
 alongside and pile the rest on deck, when she slid down 
 the creek with a row of negroes paddling on either side. 
 The steamer had struck the forest at the time of highest 
 water, and it was necessary to take everything out of 
 her if she was to be floated during the coming rainy 
 season. 
 
 He toiled on for another hour with a racking pain in his 
 head, and the Canarios toiled in the stifling hold below, 
 until there was a jar and a rattle, and a big puncheon 
 that should have gone into the surf-boat came down with 
 a crash amidst them, and, bursting, splashed them with 
 yellow oil. Then the man who had remonstrated with 
 Jefferson went up the ladder in haste. The winch had 
 
68 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 stopped, and Jefferson lay across it amidst a coil of 
 slack wire with a suffused face. The man, who stooped 
 over him, shouted, and the rest who came up helped 
 to carry him to his room beneath the bridge. The floor 
 was slanted so that one could scarcely stand on it, and 
 as the berth took the same list they laid him where the 
 side of it met the bulkhead. He lay there, speechless, 
 with half-closed eyes, and water and palm-oil soaking 
 from him. 
 
 " Now," said the man who had given him good advice, 
 " you'll get those Spaniards out of this, Bill. Then 
 you'll go on breaking the puncheons out. Wall-eye here 
 can run the winch for you, but you can come back in 
 half an hour when I've found out what's wrong with 
 the skipper." 
 
 Bill seemed to recognize that his comrade had risen 
 to the occasion. " Well," he said, " I s'pose there's no 
 use in me saying anything. All I want to know is how 
 you're going to do it ? " 
 
 " See that ? " And the other man pointed to a chest 
 beneath the settee. " It's full of medicines, an' there's a 
 book about them. Good ole Board of Trade ! " 
 
 Bill went away with the Spaniards, and, in place of 
 improving the occasion by looking for liquor, as he 
 might, perhaps, have been expected to do, went on with 
 his task. The man who sat in Jefferson's room could, at 
 least, understand the treatise in the medicine chest, 
 although it was one approved by the Board of Trade, 
 which august body has apparently no great fondness 
 for lucid explanations. He was, however, still poring 
 over it when his comrade thrust his head into the doorway 
 again, and it is possible that Jefferson had not suffered 
 greatly from the fact that he had not as yet quite decided 
 on any course of treatment. 
 
 " Well," said the new-comer, " I suppose you know 
 what he has got ? " 
 
 " Come in, an' sit down there," said the other. " It's 
 fever for one thing I've seen it coming on an' sunstroke 
 
JEFFERSON FEELS THE STRAIN 69 
 
 for another. What I'm stuck at is if I'm to treat them 
 both together/' 
 
 Bill looked reflective. " I think I'd take them one at 
 a time. Get the sunstroke out of him, and then go for 
 the fever. How d'you start on it, Tom ? " 
 
 " Undo his clothes. That's easy. The buttons is 
 mostly off them, an' he has hardly any on. Then you 
 put cold water on 'is head." 
 
 " That's not easy, anyway. Where the blazes are 
 you going to get cold water from ? " 
 
 It was somewhat of a paradox, for while there is 
 plenty of water in Western Africa, none of it is cold, 
 Tom, however, was once more equal to the occasion, 
 
 " We could get a big spanner from the engine-room, 
 an' put it on his head," he said. " There's plenty of 
 them. S'pose you go an' bring one. Anyway, we'll 
 swill him with the coldest water we can get." 
 
 They laid a soaked singlet upon his head with a 
 couple of iron spanners under it, and then sat down to 
 watch the effect. Somewhat to their astonishment, it 
 did not appear to do him any appreciable good. Dark- 
 ness closed down as they waited, and it seemed to grow 
 hotter than ever, while a thick, white steam rose from 
 the swamps. Tom stood up and lighted the lamp. 
 
 " The fever's easier," he said, " I've had it. You give 
 him the mixture it's down in the book though I don't 
 know what the meaning of all these sign things is. 
 That starts him perspiring, an' then it's thick blankets. 
 We used to give them green lime-water in the mail- 
 boats." 
 
 " Where's the green-limes ? " said Bill. " Anyway, 
 I'd give the sunstroke a decent chance first. Perhaps 
 he'll come out of it himself. I don't know that it 
 wouldn't be better if he did." 
 
 Jefferson came out of his limp unconsciousness into 
 a raving delirium that night, and they rolled him in two 
 blankets, while Bill being left on watch wisely threw 
 away the draught his comrade had concocted. Jefferson 
 
70 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 was also very little more sensible during the next few days 
 and, though the work went on, before the week was over 
 the two lonely Englishmen found they had another diffi- 
 culty to grapple with. The sun was almost overhead, and 
 the iron deck insufferably hot, when the surf-boat negroes, 
 who had just finished their meal, came forward together, 
 eight or nine, big, naked men, with animal faces and splen- 
 did muscles. Nobody knew where they came from, but 
 when two or three of them appeared in a canoe Jefferson 
 had managed to make them understand that he was 
 willing to pay them for their services, and they forthwith 
 went away and came back with several comrades and a 
 man of shorter stature, who had apparently worked on 
 board a steamboat or at a white man's factory. They 
 had worked tolerably well while Jefferson was about 
 to watch them, but they had now apparently decided 
 on another mode of behaviour, for the attitude of 
 their leader was unmistakably truculent. The man' ; 
 called Bill sitting on the forehatch turned at the patter 
 of naked feet and looked at him. 
 
 " Well/' he said sharply, " what the are you 
 
 wanting ? " 
 
 " Two bokus them green gin," said the negro. " Two 
 HI' piece of cloff every boy." 
 
 Tom laughed ironically. " There isn't any green 
 gin bokus in the ship, for one thing. You'll get your 
 cloth- piece when the work is done. That's all I've got 
 to say to you. Get out of this." 
 
 The negro made a little forceful gesture. " You no 
 cappy." 
 
 " Well," said Bill dryly, " he figures he's a blooming: 
 admiral in the meanwhile, and that's good enough for 
 you. Go home again, and don't worry me." 
 
 " Two cloff-piece," said the negro. " Two cloff-piece 
 every boy. You no lib for get them, we come down too 
 much boy and take them 'teamboat from you." 
 
 The white men looked at one another, and it was 
 evident that they were uncertain how far the negro 
 
JEFFERSON FEELS THE STRAIN 71 
 
 might be able to make good his threat. There was, as 
 it happened, very little to prevent him doing it, and 
 stockaded factories, as well as stranded steamboats, 
 have been looted in Western Africa. Still, they re- 
 membered that they had the prestige of their colour to 
 maintain. 
 
 " Oh, get out one time ! " said Tom. 
 
 The negro turned upon him. ' You no cappy. You 
 low, white, 'teamboat bushman. Too much boy he lib 
 for come down one night and cut you big fat t'roat." 
 
 Bill, who was big and brawny, rose with an air of 
 
 sorrowful resolution. " This nonsense has got to be 
 
 stopped/' he said, and walked tranquilly towards the 
 negro. " You wouldn't listen to reason, Black-funnel- 
 paint." 
 
 Then, before the latter quite realized what had hap- 
 pened to him, a grimy fist descended upon his jaw, and 
 as he staggered backwards somebody seized his shoulders 
 and whirled him round. In another moment Bill 
 kicked with all his might, and the negro went out head- 
 long through the open gangway into the creek alongside. 
 In the meanwhile the Spaniards came tumbling from the 
 hatch, and, though they were quiet men, they carried 
 long Canary knives. The sight of them was enough for 
 the negroes, and they followed their leader, plunging from 
 the gangway or over the rail. Their canoes still lay 
 beneath the quarter, and though Tom hurled a few big 
 lumps of coal on them as they got under way they were 
 flying up the creek in another minute with paddles 
 flashing. 
 
 Then Bill explained the affair to the Canaries as well 
 as he could, and afterwards drew his comrade back into 
 the shadow of the deckhouse to hold a council. Both of 
 them felt somewhat lonely as they blinked at the desola- 
 tion of dingy mangroves which hemmed them in. There 
 was, so far as they knew, not a white man in that part of 
 Africa, and the intentions of the negroes were appar- 
 ently by no means amicable. 
 
72 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 " Funnel-paint may come back an' bring his friends/' 
 said Tom. " I don't know what's to stop him if he wants 
 to. There's not a gun in the ship except Mr. Jefferson's 
 pistol and those Canary fellows' knives, an' we can't 
 worry Mr. Jefferson about the thing when he's too sick 
 to understand. If I'd only begun on him for fever he 
 might have been better." 
 
 " I'm thankful," said Bill, " as he isn't dead. It 
 wouldn't be very astonishing, but that don't matter." 
 
 " You'd think it mattered a good deal if you was Mr. 
 Jefferson. If I wasn't that anxious about him I'd let 
 you try your hand an' see how easy it is worrying out 
 that book. As it is, one of us is enough." 
 
 " I'm thinking," said Bill sourly, " as it's a sight 
 
 too much ! " 
 
 Tom glared at him a moment, but he was more 
 anxious than he cared to confess, too anxious indeed to 
 force a quarrel. 
 
 " Well/' he said, " I'll ask you what you mean anothei 
 time. Just now we've got to do a little for Mr. Jefferson, 
 and a little for ourselves. Eight pound a month, all 
 found, and a fifty-pound bonus when he gets her off, 
 isn't to be picked up everywhere, and, of course, there's 
 no telling when you an' me may get the fever. Now 
 then, we want a boss who isn't sick, an' more men, as 
 well as a doctor." 
 
 " Of course ! How're you going to get them ? " 
 
 " Not here. They don't grow in the swamps. Some- 
 body's got to go for them, an' Las Palmas is the best 
 place. You could find a West-coast mail-boat goin' 
 home if you went down the creek in the launch. They've 
 a man or two sick in the engine-room most trips, an' 
 they'd be glad to take you firm'. Now before Mr. 
 Jefferson got that sunstroke he showed me two envelopes. 
 If he was to peg out sudden I was to see the men in Las 
 Palmas got them, and they'd tell me what to do. Men 
 do peg out at any time in this country. Well, you'll 
 look for a liner, an' take those letters. If it's a good 
 
JEFFERSON FEELS THE STRAIN 73 
 
 boat she'll only be four or five days steaming up the 
 Trades. Mr. Jefferson deserves a chance for his life." 
 
 " What's wrong with taking him, too ; or all of us 
 going, for that matter ? " asked his companion. 
 
 " Eight pounds a month, an' a bonus ! Besides, Mr. 
 Jefferson put all his money into getting this ship off. 
 If he comes round and finds it thrown away he's not 
 going to be grateful to either of us." 
 
 Bill sat silent, evidently thinking hard for a minute 
 or two. " Well," he said, " there's sense in the thing, 
 and I'll try it. You'll be all right with those Canaries. 
 They're nice, quiet men, and if you make them say it 
 over lots of times you can generally understand them. 
 Wall-eye can bring the launch back. I'll get out of this 
 when we've steam up." 
 
 It was two hours later when he and one of the Canaries 
 who had worked on board the coaling company's tug 
 departed, and the rest clustering along the Cumbria's 
 rail watched them wistfully as the little clanking craft 
 slid down the creek. They would very much have liked 
 to have gone in her, too, and might have done so had not 
 Jefferson had the forethought to promise them a small 
 share of the profit when the work was done, and feed 
 them well. There are also men who inspire confidence 
 in those they lead, and sailormen capable of carrying 
 out a bargain. Thus were there no open expressions of 
 regret or misgivings when the last of the launch's smoke- 
 trail melted above the mangroves, though Tom looked 
 very grave as he clawed the shoulder of an olive-faced 
 Canario seaman who did not understand him. 
 
 " If that man goes on the loose with what he gets for 
 firm' an' forgets all about those letters it won't be nice 
 for us," he said. " In the meanwhile we've just got 
 to buck up and lighten the blamed old scrap-iron tank 
 between us." 
 
 He called her a few other names, while the Spaniard 
 watched him smiling, and having so relieved himself 
 went softly into the skipper's room, where Jefferson lay, 
 
74 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 a worn-out shadow of a man, wrapped in very dirty 
 blankets and babbling incoherently. 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 AUSTIN MAKES A VENTURE 
 
 It was late one hot night when Austin first met Captain 
 Farquhar of the s.s. Carsegarry in a calle of Santa Cruz, 
 and the worthy shipmaster being then in a somewhat 
 unpleasant position was sincerely pleased to see him. 
 The Carsegarry had reached Las Palmas with three 
 thousand tons of steam coal some ten days earlier, and, 
 because there are disadvantages attached to living on 
 board a vessel that is discharging coal, Farquhar had 
 taken up his abode at the Metropole. He had, as usual, 
 made friends with almost everybody in the big hotel 
 during the first few days, which said a good deal for his 
 capabilities, considering that most of them were English- 
 men ; and then finding their society pall on him, went 
 across to Santa Cruz in search of adventure and more 
 congeinal company. 
 
 As it happened, he found the latter in the person of 
 another Englishman with similar tastes ; and one or 
 two of their frolics are remembered in that island yet. 
 On the night Farquhar came across Austin they had 
 amused themselves not altogether wisely in a certain 
 cafe, from which its proprietor begged them to depart 
 when they had broken one citizen's guitar and damaged 
 another's clothes. Then, as it was getting late, they ad- 
 journed to the mole, where the Englishman had arranged 
 that a boat at his command should meet them and con- 
 vey Farquhar, who was going back to Las Palmas next 
 day, on board the Estremedura. The boat was not forth- 
 coming, and the Englishman's temper deteriorated 
 while they waited half an hour for it, until when at last 
 the splash of oars came out of the soft darkness he was 
 not only in a very unpleasant humour but determined 
 
AUSTIN MAKES A VENTURE 75 
 
 upon showing his companion that he was not a man with 
 whom a Spanish crew could take liberties. 
 
 There was also a pile of limestone on the mole, and 
 when a shadowy launch slid into the blackness beneath 
 it he hurled down the biggest lumps he could find as well 
 as a torrent of Castilian vituperation. Then, however, 
 instead of the excuses he had expected, there were 
 wrathful cries, and the Englishman gasped when he 
 saw dim, white-clad figures clambering in portentous 
 haste up the adjacent steps. 
 
 " We'll have to get out of this quick," he said. "I've 
 made a little mistake. It's somebody else's boat." 
 
 They set about it without waste of time, but there was 
 a good deal of merchandise lying about the mole, and 
 the Englishman, who fell over some of it, lay still until 
 a peon came across him peacefully asleep behind a barrel 
 next morning. Farquhar, however, ran on snatching 
 up a handspike as he went, with odd lumps of limestone 
 hurtling behind him ; and as he and his pursuers made 
 a good deal of noise as they sped across the plaza at the 
 head of the mole, the citizens still left in the cafes turned 
 out to enjoy the spectacle. English seafarers are 
 tolerated in that city, but it is, perhaps, their own fault 
 that they are not regarded with any particular favour, 
 and when Farquhar turned at bay in a doorway and 
 proceeded to defy all the subjects of Spain, nobody was 
 anxious to stand between him and the bare-legged sailors, 
 who had nasty knives. It might, in fact, have gone hard 
 with him had not two civiles with big revolvers strapped 
 about them arrived. 
 
 They heard the crowd's explanations with official un- 
 concern, and then, though it was, perhaps, their duty to 
 place Farquhar in safe custody in the cuartel, decided 
 on sending for Austin, who was" known to be staying that 
 night in a neighbouring hotel. He had befriended 
 English skippers already under somewhat similar cir- 
 cumstances, and the civiles, who knew their business, 
 were quite aware that nobody would thank them for 
 
76 KI3 LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 forcing the affair upon the attention of the English 
 Consul. Austin came, and saw Farquhar gazing angrily 
 at the civiles and still gripping his bar, while the crowd 
 stood round and made insulting remarks about him in 
 Castilian. He at once grasped the position, and made a 
 sign of concurrence when one of the civiles spoke to 
 him. 
 
 " You take him to his steamer/' said the officer. " One 
 of us will come round in the morning when he under- 
 stands/ 1 
 
 i Austin turned to Farquhar. " Give the man that 
 bar/' he said. " Come along, and I'll send you off to 
 your steamer." 
 
 "I'm going to have satisfaction out of some of them 
 first," said Farquhar. " Then I'll knock up the Consul. 
 I'll show them if a crowd of garlic-eating pigs can run 
 after me." 
 
 " If you stop here you'll probably get it, in the shape 
 of a knife between your ribs," said Austin, who seized 
 his arm. " A wise man doesn't drag in the Consul when 
 he wants to keep his berth." 
 
 He forced Farquhar, who still protested energetically, 
 along, and, because the civiles marched behind, conveyed 
 him to the mole, where a boat was procured to take 
 them off to the Estremedura. Farquhar had cooled 
 down a little by the time they reached her, and appeared 
 grateful when Austin put him into his berth. 
 
 " Perhaps you did save me some trouble, and I'll not 
 forget you/' he said. " Take you round all the nice 
 people in Las Palmas, and tell them you're a friend of 
 mine." 
 
 "I'm not sure it would be very much of a recom- 
 mendation," said Austin dryly. 
 
 Farquhar laughed. " That's where you're mistaken. 
 When I've been a week in a place I'm friends with every- 
 body worth knowing." 
 
 " If to-night's affair is anything to go by, it's a little 
 difficult to understand how you manage it," said Austin. 
 
AUSTIN MAKES A VENTURE 77 
 
 " It's quite easy to be looked up to, and still have your 
 fun/ 1 and Farquhar lowered his voice confidentially 
 " When folks think a good deal of you in one place yor 
 have only to go somewhere else when you feel the fr. 
 coming on." 
 
 The Estremedura sailed for Las Palmas next morning, 
 and on arriving there Austin was somewhat astonished 
 to discover that Farquhar had in fact acquired the good- 
 will of a good many people of consequence in that city. 
 He was a genial, frolic-loving man, and Austin, who 
 became sensible of a liking for him, spent a good deal of 
 his leisure on board the Carsegarry, while, when the 
 Estremedura came back there, he also consented to advise 
 Farquhar about the getting up of a dance to which 
 everybody was invited. It was a testimony to the 
 latter's capacity for making friends that a good many of 
 them came, and among the rest were Pancho Brown, his 
 daughter, Muriel Gascoyne, and Mrs. Hatherly, as well 
 as the commander of a Spanish warship, and several 
 officers of artillery. 
 
 The night was soft and still, and clear moonlight shone 
 down upon the sea. An orchestra of guitars and mando- 
 lines discoursed Spanish music from the poop, and there 
 was room for bolero and casucha on the big after-hatch, 
 while, when the waltzers had swung round it, the Carse- 
 garry's engineer made shift to play English lancers on 
 his fiddle. Everybody seemed content, and the genial 
 Farquhar diffused high spirits and good humour. 
 
 Austin had swung through a waltz with Jacinta, 
 though the guitars were still twanging softly when they 
 climbed the ladder to the bridge-deck where canvas chairs 
 were laid out. It was a curious waltz, tinged with the 
 melancholy there is in most Spanish music, but the 
 crash of a gun broke through it, and while the roar of a 
 whistle drowned the drowsy murmur of the surf the 
 long black hull of an African mail-boat slid into the har- 
 bour ringed with lights. Then there followed the rattle 
 of cable, and Austin fancied that the sight of the steamer 
 
78 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 had, for no very apparent reason, its effect upon his 
 companion. She had been cordial during the evening, 
 but there was a faint suggestion of hardness in her face 
 as she turned to him. 
 
 " I am especially fond of that waltz," she said. "You 
 may have noticed there's a trace of what one might call 
 the bizarre in it. No doubt, it's Eastern. They got 
 it from the Moors." 
 
 " It only struck me as very pretty," said Austin, 
 who surmised by her expression that Jacinta was pre- 
 paring the way for what she meant to say. "I'm afraid 
 I'm not much of a musician." 
 
 " You, at least, dance rather well. There are not 
 many Englishmen who really do, which is, perhaps, no 
 great disadvantage, after all." 
 
 Austin laughed, though he was a trifle perplexed. 
 " Well," he said, " one could almost fancy that the fact 
 didn't meet with your approval." 
 
 Jacinta looked at him reflectively over her fan. " I 
 scarcely supposed you would understand, and one does 
 not always feel in the mood to undertake a logical ex- 
 position of their views Still, here's Muriel, and she, at 
 least, generally seems to know just what she means. 
 Suppose you ask her what she thinks of dancing." 
 
 Austin did so, and Miss Gascoyne, who was crossing 
 the bridge-deck with Farquhar, stopped beside them. 
 
 " I don't think there is any harm in dancing, in itself- 
 in fact, I have just been waltzing with Captain Farquhar," 
 she said. " Of course, the disadvantage attached to 
 amusements of any kind is that they may distract one's 
 attention from more serious things. Don't you think so, 
 Captain Farquhar ? " 
 
 Farquhar caught Austin's eye, and grinned wickedly, 
 but Miss Gascoyne, who failed to notice this, glanced 
 towards the steamer which had just come in. 
 
 " That must be the African boat, but I suppose there 
 is no use expecting any news ? " she said quietly, though 
 there was a faint suggestive tremor in her voice. 
 
AUSTIN MAKES A VENTURE 79 
 
 She passed on with Farquhar, and Jacinta glanced at 
 Austin with a little inquiring smile. 
 
 " If I had a sister who persisted in talking in that 
 aggravatingly edifying fashion, I should feel tempted to 
 shake her," he said. " Still, one could forgive her a good 
 deal if only for the way she looked at the West-coast 
 boat. It suggested that she has as much humanity in 
 her as there is in the rest of us, after all." 
 
 " Still, don't you think there was a little reason in 
 what she said ? " 
 
 " Of course. That is, no doubt, why one objects to 
 it. Well, since it's difficult to keep the personal equation 
 out, I suppose dancing and sailing about these islands on 
 board the Estremedura is rather a waste of life. Painting 
 little pictures probably comes to much the sgune thing, too, 
 though there are people who seem to take art seriously." 
 
 Jacinta looked at him steadily. " When one has 
 really an artistic talent it is different," she said. 
 
 Austin walked with her to the ladder, and stopped a 
 moment at the head of it. " Well," he said, " one 
 has to remember that all men are not built on the same 
 model, and, what is more to the purpose, they haven't 
 all the same opportunities, No doubt the latter fact 
 is fortunate for some of them, since they would probably 
 make a deplorable mess of things if they undertook a 
 big enterprise." 
 
 " Ah," said Jacinta, " one never knows when the 
 opportunities may present themselves." 
 
 She went down the ladder, and it was about an hour 
 later when a boat slid alongside, and a man came up 
 asking for Austin. The latter, who sat on the bridge- 
 deck amidst a group of Farquhar's guests, looked at him 
 curiously when he handed him an envelope. His gar- 
 ments had evidently not been made for him, and there 
 were stains of grease and soot on his coarse serge 
 jacket, while the coal-dust had not been wholly washed 
 from his face. It was not difficult to recognize him as a 
 steamer's fireman. 
 
80 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 " You're Mr. Austin ? " he said. 
 
 Austin admitted that he was, and after a glance at 
 the letter turned round and saw that Muriel Gascoyne, 
 who sat close by, was watching him with a curious intent- 
 ness. Then he once more fixed his attention on the 
 paper in his hand. 
 
 " S.s. Cumbria " was written at the top of it, and there 
 followed a description of the creek, and how the steamer 
 lay, as well as the cargo in her holds. Then he read, " I'm 
 beginning to understand why those wrecker fellows let 
 up on the contract, though they hadn't the stake I have 
 in the game. There are times when I get wondering 
 whether I can last it out, for it seems to me that white 
 men who work in the sun all day are apt to drop out 
 suddenly in this country. I make you and Mr. Pancho 
 Brown my executors in case of anything of that kind 
 happening to me. If you come across anybody willing 
 to take the Cumbria over as a business proposition, do 
 what you can on the understanding that one-third of 
 the profit goes to Miss Gascoyne, the rest as executors' 
 and wreckers' remuneration. I don't know how far this 
 statement meets your law, but I feel I can trust you, 
 anyway. In case of either party not being willing to 
 take the thing up, the other may act alone." 
 
 Austin turned to the fireman. " You have another 
 letter for Mr. Brown ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir," said the man. " Mr. Jefferson 
 
 Austin, who heard a rustle of feminine draperies and 
 what seemed to be a little gasp of surprise or alarm, made 
 the man a sign. 
 
 " Come to the skipper's room. I've two or three things 
 to ask you," he said. " Miss Brown, will you hand that 
 letter to your father ? " 
 
 They disappeared into the room beneath the bridge, 
 and it was some time before they came out again. Then 
 Austin sent the man down the ladder with a steward to 
 take him to Brown, and leaned against the rail. Jacinta, 
 Muriel, and Mrs. Hatherly were still sitting there, but 
 
AUSTIN MAKES A VENTURE 81 
 
 the rest had gone. He told them briefly all he had 
 heard about Jefferson, and then descended the ladder 
 in search of Brown. The latter met him with the letter 
 in his hand, and they found a seat in the shadow of the 
 Carsegany's rail. Nobody seemed to notice them, 
 though the fluttering dresses of the women brushed them 
 as they swung by in a waltz. 
 
 " You have read it," said Austin. " What do you 
 think ? " 
 
 Pancho Brown tapped the letter with the gold- 
 rimmed glasses he held in his hand. 
 
 "As a business proposition I would not look at it. 
 The risks are too great," he said. 
 
 " It rather struck me like that, too. Still, that's not 
 quite the question. You see, the man isn't dead." 
 
 " I almost think he is by this time," said Brown 
 reflectively. " Now, he did not seem quite sure when 
 he wrote those letters that there was really any gum 
 in her. At least, he hadn't found it, and I understand 
 that circumstances had made him a little suspicious 
 about the Cumbria's skipper, who we know is dead. 
 Taking oil at present value, in view of what we would 
 have to pay for a salvage expedition and chartering, 
 there is, it seems to me, nothing in the thing." 
 
 "I'm not quite sure of that ; but you are still pre- 
 suming Jefferson dead." 
 
 Brown turned and looked at him. " The first thing 
 we have to do is to find out. Somebody will have to go 
 across, and, of course, he would have to be a reliable man. 
 I should be disposed to go so far as to meet the necessary 
 expenses, not as a business venture, but because Jacinta 
 would give me no peace if I didn't." 
 
 " There would be no difficulty about the man." 
 
 Brown turned to him sharply. " You ? " 
 
 " Yes. If Jefferson is dead I should probably also 
 undertake to do what I can to meet his wishes as 
 executor." 
 
 Brown sat silent a space, and then tapped the letter 
 
82 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 with his glasses again. " In that case I might go as far 
 as to find, say 200. It should, at least, be sufficient 
 to prove if there is any odd chance of getting the C^m^br^a 
 cff." 
 
 " I think I shall do that with So, but I would sooner 
 that you did not provide it. That is, unless you decided 
 to go into the thing on a business footing, and take your 
 share of the results as laid down by Jefferson." 
 
 Brown seemed to be looking hard at him, but they sat 
 in the shadow, and Austin was glad of it. 
 
 " Ah/' he said quietly, though there was a significance 
 in his tone. " Well, somebody must certainly go across, 
 and if you fail elsewhere you can always fall back on me 
 for a loan. When are you going ? " 
 
 " By the first boat that calls anywhere near the creek." 
 
 He rose and turned away, but Pancho Brown sat still 
 with a curious expression on his face. If any of the 
 dancers had noticed him, it would probably have occurred 
 to them that he was thinking hard. Pancho Brown was 
 a quiet man, but he often noticed a good deal more 
 than his daughter gave him credit for. Still, when at 
 length he rose and joined Farquhar there was nothing in 
 his appearance which suggested that he was either 
 anxious or displeased. 
 
 In the meanwhile Austin came upon Mrs. Hatherly, 
 who was wandering up and down the deck, and she drew 
 him beneath a lifeboat. 
 
 " Miss Gascoyne is no doubt distressed ? I am sorry 
 for her," he said. 
 
 The little lady held his arm in a tightening grasp. 
 " Of course ! " she said, and there was a tremor in her 
 voice. " Still, after all, that does not concern us most 
 just now. Somebody must go, and see what can be done 
 for Mr. Jefferson." 
 
 " Yes/' said Austin. " I am going." 
 
 " Then and I am sure you will excuse me it will 
 cost a good deal, and you cannot be a rich man, 
 or " 
 
AUSTIN MAKES A VENTURE 83 
 
 <l I should not have been on board the Estremedura ? 
 You are quite correct, madam." 
 
 Mrs. Hatherly made a little deprecatory gesture. " I 
 am not exactly poor. In fact, I have more money than 
 I shall live to spend, and I always meant to leave it to 
 Muriel. It seems to me that it would be wiser to spend 
 some of it on her now. You will let me give you what 
 you want, Mr. Austin ? " 
 
 Austin stood silent a moment with a flush in his face, 
 and then gravely met her gaze. 
 
 " I almost think I could let you lend me forty pounds. 
 With that I shall have enough in the meanwhile. You 
 will not think me ungracious if I say that just now I am 
 especially sorry I have not more money of my own." 
 
 The little lady smiled at him. " Oh, I understand. 
 That is what made me almost afraid. It cannot be nice 
 to borrow from a woman. Still, I think you could, if it 
 was necessary, do even harder things." 
 
 " I shall probably have to," said Austin, a trifle 
 dryly. " I don't mind admitting that what you have 
 suggested is a great relief to me." 
 
 !< You would naturally sooner let me lend it you than 
 Mr. Brown ? " 
 
 " Why should you suppose that ? " and the flush 
 crept back into Austin's face. Mrs. Hatherly smiled 
 again. " Ah," she said, " I am an old woman, and have 
 my fancies, but they are right now and then. I will 
 send you a cheque to-morrow, and, Mr. Austin, I should 
 like you to think of me as one of your friends. Do 
 you know that I told Muriel you would go half an hour 
 ago ? " 
 
 It was ten minutes later when Austin met Jacinta, 
 and she stopped him with a sign. 
 
 cf You are going to Mr. Jefferson ? " she said. 
 
 " Yes," said Austin, with a trace of dryness. "I 
 believe so. After all, he is a friend of mine." 
 
 Jacinta watched him closely, and her pale olive tinting 
 was a trifle warmer in tone than usual. His self-con 
 
84 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 trol was excellent to the little smile, but she could make a 
 shrewd guess as to what it cost him. 
 
 " Soon, ? " she asked. 
 
 " In two or three days. That is, if the Compania 
 don't get the Spaniards to lay hands on me. By the 
 way, you may as well know now that I had to get Mrs. 
 Hatherly to lend me part, at least, of the necessary 
 money/' 
 
 Jacinta flushed visibly. " You will not be vindictive, 
 though, of course, I have now and then been hard on 
 you." 
 
 " I shouldn't venture to blame you. As we admitted, 
 there are occasions on which one has to resort to drastic 
 remedies." 
 
 Jacinta stopped him with a gesture. " Please 
 you won't/' she said. " Of course, I deserve it, but 
 you will try to forgive me. You can afford to now/' 
 
 She stood still a moment in the moonlight, an ethereal, 
 white-clad figure, with a suggestion of uncertainty and 
 apprehension in her face which very few people had ever 
 seen there before, and then turned abruptly with a smile 
 of relief as Miss Gascoyne came towards them. 
 
 " He's going out, Muriel. You will thank him I 
 don't seem able to," she said. 
 
 Muriel came forward with outstretched hands, and 
 in another moment Austin to his visible embarrassment 
 felt her warm grasp. 
 
 " Oh," she said. " Mrs. Hatherly knew you meant 
 to. I feel quite sure I can trust you to bring him back 
 to me." 
 
 Austin managed to disengage his hands, and smiled 
 a little, though it was Jacinta he looked at. 
 
 " I think," he said, " I have a sufficient inducement 
 for doing what I can. Still, you will excuse me. There 
 are one or two points I want to talk over with Captain 
 Farquhar." 
 
 He turned away, and twenty minutes later Jacinta, 
 standing on the bridge-deck alone, watched his boat 
 
JACINTA IS NOT CONTENT 85 
 
 slide away into the blaze of moonlight that stretched 
 suggestively eastwards towards Africa. 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 JACINTA IS NOT CONTENT 
 
 DARKNESS was closing down on the faintly shining 
 sea, and the dull murmur of the surf grew louder as 
 the Trade breeze died away, when Jacinta and Muriel 
 Gascoyne sat in the stern of a white gig which two 
 barefooted Canaries pulled across Las Palmas harbour 
 on the evening on which Austin was to sail. 
 
 They were soon alongside the Eslremedura, but the 
 seaman they found on deck did not know where Austin 
 was, and led them down to Macallister's room. It 
 was beneath the spar-deck, and very hot, for the dyn- 
 amo was not running that night, and a big oil lamp 
 lighted it. It was also full of tobacco smoke, and 
 for the port was open the rumble of the long swell 
 tumbling against the mole came throbbing into it. 
 A big man in very shabby serge, with a hard face, sat 
 opposite the engineer, until the latter, seeing the two 
 women, laid a hand upon his shoulder. 
 
 " Out ye get ! " he said, and his guest was projected 
 suddenly into the dimly-lighted space about the after- 
 hatch. 
 
 Then he smiled upon the new-comers affably. " Come 
 away in," he said. " Was it me or Mr. Austin ye 
 came to see ? " 
 
 " On this occasion it was Mr. Austin," said Jacinta, 
 who found a place opposite him beside Muriel on a 
 settee. " Of course, that was because he is going away. 
 Isn't he here ? " 
 
 " He is not/' and Macallister beamed at her. " In 
 one way, it's not that much of a pity. There's twice 
 the light-heartedness in me that there is in Mr. Austin." 
 
 " I can quite believe it. Still, lightheartedness 
 
86 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 of one kind is now and then a little inconvenient. 
 Where has he gone ? " 
 
 " To the town. I don't expect him until he calls 
 for his man the one I've just hove out when the 
 West-coast mail-boat comes in. She won't stop more 
 than half an hour, but there's no sign of her yet." 
 
 Jacinta sighed whimsically, perhaps to hide what 
 she felt. 
 
 " Then I'm afraid we shall not see him, which is a 
 pity, because I've been thinking over the nice things I 
 meant to say to him, and now they'll all be wasted," 
 she said. " You will tell him that we came to say 
 good-bye to him, won't you, and that I'm just a little 
 vexed he never called to tell us anything about his 
 expedition." 
 
 Macallister grinned sardonically, and though Jacinta 
 was usually a very self-possessed young woman, she 
 appeared to find his gaze a trifle disconcerting. 
 
 " Well," he said, " I know all about it. He has sold 
 everything he had, and he borrowed 40. One way 
 cr another he has another 60 of his own." 
 
 Jacinta looked up sharply. " He has no more than 
 that ? " 
 
 " It's not likely," and Macallister watched her with 
 a faint twinkle in his eyes. " I do not know why he 
 would not have the 200 Mr. Brown offered him. Maybe 
 ye do." 
 
 There was just a perceptible trace of colour in Jacinta's 
 cheek. " I hardly see how you could expect me to 
 when I never heard of it until this moment," she said. 
 " Would 100 be enough for Mr. Austin ? " 
 
 "I'm thinking it would. Not for everybody under 
 the same circumstances, but enough for him. There 
 are folks in these islands who have only seen the outside 
 of Mr. Austin, which, ye may observe, is in one sense 
 quite a natural thing." 
 
 He stopped a moment, and smiled upon her genially. 
 " It's not his fault that he's not quite so well favoured 
 
TACINTA IS NOT CONTENT 87 
 
 as I am. What would ye expect of an Englishman ? 
 Still, there are men aboard here who have seen what's 
 underneath I mean the other side o' him at nights 
 when he brought the dispatch off through the surf, 
 and once though that was not his business when 
 I was sick, an' they let the water down in the star- 
 board boiler." 
 
 " Still," said Jacinta, " he will naturally have to 
 have so many things." 
 
 "He has four good men, a little box o' drugs, and 
 a case o' dynamite. Farquhar's going on to Australia 
 with mining stores, and he gave it him." 
 
 It seemed absurdly insufficient, and Jacinta struggled 
 with an almost hysterical inclination to laugh. It was, 
 she realized, a very big thing Austin had undertaken, 
 and his equipment consisted of a case of dynamite 
 and a box of drugs, which, on his own confession, 
 he knew very little about. Still, she saw that Macal- 
 lister, who, she fancied, ought to know, rated manhood 
 far higher than material. It was Muriel who broke 
 the silence. 
 
 " But they will want a doctor," she said, with a 
 little tremor in her voice. 
 
 Macallister shook his head. " Ye would not get 
 one to go there for 500, and he would be no use if 
 he did," he said. " Ye will remember that malaria 
 fever does not stay on one long. It goes away when 
 it has shaken the strength out of ye and now and 
 then comes back again while by the time Austin gets 
 there Mr. Jefferson will be " 
 
 He stopped with some abruptness, but though she 
 shivered Muriel looked at him with steady eyes. 
 
 " Ah," she said, " you mean he will either be better, 
 or that no doctor could cure him then ? " 
 
 Macallister made her a little inclination, and it was 
 done with a grave deference that Jacinta had scarcely 
 expected from him. 
 
 " Just that ! " he said. " I'm thinking ye are one 
 
88 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 of the women a man can tell the truth to. It is a 
 pity there are not more o' them. It is no a healthy 
 country Mr. Austin is going to, but I have been five 
 years on the coast o' it, and ye see me here." 
 
 " I wonder/' said Jacinta, " whether you, who 
 know all about ships and engines, did not feel tempted 
 to go with Mr. Austin ? " 
 
 The engineer smiled curiously. " Tempted ! " he 
 said. " It was like trying to be teetotal with a whisky 
 bottle in the rack above one's bunk ; but I am a mar- 
 ried man with a wife who has a weakness for buying 
 dining-room suites." 
 
 " Dining-room suites ! What have they to do with 
 it?'" 
 
 " Just everything," and Macallister sighed. " She 
 will only have the biggest ones the doors will let in, 
 and she has furnished a good many dining-rooms 
 altogether. Ye will mind that we lived here and 
 there and everywhere, while she's back in England now. 
 Ye would not meet a better woman, but on 20 a month 
 ye cannot buy unlimited red- velvet chairs and side- 
 boards with looking-glasses at the back o' them." 
 
 Jacinta laughed as she rose. " You will tell Mr. 
 Austin we are sorry we did not see him." 
 
 " I will," and Macallister stood up, too. " Perhaps 
 ye mean it this time, and I'm a little sorry for him 
 myself. There are men who get sent off with bands 
 and speeches and dinners to do a smaller thing, but 
 Mr. Austin he just slips away with his box o' dynamite 
 and his few sailor-men." 
 
 He stopped, and looked hard at her a moment before 
 he turned to Muriel. " Still, we'll have the big drum 
 out when he brings Mr. Jefferson and the Cumbria 
 back again, and if there's anything that can be broken 
 left whole in this ship that night it will be no fault o' 
 mine." 
 
 They went out and left him, but Jacinta stopped 
 when they came upon the man he had ejected from 
 
JACINTA IS NOT CONTENT 89 
 
 his room sitting on the companion stairway and smok- 
 ing a very objectionable pipe. She also held a little 
 purse concealed beneath her hand. 
 
 " You are going back with Mr. Austin to the Cum- 
 bria ? " she said. 
 
 The man stood up. " In course ! " he said. " It's 
 eight pound a month, all found, an' a bonus." 
 
 " Ah," said Jacinta, " I suppose there is nothing else? " 
 
 The man appeared to ruminate over this, until a 
 light broke in on him. 
 
 " Well/' he said, " Mr. Jefferson does the straight 
 thing, an' he fed us well. That is, as well as he could, 
 considering everything." 
 
 Jacinta smiled at Muriel. " You will notice the 
 answer. He is a man ! " Then she held out a strip 
 of crinkly paper. " That will make you almost a 
 month to the good, and, if you do everything you can 
 to make things easier for the man who wants to get the 
 Cumbria off, there will probably be another waiting for 
 you when you come back again." 
 
 The man, who took the crinkly paper, gazed at it 
 in astonishment, and then made a little sign of compre- 
 hension. " Thank you kindly, miss, but which one 
 am I to look after special ? You see, there's two of 
 them." 
 
 Jacinta was apparently not quite herself that night, 
 for the swift colour flickered into her face, and stayed 
 there a moment. 
 
 " Both," she said decisively. " Still, you are never 
 to tell anybody about that note." 
 
 The man once more gazed at her with such evident 
 bewilderment that Muriel broke into a little half- 
 audible laugh. Then he grinned suddenly, and touched 
 his battered cap. 
 
 " Well, we'll make it both," he said. 
 
 They went up the companion, and left him apparently 
 chuckling, but Jacinta appeared far from pleased when 
 she got into the waiting boat. 
 
go HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE LAND OF THE SHADOW 
 
 IT was towards the end of the afternoon when the 
 skipper of the West-coast mail-boat peering through 
 his glasses made out two palms that rose apparently 
 straight out of the sea. He watched them for some 
 minutes, and then took their bearing carefully upon the 
 compass, before he rang for half-speed and called 
 Austin to the bridge. 
 
 " That's your island, and we'll run in until I get 
 under six fathoms," he said. " After that it will have 
 to be the surf-boat, and I fancy you will be very wet 
 when you get ashore." 
 
 It seemed to Austin that this was more than probable, 
 for, although there was not an air of wind to wrinkle 
 it, a long heave came up in vast, slow undulations out 
 of the southern horizon, and the little mail-boat swung 
 over them with sharply-slanted spars and funnel. She 
 stopped once for a few moments while the deep-sea 
 lead plunged from her forecastle, and then with pro- 
 peller throbbing slowly crept on again. She had come 
 out of her course already under the terms of the bargain 
 Austin had made with the Las Palmas agent, for some 
 of those steamers have the option of stopping for odd 
 boat-loads of cargo and passengers wherever they can 
 be found along the surf-swept beaches, and since no 
 offer he could make would have tempted her skipper 
 to venture farther in among the shoals, Austin had 
 fixed upon that island as the nearest point of access 
 to the Cumbria. He did not, however, know how he 
 was to reach her when he got there. 
 
 In the meanwhile they were slowly raising the land, 
 or the nearest approach to it to be found in that part 
 of Africa, which consists of mire and mangroves inter- 
 sected everywhere by lanes of water. It lay ahead, 
 
THE LAND OF THE SHADOW 91 
 
 a grey smear streaked with drifting mist against which 
 the palms that had now grown into a cluster rose dim 
 and indistinct, and a thin white line stretched between 
 themselves and it. The skipper appeared to watch the 
 latter anxiously. 
 
 "There's a considerable surf running in on the 
 beach, and I'm a little uneasy about my boat," he 
 said. " I suppose it wouldn't suit you to go on with 
 us, and look for a better place to get ashore to-morrow/' 
 
 " No," said Austin decisively. " I'm far enough 
 from where I'm going already, and one would scarcely 
 fancy that there are many facilities for getting about 
 in this country." 
 
 " That's a fact," the skipper said. " Well, I can't 
 go back on the agent, but if the boat turns you and 
 the boys out before you get there you can't blame 
 me." 
 
 Austin laughed. He had got many a wet jacket, 
 and had once or twice had to swim for it, in the surf 
 of the Canary beaches, though he was quite aware 
 that there are very few places where the sea runs in 
 and breaks as it does on the hammered coast of Western 
 Africa. Indeed, as he watched the blur of steamy man- 
 groves grow clearer, and the filmy spouting increase 
 in whiteness, he could have fancied that nature in 
 placing that barrier of tumbling foam along its shore 
 had meant it as a warning that the white man was not 
 wanted there. The air was hot and heavy, the sky a 
 dingy grey, the sea dim, slatey green, and there came 
 off across the steep heave a dull booming like the sound 
 of distant thunder. 
 
 It was not an encouraging prospect, and Austin knew 
 from what he had heard about the country that he 
 was not likely to be more favourably impressed with 
 it upod closer acquaintance. He also felt that if there 
 was not quite so much at stake he could very willingly 
 leave the salving of the Cumbria to Jefferson and take 
 the next steamer back again. He could fix upon no 
 
92 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 sufficient reason for his being there at all, since the 
 very uncertain profits on a quarter-share in the venture 
 did not account for it. in one respect, also Jacinta's 
 favourable opinion could scarcely be of any practical 
 value to him, since she would naturally marry a man 
 of means by and by, and forget all about him. Still, 
 she had, dropping now and then a barbed word which 
 rankled in his memory, striven to stir him to endeavour ; 
 and now he was watching the spray drive across a 
 beach of Western Africa, while he wondered what the 
 result of it all would be, and whether he or the men 
 lie had brought with him would escape the fever. So 
 far as he was concerned, it did not seem to greatly 
 matter. He had taken life easily, but he realized 
 that it had very little to offer him, and it was, perhaps, 
 fortunate that he did so, since it is as a rule broken 
 men and those who have nothing to fall back upon who 
 accomplish what is most worth doing in the lands that 
 lie beneath the shadow. 
 
 In any case it was clear that he had broken down 
 the last bridge behind him when the mail-boat stopped 
 and lay rolling more wildly than ever athwart the long 
 swell. A big surf-boat sank down her side amidst a 
 clatter of blocks and complaining of davit-falls down 
 which a cluster of almost naked black men slid on board. 
 It was not an easy matter to descend after them. The 
 steamer rolled one way, the boat another, while the 
 latter swung up one moment almost level with her rail 
 and swooped down beneath a fathom of streaming 
 side the next. Austin, Bill the fireman, and the Can- 
 arios, however, accomplished it, and there was a waving 
 of hats among the cluster of passengers who watched 
 them above. Then the negroes, perched six or seven 
 on either side, took up the paddles, and Austin was 
 sensible of a momentary sinking of his heart as the 
 boat slid out from the rolling steamer. 
 
 How the negroes meant to beach her Austin did 
 not know, and he was content that it was their business 
 
THE LAND OF THE SHADOW 93 
 
 and not his. The Canaries were evidently uneasy, 
 for, sailormen as they were, they had never run through 
 surf like that they were going through now ; but they 
 were also of Iberian extraction, and, when discussion is 
 clearly useless, and the last crisis must be faced, the 
 Spaniard is, at last, as capable of calm resignation as 
 most other men. In any case, there is certainly no 
 better boat-boy than the West African Kroo, and Austin 
 left the affair to the helmsman when there was a sudden 
 horrifying crash that threw three or four of the paddlers 
 down together. It was evident that they had touched 
 bottom, but, fortunately for them, the swirl of the shore- 
 running sea dragged them off again, and they went up, 
 not more than half-swamped, sideways, with the foam 
 seething into her, on the next roller. Then the spouting 
 chaos about them seemed to suddenly melt away, 
 and Austin, wiping the water from his eyes, saw that 
 they were sliding round a sandy beach into a little 
 bay. 
 
 In another few minutes they were out on the sand, 
 though they toiled for the next half-hour helping the 
 negroes to tilt the great boat and run her in again when 
 they had emptied the water out of her. It was done 
 at last, and Austin felt almost sorry, while he was once 
 more sensible of vague but unpleasant misgivings 
 when the negroes drove her lurching out into the spray. 
 Night was not very far away, and he had no notion of 
 where he was to sleep, or what he was to eat, for that 
 matter, since the provisions the steward had given him 
 were for the most part saturated. A little muddy 
 creek oozed down amidst the mangroves across the 
 bay, and there were a few huts, apparently made of 
 rammed soil, beside it, as well as a canoe. The light 
 was going when they reached them, and Bill, who 
 went into the nearest, came out suddenly. 
 
 " There's a dead nigger inside," he said. 
 
 Austin looked at him with a little smile. He had 
 reasons for surmising that the man's nerves were good, 
 
94 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 but his voice had an uncertain tone in it, and his eyes 
 were anxious. 
 
 " Well/' he said, " I suppose one must expect to come 
 across a dead nigger now and then in this country." 
 
 Bill glanced furtively over his shoulder towards the 
 hut, as though he desired to be rather farther away 
 from it. 
 
 " That one wasn't nice to look at," he said. " What 
 did they leave him there for when there's a creek just 
 outside the door, and where are the rest of them ? 
 I'd like to know what he died of. It might be cat chin'." 
 
 Austin was once more sensible of a little thrill of 
 apprehension as he looked about him, and considered 
 the question. On the one side a tuft of palms dominated 
 the narrow strip of sand, but the little ridge of high 
 land behind it was covered with apparently impene- 
 trable jungle. Elsewhere the dingy mangroves rose 
 from black depths of mire on slimy roots and pale 
 stems that glimmered blanched amidst the drifting 
 steam that clung about them. Night was close at hand, 
 and, though there was no sign of the land-breeze yet, 
 the air was thick and heavy with a hot sour smell. The 
 clamour of the surf made the deep silence more apparent, 
 for there was no sound of life about the clustered huts. 
 Austin knew that the black man is frequently stricken 
 by the pestilence, and as he stood there on the little 
 strip of desolate beach he felt his courage melting away 
 from him. The Canarios he also saw were standing 
 close together and murmuring excitedly, while every 
 now and then one of them would glance askance at 
 the huts. 
 
 " If there was any niggers but dead ones in the place 
 they'd have been out by now," said Bill. 
 
 " The Cumbria should lie about north from here up 
 the biggest creek," said Austin. "If we borrowed 
 the canoe yonder you could find your way to her ? " 
 
 "I'd try that or anything, so long as it was to get 
 out of this." 
 
THE LAND OF THE SHADOW 95 
 
 He glanced towards the hut again, and Austin, 
 who could not quite explain it then or afterwards, 
 became sensible that if he waited much longer he would 
 say or do something that would not be seemly in one who 
 was there as leader. He felt that had he been alone he 
 would probably have turned and run. 
 
 " Well/' he said as quietly as he could contrive, 
 " we will run the canoe down. I believe some of the 
 things they get are infectious now and then." 
 
 He had no need to repeat the order. The Canaries 
 jumped at the word, and in another few minutes they 
 had launched the canoe, and were paddling her out of 
 the creek. It opened into a wider one through which 
 the heave of the sea pulsed languidly, until they crawled 
 round a point and the steamy mangroves closed in 
 on them. Then suddenly the thick, hot darkness 
 fell. 
 
 They moored the canoe to a slimy stem, and lay down 
 in her packed like herrings, and in spite of the mos- 
 quitoes Austin slept a little of the night. Still, he 
 was glad when all the swamps steamed again as the 
 dawn broke suddenly upon them ; and when they had 
 eaten they took up the paddle. The mists thinned and 
 melted, the sun that sucked the damp from their dew- 
 soaked clothing scorched their skin, and the glare 
 from the yellow water became intolerable. Still, it was 
 evident that it would not be advisable to waste any 
 time, and through the long, hot hours the canoe crept 
 en. 
 
 By afternoon Austin's hands were bleeding, and one 
 of his knees was raw where he pressed it as a point of 
 resistance to paddle from on the craft's bottom ; but 
 he took his place when his turn came, though his eyes 
 were dazzled, and the headache that had crept upon him 
 was growing insufferable. He was now distinctly 
 anxious as to when they would reach the Cumbria, for, 
 though Bill said she lay up a big muddy creek north 
 of the island, he appeared by no means sure that was 
 
96 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 the one, and Austin felt he could not logically blame 
 him. Creeks, it was evident, were bewilderingly plen- 
 tiful in that country, and there were no distinctive 
 features in the scenery. Dingy, white-stemmed man- 
 groves, fermenting mire, and yellow water, were all 
 the same, and as they crept* on past bend and island 
 there was no sign of change. 
 
 The shadows lay black upon the water when they 
 stopped again, all of them horribly cramped, and aching 
 in every limb ; but when they had sat portentously 
 silent with the craft moored to a mangrove root for 
 half an hour or so Bill stood up in the bow. 
 
 " Did you hear anything, Mr. Austin ? " he asked. 
 Austin fancied that he did, though for a moment or 
 two he was not sure that it was not the ticking of his 
 watch, for the sound, which was very faint, had a 
 beat in it. Then it grew a little louder, and he felt 
 a curious thrill of satisfaction. 
 
 " Engines I" he said sharply. " It's the launch/' 
 She swung out, apparently from the mangroves, in 
 another few minutes, and came on towards them, clank- 
 ing and wheezing horribly, with the yellow foam piled 
 about her, but Austin felt that he had never seen any- 
 thing more welcome than that strip of mire-daubed hull 
 with the plume of smoke streaming away from it. Then 
 she stopped close alongside them, and Austin shook 
 hands with Tom as he climbed on board. " Did you 
 come across any niggers, sir ? " asked the latter. 
 " No/' said Austin. " How's Mr. Jefferson ? " 
 " Coming round," said Tom with a grin. " I've 
 worked most of the fever an' the sunstroke out 
 of him. It was a big load off me when as I took him 
 his mixture one morning he looks up at me. ' Who 
 the devil are you poisoning ? ' say he, quite sensible, an' 
 like himself again." 
 
 " You were coming down to look for us ? " 
 " We were an' uncommonly glad to see you. The 
 blame niggers is getting aggravating. Came down, 
 
NOCTURNAL VISITORS 97 
 
 two canoe-loads of them, a night or two ago, an' only 
 sheered off when we tumbled one of them over with 
 a big lump of coal. Wall-eye dropped it on to the 
 man in the bow of her from the bridge, an' so far as 
 we could make out it doubled him up considerable." 
 Wall-eye was apparently the squinting Spaniard 
 who acted as fireman, and when he saw Tom glance 
 at him he stood up with a grimy hand clenched, and 
 unloosed a flood of Castilian invective. 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 NOCTURNAL VISITORS 
 
 JEFFERSON was standing at the open door of the house 
 beneath the Cumbria's bridge when Austin first caught 
 sight of him, as he groped his way forward along the 
 slanted deck. The black, impenetrable obscurity that 
 descends upon the tropic swamps when the air is full 
 of vapour, hung over the stranded steamer, and the 
 man's gaunt figure cut with harsh sharpness against 
 the stream of light. The thin duck he wore clung 
 about him soaked with perspiration, and the all-per- 
 vading damp emphasized the attenuated spareness 
 of his frame, and Austin could almost have fancied it 
 was a draped skeleton he was gazing at. Still he was 
 a trine reassured when he felt the firm grasp of a hot, 
 bony hand. 
 
 " So you have come ! " said the American. " It's 
 good to get a grip of you. I guessed you would/' 
 
 He drew Austin into the deck-house, and they sat 
 down opposite each other and said nothing for almost 
 a minute, though there was a smile in Jefferson's face 
 as he leaned against the bulkhead. His hair, which 
 had grown long since he left Las Palmas, hung low and 
 wet upon his forehead, and the big cheek-bones showed 
 through the tight-stretched skin, w r hich was blanched, 
 though there was a faint yellow tinge in it which relieved 
 its dead whiteness. This had its significance, for the 
 
98 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 coast fever has not infrequently an unpleasant after effect 
 upon the white man's constitution. 
 
 " It isn't quite a sanatorium," he said, as though 
 he guessed his companion's thoughts. " Port Royal, 
 Santos, Panama I know them all aren't a patch on 
 these swamps. Still, we needn't worry now you have 
 come." 
 
 Austin smiled as he looked at him. " To be correct, 
 I'm not quite sure that I did," he said reflectively. 
 " I mean it wasn't exactly because I wished to." 
 
 " Ah," said Jefferson, as comprehension dawned on 
 him. " Then the quarter-share that offer stands 
 good didn't bring you ? Well, I was wondering if 
 'she would make you go." 
 
 Austin was a trifle astonished, for, though he had 
 a somewhat hardly acquired acquaintance with human 
 nature, it had never occurred to him that the patronage 
 Jacinta extended to her masculine friends naturally at- 
 tracted some attention, or that in this particular case 
 the onlookers might most clearly grasp the points of 
 the game. 
 
 " I can't quite see why she should have wanted me 
 to," he said. 
 
 " Still," said Jefferson, " I can think of one reason. 
 There was a time when Muriel was good to her, and 
 Jacinta can't forget it. She's not that kind. The 
 first day I met her I felt that she was taking stock of 
 me, and I knew I'd passed muster when she made you 
 stop the Estremedura. Perhaps it wasn't very much in 
 itself, but I was thankful. I've done a few tough 
 things in my time, but I know I'd never have got 
 Muriel if that girl had been against me. Still, it wasn't 
 altogether because of Muriel she sent you." 
 
 Austin showed his astonishment this time, and Jeffer- 
 son smiled. " You can't quite figure how I came to 
 understand a thing of that kind ? Well, some of you 
 smart folks have made the same mistake before. You 
 don't seem to remember when you waste ten minutes 
 
NOCTURNAL VISITORS 99 
 
 working a traverse round what you could say in one, 
 that however you dress it up human nature's much the 
 same. Now you're astonished at me. I'm talking. 
 Sometimes I feel I have to. You want to know just 
 why she really sent you ? " 
 
 "To be frank, I have asked myself the question, 
 and couldn't be quite sure it was altogether because 
 she wanted me to get this unfortunate steamboat 
 off." 
 
 " It wasn't. You're getting as near to it as one could 
 expect of an Englishman. It hurts some of you to let 
 anybody know what you really think. But now we'll 
 come down to business. You brought the giant pow- 
 der ? " 
 
 " A case of it, with fuses and detonators," and 
 Austin's relief at the change of subject was evident. 
 " Are you contemplating blowing her up ? " 
 
 " No, sir. She's worth too much. It is, however, 
 quite likely that we'll make a hole in the mangrove 
 forest, and shake up the bottom of this creek. That 
 is, when we're ready. There's a good deal to be put 
 through first." 
 
 " Have you found the gum ? " 
 
 " I haven't looked. She's full to the orlops, and we 
 haven't started in to pump her out. Didn't seem much 
 use in trying, while she had so much weight in her, and 
 we'll want all the coal we've got. When we have 
 hove most of it, and the oil, out, I'll start the big cen- 
 trifugal. You see, she hasn't a donkey on deck. That's 
 why, though it cost me a good deal, I bought the loco- 
 motive boiler. You folks have a library of Shipping 
 Acts, but you don't show much sense when you let 
 anything under 2,000 tons go to sea with her pumps 
 run from the main engines. When you most want 
 steam for pumping it's when your fires are drowning 
 out." 
 
 It was once more evident to Austin that Jefferson 
 knew his business, and had foreseen most of the dim- 
 
zoo HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 culties he would have to grapple with. Still, he fancied, 
 by his face, that he had not quite anticipated all. 
 
 " Where are you putting the oil you take out of 
 her ? " he asked. 
 
 " On a strip of sand up a creek. That's one of the 
 few things that are worrying me. We'll have to get it 
 on board as soon as we float her off when the rain 
 comes, or the creek will get it instead of us. The next 
 point is that it will be a little rough on the men who 
 have to watch it after working all day long." 
 
 " To watch it. Who is likely to meddle with it 
 here ? " 
 
 " Nigger/' said Jefferson dryly. " They cleaned 
 'most everything they could come at cff the boat 
 before I got to her, but they couldn't break out cargo 
 with the water in her, and didn't know enough to 
 get at the provisions in the lazaret. Still, while these 
 particular swamps don't seem to belong to anybody 
 there's trade everywhere, and oil's a marketable com- 
 modity." 
 
 " It seems to me that everybody who has anything 
 to do with this unfortunate vessel invariably dies." 
 
 " Where's the Frenchman who chartered the Cum- 
 bria ? " 
 
 " Dead. I've been up to his place in the launch. 
 I found it caved in, and trees growing up in it already. 
 Nature straightens things up quite smartly in this 
 country. Anyway, I'll show you round to-morrow ; 
 and, in the meanwhile, it's about time that Spaniard 
 brought you some supper." 
 
 Jefferson smiled a trifle grimly. " That's a fact," 
 lie said. 
 
 Then one of the Canarios brought in a simple meal, 
 and when they had eaten and talked for another hour, 
 Austin stretched himself out on the settee, and Jeffer- 
 son climbed into his slanted bunk. They left the 
 light burning and the door wide open, and both of 
 them lay down, dressed as they were, but while Jeffer- 
 
NOCTURNAL VISITORS ici 
 
 son seemed to fall into a somewhat restless doze, Austin 
 found that sleep fled the farther from him the more he 
 courted it that night. It was only by a strenuous 
 effort he lay still for a couple of hours, and then rising 
 softly, with a little sigh, went out into the night. 
 
 The darkness closed about him, black and impenetrable, 
 when he stepped out of the stream of light before the 
 deck-house door, and the feeble flame of the match he 
 struck to light his pipe as he leaned upon the rail only 
 made it more apparent. He could see nothing what- 
 ever when the match went out, but the oily gurgle 
 of the creek beneath him suggested the height of the 
 steamer's hove-up side. She lay, so Jefferson had 
 told him, with her inshore bilge deep in the mire, and 
 two big derrick-booms slung from the wire hawser 
 that ran from her stern to the mangroves along what 
 should have been the bank, as a precaution against 
 any nocturnal call by negroes in canoes. Her outshore 
 side, which he looked down from, was, he surmised 
 by the slant of deck, between ten and fifteen feet above 
 the creek. 
 
 It was a little cooler there, and the sounds were less 
 disquieting than they had been in the room. He could 
 localize and identify some of them now the splash 
 of falling moisture, the trickle of the stream, and the 
 soft fanning of unseen wings as one of the great bats 
 which abound in that country stooped towards the 
 light. Still, behind these there were mysterious splash- 
 ings among the mangroves and wallowings in the creek, 
 while the thick, hot darkness seemed to pulse with life. 
 He could almost fancy he heard the breathing of un- 
 seen things, and it did not seem strange to him that 
 the dusky inhabitants of that country should believe 
 in malevolent deities. Indeed, as he leaned upon 
 the rail with its darkness enfolding him, he was troubled 
 by a sense of his own insignificance and a longing to 
 escape from that abode of fear and shadow. Other 
 men, including those who had come out with a salvage 
 
102 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 expedition, had found the floating of the Cumbria too big 
 a thing for them, and he already understood that there 
 are parts of the tropics where the white man is apt to 
 find his courage melt away from him as well as his 
 bodily vigour. 
 
 Then he commenced to wonder dispassionately why 
 Jacinta had sent him, or if he had, after all, been 
 warranted in considering that she had done so. 
 
 In the meanwhile the damp soaked through his 
 clothing, and his physical nature shrank from the hot 
 steaminess and the sour odours of putrefaction. It 
 was unpleasant to stand there in that thick darkness, 
 and even a little hard upon the nerves, but he had 
 had enough of the deck-house, and he could not sleep, 
 which is by no means an unusual difficulty with white 
 men in the tropics. It was a relief when at last a 
 sound that grew louder fixed his attention, and resolved 
 itself into a measured thudding. There were evidently 
 canoes coming down the creek, but Austin was a little 
 uncertain what to do. He had no wish to rouse the 
 worn-out men, who probably needed all the sleep they 
 could get, if this was a usual occurrence ; but it did 
 not appear advisable that there should be nobody but 
 himself on deck in case the canoes ran alongside. He 
 was considering what he should do when Jefferson, 
 who held a glinting object in his hand, appeared in 
 the door of the deck-house. Then there was a patter 
 of feet on the ladder below, and another dim figure 
 materialized out of the darkness. 
 
 " That Funnel-paint come back again/' said the 
 half-seen man. 
 
 Jefferson laughed unpleasantly. " He's getting 
 monotonous, but he's taking steep chances this time." 
 
 The beat of paddles slackened a little, there was a 
 murmur of voices beneath the steamer's side, and Jeffer- 
 son leaned out looking down into the impenetrable 
 blackness beneath him. A scraping sound came out 
 of it, and apparently moved along, while, when the 
 
NOCTURNAL VISITORS 103 
 
 half-seen man thrust a big block of coal upon him, 
 Austin turned and strode softly after Jefferson, who 
 walked forward beside the rail. 
 
 " Better let him have it now, sir," said the other man. 
 " She's quite low on the other quarter, and if they try 
 swimming round her stern the booms won't stop them." 
 
 Then there was a vivid streak in the darkness, and 
 a detonation that was twice repeated, while Austin, 
 who hurled his lump of coal down with all his strength, 
 caught a whiff of acrid smoke. There was also a splash 
 below, and a confused clamour that was lost in the 
 hasty thud of paddles as the invisible canoes got away. 
 Then, while the Canaries came floundering across the 
 deck, a single voice rose up. 
 
 " Bimeby we done lib for cut you t'roat," it said. 
 
 " Oh, go to the devil ! " said Jefferson, and the big 
 revolver flashed again. 
 
 There was no answer, and the splash of paddles 
 slowly died away. It was evident that the affair was 
 over, and Austin fancied that nobody was much the 
 worse. Jefferson sauntered towards him snapping the 
 spent shells out of his pistol. 
 
 " Funnel-paint is getting on my nerves. I'll have 
 to drop half a stick of giant-powder on him next time 
 he comes," he .said. 
 
 " He didn't make much of a show," said Austin. 
 " You think he meant to come on board ? " 
 
 " If there had been nobody round he would have 
 done, but how far he'd have gone then is another 
 question. He probably knows that nigger stockades 
 are apt to get blown up when a white man disappears, 
 and it's quite likely his nerve would have failed him. 
 Anyway, he's hanging out at a village up the creek, 
 and we'll probably go round to-morrow with some 
 giant powder and make a protest. In the meanwhile 
 I don't know any reason why you shouldn't go to 
 sleep again." 
 
 Austin went back with him to the house beneath 
 
104 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 the bridge, and, though it was not perceptibly cooler, 
 found sleep come to him. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 TOIL 
 
 A FAINT light was creeping into the skipper's room 
 when Austin awakened, and seeing his comrade's 
 berth unoccupied went out on deck. The swamps 
 were wrapped in woolly vapour, and a column of 
 dingy smoke went up straight and unwavering from 
 the funnel of the locomotive boiler. The hot land- 
 breeze had died away, and it would be some time yet 
 before that from the sea set in. In the meanwhile 
 it was almost cool and very still, so still, in fact, that 
 Austin was startled when a flock of parrots, invisible 
 in the mist, swept past screaming overhead. 
 
 Then the sounds of man's activity suddenly com- 
 menced, for there was a clatter forward where the 
 Spaniards flung the loose covers from the hatch, and 
 a harsh rattle of chain mingled with the soft patter 
 of their naked feet. In another few moments a sharp, 
 musical clinking broke out, and Austin saw Tom, 
 who had served as a steamer's donkey-man, straighten 
 his bent back when a rush of white vapour whirled 
 with a strident hissing about the locomotive boiler 
 which now drove the winch. 
 
 Austin strolled round the house, and came upon 
 Jefferson sitting with his back to it, and the box of 
 dynamite on the deck in front of him. He looked 
 gaunter and more haggard than ever in the daylight, 
 but he was busy pinching down a copper cap upon a 
 strip of snaky fuse, which he proceeded to carefully 
 embed in a roll of semi-plastic material that looked 
 very like a candle made of yellow wax. 
 
 " What are you doing ? " asked Austin. 
 
 " Nipping on a couple of detonators," said Jefferson. 
 " Stand clear of the one on the deck. They're lined 
 
TOIL 105 
 
 with mercury fulminate, and you want to take your 
 shoes off when you come near that. Giant-powder's 
 innocent by comparison. I mean to try a stick or 
 two of this consignment." 
 
 " What are you going to try it on ? " asked Austin, 
 who stepped back a pace or two expeditiously. 
 
 Jefferson looked up with a little grim smile. " On 
 the house of the headman of the village where Funnel- 
 paint lives/' he said. " If we can get in a good morn- 
 ing's work we'll go up and remonstrate with him this 
 afternoon. You might take that stick of powder and 
 fuse and wrap it up in something." 
 
 Austin picked up the yellow roll, and then held it as 
 far as he conveniently could from him, while Jefferson 
 laughed. 
 
 " I guess you needn't worry. You could pound it 
 with a hammer or put it in the fire, and it wouldn't 
 show fight that is ninety-nine times out of the hun- 
 dred," he said. " Still, there might be considerable 
 trouble on the other one. The sure way to stir it up 
 is to pat a shred of it with a piece of wood, though 
 the man who tries it is scarcely likely to see what it 
 does." 
 
 Austin got rid of the dynamite as speedily as he 
 could, and when he came back one of the Spaniards 
 was laying out breakfast on the deck. It was not a 
 sumptuous meal, consisting as it did of coffee, a can of 
 meat that Austin fancied was tainted, ship's bread, 
 which is biscuit, and a pale fluid that had presumably 
 been butter ; but he did not feel hungry, and Jefferson 
 ate little. In the meanwhile a blaze of light beat 
 through the mists, which melted under it, and flaming 
 yellow creek and dingy mangroves sprang suddenly 
 into being as by the unrolling of a transformation 
 scene. Their pale stems dripped slime, and just there 
 their foliage was blotched and spotted as with smears 
 of flour. It gave them a diseased appearance, and 
 Austin, who felt he loathed the sight of them already 
 
io6 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 remembered that where the mangrove grows the white 
 man not infrequently dies. He was almost glad when 
 breakfast was over, and Jefferson rose. 
 
 " I want to be quite clear," he said. " You're going 
 to see this thing out with me on a quarter-share ? " 
 
 " I am," said Austin. " Anyway, I'll do what I 
 can, though I'm afraid I haven't given the question 
 of the share much consideration." 
 
 Jefferson looked at him intently. " Well," he said, 
 " I've worried a good deal about my three-quarters. 
 That's what I came for, and if we float her off you'll 
 get yours, just as sure as you'll earn it hard. It's a 
 big thing you're going into, and you'll find it calling 
 on all the grit that's in you. We're on results here, and 
 now you understand that we'll start in." 
 
 He went to the forward winch, and Austin, obeying 
 his directions, descended to the hold with a vague 
 recognition of the fact that there was a change in Jeffer- 
 son. As coaling clerk in Grand Canary Austin had 
 found him a quiet and somewhat reserved man, who 
 conducted himself in everything, at least, as conven- 
 tionally as most of his English friends in that island. 
 Now it was as though he had sloughed off the veneer so 
 that the primitive man beneath it appeared, which is 
 a thing that not infrequently happens in such places 
 as the swamps he was toiling in. His voice even was 
 different. It was harsh, with a suggestion of command, 
 and the fierce, resolute nature of the man became 
 revealed in it and the penetrating glance of his steady 
 eyes. 
 
 Austin, however, discovered that he had very little 
 time to think of Jefferson. The Spaniards were on 
 results, too, and when the chain sling came rattling 
 down the strenuous toil began. The hold was dim 
 and shadowy, as well as insufferably hot, and filled 
 with nauseating smells. The tiers of barrels slanted 
 so that one could scarcely stand on them, but when 
 somebody gave Austin a handspike he took his place 
 
TOIL 107 
 
 with the rest, and set about prising loose the puncheons 
 so that they could get a sling round them or the hoist- 
 ing-crabs on the stave-ends. Now and then the crabs 
 slipped, or tore through the oil-soaked wood when 
 the great barrel swung up into the sunlight, and it 
 came crashing down, while each time they made an 
 opening the rest slipped down, grinding upon each 
 other, and squeezed it up again. Those on the lower 
 side were water-borne, but the others were only held 
 in place by those beneath them on the incline, and the 
 men could not keep the untouched tiers intact as they 
 would have done had the Cumbria been floating level. 
 
 For the first half-hour Austin, who had never under- 
 taken manual toil before, felt that his task was beyond 
 the strength of such a man as him. One can no more 
 acquire facility in labour without some training than 
 he can in an art or craft, and times and again his un- 
 taught muscles failed to obey the promptings of his 
 will. Then the heavy puncheon generally rolled back 
 and bruised him, or the slipping handspike left its 
 mark upon his skin. It was probably ^ fortunate that 
 the Canaries were cheerful, deft-hanied sailormen, 
 courteous, too, and considerate in their own fashion, 
 for that half-hour was in some respects a bitter one. 
 During it the man of taste and leisure had his comparative 
 uselessness impressed upon him, for, while he gasped 
 and the dew of effort dripped from him, it was not 
 alone the slackness of his soft muscles that became 
 apparent, but his inferiority in quickness, and the in- 
 trepidity which on occasion risks crushed foot and hand 
 or a broken limb. The men who surpassed him were 
 also benighted aliens, but he remembered afterwards, 
 that there was not one among them who flung a jibe 
 at him. 
 
 Then it became a trifle easier. His nerves steadied, 
 and the fits of gasping became less frequent as he 
 warmed to the work. By and by the strain and stress 
 of it, the swift flitting of half-naked figures, the upward 
 
lob HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 lurch of the dripping puncheons, and the clanging of 
 the winch commenced to fire his blood. Presently he 
 flung his oil-stained jacket away. Then in a moment- 
 ary pause his shirt was discarded, too, and he knotted 
 his suspenders about his waist. When he fell in between 
 the grinding puncheons one of them removed most 
 of the light singlet from him, and he clambered out 
 with a Berserker fit upon him. He had found his man- 
 hood, and vaguely recognized that the curse laid on man 
 in Eden might be a privilege. Something had awakened 
 in him he had not felt before, though he had run the 
 Estremedura s lancha through the spouting surf, and 
 had never been accounted a laggard in the strenuous 
 English games. 
 
 The chain slings came down faster and faster, while 
 the hammering of the winch rang insistently through 
 their rattle. At any cost to the men below it must 
 not be kept waiting. The blaze of brightness beneath 
 the hatch became dazzling, and Austin felt his shoulders 
 scorched as he passed through it. The iron deck above 
 them shed down an intolerable heat, and still the olive- 
 faced Canaries swayed, and splashed, and heaved amidst 
 the barrels. Now and then a man said, " Car-rai ! " 
 or in incongruous juxtaposition, " Ave Maria ! " ejacula- 
 ting it in gasps, but there was a puncheon ready when 
 the sling came clashing down, and Jefferson's voice 
 rang encouragingly through the din. 
 
 " Oh, hump yourselves. Send her up ! " he said. 
 " Vamos. Adelante. Dern your skins. More barrel!" 
 
 Bill grinned at Austin in one momentary stoppage. 
 " The boss is himself again," he said. " He's shoving 
 her along. We've got to make the time for our little 
 trip this afternoon. Oh, howling is that how you slew 
 a puncheon ? You'll manslaughter one of us next time. 
 Cut her as she rolls." 
 
 Austin gasped with astonishment as well as relief 
 when the winch stopped at last. The first half hour 
 had appeared interminable, the other hours had lied, 
 
TOIL 109 
 
 for he saw by the distance the glare of light had moved 
 across the hold that the sun was overhead. Then he 
 essayed to straighten himself, and when he had with 
 some difficulty accomplished it went up the ladder with 
 the rest. When he went out on deck Jefferson was 
 sitting upon the drum of the winch, and smiled curiously 
 as he scrutinized him. Austin, whose torn singlet fell 
 away from him clotted with yellow oil, was almost naked 
 to the waist, as well as very wet from the knees down- 
 wards. One of his canvas shoes had burst, and his 
 hands were bleeding. He stood still, dazzled by the 
 change of light, and blinked at his comrade. 
 
 " Well," said Jefferson reflectively, " I have seen 
 men who look smarter, but I guess you'll do. In fact, 
 I'm beginning to feel sure of you." 
 
 " Thanks ! " said Austin. " I suppose in one respect 
 that's a compliment. Still, I almost think, or, at 
 least, I did when I first went down there, that if I'd 
 known what was in front of me I'd have stayed in 
 Grand Canary." 
 
 Jefferson nodded with a curious little smile. " I 
 wonder," he said reflectively, " if you ever felt like 
 that before ? " 
 
 Austin considered a moment. 
 
 "I'm not going to make any admissions. You 
 probably have ? " he said. 
 
 " Quite often," and Jefferson laughed. " It's a 
 thing that happens to most of us now and then. There 
 are times when the contract looks very big and the 
 man feels very small. In fact, it's sometimes hard to 
 look straight at it and not back down. Still, in the 
 case of this one, it has to be done." 
 
 " I suppose so ! " said Austin, and then turned 
 round. " Well, what is it, Bill ? " 
 
 " Here's your shirt an' jacket," said the man. "If 
 you don't want your skin to come cff you'd better 
 put them on." 
 
 Austin, who thanked him, did so, and then fumbled 
 
no HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 in the pocket for a cigarette. The one he found was 
 torn and crushed, but he contrived to light it, and 
 flung himself down in the shadow of the rail. Jefferson, 
 who watched him, grinned. 
 
 " You're getting your grip," he said. " Not long 
 ago you'd have slung that thing into the creek. The 
 man left the sir out, too. Perhaps you noticed it ? " 
 
 " I did. Still, no doubt, after watching my efforts in 
 the hold, he felt himself warranted. I didn't expect 
 to find things quite the same here as they are at the 
 Catalina." 
 
 Jefferson laughed softly. " They're not. This is 
 a blame risky, co-operative venture, and when I made 
 it so I put down a big stake on human nature. We're 
 all on results, and partners in the thing. There's no 
 respect in this ship. I don't want it. Why should 
 any man touch his hat to me ? Oh, I know we use the 
 fist and handspike on American ships when it's neces- 
 sary and I skipped round the Sachem's deck-house 
 once with the cold steel an inch or two behind me, 
 but that's not the point at all. I want a hundred cents' 
 worth for my dollar from every man, and I'm going 
 to get it, but I'm boss because I can drive a winch 
 and break out cargo better than any of the rest of them. 
 At least that's one big reason." 
 
 Austin would have grinned at this not very long ago. 
 Jefferson expressed himself crudely, but Austin was 
 disposed to be less critical after that morning's labour, 
 and was commencing to realize that his comrade had, 
 in fact, placed a heavy stake upon the reliability of 
 seafaring humanity. 
 
 They ate their meal in silence. Austin was glad 
 to rest, and sitting drowsily content in the shadow 
 he began to realize the boundless optimism and some- 
 thing of the adaptability of his companion. Jefferson 
 had made an excellent coaling clerk at Las Palmas, 
 though he knew nothing about the business, which 
 demands a good deal of discretion, when he came there. 
 
JEFFERSON'S REMONSTRANCE in 
 
 He had also passed muster with Mrs. Hatherly and 
 Muriel Gascoyne as what they no doubt called a gentle- 
 man, which was a manifestly harder thing ; and here 
 in Africa he was a ragged and fever-worn leader of 
 primitive men, but clearly a successful one. It seemed 
 to Austin that if he eventually aspired to become a 
 local influence in any part of sheltered England he 
 would also in all probability show up equally well. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 JEFFERSON'S REMONSTRANCE 
 
 THEY were not long over the meal, and when Austin 
 thrust his plate aside Jefferson, who had waited at least 
 five minutes for him, rose with a little twinkle which 
 seemed to express whimsical resignation in his eyes. 
 
 " And now there's something I'd rather leave alone 
 to be done/' he said. " The launch is ready, and we'll 
 go up and remonstrate with those niggers. It's a little 
 rough upon a man who is fond of a quiet life." 
 
 " One would scarcely have fancied that quietness 
 had any great attraction for you," said Austin. " Still, 
 you probably know what pleases you better than I do." 
 
 Jefferson laughed. " There are folks who seem to 
 like being kicked, but it's a sensation that doesn't 
 appeal to everybody." 
 
 " You have a case of dynamite, too. Now, I had 
 once an air-gun sent me a good many years ago, and I 
 remember how I burned to go out and destroy the 
 neighbours' cats with it." 
 
 The American's face grew a trifle grim, and he looked 
 at him with half-closed eyes. " Well," he said, " I 
 suppose that feeling's there, but in a sense you're wrong. 
 It isn't the only one. We put up a big bluff in coming 
 here at all, and it's nerve and nothing else that will have 
 to keep us where we are. There are no police or patrol- 
 men in this country to fallback upon, and you have 
 to face the cold truth, which is this : If one of those 
 
ii2 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 niggers clinched with you or I he would mop the deck 
 with us in about two minutes. It's not a nice thing to 
 admit, but there it is." 
 
 They went up the creek in the little clanking launch, 
 eight limp and perspiring white men with knives and 
 iron bars, under a scorching sun that burned through 
 their oil-stained garments. 
 
 Austin sat huddled in the launch's stern-sheets with 
 his senses dulled by the heat and glare, though the deso- 
 lation of mire and mangrovesj they slid through reacted 
 on him. He knew, as he sometimes admitted, a little 
 about a good many things which were no use to him, 
 and he remembered then that the vast quadrilateral of 
 Northern Africa, west of Egypt, had absorbed several 
 civilizations long before the Portuguese saw its southern 
 shores. They had vanished and left no mark on it, and 
 it was plain that in the great swamp-belt, at least, the 
 black man still lived very much as he had done when the 
 first mangroves crept out into the sea. It is a primi- 
 tive country where man knows only the law of the jungle, 
 and Jefferson, who grasped that fact, was apparently 
 ready to act upon it in the usual primitive fashion. 
 
 There was at first no sign of life when the launch came 
 into sight of a little village hemmed in by the swamps. 
 It had its attractiveness in that country, for the clus- 
 tering huts stood half-buried in foliage beneath tower- 
 ing cottonwoods, with a glaring strip of sand in front of 
 them. There were bananas, and, as Jefferson recognized, 
 lime-trees in between. Still, by the time they ap- 
 proached the beach, men came floundering hastily out 
 of the huts, and Austin was not greatly consoled by the 
 sight of them. They were big men, and wore very little 
 to conceal their splendid muscles. Some of them also 
 carried long canoe paddles, and one or two had wicked, 
 corkscrew-headed spears. Austin wondered a little 
 uneasily whether they only speared fish with them, and 
 looked round to see what effect their appearance had 
 upon his companions. 
 
JEFFERSON'S REMONSTRANCE 113 
 
 It was apparently not a great one. Jefferson was 
 quietly grim, Tom the donkey-man scornfully cheerful, 
 while there was a little portentous glint in the Canaries' 
 eyes. Austin fancied he was the only one who had the 
 slightest doubt that anything their leader did would 
 not be altogether warranted. 
 
 They landed without molestation, and straightened 
 themselves to make what show they could, though there 
 was nothing very imposing about any of the party. 
 The climate had melted the stiffness out of them, and 
 their garments, which were stained with oil and rent 
 by working cargo, clung about their limbs soaked with 
 perspiration. They looked, Austin fancied, more like 
 shipwrecked seamen than anything else. In fact, he felt 
 almost ashamed of himself, and that it was the negroes' 
 own fault if they did not unceremoniously fling them 
 back into the creek. Still, he realized that they were 
 men who probably held their lives in their hands, and 
 had what appeared to be a singularly difficult task in 
 front of them. They were there to make it clear to the 
 headman that it would be wise of him to leave them 
 alone, and Austin was quite willing to supplement Jef- 
 ferson's efforts in this, though he was by no means sure 
 how it was to be accomplished. The negroes, so far 
 as he could see, were regarding them with a kind of 
 derisive toleration. 
 
 In the meanwhile they were moving forward between 
 patches of bananas, and under a few glossy limes, while 
 groups of dusky men kept pace with them behind, until 
 they reached a broad strip of sand with a big cotton- 
 wood tree in the midst of it. There was a hut of rammed 
 soil that appeared more pretentious than the rest in 
 front of them, and a man stood waiting in the door 
 of it. Jefferson stopped in the shadow when he saw 
 him. 
 
 " I'm going to sit down where it's cool," he said. 
 " Anyway, if that is their headman I'd sooner he came 
 out to us." 
 
H4 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 He sat down with his back to the tree while the 
 rest clustered about him, a lean, dominant figure, in 
 spite of his haggard face and the state of his attire, 
 and it seemed to Austin that there was a suggestion 
 of arrogant forcefulness in his attitude. The head- 
 man stood quietly in the doorway, looking at him, 
 while the negroes drew in a little closer. They now 
 seemed uncertain what to make of these audacious 
 strangers, and waited, glancing towards their leader, 
 though there were, Austin fancied, forty or fifty of 
 them. 
 
 " Is there anybody here who speaks English ? " 
 asked Jefferson. 
 
 It appeared that there was, for all along the coast 
 there is a constant demand for labour in the white men's 
 factories, and a man who wore a piece of cloth hung from 
 his shoulder instead of the waist-rag stood foward at a 
 sign from the headman. The latter had little cunning 
 eyes set in a heavy fleshy face, and he, too, wore a piece 
 of cloth, a sheet of white cotton which flowed about his 
 tub-like body in graceful lines. Negroes, like other 
 poople, fatten when they seize authority and live in idle- 
 ness upon the result of others' toil, for even the swamp- 
 belt heathen who asks very little from life must now and 
 then work or starve. 
 
 Then the headman, who did not leave his hut, 
 conferred with the interpreter, until the latter turned to 
 Jefferson, whom he had, it seemed, already pitched upon 
 as leader. 
 
 " Them headman he done say what the debbil you 
 lib for here for ? " he announced. 
 
 " We have come for Funnel-paint," said Jefferson. 
 
 It was evident that the negro did not understand 
 whom he meant, but when Jefferson, assisted by the 
 donkey-man, supplied him with a very unflattering 
 description of the delinquent, comprehension seemed 
 to dawn on him, and he once more conferred with his 
 master. 
 
JEFFERSON'S REMONSTRANCE 115 
 
 " Him no one of we boy/' he said. " Him dam bad 
 'teamboat bushman, sah. Lib for here two three day. 
 Now lib for go away." 
 
 Austin who understood that the term bushman was 
 not used in a complimentary sense in those swamps, 
 smiled as he noticed that seafaring men were evidently 
 also regarded there with no great favour, and glanced at 
 Jefferson inquiringly. 
 
 " He's probably lying," said the latter. " I've 
 trailed Funnel-paint here, and there's nowhere else he 
 could live. I've been round to see. Anyway, he had 
 a crowd of this rascal's boys with him when he came 
 down to worry me. We'll let him have that to figure on." 
 
 It cost him some trouble to make his meaning clear to 
 the negro, while when the latter in turn explained it to 
 the headman, Austin noticed a retrograde movement 
 among several of those about them. They seemed 
 desirous of getting a little farther away from the 
 domineering white man. 
 
 " I want those boys," said Jefferson, indicating the 
 negroes who had edged away. " Then I want some gum 
 or ivory, or anything of that kind your headman has, 
 as a token he'll send me down Funnel-paint as soon as 
 he can catch him. He hasn't caught on to half of it. 
 Help me out, Austin." 
 
 Austin did what he could, and at last it became evi- 
 dent that the interpreter grasped their meaning. This 
 time there was, however, a change in the attitude of the 
 negro, which had hitherto appeared to be a trifle con- 
 ciliatory. 
 
 " None of my boys have been near your steamer. 
 Go away before we drive you out," was, at least, the gist 
 of what he said. 
 
 Jefferson made a little contemptuous gesture, and 
 pointed to one of the negroes. " Tell him I want those 
 boys, and it would be wise of him to turn them up 
 before the shadow crawls up to where that man is. If 
 he doesn't I'll let a Duppy, Ju-ju, or whatever he calls 
 
n6 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 his fetish devils, loose on him. He has about fifteen 
 minutes to think the thing over in." 
 
 Even with the help of the donkey-man they were some 
 time in making this comprehensible, and Austin glanced 
 at his comrade when the headman's answer came. It 
 was a curt and uncompromising non possumus, and 
 Jefferson sighed. 
 
 " Of course," he said, " I saw it would come to this 
 from the beginning, and in one way I'm not sorry. I 
 don't know what I'd have done with Funnel-paint or his 
 friends if I had got them, except that somehow I'd 'most 
 have scared them out of their lives. Still, it seemed only 
 decent to give the headman a chance for himself. Now 
 it will suit us considerably better to scare him and 
 the others all together. I'll wipe that house of his 
 out of existence inside twenty minutes." 
 
 Austin glanced at the house. It was larger than the 
 others and comparatively well built, and, he fancied, 
 probably as much value to its owner as a white man's 
 mansion would be to him. This was clearly not a time 
 to be supersensitive, but he felt a trace of compunction. 
 
 " I don't know that I'd go quite so far myself," he 
 said. " After all, we're not sure that the headman is 
 responsible." 
 
 " Then," said Jefferson dryly, " we'll make him, and 
 you listen to me. We may have to do quite a few things 
 that aren't pretty, and we have no use for sentimentality. 
 We're just a handful of white men with everything to 
 grapple with, and we'll be left alone to do it while these 
 devils are afraid of us, and not a moment longer. The 
 fever may wipe half of us out at any time, and a we have 
 got to make our protest now." 
 
 " It's the giant-powder I'm sticking at. No doubt 
 it's a little absurd of me but I don't like it." 
 
 Jefferson laughed a trifle scornfully. " There's a 
 good deal of what we call buncombe in most of you. 
 You don't like things that don't look pretty, pistols 
 among them. Well, am I to be trampled on whenever 
 
JEFFERSON'S REMONSTRANCE 117 
 
 it happens that the other man is bigger than me ? " 
 
 " The law is supposed to obviate that difficulty in 
 a civilized community/' 
 
 " The man who gets the verdict is usually the one with 
 the biggest political pull or the most dollars in the one 1 
 belong to, but that's not quite the point just now. If 
 you have a notion that the game's all in our hands, look 
 at them yonder." 
 
 Austin did so, and decided that, after all, Jefferson 
 might be right. The negroes had clustered together, 
 and there were more of them now, while all of them had 
 spears or big canoe paddles. It was tolerably evident 
 that any sign of vacillation would bring them down upon 
 the handful of white men, whose prestige alone had 
 hitherto secured them from molestation. If they failed 
 to maintain it, and had to depend upon their physical 
 prowess, the result appeared as certain as it would be 
 unpleasant. The affair had resolved itself into a case of 
 what Jefferson termed bluff, a test of coolness and nerve, 
 and Austin glanced a trifle anxiously at the Spaniards. 
 They were, he fancied, a little uneasy, but it was clear 
 that they had conhdence in their leader, and they sat 
 still, though he could see one or two of them fingering 
 the wicked Canary knives. Their courage was, however, 
 not of the kind that stands the tension of uncertainty 
 well, and he commenced to long that the shadow would 
 reach the trampled spot where the man Jefferson pointed 
 to had stood. 
 
 In the meanwhile, it was creeping slowly across the 
 hot, white sand, and he felt his heart beat as he watched 
 it and the negroes, who commenced to murmur and move 
 uneasily. The white man's immobility had its effect on 
 them, and it seemed that Jefferson had done wisely in 
 confiding in the latter 's ability to bear the longer strain. 
 Still, Austin was not sure that the impatience of the 
 Spaniards might not spoil everything after all. As re- 
 gards himself, he began to feel a curious and almost dis- 
 passionate interest in the affair which almost prevented 
 
n8 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 him considering his personal part in it. He also noticed 
 the intensity of the sunlight, and the blueness of the 
 shadows among the trees, as well as the mirror-like 
 flashing of the creek. It was, he fancied, the artistic 
 temperament asserting itself. Then he felt a little quiver 
 run through him when Jefferson stood up. 
 
 " We have to get it done/' he said. " Keep those 
 Canarios close behind me." 
 
 They moved forward in a little phalanx, carrying staves 
 and iron bars, though Austin knew that a word would 
 bring out the twinkling steel ; and,, somewhat to his as- 
 tonishment, the negroes fell back before them, and as 
 they approached it the headman scuttled out of his house. 
 Jefferson stopped outside it, and taking a stick of yellow 
 substance from his pocket inserted it in a cranny he 
 raked out in the wall. Then he lighted the strip of fuse, 
 and touched Austin's shoulder. 
 
 " Get those fellows back to the creek, but they're not 
 to run," he said, " The action of one stick of giant- 
 powder is usually tolerably local, but I don't want any 
 of the niggers hoisted either. Where's that interpreter ? 
 Steady, we'll bring them down on us like a swarm of bees 
 if they see us lighting out before they understand the 
 thing." 
 
 There was, Austin fancied, not much time to waste ; 
 but he managed to impress the fact that their haste 
 must not be too evident upon the Canarios, and make 
 the negro understand that it was perilous to approach 
 the house. Then he overtook the Spaniards, and they 
 moved back in a body towards the launch, and stopped 
 close by the beach. The negroes also stood still, and all 
 alike watched the little sputtering trail of smoke creep 
 up the side of the house. It showed blue in the sun- 
 light, though there was a pale sparkling in the midst of it. 
 
 Then a streak of light sprang out suddenly, and ex- 
 panded into a blaze of radiance. After it came the de- 
 tonation, and a rolling cloud of thin vapour, out of which 
 were hurtled powdered soil and blocks of hard-rammed 
 
STARTING THE PUMP 119 
 
 mud. The vapour thinned and melted, and Austin saw 
 there was no longer any front to the headman's house, 
 while as he watched it most of the rest fell in. He looked 
 round to see what effect it had on the negroes, but could 
 not make out one of them. They had, it seemed, gone 
 silently and in haste. Then he heard Jefferson sigh as 
 with relief. 
 
 " Well," he said, " that's one thing done, and I'm glad 
 we have come out of it with a whole skin. We'll light 
 out before somebody shows them that we're only human 
 and spoils the thing." 
 
 They went on board the launch, but Austin felt curi- 
 ously limp as she clanked away downstream. The 
 strain of the last half-hour had told on him, though he 
 had not felt it to the full at the time. It was two 
 hours' steaming before they swept past the Cumbria, 
 and a man on her forecastle waved an arm to indicate 
 that all was right on board her, but Austin would 
 not have had the time any shorter. He felt it was just 
 as well that village lay some distance from them. They 
 went on to the strip of land where Jefferson had stored 
 the coal and oil, and when they reached it he stood up 
 suddenly with an imprecation. 
 
 " Four puncheons gone. Funnel-paint has come out 
 ahead of me, after all," he said. " Well, there's no use 
 in worrying now when he has got away with them, but 
 I'm going to stop down here to-night in case he comes 
 back again." 
 
 Then he swung the launch round with backed pro- 
 peller, and in another few minutes they were steaming 
 back upstream towards the Cumbria. 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 STARTING THE PUMP 
 
 THE bush was dim with steamy shade when Austin and 
 Jefferson plodded along a little path behind the beach 
 where the oil was stored. It was with difficulty they 
 
120 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 made their way, for the soil was firmer there, and a dense 
 undergrowth sprang up among the big cottonwoods 
 which replaced the mangroves. They were draped with 
 creepers, and here and there an orchid flung its fantastic 
 blossoms about a rotting limb, while the path twisted in 
 and out among them and through tangled thickets. 
 It was then the hottest part of the afternoon, and save 
 for the soft fall of the men's footsteps everything was 
 still. The atmosphere was very like that of a Turkish 
 bath, and as Austin stumbled along the perspiration 
 dripped from him. 
 
 He had toiled strenuously from early dawn until 
 darkness closed down of late, and though he had as yet 
 escaped the fever, every joint in his body ached and he 
 was limp and dejected with the heat and weariness. His 
 only respite from labour had been the few hours spent on 
 watch beside the landed oil when his turn came, and he 
 had now come down with two of the Spaniards to relieve 
 Jefferson, who was going back to the Cumbria. 
 
 They had blundered through the shadowy bush for 
 half an hour, and came out upon a glaring strip of 
 sand beside another creek. Jefferson stopped a moment 
 with a little gesture of astonishment in the shadow 
 of a palm. 
 
 " What in the name of wonder have they been turn- 
 ing that sand over for ? " he said. 
 
 Austin walked out of the shadow 7 blinking in the 
 dazzling brightness the creek flung back, and saw that 
 the sand had certainly been disturbed every here and 
 there. It seemed to him that somebody had been dig- 
 ging holes in it and then had carefully filled them up. 
 
 " There isn't a nigger village nearer than the one where 
 Funnel-paint lives, or I could have fancied they'd had 
 an epidemic, and been burying their friends," he said. 
 
 Jefferson shook his head. " They wouldn't worry to 
 bring them here," he said. " Still, somebody has been 
 digging, since the last wet season, for it seems to me that 
 when the rain comes the creek flows over here." 
 
STARTING THE PUMP 121 
 
 It was several minutes before he again broke the 
 silence. 
 
 " There is," he said at length, " a good deal I can't get 
 the hang of about the whole affair ; but if I knew just 
 how they came to start the plates that let the water in I'd 
 have something to figure on. You can't very well knock 
 holes in an iron steamer's bottom on soft slimy mud, 
 and I don't know where they'd find a rock here if they 
 wanted to." 
 
 "Ah," said Austin, " then you think they might have 
 wanted to find one ? " 
 
 Jefferson again sat silent for almost a minute, and 
 then slowly shook his head. " I don't know I've 
 nothing to go upon," he said. " She's not even an old 
 played-out boat. Still, it seems to me that a steamer 
 with a good deal of weight in her hung up by the nose on 
 the bank might quite easily start something when the 
 water sank. Then she's settle deeper it's nice soft 
 mud." 
 
 " But that would be after she went ashore." 
 
 " Yes," said Jefferson dryly. " That's the point of 
 it," 
 
 " What puzzles me is why the salvage men let go/' 
 he said. " You see, they're accustomed to this kind of 
 thing, and have money behind them." 
 
 Jefferson looked at him with a little smile, and Austin 
 saw that he guessed his thoughts. Jefferson was as 
 gaunt as ever, a fever-worn skeleton of a man dressed, 
 for the most part, in oil-stained rags, while Austin was 
 quite aware that, so far as outward appearances went, 
 there was very little that was prepossessing about himself. 
 His big felt hat hung over his forehead sodden with 
 grease and shapeless, his hands were hard and scarred, 
 his nails were broken, and the rent singlet hung open 
 almost to his waist. All this seemed to emphasize 
 their feebleness, and the fact that there was no money 
 behind them, at least. 
 
 " Well," said Jefferson, " that's quite easy. Those 
 
122 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 salvage men are specialists and expect a good deal for 
 the time they put in. Now they took some oil out of her, 
 but there is reason for believing they were not sure they'd 
 get the Cumbria off at all, and it would cost a good deal 
 to charter a light-draught steamer to come up here. 
 They tried towing it down to a schooner, and lost a good 
 deal of it on the shoals. Then they towed the schooner 
 in, and had to wait for a smooth surf before they could 
 get her out with no more than sixty tons at that. The 
 game wasn't worth while, and the men were going down 
 with fever." 
 
 " But the gum ? " 
 
 " There wasn't a great deal down in the cargo 
 sheets, and, anyway, until they'd hove the oil they 
 couldn't come at it." 
 
 " You are still sure about the gum yourself ? " 
 
 Jefferson laughed softly. " I think I am. I don't 
 quite know where it is, but the skipper got it a good 
 deal of it." 
 
 " Still, the steamer would be worth a persistent effort. 
 There was no doubt about her being there." 
 
 " No," said Jefferson. " Now, I know just what you 
 mean. You're wondering, since those men couldn't heave 
 her off, what's the use of us trying. Well, specialists make 
 their mistakes now and then just like other men, and they 
 took it for granted that things were normal when they 
 were there. From what I've seen of the sand strips 
 and the marks on the mangrove trunks I don't think they 
 were. You see, there's a good deal we don't know 
 about the tides yet, and the Guinea stream doesn't al- 
 ways run quite the ? zme along this coast, while, when 
 there's less of the south-west winds that help it along 
 than usual, it's quite likely to mean two or three feet 
 less water in these creeks. Then you can have a wet 
 season that's a little drier than the other ones, and it's 
 fresh water here the tide just backs it up." 
 
 " Then you're counting on the present season being a 
 normal one ? " 
 
STARTING THE PUMP 123 
 
 " Yes," said Jefferson quietly. " I've staked all I have 
 on it and a good deal more than that. If it isn't, I 
 might as well have pitched my forty thousand dollars 
 into the sea." 
 
 He stopped a moment, and then laid a little grey 
 object in Austin's palm. " What d'you make of 
 that ? " 
 
 Austin started as he looked at it. " A pistol bullet ! " 
 
 " Exactly/' said Jefferson. " It has been through 
 the barrel, too ; you can see the score of the rifling. I 
 picked it up along the trail, but I don't know how long 
 it lay there, or who fired it. Still, the niggers don't 
 carry pistols. Well, it's about time I was getting back 
 on board if we're to start the pump to-night." 
 
 Austin glanced at him sharply, and noticed that there 
 was a suggestion of tension in his voice, though his face 
 was quiet. It was evident that a good deal would de- 
 pend upon the result of the first few hours' pumping, for 
 unless it lowered the water there would be little prob- 
 ability of their floating the steamer. Neither of them, 
 however, said anything further, and when they went back 
 to the beach where the oil was Jefferson steamed away 
 in the launch, and Austin, who was left with two Can- 
 arios, lay down in the shadow of a strip of tarpaulin. 
 The Spaniards, tired with their morning's labour, went 
 to sleep, and Austin, who filled his pipe severed times, 
 found the hours pass very slowly. There was nothing 
 to hold his attention only glaring sand, dingy, dim 
 green mangroves, and tiers of puncheons with patches of 
 whitewash clinging to them. 
 
 His thoughts were with Jefferson, who was no doubt 
 now getting steam on the locomotive boiler and coup- 
 ling up the big pump. Unless the latter did what they 
 expected of it, the toil they had undergone and Jefferson's 
 eight thousand pounds would have been thrown away. 
 
 Still, the long, hot afternoon dragged away, and when 
 the sun dipped, and black darkness closed down upon the 
 creek, the launch came clanking up to the beach. She 
 
124 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 brought two Canarios as well as Bill the fireman, and 
 Austin's voice was eager as he greeted the latter. 
 
 " Have you got the pump going yet ? " he asked. 
 
 " No/' said Bill. " Tom and Mr. Jefferson was pack- 
 ing something when I came away. He'd given her a 
 spin and found the engine blowing at a gland." 
 
 Austin asked him nothing further, but drove the 
 1-iunch at top speed through the blackness that shrouded 
 the misty creek, and walked straight to where Jefferson 
 was standing when he reached the Cumbria. The red 
 glow from the open fire-door of the locomotive boiler fell 
 upon him, and there were signs of tension in his face, while 
 the red trickle from a hand he had apparently injured 
 smeared his torn jacket. Steam was roaring from a 
 valve beside him, and Austin could scarcely hear him 
 when he turned to the donkey-man. 
 
 " Shut the fire-door. She'll go now," he said. " I'll 
 let her shake down for a minute or two, and then we'll 
 give her everything." 
 
 He walked forward towards where the light of a lamp 
 fell upon a casing of the pump. Then he touched a 
 valve and the machine became animate with a low pul- 
 satory wheezing, while something commenced to hum 
 and rattle inside it. The sound swelled into a fierce 
 rhythmic whirring, the great iron case vibrated, and 
 Austin could feel the rails he leaned on tremble. Jef- 
 ferson turned and looked at him with a little smile while 
 he laid a hand, as it were, affectionately upon the pump. 
 
 " Yes," he said, " I've made her go, and she's going 
 to earn me eight thousand dollars. She's drawing air 
 just now. Heave your hat down and see if she'll take it 
 along." 
 
 Austin, who became sensible that a little draught was 
 shaking his duck trousers, did as Jefferson suggested, 
 and the big felt hat rolled and flopped in a ludicrous 
 fashion along the deck. Then it seemed to spring forward 
 into the blackness, and, groping after it, he found it 
 glued to the iron grid which was screwed to the end of a 
 
STARTING THE PUMP 125 
 
 big pipe. It was with some little difficulty he tore it 
 loose. Then he saw Jefferson swing up one hand. 
 
 " Easy, while she's getting her first drink ; then, if she's 
 spouting full, you can let her hum/' he said, and turned 
 to Austin. " Now, come down with me." 
 
 They went down together into the musty hold, and 
 when somebody lowered the big hose after them, Jeffer- 
 son, standing upon the ladder, seized the rope, and 
 looked up at the Canarios clustering round the hatch 
 above. 
 
 " Where's that rake you made ? " he said. 
 
 It was handed him, and Austin glanced down at the 
 water which glistened oilily under the light of a sus- 
 pended lamp. It was thick with floating grease and 
 strewn with fragments of rotten bags. 
 
 " Get hold, and keep her clear ! " said Jefferson, who 
 thrust the rake upon him, and then waited a moment 
 before he lowered the hose, while Austin, glancing 
 round a moment, could see the faces of the men above 
 them. They were intent, and almost as expectant as 
 his comrade's. 
 
 Then the big pipe sank with a soft splash, and shook 
 out its loose half-coil as if alive while it swelled. It 
 grew hard and rigid, and the dim, oily water swirled and 
 seethed about the end of it. In another moment there 
 was a rush of floating objects towards it from the sha- 
 dows. Strips of bagging, handspikes, clots of oil, and 
 dunnage wood came thicker and thicker, and Jefferson 
 raised his voice. 
 
 " Let her hum ! " he said. 
 
 The pipe palpitated as it further straightened itself, 
 and now a hole opened in the oily water, and half-seen 
 things came up with a rush from the depths of the flooded 
 hold. Hundreds of little black kernals whirled and 
 sank in the swing of the eddy, which grew wider as a deep 
 resonant hum descended from the deck above. It seemed 
 to Austin that everything in the hold was coming to the 
 top, but as he watched the bewildered succession of 
 
126 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 odds and ends that span amidst the froth, Jefferson's 
 voice rose harshly. 
 
 " It's water she's wanting. Keep her clear ! " he said. 
 
 Austin contrived to do it for a while though now and 
 then the whirling rush of bags and wood almost tore the 
 rake away from him. He was kept busy for half an hour, 
 while Jefferson stood leaning out from the ladder and 
 steadily watching the water. Then the American 
 swung himself down with his knife in his hand, and 
 scratched the iron at its level. 
 
 " We'll know in another hour or two whether we're 
 pumping out the Cumbria or pumping in the creek/' he 
 said. " If it's the latter I've got to let up on the con- 
 tract. I can't undertake to dry out this part of Africa." 
 
 Then he signed to one of the Canarios. " Come down. 
 Ven aca, savvy, and take this rake." 
 
 They went up together, but as they passed along the 
 deck Jefferson stopped once more to lay his hand upon 
 the pump. It was running with a dull rumbling roar, 
 and the deck trembled about it. 
 
 " She's doing good work," he said. " Now, we'll have 
 comida. I daren't go back there for another hour." 
 
 They went into the deck-house, where the Spaniard 
 who acted as steward was awaiting them, but in pass- 
 ing Jefferson made a sign to Tom, who stood in the glow 
 from the fire-door with a shovel in his hand. 
 
 " All she's worth ! " he said. 
 
 They ate as a matter of duty, and because they needed 
 all the strength the climate had left them, but neither 
 had much appetite, and Austin knew that Jefferson 
 was listening as eagerly as he was himself to the deep, 
 vibrating hum that came throbbing through the open 
 door. It was a relief to both of them to hear the per- 
 sistent jingling of a cup that stood unevenly in its 
 saucer. The pump was running well, but there re- 
 mained the momentous question, Was it lowering the 
 water ? And when the meal was over Austin glanced 
 at Jefferson as he pushed his plate aside. 
 
STARTING THE PUMP 127 
 
 " Shall I go down and look ? " he asked. 
 
 " No/' said Jefferson a trifle hoarsely. " Anyway, if 
 you do, don't come back and worry me. She's full up, 
 fore and after holds and engine-room and there are 
 things I don't stand very well. We'll give her two 
 hours, and then, if she's doing anything worth while, the 
 scratch I made will be dry." 
 
 Austin nodded sympathetically. " Under the circum- 
 stances," he said, " two hours is a long while." 
 
 Jefferson smiled a curious, wry smile. " It's hard 
 the toughest thing one can do just to keep still, but if I 
 climbed up and down that ladder for two hours I'd pro- 
 bably break out anclTheave somebody into the creek. 
 There are things you have to get over once for all and 
 do it quick." 
 
 " I suppose there are," said Austin. " Still, it's the 
 first time I've made the acquaintance of any of them, 
 and I shouldn't have fancied one could get a thrill oi 
 this kind out of a centrifugal pump. There is, however, 
 of course, a good deal at stake." 
 
 " Eighty thousand dollars," said Jefferson, " and all 
 the rest of my life. You don't usually get such chances 
 as the Cumbria is giving us twice." 
 
 Austin found that he, at least, could not keep still 
 however he tried, and he went out and paced up and 
 down the slanted deck, where he fell over things, though 
 he now and then endeavoured to talk rationally to Tom 
 the donkey-man. He did not find the attempt a success, 
 but he saw that he was not the only one who felt the ten- 
 sion, for the Canaries in place of resting were clustered 
 round the hatch and apparently staring down the open- 
 ing. Jefferson was still in the deck-house each time he 
 passed, a gaunt, grim-faced object with a lean hand 
 clenched on an unlighted pipe, and at last Austin sat 
 down on the deck beside the pump. He liked to feel the 
 throb of it, but he remembered the half-hour he spent 
 there a long while afterwards. 
 
 Then Jefferson came out of the deck-house, walking 
 
128 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 slowly, though Austin fancied it cost him an effort, and 
 they climbed down the ladder together. The man with 
 the rake stood on the opposite one across the hatch, 
 and Austin felt his heart beat painfully as he raised the 
 lantern he held and Jefferson stooped down. He 
 straightened himself slowly, though the blood was in his 
 face. 
 
 " Dry ! " he said hoarsely. " She's lowering it. It's 
 a sure thing, Austin, If the fever doesn't get us, we'll 
 see this contract out." 
 
 Then he turned, and they went up and back to the 
 deck-house, while an exultant clamour broke out from 
 the Canarios, 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 ELUSIVE GUM 
 
 IT was in the small hours when Austin awakened, and, 
 listening a moment, stretched his aching limbs with a 
 little sigh of content. The odds and ends on the table 
 beside him were rattling merrily, and a deep pulsatory 
 humming rang stridently through the silence of the 
 swamps. The pump was running well, for he could hear 
 the steady splash of water falling into the creek, and 
 once more a little thrill of exultation ran through him. 
 Whether the water had sunk or not he was going to see 
 that fight out, and go back triumphant or leave his bones 
 in Africa. It was not alone to vindicate himself in 
 Jacinta's eyes, for that, though it counted, too, seemed 
 of less moment now ; he was there to justify his exist- 
 ence, to prove himself a man, which many who have 
 won honours in this world have, after all, never really 
 done. As a sign of it, he was wholly practical when 
 hanging down from the ladder he laid the fingers of one 
 hand upon the scratch Jefferson had made on the iron. 
 Then he held up the hand. 
 
 " Wet to the knuckles only," he said. " Last night 
 the water was on the thumb." 
 
ELUSIVE GUM 129 
 
 They went up, and Jefferson looked at him keenly 
 when they stood on deck, in fact, as he had done when 
 Austin first clambered half-naked out of the hatch. 
 
 " Yes/' he said quietly, " she is 'leaving it out, and 
 you have done more than start in. You mean staying 
 with it now." 
 
 Austin laughed. " I'm not sure how you know it, but 
 I really think I do." 
 
 " No ? " said Jefferson with a twinkle in his eyes. 
 " When it's in your voice, and stamped upon the rest of 
 you. Well, I think we're going to float her, though it's 
 perhaps not quite a sure thing yet. We seem to have 
 bluffed off Funnel-paint, but the trouble is you can't 
 bluff the fever. In the meanwhile we'll see if she's 
 draining any out of the engine-room." 
 
 They went in and stood on the top platform looking 
 down on the water, which, so far as they could discern, 
 stood at much the same level as it had done. Jefferson 
 gazed at it with an air of reflection. 
 
 " If the bulkhead's strained and started so the water 
 could get in, I don't quite see why it shouldn't run out 
 into the hold again, but there's evidently no suction 
 that way," he said. " You see how that tool-case lid is 
 floating. There's another point that strikes me. Those 
 started plates don't seem to be letting very much water 
 in." 
 
 " As you have already pointed out, there is a good deal 
 it's a little difficult to understand about the whole thing." 
 
 " Well," said Jefferson gravely. " it doesn't matter 
 in the meanwhile, and we'll probably find out by and 
 by. The first thing we have to do is to lay hands on that 
 gum, and until the water's lower we can't start in. The 
 boys can lay off to-day. Well, what are you wanting, 
 Bill ? " 
 
 " Two of the Canariers down ! " said the fireman, who 
 appeared in the doorway. " They was looking groggy 
 yesterday, an' one of them's talking silly now. I think 
 it's fever." 
 
130 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 Austin looked at Jefferson, whose face grew a trifle 
 grim. " Ah/' he said, " it's beginning. Well, I had 
 expected we'd have that to grapple with before very 
 long. We'll go along and look at them." 
 
 They went, and found one of the men raving in the 
 forecastle, while Austin, who did what he could for him 
 and his comrade, which was very little, afterwards spent a 
 day of blissful idleness stretched at full length on the 
 settee in the skipper's room with a damp-stained treatise 
 on navigation. He had never imagined that he could 
 peruse a work of that kind with interest, but it served 
 its purpose, for he felt he must have something to fix his 
 attention on. In the meanwhile the big pump hummed 
 on, as it did for another day and night, until on the 
 third morning Jefferson stopped it and turned steam 
 on the winch again. 
 
 " You have got to keep your eyes open as well as hustle, 
 boys," he said as he stood with his hand on the lever. 
 " There'll be forty dollars, Spanish, for whoever finds the 
 first bag of gum." 
 
 Austin made this clear to them, and they went down 
 the ladder, but tw T o men who had gone with them before 
 were not there that day. The water had sunk, and tiers 
 of rotting bags lay half-afloat in it giving out a sickening 
 smell of fermentation. They were filled with little 
 black nuts, the oleaginous kernels of the palm-fruit 
 from which the layer of oil had been scraped off, and 
 these were evidently worth little in their damaged con- 
 dition. Austin, however, had very little time to notice 
 them in, for the winch above him rattled, and the day 
 of feverish toil began. 
 
 The bags burst when they dragged them into piles 
 and laid them upon the sling, while, when the winch 
 swung them up, a rain of kernels and slimy water came 
 pattering and splashing down. Putrefying kernels 
 floated up into every hole they made, and now and 
 then a man sank waist-deep among the crumbling bags. 
 Still, there was no stoppage or slackening of effort. 
 
ELUSIVE GUM 131 
 
 Forty dollars is a large sum to a seaman of the Canaries, 
 who can bring up a family on one peseta, which is rather 
 less than ninepence, a day, while the bonus contingent 
 on getting the Cumbria off would set up most of them 
 for life. They remembered it that day as they floun- 
 dered and waded about the stifling hold, for the work 
 of the big pump had renewed their ardour. 
 
 Still, the task before them was one most men would 
 have shrunk from. The heat below decks was suffocat- 
 ing, the smell of the steaming, fermenting mass of slime 
 and oil and kernels nauseating. The water it swam in 
 was putrescent, and the weight to be hauled out of it 
 and sent up into the sunlight apparently enough to 
 keep them busy for months ahead, though they had, as 
 everybody knew, very little time to move it in. It was 
 to be a grim struggle between man and inert material, 
 for unless the Cumbria was hove off when the rains 
 came, it was very probable that she would stay there 
 until she fell to pieces. 
 
 The winch stopped suddenly, and Jefferson came 
 backwards down the ladder. He alighted knee-deep in 
 water among the rotten bags, and all his observations 
 were not recordable. He had put off conventionality, 
 and was once more the reckless sailor and the optimistic 
 American, so he spoke of the lower regions, and called 
 the men who had stowed the Cumbria's cargo con- 
 demned loafers in barbarous Castilian and good Ameri- 
 can, while the olive-faced Canarios gasped and grinned at 
 him. 
 
 " The man who packed those bags there should be 
 hung/' he said. " We can't break the bulk out until 
 we've shifted most of them. Then I'll send you down 
 
 the sling-tub, and we'll heave the stuff to . It's 
 
 sixty dollars now for the man who finds the gum." 
 
 " No sign of it yet," said Austin. " They'd nevei 
 have stowed it among the bulk kernels. They're worth 
 something. Hadn't you better make sure of them ? " 
 
 Jefferson laughed grimly. " They're worth how 
 
132 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 do I know ? Call it 12 a ton when they're not rotten. 
 It's the gum we came for, and I'm going to find 
 it if I tear the ballast tanks and limbeys out of her. 
 Clear that bay bulkhead, and then stand by for the 
 sling-tub. We'll heave every blue-flamed kernel over." 
 
 The tub came down by and by, in fact, two of them, 
 and those who had no shovels bailed up the slimy kernels 
 with their hats and hands, but each time the chain 
 swung through the hatch the tub below was full. It 
 was two o'clock when they desisted, and some of them 
 were waist-deep in water then, while soon after they 
 came up the big hose splashed in again. There were 
 steampipe collars to unbolt, and pack, and bolt again 
 before that was done, while when Austin came upon 
 Jefferson he held up one hand from which the scalded 
 skin was peeling. 
 
 " I can run the winch if I drive her with my 
 
 mouth and foot," he said. " Get the comida into you, 
 and then back into the hold again. We're going to 
 make her hum." 
 
 Austin glanced suggestively towards the men, who 
 stood with backs still bent with weariness about the 
 entrance to the forecastle. 
 
 " I suppose so ! " he said. " Still, the question is can 
 they stand it long ? " 
 
 Jefferson laughed harshly. " They'll have to. We 
 have the blazing sun against us, and the evening fever- 
 mist, in fact, 'most everything that man has to grapple 
 with, and the worst of all is time. Still, they can't 
 break us. We have got to beat them the river, the 
 climate, and all the man-killing meanness nature has in 
 Western Africa." 
 
 He stopped a moment, and standing very straight, a 
 haggard, grim-faced scarecrow, flung up his scalded 
 hands towards the brassy heavens in a wide, appealing 
 gesture. " When you come to the bottom of things 
 that's what we were made for. There's something in us 
 that is stronger than them all." 
 
ELUSIVE GUM 133 
 
 Austin- said nothing, though once more a little thrill 
 ran through him as he slipped away quietly in search of 
 his comida. 
 
 Austin had little time for his comida. The men in 
 the forecastle were very sick, indeed, and he packed them 
 in foul blankets, and dosed them with green-lime water, 
 boiling hot /to start the perspiration, which was, he 
 recognized, likely to accomplish more than his pre- 
 scriptions. There were limes in Funnel-paint's village, 
 and they had not scrupled to requisition them. One of 
 the men lay still, moaning faintly through black- 
 ened lips, and the other, raving, called incoherently on 
 saints and angels. It seemed to Austin standing in that 
 reeking den that there was small chance for his patient 
 unless they heard him. Two of those whose names he 
 caught had once, he remembered, been, at least, fresh 
 water sailormen, and half-consciously he also appealed 
 to them. One creed appeared much the same as an- 
 other in that dark land, and something in him cried out 
 instinctively to the great serene influences beyond the 
 shadow. When he had finished his work of mercy the 
 Spaniards were stripping the covers off the after-hatch, 
 and he had scarcely a minute for a mouthful before he 
 joined them to heave the kernels up by hand. They 
 went up basket after basket, and splashed into the 
 creek, but there was no sign of a gum bag or package 
 anywhere among them. They toiled throughout that 
 afternoon under a broiling sun, but when the black 
 darkness came again they had still found no gum. Then 
 as they ate together Austin looked at Jefferson. 
 
 " You are sure the gum was really put into her ? " he 
 said. 
 
 " It was/' said Jefferson with a little grim smile. 
 " Whether it's there now or not is another thing. Will 
 know when she's empty, and if we haven't found it then 
 well consider. Not a pound reached Grand Canary, 
 and it's quite certain that the fellows who went some- 
 where else took none of it with them." 
 
134 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 AUSTIN GOES DOWN RIVER 
 
 A WEEK had passed without them finding any gum, 
 when one evening Austin stood beside Jefferson in the 
 Cumbria's forecastle. It felt as hot as an oven, though 
 the damp fell in big drops from the iron beams and 
 trickled down the vessel's unceiled skin, while a smoky 
 lamp supplied it with insufficient illumination. The 
 faint light showed the hazily outlined forms of the men 
 sitting limp and apathetic, now the long day's toil was 
 over, in the acrid smoke of Canary tobacco, and forced 
 up clearly the drawn face of one who lay beneath it 
 gazing at Austin with a glitter in his uncomprehending 
 eyes. Behind him other figures occupied a part of the 
 shelf-like row of bunks, but they were mere shapeless 
 bundles of greasy blankets and foul clothing, with only 
 a shock of damp hair or a claw-like hand projecting from 
 them here and there to show that they were human. 
 Jefferson said nothing, but his face was a trifle grim, 
 and he straightened himself wearily when one of the 
 Spaniards rose and moved into the light. 
 
 " Sefior," he said, with a little deprecatory gesture, 
 " for ourselves we others do not complain, but these men 
 are very sick, and the medicines of the Senor Austin do 
 not make them better. One of them is my cousin, an- 
 other my wife's brother ; and there are those in Las 
 Palmas and Gaidar who depend on them. In a week 
 or, perhaps, a day or two they die. Something must be 
 done." 
 
 There was a faint approving murmur from the rest of 
 the men. They had worked well, but the excitement of 
 the search for the gum was wearing off, and the strain 
 had commenced to tell. Jefferson smiled wryly as he 
 glanced at Austin. 
 
 " Hadn't you better ask him what can be done ? " 
 he said. 
 
AUSTIN GOES DOWN RIVER 135 
 
 The Spaniard flung his arms up when Austin trans- 
 lated this. " Who knows ! " he said. " I am only 
 an ignorant sailorman, and cannot tell, but when we 
 came here the Sefior Austin promised us that we should 
 have all that was reasonable. It is not fitting that men 
 should die and nothing be done to save them/' 
 
 " I scarcely think it is," said Austin. " Still, how to set 
 about the thing is more than I know. It must be 
 talked over. We may, perhaps, tell you more to-mor- 
 row." 
 
 He touched Jefferson's shoulder, and they went out or 
 the forecastle and towards the skipper's room silently. 
 When they sat down Jefferson looked hard at him. 
 
 " Well ? " he said. " Two of them are your men." 
 
 Austin made a little sign of comprehension. " I don't 
 remember what I promised them. I had trouble to get 
 them, but I certainly told them the place wasn't a 
 healthy one. That, however, doesn't convey a very 
 sufficient impression to anybody who hasn't been here." 
 " No," and Jefferson smiled grimly, " I don't quite 
 think it does. The point is that you feel yourself re- 
 sponsible to them, though I don't see why you should. 
 A man has to take his chances when he makes a bargain 
 of the kind they did." 
 
 Austin stretched himself on the settee wearily, and 
 lighted a cigarette. He had been feeling unpleasantly 
 limp of late, and his head and back ached that night. 
 
 " It's a little difficult to define what a bargain really 
 is," he said. " Still, it seems to me that to make it a just 
 one the contracting parties should clearly understand, 
 one what he is selling, and the other what he is buying. 
 In the case in question I knew what I was getting, but 
 I'm far from sure the Canaries quite realized what they 
 might have to part with." 
 
 " That is not the business view." 
 
 " I am willing to admit it. I, however, can't help 
 fancying that there is a certain responsibility attached 
 to buying up men's lives for a few dollars when they're 
 
136 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 under the impression that it's their labour they're 
 selling. In fact, it's one that is a little too big for me." 
 
 Jefferson sat silent for almost a minute looking at 
 Austin, who met his gaze steadily, with his eyes half- 
 closed. 
 
 " Well," he said, " it isn't the usual view, but there's 
 something to be said for it. What d'you mean to do ? " 
 
 " Put the sick men on board the launch and run them 
 out to sea on the chance of picking up a West-coast 
 liner, or, and it might suit us just as well, one of the new 
 opposition boats. From what I gathered at Las Palmas, 
 the men who run them are for the most part rather a 
 hard-up crowd, and you're usually more likely to get a 
 kindness done you by that kind of people. We have 
 nothing to pay their passage with, you see." 
 
 " You might get one oil-puncheon into the launch. 
 Still, you have to remember that men who do go down 
 with fever along shore quite often die instead of coming 
 round when they get out to sea." 
 
 Austin smiled. " One would fancy that men who 
 stay along shore when they have fever, as these fellows 
 have it, die invariably." 
 
 Once more Jefferson sat silent a while gazing at his 
 comrade thoughtfully. 
 
 " Well," he said. " I leave the thing to you. After 
 all, it's quite likely that one's dollars aren't worth what 
 you lay out to get them now and then, but that's cer- 
 tainly not the question. The boat's not making the 
 water I expected, but we haven't found the gum, and 
 engine-room and after-hold are still almost full. The 
 boiler, as you know, has two or three tubes blowing, and 
 we have nothing to stop them with. That means she's 
 wasting half her steam, and as we have to keep a full 
 head for the pump and winch, the coal's just melting. 
 By the time we heave her off there will be very little 
 left, and I've no fancy for going to sea short of fuel and 
 being picked up as salvage. It's a point that has been 
 worrying me lately." 
 
AUSTIN GOES DOWN RIVER 137 
 
 " There is coal to be had at Sierra Leone." 
 
 " And there are a British Consul and Government 
 authorities. You're loaded down to the water's edge 
 with Shipping Acts, and the Cumbria's still upon your 
 register. Do you suppose they are going to let her out 
 again, as she is, if we once go in there ? " 
 
 Austin fancied it was scarcely likely. The require- 
 ments of the paternal Board of Trade are, in fact, so 
 onerous that English owners not infrequently register 
 their ships under another flag ; while it occurred to him 
 that consul and surveyor would have a fit of indignant 
 horror if they saw how the enactments were complied 
 with on board the Cumbria. 
 
 " No, sir/' said Jefferson. " She's going straight 
 across to Las Palmas when she leaves this creek. That's 
 Spanish, and a few dollars go a long way in Spain. 
 Besides, it's not quite certain that we'll leave the creeks 
 at all this season." 
 
 Austin straightened himself suddenly. " What do 
 you mean ? " 
 
 " Only that I'm not going home without the gum/' 
 
 There was a little silence, and during it Austin endea- 
 voured to adopt an attitude of resignation. It was his 
 belief that the Cumbria would be floated, or the project 
 given up, when the rains came that had animated him 
 through the toil he had undertaken. Another month or 
 two would, he had expected, see the task accomplished, 
 but now it might, it seemed, continue indefinitely, and he 
 shrank from the thought of a longer sojourn in the land 
 of shadow. Then with a little effort he slowly raised 
 his head. 
 
 "To be candid, that is a good deal more than I 
 counted on when I made the bargain," he said. " Still, 
 I can't well go back on it now. There is coal to be had 
 in Dakar, too, but it would cost a good deal to bring even 
 a schooner load here, though we could, per contra, load 
 up oil in her. Have you the dollars ? " 
 
 Jefferson drummed with his fingers upon the table. 
 
138 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 " That's the trouble. I have a few left, but I'm not 
 quite sure I could get them into my hands without the 
 mailing to and fro of signed papers." 
 
 " Some of the West-coast mail-boats call at Dakar. 
 I might get the coal and a schooner on a bond there. Of 
 course, the folks would want a heavy profit under the 
 circumstances." 
 
 " Three or four times as much as they were entitled 
 to, anyway ! " and a little glint crept into Jefferson's 
 eyes. " Now it's quite usual for the man who does the 
 work to be glad of the odd scraps the man with the 
 dollars flings him for his pains, but it's going to be differ- 
 ent with this contract. I haven't the least notion of 
 working here to make the other fellow rich. If we buy 
 the coal it will be at the market value with dollars down. 
 The trouble is I don't quite know where I'm going to get 
 them from." 
 
 " Well," said Austin slowly, " a means of raising 
 them has occurred to me. You see, as seems to have 
 been the case with you, there is money in the family, and 
 ethically I really think a little of it belongs to me. It 
 is not for several reasons a pleasant thing to r ask for it. 
 In fact, I fancied once I'd have starved before I did so, 
 but it couldn't be harder than what we have been doing 
 here. One could cable from Las Palmas, and a credit 
 might be arranged by wire with one of the banking 
 agencies there." 
 
 " Your folks would let you have the dollars ? " 
 
 Austin laughed a trifle harshly, " Not exactly out 
 of good will, but, if I worded that cable cleverly, 
 they might do it to keep me here. I don't know how 
 it is in your country, but in ours they're very seldom 
 proud of the poor relation. In fact, some of them would 
 do a good deal to prevent him turning up to worry 
 them. I think there are occasions when a man is almost 
 warranted in levying contributions of the kind." 
 
 Jefferson's eyes twinkled. " You are a curious, 
 inconsequent kind of man. You worry over those 
 
AUSTIN GOES DOWN RIVER 139 
 
 Spaniards who have no call on you, and then you propose 
 to bluff your own folks out of their dollars." 
 
 " If I had been one who always acted logically I should 
 certainly not have been here. As it is, I'll start to-mor- 
 row, and wire my kind relations that, failing a draft for 
 two hundred pounds, I'm coming home in rags by 
 the first steamer. I almost think they'll send the 
 money." 
 
 Jefferson stretched out a lean hand suddenly, and 
 laid it on his comrade's arm. " It's going to hurt you, 
 but you can't get anything worth while without that. 
 You can send them back their dollars when we get her 
 off, but if you let anything stop you now you'll feel mean 
 and sorry all your life." 
 
 " Yes," said Austin, " I fancy I should. It's rather a 
 pity, but one can't always be particular. In the mean- 
 while I'll see Tom about the launch." 
 
 He went out, and coming back half an hour later threw 
 himself down on the settee, and was fast asleep when 
 Jefferson, who had been busy about the pump, came in 
 and stood a moment looking down on him. Austin's 
 face was worn, and thinner than it had been when he 
 reached the Cumbria ; the damp stood beaded on it, 
 and his hair lay wet and lank upon his pallid forehead. 
 
 " I guess the raising of those dollars is going to be 
 about the hardest thing you ever did, but you'll do it," 
 said Jefferson. " I've got the kind of man I want for 
 a partner." 
 
 Austin, who did not hear him, slept on peacefully, 
 and steamed away down river early next morning ; while 
 it was late on the second night and the launch was out 
 at sea when he sat very wearily with his hand upon her 
 helm looking out across the long, smooth undulations. 
 A half-moon hung low to the westward, and they came 
 up, heaving in long succession, from under it, ebony 
 black in the hollows, and flecked with blinks of silver 
 light upon their backs. Austin only saw the latter, for 
 he was looking into the dusky blueness of the east, 
 
140 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 though it was only by an effort he kept himself awake. 
 During the last few days a feeling of limp dejection had 
 been creeping over him. 
 
 The launch was steaming slowly, with only a little 
 drowsy gurgle about her propeller as she swung and 
 dipped to the swell, though she rolled uneasily with the 
 weight of the big oil-puncheon high up in her. Bill the 
 fireman was crouched half-asleep beside the clanking 
 engine, and two very sick men lay forward beneath a 
 ragged tarpaulin. Though the surf had been smoother 
 than usual, Austin did not know how he had brought 
 them all out across the bar. 
 
 There were many stars in the heavens, and by and by, 
 as he blinked at the soft darkness with aching eyes, he 
 saw one that seemed unusually low down and moved a 
 little. Then shaking himself to attention he made out a 
 dim glimmer of green, and became sensible of a faint 
 throbbing that crept softly out of the silence. He 
 leaned forward and touched the fireman. 
 
 " Open her out ! " he said. " That's a steamboat 
 coming, and it looks as if she would go by well to the 
 south/' 
 
 Bill pulled at a lever, the engine clanked faster, and 
 the launch commenced to roll more sharply as she 
 lurched over the long undulations with an increasing 
 gurgle beneath her side. The sea was oily-smooth, and 
 she rolled southwards fast ; but the steamer's lights 
 were rising high, and the pounding of engines grew 
 louder in a sharp crescendo, until they could hear the 
 black water frothing under iron bows. Then the launch's 
 whistle broke into a shrill scream. There was no 
 answer and Austin turned to the fireman again. 
 
 " Shake her up ! There will not be another boat for 
 a week," he said. 
 
 Bill pulled the lever over a little further, and stirred 
 the furnace, and the clanking grew louder while the 
 launch rolled more violently. When she swung up 
 Austin saw a strip of dusky hull that swayed and heaved 
 
AUSTIN GOES DOWN RIVER 141 
 
 in front of them, and then was suddenly lost to view 
 again. 
 
 " She's not one of the mail-boats, anyway. They'd 
 be lighted, saloon-deck and poop," he said. " It almost 
 looks as if she would get away from us." 
 
 Bill opened the whistle full, and left it screaming while 
 he sprang up on the side-deck, a black figure holding high 
 a strip of blazing waste. Its red glare streaked the 
 water, and the burning oil dripped from it in a sparkling 
 rain, while Austin felt his heart beat when the man flung 
 it down with an imprecation. Then a deep, vibratory 
 blast came trembling across the glimmering water, and 
 he saw the piled-up foam fall away beneath the big iron 
 bows. 
 
 " They've seen us/' he said. " She's standing by." 
 
 Five minutes later the launch lay lurching beneath 
 the steamer's high, black side, while a man leaned out 
 from her slanted bridge above looking down into her. 
 
 " What d'you want ? " he said. " I'm not going in 
 for cargo unless it's worth while. We're tolerably 
 full this trip." 
 
 " A passage ! " said Austin. " There are myself 
 and two sick men. We're going to Grand Canary." 
 
 " What's the oil for ? " 
 
 " To cover the ticket." 
 
 The skipper appeared to be gazing down at him in 
 astonishment. 
 
 " Sixteen pounds' worth at the most, for three men to 
 Grand Canary ! You have good nerves," he said. 
 
 " I can't go any further, and you see they're very 
 sick." 
 
 The skipper was understood to say that his ship was 
 not a several-adjectived hospital, but Austin only 
 smiled, for he was acquainted with that kind of man, 
 and aware that he was, at least, as likely to do him a 
 kindness as an elaborately got up mail-boat's skipper. 
 
 " Well," he said, " if you won't have us I'll take them 
 back and bury them. It's tolerably sure to come to 
 
142 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 that. Two of us will not eat much, anyway, and we'll 
 be quite content to sleep on deck." 
 
 There was no answer for a moment, and then as the 
 bridge came slanting down the man who leaned out from 
 it laughed. 
 
 " It's a puncheon of oil to nothing, and I've been hard 
 up myself," he said. " The next thing is how the devil 
 are you going to get them up ? We've stowed away our 
 ladder/' 
 
 " Then it will have to be a sling. I'll steady them up 
 when she rises, and some of your crowd can hand them 
 in." 
 
 It was done with difficulty, for the steamer rolled with 
 a disconcerting swing, and then Austin grasped Bill's 
 hand before he went up the rope. A gong clanged 
 sharply, the launch slid astern, and several seamen 
 carried the two bundles of foul blankets away. While 
 Austin watched them vacantly a hand fell upon his 
 shoulder, and propelled him into a room beneath the 
 bridge. Then he heard a harsh voice. 
 
 " There isn't any factory I'm acquainted with here- 
 abouts. Where d'you get that oil from ? " it said. 
 
 Austin sat down on the settee, and blinked at the 
 burly, hard-faced man in front of him. 
 
 " I don't know if you'll be astonished, but we really 
 came by it legitimately," he said. " In fact, we got it 
 out of a stranded steamer. One we're endeavouring to 
 heave off, you see." 
 
 The skipper smiled as comprehension suddenly 
 
 dawned on him. " Then you're one of the fools 
 
 who bought the Cumbria ? " 
 
 " I am. Still, I'm not sure that your opinion of us is 
 quite warranted yet. If it isn't, you'll get more than 
 the one puncheon for taking us across. In the mean- 
 while I'm a little anxious about those men/' 
 
 " They're all right. Pills will see to them. We have 
 one. He probably killed somebody by accident, or did 
 something of that kind, or he wouldn't be here. Direc- 
 
JACINTA BECOMES INDIGNANT 143 
 
 tors had a notion we might pick up a few passengers. 
 They, however, prefer the liners/' 
 
 Austin laughed, and the skipper's eyes slowly twinkled. 
 " The fact is I don't blame them," he said. " Anyway, 
 you will lie down here until they get you a room in the 
 poop ready." 
 
 He went out, and an hour or two later Austin was 
 roused by a touch from a fitful sleep. A young man who 
 stooped over him was regarding him intently. 
 
 " Put that in your mouth," he said. 
 
 Austin slipped the little glass tube between his lips, 
 and the doctor nodded when he passed it back to him. 
 
 " Yes," he said, " you have a very promising case of 
 fever coming on. Get up and lean on me, the sooner we 
 pack you between the blankets the better." 
 
 Austin rose unsteadily, and found that he had some 
 difficulty in walking when they went out upon the slant- 
 ing deck. He was quite sure of that, but everything else 
 that he did, or was done to him, during the next few 
 days was wrapped in obscurity. Still, he had a hazy 
 notion of the doctor and another man half dragging him 
 into a little room. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 JACINTA BECOMES INDIGNANT 
 
 IT was fifteen days after he boarded the steamer when 
 Austin reached Las Palmas in a condition which, at least, 
 prevented him chafing at the delay as he otherwise 
 would have done. On the second day something went 
 wrong with the high-pressure engine, and the little, 
 deep-loaded vessel lay rolling idly athwart the swell, 
 while her engineers dismantled and re-erected it. Then 
 the trouble they had already had with the condenser 
 became more acute, so that they would scarcely 
 keep a vacuum, and it also happened that the Trade- 
 breeze she had to steam against blew unusually fresh 
 that season 
 
144 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 Austin, however, was not aware of this at the time. 
 He lay rambling incoherently for several days, and when 
 at last his senses came back to him, found himself too 
 weak and listless to trouble about anything. He gained 
 strength rapidly, for the swamp-fever does not as a rule 
 keep its victim prostrate long. It either kills him 
 without loss of time, or allows him to escape for a 
 season ; but its effect is frequently mental as well as 
 physical, and Austin's listlessness remained. He had 
 borne a heavy strain, and when he went ashore at Las 
 Palmas the inevitable reaction was intensified by the 
 black dejection the fever had left behind. It seemed 
 to him that he and Jefferson were only wasting their 
 efforts, and though he still meant to go on with them 
 he expected no result since he now felt that there was 
 not the slightest probability of their ever getting the 
 Cumbria off. It was a somewhat unusual mood for a 
 young Englishman to find himself in, though by no means 
 an incomprehensible one in case of a man badly shaken 
 by the malaria fever, while one of Austin's shortcomings 
 was, or so, at least, Jacinta Brown considered, a too 
 complaisant adaptation of himself to circumstances. 
 She held the belief that when the latter were unpropitious 
 a determined attempt to alter them was much more 
 commendable, and not infrequently successful. 
 
 In any case, Austin found Pancho Brown was away 
 buying tomatoes when he called at his office, and the 
 Spanish clerk also informed him that Miss Brown and 
 Mrs. Hatherly had left Las Palmas for a while. He 
 fancied they had gone to Madeira, but was not certain, 
 and Austin, who left him a message for Brown and a 
 letter Jefferson had charged him with to be forwarded 
 to Miss Gascoyne, went on to the telegraph office more 
 dejected than ever. Jacinta had usually a bracing effect 
 upon those she came into contact with, and Austin, who 
 felt he needed a mental stimulant, realized now that one 
 of the things that had sustained him was the expectation 
 of hearing her express her approval of what he had done. 
 
JACINTA BECOMES INDIGNANT 145 
 
 He had not looked for anything more, but it seemed that 
 he must also dispense with this consolation. 
 
 He delivered one of the Canarios, who was apparently 
 recovering, to his friends, and saw the other bestowed in 
 the hospital, and then, finding that he could not loiter 
 about Las Palmas waiting an answer to his cable, which 
 he did not expect for several days, decided to go across to 
 Teneriffe with the Estremedura. There was no difficulty 
 about this, though funds were scanty, for the Spanish 
 manager told him he could make himself at home on 
 board her as long as he liked if he would instruct the new 
 sobrecargo, who, it appeared, had some difficulty in 
 understanding them, in his duties. 
 
 On the night they went to sea he lay upon the settee in 
 the engineers' mess-room with Macallister sitting oppo- 
 site him, and a basket of white grapes and a carafon of 
 red wine on the table between them. Port and door 
 were wide open, and the Trade-breeze swept through 
 the room fresh, and delightfully cool. Austin had also 
 an unusually good cigar in his hand, and stretched him- 
 self on the settee with a little sigh of content, when he had 
 recounted what they had done on board the Cumbria. 
 
 " I don't know if we'll ever get her off, and the aston- 
 ishing thing is that since I had the fever I don't seem to 
 care," he said. " In the meanwhile, it's a relief to get 
 away from her. In fact, I feel I would like to lie here 
 and take it easy for, at least, a year." 
 
 Macallister nodded comprehendingly. Austin's face 
 was blanched and hollow, and he was very thin, while 
 the stamp of weariness and lassitude was plain on him. 
 Still, as he glanced in his direction a little sparkle crept 
 into the engineer's eyes. 
 
 " So Jefferson made the pump go, and ran the forehold 
 dry ! " he said. " When ye come to think of it, yon is 
 an ingenious man." 
 
 Austin laughed. "He is also in some respects an 
 astonishing one. He was perfectly at home among the 
 smart people at the Catalina, and I fancy he would have 
 
146 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 been equally so in the Bowery, whose inhabitants, one 
 understands, very much resemble in their manners those 
 of your Glasgow closes or Edinburgh wynds. In fact, 
 I've wondered now and then if Miss Gascoyne quite 
 realizes who she is going to marry. There are several 
 sides to Jefferson's character, and she has so far only 
 seen one of them." 
 
 " Well," said Macallister reflectively, " I'm thinking 
 she will never see the rest. There are men, though 
 they're no exactly plentiful, who can hide them, and it's 
 scarcely likely that Jefferson will rive a steamboat out 
 of the African swamps again." 
 
 " Once is quite enough in a lifetime, but it's when the 
 work is done, and he has to quieten down, I foresee 
 trouble for Jefferson. I'm not sure Miss Gascoyne's 
 English friends would altogether appreciate him." 
 
 Again Macallister nodded. " Still," he said, " what 
 yon man does not know he will learn. I would back him 
 to do anything now he has made that boiler steam. 
 Then ye will mind it's no the clever women who are the 
 easiest to live with when ye have married them, and 
 there's a good deal to be said for girls like Miss Gascoyne, 
 who do not see too much. It is convenient that a wife 
 should be content with her husband, and not be wanting 
 to change him into somebody else, which is a thing I 
 would not stand at any price myself." 
 
 Austin grinned, for it was known that Macallister 
 had, at least, now and then found it advisable to enter- 
 tain his friends on board the Cumbria by stealth. The 
 engineer, however, did not appear to notice his smile. 
 
 " Ye will go back when ye get the money ? " he said. 
 
 " Of course 1 I have to see the thing out now, though 
 I don't quite understand how I ever came to trouble 
 myself about it in the first place." 
 
 This time it was Macallister who grinned. " I have 
 been in this world a weary while, and would ye pull the 
 wool over my eyes ? Ye are aware that the notion was 
 driven into ye." 
 
JACINTA BECOMES INDIGNANT 147 
 
 Austin was astonished, and a trifle annoyed, as he 
 remembered a certain very similar conversation he had 
 had with Jefferson. It was disconcerting to find that 
 Macallister was as conversant with his affairs as his 
 partner had shown himself, especially as they had both 
 apparently drawn the same inference. 
 
 " I wonder what made you say that ? " he asked with 
 lifted brows. 
 
 Macallister laughed, " Well/' he said dryly, " I'm 
 thinking Miss Brown knows as well as I do that ye would 
 not have gone of your own accord/' 
 
 " Why should Miss Brown have the slightest wish that 
 I should go to Africa ? " 
 
 "If ye do not know, how could ye expect me to ? 
 Still, it should be plain to ye that it was not for your 
 health/' 
 
 Austin raised himself a trifle, and looked at his com- 
 rade steadily. " The drift of your remarks is tolerably 
 clear. Anyway, because I would sooner you made no 
 more of them it might be as well to point out that no girl 
 who cared twopence about a man would send him to the 
 swamps where the Cumbria is lying/' 
 
 " Maybe she would not. There are things I do not 
 know, but ye will mind that Jacinta Brown is not made 
 on quite the same model as Miss Gascoyne. She sees a 
 good deal, and if she was not content with her husband 
 she would up and alter him. I'm thinking it would 
 not matter if it hurt the pair o' them." 
 
 " The difficulty is that she hasn't got one." 
 
 Macallister laughed softly. " It's one that can be got 
 over, though Jacinta's particular. It's not everybody 
 who would suit her. Ye are still wondering why ye went 
 to Africa ? " 
 
 " No," said Austin, with a trace of grimness. " I 
 don't think it's worth while. Mind, I'm not admitting 
 that I didn't go because the notion pleased me, and if 
 Miss Brown wished me to, it was certainly because of 
 Muriel Gascoyne." 
 
148 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 " Maybe ! " said Macallister, with a little incredulous 
 smile. He rose, and moving towards the doorway 
 turned again. " She might tell ye herself to-morrow. 
 She's now in Santa Cruz." 
 
 He went out, apparently chuckling over something, 
 and Austin thoughtfully smoked out his cigar. To be a 
 friend of Jacinta Brown's was, as he had realized already, 
 a somewhat serious thing. It implied that one must 
 adopt her point of view, and, what was more difficult, 
 to some extent, at least, sink his own individuality. 
 Macallister and Jefferson were, he fancied, perhaps 
 right upon one point, and that was that Jacinta had 
 decided that a little strenuous action might be beneficial 
 in his case ; but if this was so Austin was not sure that he 
 was grateful to her. He was willing to do anything that 
 would afford her pleasure, that was, so long as he could 
 feel she would gain'anything tangible, if it was only the 
 satisfaction of seeing Muriel Gascoyne made happy 
 through his endeavours. In fact, what he wished was to 
 do her a definite service, but the notion of being reformed 
 as it were, against his wishes, when he was not sure that 
 he needed it, did not please him. This was carrying a 
 friendly interest considerably too far, and it was quite 
 certain, he thought, that he could expect nothing more 
 from her. He almost wished that he had never seen 
 her, which was a desire he had hovered on the brink of 
 before ; but while he considered the matter the Trade- 
 breeze was sighing through the port, and the engines 
 throbbed on drowsily, while from outside came the hiss 
 and gurgle of parted seas. Austin heaidit all, until the 
 sounds grew fainter, and he went to sleep. 
 
 It also happened that while he slept and dreamed of 
 her, Jacinta sat with Muriel Gascoyne in the garden of a 
 certain hotel on the hillside above Santa Cruz, Teneriffe. 
 The house had been built long ago, evidently for a Span- 
 ish gentleman of means and taste, and its latest proprietor 
 had sufficient sense to attempt no improvement on its 
 old-world beauty. It stood on a terrace of the hillside, 
 
JACINTA BECOMES INDIGNANT 149 
 
 quiet, quaint and cool, with its ancient, bronze-railed 
 balconies, red-tiled roof, and pink-washed walls, but its 
 garden of palms and oleanders was its greatest charm. 
 
 On the night in question a full moon hung over the 
 Canadas' splintered rampart, and its soft radiance fell 
 upon the white-walled city and smote a track of glittering 
 silver across the vast plain of sea. The smell of oleanders 
 and heliotrope was heavy in the air, and a cluster of 
 blossoms swayed above Jacinta's shoulder. She was 
 just then looking up at a Spanish officer in dark green 
 uniform who stood close by with sword girt tight to his 
 thigh. He had a dark, forceful face with the stamp of 
 distinction on it, but he received no encouragement, 
 though he glanced at the vacant place on the stone bench 
 suggestively. 
 
 " No," said Jacinta, " I do not think I shall go to-mor- 
 row, so you need not call for me. I have scrambled 
 through the Mercedes Wood several times already, and 
 we came here to be quiet. That is why we are sitting 
 outside to-night. There are two or three tiresome people 
 who will insist upon talking in the house." 
 
 It is seldom necessary to furnish a Spaniard, who is 
 usually skilled in innuendo, with a second hint, and the 
 officer took his departure gracefully. When he vanished 
 with jingling sword into the shadow of the palms Muriel 
 looked at her companion. 
 
 ' You meant me to stay ? " she said. 
 
 " Of course ! " said Jacinta. 'Still, I didn't mean 
 you to let him see that I did, and I really did not kick 
 you very hard. Anyway, it doesn't matter. The great 
 thing is that he is gone." 
 
 " You were anxious that he should go ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Jacinta. " I feel relieved now. He is 
 in some respects a very silly man. In fact, he has been 
 wanting to marry me for ever so long." 
 
 " Why ? " said Muriel, and stopped abruptly. " Of 
 course, I mean that he is a Spaniard, you know." 
 
 Jacinta laughed, and apparently indicated herself by 
 
150 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 a little wave of her fan. She was once more attired in an 
 evening dress that appeared to consist largely of black 
 lace, and looked curiously dainty and sylph-like in the 
 diaphanous drapery. The moonlight was also on her face. 
 
 " The reason," she said, " ought to be sufficiently 
 plain. He is, as you point out, certainly Spanish, but 
 there really are a few estimable gentlemen of that 
 nationality. This one was Governor or Commandante 
 in some part of Cuba, and I believe he got comparatively 
 rich there. They usually do. Still, he's a little fond of 
 the casino, and is reported to be unlucky, while, in spite 
 of my obvious disadvantages, I am the daughter of 
 Pancho Brown." 
 
 She stopped with another laugh that had a faintly 
 suggestive ring in it. " There are times when I wish 
 I was somebody else who hadn't a penny." 
 
 " But it can't be nice to be poor," said Muriel, looking 
 at her with a trace of bewilderment in her big blue eyes. 
 
 " It is probably distinctly unpleasant. Still, it would 
 be consoling to feel that your money could neither 
 encourage nor prevent anybody you liked falling in 
 love with you, and it would in one sense be nice to know 
 that the man you graciously approved of would have 
 to get whatever you wanted for you. You ought to 
 understand that." 
 
 There was a trace of pride in Muriel's smile. " Of 
 course, but, after all, there are not many men who can 
 do almost anything like Harry Jefferson. Some of the 
 very nicest ones seem quite unable to make money." 
 
 " I really don't think there are," and Jacinta's tone 
 was, for no very apparent reason, slightly different now. 
 " The nicest ones are, as you suggest, usually lazy. It's 
 sad but true. Still, you see, if ever I married, my 
 husband would have to shake off his slothfulness and do 
 something worth while." 
 
 " But he mightn't want to." 
 
 " Of course ! " said Jacinta dryly. " He probably 
 wouldn't. Still, he would have to. I should make him." 
 
JACINTA BECOMES INDIGNANT 151 
 
 " Ah," said Muriel " Do you know that you are just 
 a little hard, and I think when one is too hard they are 
 generally sorry afterwards. Now, I don't understand 
 it all, but you once told me you had got something you 
 wished for done, and were sorry you had. I fancied you 
 were even sorrier than you wished me to know." 
 
 Jacinta sat silent a moment or two with a curious 
 expression in her face, as she looked out across the 
 clustered roofs towards the sparkling sea. It was a 
 custom she had fallen into lately, and it was always 
 towards the east she gazed. Then she smiled. 
 
 " Well," she said, " perhaps I was, but it was cer- 
 tainly very silly of me." 
 
 Neither of them spoke again for a while, and by and 
 by a man came out of the house bearing an envelope upon 
 a tray. Jacinta tore it open, and Muriel saw the blood 
 surge to her face as she spread out the telegraphic mes- 
 sage. Then the swift colour faded, and there was only a 
 little angry glint in her eyes. 
 
 " It's from my father, and good news for you," she 
 said. " ' Tell Muriel Austin was here. Salvage opera- 
 tions difficult, but he left Jefferson, who expects to be 
 successful, well. Forwarding letter/ ' 
 
 " Ah," said Muriel with a little gasp, " you don't know 
 what a relief that is to me. But you seem almost 
 angry." 
 
 Jacinta laughed, a trifle harshly. " I almost think I 
 am. It isn't exactly pleasant to find one's self mis- 
 taken, and I had expected something better from Mr. 
 Austin. The difficulties he mentions were evidently 
 too much for him. You were quite right, my dear. 
 There are not many men like Jefferson." 
 
 Now Muriel Gascoyne had no very keen perceptions, 
 and was moreover wrapped up in her own and Jefferson's 
 affairs, or she might have seen that anger was not all that 
 Jacinta was feeling. As it was, overcome by the relief 
 the message had brought her, she quite failed to notice 
 the pain in her companion's face or the quivering of her 
 
152 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 hands. In a minute or two Jacinta, who waited until 
 she fancied she could do so without it appearing signifi- 
 cant, rose and left her. 
 
 She, however, stopped on the terrace, and once more 
 looked down on the glittering sea with one hand closed 
 at her side. Then as though remembering something 
 she turned hastily. 
 
 " I could never have believed you were a coward 
 and you went out for me ! " she said, and moved towards 
 the hotel with a little air of resolution as one who had 
 made a painful decision. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 CONDEMNED UNHEARD 
 
 A FULL moon hung over the white city, and the drowsy 
 murmur of the surf broke fitfully through the music of 
 the artillery band when Austin sat listlessly on a bench 
 in the plaza of Santa Cruz. It was about eight o'clock 
 in the evening, and the plaza was crowded, as usual at 
 that hour. 
 
 Austin had sat there often before he went to Africa, 
 listening to the music and watching the spectacle ; but 
 neither had any charm for him that night. 
 
 He crossed the plaza, and sitting outside one of the 
 cafes he had frequented, asked for wine. It was brought 
 him, chilled with snow from the great Peak's summit, 
 but the greeting of the man who kept the cafe" seemed 
 for once devoid of cordiality, and the wine sour and thin. 
 Still, the Spaniard stood a minute or two by his chair, 
 and, as it happened, Jacinta passed just then with a 
 dark-faced Spanish officer. He wore an exceedingly 
 tight-fitting uniform, but he had a figure that carried it 
 well, and an unmistakable air of distinction. Jacinta 
 was also smiling at him, though she turned, and seemed 
 to indicate somebody in the vicinity with a little gesture. 
 As she did so her eyes rested for a moment upon Austin, 
 who became for the first time unpleasantly conscious of 
 
CONDEMNED UNHEARD 153 
 
 his haggard face and hard, scarred hands. There was, 
 he realized, nothing in the least distinguished about 
 him. Then it was with a faint sense of dismay he saw 
 that Jacinta did not mean to recognize him, for she 
 laughed as she turned to her companion, and he heard the 
 soft rustle of her light draperies as they went on again. 
 
 " That is the Colonel Sarramento ? " he said as 
 carelessly as he could, though there was a faint flush in 
 his hollow face. 
 
 " It is," said his companion. " Colonel in the military 
 service, though he has held other offices in Cuba. A 
 man of ability, senor, and now it is said that he will 
 marry the English merchant's daughter. Why not ? 
 The Senorita Brown is more Spanish than English, and 
 she is certainly rich/' 
 
 " I don't know of any reason," said Austin listlessly, 
 and the man turned away. 
 
 Austin sat still a little while indignation struggled 
 with his languor, for he was almost certain that Jacinta 
 had seen him. He had never flattered himself that she 
 would consider him as anything more than a friend who 
 was occasionally useful, but he thought she might, at 
 least, have expressed her appreciation of his latest 
 efforts, and he was also a trifle puzzled. Jacinta as a 
 rule would stop and speak to any of the barefooted peons 
 she was acquainted with, and he had never known her to 
 slight an acquaintance without a reason. It seemed 
 only due to her to make quite sure she had intentionally 
 passed him without recognition. 
 
 He rose and strolled round the plaza until he met her 
 again face to face where a stream of garish light fell upon 
 them both. She allowed her eyes to rest upon him 
 steadily, but it was the look she would have bestowed 
 on a stranger, and in another moment she had turned to 
 the officer at her side. Then a bevy of laughing tourists 
 passed between and separated them. 
 
 After that Austin strolled round the plaza several 
 times in a far from amiable temper. He was stirred at 
 
154 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 last, and, easy-going as he usually was, there was in him 
 a certain vein of combativeness which had been shaken 
 into activity in Africa. It was, he admitted, certainly 
 Jacinta's privilege to ignore him ; but there were occa- 
 sions on which conventionalities might be disregarded, 
 and he determined that she should, at least, make him 
 acquainted with her purpose in doing so. He did not 
 mean to question it, but to hear it was, he felt, no more 
 than his due. 
 
 It was some time before he came upon her again, 
 talking to a Spanish lady, who, seeing him approaching 
 with a suggestion of resolution in his attitude, had 
 sufficient sense to withdraw a pace or two and sign to 
 another companion. Jacinta apparently recognized 
 that he was not to be put off this time, for she indicated 
 the vacant chairs not far away with a little wave of her fan, 
 and when he drew one out for her sat down and looked 
 at him. 
 
 ;f You are persistent," she said. " I am not sure that 
 it was altogether commendable taste/' 
 
 Austin laughed a trifle bitterly, for the pessimistic 
 dejection the fever leaves does not as a rule tend to amia- 
 bility, and its victim, while willing to admit that there is 
 nothing worth worrying over, is apt to make a very 
 human display of temper on very small provocation. 
 
 " One should not expect too much from a steamboat 
 sobrecargo," he said. "It is scarcely fair to compare 
 him for example with a distinguished Spanish officer/' 
 
 " I do not think you are improving matters," said 
 Jacinta. 
 
 " Well," said Austin dryly, " I have, you see, just 
 come from a land where life is rather a grim affair, and 
 one has no time to study its little amenities. I am, in 
 fact, quite willing to admit that I have left my usual 
 suavity behind me. Still, I don't think that should 
 count. You contrived to impress me with the fact that 
 
 rou preferred something more vigorously brusque before 
 went out." 
 
CONDEMNED UNHEARD 155 
 
 Jacinta met his gaze directly with a little ominous 
 sparkle in her eyes, and straightening brows. She had laid 
 down her fan, and there was a cold disdain in her face 
 the man could not understand. It was unfortunate he 
 did not know how Pancho Brown had worded his mes- 
 sage, for it contained no intimation that he was going 
 back to Africa. 
 
 " It's a pity you didn't stay there/' she said. 
 
 Austin started a little. He did not see what she could 
 mean, and the speech appeared a trifle inhuman. 
 
 " It would please me to think you haven't any clear 
 notion what those swamps are like," he said. " One is 
 unfortunately apt to stay there altogether." 
 
 " Which is a contingency you naturally wished to 
 avoid ? I congratulated you upon your prudence once 
 before. Still, you, at least, seemed quite acquainted with 
 the characteristics of the fever-belt of Western Africa 
 when you went out. Your friends the mailboat's officers 
 must have told you. That being so, why did you go ? " 
 
 " A persistent dropping will, it is said, in time wear 
 away considerably harder material than I am composed 
 of. Words are also, one could fancy, even more effica- 
 cious than water in that respect." 
 
 A trace of colour crept into Jacinta's face, and her 
 brows grew straighter. The lines of her slight form be- 
 came more rigid, and she was distinctly imperious in her 
 anger. 
 
 " Oh, I understand ! " she said. " Well, I admit that 
 I was the cause of your going, and now you have come to 
 reproach me for sending you. Well, I will try to bear it, 
 and if I do show any anger it will not be at what you say, 
 but at the fact that one who I to some extent believed in 
 should consider himself warranted in saying anything at 
 all. No doubt you will not recognize the distinction, but 
 in the meanwhile you haven't quite answered my ques- 
 tion. You were a free agent, after all, and I could use no 
 compulsion. Why did you go ? " 
 
 Austin's temper had grown no better during the inter- 
 
156 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 view, which was unfortunate for him, because an angry 
 man is usually at a disadvantage in the presence of a 
 woman whose indignation with him is largely tempered 
 by a chilling disdain. 
 
 " That/' he said reflectively, " is a point upon which I 
 cannot be quite certain, though the whole thing was 
 naturally in most respects a piece of egregious folly. 
 Still, your good opinion had its value to me, especially as 
 it was very evident that I could never expect anything 
 more. A little brutal candour is, I think, admissible now 
 and then/' 
 
 The colour had faded out of Jacinta's face, but the 
 sparkle was a trifle plainer in her eyes. " So you recog- 
 nized that ! Under the circumstances it was wise of you, 
 though how far you were warranted in telling me is a 
 question we needn't go into now. It is a pity you ever 
 went at all." 
 
 "In one sense I almost think it is," said Austin, gazing 
 at her bewilderingly. " Still, there is a good deal I can't 
 understand. I am in the dark, you see." 
 
 " Then I suppose I must try to make it clear to you. I 
 am an essentially practical person, and any ardour you 
 possess has hitherto been qualified by a very commend- 
 able discretion ; but we are not very old, after all, and 
 there is, fortunately, something in most of us which is 
 occasionally stronger than the petty prudence we guide 
 ourselves by. Now and then, as you gracefully suggest, 
 it leads us into folly, which we have, perhaps, really no 
 great reason to be sorry for. Well, for a little while you 
 shook off the practical and apparently aspired after the 
 ideal. You went out to Africa because you fancied it 
 would please me, and it did. One may admit that a 
 thing of that kind appeals to a woman's vanity. Still, of 
 course, one could scarcely expect you to adhere to such a 
 purpose. We have grown too wise to indulge in unprofit- 
 able sentimentality, and our knights errant do not come 
 back upon their shields. They are practical gentlemen 
 who appreciate the comfort of a whole skin." 
 
CONDEMNED UNHEARD 157 
 
 "I'm afraid you're confusing historical periods, and 
 the times have certainly changed. They now use an 
 empty gun-case in Western Africa, I believe, and if they 
 can't get that, any old blanket or piece of canvas that 
 happens to be available ! " 
 
 "It should be a comfort to know that you need never 
 anticipate anything so unpleasant/' 
 
 This time the colour suffused Austin's pallid face. It 
 was clear that she was taunting him with cowardice in 
 leaving Jefferson, and her contempt appeared so wholly 
 unreasonable that he would make no attempt to vindicate 
 himself. It did not appear likely to be successful in any 
 case, and the pessimistic bitterness the fever leaves was 
 still upon him. 
 
 " Well," he said quietly, " I had looked for a slightly 
 different reception ; but it presumably isn't dignified to 
 complain, especially when it's evident it wouldn't do any 
 good, while I scarcely think there is anything to be gained 
 by extending our conversation. You see, I am naturally 
 aware that my character is a somewhat indifferent one 
 already. You will no doubt excuse me ? " 
 
 Jacinta made him a little inclination over her lifted 
 fan. 
 
 " If you will tell the Senora Anasona yonder that I am 
 waiting, I should be much obliged," she said. 
 
 It was five minutes later when Austin was admitted to 
 the cable-office as a favour, and handed a dispatch from a 
 Las Palmas banking agency. 
 
 " Your draft will be honoured to the extent of 200," it 
 ran. 
 
 He smiled grimly as he thrust it into his pocket, and 
 wandering round the plaza again came upon Muriel Gas- 
 coyne and Mrs. Hatherly sitting in two of the chairs laid 
 out in front of an hotel. He felt tempted to slip by,but re- 
 membered that he had a duty to Jefferson. Mrs. Hatherly 
 shook hands with him, and though he fancied there 
 was a restraint in her cordiality, Muriel turned to him 
 impulsively. 
 
158 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 " Tell me everything," she said. " The letter has not 
 arrived." 
 
 " There is a good deal of it," said Austin with a smile. 
 
 " Then don't waste time." 
 
 Austin roused himself with an effort. Her tense inter- 
 est, and her simplicity which, it seemed to him, had in it 
 so much that was admirable, appealed to him, and he 
 determined that she, at least, should know what Jefferson 
 had done for her. The artistic temperament had also its 
 influence on him, and he made her and her companion see 
 the steaming swamps and feel the stress and strain of 
 effort in the stifling hold, while it was his pleasure that 
 Jefferson should stalk, a lean, dominant figure, through all 
 the varied scenes. He felt when he concluded that he had 
 drawn those sombre pictures well, and it would be Jeffer- 
 son's fault if he did not henceforward pose before the 
 girl's fancy as a knightly hero of romance. There were, 
 naturally, difficulties to be overcome, for he recognized 
 that she must be forced to comprehend that chivalric 
 purposes must nowadays be wrought out by most prosaic 
 means, and that the clash of the encounter occasionally 
 leaves its mark upon a man. Still, he saw that he had 
 succeeded when the simple pride shone through the mois- 
 ture that gathered in the girl's big blue eyes, and he was 
 moved to sympathy when she rose with a little gasp. 
 
 " I must tell Jacinta. I don't feel quite able to thank 
 you, Mr. Austin ; but you will understand," she said. 
 
 She left them, and Mrs. Hatherly turned and looked at 
 Austin very graciously. 
 
 " So you are going back ? " she said. 
 
 " Of course ! " said Austin. " There is a Spanish boat 
 to Las Palmas to-morrow, and nothing to keep me now I 
 have got the money. I don't mind admitting that the 
 asking for it was harder than anything I did in Africa." 
 
 The little lady nodded with a very kindly light in her 
 eyes. " Yes," she said, " I can understand that, but in 
 one sense I am not exactly pleased. Why didn't you 
 come to me ? " 
 
CONDEMNED UNHEARD 159 
 
 11 It sounds very ungracious, madam, but I am already 
 in your debt, and one is naturally shy about asking 
 favours of that kind from women. I almost think there 
 are special reasons why it should be so in my case." 
 
 " That, presumably, means somebody has used you 
 badly ? Still, it really isn't wise to generalize too freely, 
 and you were once good enough to promise that you 
 would consider me as a friend of yours." 
 
 " 1 could scarcely have fancied you were particularly 
 friendly a little while ago/' 
 
 The little lady smiled again. " I offer you my sincere 
 apologies, Mr. Austin. And now a question. Did you 
 tell Jacinta what you have told us ? " 
 
 " I certainly did not. To be candid, I hadn't the 
 slightest encouragement. Miss Brown made it quite 
 clear to me that she hadn't a trace of interest in any of my 
 doings. In fact, she was kind enough to suggest it was 
 rather a pity I escaped the fever, and hadn't come back 
 upon my shield." 
 
 " For which she will probably be distinctly annoyed 
 with herself by and by. I presume you must catch the 
 Spanish steamer, Mr. Austin ? " 
 
 " Of course ! After all, I shall be glad to get back. 
 Folks are not so very exacting in Africa, you see." 
 
 Mrs. Hatherly nodded, though there was a twinkle in 
 her eyes. " Well," she said, " we will talk of something 
 else in the meanwhile. I am alone just now, and you 
 cannot decently leave me. 1 ' 
 
 They discussed a good many things, and it seemed to 
 Austin that his companion meant to keep him there and 
 was anxious to gain time. Still he could see no reason for 
 it, and failed to understand her remark about Jacinta, 
 and he sat still with an effort until Muriel came back 
 again. She appeared a trifle vexed about something. 
 
 " I don't know what has happened to Jacinta, but she 
 wasn't in the least sympathetic," she said. " She 
 wouldn't even listen when I wanted to talk about Hany 
 and the Cumbria." 
 
i6o HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 " Where is she now ? " asked Mrs. Hatherly. 
 
 " With the Senora Anasona. They are going back to 
 Laguna directly, though she had, as you know, practically 
 promised to stay with us to-night. The Senora, it seems, 
 wants to drive her across to her fenca at Orotava 
 to-morrow. It is very provoking. 1 ' 
 
 Mrs. Hatherly changed the subject, and it was a minute 
 or two later when she turned to Austin again. 
 
 " I suppose it is really necessary that you should cross 
 to Las Palmas to-morrow/' she said casually. " Couldn't 
 you get there in the Estremedura before the West-coast 
 boat sailed ? " 
 
 " There are several things I have to do which can'1 
 well be arranged here." 
 
 " You would insist on getting them all done even if 
 you knew it would cost you something ? " 
 
 " I really think I should. You see, Jefferson and the 
 others are practically depending on me, and I daren't 
 omit anything I want whatever trouble it might cause me, 
 although, as a matter of fact, I don't anticipate any, and 
 it will be rather a relief to get away." 
 
 " Ah ! " said Mrs. Hatherly. " Well, I suppose that is 
 only what one would expect from you. Muriel, will you 
 tell Jacinta that she has not shown me the lace she men- 
 tioned, and as I think I'll get the woman at Laguna to 
 make me some, I want to see it before she goes away. I 
 shall have to keep you another few minutes, Mr. Austin." 
 
 Muriel disappeared into the crowd, and it was a little 
 time before she came back again. 
 
 " Jacinta has just driven off with the Senora," she 
 said. " I can't quite understand why she didn't come to 
 say good-bye." 
 
 Austin smiled dryly. " I think I could guess her 
 reason." 
 
 Mrs. Hatherly rose and held out her hand. " If you 
 can come and see us to-morrow, please do so," she said. 
 " If not, you will remember now that whatever happens 
 I am one of your friends." 
 
JACINTA MAKES NO EXCUSE 161 
 
 " I shall be glad to do so, madam/' and Austin made 
 her a little inclination. " Good friends are scarce, and 
 there are apparently not many people who believe in 
 me." 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 JACINTA MAKES NO EXCUSE 
 
 IT was in the heat of the afternoon Mrs. Hatherly and 
 Muriel drove into old-world Laguna, which stands high 
 upon the hill-slopes above Santa Cruz. It was built four 
 hundred years ago, and remains but little changed, for its 
 early prosperity ebbed away with the trade in the once 
 famous vintages of Canary, so that it stood until a few 
 years ago with the grass in its streets, a place of drowsy 
 stillness, picturesque in its decay, cool, and by no means 
 over clean. 
 
 The Sefiora Anasona, with whom Jacinta was then 
 residing, belonged to the ancient order, and she had also 
 placed herself and all her possessions at Mrs. Hatherly's 
 disposal. The latter had already discovered that to be a 
 friend of Jacinta's counted for a good deal in those islands. 
 It secured one consideration in unexpected places, and 
 opened doors at which the tweed-clad tourists' wives 
 might knock in vain. Muriel was not certain why her 
 aunt had undertaken that hot and dusty drive, although 
 she had informed her that if there was a comfortable 
 hotel in Laguna she might stay there a day or two, be- 
 cause she was sure that Santa Cruz suited her, and she 
 had been troubled with certain premonitory twinges in 
 one shoulder. 
 
 In any case, she faced the scorching sun uncomplain- 
 ingly, and arriving at last before an iron-bound door in a 
 blank white wall was led through an ill-kept garden, 
 where flowers rioted, a chaos of blazing colour, at their 
 will, into a big cool house which seemed filled with slum- 
 brous quietness. She was received by a very reposeful 
 lady of middle age in inconveniently tight-fitting black 
 
 F 
 
162 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 silk, with the powder thick upon her pallid face. The 
 Senora Anasona was, as is usual with Spanish women 
 who have passed their third decade, somnolent in expres- 
 sion and portly ; but though they could only muster a 
 very little indifferent French between them she promptly 
 set her guests at ease. 
 
 " This poor house and all there is in it is yours/ 1 she 
 said. " The friends of the Sefiorita Jacinta are also 
 mine. Since you have known this for some time, why 
 have you stayed away so long ? " 
 
 It was the usual conventional formula in Spain, but 
 there was a certain stately graciousness in her gesture 
 which Mrs. Hatherly had never seen quite equalled before. 
 The latter attempted an appropriate reply in French, and 
 then inquired for Jacinta, whereupon her hostess smiled. 
 
 " She is in the patio, and, perhaps, asleep/' she said. 
 " If not, it is likely that she will come in. I do not know. 
 One does what one pleases always in this house of mine, 
 and here one usually sleeps by the afternoon." 
 
 Then a maid brought in a basket of grapes and a little 
 wine, and it was some time later when the Senora turned 
 to Muriel. 
 
 " It seems that Jacinta is not coming in," she said. 
 " Perhaps she would sooner see you alone in the patio. I 
 do not know. Jacinta does not care about the conven- 
 tions. One descends from the verandah outside that 
 window." 
 
 Muriel smiled as she went out, for she was acquainted 
 with Jacinta's habits, and was beginning to comprehend 
 the customs of the land she lived in, where time is not 
 considered and it is always drowsy afternoon. Jacinta, 
 who lay in a big cane chair near the fountain, appeared in 
 keeping with the atmosphere of the place, for she was 
 dressed in a gauzy Castilian black, which added a sugges- 
 tion of old-fashioned stateliness to her somewhat slender 
 figure, and an ebony fan of a kind not made nowadays lay 
 across an open book she had apparently been reading. 
 She looked up with a little smile when she saw Muriel, and 
 
JACINTA MAKES NO EXCUSE 163 
 
 languidly pointed to the canvas lounge beside her. 
 
 " It's comfortable, and I think it's strong/' she said. 
 " Anyway, the Sefiora regularly goes to sleep in it. I 
 brought the lounges with me because they don't have 
 such things in Spain. I shall probably leave them here, 
 and if they break down with the Sefiora it's quite certain 
 nobody will ever think of mending them. One folds one's 
 hands, and says that it doesn't matter at Laguna. You 
 will begin to understand it if you stay here." 
 
 Muriel laughed. " It's often a little hard to tell what 
 you mean," she said. " You have been reading." 
 
 " Mr. Prescott's history of the Spanish occupation of 
 Mexico you will no doubt be astonished at that ? " 
 
 " I am. Still, I have read it, too." 
 
 Jacinta smiled as she unfolded her fan. " I have my 
 moments of relaxation, and can be sentimental now and 
 then. Sentiment, you see, is in the atmosphere here. 
 One feels mediaeval, as if all the old things of the olden 
 days had come back again miracles, and crowned vir- 
 gins that fell from the clouds, valour and knightliness, and 
 man's faith in woman. No doubt there were more, but I 
 don't remember them. They have, of course, gone out 
 of fashion long ago." 
 
 She spoke lightly, but there was a trace of bitterness in 
 her voice which Muriel noticed. 
 
 " One doesn't find that atmosphere in the book. The 
 men who went with Cortez were cruel as well as brutal." 
 
 " They certainly seem to have been so, which is one 
 reason why they interest me. You see, the Spaniards 
 seized these islands a little before they discovered Cuba, 
 and I wanted to find out what the men who built these 
 beautiful homes here were really like when they had 
 work on hand. As one would have fancied, the grave 
 ceremonious Don who posed as a most punctilious gentle- 
 man at home became a very different kind of person when 
 he went to Mexico. The original Adam showed up there. 
 I t's a useful lesson to any one silly enough to idealize the 
 man she is going to marry." 
 
164 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 Muriel flushed a little. " I think I know what you 
 mean. Mr. Austin tried to convey the same impression 
 when he told me what they were doing on board the 
 Cumbria. Still, he went a good deal further than you do. 
 He made me understand that, though there are things 
 that could only be done rudely and almost brutally, it 
 was often only what was ideal in the men who did them 
 that sent them to the work at all." 
 
 " Yes," said Jacinta dryly. " I fancy he would do it 
 rather well. Mr. Austin is not much of an artist, and 
 would never be a great one ; but he has the capacity of 
 understanding, or, perhaps, I should say imagining 
 things. Still, the pity is that he usually stops there. He 
 doesn't want to do them, and though he once very rashly 
 tried, he was not long in discovering that the work was a 
 good deal too hard for him. I really think you should be 
 glad there is a trace of primitive we'll be candid, and 
 call it brutality in Harry Jefferson." 
 
 Again the colour showed in Muriel's face. " It isn't," 
 she said. " It's only natural forcefulness, but we needn't 
 go into that. I wonder why you are so angry with Mr. 
 Austin ? " 
 
 " Angry ? " and Jacinta raised her brows. " Oh dear 
 no ! Still, there are points on which he did not quite 
 come up to my expectations, and after the admonitions I 
 have wasted on him I feel a little annoyed with him." 
 
 " Still, isn't that a trifle unreasonable? What could he 
 have done that he hasn't done ? He was ill and worn-out, 
 but he wouldn't even stay a day after he got the money." 
 
 " What money ? " and there was a sharp insistence in 
 Jacinta's tone. 
 
 " The money to buy the coal with. They found they 
 hadn't enough, you know." 
 
 " I don't." 
 
 " Well," said Muriel, " it is really your own fault. 
 You wouldn't let me tell you about it in the plaza. Mr. 
 Austin had to borrow the money from his English rela- 
 tives, though I think it hurt him horribly to ask them. 
 
JACINTA MAKES NO EXCUSE 165 
 
 When he found they would send it he had to catch the 
 first African steamer." 
 
 Jacinta straightened herself suddenly, and gazed at 
 Muriel with astonishment and dismay in her face 
 
 "So he meant to go back all the time ? " she said. 
 
 " Of course ! " said Muriel, and Jacinta sitting back 
 again sat very still, though her companion noticed that 
 one hand had closed tightly on her fan. 
 
 " When was he to go ? " she asked with a curious 
 quietness. 
 
 " In a day or two. He is in Las Palmas now." 
 
 Then there was a curious silence for almost a minute, 
 and Jacinta, who could not rouse herself to break it, was 
 glad to see that Muriel had evidently not remembered 
 that her only information about Austin's doings was that 
 contained in her father's message. There was no sound 
 but the soft splashing of the fountain, and Jacinta found 
 the stillness becoming intolerable. It was a relief when 
 Muriel, who felt that her company was not appreciated, 
 rose. 
 
 " Perhaps the Sefiora will expect me to go back," she 
 said. " Are you coming ? " 
 
 " I am not," said Jacinta. " I have no doubt your 
 aunt will come out to see me presently." 
 
 Muriel looked a little puzzled. <{ You will not mind 
 me going ? " 
 
 " Of course not ! " and Jacinta laughed somewhat 
 curiously. " I have, as you see, a work on Mexico to 
 keep me company." 
 
 Muriel left her, and she lay still in the chair listening to 
 the fountain and gazing straight in front of her, until 
 Mrs. Hatherly came down the verandah stairs alone half 
 an hour later. She sat down and looked at Jacinta 
 steadily. 
 
 " I suppose you know why I have come to Laguna 
 to-day ? " she said. 
 
 " Yes," said Jacinta quietly. " Still, I hadn't the 
 faintest notion a little while ago. I shall try to bear any- 
 
166 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 thing you may think fit to say to me. Mr. Austin, I 
 understand, is a friend of yours." 
 
 The little lady smiled, for she saw that Jacinta was 
 clever enough to make no excuses, and she appreciated 
 her candour as well as her good sense. 
 
 " Well/' she said, " I want you to tell me why you sent 
 him to Africa ? " 
 
 " For one thing, because Muriel was once very kind to 
 me. Mr. Jefferson was down with fever, and I fancied 
 that, in any case, he could do a good deal more with a 
 comrade there. Still, that was not all. There were 
 other reasons." 
 
 " Naturally. It is gratifying to discover how far a 
 man's devotion will carry him/ 1 
 
 A little flash crept into Jacinta's eyes, but it faded 
 again. " I suppose I deserve that, but you are wrong. 
 It wasn't to soothe my vanity." 
 
 " No ? " and there was a suggestion of incredulity in 
 Mrs. Hatherly's smile. " Still, one may be excused for 
 pointing out that it really looks very like it." 
 
 Jacinta made a little movement with her fan. " You 
 can't think worse of me than I do of myself ; but I 
 scarcely fancy I did wrong in sending him. He was 
 wasting his life here, and I thought I knew what there 
 was in him. I wanted to rouse it to waken him. You 
 see, I am talking very frankly." 
 
 " In that case it must have cost you something to 
 send him to Africa ? " 
 
 The colour showed plainly in Jacinta's face. " I 
 think that is another question. One, too, which you 
 could scarcely expect me to answer you." 
 
 " I'm afraid it was not very delicate," and Mrs. 
 Hatherly's eyes grew gentler. " Still, didn't you feel 
 that you were presumptuous ? " 
 
 " Of course, but I have always done what pleased me, 
 and made others do it, too. It usually turned out well, 
 you know. I have, however, come to grief this time, and 
 it would almost be a relief if somebody would shake me." 
 
JACINTA MAKES NO EXCUSE 167 
 
 Mrs. Hatherly smiled. " I fancy the feeling will do 
 you good. Still, if you were right in sending Mr. Austin 
 out, it is just a little incomprehensible." 
 
 " Then you don't know how I treated him ? " 
 
 " No," said Mrs. Hatherly. " At least, not exactly. 
 He only admitted that you did not seem very pleased to 
 see him. Still, I am an old woman, and that naturally 
 conveyed a good deal to me. Perhaps you do deserve 
 shaking, but I want to be kind." 
 
 Jacinta turned to her with the colour in her cheeks and 
 a haziness in her eyes. 
 
 " I taunted him with being a coward and finding the 
 work too hard for him. The man was ill and jaded, but I 
 had no mercy on him. He said nothing, he never told 
 me he was going back. How was I to know ? The 
 night my father's message came I felt I could have struck 
 him. If I had done so he would probably not have felt it 
 half so much as the bitterness I heaped upon him." 
 
 " Ah," said Mrs. Hatherly, " it was, perhaps, natural 
 under the circumstances, but there is a good deal that 
 you are responsible for." 
 
 " What do you mean by ' under the circumstances ' ? " 
 
 Mrs. Hatherly smiled. " I have not the slightest 
 doubt that you quite understand, my dear. The ques- 
 tion, however, is how you are going to set it right ? " 
 
 Jacinta shivered a little. The colour had already 
 ebbed from her face, which was a trifle more pallid than 
 usual. 
 
 " It is a thing I may never be able to do," she said. 
 " That is what makes it so hard. You see, a good many 
 men go out to Africa, and so few come back again. If it 
 hadn't been for that I don't think I should have admitted 
 what I have done, but I feel I must have somebody's 
 comprehension if I can't expect sympathy." 
 
 " You have mine, my dear," and Mrs. Hatherly laid a 
 beautiful thin hand gently upon her arm. " Besides, I 
 think Mr. Austin will understand how it came about 
 when he goes back to Africa." 
 
i68 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 Jacinta straightened herself slowly. " Well/' she 
 said, " that may happen, and, in any case, I know that I 
 sent him and he was glad to go." 
 
 She met the little lady's sympathetic gaze steadily. 
 " Still, that is so very little, after all." 
 
 Mrs. Hatherly smiled reassuringly. " My dear," she 
 said, " I think you do not quite understand all that man 
 is yet. In spite of the climate he and his comrade are 
 going to be successful." 
 
 Then she turned, and Jacinta rose, for the Senora 
 Anasona and Muriel were coming down the stairway. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 THE PICTURES 
 
 AUSTIN had been gone a fortnight when Jacinta and 
 Muriel Gascoyne sat under the lee of the Estremedura's 
 deck-house one morning on their way to Las Palmas. 
 
 Jacinta was dressed, ornately, in the latest English 
 mode, and it seemed to Muriel that she had put on con- 
 ventional frivolity along with her attire. Indeed, 
 Muriel had noticed a change in her companion during the 
 last few days, one that was marked by outbreaks of 
 flippancy and somewhat ironical humour. An English 
 naval officer leaned upon the back of her chair, and a 
 tourist of the same nationality stood balancing himself 
 against the rolling with his hand on the rail that ran 
 along the deck-house. The latter was looking down at 
 Macallister, who sat upon the deck with a little box in 
 front of him. 
 
 " I brought the two or three sketches ye were asking 
 for up, Mr. Coulston," he said. " The saloon's full of 
 jabbering Spaniards, and the mess-room's over hot." 
 
 The tourist screwed the glass he wore more tightly into 
 his eye. " If they're equal to the one I saw in the N. W. 
 A. store I may be open to make a purchase," he said. 
 " I think you told me you were acquainted with the 
 artist, Miss Brown ? " 
 
THE PICTURES 169 
 
 " I believe I did/' said Jacinta, who was conscious 
 that Macallister was watching her, languidly. " You 
 will, however, no doubt be able to judge his pictures for 
 yourself." 
 
 Coulston made a little humorous gesture. " I am not 
 a painter, and I could scarcely venture to call myself a 
 connoisseur. Still, I buy a picture or two occasionally, 
 and the one I mentioned rather took my fancy. A 
 sketch or two of that kind would make a pleasant 
 memento." 
 
 " One would fancy that a good photograph would be 
 more reliable, as well as cheaper/' said the naval officer. 
 
 Coulston reproachfully shook his head. " I'm afraid 
 we differ there," he said. " Leaving out the question of 
 colour, a photograph is necessarily an artificial thing. 
 It wants life and atmosphere, and you can never put that 
 into a picture by a mechanical process. Only a man can 
 feel and transmute his impressions into material. Ac- 
 curacy of detail is, after all, by comparison, a secondary 
 consideration, but, perhaps, I had better pull up before 
 my hobby makes a bolt of it." 
 
 " I have heard of people riding a hobby uncomfortably 
 hard/' said Jacinta reflectively. 
 
 " That, I think, is, to be accurate, seldom what hap- 
 pens. If a man has a genuine hobby it never needs 
 spurring. It is, in fact, unpleasantly apt to run away 
 with him on the smallest provocation. Are steamboat 
 men addicted to making sketches, Mr. Macallister ? " 
 
 " No," said Macallister grinning. " At least it's not 
 the usual thing, but I once sailed with another of them 
 who did. He was second engineer, and would draw the 
 chief one day. It was very like him, so like that it cost 
 the man his job, and a wife as well. Says he : ' How 
 could ye expect me to idealize a man with a mouth like 
 you ? ' 
 
 " But how did that affect his wife ? " asked the officer. 
 
 Macallister grinned more broadly, but it was Jacinta 
 he looked at. 
 
170 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 " Ye see/' he said, " he had not got one then. He 
 was second engineer, and would have gone chief in a new 
 boat if he'd stayed with that company. The young 
 woman was ambitious, and she told him she would not 
 marry him until he was promoted, on principle. He was 
 a long while over it after he lost that berth, and then 
 also on principle he would not marry her/' 
 
 Jacinta laughed, though Muriel fancied she had seen a 
 momentary hardening of her face. 
 
 " She probably deserved it, though one can't help con- 
 cluding that she wouldn't feel it much/' she said. 
 " That is one of the advantages of being a practical per- 
 son, but hadn't you better get the drawings out ? " 
 
 Macallister took out a sketch in water colour, and held 
 it up. It showed a strip of a steamer's deck, with the 
 softened sunlight beating down through an awning upon 
 a man in skipper's uniform who lay, cigar in hand, in a 
 hammock that swung beneath the spars. He was, to 
 judge from his expression, languidly contented with 
 everything, and there was a big glass of amber-coloured 
 liquid on the little table beside him, and a tier of bottles 
 laid out upon the deck. Beneath it ran the legend, " For 
 men must work." 
 
 " That," said Jacinta, " is, at least, what they tell their 
 wives." 
 
 The tourist gazed at the drawing, and then turned to 
 her. He was, as she had discovered already, a painfully 
 didactic person. 
 
 " The conceit," he said, " is a somewhat happy one, 
 though the sketch is, it seems to me, a little weak in 
 technique. As we admitted, one difference between a 
 photograph and a painting is that the artist records his 
 own sensations in the latter, and stamps it with, at least, 
 a trace of his individuality. In that respect the sketch is, 
 I fancy, characteristic. The artist, one could imagine, 
 was in full sympathy with his subject the far niente 
 but I am, no doubt, getting prosy." 
 
 For no very apparent reason a little flush of colour 
 
THE PICTURES 171 
 
 crept in Jacinta's face, and Macallister, who saw it, 
 chuckled as he took out another sketch. 
 
 " Well," he said reflectively, " I never met a man who 
 could do nothing more gracefully than Mr. Austin, but 
 I'll let ye see the rest of them, since they're in my charge 
 to sell. Mr. Austin, who wants the money, took a sudden 
 notion he'd go to Africa, and, if they've had a quick run, 
 he's now humping palm-oil puncheons in a stranded 
 steamer's hold. I'm thinking it will be a big change for 
 him." 
 
 The naval officer laughed softly. " From what I 
 know of the tropics I fancy you are right. In fact, it's 
 rather difficult to imagine the man I met at the bull- 
 fight doing that kind of thing at all. Salvage work is 
 necessarily hard under any circumstances, and any- 
 where, but the last place I would care to attempt it in is 
 Western Africa. What sent him there ? " 
 
 " Ye must not ask me," and a little twinkle, for which 
 Jacinta longed to shake him, crept into Macallister' s 
 eyes. " Now, there are clever folks who will look at a 
 man, or, maybe, talk to him a while, and then label him, 
 thinking they know just what to expect of him. It does 
 him no great harm, and it pleases them, until one day he 
 does something that astonishes them in spite of his label. 
 Then they're apt to get angry with him. A man, ye see, 
 is after all, not that unlike an engine. Ye cannot tell 
 what may be going on in the inside of him, and when the 
 result's distressing it's most often the fault of injudicious 
 handling." 
 
 Jacinta, whom he apparently directed his observations 
 to, contrived to regard him with a little smile, and he pro- 
 ceeded to extricate another sketch, a canvas this time. 
 
 " This one is different," he said. 
 
 Coulston, who apparently concurred with him, gazed 
 at the picture with a trace of astonishment. It showed a 
 big cargo lancha lurching out deep-loaded through a 
 fringe of tumbling surf with four men straining at the 
 ponderous oars. The wet rags they wore clung about 
 
172 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 their limbs, and there was weariness in their grim, brown 
 faces. Bent back and set lips had their significance, and 
 the sketch was stamped with the suggestion of endurance 
 and endeavour. Yet, as those who saw it felt, there was 
 triumph in it, too, for while the rollers came seething in 
 to hurl her back the lancha was clawing off the shore. 
 
 " It's good ! " said the navy man. " It's unusually 
 good. Those fellows are played out, and they know if 
 they slacken down for a moment she'll roll over with 
 them or go up on the beach. The sea's running in 
 against her one finds out by trying it how hard it is to 
 pull off against a surf but they're driving her out. 
 Presumably, that's what you call the motive of the 
 thing ? " 
 
 The tourist nodded appreciatively. " Yes," he said. 
 " In spite of certain faults in drawing it's well worked 
 out. What puzzles me is how the man who did the 
 other one came to feel it as he evidently did. One could 
 fancy he had had a revelation, and that in some respects 
 he was*a different man when he painted this. I'll offer 
 you five guineas for it, Mr. Macallister." 
 
 " Then," said Macallister promptly, " ye can have it. 
 Eight guineas for the two if ye would like the other one. 
 There are two or three more of them here ye might care 
 to look at." He stopped a moment, and added as if in 
 explanation, " I'm anxious to do what I can for Mr. 
 Austin. Many's the time I've stole his wine and sold his 
 clothes." 
 
 He undid a package, and first of all took out a photo- 
 graph of a young girl with a comely English face which 
 Jacinta glanced at somewhat sharply. Then she became 
 intent when there followed several rudimentary pencil 
 and pastel sketches of herself, until Macallister handed 
 Coulston a picture. He turned from it to Jacinta, and 
 looked at her with a steadiness a young woman less accus- 
 tomed to masculine criticism would probably have found 
 disconcerting. 
 
 She lay smiling at him in the canvas lounge, very 
 
THE PICTURES 173 
 
 pretty and very dainty, with conventional indifference 
 expressed even in her pose. She was, he fancied, a 
 woman who knew her world thoroughly, and had the 
 greater influence therein because she seldom asked too 
 much from it. Then he glanced again at her portrait 
 almost incredulously, for it showed the little shapely 
 head held well erect, the red lips straightened and firmly 
 closed, and the glow of a strenuous purpose in the eyes. 
 Stooping he laid the picture on her knee with a little 
 smile. 
 
 Jacinta laughed softly. " Yes/' she said, " of course I 
 know what you mean. I am essentially modern and 
 frivolous, and not in the least like that. Still, you see, 
 all of us have our serious moments now and then, al- 
 though it is probably fortunate they don't last long." 
 
 " Ah/' said Coulston, wilfully neglecting his oppor- 
 tunity, " I almost fancy a light breaks in on me. One 
 could entitle this inspiration, and it is, you know, possible 
 to transmit it occasionally. I wonder whether it would 
 make the idea clearer if we placed the three pictures 
 together. Mr. Macallister will permit me ? " 
 
 He set up the first sketch of the steamboat skipper 
 against the lifeboat skids, and gazed at it critically. 
 " Assuming that a picture contains something of its 
 painter's ego, you will observe how the idea of petty in- 
 dulgence and his appreciation of sensual comfort is im- 
 pressed on one," he said. " Now, we will set up the other 
 sketch of the sailormen. There you see restraint, tense 
 effort, abnegation and victory in one sense a spiritual 
 triumph over the body. It is an interesting question 
 how the man who painted both could have been brought 
 to grasp what Lieutenant Onslow calls the motive of the 
 last one ; but if we might venture to place another 
 picture between/' 
 
 Jacinta raised her head sharply, and there was an 
 ominous sparkle in her eyes. " No," she said with 
 quiet incisiveness, " I would sooner you didn't. There 
 are certainly men whose hobby now and then runs away 
 
174 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 with them. Macallister, will you put that portrait back 
 again ? " 
 
 She handed it him face downwards, for the others had 
 not seen it, and Lieutenant Onslow turned to the tourist. 
 
 " I don't quite understand, but I fancy Miss Brown 
 doesn't approve of vivisection any more than I do," he 
 said. " It really isn't decent to turn anybody inside out." 
 
 " I wonder," said Coulston, ignoring him, " if you 
 would mind me offering to buy the three ? " 
 
 He was looking steadily at her, but Jacinta contrived 
 for a moment to catch Macallister's eye. So swift was 
 the flashed glance that the tourist did not notice it, but 
 Jacinta could convey a good deal with a look, and the 
 engineer was a man of considerable intelligence. 
 
 " That one is not for sale," he said. 
 
 " No," said Onslow, who held up a strip of pasteboard 
 and a sheet of brown paper, " I scarcely think it is. In 
 fact, you don't appear to have noticed that there's a seal 
 on this part of it, and instructions that this particular 
 packet is not to be opened." 
 
 It seemed to Muriel that a trace of colour once more 
 crept into Jacinta's face ; but Macallister surveyed the 
 wrappings the officer handed him with a grin. 
 
 " It is no that difficult to slice a seal off and stick it 
 back again," he said. " It's also a thing Mr. Austin 
 should have remembered. Many a carafon of wine has 
 he seen opened." 
 
 " So you know that trick ! " Onslow laughed. " I'm 
 inclined to think it's one that has now and then been 
 practised upon our mess." 
 
 Just then Mrs. Hatherly appeared on deck, and the 
 group broke up. Muriel joined her aunt, Macallister, 
 accompanied by the tourist, went down the ladder with 
 the box of sketches under his arm, while Jacinta and 
 Lieutenant Onslow were left alone. The latter stood 
 with his hand on the lifeboat skids looking down on her 
 gravely. He was a well-favoured young man, with an 
 honest sun-bronzed face. 
 
THE PICTURES 175 
 
 " I am," he said, " as you know, going out to take over 
 command of a wes-tcoast gunboat in a day or two, and it 
 is more than probable that I shall not have an opportuni- 
 ty like this again. You see, Nasmyth and I have had a 
 very good time in these islands, and we feel that we owe 
 it largely to you. In fact, it's perfectly clear to us that 
 things would have been very different if you hadn't taken 
 us under your gracious protection. I just want to say 
 that we recognize it and feel grateful." 
 
 " Well/' said Jacinta reflectively, " I am rather glad 
 you do. Gratitude that is worth anything carries a 
 certain sense of obligation with it." 
 
 " Of course ! " and Onslow smiled. " Only give me the 
 chance of doing anything I can for you." 
 
 " Do you know whereabouts on the west coast the 
 Delgado Island lies ? " 
 
 " I can readily find out." 
 
 Jacinta glanced at him sharply, and had no doubt con- 
 cerning the eagerness in his face. If there was anything 
 he could do to please her it would certainly be done. 
 
 " There is a stranded steamer somewhere up a creek 
 behind that island, and I think the men who are trying to' 
 salve her have a good many difficulties to contend with. 
 Among other things, I fancy the niggers are worrying 
 them." 
 
 " Ah," said Onslow. " Our ships are not as a rule per- 
 mitted to take any part in commerical ventures, but 
 there are, of course, exceptions to everything. Accord- 
 ing to my instructions, I am also to avoid all unpleasant- 
 ness with the seaboard niggers unless they have been 
 provoking the authorities. Still, I would like to ask if 
 any of the men on board that steamer is a friend of 
 yours ? " 
 
 " One of them is Miss Gascoyne's affianced lover, and 
 she is a very old friend, indeed. However, since you 
 are apparently unable " 
 
 Onslow checked her with a little smile. ''I'm not 
 sure you are really willing to let me off, and if you were I 
 
176 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 shouldn't be pleased, while I scarcely think you have 
 answered my question very frankly, either. That, how- 
 ever, doesn't matter. It is permissible for the comman- 
 der of a coast patrol gunboat to send a pinnace in to sur- 
 vey a little known creek or channel, and her crew would, 
 of course, be guided by circumstances if they came upon a 
 stranded steamer." 
 
 " I presume you would not care to earn Muriel's undy- 
 ing gratitude by being a trifle more definite ? " 
 
 " No/' said Onslow with twinkling eyes. " I esteem 
 Miss Gascoyne's good opinion, but I really couldn't go 
 any further to win yours. As I pointed out, one would 
 be guided by circumstances ; but men on board stranded 
 steamers have been supplied with drugs and provisions, 
 as well as lent naval artificers to advise them as to re- 
 pairs. I have even heard of a gunboat's launch carrying 
 out their hawsers and anchors." 
 
 Jacinta rose with a little smile. " I think one could 
 leave it with confidence to your discretion, and since it 
 seems very likely that you will come across that steamer, 
 I should be pleased to have your views as to the selection 
 of a few comforts and provisions." 
 
 Onslow favoured her with them, and, as it happened, 
 met Macallister when at last he went down the ladder. 
 
 " Ye are going out to Africa, too ? " said the latter 
 with a grin. " She has been giving ye sailing instruc- 
 tions ? " 
 
 Onslow looked at him grimly. " Well," he said, 
 " what the devil has that to do with you ? " 
 
 " Oh, nothing. Just nothing at all. Still, because I 
 see ye are willing, I would have ye know that there are 
 t w o men from Grand Canary on board yon steamer 
 already." 
 
 Onslow smiled a trifle dryly. " My dear man, I'm not 
 altogether an ass," he said. 
 
 In the meanwhile Muriel strolled back towards Jacinta, 
 and glanced at her with a suggestion of astonishment in 
 her face as she sat down. 
 
FUNNEL-PAINT'S PROPOSITION 177 
 
 " You are different from what you were a little while 
 ago," she said. 
 
 Jacinta laughed. " I dare say I am. I had, as a 
 matter of fact, sunk into a state of pessimistic apathy 
 which naturally found expression in ill-humoured plea- 
 santries lately, but I have been getting to work again. 
 It has rather a bracing effect, you see. In the mean- 
 while, it might be advisable for you to make yourself as 
 nice as possible to Lieutenant Onslow, who is now coming 
 up on deck again. Go and ask him to show you a flying 
 fish or something/' 
 
 Muriel went, for she had discovered that there was 
 usually a sufficient reason for most of what Jacinta did, 
 and the latter lay still in her chair. 
 
 " There is," she said, " still a fly in the amber. I 
 wonder what he wanted with that photograph, though, 
 after all, he didn't think it worth while carrying to 
 Africa." 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 FUNNEL-PAINT'S PROPOSITION 
 
 DEEP stillness hung over the dingy mangroves, and there 
 was not a breath of air astir, while Austin, who lay among 
 the palm-oil puncheons beside the creek, was oppressed 
 by a sense of suffocation. 
 
 He had shaken off the fever, but he was worn and 
 dazed by toil, for the strain was not without its effect on 
 him, and he had become subject to curious tricks of 
 fancy. He had brought the coal from Dukar, and it now 
 lay piled upon a down-river beach ; but he had obtained 
 only two or three men, and the steamy heat of the 
 swamp-belt had melted the sustaining energy out of the 
 Cumbria's company. Individually, he felt that it was a 
 hopeless struggle they were making. They had untram- 
 melled nature against them, and, he could almost fancy, 
 the malevolent spirits of the bush the negroes believed in. 
 A man, he admitted, could believe in anything in that 
 
178 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 country, and he had of late been troubled by a feeling 
 that something sinister and threatening was hovering 
 near him. 
 
 He was unpleasantly conscious of it then, which was 
 partly why he lay raised on his elbow with his eyes fixed 
 on the bush that shut in the narrow strip of sand. It 
 rose before him, laced with tangled creepers, mysterious, 
 and shadowy, and it seemed to him that somebody or 
 something was watching him from its dim recessess. He 
 had been conscious of the same sensation, when he 
 plodded with a Spanish seaman along the narrow trail to 
 the dug-up beach an hour earlier, but it was stronger 
 now, and instinctively he sliped his hand into a pocket 
 where the pistol he had bought in Grand Canary lay. 
 Then he laughed in a listless fashion, for they had seen 
 no more of the negroes since the blowing up of the head- 
 man's house, and he felt he had not them to fear. There 
 was, in fact, no tangible cause for apprehension at all. 
 
 Presently something seemed to materialize amidst the 
 shadows where the creepers streamed from a cotton- wood 
 in dense festoons, and lying still with fingers closing on 
 the pistol he could almost fancy he made out a dim human 
 form. There was, at least, one black patch among the 
 leaves that suggested greasy, naked skin. It vanished 
 again, however, and Austin, who felt his heart beating, 
 abused the intolerable glare the sand flung up that 
 dazzled his vision, and then stiffened himself in tenser 
 watchfulness as for a moment he made out a pair of roll- 
 ing eyes. The creepers rustled, a twig snapped, and he 
 was about to call out when one of the Canarios raised 
 himself a trifle. 
 
 " Ave Maria ! " he said with drowsy hoarseness, and, 
 though the words are frequently used to express astonish- 
 ment in his country, it was evident that he meant them 
 as a pious appeal. 
 
 In any case, the creepers became suddenly still again, 
 and Austin, who rose stiffly, found nothing when he 
 pushed his way through the midst of them. There was 
 
FUNNEL-PAINT'S PROPOSITION 179 
 
 no sound in the steamy bush, not a leaf seemed bruised 
 or bent, and he went back again with the perspiration 
 dripping from him. 
 
 Austin sat down again, and took out his pipe. He lay 
 watching the bush for another hour, and then, though it 
 was the last thing he had intended, went to sleep. He 
 had borne a heavy strain, and his will was weakening. 
 
 It was dark when he was awakened by a splash of pad- 
 dles as the Cumbria's surf-boat crept up the creek with 
 the relief watch, and another hour had passed when they 
 made the craft fast alongside the gangway and he 
 climbed wearily on board the steamer. There was no 
 sound or light on board her, for half the crew were sick, 
 and the pump had stopped. She lay, a black mass, 
 amidst the sliding mist, and he stumbled over the kernel 
 bags upon her slanted deck as he groped his way to his 
 room in the poop. It was seldom he or Jefferson slept 
 soundly now, and as they only awakened one another 
 Austin had moved to a room aft. 
 
 He lighted the oil-lamp, and flung himself, dressed as 
 he was, into his berth, but found he could not sleep, 
 though he could not remember how long he lay awake 
 listening. He could hear mysterious splashings in the 
 forest and the low gurgle of the creek, while now and then 
 a timber creaked or a drop of moisture fell with a splash 
 that startled him from the iron beams. At last, when his 
 eyes were growing heavy, there was a different and very 
 faint sound on deck, and as he raised himself the door 
 that stood a little open swung back gently. The lamp 
 was still burning, for he found the light comforting, as 
 white men are occasionally apt to do in that country, and 
 it was with a little gasp of relief he felt for the pistol 
 beneath his pillow as Funnel-paint came in. He was 
 almost naked and the water ran from him, but the strip 
 of cloth about his loins was bound by a leather belt with a 
 sheath hung to it, such as seamen wear, and the knife 
 from the latter gleamed in his wet hand. He, however, 
 dropped it upon the deck, and squatted on the water- 
 
180 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 ledge that rose aU oot beneath the door. Austin watched 
 him quietly, for he was, at least, not afraid of Funnel- 
 paint. 
 
 " What the devil do you want ? " he said. 
 
 " Halluf them gum," said the negro with a wicked grin. 
 
 " How are we to give it you when we haven't found a 
 bag of it ? " 
 
 The negro grinned again. " S'pose I done tell you 
 where him lib ? " 
 
 " If you knew, why didn't you get it for yourself ? " 
 
 Funnel-paint shook his head. " Them book I get 
 savvy I no savvy make him tell me," he said. :< You 
 dash me halluf them gum you get them back." 
 
 Austin lay silent, resting on one elbow for a moment 
 or two. He knew that book means anything which is 
 written on in that country, and it occurred to him that 
 if the gum had been hidden ashore it was very probable 
 that the man who buried it had made a rough sketch or 
 other record of the spot. The document, it was conceiv- 
 able, might have come into the negro's possession. Still, 
 he was suspicious. 
 
 " There's another boy who speaks English in the head 
 man's village," he said. 
 
 " Him only dam bushman no savvy book, no savvj^ 
 anyt'ing. Him them headman's boy. Headman he 
 want e very t 'ing." 
 
 " Ah," said Austin, who was more dubious about his 
 visitor's good faith than ever, since it was clear that it 
 was his intention to trick his confederate out of his share 
 of the plunder. " I suppose, since you swam off, you 
 haven't the book about you ? " 
 
 The negro let one eyelid droop a little. r< You t'ink 
 black man one dam fool ? " 
 
 " No," said Austin reflectively, " if you understand 
 me, I should rather call you an infernal rogue. Anyway, 
 you lib for get out one time, and come back to-morrow. 
 I'll palaver with them other white man by then, savvy ? " 
 
 Funnel-paint unobtrusively laid a wet prehensile toe 
 
FUNNEL-PAINT'S PROPOSITION 181 
 
 upon the haft of the knife, but Austin, who was careful 
 not to betray the fact, noticed it. 
 
 " Them other white man he no go dash me anything/' 
 he said decisively. " I savvy him. S'pose you done tell 
 him you no go catch them book." 
 
 " Then how do you fancy I'm going to give you half 
 the gum without him knowing ? " 
 
 Funnel-paint grinned unpleasantly. " Bimeby them 
 white cappy man he die," he said, as though he were sure 
 of it. " White man sick too much in this country. I 
 savvy." 
 
 Austin contrived to hold in check the indignant wrath 
 he felt. A man's life, he was quite aware, was worth 
 very little in those swamps ; and, because he placed 
 some small value on the one that belonged to him, it was 
 evidently advisable to proceed circumspectly. Funnel- 
 paint was, he recognized, a diplomatist in his way, and 
 had said very little, though that was sufficient to show 
 Austin what his proposition meant. It was, at least, clear 
 that he was to ask no questions if anything unexpected 
 happened to Jefferson, and in reward of this he would be 
 permitted to carry off half the gum. It appeared that 
 Funnel-paint was sure of its existence, or he would never 
 have ventured to creep on board at night at all, and 
 Austin decided that since he certainly could not be 
 trusted the boldest course was best. The rage he felt 
 also prompted him to it, and he lay still considering with 
 a hand beneath the pillow and a flush in his face, while 
 the negro squatted huge and motionless on the door- 
 ledge, watching him with a little cunning smile. It 
 seemed to Austin that it would simplify matters consider- 
 ably if he could secure Funnel-paint's person, though he 
 could not quite see how it was to be done, especially 
 since it was evident that the negro would be no use to 
 them dead. 
 
 In the meanwhile there was deep stillness without, 
 intensified by the oily gurgle of the creek, until Austin 
 fancied he heard another faint and stealthy sound on 
 
182 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 deck. Funnel-paint did not appear to notice it, which 
 was, it seemed to Austin, significant, for he sat still, 
 though with a scarcely preceptible motion he drew the 
 knife a little nearer him with his toe. Austin decided 
 that the proposition he had made was, after all, prob- 
 ably a blind, and the friends he had expected were 
 now arriving. 
 
 " Keep still ! " he said abruptly, whipping out the 
 pistol. 
 
 The negro started, and would apparently have fallen 
 backwards in his alarm had he not seized the edge of the 
 cushion on the settee in a wet hand. Then he gazed at 
 Austin as though in bewilderment or consternation. 
 
 " Bushman lib ! " he said. 
 
 He glanced towards the open ring of port, and for a 
 second Austin turned his eyes in the same direction, but 
 that was long enough, for the big cushion of the settee 
 fell upon his head, and he rolled over under it. It was 
 a moment or two before he had flung it from him and 
 sprung out of his berth, and then there was no sign of 
 Funnel-paint, though he could hear a rush of feet and 
 the sound of a scuffle on deck. They were also booted 
 feet, and Austin ran out into the black darkness beneath 
 the poop. He could see nothing for a moment, but he 
 heard a hoarse ejaculation that was followed by a splash 
 in the creek. Then a shadowy figure grew out of the 
 blackness, and he dropped the pistol to his side at the 
 sound of an English voice. 
 
 " All right, Mr. Austin ? " it said. 
 
 " I am," said Austin. " Is that you, Bill ? " 
 
 The half-seen man assured him that it was, and then 
 followed him back into the lighted room, where he sat 
 down and held up a hand from which a red trickle 
 dripped down his arm. 
 
 " The dam brute's got away," he said. " P'raps you 
 could fix this up for me." 
 
 Austin lugged a little chest out from under the settee, 
 and glanced at the injured hand. " Nothing serious, 
 
FUNNEL-PAINT'S PROPOSITION 183 
 
 though I have no doubt it stings/' he said. " You were 
 in one sense lucky in getting it there. How did you 
 happen to come along ? " 
 
 " It was my watch," said Bill. " I had just come 
 down from the bridge-deck when I thought I heard 
 talking, and that brought me here as quietly as I could. 
 If I'd had the sense to take my boots off I'd have had 
 him. I gripped him by the rail, but he shoved the knife 
 into my hand, and slung himself over." 
 
 Austin bound his hand up, and then looked at him 
 thoughtfully. 
 
 " I don't think there's anything to be gained by 
 letting the others know," he said. " Anyway, I'd 
 consider it a favour if you said nothing about the thing 
 until I've talked it over with Mr. Jefferson." 
 
 Bill grinned comprehendingly. " I'll tell Tom, but 
 nobody else. We have our own little row with the 
 vermin, and the next time I get my grip on him there'll 
 be an end of him." 
 
 He went out, and by and by Austin contrived to go 
 to sleep. While it was next day, and they sat in the 
 dripping engine-room from which the water was sink- 
 ing, when he told Jefferson what had passed. The 
 latter listened thoughtfully, and then broke into a little 
 hollow laugh. 
 
 " It seems to me that you missed your chance," he said. 
 " Funnel-paint knows a good deal I have guessed that 
 for some time but he has found out he can't get at the 
 gum without one of us helping him, at least. That is 
 probably why he has left us alone so long. He wasn't 
 sure whether there was any of it on board the ship, and 
 was, naturally, willing that we should decide that point 
 for him." 
 
 " What would he gain by that ? " asked Austin. 
 
 " The gum ! " and Jefferson laughed again, but not 
 pleasantly. " He's an inconsequent devil, but he seems 
 to have scraped up a little sense a she went on with the 
 game. You see, white men are apt to die off suddenly in 
 
i84 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 this country, and I scarcely think that anybody who 
 could make trouble knows we're here. Anyway, there's 
 no unusual need for worry. It only means double 
 watches." 
 
 " Still, one could fancy you had a good deal on your 
 mind/' 
 
 " I have. We have stripped this ship all but the 
 engine-room to the ballast tanks there was, you may 
 remember, a manhole-lid lifted on the forward one which 
 may account for some of the water getting in and the 
 five hundred dollars I raised the offer to hasn't produced 
 a pound of gum. Half the men are down now, and we 
 can't send them all away, while even if we wanted to 
 they're most of them unwilling to go. They're as keen 
 on their share and it's quite a big one as I am. Then 
 we'll have the rains on us in a week or two." 
 
 Austin sat silent a while. He knew that the feverish 
 search for the treasure had stirred the cupidity of the 
 Latins until they were as determined on finding it as their 
 leader. Nothing else was thought of, the sick men raved 
 of it, and, in any case, those who had held out so long 
 and staunchly had their percentage on the value of the 
 steamer's hull and cargo to gain. It meant comparative 
 affluence to the bare-footed sailormen. That, however, 
 was only one side of the question, after all, for while their 
 willingness was evident their physical capacity for work 
 was lessening every day. 
 
 " The rains will flood every beach," he said. "If we 
 don't find the gum before they come, what then ? " 
 
 " If it's necessary we'll stay here until the water falls 
 again. That is, at least, some of us will." 
 
 Austin rose up slowly with a little sign of comprehen- 
 sion. Two men had been buried while he was away, and 
 he did not think that many of them would be left there 
 to see the waters fall. 
 
FUNNEL-PAINT MOVES AGAIN 185 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 FUNNEL-PAINT MOVES AGAIN 
 
 A WEEK had slipped by since the negro's visit, and Austin 
 and Jefferson were sitting late in the skipper's room. 
 There had been no change in the weather, and it was 
 then if possible hotter than ever. 
 
 Jefferson sat on the little table, a blackened pipe in his 
 hand, and the listless pose of both suggested that the 
 last trace of energy had been sapped out of them. At 
 last Austin laughed, hollowly and dejectedly. 
 
 " I don't know why we're sitting here saying nothing 
 when we have to begin again at five o'clock to-morrow, 
 but I don't feel like sleep," he said. " In fact, I scarcely 
 think I've slept for more than a couple of hours at a 
 time since I came back again. I suppose I ought to be 
 in the forecastle now four or five of them seemed very 
 sick when I last looked in but there's an abominable 
 tension in the air that makes any exertion out of the 
 question." 
 
 Jefferson nodded. " You can't do anything for 
 them, and there's nobody we could spare to send with 
 them down river," he said. " They've got to take 
 their chances with the rest of us now, and it seems to 
 me one might figure them out as three or four to one if 
 the rains don't come. Still, if you don't want to do 
 anything, why can't you keep still ? " 
 
 " I don't know." And Austin, who had been rolling 
 a damp cigar in his fingers, flung it down. " If that 
 pump stopped I should probably make an exhibition of 
 myself. The hum and thump it makes has a soothing 
 effect on me. It's suggestive. Even here man has 
 something to say. I don't know whether you under- 
 stand me." 
 
 Jefferson looked at him curiously. " I guess I do. I'd 
 mix myself a good strong pick-me-up if I was you. You 
 have had something on your mind the last day or two." 
 
186 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 " I have," said Austin. " I'm afraid of that infernal 
 Funnel-paint, I think. I can't help a fancy that we haven't 
 done with him yet, and, though the connexion isn't very 
 apparent, the fact that the first thing we came across 
 after landing when I came out was a dead nigger, insists 
 on obtruding itself on my recollection. Bill told me he 
 was singularly unpleasant to look at." 
 
 Jefferson contrived to laugh. " You take that pick- 
 me-up, and in the meanwhile let upon your reminiscences. 
 Things of that kind aren't cheerful and I'm worried 
 with one or two of them myself/' 
 
 Austin, who stooped and picked the cigar up, settled 
 himself afresh on the settee after lighting it, and half an 
 hour dragged by. Neither of them felt the least sign of 
 drowsiness yet, and the jingle of the odds and ends in the 
 rack and tremble of the stout teak house was, as he had 
 said, vaguely reassuring. The big pump was pounding 
 on in spite of the climate, and neither heat nor fever 
 had any effect on steam. Then he looked up sharply, 
 and Jefferson straightened himself, for a faint sound of 
 footsteps came out of the darkness. They were slow 
 and dragging, as though somebody was groping his way 
 warily towards the light. 
 
 " On deck ! " said the American. " What d'you 
 want ? Are you there, Wall-eye ? Que hay ? " 
 
 There was no answer, but the shuffling steps drew 
 nearer, slowly and f alteringly, as though whatever made 
 them was but indifferently capable of motion. There 
 was also something unpleasantly suggestive about them, 
 and Austin now sat very straight, while he saw that 
 Jefferson's lips were pressed together. There was no 
 apparent reason why they should shrink from what was 
 coming, but Austin, at least, felt his nerves tingling. 
 He was overwrought, and white men are apt to become 
 fanciful when they work too hard in the fever-swamps. 
 
 " Mil diablos ! " said Jefferson. " Ven aca. What 
 are you after outside there ? " 
 
 There was still no answer, though a clatter of booted 
 
FUNNEL-PAINT MOVES AGAIN 187 
 
 feet now rose from the iron deck. It drowned the other 
 footfalls, and Austin found that clang of nailed shoes 
 curiously reassuring. Then a figure that swayed from 
 side to side emerged from the blackness, and stood 
 mowing in the stream of light. 
 
 " Good Lord ! " said Jefferson, with horror in his 
 voice. " Slam that door to. Keep it out." 
 
 Austin rose with a sense of sudden sickness, but the 
 figure had moved again, and now stood with one foot 
 inside the room and a horrible hand on the door-jamb, 
 leering at them. It had the shape of a man, but the 
 resemblance ended there, for there was no sign of human 
 intelligence in the awful face. The thing had no eye- 
 brows, the hair had almost gone, and nose and cheeks 
 were formless with corruption, while naked chest and 
 arms were smeared with festering scars. Austin stood 
 still, shivering, with one hand clenched hard on the table, 
 until Jefferson snatched a glinting object from his bunk. 
 
 " Good Lord ! " he said again. " It's coming in.'' 
 
 The figure seemed to brace itself for another move 
 forward, and Austin saw Jefferson straighten himself 
 slowly with a big pistol in his hand. He did not remem- 
 ber what his comrade said, but the negro seemed to 
 recoil instinctively before his fierce ejaculation, and, 
 lurching backward, faded into a formless shadow in the 
 gloom again. Then Jefferson's hand fell upon Austin's 
 shoulder. 
 
 " Shake yourself ! There's something to be done/' 
 he said. " They have a light forward, and we can't 
 have that thing groping among them in the fore- 
 castle." 
 
 They went out, and as they did so a sudden glare of 
 light sprang up. Tom the donkey man had lighted the 
 air-blast lamp he used when anything had to be done to 
 pump or boiler at night, and its smoky radiance showed 
 that Jefferson's shouts had roused the Spaniards. 
 They were clustered, half-dressed, about the head of the 
 ladder which led to the bridge-deck, with consternation 
 
i88 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 in their shadowy faces, glancing at one another as though 
 afraid to move a step further. Tom leaned against the 
 rail, holding up the lamp, and the thing that had the 
 shape of a man sat gibbering on a coil of hawser in the 
 midst of the bridge-deck. The eyes of all who stood there 
 were fixed upon it, but nobody seemed anxious to come 
 any nearer. 
 
 Jefferson standing very straight, opened the breach 
 of his pistol, ran a finger across the back of the chamber, 
 and then closed it with a little snap which, though the 
 pump was humming, sounded startlingly distinct. His 
 lips were tightly set, and his face was very grim. The 
 loathsome figure on the rope mowed and grinned at him. 
 
 " I suppose the thing was human once/' he said. 
 " Still, we can't have it here. These complaints are 
 contagious, one understands, but I wish it hadn't hap- 
 pened. He's too like a man." 
 
 He dropped the pistol to his side, as though his nerve 
 had momentarily failed him, and Austin, who suddenly 
 grasped his purpose, sprang forward as he raised it again. 
 
 " Hold on ! " he said. " Do you realize what it is you 
 propose to do ? " 
 
 Jefferson turned to him slowly, and there was a curious 
 stillness among those who watched them. Austin was 
 glad of the hum of the big pump and the pounding of the 
 engine, for he felt that silence would have made the 
 tension unendurable. Then Jefferson smiled, a little 
 wry smile. 
 
 " I know," he said, a trifle hoarsely, " it isn't nice to 
 think of, but it's no more than happens to a superfluous 
 kitten and it's necessary. Heaven knows what the 
 poor devil suffered before he came to this, and we don't 
 want to. He's animate carrion without reason or 
 sensibility now. It was only the light brought him here 
 when Funnel-paint somehow sent him within sight of 
 us." 
 
 Austin saw that this was true. There was no glimmer 
 of human intelligence in the creature's wandering gaze, 
 
FUNNEL-PAINT MOVES AGAIN 189 
 
 but he still bore the shape of a man, and that counted for 
 a goood deal, after all. 
 
 " Jefferson/' he said, " it can't be done/' 
 
 His comrade looked at him with half -closed eyes. 
 " Would you wish to live if you looked like that, or do 
 you want the rest of us to find out what he went through ? 
 I'm responsible for those men yonder and it's only ante- 
 dating the thing a month or two. The life is almost rotted 
 out of Mm. Stand clear. We must get it over." 
 
 It was evident that the Spaniards understood what he 
 meant to do, and a murmur of concurrence rose from 
 them, for they knew a little about the more loathsome 
 forms of skin diseases. Men who might have escaped from 
 the sepulchre walk abroad in the hot southern countries 
 where restraint is unknown and salt-fish is a staple food, 
 but, though they have often themselves to blame, the 
 innocent also suffer in Western Africa, and none of 
 those who stood by, tense and strung up, had ever seen 
 a man who looked quite as this one did. 
 
 Then, as Jefferson raised his pistol, Austin seized him 
 by the shoulder, and shook him in a sudden outbreak of 
 fury. 
 
 " You're right," he said, " but you shall not do it. 
 You hear me ? Put the thing down." 
 
 Then there was a sudden clamour, and as the Canarios 
 ran forward Jefferson struggled vainly. Austin never 
 knew where his strength came from, but in another 
 moment the pistol slipped from his comrade's hand, and, 
 reeling backwards, he struck the deck-house. Austin 
 stood in front of him, with hands clenched, and the veins 
 swollen high on his forehead, panting hard. 
 
 " It has come to this/' he said. " If you move a step 
 I'll heave you over the rail. I've strength enough to 
 break your back to-night." 
 
 Jefferson straightened himself slowly, and waved back 
 the others who were clustering round. Then he smiled, 
 and made a little gesture of resignation. 
 
 " I believe you have, but that's not quite the point/' 
 
igo HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 he said. " It's the only thing you have ever asked me, 
 and, if nothing else will satisfy you, you shall have him. 
 You don't suppose it isn't a relief to me. The question 
 is what you're going to do with him ? You see, he can't 
 stay here/' 
 
 That, at least, was evident, and for a moment or two 
 Austin gazed about him stupidly as he grappled with the 
 difficulty. The stricken man still squatted unconcerned 
 upon the hawser, mowing and grimacing while he clawed 
 at the hemp, in a fashion that suggested the antics of a 
 pleased animal, with swollen hands. The rest stood 
 still, well apart from him, with expectancy overcoming 
 their horror. Then Tom the donkey-man, who was 
 nearest the rail, held up his flaring lamp. 
 
 " There's the canoe he come in still alongside aft," he 
 said. 
 
 Austin gasped with relief. " Heave down a bunch of 
 the red bananas we got up the creek," he said. " He'll 
 know they are good to eat." 
 
 It was done, and Jefferson smiled again, grimly. 
 
 " That," he said, " is easy. Still, have you figured 
 how he is to beg ot into the canoe ? You are hardly 
 going to make him understand what he is to do." 
 
 " There's only one way. He must be put into it. 
 Under the circumstances, it's only fitting that I should 
 undertake the thing." 
 
 " No," and Jefferson's voice rang sharply. " Not 
 you ! Offer any of the rest of them fifty dollars." 
 
 Austin smiled. " To take the risk I'm responsible 
 for ? I think not. I went sufficiently far when I 
 brought some of them here. Besides, it's comforting to 
 remember you mayn't be right about the thing being 
 contagious, after all." 
 
 Jefferson looked at him hard a moment with the fingers 
 of one hand closed, and then made a little sign. 
 
 " Well," he said, " if you feel it that way, there's 
 probably nothing to be gained by protesting. There 
 are disadvantages in being leader." 
 
FUNNEL-PAINT MOVES AGAIN 191 
 
 Austin turned, and touched the negro with his foot 
 while he pointed to the ladder. 
 
 " Get up. You lib for canoe one time ! " he said. 
 
 The negro mowed and gibbered meaninglessly, and 
 Austin, stooping, grasped his shoulder, which was clean. 
 With an effort he dragged him to his feet, and, while 
 the rest fell back from them, drove the man towards the 
 head of the ladder. Then one of them slipped and there 
 was a cry of horror from the rest as the negro clutched 
 the white man, and they rolled down the ladder into the 
 darkness below together. Tom ran towards the rails 
 with his lamp, and as Jefferson leaned out from them he 
 saw Austin shake off the negro's engirdling grasp. 
 
 ' Get up ! " he said hoarsely, and stirred him with 
 his foot again. 
 
 The man rose half-upright, stumbled and straightening 
 himself moved towards the open gangway with a lurch. 
 Then he vanished suddenly, and there was a crash below. 
 Austin leaned out through the opening, and his voice 
 rose harsh and strained. 
 
 " Come down, one of you, and cut this warp ! The 
 devil's hanging on," he said. 
 
 Wall-eye, the Canario, sprang down with his knife, and 
 when Austin climbed back to the bridge-deck the men 
 clustering along the rails saw a canoe with a shadowy 
 object lying in the stern of her slide through the blaze 
 of radiance cast by the blast-lamp, and vanish into the 
 blackness outside it. Then Tom put out the light, and a 
 hoarse murmur of relief rose out of the darkness. 
 
 A minute or two later Austin stood, a trifle grey in face, 
 in the doorway of the skipper's room, and stepped back 
 suddenly when Jefferson approached him. 
 
 " Keep off ! " he said. " Give me the permanganate 
 out of the side drawer. I left it there. Miguel, bring 
 me the clothes you washed out of my room in the poop, 
 and fill me a bucket." 
 
 The last was in Castilian, and one of the Canarios went 
 scrambling down the ladder, while when he came back 
 
192 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 with an armful of duck clothing Jefferson held out a jar 
 to his comrade. 
 
 " No/' said Austin sharply. " Put it down." 
 
 Jefferson did as he was bidden, and Austin, who 
 stripped the thin garments from him and flung them over 
 the rail, shook the permanganate into the bucket and 
 then, standing stark-naked, when it had dissolved sluiced 
 himself all over with the pink solution. It was ten 
 minutes later when he stepped into the room, dripping, 
 with a wet rag about his waist, and shook his head when 
 Jefferson handed him a towel. 
 
 " I think not," he said. " If there's any efficacy in the 
 thing I may as well let it dry in. After all, it's consoling 
 to remember that it mayn't be necessary." 
 
 Jefferson's fingers quivered as he leaned upon the 
 table. " No Of course not ! " he said, and added in- 
 consequently, " I don't think I'm unduly sensitive, but a 
 very little thing would turn me deadly sick." 
 
 Austin struggled into his duck trousers, and Jefferson, 
 whose face was also a little more pallid than usual, 
 glanced at him again. 
 
 " You have a beautiful skin," he said. " It's 'most 
 like a woman's. There's good clean blood in you. But 
 if, after all, trouble comes, I'll get even 'with that damned 
 Funnel-paint if I spend my life in Africa trailing him and 
 have to kill him with my naked hands." 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 AUSTIN FINDS A CLUE 
 
 THE grey light was growing clearer and the mangroves 
 taking shape among the fleecy mist when Austin stood 
 looking down upon the creek in the heavy, windless 
 morning. Jefferson, who came out of the skipper's room, 
 touched Austin as he gazed at it. 
 
 " The stream should have been setting down by now. 
 Something's backing up the ebb," he said. " A shift of 
 wind along the shore most likely. The rain's coming." 
 
AUSTIN FINDS A CLUE 193 
 
 Austin glanced up at the lowering heavens, but there 
 was no change in their uniform greyness, and no drift of 
 cloud. The smoke of the locomotive boiler went straight 
 up, and the mist hung motionless among the trees ashore. 
 Still, there was something oppressive and portentous in 
 the stillness, and his skin was tingling. 
 
 " If it doesn't come soon we'll not have a man left," 
 he said. " It isn't in flesh and blood to stand this much 
 longer/' 
 
 " Then," said Jefferson dryly, " the sooner we get to 
 work the better. There's a good deal to do, and you're 
 not going to feel it quite so much once you get hold of the 
 spanner." 
 
 The pump had just stopped, and Tom came towards 
 them rubbing his greasy hands with a cotton rag as they 
 moved in the direction of the engine-room. The lower 
 part of it was dripping when they went down, and a foot 
 or two of water still lay upon the floor-plates where they 
 met the depressed side, but it was evident that another 
 hour's work of the big pump would leave the place almost 
 dry. Austin sat down on a tool-locker lid, with Jefferson 
 standing beside him, but Tom floundered away towards 
 the stokehold, and they could hear him splashing amidst 
 the water. When he reappeared with a blinking lamp he 
 crawled up the slippery ladder as though working out a 
 clue, while it was several minutes before he came back 
 and leaned against a column opposite Jeff erson with the 
 look of a man who had not found quite what he had 
 expected. 
 
 " Sea-cocks shut ! " he said. " Ballast tank full-way 
 cock is screwed up, too. Of course, they could have 
 closed that with the overhead screw-gear. You'll 
 remember that manhole-cover was off the forward 
 section." 
 
 Jefferson glanced at Austin, though it was Tom he 
 spoke to. " Did you expect to find them open ? " 
 
 " Well," said the donkey-man, " to be quite straight I 
 did." 
 
i 9 4 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 " I wonder why ? " 
 
 Tom glanced at him with a little suggestive grin. 
 " She has two plates started, but with the boiler blow- 
 ing away half her steam we haven't very hard work to 
 run all that came in that way down, and her bilge- 
 pump would have kept her clear. What I want to know 
 is, what all that water was doing in her ? " 
 
 " Ah," said Jefferson, " you must ask another. I 
 guess nobody's going to find the full answer to that 
 conundrum. There are only two or three men who 
 could have told us, and we're not going to have an 
 opportunity of worrying them about it, unless we get the 
 fever, too." 
 
 " Well," said Tom, " the mill's looking good, but it's 
 about time we made a start on her and got the cylinder 
 covers off and hove the pistons up. It's quite likely 
 we'll want to spring new rings on them. There should 
 be some of the spanners in that locker, Mr. Austin." 
 
 Austin rose and lifted the lid while Tom held the lamp, 
 but the first thing he saw was a sodden book. He drew 
 it out dripping, and opened it, but while a good many of 
 the pulpy pages had fallen out there were enough left to 
 show that it was one of the little tables of strengths and 
 weights of materials an engineer often carries about 
 with him. There was rather a wide margin round the 
 tabulated figures, and as he vacantly pulled out one of 
 the wet pages he noticed a little close pencil writing upon 
 a part of it. 
 
 " Hold that light nearer, Tom. Here's something 
 that looks interesting," he said. " Buried Jackson this 
 morning memo, hand his share over to Mary Nichol." 
 
 He sighed Tom to move the light again. " There 
 follows an obliterated address and the words, ' Scarcely 
 think she'll ever get it. My left arm's almost rotten 
 now/ '' 
 
 He stopped again a moment, and his face had grown 
 hard when he went on, " You see the thing is contagi- 
 ous, and that devil Funnel-paint or somebody has played 
 
AUSTIN FINDS A CLUE 195 
 
 the same trick before. I wonder if the man who wrote 
 this looked quite as bad as the nigger did/' 
 
 " Hold on ! " said Jefferson sharply. " I guess none 
 of us have any use for that kind of talking, and you 
 swilled yourself with permanganate, anyway/' 
 
 " The result will probably be the same whether one 
 thinks of it or not. You will, however, notice that the 
 man's name was Jackson, and the woman's Mary 
 Nickol." 
 
 It was evident that this was a forced attempt to break 
 away from the subject, and though Tom grinned it was in 
 a sickly fashion. 
 
 "That's nohow astonishing. She was the last," he 
 said. " Hadn't you better turn over, and see if there's 
 any more of it ? " 
 
 Austin contrived to lift another of the pulpy pages, 
 and once more the close writing appeared, but it was 
 difficult to make out, and their faces were close together 
 when Tom lowered the lamp. They showed curiously 
 grave as well as hollow in the smoky light, for there was 
 reason for believing that the man who had made those 
 notes was dead, and it was clear that the horrible 
 thing which had stricken him might also come upon 
 them. 
 
 ' The last of the bags buried this afternoon,' " 
 Austin read. ' Watson took a new bearing. W. half 
 N. to the cotton wood, with twist of creek in line. Forty 
 paces he made it thirty-nine. Graham says one packet 
 left in the old place where the niggers got scent of it, and 
 the quills on the second islet; memo, it makes 50 to 
 me/ " 
 
 He dropped the book, and Tom came near letting go 
 the lamp, while for a moment or two afterwards they 
 stared at one another. Austin was quivering a little, 
 but Jefferson made a restraining gesture as he laid a 
 hand upon his shoulder. 
 
 " Steady ! I guess we've got the clue," he said. 
 " There are two islets two or three leagues back down the 
 
196 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 creek. You passed them coming up. Still, what do 
 they put up in quills ? " 
 
 " Gold-dust ! The niggers bring it down from the 
 Western Soudan, and I believe they're ostrich quills. 
 One of the trader fellows told me a good deal about them 
 over a dinner at the Metropole. A bushman had once 
 struck him with a lot of brass filings. Are you going 
 down to look for them ? " 
 
 Jefferson, it was evident from his face, laid a strong 
 restraint upon himself. 
 
 " No," he said with curious quietness. " Funnel- 
 paint knows nothing about those islets yet, or he wouldn't 
 have come to you, and it's my first business to heave 
 this steamer off. To do it we'll want her engines, and 
 there's a heavy job in front of us before we start them. 
 The rains won't wait for any man." 
 
 He broke off, for a glare of blue light fell through the 
 open frames above and flooded the engine-room. It 
 flickered on rusty columns and dripping, discoloured steel 
 and vanished, leaving grey shadow behind iiamidst which 
 the smoky lamp-light showed feeble and pale. Then there 
 was a crash that left them dazed and deafened, and in 
 another moment Was followed by a dull crescendo roar, 
 while a splashing trickle ran down into the engine- 
 room. The glass frames quivered under the deluge, and 
 one could almost have fancied that the heavens had 
 opened. Jefferson whirled round, and gripped the 
 donkey-man's arm, shaking him as he stood blinking 
 about in a bewildered fashion. 
 
 " If you tell any of the rest what you have heard I'll 
 fling you into the creek, and now up with you and bring 
 every man who is fit to work. There's no time to lose," 
 he said. 
 
 Tom made for the ladder, and Austin, who went with 
 him carrying the book, was drenched before he reached 
 the skipper's room. The air was filled with falling water 
 that came down in rods and blotted out the mangroves 
 a dozen yards away. Steam rose from the sluicing deck. 
 
AUSTIN FINDS A CLUE 197 
 
 the creek boiled beneath the deluge, but there was no 
 longer any trace of the insufferable tension, and he stood 
 a moment or two relaxing under the rush of lukewarm 
 water that beat his thin clothing flat against his skin. 
 
 Then he splashed forward to the forecastle, where Tom 
 had little difficulty in rousing the men. They crawled 
 out, gaunt and haggard, in filthy rags, some of them 
 apparently scarcely fit to stand, for the rain had come, 
 and every inch the water rose would bring them so much 
 nearer home. There was no need to urge them when they 
 floundered into the engine-room, and hour after hour 
 they strained and sweated on big spanner and chain- 
 tackle willingly while the big cylinder heads and pistons 
 were hauled up to the beams. The one thought which 
 animated them was that the engines would be wanted 
 soon. 
 
 It mattered little that platform-grating and slippery 
 floorplates slanted sharply under them, and each ponder- 
 ous mass they loosened must be held in with guy and 
 preventer lest it should swing wildly into vertical equili- 
 brium. That was only one more difficulty, and they 
 had already beaten down so many. So day after day 
 they worked on sloping platforms, slipping with naked 
 feet, and only grinned when Tom flung foul epithets, and 
 now and then a hammer, at one of them. Much of what 
 he said was incomprehensible, and, in any case, he was 
 lord supreme of the machinery, and Bill, whose speech 
 was also vitriolic, acted as his working deputy. The 
 latter had served as greaser in another steamer, and 
 for the time being even Jefferson deferred to him. 
 
 They stripped her until the big cylinders stood naked 
 on their columns, and the engine-room resembled the 
 erecting shop of a foundry, and then the work grew 
 harder when the reassembling began. Since the 
 skeleton engines slanted, nothing would hang or lower 
 as they wanted it, and they toiled with wedge and lever 
 in semi-darkness by the blinking gleam of lamps, while 
 the rain that shut the light out roared upon the shut- 
 
I 9 8 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 down frames above. It was very hot down in the engine- 
 room, and when a small forge was lighted to expand 
 joints they could not spring apart, and burn off saponified 
 grease, men with less at stake would probably have 
 fancied themselves suffocated. Still, each massive 
 piece was cleaned and polished, keyed home, or bolted 
 fast, and, when the hardest work was over, the slope 
 of the platforms lessened little by little as the Cumbria 
 rose upright. It was evident to all of them that the 
 water was rising in the creek. 
 
 In a month her deck was almost level, but the muddy 
 flood that gurgled about her still lay beneath her corroded 
 water-line, and Jefferson seized the opportunity of laying 
 out an anchor to heave on before the stream ran too 
 strong. 
 
 " Well/' Austin said, after a strenuous time in getting 
 out the anchor and during which Wall-eye got his hand 
 caught in the machinery, " that's done, though I think 
 a little more of it would have made an end of me. It is 
 rather an astonishing thing, but while I felt fiercely 
 anxious to get that anchor out before we started, it 
 hardly seems worth the trouble now." 
 
 " We couldn't heave her off without it," said Jeffer- 
 son. " That means going home eventually." 
 
 " I suppose it does," said Austin with a little mirthless 
 smile. " Still, I haven't any home, you see, and I'm not 
 sure that a lazar hospital of some kind isn't what is 
 awaiting me. You will remember the encouraging words 
 that fellow left ' My arm's almost rotten now/ ' 
 
 Jefferson slowly clenched one scarred hand. " That's 
 a thing we are neither of us strong enough to think about. 
 It's a little too horrible it couldn't happen." 
 
 " It's scarcely likely in your case, at least. He didn't 
 put his arm round you, and I had nothing worth mention 
 on that night. Men do die rotten, and I fancied once or 
 twice I felt a suggestive tingling in my skin." 
 
 Jefferson seemed to be holding himself in hand with a 
 struggle, but Austin smiled. 
 
HOVE OFF 199 
 
 " Well," he said, " if it comes at all it will get the right 
 one. I am not going home to be married. In fact, I 
 was told that it would be rather a graceful thing to come 
 back upon my shield, though I don't know that I would 
 like to do so looking as that nigger did. In the mean- 
 while I had, perhaps, better see to Wall-eye's hand." 
 
 He went out into the darkness, and Jefferson stood 
 still with his lips set tight, leaning on the table. He was in 
 some respects a hard man, and his sojourn in Africa had 
 not roused his gentler qualities, but just then he felt an 
 unpleasant physical nausea creeping over him again. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 HOVE OFF 
 
 THE rain came down in sheets, and the mangrove roots 
 were hidden by the yellow flood, when Jefferson stood 
 dripping on the Cumbria's bridge. Her iron deck was 
 level, the stumpy polemasts ran upright into the drifting 
 mist, and a column of black smoke floated sluggishly from 
 her rusty funnel. Dingy vapour also rose from the 
 slender one of the locomotive boiler, and cables, hemp 
 and wire and chain, stretched between the mangroves 
 and the steamer's bow and stern. Jefferson, leaning 
 heavily on the bridge-rails, considered them each in turn. 
 He shivered a little though the rain was warm, and his 
 wet face looked unusually gaunt and worn, but his eyes 
 were intent and steady, for at last all was ready for the 
 supreme effort of heaving the Cumbria off. 
 
 He looked down when Austin stopped at the foot of 
 the ladder. His face and hands were black, and the thin 
 singlet, which was all he wore above his duck trousers, 
 seemed glued to him. 
 
 " Hadn't you better keep inside the wheel-house until 
 we start the mill ? " he said. 
 
 Jefferson smiled dryly. " Do you think you could ? 
 What are you wandering up and down the deck for? t! 
 
200 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 " I'm not. I've been firing the locomotive boiler, 
 and spent the last twenty minutes in the forecastle. It 
 isn't as dry as it should be there." 
 
 He spoke lightly, though there was a suggestion of 
 tension in his voice, and it was evident that both of 
 them were anxious. Indeed, Jefferson fancied that his 
 comrade found it difficult to stand still at all. 
 
 " Well ? " he said. 
 
 " There are a third of them I daren't turn out, and 
 two or three of the others who are down with Tom look a 
 good deal shakier than I care about. Still, you see, I 
 couldn't keep them in. They've had about enough of 
 this country, and I don't blame them. You can figure 
 on about half of us as reasonably effective, but what 
 everybody wants to know is when we are to begin ? " 
 
 " When you can give me eighty pounds of steam. 
 Then we'll shake her up for an hour or two with reversed 
 propeller, and heave on everything when you get up the 
 hundred. Still, although we have blown a good deal 
 of the mud out forward, I expect she'll want another 
 fifty before she'll move." 
 
 Austin glanced at the gap in the forest beneath the 
 bows across which the shattered mangroves were strewn. 
 He and Jefferson had gone over all this before, but since 
 he had stopped by the ladder they must talk of some- 
 thing, for silence would have been intolerable just then. 
 
 " I'll go down and stir them up, though I'm not sure 
 that they need it." he said. 
 
 He disappeared round the deckhouse, and now there 
 was nobody to see him Jefferson paced feverishly up 
 and down the bridge, until Wall-eye the steward came 
 pattering barefoot along the deck with his arm in a sling. 
 Jefferson stopped him with a sign. 
 
 " Slip into Mr. Austin's room, and bring me the 
 thermometer he keeps in the little case," he said. 
 " As usual, no comprenny ? Casetta de cuero, very 
 chiquitita ? " 
 
 The man went away, and when he came back Jeffer- 
 
HOVE OFF 201 
 
 son, who went into the wheel-house, sucked the little 
 clinical thermometer gravely for a minute or two. Then 
 he frowned as he looked at it. 
 
 " Ninety-nine point something. I guess it's coming on 
 again/' he said. 
 
 " Well, one can go on working when it's a good deal 
 more than that, especially when he has to." 
 
 He came out, and leaning down, dropped the case into 
 the hands of the man below. 
 
 " Put it back, and don't let Mr. Austin know," he 
 said. " Senor Austin no savvy, you comprenny ? " 
 
 Wall-eye grinned as he went away. He could, of 
 course, hold his tongue, but the little case was sodden 
 already, and it could not have got so wet as that in 
 Austin's room. 
 
 In the meanwhile Austin had gone down to the stoke- 
 hold. The place was dimly lighted, and insufferably hot, 
 for with the Cumbria stationary no more air came down 
 the ventilator shafts than the fires would draw, and they 
 were burning sulkily. In fact, it was only by strenuous 
 labour that steam could be raised at all. Here and 
 there the pale flicker of an oil-lamp emphasized the gloom, 
 though there were three half-moon patches of brightness 
 in each of the two boilers, until a fierce red glow beat out 
 as Tom the donkey-man flung open a furnace door. 
 Then Austin gained some impression of his surroundings. 
 
 The bent figures of half-naked men with shovels were 
 forced up out of the shadows. Another man dripping 
 with perspiration, pushed a clattering truck, and several 
 more lay, apparently inert, upon the floor-plates with 
 water thick with coal grime trickling from them. Only 
 two of them were professional firemen, and all were 
 weakened by the climate or shaken by the fever, while, 
 as the red light touched them, Austin could see how worn 
 they were, and the suggestive hollows in their uncovered 
 skin. There are also things which it is unfit that a white 
 man should do, and firing in a calm in the tropics is one 
 of them. Austin, however, had little time to look about 
 
202 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 him in, for Tom thrust an iron bar into one of the Spani- 
 ard's hands. 
 
 " Stand by with the bucket, you. Now, out with 
 the clinker ! " he said. 
 
 It is probable that the last man addressed did not 
 understand what was said, but he knew how to clean a 
 fire, and stood half-crouching before the furnace with 
 face averted while he plied the bar. There was a rattling 
 beneath the grate-bars and an overpowering wave of 
 heat, in the midst of which the man stood bowed, with 
 thin garments scorching and his hair frizzling visibly. 
 Austin could hear his gasping breath, and became 
 possessed by a sense of futile indignation. Toil of that 
 kind was, he felt, more than could be expected of any- 
 thing made in the image of a man. Then the Canario let 
 the bar fall clanging, and seized another, while the heat 
 grew more intense when he raked out the ash and 
 glowing clinker from the flaming funnel. Austin shrank 
 back with a hand upon jhis eyes and singlet singeing, and 
 his voice broke through Tom's cry of " Damp her down ! " 
 
 " Por misericordia," he said, " echadle agua." 
 
 Somebody swung a bucket, and a cloud of steam whirled 
 up ; but the man who had cleaned the fire let his scraper 
 fall, and lurching with a half-strangled cry went down 
 amidst the vapour. He lay with scorched chest and 
 arms on the floor-plates, making little stertorous noises, 
 until Tom, who tore the bucket from his comrade's hands, 
 flung the rest of its contents over him. 
 
 " Drag him away ! " he said, and turned to Austin. 
 " He's the second one, but he'll come round by and by. 
 Did you come down to look on, or give us a hand ? " 
 
 He flung open another door, and Austin took a shovel 
 from a weary man. He had studied the art of firing up 
 on deck, where it was considerably cooler ; before the 
 locomotive boiler, but he discovered that the work now 
 demanded from him was an entirely different matter. 
 The heat was overpowering, the bed of glowing fuel long, 
 and it was only by the uttermost swing of shoulders 
 
HOVE OFF 203 
 
 and wrench of back and loins that he could effectively 
 distribute his shovelful. He felt his lowered face 
 scorching, and the sweat of effort dripped from him, but 
 he toiled on in Berserker fury while Tom encouraged him. 
 
 " Spread it ! " he said. " Next lot well down to the 
 back end. You needn't be afraid to move yourself. 
 Keep her thin." 
 
 Austin wondered whether he had any eyebrows left 
 when that furnace was filled, but it was done at last, 
 and then there was coal to be trimmed from the bunkers. 
 The dust that whirled about the shovels blackened and 
 choked him, but he worked on savagely. Every man 
 was needed with half the Spaniards sick, and he felt that 
 if this was the cost of success it was not fitting that he 
 should shirk his part in it. 
 
 He never remembered all he did. There was a con- 
 stant clanging of shovels, whirring of coal trucks, and 
 slamming of iron doors that opened to let out fiery heat 
 and radiance and take the flying fuel in. Men came and 
 went like phantoms, gasping, panting, groaning now and 
 then, and the voice of their leader rose stridently at 
 intervals. He was a man of low degree, and his com- 
 mands were not characterized by any particular delicacy, 
 but he was the man they needed, and when he emphasized 
 his instructions with a grimy hand, and now and then 
 the flat of the shovel, nobody resented it. During one 
 brief interlude he found breath for a deprecatory word or 
 two with Austin. 
 
 " If she was doing her eight or ten knots it wouldn't 
 be as hard as this/' he said. " Then the ventilators would 
 cool her down. The fires won't burn themselves now, 
 you have got to make them ; but you'll find her steam 
 sweet and easy when she's going up the Trades head to 
 breeze." 
 
 " I wonder," said Austin grimly, " how many of us 
 will be left when she gets there ? " 
 
 Then Bill, who had been busy at the locomotive 
 boiler, came down the ladder with a message, and he 
 
204 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 and Tom vanished into the engine-room, while Austin, 
 who greatly desired to go with them, put a restraint upon 
 himself. For some minutes he felt his heart beat as he 
 listened to a premonitory wheezing and panting, and 
 then his blood seemed to tingle as this merged into the 
 steady rumble of engines. The faint quiver of the floor- 
 plates sent a thrill through him, and he drew in a great 
 breath of relief when beam and angle commenced to 
 tremble. The rumbling grew steadily louder, the whirl 
 of the reversed propeller shook the ship, and it was 
 evident that the engines were running well. 
 
 After that, however, the work became harder still, 
 for the big cylinders must be fed, and it was with a sensa- 
 tion of thankfulness that he had not broken down be- 
 neath the strain. Austin dragged himself up the ladder 
 when a message was brought him that he was wanted 
 to drive the after-winch. It was raining heavily, but he 
 found it a relief to feel the deluge beat upon his beaded 
 face and scorched skin, though he could scarcely see the 
 mangroves the wire that ran from the winch-drum led in 
 among. It was shackled to a big bridle, a loop of twisted 
 steel that wound in and out among a rood or two of the 
 stoutest trees. The winch was also powerful, and it 
 remained to be seen whether it would heave the Cum- 
 bria out of her miry bed, or pull that portion of the 
 watery forest up bodily. A great cable that slanted back 
 towards him rose out of the water forward in a curve, 
 and he could dimly see Jefferson's lean figure outlined 
 against the drifting mist high up on the bridge. On the 
 forecastle beyond it more shadowy men stood still, and 
 Austin wondered whether their hearts beat as his did 
 while they waited. The man beside him stooped ready, 
 with body bent in a rigid curve and bare, stiffened arms, 
 clenching the wire that led off the winch-drum. There 
 was a minute's waiting, and then Jefferson moving 
 along the bridge flung up a hand. 
 
 " Heave ! " he said. 
 
 Austin felt his pulses quicken and a curious sense of 
 
HOVE OFF 205 
 
 exultation as he unscrewed the valve, for it seemed to 
 him that flesh and blood had borne the strain too long, 
 and now they had steel and steam to fight for them. The 
 deck beneath him quivered as the screw whirled faster, 
 and he could see the poop shaking visibly. Then the 
 winch wheezed and pounded, and there was a groaning 
 forward as the rattle of the windlass joined in. Wire and 
 hemp and studded chain rose dripping from the river, 
 creaked and groaned and strained, but when they had 
 drawn each curve out they could get no inch of slack in. 
 Austin clenched his fingers on the valve- wheel, but his eyes 
 were fixed on the lonely figure pacing feverishly up and 
 down the bridge, and just then he felt all the bitterness 
 of defeat. The rattle forward died away, and though 
 the winch still whirred and hammered none of the wire- 
 rope ran over the drum into the crouching Spaniards' 
 hands. The tension lasted for some minutes, and then 
 Jefferson's voice came down harshly through the rain. 
 
 " Let up ! " he said. " Get down, half of you, and see 
 if you can help them with the firing. We'll try her 
 again when you have raised more steam." 
 
 There was by contrast a curious silence when the roar 
 of steam died away, and the thudding of the big engines 
 below decks sank to a lower pitch. The men who 
 could be spared went down in a body, and toiled for an- 
 other hour in a frenzy. The fierce Latin blood was up ; 
 they knew it was the last round, and they would not be 
 beaten now. The throbbing blast which rushed sky- 
 wards from the blow-off valve when they came up again 
 showed what they had done, and Austin walked aft, 
 singed and blackened, to his winch, with his heart in 
 his mouth. It must be now or never, for it was clear 
 to him that the men were making their last effort and 
 the boilers would not bear another pound of steam. 
 
 The windlass was groaning horribly when he opened 
 the valve, and the whole ship trembled with the whirring 
 of the screw. He saw the drums spin round futilely for 
 a moment or two, and then the Spaniard, who crouched 
 
206 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 behind one of them, howled as a foot of the uncoiling 
 wire came back to his hands. Simultaneously the groan- 
 ing of the windlass changed to a clanking rattle, and no 
 sound had ever seemed half so musical to Austin. The 
 ship shook beneath him and creaked in all her frame, 
 while the hammering and rattling swelled into a frantic 
 din as she commenced to move. He felt as though he 
 were choking, and his sight momentarily failed him ; but 
 as yet the battle was not quite won, and closing blackened 
 fingers on the valve-wheel he watched the rope come 
 home with dazzled eyes. It ran in faster and faster ; he 
 could hear the great stud-cable splashing and grinding 
 as it came in, too, and for five breathless minutes he 
 held himself to his task, feeling the Cumbria creep down- 
 stream stern foremost under him. Then her pace grew 
 faster, and the clanging of his winch seemed to deafen 
 him, until at last a shrill-pitched voice fell through the 
 din. 
 
 " Bastante ! " it said. " She's clear now. 'Vast 
 heaving." 
 
 Then the tension slackened as the long rusty hull 
 swung out into mid-stream, and flesh and blood were 
 left shaken, and as yet unable to recover from the 
 suddenly lifted strain in the silence as winch and en- 
 gines stopped. Tom the donkey-man was chanting some 
 incoherent ribaldry forward ; here and there a Canario 
 howled or flung up dripping arms ; while the one 
 beside Austin sat down upon the hatch and rocked 
 himself to and fro as he called upon the Queen of Heaven. 
 Only Jefferson stood very still, a tall lean figure, on 
 the bridge, with his torn and drenched clothing sticking 
 to him, and Austin leaned heavily upon his winch. 
 He did not wish to move, and was not sure he could 
 have done so had he wanted to. The Cumbria was 
 clear afloat, and they had won ; but there was nothing 
 he could say or do which would sufficiently celebrate 
 that triumph. 
 
 Jefferson gave them five minutes to recover their 
 
JEFFERSON FINDS THE GUM 207 
 
 balance in, and then his voice came down again. The 
 windlass clanked its hardest, wire hawsers splashed, 
 and the Cumbria had swung across to the opposite 
 forest when the big anchor rose to her bows. In the 
 meanwhile the surf-boat had been busy, too ; and 
 when the winch whirred again they slid away stern 
 foremost with propeller churning slowly against the 
 muddy stream. It was twenty minutes later when 
 with a roar of running cable the anchor plunged once 
 more, and she brought up abreast of the creek where 
 the coal and oil were stored. Jefferson came down 
 from his bridge, and sat down on the table in the skipper's 
 room when Austin flung himself on to the settee with 
 the water trickling from him. 
 
 " Well," he said, " we have floated her, but there's 
 still a good deal to be done. There are the coal and 
 oil to get on board, and then we have to find the 
 gum." 
 
 Austin looked up at him with a little smile. 
 
 ' v That's rather a prosaic epilogue when one comes 
 to think of it/' he said. 
 
 " Then you can paint a picture of it when you get 
 home, if you fancy it worth while," said Jefferson 
 dryly. 
 
 " I don't think it would be," and Austin smiled 
 again. " After all, a picture either goes beyond or 
 falls a long way short of the real thing, and the subject's 
 rather too big for me. Man's domination symbolized 
 by a staggering scarecrow with a fireman's shovel ! " 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 JEFFERSON FINDS THE GUM 
 
 A HALF-MOON shone in a rift between the massed banks 
 of cloud when Austin stood looking down into the trench 
 four of the Spaniards were digging. It ran partly 
 across the islet, which was small and sandy, intersecting 
 another excavation that had a palm at one end of it, 
 
208 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 while a half-rotten cottonwood, from which orchids 
 sprang, stood in line with the one the men were toiling 
 in. They were shovelling strenuously, and the thud 
 of the sand they flung out jarred upon the silence, 
 for the night was very still. Austin could hear the 
 creek lapping on the beach, and the deep humming of 
 the Cumbria s pump softened by the distance. She 
 lay with a light or two blinking fitfully on board her 
 half, a mile away, ready at last for sea. Then he glanced 
 at Jefferson, who stood close beside him, shivering a 
 little, though the night was hot, as he leaned upon a 
 shovel. 
 
 " We have been at it at least a couple of hours," 
 he said suggestively. 
 
 Jefferson laughed. " And we'll be here this time to- 
 morrow unless we find the case. There's only one on 
 this islet, that fellow said, and, as I tried to point out, 
 the men who buried it would probably want to get 
 the thing done quickly. They'd run a line from the two 
 trees, and either dump the case at the intersection 
 or a few paces outside it on a given bearing. If we 
 don't strike it in a few minutes we'll work a traverse." 
 
 Ten minutes passed, and then one of the Canarios 
 cried out excitedly as he struck something with his 
 shovel. Austin saw his comrade's hand quiver on 
 the shovel-haft in the moonlight, but that was all, 
 and next moment two of the Spaniards fell on hands 
 and knees in the sand. They flung it up in showers 
 with their fingers, while Austin by an effort stood very 
 still, for he felt that he might do things he would be 
 sorry for afterwards if he let himself go. The Latins 
 were panting in their eagerness, and wallowing rather 
 like beasts than men amidst the flying sand. Then 
 one of them who dragged something out hove it up and 
 flung it at Austin's feet, with a gasp of consternation. 
 
 " Ah, maldito ! Es muy chiquitita," he said. 
 
 Austin set his lips as he glanced at his comrade 
 whose face grew suddenly hard. 
 
JEFFERSON FINDS THE GUM 209 
 
 " Yes/' he said with portentous quietness. " It is 
 remarkably small, and by the way he hove it up there 
 can't be very much in it." 
 
 They stood still a moment looking down at the little 
 wooden case ; while the Spaniards clustered round 
 them with eyes that gleamed in the moonlight, breath- 
 ing unevenly. Then Jefferson said : " Light that blast- 
 lamp, and we'll open it." 
 
 Austin's fingers trembled, and he wasted several 
 matches before the sheet of flame sprang up. Then 
 he fell furiously upon the case with a hammer and 
 splintered the lid. He plunged his hand in and took 
 out a quill, which he twisted until it burst and spilled a 
 little heap of gleaming grains in his palm. 
 
 " It's gold/' he said. 
 
 " Empty the lot ! " said Jefferson, and his voice 
 was hoarse. " Your hat is big enough. It will all 
 go into it." 
 
 There was a low murmur from the Spaniards when 
 Austin obeyed him, and he handed the wide-brimmed 
 hat to Jefferson. 
 
 " Would you make it four pounds ? " asked the 
 latter. 
 
 " I certainly would not." 
 
 Jefferson laughed harshly. " Then it's probably 
 worth some 200," he said. " It's rather a grim joke, 
 considering what has no doubt been done for the sake 
 of it." 
 
 He laid the hat down, and one of the Spaniards, 
 glancing at the little pile of quills, broke into a torrent 
 of horrible maledictions, while Austin, who said nothing, 
 gazed at his comrade until the latter made a curious 
 little gesture. 
 
 " There is still the gum," he said. 
 
 Austin smiled sardonically. " If you can still be- 
 lieve in it you are an optimist of the finest water. Any- 
 way, we'll go and look for it. It will be a relief to 
 get done with the thing." 
 
210 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 They waded to the surf-boat, which lay close by en 
 the beach, and slid down-stream to an adjacent island, 
 where they had no difficulty in finding the tree the 
 man who made the note in the engineer's tables had 
 alluded to. The moon had, however, sunk behind a 
 cloud again, and they toiled by the light of the blast- 
 lamp for half an hour, until once more one of the Can- 
 arios struck something with his shovel. They dragged 
 it out with difficulty, and found it to be a heavy, half- 
 rotten bag with something that appeared to be a package 
 of plaited fibre inside it. Other bags followed, and 
 hope was growing strong in them again when they 
 had disclosed at least a score. Jefferson looked at 
 Austin with a little smile in his eyes. 
 
 " There's a couple of hundred pounds, anyway, 
 in each of those bags, and if the man who told me was 
 right that stuff is worth anything over 100 the ton/' 
 he said. " So far as we have prospected, this strip of 
 sand is full of them. It's going to be more profitable 
 than gold-mining. We'll get this lot into the surf- 
 boat first. Put that lamp out." 
 
 Austin did so, and they staggered through a foot or 
 two of water with the bags on their backs. Some of 
 them burst as they carried them, but the fibre packages 
 remained intact, and the big boat was almost loaded 
 when Austin, who was breathless, seated himself for 
 a moment on her gunwale. He could see by the silvery 
 gleam on the cloud-bank's edge that the moon was 
 coming through again, and he was glad of the fact, 
 for he had stumbled and once fallen heavily under 
 his burden when floundering through the strip of 
 thorny brushwood which fringed the beach. Still, he 
 agreed with Jefferson that it was not advisable to use 
 the big blast-light any longer than was absolutely 
 necessary, for they had both an unpleasant suspicion 
 that they had not done yet with Funnel-paint. It was 
 indeed, for that reason they had made the search 
 at night and used the surf-boat, which could be paddled 
 
JEFFERSON FINDS THE GUM 211 
 
 almost silently, instead of the launch, though Tom 
 had repaired her boiler, and she was then lying alongside 
 the Cumbria with steam up ready. 
 
 The black hull of the latter was faintly visible, and 
 as he glanced at it he fancied that a puff of white steam 
 sprang up where he supposed the locomotive boiler 
 to be. A moment later a thin, shrill scream rang 
 through the stillness, and one of the Spaniards startled 
 by the sound fell heavily against the boat with the 
 bag he was carrying. Austin made a sign to Jefferson, 
 who was staggering across the beach with a bag upon 
 his back. 
 
 " They're whistling," he said. " I fancy I can 
 hear the launch coming. 1 ' 
 
 There was another hoarser scream, and when it 
 died away a low thudding sound crept out of the dark- 
 ness. Austin swept his gaze up river, but could only 
 see the shadowy mangroves, for the moon had not 
 come through yet. 
 
 " Funnel-paint," said Jefferson breathlessly. " There 
 are four more bags in sight. We'll get her afloat be- 
 fore we go for them." 
 
 They did it up to their waists in water, and it cost 
 them an effort, for the big boat was heavy now ; and 
 then, though the Spaniards glanced longingly at the 
 Cumbria's blinking lights, Jefferson insisted upon 
 them carrying down the bags. When that was done 
 nobody lost any time in getting on board, and, grasping 
 the paddles, they drove her out into the stream. 
 
 " Paddle ! " said Jefferson grimly. " I guess it's 
 for your lives." 
 
 It is probable that the Spaniards did not under- 
 stand him, but they did what they could, for while 
 the clank of the launch's engines grew louder the sound 
 of paddles was also rapidly drawing nearer. There 
 were, however, very few of them, and the boat was 
 big, while Austin gasped with relief when at last the 
 little steamer swept round her stern. 
 
212 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 " Stand by for the line/' said Tom, who sprang 
 up on her deck. " They can't be far off. It's ten 
 minutes, anyway, since we heard their paddles." 
 
 The tow-line was caught, and tightened with a jerk, 
 and the surf-boat went upstream with the yellow water 
 frothing about her, while Austin could hear the rhyth- 
 mic thud of paddles through the clank of hard-pressed 
 engines. Jefferson said nothing, but stood rigidly 
 still, with hands clenched on the big steering oar, until 
 they drove alongside the Cumbria. 
 
 " Up with you, Tom, and see they whip those bags 
 in," he said. " I want the case you'll find under the 
 settee in my room, too. You'll sing out for two or 
 three men who can be relied on, Austin." 
 
 " What are you going to do ? " asked Austin. 
 
 Jefferson laughed unpleasantly. " Head the devils 
 off from the island anyway, and if it's necessary oblit- 
 erate some of Funnel-paint's friends. It's fortunate 
 the launch has twice the speed of any canoe." 
 
 He clambered on board the launch, and when a 
 few more men came scrambling down swung her out 
 before they could decide whether it would be wiser 
 to climb back again. After that he left the helm to 
 Austin, and, moving towards the engine, opened the 
 valve wide. 
 
 " Head her for the islet. If they have had any- 
 body watching us i/i a canoe they'll go there first," 
 he said. 
 
 Austin made a sign of comprehension, but said no- 
 thing until his comrade, sitting down, opened the case 
 he had asked for. Then he became possessed by un- 
 pleasant apprehensions as he saw Jefferson take out 
 several rolls of giant-powder with fuses attached to 
 them. They looked exactly like candles now, only 
 the wicks were black and unusually long. Sitting 
 still, very grim in face, he tied one or two together, 
 and then nipped a piece or two off the fuses with his 
 knife. 
 
JEFFERSON FINDS THE GUM 213 
 
 " I guess it would be as well to make sure," he said. 
 
 " Of what ? " asked Austin. 
 
 " That they'll go off when I want them," and Jeffer- 
 son laughed a little grating laugh. " I've had them 
 ready for some while, and took a good deal of trouble 
 timing the fuses. Now, the effect of giant-powder's 
 usually local, and I figure one could throw these things 
 far enough for us to keep outside the striking radius. 
 They'd go better with a little compression, but there's 
 a big detonator inside them which should stir them up 
 without it. If these two sticks fell upon a nigger 
 they wouldn't blow him up. They'd dissolve him 
 right into gases, and it's quite probable there wouldn't 
 be a trace of him left." 
 
 Austin asked no more questions. Worn as he was 
 by tense effort and the climate, kept awake as he had 
 been to watch when he might have slept at night, 
 and troubled by vague apprehensions that the loath- 
 some plague might be working in his blood, he was 
 ready, and, perhaps, rather more than that, to turn 
 upon the man who had made their heavy burden more 
 oppressive still. Indeed, it would have been a relief 
 to him to feel the jump of a rifle-barrel in his hand, 
 but from Jefferson's scheme he shrank almost aghast. 
 To run amuck in Berserker fury with flashing pistol or 
 smashing firebar among the canoes would have appeared 
 to him a natural thing, but the calculating quietness 
 of his comrade, who sat so unconcernedly making sure 
 that the rolls of plastic material should not fail, struck 
 him as wholly abnormal and a trifle horrible. Pistol 
 shot, matchet slash, and spear thrust were things that 
 one might face ; but it seemed beyond toleration that 
 another man should unloose the tremendous poten- 
 tialities pent up in those yellow rolls upon flesh and 
 blood. 
 
 He was, however, quite aware that there was nothing 
 to be gained by protesting, and while Jefferson went on 
 with his grim preparations he turned his gaze up river 
 
214 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 towards the approaching canoes. He could see them 
 clearly, black bars that slid with glinting paddles 
 athwart a track of silvery radiance, for the half -moon 
 had sailed out from behind the cloud. They were 
 coming on in a phalanx, five or six of them, and the 
 splash and thud of the paddles rose in a rhythmic din. 
 He swung the launch's bows a trifle down-stream to 
 run in between them and the island. 
 
 Then he turned again, and saw Bill the fireman 
 watching Jefferson. The light of the engine lantern 
 was on his face, and it showed wry and repulsive with 
 its little venomous grin. Forward, the Spaniards were 
 clustered together, and they were by their movements 
 apparently loosening their wicked knives, but they 
 showed no sign of consternation, and Austin became 
 sensible of a change in his mood. It seemed to him 
 that he and they had grown accustomed to fear, and 
 felt it less, in the land of shadow. If they were to be 
 wiped out by a spear thrust, or Jefferson's giant- 
 powder, which seemed equally likely, nothing that he 
 could do would avert it, but by degrees he became 
 possessed by a quiet vindictive anger against the man 
 who had forced this quarrel on them when their task 
 was almost done. There were, he fancied, fifty or 
 sixty men in the canoes, and he felt a little thrill of 
 grim satisfaction as he reflected that if he and his com- 
 rades went under they would not go alone. In fact, 
 he could almost sympathize with Jefferson now. 
 
 In the meanwhile the canoes were drawing level 
 with them as they approached the islet. He could see 
 the wet paddles glinting, and the naked bodies swing, 
 while presently, Jefferson, who made Bill a little sign 
 to stop the engine, stood up on the side-deck. The 
 case of giant-powder lay open at his feet, and Bill laid 
 a glowing iron on the cylinder-covering. The men 
 in the canoes ceased paddling, and while the craft slid 
 slowly nearer each other there was for a moment or 
 two an impressive silence, through which Austin fancied 
 
JEFFERSON FINDS THE GUM 215 
 
 he could hear a faint rhythmic throbbing. Then Jeffer- 
 son, who cut one of the rolls of giant-powder through, 
 flung up his hand. 
 
 " Where you lib for, Funnel-paint ? " he shouted. 
 
 " Them beach/' said the negro, and his voice reached 
 them clearly. " We done come for them gum. You lib 
 for 'teamboat before we cut you t'roat." 
 
 "Then I'm going to put the biggest kind of Ju-ju 
 on to you/' said Jefferson. r< You savvy how I blow 
 up them headman's house ? If you don't want to be 
 
 blown up like it lib for up river one time, and be 
 
 to you ! " 
 
 There was probably only one man among them 
 who partly understood him, but his gesture was fierce 
 and commanding, and the confused splashing of paddles 
 suggested that some, at least, of the negroes were 
 impressed. Two of the canoes moved backwards 
 against the stream, and while Funnel-paint cried out in 
 his own tongue Jefferson stopped. 
 
 " Touch that on the iron, Bill," he said. 
 
 In another moment he stood very straight again with 
 a dim object that sparkled in his hand, and then hurled 
 it at the island. It fell amidst the brushwood, out of 
 which there sprang a sheet of flame that was followed 
 by a detonation and a great upheaval of flying sand. 
 Then the paddles splashed confusedly, and in another 
 minute or two the canoes were a hundred yards away. 
 After that there was silence, broken only by the voice 
 of Funnel-paint, who seemed to be flinging reproaches 
 at his friends, and a faint, dull throbbing which Austin 
 fancied was a trifle plainer than before. Then Jefferson 
 laughed as he took up another stick of giant-powder. 
 
 " That seems to have scared them, but if they come 
 back again they'll get the next one in the middle of 
 them," he said. 
 
 " Listen ! " said Austin, holding up his hand. " Can't 
 you hear engines ? " 
 
 Jefferson swung round sharply, and the scream of a 
 
216 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 whistle came shrilly across the water from the Cumbria 
 just then. It was answered by another of a deeper tone, 
 and a blaze of blue light sprang up, apparently out 
 of the creek. It showed a black shape that wallowed 
 through a mass of piled-up foam. 
 
 " A launch ! " said Jefferson. " A fast one." 
 
 " No/' said Austin. " A pinnace. A gunboat's 
 pinnace. Ah, the canoes are going." 
 
 There was a sudden thudding of paddles, and the 
 canoes melted into the darkness as the moon sailed 
 behind a cloud again, but the whirr and thump of 
 engines was drawing nearer, and Jefferson reached 
 down for the lantern. 
 
 " Well," he said, " a good deal depends upon what 
 country she belongs to, and it's quite likely we're 
 going to have trouble. Still, we have got to face it 
 now." 
 
 He waved the lantern, and while the whirr of engines 
 slackened a voice came out of the darkness. 
 
 " Launch ahoy ! Is that the Cumbria yonder ? " 
 it said in excellent English. 
 
 Austin took the lantern from Jefferson with a soft 
 laugh. 
 
 " I'll take charge now you see I'm acquainted with 
 my countrymen's little peculiarities," he said, and 
 raised his voice a trifle. " It is. If you don't mind 
 steaming that far we should consider it a pleasure to 
 do anything we can for you." 
 
 " If you have no great objections, I'll come on board 
 now," said the other man. " Starboard a little. Start 
 her slow." 
 
 There was a whirring of engines, a little, very trim 
 pinnace crept up alongside, and a young man in imma- 
 culate white uniform stepped out on the launch's 
 deck. 
 
 " Ah," he said, " Mr. Austin ! I've had the pleasure 
 of meeting you before. What has become of the 
 niggers ? " 
 
AUSTIN'S TOAST 217 
 
 " Which niggers ? " asked Jefferson carelessly. 
 
 The young officer looked at him with a little dry smile, 
 and it was evident that his eyes were keen, for he made 
 a sign to Bill, who was about to secrete the giant- 
 powder. 
 
 " I am/' he said, " under the impression that you 
 know a good deal more about them than I do. We 
 have rather good glasses, and I certainly made out 
 four or five canoes. May I ask what that stuff is 
 yonder ? " 
 
 " It is what, I believe, is called in America giant- 
 powder," said Austin. " We found it useful in blowing 
 the mangroves up." 
 
 " Quite so ! " said the officer. " In fact, we heard 
 the detonation. Still, I dare say there are several 
 things we should like to ask each other about, and you 
 suggested going across to your steamer." 
 
 " I did," said Austin. " We should be glad of your 
 company for to-night, at least, though I'm afraid we 
 can't offer you very much to eat. This is my partner. 
 Jefferson Lieutenant Onslow." 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 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 floorings 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 
 
218 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 gunboat's surgeon, who had been round the forecastle, 
 was talking to Austin, while her commander lay oppo- 
 site 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 waterline, and one can't get at it well when 
 she's washing along through as well, 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 wine-glass, and thrust the bottle 
 across the table. 
 
 " I think I know the lady's name," he said. " This 
 is the first time 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 me 
 passing the kindness on." 
 
AUSTIN'S TOAST 219 
 
 " 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 apologize to her and both of 
 you." 
 
 Jefferson stood up with the wine-glass 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 ap- 
 parent ; 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. 
 
220 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 " 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 it. 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 atten- 
 tion, 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 dryly. " 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 recognized that the 
 advice was good, and, changing the subject, he spoke 
 to the surgeon. The latter looked thoughtful. 
 
AUSTIN'S TOAST 221 
 
 " 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 Oslow and the surgeon offered to 
 accompany him, and they went down the ladder to- 
 gether 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 to 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 would be used in certain processes 
 whatever its cost might be. The only trouble was 
 that it appeared very difficult to get hold of except 
 
222 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 in the smallest quantities, but, perhaps, your Frenchman 
 had got upon 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, 
 
AUSTIN'S TOAST 223 
 
 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 very like entertaining anybody 
 just now." 
 
 He and the surgeon withdrew to the rooms pre- 
 pared 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 little 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. Jeffer- 
 son, who bade them good-bye at the gangway, stood 
 leaning on the rail while the pinnace steamed away, 
 and then walked, with a 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 stokehold 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 
 
HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 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 surf-boat 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 a surf-boat and steam- 
 launch, and in the good days had sailed his yacht 
 along the coast at home. He had also 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 after- 
 noon, and the Cumbria steered handily, which, since 
 there were awkward bends to swing round, was fortu- 
 nate 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 round the bend at all he must go at it 
 
AUSTIN'S TOAST 225 
 
 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 man- 
 groves 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 underfoot. 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 
 
 H 
 
226 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 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 ad- 
 mitted afterward, perhaps a somewhat feeble thing, but 
 he said he felt the occasion demanded something then. 
 
 After that they had no great difficulty, and by night- 
 fall 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 Palm as. 
 
IN COMMAND 227 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 IN COMMAND 
 
 AUSTIN was quite aware that he had his work cut out 
 when he was left in command of the Cumbria, with half 
 her crew sick and her skipper raving deliriously. He 
 knew very little about medicine, and certainly no 
 more about what may be termed the astronomical 
 side of navigation, and after several attempts decided 
 that it was beyond his ability to take an accurate 
 solar observation. There were, however, other, though 
 not very reliable, means of approximately, ascertaining 
 the ship's position which he was acquainted with, and 
 he nerved himself afresh for a grapple with what most 
 men would, under the circumstances, have considered 
 insuperable difficulties. 
 
 He had two Spaniards who could be trusted to keep 
 the steamer more or less on the course he gave them, 
 while the Cumbria steered handily, which is more than 
 all steamers do. There was a large-scale chart, con- 
 siderably mildewed, but still legible, in the skipper's 
 room, as well as a pilot guide to the West African coast, 
 while the patent log that towed astern to record the 
 distance run appeared to be working accurately. He 
 could thus, it was evident, depend in some degree upon 
 what is termed dead-reckoning, which is comparatively 
 reliable in the case of short distances run in the vicinity 
 of a high, well-lighted coast. The one the Cumbria 
 steamed along was, however, not lighted at all, and 
 most of it scarcely rose a foot above sea-level, while 
 when he had ruled the line she was presumed to be 
 travelling on across the chart, and pricked off the distance 
 the patent log told him she had run, there remained 
 the question how far the tide and the Guinea-stream 
 had deflected it, and whether the steering and her 
 compasses could be trusted. 
 
228 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 It was also rather an important question, and when 
 he had on several occasions peered for an hour at a 
 time through Jefferson's glasses in search of a cape or 
 island which the chart indicated should be met with, 
 and saw only a hazy line of beach, or a dingy smear 
 on the horizon which might be mangroves, or quite 
 as likely a trail of mist, the probability of his ever 
 reaching the Canaries seemed very remote indeed. 
 There would, he fancied, be no great difficulty in obtain- 
 ing a mate and two or three seamen from one of the 
 steamers he came across, but in that case the strangers 
 would expect half the value of the Cumbria's hull and 
 cargo, and very likely make their claim to it good. 
 He was also aware that more experienced skippers 
 than he was had put their ships ashore upon that 
 coast ; but what troubled him most was the fact that 
 if he lost sight of it, or found no point that he could 
 identify, he would have nothing to start from when he 
 must boldly head her out across the open ocean. 
 
 She had rolled along at six to eight knots with the 
 big pump going for several days when a trail of smoke 
 crept out of the western horizon. Austin watched it 
 anxiously, and when at last a strip of black hull and 
 a yellow funnel grew into shape beneath it summoned 
 the donkey-man, and with his assistance, which was 
 not especially reliable, worried over the signal code 
 painted on the flag rack in the wheel-house when he 
 had stopped the engines. It was almost obliterated, 
 and most of the flags themselves were missing ; but 
 between them they picked out sundry strips of mildewed 
 bunting and sent them up to the masthead. The little 
 West-coast mail-boat was close alongside now, and 
 flags also commenced to flutter up between her masts, 
 while her whistle screamed in long and short blasts. 
 Austin, anxious as he was, laughed a little. 
 
 " That is apparently the Morse code, and it's un- 
 fortunate that neither of us understands it," he said. 
 " I presume it means that they can make nothing of 
 
IN COMMAND 229 
 
 our flags, and one could hardly blame them. Anyway, 
 we have got to stop her." 
 
 Tom grinned as he pulled an armful of tattered 
 ensign out of a locker. " This one should do the trick/' 
 he said. " I'd start the whistle." 
 
 Austin drew the lanyard, and when the ensign blew 
 out on the hot air Union down the mail-boat stopped, 
 and, considering that they were steamboat men, her 
 crew had a white gig over in a very creditable time. 
 She came flying towards the Cumbria with four negroes at 
 the oars, and when she slid alongside a young mate in 
 trim white uniform came up a rope. 
 
 " You might have slung me the ladder down," he 
 said, gazing about him in blank astonishment. " Paint 
 is evidently scarce where you come from. I've seen 
 smarter craft in a wrecker's yard. Still, I can't stop 
 here talking. What do you want ? " 
 
 " A doctor, for one thing," said Austin, to gain 
 time. " We have half the crew down in the fore- 
 castle." 
 
 The mate walked to the rails, and shouted to his 
 boat-boys, while when the gig slid away he pointed 
 up at the drooping flags as he turned to Austin. 
 
 " I suppose it's artistic, the colouring I .mean," 
 he said. " Still, it's a trifle difficult to make out by 
 either code." 
 
 Austin laughed. " Come into my room and have 
 a drink. There are one or two things I want to ask 
 you." 
 
 Five minutes later he spread a mildewed chart on 
 the table as they sat with a bottle of Jacinta's wine 
 before them. 
 
 " Now," he said, " if you will tell me exactly where 
 we are, I'd be much obliged to you." 
 
 " You don't know ? " and the mate looked at him 
 curiously. 
 
 " Since you can't undertake any salvage operations 
 with the mails on board, I don't mind admitting that 
 
230 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 I'm far from sure. You see, we have only one navigator, 
 and if you were forward just now you would hear 
 him raving. I've got to take her somehow on dead 
 reckoning to the Canaries." 
 
 The mate opened his mouth and gasped. " Well," he 
 said simply, " may I be " 
 
 " I suppose that's natural, but it isn't much use to 
 me. I've been creeping along the coast so far, but 
 it's evident that if I stick to it I won't reach Las Palmas. 
 I want a definite point from which to make a start for 
 the ocean run." 
 
 The mate pulled a pin out of the chart, and measuring 
 with the dividers, stuck it in again. " You're not 
 quite so much out as I expected you would be," he 
 said. " It's a straight run to the Isleta, Grand Canary. 
 Whether you'll ever get there with the compass and 
 the patent log is another matter, though, of course, 
 if you go on long enough you'll fetch some part of 
 America. I don't want to be unduly inquisitive, 
 but you will have lost, at least, an hour before I put 
 Pills on board again, and I really think there is a little 
 you should tell me." 
 
 Austin briefly outlined his adventures, and when he 
 had finished the mate brought his fist down with a 
 bang on the table. 
 
 " Well," he said, " you have evidently excellent 
 nerves of your own, and I'm not quite so sure as I was 
 that you'll never get her home. I don't mind ad- 
 mitting now that at first I thought you were crazy. 
 It's evident that your compass and patent log are all 
 right, but you'll have to get your latitude and longitude, 
 at least, occasionally, and I'll bend on some signals any 
 skipper you come across would understand. If he's 
 particularly good-natured he might chalk it on a board." 
 
 He stopped a moment with a little sardonic smile. 
 " As a matter of fact, it's not quite so unusual a question 
 as you might suppose." 
 
 Austin thanked him profusely, and felt a good deal 
 
IN COMMAND 231 
 
 easier when he and the mail-boat's doctor, who arrived 
 presently and gave him good advice, went away. Then 
 with a blast of her whistle the Cumbria steamed on to 
 the west again, and it was three or four days later, 
 and she was plunging along with dripping forecastle 
 at a little over six knots against the Trades, when 
 Austin had trouble with Jefferson. He was asleep in 
 his room aft, and awakening suddenly wondered for 
 a moment or two what was wrong, until it dawned on 
 him that it was the unusual quietness which had roused 
 him. Then he sprang from his berth and hastened 
 out on deck, for it was evident that the engines had 
 stopped. 
 
 There was clear moonlight overhead, and the ship 
 was rolling heavily, while as he looked forward a cla- 
 mour broke out beneath the bridge where grimy men 
 came scrambling up from the stokehole gratings. It 
 was light enough for him to see their blackened faces and 
 their excited gestures. Other men were, he fancied 
 from the pattering on the iron deck, also moving in 
 that direction from the forecastle ; but what most 
 astonished him was the sight of a gaunt white figure 
 pacing up and down the bridge. While he gazed at it 
 Wall-eye came running towards him breathlessly. 
 
 "The Senor Jefferson has stopped the ship/' he 
 said. " He has a pistol, and Maccario, who is shut up 
 in the wheel-house, shouts us that he will go back to 
 Africa again." 
 
 Austin, who knew a little about malarial fever by 
 this time, ran forward, and met Tom at the foot of the 
 bridge-ladder. The latter laid a grimy finger on his 
 forehead significantly. 
 
 " Right off his dot ! I don't know what's to be 
 done," he said. " It would be easier if he hadn't that 
 pistol." 
 
 A gong clanged beneath them while they considered 
 it, and Tom shook his head. " He has been ringing 
 all over the telegraph from full-speed to hard- astern/' 
 
232 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 he said. " I don't know if he'd give you the pistol, 
 but when I got half-way up the ladder he said he'd 
 put a bullet into me. Anyway, if you went up and 
 talked to him while I crawled up quiet by the other 
 ladder, I might get him by the foot or slip in behind 
 him." 
 
 Austin was by no means anxious to face the pistol, 
 but it was evident that something must be done, and 
 he went up the ladder as unconcernedly as he could. 
 When he reached the head of it Jefferson beat upon 
 the wheel-house window with his fist. 
 
 " What's her head to the westwards for ? " he said. 
 " Port, hard over. Can't you hear inside there ? " 
 
 The steering-engine rattled, and it was evident that 
 the helmsman was badly afraid, but in another moment 
 Jefferson had swung away from the wheel-house and 
 was wrenching at the telegraph again. 
 
 " What's the matter with these engines ? " he 
 said. " I want her backed while I swing her under a 
 ported helm. I'll plug somebody certain if this is 
 a mutiny/' 
 
 He opened the big revolver, and closed it with a 
 suggestive click, while it cost Austin an effort to walk 
 quietly along the bridge. Jefferson's eyes were glitter- 
 ing, his hair hung down on his face, which was grey 
 and drawn, dank with perspiration, and his hands and 
 limbs were quivering. His voice, however, although 
 a trifle hoarser, was very like his usual one, so much 
 so, in fact, that Austin found it difficult to believe 
 the man's mind was unhinged by fever. He whirled 
 round when he heard Austin, without a trace of recogni- 
 tion in his eyes. 
 
 " Now," he said, " why can't I get what I want 
 done ? " 
 
 " You're very sick," said Austin quietly. " Hadn't 
 you better go back to bed ? " 
 
 Jefferson laughed. " Yes," he said, " I guess I am, or 
 these brutes wouldn't try to take advantage of me. Still, 
 
IN COMMAND 233 
 
 in another minute you're going to see me make a hole in 
 somebody." 
 
 He leaned heavily on the bridge-rails with the pistol 
 glinting in his hand, and Austin endeavoured to answer 
 him soothingly. 
 
 " What do you want to go back to Africa for ? " he 
 said. " There wouldn't be any difficulty about it if it 
 was necessary/' 
 
 " Funnel-paint's there. They brought me away when 
 I was sick, or I'd (have killed him." He made a little 
 gesture and dropped his hoarse voice. " You see, I had 
 a partner who stood by me through everything, and 
 Funnel-paint sent down a rotting nigger." 
 
 " Your partner's all right/' said Austin, who saw that 
 Jefferson was as far from recognizing him as ever. " I've 
 excellent reasons for being sure of it." 
 
 Jefferson leaned towards him confidentially with one 
 hand on the rails. 
 
 " It hasn't come out, but it's bound to get him. The 
 nigger had his arms round him. Then he'll have to hide 
 in a dark hole where nobody can see him, while the flesh 
 rots off him, until he dies." 
 
 Austin could not help a shiver. He knew the thing 
 might happen, and he realized now that it had also been 
 on Jefferson's mind. Still, it was in the meanwhile his 
 business to get the pistol from the latter, and then put 
 him in his berth, by force if necessary. 
 
 " The difficulty is that you can't kill a man twice," he 
 said. " I seem to have a notion that you hove a stick of 
 dynamite into Funnel-paint's canoe." 
 
 " I could have done, and I meant to, but my partner 
 was with me. I had to humour him. That man stood 
 by me." 
 
 Austin stood still looking at him, a little bewildered by 
 it all. The mail-boat doctors and some of the traders he 
 had met at Las Palmas had more than once related curi- 
 ous examples of the mental aberration which now and then 
 results from malarial fever. Still, Jefferson, whom he 
 
234 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 had left scarcely fit to raise his head in his bunk, was now 
 apparently almost sensible and, what was more astonish- 
 ing, able, at least, to walk about. Then, when he won- 
 dered how he was to get his comrade down from the 
 bridge, the latter turned to him with a sudden change of 
 mood. 
 
 " You're keeping me talking while they play some trick 
 on me," he said. " All right ! In another moment 
 you'll be sorry." 
 
 The pistol went up, and Austin set his lips while a little 
 shiver of dismay ran through him. The ladder he had 
 come up by was some distance away, the wheel-house, at 
 least as far, and he stood clear in the moonlight, realizing 
 that the first move he made would probably lead to Jef- 
 ferson squeezing the trigger. Then with sudden bitter- 
 ness he remembered what, it seemed, was in his blood, 
 and felt astonished that he should be troubled by physi- 
 cal fear. It would be a swifter and cleaner end if his 
 comrade killed him there. That consideration, however, 
 only appealed to his reason, and the reflection came that 
 Jefferson would probably never shake off the recollection 
 of what he had done ; and, knowing it was safest, he 
 braced himself to stand motionless, while the perspiration 
 dripped from him, steadily eyeing the fever-crazed 
 man. 
 
 " If you will let me tell you why we are steaming west 
 it would save a good deal of trouble," he said as sooth- 
 ingly as he could, though his voice shook. " You see, 
 you were too sick to understand, and you're not very well 
 vet." 
 
 Jefferson, somewhat to his astonishment, seemed will- 
 ing to listen, but he was unfortunately far from the side of 
 the bridge below which Austin surmised that Tom was 
 crouching. He risked a glance round, but the helmsman 
 evidently dared not leave the wheel-house, for which 
 Austin could not blame him, and the Spaniards stood 
 clustered together below gazing up at them. Austin 
 decided that if he signed or called to them Jefferson would 
 
IN COMMAND 235 
 
 use the pistol, though he fancied that one of them was 
 trying to make him understand something. 
 
 Then suddenly a shadowy form glided out from behind 
 the wheel-house where Jefferson could not see it. There 
 was a rush of feet and a spring, and Jefferson went down 
 heavily with another man who wound his arms round 
 him. They rolled against the bridge-rails, and a breath- 
 less voice called to Austin 
 
 " Get hold of the pistol ! " it said. 
 
 Austin wrenched it from his comrade ; men came 
 scrambling up the ladder, and in another moment or two 
 they had Jefferson helpless and set about carrying him to 
 his room. When they laid him in his berth his strength 
 seemed to suddenly melt away, and he lay limp and still, 
 only babbling incoherently. Austin ventured to give 
 him a sedative, and then, leaving Wall-eye to watch him, 
 went out on deck. Tom, who was waiting for him, made 
 a little deprecatory gesture. 
 
 " I'm sorry, Mr. Austin, but he never came near my 
 side of the bridge," he said. " If I had got up he'd have 
 dropped me with the pistol, and that wouldn't have done 
 much good to anybody." 
 
 " Of course not," said Austin. " I was uncommonly 
 thankful when Bill got hold of him. Send him along to 
 my room, and then start your engines." 
 
 In another two or three minutes the Cumbria was 
 steaming west again, and Bill the fireman stood some- 
 what sheepishly in the doorway of Austin's room. 
 
 " I owe you a good deal, and when the time comes I'll 
 endeavour to remember it," said the latter. " Still, I 
 don't want Mr. Jefferson ever to know anything about the 
 tiling. You did it cleverly." 
 
 Bill grinned. " Well," he said, " I'm quite glad I did. 
 I felt I had to do something for my five pounds, any- 
 way." 
 
 It dawned upon Austin that once or twice when he had 
 somewhat risky work to do Bill had been near him. 
 
 " What five pounds ? " he asked. 
 
236 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 " The five pounds she shoved into my hand one night 
 on board the Estremedura no the fact is I'm feeling a 
 little shaky, and I don't quite know what I'm saying. 
 The getting hold of Mr. Jefferson has upset me. When 
 you think of it, it's only natural." 
 
 " Then it has come on very suddenly," said Austin. 
 " You seemed all right a moment or two ago. Am I to 
 understand that somebody gave you five pounds to look 
 after me ? " 
 
 It was evident to Bill that there was nothing to be 
 gained by further reticence, and he edged out of the 
 doorway, grinning more broadly than ever. 
 
 " Well," he said, " I guess she meant you, though she 
 said it was both of you. Still, you won't tell her, or I 
 shan't get any more." 
 
 He had vanished before Austin could ask another ques- 
 tion, but the matter was quite clear to the latter, and his 
 face grew hot while a little thrill of satisfaction ran 
 through him as he recognized that Jacinta had felt it 
 worth while to do what she could to ensure his safety. 
 Then he remembered something else, and his face grew 
 hard as he pulled off his jacket and glanced at his bare 
 arm. 
 
 He had torn and abraded it heaving in the oil and coal, 
 and the gunboat's surgeon had warned him that it was 
 advisable to keep his skin unbroken. There were several 
 half-hardened scars upon it now, and another had been 
 torn away when he fell against the rail in a heavy lurch a 
 day or two earlier. He had worn no jacket at the time. 
 He had since noticed a curious tingling sensation in that 
 part of his arm, and holding it nearer the lamp he saw 
 that the flesh was inflamed about the wound, which was 
 suppurating. There was no doubt about the fact. 
 When he pressed it with his thumb all the lower arm was 
 sore, and he let it fall limply to his side, and sat down 
 with a little groan. The horrible thing he shrank from 
 had, it seemed, come upon him. He sat very still for 
 half an hour grappling with a numbing sense of dismay, 
 
AUSTIN IS MISSING 237 
 
 and then with a little shake of his shoulders went 
 back to the bridge, for he had still a duty to his 
 comrades. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 AUSTIN IS MISSING 
 
 IT was a fine morning, and the signal " Steamer approach- 
 ing from the South/' was flying from the staff high up on 
 the Isleta hill, when Pancho Brown's boat lay heaving 
 on the smooth swell at the entrance to Las Palmas 
 harbour. Mrs. Hatherly, Jacinta, and Muriel sat in the 
 stern-sheets, and beyond them two bare-footed Canarios 
 were resting on their oars, while two or three miles away a 
 smear of smoke that half hid a streak of dusky hull moved 
 towards them across the shining sea. Brown was watch- 
 ing it attentively with a pair of marine glasses in his 
 hand. 
 
 " You have brought me off several times for nothing, 
 but I almost think our friends have turned up at last/' he 
 said. " Of course, from Lieutenant Onslow's cable she 
 should have been here several days ago, but it's very 
 likely the engines would give them trouble. Anyway, 
 we'll know in ten minutes or so. There's the Sanidad 
 going off." 
 
 A launch crept out from the mole, and behind her in 
 the harbour boats were being got afloat. Coaling-clerks, 
 tobacco and wine merchants, and a miscellaneous crowd 
 of petty dealers were waiting to step on board, but two, 
 at least, of Pancho Brown's party had no eyes for them. 
 They were watching the incoming steamer rise higher out 
 of the shining sea, and wondering if she was the one they 
 had for the last few days looked for with tense anxiety, 
 They had Onslow's cable from Sierra Leone, and the 
 skipper of a big tramp which had come in for coals 
 reported that a small British steamer had asked him for 
 the latitude and longitude a week before. Nothing, 
 
238 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 however, had since been heard of her, and Jacinta had 
 found the last three or four days as trying as Muriel did. 
 The latter had, however, borne the suspense bravely, and 
 displayed a sublime confidence in her lover which Jacinta, 
 for no very obvious reason, found almost exasperating at 
 times. 
 
 " Can't we go out a little ? " she said at last. 
 
 Brown made a sign to the Canarios, who dipped the 
 oars, and as they slid past the Carsegarry, which lay with 
 steam blowing off and a water-barge alongside, Captain 
 Farquhar leaned over her rails. He had come in for coal 
 on his way to Liverpool the previous day, and had spent 
 part of the night with Brown. 
 
 " I really think that is the Cumbria" he said. " Any- 
 way, she's much the kind of boat Jefferson described to 
 me, and so far as I can make out they have a big boiler on 
 deck. I suppose you are going off to her ? " 
 
 Brown said they were, and Farquhar glanced at the 
 boat hesitatingly. " I'd very much like to come with 
 you, but I can't leave just now/' he said. " Still, we 
 won't have filled our tanks up for an hour or two, and 
 you might tell Mr. Austin that I certainly expect him to 
 pull across and see me. In fact, although we have steam 
 up, I'll wait until he does." 
 
 Brown made a sign of comprehension, and the boat 
 slid away, while when she stopped again outside the har- 
 bour the eyes of all on board were fixed upon the steamer. 
 She had also stopped, and lay rolling wildly, with the yel- 
 low flag at her foremast-head and the Sanidad launch 
 alongside her ; but in another minute or two the flag 
 came fluttering down, and she moved on again towards 
 the harbour. Brown signed to the oarsmen to turn the 
 boat's head. 
 
 " There's no doubt that she's the Cumbria, and they 
 can't have had anything very bad on board," he said. 
 
 In another five minutes the Cumbria crept up with 
 them, rolling wickedly, with the big pump thudding on 
 her deck, and a stream of water spouting from her side. 
 
AUSTIN IS MISSING 239 
 
 Rags of awnings fluttered about her, her funnel was 
 white with salt crust, for the Trade-wind blows strong 
 at that season, and the blistered paint had peeled from 
 her corroded sides. Her story was written upon her so 
 that even the girls could read, and both felt that no 
 plainer testimony was needed to the courage of the men 
 who had brought her home. Then they saw them : Jef- 
 ferson leaning out, gaunt and blanched in face, from the 
 bridge-rails, and Austin standing amidst a group of hag- 
 gard men on the forecastle. Jacinta's heart was beating 
 a good deal faster than usual, and she saw the sudden 
 tears rise to her companion's eyes, but as the long, rusty 
 hull forged past them Austin made no sign. He stood 
 looking straight in front of him, until he turned to the 
 men about him, who were busy with the anchor. 
 
 " He can't have seen us," said Muriel with astonish- 
 ment in her tone, and then touched Brown's arm. " Tell 
 them to row their hardest, please." 
 
 The Canarios bent their backs and the boat s\vept for- 
 ward, for the steamer had already passed ahead of them. 
 Jacinta sat unusually still watching her, sensible at once of 
 a vague dismay and a thrill of pride. She had under- 
 standing as well as imagination, and the sight of that 
 rusty vessel and the worn faces of the men upon her deck 
 had stirred her curiously. It was, she felt, a notable 
 thing they had done, and she was, she knew, responsible 
 for the part one of them had played in it. He had come 
 home with credit, a man who had done something worth 
 while, and had doubtless learned his strength. She 
 could not fancy him frittering his life away after that ; 
 but still she was perplexed and a trifle anxious, for it 
 seemed that he must have seen them, and he had made 
 no sign. She had, on her part, twice passed him without 
 recognition in the Plaza at Santa Cruz, and her heart 
 smote her as she remembered it, but he was not a vindic- 
 tive man, and must by that time have realized the misap- 
 prehension she had been under concerning him. For 
 that, at least, she would ask his forgiveness in another 
 
240 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 few minutes, and her face burned as she wondered what 
 he would say to her. 
 
 Then she saw the white wash of the Cumbria s propeller 
 as it whirled astern, and there was a roar of running 
 chain, while two or three minutes later they were making 
 their way up the lowered ladder amidst a crowd of petty 
 dealers when Jefferson came across the deck driving the 
 latter aside. Jacinta saw that it cost Muriel an effort to 
 hide her consternation at his appearance, but in another 
 moment she was smiling at him with shining eyes, and the 
 haggard man's arms were about her. That the deck was 
 crowded with Spaniards did not seem in the least to mat- 
 ter to either of them. Jacinta, who would not have done 
 as much, felt a little thrill of sympathy, and, it was signifi- 
 cant, looked round for Austin. There was, however, no 
 sign of him. 
 
 Then Jefferson, still holding Muriel's arm, drew them 
 out of the press, and there was a general offering of con- 
 gratulations and grasping of hands. 
 
 " I am," he said, <( uncommonly glad to be back again, 
 though I'm not sure we'd have ever got here except for 
 Austin. I have only been on my feet the last day or two, 
 and he did everything." 
 
 " Where is he ? " said Muriel, seeing that Jacinta 
 would not ask. 
 
 " Across at the Carsegarry. At least, he told me he 
 was going when he recognized her." 
 
 " Without coming to shake hands with us ? " said 
 Muriel, who flashed a covert glance at Jacinta. 
 
 " I understand from one of these fellows that Farquhar 
 is just going to sea, and it's very probable that Austin 
 heard it, too. I have no doubt he'll be back again in five 
 minutes." 
 
 " You will come ashore with us, and we will expect you 
 and Mr. Austin to make my house your home in the 
 meanwhile," said Brown. 
 
 " I shall be very glad," said Jefferson. ' You will, 
 however, have to excuse me for an hour or two. I have 
 
AUSTIN IS MISSING 241 
 
 our consul to see, and a good many things to do before I 
 can call my time my own. I wonder if you could get me 
 a tartana ? " 
 
 " Mine is waiting at the mole/' said Brown. 
 
 It was an hour later when they took their places in the 
 vehicle, but though Brown bade the driver wait a minute 
 or two there was no appearance of Austin. Just then the 
 Carsegarry crept down the harbour, and with a sonorous 
 blast of her whistle steamed out to sea. 
 
 " There is no boat coming. He must have landed on 
 the other mole, and, perhaps, met somebody he couldn't 
 get away from/' said Brown. " I'll leave word that we 
 are expecting him, and no doubt he'll turn up soon after 
 we get home." 
 
 They drove away, and that afternoon sat'together in 
 Brown's cool patio. The noise of the bustling^city was 
 deadened by the tall white walls over which there shone a 
 square of cloudless blue, and the scent of flowers was 
 heavy in the shadowy space below. Jefferson lay, at- 
 tired becomingly once more, in a big cane chair, with a 
 little smile of content in his hollow face, and a pile of 
 fruit, and a flask of wine, on the table in front of him. 
 The others sat about him, and a fountain splashed behind 
 them in the shadow. 
 
 " A very little of this will make me well," he said. " In 
 fact it is already a trifle difficult to believe that I could 
 scarcely lift myself in my berth a few days ago. I think 
 it was the sight of Gomera that cured me. You see, I 
 was a little doubtful about Austin finding the Canaries, 
 and when they came to tell me they could see the Peak, 
 Wall-eye, who was watching me, ran out." 
 
 " What was he watching you for ? " asked Muriel. 
 
 " To see I didn't get up. I had my chance then, and I 
 crawled out of my berth. I believe I fell over several 
 things before I got out on deck, and then I knew we were 
 all right at last. There was the Peak high up in the sky 
 in front of us, with Gomera a blue smudge low down at 
 its feet. We ran in under the lee, and, because they were 
 
242 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 played out, and Tom had trouble with his engines, stayed 
 there three days." 
 
 He stopped a moment with a little laugh. " I think 
 Austin was 'most astonished as I was to find he'd brought 
 her home. He'd been running four or five days on dead 
 reckoning, and wasn't much more than a hundred miles 
 out." 
 
 " I wonder where he is ? " said Brown. 
 
 Jefferson looked a trifle perplexed, and it was evident 
 that others of the party had asked themselves the same 
 question, for there was a moment's silence until Muriel 
 spoke. 
 
 " If he doesn't come soon I shall feel very vexed with 
 him ; but we want to hear how you got the steamer off," 
 she said. 
 
 "efferson commenced his tale diffidently, but, because 
 Austin had worked in the sombre background more effec- 
 tively than he could do already, the rest listened with full 
 comprehension. His unvarnished narrative was, how- 
 ever, striking enough, and, save for the splashing of the 
 fountain, and his low voice, there was a suggestive silence 
 in the patio, until he stopped abruptly when he came to 
 the scene in which Austin had pleaded for the negro 
 
 f< The man wasn't fit to look at," he said. 
 
 " But why did Mr. Austin go near him ? " asked Muriel, 
 with a little shiver. 
 
 " To save his life," said Jefferson awkwardly. " You 
 see, we couldn't have him there and he really wasn't a 
 man then. The thing he had is, we believed, contagious, 
 and somebody had to put him into his canoe." 
 
 Muriel gazed at him with an expression of perplexity, 
 and it was clear that she did not quite understand what 
 had taken place on the night in question, which was, how- 
 ever, not astonishing. Brown appeared a trifle uncom- 
 fortable, and Jefferson was sincerely thankful when 
 Jacinta broke in. 
 
 " Of course," she said. " He couldn't have stayed 
 there. Mr. Austin put him into his canoe ? " She 
 
AUSTIN IS MISSING 243 
 
 stopped for a moment, and her voice seemed to change a 
 trifle. " Did he find it necessary to touch him ? " 
 
 " He did. In fact the nigger got hold of him. One of 
 them slipped on the bridge-deck ladder, and they rolled 
 down it together ? " 
 
 Again there was a silence, and all of them looked at 
 Jefferson, who saw the question in Jacinta's eyes. 
 
 " No," he said. " Nothing came of it, though for a 
 week or so I was horribly afraid. It isn't men like Austin 
 who take that kind of thing, and it's possible it mayn't 
 have been infectious after all." 
 
 Muriel heard Jacinta softly draw in her breath, as 
 though she had been under a strain which had suddenly 
 relaxed. Then a little colour crept into her face and a 
 sparkle into her eyes. 
 
 " Yes," said Jefferson, though nobody had spoken. 
 " It was a daring thing. More, in fact, than I would have 
 done. My partner has the cleanest kind of real sand in 
 him." 
 
 He turned to Muriel with a little deprecatory gesture. 
 " I had more at stake than he had and I was afraid that 
 night." 
 
 Jacinta sat still awhile, a trifle flushed in face, for the 
 scene Jefferson had very vaguely pictured had stirred her 
 to the depths. 
 
 " Well," said Jefferson presently, " you are pleased 
 with him ? " 
 
 Jacinta met his gaze unwaveringly, and her voice had a 
 little thrill in it. 
 
 " Does it matter in the least whether I am pleased or 
 not ? " she said. " Still, since you ask, I scarcely think 
 I have heard of anything that would surpass what he did 
 that night." 
 
 Jefferson made her a little inclination. " I am," he 
 said gravely, " not sure that I have either." 
 
 He went on with his story, but Jacinta scarcely listened 
 to it, for she was wondering why Austin had not come, 
 and waiting expectantly for the time when she could in 
 
244 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 self-abasement endeavour to wipe what she had said from 
 his memory. Still, he did not come, and it was half an 
 hour later when a bare-footed boatman was shown into 
 the patio. He had an envelope in his hand, and turned 
 to Brown. 
 
 " The Englishman who was in the Estremedura gave 
 me this on board the Carsegarry," he said. " I am sorry 
 I could not bring it before, but several steamers I had to 
 go to came in, and then it was some time before I found 
 out that the Senor Jefferson had gone home with you." 
 
 When he went away Brown handed Jefferson the note, 
 while the latter, who opened it, straightened himself sud- 
 denly and seemed to be struggling with some emotion. 
 Then he passed it to Jacinta. 
 
 " You have good nerves, Miss Brown/ 1 he said. " If I 
 had known it would come to this I think I would have 
 left the Cumbria there/' 
 
 Jacinta took the letter in a steady hand, but her face 
 grew a trifle blanched as she read. 
 
 " I am going home with Farquhar," the message ran. 
 " I could hardly go in a passenger boat, and he is fixing 
 me up in a room by myself. I didn't care to tell you when 
 you were just shaking off the fever, but one of my arms 
 feels very much as that engineer said his did. I am 
 going to see if one of the big specialists or the Tropical 
 Diseases men can do anything for me." 
 
 Jacinta sat quite still a minute, and then slowly rose. 
 
 " It is rather horrible, but I suppose even a purpose of 
 the kind he had does not exempt one from the conse- 
 quences," she said. " There are things to attend to. 
 You will excuse me just now." 
 
 They looked at one another when she left them, and 
 then Brown turned to Jefferson. 
 
 " I wonder if you have any objection to showing me 
 that note ? " he said. 
 
 " It doesn't seem to be here," said Muriel. " What 
 can she have done with it ? " 
 
 " Don't worry about looking," said Jefferson sharply. 
 
AUSTIN IS MISSING 245 
 
 " I can remember it. It has, in fact, shaken a good deal 
 of the stiffness out of me." 
 
 Muriel gasped with consternation when he told them, 
 and by and by the group broke up, while it was a some- 
 what silent party that assembled for comida an hour 
 later. Jacinta, it was evident, had very little appetite, 
 though she contrived to join in the somewhat pointless 
 conversation, and it was not until late that night Brown 
 came upon her alone on the flat roof. She was leaning 
 on the parapet, and looking out across the sea, but her 
 eyes were turned northwards now, and she did not hear 
 him until he gently laid a hand upon her shoulder. Then 
 she turned and looked at him with despair in her face. 
 She had not expected him, or he would not have seen it, 
 though there was clear moonlight above them. 
 
 Brown sat down on the parapet, and, taking off his 
 gold-rimmed glasses, held them in his hand. 
 
 " I think I understand, my dear, and I have something 
 to say/' he said. 
 
 Jacinta made no disclaimer. For one thing, she saw it 
 would have been useless, and she had no strength left in 
 her then. 
 
 " Is it worth while ? " she asked. " Would anything 
 that you could say change what has happened ? " 
 
 " No/' said Brown reflectively, " I scarcely think it 
 would. Still, I would like to mention that we really 
 don't know the thing is incurable. In fact it may be a 
 malady which is readily susceptible to the proper treat- 
 ment, and he has done wisely in going to England." 
 
 A little gleam of hope crept into Jacinta's eyes. " I 
 had hardly dared to think of that," she said. 
 
 " Well," said Brown, " I really fancy the thing may 
 not be as serious as you and jMr. Jefferson, perhaps 
 naturally, seem to fear. Now, as you know, I was going 
 to England about the new fruit contracts in a week or 
 two, and there is no particular reason why I shouldn't go 
 the day after to-morrow. I should make it my business 
 to see Mr. Austin has the best advice which can be got 
 
246 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 from the specialists in that country. Only, my dear, I 
 want to ask a very plain question. Supposing he is 
 cured what then ? " 
 
 " I'm afraid you must shape the question differently," 
 and a trace of colour crept into the whiteness of Jacinta's 
 face. 
 
 " Then I will tell you what I know. You sent that 
 man to Africa, and he went because he was in love with 
 you. He is also a man I have a considerable liking for 
 and you are my only child. I am getting old, and would 
 like to see you safely settled before I go. There are/' and 
 he made a little gesture, " occasions on which one must 
 speak plainly." 
 
 Jacinta's face was crimson at last ; but she in no way 
 attempted to question the correctness of the announce- 
 ment he had made. 
 
 " Mr. Austin, at least, never told me what you seem to 
 be so sure about and it is scarcely likely that he will ever 
 do so now," she said. 
 
 Brown smiled a little, and tapped the palm of his hand 
 with his glasses. 
 
 " My dear," he said, " I think you know better. Of 
 course, you would never have admitted so much as you 
 have done if I had not had you at a disadvantage to- 
 night. Well, the first thing is to see what can be done to 
 cure him. Only, if he comes back, you will, I suppose, 
 know your mind ? " 
 
 He looked at her steadily, and when Jacinta lowered 
 her eyes laid his hand gently on her arm again. 
 
 " I sail by the yellow-funnel boat the day after to- 
 morrow," he said. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 JACINTA CAPITULATES 
 
 THE Carsegarry was not a fast vessel. Like most of the 
 ocean-tramp species, she had been built to carry the 
 largest possible cargo on a very moderate consumption of 
 
JACINTA CAPITULATES 247 
 
 coal, and speed was a very secondary consideration. She 
 had also been in the warmer seas for some time, with the 
 result that every plate beneath her water-line was foul, and 
 as she fell in with strong north-west breezes she was an 
 unusually long while on the way to Liverpool. Austin 
 was thus not astonished to find a letter from Jefferson 
 written four or five days after he left Las Palmas waiting 
 him at Farquhar's brokers,which made it evident that his 
 comrade had got to work again. 
 
 He smiled a trifle grimly as he read it, for he fancied 
 that its optimistic tone had cost Jefferson, who alluded to 
 his apprehensions about his arm very briefly, an effort, 
 for the fact that he was asked to cable as soon as he had 
 seen a doctor appeared significant. The rest of the letter 
 concerned financial affairs. 
 
 " We have had a rough preliminary survey, and the 
 result is distinctly encouraging," he read. " After making 
 a few temporary repairs I expect to bring her on to Liver- 
 pool, and there is every reason to believe we can dispose 
 of her for a good round sum. I could have got 10,000 
 ex-cargo as she lies here. Palm-oil, it also appears, is 
 scarce and dear, up to 30 the ton, from which it seems to 
 me that your share should approximate 7,000. I have 
 to mention that Brown is on his way to Liverpool, and 
 wants you to communicate with him at the address 
 enclosed." 
 
 This was satisfactory, as far as it went. The only 
 trouble was that Austin was uncertain whether he would 
 live to spend what he had so hardly earned. His arm 
 had become exceedingly painful during the voyage, and 
 after a consultation with the shipbroker he telephoned an 
 eminent specialist. 
 
 " I will expect you at two o'clock," the doctor said. 
 " If it appears advisable we can, of course, avail ourselves 
 as you suggest of any views the Tropical Diseases men 
 may favour us with. In the meanwhile I will arrange for 
 a gentleman who has made considerable progress in 
 similar researches to meet you." 
 
248 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 Austin went out of the broker's office with three hours 
 to spare, and wandered aimlessly about the city in a 
 state of tense suspense. He felt that he could not sit still, 
 and in any case he was dubious as to whether he was war- 
 ranted in going back to the hotel. Indeed, he wondered 
 whether he had any right to be at large at all, and after 
 a while hung about the wharves, where there was less 
 chance of any one coming into perilous contact with him. 
 He had never spent such a morning in his life, and decided 
 that what he had done and borne in Africa was not worth 
 mention by comparison. Still, the hours dragged by, 
 and at last he set out for the specialist's surgery without 
 daring to wonder what the result would be, and found 
 two gentlemen awaiting him there. One of them, who 
 had grey hair and very keen eyes, motioned him to a 
 chair. 
 
 " Now/' he said, " before we proceed to an examina- 
 tion it might be better if you told us concisely what 
 happened to you in Africa." 
 
 Austin, who sat down, did so, and wondered a little 
 that he was able to speak coherently and quietly, for 
 every nerve in him seemed tingling with tense anxiety. 
 Then the man with the grey hair asked him a few terse 
 questions about the negro's appearance, and when he had 
 described it as well as he could remember, glanced at his 
 companion. 
 
 " Do you recognize the symptoms ? " he said. 
 
 " No," said the other man, who was younger. " There 
 are one or two complaints not unusual in that country 
 which appear to somewhat resemble it, but they are sel- 
 dom so virulent. I would like to talk to Mr. Austin 
 about it later, but in the meanwhile 
 
 " Exactly ! " and the specialist made a little gesture. 
 " Mr. Austin is no doubt anxious to hear our opinion. If 
 you will permit me " 
 
 He drew the jacket gently over Austin's swollen arm, 
 and the latter, who held it out bare to the shoulder, felt 
 the perspiration start from him as he watched the doctors 
 
JACINTA CAPITULATES 249 
 
 bend over the limb. They said nothing for a space of 
 seconds, and Austin fancied he would remember that time 
 while he lived. Then, to his astonishment, the grey- 
 haired man glanced at his companion with a little smile. 
 
 " I fancy this case has lost its special interest to you ? " 
 he said. 
 
 The other man nodded. " It has/' he said. " Our 
 views evidently coincide/' 
 
 " I would venture to point out that any decision you 
 may have arrived at is naturally of considerable import- 
 ance to me/' said Austin, a trifle sharply. 
 
 The specialist smiled again. " I expect you will be 
 pleased to hear that it is not a peculiarly African disease 
 you are suffering from. It is, in fact, no more than a by 
 no means infrequent form of blood-poisoning." 
 
 Austin gasped, and felt his heart beat furiously from 
 relief, and the specialist waited a moment or two before 
 he went on, " It is evident that you had several lacera- 
 tions on your lower arm made by corroded iron, or 
 something of the kind ? " 
 
 " I tore the skin rather frequently working cargo, and 
 when the scars had partly healed opened up rather a nasty 
 wound by falling on the steamer's rail." 
 
 " Exactly ! The result is not astonishing in the case of 
 a man weakened by fever who has attempted to work 
 harder than is advisable in a country like the one you 
 mention. In the meanwhile this arm is going to give you 
 trouble, and I should recommend you to go into the pri- 
 vate ward of the hospital. I will telephone them, 
 
 if that would suit you ? " 
 
 Austin said he placed himself in the doctor's hands, 
 and half an hour later was being driven to the hospital 
 where the other man, who was apparently anxious to 
 know more about the negro, asked permission to visit 
 him. He also came in due time, but, so far as Austin 
 could ascertain, never quite decided what the negro was 
 suffering from, though he admitted that there were 
 African troubles of the kind which were infectious. 
 
250 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 In the meanwhile Austin realized how much he needed 
 rest, and how heavy the strain he had borne had been. 
 He did not even want to read, and was languidly content 
 to sit still and think of nothing, until one day, when it was 
 evident that his arm was healing, a nurse who announced 
 a visitor came in. 
 
 " If it's that doctor man, you can tell him I can't 
 remember anything more about the nigger, and don't 
 mean to try," he said. 
 
 The nurse laughed. " It isn't," she said. " It's a 
 little gentleman with gold-rimmed spectacles." 
 
 Austin started. " Ah," he said, " will you please tell 
 them to send him in ? " 
 
 In a few more minutes Brown came in, and sitting 
 down shook his head reproachfully. 
 
 " You have really given your friends a good deal of 
 anxiety, and I was almost afraid I would have to go back 
 without learning what had become of you," he said. 
 " Still, though I know the thing isn't, fortunately, what 
 you thought it was, the first question is how you 
 are ? " 
 
 " Recovering," said Austin with a smile. " I under- 
 stand that my arm will be all right again very shortly. 
 It was a very usual trouble. As you seem to recognize, 
 I let my imagination run away with me." 
 
 " I am very pleased to hear it. Why didn't you 
 cable ? " 
 
 " I understood that you had left Las Palmas, and 
 Jefferson was on the point of doing so. I could scarcely 
 suppose there was any one else who cared enough about 
 what happened to me to make it necessary." 
 
 Brown looked at him with a curious little smile which 
 Austin found disconcerting. " There are Mrs. Hatherly 
 and Muriel. I almost think Jacinta would have liked to 
 know that you and Jefferson were under a misapprehen- 
 sion, too, Still, that is, perhaps, not very important, 
 after all. I suppose Jefferson told you that he expects 
 to get a good deal for the Cumbria and her cargo ? " 
 
JACINTA CAPITULATES 251 
 
 " I was pleased to hear that my share might amount to 
 7,000." 
 
 Brown took off his glasses and held them in one hand, 
 which, as Austin knew, was a trick of his when he had 
 anything on his mind. 
 
 " I am going to take a liberty/' he said. " Have you 
 decided yet what you will do with it ? " 
 
 " No. That was one of the points I meant to wait a 
 little before grappling with." 
 
 " Well," said Brown reflectively, " there is something I 
 could suggest, but I would like to ask another question." 
 He stopped a moment, and tapped the palm of one hand 
 with his glasses. " Why did you go out to Africa ? " 
 
 " Wouldn't the chance of winning 5,000, which was 
 what Jefferson estimated my share would be, appear a 
 sufficient reason ? " 
 
 " No," said Brown dryly. " Not to me. When he 
 first made you the offer you wouldn't go." 
 
 " I went however, when I heard that he was sick. It 
 was then a very natural thing. That ought to satisfy 
 you." 
 
 "I scarcely think it does." 
 
 " Then, if I had any other reasons, though I am not 
 exactly admitting it, they concern myself alone." 
 
 Brown made a little gesture. " Well," he said, " I 
 don't suppose it matters in the meanwhile. You have 
 once or twice asked for my advice, and now you have 
 some 7,000, and I understand don't know how to lay it 
 out to the best advantage ? " 
 
 " Exactly ! I don't feel the least desire to undertake 
 the heaving off of any more steamers." 
 
 Brown leaned forward, and tapped his hand with the 
 glasses. " An enterprising man could do a good deal 
 with 7,000. It would, for example, buy him we'll call it 
 a third share in a certain rather profitable fruit and wine 
 business in Las Palmas. That is, of course, on the under- 
 standing that he devoted his whole time and energy to 
 it." 
 
252 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 Austin gazed at him in blank astonishment for a 
 moment or two, and then a red flush crept into his 
 face. 
 
 " I fancy a third share in the business you are evident- 
 ly alluding to would be worth a good deal more than 
 that/' he said. 
 
 " Probably/' said Brown with a trace of dryness. 
 " That is, I might get more for it, but I have no intention 
 of offering it to everybody. I would like to ask your 
 careful attention for a minute or two, Mr. Austin/' 
 
 He stopped a moment, and his tone had changed when 
 he proceeded. " There is nothing to be gained by hiding 
 the fact that I am getting old, and I begin to feel that I 
 would like to take my life a little more easily," he said. 
 " Indeed, I want somebody I could have confidence in to 
 do the hardest work for me. I made the business and I 
 am a little proud of it. It would not please me to let go 
 of it altogether and, as a matter of fact, I have been 
 warned that if I retired to England the climate would 
 probably shorten my life for me. You are, perhaps, 
 aware that I came out to the Canaries originally because 
 my constitution is not an excellent one." 
 
 He stopped again, and added with a certain signifi- 
 cance, " I have, however, been told that my ailments are 
 not likely to prove hereditary. Well, as I mentioned, I 
 do not want to give the business up entirely, and it would 
 be a matter of grief to me to see it go to pieces in the 
 hands of an incompetent manager. That is why I have 
 made you the offer." 
 
 Austin met his gaze steadily, though the flush was still 
 in his face. " I scarcely think anybody would call me an 
 enterprising business man. That is, at least, from the 
 conventional English point of view." 
 
 Brown chuckled softly. " I believe you know as well as 
 I do that a man of that kind would not be of the least use 
 in Spain. They would drive him crazy, and he would 
 probably have insulted half his clients past forgiveness 
 before he had been a month among them. Now, you 
 
JACINTA CAPITULATES 253 
 
 understand the Spaniards, and, what is as much to the 
 purpose, they seem to like you." 
 
 Austin sat still looking at him, and at last he saw that 
 Brown's reserve was breaking down. His hands seemed 
 to be trembling a little, and there were other signs of 
 anxiety about him. 
 
 " I don't know why you have made me that offer, sir," 
 he said. " There must be plenty of men more fitted to 
 be the recipient of it." 
 
 "It is, at least, wholly unconditional/' and Brown 
 made a little gesture that curiously became him. " I 
 may say that I had already satisfied myself about you, or 
 I should never have made it." 
 
 " Then," said Austin a trifle hoarsely, " I can only 
 thank you and endeavour to give you no cause for being 
 sorry afterwards that you fixed on me." 
 
 They had a little more to say, but the nurse appeared 
 during the course of it and informed Brown that the 
 surgeon was coming to dress Austin's arm. 
 
 " Just a minute," said the latter. " Will you be kind 
 enough to pass me that pad and pencil ? " 
 
 She gave it him, and he scribbled hastily and then tore 
 off the sheet and handed it to Brown. 
 
 " I wonder if that message meets with your approval, 
 sir ? " he said. 
 
 Brown put on his glasses, and smiled as he read, " Miss 
 Brown, Casa-Brown, Las Palmas. Ran away without a 
 cause. Almost well. May I come back as your father's 
 partner ? " 
 
 Brown chuckled softly, though there was a curious and 
 somewhat unusual gentleness in his eyes. 
 
 " It has my full approbation, though, considering 
 the cable company's charges, isn't it a trifle loquaci- 
 ous ? " 
 
 " Does that matter ? " asked Austin. 
 
 Brown laughed, and grasped the hand he held out. 
 " No," he said. " I don't suppose it does. After all, 
 these things only happen once in the average lifetime. 
 
254 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 Well, I must evidently go now, but I will come back to see 
 what Jacinta says to-morrow." 
 
 He went out, and that night Austin got Jacinta's 
 answer. 
 
 " Come/' was all it said, but Austin was well content, 
 and, though he was not a very sentimental man, went to 
 sleep with the message beneath his pillow. 
 
 It was, however, rather more than three weeks later 
 when, as a yellow-funnelled mail-boat slid into Las Pal- 
 mas harbour, Austin, leaning down from her rail saw 
 Jacinta and Mrs. Hatherly in one of the crowding boats 
 below. The little lady discreetly remained where she 
 was, and when Jacinta came up the ladder Austin met her 
 at the head of it. She flashed a swift glance into his face, 
 and then for a moment turned hers aside. 
 
 " Ah," she said, " you have forgotten what I said to 
 vou, and you are really well again ? " 
 
 Austin laughed, a quiet, exultant laugh. " I was 
 never particularly ill, but you know all that, and we have 
 ever so much more pleasant things to talk about," he 
 said. " In the meanwhile I fancy we are blocking up the 
 gangway." 
 
 Holding the hand she had given him he drew her be- 
 hind the deck-house masterfully, and looked down on her 
 with a little smile. 
 
 " I almost think you are pleased to see me back," he 
 said. 
 
 " Ah," said Jacinta, " if you only knew what the past 
 few weeks have cost me." 
 
 Austin, laying both hands on her shoulders, stooped 
 and kissed her twice. " That was worth going to Africa 
 for, and if Jefferson had only bought the Cumbria sooner 
 I would have ventured to do as much ever so long ago." 
 
 There was apparently nobody else on that side of the 
 deck-house, and Jacinta, who did not shake his grasp off, 
 looked up at him with shining eyes. 
 
 " You are quite sure of that ? " she said. 
 
 " The wish to do so was almost irresistible the first time 
 
JACINTA CAPITULATES 255 
 
 I saw you. It has been growing stronger ever since." 
 
 Jacinta laughed softly, though the crimson was in her 
 cheeks. " Still, you would have mastered it. You were 
 always discreet, you know, and that was why at last I 
 who have hitherto told all my friends what they ought to 
 do had to let some one else make it clear how much I 
 wanted you. Now, you are going to think very little of 
 me after that ? " 
 
 " My dear," said Austin, " you know that was only one 
 thing which could have kept me away from you." 
 
 " As if that mattered ! " And Jacinta laughed 
 scornfully. " Now, stoop a little, though, perhaps, I 
 shouldn't tell you, and if you hadn't gone to Africa, of 
 course, I shouldn't have done it. I knew when you 
 went away how badly I wanted you rand I would have 
 done anything to bring you back, however much it cost 
 me." 
 
 A couple of seamen carrying baggage appeared from 
 behind the deck-house just then, which naturally cut 
 short their confidences, and Austin made his way with 
 Jacinta's/hand upon his arm towards the boat. He was 
 a trifle bewildered as well as exultant, for this was quite a 
 new Jacinta, one, in fact, he had never encountered be- 
 fore. She gave him another proof of it when he made an 
 observation that afforded her the opening as they were 
 rowed across the harbour. 
 
 " No," she said, quite disregarding Mrs. Hatherly. 
 " I am not going to give you any advice or instructions 
 now you belong to me. After managing everybody 
 else's affairs successfully for ever so long I made a deplor- 
 able mess of my own, you see." 
 
 " Then what am I to do when we have difficulties to 
 contend with ? " said Austin. " We may have a few now 
 and then." 
 
 " You," said Jacinta sweetly, " will have to get over 
 them. I know you can do that now, and I am just going 
 to watch you and be pleased with everything. Isn't 
 that the correct attitude, Mrs. Hatherly ? " 
 
256 HIS LADY'S PLEASURE 
 
 The little lady beamed upon them both. " It is rather 
 an old-fashioned one, my dear," she said. " Still, I am 
 far from sure that it doesn't work out as well as the one 
 occasionally adopted by young women now." 
 
 THE END 
 
 LONDON : WARD, LOCK & Co., LIMITED. 
 
TA (J/6U4 
 
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