CHAPTER XVTHE MISSING COAL
Early next morning Dick stood in front of the Hotel Magellan, where he had slept for a few hours after his return, and was somewhat surprised to see that Jake had got up before him and was talking to a pretty, dark-skinned girl. She carried a large bunch of flowers and a basket of fruit stood close by, while Jake seemed to be persuading her to part with some.
Dick stopped and watched them, for the glow of color held his eye. Jake’s white duck caught the strong sunlight, while the girl’s dark hair and eyes were relieved by the brilliant lemon-tinted wall and the mass of crimson bloom. Her attitude was coquettish, and Jake regarded her with an ingratiating smile. After a few moments, however, Dick went down the street and presently heard his comrade following him. When the lad came up, he saw that he had a basket of dark green fruit and a bunch of the red flowers.
“I thought you were asleep. Early rising is not a weakness of yours,” he said.
“As it happens, I didn’t sleep at all,” Jake replied. “Steering that unhandy coal-scow rather got upon my nerves and when she took the awkward sheer as we came through the reef the tiller knocked Maccario down and nearly broke my ribs. I had to stop the helm going the wrong way somehow.”
Dick nodded. It was obvious that the lad had been quick and cool at a critical time, but his twinkling smile showed that he was now in a different mood.
“You seem to have recovered. But why couldn’t you leave the girl alone?”
“I’m not sure she’d have liked that,” Jake replied. “It’s a pity you have no artistic taste, or you might have seen what a picture she made.”
“As a matter of fact, I did see it, but she has, no doubt, a half-breed lover who’d seriously misunderstand your admiration, which might lead to your getting stabbed some night. Anyhow, why did you buy the flowers?”
“For one thing, she was taking them to the Magellan, and I couldn’t stand for seeing that blaze of color wasted on the guzzling crowd you generally find in a hotel dining-room.”
“That doesn’t apply to the fruit. You can’t eat those things. They preserve them.”
“Eat them!” Jake exclaimed with a pitying look. “Well, I suppose it’s the only use you have for fruit.” He took a stalk fringed with rich red bloom and laid it across the dark green fruit, which was packed among glossy leaves. “Now, perhaps, you’ll see why I bought it. I rather think it makes a dainty offering.”
“Ah!” said Dick. “To whom do you propose to offer it?”
“Miss Kenwardine,” Jake replied with a twinkle; “though of course her proper color’s Madonna blue.”
Dick said nothing, but walked on, and when Jake asked where he was going, answered shortly: “To the telephone.”
“Well,” said Jake, “knowing you as I do, I suspectedsomething of the kind. With the romance of the South all round you, you can’t rise above concrete and coal.”
He followed Dick to the public telephone office and sat down in the box with the flowers in his hands. A line had recently been run along the coast, and although the service was bad, Dick, after some trouble, got connected with a port official at Arenas.
“Did a tug and three coal barges put into your harbor last night?” he asked.
“No, señor,” was the answer, and Dick asked for the coal wharf at Adexe.
“Why didn’t you call them first?” Jake inquired.
“I had a reason. The tug was standing to leeward when she left us, but if her skipper meant to come back to Santa Brigida, he’d have to put into Arenas, where he’d find shelter.”
“Then you’re not sure he meant to come back?”
“I’ve some doubts,” Dick answered dryly, and was told that he was connected with the Adexe wharf.
“What about the coal for the Fuller irrigation works?” he asked.
“The tug and four lighters left last night,” somebody answered in Castilian, and Dick imagined from the harshness of the voice that one of the wharf-hands was speaking.
“That is so,” he said. “Has she returned yet?”
“No, señor,” said the man. “The tug——”
He broke off, and there was silence for some moments, after which a different voice took up the conversation in English.
“Sorry it may be a day or two before we can send more of your coal. The tug’s engines——”
“Has she got back?” Dick demanded sharply.
“Speak louder; I cannot hear.”
Dick did so, but the other did not seem to understand.
“In two or three days. You have one lighter.”
“We have. I want to know if the tug——”
“The damage is not serious,” the other broke in.
“Then I’m to understand she’s back in port?”
A broken murmur answered, but by and by Dick caught the words, “Not longer than two days.”
Then he rang off, and pushing Jake’s chair out of the way, shut the door.
“It’s plain that they don’t mean to tell me what I want to know,” he remarked. “The first man might have told the truth, if they had let him, but somebody pulled him away. My opinion is that the tug’s not at Adexe and didn’t go there.”
They went back to the hotel, and Dick sat down on a bench in the patio and lighted his pipe.
“There’s something very curious about the matter,” he said.
“When the tug left us she seemed to be heading farther off shore than was necessary,” Jake agreed. “Still, the broken water wouldn’t matter so much when she had the wind astern.”
“Her skipper wouldn’t run off his course and lengthen the distance because the wind was fair.”
“No, I don’t suppose he would.”
“Well,” said Dick, “my impression is that he didn’t mean to start at all, and wouldn’t have done so if I hadn’t turned him out.”
Jake laughed. “After all, there’s no use in making a mystery out of nothing. The people offered us thecoal, and you don’t suspect a dark plot to stop the works. What would they gain by that?”
“Nothing that I can see. I don’t think they meant to stop the works; but they wanted the coal. It’s not at Adexe, and there’s no other port the tug could reach. Where has it gone?”
“It doesn’t seem to matter, so long as we get a supply before our stock runs out.”
“Try to look at the thing as I do,” Dick insisted with a frown. “I forced the skipper to go to sea, and as soon as he had a good excuse his tow-rope parted, besides which the last barge went adrift from the rest. Her hawser, however, wasn’t broken. It was slipped from the craft she was made fast to. Then, though the tug’s engines were out of order, she steamed to leeward very fast and, I firmly believe, hasn’t gone back to Adexe.”
“I expect there’s a very simple explanation,” Jake replied. “The truth is you have a rather senseless suspicion of Kenwardine.”
“I’ll own I don’t trust him,” Dick answered quietly.
Jake made an impatient gesture. “Let’s see if we can get breakfast, because I’m going to his house afterwards.”
“They won’t have got up yet.”
“It’s curious that you don’t know more about their habits after living there. Miss Kenwardine goes out with Lucille before the sun gets hot, and her father’s about as early as you are.”
“What does he do in the morning?”
“I haven’t inquired, but I’ve found him in the roomhe calls his office. You’re misled by the idea that his occupation is gambling.”
Dick did not reply, and was silent during breakfast. He understood Jake’s liking for Kenwardine because there was no doubt the man had charm. His careless, genial air set one at one’s ease; he had a pleasant smile, and a surface frankness that inspired confidence. Dick admitted that if he had not lost the plans at his house, he would have found it difficult to suspect him. But Jake was right on one point; Kenwardine might play for high stakes, but gambling was not his main occupation. He had some more important business. The theft of the plans, however, offered no clue to this. Kenwardine was an adventurer and might have thought he could sell the drawings, but since he had left England shortly afterwards, it was evident that he was not a regular foreign spy. It was some relief to think so, and although there was a mystery about the coal, which Dick meant to fathom if he could, nothing indicated that Kenwardine’s trickery had any political aim.
Dick dismissed the matter and remembered with half-jealous uneasiness that Jake seemed to know a good deal about Kenwardine’s household. The lad, of course, had gone to make inquiries when he was ill, and had probably been well received. He was very little younger than Clare, and Fuller was known to be rich. It would suit Kenwardine if Jake fell in love with the girl, and if not, his extravagance might be exploited. For all that, Dick determined that his comrade should not be victimized.
When breakfast was over they left the hotel andpresently met Clare, who was followed by Lucille carrying a basket. She looked very fresh and cool in her white dress. On the whole, Dick would sooner have avoided the meeting, but Jake stopped and Clare included Dick in her smile of greeting.
“I have been to the market with Lucille,” she said. “The fruit and the curious things they have upon the stalls are worth seeing. But you seem to have been there, though I did not notice you.”
“No,” said Jake, indicating the flowers and fruit he carried. “I got these at the hotel. The colors matched so well that I felt I couldn’t let them go, and then it struck me that you might like them. Dick warned me that the things are not eatable in their present state, which is a pretty good example of his utilitarian point of view.”
Clare laughed as she thanked him, and he resumed: “Lucille has enough to carry, and I’d better bring the basket along.”
“Very well,” said Clare. “My father was getting up when I left.”
Dick said nothing, and stood a yard or two away. The girl had met him without embarrassment, but it was Jake she had addressed. He felt that he was, so to speak, being left out.
“Then I’ll come and talk to him for a while,” said Jake. “I don’t know a nicer place on a hot morning than your patio.”
“But what about your work? Are you not needed at the dam?”
“My work can wait. I find from experience that it will keep for quite a long time without shriveling away, though often it gets very stale. Anyhow, afterbeing engaged on the company’s business for the most part of last night, I’m entitled to a rest. My partner, of course, doesn’t look at things like that. He’s going back as fast as he can.”
Dick hid his annoyance at the hint. It was impossible to prevent the lad from going to Kenwardine’s when Clare was there to hear his objections, and he had no doubt that Jake enjoyed his embarrassment. Turning away, he tried to forget the matter by thinking about the coal. Since Kenwardine was at home, it was improbable that he had been at Adexe during the night. If Clare had a part in her father’s plots, she might, of course, have made the statement about his getting up with an object, but Dick would not admit this. She had helped the man once, but this was an exception, and she must have yielded to some very strong pressure. For all that, Dick hoped his comrade would not tell Kenwardine much about their trip in the launch.
As a matter of fact, Jake handled the subject with some judgment when Kenwardine, who had just finished his breakfast, gave him coffee in the patio. They sat beneath the purple creeper while the sunshine crept down the opposite wall. The air was fresh and the murmur of the surf came languidly across the flat roofs.
“Aren’t you in town unusually early?” Kenwardine asked.
“Well,” said Jake with a twinkle, “you see we got here late.”
“Then Brandon was with you. This makes it obvious that you spent a perfectly sober night.”
Jake laughed. He liked Kenwardine and meantto stick to him, but although rash and extravagant, he was sometimes shrewd, and admitted that there might perhaps be some ground for Dick’s suspicions. He was entitled to lose his own money, but he must run no risk of injuring his father’s business. However, since Kenwardine had a share in the coaling wharf, he would learn that they had been to Adexe, and to try to hide this would show that they distrusted him.
“Our occupation was innocent but rather arduous,” he said. “We went to Adexe in the launch to see when our coal was coming.”
“Did you get it? The manager told me something about the tug’s engines needing repairs.”
“We got one scow that broke adrift off the Tajada reef. They had to turn back with the others.”
“Then perhaps I’d better telephone to find out what they mean to do,” Kenwardine suggested.
Jake wondered whether he wished to learn if they had already made inquiries, and thought frankness was best.
“Brandon called up the wharf as soon as the office was open, but didn’t get much information. Something seemed to be wrong with the wire.”
“I suppose he wanted to know when the coal would leave?”
“Yes,” said Jake. “But he began by asking if the tug had come back safe, and got no further, because the other fellow couldn’t hear.”
“Why was he anxious about the tug?”
Kenwardine’s manner was careless, but Jake imagined he felt more interest than he showed.
“It was blowing pretty fresh when she left us, andif the scows had broken adrift again, there’d have been some risk of losing them. This would delay the delivery of the coal, and we’re getting very short of fuel.”
“I see,” said Kenwardine. “Well, if anything of the kind had happened, I would have heard of it. You needn’t be afraid of not getting a supply.”
Jake waited. He thought it might look significant if he showed any eagerness to change the subject, but when Kenwardine began to talk about something else he followed his lead. Half an hour later he left the house, feeling that he had used commendable tact, but determined not to tell Brandon about the interview. Dick had a habit of exaggerating the importance of things, and since he already distrusted Kenwardine, Jake thought it better not to give him fresh ground for suspicion. There was no use in supplying his comrade with another reason for preventing his going to the house.
CHAPTER XVIJAKE GETS INTO DIFFICULTIES
Day was breaking, though it was still dark at the foot of the range, when Dick returned wearily to his iron shack after a night’s work at the dam. There had been a local subsidence of the foundations on the previous afternoon, and he could not leave the spot until precautions had been taken to prevent the danger spreading. Bethune came with him to look at some plans, and on entering the veranda they were surprised to find the house well lighted and smears of mud and water upon the floor.
“Looks as if a bathing party had been walking round the shack, and your boy had tried to clean up when he was half-asleep,” Bethune said.
Dick called his colored servant and asked him: “Why are all the lights burning, and what’s this mess?”
“Señor Fuller say he no could see the chairs.”
“Why did he want to see them?”
“He fall on one, señor; t’row it wit’ mucha force and fall on it again. Say dozenas ofmalditos sillas. If he fall other time, he kill my head.”
“Ah!” said Dick sharply. “Where is he now?”
“He go in your bed, señor.”
“What has happened is pretty obvious,” Bethune remarked. “Fuller came home with a big jag onand scared this fellow. We’d better see if he’s all right.”
Dick took him into his bedroom and the negro followed. The room was very hot and filled with a rank smell of kerosene, for the lamp was smoking and the negro explained that Jake had threatened him with violence if he turned it down. The lad lay with a flushed face on Dick’s bed; his muddy boots sticking out from under the crumpled coverlet. He seemed to be fully dressed and his wet clothes were smeared with foul green slime. There was a big red lump on his forehead.
“Why didn’t you put him into his own bed?” Dick asked the negro.
“He go in, señor, and come out quick. Say no possible he stop.Malditobed is damp.”
Bethune smiled. “There’ll be a big washbasket for thelavenderasto-morrow, but we must take his wet clothes off.” He shook Jake. “You’ve got to wake up!”
After a time Jake opened his eyes and blinked at Bethune. “All right! You’re not as fat as Salvador, and you can catch that chair. The fool thing follows me and keeps getting in my way.”
“Come out,” Bethune ordered him, and turned to the negro. “Where’s his pyjamas?”
Salvador brought a suit, and Dick, who dragged Jake out of bed, asked: “How did you get into this mess?”
“Fell into pond behind the dam; not safe that pond. Put a shingle up to-morrow, ‘Keep off the grass.’ No, that’sh not right. Let’sh try again. ‘Twenty dollars fine if you spit on the sidewalk.’”
Bethune grinned at Dick. “It’s not an unusual notice in some of our smaller towns, and one must admit it’s necessary. However, we want to get him into dry clothes.”
Jake gave them some trouble, but they put him in a re-made bed and went back to the verandah, where Bethune sat down.
“Fuller has his good points, but I guess you find him something of a responsibility,” he remarked.
“I do,” said Dick, with feeling. “Still, this is the first time he has come home the worse for liquor. I’m rather worried about it, because it’s a new trouble.”
“And you had enough already?” Bethune suggested. “Well, though you’re not very old yet, I think Miss Fuller did well to make you his guardian, and perhaps I’m to blame for his relapse, because I sent him to Santa Brigida. François was busy and there were a number of bills to pay for stores we bought in the town. I hope Fuller hasn’t lost the money!”
Dick felt disturbed, but he said, “I don’t think so. Jake’s erratic, but he’s surprised me by his prudence now and then.”
Bethune left soon afterwards, and Dick went to bed, but got up again after an hour or two and began his work without seeing Jake. They did not meet during the day, and Dick went home to his evening meal uncertain what line to take. He had no real authority, and finding Jake languid and silent, decided to say nothing about his escapade. When the meal was finished, they left the hot room, as usual, for the verandah, and Jake dropped listlessly into a canvas chair.
“I allow you’re more tactful than I thought,” he remarked with a feeble smile. “Guess I was pretty drunk last night.”
“It looked rather like it from your clothes and the upset in the house,” Dick agreed.
Jake looked thoughtful. “Well,” he said ingenuously, “Ihavebeen on a jag before, but I really don’t often indulge in that kind of thing, and don’t remember drinking enough to knock me out. You see, Kenwardine’s a fastidious fellow and sticks to wine. The sort he keeps is light.”
“Then you got drunk at his house? I’d sooner have heard you were at the casino, where the Spaniards would have turned you out.”
“You don’t know the worst yet,” Jake replied hesitatingly. “As I’m in a very tight place, I’d better ’fess up. François doesn’t seem to have told you that I tried to draw my pay for some months ahead.”
“Ah!” said Dick, remembering with uneasiness what he had learned from Bethune. “That sounds ominous. Did you——”
“Let me get it over,” Jake interrupted. “Richter was there, besides a Spanish fellow, and a man called Black. We’d been playing cards, and I’d won a small pile when my luck began to turn. It wasn’t long before I was cleaned out and heavily in debt. Kenwardine said I’d had enough and had better quit. I sometimes think you don’t quite do the fellow justice.”
“Never mind that,” said Dick. “I suppose you didn’t stop?”
“No; I took a drink that braced me up and soon afterwards thought I saw my chance. The cardslooked pretty good, and I put up a big bluff and piled on all I had.”
“But you had nothing; you’d lost what you began with.”
Jake colored. “Bethune had given me a check to bearer.”
“I was afraid of that,” Dick said gravely. “But go on.”
“I thought I’d bluff them, but Black and the Spaniard told me to play, though Kenwardine held back at first. Said they didn’t want to take advantage of my rashness and I couldn’t make good. Well, I saw how I could put it over, and it looked as if they couldn’t stop me, until Black brought out a trump I didn’t think he ought to have. After that I don’t remember much, but imagine I turned on the fellow and made some trouble.”
“Can you remember how the cards went?”
“No,” said Dick awkwardly, “not now, and I may have been mistaken about the thing. I believe I fell over the table and they put me on a couch. After a time, I saw there was nobody in the room, and thought I’d better get out.” He paused and added with a flush: “I was afraid Miss Kenwardine might find me in the morning.”
“You can’t pay back the money you lost?”
“I can’t. The check will show in the works’ accounts and there’ll sure be trouble if the old man hears of it.”
Dick was silent for a few moments. It was curious that Jake had tried to defend Kenwardine; but this did not matter. The lad’s anxiety and distress were plain.
“If you’ll leave the thing entirely in my hands, I’ll see what can be done,” he said. “I’ll have to tell Bethune.”
“I’ll do whatever you want, if you’ll help me out,” Jake answered eagerly, and after asking some questions about his losses, Dick went to Bethune’s shack.
Bethune listened thoughtfully to what he had to say, and then remarked: “We’ll take it for granted that you mean to see him through. Have you enough money?”
“No; that’s why I came.”
“You must get the check back, anyhow,” said Bethune, who opened a drawer and took out a roll of paper currency. “Here’s my pile, and it’s at your service, but it won’t go far enough.”
“I think it will, with what I can add,” said Dick, after counting the bills. “You see, I don’t mean to pay the full amount.”
Bethune looked at him and smiled. “Well, that’s rather unusual, but if they made him drunk and the game was not quite straight! Have you got his promise not to play again?”
“I haven’t. What I’m going to do will make it awkward, if not impossible. Besides, he’ll have no money. I’ll stop what he owes out of his pay.”
“A good plan! However, I won’t lend you the money; I’ll lend it Jake, which makes him responsible. But your pay’s less than mine, and you’ll have to economize for the next few months.”
“That won’t matter,” Dick answered quietly. “I owe Fuller something, and I like the lad.”
He went back to his shack and said to Jake, “We’ll be able to clear off the debt, but you must ask no questionsand agree to any arrangement I think it best to make.”
“You’re a good sort,” Jake said with feeling; but Dick cut short his thanks and went off to bed.
Next morning he started for Santa Brigida, and when he reached Kenwardine’s house met Clare on a balcony at the top of the outside stairs. Somewhat to his surprise, she stopped him with a sign, and then stood silent for a moment, looking disturbed.
“Mr. Brandon,” she said hesitatingly, “I resented your trying to prevent Mr. Fuller coming here, but I now think it better that he should keep away. He’s young and extravagant, and perhaps——”
“Yes,” said Dick, who felt sympathetic, knowing what her admission must have cost. “I’m afraid he’s also rather unsteady.”
Clare looked at him with some color in her face. “I must be frank. Something happened recently that showed me he oughtn’t to come. I don’t think I realized this before.”
“Then you know what happened?”
“Not altogether,” Clare replied. “But I learned enough to alarm and surprise me. You must understand that I didn’t suspect——” She paused with signs of confusion and then resumed: “Of course, people of different kinds visit my father on business, and sometimes stay an hour or two afterwards, and he really can’t be held responsible for them. The customs of the country force him to be friendly; you know in Santa Brigida one’s office is something like an English club. Well, a man who doesn’t come often began a game of cards and when Mr. Fuller——”
“Just so,” said Dick as quietly as he could. “Jake’srash and not to be trusted when there are cards about; indeed, I expect he’s a good deal to blame, but I’m now going to ask your father not to encourage his visits. I’ve no doubt he’ll see the reason for this.”
“I’m sure he’ll help you when he understands,” Clare replied, and after giving Dick a grateful look moved away.
Dick went along the balcony, thinking hard. It was obvious that Clare had found the interview painful, though he had tried to make it easier for her. She had been alarmed, but he wondered whether she had given him the warning out of tenderness for Jake. It was probable that she really thought Kenwardine was not to blame, but it must have been hard to acknowledge that his house was a dangerous place for an extravagant lad. Still, a girl might venture much when fighting for her lover. Dick frowned as he admitted this. Jake was a good fellow in spite of certain faults, but it was disturbing to think that Clare might be in love with him.
It was something of a relief when Kenwardine met him at the door of his room and took him in. Dick felt that tact was not so needful now, because the hospitality shown him was counterbalanced by the theft of the plans, and he held Kenwardine, not Clare, accountable for this. Kenwardine indicated a chair, and then sat down.
“As you haven’t been here since you got better, I imagine there’s some particular reason for this call,” he said, with a smile.
“That is so,” Dick agreed. “I’ve come on Fuller’sbehalf. He gave you a check the other night. Have you cashed it yet?”
“No. I imagined he might want to redeem it.”
“He does; but, to begin with, I’d like to know how much he lost before he staked the check. I understand he increased the original stakes during the game.”
“I dare say I could tell you, but I don’t see your object.”
“I’ll explain it soon. We can’t get on until I know the sum.”
Kenwardine took a small, card-scoring book from a drawer, and after a few moments stated the amount Jake had lost.
“Thank you,” said Dick. “I’ll pay you the money now in exchange for the check.”
“But he lost the check as well.”
Dick hesitated. He had a repugnant part to play, since he must accuse the man who had taken him into his house when he was wounded of conspiring to rob a drunken lad. For all that, his benefactor’s son should not be ruined, and he meant to separate him from Kenwardine.
“I think not,” he answered coolly. “But suppose we let that go? The check is worthless, because payment can be stopped, but I’m willing to give you what Fuller had already lost.”
Kenwardine raised his eyebrows in ironical surprise. “This is a somewhat extraordinary course. Is Mr. Fuller in the habit of disowning his debts? You know the rule about a loss at cards.”
“Fuller has left the thing in my hands, and youmust hold me responsible. I mean to stick to the line I’ve taken.”
“Then perhaps you won’t mind explaining on what grounds you take it.”
“Since you insist! Fuller was drunk when he made the bet. As you were his host, it was your duty to stop the game.”
“The exact point when an excited young man ceases to be sober is remarkably hard to fix,” Kenwardine answered dryly. “It would be awkward for the host if he fixed it too soon, and insulting to the guest.”
“That’s a risk you should have taken. For another thing, Fuller states that a trump was played by a man who ought not to have had it.”
Kenwardine smiled. “Doesn’t it strike you that you’re urging conflicting reasons? First you declare that Fuller was drunk, and then that he was able to detect clever players at cheating. Your argument contradicts itself and is plainly absurd.”
“Anyhow, I mean to urge it,” Dick said doggedly.
“Well,” said Kenwardine with a steady look, “I’ve no doubt you see what this implies. You charge me with a plot to intoxicate your friend and take a mean advantage of his condition.”
“No; I don’t go so far. I think you should have stopped the game, but Fuller accuses a man called Black of playing the wrong card. In fact, I admit that you don’t mean to harm him, by taking it for granted that you’ll let me have the check, because if you kept it, you’d have some hold on him.”
“A firm hold,” Kenwardine remarked.
Dick had partly expected this, and had his answer ready. “Not so firm as you think. If there was noother way, it would force me to stop payment and inform my employer. It would be much better that Jake should have to deal with his father than with your friends.”
“You seem to have thought over the matter carefully,” Kenwardine rejoined. “Well, personally, I’m willing to accept your offer and give up the check; but I must consult the others, since their loss is as much as mine. Will you wait while I go to the telephone?”
Dick waited for some time, after which Kenwardine came back and gave him the check. As soon as he got it Dick left the house, satisfied because he had done what he had meant to do, and yet feeling doubtful. Kenwardine had given way too easily. It looked as if he was not convinced that he must leave Fuller alone.
On reaching the dam Dick gave Jake the check and told him how he had got it. The lad flushed angrily, but was silent for a moment, and then gave Dick a curious look.
“I can’t deny your generosity, and I’ll pay you back; but you see the kind of fellow you make me out.”
“I told Kenwardine you left me to deal with the matter, and the plan was mine,” said Dick.
Jake signified by a gesture that the subject must be dropped. “As I did agree to leave it to you, I can’t object. After all, I expect you meant well.”
CHAPTER XVIITHE BLACK-FUNNEL BOAT
The breeze had fallen and the shining sea was smooth as glass when the launch passed Adexe. Dick, who lounged at the helm, was not going there. Some alterations to a mole along the coast had just been finished, and Stuyvesant had sent him to engage the contractor who had done the concrete work. Jake, who occasionally found his duties irksome, had insisted on coming.
As they crossed the mouth of the inlet, Dick glanced shorewards through his glasses. The whitewashed coal-sheds glistened dazzlingly, and a fringe of snowy surf marked the curve of beach, but outside this a belt of cool, blue water extended to the wharf. The swell surged to and fro among the piles, checkered with purple shadows and laced with threads of foam, but it was the signs of human activity that occupied Dick’s attention. He noticed the cloud of dust that rolled about the mounds of coal upon the wharf and blurred the figures of the toiling peons, and the way the tubs swung up and down from the hatches of an American collier until the rattle of her winches suddenly broke off.
“They seem to be doing a big business,” he remarked. “It looks as if that boat had stopped discharging, but she must have landed a large quantity of coal.”
“There’s pretty good shelter at Adexe,” Jake replied. “In ordinary weather, steamers can come up to the wharf, instead of lying a quarter of a mile off, as they do at Santa Brigida. However, there’s not much cargo shipped, and a captain who wanted his bunkers filled would have to make a special call with little chance of picking up any freight. That must tell against the place.”
They were not steaming fast, and just before a projecting point shut in the inlet the deep blast of a whistle rang across the water and the collier’s dark hull swung out from the wharf. A streak of foam, cut sharply between her black side and the shadowed blue of the sea, marked her load-line, and she floated high, but not as if she were empty.
“Going on somewhere else to finish, I guess,” said Jake. “How much do you reckon she has discharged?”
“Fifteen hundred tons, if she was full when she came in, and I imagine they hadn’t much room in the sheds before. I wonder where Kenwardine gets the money, unless his friend, Richter, is rich.”
“Richter has nothing to do with the business,” Jake replied. “He was to have had a share, but they couldn’t come to a satisfactory agreement.”
Dick looked at him sharply. “How do you know?”
“I really don’t know much. Kenwardine said something about it one night when I was at his house.”
“Did somebody ask him?”
“No,” said Jake, “I don’t think so. The subject, so to speak, cropped up and he offered us the information.”
Then he talked of something else and soon afterwards the coast receded as they crossed a wide bay. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon when they reached the farthest point from land. There was no wind, and in the foreground the sea ran in long undulations whose backs blazed with light. Farther off, the gentle swell was smoothed out and became an oily expanse that faded into the glitter on the horizon, but at one point the latter was faintly blurred. A passing vessel, Dick thought, and occupied himself with the engine, for he had not brought the fireman. Looking round some time afterwards, he saw that the ship had got more distinct and picked up his glasses.
She was a two-masted steamer and, cut off by the play of reflected light, floated like a mirage between sky and sea. After studying her for a minute, Dick gave Jake the glasses.
“It’s a curious effect, but not uncommon on a day like this,” he said. “She’s like the big Spanish boats and has their tall black funnel.”
“She’s very like them,” Jake agreed. “There’s no smoke, and no wash about her. It looks as if they’d had some trouble in the engine-room and she’d stopped.”
Dick nodded and glanced across the dazzling water towards the high, blue coast. He did not think the steamer could be seen from the land, and the launch would, no doubt, be invisible from her deck, but this was not important and he began to calculate how long it would take them to reach a point ahead. Some time later, he looked round again. The steamer was fading in the distance, but no smoke trailed behindher and he did not think she had started yet. His attention, however, was occupied by the headland he was steering for, because he thought it marked the neighborhood of their port.
He spent an hour in the place before he finished his business and started home, and when they were about half-way across the bay the light began to fade. The sun had sunk and the high land cut, harshly blue, against a saffron glow; the sea was shadowy and colorless in the east. Presently Jake, who sat facing aft, called out:
“There’s a steamer’s masthead light coming up astern of us. Now I see her side lights, and by the distance between them she’s a big boat.”
Dick changed his course, because the steamer’s three lights would not have been visible unless she was directly following him and the launch’s small yellow funnel and dingy white topsides would be hard to distinguish. When he had shut out one of the colored side lights and knew he was safe, he stopped the engine to wait until the vessel passed. There was no reason why he should do so, but somehow he felt interested in the ship. Lighting his pipe, he studied her through the glasses, which he gave to Jake.
“She’s the boat we saw before,” he said.
“That’s so,” Jake agreed. “Her engines are all right now because she’s steaming fast.”
Dick nodded, for he had marked the mass of foam that curled and broke away beneath the vessel’s bow, but Jake resumed: “It looks as if her dynamo had stopped. There’s nothing to be seen but her navigation lights and she’s certainly a passenger boat. They generally glitter like a gin-saloon.”
The ship was getting close now and Dick, who asked for the glasses, examined her carefully as she came up, foreshortened, on their quarter. Her dark bow looked very tall and her funnel loomed, huge and shadowy, against the sky. Above its top the masthead light shed a yellow glimmer, and far below, the sea leapt and frothed about the line of hull. This drew out and lengthened as she came abreast of them, but now he could see the tiers of passenger decks, one above the other, there was something mysterious in the gloom that reigned on board. No ring of light pierced her long dark side and the gangways behind the rails and rows of stanchions looked like shadowy caves. In the open spaces, forward and aft, however, bodies of men were gathered, their clothes showing faintly white, but they stood still in a compact mass until a whistle blew and the indistinct figures scattered across the deck.
“A big crew,” Jake remarked. “Guess they’ve been putting them through a boat or fire drill.”
Dick did not answer, but when the vessel faded into a hazy mass ahead he started the engine and steered into her eddying wake, which ran far back into the dark. Then after a glance at the compass, he beckoned Jake. “Look how she’s heading.”
Jake told him and he nodded. “I made it half a point more to port, but this compass swivels rather wildly. Where do you think she’s bound?”
“To Santa Brigida; but, as you can see, not direct. I expect her skipper wants to take a bearing from the Adexe lights. You are going there and her course is the same as ours.”
“No,” said Dick; “I’m edging in towards the landrather short of Adexe. As we have the current on our bow, I want to get hold of the beach as soon as I can, for the sake of slacker water. Anyway, a big boat would keep well clear of the shore until she passed the Tajada reef.”
“Then she may be going into Adexe for coal.”
“That vessel wouldn’t float alongside the wharf, and her skipper would sooner fill his bunkers where he’d get passengers and freight.”
“Well, I expect we’ll find her at Santa Brigida when we arrive.”
They looked round, but the sea was now dark and empty and they let the matter drop. When they crossed the Adexe bight no steamer was anchored near, but a cluster of lights on the dusky beach marked the coaling wharf.
“They’re working late,” Dick said. “Can you see the tug?”
“You’d have to run close in before you could do so,” Jake replied. “I expect they’re trimming the coal the collier landed into the sheds.”
“It’s possible,” Dick agreed, and after hesitating for a few moments held on his course. He remembered that one can hear a launch’s engines and the splash of torn-up water for some distance on a calm night.
After a time, the lights of Santa Brigida twinkled ahead, and when they steamed up to the harbor both looked about. The American collier and a big cargo-boat lay with the reflections of their anchor-lights quivering on the swell, but there was no passenger liner to be seen. A man came to moor the launchwhen they landed, and Jake asked if the vessel he described had called.
“No, señor,” said the man. “The only boats I know like that are the Cadiz liners, and the next is not due for a fortnight.”
“Her model’s a pretty common one for big passenger craft,” Jake remarked to Dick as they went up the mole. “Still, the thing’s curious. She wasn’t at Adexe and she hasn’t been here. She certainly passed us, steering for the land, and I don’t see where she could have gone.”
Dick began to talk about something else, but next morning asked Stuyvesant for a day’s leave. Stuyvesant granted it and Dick resumed: “Do you mind giving me a blank order form? I’m going to Adexe, and the storekeeper wants a few things we can’t get in Santa Brigida.”
Stuyvesant signed the form. “There it is. The new coaling people seem an enterprising crowd, and you can order anything they can supply.”
Dick hired a mule and took the steep inland road; but on reaching Adexe went first to the sugar mill and spent an hour with the American engineer, whose acquaintance he had made. Then, having, as he thought, accounted for his visit, he went to the wharf and carefully looked about as he made his way to the manager’s office.
A few grimy peons were brushing coal-dust off the planks, their thinly-clad forms silhouetted against the shining sea. Their movements were languid, and Dick wondered whether this was due to the heat or if it was accounted for by forced activity on the previousnight. A neatly built stack of coal stood beside the whitewashed sheds, but nothing suggested that it had been recently broken into. Passing it carelessly Dick glanced into the nearest shed, which was almost full, though its proximity to deep water indicated that supplies would be drawn from it before the other. Feeling rather puzzled, he stopped in front of the next shed and noted that there was much less coal in this. Moreover, a large number of empty bags lay near the entrance, as if they had been used recently and the storekeeper had not had time to put them away.
Two men were folding up the bags, but, by contrast with the glitter outside, the shed was dark, and Dick’s eyes were not accustomed to the gloom. Still he thought one of the men was Oliva, the contractor whom Stuyvesant had dismissed. Next moment the fellow turned and threw a folded bag aside, after which he walked towards the other end of the shed. His movements were leisurely, but he kept his back to Dick and the latter thought this significant, although he was not sure the man had seen him.
As he did not want to be seen loitering about the sheds, he walked on, feeling puzzled. Since he did not know what stock the company had held, it was difficult to tell if coal had recently been shipped, but he imagined that some must have left the wharf after the collier had unloaded. He was used to calculating weights and cubic quantities, and the sheds were not large. Taking it for granted that the vessel had landed one thousand five hundred tons, he thought there ought to be more about than he could see. Still,if some had been shipped, he could not understand why it had been taken, at a greater cost for labor, from the last shed, where one would expect the company to keep their reserve supply. He might, perhaps, find out something from the manager, but this would need tact.
Entering the small, hot office, he found a suave Spanish gentleman whom he had already met. The latter greeted him politely and gave him a cigar.
“It is not often you leave the works, but a change is good,” he said.
“We’re not quite so busy and I promised to pay Allen at the sugar mill a visit,” Dick replied. “Besides, I had an excuse for the trip. We’re short of some engine stores that I dare say you can let us have.”
He gave the manager a list, and the Spaniard nodded as he marked the items.
“We can send you most of the things. It pays us to stock goods that the engineers of the ships we coal often want; but there are some we have not got.”
“Very well,” said Dick. “I’ll fill up our form for what you have and you can put the things on board the tug the first time she goes to Santa Brigida.”
“She will go in three or four days.”
Dick decided that as the launch had probably been seen, he had better mention his voyage.
“That will be soon enough. If our storekeeper had told me earlier, I would have called here yesterday. I passed close by on my way to Orava.”
“One of the peons saw your boat. It is some distance to Orava.”
“The sea was very smooth,” said Dick. “I went to engage a contractor who had been at work upon the mole.”
So far, conversation had been easy, and he had satisfactorily accounted for his passing the wharf, without, he hoped, appearing anxious to do so; but he had learned nothing yet, although he thought the Spaniard was more interested in his doings than he looked.
“The collier was leaving as we went by,” he resumed. “Trade must be good, because she seemed to have unloaded a large quantity of coal.”
“Sixteen hundred tons,” said the manager. “In war time, when freights advance, it is wise to keep a good stock.”
As this was very nearly the quantity Dick had guessed, he noted the man’s frankness, but somehow imagined it was meant to hide something.
“So long as you can sell the stock,” he agreed. “War, however, interferes with trade, and the French line have reduced their sailings, while I expect the small British tramps won’t be so numerous.”
“They have nothing to fear in these waters.”
“I suppose they haven’t, and vessels belonging to neutral countries ought to be safe,” said Dick. “Still, the Spanish company seem to have changed their sailings, because I thought I saw one of their boats yesterday; but she was a long way off on the horizon.”
He thought the other gave him a keen glance, but as the shutters were partly closed the light was not good, and the man answered carelessly:
“They do not deal with us. Adexe is off their course and no boats so large can come up to the wharf.”
“Well,” said Dick, who believed he had admitted enough to disarm any suspicion the other might have entertained, “doesn’t coal that’s kept exposed to the air lose some of its heating properties?”
“It does not suffer much damage. But we will drink a glass of wine, and then I will show you how we keep our coal.”
“Thanks. These things interest me, but I looked into the sheds as I passed,” Dick answered as he drank his wine.
They went out and when they entered the first shed the Spaniard called a peon and gave him an order Dick did not catch. Then he showed Dick the cranes, and the trucks that ran along the wharf on rails, and how they weighed the bags of coal. After a time they went into a shed that was nearly empty and Dick carefully looked about. Several peons were at work upon the bags, but Oliva was not there. Dick wondered whether he had been warned to keep out of sight.
As they went back to the office, his companion looked over the edge of the wharf and spoke to a seaman on the tug below. Her fires were out and the hammering that came up through the open skylights indicated that work was being done in her engine-room. Then one of the workmen seemed to object to something another said, for Dick heard “No; it must be tightened. It knocked last night.”
He knew enough Castilian to feel sure he had not been mistaken, and the meaning of what he had heard was plain. A shaft-journal knocks when the bearings it revolves in have worn or shaken loose, and the machinery must have been running when the engineerheard the noise. Dick thought it better to light a cigarette, and was occupied shielding the match with his hands when the manager turned round. A few minutes later he stated that as it was a long way to Santa Brigida he must start soon and after some Spanish compliments the other let him go.
He followed the hill road slowly in a thoughtful mood. The manager had been frank, but Dick suspected him of trying to show that he had nothing to hide. Then he imagined that a quantity of coal had been shipped since the previous day, and if the tug had been at sea at night, she must have been used for towing lighters. The large vessel he had seen was obviously a passenger boat, but fast liners could be converted into auxiliary cruisers. There were, however, so far as he knew, no enemy cruisers in the neighborhood; indeed, it was supposed that they had been chased off the seas. Still, there was something mysterious about the matter, and he meant to watch the coaling company and Kenwardine.