Harold Bindloss

“ He waved the lantern, but the lighter, with sea and current on her weather bow, forged almost straight ahead, and the straining hawser 150 dragged the launch back. Reaching forward, Dick opened the throttle valve to its limit, and then sat grim and still while the throb of the screw shook the trembling hull. Something would happen in the next half minute unless he could get the lighter round. Glancing back, he saw her low, wet side shine in the moonlight. Two dark figures stood aft by the tiller, and he thought the foam about the rock was only a fathom or two away. ”

“ A bright glow marked the plaza, where a band was playing, but the harbor was dark except for the glimmer of anchor-lights on the oily swell. The occasional rattle of a winch, jarring harshly on the music, told that the Danish boat was working cargo. A faint, warm breeze blew off the land, and there was a flicker of green and blue phosphorescence as the sea washed about the end of the mole.
“I wonder how you’ll feel if Kenwardine doesn’t 307 come,” Jake said presently, looking at Dick, who did not answer.
“He will come,” Don Sebastian rejoined with quiet confidence. ”

“ The glare of the big arc-lights flooded the broad, white plaza when Dick crossed it on his way to the Hotel Magellan. The inhabitants of Santa Brigida had finished their evening meal and, as was their custom, were taking the air and listening to the military band. They were of many shades of color and different styles of dress, for dark-skinned peons in plain white cotton, chattering negroes, and grave, blue-clad Chinamen mingled with the citizens who claimed to spring from European stock. ”

“ Cranes were rattling, locomotives snorted as they moved the ponderous concrete blocks and hauled away loads of earth, and a crowd of picturesque figures were busy about the dam. Some wore dirty white cotton and ragged crimson sashes; the dark limbs of others projected from garments of vivid color. Dick drove the men as hard as he was able. They worked well, chattering and laughing, in the early morning, and there was much to be done, because Oliva’s dismissal had made a difference. ”

“ Dick threw some coal into the furnace, and restarted the launch. The throb of the engine was quicker than before, and when a jet of steam blew away from the escape-pipe Clare imagined that he meant to lose no time. She glanced at him as he sat at the helm with a moody face; and then away at the black hills that slid past. The silence was embarrassing and she wondered whether he would break it. On the whole, she wanted him to do so, but would give him no help.
“Of course,” he said at length, “you needn’t talk if you’d sooner not. ”

“ The launch rolled and lurched as the foam-tipped combers hove her up and the awning flapped savagely in the whistling breeze. Away on the horizon, there was a dingy trail of smoke. Presently Jake stood up on deck, and watched the masts that rose above the fringe of trees.
“There’s a black-top funnel like the Danish boat’s, and a flag with red and white on it, but it’s hanging limp. They don’t feel the breeze inside.”
He jumped down as Dick changed his course, and they passed a spit of surf-washed sand, rounded the last clump of trees, and opened up the harbor mouth. ”

“ Lance answered, and good-humoredly pushed Dick into the hall. “Get off at once! A fellow I know will give me a lift home.”
Dick ran down the drive and a few moments later his motorcycle was humming up the road. He sped through a dark firwood, where the cool air was filled with resinous scent, and out across a hillside down which the stocked sheaves stood in silvery rows, but he noticed nothing except that the white strip of road was clear in front. His thoughts were back in the garden with Clare Kenwardine, and he could smell the clogging sweetness of the stocks. ”

“ Richter had vaguely hinted at Kenwardine’s business, which was obviously mysterious. She saw where his hints led, but she would not follow up the clue. Her father had been ruined by Brandon, and her heart was filled with anger, in which she found it some relief to indulge. Dick had long been their enemy and thought her a thief, while the possibility that he was justified in the line he had taken made matters worse. If she was the daughter of a man dishonored by some treason against his country, she could not marry Dick. ”

“ It was very hot in the deep hollow that pierced the mountain range behind Santa Brigida on the Caribbean Sea. The black peaks cut against a glaring sky and the steep slopes of red soil and volcanic cinders on one side of the ravine were dazzlingly bright. The other was steeped in blue shadow that scarcely seemed to temper the heat, and the dark-skinned men who languidly packed the ballast among the ties of a narrow-gage railroad that wound up the hill panted as they swung their shovels. ”

“ 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.” ”

“ Then a low, shadowy hull, outlined by a glimmer of phosphorescence, came on towards the harbor mouth, and a rocket swept up in a fiery curve and burst, dropping colored lights. A harsh rattle of running chain broke out, the screw splashed noisily for a few moments and stopped, and a launch came swiftly down the harbor.
“The port doctor!” said Dick. “There’s some cargo ready, and she won’t sail for three or four hours. We had better wait until near the last moment before we go on board. If our man saw us, he’d take alarm and land.” ”

“ Two steamers lay not far off, rolling gently on the glittering swell, and several lighters were moored against the wharf. Since she had never heard him speak of coal, she imagined her father’s business was with the sugar mill, but he seldom talked to her about such matters and she did not ask. He took her to an old, yellow house, with tarnished brass rails barring its lower windows and a marble fountain in the patio, where brilliant creepers hung from the balconies. The soft splash of falling water was soothing and the spray cooled the air.
“It is very pretty,” Clare said while they waited. ”

“ It was important that they should catch Kenwardine’s boat, since he must not be allowed to land and finish his business before they arrived. In the meanwhile, he listened to the measured clank of the engine, which quickened when the top blade of the screw swung out. So long as she did not lift the others she would travel well, but by and by he heard a splash in the crank-pit and called to the fireman, who started the pump.
Day broke in a blaze of fiery splendor, and the dripping launch dried. The coast was near, the sea got smooth, and the tired men were glad of the heat of the red sun. ”

“ It was plain that Clare had got a shock, for she sat in a tense attitude and the color left her face; but Ida saw that she had read her character right and taken the proper course. Indeed, she wondered whether she had not unnecessarily harrowed the girl’s feelings.
“Now,” she resumed, “you understand why Dick Brandon kept back the letters. It is obvious that he loves you, but he is disfigured and may have to give up his profession——”
She stopped, for Clare’s face changed and her eyes shone with a gentle light. ”

“ A smell of rancid oil and garlic, mingled with the strong perfumes Spanish women use, hung about the buildings, but now and then a puff of cooler air flowed through a dark opening and brought with it the keen freshness of the sea. Once the melancholy note of a guitar came down from a roof and somebody began to sing in a voice that quivered with fantastic tremolos.
Dick went carefully, keeping as far as possible away from the walls. In Santa Brigida, all white men were supposed to be rich, and the honesty of the darker part of its mixed population was open to doubt. ”

“ Dick, who nodded, shared Jake’s admiration. He had helped to build the dam and, in a sense, had come to love it. Any defacement or injury to it would hurt him. Just then a bright, blinking spot emerged from the dark at the other end of the line and increased in radiance as it came forward, flickering along the slope of stone. It was the head-lamp of the locomotive that pushed the massive concrete block they waited for. The block cut off the light immediately in front of and below it, and when the engine, snorting harshly, approached the edge of the gap somebody shouted and steam was cut off. ”

“ Then as Lance and another man came toward them, she added, glancing at an open French window: “Besides, the room is very hot. It would be cooler in the garden.”
Dick was not a man of affairs, but he was not a fool. He knew that Clare Kenwardine was not the girl to attempt his captivation merely because he had shown himself susceptible. She wanted him to keep the others off, and he thought he understood this as he glanced at Lance’s companion. The fellow had a coarse, red face and looked dissipated, and even Lance’s well-bred air was somehow not so marked as usual. ”

“ Dick had been sitting on the bridge, but he jumped up as a rhythmic tramp of feet came down the hillside. Dust rose among the cornfields and hung in a white streak along the edge of a wood, and then with a twinkling flash of steel, small, ocher-colored figures swung out of the shadow. ”

“ A quarter of an hour later, a belt of foam between them and the land marked the reef, and the wind brought off the roar of breaking surf. Soon afterwards, the white surge faded, and only the tug’s lights were left as a long cloud-bank drove across the moon. Jake stood up, shielding his eyes from the spray.
“He’s broken his rope; the coal’s adrift!” he cried.
Dick saw the tug’s lights vanish, which meant that she had turned with her stern towards the launch; and then two or three twinkling specks some distance off. ”

“ Don Sebastian remarked as he sat down on the parapet. “Well, one must be philosophical. Things do not always go as one would wish.”
“Why didn’t you warn the captain that his plan was found out, instead of jumping into the launch?” Dick asked angrily.
Don Sebastian smiled. “Because I did not know. I saw a man steal down the ladder and thought he might be a spy, but could not tell how much he had learned. If he had learned nothing, it would have been dangerous for the captain to change his plan again and keep to the sailing list.” ”

“ There was a blaze of light above that fell upon the farthest off of the row of boats, past which the launch ran with her engine stopped, and the dark water broke into a fiery sparkle as the swell lapped the steamer’s plates. A man came down the ladder when the launch jarred against its foot, and Ida, finding that Fuller was still on board, went up while Dick steamed across to the cargo-boat that lay with winches hammering not far off. ”

“ By and by the breeze died away, and the long swell heaved in a glassy calm, glittering with silver and vivid blue. When their clothes were dry they loosed and spread the awning, and a pungent smell of olive oil and coffee floated about the boat as the fireman cooked breakfast. After they had eaten, Dick moved a bag or two of coal to trim the craft and sounded the tank, because a high-pressure engine uses a large quantity of fresh water. Then he unrolled a chart and measured the distance to their port while Jake looked over his shoulder.
“We ought to be in time,” he said. ”

“ Clare sat down, and after a few minutes Dick resumed: “You passed my door to-day, and it’s curious that I knew your step, though, if you can understand, without actually recognizing it. It was as if I was dreaming something that was real. The worst of being ill is that your brain gets working independently, bringing things up on its own account, without your telling it. ”

“ Narrow gaps of shadow opened between them, and the slender square towers of the cathedral dominated all, but in places a steep, red roof struck a picturesque but foreign note.
“Santa Brigida has a romantic look at night,” Dick remarked. “Somehow it reminds me of pictures of the East.”
“That is not very strange,” Ida answered with a smile. “The flat roof and straight, unbroken wall is the oldest type of architecture. Man naturally adopted it when he gave up the tent and began to build.”
“Yes,” said Dick. “Two uprights and a beam across! You couldn’t get anything much simpler. ”

“ Dick felt his nerves tingle when he put the helm over and the hawser tightened as the lighter began to swing. If she took too wide a sweep, he might be unable to check her before she struck the reef, and there seemed to be a current flowing through the gap. Glancing astern for a moment, he saw her dark hull swing through a wide curve while the strain on the hawser dragged the launch’s stern down, but she came round and the tension slackened as he steered up the channel. ”

“ Don Sebastian smiled, but said suavely: “For all that, you should not take an unnecessary risk. You have been attacked once already, I think?”
“Yes, but it was my partner who got hurt.”
“That is one of the ironies of luck. Señor Brandon is sober and cautious, but he gets injured when he comes to protect you, who are rash.”
“He’s what you say, but I didn’t know you had met him,” Jake replied.
“I have heard of him; you foreigners are talked about in the cafés. They talk much in Santa Brigida; many have nothing else to do. But have you and Señor Brandon only been molested once?” ”