Henry C. Rowland

“ Of course I declined, in fact absolutely refused, to accept any of the money profits of the enterprise, considering myself to be more than amply repaid in the benefit to my health and the grand impetus given to my work. For a man may study, sketch, and read; but until he has laid his naked life in the hollow of the hand of the great ocean god on his own domain, he has yet to feel the Spirit of the Sea. ”

“ To be sure, where the waves break they are most furious, but one feels their impotence. That is not the feeling of the sea. That is simply the feeling of the land. On the deep sea, 'way off soundings, there seems no limit to its power. Along the shore it is trammelled. It is the difference between seeing a tiger in a cage and seeing him slipping toward you through the striped jungle-grass. No—to paint a great picture of the sea you must have seen it from the wet, slippery, slanting deck of a small sailing vessel, with the glass and the sun going down and the wind and the sea rising. ”

“ The northeast monsoon was blowing a piping twenty-knot breeze over our starboard quarter, and the schooner was tearing along under a jib, forestaysail, foresail, and mainsail, with her port scuppers almost awash, and the big following seas swelling high under her stern as they boosted her along. Knapp wanted to set the maintopsail, but Boles said that she was trimmed by the head as it was, and he pointed out how she would bury her bows when she yawed off with a big sea under her stern. ”

“ Your head must have reeled with the quick, swooping plunge from the crest of one great swell to the trough of the next; your face must have stung with the lash of the spray, and your ears rung with the scream of the wind aloft, while the salt brine trickles down into your mouth. Then you may carry away in your heart a picture that will make you famous with a fame that will live forever! ”

“ We were becalmed all the following night, for which I was duly grateful, as I had no wish to be shipwrecked on those hostile shores, but Boles fumed and swore, and Knapp whistled for the breeze, spat over the rail, and finally took to throwing pennies into the water. It is all very well to talk of the folly of superstition and all that, but I have noticed that at sea the most practical of men will seek to propitiate the fickle goddess in the most childish way. Omens and hoodoos don't work so well on the land because there are so many cross currents to counteract them ”

“ Boles hailed the boat and waved them back with his hand.
"Go back, my friends," he shouted; " we cannot receive you, as we are going out. Adios.
The boat kept right on its course.
"Stop, señors!" called Boles again; "I say we cannot receive you. Another stroke at your peril!"
The boat still kept on.
"Shoot high, boys," said Boles, "about a foot over their heads. Let them feel the wind!"
Our rifles rang out, and the boat immediately held water. The gorilla rose to his feet. ”

“ Even Knapp seemed interested.
"Yes," he said, nodding; "I guess the doctor's about right—and think of the money you'd get for pictures with all that in 'em."
Boles gave a short laugh. "Yes," he said, "I forgot that—think of the money."
"What you say is very true," I answered, "and I have often realised it in my work. Art, of course, is not reproduction, it is interpretation; and one can't interpret what one has never felt, as you say. For that reason I have never attempted what you might call a deep-sea painting. My work has all been along the shore." ”

“ Boles was forever getting in some really unnecessary thrust, to which Knapp would respond by a retort as rough and jagged and abrupt as the rock-bound hills from which he came, but they never carried it beyond that. There were never two men, I am sure, who respected one another more and approved one another less. ”

“ Although small in stature, and if I have led a life of ease and luxury, and more or less coddling until my aunt died a year ago, I have always felt that, under certain conditions, I might really become a very dangerous man. Knapp thinks I might, and even Boles has complimented me at times on not being afraid. Besides, the thought of that mestiza girl was smouldering inside me, and I wanted to see the brutes that had maltreated her get their deserts. I didn't quite like the hemp part of it, but of course Boles and Knapp weren't on a yachting trip, if I was. ”

“ But it was always my curse to feel no after-affects to speak of; if I had, it would have been much better for me, I suppose. I never yet knew of a man with a weak stomach getting "D. T.'s." The companionway was a stiff proposition, but, once up, the cool air revived me.
The schooner was still at anchor, but her main and fore-sails were set, and the anchor hove short up. The decks were covered with long, golden-yellow hemp fibres, seeing which my eyes came open wider still.
"For the Lord's sake——" I began in amazement, but Boles tapped me on the shoulder. ”

“ I take naturally to the ivories, and knowing that I'm good at this one thing if at nothing else, I don't hesitate to say so in advance. I'm not one of those star players who say how useless they are, and then beat a man all to pieces and make him feel badly. Those chaps usually spot a man about fifteen balls, beat him at that, and then apologise for being in such poor form.
Knapp and I played three full strings in—well, never mind how many minutes. ”

“ I saw that he was dying to ask me if I was a man of independent means, but with all of his Yankee practicality, Knapp was a man of more than a little tact and delicacy, as I afterwards discovered.
The marker set up the balls and Knapp broke safe. Now, if there is any one place where I do excel, it's at a billiard or pool table. Without boasting, I can honestly say that I have seldom struck the amateur that could beat me on a long score. ”

“ Business is business, and a man must look after his own interests—is it not so?"
"Yes," replied the Spaniard, "and for that reason I will inform the señor that unless he delivers over the cargo to us, we will come and take it by force." He smiled, and his yellow teeth gleamed through his bristling moustache.
"What does he say?" demanded Knapp impatiently. "What's all this jawing about, anyway? Why don't you ask 'em what they're going to c about it?"
"He's just told us," said I. "He says that we've got to give up the hemp."
Knapp scowled. "How do you say 'go to hell' in Spanish?" he asked. ”

“ We rounded the end of the breakwater, and, slacking our sheets, stood away toward Corregidor, and soon the myriad lights of the Luneta twinkled dim and indistinct. Our topsails and staysail were quickly set, and the slap-slap of the little waves under her forefoot grew faster and faster as she gathered way. ”

“ There were four men standing in the schooner's bows, and four more in the boat alongside, and, to make things more interesting still, the brig had weighed her anchor and was standing across our bows. If we fouled the schooner it was easy to see that the game was up; on the other hand, if we managed to keep clear of everything, we might possibly keep them from boarding until we drifted out into the zone of breeze at the mouth of the little bay. ”

“ These little coasting coffins are slow as death and nothing like as sure, but a day's a big start, and it's only a matter of five hundred miles or so. We'll have our chin when we get under way."
He jumped up through the companionway, we right behind him, and the next moment he was hammering on the scuttle of the forehatch to break out our three native boys, while Knapp and I set to work casting off the stops of the foresail. After that I swarmed out on the bobstays and cleared the jib, while the Chings manned the windlass and Knapp and Boles started to get the foresail on her. ”

“ He has never seen either of our friends, so it will be easy for me to impersonate the Spanish captain. You and Knapp will have to be the reception committee and entertain our friends while I have a chin-chin with the señor. Of course he runs a little risk, but he is paid for that, and a few pesos to the Spaniards will square things. In case there is any delay in loading, or getting out of this hole to-morrow morning, it is easily possible that we may have a little fight on our hands. Now what do you say?"
What was I to say? What would any man with a spark of spirit have said? ”

“ And people feel this. It must be something more than a mere idle fancy when a hard-headed, practical Yank like Jordan Knapp gets to throwing money overboard to bring a breeze, even if it is only a quarter of a cent or so. ”

“ To have worked and worried as we had, won our race through dangerous and unknown waters, and then to find an unlooked-for rival already on the ground was enough to make one swear. Knapp evidently thought so.
We held a little conference, and it was decided that Knapp and I should go ashore and see how the ground lay, while Boles remained on the schooner as a sort of reserve. Here I was able to be of some service to my mates, as I had spent several years studying in Europe, and could speak Spanish like a native. ”

“ Probably the man never lived who could not excel in some particular direction if he only was fortunate enough to find out, first, wherein his talent lay, and second, to make the most of it when discovered. ”

“ Knapp, you keep those scoundrels covered, and if one of them reaches for a gun, nail him!"
I jumped to my feet and, running forward, hustled our Japs to the boat-falls, which consisted simply of a couple of light tackles and a jig hook, rigged from both mast heads. Boles was haranguing the Spaniards with honeyed words, and they seemed a little undecided as to what course to pursue. Then suddenly I saw the gorilla snatch a rifle from the thwart and throw it to his shoulder. ”

“ I've got four big crates of trading junk that a friend of mine, who is the captain of a transport, brought out from the States and has left in Manila for me—condemned cutlery, gewgaws, Yankee notions, beads, and all that sort of truck. We will get a Chino cook and a couple of Filipino boys to pull and haul and run aloft, but we want another white, man, more for company than anything else. ”

“ Two or three little Jap policemen jumped on Knapp and got the strangle hold. A Yankee sailorman that was lounging past leapt into the mess and knocked over a couple of native spectators who seemed inclined to lend the policemen a hand, and a very irate and tousled shopkeeper with a cut over his eye dashed suddenly from the little shop and began to whack me with a carved bamboo stick. ”

“ Boles could speak good Spanish, too, but Knapp, when speaking to any foreigner, simply raised his voice to a shout, making up in volume what he lacked in intelligibility.
We dropped into our dinghy and pulled ashore in some uncertainty. A few natives came down to the beach to see us land, and seemed quiet and friendly. ”

“ Boles and I have got this schooner and we're going to run over to Manila and get our trading stuff, and then take a cruise around the open ports of the southern islands of the group, on the lookout for a cargo of hemp, which is 'way up just now—tobacco, coffee, copra, curios, pearls, silks, piño, or any darn thing we can lay hands on at a reasonable bargain. Some of the time we'll both want to go ashore, and as we don't want to leave the vessel with only the natives aboard, we want another white man to take charge when we're away. ”

“ This I showed to Knapp, who studied it carefully.
"Now, kid," he said at length excitedly, "is the chance for you to get in your fine work. Tell this old greaser that, although disappointed in getting our cargo, we bear no ill-will, and invite him and these other greasers out aboard to lunch. Tell 'em we've got a bully cook, and the best booze that money can buy. They'll come—or greasers are a lot different in this part of the world than they are anywhere else. Then we'll go back aboard and talk to Boles. ”