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 ADVENTURES OF 
 CAPTAIN KETTLE 
 
 '/*fe*S CJei UJirif;, * 
 
 BY CUTCLIFFE HYNE 
 
 AUTHOR OF "A MASTER OF FORTUNE," ETC. 
 
 M. A. DONOHUE & COMPANY 
 
 CHICAGO NEW YORK
 
 COPYRIGHT, i8g8, 
 v CUTCLIFFE HVW!S 
 
 Made in U. S. A.
 
 Stack 
 Anna 
 
 5! 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PACK 
 
 I. The Guns for Cuba I 
 
 II. Crown and Garotte 27 
 
 III. The War Steamer of Donna Clotilde 54 
 
 IV. The Pilgrim Ship 77 
 
 V. Fortunes Adrift 100 
 
 VI. The Escape 124 
 
 VII. The Pearl Poachers 147 
 
 VIII. The Liner and the Iceberg 175 
 
 IX. The Raiding of Donna Clotilde 199 
 
 X. Mr. Gedge's Catspaw 225 
 
 XI. The Salving of the Duncansby Head 255 
 
 XII. The Wreck of the Cattle-Boat. . .280 
 
 2130010

 
 ADVENTURES OF 
 
 CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE GUNS FOR CUBA. 
 
 " THE shore part must lie entirely with you, sir/* 
 said Captain Kettle. " It's mixed up with the For- 
 eign Enlistment Act, and the Alabama case, and a 
 dozen other things which may mean anything be- 
 tween gaol and confiscation, and my head isn't big 
 enough to hold it. If you'll be advised by me, sir, 
 you'll see a real first-class solicitor, and stand him a 
 drink, and pay him down what he asks right there 
 on the bar counter, and get to know exactly how 
 the law of this business stands before you stir foot 
 in it. 
 
 " The law here in England," said the little man 
 with a reminiscent sigh, " is a beastly thing to fall 
 foul of; it's just wickedly officious and interfering; 
 it's never done kicking you, once it's got a fair start ; 
 and you never know where it will shove out its ugly 
 hoof from next. No, Mr. Gedge, give me the States 
 for nice comfortable law, where a man can buy it by 
 
 i
 
 2 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 the yard for paper money down, and straight pistol 
 shooting is always remembered in his favour." 
 
 The young man who owned the SS. Sultan of 
 Borneo tapped his blotting paper impatiently. 
 " Stick to the point, Kettle. We're in England 
 now, and have nothing whatever to do with legal 
 matters in America. As for your advice, I am not 
 a fool : you can lay your ticket on it I know to an 
 inch how I stand. And I may tell you this : the 
 shipment is arranged for." 
 
 " I'd like to see us cleared," said Captain Kettle 
 doubtfully. 
 
 " No one will interfere with the clearance. The 
 Sultan of Borneo will leave here in coal, consigned 
 to the Havana. A private yacht will meet her at 
 sea, and tranship the arms out of sight of land." 
 
 " Tyne coal for Cuba ? They'd get their coal 
 there from Norfolk, Virginia, or else Welsh steam 
 coal from Cardiff or Newport." 
 
 " It seems not. This contract was placed long 
 before a ship was asked for to smuggle out the 
 arms." 
 
 " Well, it looks fishy, anyway." 
 
 " I can't help that," said Gedge irritably. " I'm 
 telling you the naked truth, and if truth as usual 
 looks unlikely, it's not my fault. Now have you got 
 any more objections to make ? " 
 
 " No, sir," said Captain Kettle, " none that I can 
 see at present." 
 
 " Very well, then," said Gedge. " Do you care to 
 sign on as master for this cruise, or are you going 
 to cry off ? " 
 
 " They'll hang me if I'm caught," said Kettle.
 
 THE GUNS FOR CUBA. 3 
 
 " Not they. They'll only talk big, and the British 
 Consul will get you clear. You bet they daren't hang 
 an Englishman for mere smuggling in Cuba. And 
 besides, aren't I offering to raise your screw from 
 twelve pound a month to fourteen so as to cover the 
 risk? However, you won't get caught. You'll find 
 everything ready for you ; you'll slip the rifles ashore ; 
 and then you'll steam on to Havana and discharge 
 your coal in the ordinary humdrum way of business, 
 And there's a ten pound bonus if you pull the thing 
 off successfully. Now then, Captain, quick : you go 
 or you don't ? " 
 
 " I go," said Kettle gloomily. " I'm a poor man 
 with a wife and family, Mr. Gedge, and I can't afford 
 to lose a berth. But it's that coal I can't swallow. I 
 quite believe what you say about the contract ; only 
 it doesn't look natural. And it's my belief the coal 
 will trip us up somewhere before we've done, and 
 bring about trouble." 
 
 "Which of course you are quite a stranger to? " 
 said Gedge slily. 
 
 " Don't taunt me with it, sir," said Captain Kettle. 
 " I quite well know the kind of brute I am ; trouble 
 with a crew or any other set of living men at sea is 
 just meat and drink to me, and I'm bitterly ashamed 
 of the taste. Every time I sit underneath our min- 
 ister in the chapel here in South Shields I grow more 
 ashamed. And if you heard the beautiful poetical 
 way that man talks of peace, and green fields, and 
 golden harps, you'd understand." 
 
 "Yes, yes," said Gedge; "but I don't want any of 
 your excellent minister's sermons at second hand just 
 now, Captain, or any of your own poetry, thanks.
 
 4 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 I'm very busy. Good morning. Help yourself to 
 a cigar. You haul alongside the coal shoots to get 
 your cargo at two o'clock, and I'll be on board to see 
 you at six. Good morning." And Mr. Gedge rang 
 for the clerk and was busily dictating letters before 
 Kettle was clear of the office. 
 
 The little sailor went down the grimy stairs and 
 into the street, and made towards the smelling Tyne. 
 The black cigar rested unlit in an angle of his mouth, 
 and he gnawed savagely at the butt with his eye- 
 teeth. He cursed the Fates as he walked. Why did 
 they use him so evilly that he was forced into berths 
 like these? As a bachelor, he told himself with a 
 sneer, he would have jumped at the excitement of 
 it. As the partner of Mrs. Kettle, and the father 
 of her children, he could have shuddered when he 
 threw his eyes over the future. 
 
 For a week or so she could draw his half-pay and 
 live sumptuously at the rate of seven pounds a 
 month. But afterwards, if he got caught by some 
 angry Spanish war-steamer with the smuggled rifles 
 under his hatches, and shot, or hanged, or imprisoned, 
 or otherwise debarred from earning income at his 
 craft, where would Mrs. Kettle be then ? Would 
 Gedge do anything for her ? He drew the cigar from 
 his lips, and spat contemptuously at the bare idea. 
 With the morality of the affair he troubled not one 
 jot. The Spanish Government and the Cuban rebels 
 were two rival firms who offered different rates of 
 freight according to the risk, and he was employed 
 as carrier by those who paid the higher price. If 
 there was any right or wrong about the question, it 
 was a purely private matter between Mr. Gedge and
 
 THE GUNS FOR CUBA. 5 
 
 his God. He, Owen Kettle, was as impersonal in 
 the business as the ancient Sultan of Borneo herself; 
 he was a mere cog in some complex machinery ; and 
 if he was earning heaven, it was by piety inside the 
 chapel ashore, and not by professional exertions 
 (.'n the interests of an earthly employer) elsewhere. 
 
 He took ferry across the filthy Tyne, and walked 
 jown alleys and squalid streets where coal dust 
 formed the mud, and the air was sour with foreign 
 vapours. And as he walked he champed still at the 
 unlit cigar, and brooded over the angularity of his 
 fate. But when he passed between the gates of the 
 dock company's premises, and exchanged words with 
 the policeman on guard, a change came over him. 
 He threw away the cigar stump, tightened his lips, 
 and left all thoughts of personal matters outside the 
 door-sill. He was Mr. Gedge's hired servant; his 
 brain was devoted to furthering Gedge's interests ; 
 and all the acid of his tongue was ready to spur on 
 those who did the manual work on Gedge's ship. 
 
 Within a minute of his arrival on her deck, the 
 Sultan of Borneo was being unmoored from the bol- 
 lards on the quay ; within ten, her winches were clat- 
 tering and bucking as they warped her across to the 
 black, straddling coal-shoots at the other side of the 
 dock ; and within half an hour the cargo was roaring 
 down her hatches as fast as the railway waggons on 
 the grimy trestle overhead could disgorge. 
 
 The halo of coal dust made day into dusk ; the 
 grit of it filled every cranny, and settled as an amor- 
 phous scum on the water of the dock ; and labourers 
 hired by the hour toiled at piece-work pace through 
 sheer terror at their employer.
 
 6 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 If his other failings could have been eliminated, 
 this little skipper, with the red peaked beard, would 
 certainly have been, from an owner's point of view, 
 the best commander sailing out of any English port. 
 No man ever wrenched such a magnificent amount 
 of work from his hands. But it was those other fail- 
 ings which kept him what he was, the pitiful knock- 
 about ship-master, living from hand to mouth, never 
 certain of his berth from one month's end to another. 
 
 That afternoon Captain Kettle signed on his crew, 
 got them on board, and with the help of his two 
 mates kicked the majority of them into sobriety ; 
 he received a visit and final instructions from Mr. 
 Gedge at six o'clock ; and by nightfall he had filled 
 in his papers, warped out of dock, and stood anx- 
 iously on the bridge watching the pilot as he took 
 the steamboat down through the crowded shipping 
 of the river. His wife stood under the glow of an 
 arc lamp on the dockhead and waved him good-bye 
 through the gloom. 
 
 Captain Kettle received his first fright as he 
 dropped his pilot just outside the Tyne pierheads. 
 A man-of-war's launch steamed up out of the night, 
 and the boarding officer examined his papers and 
 asked questions. The little captain, conscious of 
 having no contraband of war on board just then, was 
 brutally rude ; but the naval officer remained stolid, 
 and refused to see the insults which were pitched at 
 him. He had an unpalatable duty to perform ; he 
 quite sympathised with Kettle's feelings over the 
 matter ; and he got back to his launch thanking many 
 stars that the affair had ended so easily. 
 
 But Kettle rang on his engines again with very
 
 THE GUNS FOR CUBA. 7 
 
 unpleasant feelings. It was clear to him that the 
 secret was oozing out somewhere ; that the Sultan 
 of Borneo was suspected ; that his course to Cuba 
 would be beset with many well-armed obstacles ; and 
 he forthwith made his first ruse out of the long suc- 
 cession which were to follow. 
 
 He had been instructed by Gedge to steam off 
 straight from the Tyne to a point deep in the North 
 Sea, where a yacht would meet him to hand over 
 the consignment of smuggled arms. But he felt 
 the night to be full of eyes, and for a Havana-bound 
 ship to leave the usual steam-lane which leads to 
 the English Channel was equivalent to a confession 
 of her purpose from the outset. So he took the 
 parallel rulers and pencilled off on his chart the ste- 
 reotyped course, which just clears Whitby Rock and 
 Flamboro' Head ; and the Siiltan of Borneo was held 
 steadily along this, steaming at her normal nine 
 knots ; and it was not till she was out of sight of 
 land off Humber mouth, and the sea chanced to be 
 desolate, that he starboarded his helm and stood off 
 for the ocean rendezvous. 
 
 A hand on the foretopsail yard picked up the yacht 
 out of the grey mists of dawn, and by eight bells 
 they were lying hove-to in the trough, with a hun- 
 dred yards of cold grey water tumbling between 
 them. The transhipment was made in two lifeboats, 
 and Kettle went across and enjoyed an extravagant 
 breakfast in the yacht's cabin. The talk was all 
 upon the Cuban revolution. Carnforth, the yacht's 
 owner, brimmed with it. 
 
 " If you can run the blockade, Captain," said he, 
 " and land these rifles, and the Maxims, and the
 
 8 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 cartridges, they'll be grateful enough to put up a 
 statue to you. The revolution will end in a snap. 
 The Spanish troops are half of them fever-ridden, 
 and all of them discouraged. With these guns you 
 are carrying, the patriots can shoot their enemies 
 over the edges of the island into the Caribbean Sea. 
 And there is no reason why you should get 
 stopped. There are filibustering expeditions fitted 
 out every week from Key West, and Tampa, and 
 the other Florida ports, and one or two have even 
 started from New York itself." 
 
 " But they haven't got through ? " suggested Cap- 
 tain Kettle. 
 
 "Not all of them," Mr. Carnforth admitted. 
 " But then you see they sailed in schooners, and 
 you have got steam. Besides, they started from the 
 States, where the newspapers knew all about them, 
 and so their arrival was cabled on to Cuba ahead ; 
 and you have the advantage of sailing from an 
 English port." 
 
 " I don't see where the pull comes in," said Kettle 
 gloomily. " There isn't a blessed country on the 
 face of the globe more interfering with her own 
 people than England. A Yankee can do as he darn 
 well pleases in the filibustering line; but if a Brit- 
 isher makes a move that way, the blessed law here 
 stretches out twenty hands and plucks him back by 
 the tail before he's half started. No, Mr. Carnforth, 
 I'm not sweet on the chances. I'm a poor man, and 
 this means a lot to me: that's why I'm anxious. 
 You're rich ; you only stand to lose the cost of the 
 consignment ; and if that gets confiscated it won't 
 mean much to you."
 
 THE GUNS FOR CUBA. 9 
 
 Carnforth grinned. " You pay my business quali- 
 ties a poor compliment, Captain. You can bet 
 your life I had money down in hard cash before I 
 stirred foot in the matter. The weapons and the 
 ammunition were paid for at fifty per cent, above 
 list prices, so as to cover the trouble of secrecy, and 
 I got a charter for the yacht to bring the stuff out 
 here which would astonish you if you saw the 
 figures. No, I'm clear on the matter from this 
 moment, Captain, but I'll not deny that I shall take 
 an interest in your future adventures with the cargo. 
 Help yourself to a cigarette." 
 
 " Then it seems to me," said Kettle acidly, " that 
 you'll look at me just as a hare set on to run for 
 your amusement ? " 
 
 The yacht-owner laughed. " You put it brutally," 
 he said, " but that's about the size of it. And if 
 you want further truths, here's one : I shouldn't 
 particularly mind if you were caught." 
 
 " How's that ? " 
 
 " Because, my dear skipper, if the Spanish 
 captured this consignment, the patriots would want 
 another, and I should get the order. Whereas, if 
 you land the stuff safely, it will see them through 
 to the end of the war, and my chance of making 
 further profit will be at an end." 
 
 " You have a very clear way of putting it," said 
 Captain Kettle. 
 
 " Haven't I ? Which will you take, green char- 
 treuse or yellow ? " 
 
 "And Mr. Gedge? Can you tell me, sir, how he 
 stands over this business?" 
 
 " Oh, you bet, Gedge knows when to come in out
 
 10 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 of the wet. He's got the old Sultan underwritten 
 by the insurance and by the Cuban agents up to 
 double her value, and nothing would suit his books 
 better than for a Spanish cruiser to drop upon you." 
 
 Captain Kettle got up, reached for his cap, and 
 swung it aggressively on to one side of his head. 
 
 "Very well," he said, "that's your side of the 
 question. Now hear mine. That cargo's going 
 through, and those rebels or patriots, or whatever 
 they are, shall have their guns if half the Spanish 
 navy was there to try and stop me. You and Mr. 
 Gedge have started about this business the wrong 
 way. Treat me on the square, and I'm a man a 
 child might handle ; but I'd not be driven by the 
 Queen of England, no, not with the Emperor of 
 Germany to help her." 
 
 " Oh, look here, Captain," said Carnforth, " don't 
 get your back up." 
 
 " I'll not trade with you," replied Kettle. 
 
 "You re a fool to your own interests." 
 
 " I know it," said the sailor grimly. " I've known 
 it all my life. If I'd not been that, I'd not have 
 found myself in such shady company as there is 
 here now." 
 
 " Look here, you ruffian, if you insult me I'll 
 kick you out of this cabin, and over the side into 
 your own boat." 
 
 "All right," said Kettle ;" start in." 
 
 Carnforth half rose from his seat and measured 
 Captain Kettle with his eye. Apparently the 
 scrutiny impressed him, for he sank back to his seat 
 again with an embarrassed laugh. " You're an ugly 
 little devil," he said.
 
 THE GUNS FOR CUBA. II 
 
 " I'm all that," said Kettle. 
 
 " And I'm not going to play at rough and tumble 
 with you here. We've neither of us anything to 
 gain by it, and I've a lot to lose. I believe you'll 
 run that cargo through now that you're put on your 
 mettle, but I guess there'll be trouble for somebody 
 before it's dealt out to the patriot troops. Gad, 
 I'd like to be somewhere on hand to watch you 
 do it." 
 
 " I don't object to an audience," said Kettle. 
 
 "By Jove, I've half a mind to come with you." 
 
 " You'd better not," said the little sailor with glib 
 contempt. " You're not the sort that cares to risk 
 his skin, and I can't be bothered with dead-head 
 passengers." 
 
 "That settles it," said Carnforth. "I'm coming 
 with you to run that blockade ; and if the chance 
 comes, my cantankerous friend, I'll show you I can 
 be useful. Always supposing, that is, we don't 
 murder one another before we get there." 
 
 A white mist shut the Channel sea into a ring, 
 and the air was noisy with the grunts and screams 
 of steamers' syrens. Captain Kettle was standing 
 on the Sultan of Borneo s upper bridge, with his 
 hand on the engine-room telegraph, which was 
 pointed at " Full speed astern ;" Carnforth and the 
 old second mate stood with their chins over the top 
 of the starboard dodger ; and all three of them peered 
 into the opalescent banks of the fog. 
 
 They had reason for their anxiety. Not five 
 minutes before, a long lean torpedo-catcher had 
 raced up out of the thickness, and slowed down
 
 12 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 alongside with the Channel spindrift blowing over 
 her low superstructure in white hail-storms. An 
 officer on the upper bridge in glistening oilskins had 
 sent across a sharp authoritative hail, and had been 
 answered : " Sultan of Borneo ; Kettle, master ; 
 from South Shields to the Havana." 
 
 " What cargo ? " came the next question. 
 
 " Coal." 
 
 " What ? " 
 
 " Coal." 
 
 "Then Mr. Tyne Coal for the Havana, just heave 
 to whilst I send away a boat to look at you. I 
 fancy you will be the steamboat I'm sent to find 
 and fetch back." 
 
 The decks of the uncomfortable warship had 
 hummed with men, a pair of boat davits had swung 
 outboard, and the boat had been armed and manned 
 with naval noise and quickness. But just then a 
 billow of the fog had driven down upon them, 
 blanket-like in its thickness, which closed all human 
 vision beyond the range of a dozen yards, and Cap- 
 tain Kettle jumped like a terrier on his opportunity. 
 He sent his steamer hard astern with a slightly 
 ported helm, and whilst the torpedo-catcher's boat 
 was searching for him towards the French shore, 
 and sending vain hails into the white banks of the 
 mist, he was circling slowly and silently round to- 
 wards the English coast. 
 
 So long as the mist held, the Sultan of Borneo was 
 as hard to find as a needle in a cargo of hay. Did 
 the air clear for so much as a single instant, she 
 would be noticed and stand self-confessed by her 
 attempt to escape ; and as a result, the suspense
 
 THE GUNS FOR CUBA. 13 
 
 was vivid enough to make Carnforth feel physical 
 nausea. He had not reckoned on this complication. 
 He was quite prepared to risk capture in Cuban 
 waters, where the glamour of distance and the dazzle 
 of helping insurrectionists would cast a glow of 
 romance over whatever occurred. But to be caught 
 in the English Channel as a vulgar smuggler for the 
 sake of commercial profit, and to be haled back for 
 hard labour in an English gaol, was a different matter. 
 He was a member of Parliament, and he understood 
 these details in all their niceties. 
 
 But Captain Kettle took the situation differently. 
 The sight of the torpedo-catcher stiffened all the 
 doubt and limpness out of his composition ; his eye 
 brightened and his lips grew stiff; the scheming to 
 escape acted on him like a tonic ; and when an hour 
 later the Sultan of Borneo was steaming merrily 
 down Channel at top speed through the same im- 
 penetrable fog, the little skipper whistled dance 
 music on the upper bridge, and caught the notion 
 for a most pleasing sonnet. That evening the crew 
 came aft in a state of mild mutiny, and Kettle 
 attended to their needs with gusto. 
 
 He prefaced his remarks by a slight exhibition 
 of marksmanship. He cut away the vane which 
 showed dimly on the fore-topmast truck with a 
 single bullet, and then, after dexterously reloading 
 his revolver, lounged over the white rail of the upper 
 bridge with the weapon in his hand. 
 
 He told the malcontents he was glad of the oppor- 
 tunity to give them his views on matters generally. 
 He informed them genially that for their personal 
 wishes he cared not one decimal of a jot. He stated
 
 14 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 plainly that he had got them on board, and intended 
 by their help to carry out his owner's instructions 
 whether they hated them or not. And finally he 
 gave them his candid assurance that if any cur 
 amongst them presumed to disobey the least of his 
 orders, he would shoot that man neatly through the 
 head without further preamble. 
 
 This elegant harangue did not go home to all 
 hands at once, because being a British ship, the 
 Sultan of Borneo's crew naturally spoke in five dif- 
 ferent languages, and few of them had even a work- 
 ing knowledge of English. But the look of Kettle's 
 savage little face as he talked, and the red torpedo 
 beard which wagged beneath it, conveyed to them 
 the tone of his speech, and for the time they did not 
 require a more accurate translation. They had come 
 off big with the intention of forcing him (if neces- 
 sary with violence) to run the steamer there and 
 then into an English port ; they went forward again 
 like a pack of sheep, merely because one man had 
 let them hear the virulence of his bark, and had 
 shown them with what accuracy he could bite if 
 necessary. " And that's the beauty of a mongrel 
 crew," said Kettle complacently. " If they'd been 
 English, I'd have had to shoot at least two of the 
 beasts to keep my end up like that." 
 
 " You're a marvel," Carnforth admitted. " I'm a 
 bit of a speaker myself, but I never heard a man 
 with a gift of tongue like you have got." 
 
 " I am poisonous when I spread myself," said 
 Kettle. 
 
 " I wish I was clear of you," said Carnforth, with 
 an awkward laugh. " Whatever possessed me to
 
 THE GUNS FOR CUBA. 15 
 
 leave the yacht and come on this cruise I can't 
 think." 
 
 " Some people never do know when they're well 
 off," said Kettle. " Well, sir, you're in for it now, 
 and you may see things which will be of service to 
 you afterwards. You ought to make your mark in 
 Parliament if you do get back from this trip. You'll 
 have something to talk about that men will like to 
 listen to, instead of merely chattering wind, which 
 is what most of them are put to, so far as I can see 
 from the papers. And now, sir, here's the steward 
 come to tell us tea's ready. You go below and tuck 
 in. I'll take mine on the bridge here. It won't do 
 for me to turn my back yet awhile, or else those 
 beasts forrard will jump on us from behind and 
 murder the whole lot whilst we aren't looking." 
 
 The voyage from that time onwards was for Cap- 
 tain Kettle a period of constant watchfulness. It 
 would not be true to say that he never took off his 
 clothes or never slept ; but whether he was in pyja- 
 mas in the chart-house, or whether he was sitting on 
 an upturned ginger-beer case under the shelter of 
 one of the upper bridge canvas dodgers, with his 
 tired eyes shut and the red peaked beard upon his 
 chest, it was always the same, he was ever ready to 
 spring instantly upon the alert. 
 
 One dark night an iron belaying-pin flew out of 
 the blackness of the forecastle and whizzed within 
 an inch of his sleeping head ; but he roused so 
 quickly that he was able to shoot the thrower 
 through the shoulder before he could dive back 
 again through the forecastle door. And another
 
 l6 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 time when a powdering gale had kept him on the 
 bridge for forty-eight consecutive hours, and a depu- 
 tation of the deck hands raided him in the chart- 
 house on the supposition that exhaustion would 
 have laid him out in a dead sleep, he woke before 
 their fingers touched him, broke the jaw of one with 
 a camp-stool, and so maltreated the others with the 
 same weapon, that they were glad enough to run 
 away even with the exasperating knowledge that 
 they left their taskmaster undamaged behind them. 
 
 So, although this all-nation crew of the Sultan of 
 Borneo dreaded the Spaniards much, they feared 
 Captain Kettle far more, and by the time the steamer 
 had closed up with the island of Cuba, they had con- 
 cluded to follow out their skipper's orders, as being 
 the least of the two evils which lay before them. 
 
 Carnforth's way of looking at the matter was 
 peculiar. He had all a healthy man's appetite for 
 adventure, and all a prosperous man's distaste for 
 being wrecked. He had taken a strong personal liking 
 for the truculent little skipper, and, other things being 
 equal, would have cheerfully helped him ; but on 
 the other hand, he could not avoid seeing that it 
 was to his own interests that the crew should get 
 their way, and keep the steamer out of dangerous 
 waters. And so, when finally he decided to stand 
 by non-interferent, he prided himself a good deal on 
 his forbearance, and said so to Kettle in as many 
 words. 
 
 That worthy mariner quite agreed with him. 
 " It's the very best thing you could do, sir," he 
 answered. " It would have annoyed me terribly to 
 have had to shoot you out of mischief's way, because
 
 THE GUNS FOR CUBA. 17 
 
 you've been kind enough to say you like my poetry, 
 and because I've come to see, sir, you're a gentleman." 
 
 They came to this arrangement on the morning 
 of the day they opened out the secluded bay in the 
 southern Cuban shore where the contraband of war 
 was to be run. Kettle calculated his whereabouts 
 with niceness, and, after the midday observation, 
 lay the steamer to for a couple of hours, and him- 
 self supervised his engineers whilst they gave a good 
 overhaul to the machinery. Then he gave her 
 steam again, and made his landfall four hours after 
 the sunset. 
 
 They saw the coast first as a black line running 
 across the dim grey of the night. It rose as they 
 neared it, and showed a crest fringed with trees, and 
 a foot steeped in white mist, from out of which 
 came the faint bellow of surf. Captain Kettle, after 
 a cast or two, picked up his marks and steamed in 
 confidently, with his side-lights dowsed, and three 
 red lanterns in a triangle at his foremast head. He 
 was feeling pleasantly surprised with the easiness of 
 it all. 
 
 But when the steamer had got well into the bight 
 of the bay, and all the glasses on the bridge were peer- 
 ing at the shore in search of answering lights, a blaze 
 of radiance suddenly flickered on to her from astern, 
 and was as suddenly eclipsed, leaving them for a 
 moment blinded by its dazzle. It was a long trun- 
 cheon of light which sprouted from a glowing centre 
 away between the heads of the bay, and they watched 
 it sweep past them over the surface of the water, 
 and then sweep back again. Finally, after a little 
 more dalliance, it settled on the steamer and lit her, 
 a
 
 1 8 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 and the ring of water on which she swam, like a 
 ship in a lantern picture. 
 
 Carnforth swore aloud, and Captain Kettle lit a 
 fresh cigar. Those of the mongrel crew who were 
 on the deck went below to pack their bags. 
 
 " Well, sir," said Kettle cheerfully, " here we are. 
 That's a Spanish gunboat with searchlight, all com- 
 plete " he screwed up his eyes and gazed astern 
 meditatively. " She's got the heels of us too ; by 
 about five knots I should say. Just look at the 
 flames coming out of her funnels. Aren't they just 
 giving her ginger down in the stokehold ? Shoot- 
 ing will begin directly, and the other blackguards 
 ashore have apparently forgotten all about us. 
 There isn't a light anywhere." 
 
 " What are you going to do ? " asked Carnforth. 
 
 " Follow out Mr. Gedge's instructions, sir, and 
 put this cargo on the beach. Whether the old 
 Sultan goes there too, remains to be seen." 
 
 " That gunboat will cut you off in a quarter of an 
 hour if you keep on this course." 
 
 " With that extra five knots she can do as she 
 likes with us, so I sha'n't shift my helm. It would 
 only look suspicious." 
 
 " Good Lord ! " said Carnforth, " as if our being 
 here at all isn't suspicion itself." 
 
 But Kettle did not answer. He had, to use his 
 own expression, " got his wits working under forced 
 draught," and he could not afford time for idle specu- 
 lation and chatter. It was the want of the an- 
 swering signal ashore which upset him. Had that 
 showed against the black background of hills, he 
 would have known what to do.
 
 THE GUNS FOR CUBA. 19 
 
 Meanwhile the Spanish warship was closing up 
 with him handover fist, and decision was necessary. 
 Anyway, the choice was a poor one. If he surren- 
 dered he would be searched, and with that damning 
 cargo of rifles and machine guns and ammunition 
 under his hatches, it was not at all improbable that 
 his captors might string him up out of hand. They 
 would have right on their side for doing so. 
 
 The insurrectionists were not " recognised belli- 
 gerents " ; he would stand as a filibuster confessed ; 
 and as such would be due to suffer under that rough 
 and ready martial law which cannot spare time to 
 feed and gaol prisoners. 
 
 On the other hand, if he refused to heave to the 
 result would be equally simple ; the warship would 
 sink him with her guns inside a dozen minutes; 
 and reckless dare-devil though he might be, Kettle 
 knew quite well there was no chance of avoiding this. 
 
 With another crew he might have been tempted 
 to lay his old steamer alongside the other, and try 
 to carry her by boarding and sheer hand-to-hand 
 fighting ; but, excepting for those on watch in the 
 stokehold, his present set of men were all below 
 packing their belongings into portable shape, and 
 he knew quite well that nothing would please them 
 better than to see him discomfited. Carnforth was 
 neutral ; he had only his three mates and the en- 
 gineer officers to depend upon in all the available 
 world ; and he recognised between deep draughts 
 at his cigar that he was in a very tight place. 
 
 Still the dark shore ahead remained unbeaconed, 
 and the Spaniard was racing up astern, lit for battle, 
 with her crew at quarters, and guns run out and
 
 2O ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 loaded. She leapt nearer by fathoms to the second, 
 till Kettle could hear the panting of her engines as 
 she chased him down. His teeth chewed on the 
 cigar butt, and dark rings grew under his eyes. He 
 could have raged aloud at his impotence. 
 
 The war steamer ranged up alongside, slowed to 
 some forty revolutions so as to keep her place, and 
 an officer on the top of her chart-house hailed in 
 Spanish. 
 
 "Gunboat ahoy," Kettle bawled back; "you 
 must speak English or I can't be civil to you." 
 
 " What ship is that ? " 
 
 " Sultan of Borneo, Kettle, master. Out of 
 Shields." 
 
 "Where for?" 
 
 "The Havana," 
 
 Promptly the query came back : " Then what are 
 you doing in here ? " 
 
 Carnforth whispered a suggestion. " Freshwater 
 run out ; condenser water given all hands dysentery ; 
 put in here to fill up tanks." 
 
 " I thank you, sir," said Kettle in the same under- 
 tone, " I'm no hand at lying myself, or I might 
 have thought of that before." And he shouted the 
 excuse across to the spokesman on the chart-house 
 roof. 
 
 To his surprise they seemed to give weight to it. 
 There was a short consultation, and the steamers 
 slipped along over the smooth black waters of the 
 bay on parallel courses. 
 
 "Have you got dysentery bad aboard?" came 
 the next question. 
 
 Once more Carnforth prompted, and Kettle re-
 
 THE GUNS FOR CUBA. 21 
 
 peated his words : " Look at my decks," said he. 
 " All my crew are below. I've hardly a man to 
 stand by me." 
 
 There was more consultation among the gunboat's 
 officers, and then came the fatal inquiry : " What's 
 your cargo, Captain? " 
 
 " Oh, coals," said Kettle resignedly. 
 
 " What ? You're bringing Tyne coal to the 
 Havana ? " 
 
 "Just coals," said Captain Kettle with a bitter 
 laugh. 
 
 The tone of the Spaniard changed. " Heave to 
 at once," he ordered, " whilst I send a boat to search 
 you. Refuse, and I'll blow you out of water." 
 
 On the Sultan of Borneo's upper bridge Carnforth 
 swore. " Eh-ho, Skipper," he said, " the game's 
 up, and there's no way out of it. You won't be a 
 fool, will you, and sacrifice the ship and the whole 
 lot of us ? Come, I say, man, ring off your engines, 
 or that fellow will shoot, and we shall all be murdered 
 uselessly. I tell you, the game's up." 
 
 " By James ! " said Kettle, " is it ? Look there " 
 and he pointed with outstretched arm to the hills 
 on the shore ahead. " Three fires !" he cried. "Two 
 above one in a triangle, burning like Elswick fur- 
 naces amongst the trees. They're ready for us over 
 yonder, Mr. Carnforth, and that's their welcome. 
 Do you think I'm going to let my cargo be stopped 
 after getting it this far ? " He turned to the Danish 
 quarter-master at the wheel, with his savage face 
 close to the man's ear. 
 
 *' Starboard," he said. " Hard over, you bung, 
 eyed Dutchman. Starboard as far as she'll go."
 
 22 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 The wheel engines clattered briskly in the hous* 
 underneath, and the Sultan of Borneo s head swung 
 off quickly to port. For eight seconds the officer 
 commanding the gunboat did not see what was hap- 
 pening, and that eight seconds was fatal to his vessel. 
 When the inspiration came, he bubbled with orders, 
 he starboarded his own helm, he rang " full speed 
 ahead " to his engines, and ordered every rifle and 
 machine gun on his ship to sweep the British 
 steamer's bridge. But the space of time was too 
 small. The gunboat could not turn with enough 
 quickness ; on so short a notice the engines could 
 not get her into her stride again ; and the shooting, 
 though well intentioned and prodigious in quantity, 
 was poor in aim. The bullets wliisped through the 
 air, and pelted on the plating like a hailstorm, and 
 one of them flicked out the brains of the Danish 
 quarter-master on the bridge ; but Kettle took the 
 wheel from his hands, and a moment later the Sultan 
 of Borneo's stem crashed into the gunboat's unpro- 
 tected side just abaft the sponson of her starboard 
 quarter gun. 
 
 The steamers thrilled like kicked biscuit-boxes, 
 and a noise went up into the hot night sky as of ten 
 thousand boiler makers, all heading up their rivets 
 at once. 
 
 On both ships the propellers stopped as if by in- 
 stinct, and then in answer to the telegraph, the 
 grimy collier backed astern. But the war-steamer 
 did not move. Her machinery was broken down. 
 She had already got a heavy list towards her 
 wounded side, and every second the list was increas- 
 ing as the sea water poured in through the shat-
 
 THE GUNS FOR CUBA. 23 
 
 tered plates. Her crew was buzzing with disorder. 
 It was evident that the vessel had but a short time 
 longer to swim, and their lives were sweet to them. 
 They had no thought of vengeance. Their weapons 
 lay deserted on the sloping decks. The grimy crews 
 from the stokeholds poured up from below, and 
 one and all they clustered about the boats with 
 frenzied haste to see them floating in the water. 
 
 There was no more to be feared at their hands for 
 the present. 
 
 Carnforth clapped Kettle on the shoulder in 
 involuntary admiration. " By George," he cried, 
 " what a daring little scoundrel you are ! Look here. 
 I'm on your side now if I can be of any help. Can 
 you give me a job ? " 
 
 " I'm afraid, sir," said Captain Kettle, " that the 
 old Sultan s work is about done. She's settling 
 down by the head already. Didn't you see those 
 rats of men scuttling up from forrard directly after 
 we'd rammed the Don? I guess that was a bit of a 
 surprise packet for them anyway. They thought 
 they'd get down there to be clear of the shooting, 
 and they found themselves in the most ticklish part 
 of the ship." 
 
 " There's humour in the situation," said Carnforth. 
 " But that will keep. For the present, it strikes me 
 that this old steamboat is swamping fast." 
 
 "She's doing that," Kettle admitted. "She'll 
 have a lot of plates started forrard, I guess. But I 
 think she's come out of it very creditably, sir. I 
 didn't spare her, and she's not exactly built for a ram." 
 
 " I suppose it's a case of putting her on the 
 beach?"
 
 24 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 " There's nothing else for it," said Kettle with a 
 sigh. " I should like to have carried those blessed 
 coals in to the Havana if it could have been done, just 
 to show people ours was a bond fide contract, as Mr. 
 Gedge said, in spite of its fishy look. But this old 
 steamboat's done her whack, and that's the square 
 truth. It will take her all she can manage to reach 
 shore with dry decks. Look, she's in now nearly to 
 her forecastle head. Lucky the shore's not steep-to 
 here, or else " 
 
 From beneath there came a bump and a rattle, and 
 the steamer for a moment halted in her progress, 
 and a white-crested wave surged past her rusty 
 flanks. Then she lifted again and swooped further 
 in, with the propeller still squattering astern ; and 
 then once more she thundered down again into the 
 sand ; and so lifting and striking, made her way in 
 through the surf. 
 
 More than one of the hands was swept from her 
 decks, and reached the shore by swimming ; but as 
 the ebb made, the hungry seas left her stranded dry 
 under the morning's light, and a crowd of insurrec- 
 tionists waded out and climbed on board by ropes 
 which were thrown to them. 
 
 They were men of every tint, from the grey black 
 of the pure negro to the sallow lemon tint of the 
 blue-blooded Spaniard. They were streaked with 
 wounds, thin as skeletons, and clad more with naked- 
 ness than with rags ; and so wolfish did they look 
 that even Kettle, callous little ruffian though he 
 was, half regretted bringing arms for such a crew to 
 wreak vengeance on their neighbours. 
 
 But they gave him small time for sentiment of
 
 THE GUNS FOR CUBA. 25 
 
 this brand. They clustered round him with leap- 
 ing hands, till the morning sea-fowl fled affrighted 
 from the beach. El Senor Capitan Inglese was the 
 saviour of Cuba, and let every one remember it. 
 Alone, with his unarmed vessel, he had sunk a war- 
 ship of their hated enemies ; and they prayed him 
 (in their florid compliment) to stay on the island and 
 rule over them as king. 
 
 But the little sailor took them literally. " What's 
 this ? " he said ; " you want me to be your blooming 
 king?" 
 
 " El rey ! " they shouted. " El rey de los Cuba- 
 fios!" 
 
 " By James," said Kettle, " I'll do it. I was never 
 asked to be a king before, and the chance may never 
 come again. Besides, I'm out of a berth just now, 
 and England will be too hot to hold me yet awhile. 
 Yes, I'll stay and boss you, and if you can act half 
 as ugly as you look, we'll give the Dons a lively 
 time. Only remember there's no tomfoolery about 
 me. If I'm king of this show, I'm going to carry 
 a full king's ticket, and if there's any man tries to 
 meddle without being invited, that man will go to 
 his own funeral before he can think twice. And 
 now we'll just begin business at once. Off with 
 those hatches and break out that cargo. I've been 
 at some pains to run these guns out here, so be care- 
 ful in carrying them up the beach. Jump lively 
 now, you black-faced scum." 
 
 Carnforth listened with staring eyes. What sort 
 of broil was this truculent little scamp going to mix 
 in next ? He knew enough of Spanish character to 
 understand clearly that the offer of the crown was
 
 26 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 merely an empty civility ; he understood enough of 
 Kettle to be sure that he had not taken it as such, 
 and would assert his rights to the bitter end. And 
 when he thought of what that end must inevitably 
 be, he sighed over Owen Kettle's fate.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 CROWN AND GAROTTE. 
 
 " WE will garotte el Senor Kettle with due form 
 and ceremony," said the mulatto, with an ugly 
 smile. " The saints must have sent us this machine 
 on purpose." 
 
 He threw away the cigarette stump from his yel- 
 low fingers, and began to knot a running bowline on 
 the end of a rawhide rope. " I will do myself the 
 honour of capturing him. He covered me with that 
 revolver of his this morning, and put me to shame 
 before the men. I have not forgotten." 
 
 " And the other Englishman ? " said the ex-priest. 
 " He fought well for us in the morning. He is 
 brave." 
 
 " And so is far too dangerous to be left alive, 
 padre, after we garotte the sailor." 
 
 " My dear Cuchillo," said the ecclesiastic, " you 
 are so abominably bloodthirsty. But I suppose 
 you are right. I will come with you, and if the man 
 shows trouble, I will shoot him where he sits." He 
 and the mulatto got up as he spoke, and the other 
 men rose also, and the six of them left the ingenio 
 silently on the side away from the camp. The 
 jungle growths of the ruined plantation swallowed 
 
 them out of sight. They held along their way si 
 
 27
 
 28 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 lently and confidently, like men well skilled in wood- 
 craft. With primitive cunning they had arranged 
 to make their attack from the rear. 
 
 The noise of their chatter ceased, and from the 
 distance there went up into the hot, tropical night 
 faint snatches of the " Swanee River," sung by a 
 Louisiana negro, who had grown delirious from a 
 wound. 
 
 In the meanwhile the two Englishmen were tak- 
 ing their tobacco barely a couple of hundred yards 
 away. They had built a small fire of green wood, 
 and were sitting in the alley of smoke as some refuge 
 from the swarming mosquitos, and the conversation 
 ran upon themselves and their own prospects. 
 
 " I don't want to mess about with a crown," Cap- 
 tain Kettle was saying. " A cheese-cutter cap's 
 good enough for me ; or, seeing that Cuba's hot, a 
 pith helmet might be preferable, if we are going in 
 for luxury." He peered through the smoke wreaths 
 at the camp of the revolutionists, a naked bivouac 
 chopped from amongst the canes, and strewn with 
 sleeping men who moaned in their dreams. The 
 ruined ingenio at the further side had its white walls 
 smeared with smoke. The place ached with poverty 
 and squalor. 
 
 "Not that there seems much luxury here," he 
 went on. " These beauties haven't a sound pair of 
 breeches amongst them, and if it wasn't for the 
 rifles and ammunition we brought ashore from the 
 poor old Sultan, sir, I'd say they'd just starve ta 
 death before they kicked the Spaniards out of the 
 island. But if ugliness means pluck, there should 
 be none better as fighting men ; and when we get
 
 CROWN AND GAROTTE. 2O, 
 
 to bossing them properly, you'll see we shall just 
 make this revolutionary business hum. You are 
 going to stay on and help, Mr. Carnforth?" 
 
 The big man in the shooting coat gave a rueful 
 laugh. " You've got my promise, Kettle. I don't 
 see any way of backing out of it." 
 
 " I thank you for that, sir," said the sailor with a 
 bow. " When I come to be formally made King of 
 these Cubans, you shall find I am not ungrateful. 
 I am not a man to neglect either my friends or my 
 enemies. 
 
 " You shall sign on as Prime Minister, Mr. Carn- 
 forth, when we get the show regularly in commission, 
 and I'll see you make a good thing out of it. Don't 
 you get the notion it'll be a bit like the dreary busi- 
 ness you were used to in Parliament in England. 
 Empty talk is not to my taste, and I'll not set up a 
 Parliament here to encourage it. I'm going to hold 
 a full King's ticket myself, and it won't do for any- 
 one to forget it." 
 
 " You seem very anxious for power, Captain." 
 
 " It's a fact, sir," said the other with a sigh, " I 
 do like to have the ordering of men. But don't you 
 think that's the only reason I'm taking on with this 
 racket. I'm a man with an income to make, and I'm 
 out of a berth elsewhere. I'm a man with a family, 
 sir." 
 
 "I am a bachelor," said Carnforth, "and I'm 
 thanking heaven for it this minute. Doesn't it 
 strike you, Captain, that this is no sort of job for 
 a married man ? Can't you see it's far too 
 risky ? '' 
 
 " Big pay, big risk ; that's always the way, sir, and
 
 30 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 as I've faced ugly places before and come out top 
 side, there's no reason why I shouldn't do it again 
 here. Indeed, it's the thought of my wife that's 
 principally pushing me on. During all the time 
 we've been together, Mr. Carnforth, I've never been 
 able to give Mrs. Kettle the place I'd wish. 
 
 " She was brought up, sir, as the daughter of a 
 minister of religion, and splendidly educated ; she 
 can play the harmonium and do crewel-work; and, 
 though I'll not deny I married her from behind a 
 bar, I may tell you she only took to business from 
 a liking to see society." He looked out dreamily 
 through the smoke at the fireflies which were wink- 
 ing across the black rim of the forest. 
 
 " I'd like to see her, Mr. Carnforth, with gold 
 brooches and chains, and a black satin dress, and a 
 bonnet that cost 2Cw., sitting in Government House, 
 with the British Consul on the mat before her, wait- 
 ing till she chose to ask him to take a chair and 
 talk. She'd fill the position splendidly, and I've 
 just got to wade in and get it for her." 
 
 The little man broke off and stared out at the 
 fireflies, and Carnforth coughed the wood-smoke 
 from his lungs and rammed fresh tobacco into his 
 pipe. He was a man with a fine sense of humour, 
 and he appreciated to the full the ludicrousness of 
 Kettle's pretensions. The sailor had run a cargo of 
 much wanted contraband of war on to the Cuban 
 beach, had sunk a Spanish cruiser in the process, 
 and had received effusive thanks. 
 
 But he had taken the florid metaphor of the coun- 
 try to mean a literal offer, and when in their com- 
 plimentary phrase they shouted that he should be
 
 CROWN AND GAROTTE. 3 1 
 
 king, a king from that moment he intended to be. 
 The comedy of the situation was irresistible. 
 
 But at the same time Mr. Martin Carn forth was 
 a man of wealth, and a man (in England) of assured 
 position ; and he could not avoid seeing that by his 
 present association with Captain Owen Kettle he 
 was flirting with ugly tragedy every moment that 
 he lived. Yet here he was pinned, not only to keep 
 in the man's society, but to help him in his mad en- 
 deavours. 
 
 He would gladly have forfeited half his fortune 
 to be snugly back in St. Stephen's, Westminster, 
 clear of the mess ; but escape was out of the ques- 
 ion ; and, moreover, he knew quite well that trying 
 to make Kettle appreciate his true position would 
 be like an attempt to reason with the winds or the 
 surf on an ocean beach. So he held his tongue, and 
 did as he was bidden. He was a man of physical 
 bravery, and the rush of actual fighting that morn- 
 ing had come pleasantly to him. 
 
 It was only when he thought of the certain and 
 treacherous dangers of the future, and the cosy 
 niche that awaited him at home in England, that 
 his throat tickled with apprehension, and he caressed 
 with affectionate fingers the region of his carotids. 
 And if he had known that at that precise moment 
 the ex-priest, and the mulatto they called el Cuchillo, 
 and the others of the insurgent leaders, were stalk- 
 ing him with a view to capture and execution, it is 
 probable that he would have felt even still more 
 disturbed. 
 
 " We did well in that fight this morning," said 
 Kettle presently, as he drew his eyes away from the
 
 32 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 light-snaps of the fireflies, and shut them to keep 
 out the sting of the wood-smoke. "You've been 
 shot at before, sir? " 
 
 "Never," said Carnforth. 
 
 "You couldn't have been cooler, sir, if you'd 
 been at sea all your life, and seen pins flying every 
 watch. Do you know, I've been thinking it over, 
 and I'm beginning to fancy that perhaps our black 
 and yellow mongrels weren't quite such cowards as 
 I said. I know they did scuttle to the bushes like 
 rabbits so soon as ever a gun was fired ; but then 
 their business is to shoot these Spanish soldiers and 
 not get shot back, and so, perhaps, they were right 
 to keep to their own way. 
 
 " Anyway, we licked them, and that means get- 
 ting on towards Mrs. Kettle's being a queen. But 
 that murdering the wounded afterwards was more 
 than I can stand, and it has got to be put a stop to." 
 
 "You didn't make yourself popular over it." 
 
 " I am not usually liked when I am captain," said 
 Kettle grimly. 
 
 " Well, Skipper, I don't, as a rule, agree with your 
 methods, as you know, but here I'm with you all 
 the way. Your excellent subjects are a great deal 
 too barbarous for my taste." 
 
 " They are wholly brutes, and that's a fact," said 
 Captain Kettle, "and I expect a good many of them 
 will be hurt whilst I'm teaching them manners. 
 But they've got to learn this lesson first of all : 
 they're to treat their prisoners decently, or else let 
 them go, or else shoot them clean and dead in the 
 first instance whilst they're still on the run. I'm a 
 man myself, Mr. Carnforth, that can do a deal in
 
 CROWN AND GAROTTE. 33 
 
 hot blood ; but afterwards, when the poor brutes 
 are on the ground, I want to go round with sticking 
 plaster, and not a knife to slit their throats." 
 
 " It will take a tolerable amount of trouble to 
 drum that into this crew. A Spaniard on the war- 
 path is not merciful ; an African is a barbarian ; but 
 make a cross of the two (as you get here) and you 
 turn out the most unutterable savage on the face of 
 the earth." 
 
 " They will not be taught by kindness alone," 
 said Captain Kettle suggestively. " I've got heavy 
 hands, and I sha'n't be afraid to use them. It's a 
 job," he added with a sigh, " which will not come 
 new to me. I've put to sea with some of the worst 
 toughs that ever wrote their crosses before a ship- 
 ping master, and none of them can ever say they got 
 the top side of me yet." 
 
 He was about to say more, but at that moment 
 speech was taken from him. A long rawhide rope 
 suddenly flicked out into the air like a slim, black 
 snake ; the noose at its end for an instant poised 
 open-mouthed above him ; and then it descended 
 around his elbows, and was as simultaneously 
 plucked taut by unseen hands behind the shelter of 
 the jungle. Captain Kettle struggled like a wild- 
 cat to release himself, but four lithe, bony men 
 threw themselves upon him, twisted his arms behind 
 his back, and made them fast there with other 
 thongs of rawhide. 
 
 Carnforth did nothing to help. At the first 
 alarm that burly gentleman had looked up and dis- 
 covered a rifle muzzle, not ten feet off, pointed 
 squarely at his breast. The voice of the ex-priest 
 3
 
 34 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 came from behind the rifle, and assured him in mild, 
 unctuous tones that the least movement would 
 secure him a quick and instant passage to one or 
 other of the next worlds. And Martin Carnforth 
 surrendered without terms. When the four men 
 had finished their other business, they came and 
 roped him up also. 
 
 The mulatto strode out from the cover and flicked 
 the ashes of a cigarette into Kettle's face. " El rey," 
 he said, " de los Cubanos must have his power 
 limited. He has come where he was not wanted, he 
 has done what was forbidden, and shortly he will 
 taste the consequences." 
 
 " You ginger-bread coloured beast," retorted Cap- 
 tain Kettle, "you shame of your mother, I made a 
 big mistake when I did not shoot you in the morn- 
 ing." 
 
 The mulatto pressed the lighted end of his ciga- 
 rette against Kettle's forehead. " I will trouble 
 you," he said, " to keep silence for the present. 
 At dawn you will be put upon trial, and then you 
 may speak. But till then (and the sun will not rise 
 for another three hours yet), if you talk, you will 
 earn a painful burn for each sentence. 
 
 " You are a man accustomed to having your own 
 way, Senor ; I am another ; and as at present I pos- 
 sess the upper hand, your will has got to bend to 
 mine. The process, I can well imagine, will be dis- 
 tasteful to you. It was distasteful to me when I 
 looked down your revolver muzzle over the affair of 
 those prisoners. But I do not think you will be 
 foolish enough to earn torture uselessly." 
 
 Kettle glared, but with an effort held his tongue.
 
 CROWN AND GAROTTE. 35 
 
 He understood he was in a very tight place. And 
 for the present the only thing remaining for him was 
 to bide his time. He quite recognised that he was 
 in dangerous hands. The mulatto was a man of 
 education, who had been brought up in an Ameri- 
 can college, and who had learned in the States to 
 hate his white father and loathe his black mother 
 with a ferocity which nothing but that atmosphere 
 could foster. 
 
 He was a fellow living on the borderland of the 
 two primitive colours, and his whole life was soured 
 by the pigment in his skin. As a white man he 
 would have been a genius ; as a black he would have 
 become a star ; but as a mulatto he was merely a 
 suave and brilliant savage, thirsting for vengeance 
 against the whole of the human race. He had entered 
 this Cuban revolution through no taint of patriotism, 
 but merely from the lust for cruelty. By sheer 
 daring and ability he had raised himself from the 
 ranks to supreme command of the revolutionists, 
 and he was not likely to let so appetising a situation 
 slip from his fingers for even a few short hours with- 
 out exacting a bitter retribution when the chance 
 was put in his way. 
 
 Carnforth lifted up his voice in expostulation, but 
 was quickly silenced by the promise of branding 
 from the cigarette end if he did not choose to hold 
 his tongue. Quiet fell over the group. The only 
 sounds were scraps of the " Swanee River "sung by 
 the wounded negro in his delirium from somewhere 
 in the distance 
 
 " Still longing for the old plantation, 
 And for the old folks at home,"
 
 36 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 came the words in a thin quavering tenor, and Carn- 
 forth, with a sigh, thought how well he could en. 
 dorse them. 
 
 The first glow of morning saw the camp aroused, 
 and half an hour later the Court was ranged. The 
 self-styled judges sat under the whitewashed piazza 
 of the ruined house ; the motley troops faced them 
 in an irregular ring twenty yards away ; and the 
 two prisoners, with an armed man to guard each, 
 stood on the open ground between. 
 
 El Cuchillo was himself principal spokesman, and 
 proceedings were carried on in Spanish and English 
 alternately. The crime of Captain Kettle was set 
 forth in a dozen words. He had stopped the right- 
 ful execution of prisoners, and had let them go 
 free. 
 
 " You had no place to gaol them," said Carnforth 
 in defence. 
 
 The mulatto pointed a thin yellow finger at the 
 sun-baked ground in front of the piazza. " We have 
 the earth," he said. " Give them to the earth, and 
 she will keep them gaoled so fast that they will never 
 fight against us more. It is a war here to the knife 
 on both sides. The Spanish troops kill us when 
 they catch, and we do the like by them. It is right 
 that it should be so. We do not want quarter at 
 their hands ; neither do we wish them to remain 
 alive upon Cuba. Three Spanish soldiers were ours 
 a few hours ago. Our cause demanded that their 
 lives should have been taken away. And yet they 
 were set free." 
 
 " Yes," broke in Kettle, " and, by James, that's a
 
 CROWN AND GAROTTE. 37 
 
 thing you ought to sing small about. Here's you : 
 six officers and a hundred and fifty men, all armed. 
 Here's me : a common low-down, foul-of-his-luck 
 Britisher, with a vinegar tongue and a thirty-shilling 
 pistol. You said the beggars should be hanged , 
 I said they shouldn't; and, by James, I scared the 
 whole caboodle of you with just one-half an ugly 
 ]ook, and got my own blessed way. Oh, I do say 
 you are a holy crowd." 
 
 Carnforth stamped in anger. It seemed to him 
 that this truculent little sailor was deliberately in- 
 viting their captors to murder the pair of them out 
 of hand. He understood that Kettle was bitterly 
 disappointed at having his bubble about the king- 
 ship so ruthlessly pricked, but with this recklessness 
 which was snatching away their only chance of es- 
 cape, he could have no sympathy. He was unpre- 
 pared, however, for his comrade's next remark. 
 
 " Don't think I'd any help from Mr. Carnforth 
 here. He's a Member of Parliament in London, 
 and is far too much of a gentleman to concern him- 
 self with your fourpenny-ha'penny matters here. He 
 warned me before I began that being king of the 
 whole of your rotten island wasn't worth a dish of 
 beans ; but I wouldn't believe him till I'd seen how 
 it was for myself. 
 
 " I'm here now through my own fault ; I ought 
 to have remembered that niggers, and yellow-bellies, 
 and white men who have forgotten their colour, 
 could have no spark of gratitude. I'll not deny, 
 too, that I got to thinking about those fireflies, and 
 so wasn't keeping a proper watch ; but here I am, 
 lashed up snug, and I guess you're going to make
 
 38 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 the most of your chance. By James, though, if you 
 weren't a pack of cowards, you'd cast me adrift, and 
 give me my gun again ! " 
 
 " Speaking as a man of peace," said the ex-priest, 
 " I fancy you are safest as you are, amigo" 
 
 " I'd be king of this crowd again inside three 
 minutes if I was loose," retorted Kettle. 
 
 El Cuchillo snapped his yellow fingers impatiently. 
 " We are wasting time," he said. " Captain Kettle 
 seems still to dispute my supreme authority. He 
 shall taste of it within the next dozen minutes; and 
 if he can see his way to resisting it, and asserting 
 his own kingship, he has my full permission to do so. 
 Here, you : go into the ingenio, and bring out that 
 machine." 
 
 A dozen ragged fellows detached themselves from 
 the onlookers, and went through a low stone door- 
 way into the ruined sugar house. In a couple of 
 minutes they reappeared, dragging with noisy 
 laughter a dusty, cumbersome erection, which they 
 set down in the open space before the piazza. 
 
 It was made up of a wooden platform on which 
 was fastened a chair and an upright. On the upright 
 was a hinged iron ring immediately above the chair. 
 A screw passed through the upright into the ring, 
 with a long lever at its outside end, on either ex- 
 tremity of which was a heavy sphere of iron. If 
 once that lever was set on the twirl, it would drive 
 the screw's point into whatever the iron ring con- 
 tained with a force that was irresistible. 
 
 The mulatto introduced the machine with a wave 
 of his yellow fingers. " El garotte '," he said. "A 
 mediaeval survival which I did not dream of finding
 
 CROWN AND GAROTTE. 39 
 
 here. Of its previous history I can form no idea. 
 Of its future use I can give a simple account. It will 
 serve to ease us of the society of this objectionable 
 Captain Kettle." 
 
 4< Great heavens, man," Carnforth broke out, " this 
 is murder." 
 
 " Ah," said el Cuchillo, " I will attend to your 
 case at the same time. You shall have the honour 
 of turning the screw which gives your friend his exit. 
 In that way we shall secure your silence afterwards 
 as to what has occurred." 
 
 " You foul brute," said Carnforth, with a shout, 
 " do you think I am an assassin like yourself? " 
 
 The mulatto took a long draught at his cigarette. 
 "What a horrible country England must be to live 
 in, if all the people there have tongues as long as 
 you two. Sefior, if you do not choose to accept my 
 suggestion for pinning you to silence, I can offer you 
 another. Refuse to take your place at the screw, 
 and I promise that you shall be stood up against 
 the wall of this ingenio and be shot inside the 
 minute. The choice stands open before you." 
 
 "Mr. Carnforth," said Captain Kettle, "you 
 mustn't be foolish. You must officiate over me 
 exactly as you are asked, or otherwise you'll get 
 shot uselessly. Gingerbread and his friends mean 
 business. And if you still think you're taking a 
 liberty in handling the screw (in spite of what I say) 
 you may fine yourself a matter of ten shillings 
 weekly, and hand it across to Mrs. Kettle. I make 
 no doubt she would find that sum very useful." 
 
 " This is horrible," said Carnforth. 
 
 " It will be horrible for Mrs. Kettle and my young-
 
 4O ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 sters, sir, if you don't act sensibly and man the lever 
 as Gingerbread asks. If you get planted here along, 
 side of me, I don't know any one at all likely to 
 give them a pension. It would afford me a great 
 deal of pleasure just now, Mr. Carnforth, if I knew 
 my family could still keep to windward of parish 
 relief." 
 
 " Of course," said Carnforth, with a white face, 
 " I will see your wife and children are all right if I 
 get clear; but it is too ghastly to think of purchas- 
 ing even my life on these terms." 
 
 "You seem slow to make up your mind, Seflor," 
 broke in the mulatto. " Allow me to hasten your 
 decision." He gave some directions, and the men 
 who had brought out the garotte took Captain 
 Kettle and sat him on the chair. They opened the 
 iron ring, which screeched noisily with its rusted 
 hinge, and they clasped it, collar-fashion, about his 
 neck. Then they led Carnforth up to the back 
 of the upright, and cast off the lashing from his 
 wrists. 
 
 " Now, Sefior Carnforth," said the yellow man. 
 "I want that person garotted. If you do it for me, 
 I will give you a safe-conduct down to any seaport 
 in Cuba which you may choose. If I have to set on 
 one of my own men to do the work, you will not 
 have sight to witness it. I will stick you up against 
 that white wall, yonder, and have you shot, out of 
 hand. Now, Sefior, I have the honour to ask for 
 your decision." 
 
 " Come, sir, don't hesitate," said Captain Kettle. 
 *' If you don't handle the screw, remember some one 
 else will."
 
 CROWN AND GAROTTE. 41 
 
 " That will be a flimsy excuse to remember after- 
 wards." 
 
 "You will be paying a weekly fine, and can recol- 
 lect that carries a full pardon with it." 
 
 " Pah," said Carnforth, " what is ten shillings a 
 week?" 
 
 " Exactly," said Kettle. " Make it twelve, sir, 
 and that will hold you clear of everything." 
 
 " What feeble, dilatory people you English are," 
 said el Cuchillo. " I must trouble you to make up 
 your mind at once, Senor Carnforth." 
 
 " He has made it up," said Kettle, " and I shall go 
 smiling, because I shall get my clearance at the 
 hands of a decent man. I'd have taken it as a dis- 
 grace to be shoved out of this world by a yellow 
 beast like you, you shame of your mother." 
 
 The mulatto blazed out with fury. " By heaven," 
 he cried, " I've a mind to take you out of that 
 garotte even now and have you burnt." 
 
 " And we should lose a pleasant little comedy," 
 said the ex-priest. " No, amigo ; let us see the pair 
 of them perform together." 
 
 " Go on," said the mulatto to Carnforth. 
 
 "Yes," said Kettle in a lower voice. " For God's 
 sake go on and get it over. It isn't very pleasant 
 work for me, this waiting. And you will make it 
 twelve shillings a week, sir ? " 
 
 " \ will give your wife a thousand a year, my poor 
 'xs'Iow. I will give her five thousand. No, I am 
 murdering her husband, and I will give her all I 
 have, and go away to start life afresh elsewhere. I 
 shall never dare to show my face again in England 
 or carry my own name." He gripped one of the
 
 42 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 iron spheres and threw his weight upon the lever. 
 The bar buckled and sprang under his effort, but the 
 screw did not budge. 
 
 " Quick, man, quick," said Kettle in a low, fierce 
 voice. " This is cruel. If you don't get me finished 
 directly, I shall go white or something, and those 
 brutes will think I'm afraid." 
 
 Carnforth wrenched at the lever with a tremen- 
 dous effort. One arm of the bar bent slowly into a 
 semicircle, but the lethal screw remained fast in 
 its socket. It was glued there with the rust of 
 years. 
 
 Carnforth flung away from the machine. " I 
 have done my best," he said sullenly to the men 
 on the piazza., "and I can do no more. You have 
 the satisfaction of knowing that you have made me 
 a murderer in intent, if not in actual fact ; and now, 
 if you choose, you can stick me up against that wall 
 and have me shot. I'm sure I don't care. I'm sick 
 of it all here." 
 
 " You shall have fair treatment," said el Cuchillo, 
 " and neither more or less. You have tried to obey 
 my orders, and Captain Kettle is at present alive 
 because of the garotte's deficiency, and not by your 
 intention." He gave a command, and the men re- 
 leased the iron collar from Kettle's neck. " I will 
 have the machine repaired by my armourer," he said, 
 " and in the meanwhile you may await my pleasure 
 out of the sunshine." 
 
 He gave another order, and the men laid hands 
 upon their shoulders and led them away, and thrust 
 them into a small arched room of whitened stone, 
 under the boiler-house of the ingenio. The window
 
 CROWN AND GAROTTE. 43 
 
 was a mere arrow-slit ; the door was a ponderous 
 thing of Spanish oak, barred with iron bolts which 
 ran into the stonework ; the place was absolutely 
 unbreakable. 
 
 The silence had lasted a dozen hours, although it 
 was plain that each of the prisoners was busily think- 
 ing. At last Kettle spoke. 
 
 44 If I could only get a rhyme to ' brow,' " he 
 said, " I believe I could manage the rest." 
 
 44 What ? " asked Cam forth. 
 
 " I want a word to rhyme with ' brow,' sir, if you 
 can help me." 
 
 44 What in the world are you up to now ? " 
 
 * 4 I've been filling up time, sir, whilst we've been 
 here by hammering out a bit of poetry about those 
 fireflies. I got the idea of it last night, when we 
 saw them flashing in and out against the black of 
 the forest." 
 
 " You don't owe them much gratitude that I can 
 see, Skipper. According to what you said, if you 
 hadn't been looking at them, you'd have been more 
 on the watch, and wouldn't have got caught." 
 
 " Perfectly right, sir. And so this poem should be 
 all the more valuable when it's put together. I'm 
 running it to the tune of 4 Greenland's icy mountains,' 
 my favourite air, Mr. Carnforth. I'm trying to work 
 a parallel between those fireflies switching their 
 lights in and out, and a soul, sir. Do you catch the 
 idea?" 
 
 " I can't say I do quite." 
 
 Captain Kettle rubbed thoughtfully at his beard 
 " Well, I'm a trifle misty about it myself," he ad-
 
 44 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 mitted ; " but it will make none the worse poetry 
 for being a bit that way, if I can get the rhymes all 
 right." 
 
 " ' Plough ' might suit you," Carnforth suggested. 
 
 "That's just the word I want, sir. 'The fields of 
 heaven to plough.' That would be the very occupa- 
 tion the soul of the man I'm thinking about would 
 delight in ; something restful and in the agricultural 
 line. I wanted to give him a good time up there. 
 He was due for it," he added thoughtfully, and then 
 he closed his eyes and fell to making further poetry. 
 
 Martin Carnforth knew the little ruffian's taste 
 for this form of exercise, but it seemed to him jar- 
 ringly out of place just then. " I am in no mood 
 for verse now," he commented with a frown. 
 
 ** I am," said Kettle, and tapped out the metre of 
 a new line with a finger-tip upon his knee. " It 
 always takes a set-to with the hands, or a gale of 
 wind, or a tight corner of some kind, to work me 
 up to poetry at all. And the worse the fix has been, 
 the better I can rhyme. I find it very restful and 
 pleasant, sir, to send my thoughts over a bit of a 
 sonnet after times like these." 
 
 "Then you ought to turn out a masterpiece now," 
 said Carnforth, "and enjoy the making of it." 
 
 Kettle took him seriously. " I quite agree with 
 you there, sir," he said, and puckered his forehead 
 and went on with his work. 
 
 Carnforth did not say any more, but turned again 
 to brooding. Every time he looked at the matter, 
 the more he cursed himself for leaving his snug pin- 
 nacle in England. The utmost boon he could have 
 gained in Captain Kettle's society was not tr be
 
 CROWN AND GAROTTE. 45 
 
 caught. Dangers, hardships, and exposures he was 
 discovering are much pleasanter to hear of from a 
 distance, or to read about in a well-stuffed chair 
 by a warm fireside. The actual items themselves 
 had turned out terribly squalid when viewed at first 
 hand. 
 
 At last he broke out again. " Look here, Skipper," 
 he said, " I'm fond enough of life, but I don't think 
 I want to earn it by playing executioner. I'd prefer 
 to let this rebel fellow parade me and bring out his 
 platoon." 
 
 Kettle woke up from his work. " I'm not sweet 
 on wearing the iron collar again, and that's a fact. 
 It's horrible work waiting to have your backbone 
 snapped without being able to raise a finger to inter- 
 fere. I'm not a coward, Mr. Carnforth, but I tell 
 you it took all the nerve I'd got to sit quiet in that 
 chair without squirming whilst you were getting 
 ready the ceremonial. 
 
 " It's no new thing for me to expect being killed 
 before the hour was through. I've had trouble of 
 all kinds with all sorts of crews, but I've always had 
 my hands free and been able to use them, and I will 
 say I've 'most always had a gun of some sort to help 
 me. I might even go so far as to tell you, sir (and 
 you may kick me for saying it if you like), I've felt 
 a kind of joy regularly glow inside me during some 
 of those kind of scuffles. Yes, sir, that's the kind 
 of animal I am in hot blood I think no more of 
 being killed than a terrier dog does." 
 
 " If there was only a chance of being knocked on 
 the head in hot blood," said Carnforth, " I'd fight 
 like a cornered thief till I got my quietus."
 
 46 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 " And Mrs. Kettle would lose her twelve shillings 
 
 a week if By James, sir, here they come for 
 
 us." 
 
 He leapt up from the bench on which he had sat, 
 and whirled it above his head. With a crash he 
 brought it down against the whitened wall of the 
 cell, and the bench split down its length into two 
 staves. He gave one to Carn forth, and hefted the 
 other himself like a connoisseur. 
 
 " Now, sir, you on one side of the door, and me 
 on the other. They can't reach us from the out- 
 side there. And if they want us out of here, we've 
 got to be fetched." 
 
 Carnforth took up his stand, and shifted his fingers 
 knowingly along his weapon. He was a big man 
 and a powerful one, and the hunger for fighting lit 
 in his eye. 
 
 " Horatius Cockles and the other Johnnie holding 
 the bridge," quoth he. " We can bag the first two, 
 and the others will fall over them if they try a rush. 
 What fools they were to untie our wrists and shins! 
 But our fun won't last long. As soon as they find 
 we are awkward, they will go around to the window- 
 slit, and shoot us down from there." 
 
 " We aren't shot yet," said Kettle grimly, " and 
 I'm wanting to do a lot of damage before they get 
 me. Look out ! " 
 
 The bolts grated back in the rusty staples, and 
 the heavy door screamed outwards on its hinges. A 
 negro came in, whistling merrily. The two halves 
 of the bench flew down upon his head from either 
 side with a simultaneous crash. 
 
 A white man's skull would have crunched like an
 
 CROWN AND GAROTTE. 47 
 
 eggshell under that impact, but the African cranium 
 is stout. The fellow toppled to the ground under 
 the sheer tonnage of the blows, and he lay there 
 with the whistle half-frozen on his lips, and such a 
 ludicrous look of surprise growing over his features 
 that Carnforth burst into an involuntary laugh. 
 Kettle, however, was more business-like. The negro 
 had a machete dangling from his hip, and the little 
 sailor darted out and snatched it from its sheath. 
 He jumped back again to cover with slim activity, 
 and a couple of pistol bullets which followed him 
 made harmless grey splashes on the opposite wall. 
 Then there was a pause in the proceedings, and 
 Carnforth felt his heart thumping noisily against 
 his watch as he waited. 
 
 Presently a brisk footstep made itself heard on 
 the flagging outside, and the voice of the mulatto 
 leader spoke through the doorway. 
 
 " If you come out now, one of you shall be garot- 
 ted, and the other shall go free. If I have more 
 trouble to fetch you, you shall both be roasted to 
 death over slow fires." 
 
 " If if if ! " retorted Kettle. " If your mother 
 had stuck to her laundry work and married a nigger, 
 she'd have kept a very great rascal out of the world. 
 If I'd the sense of a sheep I'd come to you at once f 
 and my poor wife would have twelve bob a week 
 for life. If you want to talk, you frightened lump 
 of gingerbread, come in here and do it, and don't 
 squall out there like a cat on a garden wall." 
 
 The suave voice of the ex-priest made a com- 
 ment. " Saints deliver us from these Englishmen's 
 tongues. Truly they are not fit to live ; but why
 
 48 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 should \ve send our terriers into the rat pit ? A little 
 careful shooting through the window yonder will 
 soon limit their capers, and if the shooting is care- 
 fully done, neither will be any the worse as a roast." 
 
 El Cuchillo answered him savagely. " Then do 
 you see to it. The big man you may shoot as you 
 please, but if you kill the sailor, look to yourself. 
 That man is in my debt, and I want him in my 
 hands alive, so that I may pay it." 
 
 "Amiga" said the unfrocked priest, " you may 
 trust to my shooting. I will pink him most scien- 
 tifically in one leg and the right arm, and I will guar- 
 antee that you shall get him in perfect condition to 
 have your satisfaction on." 
 
 " Do so," said the mulatto, and the other marched 
 briskly away on his rope-soled sandals. But in the 
 meantime Kettle's active brain had formed a plan, 
 and in dumb show he had telegraphed it across to 
 Carnforth at the opposite flank of the doorway. 
 
 Of a sudden the pair of them rushed out simul- 
 taneously. Kettle handed the machete to his 
 companion, and sprang upon the yellow man with 
 greedy fingers. His feet he kicked away from be- 
 neath him, and at the same instant grappled him 
 by the throat. It was a trick he had many a time 
 before played upon mutinous seamen, and he had 
 dragged the mulatto back into the cell almost be- 
 fore the man had time to struggle. Carnforth 
 followed closely upon their heels, leaving signatures 
 behind him written redly with the machete. 
 
 Captain Kettle bumped the mulatto's head 
 against the wall as a way of quietening him, and 
 keeping his fingers away from dangerous weapons,
 
 CROWN AND GAROTTE. 49 
 
 and then threw him on to the floor. He extracted 
 a revolver and a knife from the man's belt, and. 
 looked up to see the face of the ex-priest staring 
 at him from the window. Then he sat himself on 
 the chest of his prisoner, and prepared to treat for 
 terms. 
 
 A shot rang out across the bivouac outside, and 
 then another. The man at the window-slit turned 
 away his face. There was a minute's pause, and 
 then a dropping fire began, the sound of it coming 
 from two distinct quarters. 
 
 The ex-priest's head went out of sight. It was 
 the last they ever saw of him. Some one outside 
 the doorway shouted " Los Espanoles ! " and there 
 was the scuffle of bare feet running away and fad- 
 ing into the distance. And, meanwhile, outside the 
 windows the crackle of rifles grew more noisy, and 
 cries rose up of men in pain. The light in the 
 vaulted room grew faintly blue, and the air was 
 soured with powder smoke. 
 
 " By James," said Kettle, " the Spanish regular 
 troops have raided the camp, and the whole lot of 
 them are fighting like a parcel of cats. Hark to the 
 racket. Here's a slice of luck." 
 
 41 1 don't see it," said Carnforth. " If we're out 
 of the fire, we're into the frying-pan. Sinking that 
 Spanish warship was an act of piracy, and we shall 
 be strung up if the Dons catch us, without the pre- 
 lude of a trial. Listen ! There's a Maxim come 
 into action. Listen ! I wonder which way the 
 fight's going. They're making row enough over 
 it. I'm going to get to the window and have a 
 look." 
 4
 
 50 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 " It's tempting," said the little sailor wistfully, 
 "but I think, sir, you'd better not. If you're seen 
 we shall be gastados, as they say, anyway. Where- 
 as, if the rebels are licked, the Dons may march 
 off again without knowing we are here. It's a 
 chance. By James, though, I'd like to have a look. 
 Hark to that. They're at hand-grips now. Hear 
 'em swear. And hear 'em scream. 
 
 " Some of them are beginning to run. Hark to 
 that crashing as they're making their way through 
 the cane." 
 
 "And hark to those shouts. It's like a lot of 
 cockneys at a foxhunt." 
 
 " These Dagos always yell blue murder when 
 they're in a fight," said Kettle contemptuously. 
 
 " The Maxim's stopped," said Carnforth, with a 
 frown. 
 
 They listened on for awhile with straining ears, 
 and then : " Perhaps that means the rebels have 
 rushed it." 
 
 " They may have run. But the Dons ought to 
 be browning the cover if they've cleared the camp. 
 The fools ! A Maxim would shoot through half a 
 mile of that cane-jungle." 
 
 " Short of ammunition," said Kettle, " or perhaps 
 it's jammed." A bugle shrilled out through the 
 hot air, and its noise came to them there in the hot, 
 dark room. " That means cease fire, and the Span- 
 iards have won. Our mongrels had no bugles. 
 Well, it's been a quick thing. I wonder what 
 next ! " 
 
 There was a dull murmur of many voices. Then 
 orders were shouted, and noise came as of moving
 
 CROWN AND GAROTTE. 5 1 
 
 men, and a few more scattered shots rang out, 
 most of them answered by cries or groans. 
 
 " Hullo ? " said Kettle. 
 
 A weak voice from beneath him made explana- 
 tion. " They are shooting their prisoners, Senores 
 the men who were my comrades. It is the custom - 
 the custom of Cuba." 
 
 " So you have concluded to come to life again, 
 have you ? " asked the little sailor. " I thought I'd 
 bumped you harder. What do you expect to be 
 done with, eh ? " 
 
 " I am in your hands," said the mulatto sullenly, 
 
 " That's no lie," said Kettle, " and I've a perfect 
 right to kill you if I wish. But I don't choose to 
 dirty my hands further. You've only acted accord- 
 ing to your nature. And when it came to me 
 being able to move, I've beaten you every time. 
 But now we'll have silence, please, for all hands. 
 If those Spaniards are going to search this old 
 sugar house, they'll do it, and up on a string we go 
 the three cf us; but there's no need to entice them 
 here by chattering." 
 
 Their voices stopped, and the noises from with- 
 out buzzed on. Of all the trials he had gone 
 through, Carnforth felt that waiting to be the most 
 intolerable of all. The Spanish soldiery were look- 
 ing to their wounds and hunting through the 
 bivouac. Some (to judge from their talk) had 
 gathered round the rusted garotte and were exam- 
 ining it with interest. And a few strolled up to the 
 ruined ingenio, and smoked their cigarettes under its 
 piazza. Any moment the room beneath the boiler 
 house might be peeped upon.
 
 $2 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 The sun beat down upon the stonework and the 
 heat grew. The voices gradually drew away, till 
 only the hum of the insects remained. And so an 
 hour passed. 
 
 Another hour came and went without disturbance, 
 and still another ; and then there carne the sound 
 of a quavering tenor voice singing a scrap from the 
 " Swanee River" from close outside the walls: 
 
 " Oh, take me to my kind ole mudder I 
 Dere let me live and die." 
 
 " That Yankee nigger," said Kettle, in a whisper. 
 " He was wounded and delirious before we came, 
 and he's been hidden amongst the cane. They 
 can't have seen him before ; but, poor devil, they'll 
 shoot him now." 
 
 But no quietening rifle-shot rang out, and wonder 
 grew on the faces of all three. They waited on 
 with straining ears, and Carnforth raised his eye- 
 brows in an unspoken question. Kettle nodded, 
 and the big man rose gingerly to his feet, and 
 peeped from the corner of the window-slit. He 
 turned round with rather a harsh laugh. " The 
 place is empty," he said. " I believe they've been 
 gone these three hours." 
 
 Captain Kettle leapt to his feet and made for the 
 door. " Quick," he cried, " or we shall have the 
 rebels back again, and I'll own that I don't want to 
 fight the whole lot of them again just now. We'll 
 leave Gingerbread in here till his friends come to 
 fetch him ; and you and I, sir, will slip down to the 
 beach, and get off in one of the old StUtans quarter- 
 boats."
 
 CROWN AND GAROTTE. 53 
 
 They passed outside the door, and closed and 
 bolted it after them. 
 
 " By the way," said Captain Kettle, " you 
 couldn't happen to think of a rhyme to ' gleam,' 
 could you ?" 
 
 " No," said Carnforth. 
 
 " Well, I'll hammer it out on the road down, and 
 then I'll have finished that sonnet, sir. But never 
 mind poetry just now. I'll say the piece to you 
 when we've got to sea. For the present, Mr. Carn- 
 forth, we must just pick up our feet and run." 
 
 And so they went off to the quarter-boat, and ten 
 minutes later they were running her down the 
 beach and into the sea.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE WAR-STEAMER, OF DONNA CLOTILDB. 
 
 I THINK it may be taken as one of the most remark 
 able attributes of Captain Owen Kettle that, what- 
 ever circumstances might betide, he was always neat 
 and trim in his personal appearance. Even in most 
 affluent hours he had never been able to afford an 
 expensive tailor; indeed, it is much to be doubted if, 
 during all his life, he ever bought a scrap of raiment 
 any where except at a ready-made establishment ; 
 but, in spite of this, his clothes were always conspicu- 
 ously well-fitting, carried the creases in exactly the 
 right place, and seemed to the critical onlooker to be 
 capable of improvement in no one point whatso- 
 ever. He looked spruce even in oilskins and thigh 
 boots. 
 
 Of course, being a sailor, he was handy with his 
 needle. I have seen him take a white drill jacket, 
 torn to ribands in a rough and tumble with mutinous 
 members of his crew, and fine-draw the rents so won- 
 derfully that all traces of the disaster were completely 
 lost. I believe, too, he was capable of taking a roll 
 of material and cutting it out with his knife upon 
 the deck planks, and fabricating garments ab initio ; 
 and though I never actually saw him do this with my 
 own eyes, I did hear that the clothes he appeared in 
 
 54
 
 THE WAR-STEAMER OF DONNA CLOTILDE. 55 
 
 at Valparaiso were so made, and I marvelled at their 
 neatness. 
 
 It was just after his disastrous adventure in Cuba; 
 he trod the streets in a state of utter pecuniary desti- 
 tution ; his cheeks were sunk and his eyes were hag- 
 gard ; but the red torpedo beard was as trim as ever ; 
 his cap was spic and span ; the white drill clothes with 
 their brass buttons were the usual miracle of per- 
 fection ; and even his tiny canvas shoes had not as 
 much as a smudge upon their pipe-clay. Indeed, in 
 the first instance I think it must have been this 
 spruceness, and nothing else, which made him find 
 favour in the eyes of so fastidious a person as Clo- 
 tilde La Touche. 
 
 But be this as it may, it is a fact that Donna Clotilde 
 just saw the man from her carriage as he walked 
 along the Paseo de Colon, promptly asked his name, 
 and, getting no immediate reply, despatched one of 
 her admirers there and then to make his acquaintance, 
 The envoy was instructed to find out who he was, 
 and contrive that Donna Clotilde should meet the 
 little sailor at dinner in the Caf of the Lion d'Or 
 that very evening. 
 
 The dinner was given in the patio of the cafe" 
 where palm-fronds filtered the moonbeams, and fire- 
 flies competed with the electric lights ; and at a mod- 
 erate computation the cost of the viands would have 
 kept Captain Kettle supplied with his average rations 
 for ten months or a year. He was quite aware of this 
 and appreciated the entertainment none the worse 
 in consequence. Even the champagne, highly sweet- 
 ened to suit the South American palate, came most 
 pleasantly to him. He liked champagne according
 
 $6 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 to its lack of dryness, and this was the sweetest wine 
 that had ever passed his lips. 
 
 The conversation during that curious meal ran in 
 phases. With the Jwrs d'ceuvres came a course of 
 ordinary civilities ; then for a space there rolled out 
 an autobiographical account of some of Kettle's ex- 
 ploits, skilfully and painlessly extracted by Donna 
 Clotilde's naive questions ; and then, with the cognac 
 and cigarettes, a spasm of politics shook the diners 
 like an ague. 
 
 Of a sudden one of the men recollected himself, 
 looked to this side and that with a scared face, and 
 rapped the table with his knuckles. 
 
 " Ladies," he said imploringly, " and Sefiores, the 
 heat is great. It may be dangerous." 
 
 " Pah ! " said Donna Clotilde, " we are talking in 
 English." 
 
 " Which other people besides ourselves under- 
 stand, even in Valparaiso." 
 
 " Let them listen," said Captain Kettle. " I hold 
 the same opinions on politics as Miss La Touche 
 here, since she has explained to me how things 
 really are, and I don't care who knows that I think 
 the present Government, and the whole system, 
 rotten. I am not in the habit of putting my opin- 
 ions in words, Mr. Silva, and being frightened of 
 people hearing them." 
 
 "You," said the cautious man drily, " have little 
 to lose here, Captain. Donna Clotilde has much. 
 I should be very sorry to read in my morning paper 
 that she had died from apoplexy the arsenical 
 variety during the course of the preceding night.'* 
 
 " Pooh," said Kettle, " they could never do that."
 
 THE WAR-STEAMER OF DONNA CLOTILDE. 57 
 
 "Asa resident in Chili," returned Silva, "let me 
 venture to disagree with you, Captain. It is a dis- 
 ease to which the opponents of President Quijarra 
 are singularly addicted whenever they show any 
 marked political activity. The palm trees in this 
 patio have a reputation, too, for being phenomenally 
 long-eared. So, if it pleases you all, suppose we go 
 out on the roof? The moon will afford us a fine 
 prospect aivd the air up there is reputed healthy." 
 
 He picked up Donna Clotilde's fan and mantilla. 
 The other two ladies rose to their feet ; Donna Clo- 
 tilde, with a slight frown of reluctance, did the 
 same ; and they all moved off towards the stairway, 
 Silva laid detaining fingers upon Captain Kettle's 
 arm. 
 
 " Captain," he said, " if I may give you a friendly 
 hint, slip away now and go to your quarters." 
 
 " I fancy, sir," said Captain Kettle, 4< that Miss 
 La Touche has employment to offer me." 
 
 "If she has," retorted Silva, "which I doubt, it 
 will not be employment you will care about." 
 
 " I am what they call here ' on the beach,' " said 
 Kettle, " and I cannot afford to miss chances. I 
 am a married man, Mr. Silva, with children to think 
 about." 
 
 " Ah ! " the Chillian murmured thoughtfully. " I 
 wonder if she knows he's married ? Well, Captain, 
 if you will go up, come along, and I'm sure I wish 
 you luck." 
 
 The flat roof of the Cafe" of the Lion d'Or is set 
 out as a garden, with orange trees growing against 
 the parapets, and elephants' ears and other tropical 
 foliage plants stood here and there in round green
 
 58 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 tubs. Around it are the other roofs of the city, 
 which, with the streets between, look like some 
 white rocky plain cut up by steep canons. A glow 
 comes from these depths below, and with it the 
 blurred hum of people. But nothing articulate gets 
 up to the Lion d'Or, and in the very mistiness of 
 the noise there is something indescribably fascinat- 
 ing. 
 
 Moreover, it is a place where the fireflies of Val- 
 paraiso most do congregate. Saving for the lamps 
 of heaven, they have no other lighting on that roof. 
 The owners (who are Israelites) pride themselves 
 on this: it gives the garden an air of mystery; it 
 has made it the natural birthplace of plots above 
 numbering ; and it has brought them profits almost 
 beyond belief. Your true plotter, when his ecstasy 
 comes upon him, is not the man to be niggardly with 
 the purse. He is alive and glowing then ; he may 
 very possibly be dead to-morrow ; and in the mean- 
 while money is useless, and the things money can 
 buy and the very best of their sort are most de- 
 sirable. 
 
 One more whispered hint did Mr. Silva give to 
 Captain Kettle as they made their way together up 
 the white stone steps. 
 
 " Do you know who and what our hostess is ? " 
 he asked. 
 
 " A very nice young lady," replied the mariner 
 promptly, " with a fine taste in suppers." 
 
 " She is all that," said Silva ; " but she also hap- 
 pens to be the richest woman in Chili. Her father 
 owned mines innumerable, and when he came by 
 his end in our last revolution, he left every dollar he
 
 THE WAR-STEAMER OF DONNA CLOTILDE. 59 
 
 had at Donna Clotilda's entire disposal. By some 
 unfortunate oversight, personal fear has been left 
 out of her composition, and she seems anxious to 
 add it to the list of her acquirements." 
 
 Captain Kettle puckered his brows. " I don't 
 seem to understand you," he said. 
 
 "I say this," Silva murmured, "because there 
 seems no other way to explain the keenness with 
 which she hunts after personal danger. At present 
 she is intriguing against President Quijarra's Gov- 
 ernment. Well, we all know that Quijarra is a bri- 
 gand, just as his predecessor was before him. The 
 man who succeeds him in the Presidency of Chili 
 will be a brigand also. It is the custom of my coun- 
 try. But interfering with brigandage is a ticklish 
 operation, and Quijarra is always scrupulous to 
 wring the necks of anyone whom he thinks at all 
 likely to interfere with his peculiar methods." 
 
 " I should say that from his point of view," said 
 Kettle, " he was acting quite rightly, sir." 
 
 " I thought you'd look at it sensibly," said Silva. 
 " Well, Captain, here we are at the top of the stair. 
 Don't you think you had better change your mind, 
 and slip away now, and go back to your quarters?" 
 " Why, no, sir," said Captain Kettle. " From 
 what you tell me, it seems possible that Miss La 
 Touche may shortly be seeing trouble, and it would 
 give me pleasure to be near and ready to bear a 
 hand. She is a lady for whom I have got consider- 
 able regard. That supper, sir, which we have just 
 eaten, and the wine, are things which will live in my 
 memory." 
 
 He stepped out on to the roof, and Donna Clotilde
 
 60 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 came to meet him. She linked her fingers upon 
 his arm, and led him apart from the rest. At the 
 further angle of the gardens they leaned their elbows 
 upon the parapet, and talked, whilst the glow from 
 the street below faintly lit their faces, and the fire- 
 flies winked behind their backs. 
 
 " I thank you, Captain, for your offer," she said at 
 length, " and I accept it as freely as it was given. 
 I have had proposals of similar service before, but 
 they came from the wrong sort. I wanted a man, 
 and I found out that you were that before you had 
 been at the dinner table five minutes." 
 
 Captain Kettle bowed to the compliment. 
 " But," said he, " if I am that, I have all a man's 
 failings." 
 
 " I like them better," said the lady, " than a half- 
 man's virtues. And as a proof I offer you command 
 of my navy." 
 
 " Your navy, Miss ? " 
 
 " It has yet to be formed," said Donna Clotilde, 
 " and you must form it. But, once we make the 
 nucleus, other ships of the existing force will desert 
 to us, and with those we must fight and beat the 
 rest. Once we have the navy, we can bombard the 
 ports into submission till the country thrusts out 
 President Quijarra of its own accord, and sets me up 
 in his place." 
 
 " Oh," said Kettle, " I didn't understand. Then 
 you want to be Queen of Chili ?" 
 
 " President." 
 
 " But a president is a man, isn't he ? " 
 
 " Why ? Answer me that."
 
 THE WAR-STEAMER OF DONNA CLOTILDE. 6l 
 
 " Because well, because they always have been, 
 Miss." 
 
 " Because men up to now have always taken the 
 best things to themselves. Well, Captain, all that 
 is changing ; the world is moving on ; and women 
 are forcing their way in, and taking their proper 
 place. You say that no state has had a woman- 
 president. You are quite right. I shall be the first." 
 Captain Kettle frowned a little, and looked 
 thoughtfully down into the lighted street beneath. 
 But presently he made up his mind, and spoke again. 
 
 " I'll accept your offer, Miss, to command the 
 navy, and I'll do the work well. You may rely on 
 that. Although I say it myself, you'd find it hard 
 to get a better man. I know the kind of brutes one 
 has to ship as seamen along this South American 
 coast, and I'm the sort of brute to handle them. 
 By James, yes, and you shall see me make them do 
 most things, short of miracles. 
 
 " But there's one other thing, Miss, I ought to 
 say, and I must apologise for mentioning it, seeing 
 that you're not a business person. I must have my 
 twelve pound a month, and all found. I know it's 
 a lot, and I know you'll tell me wages are down just 
 now. But I couldn't do it for less, Miss. Com- 
 manding a navy's a strong order, and, besides, 
 there's considerable risk to be counted in as well." 
 
 Donna Clotilde took his hand in both hers. 
 
 " I thank you, Captain," she said, " for your offer, 
 and I begin to see success ahead from this moment. 
 You need have no fear on the question of remunera- 
 tion." 
 
 " I hope you didn't mind my mentioning it," said
 
 62 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 Kettle nervously. " I know it's not a thing gener- 
 ally spoken of to ladies. But you see, Miss, I'm a 
 poor man, and feel the need of money sometimes. 
 Of course, twelve pound a month is high, but 
 
 " My dear Captain," the lady broke in, " what you 
 ask is moderation itself ; and, believe me, I respect 
 you for it, and will not forget. Knowing who lam, 
 no other man in Chili would have hesitated to ask " 
 she had on her tongue to say " a hundred times 
 as much," but suppressed that and said " more. 
 But in the meantime," said she, " will you accept 
 this hundred-pound note for any current expenses 
 which may occur to you ? " 
 
 A little old green-painted barque lay hove-to under 
 sail, disseminating the scent of guano through the 
 sweet tropical day. Under her square counter the 
 name El Almirante Cochrane appeared in clean 
 white lettering. The long South Pacific swells lifted 
 her lazily from hill to valley of the blue water, to 
 the accompaniment of squealing gear and a certain 
 groaning of fabric. The Chilian coast lay afar off, 
 as a white feathery line against one fragment of the 
 sea-rim. 
 
 The green-painted barque was old. For many a 
 weary year had she carried guano from rainless 
 Chilian islands to the ports of Europe ; and though 
 none of that unsavoury cargo at present festered 
 beneath her hatches, though, indeed, she was in 
 shingle ballast and had her holds scrubbed down and 
 fitted with bunks for men, the aroma of it had 
 entered into the vory soul of her fabric, and not all 
 the washings of the sea could remove it.
 
 THE WAR-STEAMER OF DONNA CLOTILDE. 63 
 
 A white whaleboat lay astern, riding to a grass- 
 rope painter, and Sefior Carlos Silva, whom the 
 whaleboat had brought off from the Chilian beach, 
 sat in the barque's deck-house talking to Captain 
 Kettle. 
 
 "The Sefiorita will be very disappointed," said 
 Silva. 
 
 " I can imagine her disappointment," returned the 
 sailor. " I can measure it by my own. I can tell 
 you, sir, when I saw this filthy, stinking, old wind- 
 jammer waiting for me in Callao, I could have sat 
 down right where I was and cried. I'd got my men 
 together, and I guess I'd talked big about El Almi- 
 rante Cochrane, the fine new armoured cruiser we 
 were to do wonders in. The only thing I knew 
 about her was her name, but Miss La Touche had 
 promised me the finest ship that could be got, and 
 I only described what I thought a really fine ship 
 would be. And, then, when the agent stuck out his 
 finger and pointed out this foul old violet-bed, I tell 
 you it was a bit of a let down." 
 
 " There's been some desperate robbery some- 
 where," said Silva. 
 
 " It didn't take me long to guess that," said 
 Kettle, " and I concluded the agent was the thief, 
 and started in to take it out of him without further 
 talk. He hadn't a pistol, so I only used my hands 
 to him, but I guess I fingered him enough in three 
 minutes to stop his dancing for another month. He 
 swore by all the saints he was innocent, and that he 
 was only the tool of other men ; and perhaps that 
 was so. But he deserved what he got for being in 
 such shady employment."
 
 64 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 " Still, that didn't procure you another ship?" 
 
 " Hammering the agent couldn't make him do an 
 impossibility, sir. There wasn't such a vessel as I 
 wanted in all the ports of Peru. So I just took 
 this nosegay that was offered, lured my crew aboard, 
 and put out past San Lorenzo island, and got to 
 sea. It's a bit of a come down, sir, for a steamer- 
 sailor like me," the little man added with a sigh, 
 "to put an old wind-jammer through her gymnas- 
 tics again. I thought I'd done with ' mainsail haul' 
 and rawhide chafing gear, and all the white wings 
 nonsense, for good and always." 
 
 "But, Captain, what did you come out for? 
 What earthly good can you do with an old wreck 
 like this?" 
 
 " Why, sir, I shall carry out what was arranged 
 with Miss La Touche. I shall come up with one of 
 President Quijarra's Government vessels, capture her 
 and then start in to collar the rest. There's no 
 alteration in the programme. It's only made more 
 difficult, that's all." 
 
 " I rowed out here to the rendezvous to tell you 
 the Cancelario is at moorings in Tampique Bay, 
 and that the Senorita would like to see you make 
 your beginning upon her. But what's the good of 
 that news, now ? The Cancelario is a fine new war- 
 ship of 3000 tons. She's fitted with everything 
 modern in guns and machinery, she's three hundred 
 men of a crew, and she lays always with steam up 
 and an armed watch set. To go near her in this 
 clumsy little barque would be to make yourself 
 a laughing-stock. Why, your English Cochrane 
 wouldn't have done it."
 
 THE WAR-STEAMER OF DONNA CLOTILDE. 65 
 
 ** I know nothing about Lord Cochrane, Mr. Silva. 
 He was dead before my time. But whatever people 
 may have done to him, I can tell anyone who cares 
 to hear, that the man who's talking to you now is a 
 bit of an awkward handful to laugh at. No, sir, 
 I expect there'll be trouble over it, but you may 
 tell Miss La Touche we shall have the Cancelario, 
 if she'll stay in Tampique Bay till I can drive this 
 old lavender-box up to her." 
 
 For a minute Silva stared in silent wonder. 
 
 " Then, Captain," said he, " all I can think is, that 
 you must have enormous trust in your crew." 
 
 Captain Kettle bit the end from a fresh cigar. 
 "You should go and look at them for yourself," 
 said he, " and hear their talk, and then you'd know. 
 The beasts are fit to eat me already." 
 
 " How did you get them on board ? " 
 
 " Well, you see, sir, I collected them by promises 
 fine pay, fine ship, fine cruise, fine chances, and 
 so on ; and, when I'd only this smelling bottle here 
 to show them, they hung back a bit. If there'd been 
 only twenty of them, I don't say but what I could 
 have hustled them on board with a gun and some 
 ugly words. But sixty were too many to tackle ; so 
 I just said to them that El Almirante Cochrane was 
 only a ferry to take us across to a fine war steamer 
 that was lying out of sight elsewhere ; and they 
 swallowed the yarn, and stepped in over the side. 
 
 " I can't say they've behaved like lambs since. 
 The grub's not been to their fancy, and I must say 
 the biscuit was crawling ; and it seems that as a 
 bedroom the hold hurt their delicate noses; and, 
 between one thing and another, I've had to shoot 
 5
 
 66 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 six of them before they understood I was skipper 
 here. You see, sir, they were most of them living 
 in Callao before they shipped, because there's no 
 extradition there ; and so they're rather a toughish 
 crowd to handle." 
 
 " What a horrible time you must have had ! " 
 
 " There has been no kid-glove work for me, sir, 
 since I got to sea with this rose garden; and I must 
 say it would have knocked the poetry right out of 
 most men. But, personally, I can't say it has done 
 that to me. You'd hardly believe it, sir, but once 
 or twice, when the whole lot of the brutes have been 
 raging against me, I've been very nearly happy. 
 And afterwards, when I've got a spell of rest, I've 
 picked up pen and paper and knocked off one or 
 two of the prettiest sonnets a man could wish to see 
 in print. If you like, sir, I'll read you a couple be- 
 fore you go back to your whaleboat." 
 
 " I thank you, Skipper, but not now. Time is on 
 the move, and Donna Clotilde is waiting for me. 
 What am I to tell her?" 
 
 " Say, of course, that her orders are being carried 
 out, and her pay being earned." 
 
 " My poor fellow," said Silva, with a sudden gush 
 of remorse, " you are only sacrificing yourself use- 
 lessly. What can you, in a small sailing vessel like 
 this, do with your rifles against a splendidly armed 
 vessel like the Cancelario ? " 
 
 ''Not much in the shooting line, that's certain," 
 said Kettle cheerfully. " That beautiful agent sold 
 us even over the ammunition. There were kegs put 
 on board marked ' cartridges,' but when I came to 
 break one or two so as to serve out a little ammuni-
 
 THE WAR-STEAMER OF DONNA CLOTILDE. 6/ 
 
 tion, for practice, be hanged if the kegs weren't full 
 of powder. And it wasn't the stuff for guns even ; it 
 was blasting powder, same as they use in the mines. 
 Oh, sir, that agent was the holiest kind of fraud." 
 
 Silva wrung his hands. " Captain," he cried, " you 
 must not go on with this mad cruise. It would be 
 sheer suicide for you to find the Cancelario." 
 
 " You shall give me news of it again after I've 
 met her," said Captain Kettle. " For the present, 
 sir, I follow out Miss La Touche's orders, and earn 
 my 12 a month. But if you're my friend, Mr. 
 Silva, and want to do me a good turn, you might 
 hint that if things go well, I could do with a rise to 
 ,14 a month when I'm sailing the Cancelario for her." 
 
 The outline of Tampique Bay stood out clearly 
 in bright moonshine, and the sea down the path 
 of the moon's rays showed a canal of silver, cut 
 through rolling fields of purple. The green-painted 
 barque was heading into the bay on the port tack ; 
 and at moorings, before the town, in the curve of 
 the shore, the grotesque spars of a modern warship 
 showed in black silhouette against the moonbeams. 
 A slate-coloured naphtha-launch was sliding out over 
 the swells towards the barque. 
 
 Captain Kettle came up from below, and watched 
 the naphtha-launch with throbbing interest. He 
 had hatched a scheme for capturing the Cancelario, 
 and had made his preparations ; and here was an 
 interruption coming which might very well upset 
 everything most ruinously. Nor was he alone in his 
 regard. The barque's topgallant rail was lined with 
 faces ; all her complement were wondering who
 
 68 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 these folk might be who were so confidently coming 
 out to meet them. 
 
 A Jacob's ladder was thrown over the side ; the 
 slate-coloured launch swept up, and emitted a 
 woman. Captain Kettle started, and went down 
 into the waist to meet her. A minute later he was 
 wondering whether he dreamed, or whether he was 
 really walking his quarterdeck in company with 
 Donna Clotilde La Touche. But meanwhile the 
 barque held steadily along her course. 
 
 The talk between them was not for long. 
 " I must beseech you, Miss, to go back from 
 where you came," said Kettle. "You must trust 
 me to carry out this business without your super- 
 vision." 
 
 " Is your method very dangerous? " she asked. 
 
 " I couldn't recommend it to an Insurance Com- 
 pany," said Kettle thoughtfully. 
 
 " Tell me your scheme." 
 
 Kettle did so in some forty words. He was pithy, 
 and Donna Clotilde was cool. She heard him with- 
 out change of colour. 
 
 "Ah," she said, " I think you will do it." 
 
 "You will know one way or another within an 
 hour from now, Miss. But I must ask you to take 
 your launch to a distance. As I tell you, I have 
 made all my own boats so that they won't swim ; 
 but, if your little craft was handy, my crew would 
 jump overboard and risk the sharks, and try to reach 
 her in spite of all I could do to stop them. They 
 won't be anxious to fight that Cancelario when 
 the time comes, if there's any way of wriggling out 
 of it."
 
 THE WAR-STEAMER OF DONNA CLOTILDE. 69 
 
 " You are quite right, Captain ; the launch must 
 go ; only I do not. I must be your guest here till 
 you can put me on the Cancelario" 
 
 Captain Kettle frowned. " What's coming is no 
 job for a woman to be in at, Miss." 
 
 "You must leave me to my own opinion about 
 that. You see, we differ upon what a woman 
 should do, Captain. You say a woman should not 
 be president of a republic ; you think a woman 
 should not be sharer in a fight : I am going to show 
 you how a woman can be both." She leant her 
 shoulders over the rail, and hailed the naptha-launch 
 with a sharp command. A man in the bows cast 
 off the line with which it towed ; the man aft put 
 over his tiller, and set the engines a-going ; and, 
 like a slim, grey ghost, the launch slid quietly away 
 into the gloom. "You see," she said, "I'm bound 
 to stay with you now." And she looked upon him 
 with a burning glance. 
 
 But Kettle replied coldly. " You are my owner, 
 Miss," he said, " and can do as you wish. It is not 
 for me now to say that you are foolish. Do I un- 
 derstand you still wish me to carry out my original 
 plan ? " 
 
 " Yes," she said curtly. 
 
 " Very well, Miss, then we shall be aboard of that 
 war-steamer in less than fifteen minutes." He bade 
 his second mate call aft the crew ; but instead of 
 remaining to meet them, he took a keen glance at 
 the barque's canvas, another at her wake, another 
 at the moored cruiser ahead, and then, after peering 
 thoughtfully at the clouds which sailed in the sky, 
 he went to the companion-way and dived below.
 
 7O ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 The crew trooped aft and stood at the break of the 
 quarterdeck waiting for him. And in the mean- 
 while they feasted their eyes with many different 
 thoughts on Donna Clotilde La Touche. 
 
 Presently Captain Kettle returned to deck, ag- 
 gressive and cheerful, and faced the men with hands 
 in his jacket pockets. Each pocket bulged with 
 something heavy, and the men, who by this time 
 had come to understand Captain Kettle's ways, be- 
 gan to grow quiet and nervous. He came to the 
 point without any showy oratory. 
 
 " Now, my lads," said he, " I told you when you 
 shipped aboard this lavender-box in Callao, that 
 she was merely a ferry to carry you to a fine war- 
 steamer which was lying elsewhere. Well, there's 
 the steamer, just off the starboard bow yonder. 
 Her name's the Cancelario y and at present she seems 
 to belong to President Quijarra's Government. 
 But Miss La Touche here (who is employing both 
 me and you, just for the present) intends to set up 
 a Government of her own ; and, as a preliminary, 
 she wants that ship. We've to grab it for her." 
 
 Captain Kettle broke off, and for a full minute 
 there was silence. Then some one amongst the men 
 laughed, and a dozen others joined in. 
 
 " That's right," said Kettle. " Cackle away, you 
 scum. You'd be singing a different tune if you knew 
 what was beneath you." 
 
 A voice from the gloom an educated voice an- 
 swered him : " Don't be foolish, Skipper. We're 
 not going to ram our heads against a brick wall 
 Hke that. We set some value on our lives," 
 
 " Do you ? " said Kettle. " Then pray that this
 
 THE WAR-STEAMER OF DONNA CLOTILDE. Jl 
 
 breeze doesn't drop (as it seems likely to do), or 
 you'll lose them. Shall I tell you what I was up 
 to below just now ? You remember those kegs of 
 blasting powder? Weil, they're in the lazaret, 
 where some of you stowed them ; but they're all of 
 them unheaded, and one of them carries the end 
 of a fuse. That fuse is cut to burn just twenty 
 minutes, and the end's lighted. 
 
 " Wait a bit. It's no use going to try and douse 
 it. There's a pistol fixed to the lazaret hatch, and 
 if you try to lift it that pistol will shoot into the 
 powder, we'll all go up together without further 
 palaver. Steady now there, and hear me out. 
 You can't lower away boats, and get clear that way. 
 The boat's bottoms will tumble away so soon as 
 you try to hoist them off the skids. I saw to that 
 last night. And you can't require any telling to 
 know there are far too many sharks about, to make 
 a swim healthy exercise." 
 
 The men began to rustle and talk. 
 
 "Now, don't spoil your only chance," said Kettle, 
 "by singing out. If on the cruiser yonder they 
 think there's anything wrong, they'll run out a gun 
 or two, and blow us out of the water before we can 
 come near them. I've got no arms to give you ; 
 but yov have your knives, and I guess you 
 shouldn't want more. Get in the shadow of the 
 rail there, and keep hid till you hear her bump. 
 Then jump on board, knock everybody you see 
 over the side, and keep the rest below." 
 
 "They'll see us coming," whimpered a voice. 
 44 They'll never let us board." 
 
 " They'll hear us," the Captain retorted, " if you
 
 72 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 gallows-ornaments bellow like that, and then all 
 we'll have to do will be to sit tight where we are 
 till that powder blows us like a thin kind of spray 
 up against the stars. Now, get to cover with you, 
 all hands, and not another sound. It's your only 
 chance." 
 
 The men crept away, shaking, and Captain Kettle 
 himself took the wheel, and appeared to drowse 
 over it. He gave her half a spoke at a time, and 
 by invisible degrees the barque fell off till she 
 headed dead on for the cruiser. Save for the faint 
 creaking of her gear, no sound came from her, and 
 she slunk on through the night like some patched 
 and tattered phantom. Far down in her lazaret 
 the glowing end of the fuse crept nearer to the 
 powder barrels, and in imagination every mind on 
 board was following its race. 
 
 Nearer and nearer she drew to the Cancelario, 
 and ever nearer. The waiting men felt as though 
 the hearts of them would leap from their breasts. 
 Two of them fainted. Then came a hail from the 
 cruiser: " Barque, ahoy, are you all asleep there?" 
 
 Captain Kettle drowsed on over the wheel. 
 Donna Clotilde, from the shadow of the house, 
 could see him nodding like a man in deep sleep. 
 
 " Carrajo ! you barque, there ! Put down your 
 helm. You'll be aboard of us in a minute." 
 
 Kettle made no reply : his hands sawed automati- 
 cally at the spokes, and the glow from the pin- 
 nacle fell upon close-shut eyes. It was a fine bit of 
 acting. 
 
 The Chilians shouted, but they could not prevent 
 the collision, and when it came there broke out a
 
 THE WAR-STEAMER OF DONNA CLOTILDE. 73 
 
 yell as though the gates of the pit had been sud- 
 denly unlocked. 
 
 The barque's crew of human refuse, mad with ter- 
 ror, rose up in a flock from behind the bulwarks. 
 As one man they clambered over the cruiser's side 
 and spread about her decks. 
 
 Ill provided with weapons though they might be, 
 the Chilians were scarcely better armed. A sentry 
 squibbed off his rifle, but that was the only shot 
 fired. Knives did the greater part of the work, 
 knives and belaying pins, and whatever else came 
 to hand. Those of the watch on deck who did not 
 run below were cleared into the sea ; the berth deck 
 was stormed ; and the waking men surrendered to 
 the pistol nose. 
 
 A couple of desperate fellows went below, and 
 cowed the firemen and engineer on watch. The 
 mooring was slipped, steam was given to the engines, 
 and whilst her former crew were being drafted down 
 into an empty hold, the Cancelario was standing out 
 at a sixteen-knot speed towards the open sea under 
 full command of the raiders. Then from behind 
 them came the roar of an explosion and a spurt of 
 dazzling light, and the men shuddered to think of 
 what they had so narrowly missed. And as it was 
 some smelling fragments of the old guano barque 
 lit upon the afterdeck, as they fell headlong from 
 the dark sky above. 
 
 Donna Clotilde went on to the upper bridge, and 
 took Captain Kettle by the hand. 
 
 " My friend," she said, " I shall never forget this. M 
 And she looked at him with eyes that spoke of more 
 than admiration for his success.
 
 74 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 " I am earning my pay," said Kettle. 
 
 " Pah ! " she said, " don't let money come between 
 us. I cannot bear to think of you in connection 
 with sordid things like that. I put you on a higher 
 plane. Captain," she said, and turned her head 
 away, " I shall choose a man like you for husband." 
 
 " Heaven mend your taste, Miss," said Kettle ; 
 " but there may be others like me." 
 
 " There are not." 
 
 " Then you must be content with the nearest you 
 can get." 
 
 Donna Clotilde stamped her foot upon the plank- 
 ing of the bridge. 
 
 " You are dull," she cried. 
 
 " No," he said, " I have got clear sight. Miss. 
 Won't you go below now and get a spell of sleep ? 
 Or will you give me your orders first ? " 
 
 " No," she answered, " I will not. We must settle 
 this matter first. You have a wife in England, I 
 know, but that is nothing. Divorce is simple here. 
 I have influence with the Church ; you could be set 
 free in a day. Am I not the woman you would 
 choose?" 
 
 " Miss La Touche, you are my employer." 
 
 " Answer my question." 
 
 " Then. Miss, if you will have it, you are not." 
 
 "But why? Why? Give me your reasons? 
 You are brave. Surely I have shown courage too ? 
 Surely you must admire that?" 
 
 " I like men for men's work, Miss." 
 
 " But that is an exploded notion. Women have 
 got to take their place. They must show themselves 
 the equals of men in everything."
 
 THE WAR-STEAMER OF DONNA CLOTILDE. 75 
 
 " But you see, Miss," said Kettle, " I prefer to be 
 linked to a lady who is my superior as I am linked 
 at present. If it pleases you, we had better end 
 this talk." 
 
 " No," said Donna Clotilde, " it has got to be 
 settled one way or the other. You know what I 
 want. Marry me as soon as you are set free, and 
 there shall be no end of your power. I will make 
 you rich ; I will make you famous. Chili shall be at 
 our feet ; the world shall bow to us." 
 
 " It could be done," said Kettle with a sigh. 
 
 " Then marry me." 
 
 " With due respect, I will not," said the little 
 man. 
 
 " You know you are speaking to a woman who is 
 not accustomed to be thwarted?" 
 
 Captain Kettle bowed. 
 
 ** Then you will either do as I wish, or leave this 
 ship. I give you an hour to consider it in." 
 
 " You will find my second mate the best navigat- 
 ing officer left," said Kettle, and Donna Clotilde, 
 without further words, left the bridge. 
 
 The little shipmaster waited for a decent interval, 
 and then sighed, and gave orders. The men on 
 deck obeyed him with quickness. A pair of boat 
 davits were swung out-board, and the boat plenti- 
 fully victualled and its water-breakers filled. The 
 Cancelarios engines were stopped, and the tackles 
 screamed as the boat was lowered to the water, and 
 ro Je there at the end of its painter. Captain Kettle 
 left the bridge in charge of his first officer, and went 
 below. He found the lady sitting in the com- 
 mander's cabin, with head pillowed upon her arms.
 
 76 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 " You still wish me to go, Miss ?" he said. 
 
 " If you will not accept what is offered." 
 
 " I am sorry," said the little sailor, " very sorry. 
 If I'd met you, Miss, before I saw Mrs. Kettle, and 
 if you'd been a bit different, I believe I could have 
 liked you. But as it is " 
 
 She leaped to her feet, with eyes that blazed. 
 
 " Go ! " she cried. " Go, or I will call upon some 
 of those fellows to shoot you." 
 
 "They will do it cheerfully, if you ask them," said 
 Kettle, and did not budge. 
 
 She sank down on the sofa again with a wail. 
 
 "Oh, go," she cried. "If you are a man go, and 
 never let me see you again." 
 
 Captain Kettle bowed, and went on deck. 
 
 A little later he was alone in the quarter-boat. 
 The Cancelario was drawing fast away from him 
 into the night, and the boat danced in the cream of 
 her wake. 
 
 " Ah, well," he said to himself, " there's another 
 good chance gone for good and always. What a 
 cantankerous beggar I am." And then for a mo- 
 ment his thoughts went elsewhere, and he got out 
 paper and a stump of pencil, and busily scribbled an 
 elegy to some poppies in a cornfield. The lines had 
 just flitted gracefully across his mind, and they 
 seemed far too comely to be allowed a chance of 
 escape. It was a movement characteristic of his 
 queerly ordered brain. After the more ugly mo- 
 ments of his life, Captain Owen Kettle always turned 
 to the making of verse as an instinctive relief.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE PILGRIM SHIP. 
 
 EVEN before he left Jeddah, Captain Kettle was 
 quite aware that by shipping pilgrims on the iron 
 deck of the Saigon for transit across the Red Sea, he 
 was trangressing the laws of several nations, espe- 
 cially those of Great Britain and her Dependencies. 
 But what else could the poor man do ? Situated as 
 he was, with such a tempting opportunity ready to 
 his hand, he would have been less than human if he 
 had neglected to take the bargain which was offered. 
 And though the list of things that has been said 
 against Captain Owen Kettle is both black and long, 
 I am not aware that anyone has yet alleged that the 
 little sailor was anything more or less than human 
 in all his many frailties. 
 
 Cortolvin came to the chart-house and put this 
 matter of illegality to him in plain words when the 
 engines chose to break down two days out of Jeddah, 
 and the Saigon lolled helpless in the blazing Red 
 Sea heat. 
 
 Cortolvin up to that time had not made himself 
 remarked. He had marched on board from the new 
 Jeddah quay where the railway is, and posed as an 
 Arab of the Sahara who was glorying in the newly- 
 acquired green turban of a Hadji ; he was nicked on 
 
 77
 
 78 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE, 
 
 the mate's tally as a " nigger," along with some three 
 hundred and forty dark-skinned followers of the 
 Prophet ; and he had spent those two days upon an 
 orthodox square of ragged carpet, spread on the 
 rusted iron plating of the lower fore deck. 
 
 When the pilgrims had mustered for victualling, 
 he had filed in with the rest, and held out a brass 
 lotah for his ration of water, and a tattered square of 
 canvas for his dole of steamed rice. You could 
 count his ribs twenty yards away ; but he'd the look 
 of a healthy man ; and when on mornings he helped 
 to throw overboard those of his fellow-pilgrims who 
 had died during the night, it was plain to see that 
 he was a fellow of more than ordinary muscular 
 strength. 
 
 He came to Captain Kettle in the chart-house to 
 report that the pilgrims contemplated seizing the Sai- 
 gon so soon as ever the engines were once more put 
 in running order. " They've declared ay<?//tf</against 
 you, if you know what that is," said Cortolvin. 
 
 " A holy war, or some such skittles, isn't it ? " said 
 Kettle. 
 
 " That's about the size of it," said the Hadji ; 
 "you'll have to look out if you intend to remain 
 master of this steamboat." 
 
 " I don't require any teaching of my business from 
 passengers," said Captain Kettle stiffly. 
 
 "All right," said Cortolvin, "have it your own 
 way. But I think you might be decently grateful. 
 I've risked my life by coming to give you news of 
 what was in the wind. And you can't pretend that 
 the information is not useful. You've a coolie crew 
 who will be absolutely foolish if trouble comes
 
 THE PILGRIM SHIP. 79 
 
 these Lascars always are that way. You've just your 
 two white engineers and two white mates to back 
 you up, and the five of you wouldn't have a show. 
 You've three hundred and forty fanatics to deal 
 with, who are all fighting bred, and fighting fit. 
 They're all well armed, and they wouldn't a bit 
 object to die scrimmaging in such a cause. 
 
 "You know it's part of their creed that if 
 they peg-out whilst fighting giaours, they go slick 
 to paradise by lightning express. That wily old 
 camel-driver of Mecca painted his heaven as just 
 the sort of dandy place to suit this kind of cattle, 
 and as most of them have a beast of a time on 
 this earth, they're anxious to move along upstairs 
 whenever a decent opportunity offers to get there." 
 
 " They'll be an ugly crowd to tackle : I grant that." 
 
 " They are so, and don't you forget it. I might 
 point out, Captain, that, personally speaking, I'd 
 been a lot safer if I'd stayed down on the lower fore 
 deck yonder, and held my tongue. They'd have 
 got you to an absolute certainty if they'd ambushed 
 you as was intended, and I could have kept out of 
 the actual throat-cutting and preserved a sound skin. 
 They've all got profound respect forme: I'm a very 
 holy man." 
 
 " And as it is?" 
 
 Hadji Cortolvin shrugged his shoulders. " Oh, 
 I chip in with you." 
 
 "Will you tell me why?" 
 
 " Cousinshipof the skin I suppose. You're white 
 by birth, and I believe I should turn out to be white 
 also if I kept out of the sun for awhile, and had sev- 
 eral Turkish baths. Of course I've a snuff-coloured
 
 8O ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 hide on me now, and during this last two years I've 
 been living with men of colour, and following their 
 ways, and thinking their thoughts. Funny isn't it? 
 I come across you ; I don't know you from Adam ; I 
 can't say I particularly like what I've seen of you ; and 
 yet here am I, rounding on my former mates, and 
 chipping in with you on the clear knowledge that I 
 shall probably get killed during the next few hours 
 for my pains." 
 
 " May I ask your name ? " said Kettle. " I believe, 
 sir," he added with a bow, " that you are a gentle- 
 man." 
 
 The Hadji laughed. " So far as I recollect. I was 
 that once, Captain. Sorry I haven't a card on me, 
 but my name's W. H. Cortolvin, and I lived near 
 Richmond, in Yorkshire, before I was idiot enough 
 to go wandering off the Cook's tourist routes into 
 the middle of Arabia." 
 
 " I'm Welsh myself," said Kettle," but I've known 
 men from Yorkshire. Shake hands, sir, please. Will 
 you have a whisky-peg ? " 
 
 " Pour it out, Captain. I haven't tasted a Chris- 
 tian drink for thirty weary months. And you've 
 got a chattie hung up in the draught of a port ! Cool 
 water, ye gods ! Bismillah ! But it is good to be 
 alive sometimes." 
 
 Captain Kettle looked with distaste at the Hadji's 
 attire. 
 
 " Won't you sling that filthy night-gown thing of 
 yours overboard," he asked, " and have a wash ? I 
 can rig you out with some pyjamas from the slop 
 chest." 
 
 But Cortclvin would not chancre his dirt and
 
 THE PILGRIM SHIP. 8l 
 
 squalor just then. He had worn it too long to be af- 
 fected by it ; " and," said he, " I don't want to adver- 
 tise the fact that I'm an Englishman just at present. 
 If my dear friends down yonder on the lower deck 
 knew it, they'd not wait for the engines to be repaired. 
 They'd fizzle up just like gunpowder there and then, 
 and the whole lot of us white men would be pulled 
 into tassels before we'd time to think." 
 
 " I don't know about that," said Kettle. " I've 
 faced some of the ugliest crowds that have floated 
 on the seas before this, and they thought they were 
 going to have it all their own way, but they found 
 that when it came to shooting that I could keep my 
 end up very handily." 
 
 He waved his guest to a deck chair, placed a box 
 of cheroots hospitably open on the chart-table, and 
 then he went outside the chart-house, and leant over 
 the bridge deck rail. The awning above him threw 
 a clean-cut shade which swung to and fro as the 
 Saigon rolled over the faint oily swell ; and outside 
 its shelter the sun's rays fell like molten brass, and 
 the metal-work was hot enough to raise a blister. 
 The air was motionless and stagnant, and greasy 
 with the smell of humanity. The whole fabric of the 
 steamer shimmered in the dancing heat. 
 
 For the dense mass of pilgrims below the situa- 
 tion approached the intolerable. Left to itself, the 
 rusted iron deck beneath their bare skins would 
 have grown hot enough to char them. Nothing but 
 a constant sluicing with water made it in any way to 
 be endured. And as the water from alongside came 
 up to them as warm as tea, it did but little to refresh. 
 
 The African can withstand most temperatures
 
 82 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 which are thrown from above on to the face of this 
 planet, but even the African can at times die from 
 heat as glibly as his betters. Even as Kettle 
 watched, one of the pilgrims, a grizzle-headed Hausa 
 from the Western Soudan, was contorted with heat 
 apoplexy ; breathed stertorously for a minute or so ; 
 and then lay still, and immediately became a prey 
 to flies innumerable. Two of his nearest comrades 
 bestirred themselves to look at him, pronounced that 
 life was extinct, stood up, and with an effort carried 
 the body out of the press, and heaved it over the 
 hot iron bulwark into the oily sea beneath. It is 
 not good that the dead should remain with the quick 
 even for minutes in circumstances such as those. 
 
 And whilst the bearers carried him away, an old 
 white-haired negro from Sokoto stood upon his feet 
 swaying to the roll of the ship, and faced the heat- 
 blurred East with bowed head. Aloud he bore 
 witness that God was great ; and that Mahomet was 
 the Prophet of God ; and that of mortals, each 
 man's fate was writ big upon his forehead. And 
 then the rest of the pilgrims bent their foreheads to 
 the torturing deck plates, and made profession of 
 the faith, following his words. 
 
 Captain Kettle from his stand against the rail of 
 the bridge deck pitied the heathen, and thought with 
 a complacent sigh of a certain obscure chapel in 
 South Shields; but at the same time he could not 
 avoid being impressed by the heathen's constancy. 
 They might die, but they forebore to curse God in 
 doing it, and the omission gave him an insight into 
 the workings of fatalism which made him think 
 more of what Cortolvin had said.
 
 THE PILGRIM SHIP. 83 
 
 Every man amongst the pilgrims had sword, or 
 spear, or mace, or rifle within grip of his fist ; and 
 as a fighting force with fatalism to back them he 
 began to realise that they could make a very ugly 
 company to manoeuvre against. A regulation of the 
 pilgrim trade requires that all weapons shall be 
 taken from this class of passengers during the voy- 
 age, but Kettle had omitted to disarm them through 
 sheer contempt for what they could do. If they 
 chose to fight amongst themselves, that was their 
 own concern ; it never even occurred to him as they 
 came off Jeddah quay, noisy and odorous, that they 
 would dare to contend against his imperial will ; but 
 now he sincerely wished that the means of serious 
 offence were not so handy to their fingers. 
 
 I do not say that he was afraid, for, knowing him 
 well, I honestly believe that the little ruffian has 
 never yet feared man that was born of woman ; but 
 the safety of the Saigon was a matter just then very 
 near to his heart, and he had forebodings as to 
 what might happen to her. 
 
 He went back again inside the chart-house, sat 
 himself upon the sofa, and ran a finger round inside 
 the collar of his white drill coat. 
 
 "Do you like the cheroots, sir?" he said to his 
 tattered guest. 
 
 " Nice cheroots," said Cortolvin : " wonder how 
 many I'll smoke. Those True Believers are a pretty 
 tough crowd, aren't they ? There's one Soudanese 
 fellow in a Darfur suit of mail. Did you notice 
 him ? He's been a big war sheik in his day. He 
 helped to smash up Hicks Pasha's army, and com- 
 manded a thousand men at the storming of Khar-
 
 84 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 toum ; but he got sick of Mahdiism about a year 
 back, and set out to perform the Hadj. When 
 it comes to fighting, you'll see that man will 
 shine." 
 
 " He shall have my first shot," said Kettle. 
 
 " It surprises me," said Cortolvin, " that you ever 
 went in for this pilgrim-carrying business at all. You 
 must have been pretty hard pushed, Captain." 
 
 " Hard wasn't the word for it," said the ship- 
 master with a sigh. " I met misfortune, sir, in Chili. 
 I disagreed with my employer, who was a lady, and 
 went off cruising in a boat by myself. A tea steamer 
 picked me up and put me in Colombo. I got from 
 there to Bombay as second mate of a tramp, but I 
 couldn't stand the old man's tongue, and went ashore 
 without my wages. I guess, sir, I'm no good except 
 in command ; I can't take an order civilly. 
 
 " Well, in Bombay I'd a regular nip-gut time of 
 it. I bummed round the agents' offices till I almost 
 blushed to look at their punkah-coolies; but I'd no 
 papers to show that would do me any good ; and 
 none of them would give me a ship the size of a 
 rice mat. 
 
 " At last, when I was getting desperate, and pretty 
 near put to going to sea before the mast, a Cardiff 
 man I once knew came to the lodgings, and gave 
 me a tip. He'd been master of a country steamer; 
 he'd been sacked (he didn't deny it) for drunkenness ; 
 he'd not drawn a sober breath for months, and didn't 
 see any prospect of changing his habits ; and there 
 was the berth vacant, and I might have it for the 
 asking. 
 
 "The pay wasn't much ; only 100 rupees a month
 
 THE PILGRIM SHIP. 8$ 
 
 and percentage on profits ; and the owner was a 
 Parsee. I'd never been low enough down to sign 
 on under a black man before, but I guess I was past 
 being very nice in my tastes just then. The owner 
 was fat and oldish, and wore a thing on his head 
 like a top hat turned upside down, and I will say I 
 did not give him much politeness. But he knew 
 his place ; he sahib" 'd me quite respectfully ; and he 
 said he'd be honoured if I'd take his steamer under 
 my charge. ' She was all he'd got,' he said ; ' he 
 loved her like his life, and he'd not trust her to any- 
 one except a. pukka saliib.' 
 
 " Of course he lied a good deal all natives do 
 that and he fixed up our bargain so that I'd little 
 to win and he'd a good deal, which is those Parsees* 
 way. But I will say he was always most respectful, 
 and in the matter of victualling he really surprised 
 me. Why, he actually put Bass's ale on board at 
 four annas the bottle ! 
 
 " We cleared from Bombay in corn, and cottons, 
 and earthenware, consigned to Jeddah, and the 
 owner told me I'd have no trouble in gettinga cargo 
 of dates and coffee to bring back. But the Jeddah 
 merchants seemed to think different. I cut down 
 freights to near vanishing point, but they wouldn't 
 look at them anyhow. I couldn't get a ton of cargo 
 on board for any spot in the known globe, no, not if 
 I'd offered to carry it for nothing. The Saigon 
 might have swung thereat moorings till the bottom 
 rotted out of her; and expenses were running up all 
 the time. 
 
 "The climate was sickly too; I lost my serang 
 before I'd been there a week, and two more of the
 
 86 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 coolies died in the next ten days. So when this 
 cargo of pilgrims offered, I tell you I just jumped 
 at it. Of course this old wreck was not fitted for 
 the trade. She's small, she's iron decks, she's only 
 two boats, and she's not near enough water tanks. 
 There'd be big penalties if she was caught. But I 
 shipped a second rice steamer, and signed that 
 charter-party smiling. 
 
 " It wasn't as if I'd got to go through the Ditch 
 to one of the Morocco ports ; the pilgrims had only 
 to be taken across to Kosseir ; and squaring an 
 Egyptian custom officer is only a case of how much 
 backfkish" 
 
 " You do know your trade," said Cortolvin. 
 
 " The under side of it," said Kettle, with a sigh. 
 "A man with luck like mine has to. He never gets 
 on with the decent steamboat lines, where every- 
 thing is square and above board. He can only get 
 the little hole-and-corner owners, who you've got to 
 make dividends for somehow and no questions asked 
 or else just up and take the dirty sack. 
 
 " I'm a man," he added with a frown, " that can 
 do the job well, and they know it, and keep me to 
 it. But I despise myself all the time. It isn't in 
 my nature, Mr. Cortolvin. Put me ashore, give me 
 a farm, and let me bend yellow gaiters and a large- 
 pattern coat, and there wouldn't be a straighter, 
 sweeter-natured man between here and heaven." 
 
 The Hadji swept the perspiration from his fore- 
 head with the back of a grimy knuckle. 
 
 " There's no accounting for taste, Captain. I'm 
 the owner of acres near Richmond, and if I chose I 
 could ride about my park, and see the farms, and
 
 THE PILGRIM SHIP. 8/ 
 
 live the life of a country gentleman just in the way 
 you think you'd like. But I tired of it." 
 
 " Perhaps you have no wife, sir," suggested the 
 sailor. 
 
 His guest gave a short laugh. 
 
 " Oh, Lord, yes," he said, " I've a wife." 
 
 He paused a minute and then threw his half- 
 smoked cheroot savagely out into the sunshine. 
 
 " You can take it from me that I have a wife, 
 Captain. But well, you see, I've always been an 
 Arabic scholar, and I thought I'd come out to the 
 Hedjaz to study dialects for a year or so. It would 
 be a pleasant change after the milk and honey of a 
 country life. I don't seem to have got killed, and 
 I think I've liked it on the whole. It's been excit- 
 ing, and I know more about bastard Arabic than 
 any European living now that -poor Palmer's dead, 
 if that's any satisfaction. If I chose to go home 
 now, I could pose as no end of a big boss in that 
 line. The only thing is, I can't quite make my 
 mind up whether to risk it. By God, yes," he added, 
 with a stare out into the baking sunshine beyond 
 the doorway, " oh, yes, I've a wife." 
 
 Captain Kettle did not quite follow all this, so he 
 said politely and vaguely : " Well, of course, you 
 know your own affairs best, sir." Then he took a 
 long and steady look at his guest. "You'll excuse 
 me, sir, but your name seems familiar. I wonder 
 if you'd got that beard and some of your hair off 
 whether I should recognise you." 
 
 " I fancy not." 
 
 "Cortolvin," the little man mused. "I'm sure 
 I've seen that name before somewhere."
 
 88 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 The Hadji laughed. " I'm afraid that neither I 
 nor any of my people have been celebrated enough 
 to have come into public notice, Skipper ; but we 
 had a namesake some years back who was famous. 
 A horse named Cortolvin won the Grand National 
 in '67. That's what you'll have got in your mind." 
 
 Captain Kettle stiffened. " I beg your pardon, 
 sir," he said with acid politeness, "but I don't see 
 you've earned a right to insult me. When I am at 
 sea I am what circumstances make me. When I 
 am ashore in England, I would have you know I am 
 a different person. I am a regular attender at chapel, 
 and a man who (outside business matters) tries to 
 keep entirely straight. In England, sir, I take an 
 interest in neither pocket-picking, horse-racing, nor 
 sacrilege ; and I have it on the word of a minister I 
 sit under, that there is very little to choose between 
 the three." 
 
 Cortolvin faced the situation with ready tact. 
 That this truculent little ruffian who could flirt with 
 homicide without a second thought should so 
 strongly resent the imputation of being interested 
 .in a horse race did not surprise him much. He had 
 met others of the breed before. And he smoothed 
 down Captain Kettle's ruffled feelings with the easy 
 glibness of a man of the world. But the needs of 
 the moment were again recurring to him with vio- 
 lence, and he broke off artistically to refer to them. 
 
 " Don't you think," he said, " my fellow pilgrims 
 will bear a little attention now, Skipper? " 
 
 " I will be off and make up a bit of a surprise 
 packet for them," said Kettle. " Excuse me, sir, 
 for two minutes, whilst I go and give instructions to
 
 THE PILGRIM SHIP. 89 
 
 my chief." And he swung on his pith helmet and 
 left the chart-house. 
 
 The sun climbed higher into the fleckless sky, 
 and lolled above the Saigon in insolent cruelty. The 
 Red Sea heat grew, if anything, yet more dreadful. 
 The men's veins stood out in ropes upon their 
 streaming bodies, and it scorched them to draw in a 
 breath. Drink, too, was scarce. The Hedaz is a 
 region almost waterless ; the desert at the back 
 drains up all the moisture, and the Saigon had left 
 Jeddah with her tanks only half filled. She had to 
 depend upon her condenser, and this was small. And 
 in the tropics, condenser-water must be dealt out in a 
 sparing ration, or a dozen hours may easily see a 
 whole ship's company down with raging dysentery. 
 
 The Saigon carried a spar-deck amidships, and the 
 pilgrims were grouped in two bodies forward and 
 aft of this on the iron plating of the fore and main 
 decks. The spar-deck was officially reached from 
 these lower levels by a couple of slender iron ladders, 
 but it was not unscaleable to a fairly active climber. 
 There was an alley-way passing beneath the spar- 
 deck, but this could easily be closed by the iron 
 doors in the two bulk-heads, which fastened inside 
 with heavy, clamping screws. 
 
 The chief engineer came into the chart-house, and 
 hitched up his grimy pyjamas, and mopped his face 
 with a wad of cotton waste. He looked meaningly 
 at the whisky-bottle, but Kettle ignored his glance. 
 
 " Well, Mr. McTodd ? " said he. 
 
 " I'm a' ready for the pagans, sir, when ye're will- 
 ing to gi' the worrd."
 
 90 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 " What are your engines like now ? " 
 
 " A wee bittee less fit for the scrap-heap than they 
 were a dozen hours back, but no' very much to boast 
 of." Mr. McTodd spat out into the sunshine. 
 " They're the rottenist engines ever I fingered," said 
 he, " and that's what I think of them. A man ought 
 to have double my pay to be near them. They're 
 just heart-breaking." 
 
 " You knew she wasn't the P. and O. when you 
 signed on." 
 
 " We're neither of us here, Captain Kettle, be- 
 cause we were offered fatter berths." 
 
 Kettle frowned. " I'll trouble you, Mr. McTodd, 
 to attend to the matter in hand. You have those 
 steam pipes ranged ? " 
 
 " Both forrard and aft." 
 
 " Commanding both ladders ? " 
 
 " Just like that." 
 
 " And you've plenty of steam ? " 
 
 " Ye can hear it burring through the escape this 
 minute if ye'll use your ears. It's been vara ex- 
 hausting work toiling down yonder in that a'ful 
 heat." 
 
 " Well, Mr. Cortolvin here assures me that the 
 niggers will begin to play up the minute we get un- 
 der weigh, so you see we know where we are, and 
 must be ready for them. I shall want you and the 
 second engineer on deck of course, so you must ar- 
 range for one of your crew to run the engines till 
 we've got the business settled." 
 
 " I've a greaser down yonder who can open the 
 throttle," said McTodd gloomily, " but he's got no 
 notion of nursing sick engines like these, and as like
 
 THE PILGRIM SHIP. 91 
 
 as not he'll drive them off their bedplates in a score 
 of revolutions. Ye'd better let me keep the engine- 
 room myself, Captain. I'm a sick man, and I'm no' 
 fit for fighting with my throat as dry as it is now." 
 
 Captain Kettle poured out a liberal two fingers 
 of whisky and handed it across. " Now, Mac," said 
 he, " wet your neck, and let's have no more of this 
 nonsense. You'll have to fight for your life inside 
 ten minutes, and you'll do it better sober." 
 
 The engineer eyed the whisky and poured it 
 slowly down its appointed path. 
 
 " Mon," he said, " ye've an a'ful poor opinion o' 
 my capaacity. I'll just be off and give yon coolie 
 greaser some instructions, and get my side-arms, and 
 be with you again in forty clock-ticks." 
 
 " I pity the nigger that comes to hand grips with 
 McTodd," said Kettle, when the grimy man in the 
 grey pyjamas had left the chart-house, " He's an 
 ugly beggar to handle when he's sober as he is now. 
 We'll get ready now, sir, if you please. You go to 
 the after end of the bridge deck with McTodd and 
 the second mate, and I'll look after the forrard end 
 with the old mate and the second engineer. When 
 they try to rush the ladder, McTodd will give them 
 the steam, and they'll never be able to face it. All 
 you and the second mate have to do is to see they 
 don't climb up over the rail." 
 
 " I wish it could be avoided,' said Cortolvin sadly. 
 " That high-pressure steam will scald some of them 
 horribly." 
 
 " It will do more than that," said Kettle. " It 
 will strip the meat clean off their bones." 
 
 " I have lived amongst *hose men or their sort for
 
 92 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 two solid years, and many of them have shown me 
 kindnesses." 
 
 " You should have thought of that, sir, before you 
 came to me here in the chart-house." 
 
 " I did think of it ; but I couldn't be a renegade 
 to my colour; and so I came. But, Captain, will you 
 let me speak to them ? Will you let me tell them 
 that their scheme is known and prepared for? 
 Will you let me explain to them what they will 
 have to face if they start an outbreak ? " 
 
 Captain Kettle frowned. " You will understand 
 that I am not frightened of the beasts ?" he said. 
 
 " I quite know that," said Cortolvin, " and I am 
 sorry to spoil a fight. But it is their lives I am 
 begging for." 
 
 " Very well," said Kettle, " you can fire away. I 
 don't speak their bat y and it's as well they should 
 know from someone what they have to look forward 
 to. Here's a life-preserver which you may find use- 
 ful. It's the only weapon I have to offer you. My 
 own pistol is the only gun we have in the ship." 
 
 The pair of them went outside the chart-house 
 and walked to the head of the forward ladder. A 
 newly-fitted steam pipe, with the joints all greasy 
 with white lead, lay on the deck planks, and the 
 second engineer stood beside it with thumbs in his 
 waist-strap. On the deck below, the pilgrims no 
 longer squatted on their carpets, but stood together 
 in knots, and talked excitedly. Cortolvin clapped 
 his hands, and the sea of savage faces turned towards 
 him. 
 
 There were representatives in that mob from 
 half the Mahommedan peoples of Northern Africa.
 
 THE PILGRIM SHIP. 93 
 
 There were lean Arab camel-breeders of the desert, 
 jet-black farmers from the Great Lakes and the 
 upper Nile, Hausas from the Western Soudan, limp 
 Fellaheen from Lower Egypt, an Egba who had 
 served in the British Police Force at Lagos, mer- 
 chants from the back of the Barbary States, workers 
 in metal from Sokoto, and weavers from Timbukhtu. 
 
 They were not all holders of the title of Hadji ; 
 for though by the Mahommedan law every male 
 must make the Mecca pilgrimage at least once in a 
 lifetime, unless debarred by poverty or lameness, 
 the journey may be done by deputy. And these 
 deputies, fierce, truculent ruffians, who had lived 
 their lives amongst incessant wars and travel, were 
 perhaps the most dangerous of all the lot. 
 
 The black men listened to their late associate 
 with a momentary hush of surprise. He spoke to 
 them in fluent Arabic. He did not appeal to their 
 better feelings: he knew his audience. He said it 
 was written that if they tried this thing, if they at- 
 tempted to capture the steamer, they should surely 
 fail; that all things were prepared to give them 
 battle; and that a horrible death awaited those who 
 persisted in their design. 
 
 And then he tried to point out the nature of the 
 Saigon s defences, but there he failed. It is ill work 
 to explain the properties of high-pressure steam to 
 savages. A murmur rose amongst them which grew. 
 They let out their voices, and roared defiance. And 
 then the great black mass of them rushed for the 
 iron ladder. 
 
 Captain Kettle clapped a whistle to his lips and 
 blew it shrilly.
 
 94 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 "Now then, Mr. Cortolvin," he cried, "away with 
 you aft to help McTodd. These cattle here want 
 something more than talk, and I'm going to give it 
 them." 
 
 In answer to his whistle, steam had been turned 
 on from below. The second engineer unhitched his 
 thumbs from his waistbelt, took a lump of waste in 
 each grimy hand, and lifted the iron pipe. It was 
 well-jointed, and moved easily, and he turned the 
 nozzle of it to sweep the ladder. In that baking 
 air, the steam did not condense readily ; it travelled 
 three yards from the nozzle of the pipe before it 
 became even thinly visible ; and it impinged upon 
 the black naked bodies, and burned horribly without 
 being seen. 
 
 At first they did not flinch. With a dreadful 
 valour they faced the torment, and fought with each 
 other to be first upon the rungs, and then when those 
 in front would have held back, the mob behind pressed 
 them irresistibly onwards. In a moment or so the 
 first rank began to go down before that withering 
 blast, and then others trod on them and fell also, till 
 the hill of writhing black humanity grew to half the 
 height of the iron ladder. 
 
 And in the meantime others of the pilgrims were 
 trying to storm the bridge deck at other points; 
 but on the port side, the grey-headed old man fight- 
 ing baresark with an axe, and to starboard, Captain 
 Kettle, with pistol and knuckleduster, battled like 
 wild-cats to keep the sacred planking inviolate. 
 
 What was going on at the after end of the Saigon 
 they could not tell. From behind them came the 
 roar of the fighting Hausa, and the savage war-cries
 
 THE PILGRIM SHIP. 95 
 
 of the desert, just as they rose up from before their 
 faces. But in its first flush the fight was too close 
 for any man's thoughts to wander from his own im- 
 mediate adversaries. 
 
 It seemed, however, that the battle was over first 
 in the after part of the steamer, and whether this 
 was because the attack there was less heartful, or 
 because Mr. McTodd's artillery was more terrible, 
 cannot now be known. The question was debated 
 much afterwards without coming to a decision. But, 
 anyway, by the time Captain Kettle's adversaries 
 had ceased to rage against him, Cortolvin was free 
 to come and stand by his side as interpreter. 
 
 The wounded lay sprawling and writhing about 
 the iron decks ; below them the survivors and 
 scarcely one of these was without his scald hud- 
 dled against the doors of the forecastle ; and the 
 grimy second engineer held the belching steam 
 pipe upwards, so that a grey pall hung between the 
 Saigon and the sun. 
 
 " Now, sir," said Kettle, " kindly translate forme. 
 Tell those animals to chuck all their hardware over 
 the side, or I'll cook the whole lot of them like so 
 many sausages." 
 
 Cortolvin lifted up his voice in sonorous Arabic. 
 
 " It was written," he cried, " that ihegiaour should 
 prevail. It is written also that those amongst you 
 having wit shall cast your weapons into the sea. 
 It is written, moreover, that those others of you who 
 do not on this instant disarm shall taste again of 
 the scorching breath of Eblis." 
 
 A stream of weapons leapt up through the air and 
 fell into the swells alongside with tinkling splashes.
 
 96 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 " It would be a weariness to guard you," Cortol- 
 vin went on. " Swear by the beard of the Prophet 
 to make no further attempt against this ship, or 
 we shall gaol you fast in death." 
 
 A forest of trembling black hands shot up before 
 him. 
 
 "We swear! " they cried. 
 
 " Then it is written that you keep your vow," said 
 Cortolvin. " God is great ! See now to your sick." 
 He turned to Kettle and touched his ragged turban, 
 after the manner of an officer reporting. " The mu- 
 tiny is ended, sir," he said. 
 
 Captain Kettle swung himself lightly on to the 
 upper bridge and telegraphed " Full speed ahead " 
 to the engine-room ; the propeller splashed in the 
 oily swells, and the Saigon gathered way. Sullen and 
 trembling, the pilgrims began to tend their hurts, and 
 presently McTodd with a large copper kettle in his 
 hand descended amongst them, and distributed oil 
 and surgical advice. 
 
 " There were none actually killed at my end," said 
 Cortolvin. 
 
 " I dropped four," said Kettle. " I had to. It was 
 either me or them. And my old mate axed half-a- 
 dozen before they let him be. We'd a tight time 
 here whilst it lasted." 
 
 " It will require a good lunp of backshish to ex- 
 plain it all satisfactorily at Kosseir." 
 
 " Oh, I can't go near there now after this. No 
 custom house for me, sir. I shall just run in-shore 
 a dozen miles short of it, and put the beggars on the 
 beach in my boats, and let them get into Kosseir as 
 best they can. I suppose you'll come back with me ? "
 
 THE PILGRIM SHIP. 97 
 
 " I suppose so. Anyway, I can't go on with them. 
 It is the first time any of them have discovered I 
 was not a genuine Arab." 
 
 " I can imagine," said Kettle drily, "they'd give 
 you a lively time, if they had you to themselves 
 for five minutes. The Sons of the Prophet don't 
 admire having Europeans messing about the Kaaba 
 But I owe you something, sir, and I shall be happy to 
 go out of my way to serve you. I will drop you 
 at Suakim, or at Aden, or at Perim, where I am 
 going to coal, whichever you please." 
 
 " But what about yourself ? " 
 
 " Oh, I shall be all right. I am seldom in need of 
 a nursery-maid, sir." 
 
 " But if this affair gets into the newspapers, in- 
 quiries will be made, and you'll very possibly find 
 yourself in an ugly hole." 
 
 " It won't get in the newspapers," said Kettle 
 thoughtfully. " The pilgrims can't tell, my officers 
 daren't for their own sakes, and you leave me to 
 see my coolies don't. Newspapers," he repeated 
 dreamily ; " queer the hint should have come like 
 that." 
 
 " What hint ? What are you talking about?" 
 
 " I remembered then where I'd seen your name, 
 sir. It was in the Times of India 's general news 
 column." 
 
 " What was said ? " 
 
 " Well, sir, I suppose you'd better be told. But 
 you must hold up for a hardish knock. Will you 
 come into the chart-house for a minute, and have 
 a peg ? " 
 
 " No, get along, man, get along." 
 7
 
 98 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 " I think it was about your wife, sir. Does she 
 hunt?" 
 
 " All the season." 
 
 " Then it will be her. I remember now it said 
 Richmond in Yorkshire, and the name was Mrs. 
 W. H. Cortolvin. She's broken her neck, sir." 
 
 Cortolvin clutched at the white rail of the bridge. 
 " My God ! " he cried, " dead ! Julia dead ! Is that 
 all, Captain ? " 
 
 " It was only a two-line paragraph. You'll please 
 understand how sorry I am to carry such sad news, 
 Mr. Cortolvin." 
 
 " Thanks, Skipper, thanks." He turned away and 
 walked to the end of the bridge and stayed there for 
 a while, leaning against an awning stanchion, and 
 staring at the baking levels of the Red Sea which 
 were slipping past the Saigon s rusty flanks. And 
 then he came back again and stood at Kettle's side, 
 looking down at the pilgrims anointing their scalds 
 below. 
 
 " I have learned to be something of a fatalist, Cap- 
 tain," he said, " when I was amongst these people. 
 This is how I sum the situation. It was written 
 that my wife should die whilst I was away. It was 
 written also that I should live. God ordered it all. 
 God is great." 
 
 Captain Kettle gripped his hand in sympathy. 
 " I'm sorry for you, sir ; believe me, I am truly sorry. 
 If you think a bit of poetry about the occasion would 
 help you at all, just you say, and I'll do it. I'm in 
 the mood for poetry now. All things put together, 
 we've been through a pretty heavy time during 
 these last few hours."
 
 THE PILGRIM SHIP. 99 
 
 " Thanks, Skipper, thanks," said Cortolvin. " I 
 know you mean well. And now if you don't mind 
 I'll leave you. I think I'd like to be alone for a 
 bit." 
 
 " You do, sir. Go and lie down on my bunk. I'll 
 have you a beautiful elegy written by the time 
 you're back on deck again. It will comfort you."
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 FORTUNES ADRIFT. 
 
 CORTOLVIN came out under the bridge deck awn- 
 ing up through the baking heat of the companion- 
 way, and dropped listlessly into a deck chair. He 
 was dressed in slop-chest pyjamas of a vivid pattern, 
 and had a newly-shaven chin, which stood out re- 
 freshingly white against the rest of his sun-darkened 
 countenance. 
 
 " Well," said Captain Kettle, as he shoved across 
 the box of cheroots, " are we any nearer getting 
 under way ? " 
 
 " I looked in at the engine-room as I came past," 
 said the tall man with a laugh, " and the Chief had 
 a good deal to say. I gathered it was his idea that 
 the fellow who last had charge of those engines ought 
 to die a cruel and lingering death." 
 
 " It's a sore point with McTodd when she breaks 
 down. But did he say how long it would be before 
 he could give her steam again? I'm a bit anxious. 
 The glass is tumbling, hand over fist ; and what with 
 that, and this heat, there's small doubt but what 
 we'll have a tornado clattering about our ears di- 
 rectly. There's the shore close aboard, as you can 
 see for yourself, and if the wind comes away any- 
 where from the east'ard, it'll blow this old steam- 
 boat half way into the middle of Africa before we 
 
 JOO
 
 FORTUNES ADRIFT. IOI 
 
 can look round us. It's a bad season just now for 
 tornadoes." 
 
 The clattering of iron boot-plates made itself heard 
 on the brass-bound steps of the companion-way. 
 " That'll be the Chief coming to answer for him- 
 self," said Cortolvin. 
 
 Mr. Neil Angus McTodd always advertised his 
 calling in the attire of the outward man, and the eye 
 of an expert could tell with sureness at any given 
 moment whether Mr. McTodd was in employment 
 or not, and, if so, what type of steamboat he was on, 
 what was his official position, what was his pay, and 
 what was the last bit of work on which he had been 
 employed. 
 
 The present was the fourth occasion on which the 
 Saigon s machinery had chosen to brealc down during 
 Captain Kettle's two months of command, and after 
 his herculean efforts in making repairs with insuf- 
 ficient staff and materials, Mr. McTodd was un- 
 pleasant both to look upon and associate with. He 
 was attired in moist black boots, grey flannel pyjama 
 trousers stuffed into his socks, a weird garment of 
 flannel upon his upper man, a clout round his neck, 
 and a peaked cap upon his grizzled red hair, anointed 
 with years of spraying oil. His elbows and his fore- 
 head shone like dull mirrors of steel, and he carried 
 one of his thumbs wrapped up in a grimy, crimson rag. 
 His conversation was full of unnecessary adjectives, 
 and he was inclined to take a cantankerous view of 
 the universe. 
 
 " They'd disgrace the scrap-heap of any decent 
 yard, would the things they miscall engines on this 
 rotten tub," said he, by way of preface.
 
 IO2 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 " They are holy engines, and that's a fact," said 
 Kettle. " How long can you guarantee them for 
 this time?" 
 
 The engineer mopped his neck with a wad of 
 cotton waste. " Ten revolutions, if you wish me to 
 be certain. It's a verra dry ship, this." 
 
 " And how many more ? We shall want them. 
 There's a tornado coming on." 
 
 " I'm no* anxious to perjure mysel', Captain, but 
 they might run on for a full minute, or they might 
 run on for a day. There's a capreciousness about 
 the rattle-traps that might amuse some people, but 
 it does not appeal to me. I'm in fear of my life 
 every minute I stand on the foot-plates." 
 
 " I'd not have taken you for a frightened man." 
 
 *' I'm no' that as a usual thing, but the temperature 
 of yon engine-room varies between a hundred and 
 twenty and hundred and thirty of the Fahrenheit 
 scale, and it's destroying to the nerves. All the 
 aqueous vapour leaves the system, and I'm verra 
 badly in need of a tonic. Is yon whusky in the 
 black bottle, Captain ? " 
 
 " Take a peg, Mac." 
 
 " I'll just have a sma' three fingers, now ye men- 
 tion it." He laid the thickest part of his knotty 
 knuckles against the side of the tumbler, and poured 
 out some half a gill of spirit. " Weel," said he, 
 "may we get as good whusky where we are going 
 to," and enveloped the dose with a dextrous turn of 
 the wrist. After which ambiguous toast, he wiped 
 his lips with the cotton waste, and took himself 
 off again to the baking regions below ; and pre- 
 sently a dull rumbling, and a tremor of her fabric,
 
 FORTUNES ADRIFT. IO3 
 
 announced that the Saigon was once more under 
 way. 
 
 The little steamer had coaled at Perim Island, in 
 the southern mouth of the Red Sea, had come out 
 into the Indian Ocean through the straits of Bab-el- 
 Mandeb, had rounded Cape Guardafui, and was on 
 her way down to Zanzibar in response to the cabled 
 orders of her Parsee owner in Bombay. Cortolvin 
 was still on board as passenger. His excuse was 
 that he wanted to inspect the Island and City of 
 Zanzibar before returning to England and respecta- 
 bility ; his real reason was that he had taken a fancy 
 to the little ruffian of a skipper, and wished to see 
 more of him. 
 
 " Cheerful toast, that of McTodd's," said Cor- 
 tolvin. 
 
 " Those engines are enough to discourage any man," 
 said Kettle, " and the heat down there would sour 
 the temper of an archangel." 
 
 Cortolvin loosened a couple more buttons of his 
 pyjamas and bared his chest. " It's hard to breathe 
 even here, and I thought I'd learnt what heat was 
 out in those Arabian deserts. There's a tornado 
 coming on, that's certain." 
 
 " It will clear the air," said Kettle. " But it will 
 be a sneezer when we get it. Mr. Murgatroyd ! " he 
 called. 
 
 The old, grizzle-headed mate thrust down a purple 
 face from the head of the upper bridge ladder 
 " Aye, aye?" 
 
 " Get all the awnings off her," the shipmaster 
 ordered ; " put extra grips on the boats, and see
 
 IO4 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 everything lashed fast that a steam crane could 
 move. We're in for a bad breeze directly." 
 
 " Aye, aye," rumbled the mate, and clapped a 
 leaden whistle to his mouth, and blew it shrilly. A 
 minute later he reported : " A big steamer lying-to 
 just a point or two off the starboard bow, Captain. 
 I haven't seen her before because of the haze." He 
 examined her carefully through the bridge binocu- 
 lars, and gave his observations with heavy delibera- 
 tion. " She's square-rigged forrard, and has a black 
 funnel with a red band no, two red bands. Seems 
 to me like one of the German mail-boats, and I 
 should say she was broke down." 
 
 Captain Kettle rose springily from his deck chair, 
 and swung himself onto the upper deck bridge. 
 Cortolvin followed. 
 
 A mist of heat shut the sea in a narrow ring. 
 Overhead was a heavy, purply darkness, impenetra- 
 ble as a ceiling of brick. The only light that crept 
 in came from the mysterious unseen plain of the 
 horizon. From every point of the compass uneasy 
 thunder gave forth now and then a stifled bellow, 
 and, though the lightning splashes never showed, 
 sudden thinnings of the gloom would hint at their 
 nearness. The air shimmered and danced with the 
 baking heat, and though lurid greys and pinks pre- 
 dominated, the glow which filled it was constantly 
 changing in hue. 
 
 The scene was terrifying, but Kettle regarded it 
 with a satisfied smile. The one commercial prayer 
 of the shipmaster is to meet with a passenger steamer 
 at sea, broken down, and requiring a tow ; and here 
 was one of the plums of the ocean ready to his
 
 FORTUNES ADRIFT. IO5 
 
 hand and anxious to be plucked. The worse the 
 weather, the greater would be the salvage, and Cap- 
 tain Kettle could have hugged himself with joy 
 when he thought of the tropical hurricane's near- 
 ness. 
 
 He had changed the Saigon s course the instant 
 he came on the bridge, and had pulled the syren 
 string and hooted cheerfully into the throbbing air 
 to announce his coming. The spectral steamer grew 
 every moment more clear, and presently a string of 
 barbaric colours jerked up to the wire span between 
 her masts. There was no breath of wind to make 
 the flags blow out ; they hung in dejected cowls ; 
 but to Kettle they read like the page of an open 
 book. 
 
 " Urgent signal H. B. ! " he cried, and clapped 
 the binocular back in the box, and snapped down 
 the lid. " H. B., Mr. Cortolvin, and don't you for- 
 get having seen it. ' Want immediate assistance? 
 that means." 
 
 "You seem to know it by heart," said Cortolvin. 
 
 " There's not a steamboat officer on all the seas 
 that doesn't. When things are down with us, we 
 take out the signal book, and hunt up H. B. amongst 
 the urgent signals, and tell ourselves that some day 
 we may come across a Cunarder with a broken tail- 
 shaft, and be able to give up the sea and be living 
 politely on ^200 a year well invested, within the 
 fortnight. It's the steamboat officer's dream, sir, 
 but there's few of us it ever comes true for." 
 
 " Skipper," said Cortolvin, " I needn't tell you 
 how pleased I'll be if you come into a competence 
 over this business. In the meanwhile, if there's any-
 
 106 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 thing I can do, from coal-trimming upwards, I'm 
 your most obedient servant." 
 
 " I thank you, sir," said Kettle. "And if you'd 
 go and carry the news to the chief, I'll be obliged. I 
 know he'll say his engines can't hold out. Tell him 
 they must. Tell him to use up anything he has 
 sooner than get another breakdown. Tell him to 
 rip up his soul for struts and backstays if he thinks 
 it'll keep them running. It's the one chance of my 
 life, Mr. Cortolvin, and the one chance of his, and 
 he's got to know it, and see we aren't robbed of 
 what is put before us. Show him where the siller 
 comes in, sir, and then stand by and you'll see Mr. 
 McTodd work miracles." 
 
 Cortolvin went below, and Kettle turned to the 
 old mate. " Mr. Murgatroyd," said he, " get a dozen 
 hands to rouse up that new manilla out of the store. 
 I take you from the foredeck, and give you the 
 afterdeck to yourself. I'll have to bargain with that 
 fellow over there before we do anything, and there'll 
 be little enough time left after we've fixed upon 
 prices. So have everything ready to begin to tow. 
 We'll use their wire." 
 
 " Aye, aye," said the mate. " But it won't do to 
 tow with wire, Captain, through what's coming. 
 There's no give in wire. A wire hawser would jerk 
 the guts out of her in fifteen minutes." 
 
 Kettle tightened his lips. " Mr. Murgatroyd," 
 said he, " I am not a blame' fool. Neither do I want 
 dictation from my officers. I told you to rouse up 
 the manilla. You will back the wire with a double 
 bridle of that." 
 
 " Aye, aye," grunted the mate ; " but what am I to
 
 FORTUNES ADRIFT. IO/ 
 
 make fast to ? Them bollards aft might be stepped 
 in putty for all the use they are. They'd not tow 
 a row-boat through what's coming. I believe 
 they'd draw if they'd a fishing line made fast to 
 them." 
 
 " I should have thought you*d been long enough 
 at sea to have known your business by this time," 
 said Kettle unpleasantly. " D'ye think that every 
 steamboat that trades is a bran new ' Harland and 
 Wolff'?" 
 
 " Well," said the mate sullenly, " I'm waiting to 
 be taught." 
 
 " Pass the manilla round the coaming of the after- 
 hatch, and you won't come and tell me that's drawn 
 while this steamboat stays on the water-top." 
 
 " Aye, aye," said the mate, and stepped into his 
 slippers and shuffled away. Captain Kettle walked 
 briskly to the centre of the upper bridge and laid a 
 hand on the telegraph. He gave crisp orders to 
 the Lascar at the wheel, and the Saigon moved in 
 perfect obedience to his will. 
 
 Ahead of him the great slate-coloured liner lay 
 motionless on the oily sea. Her rail was peopled 
 with the anxious faces of passengers. Busy deck- 
 hands were stripping away the awnings. On the 
 high upper bridge were three officers in peaked caps 
 and trim uniforms of white drill, talking together 
 anxiously. 
 
 The little Saigon curved up from astern, stopped 
 her engines, and then, with reversed propeller, 
 brought up dead, so that the bridges of the two 
 steamers were level, and not more than twenty 
 yards apart. It was smartly done, and (as Kettle
 
 IO8 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 had intended) the Germans noticed it, and com- 
 mented. Then began the barter of words. 
 
 " Howdy, Captain," said Kettle, " I hope it's not 
 a funeral you've brought up for? This heat's been 
 very great. Has it knocked over one of your pas- 
 sengers ? " 
 
 A large-bearded maji made reply : " We haf seen 
 a slight mishap mit der machinery, Captain. My 
 ingeneers will mend." 
 
 " Oh, that's all right. Thought it might be worse. 
 Well, I wish you luck, Captain. But I'd hurry and 
 get steam on her again, if I were you. The breeze 
 may come away any minute now, and you've the 
 shore close aboard, and you'll be on it if you don't 
 get your steamboat under command again by then, 
 and have a big loss of life. If you get on the 
 beach, it'll surprise me if you don't drown all hands." 
 
 Captain Kettle put a hand on the telegraph, as 
 though to ring on his engines again, but the bearded 
 German, after a preliminary stamp of passion, held 
 up his hand for further parley. But for the mo- 
 ment the opportunity of speech was taken from 
 him. The passengers were either English, or for the 
 most part understood that tongue when spoken ; 
 and they had drunk in every word that was said, 
 as Kettle had intended ; and now they surged in 
 a writhing, yelling mob at the foot of the two 
 bridge ladders, and demanded that assistance should 
 be hired, let that cost what it might. 
 
 There was no making a hail carry above that 
 frightened uproar, and the German shipmaster raved, 
 and explained, and reasoned for full a dozen mo- 
 ments before he quelled it. Then, panting, he
 
 FORTUNES ADRIFT. IOO, 
 
 came once more to the end of his bridge, and ad- 
 dressed the other steamer. 
 
 " Dose bassengers vas nervous," said he, 4< because 
 dey thought dere might come some leetle rain 
 squall ; so I ask you how mooch vould you take my 
 rope and tow me to Aden or Perim ?" 
 
 " Phew ! " said Kettle. " Aden ! That's wrong 
 way for me, Captain. Red Sea's where I've come 
 from, and my owner cabled me to hurry and get to 
 Zanzibar." 
 
 " Veil, how mooch ? " 
 
 " We'll say . 100,000, as your passengers seem so 
 anxious." 
 
 " Hondred tousand teufels! Herr Gott, I haf not 
 Rhodes on der sheep ! " 
 
 " Well, Captain, take the offer or leave it. I'm 
 not a tow-boat, and I'm in a hurry to make my 
 passage. If you keep me waiting here five minutes 
 longer, it'll cost you ,120,000 to be plucked in 
 anywhere." 
 
 The shipmaster on the other bridge went into a 
 frenzy of expostulation ; he appealed to all Captain 
 Kettle's better feelings ; he dared him to do his 
 worst, he prayed him to do his best. But Kettle 
 gazed upon the man's gesticulating arms, and 
 listened to his frantic oratory unmoved. He lit a 
 cheroot, and leant his elbows on the white railing 
 of the bridge, and did not reply by so much as a 
 single word. 
 
 When the other halted through breathlessness, 
 even then he did not speak. He waved his hand 
 towards the fearsome heavens with their lurid lights, 
 and pointed to the bumping thunder, which made
 
 IIO ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 both steamers vaguely tremble, and he let those 
 argue for him. The clamour of the passengers rose 
 again in the breathless, baking air, and the Captain 
 of the liner had to yield. He threw up his arms 
 in token of surrender, and a hush fell upon the 
 scene like the silence of death. 
 
 " My gompany shall pay you hondred tousand 
 pound, Captain, und you haf der satisfaction dot 
 you make me ruined man." 
 
 " I have been ruined myself," said Kettle, " heaps 
 of times, and my turn for the other thing seems to 
 be come now. I'll run down closer to you, Captain, 
 or do you bid your hands heave me a line from the 
 fo'c's'le head as I come past. You've cut it pretty 
 fine. You've no time left to get a boat in the water. 
 The wind may come away any moment now. 
 
 Captain Kettle was changing into another man. 
 All the insouciance had gone from him. He gave 
 his orders with crispness and decision, and the mates 
 and the Lascars j umped to obey them. The horrible 
 danger that was to come lay as an open advertise- 
 ment, and they knew that their only way to pass 
 safely through it and even then the chances were 
 slim was to obey the man who commanded them 
 to the uttermost tittle. 
 
 The connection between the steamers had been 
 made, the snaky steel-wire hawser had been hauled 
 in through a stern fair-lead by the Saigon s winch, 
 and the old mate stood ready with the shackle which 
 would link it on to the manilla. 
 
 The heavens yielded up an overture like the echo 
 of a Titan's groan. " Hurry there, you slow-footed 
 dogs ! " came Kettle's voice from the bridge.
 
 FORTUNES ADRIFT. Ill 
 
 The Lascars brought up the eye of the hawser, 
 and Murgatroyd threaded it on the pin of the 
 shackle. Then he cried, " All fast," and picked up 
 a spike, and screwed home the pin in its socket. 
 Already the engines were on the move again, and 
 the Saigon was steaming ahead on the tow-line. It 
 was a time for hurry. 
 
 The air thickened and grew for the moment if 
 anything more hot, and the tornado raced down 
 upon them as a black wall stretching far across the 
 sea, with white water gleaming and churning at its 
 foot. It hit the steamers like a solid avalanche, and 
 the spindrift in it cut the faces of the men who tried 
 to withstand it, as though whips had lashed them. 
 
 The coolie quarter-master clung on to the Saigon s 
 wheel-spokes, a mere wisp of limp humanity, inca- 
 pable of steering or of doing anything else that re- 
 quired a modicum of rational thought. The little 
 steamer fell away before the blast like a shaving in 
 a dry street ; the tonnage of the tornado heeled her 
 till her lee-scuppers spouted green water in-board ; 
 and she might well have been overturned at the very 
 outset. But Kettle beat the helpless Lascar from 
 his hold, and spoked the wheel hard down ; and the 
 engines, working strongly, brought her round again 
 in a wallowing circle to face the torrent of hurricane. 
 
 She took five minutes to make that recovery, and 
 when she was steaming on again, head to the thun- 
 derous gusts, the tale of what she had endured was 
 written in easy lettering. On both fore and main 
 decks the bulwarks were gone level with the cover- 
 ing boards : the raffle of crates, harness casks, gang 
 planks, and so on, that a small trader carries in view
 
 112 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 to the sky, had departed beyond the ken of man ; 
 and, indeed, those lower decks were scoured clean to 
 the naked rusted iron. The port life-boat hung stove 
 from bent davits, and three of the coolie crew had 
 been swept from life into the grip of the eternal 
 sea. 
 
 Cortolvin fought his way up on to the upper bridge 
 step by step against the frantic beating of the wind, 
 and, without being bidden, relieved at the lee spokes 
 of the wheel. Captain Kettle nodded his thanks. 
 The Saigon had no steam steering gear, and in some 
 of the heavier squalls the wheel threatened to take 
 charge, and pitch the little shipmaster clean over 
 the spokes. 
 
 Amid the bellowing roar of the tornado, speech, 
 of course, was impossible, and vision, too, was limited. 
 No human eye could look into the wind, and even 
 to let it strike the face was a torture. The sea did 
 not get up. The crest of any wave which tried to 
 rise was cut off remorselessly by the knives of the 
 hurricane, and spread as a stinging mist throughout 
 the wind. It was hard indeed to tell where ocean 
 ceased and air began. The whole sea was spread in a 
 blurr of white and green. 
 
 The big helpless liner astern plucked savagely at 
 the Saigon s tail, and the pair of them were moving 
 coast-wards with speed. Left to herself, and steam- 
 ing full-speed into the gale, the little Saigon would 
 have been able to maintain her position, neither 
 losing ground nor gaining any. With the heavy tow 
 in charge, she was being driven towards the roaring 
 surf of the African beach with perilous speed. 
 
 It was possible to see dimly down the wind, and
 
 FORTUNES ADRIFT. 113 
 
 when Cortolvin turned his face away from the sting, 
 ing blast of the tornado, he could understand with 
 clearness their exact position. Close astern was the 
 plunging German liner, with her decks stripped and 
 deserted, and only the bridge officers exposed. Be- 
 yond was cotton-white sea ; and beyond again were 
 great leaping fountains of whiteness where the tor- 
 tured ocean roared against the yellow beach. 
 
 Thirty minutes passed, each second of them 
 brimmed with frenzied struggle for both man and 
 machinery. The tornado raged, and boomed, and 
 roared, and the backward drift was a thing which 
 could be measured with the eye. 
 
 Then the old mate heaved himself up the bridge 
 ladder by laborious inches. His clothes were whip- 
 ping from him in tattered ribbons ; his hat was gone ; 
 and the grizzled hair stood out from the back of his 
 head like the bristles of a broom. He clawed his 
 way along the rail, and put his great red face close 
 to Kettle's ear. 
 
 " We can't hold her," he roared. " She's taking 
 us ashore. We shall be there in a dozen minutes, 
 and then it will be ' Jones' for the lot of us." 
 
 Captain Kettle glared, but made no articulate 
 reply. If he could have spared a hand from the 
 wheelspokes, it is probable that Mr. Murgatroyd 
 would have felt the weight of it. 
 
 The old fellow bawled at him again. " The hands 
 know it as well as me, and they say they're not going 
 to be drowned for anybody. They say they're going 
 to cast off the hawser." 
 
 This time Captain Kettle yelled back a reply. 
 
 " You thing ! " he cried. " You putty man, get back 
 8
 
 114 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 to your post ! If you want to live, keep those 
 niggers' fingers off the shackle. By James, if that 
 tow is cast off, I'll turn the Saigon for the beach, 
 and drown the whole crew of you inside three 
 minutes. By James ! yes, and you know me, and 
 you know I'll do it too. You ham-faced jelly-fish, 
 away aft with you, and save your blooming life ! " 
 
 The man winced under the little captain's tongue, 
 and went away, and Captain Kettle looked across 
 the wheel at his assistant. 
 
 Cortolvin shrugged his shoulders, and glanced 
 backward at the beach, and nodded. Kettle leant 
 across and shouted : 
 
 " I know it, sir, as well as you do. I know it as 
 well as they do. But I've got a fortune in tow yon- 
 der, and I'd rather die than set it adrift. It isn't one 
 fortune, either; it's a dozen fortunes, and I have 
 just got to grab one of them. I'm a married man, 
 sir, with a family, and I've known what it was to 
 watch and see 'em hungry. You'll stand by me, Mr. 
 Cortolvin ?" 
 
 " It seems I promised. You know I've been long 
 enough with Mohammedans, Skipper, to be some- 
 what a fatalist. So I say : ' God is great ! and our 
 fates are written on our foreheads, and no man can 
 change by an inch the path .which it is foreordained 
 he should tread.' But they are queer fates, some of 
 them. I went away from England because of my 
 wife ; I step out of the middle of Arabia, and stumble 
 across you, and hear that she is dead ; I look forward 
 to going home and living a peaceful country life ; and 
 now it appears I'm to be drowned obscurely, out of 
 the touch of newspapers. However, I'll be coiv
 
 FORTUNES ADRIFT. 11$ 
 
 sistent, I won't grumble, and you may hear me say 
 it aloud : ' La Allah illah Allah ! ' " 
 
 Captain Kettle made no reply. Through the 
 infernal uproar of the tornado he did not hear 
 much of what was said, and part of what did reach 
 his ears was beyond his comprehension. Besides, 
 his mind was, not unnaturally, occupied with more 
 selfish considerations. 
 
 Astern of him, in the German liner, were some 
 thousand passengers, who were all assets for sal- 
 vage. The detail of human life did not enter much 
 into his calculations. He had been brought up in a 
 school where life is cheap, and not so pleasant and 
 savory a thing that it is set much store on. The 
 passengers were part of the ship, just as much as 
 were her engines, and the bullion which he hoped 
 she carried. 
 
 The company which owned her was responsible 
 for all ; their credit would be damaged if all or a 
 part of her was lost ; and he, Owen Kettle, would 
 reap a proportionate reward if he could drag her 
 into any civilized port. And when he thought of 
 the roaring beach so terribly close astern, he bit 
 his beard in an agony of apprehension lest the fates 
 should steal this fortune from him. 
 
 And, meanwhile, the line of surf was growing ever 
 nearer. So close, indeed, were they to the hateful 
 shore that, when for a moment the fountains of white 
 water subsided where the breakers raged upon the 
 beach, they could see dimly beyond through the 
 sea smoke, palm trees, and ceibas and great silk 
 cotton-woods, whipping and crashing before the in 
 sane blast of the tornado.
 
 Il6 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 All hands on the Saigon's deck had many minutes 
 before given themselves up for as good as dead. 
 Their only chance of salvation lay in casting off 
 the tow-rope, and no one dared touch the linking 
 shackle. They quite knew that their savage little 
 skipper would fulfil his threat if they disobeyed his 
 orders. Indeed, old purple-faced Murgatroyd him- 
 self sat on the hatch-coaming with an opened clasp 
 knife, and vowed death on any one who tampered 
 with either shackle or manilla. The clumsy mate 
 had swallowed rough words once, but he preferred 
 drowning to living on and hearing Captain Kettle 
 address him as coward. 
 
 The shore lay steep-to, but the back- wash creamed 
 far out into the sea. Already the stern of the Ger- 
 man liner was plunging in the whitened water, and 
 destruction seemed a question of seconds. 
 
 Then a strange thing happend. It seemed as 
 though the Finger of God had touched the wind ; 
 it abated by visible graduations, and the drift of 
 the steamer grew more slow ; it eased to a mere gale, 
 and they held their place on the lip of the boiling 
 surf ; and then with a gasp it sank into quietude, 
 and a great oily swell rose up as if by magic from 
 the bowels of the deep, and the little Saigon forged 
 ahead and drew the helpless passenger liner away 
 from the perilous beach. Those tropical hurricanes 
 of the Eastern Seas progress in circles, and this one 
 had spurned them from its clutch, and let them 
 float on a charmed ring of calm. 
 
 Cortolvin bowed over the wheel in silent thank- 
 fulness, but the shipmaster rejoiced aloud. 
 
 "How's that, umpire ? "said he. " By James, wasn't
 
 FORTUNES ADRIFT. 1 17 
 
 it worth hanging on for ? I've got a wife, sir, and 
 kids, and I'm remembering this moment that they'll 
 always have full bellies from now onwards, and good 
 clothes and no more cheap lodgings, but a decent 
 house semi-detached, and money to plank down in 
 the plate when they go to chapel on Sundays. The 
 skipper of that Dutchman will be ruined over this 
 last half-hour's job, but I can't help that. It's my- 
 self I have to think of first ; one has to in this world, 
 or no one else will ; and, Mr. Cortolvin, I'm a made 
 man. Thanks to McTodd " 
 
 From below there came a sudden whirr of machin- 
 ery, as though the engines had momentarily gone 
 mad, and then a bumping and a banging which jarred 
 every plate of the Saigon s fabric, and then a silence, 
 broken only by the thin distant scream of a hurt 
 man. Presently the boom of steam broke out from 
 the escape-pipe beside the funnel, and a minute 
 later the chief engineer made his way leisurely up 
 on to the bridge. 
 
 He was bleeding from a cut on the forehead and 
 another gash showed red amongst the grime on his 
 stubby cheek. He was shredding tobacco with a 
 clasp-knife as he walked, and seemed from his man- 
 ner to be a man quite divorced from all responsible 
 occupations. He halted a minute at the head of 
 the bridge ladder, replaced the tobacco cake in the 
 pocket of his pyjama coat, and rolled up the shred- 
 dings in the palms of his crackled hands. Then he 
 filled a short briar pipe, lit it, and surveyed the avail- 
 able universe. 
 
 " Yon'll be the tornado, 'way ahead there, I'm 
 thinking ? " said he.
 
 Il8 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 " Are those blame' engines broke down again?** 
 asked Kettle sharply. 
 
 " Aye, ye may put it they're broke down." 
 
 " Then away with you below again, Mr. McTodd, 
 and get them running again. You may smoke when 
 we bring up in Aden." 
 
 McTodd puffed twice more at his pipe, and spat 
 on the wheel grating. 
 
 " By James ! " said Kettle, " do you hear me ? " 
 
 " My lugs are a bit muzzy, but I can hear ye 
 for a* that, captain. Only thing is, I can't do as 
 you'd like." 
 
 Captain Kettle stiffened ominously. " Mr. Mc- 
 Todd," he said, " if you force me to take you in hand, 
 and show you how to set about your work, you'll 
 regret it." 
 
 " Man," said the engineer, " I can do some kind 
 of impossibeelities. Ye've seen me do them. Ye've 
 seen me keep them palsied rattle-traps running all 
 through that blow. But if ye ask me to make a new 
 propeller out of rod iron and packing cases, I'll have 
 to tell you that yon kind of meeracle's beyond me." 
 
 "My great James!" said Kettle, "you don't 
 mean to tell me the propeller's gone?" 
 
 " Either that, or else all the blades have stripped 
 off the boss. If ye'd been below on my foot-plates, 
 ye'd have kenned it fine. When it went, those puir 
 engines raced like an auld cab-horse tryin' to gallop, 
 and they just got tied in knots, and tumbled down, 
 and sprawled fifteen ways at once. I was on the 
 platform, oiling, when they jumped, and that nigger 
 second of mine tried to get at the throttle to close 
 her down."
 
 FORTUNES ADRIFT. I IQ 
 
 " Well, get on man, get." 
 
 " Weel, he didn't, that's all ; he's lying in the low 
 pressure crank pit this minute, and the top of his 
 skull'll be to seek somewhere by the ash lift. 
 Mon, I tell ye, yon second o' mine's an uncanny 
 sight. So I had to do his work for him, and then I 
 blew off my boilers, and came up here. 
 
 " It would have been verra comforting to my pro- 
 fessional conscience if I could have steamed her into 
 Aden. But I'm no' as sorry as I might be for what's 
 happened. I have it in mind that yon Parsee 
 owner of ours in Bombay'll lose siller over this 
 breakdown, and I want that beggar punishing for all 
 the work he's given me to do on a small wage. Mr. 
 Cortolvin, ha' ye a match?" 
 
 A hail came from the liner astern. 
 
 " Saigon ahoy \ Keep our hawser taut." 
 
 "You're all right for the present," Kettle shouted 
 back. 
 
 " Der vind might return onless you get in the 
 middle of him." 
 
 "Then if it does," retorted Kettle, " you'd better 
 tell your passengers to say their prayers. You'll 
 get no further help from me. I'm broken down 
 myself. Lost my propeller, if you want to 
 Icnow." 
 
 " Herr litber Gott ! " 
 
 " I shouldn't swear if I were you," said Kettle. 
 4< If the breeze comes this way again, you'll be toe- 
 ing the mark in the other place inside five minutes." 
 He turned and gave an order: "After deck, there. 
 Mr. Murgatroyd, you may cast off their rope ; we've 
 done towing."
 
 120 
 
 Now after this, a variety of things might have 
 happened. Amongst them it was quite possible 
 that both steamers, and all in them, might have been 
 spewed up as battered refuse high upon the African 
 beach. But as Providence ordered it, the tornado 
 circled down on them no more ; a light air came off 
 the shore which filled their scanty canvas, and gave 
 them just steerage way ; and they rode over the 
 swells in company, as dry as a pair of bridge-pon- 
 toons, and about as helpless. All immediate danger 
 was swept away ; nothing but another steamer could 
 relieve them ; and in the meantime it was a time for 
 philosophy. 
 
 Captain Kettle did not grumble ; his fortune was 
 once more adrift and beyond his grasp ; the Parsee 
 in Bombay would for a certainty dismiss him from 
 employment ; and Mrs. Kettle and her family must 
 continue to drag along on such scanty doles as he 
 could contrive to send them. All these were dis- 
 tressing thoughts, but they were things not to be 
 remedied ; and he took down the accordion and 
 made sweet music, which spread far over the moving 
 plains of ocean. 
 
 But Mr. McTodd had visions of more immediate 
 profit. He washed with soap until his face was 
 brilliant, put on a full suit of slop-chest serge, took 
 boat, and rowed over to the rolling German liner. 
 It was midnight when he returned, affluent in pocket 
 and rather deep in liquor. He went into the chart- 
 house, without invitation, smiled benignly, and took 
 a camp stool. 
 
 " They thought they would get me down into the 
 mess-room over yonder," said he, " and I'll no' deny
 
 FORTUNES ADRIFT. 121 
 
 it was a temptation. I could ha' telled those Dutch 
 engineers a thing or two. But I'm a' for business 
 first when there is siller ahead. So I went aft to 
 the saloon. They were at dinner, and there were 
 puir appetites among them. But someone spied 
 me standing by the door and lugged me into a seat, 
 and gave me meat and drink champagne, no less ! 
 and set me on to talk. Lord ! once I got my 
 tongue wagging, you should have seen them. 
 There was no more eating done. They wanted to 
 know how near death they'd been, and I telled'em ; 
 and there was the Old Man and all the brass-edged 
 officers at the ends of the tables fit to eat me for 
 giving the yarn away. But a (hie) fat lot I cared. 
 I set on the music, and they sent round the hat. 
 Losh ! There was twenty-four pound English when 
 they handed it over to me. Skipper, ye should go 
 and try it for yourself." 
 
 " Mr. McTodd," said the little sailor, " I am not 
 a dashed mendicant ! " 
 
 The engineer stared with a boiled eye, and swayed 
 on his camp-stool. He had not quite grasped the 
 remark. 
 
 " I'm Scotch mysel' ! " exclaimed he, at length. 
 
 " Same thing," said Kettle ; " I'm neither. I'm 
 a common, low-down Englishman, with the pride of 
 the Prince of Wales, and a darned ugly tongue; and 
 don't you forget it either." 
 
 McTodd pulled a charred cigar stump from his 
 waistcoat pocket and lit it with care. He nodded 
 to the accordion. 
 
 " Go on with your noise," said he. 
 
 Captain Kettle's fingers began to twitch suggcs*
 
 122 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 tively ; and Cortolvin, in order to keep the peace, 
 offered to escort McTodd to his room. 
 
 " I thank ye," said the engineer : " it's the cli- 
 mate. I have maleria in the system, and it stays 
 there in spite of all that drugs can do, and affects 
 the perambulatory muscles of the lower extremities. 
 Speakin' of which, ye'll na doot have seen for your- 
 sel* " 
 
 " Oh, you'd better come along to bed," said Cor- 
 tolvin. 
 
 " Bide a wee, sonny," said the man in the blue 
 serge, solemnly. " There's a thought come to me 
 that I've a message to give. Do ye ken anybody 
 called Calvert ? " 
 
 " Archie Calvert, by any chance ?" 
 
 " * Erchie' was the name he gave. He said he 
 kenned ye weel." 
 
 " We were at Cambridge together." 
 
 " Cambridge, were ye ? Weel, I should have 
 been a D.D. of A-berdeen mysel* if I'd done as my 
 father wished. He was Free Kirk meenister of Bal- 
 lindrochater " 
 
 "Yes, but about Calvert ? " 
 
 " Ou ay, Calvert ! Erchie Calvert, as ye say. 
 Weel, I said we'd you aboard, and this Calvert 
 Erchie Calvert said he'd news for you about your 
 wife." 
 
 " All right, never mind that now. She's dead, I 
 know, poor woman. Let me help you down to 
 your bunk." 
 
 " Dinna be so offensive, man, and bide a wee to 
 hear ma news. Ye're no a widow after all widow- 
 man that is. Your guid wife didna dee as ye think.
 
 FORTUNES ADRIFT. 123 
 
 She'd a fall from a horse, which'll probably teach 
 her to leave horse-riding alone to men in the future ; 
 and it got in the papers she was killed ; but it seems 
 a shaking was all she earned. And, talking of horses 
 now, when I was a bairn in Ballindrochater " 
 
 Cortolvin shook him savagely by the arm. 
 
 " My God ! " he cried ; " do you mean to say 
 she's not dead ? " 
 
 " Aren't I telling you ? " 
 
 Cortolvin passed a hand wearily over his eyes. 
 "And a minute ago," he whispered, " I thought I 
 was going home." His hand dropped limply to his 
 side, and his head slid to the chart-house deck in a 
 dead faint. 
 
 McTodd swayed on the camp-stool and regarded 
 him with a puzzled eye. 4< Losh ! " he said, " here's 
 him drunk as well as me. Two of us, and I never 
 kenned it. It's a sad, immoral world, skipper. 
 Verra sad, skipper, I say. Here's Mr. Cortolvin 
 been Oh Lord, and he isn't listening either." 
 
 Captain Kettle had gone out of the chart-house. 
 The thud of a propeller had fallen upon his ear, and 
 he leant over the Saigon's rail and sadly watched a 
 triangle of lights draw up through the cool, purple 
 night. A cargo steamer freighted with rails for the 
 Beira railway was coming gleefully towards them 
 from out of the north, to pick up the rich gleanings 
 which the ocean offered.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE ESCAPE. 
 
 " YOU'VE struck the wrong man," said Captain 
 Kettle. " I'm most kinds of idiot, but I'm not the 
 sort to go ramming my head against the French 
 Government for the mere sport of the thing." 
 
 " I was told," said Carnegie wearily, " that you 
 were a man that feared nothing on this earth, or I 
 would not have asked you to call upon me." 
 
 " You were told right," said Kettle. " But those 
 that spoke about me should have added that I'm not 
 a man who'll take a ticket to land myself in an ugly 
 mess unless some one pays my train fare and gives 
 me something to spend at the other end. I'm a 
 sailor, sir, by trade or profession, whichever you like 
 to name it, and on a steamboat, when a row has been 
 started, I'll not say but what I've seen it through 
 more than once out of sheer delight in wrestling with 
 an ugly scrape. Yes, sir, that's the kind of brute I 
 am at sea. 
 
 "But what you propose is different; it's out of 
 my line ; it's gaol-breaking, no less ; with a spell of 
 seven years in the jug if I don't succeed, and no kind 
 of credit to wear, or dollars to jingle, if I do carry 
 it through as you wish. And may I ask, sir, why I 
 
 should interest myself in this Mr. Clare? I never 
 
 124
 
 THE ESCAPE. 12$ 
 
 heard of him till I came in this room half-an-hour 
 ago in answer to your advertisement." 
 
 " He is unjustly condemned," Carnegie repeated, 
 as though he were quoting from a lesson. " He is 
 suffering imprisonment in this pestilential place er 
 Cayenne for a fault which some one else has 
 committed ; and unless he is rescued he will die 
 there horribly. I am appealing to your humanity, 
 Captain. Would you see a fellow-countryman 
 wronged ? " 
 
 " I have only to look in the glass for that," retorted 
 Kettle. " Most people's kicks come to me when I 
 am anywhere within hail. And you'll kindly observe, 
 sir, that I've nothing but your bare word to go on 
 for Mr. Clare's innocence. The French Courts and 
 the French people, by your own admitting, took a 
 very different view of the matter. They said with 
 clearness that he did sell those plans of fortresses to 
 the Germans, and, knowing their way of looking at 
 such a matter, it only surprises me he wasn't guil- 
 lotined out of hand." 
 
 " It is my daughter who is sure of his guiltlessness 
 in the matter," said Carnegie with a flush. " And," 
 he added, " I may say that she is the chief person 
 who wishes for his escape." 
 
 Captain Kettle bowed, and fingered the tarnished 
 badge on his cap. He had a chivalrous respect for 
 the other sex. 
 
 " And it was she who made me advertise vaguely 
 for a seafaring man who had got daring and the 
 skill to carry out so delicate a matter. We had two 
 hundred answers in four posts: can you credit such 
 a thing? "
 
 126 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 " Easily," said Kettle. " I am not the only poor 
 devil of a skipper who's out of a job. But a hundred 
 pounds is not enough, and that's the beginning and 
 the end of it. There's two ways of doing this busi- 
 ness, I guess, and one of them's fighting, and the 
 other's bribery. Well, sir, a man can't collect much 
 of an army for twenty five-pun' notes ; and as for 
 bribery, why it's hardly enough to buy up a deputy 
 Customs inspector in the ordinary way of business, 
 let alone a whole squad of Cayenne warders with a 
 big idea of their own value and importance. 
 
 " Then there's getting out to French Guiana, and 
 geting back, and steamer fare for the pair of us 
 would come to more than a couple of postage stamps. 
 And then where do I come in? You say I can 
 pocket the balance. But I'm hanged if I see where 
 the balance is going to be squeezed from. No, sir ; 
 a hundred pounds is mere foolishness, and the 
 kindest thing I can do is to go away without further 
 talk. By James, sir, I can say that if you'd given 
 me this precious scheme as your own, there's a man 
 in this room who would have had a smashed face 
 for his impudence ; but, as you tell me there's a lady 
 in the case, I'll say no more." 
 
 Captain Kettle stood up, thrust out his chin ag- 
 gressively, and swung on his cap. Then he took 
 it off again, and coughed with politeness. The door 
 opened, and the girl they had been speaking about 
 came into the room. She stepped quickly across 
 and took his hand. 
 
 " Captain Kettle," she said, " I could not leave 
 you alone with my father any longer. I just had 
 to come in and thank you for myself. I knew you
 
 THE ESCAPE. 127 
 
 would be the man to help us in our trouble. I knew 
 it from your letter." 
 
 The little sailor coughed again, and reddened 
 slightly under the tan. " I'm afraid, miss," he said, 
 " I am useless. As I was explaining to your to 
 Mr. Carnegie, before you came in, the job is a bit out- 
 side my weight. You see, when I answered that 
 advertisement, I thought it was something with a 
 steamboat that was wanted, and for that sort of 
 thing, with any kind of crew that signs on, I am 
 fitted, and no man better. But this " 
 
 " Oh, do not say it is beyond you. Other pris- 
 oners have escaped from the French penal settle- 
 ments. It only requires a strong, determined man 
 to arrange matters from the outside, and the thing 
 is done." 
 
 Kettle fidgeted with the badge on his cap. " With 
 respect, miss," said he, " what any other man could 
 do, I would not shy at ; but the thing you've got 
 here's impossible ; and the gentleman will just have 
 to stay where he is and serve out the time he's 
 earned." 
 
 "But, sir," the girl broke out passionately, "he 
 has not earned it. He was accused unjustly. He 
 was condemned as a scapegoat to shield others. 
 They were powerful he was without interest ; and 
 all France was shrieking for a victim. Mr. Clare 
 was a subordinate in a Government office through 
 which these plans of fortresses had passed. He was 
 by birth half an Englishman, and so it was easy to 
 raise suspicion against him. They forged great 
 sheaves of evidence ; they drew off attention from 
 the real thieves ; they shamed him horribly ; and then
 
 128 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 they sent him off to those awful Isles de Salut for life. 
 Yes, for life till age or the diseases of the place 
 should free him by death. Can you think of any- 
 thing more frightful?" 
 
 " Mr. Clare is fortunate in having such a friend." 
 
 " A friend ! " she repeated. " Has not my father 
 told you ? I am his promised wife. Fancy the 
 irony of it ! We were to have been married the very 
 day he was condemned. It was my money and my 
 father's which defended him at the trial, and it 
 nearly beggared us. And now I will spend the last 
 penny I can touch to get him free again." 
 
 Captain Kettle coughed once more. " It was 
 upon a question of money that Mr. Carnegie and I 
 split, miss. I said to him a hundred pounds would 
 not work it, and there's the naked truth." 
 
 " But it must," she cried, " it must ! You think us 
 mean niggardly. But it is not that ; we can raise 
 no more. We are at the end of our funds. Look 
 around at this room ; does this look like riches? " 
 
 It did not. They were in a grimy Newcastle lodg- 
 ing, au troisttme, and at one side of the room the 
 flank of a bedstead showed itself in outline against 
 a curtain. The paper was torn and the carpet was 
 absent, and from the shaft of the stairway came 
 that mingled scent of clothes and fried onion which 
 is native to this type of dwelling. 
 
 Carnegie himself was a faded man of fifty. His 
 daughter carried the recent traces of beauty, but 
 anxiety had lined her face, and the pinch of res 
 angusta had frayed her gown. All went to adver- 
 tise the truth of what the girl had been saying, and 
 Kettle's heart warmed towards her. He knew right
 
 THE ESCAPE. 1 29 
 
 well the nip of poverty himself. But still, he did 
 not see his way to perform impossibilities, and he 
 lifted up his voice and said so with glum frankness. 
 
 " I am not remembering for a minute, miss," he ex- 
 plained, " that I am a fellow with a wife and children 
 dependent on my earnings. I am looking at the 
 matter as though I might be Mr. Clare's relative, 
 and I have got nothing new to tell you. A hun- 
 dred pounds will not do it, and that is the end of the 
 matter." 
 
 The girl wrung her hands and looked pitifully 
 across at her father. 
 
 " Well," said Carnegie with a heavy sigh, " I will 
 scrape up a hundred and twenty, though that will 
 force us to go hungry. And that is final, Captain. 
 If my own neck depended upon it, I could not lay 
 hands on more." 
 
 Captain Owen Kettle's face wore a look of pain. 
 He was a man of chivalrous instincts ; it irked him 
 to disoblige a lady ; but the means they offered him 
 were so terribly insufficient. He did not repeat his 
 refusal aloud, but his face spoke with eloquent 
 sympathy. 
 
 The girl sank into one of the shabby chairs de- 
 spairingly. " If you fail me, sir," she said, "then I 
 have no hope." 
 
 Kettle turned away, still fingering the tarnished 
 badge on his cap, and stared drearily through the 
 grimy window-panes. A silence filled the room. 
 Carnegie broke it. 
 
 " Other men answered the advertisement," he 
 suggested. 
 
 "I know they did," his daughter said; "and I 
 Q
 
 130 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 read their letters, and I read Captain Kettle's and if 
 there is one man who could help us out of all those 
 that answered, he is here now in this room. My 
 heart went out to him at once when I saw his ap- 
 plication. I had never heard of him before, but, 
 when I read the few pages he sent, it came to me that 
 I knew him intimately from then onwards, and that 
 he and no other in all the world could do the service 
 which we want. Sir," she said, addressing the little 
 sailor directly, " I learnt from that letter that you 
 made poetry, and I felt that the romance of this 
 matter would carry you on where any other man 
 with merely commercial instincts would fail." 
 
 " Then you like poetry, miss ? " 
 
 " I write it," she said, " for the magazines, and 
 sometimes it gets into print." 
 
 " Would you mind shaking hands with me ? " asked 
 Captain Kettle. 
 
 " I want to do so," she answered, " if you will let 
 that mean the signing of our contract." 
 
 Captain Kettle held out his fist. " Put it there, 
 miss," said he. " The French Government is a lump- 
 ing big concern, but I've bucked against a Govern- 
 ment before and come out top side, and, by James, 
 I'll do it again. You stay at home, miss, and write 
 poetry, and get the magazines to print it, instead of 
 those rotten adventure yarns they're so fond of, and 
 you'll be doing Great Britain a large service. What 
 the people in this country need is nice rural poetry 
 to tell them what sunsets are like, and how corn 
 grows, and all that, and not cut-throat stories they 
 might fill out for themselves from the morning news- 
 papers if they only knew the men and the ground.
 
 THE ESCAPE. 13! 
 
 " If I can only know you're at home here, miss, 
 doing that, I can set about this other matter with a 
 cheerful heart. I don't think the money will be of 
 much good ; but you may trust me to get out to 
 French Guiana somehow, even if I have to work my 
 way there before the mast; and I'll collar hold of 
 Mr. Clare for you and deliver him on board a British 
 ship in the best repair which circumstances will per- 
 mit. You mustn't expect me to do impossibilities, 
 miss; but I'm working now for a lady who writes 
 poetry for the magazines, and you'll see me go that 
 near to them you'll probably be astonished." 
 
 Turn now to another scene. There is a certain 
 turtle-backed isle in the Caribbean Sea sufficiently 
 small and naked to be nameless on the charts. The 
 Admiralty hydrographers mark it merely by a tiny 
 black dot ; the American chartmaker has gone 
 further and branded it as " shoal," which seems to 
 hint (and quite incorrectly) that there is water over 
 it at least during spring tides. 
 
 The patch of land, which is egg-shaped, measures 
 some 1 80 yards across its longer diameter, and, al- 
 though no green seas can roll across its face, it is 
 sufficiently low in the water for the spindrift to whip 
 every inch of its surface during even the mildest of 
 gales. On these occasions the wind lifts great layers 
 of sand from off the roof of the isle, but ever the sea 
 spews up more sand against the beaches ; and so 
 the bulk of the place remains a constant quantity, 
 although the material whereof it is built is no two 
 months the same. 
 
 As a residence the place is singularly undesirable,
 
 132 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 and it is probable that, until Captain Owen Kettle 
 scraped for himself a shelter-trench in the middle 
 of the turtle back of sand, the isle had been left 
 severely alone by man throughout all the centuries. 
 
 Still human breath was hourly drawn in the 
 immediate neighborhood, and when the airs blew 
 towards the isle, or the breezes lay stagnant, sharp, 
 human cries fell dimly on Kettle's ear to tell him 
 that men near at hand were alive, and awake, and 
 plying their appointed occupations. The larger 
 wooded island, which lay a long rifle shot away, 
 was part of the French penal settlement of Cayenne ; 
 and the cries were the higher notes of its tragic 
 opera. But they affected Captain Kettle not at all. 
 He was there on business ; he had been at much 
 pains to arrive at his present situation, and had 
 earned a bullet scar across the temple during the 
 process ; and, as some time was to elapse before his 
 next move became due, he was filling up the inter- 
 vening hours by the absorbing pursuit of literature. 
 
 He squatted on the floor of his sandpit, with his 
 teeth set in the butt of a cold cigar, and rapped out 
 the lines of sonnets, and transferred them to a sheet 
 of sea-stained paper. He used the stubby bullet of a 
 revolver cartridge from lack of a more refined pencil, 
 and his muse worked with lusty pace as, indeed, it 
 was always wont to do when the world went more 
 than usually awry with him. 
 
 To even catalogue the little scamp's adventures 
 since his parting with Miss Carnegie in that Tyne- 
 side lodging, would be to write a lengthy book ; 
 and they are omitted here in toto, because to detail 
 them would of necessity compromise worthy men,
 
 THE ESCAPE. 133 
 
 both French and English, who do not wish their 
 traffic with Kettle to be publicly advertised. 
 
 Suffice it to say, then, that he made his way out 
 to French Guiana by ways best known to himself; 
 pervaded Cayenne under an alias, which the local 
 gendarmerie laid bare ; exchanged pistol shots with 
 those in authority to avoid arrest ; and, in fact, put 
 the entire penal colony, from the governor down to 
 the meanest convict, into a fever of unrest entirely 
 on his especial behalf. 
 
 He was put to making temporary headquarters 
 in a mangrove swamp, and completing his prepara- 
 tions from there, and, to say the least of it, matters 
 went hardly with him. But at last he got his pre- 
 liminaries settled, and left his bivouac among the 
 maddening mosquitos, and the slime, and the snaky 
 tree roots, and took to the seas again in a lugsail 
 boat, which he annexed by force of arms from its 
 four original owners. 
 
 A cold-minded person might say that the taking 
 of that boat was an act of glaring piracy ; but Kettle 
 told himself that, so far as the French of Cayenne 
 were concerned, he was a " recognised belligerent," 
 and so all the manoeuvres of war were candidly open 
 to him. He had no more qualms in capturing that 
 lugsail boat from a superior force than Nelson once 
 had about taking large ships from the French in the 
 Bay of Aboukir. 
 
 He had a depot of tinned meats cached by one of 
 his agents up a mangrove creek, and under cover of 
 night he sailed up and got these on board, and 
 built them in tightly under the thwarts of his boat 
 so that they would not shift in the seaway. And
 
 134 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 finally, again cloaked by friendly darkness, he ran 
 on to the beach of the turtle-backed isle, hid his 
 boat in a gully of the sand, scooped out a personal 
 residence where he would be visible only to God 
 and the sea-fowl, and sat himself down to wait for 
 an appointed hour. 
 
 By day the sun grilled him, by night the sea- 
 mists drenched him to the skin, and at times gales 
 lifted the surface from the Caribbean and sent it 
 whistling across the roof of the isle in volleys of 
 stinging spindrift. Moreover, he was constantly 
 pestered by that local ailment, chills-and-fever, partly 
 as a result of two or three trifling wounds bestowed 
 by the gendarmerie, and partly as payment for resi- 
 dence in the miasmatic mangrove swamps ; so that, 
 on the whole, life was not very tolerable to him, and 
 he might have been pardoned had he cursed Miss 
 Carnegie for sending him on so troublesome an 
 errand. But he did not do this. He remembered 
 that she was occupying herself at home in New- 
 castle with the creation of poetry for the British 
 magazines according to their agreement, and he for- 
 got his discomforts in the glow of a Maecenas. It 
 was the first time he had been a bond fidf patron of 
 letters, and the pleasure of it intoxicated him. 
 
 A fortnight passed by he had given Clare a fort- 
 night in the message he smuggled into the convict 
 station for him to make certain preparations and 
 at the end of that space of time Captain Kettle 
 rolled his MSS. inside an oilskin cover, and addressed 
 it to Miss Carnegie in case of accidents. He put 
 beckets on the top of his cap, slipped his revolvef 
 into these, and put the cap on his head ; and then.
 
 THE ESCAPE. 135 
 
 stripping to the buff, he left his form and got up on 
 to the sand, and walked down its milk-warm surface 
 to the water's edge. 
 
 The ripples rang like a million of the tiniest bells 
 upon the fine shingle, and the stars in the velvet 
 night above were reflected in the water. It was far 
 too still a night for his purpose far too dangerously 
 clear. He would have preferred rain, or even half 
 a gale of wind. But he had fixed his appointment, 
 and he was not the man to let any detail of added 
 danger make him break a tryst. So he waded down 
 into the lonely sea, and struck out at a steady 
 breast stroke for the Isle de Salut, which loomed in 
 low black outline across the waters before him. 
 
 A more hazardous business than this part of the 
 man's expedition it would be hard to conceive. 
 There were no prisoners in the world more jealously 
 guarded than those in the pestilential settlement 
 ahead of him. They were forgers, murderers, or, 
 what the French hate still more, traitors and foreign 
 spies ; and once they stepped ashore upon the beach 
 they were there for always. They were all life-sen- 
 tence men. Until ferocious labor or the batterings 
 of the climate sent them to rest below the soil, they 
 were doomed to pain with every breath they 
 drew. 
 
 Desperate gaoling like this makes desperate men, 
 and did any of the prisoners even the most cow- 
 ardly of them see the glimmer of a chance to 
 escape, he would leap to take it, even though he 
 knew that a certain hailstorm of lead would pelt 
 along his trail. And as a consequence the rim of 
 the isle bristled with armed warders, all of them
 
 136 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 marksmen, who shot at anything that moved, and 
 who had as little compunction in dropping a pris- 
 oner as any other sportsman would have in knock- 
 ing over a partridge. 
 
 To add to Captain Kettle's tally of dangers, the 
 phosphorescence that night was peculiarly vivid ; 
 the sea glowed where he breasted it ; his wake was 
 lit with streams of silver fire ; his whole body stood 
 out like a smoulder of flame on a cloth of black vel- 
 vet. His presence moved upon the face of the 
 waters as an open advertisement. He was an illumi- 
 nated target for every rifle that chose to sight him, 
 and, far worse, he was a fiery bait bright enough to 
 draw every shark in the Caribbean. And sharks 
 swarmed there. His limbs crept as he swam with 
 them. 
 
 To move fast was to increase the phosphorescence ; 
 to move slow was to linger in that horrible suspense ; 
 and I think it is one of the highest testimonials to 
 Kettle's indomitable courage when I can say that 
 not once during that ghastly voyage did he either 
 hurry, or scurry, or splash. He was a prey to the 
 most abominable dread ; he expended an hour and 
 a half over an hour's swim, and it seemed to him a 
 space of years ; and when he grounded on the beach 
 of the Isle de Salut he was almost fainting from the 
 strain of his emotions, and for awhile lay on the 
 sand sobbing like a hysterical schoolgirl. 
 
 But a sound revived him and sent full energy into 
 his limbs again without a prelude. From the dis- 
 tance there came to him the noise of shod feet crunch- 
 ing with regulation tread along the shingle. He 
 was lying in the track of a sentry's beat.
 
 THE ESCAPE. 137 
 
 By instinct his hand dragged the revolver from 
 its beckets on his cap, and then he rose to his feet 
 and darted away like some slim pink ghost across 
 the beach into the shelter of the thickets. He lay 
 there holding his breath, and watched the sentry 
 pace upon his patrol. It was evident that the man 
 had not seen him ; the fellow neither glanced towards 
 the cover nor searched the beach for foot-tracks ; 
 and yet he carried his rifle in the crook of his arm 
 ready for a snap shot, and flickered his eyes to this 
 side and to that like a man habitually trained to 
 sudden alarms and a quick trigger finger. His every 
 movement was eloquent of the care with which the 
 Isle de Salut was warded. 
 
 Kettle waited till the man had gone off into the 
 dark again and the soundless distance, and then 
 stepped out from his ambush, and ran at speed 
 along the dim, starlit beach. The sand-pats sprang 
 backwards from his flying toes, and the birds in the 
 forest rim moved uneasily as he passed. The little 
 man was sea-bred first and last ; he had no knowledge 
 of woodcraft ; a silent stalk was a flight far beyond 
 him ; and he raced along his way, revolver in hand, 
 confident that he could shoot any intruding sentry 
 before a rifle could be brought to bear. 
 
 Of course, the discharge of weapons would have 
 waked the isle, and brought the whole wasps' nest 
 about his ears. But this was a state of things he 
 could have faced out brazenly. Throughout all his 
 stormy life he had never yet shirked a ntftte, and 
 perhaps immunity from serious harm had given him 
 an over-estimate of the percentage of bullets which 
 go astray. At any rate, the thrill of brisk fighting
 
 138 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 was a pleasure he well knew, and he never went far 
 out of his way to avoid it. 
 
 But, as it was, he sped along his path unnoticed. 
 The blunders of chance threaded him through the 
 shadows and the chain of sentries so that no living 
 soul picked up the alarm, till at last he pulled up 
 panting at the edge of the open space which edged 
 in the grim convict barrack itself. 
 
 And now began a hateful tedium of waiting. The 
 day he had fixed with Clare was the right one ; the 
 hour of the rendezvous was vague. He had said 
 " as near midnight as may be " in his message ; but 
 he was only able to guess at the time himself, and 
 he expected that Clare was in a similar plight. Any- 
 way, the man was not there, and Kettle gnawed his 
 fingers with impatience as he awaited him. 
 
 The night under the winking stars was full of 
 noise. In the forest trees the jarflies and the tree- 
 crickets and the katydids kept up their maddening 
 chorus. The drumming mosquitoes scented the 
 naked man from afar and put ever}' inch of his body 
 to the torment. The moist, damp heat of the place 
 made him pant to get his breath. The prison itself 
 was full of the uneasy rustling of men sleeping in 
 discomfort, and at regular intervals some crazy 
 wretch within the walls cried out " Dieu, Dieu, 
 Dieu ! " as though he were a human cuckoo clock 
 condemned to chime after stated lapses of minutes. 
 
 An hour passed, and still the uneasy night dozed 
 on without notice that a prisoner was trying to es- 
 cape. Another hour went by, and Captain Kettle 
 began to contemplate the possibilities of attacking 
 the grim building with his own itching fingers, and
 
 THE ESCAPE. 139 
 
 dragging Clare forth in the teeth of whatever op- 
 position might befall. " Dieu, Dieu, Dieu ! " rang 
 out the tormented man within the walls, and then 
 from round the further angle of the place a figure 
 came running, who stared wildly about him as 
 though in search of some one. 
 
 Kettle stepped out from his nook of concealment, 
 a clear, pale mark in the starlight. The runner 
 swerved, stopped, and hesitated. Kettle beckoned 
 him, and the man threw away his doubt and raced 
 up. The little sailor thrust out a moist hand. 
 " You'll be Mr. Clare, sir, I presume ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " I'm very pleased to have the honor of meeting 
 you. I'm Captain Kettle, that was asked as a favor 
 by Miss Carnegie " 
 
 " Let us get away, quick. They will be after me 
 directly, and if they catch me I shall be shot. Mr. 
 Kettle, quick, where is your boat ? " 
 
 But the little naked man did not budge. " I am 
 accustomed, sir," he said stiffly, " to having my 
 title." 
 
 " I don't understand. Oh, afterwards ; but let us 
 get away now at once." 
 
 " Captain Kettle, sir." 
 
 " Captain Kettle, certainly. But this waiting may 
 cost us our lives." 
 
 " I am not anxious to take root here, sir, but, as 
 for the boat, you've a good swim ahead of you be- 
 fore we reach that." And he told of the way he had 
 come. " There was no other plan for it, Mr. Clare. 
 It would have been sheer foolishness to have brought 
 my boat to this island with all these busy people
 
 140 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 with guns prowling about. I had just got to leave 
 her at my headquarters, and you must make up 
 your mind to swim and risk the sharks if you wish 
 to join her." 
 
 " I am open to risking anything," said Clare. 
 " It's neck or nothing with me after what I did five 
 minutes back in that hell over yonder. One of the 
 
 warders " he broke off and dragged a hand across 
 
 his eyes. " Look here, Captain, we are bound to 
 be seen if we go back round by the beach. Come 
 with me and I'll show you a track through the 
 woods." 
 
 He started off into the cover without waiting for 
 a reply, and Kettle with a frown turned and fol- 
 lowed at his heels. Captain Kettle preferred to do 
 the ordering himself, and this young man seemed 
 apt to assert command. However, the moment 
 was one for hurry. The night was beginning to 
 thin. So he got up speed again, and the trees and 
 the undergrowth closed behind him. 
 
 " Dieu, Dieu, Dieu ! " cried out the tormented pris- 
 oner within the walls as a parting benediction. 
 
 Some men, like the historical Dr. Fell, have the 
 knack, unknown to themselves, of inspiring dislike 
 in others, and Clare had this effect upon Captain 
 Owen Kettle. The little sailor's dislike was born 
 at the first moment of their meeting. It grew as 
 he ran through the forest of the Isle de Salut ; and 
 even when Clare fell upon a sentry and beat the 
 sense out of him as neatly as he could have done it 
 himself, Kettle failed to admire or sympathise with 
 him.
 
 THE ESCAPE. 14! 
 
 On the return swim to the turtle-backed island 
 he came very near to wishing that a shark would 
 get the man, although such a calamity would have 
 meant his own almost certain destruction ; and when 
 they lay together, packed like a pair of sardines, in 
 the shelter pit, under the intolerable sunshine of 
 the succeeding day, it was with difficulty he could 
 keep his hands off this fellow whom he had gone 
 through so much to help. 
 
 Clare put in what of talking was done ; the sailor 
 preserved a sour, glum silence. He felt that if he 
 gave his vinegary tongue the freedom it wished for, 
 nothing could prevent a collison. 
 
 He argued out with himself the cause for this 
 dislike during the succeeding night. They had got 
 the boat in the water, had mastheaded the lug, and 
 were running northwest before a snoring breeze to- 
 wards the British West Indian Islands. He himself, 
 with main-sheet in one hand and tiller in the other, 
 was in solitary command. Clare was occupied in 
 baling back the seas to their appointed place. 
 
 For a long time the utmost he could discover 
 against the man was that on occasions he " was too 
 bossy," and with bitter satire he ridiculed himself 
 for a childish weakness. But then another thought 
 drifted into his mind, and he picked it up, and 
 weighed it, and balanced it, and valued it, till under 
 the fostering care it grew, and the little sailor felt 
 with a glow and a tightening of the lips that he had 
 now indeed a real and legitimate cause for hate. 
 
 What mention had this fellow Clare made of 
 Miss Carnegie? Practically none. He, Kettle, had 
 stated by whom he was sent to the rescue, and Clare
 
 142 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 had received the news with a casual " Oh ! " and a 
 yawn. He had offered further information (when 
 the first scurry of the escape was over, and they 
 were cached in the sandpit) upon Miss Carnegie's 
 movements and her condition as last viewed in New- 
 castle, and Clare had pleaded tiredness and suggested 
 another hour for the recital. Was this the proper 
 attitude for a lover? It was not. Was this meet 
 behaviour for the future husband of such a woman as 
 Miss Carnegie, who was not only herself, but who 
 also wrote poetry for the magazines ? Ten thousand 
 times over, it was not. 
 
 He sheeted home the lug a couple of inches in re- 
 sponse to a shift of the breeze, and opened his lips 
 in speech. 
 
 " Miss Carnegie, sir," he began, " is a lady I esteem 
 very highly." 
 
 " She is a nice girl," assented the man with the 
 baler. 
 
 " She is willing to beggar herself to do you ser- 
 vice, sir." 
 
 " Yes, I know she is very fond, of me." 
 
 " And I should like to know if you are equally 
 fond of her?" 
 
 " Steady, Captain, steady. I don't quite see what 
 you have got to do with it." He paused and looked 
 at the sailor curiously. " Look here, I say, you seem 
 to talk a deuce of a deal about Miss Carnegie. Are 
 you sweet on her yourself? " 
 
 Captain Kettle glared, and it is probable that, if 
 such an action would not have swamped the boat, 
 he would have dropped the tiller and left the marks 
 of his displeasure upon Clare's person without
 
 THE ESCAPE. 143 
 
 further barter of words. But, as it was, he deigned 
 to speak. 
 
 " You dog," he said, " if you make a suggestion 
 like that again, I'll kill you. You've no right to say 
 such a thing. I just honor Miss Carnegie as though 
 she were the Queen, or even more, because she writes 
 verse for the magazines, and the Queen only writes 
 diaries. And, besides, there could be nothing more 
 between us ; I'm a married man, sir, with a family. 
 But about this other matter. It seems to me I'm 
 the party that kind of holds your fate just at present, 
 young man. If I shove this tiller across, the boat'll 
 broach to and swamp, and, whatever happens to me 
 and I don't vastly care it's a sure thing you will 
 go to the place where there's weeping and gnashing 
 of teeth. How'd you like that? " 
 
 " Not a bit. I want to live. I've gone through 
 the worst time a human being can endure on that 
 ghastly island astern there, and I'm due for a great 
 lot of the sweets of life to make up for it. And if 
 it interests you to know it, Captain I do owe you 
 something personally, I suppose, and you have some 
 right to be in my confidence if it interests you to 
 hear such a thing, I may tell you I shall probably 
 marry Miss Carnegie as soon as I get back to her." 
 
 " Then you do love her?" 
 
 " I don't quite know what love is. But I like her 
 well enough, if that will do for you. Hadn't we 
 better take down a reef in the lug? I can hardly 
 keep the water under." 
 
 " By James, you leave me to sail this boat," said 
 Kettle, " and attend to your blessed baling, or I'll 
 knock you out of her."
 
 144 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 The conversation languished for some hours after 
 this, and Kettle, with every nerve on the strain, 
 humored the boat as she raced before the heavy fol- 
 lowing seas, whilst the ex-convict scooped back the 
 water which eternally slopped in green streams over 
 her gunwale. It was Clare who set up the talk 
 again. 
 
 " Did she know anything about those plans of the 
 French fortresses?" 
 
 " Miss Carnegie had the most definite ideas on 
 the subject." 
 
 " I suppose she'd found out by that time that I 
 really did get hold of them out of the office myself, 
 and sell them to the Germans ? " 
 
 For one of the few times in his life Captain Kettle 
 lied. " She knew the whole yarn from start to 
 finish." 
 
 " Well, I was a fool to muddle it. With any 
 decent luck I ought to have brought off the coup 
 without anybody being the wiser. I could have 
 laid quiet a year or two till the fuss blew over, and 
 then had a tidy fortune to go upon, and been able 
 to marry whom I pleased, or not marry at all. Eh 
 well, skipper, that bubble's cracked, and I suppose 
 the best thing I can do now is to marry old Car- 
 negie's girl after all." 
 
 " Then you've quite made up your mind to marry 
 this lady?" 
 
 " Quite." 
 
 " That's what you say," retorted Kettle. " Now 
 you hear me. Miss Carnegie thinks you are in love 
 with her, and you are not that by many a long 
 fathom ; so there goes item the first. In the second
 
 THE ESCAPE. 145 
 
 place, she thought you were sent to Cayenne un- 
 justly, whereas by your own showing, you're a dirty 
 thief, and deserved all you got. And, thirdly, I 
 don't approve of squeezing fathers-in-law as an in- 
 dustry for young men newly out of gaol." 
 
 " You truculent little ruffian, do you dare to 
 threaten me ? " 
 
 " I'd threaten the Emperor of Germany if I was 
 close to him and didn't like what he was doing. 
 Here, you ! Don't you lift that baler at me, or I'll 
 slip some lead through your mangy hide before you 
 can wink. Now you'll just understand, for the rest 
 of this cruise, till we make our port, you stay forrard, 
 and I'm on the quarter-deck. If you move aft I'll 
 shoot you dead, and thank you for giving me the 
 chance. But if you get ashore all in one piece, I'll 
 spike your guns in another way." 
 
 " How ? " asked the man sullenly. 
 
 " You'll find out when you get there," said Kettle 
 grimly. "And now don't you speak to me again. 
 You aren't wholesome. Get on with your baling. 
 D'ye hear me, there? Get on with that baling; I 
 don't want my boat to be swamped through your 
 cursed laziness." 
 
 Now, to which port it was of the British West 
 India Islands that the lugsail boat and its occupants 
 arrived, I never quite made out, and indeed the 
 method in which Captain Kettle " spiked " Mr. 
 Clare's " guns " was hidden from me till quite re- 
 cently. A week ago. however, a letter of his drifted 
 
 into my hands, and, as it seems to explain all that 
 10
 
 146 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 is necessary, I give it here exactly as it left his 
 pen. 
 
 WEST INDIA ISLANDS. 
 To Miss CARNEGIE, 
 
 JESMOND STREET, 
 
 NEWCASTLE, ENGLAND. 
 
 HONOURED MADAM, 
 
 Am please to report have carried out part of y r esteemed com- 
 mands. Went to Cayenne, as per instruction, and took Mr. 
 Clare away from French Government, they not consenting, 
 landed him in good condition at this place. Having learnt 
 that he did steal those plans, and, moreover, he saying he did 
 not care for you the way he ought, have taken liberty to guard 
 lest he should trouble you in future. To do this, found old 
 coloured washerwoman here (widow) who was proud to have 
 white husband. Him objecting, I swore to tell French Consul 
 if he did not marry, and get him sent back to Cayenne. So he 
 married. She weighs 250 Ibs. I enclose copy of their marriage 
 lines, so you can see all is correct. 
 
 Trust you will excuse liberty. He has made one escape ; you 
 have made another. 
 
 The weather is very sultry here, but they say there is fine 
 scenery up-country. 
 
 Shall get English magazines some day, when things blow 
 over a bit, and I can come that way again, to look for your 
 poetry. 
 
 Hoping this finds you in good health as it leaves me at present. 
 
 Y r s obedient, 
 
 O. KETTLE (Master). 
 I Inclosure,
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE PEARL POACHERS. 
 
 " NO, Mr. Carnforth," said Kettle ; " it would be 
 lying if Ivvastosay I knew anything about pearl-fish- 
 ing. I've heard of it of course ; who hasn't ? And, 
 for the matter of that, I've had on a diving-suit my- 
 self, and gone down and examined a ship's bottom to 
 see if the divers that had been sent down to look at 
 some started plates had brought up a true report. 
 But I've never done more than pass through those 
 North Australian seas. They tell me the pearl-fish- 
 ing's done from small luggers of some ten or four- 
 teen tons, sailing out of Thursday Island." 
 
 " It is," said the big man. "And " 
 
 " Well, sir, you'd better get another captain. I'm 
 a steamer sailor by bringing up, and on a steamer I 
 know my business, andean do it with any other man 
 alive. But you'd not find me much good on a little 
 wind-jammer like a Thursday Island pearler. I'm a 
 hard-up man, Mr. Carnforth, and desperately in want 
 of a berth ; I hope, too, you'll not think it undue 
 familiarity when I say that I like you personally ; 
 but, honestly, I don't think you'd better engage me 
 as your skipper for this trip. You could get a so 
 much better man for your money." 
 
 Carnforth laughed. " My dear Kettle," he said, 
 " I don't think I ever came across a fellow with less 
 
 47
 
 148 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 real notion of looking after his own interests. As 
 you are aware, I know your peculiar qualifications 
 pretty thoroughly ; I'm an eminently practical busi- 
 ness man : I offer you a handsome salary with both 
 eyes open ; and yet you refuse because you are afraid 
 of robbing me of my money." 
 
 " Mr. Carnforth," said the little sailor stiffly, " I 
 have my own ideas of what's right. You have seen 
 me at sea using violence and ugly words. But you 
 will kindly remember that I was in service of an em- 
 ployer then, and was earning his pay by driving his 
 crew. It's another thing now ; we are ashore here, 
 and I would have you know that ashore I am a strict 
 chapel member, with a high-pressure conscience, and 
 a soul that requires careful looking after. I could 
 never forgive myself if I thought I was taking your 
 pay without earning it thoroughly." 
 
 " If you'll let me get a word in edgeways," said 
 the other irritably, " and not be so beastly cocksure 
 that you can rob me which you could no more do 
 than fly perhaps you'd understand what I'm offer- 
 ing, and not sneeze at a good chance. The lugger 
 is your own invention, and so is the idea that I'm 
 merely going pearl-fishing in the ordinary way. My 
 notion is to go pearl-poaching, which is a very dif- 
 ferent matter; to get rich quick, and take the risks, 
 and climb over them and to go at the business in a 
 steamer with a strong enough crew to ar do 
 what's needful." 
 
 "And you're already a rich man," said Kettle, 
 "with a fine position in the country, and a seat in 
 Parliament. Some people never do know when 
 they're well off."
 
 THE PEARL POACHERS. 149 
 
 " Some people don't," said Carnforth, " and you're 
 another of them, skipper. For myself, I do a mad 
 thing now and again because oh, because 1 like 
 the excitement and flurry of it. But you ! You go 
 and refuse a profitable billet that would fit you 
 down to the boots, merely for the sake of a whim. 
 A quarter of an hour ago you told me you were 
 practically destitute ar ' on the streets' your own 
 words were; and here you are chucking up a certain 
 twenty pounds a month, and a possible ninety, when 
 it's ready to your hand." 
 
 " I didn't know about the steamer," said Kettle, 
 " and that's a fact." 
 
 " Well, I'm telling you now, Captain, and if you 
 don't take charge of her upper bridge, it will be 
 your own fault. Why, man, there isn't a job be- 
 tween here and New Jerusalem that would suit you 
 better ; and besides, I'm keen to go there myself, 
 and you are the one man in the world I want to 
 have as a shipmate, and I ask you to come as a per- 
 sonal favour. 
 
 " I'm sick of this smug, orderly, frock coated life 
 here. Nature intended me for a pirate, and fate has 
 made me a successful manufacturer. I've tasted 
 the wild unregenerate life of the open air once under 
 your auspices, and rubbed against men who were 
 men, and I want to be there again. I'm tired of 
 fiddling amongst men and women who are merely 
 dollar-millers and dress-pegs. I'm sick of what they 
 call success. I'm sick of the whole blessed busi- 
 ness." 
 
 Captain Kettle thought of Mrs. Kettle and her 
 children in the squalid house in South Shields, with
 
 I5O ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 the slender income and the slim prospects, and he 
 sighed drearily. But he did not utter those thoughts 
 aloud. He said, instead, that he was very grateful 
 to Mr. Carnforth for his magnificent offer, and would 
 do his best to earn thoroughly the lavish income 
 which was held out to him. 
 
 Carnforth reached out and gripped his hand. 
 
 " Thanky, Kettle," he said ; " and mind, I'm going 
 to try and lug you into a competency over this. 
 You might just as well have given way before. I 
 always get my own way over this sort of thing. And 
 now probably you'd like to hear a bit more about 
 the poaching ground?" 
 
 " If you please, sir." 
 
 " Well, I can't quote you latitude and longitude 
 off-hand, but I'll show you the whereabouts of the 
 place marked on the chart afterwards. It's Japan 
 way, and the Japs have chosen to claim all the bits 
 of reefs thereabouts, and to proclaim a sort of close 
 season against all foreign pearlers. Now the place 
 I've got news of is in their area, but so far it has 
 never been fished. It's enormously rich, and it's 
 absolutely virgin. Why, man, if we can put in six 
 months' work there undisturbed, we can easily carry 
 off a million pounds' worth of shells and pearls." 
 
 " Six months ! " said Kettle. " That's a big order. 
 I've no doubt that with a decent steamer and a few 
 rifles we could beat off one of their gunboats when 
 we get there, and do, say, a week's fishing. But if 
 that gunboat steams back to Nagasaki, or wherever 
 her port is, and brings out a whole blessed navy at 
 her heels, we may find the contract outside our size. 
 Of course, if you are going to fit out a real big
 
 THE PEARL POACHERS. 1$! 
 
 steamboat, with a gun or two, and a hundred 
 men 
 
 Carnforth laughed. "Wait a bit," said he. 
 " You're going ahead too fast. There's no question 
 of fighting a whole navy. In fact we mustn't fight 
 at all if there's any means of wriggling out of it. I 
 believe fighting would amount to piracy, and piracy's 
 too lively even for my tastes. Besides, if we got 
 very noisy, we'd have some cruiser of the British 
 China Squadron poking her ugly nose in, and that's 
 a thing we couldn't afford to risk at any price." 
 
 " Then how are you going to manage it ? " 
 
 " What we must hope for is to be left undisturbed. 
 There's every chance of it. The reef is out of all 
 the steam-lanes and circle tracks, and the Japs' gun- 
 boat patrol is not very close. In fact the place has 
 only been newly charted. It was found quite by 
 accident by the skipper of a sea-sealing schooner, 
 and he missed the plum because he happened to 
 have been a brute to one of his hands." 
 
 " But I thought you said this reef was out of all 
 ship tracks? " 
 
 " Don't hustle me. The schooner had been seal- 
 ing off the Commander Islands. She was coming 
 home, and got into heavy weather. She was blown 
 away three days by a gale, and picked up the surf 
 of this reef one morning at daybreak, ran down in- 
 to the lee, and lay there till the breeze was over. 
 The reef wasn't charted and the skipper, who was 
 'on the make,' wondered how he could gather 
 dividends out of it. In the off-sealing season he 
 was in the Thursday Island trade, and his thoughts 
 naturally ran upon pearls and shell. He'd a diving
 
 I $2 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 suit on board, and he rowed into the lagoon, made 
 one of his crew put on the suit, and sent him 
 down. 
 
 " Now observe the result," said Carnforth with 
 sly relish, " of being too severe on one's hands. 
 This sailor, who was sent down in the diving-suit, 
 had been having a dog's time of it on the sealing 
 schooner, and when he got on the floor of the la- 
 goon and saw the place round him literally packed 
 with shell that had never been touched by hu- 
 man fingers, he made up his mind that the time 
 had come to repay old scores. So when he came 
 up out of the water again, he said, sulkily enough, 
 that there was nothing below but seaweed and 
 mud ; and the boat rowed back out of the lagoon ; 
 and the schooner let draw her forestay-sail sheet and 
 ran away on her course. 
 
 " The skipper reported the new reef, and in due 
 course it got on the charts ; and the sailor kept 
 holding his tongue till he could find a market for 
 his information. He didn't find one at once ; he had 
 to wait two years, in fact ; and then he found me. 
 I guess that skipper would be easier on his hands in 
 future if he only knew what he'd lost, eh, Kettle ? " 
 
 The sailor frowned. 
 
 " A shipmaster, sir, has to get the full amount of 
 work out of his hands, or he's neglecting his duty. 
 I can picture that schooner, Mr. Carnforth, and I 
 picture her Old Man hearing what he's missed, and 
 still carrying on the driving game. The things we 
 have to ship as sailors are beasts, and you have to 
 treat them as such ; and if you can show me a mas- 
 ter who's popular in the forecastle, I can show you
 
 THE PEARL POACHERS. 153 
 
 a man who's letting his hands shirk work, and not 
 earning his owner's pay." 
 
 " H'm ! " said Carnforth. " I've seen you handle 
 a crew, and I know your theories and little ways, 
 and I know also that you're far too obstinate an 
 animal to change your opinions in a hurry. I've a 
 pretty strong will myself, and so I can sympathise 
 with you. However, we'll let that matter of ethics 
 slide for the present, and go into the question of 
 ways and means " and on the dry detail of this 
 they talked till far into the night. 
 
 Here, however, the historian may for awhile with- 
 hold his pen, since those in the shipping interest 
 can fill the gap for themselves, whilst to all others, 
 these small questions of ways and means would be 
 infinitely tedious. 
 
 The yacht's voyage out to Japanese waters may 
 also be omitted. The English papers announced 
 its commencement in one of the usual formal para- 
 graphs : " Mr. Martin Carnforth, M. P. for the 
 Munro division of Yorkshire, has started in his fine 
 steam yacht, the Vestris, for a lengthened tour in 
 China seas to study Oriental questions on the spot, and 
 will probably be absent some considerable time" 
 
 The official log kept on board was meagre and 
 scanty, being confined to arid statements of dis- 
 tances run, and the ordinary meteorological happen- 
 ings of the ocean ; and towards the latter entries, 
 even these were skilfully fictitious. Indeed, when 
 the vessel ncared the scene of action, her yellow 
 funnel changed to black with a crimson band, a 
 couple of squarish yards were crossed on her fore-
 
 154 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 mast, her dainty gaff-sails vanished and were re- 
 placed by serviceable trysails, and the midship house 
 was soiled by the addition of a coat of crude white 
 lead above the trimly polished teak, and straddled 
 over by a clumsy iron bridge defended by ill fitting 
 canvas dodgers and awnings. 
 
 There was no making the expert believe, of course, 
 that she was a mere trader that had always been a 
 trader. But to the nautical eye she was unsuspi- 
 cious: she looked one of those ex-yachts that have 
 been sold out of the petticoat-cruising service of 
 Cowes, and been adapted to the more homely needs 
 of the mercantile marine ; and in the Mediterranean, 
 the Australian seas, and China waters, there are 
 many of this breed of craft making a humble living 
 for their owners. A couple of weeks' neglect will 
 make any brass-work look un-yachtlike, and a little 
 withholding of the paint-brush soon makes all small 
 traders wonderfully kin. 
 
 Re-christening of course is but a clumsy device, 
 and one which is (the gentle novelist notwithstand- 
 ing) most seldom used. A ship at her birth is given 
 a name, and endowed with a passport in the shape 
 of " papers." Without her papers she cannot enter 
 a civilised port ; she could not " clear " at any cus- 
 tom house ; and to attempt doing so would be a 
 blatant confession of " something wrong." So when 
 the paint brushes went round, and the name Vestris 
 on counter, boats, and lifebuoys was exchanged for 
 Governor L. C. Walthrop (which seemed to carry a 
 slight American flavor) a half sigh went up from 
 some of the ship's company, and a queer little thrill 
 passed through the rest, according to their tempera-
 
 THE PEARL POACHERS. 155 
 
 merits. They were making themselves sea pariahs 
 from that moment onwards, until they should deem 
 fit to discard the alias. 
 
 Captain Kettle himself finished lettering the last 
 of the lifebuoys and put down his brush, and shook 
 his head. 
 
 Carnforth was watching him from a deck chair. 
 " You don't like it ? " he said. 
 
 " I never did such a thing before," said Kettle, 
 " and I never heard of it being done and come to 
 any good. We're nobodies now, and it's every one's 
 business to meddle with a nobody. If you're a 
 somebody, only the proper people can interfere." 
 
 " I can't help it," said Carnforth. " The Vestris 
 is well-known at home, and I'm well-known too ; 
 and we've just got to see this business through one 
 way or the other, under pursers' names. She's the 
 Governor L. C. WaltJirop, and I'm Mr. Martin, and 
 you can be what you like." 
 
 " I'll still use my own name, sir. I've carried it 
 a good many years now, through most kinds of 
 weather; and it's had so many stones thrown at it 
 that a few more won't hurt. If we get through 
 with this little game, all right; if we get interrupted, 
 I guess the only thing left will be to attend our 
 own funerals. I'm not going to taste the inside of 
 a Japanese gaol at any price." 
 
 " I never saw such a fellow as you for looking at 
 the gloomy side of things," said Carnforth irritably. 
 
 " It's the gloomy side that's mostly come my 
 way, sir." 
 
 " I wish to goodness I'd never been idiot enough 
 to come out here on this harebrained scheme."
 
 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 " Why ! " said Kettle in surprise, " you've got the 
 remedy to your hand. You give your orders, Mr. 
 Carnforth, and I'll bout-ship this minute and take 
 you home." 
 
 " And don't you want to go through with it, 
 skipper? " 
 
 " I don't see my tastes need be mentioned," said 
 the sailor stiffly. "You are my owner, sir. I'm 
 here to do as I'm bid." 
 
 " Captain Owen Kettle," said the other, with a 
 laugh that had got some sour earnest at the back of 
 it, "you're a cantankerous little beggar. I sailed 
 with you before, and found you the most delightful 
 of shipmates. I sail with you now, and you keep 
 me always at boat-hook's length away. from you. 
 Be hanged if I see what I've done to stiffen you." 
 
 " Sir," said Kettle, " on the Sultan of Borneo you 
 were my guest; on this yacht you are my owner; 
 there's all the difference in the world." 
 
 "You wish to point out, I suppose, that a ship- 
 master looks upon an owner as his natural enemy, 
 as he does the Board of Trade. Still, I don't think 
 I personally have deserved that." 
 
 " I am as I have been made, sir, and I suppose I 
 can't help it." 
 
 " You are a man with some wonderfully developed 
 weaknesses. However, as to going back, I'm not 
 going to stultify myself by doing that now. We'll 
 see the thing through now, whatever happens." 
 
 Martin Carnforth nodded curtly, and got up and 
 walked the deck. He was conscious of a fine sense 
 of disappointment and disillusionment. He had 
 started off on this expedition filled with a warm
 
 THE PEARL POACHERS. 1 57 
 
 glow of romance. He had been grubbing along at 
 distasteful business pursuits for the larger part of 
 his life, and adventure, as looked at from the out- 
 side, had always lured him strongly. Once in Ket- 
 tle's company he had tasted of the realities of ad- 
 venture amongst Cuban revolutionists ; had got 
 back safely, and settled down to business again for 
 a time ; and then once more had grown restless. 
 He had the virus of adventure in his blood, and he 
 was beginning to learn that it was a cumulative 
 poison. 
 
 So, once more he had started off, but this time 
 he was being chilled from the outside. Properly 
 treated, the prospects of the trip would have been 
 rosy enough. Handled by Captain Owen Kettle, 
 the whole affair was made to assume the aspect of a 
 commercial speculation of more than doubtful sanity. 
 And, as he walked, he cursed Kettle from his in- 
 most heart for bringing him to earth and keeping 
 him there amongst sordid considerations. 
 
 The little mariner himself was seated in a deck- 
 chair under an awning, turning in the frayed sleeve 
 of a white drill jacket. His sewing tackle stood in a 
 pictured tin biscuit box on the deck beside him. 
 He unripped the old stitches with a pocket-knife, 
 and resewed the sleeve with exquisite accuracy and 
 neatness. His fierce eyes were intent on the work. 
 To look at his nimble fingers, one would think that 
 they had never held anything more deadly than the 
 ordinary utensils of tailoring. Carnforth broke off 
 his walk, and stood for a moment beside him. 
 
 " Skipper," he said, " you're a queer mixture. 
 You've lived one of the most exciting lives any man's
 
 158 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 ever gone through, and yet you seem to turn your 
 more peaceful moments to tailoring or poetry indif- 
 ferently, and enjoy them with gusto." 
 
 " Mr. Carnforth," said the little sailor, " I guess 
 we're all discontented animals. We always like most 
 what we get least of." 
 
 " Well, I suppose that's intended to sum up my 
 character as well as your own," said Carnforth, and 
 sat down and watched the sewing. 
 
 The mate on the yacht's upper bridge picked up 
 the reef with his glasses that evening a couple of 
 hours after sundown. The night was velvet-black, 
 with only a few stars showing. A sullen ground- 
 swell rolled the seas into oily hills and valleys, and 
 the reefs ahead showed themselves in a blaze of 
 phosphorescence where the swell broke into thun- 
 derous surf. It seemed as though the yacht was 
 steaming towards the glow and din of some distant 
 marine volcano. The watch below were all on deck, 
 drawn there by curiosity, and along one bulwark 
 the watch on duty were handling the deep-sea lead 
 At intervals came the report, trolled in a minor key, 
 of " No bottom." 
 
 The engines were running half speed ahead, and 
 presently they stopped, and the order was given for 
 the yacht to lay-to where she was till daybreak. A 
 light breeze had sprung up, bringing with it a queer 
 slender taint into the sweet sea air. 
 
 For a long time Carnforth had been snuffling dili- 
 gently. " I'm sure I smell something," he said at 
 last. 
 
 " It's there," said Kettle. " Have you ever been 
 in a north country. Norwegian port, sir?"
 
 THE PEARL POACHERS. 159 
 
 " By Jove ! yes, skipper. It's just the same. 
 Decaying fish." 
 
 " There's not another stink like it on this earth. 
 You know what it means here ? " 
 
 " I suppose some other fellows are in the lagoon 
 before us and they're rotting out shell." 
 
 " That's it, "said Kettle ; " and we're going to have 
 our work cut out to get a cargo. But we'll do it, 
 Mr. Carnforth, never you fear. I suppose there'll 
 be trouble, but that'll have to be got over. We've 
 not come all this way to go back with empty 
 holds." 
 
 Carnforth looked at the little man slily. Here 
 was a very different Captain Kettle from the fellow 
 who had been mending the white drill coat half-a- 
 dozen hours before. He was rubbing his hands, his 
 eye was bright, his whole frame had stiffened. He 
 was whistling a jaunty tune, and was staring keenly 
 out at the phosphorescent blaze of the breakers, as 
 though he could see what was behind them, and was 
 planning to overcome all obstacles. An hour before 
 Martin Carnforth had been cursing the tedium of 
 his expedition. A little chill went through him 
 now. Before many more hours were past he had a 
 strong notion he would be scared at its liveliness. 
 He had seen Captain Kettle's methods before when 
 things went contrary to his plans and wishes. 
 
 Slowly the night dragged through, and by degrees 
 the blackness thinned. The Eastern waters grew 
 grey, and the sky above them changed to dull sul- 
 phur yellow. Then a coal of crimson fire burned out 
 on the horizon, and grew quickly to a great half-dish 
 of scarlet ; and then the rest of the sun was shot up,
 
 ICO ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 as an orange pip is slipped from the fingers ; and it 
 was brilliant, staring, tropical day. 
 
 For full an hour the yacht had been under weigh 
 at half steam with lead going, circling round the 
 noisy reefs. The place was alive with the shout of 
 breakers and the scream of seafowl. Inside, beyond 
 the hedge of spouting waters, were three small turtle- 
 backs of yellow sand, and a lugger at anchor. 
 
 The water outside was clear as bottle-green glass, 
 and of enormous depth. The only entrance to the 
 lagoon was a narrow canal between the reefs, shown 
 up vividly by the gap in the ring of creaming surf. 
 It was not likely that any one from the lugger would 
 lend a hand for pilotage or be trusted if they 
 offered. So Kettle steamed the yacht to some half- 
 mile off the entrance, called away the whale-boat, and 
 went off in her himself with a crew and a couple of 
 leadsmen to survey the channel. He did it with all 
 deliberation; returned; took his perch in the fore- 
 crosstrees, where he could see the coral floor through 
 the clear water beneath, and conned the yacht in 
 himself. Carnforth leant over the bridge-end and 
 watched. 
 
 The coral floor with its wondrous growths came 
 up towards him out of the deep water. The yacht 
 rolled into the pass on the backs of the great ocean 
 swells, and the reef-ends on either side boomed like 
 a salute of heavy guns. The white froth of the 
 surges spewed up against her sides, and the spindrift 
 pattered in showers upon her deck planks. The 
 stink of the place grew stronger every minute. 
 
 Then she shot through into a mirror of still, 
 smooth water, slowed to half-speed, and with hand
 
 THE PEARL POACHERS. l6l 
 
 lead going diligently, steamed up to an anchorage in 
 sixteen fathoms off one of the sandy islets. A white 
 whale-boat put off from the lugger, rowed by three 
 Kanakas, and by the time the yacht's cable was bit- 
 ted, a man from her had stepped up the accommo- 
 dation ladder, and was looking about him on deck. 
 
 He was a biggish man in striped pyjamas, bare- 
 footed, roughly-bearded, and wearing a crumpled 
 pith helmet well down on the back of his head. His 
 face was burnt to a fine mahogany colour by the 
 sun, and, dangling over his chest at the end of a 
 piece of fine sinnet, was a gold-rimmed eyeglass 
 which glittered like a diamond when it caught 
 the sun. He touched his helmet to Kettle. 
 
 " You've brought a fine day with you, Cap- 
 tain," said he. 
 
 " Rather warm," said Kettle. " I haven't looked 
 at the glass this morning. I hope it's going to keep 
 steady." 
 
 The visitor glanced round and sized up the yacht 
 and its resources. " Oh, I should say it's likely to 
 for the present. You've a nice little boat here, and 
 a likely looking lot of men. You'll be having ten of 
 a crew all-told, Captain, eh ? " 
 
 "Thirteen," said Kettle. 
 
 " Humph, it's an unlucky number. Well, Captain, 
 if I were you I wouldn't stay here too long. The 
 weather's a bit uncertain, you know, in these seas." 
 
 " We want some pearls and shell before we 
 go." 
 
 " I might have guessed that. Well, it's a nuisance 
 from our point of view, because we thought we'd 
 the lagoon to ourselves, and intended to skim if 
 ii
 
 l62 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 clear ourselves if the Japs didn't interrupt. But, 
 take the tip, Captain, and don't be too greedy. If 
 you stay too long, the glass may fall suddenly 
 and " 
 
 " Take care, my lad," snapped Kettle, " I'm a man 
 that accepts threats from no man living." 
 
 " Oh, all right," said the stranger carelessly. " But 
 who have we here ? " And he stuck the glass into 
 his eye and whistled. 
 
 Captain Kettle made a formal introduction. " My 
 owner, sir, Mr. Martin, of New York." 
 
 " Humph," said the visitor : " you used to be 
 Carnforth up at Cambridge, didn't you ? M. Carn- 
 forth, I remember, and M. might possibly stand 
 for Martin." 
 
 Captain Kettle smiled grimly, and Carnforth 
 swore. 
 
 " Bit of a surprise to find you pearl-poaching, Carn- 
 forth. I see your name in the Australian papers 
 now and again, and got a notion you were something 
 big at home. Had a bust-up ? " 
 
 " No," said Carnforth. " I'm all right there. 
 Come below and have a drink and a talk. By the 
 way, it's awfully rude of me ; I haven't tumbled 
 yet to who you are." 
 
 " Never mind my name," said the visitor coolly. 
 " I don't suppose you'd remember me. I was a 
 reading man up there, and you weren't. You did 
 your best to torment my life out. I took a big 
 degree and made a fizzle of after-life. You got 
 ploughed and became a commercial success. So 
 you see we've little enough in common ; and, besides, 
 I was here first, and I resent your coming."
 
 THE PEARL POACHERS. 163 
 
 " Oh, rubbish, man ! Come below and have a 
 cocktail." 
 
 " Thanks, no. I prefer not to be under the 
 tie of bread and salt with er trade rivals." He 
 dropped his eyeglass, and walked to the head of 
 the accommodation ladder. " Look here, Master 
 Carnforth," he said, " I'll give you a useful tip. 
 Clear out!" Then he went down into his whale- 
 boat, and the brown men pulled him back to the 
 lugger. 
 
 "Curse that beggar's impudence," said Carnforth 
 hotly. " I wonder who the deuce he is? " 
 
 " Maybe we'll find out," said Kettle. " I tried to 
 catch your eye whilst he was speaking. If I had 
 my way, he'd be on board now, kept snug till we 
 were through with our business here. He'd have 
 been a lot safer that way." 
 
 ; ' Oh, no ! " said Carnforth. " We couldn't have 
 done the high-handed like that on the little he said. 
 Wonder who he can be, though ? Some poor 
 beggar whose corns I trod on up at Cambridge. 
 Well, anyway twenty years and that beard have 
 completely changed him out of memory. However, 
 if he chooses to come round and be civil, he can ; and 
 if he doesn't, I won't worry. And now, Captain, 
 pearls. The sooner we get to work, the more 
 chance we have of getting a cargo under hatches 
 and slipping away undisturbed." 
 
 " Right-o," said Captain Kettle. " They've got 
 the other two sandbanks, and, by the stink, they're 
 doing a roaring business. We'll bag this empty 
 one near us, and set about fishing this very hour, 
 and plant our shell to rot there. It'll smell a bit
 
 164 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 different to a rose-garden, Mr. Carnforth, but it'll be 
 a sight more valuable." 
 
 Then began a period of frantic toil and labour. 
 Every man on board was " on shares," for it had 
 pleased Carnforth's whim to use this old buccaneer's 
 incentive. Half of the profits went to the ship, and 
 the rest to the crew. Each man had so many shares, 
 according to his rating. Carnforth himself, in addi- 
 tion to his earnings as owner, earned also as an ordi- 
 nary seaman, and sweated, and strained like any of 
 the hands. From an hour before daybreak to an hour 
 after sunset he was away in the boats, under the dews 
 of morn and eve, or the blazing torrent of midday 
 sunshine. Every night he tumbled into his bed-place 
 dog-tired, and exulting in his tiredness. Every 
 morning he woke eagerfor the fierce toil. He was 
 unshaven, sun-burned, blood-smeared from the 
 scratches of the shell, filthy with rank sea mud. But 
 withal he was entirely happy. 
 
 Kettle toiled with equal vigour, working violently 
 himself, and violently exhorting the others. Neither 
 his arms nor his tongue were ever tired. But he was 
 always neat, and seldom unclean. Dirt seemed to 
 have an antipathy for the man, and against his dis- 
 hevelled owner, he looked like a park dandy beside 
 a rag picker. 
 
 At the other side of the lagoon the white man 
 from Cambridge, and a white friend, and their crew 
 often Kanakas, worked with similar industry. The 
 ring of the lagoon was some half mile in diameter, 
 with lanes of deep water running through its floor 
 where divers could not work. There was no clashing 
 of the two parties. One of these water lanes seemed
 
 THE PEARL POACHERS. 1 6$ 
 
 to set out a natural boundary, and neither trans- 
 gressed it. On each submarine territory there was 
 enough shell to work on for the present, and each 
 party toiled with the same frantic energy, and spread 
 out the shell on the sun-baked sandbanks, and 
 poisoned heaven with the scent of decay. But 
 there was no further intercourse between the two 
 bodies of men, nor indeed any attempt at it. How 
 the others were doing, the yacht's party neither knew 
 nor cared. Theirs was a race against time for wealth, 
 and not one striver amongst them all had leisure to 
 be curious about his neighbors. 
 
 In a nicer life, the smells of the place would have 
 offended them monstrously ; here they were a matter 
 for congratulation. The more the putrefaction, the 
 more the profit. They ripped the shells from the 
 sea, and spread them upon the beaches. The 
 roasting sun beat upon the spread-out shell-fish, 
 and melted away their soft tissues in horrible de- 
 cay. 
 
 The value was all a gamble. There might be 
 merely so much mother-o '-pearl for inlay work; or 
 seed pearls, such as the Chinese grind up for medi- 
 cine; or larger pearls of any size and colour and shape, 
 from the humble opalescent sphere worth its meagre 
 half-a-crown, to the black pearl worth its score of 
 pounds, or the great pear-shaped pink pearl worth a 
 prince's ransom. It was all a gamble, but none the 
 less fascinating for that. Carnforth was mad over 
 the work ; Kettle, with all his nonchalance gone, was 
 nearly as bad. 
 
 But the process of realising their wealth was none 
 too fast, and, in fact, seemed to them tedious beyond
 
 1 66 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 words. Every filled shell, with its latent possibilities 
 of treasure lying out there upon the sand, was so 
 much capital left in a perilously insecure investment. 
 They were so bitterly afraid of interruptions. The 
 dark shadow of Japan was always before their eyes. 
 
 Still at last came the first moment of realisation. 
 They had toiled a month, and they had collected 
 that day the fruits of their first day's labour. The 
 mother-o '-pearl shell was packed in the hold ; the 
 little crop of pearls stood in a basin on the cabin 
 table, and they gloated over them as they supped. 
 
 Carnforth stirred them lovingly with the butt of 
 his fork. " Pretty little peas, aren't they, skipper? " 
 
 " For those they amuse, though I like to see a 
 bit more colour in a woman's ornaments myself/' 
 
 " Matter of taste and matter of fasion. Pearls are 
 all the rage just now. Diamonds are slightly com- 
 monplace ; but women will spend their money on 
 something, and so the price of pearls is up." 
 
 " So much the better for us, sir. It's a pity, 
 though, that some of them seem a bit off colour, like 
 that big grey chap for instance." 
 
 " Grey, man ! Why, that's a black pearl, and prob- 
 ably worth any ten of the rest put together." 
 
 " Well," said Kettle, " I don't set up for being a 
 pearl merchant. Poaching them's trouble enough 
 for me." 
 
 " Pass the biscuit, will you ? " said Carnforth, 
 yawning. " I suppose that little lot is worth 
 worth anything over a thousand pounds," and 
 with that he dropped back dead asleep in his chair 
 with a forkful of food in mid-air. Captain Kettle
 
 THE PEARL POACHERS. 167 
 
 finished his meal, but he, too, man of wire though 
 he was, suddenly tumbled forward and went to sleep 
 with his head on the table. It was no new thing for 
 them to do. They had dropped off like this into 
 unconsciousness more than once during that month 
 of savage toil. 
 
 The next day they had a smaller crop ready to 
 glean a bare five hundred pounds' worth, in fact. 
 But they did not lament. There would be an enor- 
 mous quantity ready for the morrow. 
 
 That further realisation of their wealth, however, 
 never came. During the night another lugger sailed 
 into the lagoon, and upset all their plans. She was 
 the consort of the lugger commanded by the Cam- 
 bridge man, and she had taken away to a safe place 
 their first crop of pearls and shell. Further, she was 
 manned by fourteen whites, all armed, and all quite 
 ready to defend what they considered their poachers' 
 monopoly. As a consequence, they pulled across 
 to the yacht some two hours before daybreak, and 
 Carnforth and Captain Kettle found themselves 
 waked by three men who carried Mar-lin repeating 
 rifles, and were quite ready to use them if pressed. 
 
 But the little sailor was not easily cowed. " By 
 James ! " he cried, " this is piracy ! " 
 
 " It'll be a funeral," said the man with the eye- 
 glass, " if you don't bring your hand out from under 
 that pillow, and bring it out empty. Now, don't 
 risk it, skipper. I'm a good snap shot myself, and 
 this is only a two-pound trigger." 
 
 Captain Kettle did not chuck his life away use- 
 lessly. He let go his revolver and drew out his hand. 
 " Well," he said, " what are you grimy pirates going
 
 1 68 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 to do next? By the look of you, you've come here 
 to steal our soap and hairbrushes." 
 
 " Carnforth," shouted the man with the eyeglass, 
 " come in here and be told what's going to happen. 
 I say, you fellows, bring Carnforth into the skipper's 
 room." 
 
 Martin Carnforth came into Kettle's room sullenly 
 enough, with his hands in his pockets. 
 
 " Now I'll give you the whole case packed small," 
 said the spokesman. " A crowd of us found this 
 place, and discovered the pearls and the shell. We 
 were all badly in want of a pile, and we took the 
 risks, and started in to get it. Most of us went 
 away with the first cargo, and only two white men 
 were left with a few Kanakas. Then you came. 
 You were told you're not wanted, but you gently 
 hinted at force majeure, and were allowed to stay. 
 Finally the rest of our crowd comes back, and it's 
 force majeure on the other side, and now you've got 
 to go. If you've the sense of oysters, you'll go 
 peacefully. There isn't enough for all of us ; at any 
 rate we don't intend to share." 
 
 " Mr. Carnforth," said Kettle, " I told you we'd 
 better have bottled that dirty man with the window- 
 pane eye who's been talking." 
 
 " Look here," said Carnforth hotly. " This is all 
 nonsense. We've got as much right here as 
 you." 
 
 " Right ! " said the pearler. " Right had better 
 not enter into the question. We're all a blooming 
 lot of poachers, if it comes to that. You know that, 
 Mr. Martin, or Carnforth, or whatever you choose 
 to call yourself for the time being. You come here
 
 THE PEARL POACHERS. 169 
 
 under a purser's name, your yacht is guyed out like 
 a Mediterranean tunny fisher ; and I guess you look 
 upon the thing much as you did bagging knockers 
 and brass door-plates in the old days at Cambridge 
 half the fun's in dodging the bobby." 
 
 " You're taking the wrong sort of tone," inter- 
 rupted Carnfoth. " I'm not used to being hectored 
 at like this." 
 
 " I can believe it," said the pearler drily. " You 
 are a successful man." 
 
 " And let me tell you this. You've got the up- 
 per hand for the present, that I admit. You may 
 even force us out of the lagoon. But what then ? I 
 guess the account would not be closed ; and when 
 a man chooses to make me his enemy, I always see 
 that he gets payment in full sooner or later." 
 
 " All right," said the man with the eyeglass, " pay 
 away. Don't mind us." 
 
 " A hint at one of the Japanese ports as to what 
 was gom' on would soon upset your little game." 
 
 " Not being fools," said the pearler coolly, " of 
 course we've thought of that. We've " 
 
 A hail came down the saloon skylight outside, 
 from the deck above. " Scoot, boys, scoot ! The 
 Philistines be upon us." 
 
 " What's that?" shouted the man with the eye- 
 glass. 
 
 " Well, it's one of those confounded Jap gunboats, 
 if you want to know. Hurry, and we shall just get 
 off. We'll leave these fools to pay the bill." 
 
 "Humph!" said the pearler, "that settles the 
 matter another way. 1 must go, and I suppose 
 you'll try to hook it too. Ta, ta, skipper ; you're
 
 170 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 a good sort I like you. By-bye Carnforth, can't 
 recommend the Jap gaols. Hope you get caught, 
 and that'll square up for your giving me a bad time 
 at Cambridge." 
 
 He followed the others out on deck, and a mo- 
 ment later their whale-boat was pulling hard for 
 where the luggers rode lazily at their anchors. 
 Carnforth and Kettle went after him, and the en- 
 gineers and the yacht's crew, who had been held 
 down in the forecastle at rifle's muzzle, came on deck 
 also. 
 
 It did not require any pressing to get the engine 
 room staff to their work. The boilers were cold ; 
 but never were fires lit quicker. Paraffin, wood, 
 small coal, grease, anything that would burn, was 
 coaxed into the furnace doors. The cold gauges 
 began to quiver, but as every man on board well 
 knew, no human means could get a working steam 
 pressure under half-an-hour. 
 
 On deck the crew had run the boats up to davits, 
 had hove short by hand, and then stood like men 
 on the drop, waiting their fate. The luggers had 
 mastheaded their yards, and were beating down the 
 lagoon against a spanking breeze. One after the 
 other they tumbled out through the passage, and 
 swung on the outer swell ; and then, with their lugs 
 goose-winged, fled like some scared seafowl out 
 over the blue sun-scorched waters. 
 
 But though the yacht had canvas, Kettle knew 
 that she could not beat to windward, and so dare 
 not break his anchor out of the ground till the en- 
 gineers had given her steam. There was nothing 
 for it but to wait with what patience they could.
 
 THE PEARL POACHERS. 171 
 
 The Japanese gunboat had been sighted far enough 
 off, and, as she was coming up from the farther side 
 of the ring of reefs, she had to circle round them 
 before she could gain the only entrance. Moreover 
 her utmost paper pace was eight knots, and she 
 happened to be foul, and so her advance was slow. 
 But still to the watching men it seemed that she 
 raced up like a Western Ocean greyhound. 
 
 The sun rose higher. The stink of the rotting 
 shell-fish came to them in poisonous whiffs. At 
 another time it would have spoken of wealth 
 in sweet abundance. But now they disregarded 
 it. Prison and disgrace were the only things before 
 them, and these filled the mind. 
 
 Then the chief engineer called up to the bridge 
 through the voice-tube that he could give her enough 
 steam for steerage way in another minute. 
 
 " Foredeck there ! " cried Kettle. " Break out 
 that anchor ! By hand ! " And the men laboured 
 with the hand gear, so as to save the precious steam. 
 Then a thought flashed across Captain Kettle's brain 
 and he quickly gave it to Carnforth. " It's only a 
 beggarly chance, sir, but we'd better try it, I sup- 
 pose?" 
 
 " Yes," said Carnforth. 
 
 " If only we hadn't painted out those names, we 
 might have done it more safely. As it is, we must 
 risk it. Off with you below, sir, and get into some 
 decent clothes. You'd give the whole show away 
 if you stayed up on the bridge here in those filthy 
 rags. You may be a yacht owner, sir, but, by James, 
 you look far more like an out-of-work coal trim. 
 roer."
 
 1/2 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 Carnforth ran down the ladder, and Kettle gave 
 crisp orders to the hands on deck, who disappeared 
 also, and presently came back dressed as spruce 
 yachtsmen, in white trousers, white drill jumpers, 
 and straw hats ; and by that time the yacht was 
 under way, and steaming slowly to the pass. 
 
 The gunboat was coming in with her crew at 
 quarters, officers with swords on, and everything 
 cleared for action. The Japanese flag ran up to her 
 peak. 
 
 Promptly an English royal yacht club burgee 
 broke out at the poacher's main truck, and a British 
 blue ensign fluttered up to her poopstaff, and dipped 
 three times in salute. 
 
 Carnforth came up on to the bridge. " Now, sir/* 
 said Kettle, " you must do the talking. I guess it's 
 got to be lies, and lying's a thing I can't do." 
 
 " What shall I say ? " 
 
 " Say what's needed," replied Kettle concisely ; 
 " and don't say it wrong. Remember, sir, you're 
 lying for your liberty. It's neck or nothing. She's 
 got two big guns trained on us, and a shot from 
 either would send us to Jones before we could get 
 in a smack in return." 
 
 "What ship's that?" came the hail in perfect 
 English. 
 
 " Steam yacht Vcstris. Lord Martin, owner,'* 
 said Carnforth, who knew the value of titles on th 
 foreigners. " I am Lord Martin." 
 
 " What are you doing in here ? ** 
 
 " Been watching those poachers." 
 
 " Heave to and explain." 
 
 " I shall do nothing of the sort, and if you dare
 
 THE PEARL POACHERS. 
 
 to fire on me I will bring the British fleet about your 
 ears." 
 
 The Japanese spokesman gasped, and consulted 
 with a superior, and the steamers drew abreast. 
 
 " But you must heave to." 
 
 " I shall do nothing of the kind." 
 
 " But you are in forbidden waters." 
 
 " Then you should put up a notice to say so. I 
 shall report this to my Admiralty fn London." 
 
 " Go it," said Kettle, sotto voce. " For blooming 
 cheek, give me an M. P." 
 
 " But you must stop," said the Japanese, " or I 
 shall be compelled to fire." 
 
 " You can do as you please," said Carnforth. " I 
 shall report you to your commander-in-chief at 
 Nagasaki. I never came across such insolence. 
 You heard my name Lord Martin. You'll hear 
 more of it before long." 
 
 Steam was rising in the gauges, and the yacht was 
 getting into her stride of twelve knots. She sped 
 out through the passage, and rolled in the trough of 
 the glistening swells beyond. The crew of the war- 
 ship still stood to their guns, but the officers were in 
 a dilemma. These pestilential Britishers always did 
 make such a row if any of their vessels were fired 
 on ; and this, apparently, was a yacht, though 
 grotesquely unkempt, and tricked out with a black 
 and red funnel; and, moreover, she was owned by a 
 peer of the realm. 
 
 A last despairing hail came over the waters: 
 " Are you noble ? " 
 
 " Yes, haven't I told you ? Lord Martin. You'll 
 know it better when you're next in port."
 
 1/4 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 And that was the last word. The gunboat turned 
 and steamed out after them, but her turning circle 
 was large, and her speed slow. By midday she was 
 hull down astern ; by evening her mast trucks were 
 under the water. 
 
 Carnforth strutted the deck complacently. 
 "Rather a gorgeous bluff, eh, Skipper?" he said at 
 last. 
 
 " You're the only man on this ship that could have 
 done it," said Kettle admiringly. " It takes a parli- 
 amentary education to lie like that." 
 
 Again the silence grew between them, and then 
 Carnforth said, musingly : " I wonder who that 
 Cambridge man was." 
 
 " He seemed to hate you pretty tenderly." 
 
 " He did that. I suppose I must have played 
 some practical joke on him. Well, I know I used 
 to be up to all sorts of larks in those days, Skipper, 
 but that's long enough ago now, and all that sort of 
 foolishness is past." 
 
 Captain Kettle laughed. " Have you done with 
 pearl-poaching, sir? Or are you going to have 
 another try at it? But don't paint out the name of 
 your ship next time. If that Jap had had the eyes 
 of a mole he'd have seen the change, and he'd have 
 taken his chances and fired. Governor L. C. Wai- 
 throp is no name for an English milord's yacht."
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE LINER AND THE ICEBERG. 
 
 CAPTAIN KETTLE had been thanking Carnfoth for 
 getting him command of the Atlantic liner Armenia. 
 " But," he went on, " qualifications, sir, are all my 
 eye. Interest's the thing that shoves a ship-master 
 along. Yes, Mr. Carnforth, interest and luck. I've 
 got qualifications by the fathom, and you know 
 pretty well what they've ever done for me. But 
 you're a rich man and an M. P. ; you've got interest ; 
 you come up and give me a good word with an owner, 
 and look, the thing's done." 
 
 " Well, I sincerely v/ish you a long reign," said 
 Carnforth. " The Armenia's the slowest and oldest 
 ship on the line, but she was the best I could get the 
 firm to give you. It's seldom they change their cap- 
 tains, and they promote from the bottom, upwards. 
 You've got all the line before you, Kettle, and the 
 rest must depend on yourself. I'd sincerely like to 
 see you commodore of the firm's fleet, but you'll 
 have to do the climbing to that berth by your own 
 wit. I've done all I can." 
 
 " You've done more for me, sir, than any other 
 creature living's done, and believe me, I'm a very 
 grateful fellow. And you can bet I shall do my best 
 to stick to a snug berth now I've got it. I'm a married 
 
 '75
 
 /6 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 man, Mr. Carnforth, with children ; I've them always 
 at the back of my memory ; and I've known what 
 it is to try all the wretched jobs that the knock-about 
 ship-master's put to if he doesn't choose his belong- 
 ings to starve. The only thing I've got to be fright- 
 ened of now, is luck, and that's a thing which is 
 outside my hands, and outside yours, and outside 
 the hands of every one else on this earth. I guess 
 that God above keeps the engineering of luck as His 
 own private department ; and He deals it out accord- 
 ing to His good pleasure ; and we get what's best 
 for us." 
 
 Now the S.S. Armenia, or the old Atrocity, as she 
 was more familiarly named, with other qualifying 
 adjectives according to taste, was more known than 
 respected in the Western Ocean passenger trade. In 
 her day she had been a flier, and had cut a record ; 
 but her day was past. Ship-building and engine- 
 building are for ever on the improve, and with com- 
 petition, and the rush of trade, the older vessels are 
 constantly getting outclassed in speed and economy. 
 
 So heavy stoke-hold crews and extravagant coal 
 consumption no longer made the Armenia tremble 
 along at her topmost speed. The firm had built 
 newer and faster boats to do the showy trips which 
 got spoken about in the newspapers ; and in these 
 they carried the actresses, and the drummers, and 
 the other people who run up heavy wine bills and 
 insist on expensive state-rooms ; and they had 
 lengthened the Armenia's scheduled time of passage 
 between ports to what was most economical for coal 
 consumption, and made her other arrangements to
 
 THE LINER AND THE ICEBERG. 177 
 
 match. They advertised first-class bookings from 
 Liverpool to New York for 11 and upwards, and 
 passengers who economised and bought \ I tickets, 
 fondly imagining that they were going to cross in 
 one of the show boats, were wont to find themselves 
 consigned to berths in inside cabins on the Armenia. 
 
 The present writer (before Captain Kettle took 
 over command) knew the Armenia well. A certain 
 class of passengers had grown native to her. On 
 outward trips she was a favourite boat for Mormon 
 missionaries and their converts. The saints them- 
 selves voyaged first-class, and made a very nasty ex- 
 hibition of manners ; their wives were in the second 
 cabin ; and the ruck of the converts Poles, Slavs, 
 Armenians, and other noisome riff-raff reposed in 
 stuffy barracks far below the water-line, and got the 
 best that could be given them for their contract 
 transport price of three-pound-ten a head. Besides 
 the Mormons (and shunning them as oil does water) 
 there were civilized passengers who shipped by the 
 Armenia either because the cheap tariff suited their 
 purses, or because an extra couple of days at sea did 
 not matter to them, and they preferred her quiet 
 rtgime to the hurry, and noise, and dazzle, and vibra- 
 tion of the crowded and more popular greyhounds. 
 
 On to the head of this queer family party, then, 
 Captain Owen Kettle was pitchforked by the Fates 
 and Mr. Carnforth, and at first he found the position 
 bewilderingly strange. He was thirty-seven years 
 of age, and it was his de"but as an officer on a passenger 
 boat. The whole routine was new to him. Even 
 the deckhands were of a class strange to his experi- 
 ence, and did as they were bidden smartly and effi 
 
 12
 
 1 78 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 ciently, and showed no disposition to simmer to a 
 state of constant mutiny. But newest of all, he 
 came for the first time in contact with an official 
 called a Purser (in the person of one Mr. Reginald 
 Horrocks) at whose powers and position he was in- 
 clined to look very much askance. 
 
 It was Mr. Horrocks who welcomed him on board, 
 and the pair of them sized one another up with dili- 
 gence. Kettle was suspicious, brusque, and inclined 
 to assert his position. But the Purser was more a 
 man of the world, and, besides, he was by profession 
 urbane, and a cultivator of other people's likings. 
 He made it his boast that he could in ten minutes 
 get on terms of civility with the sourest passenger 
 who was ever put into an undesirable room ; and he 
 was resolved to get on a footing of geniality with the 
 new skipper if his art could manage it. Mr. Hor- 
 rocks had sailed on bad terms with a captain once in 
 the days of his novitiate, and he did not wish to re- 
 peat the experience. 
 
 But Kettle was by nature an autocrat, and could 
 not shake down into the new order of things all at 
 once. The Armenia was in dock, noisy with steve- 
 dores working cargo, when the new captain paid his 
 first preliminary visit of inspection. Horrocks was 
 in attendance, voluble and friendly, and they went 
 through every part of her, from the sodden shaft- 
 tunnel, to the glory-hole where the stewards live. 
 The Purser was all affability, but Kettle resented his 
 tone, and at last, when they had ended their excur- 
 sion, and walked together into the chart-house on 
 the lower bridge, the little sailor turned round and 
 faced the other, and put the case to him significantly.
 
 THE LINER AND THE ICEBERG. 1/9 
 
 "You will kindly remember that I am Captain of 
 this ferry," he said. 
 
 " You're Captain all the way, sir," said Horrocks 
 genially. " My department is the care of the passen- 
 gers as your deputy, and the receiving in of stores 
 from the superintendent purser ashore ; and I wish 
 to handle them all according to your orders." 
 
 " Oh," said Kettle, " you'll have a pretty free hand 
 here. I don't mind telling you I'm new to this 
 hotel-keeping business. I've been in cargo boats up 
 to now." 
 
 " Well, of course, Captain, a Purser's work is a 
 profession to itself, and the details are not likely to 
 have come in your way. I suppose I'd better run 
 things on much as before to start with, and when 
 you see a detail you want changed, you tell me, and 
 I'll see it changed right away. That's where I come 
 in ; I'm a very capable man at carrying out orders. 
 And there's another thing, Captain ; I know my 
 place; I'm just your assistant." 
 
 Captain Kettle pressed the bell. " Purser," said 
 he, " I believe we shall get on well. I hope we shall ; 
 it's most comfortable that way." A bareheaded 
 man in a short jacket knocked, and came in through 
 the chart-house door. " Steward, bring a bottle of 
 whisky, and put my name on it, and keep it in the 
 rack yonder ; and bring some fresh water and two 
 glasses Purser, you'll have a drink with me ? " 
 
 " Well, here's plenty of cargo," said Kettle, when 
 the whisky came. 
 
 " Here's plenty of passengers and a popular ship," 
 said the Purser. 
 
 But if Mr. Horrocks was civil and submissive in
 
 180 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 words on the Armenia, it was because he had mas. 
 tered the art of only saying those things which are 
 profitable, and keeping his private thoughts for dis- 
 closure on more fitting occasions. When he sat at 
 tea that night with his wife across in their little 
 house in New Brighton, he mentioned that the new 
 captain did not altogether meet with his august ap- 
 proval. " He's a queer savage they've got hold of, 
 and no mistake this time," said he ; "a fellow that's 
 lived on freighters all his life, and never seen a ser- 
 viette, and doesn't know what to do with his enter- 
 tainment money." 
 
 "Tell the firm," suggested Mrs. Horrocks. 
 
 " Not much. At least, not yet. He's new, and 
 so naturally they think he's a jewel. I'm not going 
 to make myself unpopular by complaining too soon. 
 Give this new old man string enough, and he'll hang 
 himself neatly without my help." 
 
 " Like the last ? " 
 
 " Oh, this one's worse than him. In fact I'm be- 
 ginning to be sorry I ever did get our last old man 
 the push. He was all right so long as I didn't 
 make my perquisites too big. But as for this one, 
 I don't suppose he'll understand I've a right to per- 
 quisites at all." 
 
 "But," said Mrs. Horrocks, "you're Purser. 
 What does he suppose you live on ? He must know 
 that the pay don't go far." 
 
 " Well, he didn't seem to know what a Purser 
 was, and when I tried to hint it to him, he just 
 snapped out that he was Captain of this blooming 
 ship." 
 
 "And then?"
 
 THE LINER AND THE ICEBERG. l8l 
 
 Mr. Horrocks shrugged his shoulders. " Oh, I 
 agreed right away. May as well tickle a fool as tease 
 him, my dear. He thinks because he's a splendid 
 seaman and he may be that, I'll admit he's fit to 
 skipper a Western Ocean passenger boat. He's a 
 lot to learn yet, and I'm the man that's going to 
 educate him." 
 
 Now the exasperating part of it was, that not 
 only did this process of "education" promptly be- 
 gin, but Captain Kettle knew it. Never before had 
 he had any one beneath him on board ship who had 
 dared to dispute his imperial will, and done it suc- 
 cessfully. There was no holding this affable purser, 
 no pinning him down to a specific offence. If he 
 mapped out a plan of action, and Captain Kettle 
 objected to it, he was all civility, and would give it 
 up without argument. " Certainly, sir," he would 
 say. " You're captain on this boat, as you say, and 
 I'm Purser, and I just know my place." And then 
 afterwards would invariably come a back thrust 
 which Captain Kettle could never parry. 
 
 There were three long tables in the saloon, headed 
 by the Captain, the Purser, and the Doctor ; and 
 when the passengers came on board at Liverpool or 
 New York, it was Mr. Horrocks who arranged their 
 meal places. He had a nice discrimination, this 
 Purser, and from long habit could sum up a passen- 
 ger's general conversational qualities at a glance. 
 He knew also Captain Kettle's tastes and limitations, 
 and when that redoubtable mariner had been mak- 
 ing things unpleasant, he rewarded him with dinner 
 companions for the next run who kept him in a 
 state of subdued frenzy. It was quite an easy thing
 
 182 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 to do, and managed craftily, it was a species of tor 
 ture impossible to resent. 
 
 In fact it may be owned at once that as a con- 
 versational head to a liner's table, Captain Kettle 
 did not shine. The situation was new and strange 
 to him. Up till then he had fought his way about 
 the seas in cargo tramps, with only here and there 
 a stray passenger ; and, at table, professional topics 
 had made up the talk, or, what was more common, 
 glum, scowling silence had prevailed. 
 
 Here, on this steam hotel, he suddenly found 
 himself looked up to as a head of society. His own 
 real reminiscences of the sea he kept back ; he felt 
 them to be vastly impolite ; he never dreamed that 
 they might be interesting. 
 
 His power of extracting sweet music from the ac- 
 cordion he kept rigidly in the background. Accor- 
 dions seemed out of place somehow with these finick- 
 ing passengers. He felt that his one genteel taste 
 was for poetry, but only once did he let it slip out. 
 It was half-way across the Atlantic on a homeward 
 trip, and conversation had lagged. The Purser's and 
 the Doctor's tables were in a rattle of cheerful talk: 
 Kettle's was in a state of boredom. In desperation 
 he brought out his sacred topic. 
 
 At once every ear within range started to listen : 
 he saw that at once. But he mistook the motive. 
 The men around him they were mostly Americans 
 thought that the whole thing was an effort of 
 humor. It never occurred to them that this vine- 
 gary-faced little sailor actually himself made the sen- 
 timental rhymes he quoted to them ; and when it 
 dawned upon them that this was no ioke, and the
 
 THE LINER AND THE ICEBERG. 183 
 
 man was speaking in sober, solemn earnest, the fun. 
 niness of it swept over them like a wave. The table 
 yelped with inextinguishable laughter. 
 
 Of a sudden Captain Kettle realised that he was 
 his passengers' butt, and sat back in his chair as 
 though he was getting ready for a spring. 
 
 In his first torrent of rage he could with gusto 
 have shot the lot of them ; but to begin with he was 
 unarmed, and, in the second place, passengers are not 
 crew ; and moreover, after the first explosion, the 
 laughter began to die away. One by one the diners 
 looked at the grim, savage, little face glaring at them 
 from the end of the table, and their mirth seemed to 
 chill. The laughter ended, and an uncomfortable 
 silence grew, and remained to the finish of the meal. 
 
 During the succeeding meals moreover up till the 
 end of the voyage, that silence was very little en- 
 croached upon at the Captain's end of the middle 
 table. Any one who ventured to speak, had the 
 benefit of Captain Kettle's full gaze, and found it 
 disconcerting. Ev^n to passengers on a modern 
 steam ferry, the Captain is a person of some majesty, 
 and this one had a look about him that did not invite 
 further liberties. 
 
 That batch of passengers dispersed to the four 
 corners of the earth from Queenstown and Liverpool, 
 and the Armenia saw them no more; but news of 
 the fracas somehow or another reached the head- 
 quarters' office, and a kindly hint was given to Cap- 
 tain Kettle that such scenes would be better avoided 
 for the future. 
 
 " I quite know that passengers are awkward cattle 
 to deal with," said the partner who put it to him,
 
 1 84 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 "but you see, Captain, we make our living by carry, 
 ing them, and we can't afford to have our boats made 
 unpopular. You should use more tact, my dear 
 skipper. Tact ; that's what you want. Stand 'em 
 champagne out of your entertainment allowance, 
 and they'll stand it back, and run up bigger bills 
 with the wine steward. It all means profit, Cap- 
 tain, and those are the ways you must get it for us. 
 We aren't asking you to drum round for cargo now. 
 Your game is to make the boat cheery and comfort- 
 able for passengers, so that they'll spend a lot of 
 money on board, and like it and come again and 
 spend some more. Tumble?" 
 
 The Captain of the Armenia heard, and intended 
 to conform. But, admirer of his though I must con- 
 scientiously write myself, I cannot even hope that 
 in time he would have shaken down fitly into the 
 berth ; for to tell the truth, I do not think a more 
 unsuitable man to govern one of these modern steam 
 hotels could be found on the seas of either hemi- 
 sphere. However, as it happened, the concession 
 was not demanded of him. His luck, that cruel, evil 
 fortune, got up and hit him again, and his ship was 
 cast away, and he saw himself once more that painful 
 thing, a shipmaster without employ. More cruel 
 still, he found himself at the same time in intimate 
 touch with a great temptation. 
 
 The fatal voyage was from New York home, and it 
 was in the cold, raw spring-time when passenger lists 
 are thin. The day before sailing a letter addressed 
 " Captain Kettle, S.S. Armenia" made its appearance 
 on the chart-house table. How it got there no one 
 seemed to know, but with the crowd of stevedores
 
 THE LINER AND THE ICEBERG. 185 
 
 and others working cargo, it would have been very 
 easy for a messenger from the wharf to slip it 
 on board unobserved. The letter was typewritten, 
 and carried the address of an obscure saloon in the 
 Bowery. It said : 
 
 " There is a matter of $50,000 (,10,000) waiting for you to 
 earn with a little phick and exertion. Yon can either take the 
 game or leave it, but if you conclude to hear more, come here 
 and ask the barman for a five-dollar cocktail and he will show 
 3'ou right inside. If you are frightened, don't come. We got 
 no use for frightened men, we can easy find a man with more 
 sand in him somewhere else." 
 
 The little sailor considered over this precious 
 document for the full of an hour. " Some smug- 
 gling lay," was his first conclusion, but the sum of 
 money appeared too big for this ; then he was half 
 minded to put down the whole thing as a joke ; then 
 as a lure to rob him. The final paragraph and the 
 address given, which was in the worst part of New 
 York city, seemed to point shrewdly to this last. 
 And I believe the prospect of a scrimmage was 
 really the thing that in the end sent him off. But 
 any way, that evening he went, and after some 
 difficulty found the ruffianly drinking shop to which 
 he had been directed. 
 
 He went inside and looked inquiringly across the 
 bar. 
 
 The shirt-sleeved barman shifted his cigar. " Well. 
 Mister, what can I set up for you ? " 
 
 "You're a bit proud of your five-dollar cocktails 
 here, aren't you ? " 
 
 The man lowered his voice. " Say, are you Cap, 
 tain Cuttle ? "
 
 1 86 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 " Kettle ! confound you." 
 
 " Same thing, I guess. Walk right through that 
 door yonder and up the stair." 
 
 Captain Kettle patted a jacket pocket that bulged 
 with the outline of a revolver. " If any one thinks 
 they are going to play larks on me here, I pity 
 'em." 
 
 The barman shrugged his shoulders. " Don't 
 blame you for coming ' heeled,' boss. Guess a gun 
 sometimes chips in handy round here. But I think 
 the gents upstairs mean square biz." 
 
 " Well," said Kettle. " I'm going to see ; " and 
 opened the door and stumped briskly up the stair- 
 way. 
 
 He stepped into a room, barely furnished, and 
 lit by one grimy window. There was no one to re- 
 ceive him, so he drummed the table to make his 
 presence known. 
 
 Promptly a voice said to him : " Howdy, Captain ? 
 " Will ye mind shuttin' the door ? " 
 
 Now Kettle was not a man given to starting, but 
 he started then. The place was in the worst slum 
 in New York. Except for a flimsy table and two 
 battered chairs, the room was stark empty, and this 
 voice seemed to come from close beside him. In- 
 stinctively his fingers gripped on the weapon in his 
 jacket pocket. 
 
 He slewed sharply round to make sure he was 
 alone, and even kicked his foot under the table to 
 see that there was no jugglery about that, and then 
 the voice spoke to him again, with Irish brogue 
 and Yankee idiom quaintly intermingled. 
 
 " Sure, Captain, I have to ask yer pardon for
 
 THE LINER AND THE ICEBERG. l8/ 
 
 keeping' a brick wall right here between us. But 
 I've me health to consider, an' I reckon our biz will 
 be safest done this way." 
 
 The little sailor's grim face relaxed into a smile. 
 His eye had caught the end of a funnel which lay 
 flush with the wall. 
 
 " Ho? " he said. " That's your game, is it ? A 
 speaking-tube. Then I suppose you've got some- 
 thing to say you are ashamed of ? " 
 
 " Faith, I'm proud of it. A pathriot is never 
 ashamed of his cause." 
 
 " Get to business," said Kettle. " My time's 
 short, and this waiting-room of yours is not over 
 savoury." 
 
 " It's just a little removal we wish you to under- 
 take for us, Captain. You have gotten a Mr. Grim- 
 shaw on your passenger list for this run to Live/ 
 pool ? " 
 
 " Have I ? " 
 
 " It's so. He's one of the big bosses of you* 
 British Government." 
 
 " Well, supposing I have ? " 
 
 " He's been out here as a sort of commission, and 
 he's found out more than is good for him. He sails 
 by the Armenia to-morrow, and if you can well 
 so contrive that he doesn't land at the other side, 
 it means you are set up for life." 
 
 Captain Kettle's face stiffened, and he was about 
 to break out with something sharp. But he re- 
 strained himself and asked instead : " What's the 
 figure ? " 
 
 " $50,000 say 10,000 of your English sovereigns." 
 
 *' And how do I know that I should get paid ? "
 
 188 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 The answer was somewhat astounding. 
 
 " You can pocket the money here, right now," 
 said the voice. 
 
 " And once I got paid, what hold would you have 
 on me ? How do you know I'd shove this Grimshaw 
 over the side ? That I suppose is what you want ? " 
 
 The voice chuckled. " We've agents everywhere, 
 Captain. We'd have you removed pretty sharp if 
 you tried to diddle us." 
 
 M Oh, would you ? " snapped Kettle. " I've bucked 
 against some tolerably ugly toughs in my time and 
 come out topside, and shouldn't mhid tackling your 
 crowd for the sheer sport of the thing. But look 
 here, Mr. Paddy Fenian, you've get hold of the 
 wrong man when you came to me. By James, yes, 
 you skulking, cowardly swine ! You face behind a 
 wall ! Come out here and talk. I won't lift my 
 hands. I'll use my feet to you and kick your back- 
 bone through your hat. You'd dare to ask me to 
 murder a man, would you?" 
 
 Captain Kettle's eloquence had an unlocked for 
 effect. The voice from the speaking tube laughed. 
 
 The sailor went on afresh, and spoke of the unseen 
 one's ancestors on both sides of the house, his per- 
 sonal habits, and probable future. He had acquired 
 a goodly flow of this kind of vituperation during 
 his professional career, and had been compelled to 
 keep it bottled up before the passengers on the 
 liner. He felt a kind of gusto in letting his tongue 
 run loose again, and had the proud consciousness 
 that each of his phrases would cut like the lash of a 
 whip. 
 
 But the unseen man apparently heard him un
 
 THE LINER AND THE ICEBERG. 189 
 
 ruffled. " Blow off steam, skipper," said he ; " don't 
 mind me." 
 
 Kettle looked round the empty room dejectedly. 
 " You thing ! " he said. " I could make a man with 
 more spirit than you out of putty." 
 
 " Of course you could, skipper," said the voice 
 with the brogue ; " of course you could. I don't 
 really exist. I'm only a name, as your beastly 
 Saxon papers say when they abuse me. But I can 
 hit, as they know, and I can draw cheques as you 
 can find out if you choose. You can have your pay 
 yet if you see fit to change your mind, and ' remove ' 
 spy Grimshaw between here and Liverpool. We've 
 plenty of money, and you may as well have it as 
 any one else. It's got to be spent somehow." 
 
 " I'd give a lot to wring your neck," said Kettle. 
 He tapped the wall to test its thickness. 
 
 41 You tire me," said the voice. " Why can't you 
 drop that ? You can't get at me ; and if you go out- 
 side and set on all the police in New York city, you'll 
 do no good. The police of this city know which 
 side their bread's margarined. I'm the man with 
 the cheque-book, sonny, and you bet they're not 
 the sample of fools that'd go and try to snuff me 
 out." 
 
 " This is no place for me," said Kettle. " It seems 
 [ can't lug you out of the drain where you live, and 
 if I stay in touch of your breath any longer, I shall 
 be poisoned. I've told you who I consider your 
 mother to be. Don't forget." And the little 
 bearded sailor strode off down the stair again and 
 into the street. He had no inclination to go to the 
 police, having a pious horror of the law, and so he
 
 190 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 got a trolley car which took him down to the East 
 River, and a ferry which carried him across to his 
 SHIP. 
 
 The time was 2 a.m., and the glow of the arc lamps 
 and the rattle of winch chains, and the roar of work- 
 ing cargo, went up far into the night. But noise 
 made little difference to him, and even the episode 
 he had just gone through was not sufficient to keep 
 him awake. 
 
 The master of a Western Ocean ferry gets little 
 enough of sleep when he is on the voyage, and so 
 on the night before sailing he stores up as much as 
 may be. 
 
 As it chanced Mr. Grimshaw took steps to im- 
 press himself on Captain Kettle's notice at an early 
 stage of the next day's proceedings. The ship was 
 warping out of dock with the help of a walking-beam 
 tug, and a passenger attempted to pass the quarter- 
 master at the foot of the u v ~er bridge ladder. The 
 sailor was stubborn, but the passenger was impera- 
 tive, and at last pushed his way up, and was met by 
 Kettle himself at the head of the ladder. 
 
 " Well, sir?" said that official. 
 
 " I've come to see you take your steamer out into 
 New York Bay, Captain." 
 
 " Oh, have you ? " said Kettle. " Are you the 
 Emperor of Germany, by any chance? " 
 
 " I am Mr. Robert Grirnshaw." 
 
 " Same thing. Neither you nor he is Captain 
 here. I am. So I'll trouble you to get to Halifax 
 out of this before you're put. Quarter-master, I'll 
 log you for neglect of duty."
 
 THE LINER AND THE ICEBERG. 191 
 
 Grimshaw turned and went down the ladder with 
 a flushed cheek. " Thank you, Captain," he said 
 over his shoulder. " I've got influence with your 
 owners. I'll not neglect to use it." 
 
 It chanced also that Captain Kettle had been cut- 
 ting down his Purser's perquisites more ruthlessly 
 than usual in New York, and that worthy man 
 thirsted for revenge. He had taken Mr. Grimshaw's 
 measure pretty accurately at first sight, and was tol- 
 erably sure that eight days of his conversation would 
 irritate his skipper into a state approaching frenzy. 
 So he portioned off the commissioner to the end 
 right-hand chair at the Captain's table, and promised 
 himself pleasant revenge in overlooking the result. 
 
 Captain Kettle worked the Armenia outside the 
 bar and came down to dinner. Horrocks whispered 
 in his ear as he came down the companion, " Mr. 
 Grimshaw's the man on your right, sir. Had to give 
 him to you. He's some sort of a big bug in the gov- 
 ernment at home ; been over in New York inquiring 
 into the organization of those Pat-lander rebels." 
 
 Kettle nodded curtly and went on to his seat. 
 The meal began, and went on. Mr. Grimshaw made 
 no allusion to the previous encounter. He had made 
 up his mind to exact retaliation in full, and started 
 at once to procure it. He had the reputation in 
 London of being a " most superior person," and he 
 possessed in a high degree the art of being cour- 
 teously offensive. He was a clever man with his 
 tongue, and never overstepped the bounds of sua- 
 vity. 
 
 How the wretched Kettle sat through that meal 
 he did not know. Under this polished attack he
 
 192 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 was impotent of defence. Not a chance was given 
 him for retort. And all the thrusts went home. 
 He retired from the dinner-table with a moist per- 
 spiration on his face, and an earnest prayer that 
 the Armenia would carry foul weather with her all 
 the way up to Prince's landing stage, so that he 
 might be forced to spend the next seven or eight 
 days on the chilly eminence of the upper bridge. 
 
 And now we come to the story of how Captain 
 Owen Kettle's luck again buffeted him. 
 
 The Armenia was steaming along through the 
 night, to the accompaniment of deep and dismal 
 hootings from the syren. A fog spread over the 
 Atlantic, and the bridge telegraph pointed to " Half 
 speed ahead " as the Board of Trade directs. The 
 engine-room, however, had private instructions as 
 usual, and kept up the normal speed. 
 
 On the forecastle head four lookout men peered 
 solemnly into the fog and knew that for all the prac- 
 tical good they were doing they might just as well 
 be in their bunks. 
 
 On the bridge, in glistening oilskins, Kettle and 
 two mates stared before them into the thickness, 
 but could not see as far as the foremast. And the 
 Armenia surged along at her comfortable fourteen 
 knots, with five hundred people asleep beneath her 
 deck. The landsman fancies that on these occasions 
 steamships slow down or stop ; the liner captain 
 knows that if once he did so, he would have little 
 chance of taking his ship across the Atlantic again. 
 A day lost to one of these ocean ferries means in 
 coal, and food, and wages, and so on, a matter of 
 j 1,000 or so out of the pockets of her owners, and
 
 THE LINER AND THE ICEBERG. 193 
 
 this is a little sum they do not care to forfeit with- 
 out strong reason. They expect their captains to 
 drive the boats along as usual, and make up for the 
 added risk by increased watchfulness and precaution, 
 and a keen noting of the thermometer for any sud- 
 den fall which should foretell the neighbourhood of 
 ice. 
 
 Now the Armenia was skirting the edge of the 
 Banks, on the recognized steam lane to the East- 
 ward, which differs from that leading West ; and by 
 all the laws of navigation there should have been 
 nothing in the way. Nothing, that is, except fish- 
 ing schooners, which do not matter, as they are the 
 only sufferers if they haven't the sense to get out of 
 the way. 
 
 But, suddenly, through the fog ahead there loomed 
 out a vast shape, and almost before the telegraph 
 rung its message to the engine-room, and certainly 
 before steam could be shut off, the Armenia s bow 
 was clashing and clanging and ripping and buckling 
 as though it had charged full tilt against a solid 
 cliff. 
 
 The engines stopped, and the awful tearing noises 
 ceased, save for a tinkling rattle as of a cascade of 
 glass, and, " There goes my blooming ticket," said 
 Kettle bitterly. " Who'd have thought of an ice- 
 berg as far south as here this time of year." But 
 he was prompt to act on the emergency. 
 
 " Now, Mr. Mate, away forward with you, and 
 get the carpenter, and go down and find out how 
 big the damage is." The crew were crowding out 
 on deck. " All hands to boat stations. See all 
 clear for lowering away, and then hold on all. Now 
 '3
 
 194 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 keep your heads, men. There's no damage, and if 
 there was damage, there's no hurry. Put a couple 
 of hands at each of the companion-ways, and keep 
 all passengers below. We can't have them messing 
 round here yet awhile." 
 
 The Purser was standing at the bottom of the up- 
 per bridge ladder half-clad, cool, and expectant. 
 " Ah, Mr. Horrocks, come here." 
 
 The Armenia had slipped back from the berg by 
 this time and lay still, with the fog dense all around 
 her. " Now it's all up with the old Atrocity, Pur- 
 ser, look how she's by the head already. Get your 
 crew of stewards together, and victual the boats. 
 Keep 'em in hand well, or else we shall have a stam- 
 pede and a lot of drowning. I'll have the boats in 
 the water by the time you're ready, and then you 
 must hand up the passengers, women first.'' 
 
 " Aye, aye, sir." 
 
 " Wait a minute. If any one won't do as he's bid, 
 shoot. We must keep order." 
 
 The Purser showed a pistol. " I put that in my 
 pocket," said he, " when I heard her hit. Good- 
 bye, skipper, I'm sorry I haven't been a better ship- 
 mate to you." 
 
 "Good-bye, Purser," said. Kettle, " you aren't a 
 bad sort." 
 
 Mr. Horrocks ran off below, and the chief officer 
 came back with his report, which he whispered 
 quietly in the shipmaster's ear. " It's fairly scratch- 
 ed the bottom off her. There's sixty feet gone, 
 clean. Collision bulkhead's nowhere. There's half 
 the Atlantic on board already." 
 
 " How long will she swim ? "
 
 THE LINER AND THE ICEBERG. 195 
 
 " The carpenter said twenty minutes, but I doubt 
 it." 
 
 " Well, away with you, Mr. Mate, and stand by 
 your boat. Take plenty of rockets and distress 
 lights, and if the fog lifts we ought to get picked up 
 by the Georgic before morning. She's close on our 
 heels somewhere. If you miss her and get separated 
 make for St. John's." 
 
 "Aye, aye, sir." 
 
 " So long, Mr. Mate. Good luck to you." 
 
 " Good-bye, skipper. Get to the inquiry if you 
 can. I'll swear till all's blue that it wasn't your 
 fault, and you may save your ticket yet." 
 
 " All right, Matey. I see what you mean. But 
 I'll not going to shoot myself this journey. I've got 
 the missis and the kids to think about." 
 
 The mate ran off down the ladder, and Kettle 
 had the upper bridge to himself. The decks of the 
 steamer glowed with flares and blue-lights. A con- 
 tinuous steam of rockets spouted from her su- 
 perstructure, far into the \&ky sky. The main fore- 
 deck was already flush with the water, and on the 
 hurricane deck aft, thrust up high into the air, fright- 
 ened human beings bustled about like the inhabi- 
 tants of some disturbed ant-hill. 
 
 Pair by pair the davit tackles screamed out, and 
 the liner's boats kissed the water, rode there for a 
 minute to their painters as they were loaded with 
 the dense human freight, and then pushed off out 
 of suction reach, and lay to. Dozen by dozen the 
 passengers left the luxurious steam hotel, and got 
 into the frail open craft which danced so danger- 
 ously in the clammy fog of that Atlantic night.
 
 196 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 Deeper the Armenia s fore part sank beneath the cold 
 waters as her forward compartments swamped. 
 
 From far beneath him in the hull, Kettle could 
 hear the hum of the bilge pumps as they fought the 
 incoming sluices ; and then at last those stopped, 
 and a gush of steam burred from the twin funnels to 
 tell that the engineers had been forced to blow off 
 their boilers to save an explosion. 
 
 A knot of three men stood at the head of the port 
 gangway ladder shouting for Kettle. He went 
 gloomily down and joined them. They were the 
 Purser, the second mate, and Mr. Grimshaw. 
 
 Kettle turned with a blaze of fury on his suave 
 tormenter. " Into the boat with you, sir. How do 
 you dare to disobey my orders and stay behind when 
 the passengers were ordered to go? Into the boat 
 with you, or by James, I'll throw you there." 
 
 Mr. Robert Grimshaw opened his lips for speech. 
 
 " If you answer me back," said Kettle, " I'll shoot 
 you dead." 
 
 Mr. Grimshaw went. He had a tolerable knowl- 
 edge of men, and he understood that this ruined 
 shipmaster would be as good as his word. He 
 picked his way down the swaying ladder to where 
 the white-painted lifeboat plunged beneath, finding 
 footsteps with clumsy landsman's diffidence. He 
 reached the grating at the foot of the ladder, and 
 paused. The lifeboat surged up violently towards 
 him over the sea, and then swooped down again in 
 the trough. 
 
 " Jump, you blame* fool," the second mate yelled 
 in his ear, " or the steamer will be down under us." 
 And Grimshaw jumped, cannoned heavily against
 
 THE LINER AND THE ICEBERG. 197 
 
 the boat's white gunwale, and sank like a stone into 
 the black water. 
 
 At a gallop there flashed through Captain Kettle's 
 brain a string of facts. He was offered j 10,000 if 
 this man did not reach Liverpool ; he himself would 
 be out of employ, and back on the streets again ; 
 his wife and children would go hungry. Moreover, 
 he had endured cruel humiliation from this man, 
 and hated him poisonously. Even by letting him 
 passively drown he would procure revenge and 
 future financial easement. But then the memory of 
 that Irish-American at the speaking-tube in the 
 Bowery came back to him, and the thought of oblig- 
 ing a cowardly assassin like that drove all other 
 thoughts from his mind. He thrust Horrocks and 
 the second-mate aside, and dived into the waters 
 after this passenger. 
 
 It is no easy thing to find a man in a rough sea 
 and an inky night like that, and for long enough 
 neither returned to the surface. The men in the 
 lifeboat, fearing that the Armenia would founder 
 and drag them down in her wash, were beginning to 
 shove off, when the two bodies showed on the 
 waves, and were dragged on board with boat- 
 hooks. 
 
 Both were insensible, and in the press of the mo- 
 ment were allowed to remain so on the bottom grat- 
 ings of the boat. Oars straggled out from her sides, 
 frantically labouring, and the boat fled over the seas 
 like some uncouth insect. 
 
 But they were not without a mark to steer for. 
 Rockets were streaming up out of another part of 
 the night, and presently, as they rowed on over that
 
 198 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 bleak watery desert, the outline of a great steamer 
 shone out, lit up like some vast stage picture. The 
 other boats had delivered up their freights, and been 
 sent adrift. The second mate's boat rowed to the 
 foot of her gangway ladder. 
 
 " This is the Georgic" said a smart officer, who 
 received them. " You are the last boat. We've got 
 all your other people unless you've lost any." 
 
 " No," said the second mate. " We're all right. 
 That's the Old Man down there with his fingers in 
 that passenger's hair." 
 
 "Dead?" 
 
 " No, I saw 'em both move as we came along- 
 side." 
 
 " Well, pass 'em up and lets get 'em down to our 
 doctor. Hurry now. We wanted to break the 
 record this passage, and we've lost a lot of time 
 already over you." 
 
 " Right-o," said the Armenia s second mate 
 drearily, " though I don't suppose our poor old 
 skipper will thank us for keeping him alive. After 
 piling up the old Atrocity, he isn't likely to ever get 
 another berth." 
 
 " Man has to take luck as he finds it at sea," said 
 the Georgic's officer, and shouted to the rail above 
 him, " All aboard, sir." 
 
 " Cast off that boat ! " " Up gangway," came the 
 orders, and the Georgic continued her race to the 
 East.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE RAIDING OF DONNA CLOTILDE. 
 
 IF any one had announced, in the Captains' Room 
 at Hallett's that a man could leave that sanctum 
 shortly before turning-out time, and be forthwith kid- 
 napped in the open streets of South Shields, every 
 master-mariner within hearing would have put him 
 down contemptuously as a gratuitous liar. All 
 opinions in the Captains' Room were expressed 
 strongly, and with due maritime force of lan- 
 guage. 
 
 The place seemed to its frequenters the embodi- 
 ment of homeliness and security. There was a 
 faint smell of varnish in the atmosphere, and always 
 had been within the memory of the oldest habitu6 
 and shipmasters came back to the odour with a 
 sigh of pleasure, as men do return to the neighbour- 
 hood of an old and unobtrusive friend. Captains 
 met in that room who traded to all parts of the 
 globe, talked, and soon found acquaintances in com- 
 mon. It was a sort of informal club, with no sub- 
 scription, and an unlimited membership. The hold- 
 ing of a master's " ticket " was the only entrance 
 qualification, and it was not considered polite to ask 
 your neighbour whether he was at that moment in 
 
 or out of employment. 
 
 199
 
 2OO ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 If you were a genuine master mariner, but of an 
 unclubable disposition, you did not go to the Cap- 
 tains' Room at Hallett's a second time and always 
 made a point of getting rather red and speaking of 
 it contemptuously when the place was mentioned 
 afterwards. If you did not hold a master's ticket, 
 even if you were that dashing thing, a newly fledged 
 mate, the barmaiden on guard spotted you on the 
 instant, and said " that door was private," and 
 directed you to the smoke-room down the passage. 
 
 Into this exclusive chamber Captain Owen Kettle 
 had made his way that day after tea, and over two 
 modest half pints of bitter beer had done his share 
 in the talk and the listening, from 8 till 10.30 of the 
 clock. He had exchanged views with other ship- 
 masters on cargoes, crews, insurances, climates, and 
 those other professional matters which the profane 
 world (not in the shipping interest) finds so dreary ; 
 and had been listened to with deference. He was 
 a man who commanded attention, and though you 
 might not like what he said, you would not dream 
 of refusing to listen to it. 
 
 That special night, however, Captain Kettle's 
 personal views on maritime affairs were listened to 
 with even more deference than usual. A large red- 
 haired man swung into the Captains' Room some 
 few minutes after Kettle had seated himself, and 
 after ordering his beverage and a cigar, nodded with 
 a whimsical smile in Kettle's direction, and asked 
 him how he liked the neighbourhood of Valparaiso 
 as a residence. 
 
 " I forget," said the little sailor, drily enough. 
 
 ** All right, Captain," said the red-haired man,
 
 THE RAIDING OF DONNA CLOTILDE. 2OI 
 
 " don't you mind me. I never remember too much 
 myself either. Only you did me a good turn out 
 there, although you probably don't know it, and I'd 
 be proud if you'd have a drink or a smoke with me 
 now in remembrance." 
 
 " You're very polite, Captain." 
 
 " Don't mention it, Captain," said the red-haired 
 man, and struck the bell. "Same? Half-a-pint of 
 bitter, please, Miss, and one of your best fourpenny 
 smokes." 
 
 The general tallc of the Captains' Room, which 
 had halted for the moment, went on again. One 
 worthy mariner had recently failed to show a clean 
 bill of health in Barcelona, and had been sent to do 
 twenty days penance at the quarantine station, 
 which is in Port Mahon, Minorca. As a natural 
 consequence, he wanted to give his views on Spain 
 and Spanish government with length and bitterness, 
 but somehow the opportunity was denied him. 
 The red-haired man put in a sentence or two, and a 
 question, and it was Kettle's views on the matter to 
 which the Captain's Room found itself listening. 
 
 A salvage point was brought up by a stout gentle- 
 man in the Baltic timber trade who was anxious to 
 air his sentiments ; but the red-haired man skUfully 
 intervened, and " Kettle on Salvage " was asked for 
 and heard. And so on all through the evening. 
 The red-haired man did his work cleverly, and no 
 one resented it. 
 
 Now, Kettle was a man who liked being listened 
 to, and there is no doubt that his vanity was tickled 
 by all this deference from his professional equals. 
 There is no doubt also that the smug security of
 
 202 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 Hallett's lulled his usual sense of wariness, which 
 may in part account for what happened afterwards. 
 And so, without further excuse for him, it is my 
 painful duty to record that an hour after he left the 
 Captains' Room, the little sailor was entrapped and 
 kidnapped by what, to a man of his knowledge, 
 was one of the most vulgar of artifices. 
 
 He emptied his tumbler, stood up, and said he 
 must be going. The red-haired man looked at the 
 round cabin clock on the wall and mentioned that 
 it was his time also ; and together they went out- 
 side into the damp, dark main street of South 
 Shields. 
 
 " Going back to your ship, Captain ? " asked the 
 big stranger. 
 
 4< Why, no, Captain," said Kettle. " I live here, 
 and I'm off home." 
 
 " Then I suppose I must say good-night. Hope 
 to meet you again, though. What boat are you on 
 now, Captain ? " 
 
 " Well, I'm putting in a bit of a spell ashore just 
 now, Captain. Fact is, I haven't come across any 
 employment quite to my taste lately. 'Tisn't every 
 shipowner I care to serve under." 
 
 " No," said the red-haired man. " They are 
 brutes, most of them. But look here, Captain, 
 there'd be no offence in my getting you the refusal 
 of a berth, would there?" 
 
 Kettle flushed. " Captain," he said, "you're 
 very good. You see I'm married, with children, 
 and I've never earned enough to put anything by. 
 Between men, I don't mind telling you I'm on my 
 beam ends. If I can't get hold of an advance note
 
 THE RAIDING OF DONNA CLOTILDE. 203 
 
 this week, it will mean going to the pawnshop for 
 Mrs. Kettle's next Sunday's dinner." 
 
 The red-haired man sighed. " Well, Captain," he 
 said, "you needn't thank me. It's just my duty to 
 my employers to put this thing in your way. But 
 we'll not speak of it here in the open. Come along 
 off to my steamboat." 
 
 " Right," said Kettle. " Where have you got 
 her?" 
 
 " She's lying at a buoy in the river. We can get 
 a boat from the steps." 
 
 Nothing much more was said between them then, 
 the big, red-haired man seemed indisposed for fur- 
 ther talk, and Kettle was too proud to ask questions. 
 Together they walked with their short seaman's 
 stride down the wet, new streets of the seaport, and 
 Captain Kettle made his brain ache by hoping that 
 this would not be another item to add to his long 
 list of disappointments. He had not earned a day's 
 wage for six months, and he was in such straits for 
 want of money that he was growing desperate. 
 
 They got down to the steps and took a water- 
 man's boat, turned up the piece of plank which lay 
 in the stern sheets, and sat on the dry side, and then 
 pushed off into the dark river. The red-haired man 
 picked up the yoke lines, and steered the boat 
 amongst the dense shipping ; past tiers of coasting 
 schooners, and timber droghers, and out-of-work 
 clinker-built tugs ; past ungainly iron steam tramps, 
 fishing craft, dredges, and the other resting traffic of 
 the Tyne ; and finally rounded up under a frieze of 
 sterns, and ran alongside the gangway of a 2OOton 
 steam vacht.
 
 204 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 " Hullo," said Kettle, "pleasure?" 
 
 " Well, hardly that," said the red-haired man. 
 " Step aboard, Captain, and I'll pay off the water, 
 man." 
 
 " He'd better wait to take me ashore again." 
 
 " No, let him go. We may have a long talk. I'll 
 put you ashore in one of my own boats when you 
 go. Now, Captain, here we are. Come below to 
 my room." 
 
 " You've got steam up, I see," said Kettle as they 
 walked aft along the white, wet decks. 
 
 " My orders," said the red-haired man. 
 
 "Sail soon?" 
 
 " May start any minute. We never know. My 
 owner's a rare one for changing mind." 
 
 " Huh," said Kettle, " might be a woman." 
 
 " Devilish like a woman," said the red-haired man 
 drily. He opened a door at the foot of the compan- 
 ion-way, and turned an electric-light switch. This 
 is my room, Captain. Step right in. A drop of 
 whisky would be a good thing to keep out the cold 
 whilst we talk. Excuse me a minute while I go get 
 a. couple of tumblers. I guess the steward's turned 
 in." 
 
 Kettle seated himself on a velvet-covered sofa, and 
 looked round at the elaborate fittings of the cabin. 
 " Satin-wood panels," he commented, " nickel battens 
 to put the charts on, glass backed book-case, and silk 
 bunk-curtains ; no expense spared anywhere. Lord ! 
 who wouldn't sell a farm and go to sea ? But the 
 old man said she wasn't pleasure ! I wonder what 
 the game is? Contraband, I guess ; many a yacht's 
 great on that. Well, anyway, I've got to hear."
 
 THE RAIDING OF DONNA CLOTILDE. 2O5 
 
 The red-haired man came back with two half-filled 
 tumblers and a water jug. " Here's the poison," 
 said he; " mix it according to your own weight." 
 
 " That's rather more than my usual whack," said 
 Kettle eyeing the tumbler; "but it's a cold, wet 
 night, so here's By the way, Captain, I'm afraid 
 I've forgotten your name ? " 
 
 "My name?" said the red-haired man. "Oh, 
 yes. I'm Douglas, Captain Douglas." 
 
 " Captain Douglas," said Kettle thoughtfully. 
 " No, I can't say I recall it at present. Well, sir, any- 
 way, here's your very good health and prosperity." 
 
 " Same," said the red-haired man, and absorbed his 
 whisky and water with the dexterity of an artist. 
 Out of politeness Captain Kettle finished his tumbler 
 also ; there is an etiquette about these matters. 
 
 Silence filled the cabin for a minute or so, broken 
 only by the distant clatter of a shovel on a firebar, 
 and Kettle looked at the cabin clock. It was half- 
 past eleven, and Mrs. Kettle would be expecting him 
 home. " Hullo," he said, " firing up ? Oh, I sup- 
 pose you've got to keep steam in the donkey boiler, 
 whilst you're in harbour, to run your dynamo. By 
 the way, you were talking about some employment 
 you could put in my way, Captain ? " he added 
 suggestively. 
 
 " Employment ! " said Douglas uneasily. " Oh, 
 was I? Employment! Yes, to be sure. Well, you 
 see, Captain, it was my owner I was speaking for, 
 and I've been thinking it over, and perhaps on the 
 whole you'd better see her for yourself." 
 
 " Her! " said Kettle. " Is there a woman at the 
 head of this concern ? "
 
 206 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 " A lady, call her. But look here, Captain, you're 
 getting sleepy. Why not turn in here for the night, 
 and see her yourself in the morning?" 
 
 Kettle yawned, and his head nodded. " I am 
 sleepy and that's a fact, though I don't know why I 
 should be. But it wouldn't do for me to turn in 
 here for the night. Mrs. Kettle's expecting me at 
 home, and I've never broken word to her since I was 
 married. I should take it as kind, Captain, if you 
 could give me some notion about this piece of em- 
 ployment now, so that I could see whether it's 
 worth " He yawned again, and struggled with his 
 heavy eyelids IC You must understand, please, Cap- 
 tain, that time is scarce with me ; I must get em. 
 ployment at once. I can't stand by and see my 
 missus and youngsters hungry." 
 
 Captain Douglas swore, and hit the table with his 
 fist. " It's beastly hard," he said, " and I hate my- 
 self for bringing you here." 
 
 " What's that noise overhead ? " said Kettle. 
 "What are your crew doing on deck?" He tried 
 to rise, but fell back stupidly on the sofa. A harsh 
 bell clanged from somewhere beneath, and the slop- 
 slop of water came to him through the yacht's side. 
 
 " She's swinging round in the stream, and some- 
 one's rung ' stand-by ' to the engine room." 
 
 " Sounds like it," the red-haired man admitted. 
 
 Again Kettle tried to rise, and with an immense 
 effort tottered to his feet ; but he had been given a 
 drug too powerful for even his iron will to fight 
 against ; and he swayed, and then pitched helplessly 
 sideways on to the carpet. 
 
 The last flickering gleams of consciousness were
 
 THE RAIDING OF DCNNA CLOTILDE. 2O/ 
 
 passing away from him, but the truth of what had 
 happened had flashed upon him at last. " Shang- 
 haied," he murmured ; " by James, yes, Shanghaied, 
 that's what this means. Well, I pity the man that 
 Shanghaied me. By James yes." He breathed 
 stertorously a time or two more, as though trying 
 to get out other words, and then dropped off into a 
 deathly stupor. 
 
 Then the door of the state-room creaked slyly 
 open, and the red-haired man started violently. 
 He turned and saw a tall, dark woman just crossing 
 the threshold. " Donna Clotilde ! " he said ner- 
 vously. " I thought you were ashore. Then it was 
 by your orders " 
 
 " That the yacht was got under way ! Si, Senor. 
 I saw you coming on board with the man we have 
 been hunting for these last two years, and as soon 
 as the pair of you got below, I sent word to the 
 mate to call all hands, and get out of the Tyne as 
 soon as the pilot could manage it." She knelt be- 
 side Kettle's prostrate body, and passed her hand 
 caressingly over his damp forehead. " You are sure 
 you have not overdone it ?" she asked. 
 
 " I am sure of nothing like that," he answered 
 grimly. " But I gave him the dose you measured 
 out yourself, so what's done is your own aftair. I 
 only added enough whisky to drown the taste, and 
 the poor little beggar drank it all down at one 
 mouthful." 
 
 " I don't see that you need pity him much. He 
 will be all right when he wakes." 
 
 " When he wakes it will be at sea, and I have 
 heard him speak of his wife and kids. That's why
 
 208 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 I pity him, Donna Clotilde. Incidentally I'm a bit 
 sorry for myself." He stooped over the prostrate 
 man, and took a revolver from the back pocket 
 of his trousers. " Look there ! You see the fellow 
 took a gun with him even to Hallett's. It's grown 
 to be a habit with him. He's a dead shot, too, and 
 doesn't mind shooting." 
 
 " I didn't think you were a coward." 
 
 " You know quite well I'm not, Sefiorita. But 
 this Captain Kettle will remember that I was the fel- 
 low that decoyed him on board, and he'll be pretty 
 anxious to square up the account when he wakes." 
 
 "You are well paid on purpose to cover all risks," 
 said the woman with some contempt. 
 
 " And I shall be earning my pay," said the red- 
 haired man doggedly. " This small person here's a 
 holy terror. Well, I must be getting on deck to see 
 the pilot take her down the river. Here, I'll put 
 him on the bed before I go. He'll sleep it off more 
 comfortably there." 
 
 " You shall not touch him," said Donna Clotilde, 
 " I will do all that's needful. I have waited for this 
 moment for three long years." 
 
 " You must be pretty keen on him if you can sit 
 by him when he does not know you." 
 
 " I have loved him since the first moment we met, 
 and he knows it ; and I do not mind who else knows 
 it also. I am entirely without shame in the matter: 
 I glory in it. I am not one of your cold-blooded 
 European women." 
 
 " Well," he said, " you're paying me to run this 
 yacht, and I must be off up to see the pilot take her 
 out of the river without losing us any paint." And
 
 THE RAIDING OF DONNA CLOTILDE. 209 
 
 he went out of his room, and left Donna Clotilde La 
 louche alone with this man by whom she was so 
 fiercely attracted. 
 
 The yacht steamed out between Tyne pier heads, 
 and the pilot left her in the coble which had been 
 towing stern-first alongside. Her destination was 
 the Mediterranean, but she did not port her helm 
 at once. Instead, she held on straight out into the 
 North Sea, and then turned off to make the Medit- 
 erranean, north about ; that is, through the Pent- 
 land, and round Scotland. She kept clear of Ireland 
 also, making a course for herself through the deeper 
 wildernesses of the North Atlantic, avoiding the 
 north-and-south traffic of the Bay, and in fact 
 sighting scarcely a single vessel till the red-haired 
 man at last starboarded his helm and put her east 
 for the Straits. 
 
 The voyage was not one of monotony. Captain 
 Kettle lay for the first twenty-four hours in a state 
 of snoring unconsciousness, and when he did come 
 to his wits again, found himself in a cabin alone. 
 He got up and stretched. His limbs were heavy 
 and languid, but he was not conscious of having re- 
 ceived any hurt. He clapped a hand to the region 
 of his loins and nodded his grim head significantly. 
 His pistol was missing. 
 
 He looked in the glass and saw that his face 
 above the red torpedo beard was drawn and white, 
 and that his eyes were framed in black, dissipated- 
 looking rings. There was an evil taste in his mouth, 
 too, which even a bottleful of water did not allay. 
 However, all of these were minor details ; they might 
 14
 
 210 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 be repaired afterwards. His first requirement was 
 revenge on the man who had lured him aboard. 
 
 His natural instincts of tidiness made him go 
 through the ceremony of toilette, and then he put 
 on his cap, and, spruce and pale, went out through 
 the luxurious cabin and passageways of the yacht, 
 and found his way on deck. 
 
 The time was night ; the cold air was full of moon- 
 shine ; and fortune favoured him insomuch that the 
 red-haired man whom he sought was himself stand- 
 ing a watch. He walked up to him without any 
 concealment, and then, swift as light, slung out his 
 right fist, sending every ounce of his weight after it, 
 and caught the red-haired man squarely on the peak 
 of the jaw. 
 
 The fellow went down as if he had been pole-axed, 
 and Kettle was promptly on top of him. The three 
 other hands of the watch on deck were coming fast 
 to their big captain's assistance, and Kettle made 
 the most of his time. He had been brought up in 
 a school where he was taught to hit hard, and hit 
 first, and keep on hitting, and moreover he was 
 anatomically skilled enough to know where to hit 
 with most effect. He had no time then for punctil- 
 ious fighting; he intended to mark his man in return 
 for value received ; and he did it. Then the three 
 lusty deck hands of the watch came up and wrenched 
 him off, and held him for their officer in turn to take 
 vengeance on. 
 
 Kettle stood in their grip, panting, and pale, and 
 exultant. 
 
 "You great ugly red-polled beggar!" he said, 
 " I've made your face match your head, but you
 
 THE RAIDING OF DONNA CLOTILDE. 211 
 
 needn't thank me for it. You'd dare to Shanghai 
 me, would you ? By James, I'll make your ship a 
 perfect hell till I'm off it." 
 
 " You hit a man when he's not looking." 
 " Liar ! " said Kettle. " You saw me plain enough. 
 If you were half a sailor you'd never have been hit." 
 " You're half my size. I couldn't fight you." 
 "Tell your hands to set me adrift, and try." 
 The big man was tempted, but he swallowed down 
 his inclination. He ordered the men who were 
 holding Captain Kettle to set him free and go away 
 forward again, and then he thrust his own fists res- 
 olutely in his pockets. 
 
 " Now," he said, when they were alone, " I own 
 up to having earned what you've given me, and I 
 hope that'll suit you, for if it is doesn't, I'll shoot you 
 like a rat with your own gun. You've handled me 
 in a way no other man has done before, and so you 
 can tickle your pride with that, and simmer down. 
 If you want to know, I was a man like yourself, 
 hard up ; and I was paid to kidnap you, and I'd have 
 kidnapped the devil for money just then." 
 
 " I know nothing about the devil," said Kettle 
 acidly ; " but you've got me, and you couldn't very 
 well find a worse bargain. If you are not a fool, 
 you will set me ashore at once." 
 
 " I shall act entirely by my owner's orders." 
 "Then trot out your owner, and I'll pass the time 
 of day with him next. I'm not particular. I'll kill 
 the whole blooming ship's company if I don't get 
 my own way." 
 
 " Man, don't you be a fool. You can't hit a 
 woman."
 
 212 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE, 
 
 " A woman ? " 
 
 " Yes, I told you before Donna Clotilde. You 
 know her well enough." 
 
 " Donna Clotilde, who?" 
 
 " La Touche." 
 
 The stiffening seemed suddenly to go out of the 
 little man. He stepped wearily across the deck, and 
 leant his elbows on the yacht's polished topgallant 
 rail. " By James ! " he murmured to the purple 
 arch of the night. " By James ! that that woman. 
 What a ruddy mess." And then he broke off into 
 dreary musing. He had known this Donna Clotilde 
 La Touche before ; had entered her employ in Val- 
 paraiso ; had helped her revolutionary schemes by 
 capturing a warship for her. In return she had con- 
 ceived a mad infatuation for him. But all the while 
 he regarded her merely as his employer. In the end 
 he had been practically set adrift at sea in an open 
 boat as a penance for not divorcing his own wife 
 and marrying her. And now she was come to add 
 to his other troubles by beginning to persecute him 
 again. It was hard, bitterly hard. 
 
 By some subtle transference of thought, the 
 woman in her berth below became conscious of his 
 regard, grew restless, woke, got more restless, dressed, 
 came on deck, and saw this man with whom she was 
 so fiercely enamoured, staring gloomily over the bul- 
 warks. With her lithe, silent walk she stepped across 
 the dewy decks under the moonlight, and without 
 his hearing her, leant on the rail at his side and flung 
 an arm across his shoulders. 
 
 Captain Kettle woke from his musing with a start, 
 stepped coldly aside, and saluted formally. He had
 
 THE RAIDING OF DONNA CLOTILDE. 213 
 
 an eye for a good-looking woman, and this one was 
 deliciously handsome. He was always chivalrous 
 toward the other sex, whatever might be their char- 
 acters ; but the fact of his own kidnapping at the 
 moment of Mrs. Kettle's pressing need, made him 
 almost as hard as though a man stood before him as 
 his enemy. 
 
 " Miss La Touche," he said, " do you wish me to 
 remember you with hatred ? " 
 
 44 1 do not wish you to have need to remember me at 
 all. As you know, I wish you to stay with me always." 
 
 " That, as I have told you before, Miss, is impossi- 
 ble for more reasons than one. You have done me 
 infinite mischief already. I might have found em- 
 ployment by this time had I stayed in South Shields, 
 and meanwhile my wife and children are hungry. 
 Be content with that, and set me ashore." 
 
 " I repeat the offer I made you in South America. 
 Come with me, get a divorce, and your wife shall 
 have an income such as she never dreamed of, and 
 such as you never could have got her in all your life 
 otherwise. You know I am not boasting. As you 
 must know by this, I am one of the richest women 
 in the world." 
 
 " Thank you, but I do not accept the terms. 
 Money is not everything." 
 
 " And meanwhile, remember, I keep you on board 
 here, whether you like it or not ; and, until you give 
 way to what I want, your wife may starve. So if 
 she and your children are in painful straits, you 
 must recollect that it is entirely your fault." 
 
 " Quite so," said Kettle. " She will be content to 
 starve when she knows the reason "
 
 214 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 Donni ClotJlde's eyes began to glitter. 
 
 " Thct'i are not many men who would refuse if I 
 offered them myself." 
 
 " Then, M'^ss, I must remain curious." 
 
 She stamp-ed her foot. " I have hungered for you 
 all this time, and I will not give you up for mere 
 words. You will come to love me in time as I love 
 you. I tell you you will, you must, you shall. I 
 have got you now, and I will not let you go again." 
 
 " Then, Miss," said Kettle grimly, " I shall have 
 to shov/ you that I am too hot to hold." 
 
 She faced him with heaving breast. " We will 
 see who wins," she cried. 
 
 " Probably," said Captain Kettle, and took off his 
 cap. " Good-night, Miss, for the present. We know 
 how we stand : the game appears to begin between 
 us from now." He turned deliberately away from 
 her, walked forward, and went below ; and, after a 
 little waiting, Donna Clotilde shivered and went back 
 to her own luxurious state-room. 
 
 But if she was content to spend the rest of the 
 night in mere empty longing, Captain Kettle was 
 putting his time to more practical use. He was 
 essentially a man of action. 
 
 Cautiously, he found his way to the steward's 
 store-room, filled a case with meat tins and biscuit, 
 and then coming on deck again, stowed it away in 
 the lifeboat, which hung in davits out-board, without 
 being noticed. With equal success he took the 
 boat's breaker forward, filled it from a water tank, 
 and got it fixed on its chocks again, still without 
 being seen. The moon was behind clouds, and 
 the darkness favoured him. He threw down the
 
 THE RAIDING OF DONNA. CLOTILDE. 2 15 
 
 coils of the davit falls on deck, cast off one from 
 where it was belayed, took a turn and carried the 
 bight to the other davit so tha.t he could lower away 
 both tackles at once. 
 
 But he was not allowed to get much further. The 
 disused blocks screamed like a parcel of cats as the 
 ropes rended through them ; there was a shrill 
 whistle from the officer of the watch ; and half-a- 
 dozen men from various parts of the deck came 
 bounding along to interfere. 
 
 Captain Kettle let go both falls to overhaul as 
 they chose, picked up a greenheart belaying-pin out 
 of the pin rail, and stood on the defensive. But the 
 forward fall kinked and jammed, and though the 
 little man fought like a demon to keep off the watch 
 till he got it clear, they were too many for him, and 
 drove him to the deck by sheer weight of numbers. 
 He had cracked one man's forearm in the scuffle, 
 laid open another's face, and smashed in the front 
 teeth of a third, and they were rather inclined to 
 treat him roughly, but the red-haired skipper came 
 up, and by sheer superior strength picked him up, 
 kicking and struggling, and hustled him off below 
 whether he liked it or no. 
 
 The lifeboat dangled half-swamped from the for- 
 ward davit tackle, and all hands had to be piped be- 
 fore they could get her on board again ; and by the 
 time they had completed this job, there was another 
 matter handy to occupy their attention. A fireman 
 came up from below, white-faced and trembling : 
 " The yacht's half full of water," he said. 
 Now that their attention was called to it, they 
 noticed the sluggish way she rode the water.
 
 2l6 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 " She must have started a plate or something,** 
 the fireman went on excitedly. " We've got both 
 bilge pumps running, and they won't look at it." 
 The water's coming in like a sluice." 
 
 " Carpenter," sang out the red-haired man, " come 
 below with me and see if we can find anything," and 
 he led the way to the companion. Between decks 
 they could hear the water slopping about under the 
 flooring. It seemed a bad, almost a hopeless case. 
 
 Instinctively the red-haired man went to his own 
 room to pocket his valuables, and by a chance he 
 was moved to lift up the door in the floor which cov- 
 ered the bath beneath it. Ah, there was the mis- 
 chief. The sea cock which filled the bath was turned 
 on to the full, and the iron tub was gushing water 
 on every side. The next state-room was empty, but 
 the bath cock there was also turned on to the full; 
 and after going round the ship, and finally entering 
 Kettle's room (and covering him with a revolver), 
 and turning off his water supply, he found that the 
 sea had been pouring inboard from no fewer than 
 eight separate apertures. 
 
 "And this is your work, you little fiend, I sup- 
 pose ? " said the red-haired man savagely. 
 
 " Certainly," said Captain Kettle. " Shoot me if 
 you like, put me ashore if you choose, but don't 
 grumble if you find me a deuced ugly passenger. 
 I'm not in the habit of being made to travel where 
 I don't wish." 
 
 That afternoon Kettle contrived to set the yacht 
 afire in three separate places, and a good deal of 
 damage was done (and night had fallen again) before 
 the scared crew managed to extinguish the flames ;
 
 THE RAIDING OF DONNA CLOTILDE. 
 
 and this time Donna Clotilde intervened. She asked 
 for Kettle's parole that he would attempt no further 
 mischief ; and when this was flatly refused, inconti- 
 nently put him in irons. The lady was somewhat 
 tigerish in her affections. 
 
 A second time Captain Kettle managed to get the 
 yacht in a blaze, at the imminent peril of immolat- 
 ing himself, and then, from lack of further oppor- 
 tunity to make himself obnoxious, lay quiet in his 
 lair till such time as the yacht would of necessity go 
 into harbour to coal. The exasperated crew would 
 cheerfully have murdered him if they had been given 
 the chance, but Donna Clotilde would not permit 
 him to be harmed. She was a young woman who, 
 up to this, had always contrived to have her own 
 way, and she firmly believed that she would tame 
 Kettle in time. 
 
 When the yacht passed the Straits she had only 
 four days' more coal on board, and the executive 
 (and Kettle) expected that she would go into Gib- 
 raltar and lay alongside a hulk to rebunker. But 
 Donna Clotilde had other notions. She had the 
 yacht run down the Morrocco coast, and brought to 
 an anchor. So long as she had Captain Kettle in 
 her company upon the waters, she did not vastly 
 care whether she was moving or at a standstill. 
 
 " You cannot escape me here," she said to him 
 when the cable had roared from the hawse pipe, and 
 the dandy steamer had swung to a rest. " The yacht 
 is victualled for a year, and I can stay here as long as 
 you choose. You had far better be philosophical 
 and give in. Marry me now, and liking will come 
 afterwards."
 
 218 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 Kettle looked at the tigerish love and resentment 
 which blazed from her black eyes, and answered with 
 cold politeness that time would show what happened; 
 though, to tell the truth, indomitable though he was 
 as a general thing, he was at that time feeling that 
 escape was almost impossible. And so for the while 
 he more or less resigned himself to captivity. 
 
 Under the baking blue of a Mediterranean sky this 
 one-sided courtship progressed, Donna Clotilde alter- 
 nating her ecstasies of fierce endearment by parox- 
 ysms of invective, and Kettle enduring both in equal 
 coldness and immobility. The crew of the yacht 
 looked on, stolidly non-interferent, and were kept by 
 their officers at cleaning and painting, as necessary 
 occupiers to the mind. But one or other of them, 
 of their own free will, always kept an eye on their 
 guest, whether he was on deck or below. He had 
 given them a wholesome taste of his quality, and 
 they had an abject dread of what he might be up to 
 next if he was left alone. They quite understood 
 that he would destroy the yacht and all hands if, by 
 doing so, he could regain his personal liberty. 
 
 But others, it seems, besides those already men- 
 tioned in this narrative, were taking a lively interest 
 in the smart yacht and her people. She was at an- 
 chor in the bay of the Riff coast, and the gen try who 
 inhabited the beach villages, and the villages in the 
 hills behind the beach, had always looked upon any- 
 body and anything they could grab as their just 
 and lawful prey. The Sultan of Morocco, the war 
 jhips of France, Spain, and elsewhere, and the 
 emissaries of other powers had time after time en-
 
 THE RAIDING OF DONNA CLQTILDE. 219 
 
 deavoured to school them in the science of civiliza- 
 tion without effect, and so they still remain to-day, 
 the only regularly practising pirates in the Western 
 World. 
 
 The yacht was sighted first from the hills ; was 
 reported to the beach villages ; and was reconnoitred 
 under cover of night by a tiny fishing-boat. The 
 report was pleasing, and word went round. Bearded 
 brown men collected at an appointed spot, each with 
 the arms to which he was best accustomed ; and 
 when darkness fell, four large boats were run down 
 to the feather edge of the surf. There was no inde- 
 cent hurry. They did their work with method and 
 carefulness, like men who are used to it ; and they 
 arrived alongside the yacht at 3 A. M., confidently 
 expecting to take her by surprise. 
 
 But the crew of the yacht, thanks to Captain 
 Kettle's vagaries, were not in the habit of sleeping 
 over soundly ; they never knew what piece of dan- 
 gerous mischief their little captive might turn his 
 willing hand to next ; and, as a consequence, when 
 the anchor watch sang out his first alarm, not many 
 seconds elapsed before every hand aboard was on 
 deck. The yacht was well supplied with revolvers 
 and cutlasses, and half aminute sufficed to get these 
 up from below and distributed, so that when the 
 Riffians attempted to board, the defenders were 
 quite ready to do them battle. 
 
 Be this how it may, however, there is no doubt as 
 to which side got the first advantage. The yacht's 
 low freeboard made but a small obstacle to a climber 
 from the large boats alongside, and neither the deck- 
 hands, nor the stockhold crew, were any of thenl
 
 220 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 trained fighting men. In their 'prentice hands the 
 kicking revolvers threw high, and were only useful 
 as knuckledusters, and till they had thrown them 
 down, and got their cutlasses into play, they did 
 hardly any execution to speak about. The Riff men, 
 on the other hand, had been bred and born in an 
 atmosphere of skirmish, and made ground steadily. 
 
 At an early point of the scuffle, Captain Kettle 
 came on deck with a cigar in his mouth, and hands 
 in his pockets, and looked on upon matters with a 
 critical interest, but did not offer to interfere one 
 way or the other. It was quite a new sensation to 
 him, to watch an active fight without being called 
 upon to assist or arbitrate. 
 
 And then up came from below Donna Clotilda 
 La Touche, dressed and weaponed, and, without a 
 bk of hesitation, flung herself into the turmoil. She 
 saw Kettle standing on one side, but neither be- 
 sought nor commanded him. She would have died 
 sooner than ask for his help then, and be met with 
 a refusal. 
 
 Into the melee she went, knife and pistol, and 
 there is no doubt that her example, and the fury of 
 her rush, animated the yacht's crew, and made them 
 stronger to drive the wall of their assailants back. To 
 give Donna Clotilde her due, she was as brave as the 
 bravest man, and, moreover, she was a certain shot 
 at moderate range. But, after her revolver was 
 empty and the press closed round her, it was not 
 long before an expert hand twisted the knife from 
 her grasp, and then the end came quickly. An evil- 
 smelling man noted her glorious beauty, and marked 
 her out as his special loot. He clapped a couple of
 
 THE RAIDING OF DONNA CLOTILDE. 221 
 
 sinewy arms around her, and bore her away towards 
 the bulwarks, and his boat. 
 
 Someone had switched on the electric deck lights, 
 and the fight was in a glow of radiance. Everything 
 was to be clearly seen. Donna Clotilde was being 
 dragged resisting along the decks, and Kettle looked 
 on placidly smoking his cigar. She was heaved up 
 on the bulwarks ; in another moment she would be 
 gone from his path forever. 
 
 Still her lips made no sound, though her great, 
 black eyes were full of wild entreaty. But the eyes 
 were more than Kettle could stand. He stooped 
 and picked up a weapon from amongst the litter on 
 deck, and rushed forward and gave a blow, and the 
 Riffian dropped limply, and Donna Clotilde stood by 
 the yacht's bulwark, breathless and gasping. 
 
 " Now you get away below," he ordered curtly. 
 *' I'll soon clear this rabble over the side." 
 
 He watched to see her obey him, and she did it 
 meekly. Then he gave his attention to the fight. 
 He broke a packet of cartridges which lay on the 
 deck planks, picked up and loaded a revolver, and 
 commenced to make himself useful to the yacht's 
 crew ; and from that moment the fortune of the battle 
 turned. 
 
 Captain Owen Kettle was (and is) a beautiful 
 fighter, and this was just his fight. Against his cool- 
 headed ferocity the RifHans gave way like sand be- 
 fore waves. He did not miss a blow, he did not 
 waste a shot ; all his efforts went home with the 
 deadliest effect. His voice, too, was a splendid ally. 
 The yacht's crew had been doing their utmost al- 
 ready : they had been fighting for their bare lives.
 
 222 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 But with Kettle's poisonous tongue to lash them 
 they did far more ; they raged like wild beasts at the 
 brown men who had invaded their sacred decking, 
 and drove them back with resistless fury. 
 
 " Hump yourselves, you lazy dogs ! " Kettle 
 shouted. " Keep them on the move. Drive them 
 over the bows. Murder those you can reach. Am 
 I to do all this job myself ? Come on, you mongrels." 
 
 The red cutlasses stabbed and hacked, and the 
 shrieks and yells and curses of the fight grew to a 
 climax ; and then the Riffians with a sudden panic 
 gave way, and ran for the side, and tumbled over 
 into their boats. There was no quarter asked or 
 given. The exasperated yachtsmen cut down all 
 they could reach even whilst they were escaping ; 
 and when the sound had gone, they threw after them 
 the killed and wounded, to be rescued or lost as they 
 chose. Afterwards, having a moment's respite, 
 they picked up their revolvers again, loaded them, 
 and kept up a spattering, ill-aimed fire till the boats 
 were out of reach. Then when they turned to look 
 to their own killed and hurt, they found a new crisis 
 awaiting them. 
 
 Captain Kettle was on the top of the deck house 
 which served as a navigating bridge, ostentatiously 
 closing up the breech of the revolver after reloading 
 it. He wished for a hearing, and after what they 
 had seen of his deadly marksmanship, they gave it 
 to him without demur. His needs were simple. 
 He wanted steam as soon as the engineers could 
 give it him, and he intended to take the yacht into 
 Gibraltar right away. Had anybody an objection 
 to raise ?
 
 THE RAIDING OF DONNA CLOTILDE. 223 
 
 The red-haired man made himself spokesman. 
 " We should have to go to Gib anyway," said he, 
 "Some of us want a doctor badly, and three of us 
 want a parson to read the funeral service. Whether 
 you can get ashore once we do run into Gib, Captain, 
 is your own concern." 
 
 " You can leave that to me safely," said Captain 
 Kettle. " It will be something big that stops me 
 from having my own way now." 
 
 The men dispersed about their duties, the decks 
 were hosed down, and the deck lights switched off. 
 After awhile Donna Clotilde came gliding up out of 
 the darkness, and stepped up the ladder to the top 
 of the deck house. Kettle regarded her uneasily. 
 
 To his surprise she knelt down, took his hand, and 
 smothered it with burning kisses. Then she went 
 back to the head of the ladder. " My dear," she 
 said, " I will never see you again. I made you hate 
 me, and yet you saved my life. I wish I thought I 
 could ever forget you." 
 
 " Miss La Touche," said Kettle, " you will find a 
 man in your own station one of these days to 
 make you a proper husband, and then you will look 
 back at this cruise and think how lucky it was you 
 so soon sickened, and kicked me away from you." 
 
 She shook her head and smiled through her tears. 
 
 " You are generous," she said. " Good-by. 
 Good-bye, my darling. Good-bye." Then she went 
 down the ladder, and Kettle never saw her again. 
 
 A quartermaster came up and took the wheel. 
 The windlass engine had been clacking, and the red- 
 haired man called out from forward, "All gone." 
 
 " Quartermaster," said Kettle.
 
 224 
 
 "Yessir," said the quartermaster. 
 " Nor* nor' west and by west." 
 "Nor* no' west n'b' west it is, sir/' said the 
 quartermaster briskly.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 MR. GEDGE'S CATSPAW. 
 
 CAPTAIN OWEN KETTLE folded the letter-card, 
 put it in his pocket, and relit his cigar. He drew 
 paper towards him, and took out a stub of pencil 
 jnd tried to make verse, which was his habit when 
 things were shaping themselves awry, but the rhymes 
 refused to come. He changed the metre : he gave 
 up labouring to fit the words to the air of " Swanee 
 River," and started fresh lines which would go to the 
 June of " Greenland's Icy Mountains," a metre with 
 which at other times he had been notoriously suc- 
 cessful. But it failed him now. He could not get 
 the jingle ; spare feet bristled at every turn ; and the 
 field of poppies, on which his muse was engaged, 
 became every moment more and more elusive. 
 
 It was no use. He put down the pencil and 
 sighed, and then, frowning at himself for his indeci- 
 sion, took out the letter-card again, and deliberately 
 re-read it. front and back. 
 
 Captain Kettle was a man who made up his mind 
 over most matters with the quickness of a pistol- 
 shot ; and once settled, rightly or wrongly, he always 
 stuck to his decision. But here, on the letter-card, 
 was a matter he could not get the balance of at all ; 
 it refused to be dismissed, even temporarily, from 
 his mind ; it involved interests far too large to be 
 15 22 5
 
 226 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 hazarded by a hasty verdict either one way or the 
 other; and the difficulty in coming to any satis- 
 factory conclusion irritated him heavily. 
 
 The letter-card was anonymous, and seemed to 
 present no clue to its authorship. It was type- 
 written ; it was posted, as the stamp showed, in 
 Newcastle ; it committed its writer in no degree what- 
 ever. But it made statements which, if true, ought 
 to have sent somebody to penal servitude ; and it 
 threw out hints, which, true or untrue, made Captain 
 Kettle heir to a whole world of anxiety and trouble. 
 
 It is an excellent academic rule to entirely disre- 
 gard anonymous letters, but it is by no means always 
 an easy rule to follow. And there are times when 
 a friendly warning must be conveyed anonymously 
 or not at all. But Kettle .did not worry his head 
 about the ethics of anonymous letter-writing as a 
 profession ; his attention was taken up by this type- 
 written card from " Well-wisher," which he held in 
 his hand: 
 
 " Your skip goes to sea never to reach port. There 
 is an insurance robbery cleverly rigged. You think 
 yourself very smart, I know, but this time you are 
 being made a common gull of." 
 
 And the writer wound up by saying: " leant give 
 you any hint of how ifs going to be done. Only 1 
 know the game's fixed. So keep your weather eye 
 skinned, and take the Sultan of Labuan safely out 
 and back, and maybe you II get something more solid 
 than a drink. 
 
 " From 
 " Your Well-wisher"
 
 MR. GEDGE'S CATSPAW. 
 
 Captain Kettle was torn, as he read, by many 
 conflicting sentiments. Loyalty to Mr. Gedge, his 
 owner, was one of them, Gedge had sold him be- 
 fore, but that was in a way condoned by this pres- 
 ent appointment to the Sultan of Labuan. And 
 he wanted very much to know what were Mr. 
 Gedge's wishes over the matter. 
 
 His own code of morality on this subject was 
 peculiar. Ashore in South Shields he was as honest 
 as a bishop ; he was a strict chapel member; he did 
 not even steal matches from the Captains' Room at 
 Hallett's, his house of call, which has always been 
 a recognised peculation. At sea he conceived him- 
 self to be bought, body and soul, by his owner for 
 the time being, and was perfectly ready to risk body 
 and soul in earning his pay. 
 
 But the question was, how was this pay to be 
 earned? 
 
 Up till then he would have said : " By driving the 
 Sultan of Labuan over the seas as fast as could be 
 done on a given coal consumption ; by ruthlessly 
 keeping down expense ; and, in fact, by making the 
 steamer earn the largest possible dividend in the 
 ordinary way of commerce." But this typewritten 
 letter-card hinted at other purposes, which he knew 
 were quite within the bounds of possibility, and if 
 he was being made into a catspaw 
 
 He hit the unfinished poems on the table a blow 
 with his fist. " By James ! " he muttered, " a cats- 
 paw ? I didn't think of it in that light before. 
 Well, we'd better have a clear understanding about 
 the matter."
 
 228 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 He got up, crammed the blue letter-card into his 
 pocket, and took his cap. 
 
 " My dear," he called down to Mrs. Kettle, who 
 was engaged on the family wash in the kitchen be- 
 low, " I've got to run up to the office to see Mr. 
 Gedge. I don't think I quite understand his wishes 
 about running the boat. Get your tea when it's 
 ready. I don't want to keep you and the youngsters 
 waiting." 
 
 Captain Kettle thought out many things as he 
 journeyed from South Shields to the grimy office of 
 his employer in Newcastle, but his data were in- 
 sufficient, and he was unable to get hold of any 
 scheme by which he could safely approach what was, 
 to say the very least of it, a very delicate subject. 
 Mr. Gedge had hired him as captain of the Sultan 
 of Labuan, had said no word about losing her, and 
 how was he to force the man's confidence ? It 
 looked the most unpromising enterprise in the 
 world. Moreover, although in the outer world he 
 was as brave a fellow as ever lived, he had all a ship- 
 master's timidity at tackling a ship-owner in his lair, 
 and this, of course, handicapped him. 
 
 In this mood, then, he was ushered upon Gedge 
 in his office, and saw him signing letters and casting 
 occasional sentences to a young woman who flicked 
 them down in shorthand. 
 
 The ship-owner frowned. He was very busy. 
 " Well, Captain," he said, " what is it ? Talk ahead. 
 I can listen whilst I sign these letters." 
 
 " It's a private question I'd like to ask you about 
 running the boat." 
 
 " Want Miss Payne to go out ? "
 
 MR. GEDGE'S CATSPAW. 229 
 
 " If I might trouble her so far." 
 
 Gedge jerked his head towards the door, " Type 
 out what you've got," he said. The shorthand 
 writer went out and closed the glass door after her. 
 "Now, Kettle." 
 
 Captain Kettle hesitated. It was an awkward 
 subject to begin upon. 
 
 " Now then, Captain, out with it quick. I'm in 
 the dickens of a hurry." 
 
 " I wish you'd let me know a little more exactly 
 in confidence, of course how you wish me to run 
 this steamboat. Do you want me to I mean " 
 
 " Well, get on, get on." 
 
 " When do you want her back ? " 
 
 Gedge leant back in his chair, tapped his teeth 
 with the end of his pen. " Look here, Captain," 
 he said, " you didn't come here to talk rot like this. 
 You've had your orders already. You aren't a 
 drinking man, or I'd say you were screwed. So 
 there's something else behind. Come, out with it.'* 
 
 " I hardly know how to begin." 
 
 " I don't want rhetoric. If you've got a tale tell 
 
 it, if not " Mr. Gedge leant over his desk again 
 
 and went on signing his letters. 
 
 Captain Kettle stood the rudeness without so 
 much as a flush. He sighed a little, and then, after 
 another few moments' thought, took the letter-card 
 from his pocket and laid it on his employer's table. 
 After Gedge had conned through and signed a 
 couple more sheets, he took the card up in his 
 fingers and skimmed it over. 
 
 As he read the color deepened in his face, and 
 Kettle saw that he was moved, but said nothing.
 
 230 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 For a moment there was silence between them, and 
 Gedge tapped at his teeth and was apparently lost 
 in thought. Then he said : " Where did you get 
 this?" 
 
 " Through the post." 
 
 " And why did you bring it to me ? '* 
 
 "I thought you might have something to say 
 about it." 
 
 " Shown it to any one else ? " 
 
 *' No, sir ; I'm in your service, and earning your 
 pay." 
 
 "Yes; I pulled you out of the gutter again quite 
 recently, and you said you'd be able to get your 
 wife's clothes out of pawn with your advance note." 
 
 " I'm very grateful to you for giving me the berth, 
 sir, and I shall be a faithful servant to you as long 
 as I'm in your employ. But if there's anything on, 
 I'd like to be in your confidence. I know she isn't 
 an old ship, but " 
 
 " But what ? " 
 
 " She's uneconomical. Her engines are old-fash- 
 ioned. It wouldn't pay to fit her with triple expan- 
 sions and new boilers." 
 
 "I see. You appear to know a lot about the 
 ship, Captain more than I do myself, in fact. I 
 know you're a small tin saint when you're within 
 hail of that Ebenezer, or Bethel, or whatever you 
 call it here ashore, but at sea you've got the name 
 for not being over particular." 
 
 " At sea," said the little sailor with a sigh, " I am 
 what I have to be. But I couldn't do that. I'm a 
 poor man, sir; I'm pretty nearly a desperate man; 
 but there are some kinds of things that are beyond
 
 MR. GEDGE'S CATSPAW. 231 
 
 me. I know it's done often enough, but you'll 
 have to excuse me. I can't lose her for you." 
 
 " Who's asking you ? " said Gedge cheerily. " I'm 
 not. Don't jump at conclusions, man. I don't 
 want the Sultan of Labuan lost. She's not my best 
 ship, I'll grant; but I can run her at a profit for all 
 that ; and even if I couldn't I am not the sort of 
 man to try and make my dividends out of Lloyd's. 
 No, not by any means, Captain ; I've got my name 
 to keep up." 
 
 Captain Kettle brought up a sigh of relief. " Glad 
 to hear it, sir; I'm glad to hear it. But I thought 
 it best to have it out with you. That beastly letter 
 upset me." 
 
 Gedge laughed slily. " Well, if you want to know 
 who wrote the letter, I did myself." 
 
 Kettle started. He was obviously incredulous. 
 
 " Well, to be accurate, I did it by deputy. You 
 hae yer doots, eh? Hang it, man; what an un- 
 believing Jew you are." He pressed one of the 
 electric pushes by the side of his desk, and the 
 shorthand writer came in and stood at the doorway. 
 
 " Miss Payne, you typed this letter-card, didn't 
 you ? " he asked, and Miss Payne dutifully answered : 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Thank you. That'll do. Well, Kettle, I hope 
 you're satisfied now ? I sent this blessed card be- 
 cause I wanted to see how deep this shore-going 
 honesty of yours went, which I've heard so much 
 about and now I know, and you may take it from 
 me that you'll profit by it financially in the very 
 near future. The shipmasters I've had to do with 
 have been mostly rogues, and when I get hold of a
 
 232 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 straight man I know how to appreciate him. Now, 
 good-by, Captain, and a prosperous voyage to you. 
 If you catch the midnight mail to-night from here, 
 you'll just get down to Newport to-morrow in time 
 to see her come into dock. Take her over at once, 
 you know ; we can't have any time wasted. Here 
 good-bye. I'm frantically busy." 
 
 But busy though he might be, Mr. Gedge did not 
 immediately return to signing his letters after Cap- 
 tain Kettle's departure. Instead, he took out a 
 handkerchief and wiped his forehead and wiped his 
 hands, which for some reason seemed to have grown 
 unaccountably clammy ; and for awhile he lay back 
 in his writing-chair like a man who feels physically 
 sick. 
 
 Captain Kettle, however, went his ways humming 
 a cheerful air, and as the twelve o'clock mail roared 
 out that night across the high-level bridge, he settled 
 himself to sleep in his corner of a third-class carriage 
 and to dream the dreams of a man who, after many 
 vicissitudes, has at last found righteous employment. 
 It was a new experience for him, and he permitted 
 himself the luxury of enjoying it to the full. 
 
 A train clattered him into Monmouthshire some 
 twelve hours later, and he stepped out on Newport 
 platform into a fog raw and fresh from the Bristol 
 Channel. His small, worn portmanteau he could 
 easily have carried in his hand, but there is an eti- 
 quette about these matters which even hard-up ship- 
 masters, to whom a shilling is a financial rarity, must 
 observe ; and so he took a four-wheeler down to the 
 agent's office, and made himself known. The Sultan 
 of Labuan, it seemed, had come up the Usk and
 
 MR. GEDGE'S CATSPAW. 233 
 
 gone into dock barely an hour before, and so Kettle, 
 obedient to his orders, went down at once to take 
 her over. 
 
 It was not a pleasant operation, this ousting 
 another man from his livelihood, and as Kettle had 
 been supplanted a weary number of times himself, 
 he thought he knew pretty well the feelings of the 
 man whom he had come to replace. His reception, 
 however, surprised him. Williams, the former mas- 
 ter of the Sultan of Labuan, handed over hischarge 
 with an air of obvious and sincere relief, and Kettle 
 felt that he was being eyed with a certain embarrass- 
 ing curiosity. The man was not disposed to be 
 verbally communicative. 
 
 " You look knocked up," said Kettle. 
 
 " Might well be," retorted Captain Williams. " I 
 haven't had a blessed wink of sleep since I pulled 
 my anchors out of Thames mud." 
 
 " Not had bad weather, have you ? " 
 
 44 No, weather's been right enough. Bit thickish, 
 that's all." 
 
 " What's kept you from having a watch below, 
 then?" 
 
 44 'Fraid of losing the ship, Captain. I never been 
 up before the Board of Trade yet, and don't want 
 to try what it leels like/ 
 
 " Oh ! " said Kettle with a sigh, " it's horrible ; 
 they're brutes. I know. I have been there." 
 
 41 So I might have guessed," said Williams drily. 
 
 44 Look here," said Kettle, " what are you driving 
 at?" 
 
 44 No offence, Captain, no offence. I'll just shut 
 my head now. Guess I've been talking too much
 
 234 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 already. Result of being over-tired, I suppose. 
 Let's get on with the ship's papers. They are all 
 in this tin box." 
 
 " But I'd rather you said out what you got to 
 say." 
 
 " Thanks, Captain, but no. This is the first time 
 we've met, I think?" 
 
 " So far as I remember." 
 
 " Well, there you are then ; personally you no 
 doubt are a very nice pleasant gentleman, but still 
 there's no getting over the fact that you're a stran- 
 ger to me ; and anyway, you're in Gedge's employ, 
 and I'm not ; and there's a law of libel in this country 
 which gets up and hits you whether you are talking 
 truth or lies." 
 
 " English laws are beastly, and that's a fact." 
 
 " Reading about them in the paper's quite enough 
 for me. Now, Captain, suppose we go ashore with 
 these papers and I can sign off and you can sign on. 
 Afterwards we'll have a drop of whisky together if 
 you like just to show there's no ill-will." 
 
 " You are very polite, Captain," said Kettle. 
 " I'm sure I don't like the notion of stepping in to 
 take away your employment. But if it hadn't been 
 me, he'd have got some one else." 
 
 The other turned on him quickly. 
 
 " Don't think you're doing me a bad turn, Captain 
 because you aren't. I was never so pleased to step 
 out of a chart-house in my life. Only thing is, I 
 hope I aren't doing you a bad turn by letting you 
 step in." 
 
 " By James," said Kettle, " do speak plain, Cap- 
 tain ; don't go on hinting like this."
 
 MR. GEDGE'S CATSPAW. 235 
 
 " I am maundering on too much, Captain, and 
 that's a fact. Result of being about tired-out, I 
 suppose. But you must excuse me speaking fur- 
 ther : there's that confounded libel law to think 
 about. Now, Captain, here's the key of the chart- 
 house door, and if you'll let me, I'll go out first and 
 you can lock it behind you. You'll find one of the 
 tumblers beside the water-bottle broken ; it fell out 
 of my hand this morning just after I'd docked her ; 
 but all the rest is according to the inventory ; and 
 I'll knock off threepence for the tumbler when we 
 square up." 
 
 They plunged straightway into the aridities of 
 business, and kept at it till the captaincy had 
 been formally laid down and handed over, and 
 then the opportunity for further revelations was 
 gone. 
 
 Captain Williams was clearly worn out with 
 weariness ; responsibility had kept him going till 
 then, but now that responsibility had ended he was 
 like a man in a trance. His eyes drooped, his 
 knees failed drunkenly ; he was past speech ; and 
 if Kettle had not by main force dragged him off to 
 a bed at a temperance hotel, he would have toppled 
 down incontinently and slept in the gutter like one 
 dead. As it was he lay on the counterpane in the 
 heaviest of sleep, the picture of a strong man worn 
 out with watching and labour, and for a minute or 
 so Kettle stood beside the bed and gazed upon him 
 thoughtfully. 
 
 " By James," he muttered, " if I could make you 
 speak, Captain, I believe you could tell a queerish 
 tale."
 
 236 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 But Kettle did not loiter by this taciturn bedside. 
 He had signed on as master of the Sultan of 
 Labuan ; he was in Mr. Gedge's employ, and earn- 
 ing Mr. Gedge's pay ; and every minute wasted 
 on a steamer means money lost. He went briskly 
 across to the South dock and set the machinery of 
 business to work without delay. There was grum- 
 bling from mates, engineers, and crew that they had 
 been given leisure for scarcely a breath of shore air, 
 but Kettle was not a man who courted popularity 
 from his underlings by offering them indulgences. 
 He stated that their duty was to get the water bal- 
 last out and the coal under hatches in the shortest 
 time on record, and mentioned that he was the man 
 who would see it done. 
 
 The men grumbled of course ; behind their driver's 
 back they swore ; two deck hands and three of the 
 stokehold crew deserted, leaving their wages, and 
 were replaced by others from the shipping office ; 
 and still the work went remorselessly on under the 
 grey glow of the fog so long as daylight lasted, and 
 then under the glare of raw electric arc lamps. The 
 air was full of gritty dust and the roar of falling 
 coal. A waggon was shunted up, dangled aloft in 
 hydraulic arms, ignominiously emptied end first, and 
 then put to ground again and petulantly sent away 
 to find a fresh load, whilst its successor was being 
 nursed and relieved. Two hundred tons to the hour 
 was what that hydraulic staith could handle, but for 
 all that it did not break the coal unduly. 
 
 In the forehold the trimmers gasped and choked 
 as they steered the black avalanches into place ; and 
 presently another of the huge staithes crawled up
 
 MR. GEDGE'S CATSPAW. 237 
 
 along the dock wall, with a gasping tank-loco and a 
 train of waggons in attendance, and then the Sultan 
 of Labuan was being loaded through the after hatch 
 also. It was a triumph of machinery and organisa- 
 tion, and tired men in a dozen departments cursed 
 Kettle for keeping them at such a remorseless pres- 
 sure over their tasks. 
 
 Down to her fresh-water plimsol the steamer was 
 sunk, and then the loading ceased. Even Kettle 
 did not dare to overload. He knew quite well that 
 there were the jealous eyes of a Seamen and Fire- 
 men's Union official watching him from somewhere 
 on the quays, and if she was trimmed an inch above 
 her marks the Sultan of Labuan would never be let 
 go through the outer dock-gate. So the burden 
 was limited to its legal bounds, and Kettle got his 
 clearance papers with the same fierce, business-like 
 bustle ; and came back and stepped lightly up on 
 to the tramp's upper bridge. 
 
 The pilot was there waiting for him, half admir- 
 ing, half repelled : the old blue-faced mate and the 
 carpenter were on the forecastle-head ; the second 
 mate was aft ; the chief himself and the third en- 
 gineer were at the throttle and the reversing gear 
 below. The ship's entire complement had quite 
 surrendered to the sway of this new task-master, 
 and stood in their coal-grime and their tiredness 
 ready to jump at his bidding. 
 
 Bristol Channel tides are high, and the current of 
 the Usk is swift. It was going to be quick work if 
 they did not miss the tide, and the pilot, who had 
 no special stake in the matter, said it could not be 
 done. Kettle, however, thought otherwise, and the
 
 238 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 pilot in consequence saw some seamanship which 
 gave him chills down the back. 
 
 " By gum, Captain," he said, when they were 
 fairly out of the river, " you can handle her." 
 
 " Wait till I know her, pilot, and then I'll show 
 you." 
 
 " Haven't got nerves enough. Look you, Captain, 
 you'll be having a bad crumple-up if you bustle a 
 big loaded steamboat about docks at that rate." 
 
 " Never bent a plate in my life." 
 
 4< Well, I hope you never will. Look you, now, 
 you're a little tin wonder in the way of seaman- 
 ship." 
 
 " Quartermaster," said Kettle, " tell my steward 
 to bring two goes of whisky up here on the bridge. 
 Pilot, if you say such things to me, you make me 
 feel like a girl with a new dress, and I want a drop 
 of Dutch courage to keep my blushes back." 
 
 " Well," said the pilot when the whisky came, 
 " here's lots of cargo, Captain, and good bonuses." 
 
 " Here's deep-draught steamers for you, pilot, and 
 plenty of water under *em." 
 
 The whisky drained down its appointed channels, 
 and the pilot said : " By the by, I've this for you, 
 Captain," and brought out a letter-card. 
 
 " Typewritten address," said Kettle. " No post- 
 mark on the stamp. Who's it from ?" 
 
 " Man I came across. Look you, though, I didn't 
 know him ; but he said there was a useful tip in the 
 letter which it would please you to have after you 
 sailed." 
 
 Kettle tore off the perforated edges, and looked 
 inside the card. Here was another anoymous com-
 
 MR. GEDGE'S CATSPAW. 239 
 
 munication, also from " Well-wisher," and, as before 
 warning him against the machinations of Gedge. 
 "Got no idea who the man was who gave it you?" 
 he asked. 
 
 " Well, I did have a bit of talk with him and a 
 drink, and I rather gathered he might have had 
 something to do with insurance; but he didn't say 
 his name. Why, isn't he a friend of yours?" 
 
 " I rather think he is," said Kettle ; " but I can't 
 be quite sure yet." He did not add that the anony- 
 mous writer guaranteed him a present of $o if the 
 Sultan of Labuan drew no insurance money till he 
 had moored her in Port Said. 
 
 From the very outset, the voyage of the Sultan 
 of Labuan was unpropitious. Before she was clear 
 of the Usk it was found that three more of her crew 
 had managed to slip away ashore, and so were gone 
 beyond replacement. Whilst she was still in the 
 brown, muddy waters of the Bristol Channel, there 
 were two several breakdowns in the engine-room 
 which necessitated stoppages and anxious repairs. 
 The engines of the Sultan of Labuan were her weak 
 spot, for otherwise her hull was sound enough. But 
 these machines were old, and wasteful in steam, and 
 made all the difference in economy which divides a 
 profit from a loss in these modern days of fierce sea 
 competition." 
 
 With Murgatroyd, the old blue-face mate, Kettle 
 had been shipmates before, and there existed 
 between the two men a strong dislike and a certain 
 mutual esteem. They interviewed over duty matters 
 when the pilot left. " Mr. Murgatroyd," said the 
 little skipper, " you'll keep hatches off, and do every
 
 240 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 thing for ventilation. This Welsh coal's as gassy 
 as petroleum." 
 
 lt Aye, aye," rumbled the mate ; " but how about 
 when heavy weather comes, and the decks are full 
 of water ? " 
 
 "You'll have fresh orders from me before then. 
 Get hoses to work now and sluice down. The ship's 
 a pig-stye." 
 
 "Aye, aye; but the hands are dog-tired." 
 
 "Then it's your place to drive them. I should 
 have thought you'd been long enough at sea to 
 know that. But if you aren't up to your business, 
 just say, and I'll swop you over with the second 
 mate right now." 
 
 The old mate's face grew purpler. " If you want 
 a driver," he said, " you shall have one ; " and with 
 that he went his ways and roused the tired deck- 
 hands to work, after the time-honoured methods. 
 
 But if Captain Kettle did not spare his crew, he 
 was equally hard on himself. He was at sea now 
 and wearing his sea-going conscience, which was an 
 entirely different piece of mental mechanism to that 
 which regulated his actions ashore. He had re- 
 ceived Mr. Gedge's precise instructions to run the 
 coal boat in the ordinary method, and he intended 
 to do it relentlessly and to the letter. 
 
 He had had his doubts about Mr. Gedge's real 
 wishes before, and even the episode of Miss Payne, 
 the typewriter, had not altogether deceived him ; 
 but the second letter from " Well-wisher," which 
 the pilot brought on board, cleared the matter up 
 beyond a doubt. There was not the faintest chance 
 that Gedge had written that ; there was not the faint-
 
 MR. GEDGE'S CATSPAW. 241 
 
 est reason to disbelieve now that Gedge wished his 
 uneconomical steamboat off his hands, and had ar- 
 ranged for her never again to come into port. 
 
 Now, properly approached say with sealed orders 
 to be opened only at sea I think there is very little 
 doubt but what Captain Kettle would have under- 
 taken to carry out this piece of nefarious business 
 himself. The average mariner thinks no more of 
 "making the insurance pay" than the average 
 traveller does of robbing his fellow countrymen by 
 the importation of Belgian cigars and Tauchnitz 
 novels from a Channel packet. And with Kettle, 
 too, loyalty to an employer, so long as that employer 
 treated him squarely, ranked high. But for a second 
 time " Well-wisher " had repeated the word " cats- 
 paw/* and for his purpose he could not have used a 
 better spur. 
 
 The little captain's face grew grim as he read it. 
 " By James ! " he muttered, " if that's the game he's 
 trying to play, I'll make him rue it." 
 
 However, though at the beginning of a voyage it 
 may be easy to make a resolve like this, it is not so 
 easy to carry it into practical effect. If the machinery 
 was on board, human or otherwise, for making the 
 Sultan of Labuan fail to reach port, it was not at all 
 probable that Kettle would find it before he saw it 
 in working order. When arrangements for a bit of 
 barratry of this kind are gone about nowadays, 
 they are performed with shrewdness. Your inge- 
 nious gentlemen, who makes a devil of clockwork and 
 guncotton to blow out a steamer's bottom, or makes 
 a compact with one of her crew to open the bilge- 
 cocks, is dexterous enough to cover up his trail very 
 16
 
 242 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 completely, having a wholesome awe of the law of 
 the land, and a large distaste for penal servitude. 
 
 Moreover, Captain Owen Kettle was not the man 
 to receive gratuitous information on such a point 
 from his underlings. To begin with, he was the 
 Sultan of Labuans captain, and, by the immemorial 
 etiquette on the sea, a ship's captain is always a man 
 socially apart. He is a dictator for the time being, 
 with supreme power of life and death ; is addressed 
 as " Sir "; and would be regarded with social awe 
 and coldness by his own brother, if the said brother 
 were on board as one of the mates or one of the 
 assistant engineers. 
 
 With the chief engineer alone, although he does 
 not sit at meat with him, may a merchant captain 
 unbend, and with the chief of the Sultan of Lab nan 
 Kettle had picked a difference over a commission on 
 bunkering not ten minutes after he had first stepped 
 on board. He had the undoubted knack of command- 
 ing men ; he could look exactly after his employer's 
 property ; but he had an unfortunate habit of making 
 himself hated in the process. 
 
 Over that initial episode of washing the coal-grime 
 from the ship's outer fabric, he had already come 
 into intimate contact with his crew. The tired deck- 
 hands had refused duty : clumsy old Murgatroyd 
 had endeavoured to force them into it by the time- 
 honoured methods, and had been knocked down in 
 the scuffle and trampled on ; when up came Kettle, 
 already spruce and clean, and laid impartially into the 
 whole grimy gang of them with a deck-scrubber. 
 They were new to their little skipper's virtues, and 
 thought at first that they would treat him as they
 
 MR. GEDGE'S CATSPAW. 243 
 
 had already treated the fat old mate, and as a conse- 
 quence bleeding faces and cracked heads were plenti- 
 ful, and curses went up, bitter and deep, in half the 
 tongues of Europe. But Kettle still remained spruce 
 and clean, and aggressive and untouched. 
 
 It takes some art to thoroughly thrash a dozen 
 savage, full-grown men with a light broom without 
 breaking the stick or knocking off the head, and the 
 crew of the Sultan of Labuan were not slow to rec- 
 ognise their Captain's ability. But at the same 
 time they were not inspired with any overpowering 
 love for him. 
 
 In the course of that night an iron belaying-pin 
 whisked up out of the darkness, and knocked off his 
 cap as he stood on the upper bridge, and just before 
 the dawn a chunk of coal whizzed up and smashed 
 itself into splinters on the wheelhouse wall, not an 
 inch from his ear. But as Kettle replied to the first 
 of these compliments by three prompt revolver 
 shots almost before the thrower had time to think, 
 and rushed out and caught the second assailant by 
 the neck-scruff and forced him to eat up every scrap 
 of coal that had been thrown, the all-nation crew de- 
 cided that he was too ugly to tackle usefully, and 
 tacitly agreed to let him alone for the future, and to 
 do their lawful work. The which, of course, was ex- 
 actly what Kettle desired. 
 
 By this time the Sultan of Labuan had run down 
 the Cornish coast, had rounded Land's End, and was 
 standing off on a course which would make Finis- 
 terre her next landfall. The glass was sinking 
 steadily ; the sea-scape was made up of blacks and 
 whites and lurid greys ; but though the air was cold
 
 244 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE, 
 
 and raw, the weather was not any worse than need 
 have been expected for the time of year. The 
 hatches were off, and a good strong smell of coal-gas 
 billowed up from below and mingled with the sea 
 scents. 
 
 With all a northern sailor's distrust fora "Dago," 
 Kettle had spotted his spruce young Italian second 
 mate as Gedge's probable tool, and watched him 
 like the apple of his eye. No man's actions could 
 have been more innocent and normal, and this of 
 course, made things all the more suspicious. The 
 engineer staff, who had access to the bilge-cocks, and 
 could arrange disasters to machinery, were likewise, 
 ex ojficio, suspicious persons, but as it was quite im- 
 possible to overlook them at all hours and on all 
 occasions, he had regretfully to take then? very 
 largely on trust. 
 
 Blundering, incompetent old Murgatroyd, the 
 mate, was the only man on board in whose hon- 
 esty Kettle had the least faith, simply because 
 he considered him too stupid to be intrusted 
 with any operation so delicate as barratry, and 
 to Murgatroyd he more or less confided his inten- 
 tions. 
 
 " I hear there's a scheme on board to scuttle this 
 steamboat," he said, " because she's too expensive to 
 run. Well, Mr. Gedge, the owner, gave me orders 
 to run her, and he told me he made a profit on her. 
 I'm going by Mr. Gedge's words, and I'm going tc 
 take her to Port Sa'fd. And let me tell you this, if she 
 stops anywhere on the road, and goes down, all hands 
 go down with her, even if I have to shoot them my- 
 self. So they'd better hear what's in the wind, and
 
 MR. GEDGE'S CATSPAW. 245 
 
 have a chance to save their own skins. You under- 
 stand what I mean ? " 
 
 " Aye," grunted the mate. 
 
 " Well, just let word of it slip out in the right 
 way, you understand." 
 
 " Aye, aye. Hadn't we better get the hatches on 
 and battened down ? She's shipping in green pretty 
 often now, and the weather's worsening. There's a 
 good slop of water getting down below, and they 
 say it's all the bilge pumps can do to keep it under." 
 
 " Mr. Meddle Murgatroyd," Kettle snapped, "are 
 you master of this blamed ship, or am I ? You 
 leave me to give my orders when I think fit, and get 
 down off this bridge." 
 
 " Aye," grunted the mate, and waddled clumsily 
 down below. 
 
 The old man's suggestion about the hatches had 
 touched upon a sore point. Kettle knew quite well 
 that it was dangerous to leave the great gaps in the 
 decks undefended by planking and tarpaulin. A 
 high sea was running, and the heavy-laden coal-boat 
 rode both deep and sodden. Already he had put 
 her a point and a half to westward of her course, so 
 as to take the oncoming seas more fairly on the 
 bow. 
 
 But still he hung on to the open hatches. The coal 
 below was gassy to a degree, and if the ventilation 
 was stopped it would be terribly liable to explosion. 
 The engine and boiler rooms were bulkheaded off, 
 and there was no danger from these ; but the subtle 
 coal-gas would spread over all the rest of the vessel's 
 living quarters as the smell hinted and a carelessly 
 lit match might very comfortably send the whole of
 
 246 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE, 
 
 her decks hurtling into the air. Kettle had no wish 
 to meet Mr. Gedge's unspoken wishes by an accident 
 of this sort. 
 
 However, it began to be plain that as they drew 
 nearer to the Bay the weather worsened steadily, 
 and at last it came to be a choice between battening 
 down the hatches both forward and aft, or being in- 
 continently swamped. Hour after hour Kettle in his 
 glistening oilskins had been stumping backwards and 
 forwards across the upper bridge, watching his steam- 
 boat like a cat, and holding on with his order to the 
 very furthest moment. But at last he gave the 
 command to batten down, and both watches rushed 
 to help the carpenter carry it out. The men were 
 horribly frightened. It seemed to them that in that 
 gale, and with that sea running, it was insane not to 
 have battened her down long before. 
 
 The hands clustered on the lurching iron decks 
 with the water swirling against them waist-high, and 
 shipped the heavy hatch covers, and got the tarpau- 
 lins over; and then the Norwegian carpenter keyed 
 all fast with the wedges, working like some amphi- 
 bious animal half his time under water. 
 
 The Sultan of Labuan was fitted with no cowl 
 ventilators to her holds, and even if these had been 
 fitted they would have been carried away. So from 
 the moment of battening down, the gas which oozed 
 from the coal mixed with the air till the whole ship 
 became one huge explosive bomb, which the merest 
 spark would touch off. Captain Kettle called his 
 mate to him and gave explicit orders. 
 
 " You know what a powder hulk is like, Mr. 
 Mate?"
 
 MR. GEDGE'S CATSPAW. 247 
 
 "Aye, "said Murgatroyd. 
 
 " Well, this ship is a sight more dangerous, and 
 we have got to take care if we do not want to go to 
 Heaven quick. It's got to be ' all lights out ' aboard 
 this ship till the weather eases and we can get 
 hatches off again. Go round now and see it done 
 yourself, Mr. Murgatroyd, please. Watch the doc- 
 tor dowse the galley fire, and then go and take away 
 all the forecastle matches so the men can't smoke. 
 Put out the side lights, the masthead light, and the 
 binnacle lamps. Quartermasters must steer as best 
 they can from the unlit card." 
 
 " Aye, aye. But you don't mean the side lights 
 too, do ye ? There's a big lot of shipping here in 
 the Bay, and we might easy get run down " The 
 old man caught an ugly look from Kettle's face and 
 broke off. And grumbling some ancient saw about 
 " obeying orders if you break owners," he shuffled 
 off down the ladder. 
 
 Heavier and heavier grew the squalls, carrying 
 with them spindrift which beat like gravel against 
 the two oilskinned tenants of the collier's upper 
 bridge ; worse and worse grew the sea. Great, green 
 waves reared up like walls, crashed on board, and 
 filled the lower decks with boiling, yeasty surge. 
 The funnel-stays and the scanty rigging hummed 
 like harp strings to the gale. 
 
 Deep though she was in the water, there were 
 times when her stern heaved up clear, and the pro- 
 peller raced in a noisy catherine-wheel of fire and 
 foam. On every side, ahead, abeam, and astern, 
 were nodding yellow lights, jerked about by unseen 
 ships over thunderous, unseen waves. It was a
 
 248 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE, 
 
 regular Biscay gale, such as all vessels may count 
 on in that corner of the seas one voyage out of eight, 
 a gale with heavy seas in the midst of a dense crowd 
 of shipping. But there was nothing in it which sea- 
 manship under ordinary circumstances could not 
 meet. 
 
 Captain Kettle hung on hour after hour under 
 shelter of the dodgers on the upper bridge, a small, 
 wind-brushed figure in yellow oilskins and black rub- 
 ber thigh-boots. About such a "breeze" in an or- 
 dinary way he would have thought little. Taking 
 his vessel through it with the minimum of danger 
 was only part of the daily mechanical routine. But 
 he stood there a prey to the liveliest anxiety. 
 
 The thousand-and-one dangers in the Bay ap- 
 peared before him magnified. If the ship for any 
 sudden and unavoidable reason went down, theodds 
 were that he himself and all hands would be drowned ; 
 but at the same time Gedge would be gratified in so 
 easily touching the coveted insurance money. The 
 fear of death did not worry the little skipper in the 
 very least degree whatever, but he had a most 
 thorough objection to being in any way Mr. Gedge's 
 catspaw. 
 
 Twice they had near escapes from being run 
 down. The first time was from a sodden blunder, 
 ing Cardiff ore steamer, which was driving north 
 through the thick of it, with very little of herself 
 showing except two stumpy masts and a brine- 
 washed smokestack. She would have obviously 
 drowned out any lookout on her fore deck, and the 
 bridge officers got too much spindrift in their eyes 
 to see with any clearness. But time is money, and
 
 MR. GEDGE'S CATSPAW. 249 
 
 even Cardiff ore steamers must make passages, and 
 so her master drove her blindly ahead full steam, 
 slap-slop-wallow, and trusted that other people 
 would get out of his way. 
 
 Kettle's keen eyes picked her up out of the sea 
 mists just in time, and ported his own helm, and 
 missed her sheering bow with the Sultan of Labuaris 
 quarter by a short two fathoms. A touch in that 
 insane turmoil of sea would have sent both steamers 
 down to the shells and the flickering weed below ; 
 but there was no touch, and so each went her way 
 with merely a perfunctory interchange of curses, 
 which were blown into nothingness by the gale. 
 Escapes on these occasions didn't count, and it is 
 etiquette not to speak about them ashore afterwards. 
 
 The second shave came from a big white-painted 
 Cape liner, which came up from astern, lit like a 
 theatre, and almost defying the very gale itself. 
 Her lookouts and officers were on the watch for 
 lights. But the unlit collier, which was half her 
 time masked by the seas like a half-tide rock, never 
 struck their notice. 
 
 Kettle, with all a shipmaster's sturdy dislike for 
 shifting his helm when he legally had the right of 
 the road, held on till the great knife-like bow was 
 not a score of yards from his taffrail. But then he 
 gave way, roared out an order to the quartermaster 
 at the wheel, and the Sultan of Labuan fell away to 
 starboard. As if the coal-boat had been a magnet, 
 the Cape liner followed, drawing nearer hand over 
 fist. 
 
 Changing direction further was as dangerous as 
 keeping on as he was, so Kettle bawled to the
 
 250 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 quartermaster to " Steady on that," and then the 
 great, white steam-hotel suddenly seemed to wake 
 to her danger, and swerved off on her old course 
 again. So close were they, that Kettle fancied he 
 could hear the quick, agitated rattle of her wheel 
 engines as they gave her a " hard down " helm. 
 And he certainly saw officers on her high upper- 
 bridge peering at him through the drifting sea- 
 smoke with a curiosity that was more than pleasant. 
 
 " Trying to pick out the old tub's name," he 
 mused grimly, "so as to report me for carrying no 
 lights. By James, I wish some of those dandy pas- 
 senger-boat officers could try this low-down end of 
 the tramping trade for a bit." 
 
 Night went and day came, gray, and wet, and 
 desolate. The heavier squalls had passed away, 
 but a whole gale still remained, and the sea was, if 
 anything, heavier. The coal-boat rarely showed all 
 of herself at once above the waters. Her progress 
 was a succession of dives, her decoration (when she 
 was visible) a fringe of spouting scuppers. Watch 
 had succeeded watch with the dogged patience of 
 sailor men; but watch after watch Kettle hung on 
 behind the canvas dodgers at the weather end of 
 the bridge. He was red-eyed and white-cheeked, 
 his torpedo beard was foul with sea salt, he was un- 
 pleasant to look upon, but he was undeniably very 
 much awake, and when the accident came (which he 
 concluded was Mr. Gedge's effort to realise the coal- 
 boat's insurance), he was quite ready to cope with 
 emergencies. 
 
 From somewhere in the bowels of the ship there 
 came the muffled boom of an explosion ; the bridge
 
 MR. GEDGE'S CATSPAW. 251 
 
 buckled up beneath his feet, so that he was very 
 nearly wrenched from his hold ; and the iron main 
 deck, which at that moment happened to be free of 
 water, rippled and heaved like a tin biscuit-bo* 
 moves when it is kicked. There was a tinkle o( 
 broken glass as some blown-out skylights crashed 
 back upon the deck. 
 
 He looked forward and he looked aft, and to his 
 surprise saw that both hatches were still in place 
 and that very little actual damage was visible, and 
 then he had his attention occupied by another mat- 
 ter. From the stoke-hold, from the forecastle, and 
 from the engine-room the frightened crew poured 
 out into the open, and some scared wretch cried 
 out to " lower away zem boats." 
 
 Here was a situation that needed dealing with at 
 once, and Kettle was the man to do it. From be- 
 neath his oilskins he lugged out the revolver which 
 they knew so painfully already, and showed it with 
 ostentation. "By James," he shouted, "do you 
 want to be taught who's captain here ? I'll give 
 cheap lessons if you ask." 
 
 His words reached them above the hooting and 
 brawl of the gale, and they were cowed into sullen 
 obedience. 
 
 " Carpenter, take a couple of men and away be- 
 low with you and see what's broke. You blessed, 
 split-trousered mechanics, away down to your en- 
 gine-room or I'll come and kick you there. The 
 second mate and his watch get tarpaulins over those 
 broken skylights. Where's Mr. Murgatroyd? In 
 his bunk, I suppose, as usual ; not his watch : no 
 affair of his if the ship's blown to Heaven when he's
 
 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 off duty. Here, you steward, go and turn out Mr. 
 Murgatroyd." 
 
 The men bustled about after their errands, and 
 the engines which had stopped for a minute, began 
 to rumble on again. Captain Kettle paraded the 
 swaying bridge and awaited developments. 
 
 Presently the bareheaded steward fought his way 
 up the bridge-ladder against the tearing wind, and 
 bawled out some startling news. " It's Mr. Mur- 
 gatroyd's room that's been blown up, sir, made a 
 'orrid mess of. Chips says *e picked up 'is lighted 
 pipe in the alleyway, sir, an' it must a' been that 
 Jhat fired the gas." 
 
 " The blamed old thickhead," said Kettle savagely. 
 
 " 'E was arskin ' for you, sir, was the mate, 
 though we couldn't rightly make out what 'e said." 
 
 " He won't be pleased to see me. Smoking, by 
 James, was he ? " 
 
 "The mate's burnt up like a piece of coke," said 
 the steward persuasively. " 'E cawn't last long." 
 
 The carpenter came up on the bridge. " Dose 
 blow-up vas not so bad for der ole ship, sir. She 
 nod got any plates started dot I can see. Dey 
 have der bilge-pumps running, but der's nod much 
 water. Und der mate, sir. He say he vould like 
 to see you. He's in ver' bad way." 
 
 "All right," said Kettle, " I'll go and see him." 
 He called up the Italian second mate on to the 
 bridge and gave over charge of the ship to him, and 
 then went below. 
 
 The author of all the mischief, the stupid old man 
 who, through sheer crass ignorance, had gone to bed 
 and smoked a pipe in this powder mine, lay horribly
 
 MR. GEDGE'S CATSPAW. 253 
 
 injured in the littered alleyway, with a burst straw 
 cushion under the shocking remnants of his head. 
 Most of his injuries were plain to the eye, and it 
 was a marvel that he lingered on at all. It was very 
 evident that he could not live for long, and it was 
 clear, too, that he wanted to speak. 
 
 Kettle's resenment died at the sight of this poor 
 charred cinder of humanity, and he knelt in the 
 litter and listened. The sea noises and the ship 
 noises without almost drowned the words, and the 
 old mate's voice was very weak. It was only here 
 and there he could pick up a sentence. 
 
 " Nearly got to ivind'ard of you, skipper. . . . It 
 was me. . . . Gedge paid me fifty pound for the job 
 . . . scuttle her . . . after Gib . . . would 'a done 
 it, too . . . in spite of your blooming teeth" 
 
 The old fellow broke off, and Kettle leant near 
 to him. " How were you going to scuttle her? "he 
 asked. 
 
 There was no answer. A second time he repeated 
 the question, and then again a third time. The 
 mate heard him. The sea roared outside, the wind 
 boomed overhead, the cluttered wreckage clanged 
 about the alleyway. The old man was past speech 
 but he opened an eye, his one remaining eye, and 
 slowly and solemnly winked. 
 
 It was his one recorded attempt at humour during 
 a lifetime, and the effort was his last. His jaw 
 dropped, wagging to the thud of the ship, his 
 eye opened in a glassy, unseeing stare, and he was 
 as dead a thing as the iron deck he lay upon. 
 
 " Well, matey," said Kettle, apostrophising the 
 poor charred form, "we've been shipmates before,
 
 254 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 but I never liked you. But, by James, you had 
 your points. You shall be buried by z pukka parson 
 in Gib, and have a stone put over your ugly old head, 
 if I have to pay for it myself. I think I can hammer 
 out a bit of verse, too, which'!! make that stone a 
 thing people will remember. 
 
 " By James, though, won't Gedge be mad over 
 this ! Gedge will think I spotted the game you 
 were playing for him, and murdered you out of 
 hand. Well, that's all right, and it won't hurt 
 you, matey. I want Gedge to understand I'm a 
 man that's got to be dealt straight with. I want 
 Mr. Blessed Gedge to understand that I'm not the 
 kind of lamb to make into a catspaw by any manner 
 of means. I bet he does tumble to that, too. But 
 I bet also that he sacks me from this berth before 
 I've got the coals over into the lighters at Port 
 Sai'd. By James, yes, Gedge is a man that sticks to 
 his plans, and as he can't lose the Sultan of Labuan 
 with me as her skipper, he'll jerk another old man 
 into the chart-house on the end of a wire, who'll do 
 the job more to his satisfaction." 
 
 The Norwegian carpenter came up, and asked a 
 question. 
 
 " No, no, Chips ; put the canvas away. I want 
 you to knock up some sort of a box for the poor old 
 mate, and we'll take him to Gib, and plant him 
 there in style. I owe him a bit. We'll all get safe 
 enough to Port Said now."
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE SALVING OF THE DUNCANSBY HEAD. 
 
 " THE boat's an old P. and O. lifeboat," said Mr. 
 McTodd, " diagonal-built of teak, and quite big 
 enough for the purpose. Of course, something 
 with steam in her would be better, because we're 
 both steamer-men ; but that's out of the question. 
 That would mean too many to share. So the thing 
 is, can you buy this lifeboat and victual her for the 
 trip ? I'm no* what ye might call a capitalist my- 
 self, just for the moment." 
 
 Captain Kettle eyed the grimy serge of his com- 
 panion with disfavour. " You don't look it," he 
 said. " That last engine-room you got sacked from 
 must have been a mighty filthy place." 
 
 " 'Twas," said McTodd. " But as it happened, I 
 didn't get the sack. I ran from her here in Gib be- 
 cause I'd no wish to get back to England and have 
 this news useless in my pocket. And, of course, I 
 had to let slide the eight pound in wages that was 
 due to me." 
 
 " By James, it's beginning to look like business 
 when a Scottie runs away from siller that he's righte- 
 ously earned." 
 
 "Well, I'm no' denying it was a speculation. It's 
 a bit of a speculation, if ye come to reckon up, ask- 
 
 255
 
 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 ing a newly-sacked sea captain to join in such a 
 venture." 
 
 Kettle's face hardened. " See here," he said, 
 "keep a civil tongue in your head, or go out of this 
 lodging. I'm to be treated with respect, or I don't 
 deal with you." 
 
 " Then let my clothes alone and be civil yourself. 
 It's a mighty dry shop this, Captain." 
 
 " I've no whisky in the place nor spare money to 
 buy it. If we're to go on with this plan of yours, 
 we shall want every dollar that can be raised." 
 
 "That's true, and neither me nor'Tonio have ten 
 shillings between us." 
 
 Kettle gave up pacing the room and sat himself 
 on the edge of the table and frowned. " I don't 
 see the use of taking either Antonio, if that's his 
 name, or your other Dago. I don't like the breed 
 of them. You and I would be quite enough to 
 handle an open boat, and quite able to take care of 
 ourselves. If the wreck's got the money on her, 
 and we finger it, we'll promise to bring them back 
 their share all right ; and if the thing's a fizzle, as 
 it's very likely to be, well, they'll be saved a very 
 unpleasant boat-cruise." 
 
 " It's no go," said the engineer, " and you may 
 make up your mind to have them as shipmates, 
 Captain, or sit here on your tail where you are. 
 D'ye think I've any appetite for Dagos myself? 
 No, sir, no more than you. I don't trust them no 
 more than a stripped thread. And they don't trust 
 me. They wouldn't trust you. They would no' 
 trust the Provost of Edinboro' if he was to make 
 similar proposals to them."
 
 THE SALVING OF THE DUNCANSBY HEAD. 257 
 
 " Then have you no idea where this steamboat 
 was put on the ground ? " 
 
 " Man, I've telled ye ' no ' already." 
 
 " Seems to me you don't know much, Mr. Mc- 
 Todd." 
 
 " I don't. What I know is this : I came ashore 
 here after a vera exhausting trip down the Mediter- 
 ranean, just for a drink to fortify the system against 
 the chills on the run home. I went to a little dark 
 shebeen, where I kenned the cut-throat in charge, 
 and gave the name of the ship I wanted sending 
 back to, in case sleep overcame me, and settled 
 down for an afternoon's enjoyment. Ye'll ken what 
 I mean ?" 
 
 " I know you're a drunken beast when you get 
 the chance for an orgie." 
 
 " I have my weaknesses, Captain, or maybe I'd 
 no' have left Ballindrochater, where my father was 
 Free Kirk Meenister. We both have our weak- 
 nesses, Captain Owen Kettle, and it's they that 
 have brought us to what we are." 
 
 " If you don't leave me alone and get on with 
 your yarn," said Kettle acidly, "you'll find yourself 
 in the street." 
 
 " Oh, I like your hospitality fine, and I'll stay, 
 thanks. Weel, I'd just settled myself down to a 
 good square drink at this Spaniard's shebeen, when 
 out of a dark corner comes Tonio and the other 
 Dago, bowing and taking off their hats as polite as 
 though I'd been an archbishop at the very least. 
 
 " I'd met 'Tonio in Lagos. He was greaser on a 
 branch boat there, and I was her second engineer. 
 He's some English, and he did the talking. The 
 '7
 
 258 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 other Dago knew nothing but his own unrighteous 
 tongue, and just said see-see when 'Tonio explained 
 to him what was going on, and grinned like a bagful 
 of monkeys. I give 'Tonio credit : he spat out his 
 tale like a man. He and his mate were in the stoke- 
 hold of a Dago steamboat coming from the River 
 Plate to Genoa, and calling at some of the Western 
 Islands en route. 
 
 11 One night they were just going off watch, and 
 were leaning over the rail to get a breath of cool 
 air before turning in. They were steaming past 
 some rocky islands, and there in plain sight of them 
 was a vessel hard and fast ashore. There was no 
 mistake about it : they both saw her : a steamboat 
 of some fifteen hundred tons. And what was more, 
 the other Portugee, 'Tonio's friend, said he knew 
 her. According to him she was the Duncansby 
 Head. He'd served in her stokehold three voyages, 
 and he said he'd know her anywhere." 
 
 " A Dago's word isn't worth much for a thing 
 like that," said Kettle. 
 
 " Wait a bit. The pair of them stayed where 
 they were and looked at the rest of the watch on 
 deck. The second mate on the bridge was staring 
 ahead sleepily ; the quartermaster at the wheel was 
 nodding and blinking at the binnacle ; the lookout 
 on the forecastle was seated on a fife-rail, snoring; 
 no one of these had seen the wreck. And so they 
 themselves didn't talk. Their boat was running 
 short of coal, and so she put into Gib here to re- 
 bunker ; and from another Dago on the coal-hulk, 
 who came aboard to help trim, they got some news. 
 The Duncansby Head had shifted her cargo at sea,
 
 THE SALVING OF THE DUNCANSBY HEAD. 259 
 
 had picked up heavy weather and got unmanageable, 
 and had been left by her crew in the boats. The 
 mate's boat and the second mate's boat were picked 
 up ; the old man's boat had not been heard of. It 
 was supposed that the Duncansby Head herself had 
 foundered immediately after she was deserted." 
 
 " Yes, all that's common gossip on the Rock. 
 Mulready was her skipper: J. R. Mulready: I'd 
 known him years." 
 
 " Weel, poor deevil, it's perhaps good for him he's 
 drowned." 
 
 " Yes, I suppose it is. He's saved a sight of 
 trouble. D'ye know, Mac, Jimmy Mulready and I 
 passed for mate the same day, and went to sea with 
 our bran-new tickets in the same ship, him as mate, 
 me as second." 
 
 " The sea's an awful poor profession for all, except 
 a shipowner that lives ashore." 
 
 " 'Tis. Yes, that's a true word. It is. And so 
 Antonio and his mate told the other Dago that 
 they'd seen the wreck ? " 
 
 " Not much. They kept their heads shut. There 
 was money in the idea if it could only be worked, 
 and a Portugee likes dollars as much as a white man. 
 So there you have the whole yarn, except that they 
 got to know that the Duncansby was on her way 
 home after a long spell at tramping when she got 
 into trouble, and carried all the money she'd earned 
 in good solid gold in the chart-house drawer." 
 
 " It sounds a soft thing, I'll not deny," said Kettle. 
 " But why should Mr. Antonio and his friend come 
 to you ? " 
 
 " They ran from their ship here in Gib, and laid
 
 260 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 low till she had sailed. It was the natural thing for 
 them to do. But when they began to look round 
 them in cold blood, they found themselves a bit on 
 the beach. They'd no money ; there's such a shady 
 crowd here in Gib that everything's well watched, 
 and they couldn't steal ; and so there was nothing 
 for it but to take a partner into the concern. Of 
 course being Dagos, they weren't likely to trust one 
 of their own sort." 
 
 " Not much. And so they came to you ? " 
 
 "They knew me," said the engineer. "And I 
 came to you because I knew you, Captain. I'm no 
 navigator myself, though I can make shift to handle 
 a sail boat, so a navigator was wanted. I said to 
 myself the man, in all creation for this job is Captain 
 Kettle, and then what should I do but run right up 
 against you." 
 
 " Thank you, Mac." 
 
 " But there's one other thing you'll have to do, 
 and that's buy, beg, borrow or steal the ship to carry 
 the expedition, because the rest of us can't raise a 
 blessed shilling amongst us. It needn't be a big 
 outlay. That old P. and O. lifeboat which I was 
 talking about would carry us fine, and I think three 
 five-pound notes would buy her." 
 
 " Very well," said Kettle. " And now let's get a 
 move on us. There's been enough time spent in 
 talk, and the sooner we're on that wreck the less 
 chance there is of anyone else getting there to over- 
 haul her before us." 
 
 It would be unprofitable to follow in detail the 
 fitting out of this wrecking expedition upon insuffi-
 
 THE SALVING OF THE DUNCANSBY HEAD. 26 1 
 
 cient capital, and so be it briefly stated that the old 
 lifeboat (which had passed through many hands 
 since she was cast from the P. and O. service) was 
 purchased by dint of haggling for an absurdly small 
 sum, and victualled and watered for eighteen days. 
 The Portuguese, who still refused to disclose the 
 precise location of the wreck, said that it might take 
 a fortnight to reach her, and prudence would have 
 suggested that it was advisable to take at least a 
 month's provisions. But the meagreness of their 
 capital flatly forbade this, and they were only able 
 to furnish the boat with what would spin out to 
 eighteen days on an uncomfortably short ration. 
 They trusted that what pickings they might find in 
 the storerooms of the wreck herself would provide 
 them for the return voyage. 
 
 With this slender equipment then, they sailed 
 forth from Gibraltar Bay, an obvious party of adven- 
 turers. They were bombarded by the questions and 
 the curious stares of all the shipping interest on the 
 Rock; they were flatly given to understand by a 
 naval busybody (who had been bidden carry his in- 
 quisitiveness to the deuce) that they had earned 
 official suspicion, and would be watched accordingly: 
 and if ever ill-wishes could sink a craft, that ancient 
 P. and O. lifeboat was full to her marks. 
 
 The voyage did not begin with prosperity. There 
 is always a strong surface current running in through 
 the Straits, and just then the breezes were light 
 The lifeboat was a dull sailer, and her people in 
 consequence had the mortification of keeping Car- 
 nero Point and the frowning Rock behind in sight 
 for three baking days. The two Portuguese were
 
 262 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 first profane, then sullen, then frightened ; some 
 saint's day, it appeared, had been violated by the 
 start ; and they began first to hint at, and then to 
 insist on a return. To which Kettle retorted that 
 he was going to see the matter through now, if he 
 had to hang in the Straits for the whole eighteen 
 days, and subsist for the rest of the trip upon dew 
 and theii belts ; and in this McTodd backed him up. 
 
 Once started and away from the whisky bottle, 
 there was nothing very yielding about Mr. McTodd. 
 Only one compromise did Kettle offer to make. He 
 would stand across and drop his Portuguese partners 
 on the African shore if they on their part would dis- 
 close the whereabouts of the wreck ; and in due 
 time, when the dividends were gathered, he faith- 
 fully promised them their share. But to this they 
 would not consent. In fact, there was a good deal 
 of mutual distrust between the two parties. 
 
 At last, however, a kindly slant of wind took the 
 lifeboat in charge, and hustled her wetly out into 
 broad Atlantic ; and when they had run the shores 
 of Europe and Africa out of sight, and there was 
 nothing round them but the blue heaving water, with 
 here and there a sail and a steamer's smoke, then 
 Senhor Antonio saw fit to give Captain Kettle a 
 course. 
 
 " We wassteamin'fromaTeneriffe co Madeira when 
 we saw thosea rocks with Duncans by Head asho'." 
 
 " H'm," said Kettle. " Those'll be the Salvage 
 Islands." 
 
 " Steamah was pile up on de first. 'Mother island 
 we pass after." 
 
 " That's Piton Island if I remember. Let's have
 
 THE SALVING OF THE DUNCANSBY HEAD. 263 
 
 a look at the chart." He handed over the tiller to 
 McTodd, took a tattered Admiralty chart from one 
 of the lockers, and spread it on the damp floor 
 gratings. The two Portuguese helped with their 
 brown paws to keep it from fluttering away. " Yes, 
 either Little Piton or Great Piton. Which side did 
 you pass it on ? " 
 
 Antonio thumped a gunwale of the lifeboat. 
 
 " Kept it on the port hand going North, did you ? 
 Then that'll be Great Piton, and a sweet shop it is 
 for reefs according to this chart. I wish I'd a Di- 
 rectory. It will be a regular cat's dance getting in. 
 But I say, young man, isn't there a light there?" 
 
 "Lighta? I not understand." 
 
 " You savvy lighthouse faro show-mark-light 
 in dark?" 
 
 " Oh, yes, lighta-house. I got there. No, no 
 lighta-house." 
 
 " Well, there's one marked here as ' projected,' and 
 I was afraid it might have come. I forgot the 
 Canaries were Spanish, and Madeira was Portugee, 
 and that these rocks which lie halfway would be 
 a sort of slack cross between the pair of them. 
 Maiianas the motto, isn't it, Tonio? Never do to- 
 day what you hope another flat will do for you to- 
 morrow." 
 
 
 
 " Si, si, manana" said the Portuguese, who had not 
 understood one word in ten of all this. " Manana we 
 find rich, plenty too-much rich. God sava Queen !" 
 
 "Those Canary fishing schooners land on the 
 Salvages sometimes," said McTodd, " so I heard 
 once in Las Palmas." 
 
 " I guess we got to take our chances, Mac. If
 
 264 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 the old wreck's been overhauled before we get there, 
 it's our back luck ; if she hasn't been skimmed clean, 
 we'll take what there is, and I fancy we shall be men 
 enough to stick to it. It isn't as if she was piled up 
 on some civilised beach, with coastguards to take 
 possession and all the rest of it. The islands are 
 either Spanish or Portugee. They belong to a pack 
 of thieves anyway ; and we've just as much right to 
 help ourselves as anyone else has. What we've got 
 to do at present is to shove this old ruin of a life- 
 boat along as though she were a racing yacht. At 
 the shortest we've got seven hundred miles of blue 
 water ahead of us." 
 
 Open-boat voyaging in the broad Atlantic may 
 have its pleasures, but these, such as they were, did 
 not appeal to either Kettle or his companions. 
 They were thoroughgoing steamer sailors ; they de- 
 spised sails ; and the smallness of their craft gave 
 them qualms both mental and physical. By day the 
 sun scorched them with intolerable glare and vio- 
 lence ; by night the clammy sea mists drenched them 
 to the bone. 
 
 For a larger vessel the weather would have been 
 accounted favourable ; for their cockle-shell it was 
 once or twice terrific. In two squalls that they ran 
 into, breaking combers filled the lifeboat to the 
 thwarts, and they had to bale for their bare lives. 
 They were cramped and sore from their constrained 
 position and want of exercise ; they got sea-sores on 
 their wrists and salt-grime on every inch of their 
 persons ; they were growing gaunt on the scanty 
 rations; and, in fact, a better presentation of a boat
 
 THE SALVING OF THE DUNCANSBY HEAD. 265 
 
 full of desperate castaways it would be hard to hit 
 upon. Flotillas of iridescent, pink-sailed nautilus 
 scudded constantly beside them, dropping as con- 
 stantly astern ; and these made their only company. 
 Except for the nautilus, the sea seemed desolate. 
 
 In this guise then they ended their voyage, which 
 had spun out to nigh upon a thousand miles through 
 contrary winds and the necessity for incessant tack- 
 ing ; and in the height of one blazing afternoon they 
 rose to the tops of the islands out of a twinkling tur- 
 quoise sea. 
 
 These appeared first as mere dusty black rocks 
 sticking up out of the calm blue Great Salvage 
 Island to the northward, and Great Piton to the south 
 and beyond but they grew as the boat neared them, 
 and presently appeared to be built upon a frieze of 
 dazzling feathery whiteness. The lifeboat swept on 
 to reach them, climbing and diving over the rollers. 
 She had canvas decks, quartermast high, contrived 
 to throw off the sprays ; and over these the faces of 
 her people peered ahead, wild and gaunt, salt-crusted 
 and desperate. 
 
 Great Salvage Island drew abeam and passed away 
 astern ; Great Piton lay close ahead now, fringed 
 with a thousand reefs, each with its spouting break- 
 ers. The din of the surf came to them loudly up 
 the wind. A flock of seafowl, screaming and circling, 
 sailed out to escort them in ; and ahead, behind the 
 banks of breakers, drawing them on as water will 
 draw a choking man, was the rusted smokestack and 
 stripped masts of a derelict merchant steamer. 
 
 There is a yarn about an open boat which had 
 voyaged twelve hundred miles over the lonely Pacific,
 
 266 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 coming upon a green atoli, and being sailed reck, 
 lessly in through the surf, and drowning every soul 
 on board ; and the yarn is easily believable. Captain 
 Kettle and his companions had undergone horrible 
 privations ; here, at last, was the isle of their hopes, 
 and the treasure (as it seemed) in full view ; but, by 
 some intolerable fate, they were barred from it by 
 relentless walls of surf. Kettle ran in as close as he 
 dared, and then flattened in his sheets, and sailed 
 the lifeboat close-hauled along the noisy line of the 
 breakers to the Norrard, looking for an opening. 
 
 The two Portuguese grumbled openly, and when 
 not a ghost of a landing-place showed, and Kettle 
 put her about to sail back again, even the cautious 
 McTodd put up his word to " run in, and risk it." 
 
 But Kettle, though equally sick as they were of 
 the boat and her voyage, had all a sailor's dislike for 
 losing his ship whatever she might be, and cowed 
 them all with voice and threats ; and at last his for- 
 bearance was rewarded. A slim passage through 
 the reef showed itself at the southern end of the 
 island ; and down it they dodged, trimming their 
 sheets six times a minute, with an escort of dangers 
 always close on either hand ; and finally ran into a 
 rocky bay which held comparatively smooth water. 
 
 There was no place to beach the boat ; they had 
 to anchor her off ; but with a whip on the cable they 
 were able to step ashore on a ledge of stone, and 
 then haul the boat off again out of harm's way. 
 
 It may be thought that they capered with delight 
 at treading on dry land again ; but there was nothing 
 of this. With their cramped limbs and disused 
 joints, it was as much as they could do to hobble,
 
 THE SALVING OF THE DUNCANSBY HEAD. 267 
 
 and every step was a wrench. But the lure ahead 
 of them was great enough to triumph over minor 
 difficulties. Half a mile away along the rocks was 
 the Duncansby Head, and for her they raced at the 
 top of their crippled gait. And the seafowl screamed 
 curiously above their heads. 
 
 They scratched and tore themselves in this fran- 
 tic progress over the sharp volcanic rocks, they 
 choked with thirst, they panted with their labor ; 
 but none of these things mattered. 
 
 The deserted steamer, when they came to her, 
 was lying off from the shore at the other side of a 
 lake of deep water. But they were fit for no more 
 waiting, and each, as he came opposite her, waded 
 in out of his depth, and swam off with eager strokes. 
 Davit-falls trailing in the water gave them an en- 
 trance way, and up these they climbed with the 
 quickness of apes ; and then, with one accord, they 
 made for the pantry and the steward's storeroom. 
 The gold which had lured them was forgotten ; the 
 immediate needs of their famished bodies were 
 the only things they remembered. They found a 
 cheese, a box of musty biscuits, and a filter full of 
 stale and tepid water; and they gorged till they 
 were filled, and swore they had never sat to so deli- 
 cious a meal. 
 
 With repletion came the thoughts of fortune 
 again, and off they went to the charthouse to finger 
 the coveted gold. But here was a disappointment 
 ready and waiting for them. They had gone up in 
 a body, neither nationality trusting the other, and 
 together they ransacked the place with thorough, 
 ness. There were papers in abundance, there were
 
 268 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 clothes furry with mildew, there was a broken box 
 of cheap cigars; but of money there was not so 
 much as a bronze piece. 
 
 "Eh, well," said Kettle, sitting back on the 
 musty bedclothes, " we have had our trouble for 
 nothing. Some one's been here first, and skimmed 
 the place clean. By James, yes. And look on the 
 floor there. See those cigarette ends ? They're 
 new and dry. If the old man had been a cigarette 
 smoker he wouldn't have chucked his butts on his 
 charthouse deck, and, even if he had done, they'd 
 have been washed to bits when she was hove down 
 on her beam ends. You can see by the decks out- 
 side that she's been pretty clean swept. No, it's 
 those fishermen, as you say, who have been here 
 before us." 
 
 " Well," said McTodd, " if I were a swearer, I 
 could say a deal." 
 
 " The Dagos are swearing enough for the whole 
 crowd of us, to judge by the splutter of them. 
 The money's gone clean. It's vexing, but that's a 
 fact. Still, I don't like to go back empty-handed." 
 
 " I'm as keen as yoursel'. There's that eight 
 pound of my wages I left when I ran in Gib, that's 
 got to be made up somehow. What's wrong with 
 getting off the hatches, and seeing how her cargo's 
 made up ? " 
 
 " She's loaded with hides. I saw it on the mani- 
 fest. There was Jimmy Mulready's scrawl at the 
 foot of it. That photo there above the bed-foot 
 will be his wife. Poor old Jimmy. He got religion 
 before I did, and started his insurance, too, and, if
 
 THE SALVING OF THE DUNCANSBY HEAD. 269 
 
 he's kept them both up, he and his widow ought to 
 be all right By James, did you feel that ? " 
 
 McTodd stared round him. 
 
 " What ? " he asked. 
 
 " She moved. 
 
 " I took it for sure she was on the ground." 
 
 " So did I. But she isn't. There, you can feel 
 her lift again." 
 
 They went out on deck. The sun was already 
 dipping in the western sea behind the central hill of 
 the island, and in another few minutes it would be 
 dark. There is little twilight so far south. So they 
 took cross bearings on the shore, and watched in- 
 tently. Yes, there was not a doubt about it. The 
 Duncansby Head floated, and she was moving across 
 the deep water lake that held her. 
 
 " Mon ! " said the engineer enthusiastically, 
 "ye've a great head, and a great future before you. 
 I'd never have guessed it." 
 
 " I took it for granted she'd beaten her bottom 
 out in getting here ; but she's blundered in through 
 the reefs without touching ; and if she's come in, 
 she can get out again, and we're the fellows to take 
 her." 
 
 " With engines." 
 
 " With engines, yes. If she's badly broken down 
 in the hardware shop, we're done. I'd forgotten 
 the machinery, and that's a fact. We'll find a lan- 
 tern, and I'll go down with you, Mac, and give 
 them an inspect." 
 
 The two Portuguese had already sworn themselves 
 to a standstill, and had gone below and found
 
 270 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 bunks ; but the men from the little islands in the 
 North had more energy in their systems, and they 
 expanded it tirelessly. McTodd overhauled every 
 nut, every bearing, every valve, every rod of the en- 
 gines with an expert's criticism, and found nothing 
 that would prevent active working; Kettle rum- 
 maged the rest of the ship ; and far into the morning 
 they foregathered again in the charthouse, and 
 compared results. 
 
 She had been swept, badly swept ; everything 
 movable on deck was gone ; cargo had shifted, and 
 then shifted back again till she had lost all her list 
 and was in proper trim ; the engines were still work- 
 able if carefully nursed ; and, in fact, though bat- 
 tered, she was entirely seaworthy. And while with 
 tired gusto they were comparing these things, weari- 
 ness at last got the better of them, and first one and 
 then the other incontinently dropped off into the 
 deadest of sleep. 
 
 That the Duncansby Head had come in unsteered 
 and unscathed through the reefs, and therefore 
 under steam and control could go out again, was on 
 the face of it a very simple and obvious theory to 
 propound ; but to discover a passage through the 
 rocks to make this practicable was quite another 
 matter. For three days the old P. and O. lifeboat 
 plied up and down from outside the reefs and had 
 twenty narrow escapes from being smashed into 
 staves. It looked as if Nature had performed a 
 miracle, and taken the steamer bodily in her arms, 
 and lifted her over at least a dozen black walls of 
 stone. 
 
 The two Portuguese were already sick to death of
 
 THE SALVING OF THE DUNCANSBY HEAD. 2/1 
 
 the whole business, but for their feelings neither 
 Kettle nor McTodd had any concern whatever. 
 They were useful in the working of the boat, 
 and therefore they were taken along, and when 
 they refused duty or did it with too much Hstlessness 
 to please, they were cuffed into activity again. 
 There was no verbal argument about the matter, 
 " Work or Suffer " was the simple motto the 
 two islanders went upon, and it answered admi- 
 rably. They knew the breed of the Portuguese of 
 old. 
 
 At last, by dint of daring and toil, the secret of 
 the pass through the noisy spouting reefs was won ; 
 it was sounded carefully and methodically for sunken 
 rocks, and noted in all possible ways ; and the 
 P. and O. lifeboat was hoisted on the Duncansbys 
 davits. The Portuguese were driven down into the 
 stokehold to represent double watches of a dozen 
 men and make the requisite steam ; McTodd fingered 
 the rusted engines like an artist ; and Kettle took 
 his stand alone with the steam wheel on the upper 
 bridge. 
 
 They had formally signed articles, and appor- 
 tioned themselves pay, Kettle as Master, McTodd 
 as Chief Engineer, and the Portuguese as firemen, 
 because salvage is apportioned pro rata, and the 
 more pay a man is getting the larger is his bonus. 
 On which account (at McTodd's suggestion) they 
 awarded themselves paper stipends which they 
 could feel proud of, and put down the Portuguese 
 for the ordinary fireman's wages then paid out of 
 Gibraltar, neither more nor less. For, as the engineer 
 said: " There was a fortune to be divided up some-
 
 2/2 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 how, and it would be a pity for a pair of unclean 
 Dagos to have more than was absolutely necessary, 
 seeing that they would not know what to do with 
 it." 
 
 Captain Kettle felt it to be one of the supreme 
 moments of his life when he rang on the Duncansbys 
 bridge telegraph to " Half-speed ahead." Here was 
 a bid for fortune such as very rarely came in any 
 shipmaster's way ; not getting salvage, the larger 
 part of which an owner would finger, for mere as- 
 sistance, but taking to port a vessel which was dere- 
 lict and deserted the greatest and the rarest plum 
 that the seas could offer. It was a thought that 
 thrilled him. 
 
 But he had not much time for sentimental mus- 
 ings in this strain. A terribly nervous bit of pilot- 
 age lay ahead of him ; the motive power of his 
 steamer was feeble and uncertain ; and it would 
 require all his skill and resourcefulness to bring her 
 out into deep blue water. Slowly she backed or 
 went ahead, dodging round to get a square entrance 
 to the fairway, and then with a slam Kettle rang on 
 his telegraph to " Full speed ahead," so as to get 
 her uncjer the fullest possible command. 
 
 She darted out into the narrow, winding lane be- 
 tween the walls of broken water, and the roar of the 
 surf closed round her. Rocks sprang up out of the 
 deep hungry black rocks, as deadly as explosive 
 torpedoes. With a full complement of hands, and 
 with a pilot for years acquainted with the place, it 
 would have been an infinitely dangerous piece of 
 navigation ; with a half-power steamer which had 
 only one man all told upon her decks, and he almost
 
 THE SALVING OF THE DUNCANSBY HEAD. 273 
 
 a stranger to the place, it was a miracle how she 
 got out unscathed. But it was a miracle assisted by 
 the most brilliant skill. Kettle had surveyed the 
 channel in the lifeboat, and mapped every rock in 
 his head, and when the test came he was equal to 
 it. It would be hard to come across a man of more 
 iron nerve. 
 
 Backing, and going ahead, to get round right- 
 angled turns of the fairway, shaving reefs so closely 
 that the wash from them creamed over her rail, the 
 battered old tramp steamer faced a million dangers 
 for every fathom of her onward way ; but never 
 once did she actually touch, and in the end she shot 
 out into the clear, deep water, and gaily hit diamonds 
 from the wavetops into the sunshine. 
 
 It is possible for a man to concentrate himself so 
 deeply upon one thing that he is deaf to all else in 
 the world ; and until he had worked the Duncansby 
 Head out into the open, Captain Kettle was in this 
 condition. He was dimly conscious of voices hail- 
 ing him, but he had no leisure to give them heed. 
 But when the strain was taken off, then there was 
 no more disregarding the cries. He turned his head, 
 and saw a half-sunk raft, which seven men with 
 clumsy paddles were frantically labouring towards 
 him along the outer edge of the reefs. 
 
 Without a second thought he rang off engines, 
 and the steamer lost her way and fell into the trough 
 and waited for them. From the first he had a fore- 
 boding as to who they were ; but the men were obvi- 
 ously castaway ; and by all the laws of the sea and 
 humanity he was bound to rescue them. 
 
 Ponderously the raft paddled up and got under 
 18
 
 274 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 the steamer's lee. Kettle came down off the bridge 
 and threw them the end of a halliard, and eagerly 
 enough they scrambled up the rusted plating, and 
 clambered over the rail. They looked around them 
 with curiosity, but with an obvious familiarity. 
 
 "I left my pipe stuck behind that stanchion," said 
 one, " and, by gum, it's there still." 
 
 " Fo'c's'le door's stove in," said another; " I 
 wonder if they've scoffed my chest." 
 
 " You Robinson Crusoes seem to be making your- 
 selves at home," said Kettle. 
 
 One of the men knuckled his shock of hair. " We 
 was on her, sir, when she happened her accident. 
 We got off in the Captain's boat, and she was 
 smashed to bits landing on great Salvage yonder. 
 We've been living there ever since on rabbits and 
 gulls and cockles till we built that raft and ferried 
 over here. It was tough living, but I guess we were 
 better off than the poor beggars that were swamped 
 in the other boats." 
 
 " The other two boats got picked up." 
 
 " Did they though? Then I call it beastly hard 
 luck on us." 
 
 "Captain Mulready was master, wasn't he? Did 
 he get drowned when your boat went ashore?" 
 
 The sailor shrugged his shoulders. " No, sir. 
 Captain Mulready's on the raft down yonder. He 
 feels all crumpled up to find the old ship's afloat, 
 and you've got her out. She'd a list on when we 
 left her that would have scared Beresford, but she's 
 chucked that straight again ; and who's to believe 
 it was ever there ? " 
 
 Kettle grated his teeth. " Thank, you, my lad,"
 
 THE SALVING OF THE DUNCANSBY HEAD. 275 
 
 he said. " I quite see. Now get below and find 
 yourself something to eat, and then you go forrard 
 and turn too." Then, leaning his head over the 
 bulwark, he called down : " Jimmy ! " 
 
 The broken man on the raft looked up. " Hullo, 
 Kettle, that you ? " 
 
 "Yes. Come aboard." 
 
 " No, thanks. I'm off back to the island. I'll 
 start a picnic there of my own. Good luck, old man." 
 
 " If you don't come aboard willingly, I'll send and 
 have you fetched. Quit fooling." 
 
 " Oh, if you're set on it," said the other tiredly, 
 and scrambled up the rope. He looked around with 
 a drawn face. " To think she should have lost that 
 list, and righted herself like this. I thought she 
 might turn turtle any minute when we quitted her ; 
 and I'm not a scary man either." 
 
 " I know you aren't. Come into the charthouse 
 and have a drop of whisky. There's your missus' 
 photo stuck up over the bed-foot. How's she?" 
 
 " Dead, I hope. It will save her going to the 
 workhouse." 
 
 " Oh, rats. It's not as bad as that." 
 
 "If you'll tell me why not ? I shall lose my ticket 
 over this job, sure, when it comes before the Board 
 of Trade, and what owner's likely to give me another 
 ship ? " 
 
 "Well, Jimmy, you'll have to sail small, and live 
 on your insurance." 
 
 " I dropped that years ago, and drew out what 
 there was. Had to with eight kids, you know, 
 They take a lot of feeding." 
 
 "Eight kids, by James!"
 
 276 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 " Yes, eight kids, poor little beggars, and the 
 missus and me all to go hungry from now onwards. 
 But they do say workhouses are very comfortable 
 nowadays. You'll look in and see us sometimes 
 won't you, Kettle?" He lifted the glass which had 
 been handed to him. " Here's luck to you, old man, 
 and you deserve it. I bought that whisky from a 
 chandler in Rio. It's a drop of right, isn't it ? " 
 
 " Here, chuck it," said Kettle. 
 
 " I'm sorry," said Captain Mulready, " but you 
 shouldn't have had me on board. I should have 
 been better picknicking by myself on Great Piton 
 yonder. I can't make a cheerful shipmate for you, 
 old man." 
 
 " Brace up," said Kettle. 
 
 " By the Lord, if I'd only been a day earlier with 
 that raft," said the other musingly, " I could have 
 taken her out, as you have done, and brought her 
 home and I believe the firm would have kept me on. 
 There need have been no inquiry ; only ' delayed,' 
 that's all ; no one cares so long as a ship turns up 
 sometime." 
 
 " It wouldn't have made any difference, " said 
 Kettle, frowning. " Some of those lousy Portuguese 
 have been on board and scoffed all the money." 
 
 " What money ? " 
 
 " Why, what she'd earned. What there was in 
 the charthouse drawer." 
 
 The dishevelled man gave a tired chuckle. " Oh, 
 that's all right. I put in at Las Palmas, and trans- 
 ferred it to the bank there, and sent home the re- 
 ceipt by the B. and A. mail boat to Liverpool. No, 
 I'm pleased enough about the money. But it's this
 
 THE SALVING OF THE DUNCANSBY HEAD. 277 
 
 other thing I made the bungle of, just being a day 
 too late with that raft." 
 
 Kettle heard a sound and sharply turned his head. 
 He saw a grimy man in the doorway. " Mr. Mc- 
 Todd," he said, " who the mischief gave you leave to 
 quit your engine-room ? Am I to understand you've 
 been standing there in that doorway to listen ? " 
 
 " Her own engineer's come back, so I handed her 
 over to him and came on deck for a spell. As for 
 listening, I've heard every word that's been said. 
 Captain Mulready, you have my vera deepest con- 
 dolences." 
 
 " Mr. McTodd," said Kettle, with a sudden blaze 
 of fury, " I'm captain of this ship, and you're intrud- 
 ing. Get to Hamlet out of here." He got up and 
 strode furiously out of the door, and Mr. McTodd 
 retreated before him. 
 
 " Now keep your hands off me," said the engineer. 
 " I'm as mad about the thing as yourself, and I 
 don't mind blowing off a few pounds of temper. I 
 don't know Captain Mulready, and you do, but I'd 
 hate to see any man all crumpled up like that if I 
 could help it." 
 
 " He could be helped by giving him back his ship, 
 and I'd do it if I was by myself. But I've got a 
 Scotch partner, and I'm not going to try for the 
 impossible." 
 
 " Dinna abuse Scotland," said McTodd, wagging 
 a grimy forefinger. * It's your ain wife and bairns 
 ye're thinking about." 
 
 " I ought to be, Mac, but, God help me ! I'm 
 not." 
 
 " Varra weel," said McTodd ; " then, if that's the
 
 278 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 case, skipper, just set ye doon here and we'll have a 
 palaver." 
 
 " I'll hear what you've got to say," said Kettle 
 more civilly, and for the next half-hour the pair of 
 them talked as earnestly as only poor men can talk 
 when they are deliberately making up their minds 
 to resign a solid fortune which is already within 
 their reach. And at the end of that talk Captain 
 Kettle put out his hand and took the engineer's in 
 a heavy grip. " Mac," he said, " you're Scotch, 
 but you're a gentleman right through under your 
 clothes." 
 
 " I was born to that estate, skipper, and I no 
 more wanted to see yon puir deevil pulled down to 
 our level than you do. Better go and give him the 
 news, and I'll get our boat in the water again, and 
 revictualled." 
 
 " No," said Kettle, " I can't stand by and be 
 thanked. You go. I'll see to the boat." 
 
 " Be hanged if I do ! " said the engineer. " Write 
 the man a letter. You're great on the writing line : 
 I've seen you at it." 
 
 And so in the tramp's main cabin below Captain 
 Kettle penned this epistle : 
 
 To CAPTAIN J. R. MUUREADY. 
 DEAR JIMMY, 
 
 Having concluded not to take trouble to work Duncansby 
 If gad home, have pleasure in leaving her to your charge. We, 
 having other game on hand, have now taken French leave, and 
 shall now bear up for Western Islands. You've no call to say 
 anything about our being on board at all. Spin your own 
 yarn, it will never be contradicted. Yours truly, 
 
 O. KETTLE (Master), 
 p. p. N. A. McTODD (Chief Engineer), O. K.
 
 THE SALVING OF THE DUNCANSBY HEAD. 2/9 
 
 P.S. We taken along these two Dagos. If you had them 
 they might talk when you got them home. We having them, 
 they will not talk. So you've only your own crowd to keep 
 from talking. Good luck, old tintacks. 
 
 Which letter was sealed and nailed up in a con- 
 spicuous place before the lifeboat left en route for 
 Grand Canary. 
 
 It was the two Portuguese who felt themselves 
 principally aggrieved men. They had been made 
 to undergo a great deal of work and hardship ; they 
 had been defrauded of much plunder which they 
 quite considered was theirs, for the benefit of an 
 absolute stranger in whom they took not the slight- 
 est interest ; and, finally, they were induced " not 
 to talk " by processes which jarred upon them most 
 unpleasantly. 
 
 They did not talk, and in the fulness of time they 
 returned to the avocation of shovelling coal on 
 steam vessels. But when they sit down to think, 
 neither Antonio nor his friend (whose honoured 
 name I never learned) regard with affection those 
 little islands in the Northern Sea, which produced 
 Captain Owen Kettle and his sometime partner, Mr. 
 Neil Angus McTodd.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE WRECK OF THE CATTLE-BOAT. 
 
 THERE was considerable trouble and risk in bring- 
 ing the lifeboat up alongside, but it must be granted 
 that she was very unhandy. 
 
 The gale that had blown them out into the At- 
 lantic had moderated, certainly, though there was 
 still a considerable breeze blowing, but the sea was 
 running as high as ever, and all Captain Kettle's skill 
 was required to prevent the boat from being incon- 
 tinently swamped. McTodd and the two Portu- 
 guese baled incessantly, but the boat was always 
 half waterlogged. In fact, from constitutional 
 defects, she had made very wet weather of it all 
 through the blow. 
 
 It was the part of the steamer to have borne down 
 and given the lifeboat a lee in which she could have 
 been more readily handled, and three times the 
 larger vessel made an attempt to do this, but without 
 avail. Three times she worked round in a wallow- 
 ing circle, got to windward, and distributed a smell 
 of farmyard over the rugged furrows of ocean, and 
 then lost her place again before she could drift down 
 and give the smaller craft shelter. Three times did 
 the crew of the lifeboat, with maritime point and 
 fluency, curse the incompetence of the rust-streaked 
 
 steamer and all her complement. 
 
 280
 
 THE WRECK OF THE CATTLE-BOAT. 28 1 
 
 " By James," said Kettle savagely, after the third 
 attempt, " are they all farmers on that ship ? I've 
 had a nigger steward that knew more about hand- 
 ling a vessel." 
 
 "She's an English ship," said McTodd, " and 
 delicate. They're nursing her in the engine-room. 
 Look at the way they throttle her down when she 
 races." 
 
 " The fools on her upper bridge are enough for 
 me too look at," Kettle retorted. " Why didn't 
 they put a sailorman aboard of her before she was 
 kicked out of port ? By James, if we'd a week's 
 water and victual with us in the lifeboat here, I'd 
 beat back for the Canaries as we are, and keep clear 
 of that tin farmyard for bare safety's sake." 
 
 " We haven't a crumb nor a drink left," said the 
 engineer, " and I'd not recommend this present 
 form of conveyance to the insurance companies." 
 A wave-top came up from the tireless grey sea, and 
 slapped green and cold about his neck and shoulders 
 " Gosh ! There comes more of the Atlantic to 
 bale back into place. Mon, this is no' the kind of 
 navigation I admire." 
 
 Meanwhile the clumsy tramp-steamer had gone 
 round in a jagged circle of a mile's diameter, and 
 was climbing back to position again over the hills 
 and dales of ocean. She rolled, and she pitched, 
 and she wallowed amongst the seas, and to the lay 
 mind she would have seemed helplessness personi- 
 fied. But to the expert eye she showed defects in 
 her handling with every sheer she took amongst 
 the angry waste of waters. 
 
 " Old man and the mates must be staying down
 
 282 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 below out of the wet," said Kettle contemptuously 
 as he gazed. " Looks as if they've left some sort of 
 a cheap Dutch quartermaster on the upper bridge to 
 run her. Don't tell me there's an officer holding an 
 
 o 
 
 English ticket in command of that steamer. They 
 aren't going to miss us this time though if they 
 know it." 
 
 " Looks like as if they were going to soss down 
 slap on top of us," said McTodd, and set to taking 
 off his coat and boots. 
 
 But the cattle steamer, if not skilfully handled, at 
 any rate this time had more luck. She worked her 
 way up to windward again, and then fell off into the 
 trough, squattering down almost out of sight one 
 minute, and, in fact, showing little of herself except 
 a couple of stumpy, untidy masts and a brine-washed 
 smoke stack above the seascape, and being heaved 
 up almost clear the next second, a picture of rust- 
 streaks and yellow spouting scuppers. 
 
 Both craft drifted to leeward before the wind, but 
 the steamer offered most surface, and moved the 
 quicker, which was the object of the manoeuvre. It 
 seemed to those in the lifeboat that they were not 
 going to be missed this time, and so they lowered 
 away their sodden canvas, shipped tholepins, and 
 got out their oars. The two Portuguese firemen 
 did not assist at first, preferring to sit in a semi-dazed 
 condition on the wet floor gratings ; but McTodd 
 and Kettle thumped them about the head, after the 
 time-honoured custom, till they turned to, and so 
 presently the lifeboat, under three straining oars, 
 was holding up towards her would-be deliverer. 
 
 A man on the cattle boat's upper bridge was ex-
 
 THE WRECK OF THE CATTLE-BOAT. 283 
 
 hlbiting himself as a very model of nervous inca- 
 pacity, and two at any rate of the castaways in the 
 lifeboat were watching him with grim scorn. 
 
 " Keeping them on the dance in the engine-room, 
 isn't he ? " said McTodd. " He's rung that telegraph 
 bell fifteen different ways this last minute." 
 
 " That man isn't fit to skipper anything that hasn't 
 got a tow-rope made fast ahead," said Kettle con- 
 temptuously. " He hasn't the nerve of a pound of 
 putty." 
 
 " I'm thinking we shall lose the boat. They'll 
 never get her aboard in one piece." 
 
 " If we get amongst their cow pens with our bare 
 lives we shall be lucky. They're going to heave us 
 a line. Stand by to catch it, quick." 
 
 The line was thrown and caught. The cattle- 
 steamer surged up over a huge rolling sea, show- 
 ing her jagged bilge-chocks clear ; and then she 
 squelched down again, dragging the lifeboat close 
 in a murderous cuddle, which smashed in one of her 
 sides as though it had been made from egg-shell. 
 Other lines were thrown by the hands who stood 
 against the rail above, and the four men in the 
 swamping boat each seized an end. 
 
 Half climbing, half hoisted from above, they made 
 their way up the rusted plating, and the greedy 
 waves from underneath sucked and clamoured at 
 their heels. It was quite a toss-up even then 
 whether they would be dragged from their hold ; but 
 human muscles can put forth desperate efforts in 
 these moments of desperate stress ; and they reached 
 the swaying deck planks, bruised, and breathless- 
 <md gasping, but for the time being safe.
 
 284 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 The cattle-boat's mate who had been assisting 
 their arrival, sorted them into castes with ready per- 
 ception. " Now, you two Dagos," he said to the 
 Portuguese, "get away forrard port side and bid 
 some of our firemen to give you a bunk. I'll tell 
 the steward to bring you along a tot of rum directly." 
 He cbpped a friendly hand on McTodd's shoulder. 
 " Bo's'n," he said, " take this gentleman down to 
 the mess-room, and pass the word to one of the en- 
 gineers to come and give him a welcome." And 
 then he turned as to an equal, and shook Kettle by 
 the hand. "Very glad to welcome you aboard, old 
 fellow beg pardon, 'Captain' I should have said ; 
 didn't see the lace on your sleeve before. Come 
 below with me, Captain, and I'll fix you up with 
 some dry things outside, and some wet things in, 
 before we have any further chatter." 
 
 " Mr. Mate," said Kettle, " you're very polite, 
 but hadn't I better go up on to the bridge and say 
 ' howdy ' to the skipper first ? " 
 
 The mate of the cattle-boat grinned and tucked 
 his arm inside Captain Kettle's, and dragged him 
 off with kindly force towards the companion-way- 
 "Take the synch from me, Captain, and don't 
 The old man's in such a mortal fear for the ship 
 that he's fair crying with it. If he'd had his way, t 
 don't fancy he'd have seen your boat at all. He 
 said it was suicide to try and pick you up with such 
 a sea running. But the second mate and I put in 
 some ugly talk, and so he just had to do it. Here's 
 the companion. Step inside, and I'll shut the door." 
 
 " Pretty sort of captain to let his mates boss 
 him."
 
 THE WRECK OF THE CATTLE-BOAT. 285 
 
 " Quite agree with you, Captain : quite agree 
 with you all the way. But that's what's done on 
 this ship, and there's no getting over it. It's not 
 to my liking either I'm an old Conway boy, and 
 was brought up to respect discipline. However, I 
 daresay you'll see for yourself how things run be- 
 fore we dump you back on dry mud again. Now. 
 here we are at my room, and there's a change of 
 clothes in that drawer beneath the bed, and under- 
 wear below the settee here. You and I are much 
 of a build, and the kit's quite at your service till 
 your own is dry again." 
 
 The mate was back again in ten minutes drip- 
 ping, cheerful, hospitable. "Holy tailors!" said 
 he, "how you do set off clothes! Those old duds 
 came out of a slop-chest once, and I've been ashamed 
 of their shabbiness more years than I care to think 
 about; but you've a way of carrying them that 
 makes them look well-fitting and quite new. Well, 
 I tell you I'm pleased to see a spruce man on this 
 ship. Come into the cabin now and peck a bit. I 
 ordered you a meal, and I saw the steward as I came 
 past the door trying to hold it down in the fiddles. 
 The old girl can roll a bit, can't she ?" 
 
 " I should say your farmyard's getting well 
 churned up." 
 
 " You should just go into those cattle decks and 
 see. It's just Hades for the poor brutes. We're 
 out of the River Plate, you know, and we've carried 
 bad weather with us ever since we got our anchors. 
 The beasts were badly stowed, and there were too 
 many of them put aboard. The Old Man grumbled, 
 but the shippers didn't take any notice of him.
 
 236 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 They'd signed for the whole ship, and they just 
 crammed as many sheep and cows into her as she'd 
 hold." 
 
 " You'll have the Cruelty to Animals people on 
 board of you before you're docked, and then your 
 skipper had better look out." 
 
 " He knows that, Captain, quite as well as you 
 do, and there isn't a man more sorry for himself in 
 all the Western Ocean. He'll be fined heavily, and 
 have his name dirtied, so sure as ever he sets a foot 
 ashore. Legally, I suppose, he's responsible ; but 
 really he's no more to blame than you. He is part 
 of the ship, just as the engines, or the mates, or the 
 tablespoons are ; and the whole bags o' tricks was 
 let by wire from Liverpool to a South American 
 Dago. If he'd talked, he'd have got the straight 
 kick-out from the owners, and no further argument. 
 You see they are little bits of owners." 
 
 " They're the worst sort." 
 
 " It doesn't matter who they are. A skipper has 
 got to do as he's told." 
 
 " Yes," said Kettle with a sigh, " I know that." 
 
 "Well," said the mate, "you may thank your 
 best little star that you're only here as a passenger. 
 The grub's beastly, the ship stinks, the cook's a 
 fool, and everthing's as uncomfortable as can be. 
 But there's one fine amusement ahead of you, and 
 that's try and cheer up the other passenger." 
 
 " Stowaway ? " 
 
 "No, bond fide passenger, if you can imagine any- 
 one being mug enough to book a room on a foul 
 cattle-loaded tramp like this. But I guess it wa? 
 because she was hard up. She was a governess, of
 
 THE WRECK OF THE CATTLE-BOAT. 287 
 
 something of that sort, in Buenos Ayres, lost her 
 berth, and wanted to get back again cheap. I guess 
 we could afford to cut rates and make a profit 
 there." 
 
 " Poor lady." 
 
 " I've not seen much of her myself. The second 
 mate and I are most of the crew of this ship (as the 
 Old Man objects to our driving the regular deck- 
 hands), and when we're not at work, we're asleep. 
 I can't stop and introduce you. You must chum 
 on. Her name's Carnegie." 
 
 "Miss Carnegie," Kettle repeated, "that sounds 
 familiar. Does she write poetry ?" 
 
 The mate yawned. " Don't know. Never asked 
 her. But perhaps she does. She looks ill enough." 
 
 The mate went off to his room then, turned in, 
 all standing, and was promptly asleep. Kettle, 
 with memories of the past refreshed, took paper 
 and a scratchy pen, and fell to concocting verse. 
 
 He wondered, and at the same time he half 
 dreaded, whether this was the same Miss Carnegie 
 whom he had known before. In days past she had 
 given him a commission to liberate her lover from 
 the French penal settlement of Cayenne. With in- 
 finite danger and difficulty he had wrenched the 
 man free from his warders, and then, finding him a 
 worthless fellow, had by force married him to an 
 old Jamaican negress, and sent the girl their mar- 
 riage lines as a token of her release. He had had no 
 word or sign from her since, and was in some dread 
 now lest she might bitterly resent the liberty he had 
 taken in meddling so far with her affairs. 
 
 However, like it or not, there was no avoiding the
 
 288 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 meeting now, and so he went on somewhat fever* 
 ishly with his writing. 
 
 The squalid meal entitled tea came on, and he 
 had to move his papers. A grimy steward spread a 
 dirty cloth, wetted it liberally with water, and 
 shipped fiddles to try and induce the tableware to 
 keep in place despite the rolling. The steward 
 mentioned that none of the officers would be down, 
 that the two passengers would meal together, and in 
 fact did his best to be affable ; but Kettle listened 
 with cold inattention, and the steward began to wish 
 him over the side whence he had come. 
 
 The laying of the table was ended at last. The 
 steward put on his jacket, clanged a bell in the alley 
 way, and then came back and stood swaying in the 
 middle of the cabin, armed with a large tin teapot, 
 all ready to commence business. So heavy was the 
 roll, that at times he had to put his hand on the 
 floor for support. 
 
 Captain Kettle watched the door with a haggard 
 face. He was beginning to realise that an emotion 
 was stirred within him that should have no place in 
 his system. He told himself sternly that he was a 
 married man with a family ; that he had a deep af- 
 fection for both his wife and children ; that, in cold 
 fact, he had seen Miss Carnegie in the flesh but 
 once before. But there was no getting over the 
 memory that she made poetry, a craft that he adored ; 
 and he could not forget that she had already lived 
 in his mind for more months than he dared count. 
 
 His conscience took him by the ear, and sighed 
 out the word Love. On the instant, all his pride 
 of manhood was up in arms, and he rejected the
 
 THE WRECK OF THE CATTLE-BOAT. 289 
 
 imputation with scorn ; and then, after some thought, 
 formulated his liking for the girl in the term Interest. 
 But he knew full well that his sentiment was some- 
 thing deeper than that. His chest heaved when he 
 thought of her. 
 
 Then, in the distance he heard her approaching. 
 He wiped the moisture from his face with the mate's 
 pocket-handkerchief. Above the din of the seas 
 and the noises from the crowded cattle-pens outside, 
 he could make out the faint rustle of draperies, and 
 the uncertain footsteps of someone painfully making 
 a way along, hand over hand against the bulkheads. 
 A bunch ot fingers appeared round the jamb of a 
 door, slender white fingers, one of them decked 
 with a queer old ring, which he had seen just once 
 before, and had pictured a thousand times since. 
 And then the girl herself stepped out into the cabin, 
 swaying to the roll of the ship. 
 
 She nodded to him with instant recognition. "It 
 was you they picked up out of the boat? Oh I am 
 so glad you are safe." 
 
 Kettle strode out towards her on his steady sea 
 legs, and stood before her, still not daring to take 
 her hand. " You have forgiven me ? " he murmured. 
 " What I did was a liberty, I know, but if I had 
 not liked you so well, I should not have dared to 
 do it." 
 
 She cast down her eyes and flushed. " You are 
 the kindest man I ever met," she said. " The very 
 kindest." She took his hand in both hers, and 
 gripped it wilh nervous force. " I shall never for- 
 get what you did for me, Captain." 
 
 The grimy steward behind them coughed and 
 '9
 
 CgO ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 rattled the teapot lid, and so they sat themselves at 
 the table and the business of tea began. All of the 
 ship's officers were either looking after the work en- 
 tailed by the heavy weather on deck, or sleeping 
 the sleep of utter exhaustion in their bunks; and so 
 none joined them at the meal. But the steward in- 
 cessantly hovered at their elbows, and it was only 
 during his fitful absences that their talk was any- 
 thing like unrestrained. 
 
 "You said you liked poetry," the girl whispered 
 shyly when the first of these opportunities came. 
 " I wrote the most heartfelt verses that ever came 
 from me, over that noble thing you tried to do for 
 a poor stranger like me." 
 
 Captain Kettle blushed like a maid. " For one of 
 the magazines ?" he asked. 
 
 She shook her head sadly. " It was not published 
 when I left England, and it had been sent back to 
 me from four magazine offices. That was noth- 
 ing new. They never would take any of rny stuff." 
 
 Kettle's fingers twitched suggestively. " I'd like 
 to talk a minute or so with some of those editors. 
 I'd make them sit up." 
 
 " That wouldn't make them print my poems." 
 
 " Wouldn't it, Miss? Well, perhaps you know 
 best there. But I'd guarantee it'd hinder them 
 from printing anything else for awhile, the inky- 
 fingered brutes. The twaddling stories those edi- 
 tors set up a type, about low-down pirates and de- 
 tective bugs are enough to make one sick." 
 
 It appeared that Miss Carnegie's father had died 
 since she and Kettle had last met, and the girl 
 had found herself left almost destitute. She had
 
 THE WRECK OF THE CATTLE-BOAT. 29! 
 
 been lured out to Buenos Ayres by an advertise- 
 ment, but without finding employment, ad, sick at 
 heart, had bought with the last of her scanty store 
 of money a cheap passage home in this cattle-boat. 
 
 She would land in England entirely destitute ; 
 and although she did not say this, spoke cheerfully 
 of the future, in fact, Kettle was torn with pity for 
 her state. But what, he asked himself with fierce 
 scorn, could he do? He was penniless himself; he 
 had a wife and family depending on him ; and who 
 was he to take this young unmarried girl under his 
 charge ? 
 
 They talked long on that and other days, always 
 avoiding vital questions ; and, meanwhile, the reek- 
 ing cattle-boat wallowed north, carrying with her, 
 as it seemed, a little charmed circle of evil weather 
 as her constant accompaniment. 
 
 Between times, when he was not in attendance on 
 Miss Carnegie, Kettle watched the life of the 
 steamer with professional interest, and all a strong 
 man's contempt for a weak commander. The 'tween 
 decks was an Aceldama. In the heavy weather the 
 cattle-pens smashed, the poor beasts broke their legs, 
 gored one another, and were surged about in horri- 
 ble mtltes. The cattle-men were half incapable, 
 wholly mutinous. They dealt out compressed hay 
 and water when the gangways were cleared, and held 
 to it that this was the beginning and end of their 
 duty. To pass down the winch chain, and haul out 
 the dead and wounded, was a piece of employment 
 that they flatly refused to tamper with. They said 
 the deck hands could do it. 
 
 The deck hands, scenting a weak commander, said
 
 292 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 they had been hired as sailor-men, and also declined 
 to meddle, and, as a consequence, this necessary 
 sepulture business was done by the mates. 
 
 In Kettle's first and only interview with the cattle- 
 boat's captain he saw this operation going on through 
 a hatchway before his very face. The mate and the 
 second mate clambered down by the battens, and 
 went along the filthy gangway below, dragging the 
 winch chain after them. The place was cluttered 
 with carcases and jammed with broken pens, all 
 surging together to the roll of the ship. The lowings 
 and the groans of the cattle were awful. But at last 
 a bight of rope was made fast round a dead beast's 
 horns, and the word was given to haul. The winch 
 chattered and the chain drew. The two men be- 
 low, jumping to this side and that for their lives, 
 handspiked the carcase free of obstacles, and at last 
 it came up the hatch, a battered shapeless rag, al- 
 most unrecognisable. 
 
 A mob of men, sulky, sullen, and afraid, stood 
 round the hatch, and one of these, when the poor 
 remains came up, and swung to the roil of the ship 
 over the side, cut the bowline with his knife, and let 
 the carcase plop into the racing seas. The chain 
 clashed back again down between the iron coamings 
 of the hatch, and the two mates below went on with 
 their work. No one offered to help them. No one, 
 as Kettle grimly noted, was made to do so. 
 
 "Do your three mates run this ship, Captain?** 
 asked Kettle at last. 
 
 " They are handy fellows." 
 
 " If you ask me, I should call them poor drivers. 
 "Vhat for do they put in all the work themselves
 
 THE WRECK OF THE CATTLE-BOAT. 2C/J 
 
 when there are that mob of deck hands and cattle- 
 hands standing round doing the gentleman as though 
 they were in the gallery of a theatre? " 
 
 " There was some misunderstanding when the 
 crew were shipped. They say they never signed on 
 to handle dead cattle." 
 
 " I've seen those kind of misunderstandings before, 
 Captain, and I've started in to smooth them away." 
 
 " Well ? " said the captain of the cattle-boat. 
 
 " Oh ! with me ! " said Kettle truculently, " they 
 straightened out so soon as ever I began to hit. If 
 your mates know their business, they'd soon have 
 that crew in hand again." 
 
 " I don't allow my mates to knock the men about. 
 To give them their due, they wanted to ; they were 
 brought up in a school which would probably suit 
 you, Captain, all three of them ; but I don't permit 
 that sort of thing. I am a Christian man, and I 
 will not order my fellow-men to be struck. If the 
 fellows refuse their duty, it lies between them and 
 their consciences." 
 
 " As if an old sailor had a conscience ! " murmured 
 Kettle to himself. " Well, Captain, I'm no small 
 piece of a Christian myself, but I was taught that 
 whatever my hand findeth to do, to do it with all my 
 might, and I guess bashing a lazy crew comes under 
 that head." 
 
 " I don't want either your advice or your 
 theology." 
 
 " If I wasn't a passenger here," said Kettle, " I'd 
 like to tell you what I thought of your seamanship 
 and your notion of making a master's ticket re- 
 spected. But I'll hold my tongue on that. As it is.
 
 294 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 I think I ought just to say I don't consider this 
 ship's safe, run the way she is." 
 
 The captain of the cattle-boat flushed darkly. He 
 jerked his head towards the ladder. " Get down off 
 this bridge," he said. 
 
 "What!" 
 
 "You hear me. Geddown off my bridge. If 
 you've learnt anything about your profession you 
 must know this is private up here, and no place for 
 blooming passengers." 
 
 Kettle glared and hesitated. He was not used to 
 receiving orders of this description, and the innova- 
 tion did not please him. But for once in his life he 
 submitted. Miss Carnegie was sitting under the lee 
 of the deckhouse aft, watching him, and somehow 
 or other he did not Choose to have a scene before 
 her. It was all part of this strange new feeling which 
 had come over him. 
 
 He gripped his other impulses tight, and went and 
 sat beside her. She welcomed him cordially. She 
 made no secret of her pleasure at his presence. But 
 her talk just now jarred upon him. Like other people 
 who see the ocean and its traffic merely from the 
 amateur's view, she was able to detect romance 
 beneath her present discomforts, and she was pour- 
 ing into his ear her scheme for making it the foun- 
 dation of her most ambitious poem. 
 
 In Kettle's mind, to build an epic on such a ground- 
 work, was nothing short of profanation. He viewed 
 the sea, seamen, and sea duties with an intimate eye ; 
 to him they were common and unclean to the 
 furthest degree : no trick of language could elevate 
 their meannesses. He pointed out how she would
 
 THE WRECK OF THE CATTLE-BOAT. 295 
 
 prostitute her talent by laying hold of such an un- 
 savoury subject, and extolled the beauty of his own 
 ideal. 
 
 " Tackle a cornfield, Miss," he would say again and 
 again, " with its butter-yellow colour, and its blobs 
 of red poppies, and the green hedges all round. 
 You write poetry such as I know you can about a corn- 
 field, and farmers, and farm buildings with thatched 
 roofs, and you'll wake one of these mornings (like 
 all poets hope to do some day) and find yourself 
 famous. And because why, you want to know? 
 Well, Miss, it's because cornfields and the country 
 and all that are what people want to hear about, 
 and dream they've got handy to their own back 
 doorstep. They're so peaceful, so restful. You 
 take it from me, no one would even want to read 
 four words about this beastly cruel sea, and the brutes 
 of men who make their living by driving ships across 
 it. No, by Ja No, Miss, you take it from a man 
 who knows, they'd just despise it." And so they 
 argued endlessly at the point, each keeping an un- 
 changed opinion. 
 
 Perhaps of all the human freight that the cattle- 
 boat carried, Mr. McTodd was the only one person 
 entirely happy. He had no watch to keep, no work 
 to do ; the mess-room was warm, stuffy, and entirely 
 to his taste ; liquor was plentiful ; and the official 
 engineers of the ship were Scotch and argumenta- 
 tive. He never came on deck for a whiff of fresh 
 air, never knew a moment's tedium ; he lived in a 
 pleasant atmosphere of broad dialect, strong tobacco, 
 and toasting oil and thoroughly enjoyed himself; 
 though when the moment of trial came, and his
 
 296 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 thews and energies were wanted for the saving of 
 human life, he quickly showed that this Capua had 
 in no way sapped his efficiency. 
 
 The steamer had, as has been said, carried foul 
 weather with her all the way across the Atlantic from 
 the River Plate, as though it were a curse inflicted 
 for the cruelty of her stevedores. The crew forgot 
 what it was like to wear dry clothes, the afterguard 
 lived in a state of bone-weariness. A harder captain 
 would have still contrived to keep them up to the 
 mark ; but the man who was in supreme command 
 was feeble and undecided, and there is no doubt that 
 vigilance was dangerously slackened. 
 
 A fog, too, which came down to cover the sea, 
 stopped out all view of the sun, and compelled them 
 for three days to depend on a dead reckoning ; and 
 (after the event) it was said a strong current set the 
 steamer unduly to the westward. 
 
 Anyway, be the cause what it may, Kettle was 
 pitched violently out of his bunk in the deep of one 
 night, just after two bells, and from the symptoms 
 which loudly advertised themselves, it required no 
 expert knowledge to tell that the vessel was beating 
 her bottom out on rocks, to the accompaniment of 
 a murderously heavy sea. The engines stopped, 
 steam began to blow off noisily from the escapes, 
 and what with that, and the cries of men, and the 
 crashing of seas, and the beating of iron, and the 
 beast cries from the cattledecks, the din was almost 
 enough to split the ear. And then the steam syren 
 burst out into one vast bellow of pain, which 
 drowned all the other noises as though they had 
 been children's whispers.
 
 THE WRECK OF THE CATTLE-BOAT. 297 
 
 Kettle slid on coat and trousers over his pyjamas, 
 and went and thumped at a door at the other side 
 of the alleyway. 
 
 " Miss Carnegie? " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " Dress quickly." 
 
 " I am dressing, Captain." 
 
 " Get finished with it, and then wait. I'll come 
 for you when it's time." 
 
 It is all very well to be cool on these occasions, 
 but sometimes the race is to the prompt. Captain 
 Kettle made his way up on deck against a green 
 avalanche of water which was cascading down the 
 companionway. No shore was in sight. The ship 
 had backed off after she had struck, and was now 
 rolling heavily in the deep trough. She was low in 
 the water, and every second wave swept her. 
 
 No one seemed to be in command. The dim 
 light showed Kettle one lifeboat wrecked in davits, 
 and a disorderly mob of men trying to lower the 
 other. But some one let go the stern fall so that 
 the boat shot down perpendicularly, and the next 
 wave smashed the lower half of it into splinters. 
 The frenzied crowd left it to try the port quarter- 
 boat, and Kettle raced them across the streaming 
 decks, and got first to the davits. He plucked a 
 greenheart belaying pin from the rail, and laid about 
 him viciously. " Back, you scum ! " he shouted ; 
 " get back, or I'll smash in every face amongst you. 
 Good Lord, isn't there a mate or a man left on 
 this stinking farmyard ? Am I to keep off all this 
 two-legged cattle by myself?" 
 
 They fought on, the black water swirling waist
 
 298 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 deep amongst them with every roll, the syren bel- 
 lowing for help overhead, and the ship sinking 
 under their feet ; and gradually, with the frenzy of 
 despair, the men drove Kettle back against the rail, 
 whilst others of them cast off the falls of the quar- 
 ter-boat's tackles preparatory to letting her drop. 
 But then, out of the darkness, up came McTodd 
 and the steamer's mate, both shrewd hitters, and 
 men not afraid to use their skill, and once more the 
 tables were turned. 
 
 The other quarter-boat had been lowered and 
 swamped ; this boat was the only one remaining. 
 
 " Now, Mac," said Kettle, " help the mate take 
 charge, and murder every one that interferes. Get 
 the boat in the water, and fend off. I'll be off below 
 and fetch up Miss Carnegie. We must put some 
 hurry in it. The old box hasn't much longer to swim. 
 Take the lady ashore, and see she comes to no 
 harm." 
 
 " Oh, aye," said McTodd, "and we'll keep a seat 
 for yerself, skipper." 
 
 " You needn't bother," said Kettle. " I take no 
 man's place in this sort of tea-party." He splashed 
 off across the streaming decks, and found the cattle- 
 boat's captain sheltering under the lee of the com- 
 panion, wringing his hands. " Out, you blitherer," 
 he shouted, " and save your mangy life. Your 
 ship's gone npw : you can't play hash with her any 
 more." After which pleasant speech he worked his 
 way below, half swimming, half wading, and once 
 more beat against Miss Carnegie's door. Even in 
 this moment of extremity he did not dream of go- 
 ing in unasked.
 
 THE WRECK OF THE CATTLE-BOAT. 299 
 
 She came out to him in the half-swamped alley- 
 way, fully dressed. "Is there any hope?" she 
 asked. 
 
 " We'll get you ashore, don't you fear." He 
 clapped an arm round her waist, and drew her 
 strongly on through the dark and the swirling water 
 towards the foot of the companion. " Excuse me, 
 Miss," he said. " This is not familiarity. But I 
 have got the firmer sea-legs, and we must hurry." 
 
 They pressed up the stair, battling with great 
 green cascades of water, and gained the dreadful 
 turmoil on deck. A few weak stars gleamed out 
 above the wind, and showed the black wave tops 
 dimly. Already some of the cattle had been swept 
 overboard, and were swimming about like the horned 
 beasts of a nightmare. The din of surf came to 
 them amongst the other noises, but no shore was 
 visible. The steamer had backed of! the reef on 
 which she had struck, and was foundering in deep 
 water. It was indeed a time for hurry. It was 
 plain she had very few more minutes to swim. 
 
 Each sea now made a clean breach over her, and 
 a passage about the decks was a thing of infinite 
 danger. But Kettle was resourceful and strong, 
 and he had a grip round Miss Carnegie and a hold 
 on something solid when the waters drenched on 
 him, and he contrived never to be wrenched entirely 
 from his hold. 
 
 But when he had worked his way aft, a disappoint- 
 ment was there ready for him. The quarterboat 
 was gone. McTodd stood against one of the davits, 
 cool and philosophical as ever. 
 
 " You infernal Scotchman, you've let them take
 
 30O ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 away the boat from you," Kettle snarled. " I 
 should thought you could have kept your end up 
 with a mangy crowd like that." 
 
 " Use your eyes," said the engineer. " The 
 boat's in the wash below there at the end of the 
 tackles with her side stove in. She drowned the 
 three men that were lowered in her because they'd 
 no' sense enough to fend her off." 
 
 41 That comes of setting a lot of farmers to work 
 a steamboat." 
 
 14 Awell," said McTodd, " steamers have been lost 
 before, and I have it in mind, Captain, that you've 
 helped." 
 
 " By James, if you don't carry a civil tongue, you 
 drunken Geordie, I'll knock you some teeth down 
 to cover it." 
 
 " Oh, I owe, you that," said McTodd, "but now 
 we're quits. I bided here, Captain Kettle, because 
 I thought you'd maybe like to swim the leddy off 
 to the shore, and at that I can bear a useful hand." 
 
 " Mac," said Kettle, " I take back what I said 
 about your being Scotch. You're a good soul." 
 He turned to the girl, still shouting to make his 
 voice carry above the clash of the seas and the bel- 
 low of the syren, and the noises of the dying ship : 
 44 It's our only chance, Miss swimming. The life- 
 buoys from the bridge are all gone I looked. The 
 hands will have taken them. There'll be a lot of 
 timber floating about when she goes down, and 
 we'll be best clear of that. Will you trust to us ? " 
 
 44 1 trust you in everything," she said. 
 
 Deeper and deeper the steamer sank in her wal- 
 low. The lower decks were swamped by this, and
 
 THE WRECK OF THE CATTLE-BOAT. 30! 
 
 the miserable cattle were either drowned in their 
 stalls or washed out of her. There was no need 
 for the three to jump they just let go their hold, 
 and the next incoming wave swept them clear of the 
 steamer's spar deck, and spurned them a hundred 
 yards from her side. 
 
 They found themselves amongst a herd of floating 
 cattle, some drowned, some swimming frenziedly ; 
 and with the inspiration of the moment laid hold 
 of a couple of the beasts which were tangled to- 
 gether by a halter, and so supported themselves 
 without further exertion. It was no use swimming 
 for the present. They could not tell which way the 
 shore lay. And it behoved them to reserve all their 
 energies for the morning, so well as the numbing, 
 cold of the water would let them. 
 
 Of a sudden the bellow of the steamer's syren 
 ceased, and a pang went through them as though 
 they had lost a friend. Then came a dull, muffled ex- 
 plosion. And then, a huge ragged shape loomed up 
 through the night like some vast monument, and 
 sank swiftly straight downwards out of sight beneath 
 the black, tumbled sea. 
 
 " Poor old girl ! " said McTodd, spitting out the 
 sea water, " they'd a fine keg of whisky down in her 
 mess-room." 
 
 " Poor devil of a skipper ! " said Kettle ; " it's to 
 be hoped he's drowned out of harm's way, or it'll 
 take lying to keep him any rags of his ticket." 
 
 The talk died out of them after that, and the 
 miseries of the situation closed in. The water was 
 cold, but the air was piercing, and so they kept their 
 bodies submerged, each holding on to the bovine
 
 302 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 raft, and each man sparing a few fingers to keep a 
 grip on the girl. One of the beasts they clung to 
 quickly drowned ; the other, strange to say, kept 
 its nostrils above water, swimming strongly, and in 
 the end came alive to the shore, the only four-footed 
 occupant of the steamer to be saved. 
 
 At the end of each minute it seeraed to them that 
 they were too bruised and numbed to hang on an- 
 other sixty seconds ; and yet the next minute found 
 them still alive and dreading its successor. The sea 
 moaned around them, mourning the dead ; the fleet 
 of drowned cattle surged helplessly to this way and 
 to that, bruising them with rude collisions ; and the 
 chill bit them to the bone, mercifully numbing their 
 pain and anxiety. Long before the dawn the girl 
 had sunk into a stupor, and was only held from sink- 
 ing by the nervous fingers of the men ; and the men 
 themselves were merely automata, completing their 
 task with a legacy of will. 
 
 When from somewhere out of the morning mists 
 a fisher boat sailed up, manned by ragged, kindly 
 Irish, all three were equally lost to conscious- 
 ness, and all three were hauled over the gunwale in 
 one continuous dripping string. The grip of the 
 men's fingers had endured too long to be loosened 
 for a sudden call such as that. 
 
 They were taken ashore and tended with all the 
 care poor homes could give ; and the men, used to 
 hardships, recovered with a dose of warmth and 
 sleep. 
 
 Miss Carnegie took longer to recover, and, in fact, 
 for a week lay very near to death. Kettle stayed 
 on in the village making almost hourly inquiries fof
 
 THE WRECK OF THE CATTLE-BOAT. 303 
 
 her. He ought to have gone away to seek fresh 
 employment. He ought to have gone back to his 
 wife and children, and he upbraided himself bitterly 
 for his neglect of these duties. But still he could 
 
 not tear himself away. For the future Well, 
 
 he dreaded to think what might happen in the 
 future. 
 
 But at last the girl was able to sit up and see him, 
 and he visited her, showing all the deference an am- 
 bassador might offer to a queen. I may go so far 
 as to say that he went into the cottage quite infat- 
 uated. He came out of it disillusioned. 
 
 She listened to his tale of the wreck with inter- 
 est and surprise, She was almost startled to hear 
 that others, including the captain and two of the 
 mates, were saved from the disaster besides them- 
 selves, but at the same time unfeignedly pleased. 
 And she was pleased also to hear that Kettle was 
 subpoenaed to give evidence before the forthcoming 
 inquiry. 
 
 " I am glad of that," she said, " because I know 
 you will speak with a free mind. You have told 
 me so many times how incompetent the captain was, 
 and now you will be able to tell it to the proper au- 
 thorities." 
 
 Kettle looked at her blankly. " But that was dif- 
 ferent," he said. " I can't say to them what I said 
 to you." 
 
 " Why not ? Look what misery and suffering 
 and loss of life the man has caused. He isn't fit 
 to command a ship." 
 
 " But, Miss," said Kettle, " it's his living. He's 
 been brought up to seafaring, and he isn't fit for
 
 304 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 anything else. You wouldn't have me send out the 
 man to starve? Besides, I'm a shipmaster myself, 
 and you wouldn't have me try to take away another 
 master's ticket ? The cleverest captain afloat might 
 meet with misfortune, and he's always got to think 
 of that when he's put up to give evidence against 
 his fellows." 
 
 " Well, what are you going to do, then ? " 
 
 " Oh, we've got together a tale, and when the old 
 man is put up on his trial, the mates and I will stick 
 to it through thick and thin. You can bet that we 
 are not going to swear away his ticket." 
 
 " His ticket?" 
 
 " Yes ; his master's certificate his means of liveli- 
 hood." 
 
 " I think it's wrong," she said excitedly ; " crimi- 
 nally wrong. And, besides, you said you didn't like 
 the man." 
 
 " I don't ; I dislike him cordially. But that's 
 nothing to do with the case. I've my own honour 
 to think of, Miss. How'd I feel if I went about 
 knowing I'd done my best to ruin a brother captain 
 for good and always? " 
 
 " You are wrong," she repeated vehemently. 
 
 " The man is incompetent by your own saying, 
 and therefore he should suffer." 
 
 Kettle's heart chilled. 
 
 " Miss Carnegie," he said, " I am disappointed in 
 you. I thought from your poetry that you had 
 feelings ; I thought you had charity ; but I find you 
 are cold. 
 
 " And you ! " she retorted, " you that I have set 
 up for myself as an ideal of most of the manly virtues,
 
 THE WRECK OF THE CATTLE-BOAT. 305 
 
 do you think I feel no disappointment when I hear 
 that you are deliberately proposing to be a liar?" 
 
 " I am no liar," he said sullenly. " I have most 
 faults, but not that. This is different ; you do not 
 understand. It is not lying to defend one's fellow- 
 ship-master before an Inquiry Board." 
 
 The girl turned to the pillow in her chair, and hid 
 her face. " Oh, go ! " she said, " go ! I wish I had 
 never met you. I thought you were so good, and 
 so brave and so honest, and when it comes to the 
 pinch, you are just like the rest ! Go, go ! I wish 
 I thought I could ever forget you." 
 
 " You say you don't understand," said Kettle. 
 " I think you deliberately won't understand, Miss. 
 You remember that I said I was disappointed in 
 you, and I stick to that now. You make me re- 
 member that I have get a wife and family I am 
 fond of. You make me ashamed I have not gone 
 to them before." 
 
 He went to the door and opened it. "But I do 
 not think I shall ever forget," he said, " how much 
 I cared for you once. Good-bye, Miss." 
 
 "Good-bye" she sobbed from her pillow, " I wish 
 I could think you are right, but perhaps it is best as 
 it is." 
 
 In the village street outside, was Mr. McTodd 
 clothed in rasping serge, and inclined to be senten- 
 tious, " 'Hiey've whisky here," he said with a jerk 
 of the thumb, " Irish whisky, that's got a smoky 
 taste that's rather alluring when you've got over the 
 first dislike. I'm out o' siller mysel' or I'd stand ye 
 a glass, but if ye're in funds, I could guide ye to the 
 
 place ? " 
 20
 
 306 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE. 
 
 Kettle was half tempted. But with a wrench he 
 said " No," adding that if he once started, he might 
 not know when to stop. 
 
 " Quite right," said the engineer, " you're quite 
 (hie) right, skipper. A man with an inclination to 
 level himself with the beasts that perish, should 
 always be abstemious." He sat against a wayside 
 fence and prepared for sleep. 
 
 " Like me," he added solemnly, and shut his eyes. 
 
 " No," said Kettle to himself ; " I won't forget it 
 that way. I guess I can manage without. She 
 pretty well cured me herself. But a sight of the 
 Missis will do the rest." 
 
 And so Captain Owen Kettle went home to where 
 Mrs. Kettle kept house in the by-street in South 
 Shields, that unlovely town on Tyneside ; and a 
 worrying time he had of it with that estimable 
 woman, his wife, before the explanations which he 
 saw fit to give were passed as entirely satisfactory. 
 In fact he was not quite forgiven for his escapade 
 Avith Miss Carnegie or for that other involuntary ex- 
 cursion with Donna Clotilde La Touche till such 
 time as he had acquired fortune from adventure on 
 the seas and was able to take Mrs. Kettle away from 
 her unsavoury surroundings, and settle down in 
 comfort in a small farmstead on the Yorkshire moors 
 with a hired maid to assist at the housework. But 
 that was not until some considerable time after he 
 was wrecked with Mr. McTodd on the Irish Coast ; 
 and between the two dates he assisted to make a 
 good deal more history which is (or will be) else- 
 where related. 
 
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 ioned Girl 
 
 26 Rebels of the School 
 
 27 School Favorite 
 
 28 Sweet Girl Graduate, 
 
 A 
 
 29 Time of Roses, The 
 
 30 Very Naughty Girl, A 
 
 31 Wild Kitty 
 
 32 World of Girls 
 
 33 YouLg Mutineer, The 
 
 All of the above books may be had at the store 
 where this book was bought, or will be sent postage 
 prepaid to any address at 75c by the publishers 
 
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 701-727 South Dearborn St., CHICAGO 
 
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 Contains an attractive assortment of books for boys by 
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 on a superior quality of paper, bound in a superior quality of 
 binders' cloth, ornamented with illustrated original designs on 
 covers stamped in colors from unique and appropriate dies. 
 Each book wrapped in attractive jacket 
 
 1. Cudjo's Cave Trowbridge 
 
 2. Green Mountain Boys _, 
 
 3. Life of Kit Carson.._ Edward L. Ellis 
 
 4. Tom Westlake's Golden Luck Perry Newberry 
 
 5. Tony Heating's Surprises.. Mrs. G. R. Alden (Pansy) 
 
 6. Tour of the World in 80 Days Jules Verne 
 
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 Contains an assortment of attractive and desirable books for 
 girls by standard and favorite authors. The books are printed 
 oa a good quality of paper in large clear type. Fach title is 
 complete and unabridged. Bound in clothene, ornamented on 
 the sides and back with attractive illustrative designs and the 
 title stamped on front and back. 
 
 1. Bee and the Butterfly Lucy Foster Madison 
 
 2. Dixie School Girl GabrieJle E. Jackson 
 
 3. Girls of Mount Morris Amanda Douglas 
 
 4. Hope's Messenger Gabrielle E. Jackson 
 
 5. The Little Aunt Marion Ames Taggart 
 
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 By J. S. ZERBE 
 
 Carpentry for Boys 
 
 A book which treats, in a most practical and fascinating man- 
 ner all subjects pertaining to the "King of Trades"; showing the 
 care and use of tools; drawing; designing, and the laying out 
 of work; the principles involved in the building of various 
 kinds of structures, and the rudiments of architecture. It 
 contains over two hundred and fifty illustrations made espe- 
 cially for this work, and includes also a complete glossary of 
 the technical terms used in the art. The most comprehensive 
 volume on this subject ever published for boys. 
 
 Electricity for Boys 
 
 The author has adopted the unique plan of setting forth the 
 fundamental principles in each phase of the science, and prac- 
 tically applying the work in the successive stages. It shows 
 how the knowledge has been developed, and the reasons for 
 the various phenomena, without using technical words so as 
 to bring it within the compass of every boy. It has a complete 
 glossary of terms, and is illustrated with two hundred original 
 drawings. 
 
 Practical Mechanics for Boys 
 
 This book takes the beginner through a comprehensive series 
 of practical shop work, in which the uses of tools, and the 
 structure and handling of shop machinery are set forth; how 
 they are utilized to perform the work, and the manner in 
 which all dimensional work is carried out. Every subject is 
 illustrated, and model building explained. It contains a glos- 
 sary which comprises a new system of cross references, a 
 feature that will prove a welcome departure in explaining sub- 
 jects. Fully illustrated. 
 
 1 2mo, cloth. Price $ 1 JOO each. 
 For sale by all Booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of $1.00. 
 
 M. A. DONOHUE & COMPANY 
 
 711 S. DEARBORN STREET :: CHICAGO
 
 GIRLS' LIBERTY SERIES 
 
 Contains an assortment of attractive and desirable books for 
 girls by standard and favorite authors. The books are printed 
 on a good quality of paper in large clear type. Each title is 
 complete and unabridged. Bound in clothene, ornamented on 
 the sides and back with attractive illustrative designs and the 
 title stamped on front and back. 
 
 12mo, clothene. Price 50c each. 
 
 1. Camp Fire Girls on a Long Hike, or, 
 
 Lost in the Great Northern Woods Stella M. Francis 
 
 2. Daddy's Girl Mrs. L. T. Meade 
 
 3. Ethel Hollister's First Summer as 
 
 a Camp Fire Girl Irene Elliott Benson 
 
 4. Ethel Hollister's Second Summer Irene Elliott Benson 
 
 5. Flat Iron for a Farthing Mrs. Ewing 
 
 6. Four Little Mischiefs Rose Mulholland 
 
 7. Girls and I Mrs. Molesworth 
 
 8. Girl from America Mrs. L. T. Meade 
 
 9. Grandmother Dear Mrs. Molesworth 
 
 10. Irvington Stories Mary Mapes Dodge 
 
 11. Little Lame Prince Mrs. Muloch 
 
 12. Little Susie Stories Mrs. H. Prentiss 
 
 13. Mrs. Over the Way ___JuHanna Horatio Ewing 
 
 14. Naughty Miss Bunny Rose Mullholland 
 
 15. Sweet Girl Graduate -Mrs. L. T. Meade 
 
 16. School Queens Mrs. L. T. Meade 
 
 17. Sue, A Little Heroine Mrs. L. T. Meade 
 
 18. Wild Kitty Mrs. L. T. Meade 
 
 For sale by all Booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of 50c 
 
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 ALWAYS ASK FOR THE DONOHUE 
 
 Complete Editions and you will tret the best for the least money 
 
 THERE IS MONEY 
 
 ! IN POULTRY 
 
 AMERICAN STANDARD PERFECTION 
 POULTRY BOOK, By L K. FELCH. 
 
 ET many old-fashion farm- 
 ers are inclined to discredit 
 the statement. Why? Be- 
 cause they are not up to 
 the new and improved 5deas in 
 poultry management. A little trial 
 of the rules laid down in these 
 books will soon dispel all misgiv- 
 ings in this direction and tend to 
 convince the most skeptical that 
 there is money in poultry-keeping. 
 It contains a complete description 
 of all the varieties of fowls, includ- 
 ing turkeys, ducks and geese. 
 
 This book contains double the number of illustrations found in 
 any similar work. It is the best and cheapest poultry book on j ^ 
 the market Paper covers, 25c. Cloth, prepaid, JVC 
 
 POULTRY CULTURE 
 
 By I. K. FELCH 
 
 Kow to raise, manage, mate 
 and Judge thoroughbred fowls, 
 by I. K. Felch, the acknowl- 
 edged authority on poultry 
 matters. Thorough, compre- . 
 honsive and complete treatise 
 f/n all kinds of poultry. Cloth, 
 438 pagsa, large 12mo, and 
 over 70 full-page and cither il- 
 lustrations. Printed from clear 
 type on good paper, stamped 
 on side and back from ornate, 
 appropriate designs.^ ^ ^^ 
 Price, prepaid, 3?l.lHI 
 For sale by all book and newsdeal- 
 ers, or will send to any address in 
 
 the United States, Canada or Mexico, postage prepaid, on receipt 
 of price, ia currency, money order or stamps. 
 ** a Tfe/^iXT/^TJTTI? fi~ /Tl 701-727 S. DEARBORN 
 
 M. A. DONOHUE & CO. STREET : CHICAGO
 
 University of California 
 
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