CHAPTER XVIII
JACINTA BECOMES INDIGNANT
It was fifteen days after he boarded the steamer when Austin reached LasPalmas in a condition which, at least, prevented him chafing at thedelay as he otherwise would have done. On the second day something wentwrong with the high-pressure engine, and the little, deep-loaded vessellay rolling idly athwart the swell, while her engineers dismantled andre-erected it. Then the trouble they had already had with the condenserbecame more acute, so that they would scarcely keep a vacuum, and italso happened that the trade-breeze she had to steam against blewunusually fresh that season.
Austin, however, was not aware of this at the time. He lay ramblingincoherently for several days, and when at last his senses came back tohim, found himself too weak and listless to trouble about anything. Hegained strength rapidly, for the swamp fever does not, as a rule, keepits victim prostrate long. It either kills him without loss of time, orallows him to escape for a season; but its effect is frequently mentalas well as physical, and Austin's listlessness remained. He had borne aheavy strain, and when he went ashore at Las Palmas the inevitablereaction was intensified by the black dejection the fever had leftbehind. It seemed to him that he and Jefferson were only wasting theirefforts, and though he still meant to go on with them, he expected noresult, since he now felt that there was not the slightest probabilityof their ever getting the _Cumbria_ off. It was a somewhat unusual moodfor a young Englishman to find himself in, though by no means anincomprehensible one in case of a man badly shaken by the malaria fever,while one of Austin's shortcomings was, or so, at least, Jacinta Brownconsidered, a too complaisant adaptation of himself to circumstances.She held the belief that when the latter were unpropitious, a determinedattempt to alter them was much more commendable, and not infrequentlysuccessful.
In any case, Austin found Pancho Brown was away buying tomatoes when hecalled at his office, and the Spanish clerk also informed him that MissBrown and Mrs. Hatherly had left Las Palmas for a while. He fancied theyhad gone to Madeira, but was not certain, and Austin, who left him amessage for Brown and a letter Jefferson had charged him with to beforwarded to Miss Gascoyne, went on to the telegraph office moredejected than ever. Jacinta had, usually, a bracing effect upon thoseshe came into contact with, and Austin, who felt he needed a mentalstimulant, realised now that one of the things that had sustained himwas the expectation of hearing her express her approval of what he haddone. He had not looked for anything more, but it seemed that he mustalso dispense with this consolation.
He delivered one of the canarios, who was apparently recovering, to hisfriends, and saw the other bestowed in the hospital, and then, findingthat he could not loiter about Las Palmas waiting an answer to hiscable, which he did not expect for several days, decided to go across toTeneriffe with the _Estremedura_. There was no difficulty about this,though funds were scanty, for the Spanish manager told him he could makehimself at home on board her as long as he liked, if he would instructthe new sobrecargo in his duties, as he, it appeared, had somedifficulty in understanding them.
On the night they went to sea he lay upon the settee in the engineers'mess-room, with Macallister sitting opposite him, and a basket of whitegrapes and a garafon of red wine on the table between them. Port anddoor were wide open, and the trade-breeze swept through the room, fresh,and delightfully cool. Austin had also an unusually good cigar in hishand, and stretched himself on the settee with a little sigh of contentwhen he had recounted what they had done on board the _Cumbria_.
"I don't know if we'll ever get her off, and the astonishing thing is,that since I had the fever I don't seem to care," he said. "In themeanwhile, it's a relief to get away from her. In fact, I feel I wouldlike to lie here and take it easy for at least a year."
Macallister nodded comprehendingly. Austin's face was blanched andhollow, and he was very thin, while the stamp of weariness and lassitudewas plain on him. Still, as he glanced in his direction a little sparklecrept into the engineer's eyes.
"So Jefferson made the pump go, and ran the forehold dry!" he said."When ye come to think of it, yon is an ingenious man."
Austin laughed. "He is also, in some respects, an astonishing one. Hewas perfectly at home among the smart people at the Catalina, and Ifancy he would have been equally so in the Bowery, whose inhabitants,one understands, very much resemble in their manners those of yourGlasgow closes or Edinburgh wynds. In fact, I've wondered, now and then,if Miss Gascoyne quite realises who she is going to marry. There areseveral sides to Jefferson's character, and she has, so far, only seenone of them."
"Well," said Macallister, reflectively, "I'm thinking she will neversee the rest. There are men, though they're no exactly plentiful, whocan hide them, and it's scarcely likely that Jefferson will rive asteamboat out of the African swamps again."
"Once is quite enough in a lifetime, but it's when the work is done, andhe has to quiet down, I foresee trouble for Jefferson. I'm not sure MissGascoyne's English friends would altogether appreciate him."
Again Macallister nodded. "Still," he said, "what yon man does not knowhe will learn. I would back him to do anything now he has made thatboiler steam. Then ye will mind it's no the clever women who are theeasiest to live with when ye have married them, and there's a good dealto be said for girls like Miss Gascoyne, who do not see too much. It isconvenient that a wife should be content with her husband, and not bewanting to change him into somebody else, which is a thing I would notstand at any price myself."
Austin grinned, for it was known that Macallister had, at least now andthen, found it advisable to entertain his friends on board the_Estremedura_ by stealth. The engineer however, did not appear to noticehis smile.
"Ye will go back when ye get the money?" he said.
"Of course. I have to see the thing out now, though I don't quiteunderstand how I ever came to trouble myself about it in the firstplace."
This time it was Macallister who grinned. "I have been in this world aweary while, and would ye pull the wool over my eyes? Ye are aware thatthe notion was driven into ye."
Austin was astonished, and a trifle annoyed, as he remembered a certainvery similar conversation he had had with Jefferson. It wasdisconcerting to find that Macallister was as conversant with hisaffairs as his partner had shown himself to be, especially as they hadboth apparently drawn the same inference.
"I wonder what made you say that?" he asked, with lifted brows.
Macallister laughed. "Well," he said drily, "I'm thinking Miss Brownknows, as well as I do, that ye would not have gone of your own accord."
"Why should Miss Brown have the slightest wish that I should go toAfrica?"
"If ye do not know, how could ye expect me to? Still, it should be plainto ye that it was not for your health."
Austin raised himself a trifle, and looked at his comrade steadily. "Thedrift of your remarks is tolerably clear. Any way, because I wouldsooner you made no more of them, it might be as well to point out thatno girl who cared twopence about a man would send him to the swampswhere the _Cumbria_ is lying."
"Maybe she would not. There are things I do not know, but ye will mindthat Jacinta Brown is not made on quite the same model as Miss Gascoyne.She sees a good deal, and if she was not content with her husband shewould up and alter him. I'm thinking it would not matter if it hurt thepair o' them."
"The difficulty is that she hasn't got one."
Macallister laughed softly. "It's one that can be got over, thoughJacinta's particular. It's not everybody who would suit her. Ye arestill wondering why ye went to Africa?"
"No," said Austin, with a trace of grimness. "I don't think it's worthwhile. Mind, I'm not admitting that I didn't go because the notionpleased me, and if Miss Brown wished me to, it was certainly because ofMuriel Gascoyne."
"Maybe," said Macallister, with a little incredulous smile. He rose,and, moving towards the doorway, turned again. "She might tell yeherself to-morrow. She's now in Santa Cruz."
He went out, appare
ntly chuckling over something, and Austinthoughtfully smoked out his cigar. To be a friend of Jacinta Brown'swas, as he had realised already, a somewhat serious thing. It impliedthat one must adopt her point of view, and, what was more difficult, tosome extent, at least, sink his own individuality. Macallister andJefferson were, he fancied, perhaps right upon one point, and that wasthat Jacinta had decided that a little strenuous action might bebeneficial in his case; but if this was so, Austin was not sure that hewas grateful to her. He was willing to do anything that would afford herpleasure, that was, so long as he could feel she would gain anythingtangible, if it was only the satisfaction of seeing Muriel Gascoyne madehappy through his endeavours. In fact, what he wished was to do her adefinite service, but the notion of being reformed, as it were, againsthis wishes, when he was not sure that he needed it, did not please him.This was carrying a friendly interest considerably too far, and it wasquite certain, he thought, that he could expect nothing more from her.He almost wished that he had never seen her, which was a desire he hadhovered on the brink of before; but while he considered the matter thetrade-breeze was sighing through the port, and the engines throbbed ondrowsily, while from outside came the hiss and gurgle of parted seas.Austin heard it all, until the sounds grew fainter, and he went tosleep.
It also happened that while he slept and dreamed of her, Jacinta satwith Muriel Gascoyne in the garden of a certain hotel on the hillsideabove Santa Cruz, Teneriffe. The house had been built long ago,evidently for a Spanish gentleman of means and taste, and its latestproprietor had sufficient sense to attempt no improvement on itsold-world beauty. It stood on a terrace of the hillside, quiet, quaint,and cool, with its ancient, bronze-railed balconies, red-tiled roof, andpink-washed walls, but its garden of palms and oleanders was itsgreatest charm.
On the night in question a full moon hung over the CaA+-adas' splinteredrampart, and its soft radiance fell upon the white-walled city and smotea track of glittering silver across the vast plain of sea. The smell ofoleanders and heliotrope was heavy in the air, and a cluster of blossomsswayed above Jacinta's shoulder. She was just then looking up at aSpanish officer in dark green uniform, who stood close by, with swordgirt tight to his thigh. He had a dark, forceful face, with the stamp ofdistinction on it, but he received no encouragement, though he glancedat the vacant place on the stone bench suggestively.
"No," said Jacinta. "I do not think I shall go to-morrow, so you neednot call for me. I have scrambled through the Mercedes Wood severaltimes already, and we came here to be quiet. That is why we are sittingoutside to-night. There are two or three tiresome people in the housewho will insist upon talking."
It is seldom necessary to furnish a Spaniard, who is usually skilled ininnuendo, with a second hint, and the officer took his departuregracefully. When he vanished, with jingling sword, into the shadow ofthe palms, Muriel looked at her companion.
"You meant me to stay?" she said.
"Of course," said Jacinta. "Still, I didn't mean you to let him see thatI did, and I really did not kick you very hard. Any way, it doesn'tmatter. The great thing is that he is gone."
"You were anxious that he should go?"
"Yes," said Jacinta. "I feel relieved now. He is, in some respects, avery silly man. In fact, he has been wanting to marry me for ever solong."
"Why?" said Muriel, and stopped abruptly. "Of course, I mean that he isa Spaniard, you know."
Jacinta laughed, and apparently indicated herself by a little wave ofher fan. She was once more attired in an evening dress that appeared toconsist largely of black lace, and looked curiously dainty andsylph-like in the diaphanous drapery. The moonlight was also on herface.
"The reason," she said, "ought to be sufficiently plain. He is, as youpoint out, certainly Spanish, but there really are a few estimablegentlemen of that nationality. This one was Governor or Commandante insome part of Cuba, and I believe he got comparatively rich there. Theyusually do. Still, he's a little fond of the casino, and is reported tobe unlucky, while, in spite of my obvious disadvantages, I am thedaughter of Pancho Brown."
She stopped with another laugh that had a faintly suggestive ring in it."There are times when I wish I was somebody else who hadn't a penny!"
"But it can't be nice to be poor," said Muriel, looking at her with atrace of bewilderment in her big blue eyes.
"It is probably distinctly unpleasant. Still, it would be consoling tofeel that your money could neither encourage nor prevent anybody youliked falling in love with you, and it would, in one sense, be nice toknow that the man you graciously approved of would have to get whateveryou wanted for you. You ought to understand that."
There was a trace of pride in Muriel's smile. "Of course; but, afterall, there are not many men who can do almost anything, like--HarryJefferson. Some of the very nicest ones seem quite unable to makemoney."
"I really don't think there are," and Jacinta's tone was, for no veryapparent reason, slightly different now. "The nicest ones are, as yousuggest, usually lazy. It's sad, but true. Still, you see, if ever Imarried, my husband would have to shake off his slothfulness and dosomething worth while."
"But he mightn't want to."
"Of course," said Jacinta, drily. "He probably wouldn't. Still, he wouldhave to. I should make him."
"Ah," said Muriel. "Do you know that you are just a little hard, and Ithink when one is too hard one is generally sorry afterwards. Now, Idon't understand it all, but you once told me you had got something youwished for done, and were sorry you had. I fancied you were even sorrierthan you wished me to know."
Jacinta sat silent a moment or two, with a curious expression in herface, as she looked out across the clustered roofs towards the sparklingsea. It was a custom she had fallen into lately, and it was alwaystowards the east she gazed. Then she smiled.
"Well," she said, "perhaps I was, but it was certainly very silly ofme."
Neither of them spoke again for a while, and by and by a man came out ofthe house bearing an envelope upon a tray. Jacinta tore it open, andMuriel saw the blood surge to her face as she spread out the telegraphicmessage. Then the swift colour faded, and there was only a little angryglint in her eyes.
"It's from my father, and good news for you," she said. "Tell MurielAustin was here. Salvage operations difficult, but he left Jefferson,who expects to be successful, well. Forwarding letter."
"Ah!" said Muriel, with a little gasp, "you don't know what a reliefthat is to me. But you seem almost angry."
Jacinta laughed a trifle harshly. "I almost think I am. It isn't exactlypleasant to find one's self mistaken, and I had expected somethingbetter from Mr. Austin. The difficulties he mentions were evidently toomuch for him. You were quite right, my dear. There are not many men likeJefferson."
Now Muriel Gascoyne had no very keen perceptions, and was, moreover,wrapped up in her own and Jefferson's affairs, or she might have seenthat anger was not all that Jacinta was feeling. As it was, overcome bythe relief the message had brought her, she quite failed to notice thepain in her companion's face or the quivering of her hands. In a minuteor two Jacinta, who waited until she fancied she could do so without itappearing significant, rose and left her.
She, however, stopped on the terrace, and once more looked down on theglittering sea, with one hand closed at her side. Then, as thoughremembering something, she turned hastily.
"I could never have believed you were a coward--and you went out forme!" she said, and moved towards the hotel with a little air ofresolution, as one who had made a painful decision.