CHAPTER XXV
HOVE OFF
The rain came down in sheets, and the mangrove roots were hidden by theyellow flood, when Jefferson stood, dripping, on the _Cumbria_'s bridge.Her iron deck was level, the stumpy pole masts ran upright into thedrifting mist, and a column of black smoke floated sluggishly from herrusty funnel. Dingy vapour also rose from the slender one of thelocomotive boiler, and cables--hemp and wire and chain--stretchedbetween the mangroves and the steamer's bow and stern. Jefferson,leaning heavily on the bridge rails, considered them each in turn. Heshivered a little, though the rain was warm, and his wet face lookedunusually gaunt and worn; but his eyes were intent and steady, for atlast all was ready for the supreme effort of heaving the _Cumbria_ off.
He looked down when Austin stopped at the foot of the ladder. His faceand hands were black, and the thin singlet, which was all he wore abovehis duck trousers, seemed glued to him.
"Hadn't you better keep inside the wheelhouse until we start the mill?"he said.
Jefferson smiled drily. "Do you think you could? What are you wanderingup and down the deck for?"
"I'm not. I've been firing the locomotive boiler, and spent the lasttwenty minutes in the forecastle. It isn't as dry as it should bethere."
He spoke lightly, though there was a suggestion of tension in his voice,and it was evident that both of them were anxious. Indeed, Jeffersonfancied that his comrade found it difficult to stand still at all.
"Well?" he said.
"There are a third of them I daren't turn out, and two or three of theothers who are down with Tom look a good deal shakier than I care about.Still, you see, I couldn't keep them in. They've had about enough ofthis country, and I don't blame them. You can figure on about half of usas reasonably effective, but what everybody wants to know is, when weare to begin."
"When you can give me eighty pounds of steam. Then we'll shake her upfor an hour or two with reversed propeller, and heave on everything whenyou get up to the hundred. Still, although we have blown a good deal ofthe mud out forward, I expect she'll want another fifty before she'llmove."
Austin glanced at the gap in the forest beneath the bows, across whichthe shattered mangroves were strewn. He and Jefferson had gone over allthis before, but since he had stopped by the ladder they must talk ofsomething, for silence would have been intolerable just then.
"I'll go down and stir them up, though I'm not sure that they need it,"he said.
He disappeared round the deck-house, and now there was nobody to seehim, Jefferson paced feverishly up and down the bridge, until Wall-eye,the steward, came pattering barefoot along the deck, with his arm in asling. Jefferson stopped him with a sign.
"Slip into Mr. Austin's room, and bring me the thermometer he keeps inthe little case," he said. "As usual, no comprenny? Casetta de cuero,very chiquitita."
The man went away, and when he came back Jefferson, who went into thewheelhouse, sucked the little clinical thermometer gravely for a minuteor two. Then he frowned as he looked at it.
"Ninety-nine, point something. I guess it's coming on again," he said."Well, one can go on working when it's a good deal more than that,especially when he has to."
He came out, and, leaning down, dropped the case into the hands of theman below.
"Put it back, and don't let Mr. Austin know," he said. "SeA+-or Austin nosavvy, you comprenny?"
Wall-eye grinned as he went away. He could, of course, hold his tongue,but the little case was sodden already, and it could not have got so wetas that in Austin's room.
In the meanwhile Austin had gone down to the stoke-hold. The place wasdimly lighted, and insufferably hot, for, with the _Cumbria_ stationary,no more air came down the ventilator shafts than the fires would draw,and they were burning sulkily. In fact, it was only by strenuous labourthat steam could be raised at all. Here and there the pale flicker of anoil lamp emphasised the gloom, though there were three half-moon patchesof brightness in each of the two boilers, until a fierce red glow beatout as Tom, the donkey-man, flung open a furnace door. Then Austingained some impression of his surroundings.
The bent figures of half naked men with shovels were forced out of theshadows. Another man, dripping with perspiration, pushed a clatteringtruck, and several more lay, apparently inert, upon the floor-plates,with water thick with coal grime trickling from them. Only two of themwere professional firemen, and all were weakened by the climate orshaken by the fever, while as the red light touched them, Austin couldsee how worn they were, and the suggestive hollows in their uncoveredskin. There are also things which it is unfit that a white man shoulddo, and firing in a calm in the tropics is one of them. Austin,however, had little time to look about him in, for Tom thrust an ironbar into one of the Spaniards's hands.
"Stand by with the bucket, you. Now, out with the clinker!" he said.
It is probable that the last man addressed did not understand what wassaid, but he knew how to clean a fire, and stood, half crouching, beforethe furnace, with face averted, while he plied the bar. There was arattling beneath the grate-bars and an overpowering wave of heat, in themidst of which the man stood bowed, with thin garments scorching and hishair frizzling visibly. Austin could hear his gasping breath, and becamepossessed by a sense of futile indignation. Toil of that kind was, hefelt, more than could be expected of anything made in the image of aman. Then the Canario let the bar fall clanging, and seized another,while the heat grew more intense when he raked out the ash and glowingclinker from the flaming tunnel. Austin shrank back with a hand upon hiseyes and singlet singeing, and his voice broke through Tom's cry of"Damp her down!"
"Por misericordia," he said, "echadle agua!"
Somebody swung a bucket, and a cloud of steam whirled up; but the manwho had cleaned the fire let his scraper fall, and lurching with a halfstrangled cry, went down amidst the vapour. He lay with scorched chestand arms on the floor-plates, making little stertorous noises, untilTom, who tore the bucket from his comrade's hands, flung the rest of itscontents over him.
"Drag him away!" he said, and turned to Austin. "He's the second one,but he'll come round by and by. Did you come down to look on or give usa hand?"
He flung open another door, and Austin took a shovel from a weary man.He had studied the art of firing up on deck, where it was considerablycooler, before the locomotive boiler, but he discovered that the worknow demanded from him was an entirely different matter. The heat wasoverpowering, the bed of glowing fuel long, and it was only by theuttermost swing of shoulders and wrench of back and loins that he couldeffectively distribute his shovelful. He felt his lowered facescorching, and the sweat of effort dripped from him, but he toiled on inBerserker fury while Tom encouraged him.
"Spread it!" he said. "Next lot well down to the back end. You needn'tbe afraid to move yourself. Keep her thin!"
Austin wondered whether he had any eyebrows left when that furnace wasfilled, but it was done at last, and then there was coal to be trimmedfrom the bunkers. The dust that whirled about the shovels blackened andchoked him, but he worked on savagely. Every man was needed, with halfthe Spaniards sick, and he felt that if this was the cost of success itwas not fitting that he should shirk his part in it. Social distinctionscounted for nothing there; the barriers of creed and nationality hadalso melted. They were all privates in that forlorn hope, with death asthe penalty of failure, and while they could not be more, none of themthat day dared be less, than men.
He never remembered all he did. There was a constant clanging ofshovels, whirring of coal trucks, and slamming of iron doors that openedto let out fiery heat and radiance and take the flying fuel in. Men cameand went like phantoms, gasping, panting, groaning now and then, and thevoice of their leader rose stridently at intervals. He was a man of lowdegree, and his commands were not characterised by any particulardelicacy, but he was the man they needed, and when he emphasised hisinstructions with a grimy hand, and now and then the flat of theshovel, nobody resented it. During one brief interlude he found breat
hfor a deprecatory word or two with Austin.
"If she was doing her eight or ten knots it wouldn't be as hard asthis," he said. "Then the ventilators would cool her down. The fireswon't burn themselves now--you have got to make them; but you'll findher steam sweet and easy when she's going up the trades head to breeze."
"I wonder," said Austin grimly, "how many of us will be left when shegets there."
Then Bill, who had been busy at the locomotive boiler, came down theladder with a message, and he and Tom vanished into the engine room,while Austin, who greatly desired to go with them, put a restraint uponhimself. For some minutes he felt his heart beat as he listened to apremonitory wheezing and panting, and then his blood seemed to tingle asthis merged into the steady rumble of engines. The faint quiver of thefloor-plates sent a thrill through him, and he drew in a great breath ofrelief when beam and angle commenced to tremble. The rumbling grewsteadily louder, the whirl of the reversed propeller shook the ship, andit was evident that the engines were running well.
After that, however, the work became harder still, for the big cylindersmust be fed, and it was with a sensation of thankfulness that he had notbroken down beneath the strain Austin dragged himself up the ladder whena message was brought him that he was wanted to drive the after winch.It was raining heavily, but he found it a relief to feel the deluge beatupon his beaded face and scorched skin, though he could scarcely see themangroves to which the wire that ran from the winch drum led. It wasshackled to a big bridle, a loop of twisted steel that wound in and outamong a rood or two of the stoutest trees. The winch was also powerful,and it remained to be seen whether it would heave the _Cumbria_ out ofher miry bed, or pull that portion of the watery forest up bodily. Agreat cable that slanted back towards him rose out of the water forwardin a curve, and he could dimly see Jefferson's lean figure outlinedagainst the drifting mist high up on the bridge. On the forecastlebeyond it more shadowy men stood still, and Austin wondered whethertheir hearts beat as his did while they waited. The man beside himstooped ready, with body bent in a rigid curve, and bare, stiffenedarms, clenching the wire that led to the winch-drum. There was aminute's waiting, and then Jefferson, moving along the bridge, flung upa hand.
"Heave!" he said.
Austin felt his pulses quicken and a curious sense of exultation as heunscrewed the valve, for it seemed to him that flesh and blood had bornethe strain too long, and now they had steel and steam to fight for them.The deck beneath him quivered as the screw whirled faster, and he couldsee the poop shaking visibly. Then the winch wheezed and pounded, andthere was a groaning forward as the rattle of the windlass joined in.Wire and hemp and studded chain rose ripping from the river, creaked andgroaned and strained, but when they had drawn each curve out they couldget no inch of slack in. Austin clenched his fingers on the valve-wheel,but his eyes were fixed on the lonely figure pacing feverishly up anddown the bridge, and just then he felt all the bitterness of defeat. Therattle forward died away, and though the winch still whirred andhammered, none of the wire rope ran over the drum into the crouchingSpaniard's hands. The tension lasted for some minutes, and thenJefferson's voice came down harshly through the rain.
"Let up!" he said. "Get down, half of you, and see if you can help themwith the firing. We'll try her again when you have raised more steam."
There was, by contrast, a curious silence when the roar of steam diedaway, and the thudding of the big engines below decks sank to a lowerpitch. The men who could be spared went down in a body, and toiled foranother hour in a frenzy. The fierce Latin blood was up; they knew itwas the last round, and they would not be beaten now. The throbbingblast which rushed skywards from the blow-off valve when they came upagain showed what they had done, and Austin walked aft, singed andblackened, to his winch, with his heart in his mouth. It must be now ornever, for it was clear to him that the men were making their lasteffort, and the boilers would not bear another pound of steam.
The windlass was groaning horribly when he opened the valve, and thewhole ship trembled with the whirring of the screw. He saw the drumsspin round futilely for a moment or two, and then the Spaniard, whocrouched behind one of them, howled, as a foot of the uncoiling wirecame back to his hands. Simultaneously, the groaning of the windlasschanged to a clanking rattle, and no sound had ever seemed half somusical to Austin. The ship shook beneath him, and creaked in all herframe, while the hammering and rattling swelled into a frantic din asshe commenced to move. He felt as though he were choking, and his sightmomentarily failed him; but as yet the battle was not quite won, andclosing blackened fingers on the valve-wheel, he watched the rope comehome with dazzled eyes. It ran in faster and faster; he could hear thegreat stud-cable splashing and grinding as it came in, too, and for fivebreathless minutes he held himself to his task, feeling the _Cumbria_creep down stream, stern foremost, under him. Then her pace grew faster,and the clanging of his winch seemed to deafen him, until at last ashrill-pitched voice fell through the din.
"Bastante!" it said. "She's clear now! 'Vast heaving!"
Then the tension slackened as the long, rusty hull swung out intomidstream, and flesh and blood were left shaken, and, as yet, unable torecover from the suddenly lifted strain in the silence, as winch andengines stopped. Tom, the donkey-man, was chanting some incoherentribaldry forward; here and there a Canario howled or flung up drippingarms; while the one beside Austin sat down upon the hatch and rockedhimself to and fro as he called upon the Queen of Heaven. Only Jeffersonstood very still, a tall, lean figure, on the bridge, with his torn anddrenched clothing sticking to him, and Austin leaned heavily upon hiswinch. He did not wish to move, and was not sure he could have done sohad he wanted to. The _Cumbria_ was clear afloat, and they had won; butthere was nothing he could say or do which would sufficiently celebratethat triumph.
Jefferson gave them five minutes to recover their balance, and then hisvoice came down again. The windlass clanked its hardest, wire hawserssplashed, and the _Cumbria_ had swung across to the opposite forest whenthe big anchor rose to her bows. In the meanwhile the surfboat had beenbusy, too; and when the winch whirred again they slid away, sternforemost, with propeller churning slowly, against the muddy stream. Itwas twenty minutes later when, with a roar of running cable, the anchorplunged once more, and she brought up abreast of the creek where thecoal and oil were stored. Jefferson came down from his bridge and satdown on the table in the skipper's room when Austin flung himself on tothe settee, with the water trickling from him.
"Well," he said, "we have floated her, but there's still a good deal tobe done. There are the coal and oil to get on board, and then we have tofind the gum."
Austin looked up at him with a little smile.
"That's rather a prosaic epilogue when one comes to think of it," hesaid.
"Then you can paint a picture of it when you get home, if you fancy itworth while," said Jefferson drily.
"I don't think it would be," and Austin smiled again. "After all, apicture either goes beyond or falls a long way short of the real thing,and the subject's rather too big for me. Man's domination symbolised bya staggering scarecrow with a fireman's shovel."
Jefferson dropped his hand on his shoulder, and gripped it hard. "Well,"he said, "you can drive a winch and sling a palm oil puncheon like asailorman. I guess that's 'most as useful as the other thing, any way."
"Ah!" said Austin, "you're skirting rather a big question, but we arepractical now. Are you going to dig the gum up before you heave incargo?"
"I'm not. It seems to me it's safer where it is in the meanwhile, solong as Funnel-paint doesn't know where to look for it. If you'll giveme a dose of quinine I'd be obliged to you."
Austin glanced at him sharply. "Have you any special reason for askingfor it?"
"I've been in the rain quite a long while now, and it's a good dealwiser to head off a fever than wriggle out of its clutches once it getsa good grip on you. One gets cautious in this country."
Austin said nothing further, for he was by this t
ime well acquaintedwith his comrade's characteristics, but he was not quite contented withthe latter's reason when he lugged out the medicine chest.