The Flying Bo'sun Part 16

The customs men followed him aboard, and being a.s.sured that we were not pirates, departed to where the brandy and soda offered a more tempting interest. As I expected, the pilot came alongside about nine-thirty, very much disgusted to think that I should dare to run the channel without the guidance of his steady head and hand.

Had he not been here for fifteen years doing this work which required skill and courage, piloting s.h.i.+ps of all nations into and out of this dangerous channel? What was it to him (with a clinking gla.s.s), whether the conversation took the shape of the battle of Balaclava or the bombardment of Alexandria? Let the s.h.i.+ps lay in the offing and await his pleasure. They were helpless without him, and must await his guidance to reach safe anchorage.

He scrambled over the side, and adjusting his monocle to look me over, said in an accent that would make a c.o.c.kney cab-driver take to honest toil, "Ahem, ahem, where is your captain?"

"He is somewhere around the Equator in 145 west longitude," I said.

"Ow, ow, I see. He abandoned the s.h.i.+p, I suppose."

"Yes," said I, "he left much against his will. It is rather strange, is it not?"

"Well, I'll be blowed to think he should have departed in this manner."

Riley, who was coiling down the main boom tackle fall, was more interested in the English pilot than in coiling ropes. The last remark of the pilot re-echoed back from him in words not befitting this high command.

"Shur'n it's more av them that ought to be laying at the bottom of the sea with a mill stone around their neck."

The way Riley's one eye would alternate from the pilot to the little town across the harbor, and the way his lips twitched suggested to me what was going on in his mind. To think he had sailed seventy-five hundred miles to find a specimen like this! "To h.e.l.l with the pledge and Cannibal Isles, isn't the sight of this enough to drive any poor Irishman into swearing allegiance to John Barleycorn for the rest of his life?"

CHAPTER XIX

INTRODUCING CAPTAIN KANE, MRS. f.a.gAN AND MRS. f.a.gAN'S BAR

After convincing the pilot of the Captain's death, I was given a severe reprimand for coming into the harbor alone. When he went ash.o.r.e I had the small boat lowered, and, putting on a pair of the dead Captain's shoes, also his s.h.i.+rt and pants, I had Broken-Nosed Pete row me to the landing place on the wharf.

I wanted to look up the consignee and see where he wanted the cargo of lumber. There were a few cutters anch.o.r.ed in the harbor, but no s.h.i.+ps.

As we neared the wharf, I noticed a neat and clean little steam cutter lying along the south side of the wharf, and judged from the three-pound gun on her deck that she was a revenue cutter. On the wharf stood many natives, male and female. I was particularly attracted to the native men, who were wonderful types of physical development, standing six feet or more, with broad shoulders and deep chests. The muscles ran smoothly in their arms and legs, and their tapering thighs and agile feet made a picture seldom seen in the northern lat.i.tudes. They had no worries and troubles in dealing with the tailors and dressmakers. Adam and Eve fas.h.i.+ons still prevailed here, although some of the more prominent wore a yard or two of white linen instead of the fig leaves.

This, contrasted with the s.h.i.+ny dark skin and the white-washed hair, which had a vertical pitch, rather distinguished them in appearance from their more humble brethren.

Broken-Nosed Pete was so fascinated by "the female of the species," that he forgot to moor the boat. As the latter was drifting away from the wharf I gave him instructions to be more prudent,--to make fast the boat, and remain there until my return. Evidently Pete was not looking for this rebuke, for he answered in a voice that could be heard the width of the harbor saying, "Aye, aye, there seems to be a h.e.l.lish current, sir."

As I started to walk up the wharf I was met by a young man wearing a Palm Beach suit. "You are the Captain of the 'Wampa,' I believe," said he, "I represent Smith & Company here, and your cargo is consigned to us." After showing me where the lumber was to go, he told me that I would have to raft it ash.o.r.e. This was rather discouraging to me, as the distance was about one mile from the s.h.i.+p and I had never had any experience with work of this kind, but on account of shallow water at the dock I had no other alternative and decided to raft the cargo ash.o.r.e as he directed.

He invited me to his office, telling me that he believed there was mail there for the s.h.i.+p. In pa.s.sing a hotel at the end of the wharf he suggested a highball, which was served in due course by a red-headed Irish barmaid. I was then introduced to a number of Hibernians, noticeable among whom was a very fat and blubbery looking creature with an unusually large nose. His black beard was streaked with gray, his mouth had a sort of an angular twist, and in opening it one could see a few stray tusks, so solitary that it seemed they must be quite conscious of the old surroundings. The s.h.i.+rt, with its nicotine and other stains, was open at the neck, displaying a black and long-haired breast. This he seemed to be very proud of.

After telling me that his name was Captain Kane, and that he was the Captain of the "Pongon," the revenue cutter which I had noticed lying alongside the wharf, he put his hand to his breast and began to twist the black hair. This was probably an act of official dignity as Captain of the "Pongon," and representative of the British Government in the Fiji Archipelago. I got the mail, which consisted of three letters, one for the cook, and one for me from the owners, instructing me to proceed home in ballast to San Francisco. The other was addressed to Nelson, the Dane. When I got back aboard the s.h.i.+p it was noon, and raining as it knows how to rain in this country. It was not dropping down, but a continuous stream as if running through a sprinkler.

The afternoon was given to taking off deck-las.h.i.+ngs and getting a line ash.o.r.e in order to be able to pull the raft to the wharf. This operation used up almost all the rope on the s.h.i.+p.

About seven o'clock the crew came aft to say that they were going ash.o.r.e and wanted some money to spend. Oh, no, not at all for whiskey, just a few necessary things such as socks, tobacco and handkerchiefs.

(Whoever heard of a sailor buying a handkerchief while the ready oak.u.m is to be had for the asking!) I a.s.sured them that tomorrow I would draw on the owners, and give them one pound each to spend on these luxuries.

They went forward growling and grumbling, and not at all pleased with this proposition. I believe that Broken-Nosed Pete's description of what he had seen at the wharf weighed heavy on their minds.

In the morning we started the raft by taking four long two-by-sixes and las.h.i.+ng them at the ends, thus forming a square, then launching it over the side, and making it fast to the s.h.i.+p. We started to stow the lumber on the s.h.i.+p, running the boards fore and aft, then athwart s.h.i.+ps. After having stowed a few tiers, the raft took shape, but great care had to be taken in starting it, as it was hard to keep the first boards from floating away. The raft could not draw over six feet, otherwise we could not float it ash.o.r.e, but with this draft we could raft twenty thousand feet ash.o.r.e and escape the shallow places in the harbor.

I went ash.o.r.e towards noon to hire ten natives to help unload cargo.

Much to my surprise, the native Fijian is a man of leisure and not of toil. Sh.e.l.l-fis.h.i.+ng is good, and the yams and bananas are within easy reach, so this gentleman prefers to bask in the suns.h.i.+ne rather than to work for a paltry s.h.i.+lling.

I was about to go to the office of Smith & Company to see what they could do for me about getting help, when I espied Captain Kane strolling up the wharf. From the way his legs were spread apart one could see that his cargo was something different from lumber. As he approached me I noticed the cigar was so short that it was singeing his black beard and mustache. He greeted me warmly, saying, "How's she heading, sonny?" and insisted that I join him in a gla.s.s, as he usually took one about this time of day.

On the way to the hotel I told him how hard it was going to be for me to get help. He stopped suddenly, and, turning around to look at the harbor as if to make sure that there were no blockade runners in the offing, he fanned himself with his cheese-cutter cap, then turned towards me saying, "Why, man alive, I can load your s.h.i.+p down with coolies. Do you see those," pointing to a couple of small men, "they are our workers here. They come in from the Solomon group. I will get you as many as you want for two s.h.i.+llings a day and meals. As for these natives, they are d.a.m.ned lazy scoundrels, that's what they are, they won't work at all if they can help it."

Mrs. f.a.gan greeted us with a smile, asking us in the good old Irish way what our pleasure might be. Her red hair was much in need of combing and lacked the delicate wave of the tonsorial artist. We were joined by the pilot, who was on his way to give his boat's crew a little excursion around the harbor. "One must keep them in practice, you know. Goodness knows when a coolie s.h.i.+p may heave in sight, and I must be there to guide her in. Oh, yes, I must do my duty rain or s.h.i.+ne."

CHAPTER XX

REMINISCENCES OF OLD CLIPPER DAYS

One could see from the yawn and grunt that Captain Kane gave, that if the pilot went on talking he would disregard all rules of the road and make it a head-on collision. How could he respect this thing, that called itself captain and pilot, when all he commanded was an open boat with a few black oarsmen; "It is practice you want," said Captain Kane, raising his gla.s.s and draining the last dregs from Mrs. f.a.gan's highball, setting the gla.s.s down on the bar with a bang that seemed to further derange Mrs. f.a.gan's red hair.

She turned around exclaiming, "May the Lord save us and what was that?"

"Let me tell you," said Captain Kane to the pilot, wiping his mouth, "that I don't think you know h.e.l.l about doing your duty. Here's a man"--patting me on the shoulder--"that squared away and ran the reef while you were asleep, yes, d.a.m.n you, asleep. You talk about duty!" The little wisp of hair on Captain Kane's head no longer lay in quiet repose, but started to ascend as if controlled by the angular motions of his hands and feet. The illuminating light in his bleary eyes continued, and he said in a voice that sounded like the rolling surf, "Fifty years ago, running between Ceylon and the United Kingdom, in the old tea clippers where our topsails and top-gallant sheets were locked with a padlock, and where we got a bonus from the owners whenever we carried away a sail. Those were the days!"

He brought his clubbed fist down on the bar with such force that he jarred many of the gla.s.ses that were arranged around the beer pump handles. Mrs. f.a.gan whispered to me that the Captain was not himself today at all, at all, that he seldom gave way like this. "You talk about duty to me," Captain Kane continued, "but I've seen the time when every d.a.m.ned man of us were tied to the rigging during a typhoon. Never a reef nor a furled sail, while the Captain held the padlock keys. Oh, boys, those were the days, and you come around here talking to me about your duty. Go on with you now before I forget that I am Captain of His Majesty's s.h.i.+p 'Pongon.'"

The pilot was much distressed by this outburst of anger from Captain Kane. As he adjusted his monocle with trembling fingers before replying, a side door opened and Mr. Tim f.a.gan, proprietor of the Pier Hotel, greeted us with a grin, saying, "'Tis a foine day we be havin', men, and how are you all this morning?"

The contrast between Mr. and Mrs. f.a.gan was interesting, and one could see that the eugenic situation had not yet reached south of twenty-three.

His costume was that which is worn by the English lodge gate-keeper. He stood about five feet four, in the long stockings and the knee pants, the spiral legs, the number ten boots. This rig was coupled with the fringe of a beard extending from ear to ear, partly displaying a small chin and upper lip. Such an upper lip is seldom seen outside South Africa, but with him it had a.s.sumed such vast proportions that there was little to see of the face. The wart or b.u.t.ton that was intended for a nose was pushed up the face and in line with the gray eyes. The mouth was in contrast to the upper lip, but its expansion was lost in the sandy stubble of the side whiskers.

Mrs. f.a.gan looked adoringly at her beloved spouse and said, "Tim, it's yourself that will treat the gintlemen."

It was with great difficulty that Captain Kane reached a small shack made of bamboo poles and palm leaves. On entering we were confronted with a sight long to be remembered, for there, sitting around in a circle were fourteen natives of the Solomon Islands chewing kara root, which, after much masticating, they spit into a large earthen-ware dish.

The kara root when properly masticated is then collected, put through a sort of churning process and made into a drink which is known as Fiji grog. It resembles oatmeal water, which is a familiar drink among our northern harvest hands, but lacks its obvious peculiarities. The natives greeted the Captain with a salaam-san and proffered him a cup of the thick and slimy substance. The Captain refused, saying that it was near his lunch hour and he preferred not to indulge on an empty stomach, which I was pleased to see, for if he had taken aboard some of this mysterious looking cargo and mixed it in his watertight compartment there would have been a vacant chair at lunch on board His Majesty's s.h.i.+p "Pongon."

CHAPTER XXI

UNLOADING CARGO--AGAIN THE MASTER--NATIVE POLICE

I had no difficulty in hiring ten of the little men, and took them off to the s.h.i.+p to work cargo. In the afternoon we hauled a raft of lumber ash.o.r.e. I was greatly encouraged with this process of unloading; of course it lacked the noise of the steam winch and the occasional profanity of the Frisco longsh.o.r.emen, but this was the South Sea Isles where work was a pleasure.

I drew thirty pounds (a hundred and fifty dollars), remembering that the crew had some "purchases" to make that evening. After supper they came aft, dressed in their best clothes, and repeated their demands of the evening before.

After giving each member of the crew forward one pound, and the second mate and cook two pounds, they got in the boat and pulled ash.o.r.e, leaving me and Toby, the black cat, to guard the s.h.i.+p. I remained long after sunset on deck listening to the natives singing and playing their guitars. The sound, mingled with the noise of the surf breaking on the reefs beyond the purring of Toby, created a lullaby that would soothe the wildest intellect.