Part 2 (2/2)
”Running down the Portuguese coast, and a sight nearer in than we ought to be,” said the captain, joining me ”Well, Mr Holt, you've had a new experience, and I'm not sure I haven't myself, for I can hardly call to o, and loaded down as we are The boat won't rise properly, you see--hasn't a fair chance
Well, we shan't get anyoff the Cape coast”
We ran into lovely weather--day after day of cloudless skies and glassy seas; but the heat on the line was so to remember, and we had none of the luxuries of a first-class passenger shi+p--no long drinks or iced lager, or cool salads and oranges Salt provisions and shi+p biscuit and black tea, with a tot of grog before turning in, constituted our luxurious fare, and the heat had brought out innumerable cockroaches, which did their level best to contribute towards its seasoning But there were compensations For instance, I had made up my mind to leave all care and anxiety behind, to throw it off utterly, and trust to luck; and having done this, in spite of drawbacks, I began to enjoy the situation a since come to the conclusion that the captain was one of the nicest fellows I had ever met He was utterly unlike any preconceived and conventional idea of the merchant skipper He never swore or hustled his crew, or laid down the law, or did any of those things which story has immemorially associated with his cloth And he was refined and cultured, and could talk well on matters outside his professional experience He was rather a religious h he never put it forward, but I frequently saw hi books of Catholic authorshi+p or couessed at his creed As an Irishman, too, he was quite outside the preconceived type in that he was neither quick-tempered nor impulsive, and in his speech it was difficult to detect anything but the faintest trace of brogue Chadwick, the first h diaht not have been appreciated in the saloon of a first-class liner, yet he was an excellent fellow, and the sa, I own to disliking intensely He was a dark-bearded, sallow-faced young man, with a cockney drawl and an infallible umentative fellow I have ever met There was no subject under heaven on which he would not undertake to set us all right The captain bore with hiood-hueharowl and a flat contradiction, but it was like sledge-ha a flea on an eider-down cushi+on He hopped up livelier than ever, with a challenge to his superior to prove his contradiction
One day he had been trying my patience to the very utmost, when duty called hiineer, who had for like relief
”Upon my word, McBean, that ?”
”Yes”
”And why?”
”Because he 'can do no wrong'”
”Ay,” said the Scot ”And do ye thenk the king can do no wrang?”
I looked at McBean But the rejoinder was perfectly and innocently serious
I do not propose to dwell further on the voyage, for it was uneventful, and therefore like a score of other such voyages But todrawbacks, and ulhas light--very far away, for we had given that perilous coast particularly wide sea room--and I knew that a few days would see us at our destination
For the said few days we could see the looh, in parts h of that coast to appreciate the value of sea rooreen stretches sloping upward from the shore and intersected here and there by strips of dark jungle
A dull unceasing roar was borne outward, denoting that the lines of white water lashi+ng thiscoast represented heavy surf Then in the distance there hove in sight a squat lighthouse and the roofs of a few houses
”There's your land of pro me ”We shall be at anchor by three o'clock Meanwhile you'd better go down to dinner”
Strange to say, I felt disinclined to do anything of the kind The voyage was over, and I had a distinct and forlorn feeling that I was about to be literally turned adrift, and I believe at that moment I would have decided to return by the _Kittiwake_ even as I had come; but such a course was ied she was to leave for Bo soe of possibilities, of which at thatat all
For over and above the i to get along in a strange land where I knew not a soul, with seven pounds nine and a half penny as my present assets
CHAPTER FOUR
ON A STRANGE AND DISTANT Shore
”Well, good-bye, Holt Wish you every luck if I don't see you again, but I expect I shall if you stop on a day or two at the hotel yonder
I'll be getting a run on shore--when I can”
Thus the captain, and then caI felt quite affectionately disposed The crew too were singing out, ”Good luck to you, sir”