Part 14 (2/2)
They stared out across the lagoon for some little while, noticing the tufts of reeds which cropped up here and there, and the white mist in the far distance. Then they turned their faces towards the spot they had left, and felt their way back towards the camp.
”We'll take a couple of grains of quinine apiece to-night,” said the Major, halting for a breathing spell by the way. ”No white man who comes out to a tropical country can afford to neglect that precaution. Even in the ca.n.a.l zone, where we have reduced the occurrence of malarial fever to an extraordinary figure, we still insist that all employees should take quinine regularly. And out away here it's far more necessary. That mist we've been watching spells malaria, fever that sticks to a man's bones till he's old, even though he gets safe home, and lives in comfort and warmth. Besides, listen to the hum of the mosquitoes; any fool could tell that these parts weren't healthy for a white man.”
Jim agreed with him abruptly. He was thinking of his brother, and wis.h.i.+ng at that moment that he had been a little more careful to take precautions; but George had been one of those l.u.s.ty, healthy fellows, never sick or sorry, who had laughed at fever and scoffed at precautions. And see what it had brought him to.
”My brother might have been alive now if only he had taken his quinine,”
said Jim. ”You heard about him, Major?”
”I did. As one of the police at Colon his loss was reported to me as a matter of course. It was bad luck, lad; where did he go ash.o.r.e?”
”Miles away along this coast. I hunted high and low, as far as a man can hunt a jungle. Reckon he died in the undergrowth.”
”Or fell into a swamp, lad. He died, that's sure enough; but come along.
There's the fire, and a good meal waiting for us. Gee! we've been getting along; this is better progress than I had dared to hope for.”
Skilfully the Major drew Jim's attention from the tragedy which had fallen upon his young life, and very soon had him seated beside a roaring fire, and dipping his spoon into a steaming cauldron of stew which the wily Chinee had provided. In fact, it was a stew which had been prepared ash.o.r.e in the Major's house, and merely required heating.
”Plenty ob dat fo all, I guess,” observed Tom, as he served out helpings all round, smacking his big lips as the savoury odour filled his nostrils. ”By gum, but dis night air make a fellow hungry. Yo Sam, yo sit right along down dar, and I help yo. Not trust a little n.i.g.g.e.r same as yo to help hisself: eat too much. Little man, but plenty big tomach.”
He held the huge cauldron in one hand, and with the fingers of the other pressed his small companion to the ground as if he were as weak as a baby. Then, despite his own words, he gave him a liberal helping, and, having done the same for Ching, sat himself down beside the cauldron.
”So as to see dat dat feller Sam don't play one ob him tricks,” he laughed. ”By de poker, 'spose him try, den shob him into the pot and cook um.”
In the firelight his round, rolling eyes gleamed white. Tom looked a very terrible person for the moment. But he could never preserve an appearance of ferocity for long; his usual smile was soon wreathing his face, particularly when he had taken the first mouthful of stew.
”By lummy, but dat extry good!” he observed. ”Hab more, yo fellows?”
In turn he offered it to them all, then helped himself again liberally.
In fact, it was not until the last spoonful of gravy had been finished that the party turned to their pipes. Nor was there much difference to be found between the variety of tobacco loved by the British tar or soldier and that favoured in particular by these American policemen. Jim watched them as they cut the cake with their knives and rammed the broken weed into the bowls; then columns of smoke rose amid the branches, while the scent of navy s.h.a.g made the air redolent.
”And now for the orders,” said the Major, when the men had had time for a long smoke. ”Sam has been keeping an eye on the water all this time.
We must relieve him, though he has hardly been doing duty in the ordinary sense of watchman. Let me see. There are three of my own men, three of yours, making six, and our two selves, eight altogether; suppose we watch in couples. You with one of my men for two hours, then Tom and a second policeman, Sam afterwards with the third, and I last of all with our friend Ching. How's that? Two hours each, four watches altogether, and a good sleep for all of us. It is now eight o'clock, the last spell takes us up to four o'clock in the morning; it'll be light by then. Since Ching will be on duty from two o'clock he can employ himself with our breakfast. By half-past four we shall be able to get the engine going and be under weigh. Now, Jim, get to your duty. One aboard the launch, and the second patrolling as far as the lagoon. Pipes not to be lit unless well amongst the trees. No one to call loudly to another unless there be need. Boys, you've blankets here; turn in.”
Ashes were knocked out of pipe stems, and the men at once rolled themselves in their blankets. Then Jim and the comrade who was to watch with him shouldered their rifles, and with pouches filled with ammunition, attached to the belts round their waists, marched towards the stream.
”You get aboard,” said Jim. ”I'll make along to the lagoon. When an hour has pa.s.sed I'll come and take your place.”
He wended his way through the jungle, and presently was on the bank of the lagoon, admiring its broad expanse of rippling water, which looked so solemn and so beautiful beneath the silvery rays of the moon. Indeed, it was an enchanting scene, and had our hero been of a romantic turn of mind he might well have been excused for giving free rein to his fancy.
But Jim was a hard, practical-minded fellow, with the world before him, and his way to make in it. It is not then to be wondered at that his mind strayed from the scene before him to the ca.n.a.l zone, to the gigantic undertaking America had determined on, to the host of workmen labouring there, and to the many problems which confronted them, problems undreamed of by Jim till yesterday, undreamed of now by thousands of Americans, yet problems, for all that, demanding the anxious thought and effort of the Commission staff, in whose able and painstaking hands lay the enormous enterprise. In his mind's eye Jim saw that hundred-ton steam digger again. He fancied himself in the driver's seat, with Harry watching every movement critically, and coaching his young pupil. His hands seemed to fall quite naturally on the levers, and then the hiss of steam came to his ears, just as it had done when he worked the enormous engine.
”Was it all imagination?” To tell the truth he was getting not a little drowsy, but that peculiar hiss was so realistic that----”Gee!” he recovered from his brown study suddenly, and opened his eyes very wide.
For there was reality in that hissing steam. He could actually hear it, not over loud, but without doubt steam or gas escaping from some narrow orifice. Moreover the sound came from the lagoon; yes, from the lagoon straight before him. A moment later a long, black shape stole into view from behind a ma.s.s of reed some few yards away, then lay still on the water. Silhouetted against the rippling surface he could make out the dusky outlines of a launch, her funnel amids.h.i.+ps, the hood of the cab which sheltered pa.s.sengers when a sea was running, and the little mast on which her flag drooped. And there were figures--two of them. They stood sharply displayed against the light, perched on the deck of the launch, surveying their surroundings.
”Those villains; then they are here without a doubt. Gee, if they try to make out through the opening!”
Jim crouched a trifle lower under the trees beneath which he had taken his station, and watched the launch and her pa.s.sengers. And steadily, as he watched, the boat drew nearer and nearer.
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