Part 2 (1/2)

”Yes,” said Austin, who glanced suggestively across the sunlit heave towards the dim, blue heights of Grand Canary, ”it is, one would believe, quite easy to fall in love with any one pretty and clever during fine weather at sea. That is, of course, on sufficient provocation. There are also, I think, Englishmen with some capacity for idealisation--but hadn't you better go on?”

Jacinta pursed her lips as she looked at him with an a.s.sumption of severity, but she proceeded. ”Now, I had arranged for Mrs. Hatherly and Muriel to spend the winter in Grand Canary, but she has heard of a doctor in one of the hotels at Madeira, and is bent on going there.

There is, of course, nothing the matter with her; but if she approves of the doctor in question it is very probable that she will stay in that hotel until the spring. Still, she is changeable, and if she doesn't go at once it is possible that she will not go at all. The Madeira boat leaves Las Palmas about half an hour after we get there, and I don't want Mrs. Hatherly and Muriel to catch her. Muriel doesn't want to, either.”

Austin shook his head. ”Don't you know that it is rather a serious thing to delay a Spanish mailboat?” he said. ”Still, I suppose you have decided that it must be done?”

”I think so,” said Jacinta sweetly. ”I also fancy you and Macallister could manage it between you. You have my permission to tell him anything you think necessary.”

She rose and left him, with this, and Austin, who was not altogether pleased with his commission, waited until after the four o'clock comida, when, flinging himself down on a settee in the engineer's room, cigar in hand, he put the case to Macallister, who grinned. The latter, as a rule, appeared to find his native idiom more expressive in the evening.

”I'm no saying Jacinta's no fascinating, an' I've seen ye looking at her like a laddie eyeing a b.u.t.terscotch,” he said. ”Still, it can no be done. Neither o' our reputations would stand it, for one thing.”

”We have nothing to do with the Madeira boat, and the Lopez boat for Cuba doesn't sail until an hour after her,” said Austin. ”Besides, Jacinta wants it done.”

Macallister looked thoughtful. ”Weel,” he said, ”that is a reason.

Jacinta thinks a good deal of me, an' if I was no married already I would show ye how to make up to her. I would not sit down, a long way off, an' look at her. She's no liking ye any the better for that way of it.”

”Hadn't you better leave that out?” said Austin stiffly. ”I'm the _Estremedura_'s sobrecargo, which is quite sufficient. Can't you have a burst tube or something of the kind?”

”A burst tube is apt to result in somebody getting scalded, an' stepping into boiling water is sore on a Primera Maquinista's feet. Ye'll just have to make excuses to Jacinta, I'm thinking.”

Austin, who knew he could do nothing without Macallister's co-operation, was wondering what persuasion he could use, when he was joined by an unexpected ally. A big, aggressive Englishman in tourist apparel approached the mess-room door and signed to him.

”You were not in your room,” he said, as though this was a grievance.

Austin looked at him quietly. ”I'm afraid I really haven't the faculty of being in two places at once. Is there anything I can do for you?”

”There is. I particularly want to catch the Liverpool boat _via_ Madeira to-night, and the time you get in cuts it rather fine. It occurred to me that you might be able to hurry her up a little.”

”I'm sorry that's out of the question,” said Austin, languidly. ”You see, I'm not expected to interfere with this steamer's engines.”

He was wondering how he could best favour the Englishman with a delicate left-handed compliment, when Macallister, who was once more very dirty, and wore only a dungaree jacket over his singlet, broke in:

”I would,” he said, ”like to see him try.”

”May I ask who you are?” said the pa.s.senger, who regarded him superciliously.

”Ye may,” and there was a portentious gleam in Macallister's eyes. ”I'm only her chief engineer.”

”Ah!” said the other, who did not consider it advisable to mention that he had supposed him to be a fireman. ”Well, there are, I believe, means of obtaining a favour from a chief engineer. You naturally don't get many pickings in this kind of boat.”

Austin laughed softly, for he knew his man. It is now and then permissible to bestow an honorarium upon a chief engineer over a deal in coals, but it requires to be done tactfully, and when the stranger suggestively thrust his hand into his pocket, Macallister hove his six feet of length upright, and looked down on him, with a big hand clenched and blazing eyes.

”Out o' this before I shake some manners intil ye, ye fifteen-pound-the-round-trip sc.u.m!” he said.

The stranger backed away from him, and then bolted incontinently as Macallister made for the door. Austin laughed softly when he heard him falling over things in the dark alleyway, and Macallister sat down fuming.

”A bit doosoor on the coal trade is one thing, but yon was--insultin',”

he said, and then looked up with a sudden grin. ”I'll fix the waster.