I was brought there to rule by an agency as remote from the people and as inscrutable almost to them as the Grace of God.
And like a member of a dynasty, feeling a semi-mystical bond with the dead, I was profoundly shocked by my immediate predecessor.
That man had been in all essentials but his age just such another man as myself.Yet the end of his life was a complete act of treason, the betrayal of a tradition which seemed to me as imperative as any guide on earth could be.It appeared that even at sea a man could become the victim of evil spirits.I felt on my face the breath of unknown powers that shape our destinies.
Not to let the silence last too long I asked Mr.
Burns if he had written to his captain's wife.He shook his head.He had written to nobody.
In a moment he became sombre.He never thought of writing.It took him all his time to watch incessantly the loading of the ship by a rascally Chinese stevedore.In this Mr.Burns gave me the first glimpse of the real chief mate's soul which dwelt uneasily in his body.
He mused, then hastened on with gloomy force.
"Yes! The captain died as near noon as pos-sible.I looked through his papers in the afternoon.
I read the service over him at sunset and then Istuck the ship's head north and brought her in here.I--brought--her--in."He struck the table with his fist.
"She would hardly have come in by herself," Iobserved."But why didn't you make for Singa-pore instead?"
His eyes wavered."The nearest port," he muttered sullenly.
I had framed the question in perfect innocence, but his answer (the difference in distance was in-significant) and his manner offered me a clue to the simple truth.He took the ship to a port where he expected to be confirmed in his temporary com-mand from lack of a qualified master to put over his head.Whereas Singapore, he surmised justly, would be full of qualified men.But his naive reasoning forgot to take into account the telegraph cable reposing on the bottom of the very Gulf up which he had turned that ship which he imagined himself to have saved from destruction.Hence the bitter flavour of our interview.I tasted it more and more distinctly--and it was less and less to my taste.
"Look here, Mr.Burns," I began very firmly.
"You may as well understand that I did not run after this command.It was pushed in my way.
I've accepted it.I am here to take the ship home first of all, and you may be sure that I shall see to it that every one of you on board here does his duty to that end.This is all I have to say--for the present."He was on his feet by this time, but instead of taking his dismissal he remained with trembling, indignant lips, and looking at me hard as though, really, after this, there was nothing for me to do in common decency but to vanish from his outraged sight.Like all very simple emotional states this was moving.I felt sorry for him--almost sympa-thetic, till (seeing that I did not vanish) he spoke in a tone of forced restraint.
"If I hadn't a wife and a child at home you may be sure, sir, I would have asked you to let me go the very minute you came on board."I answered him with a matter-of-course calmness as though some remote third person were in question.
"And I, Mr.Burns, would not have let you go.
You have signed the ship's articles as chief officer, and till they are terminated at the final port of discharge I shall expect you to attend to your duty and give me the benefit of your experience to the best of your ability."Stony incredulity lingered in his eyes: but it broke down before my friendly attitude.With a slight upward toss of his arms (I got to know that gesture well afterward) he bolted out of the cabin.
We might have saved ourselves that little pas-sage of harmless sparring.Before many days had elapsed it was Mr.Burns who was pleading with me anxiously not to leave him behind; while I could only return him but doubtful answers.The whole thing took on a somewhat tragic complexion.
And this horrible problem was only an extrane-ous episode, a mere complication in the general problem of how to get that ship--which was mine with her appurtenances and her men, with her body and her spirit now slumbering in that pestilential river--how to get her out to sea.
Mr.Burns, while still acting captain, had hastened to sign a charter-party which in an ideal world without guile would have been an excellent document.Directly I ran my eye over it I fore-saw trouble ahead unless the people of the other part were quite exceptionally fair-minded and open to argument.
Mr.Burns, to whom I imparted my fears, chose to take great umbrage at them.He looked at me with that usual incredulous stare, and said bitterly:
"I suppose, sir, you want to make out I've acted like a fool?"I told him, with my systematic kindliness which always seemed to augment his surprise, that I did not want to make out anything.I would leave that to the future.
And, sure enough, the future brought in a lot of trouble.There were days when I used to remem-ber Captain Giles with nothing short of abhor-rence.His confounded acuteness had let me in for this job; while his prophecy that I "would have my hands full" coming true, made it appear as if done on purpose to play an evil joke on my young innocence.
Yes.I had my hands full of complications which were most valuable as "experience." People have a great opinion of the advantages of experience.
But in this connection experience means always something disagreeable as opposed to the charm and innocence of illusions.
I must say I was losing mine rapidly.But on these instructive complications I must not enlarge more than to say that they could all be resumed in the one word: Delay.
A mankind which has invented the proverb, "Time is money," will understand my vexation.
The word "Delay" entered the secret chamber of my brain, resounded there like a tolling bell which maddens the ear, affected all my senses, took on a black colouring, a bitter taste, a deadly meaning.
"I am really sorry to see you worried like this.
Indeed, I am...."
