CHAPTER III
A FUEL PROBLEM
A few days after his visit to the factory, Lister sat one morning undera tarpaulin they had stretched across the hulk. The paint on the canvassmelt as if it burned, but the awning gave some shade and one could notfront the sun on the open deck. The sea breeze had not sprung up anddazzling reflections played about the oily surface of the swell. In oneplace, where the shadow of the wreck fell, the water was a cool, dullgreen.
A row of bubbles slowly crossed the belt of shade, stopped and made afrothy patch, and then lengthened out. A flexible pipe slipped acrossthe edge of the open gangway, and Lister felt the line he held. The linewas slack and he knew the diver needed nothing. Two half-naked men,their skins shining with sweat, turned the air-pumps handles, and therattle of the cranks cut the dull rumble of the surf. Brown, sitting ona tool-box, studied a plan of the wreck Cartwright had given him, andLister thought it typical Cartwright had got the plan. The old fellowwas very keen.
By and by Brown looked up and indicated the panting men.
"We want colored boys for this job and must get a gang. I expect younoted Montgomery declared his lot were Kroos. The Kroos are hefty boysand pretty good sailors, but they come from Liberia and there areregulations about their employment. You must engage them on a contract,hold yourself accountable for their return and so forth. All the same mynotion is, Montgomery didn't mean to help."
"Then we had better try the native headman he talked about."
Brown smiled, "I've no use for bushmen, but didn't see much use intelling Montgomery I'd been on the Coast before. For one thing, his boyswere not all Kroos. You know the Kroo by his blue forehead-stripe, but Isaw two or three with another mark. Thought them Gold Coast Fantis, anda Fanti fisherman is useful on board ship. In a day or two I'm goingback to see."
Lister lighted his pipe and weighed the captain's remarks. On the whole,he agreed that it did not look as if Montgomery meant to help. Thefellow was hospitable, but hospitality that implied his pressing liquoron the captain and making the sailors drunk had drawbacks. Brown hadused control, but Lister doubted if his resolution would stand muchstrain. Then, although Montgomery's story about the need for his beingon the spot was plausible, it was, perhaps, strange the head of amerchant house would stop for some time at a factory where his clerksdied. However, now Lister thought about it, Montgomery did not state ifhe had been there long.
"The fellow was generous with his liquor and his boy can mix acocktail," he remarked.
Brown grinned. "On the Coast, they're all generous with liquor.Montgomery knows this; but I've a notion you are wondering whether heknows me. I reckon not, but he knows the kind of skipper you generallymeet in the palm oil trade. Still the type's going out; now ship-ownerspay higher, they get better men. In fact, I'm something of a survivalfrom the old school."
He picked up the plan and Lister thought about Montgomery. The man wasill and highly-strung, but this was not strange. The factory was rathera daunting spot; reeking with foul smells and haunted by a sense ofgloom. Lister thought one might get morbid and imaginative if onestopped there long. Yet he rather liked Montgomery; there was somethingattractive about him. Perhaps if they had met in brighter surroundings,when the other's health and mood were normal, they might have beenfriends. Now, however, he doubted and saw Brown was not satisfied.
The line he held jerked and he signed to the men at the pump. One keptthe cranks turning; the other went to the top of a ladder lashed to thehulk's side. The bubbles moved away from the wreck and broke the surfacein a fixed, sparkling patch. The diver was coming up and Listerpresently helped him on board. When they had taken off his copper helmetand unfastened his canvas he leaned against the pump and breathed hard.
"Well?" said Brown, after waiting a minute or two for the man to getback his normal breathing.
"She lies with a sharp list; sand's high up her starboard bilge.Engine-room doors jambed, but I found the stokehold grating and got someway down the ladder. Sand's washed down and buried the starboardbunkers. To clear out the stuff will be a long job."
"Packed hard?"
The diver nodded. "Like cement! I reckon the pump won't move it."
Lister understood the captain's frown. Sometimes the sand that enters asunken vessel solidifies, with the pressure of surf or tide, into a massthat one can hardly dig out. This, however, was not all.
"Starboard bunkers buried?" Brown resumed. "They were pretty full. Whenshe left Forcados she had a list to port, and they trimmed her by usingthe coal on that side first. Well, it's awkward! I reckoned on gettingthe fuel!"
"There is some coal on the port side," said Lister.
"If Cartwright's plan and notes are accurate, there's not enough to seeus out. The wrecking pump will burn a lot," Brown rejoined and turned tothe diver. "Did you see any sharks?"
"One big fellow; he hung about as if he was curious and I didn't likehim near my air-pipe, but he left me alone. The pulps you meet in warmseas are worse than sharks. When I was down at the Spanish boat,crawling through the holes in her broken hull was nervous work. Once Isaw an arm as thick as mine waving in the dark, and started for theladder. We blew in that piece of her bilge with dynamite before I wenton board again. However, when I've cleared up a bit, I'll take Mr.Lister down."
The diver got into the boat and rowed to the tug, but the others stoppedin the shade of the awning. They had brought a spare diving dress, andbefore they tried to lift the wreck Lister must find out if Cartwright'ssupposition was correct, because if Cartwright had found the proper clewthe job would be easier. For all that, Lister frankly shrank from thepreparatory exercise. Diving in shark-haunted water had not much charm.
In the morning they hauled the tug alongside the wreck and at low-waterrigged a derrick and opened the fore hatch. The palm kernels had rottedand a horrible pulpy mass, swollen by fermentation, rose nearly to theledge. It was glutinous and too thick for the pump to lift, since thewater that filled the vessel drained away through the broken plates asthe tide sank. Brown, kneeling on the hatch-coaming, knitted his brows.
"The stuff's water-borne, forced up by its buoyancy," he said. "We mayfind it looser as we get down. In the meantime, suction's no use; wehave got to break it out by hand. Start your winch and we'll fill theskip."
Lister signaled a man on board the tug, the winch rattled, and a bigiron bucket, hanging by a wire rope, dropped into the hold. A gang ofmen climbed across the ledge and began to cut the slimy mass withspades. The surface heaved beneath them like a treacherous bog and thesmell was horrible. Now and then a spade made an opening for the gasesto escape and the nauseated men were driven back. For all that, theyfilled the skip and the swinging derrick carried the load across thedeck and tilted it overboard.
The heat was almost unbearable, the reflections from the oily swell andwet deck hurt one's eyes, and Lister noted that the deck did not dryuntil the sea breeze began to blow. The wind brought a faint coolnessand drove back the smell, but the men's efforts presently got slack. Thelabor was exhausting and one must wear some clothes because the sunburned one's skin. They held out until the rising water drove them fromthe hatch and when they went back to the tug Brown looked thoughtful.
"The men can't keep it up; the thing's impossible! A week like thiswould knock out the lot," he said. "We must use native boys and I'mgoing to get some."
In the morning Lister took his first diving lesson, and when the bigcopper helmet was screwed on and the air began to swell his canvasclothes, he shrank from the experiment. The load of metal he carried wascrushing, he could hardly drag his weighted boots across the deck, andat the top of the ladder he hesitated, watching the bubbles that markedthe spot where the diver had vanished. Then he remembered his promise toBarbara and cautiously went down.
The dazzling sunshine vanished, a wave of misty green closed above thehelmet glass, hot compressed air blew about his head, and his ear-drumsbegan to throb. Then lead and copper lost their weight; he felt buoyantand clung to the st
eps. At the bottom he was for a few moments afraid tolet go, but an indistinct, monstrous object came out of the strangegreen gloom and beckoned him on. Lister went, making an effort forbalance, because he now felt ridiculously light. Then the reflectionswere puzzling, for the light came and went with the rise and fall of theswell. Yet he could see and he followed the diver until they stoppedopposite the wreck's port bilge. Her side went up like a dark wall,covered by waving weed.
Lister's head ached and his breathing was labored, but not much pressurewas needed to keep out the shallow water and the diver had promised towarn him when they had stayed long enough. He forced himself to examinethe plate the other indicated. _Arcturus_ was a butt-strapped vessel anda number of the straps had burst. Plates were smashed and some of theholes were large, but in places the iron was drilled and in otherspatches had been bolted on. The salvage company had done part of thiswork and he thought it possible to make the damage good. If they couldstop the remaining holes, the big pump ought to throw out the water; butCartwright had talked about another opening and this would be awkward toreach.
Signing the diver to go on, he followed him round the vessel's stern.The sand on the other side was high and one could climb on board, butLister shrank from the dark alleyway that led to the engine-room. Forall that, he went in and saw the diver had opened the jambed door. Whenhe reached the ledge a flash from the other's electric lamp pierced thegloom and he tried to forget his throbbing head and looked about.
Sparkling bubbles from his and the diver's helmets floated straight upto the skylights, along which they glided and vanished through a hole inthe glass. The water, moving gently with the pulse of the swell, brokethe beam of light and objects it touched were distorted and magnified.The top of the big low-pressure cylinder looked gigantic, and the thickcolumns appeared to bend. Long weed clung to the platforms, from whichiron ladders went down, but so far as Lister could distinguish, allbelow was buried in sand.
He had seen enough. To clear the engines would be a heavy task, and onemust work in semi-darkness amidst a maze of ladders, gratings, andmachinery. To keep signal-line and air-pipe free from entanglementlooked impossible, but perhaps when they had broken the surface the pumpwould lift the sand. Anyhow, he was getting dizzy and his breath waslabored.
He touched the diver and they went back along the alleyway and round thevessel's stern. Lister was desperately anxious to reach the ladder andit cost him an effort to use control. As he went up his dress got heavyand he was conscious of his weighted boots. The pressure on his lungslessened, he was dazzled by a strong light, and feeling the edge of thehulk's deck, he got his knee on her covering-board and lurched forward.Somebody took off his helmet and lifted the weight from his chest. Heshut his eyes and for a few moments lay on the deck.
"Well?" said Brown presently. "You reached the engine-room?"
Lister nodded. "She's badly sanded up. It's plain we shan't get muchcoal from the starboard bunkers until we can lift her to an even keel."
"That will be long," Brown rejoined and pondered. "We must have coal,"he resumed. "If I can't find another plan, you must take the tug toSierra Leone and bring a load; but we'll let it go just now. The firstthing is to hire some negro laborers, and as soon as I can leave thewreck I'll try again."