CHAPTER X
It was a pity that Derrick Dene was not a descriptive writer, instead ofa struggling engineer, for had he been, he might have got some copy ofquite a purple hue out of the "tramp" and its temporary denizens. Weoften hear of a literary production which is without a dull page, but itmay be said with truth that Dene's life on board the _Angelica_ waswithout a dull moment. And without an idle one; for he had accepted theposition of general utility, and the man-of-all-work is expected to doeverybody else's as well as his own. So it happened that while Sidcup,for instance, who was the principal acrobat and trapeze man, lolledthrough his day with a pipe in his mouth, and only lending an occasionalhand, when necessity compelled him, Dene was in request everywhere.
Fortunately he was as strong as a modern Hercules, quick and alert inhis movements, and, now that he was free from the terror which hadoverthrown him at Brown's Buildings, was of his wonted cheerfulness.Fortunately, also, he was a good sailor, and did not go under with thesea-sickness which soon prostrated nearly all the other members of thecompany. For they ran into bad weather, and once or twice, when thestorm was at its worst, scenes occurred which would need the pen of aJoseph Conrad or a Morley Roberts to describe adequately; I will notattempt to do so.
The rickety old tub, straining in every plate, rolled and pitched andtossed all ways at once, like an hysterical cat, and the discomfort inwhich they had started rose, or rather sank, to absolute misery. Likemost strong men, Derrick had the heart of a woman towards anyone in painor trouble. There was no doctor; the so-called stewards were quiteunable to cope with the well-nigh general suffering, and Derrick, insome marvellous way, found time to bear a hand. There is no doubt that,in any case, he would have been popular; but in the presentcircumstances he stepped at once into the position of first friend withthe men, and became a hero and a little tin god in the regard of thewomen; and as to the children--for there were three or four in thecompany, young acrobats and riders--they watched for his coming, andclung to him and adored him with their pathetic eyes, as if theirpresent and future safety and happiness were dependent on him. Often, inthe middle of the night, he would be awakened by the wail of a child,and with eyes still half closed, and his mind only half awake, wouldmake his way to it, give it a drink, and sometimes fall asleep with thepoor little thing nestled up against him. To them he was no longer "Mr.Green," but "Syd," or "Dear Syddie," and they fought for a word andschemed for a smile from him.
Among the women were some who were quite young. Many of them werepretty, and not a few of them, naturally enough, fell in love with thegood-looking young man who befriended them. Like the children, but witha different kind of ardour, they waited for his coming, and laidfeminine snares for him. Two girls, to particularize, thought of littleelse than Sydney Green as they lay in their bunks, recovering from thathorrible malady at which we all laugh, and all quail. One was a fairgirl, named Alice Merton. She was one of the riders, and was extremelypretty, with blue eyes and a complexion like cream and roses. She wasvery slight and dainty, and looked fragile; but she was a very goodequestrienne, and when on a horse displayed extraordinary nerve.
The other girl--her name was Isabel Devigne, a stage name, no doubt--wastall, dark-eyed, with the regular features and blue-black hair of aSpaniard. She also was a rider; she had been in the business--pardon!profession--since she could walk, and her experiences of life were manyand peculiar. Perhaps because of their contrasting characteristics, sheand Alice Merton had been drawn towards each other, and were fastfriends. They occupied opposite bunks, walked and talked together, andwere both in love with Sydney Green, who ministered to both, in hiscapacity of amateur ship doctor, with strict though unconsciousimpartiality.
Derrick was not of the susceptible genus, and, if he had been, he wastoo much driven by the incessant work to spare time for even the mildestflirtation. Besides, whenever he found time for thought, his mind alwayswent back to a certain room in Brown's Buildings, far away in London, toa girl's face looking down at him from over the balustrade. He thoughtof her only; scarcely once had his mind wandered from her to Miriam, thegirl he had loved, the girl for whom he had sacrificed himself.Sometimes, when he put his hand in his breast pocket, he could feel thefive-pound note; and whenever he did so, back came the scene, and hisheart grew warm.
The bad weather lasted for a week; then the storm abated, the sea grewcalmer, and one morning the invalids began to crawl up to the deck.
Derrick, busy with the horses, some of which had suffered terribly,paused for a moment and looked at the wretched folk as they emerged fromthe companion-way. One of them was Alice Merton, and he was moved tosuch pity by the sight of her white face and evident weakness that heput down his curry-comb and brush and went to help her. Her face wasflooded with colour as she raised her piteous blue eyes to him, and herhand shook as he drew it through his arm.
"You'll be as right as a trivet--I don't know what a trivet is, by theway--before very long," he assured her. "It's wonderful how you pullround, especially in such air as this. Here, I'll rig up a little nestagainst the warm side. That's what you want--warmth."
"You're very good to me," she faltered. "But you're good to everyone,and we all know how busy you are."
"That's all right," he said, cheerfully. "Nothing like plenty of work."
While he was making the nest, the tall, supple figure of Isabel Devignecame on deck; she too was weak, but she walked firmly and held her headerect. At sight of Derrick and his employment she also coloured, a rich,passionate red, and she drew a long breath, her white, even teethclenched tightly. Informed by the direction of Alice's eyes, Derrickturned and saw the other girl.
"Plenty of room, Miss Devigne," he said, cheerfully. "You two snuggle uptogether; keep each other warm. Halloa! here we are. Let 'em all come,"he added, as a cry of welcome and joy rose from the children, whoappeared now and rushed at him as if for refuge and comfort.
The two girls watched him hungrily as he caught up the smallest of thegroup, gave her a playful shake, and chucked her softly into the nest.They shrilled their thanks and their love, and clamoured to him toremain; but Derrick wiped them off gently, as one wipes off a bunch ofclinging bees, and promising to look them up as soon as he could,returned to the horses, which needed him quite as badly as did thesehumans.
"He's almost too good to be a man," murmured Alice, involuntarily, asher gaze followed him wistfully.
Isabel's dark eyes flashed, and her full and sensuous lips curvedcontemptuously.
"He's a man, every inch of him," she said. "He's the first man I've evermet in this god-forsaken world. You--like him, because he's been playingthe nurse to all of us women; you're the sort that always wants some manto be fussing about you. I'm different. I like to see him when he'sfighting it out with, and mastering, one of the horses, or holding hisown with one of the men-swine who give him trouble sometimes."
"You and I are different," sighed Alice.
"I should hope so," retorted Isabel, scornfully; but the next moment,with a kind of rough tenderness, she drew the shawl closer round Alice'sshoulders. "Yes, we're different; perhaps that's why I like you. And Ido like you still, though sometimes, when you look up at him with theeyes of a sick calf, and make excuse to touch him----"
"Oh, don't, Isabel!" murmured Alice, in a low voice. "He--he neverthinks of me."
"You idiot! He never thinks of any of us," breathed Isabel through herteeth. "That's why he gets such a hold of one; we're just a parcel ofhelpless, miserable wretches, who've got on his nerves and forced him tohelp us. Do you suppose, if this beastly old tramp went down thisminute, that he'd shed a tear for any of us? Not he!" She paused amoment; then she said, with a kind of snarl, "He's got his girl. He'sleft her behind there, and his heart with her. Oh, don't cry! But, yes,do; your sort of woman can always find relief in tears. I can't."
An hour later, when Derrick returned to the group with a big can ofsoup, he found Alice asleep, with her head pillowed on the bosom ofIsabel.
"
Don't wake her," said Derrick.
Instantly Isabel, with a flash of the eyes, pushed the other's girl'shead away from her.
"Here, wake up!" she said, roughly. "You want as much petting as ababy."
Derrick dealt out the soup, waited for a minute or two to see thechildren start on it, then went down below to feed the elephants. One ofthe huge beasts was troublesome, and as Derrick came up the man who wasthe cause of it gave the animal a jab on the trunk with a hay-fork.Derrick had already warned the fellow, one of the men-swine of whomIsabel had spoken; consequently Derrick wasted no further words, butdropped the truss of hay and gave the man a blow which sent himsprawling. He got up, seized the hay-fork, and with murder in his eyeslunged at Derrick; but Derrick, too quick for him, struck up the fork,snatched it from the man's grasp, and hit him on the head with it.
"Get out of my sight," said Derrick, without raising his voice. "Let mesee you, or let me hear you, ill-treating one of the animals again, andI'll lay you up for the rest of the voyage. You may take that as apromise, and I've a knack of keeping my promises."
The man swore vilely, but suddenly stopped and slunk away, wiping theblood from his face, and Mr. Bloxford's voice, from behind Derrick,demanded shrilly:
"Who appointed you general chucker-out of the establishment?"
"I've no direct appointment," said Derrick, coolly, patting theelephant's soft trunk, which was wandering caressingly and gratefullyover his body. "But, unfortunately for me, I'm so made that I can'tstand by and see any animal ill-treated. It's a weakness of mine thathas caused me no end of trouble."
"I guess so," said Mr. Bloxford, dryly. "That waster Jackman, forinstance, won't forget that tap you've given him. He'll lay for you someday, mark my words. I've wanted to go for him many times myself;but"--he was going to say, "I'm not big enough," but he drew himself upto the top of his few inches and expanded his chest--"I haven't thetime. Here! The business seems to come handy and easy to you. I'llappoint you chucker-out; in other words, I'll make you deputy-manager,Mr. Green. I've had my eye on you, and I'll tell you, in strictconfidence, that it's very little that escapes this eye of mine." Hetwisted both glittering eyes till they looked like those of an acutemonkey. "You seem as if you could hold your own, and it wants holdingwith this gang. Deputy-manager--two pounds a week. How will that suityou?"
"It suits me very well, thank you, Mr. Bloxford," said Dene, and awaywent his hand to the talisman in his pocket.
"Then fix it so," said Mr. Bloxford. "And mind and keep your eye onJackman," he added, as he trotted off.
Derrick's new and exalted position relieved him of a great deal of thedrudgery he had previously performed, but it kept him on the continualspring, and burdened him with fresh responsibilities; for it wasnecessary that he should be all over the ship at once, so to speak. Allthe details of the daily life on board passed under his supervision; allthe multitudinous cares, disputes, arrangements, were referred to him;and, strangely enough, though most of the men in the company must haveenvied him, their envy was not accompanied by ill-feeling, for Derrick'svalue was admitted by all of them.
One of the first things he did was to rearrange the women's andchildren's quarters, and render them more comfortable, for which thebenefited ones blessed him and loved him all the more intensely. Then heset to work to cleanse the ship, which during the spell of bad weatherhad become almost unendurable. The crew, and some of the company,grumbled at the increased work and Derrick's drastic regulations, butthey all enjoyed the results of his despotism.
Derrick had less time than before to spend in friendly interchanges withthose who had become attached to him, and the two girls, Isabel andAlice, watched him wistfully as he moved rapidly within their sight, andhungered for a word, a smile; and presently they taught the children,when they were with them, to waylay him, and had to be content with thescraps of kindness which fell from the children's table.
Fortunately for Derrick's _regime_, the weather continued fine, andthree weeks later the _Angelica_, much battered and straining still mostpiteously in every plate, was steaming up the La Plata river to BuenosAyres.
The disembarkation shall not be described. Several times during itDerrick wondered how Noah had managed the same business.