CASH DOWN.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 142, 17 June 1899, Page 7 (Supplement)

CASH DOWN.

BY W. L. ALDEN.

to conceal his extreme poverty and assist him in obtaining a larger salary | than the President-might offer to a j penniless man.

Professor Giulio Angeli, late of the institute Sup«_ribre of Florence, had ""ent a month in New York in search of a fortune. Although still a young man he had "for nearly a dozen years taught chemistry to the Florentine students and Italian to occasional tourists and had earned thereby barely enough to keep a strained alliance between soul and body from fatal rupture. More than one American to whom he had tried to teach Italian, and whose accent —'properly an accent that scratches the furniture' —lacerated his nerves, had told him that in America the university professors were paid fabulous sums. There were those,-as he was told, who actually received salaries of 10,000f yearly. 'If,' reasoned Angeli, 'the Americans - will Pf? 10,000f to one of their own people, who cannot, in the nature of things, know as much chemistry as the youngest of my students, what won they not pay lor a professor from the Instituto Superiore?' It was evident to him that .^^ rione oflwed the true sphere for his lea n ng and abili+tpo- hut unlortuiicten it wouui co&x a small fortune to go to America, and h. could not see the slightest, prospect of earning that small fortune" But the day came when the prof es.or had the unexpected happiness raarrvino- a young lady whom he sincerely ahd utterly loved, and who, incredible as it may seem, also had dowry of no less'than six hundred francs. Nothing is more common than to love a girl, and many men have the good fortune to marry a girl with a dowry, but that love and dowry should both be secured by a single stroke was more than anyone had right to expect. It showed that some higher power, presumably the professor's patron saint, had secured for him a magnificent future. He had neglected that saint shamefully for many years, but henceforth he would prove that he was capable of gratitude. .

i Angela's lodging was situated near the East River, and as he walked along the broken pavement of Southstreet his attention was attracted by a large steamer lying at one of the wooden piers. She was evidently empty, for she floated high out of the water. At frequent intervals half a dozen men carrying buckets full of cement passed up the gangway and disappeared in the depths of the vessel, returning soon after to refill the empty buckets, if he could obtain .permission to carry a few buckets of cement he might earn enough to buy a ; cup oi w }j a t the deluded Americans Relieved to be coffee. At any rate, there could be n 0 harm i n . ma king the attempt . The Professor went on board the steamer and respectfully saluted a } red-faced man whom he met on ,^ qunrter . deck , tJ h th honour to wish you g00( j. d I morni , said AIL «' „ ToW i e d the man, interroga- *** S ,J - . contiime d the Professor, should „ __,__•• i-4.+i„ ™ the favour ot performing a little work, 'That'll do,' said the red-faced man, 'I don't allow no tramps aboard my of ship. -. , . he 'If you would kindly furnish to me a bucket ' persisted Angeli, ignoring a the fellow's rudeness, You'd steal it,'interrupted the man. 'Now, see here, you're a dirty, thieving dago and you'll get off my quarterdeck in double quick time.' 'Sir!' said the indignant Professor, 'if you were a gentleman I should a hand you my card. Since you are of the low people, I treat you with contempt.' So saying he turned to leave t he deck, but the bully suddenly seized m the back of the neck and vvith a m ighty kick sent him reeling oYcr tbe s j de when his feet touched the pier the -weakness due to his long fasting and to the excitement of the

Six months after his marriage Professor Angeli tore himself from the arms of his beloved, bride and sailed for America. After paying his passage in the second cabin, and reserving one hundred francs for the expenses that he might incur before entering upon an American professorship, he placed the rest of his wife's dowry in her hands and bade her look forward with entire confidence to the moment when he would send for her to share his fortune in the New World. It was terrible to leave Ms wife even for a few short weeks, and it was also terrible to leave the comforts of civilisation and to plunge into the barbarous wilds of America, where, as he had been informed, there was no wine and people actually drank water with ice in it. But he who seeks bis fortune must be brave. Angeli was well and strong, and surely he could endure the Americans and their strange ways for a few years while gathering in their lavish gold. Then he and his wife could return to Florence and he could spend the afternoon of his days in learned leisure accompanied by good dinners and enlivened by congenial friends that had hitherto seemed an imp.&K&lbte"dream. On reaching New York Professor Angeli found to his surprise that there was positively no demand for Italian professors of chemistry. He left a card -setting forth his .rank in the pedagogical" hierarchy of Italy with every member of the municipal government and with every instructor in the colleges and schools, but he did not receive a single card in return. He invited the editors of the newspapers to announce that a distinguished Italian had come to place his learning and abilities at the disposition of the American universities, but he was coarsely informed that no such announcement Would be published unless it were paid-for at fabulous rates. He wrote to the President of the United States and the Governor of New York, mentioning his willingness to accept appointment in any university, but his letters were not answered. He called on the Italian Consul, who told him that he was a lunatic, and that he would starve unless he instantly returned to Italy. When he begged an interview with the chief of police and asked his aid in obtaining a professorship that heartless official threatened to lock him up if he ever showed his face at the police headquarters again. No matter in what direction he turned he found himself checked by the blank wall of utter indifference. Only one man took the trouble to deliberately insult him, and he was an eminent philanthropist who had founded a theological seminary. The philanthropist offered Angeli a soup ticket and told him t.o go and hire a ihonkey and a hand organ. The professor thanked him and suggested that if the philanthropist had a small boy who would act-as a simian substitute he would consider the proposal. But the sarcasm failed because the professor's English was not easily intelligible when he was excited. Angeli's money melted away rapidly. At the end of a month he was no hearer the fortune he hjid come to seek than he had been on landing. His clothes, with the exception of an exfremely shabby suit, had gone to the pawnbroker's. He had long since left the modefet hotel to which be had gone on his. arrival, and was now living in a wretched room in one of tbe'i worst,..quarters in the city.. He had finally learned that his journey to America had been a terrible mistake, and he would gladly have returned to Italy had it been possible for him to pay for a passage in the steerage. One night he went to bed without having tasted food for the entire day, and when he awoke the next morning he recognised that the struggle was over, and that instead of dreaming of a professorship he must now seek for work, even of the most menial character, in Order to put food in his stomach.

When the' professor went out that morning in search of a breakfast he was without a penny in his pocket. He had searched his nearly empty box in vain for a single article that a pawnbroker would not reject. His sole possession that in the remotest degree represented money was a string of six Chinese 'cash.' As most people know, the 'cash' is a copper coin with a square hple in the udddle of it, and it^value-is-so -small that', single 'cash' will buy nothing, and the purchaser of even the cheapest article in China must offer in payment a quantity of the coins strung together with a piece of cord. Angeli was quite aware that his 'cash' could purchase absolutely nothing in New York, but they jingled in his pocket, and in case a relenting message from the President or the Governor" should summon him to an interview, the opportune iingling of the 'cash' might aid him

moment overcame him. He would, have fallen if he had not sat down on the rough planking of the pier and leaned against a friendly post. For a few moments he lost consciousness and when he came to himself he found a man with an empty bucket standing before him. 'What was the row?' asked the man. 'I see the captain chucking of you out. A bad lot he is and I'd like to stick my knife in him.' 'I asked to be allowed to work like you,' replied the Professor, 'and the villain insulted me. He is evidently a pig of the most pig-like.' 'If you want to work,' continued the man, 'take these buckets and turn in. I've only carried two bueketfuls, and I don't care for the job. The Captain's gone ashore and the boss don't care who carries the buckets so long as the work gets done.' 'You are a g-allant man,' said the Professor warmly. 'Yon are the first American who has shown kindrie&s to a starving exile.' 'Oli,' said the gallant man, 'the Americans ait't so bad, Only they're pretty considerable busy. You just take my buckets and go ahead. You'll find the cement up there at the head -of the pieiv; So long, mate! You'll get 50 cents when the job is done, and it won't last till noon!'

The grateful Angeli rose to his feet. He still felt weak, but he was determined to avail himself of the kindness of his unknown friend. He owed as much to the one man who had voluntarily come to his aid. He found the buckets when filled excessively heavy, but managed to carry them on board the steamer and down into the lower hold. * He saw nothing of the man who had so infamously insulted him, and for the moment he was glad of it. He did npt wish to. see him until he equld fittingly hedeytj hi*s. conduct,;. Precisely how to 17restent" it he did not know. He could not challenge the fellow, for the difference in their respective social positions forbade it. He could not stab him in the back, for a professor of chemistry could not lower himself *to the level of a Calabrian assassin. To appeal to the law in a strange country, especially when one had no money" to offer to the judge, was out of the question. Yet the insult must be avenged and the life of the ruffian who had so savagely assaulted him would be the only adequate satisfaction for his wounded honour.

'Here, you!' shouted the 'boss.' 'Take that there cement aft and fill in the places where there ain't none. Don't go to sleep over it, neither!'

There were three other workmen in the hold, who, under the orders of the 'boss,' were carefully pouring the cement in the limbers by the side of the keelson, from which the old cement, which had originally covered 'the whole of the garboard strake, had been removed. A sudden thought struck the Professor. The 'boss' had turned away and was giving directions to another man at the further end of the hold. Angeli set down his bucket and hurriedly took his six 'cash' from his pocket. Breaking the string which held them together, he placed them one by one on the iron plate, close to the keelson. Then he poured the cement over them, burying them forever out of sight. When he resumed his buckets and \vent to the pierhead for a fresh supply of cement he walked with head erect and an elastic step. His strength had suddenly returned to him, and the smart of his wounded pride was assuaged. He had revenged himself on the cruel captain and his vessel. The despised and insulted Italian had set in motion an irresistible force that sooner or later would sink the ship and drown the man who had dared to lay his hahds on an unoffending gentleman.

A small quantity of salt water always finds its way into the tightest ship. When the Professor placed his copper coins in contact with the bottom plate of the steamer he knew that the salt water would inevitably bring about a galvanic action between the copper and the iron, which would in time completely destroy the plate and produce a formidable leak. Judging from what he knew of pther iron ships Angeii felt confident that the thickness of the plate, could not be more than an eighth of an ipch. The six pieces of copper would "eat their way-"though.the plate,, and. the sea woisidißush. is.—This «1 .tW-and^ WW'derous process would go OU without the possibility of detection. The cement would hide the fact that anything was wrong until the moment came when the copper had finished its fatal work. Search would then be made for the leak, but it would be at the bottom of the cargo, where it would be impossible to reach it. The steamer would sink within a few moments after the alarm had been given, and would carry down with it the cap-

tain, who, in accordance with the

custom of cold blooded Anglo-Saxon sailors, would refuse to leave his sinking ship. The Professor was proud of the complete and ingenious revtsage he had taken. It was a reveUge worthy of a man of science, and was infinitely more satisfactory than the crude methods by which an ordinary man might have revenged himself.

At noon the work was finished, and Angeli received half a dollar for his services. As he hastened ashore to obtain his breakfast he looked carefully at the name of the ship. She w:as the Blankshire, of London; so, after all, her captain might not be an American. However, it did not matter whether he was English or American. He was a beast and a brigand, and he was rightly doomed to death by drowning.. ~,..;

The Professor expended the greater part of his newly earned money in American oysters, washed down by American cider. He found the oysters tasteless in comparison with those ot Naples, and they therefore flattered his national pride while they filled his hungry stomach. The cider was a poor substitute for wine, but at any rate it was better thaii the water that the Americans so recklessly drank. Refreshed by his breakfast and cheered by the thought, of the signal punishment that was in^store for the ruffianly captain, Angeli resolved to make a final . attempt to borrow enough money from the Consul to pay his passage to Italy. As he reached Fulton ferry on his way to the Consulate he was momentarily compelled to stop by the stream of vehicles on their way'to the ferryboat. Some one touched him lightly on the arm, and a voice that seemed familiar to him said:—'Why, Professor Angeli, what on earth are you doing here?'

. It was a stout, middle aged lady who spoke, and the Professor instantly recognised her as Miss Potter, an American lady to whom he had given lessons in Florence during the previous winter. 'I am I, signora,' he replied, 'and I am most happy to see you once more.'

'Come along into the ferry house, where we can sit down,' said Miss Potter. 'We can't talk here iv the middle of the street.'

Angeli accompanied her to the waiting room of the ferry house, where she seated herself. He standing, conscious of the shabbiness of his dress, but as proudly dignified as if he wore the uniform of a field marshal.

'You poor soul!' exclaimed the lady. 'You look half starved. Tell me the truth. Are you in distress?' 'I am not in distress, because T have the happiness to resee you and 1 am not starving- because I have just eaten your remarkable oysters,' replied the Professor.

'Now just you look here,' said Miss Potter. 'I dbn't care what you say; I know you are in a tight place. I'm going to* lend you some money to getsome clothes, "and you'll come to my house to dinner at six o'clock to-night and tell me all about yourself. Here's the money, and don't make any fuss about it. You can pay it'back when it suits you.' 'You are a true angel,' said the Italian, 'and I will admit to you that I am for the moment what you call desiccated; but I cannot accept the money, for I have no means of repaying it. ' 'Stuff and nonsense,' replied Miss Potter. 'I'll put you in the way of repaying it, if that's all that troubles you. Here's my address and the money. If you don't take it I'll call a policeman*and accuse you of trying to rob inc. Well, good-bye till tonight. Don't you try to kiss my hand in public again or people will think we are both stark lunatics.'

When Miss Potter had vanished in the cabin of the ferry boat the Professor looked at the roll of bills she had handed him.: It was more than enough to redeem his clothes from the pawnshop, and to provide him with a new pair of gloves and a handful of cigarettes. Hope came back to him with the sensation of being once more decently dressed. Might it not be that the tide of his affairs had turned at last. The admirable Miss Potter was of an excellent heart, and, moreover, she was enormously rich. Perhaps she would speak .to the Professor, or the Governor, or the Mayor, and there would be a professorship for him at onqe. He sang softly to himself as he walked the long distance to the lady's house in 125 th street, and when the maid ushered him politely into the drawing room he startled her by the warmth with which he said, 'Thank you*, my daughter!' It was good to be a gentleman once more. For the last month he had been only, a despised 'dago Presently Miss Potter entered, accompanied by her elder sister, who was totally deaf. I'll expect you'll talk Italian to Sarah,' said Miss Potter, 'She can't hear a word you say, and it will be a comfort to you to talk your own language again.'

'But you have not forgotten your Italian?' replied the Professor. •'Your accent was of the most perfect, and you made a progress that was properly miraculous when you were in Florence.'

'I don't remember a word of it,' replied the lady, 'except that when I talk to a man I ought to address him as "she." That's the best thing I know about Italian. It's a language that puts woman in her proper place. I'm glad to hear I had a good accent, but Pve seen you wince over it,-though you were too polite to say anything.'

During the dinner Angeli was compelled to address Miss Sarah in Italian, to which she replied with reckless monosyllables of assent and dissent, which she fancied concealed the fact of her deafness. Miss Potter talked much of Italy, which she greatly admired, but which, she insisted," ought to be scrubbed with carbolic soap from the Alps to the Adriatic. For the Italians she professed a patronising fondness. 'You're all children, you know,' she informed the professor. 'There isn't one of you that has any practical good sense. You're just making believe you are grown and you are playing at being a nation. What do you suppose would happen if thirty millions of Americans were to he. put in Italy in the place of Italians?' 'But it.would be impossible!' urged the professor.. -'I'll- tell yon. What ■would happen. The Americasas would clean uu the whole country, and would build a causeway across to Sicily with the dirt. Then they'd start the pork packing business, and in a year's time they'd supply all Europe with pork. There never was a better pork growing place in the world than Italy. AH you'd have to do would be to let the pigs pick up the chestnuts under the trees. Then the Americans would have petroleum wells all over the country.

An American who is in the oil business told me that Italy is just full of petroleum, only you people don't know it. Why, the Apierlcans would make a rich country out of Italy in next to no time, but you, poor, helpless children, just go on playing at this and that, and never getting more than enough to keep'from starving to death.'

The vision of an Italy inhabited exclusively by Americans, and given over to pork packing and petroleum wells filled the professor with horror. Nevertheless his sense of courtesy compelled him to express the "opinion that Miss Potter's scheme for the regeneration of Italy was a noble and beautiful one, and that the superioritj' of the Americans to all other nations was .self-evident.' She is too good and dear to be told the truth,' thought the professor. 'To speak the truth to such a woman would be. to reduce one's self to the level of that accursed

captain.'

After dinner Angeli was ordered to tell precisely why he had come to America and what he had done since his arrival in the country. He told his story simply and truthfully, and Miss Potter listened without interrupting him

I should just like to take you by the shoulders and shake you,' she exclaimed when he had finished. 'Was there ever such a preposterous baby in the world? Why didn't you come straight to me when you landed, instead of wasting your time by going to see all sorts &i people?'

'But I did not know in what part of America the signora lived, and America is large.'

T should rather think it was,' replied Miss Potter, 'but that has nothing at all to do with it. You could have found me if you had had any sort of practical common sense. However, that's all over now. I happen to be one of the trustees of a woman's college where a professor of chemistry is needed, and you shull have the place. You might have had it the day, after you landed if you had been a grown up man and not an Italian. There! Don't weep, or I. Khali call the maid to wash your face. I won't have children making an uproar where I am.'

Thus it happened that at last the professor's dream came true. He entered at once upon the duties of his professorship, and found his class of bright, ambitious girls infinitely more interesting than the studious youth of Florence. He i'esolved that as sopn as he had repaid the money that Miss Potter had loaned him he would send for his wife, and begin the accumulation of the fortune in search of which lie had come to America. Bad it not been for two things he would have been completely happy. One. of these was the barbarous cooking of the Americans, whose utter ignorance of the uses of oil and garlic were inexplicable iv view of the advances in civilisation which they hud made in several directions. The other flaw in his happiness was the beating of the Blankshire's screw.

Professor Angeli constantly searched the 'Herald' for news of the Blankshire. A few days ui'ter he had delivered his first chemical lecture the steamer sailed for Cadiz, and six weeks later he read that she had left Cadiz for London. In the sunshine of his unexpected prosperity his rage against the Captain had in a measure melted away. He still told, himself that the man was a brute, and deserved the severest punishment that could be devised, but nevertheless he found himself regretting that he had placed the copper 'cash' under the cement. It was quite right that the Captain should be drowned, but there was no sufficient reason why the innocent passengers and crew should share his fate. Gradually the conviction that he had exceeded the bounds of jusf and necessary revenge oppressed iihn. He was heartily glad when he knew that the Blankshire had made the voyage from Cadiz to London in safety, but in the natural course of things she would soon put to sea again, and the doom could not be long delayed. He could not keep her out of his mind. She thrust her narrow bows into his chemical laboratory, and her black hull often obscured with its vast bulk the class of eager students who watched his experiments.

One night as he laid his head on his pillow lie distinctly heard the rhythmical throbbing of the steamer's screw. It startled him, but he presently told himself thut the sound he heard was merely the beating of an artery in his neck, and that it would probably cease in » short time. But it did not cease. Every night he was kept awake for Jwmrs by the beatingof thut tireless screw, and his thoughts were inexorably compelled to dwell on the doomed steamer. There was only one consolation. While he heard the screw it followed that the vessel must be afloat. When the beating should stop it would moan that his vengeance had finally taken effect.

The Professor had assumed that it would be at least four months before the copper would destroy the iron with which it was in contact, and that the catastrophe might even be postponed for six months. Four months slipped away, apd, to his dismay, he lost track of the Blankahire. He knew that she had sailed from London to Barcelona, but he failed to find any mention of her arrival af the latter port. Still, inasmuch as her name hud not appeared in the list of shipping disasters, he felt certain that she was yet afloat. Every day he eagerly searched the 'Herald' in the hope of learning that she had safely arrived in port. Every night he listened to the beating of the screw and cursed the day that he had ever dreamed of revenging himself upon the Captain. When Angeli had been nearly five months professor of chemistry in the Mar'.lia Washington Female College he found himself in a position to send for his wife. He wrote to her to take the German steamer from Genoa to New York, and enclosed to her an ample supply of money. The prospect of meeting his wife would have made him supremely happy had it not been for that infamous steamer the Blankshire. At night the throbbing screw made rest impossible,' and drbve sleep from his tired brain. He rose in the morning haggard ,ahd tremulous, and he began to fear lest he should go mad from nervous exhaustion before the screw of the Blankshire should be stilled forever. ,

• -Presently there came a letter from the Professor's wife in which she apprised him that she would sail pn the. following day for New York. She explained with a good deal of pride that instead of taking the GermaQ steamer at Genoa she had secured passage in an English steamer sailing from Naples at a much lqwer nijt§ of pas-.-ig-e than that charged.by the German ship. She admitted *tbat the steamer, the name of which was the Bhnkshire, was a slow boat, and that the

voyage would occupy fully seventeen, days, but she was confident that her husband would approve her effort to economise, even though it did postpone for a few days the joy of their meeting. It was too late to telegraph to Mme. Angeli. She had already been ten days at sea when her letter was received. ..She was on board the vessel which fill- husband had doomed to destruction, and the six mouths that the Professor had decided would be the utmost limit of the time during which the vessel would keep afloat were just expiring. His ingenious scheme for revenging himself on the Captain of the Blankshire was about to make him the murderer of his wife*!

The blow was more than the Professor could bear. His strength vanished as he read the fatal letter, he took to his bed, and a doctor who was summoned by the Professor's landlady found him in a'high fever. The fiendish beating of the screw had become unbearable. It thundered in his ears and jarred the bed on which he lay. He longed to tell the doctor to stop that terrible machinery and give him a moment's rest; but he knew that if he spoke of it he would be called delirious, and the blessed forgetfulness of delirium was as yet denied him. For a week Angeli suffered worse torments than even a shipwrecked crew afloat in a small boat without provisions or water would have suffered; but on the seventh night he fell into gentle sleep, and when he awoke in the morning he no longer heard the throbbing of the screw. He knew then that it was all over. The ship had gone down, and he should never see his wife againIn spite ,of this conviction he felt curiously peaceful. The tragedy of his life was over, and the curtain was about to fall. Perhaps he would meet his wife again after he ■ had expiated in the torments of purgatory his awful crime. It was better so than it would have, been to have lived on with the sound of the screw forever in his ears and remorse forever teariug at his heart.

The door opened and his wife entered and clasped him ia her arms. The doctor felt his pulse and assured him that he Was on. the road to recovery.

'Yon have had a narrow escape, and so has your wife,' said the doctor, 'but you are both all right now.'

'Yes, dear one,' said his wife. 'Figure to yourself that just as everyone had landed the steamer sank. No one knows what was the matter with her, but if the saints had not been merciful the steamer would have sunk when we were in the middle of the sea.'

'Thank God!' said the Professor. 'Now I shall never hear her screw

again.'

And he never did

From the New York 'Herald.'