COMPLETE TALES

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 36, 10 February 1906, Page 13

COMPLETE TALES

AN ENGINE-ROOM AFFAIR. ARTHUR H. HENDERSON.

at Honorable John Oswald had vfW___ta enough money of his own T;& there being any need for X' Mm to spend his time driving _Sm enjne. for such wages as £S somewhat precarious » cffo -, ffis many friends did not unf^" „ iF neither did they approve. .erstaßO "•' __ ou]d ]ive decorously ?oT . Bo^nm 3 in Piccadilly, and behave ** tIUS rSinwrtal of his -lassos disappear. Later some would remark that he had •ToSSd masquerading as engineer *. Norwegian tripper, or patching a * JSler on a Highland coasting donkey w wag unnecessary and *Jf Therefore it was also foolish■ft had served bis time with a Clyde \7 had extracted various special *_* out of the examiners nrtoSd of Trade- He never °* I ! hiit his knowledge of marine 2 extended from the oscillat!*ET_f a penny steamboat to the itdfC of turbine. He was re_!_SShave assisted at the tinkering shattered tail shaft of 1 Lr Ocean Queen with a thousand S-bon board in mid-Atlantic in an 2<--__l gale; and he was said to SS&C-Us life when the tubes £2 water-tube boiler blew out 1 _2d Lysington's craft-half yacht I Z half gunboat-in the Caribbean te_ Then he would come home, and ! Zi attend at Ascot and at Henley Bb _ rational person. He could dismiss with equal acumen the skirt danc- _,_ of the latest professional, or the jaU eccentricities of a bilge pump, •fc had patented a new injection valve; _ c was an authority on the differing qualities' of steam coals. He could tell wa, if he liked, of a side of sea life known »olely to firemen and greasers. TOerefore, it was not to be wondered »t if he came to be regarded askance hy the cautions old-fashioned parents «i & certain most charming maiden. When Jack Oswald first met Nora Graham at a country house in Berkshire, hs decided indifferently that he didn't Uke her. Nevertheless he outitayed his first invitation at the house, and then coolly—as he did most things —requested a second from his host, goon other visitors learnt tacitly to drop away and leave the two alone. He rode with her; they shared the same pnntj she sang to him after dinner. He was a slight fair man with hair, just tinging grey around the temples, quiet, active, and determined. She was a tall, dark, graceful girl whose appearance attracted attention everywhere. Directly he realised that he loved her, he asked te gravely to marry him, and—she ief-sed. The Hon. Jack Oswald forthwith made a voyage to the Black Sea as chief lon-i gWB-'boat, who„e owner was a friend of his, and had no objection to j tie services of a highly competent engi- I neer at lowest scale wages. Then he quietly returned to his suit as if he had never been rejected, and found -that Hiss Nora had meantime discovered that she liked him very much indeed. But this was where the parents unexpectedly intervened. There was the stormiest of scenes with old Colonel Graham, and there was a long lovers' talk in Kensington Gardens. This I know because both of them told mc about it »fterward3 on two consecutive days. ■Then the business seemed to drop. Jack said she was far too precious to be worried more than possible, and he »wst wait till something should turn «P to help them. Such waiting, however, is wearisome. In June the Grahams departed to the. Mediterranean for a two months' holiday on the Queen of England—one of those pleasure steamers with a mixed company of tourists, a brass band, and ■an itinerary which enticed the unwary T the allurements of Carthage, Athens, and Constantinople. I went in her too, KM 1 thought Miss Nora looked a little "red with life when I met her on the tender at Tilbury. She seemed quite Pleased to see mc, and asked rather Wy if I knew where Jack was. I j™t* all trace of him had been lost .w sis weekg) Mti] _ bearded j mini emerged from the enginer m ff n Way one evenin S after dinV otf Cadi z. and requested mc to give ft a Pipeful of English tobacco. -Ibanded over a spare tin of my best. *m second engineer was Oswald. He mm mc against the spreading of __T7 aDd l under took the conveyWW r? rtain mes sage for him to the «*»■ He knew I should hold my 2JW, and he was really in love, and .*ußen_g seriously. is my aunt; I don't L * me ntioned that before. A J* WW she confided to mc that Nora Hovt thS r, ' a ? d . Seemed reall y S et " to tim unfort unate attachment In fai! _ WaW man ye well indeed, 'act, she would have been certain it tarwLi £ ° rg °_ ten ha d not her daughter •4in*/. • r more mter est in the ,7, , a *? gmes tha ° was quite seemly ennW y pa f en^er ' H °wever, these 3Twer a \ 'aS Mrs Graham Collld afW? _ a nan nless hairy lot. (I 82? heaTd that Nora had ">P°ke° fseudo t° D f St of Jack's £ from v rd S0 that he nearly cast G *C lT a fl V liace * aTds -'> Colonel Vli_re Wiu 1D the sm °kirjg-room. •ejrularvrZ d tho same st ories with K2„ and Mrs Gm * am "limbered •wSfh? t porti<m of eaob day - c ™- « HE*? l found that Miss Nora f asti_in,o J overcome that feminine Uthesub J cctof oil t0 ■* tra-i I a US Vlsits to the regions prised <rT linder . I was not surv nv hit' oUfi ? lfc an undoubtedly jgmg and deceitful. 3 !,! tw ays avowe<i the i *'ltf«Kfp^___ l,use Were the ha rdest *<nJd see %r- en he was off d "ty he y Sß . Grabam P la y* n g deck SS-wIS i nating men who were -f flirt with her - When h-aginaftL was worse - because m*Zjr*X? h6r encouraging _ re were the isial to It ~ dance - wh en he was even **k SSr up his * ear 3 ritk cott °n *** of wf no . cn g ine er, who feels the * % any «^ nca sound as much 2* »o on, SenSe ' 3hould do ' Ho SPea of I Can a PP r eciate the pecu- »>• -has a P ass , en S« vessel properly _&_, - '.- -

' actually able to speak to his adored one were few and far between. One night, towards the end of the voyage, the crisis came; sometimes it does. The weather was fearfuly hot, and the Balearic Islands lay abeam j mistily. When you moved on the deck you panted with the exhaustion of the l effort, and down in the engine-room the j heat must have been terrific. I felt that | something was going to happen, because everybody lay about on chairs so com- ■■ plainingly, and gasped. Thunder clouds ! rolled up from the southward, and fierce lightning streaks glinted through the distant blackness. We were steaming sluggishly into a storm. The clack-clacking of the engines worried mc unreasonably, and I knew that Oswald was down below on watch, sitting and talking to that machinery in lonely solitude. Sudden from the depths came a muffled crash, followed hy the hiss of escaping steam which surged through the engine-room skylight in a manner no steam should do. A hoarse shout rang startled through the smother. Then the heavy vibration of the whirring propeller ceased abruptly, and there was a moment of nerve-trying silence. An engineer raced along the deck in his shirt ' ,o ves with viable perturbation. Ti. 1 itself was unusual. The skipper betook himself to the bridge with speed, and without apology for his abrupt departure from a circle of admiring ladies whom he was entertaining at the time. Next the electric light went out, and amid the confusion and the darkness Nora Graham was clutching my arm, and I heard her voice saying to mc quite quietly: "Take mc to him, please, at once!" Never was an occasion when a girl had less business in an engine-room. Yet she got there, no one seeming to heed her in the turmoil. She swung herself lightly down the slippery iron ladders, deftly clinging to the shining handrails between tbe narrow platforms. A steady clattering clang floated up through the stokehold gratings. The situation was serious—you could read this in the strained white faces streaked with oil and coal dust that were wrestling with that maze of bright machinery. Having all a passenger's sublime ignorance of the details of the engines ou which their lives may depend, I cannot explain exactly what had happened. Something connected with the high-pressure engine had blown away suddenly, and they carried the first engineer, who had been at the time, a limp, senseless •burden, which was not good to look at, into his cabin, where the doctor shut himself up with resolution. Something else had promptly flung' itself about wildly, and the next thing had jammed, and bits of flying steel had smitten other pieces of adjacent steel in a manner that cracked and embarrassed delicate cranks and levers. The result appeared—even I could see this —a state of chaos that was unsettling. And meanwhile, since the skipper— with a view to giving his passengers something to look at through their oinoeulars and amuse themselves by talking about—had laid his course that afternoon as close to the islands as he dared, the Queen of England was now drifting helplessly towards an ?vil shore in a six-knot current and a nsing sea. Abeam an ominous flash came and went at r»<rular interval- - , growing staringly brighter through the darkness. This was the glare of the lighthouse perched above certain vindictive rocks, which in the finest of weather are disliked by the mariner, and for which it is difficult to see any use in the economy of Nature, "In forty minutes we shall be ashore if you cannot get some way on her," said the captain's voice, and the labouring coal-begrimed men in a dilapidated clothes set their teeth hard to their task. A figure, face and hands black with oil and sweat, crawled giddily from some curious depth on to an upper platform, and his breathing quickened. It was Oswald. His eyes were very tired, but into them there came a sudden gleam as he saw the girl he loved. Nora Graham was in the evening dress she had worn at dinner. Her throat was bare, and her white arms shone strangely in the light of a flickering oil lamp that smoked evilly. Her hair was badly rumpled, and a coil of it had loosened and strayed over her small shoulder. She made a winsome picture standing there in the dimness ' against the dull background of machinery. On deck they -were hoisting out the boats with speed. "I was coming to fnd you," said Jack Oswald swiftly. The girl looked at him quietly. "Oughtn't you to stay filere oeiow?" "Yes." "Isn't there any chance of mending it all in time?" "Not much; a little perhaps." Her eyes dilated. "Then why are you leaving your post?" "To take care of you. Nothing else i matters."' I "Where is the first engineer V I '"Dead, I expect," was the grim an- ■ swer. "And you are the second '* ' "Yes." I "Then what are yon doing here?" She stamped her small foot and spoke as if he were a naughty child. "Go back at once!" j "Will you go up to the boats then?" jhe demanded. Something be read in I her face seemed to steady him. "No. I shall wait here—for you." "Then I shall take yon on deck,'' said Jack Oswald, determinedly. There was a moment's pause. Then the girl spoke, so low her voice was I almost a whisper: "Do you really love me—still?** "I have loved you always." "Then show it," she sa"id, fearlessly. ; "And go back below—for mc." I The tense lines of the man's mouth relaxed. His arms went round her roughly, and for a second he held her close, her head nestling against his coat collar. Then he kissed her, and the colour leapt to her face like a flame. Next minute be swung himself down the ladder again, only calling to me—hitherto unheeded —as he went. "You must look after her if I cant. And unlace those boots of yours, old fellow —now!" My nerves were aK-tla ont of order, and I suggested to my -ornpan-on j«. jrranpt return on deck. She- xel

J AVTHOR3. ife

marked with serene unconcern that I might go if I liked, but that she should stay where she was. I remember some slight annoyance over this at the time- She followed up her expressed intention by seating herself calmly on the grating, where the grease spoilt her frock. Of course, it was folly pure and simple, but she declined to heed mc at all. So she remained on that upper engine-room platform waiting stilly for whatever fate should send her, to be met together with her lover below. Some women are made like that—the best of them. I also stayed there, because I had been given charge of the first girl who had ever made mc realise that love was a real thing. Also Jack Oswald was my friend. It was uncommonly dull sitting there halfway up the engine-room by the side of the main'steam-pump with one's thoughts of what was about to happen for company. My predominant desire was for a smoke, ana I had left my matches in the cabin. Tbe steamgauge hy the starting-gear, with its stupid staring dial, irritated mc senselessly. Thirty of the forty minutes allowed by the captain had passed, and I seemed to hear a dull roar above the noise on deck; probably it was I fancy—it might have been breakers. Nora Graham's face was white and drawn. I remember reflecting that women never look their best at sea. In fact, I came to the conclusion that they ought not to go there at all. Suddenly without warning, just as the strain of waiting was becoming very bad, the electric light sprang out again, artd, blessed rays of wholesome brightness flashed over the polished surfaces of crossheads and levers. There followed a hearty shout up the speaking-tube, and the sharp welcome ting of the indicator from the bridge. Huge shafts gradually revolved, and again the longed-for whirr of the propeller vibrated through the big ship. Above tbe slow clank of the moving machinery a faint cheer from on deck penetrated to the engine-room depths below. The Queen of England was saved. A tattered figure ran triumphantly up a ladder, and Nora Graham rose quickly to her feet. A very dirty hand went recklessly round the thin white dress, and left an oily stain there. A grubby pair of lips smudged a soft cheek as Oswald kissed his girl for the second time that night. "Don't Jack!" she cried, to alar__. "Someone will see us." He kissed her again, and I withdrew. It was only what other men are always doing to others girls, but the circumstances were unusual,andl was not needed there at the moment. So I joined certain jubilant shadows that danced about wildly behind the smoke-stack on i the streaming deck—till someone suggested an adjournment to the saloon , for champagne. I looked over the | side of tbe ship, and I never want to be quite so close to that portion of the Balearic Isles again. It does not look healthy from the sea, out thanks to those fellows below in the engine-room —and above all to a slendr white figure who had kept their chief there—the outline of the land was .apidly growing more indistinct. A little later the skipper joined us at the table, and wiped his brow. Then he called sharply to the steward: "Take my compliments to the second engineer, and ask him if he can safely spare a few minutes. Tell him to come here just as he is." When Jack appeared, which he did with manifest reluctance, it was a curious scene to see those white-shirted, high-collared men and daintily dressed women, cheering him with unrestrained excitement. He partook modestly of a vvhisky-arid-soda, and kept his baclc turned. with care to that corner of the saloon where Colonel Graham stood on a seat and shouted. A retired Indian Commissioner proposed a general testimonial, and proceeded to draft it on the spot. Miss Nora had managed to squeeze up close to the hero of the hour, and her eyes shone enehantingly. After the hubbub had somewhat sub' sided, the gentleman with the testimonial inquired weightily of the skipper the name of the'r preserver. "Mr J. Oswald," replied the captain with cordial interest. "The Honourable John Oswald," corrected a girl's clear voice, though the owner of the voice was breathlessly rosy at the moment. ( A sudden shrill squeak betrayed the presence of my revered aunt. She burst ! through the amazed throng of passengers, and I heard Colonel Graham say, "Good Lord!' 7 quite distinctly. Then it was that the -second engineer turned with a quick movement and i caught his sweetheart's hand brazenly | before them all, in a tight grasp, as if ! resolved to keep her against all comers. j Explanations occurred tumultuously, and everybody talked at once. And the parental blessing that eventually followed j was public, but not perfunctory. In • fact, it made a very pretty romance, and I the passengers never ceased to discuss lit all the remainder of the voyage home to Southampton. Personally, I used to I visdt the engineers' quarters and listen j quite patiently while Jack discoursed on the perfect nature of woman. Though it has never been my own fortune to win tbe love of a girl, yet I understand a little now what such love must be worth ; since I have looked into Nora's dark eyes and seen there the happiness which . had come. I The last time I saw Jack was in Picj cadilly, after the honeymoon. "It is just the best thing on earth," ;he said, in answer to my inquiries, "to be married to the woman you love." Then, such is the inconsistency of human | nature, he added almost regretfully, j "But I have had to cut my engineering." I "Poor chap!" said L [ Sometimes I wonder what would have 1 happened to us all if the lady, who is now the Honourable Mrs John Oswald, bad acted differently that night.