Mails.

Evening Post, Issue 51, 29 February 1908, Page 10

Mails.

The liner, I forging ahead carefully at quarter-speed, acknowledged with a gruff, taciturn "Woof !" of her horn — merely a smother of stram without any decided note — the distant whistle of the red-funnelled tender ciecping out from the docks. Dawn had languidly taken possession of the sky as she neared the port: underneath the interlacing spars and sombre hulls id the east tho, sea was iran, almost steely, -*n tho pale, suffused light ; but towards the west ninny fragments of unravelling mist still lingered round the superb shapes of battleships and other war craft; so that eastward the scene was .is clnar as a line-drawing, delicate, if somewhat austere, with tho beauty of shaip , j nd plentiful detail, while urstwaid it was dim, intangible, inscrutable, as though viewed in the clouded cryFtal of a dream. Behind the liner tho whito crests of tho Channel wero racing up the seaward slope- of the breakwater to fall in a long, murmurous cascade into the sheltered inner calm. . . She backed her screws, and camo to rest in a wide green circle of seething eddies. In spito of her leisurely entrance — for ten thousand tons need to be handled carefully in shoaling water — she was in a hurry, having crossed half tho world with a reputation for puiictxulity which her captain kept, as far as in him lay, unsullied. At Bombay, at Suez, at Gibraltar sha slowed and stopped and started as though running iuto stations by the clock. Being thus particular, minutes mattered, and her captain spoke again seriously to tho figure on the little bridge of tho approaching tender by means of a stentorian, prolonged or-g<;4n-noto that reverberated &oL\nnly round the dreaming hills, made the steward's glass-racks tinkle and shiver, tickled the ears of sleeping passengers, and roused the spirit of the saloon piano to 'give forth a complementary harmonic chord. The tender replied about "three octaves 'higher with a promptness that betrayed irritation at tho rebuke, detoured to avoid a fish-ing-lugger that was trying laboriously to tack in a hypothetical uu-ext, mil brought up presently with a flurry of beaten water close alongsido tho leviathan. There Was a heavy m;iil to disembark, and no sooner was, tho diminutive- steamer , secured— her funnel just poked above the other's deck, although she was the pride of the harbour boats— than tho capacious mail shoots were placed in position and the process was begun. Eleven hundred bags had to be transferred, and | they thudded regularly down, to be taken charge, ot by the alert postal ofikialo, checked, arranged, and piled on the promenade deck. Glimpses of strange names, names that brought faint suggestions of sandal wood and perfumed groves, of slanting, furtive eye?, of pagodas and wonderful sunlit bays, could be seen. on the sealed labels of somo ot the groups. The noises necessary to this busineps disturbed the peace of dawn no more than tho twitter of an awakened bird affronts tho sleeping forest. Here v,ns the boat, on the broad wntcrs of the earth, and here was the earth, swinging steadily eastward into the the sunlight of another clay, — what should molest that elemental progress Already tho pallor of the sky was tinged with rose, as though the day, bending over the mirror of the waters, blushed to find henelf so fair. The grey vapours in tho west, retreating disclosed a phalanx of grim, maliciouslooking torpedo-bnats. A small gunboat of tha 'Scout' class came fvoni ihe ambush of tho mist, signalling ; tho lean striplings of war obediently fell into line, one at a time, keeping rlictanco with splendid precision, and followed their rakish-looking leader with deceptive sedateness out to sea. Twenty minutes elapsed ; still the bulky mailbag3' Mere descending tho shoot's. Passongers stood in clusteis, having calmed their first excited greetings with friends brought out by tho tender, or strolled ths docks chatting quickly, watching the proceedings. From the great r.hip's enormous funnels two dusky plumes of r.moke poured and mounted lazily upward, forming level, tawny layers that poised themselves or drifted irresolutely over tho windlc.-s sea. A fireman came on deck and swung round somo of the huge ventilitors with a harsh, suooping noi.-c, to cntch and impi-isou a possible l'lornin^ fc-phyr ; far below tlun-o eihosif a Tiipia'ifo 'cl.ink of busy shox'dh. The truncjuil harbour, that until now hud sbor.e coldly as a sheet of burnished silver, began 10 be tarnished with dainty hues ol' amber and purest crimson, upon which' tho tnick left by ;m advancing tiT.mp-M.onmer lay like a black, lengthening poniard ; through tho ( sky the glow was projected ps from invisible continuations, caught and carried by innumcmblr: little wisps 'of pennato cloud upward to the mantling zenith Tentatne and capiicious, the breeze camo at -last, cool as though Dlown from s6me green cavern of tho sea, ruffling the 'surface with timorous-, wandering cat's-paws, lifting nnd dropping listlessly (ho, liner's iiag and tho tiny blue pennon at the tender's masthead 1 , twisting the blown strata of smoke into qnuint, irregular spirals and shapeless flakes, finding its wax down to tho hot engine-rooms and' mol<phoJds, whispering to the smeared foims bending at their work 'that it was indeed the morning hour. The tramp, paint hanging, in temps from her shabby funnel, blustered past tho liner, her engines loudly lamenting their many infirmities at every crazy stroke. As she approached the man at the •wheel jerked a jaunty "Toot!" from her dripping whistle, much as a ragged urchin might shout a pert "Hello !" to a titled lady in the street. Two or three- youthful sbrollers waved their handkerchiefs to him smilingly, but I ihe liner cut him dead, vouchsafing 01 course no reply; ignoring his very existence, and, kicking flounces of foam from her propeller, tho unembarrasaed tramp swaggered cheerfully on her way. Slowly the broken lellections of . .the stately vessel rcgathered themselves ; her sides began to bronze in ths warm light. Time was nearly up. The last mailbag slid down, and tho wide shoots were withdrawn,. A bell rang. Thoic who wero going ashore passed along iho gangways to tho deck of the smaller steamer. Ropfs were cast off and hauled in. On the high-set bridge of the liner stood the pilot and tho chief officers. The iinal words wero spoken, and tho tender swerved away from the towering, shadowy iianks, heading for the docks. There, in less than half-an-hour, the bags wero carried on the backs of a small army of budged porters to the 'special 'train in waiting. For two or 'three minutes after hei> attendant had. left tho liner remained inert, pausing' while the harbour slowly ilooded to its remotest creeks and coves with the splendour of the ruddy, risen sun. Several trawelrs were gliding into the open before tho freshening wind, and their brown saih brightened to a deep orange tint, becoming almost luminous in the added richness of the level rays; the water broke the sheen of their moving icflections into a thousand whimsical tiu( erics of limpid light and >liadt> under tho gentle in>i«tent pie.^uro of tho bieuzo Then theic was a motion of the captain's hand on the glittering brasses of tho engineroom telegraph j a muffled uproar ©s-

cencled from tho hra as tho immense screws answered the urgent, thrust of pistons and rods, ancl tho floating monbtcr moved — indolently, then steadily, then eagoily. After tho first resistance of the mass hail been overcome there was no sound save the faint rustle of water ipent swiftly astern. Sho rounded the breakwater's foaming edgo, passed outside the emerald bay, and ten minutes later was imperturbably shouldering aside the brisk littlo waves of the Channel that smacked her deftly and shook their white manes at her, rosotipped and glinting in the glow of sunrise. — Spectator.