SHORT STORIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3397, 23 April 1919, Page 58

SHORT STORIES.

By Walter Wood.

[All Rights Reserved.]

THE CARGO OF THE MORNING STAR.

When the manager of the bank disappeared with startling suddenness from the haunts of men, Mr Terence O'Grady awoke to the fact that the bottom had fallen out of the fortunes of the O'Gradys of Ballynack, and that beyond a few hundreds and a dilapidated castle he was practically destitute. There are conflicting accounts as to how the Star came into the possession of the wild young Irishman, whose one idea was to restore the fallen fortunes of Ballynack, but there is no doubt that the advent of the little vessel had given the newspapers of the world much to do, and the exploits of her free-lancing young owner had provided bar-talk in many a seaport town. , O'Grady sighed as he closed the bank passbook "which he had been carefully examining, then smiled with pride and .pleasure as he took from a corner of his desk a fine morocco-bound volume. It was stamped in gilt letters. "T. O'G.— Private,'' anti! was secured with a stout brass lock. Neatly pasted in it were cuttings from, newspapers concerning Terence O'Grady and his. doings. Most of the references were flattering, but a few were uncompromisingly hostile—one, indeed, described O'Grady as a modern buccaneer, and demanded, somewhat confusedly, that the hands of justice should lay him by the heels. A number of letters were also filed and pasted in the volume, as well as miscellaneous cuttings referring to secret private enterprises in distant seas. It is , significant that the letters were all written some bf whom requested his photograph, others his autograph, and a few a combination of the two. One correspondent observed that she was of an adventurous nature and of a romantic temperament", which would make it no hard matter to follow a husband to any part of the world, irrespective of climate or locality.. O'Grady had taken up his quarters in a hotel at Gravesend. He had engaged a couple of rooms overlooking the river, and In these he lived and worked, never entering the public apartments. Lying in , the stream, almost within a stone's throw, ' was the Morning Star, and O'Grady was puzzling out a fresh undertaking which should combine the double attraction of fame and profit. It was imperative, if he meant to carry out his cherished plan of restoring the prosperity of his house, that he must achieve something in the nature of a-gigantic financial success. He went to the open window and leaned on the sill, . smoking his : pipe and resting his chin on his hands. To all appearances he was absorbed in the contemplation of the river and its commerce, yet the skipper knew the attitude* to mean that the master desired him to come ashore for speech. He. sculled across in a dinghy and joined his employer. * "I may want to cross the Atlantic," said O'Grady abruptly. "I don't know Set, but the steamboat is all right for le job, isn't she?" "It's was'.be o' breath to ask," replied the skipper. " She can go to any part . o' the world; an', what's more, I'm ready to take her, alius provided 'at pilots are fot where we want 'em. Weather can't urt her. • She's beautiful." He gazed lovingly at his little ship. " Them bows 'll bide a wonderful lot o' punishin'. So . you think vou might be goin' across the Atlantic? There's a power o' weight in them western ocean seas, I've heard, but they run true like, an' don't all rise up an' jump on you, as they do on the Dogger." " My present idea is to go first to the Jordan and then to New York," said O'Grady slowly, watching the skipper out of the corner of his eye as he spoke. "Ah!" observed the skipper thoughtfully, "that's a proper mri o' mixture, that is—the very old an' the very new. It sounds interestin'." '•■ And looks profitable, which is the main thing," pursued O'Grady. " There's a fortune in it." " I hope so," said the skipper; " but, ' of course, I don't know enough of wh^-t you've got at the back of your mind to form an opinion. P'raps you're goin' to try and carry the River Jordan?" "You've hit it straight on the head!" exclaimed O'Grady. " That's just what I am going to do." ~ For a full -minute the skipper looked steadily over the water at the Morning Star, then he asked with laboured sarcasm-. " How will you bring it? On deck, or below? Or p'raps you'll tow it." " In special loose tanks and the for'ard ballast tank," replied O'Grady. "That's where I am going to carrv it. And I'm neither mad nor silly." "It's comfortin' to hear you say so," the skipper told him, "but many a man's gone to Bedlam for less." " Listen to me," continued O'Grady energetically. " When I set my mind on a thing I see it through, and I never set my mind on a scheme till I see daylight at the other end. This Jordan'water plan will stun the world." "I believe you," said the skipper. " For this reason, mv good master — that the idea is so obvious, and yet it has never been carried out. My idea is simplicity itself; to get a cargo of the water, bring it home, or take it* to America.— perhaos even split it into two cargoes—and bottle it for use in christening and a hundred other odd things people would fancy. How does that strike you?" " There's a many 'at never gets christened at all," said the skipper after a pause, "an' as for them 'at does—well,

there's millions o' taps 'andier nor Jordan River." He shook his'head rather discouragingly. " Very well," continued O'Grady, "we'll see what happens. You must come ashore to-night again, and then I'll tell you definitely what I am going to do. Of course, if you have had enough of me and tho Morning Star, you've only to say the word, and "

Captain,' interrupted the skipper hurriedly, "what I was sayin' was only in the way of argyment. Till that old steamboat busts, or I'm sacked, I'm with you neck an' crop. I'm like you, sir, fond of a bit of sport—an' I'm still hopin' to do for myself what I've helped a lot o' men to do in my time—an' that's to make a snug little fortune."

The Morning Star was clear of the river and going full speed down the Channel. Her progress was slow—seven knots, and no more, because she was deep in the water with her coal and stores. In her side and cross bunkers she carried a hundred and fifty tons, and on deck thirty more, piled up on each side of the engine room casing, level with the rail, which was already dipping under the water as the trawler rolled. Life-lines were rigged along the coal-stacked bulwarks, yet even with their assistance it was a precarious undertaking to get forward or aft. The boatswain was at the wheel, and O'Grady joined him just as the shore had disappeared from view. The weather, which had been fine, had changed, and a strong south-westerly wind was blowing. Already a heavy sea was running, and the Morning Star was pitching into it so deeply that her little hurricane deck was buried at every plunge, and the spray shot high in the air a 3 the seas thudded against the breakwater. " What do you think of it?" asked O'Grady. "I don't mind drops, but I don't like lumps," replied the boatswain. " Look at that; she's beginning, an' when she starts her Dranks you can't stop her." "She'll be better when she burns some of the coal and gets lighter," said O'Grady, who wa3 rapidly becoming familiar with the way of the sea and "That deck-load wants shifting." "It'll soon get what it wants," the boatswain answered. " The sea'U get through it a jolly sight faster nor the boilers. I'm thinkin'! Just wait an' see."

The wind grew to a gale, and the sea rose until it threatened to overwhelm the Morning Star. The lumps of water of which the boatswain' had spoken gloomily had fal 1 t. repeatedly upon her, and the catastrophe which he had prophesied had come to pass. The coal had been shifted bodily from the deck by the simple process of being swept overboard. ''There goes a twenty-pound note," exclaimed the skipper sadly, as from the wheel-house he saw a great black film of dust on "a space of sea-froth.. O'Grady went below and made no excuse for helping himself to a stiff glass of spirit. He was unfeignedly relieved when the . Morning Star, storm-awept and strained, but seaworthy still, anchored at Gibraltar, took in more coal and stores, and resumed her run up the Mediterranean, never slackening speed until she again cast anchor, this time off the orangescented shores of Jaffa. -

"Now-we're at the nearest seaport to Jerusalem," announced O'Grady, "and we may as well gird up our loins for a tough tussle with Arabs and Hebrews and various other mixtures on their own" hearthstone. First of all, I'm going, entirely alone, where I've been advised to go, and that is to Jericho and a bit beyond. I think it would be better if the two hardest-headed and coolest men in the ship went ashore with me, just to get the lrang of things. That'll be you, skipper, and you, Bob." Bob was the chief engineer. " The whole of this business of ours must be done -as stealthily as stalking a deer, or we're ruined at a swoop." "I wonder how you make that out, captain," observed the skipper. " For this simple reason : that even the worst business man in Palestine would hurry up and ship a cargo of Jordan water, and get it away by the first tramp that's leaving Jaffa if he got wind of our purpose: and the ship would have to be miraculously-'slow not to get there sooner than the Morning Star. If he did that he'd flood''the market with the stuff, and —well, there'd be no room for ours." 'lt's a puzzle to know how you're going to bamboozle them," declared the skipper helplessly. "I don't mean anything wrong wjben I say 'bamboozle,' but that seems what you've got to do in these days if you want to fork a it of tin in." '"'The thing to bear in mind is this," said O'Grady impressively: ' that lam a private British gentleman, who has seen fit to oome out here and at his own cost carry out a test scheme of transport, in the shape of water-carrying from Jordan to Jaffa. That is the story if they become inquisitive ; and, wild and odd as it may seem, it is tame compared with some of the methods of spending money employed by.-- Englishmen abroad. I plank most of my money, though, on the chances that they Avill be so jollv glad to have our coins circulating amongst them, and putting as many as they can grab into their own nockets, that they will ask no idle questions. After all, what difference can a few tons of Jordan water make to them? Let's get ashore. Remember, we're in a country where discretion and a delicate understanding of the people's ways may save a lot of trouble. The great thing is not to get at loggerheads with anybodv."

When O'Grady parted from his companions,' to take train for Jerusalem, and journey thence to tho Jordan, he paused unseen for a few minutes, so that he could observe the doings of his companions. He noticed that already the engineer had begun to exercise his power of tact. He had engaged a professional nraying man to recite a chapter of the Koran at the market price of twopence-halfpenny, "and give us what we call in Bradford t' long pull," commanded the engineer In his own language.

O'Grady paid his visit to Jericho and the neighbouring Jordan, and reconnoitred cautiously and with care. He. employed, because he recognised he had no option in the matter, a Bedouin Arab of villainous aspect, who spoke marvellous English. It was, he recognised, a business necessity to. take some such action as this, and lie presented his backsheesh on the definite undertaking that he was to be held immune from the extortions of other Arabs or human beings of any description. O'Grady, in general terms, explained his purpose. " I have made a wager," he declared unblushingly, 'to get a certain quantity of Jordan water from the river to the Morning Star at Jaffa, and I am bound to see it through." The Arab sighed, then shrugged his shoulders, then eagerly applauded O'Grady's project, recognising that the infidel had been delivered into the hands of the true believer. He tendered donkeys and men for the carrying of the water, and O'Grady offered him half of his denials, which finally he was thankful to accept. The conveyance was to be undertaken in discarded biscuit and petroleum tins, which were to be filled from the river under O'Grady's own eyes and orders, soldered on the spot, and taken to the steamboat. "Cook, of course, would have done it fov me," said O'Grady, "but I was determined to carry out the scheme myself in my own way. Yes, Cook would have done it ' and cheaper than my own contract price." He spoke musingly, and looked slantwise at the Arab as he mentioned the all-powerful name. "Bah I Cookies!" exclaimed the Arab. "No class!" he added, proud of his Eng lish, which he had picked up from tourists. He spat towards the West, where he understood that Ludgate Circus to be of which he had heard. "They take Jordan water back in bottles "and write lectures. I give them Arab words to use, winch they write down wrongly." "They'll spend a lot to get a few drops of Jordan water, won't they?" asked O'Grady eagerly, and carefully noting the Arab's ready acquiescence. "Every man ha* his own hobby. Mine is science and experiment, and I will prove that no man has ever got a bigger quantity of Jordan water between the river and the sea in such a short space of time as myself. Now wo understand each other, and we will see the arrangement through, however much we may be laughed at^eh?"The Arab smiled and nodded, then left O'Grady to complete his preparations, and to spread the glad tidings amongst his own particular little band of people that a simple-minded Nazarene with gold at his command had "been unconditionally given over to them by the Prophet. In the best part of a week of hard and ceaseless labour O'Grady had accomplished his intention. There was open criticism, of his folly, joyous laughter at his corps of donkey water-carriers, ribald playing of tunes on hie empty and laden cans, and occasionally the throwing of mud at him; ,but with it all there was a general encouragement of his undertaking, for it was recognised that while he took nothing of the slightest commercial value "out of the country, he brought the best of s all things into it, and that was ready money. Every biscuit tin and kerosene can within reach! of Jaffa and Jericho was employed. When full they were sealed and carried to the Morning Star, empfiied into iron tanks and the ballest-tank, then taken back to the river and refilled. It was an achievement of achievements, and one com pared with which all the mad doings of the maddest tourists of the past were insignificant. The forward ballast-tank was full of t)he thick brown water of the Jordan, as well as half a dozen small tanks which were lashed in the. hold, over the ballest tank iteelf. The tanks were soldered down where the liquid had been admitted, and O'Grady put npon them a large red seal as a guarantee, when the time to crown his venture came, that there had been no tampering with the vessels. "Honesty is the best policy," he said, "especially in a case like this," when success is absolutely certain. I would scorn to take advantage of confiding people." He glowed with self-righteousness. O'Grady watched his disbanded helpers when the Star was leaving Jaffa. "It don't fathom their talk," he said as he turned to the skipper and laughed; "but I know there isn't one of them who isn't convulsed at me for being the biggest fool. that ever came East from Western Christendom. Well, what's the odds? They're satisfied, and I'm happy. Plappy ? Why, I should wanf a throat shrill as this steam whistle to express my joy. Let me give 'em a toot " He pulled the cord of the siren and made a succession of piercing noises by way of farewell to the orange-scented city on the rock. His scheme was perfect in so far that the Jordan water was safely tanked in the Morning Star. There was certainly enough of it to make two good cargoes, one of: which would go, if necessary, to America. As to the money to be made out of the venture, he had not yet so much a 3 calculated it. Certainly, if all went well, and ho was fortunate in marketing the commodity, he could reasonably reckon on securing ■an enormous profit. It was entirely a gamble, and he was content to .take his chances.

Fate seemed to harass" the little steamboat from the start. She made her way to iAlexandria. where she coaled; then she struggled as far as Malta in bad weather all the time; thence she proceeded- to Gibraltar, and took in more coal. At last she was in the Bay of Biscay again, just holding her own, and no more, in a heavy gale. Day followed day, and at last 0' Grady savagely asserted that for all the progress they made they might just as well be Cleopatra's Needle, hopelessly adrift in its casing. His anger finally gave place to undisguised concern, for the Morning Star began to ship dangerous seas and to labour perilously. Even the skipper began to look grave and to oast uneasy glances at the vicious weather. He frequently consulted the glasa, and made

no attempt to sleep. Such rest as he secured was snatched at intervals in the wheelhouse, where he remained throughout the worst of the gale. It was in the wheelhouse that O'Grady joined the skipper, after a black night in which wind and wave had done their best to smash the ship. "Well," said O'Grady. "Well," replied the skipper. "I suppose you're askin' what I think? I can tell you. I think she's about as near bein' up a tree as ever I've seen her, or want to see her. What do you think?" He turned his tired, bloodshot eyes towards O'Grady, and saw that his companion's own thoughts were very clearly written on his grey, haggard face. "I'd giv9 every cent I have to be- on dry land, or land of any sort," replied O'Grady dejectedly. "This long gale has knocked the life out of everything." "It has," agreed the skipper; "an' do you know what else it's done?" O'Grady looked at him with gloomy anticipation. "Go ahead," he said; "one little disaster more can't make any difference. What is it?" "The Jordan water's gone " announced the skipper. O'Grady clutched the skipper's arm. In that moment of supreme disappointment and consternation he forgot even the peri] of the ship, and thought only of the crushing blow to his speculative hopes. "Gone?" he whispered. In the noises of ship and sea the. skipper did not hear the word, but he understood the question."Yes, gone, Mr O'Grady. The tanks got adrift an' cannoned into one another an' bulged holes. Where there's- holes, water'll get through, an' the Jordan water wasn't any better mannered nor any other sort. It found the door an' walked out. A lot of it, I expect, went into the sea through the bilge discharge. Don't take on so, for if the water hadn't gone an' lightened her a bit I do believe she'd ha' foundered. Let's be thankful it's no worse—let's be thankful 'at we're alive." " But I'm Tuined—we're all ruined 1" exclaimed- O'Grady. Then he suddenly brightened. "Never mind 'the loose tanks!" he cried. "What about the ballast tank? In my excitement I quite forgot it. That, at least, is sure to be all right. Nothing can get to it to hurt it." The skipper sighed heavily. " The tank's full, sure enough," he said; "but. it's with Bay o' Biscay an' not JordanRiver. The top got bashed, in, an* so you've ,got a, mixture 'at you can't reckon up." " Skipper," said O'Grady, leaning forward, "does anybody else on board know this? Has anybody but you seen just what's happened?" " Not a soul," the skipper assured him. " Nobody's seen it but me. an' that was only a few minutes since, just before you came up from below. I've stuffed the bung up as well as I can, till they can come from the engine-room to look after it. It's takin' 'em all their time to keep the machinery from flyin' out of the skylight with this cruel racketin'." "If we can keep the secret of this disaster to two or three of us," said O'Gradj-, "we can still make money out of the venture. I say 'we' because, you know, we are forced to work on ; the principle of no cure no pay. If this scheme falls through it means bankruptcy." 'Go ahead," commanded the skipper; " I'm mum." " The gale's going down, isn't it?" " Yes," replied the skipper, with a laugh of relief. " It was a choice between the breeze goin' an' us disappearin'. For once in a way I don't mind bein' beaten. But I'm curious to know what you should want to keep the thing dark for. That is to say, with an accident like this, how are you goin' to save your bacon?" "Let's go below, and I'll show you," answered O'Grady. " Heavens 1 but you never _ knoV how a steamboat like this can kick till you want her to keep still for half a minute. _ The mate relieved the skipper at the little steam steering-wheel, and they descended from the wheel-house and crawled cautiously forward until they reached a little hatch which had been ~ battened down, but opened lately by the skipper when he had gone below to see what havoc had been dene. They went down the upright iron ladder, and with the help of a blaze-lamp the skipper pointed out the extent of the mischief. ~A glance showed how complete the damage was and how slight was the hope of saving the cargo, which had been secured at cost and borne so perilously from Jaffa: The excessive motion of the little ship had caused the small tanks to break adrift from their not too perfect lashings, and they had been hurled about when it was utterly impossible to attempt to remove the hatch,, which was the only means of entering the hold. The tanks themselves had been damaged beyond repair, and it seemed''marvellous that they had not been dashed through the thin plating of the sides of the Morning Star. What was left of the muddy Jordan water was rolling about the deck, and the battered tanks were still dangerous and difficult to evade. "It's a fine bit o' punchin', an' that's a fact," commented the skipper. " Look at the ballast tank, an* then you'l see what happened. One o' these crumpledup little chaps went rampagin' about, dancin' an' waltzin' like a looney, an' at last he bounces up with a pitch o' the ship, then flops down cornerwise on the top of the tank an' busts it in. Look at it; there's a hole big enough to get your leg down. An' where you get your leg the sea can get, can't it? Just look." He bent* down and held the blaze-lamp over a hole in the deck, from which he drew a piece of sacking screwed into a plug. "Taste it," he added, and O'Grady put a finger in the tank and touched it with his tongue. "As salt as brine," he declared. "I never knew such ill-luck in my life. It's too maddening, when we've had such enormous trouble to get the Jordan water

all this way to have it spoilt like this. But it's no good squatting down and muling. Let's be up and doing. First of all we want the engineer. We shall have to let him into the secret of what I mean to do. Can he keep his mouth shut," " He comes from Bradford," replied the skipper. They summoned the chief. "Bob," said O'Grady, "you see this hole? It's got to be made good, so that the tank is sound and looks as if it had been tackled at Jaffa. The beat way to do the job will be to get the bulged metal and rivet a nice disc or square over the place. Tanks are often repaired like that, aren't they?" What's the idea?" asked Bob. " Just this," O'Grady answered, "to make the tank tight, put a fresh seal on, and declare when we get into port that the tajik contains water which has not been fouched or tampered with by man since it was ladled out of Jordan." The engineer smiled broadly in the gloom. ' It's pretty cunning*" he observed; "but, bless you, that's a trifle compared with what I've seen." "Of course," added O'Grady, "we three say nothing?" They set to work and removed all trace of the damage, riveting a neat round piece of iron plating over the hole. "That's a trick well played,"'said Bob, rising and stretching his tired limbs. " That water's what you might call hermetically sealed. I suppose the way to get it out will be to pump it ? It would. be an awful joke if it all ran'to waste in the bilge, though, wouldn't it?" " But not a joke that anybody in thia ship oould afford to laugh at," answered O'Grady. Well, there's one thing certain : we shall have to put all our chaiiceson a deal in London. The idea of carrying Jordan water to America is off- —at rate, so far as we're concerned. Yet it would be like the luck of things for it to get there, after all. We shall see." " When the Morning Star anchored once more in London river she was a battered steamboat, and in urgent need of refitting ..and repairing. The skipper and O'Grady had some argument with the medical officer who boarded them, and the Customs had to be reasoned with; , but a clean bill of health was given h^r. O'Grady hurried to Charing Ci.-uss, and sought an interview with Mr Hiram Johnson. They had met previously. O'Grady explained his mission. "I give you the first offer of the cargo," he said, "and you can make your own arrangements for coming on board and drawing off, sealing, and bottling the water. Does the offer appeal to 'you." Mr Johnson made a rapid calculation on a sheet of foolscap. His eyes gleamed as he contemplated the long array of figures.' '.' It's mostly a case of fixing the size of the bottle," he said. " The smaller the better, and the bigger the number." " You could fill scores of thousands of phials,' said O'Grady; "and, after all, a phial's big enough. The less you give the buyer- for his money' the more lie "will value it." " What's your price for the lot?" demanded the American abruptly. " A round five thousand," said O'Grady. "Whew!" whistled Mr Johnson. "Unless you mean dollars." " We always speak of pounds here," said O'Grady quietly. " And I can tell you, it would have been four times five if I had got the whole of my cargo through. All I can"hope to do on this venture is to save my name—it's the luck of the sea. Just think of the desperate struggle and narrow squeak 'we've had." There was a long pause, during which O'Grady went to the window and gazed steadily out. Outwardly he showed no emotion, but he was sorely agitated, because he knew that his entire prosperity depended on the success of his audacious interview. " I could hire a steamboat and fetch hundreds of tons for a lot less," observed Mr Johnson at last. "The thing could be done at a day's notice—and, of course, all's fair in business. You see, it would be so much easier now I know the ropes." "And before you were ready to start," retorted O'Grady, "I could have my Jordan water on the market. You wouldn't get such an offer as this if I weren't forced to lay hands on ready cash to liquidate my liabilities." " I'll give you four thousand,',' said the American. "I'll empty the stuff into the river first," vowed O'Grady.' Mr Johnson took out a cheque-book, drew a cheque for four thousand five hundred pounds, and O'Grady knqpv. that in a few minutes he could go to the bank and turn the paper into cash. " Take that and it's a deal," said Mr Johnson. "It's a big lump for a tank of dirty water." "Johnson," said O'Grady, with emoti6n, " you're a hard % man—devilish, hard. You're compelling me to make a virtue of my necessity. I'll take it, but I can assure you I- hoped I should do a vast deal better, considering how original my scheme is." " I thought you'd cotton," said Mr Johnson carelessly; but there was a gleam. of triumph in his eyes, and through his mind there passed a feeling of something like contempt for the business powers of the Britisher. "You hit "a man down on his luck," added O'Grady, filled with self-pity, as he folded the cheque and held it tightly in his hand. , " Business is business," observed. Mr Johnson sententiously, " and I come from Chicago. The water's going there." "Chicago," said O'Grady in amazement. " What the deuce is wrong with Chicago?" asked Mr Johnson genially. "Nothing," replied O'Grady hastily; "only, of course, I thought you'd bottle and "leal the stuff here." He seized Johnson's hand and gripped it. " Heavens!" he exclaimed, "but you're a splendid and far-seeing chap! Of all® the. places in the wide world I could not name one which is better fitted for tfei« particularly delicate job than yours!"