Kitabı oku: «The Secret of the Reef», sayfa 18
CHAPTER XXXII – THE BARRIERS GO DOWN
When Jimmy was shown into the large, cool drawing-room, he stood awkwardly still, with a thrill of keen satisfaction and an effort for self-control. He had so far seen little of Osborne’s house, and the beauty of the room had its effect on him. Curtains, rugs, furniture and pictures formed harmonies of soft color and delicate design, which seemed to him a fitting environment for the occupant of the room.
Ruth wore a clinging evening dress, and Jimmy had hitherto seen her only in traveling and outing clothes. He could not have told how the dress was cut, nor have described its shade, but he knew it was exactly what she ought to wear. The way it hung about her hinted at the graceful lines of her figure; it matched the purity of her coloring and showed up the gloss of her hair. But although the effect was admirable, it was daunting, in a sense. She was wonderfully beautiful and in her proper place; he felt himself rough and awkward, and was conscious of his disadvantages.
Then, as she came toward him, his heart began beating hard. He thought of their last meeting with embarrassment. He had expected to find some change of manner in her that would, so to speak, keep him at a distance. There was, however, no hint of this. It looked as if she had not forgotten how he had helped her from the launch, but had somehow recognized it and its consequences. He was not a clever reader of other people’s minds, but he knew that they were nearer than they had ever been before.
As she gave him her hand Ruth smiled up at him, but she spoke in a very matter-of-fact voice.
“I am glad you have come at last. It is pleasant to know that you have got back safely.” She pouted prettily. “No doubt you had some business with my father, which explains the visit.”
“It gave me an excuse for doing what I wished.”
“Did you need an excuse? We gave you an open invitation.”
“I felt that I did,” Jimmy answered slowly; and Ruth understood. He was diffident but proud, and shrank from entering her circle by favor. She preferred that he should regard her, however, not as the daughter of a rich man but as an attractive woman.
“You are too retiring,” she rebuked him smilingly. “But I shall not begin by finding fault. I want you to tell me some of your exciting adventures. Aynsley Clay was here, but he could not tell us much about you – and he was, of course, in trouble.”
“Yes,” said Jimmy softly. “I’m sorry for him. He’s a man you soon feel a strong liking for; and there was a good deal to admire in his father. In fact, we were on very friendly terms during the last few days we spent at the wreck.”
Ruth was silent for a moment. Then:
“Tell me about the wreck,” she requested.
“It’s rather a long story, and you may find it tiresome.”
“I’ve asked you to tell it.”
Jimmy was glad of the opportunity, because he was determined that she should have no cause to doubt her father. There was much still unexplained, but she must not suspect this, for it was unthinkable that she should bear any trouble from which he could save her. Still, he saw that he must be careful, for there were points which needed delicate handling.
While he began the narrative Ruth studied him carefully. He looked very virile and handsome with his bronzed skin, his steady eyes, and his figure fined down by privation and toil. Indeed, he had somehow an air of distinction; but he had changed and developed since she first met him. This was a different man from the pleasant, easy-going steamship officer. He had grown alert and determined, but he had lost nothing of his sincerity. He could be trusted without reserve, and she felt that she liked him even better than before.
His story of their adventures in the North was deeply interesting to the girl; and she prompted him with leading questions now and then, for she was keenly anxious to learn the truth about the wreck. For the last few months she had been troubled by dark suspicions.
“But, in spite of everything, you reached the gold!” she exclaimed at last.
“Yes,” said Jimmy, seizing the opening he had waited for. “We got it all.”
“All!” For a moment Ruth was thrown off her guard by a shock of relief that was poignant in its intensity.
“I believe so,” Jimmy answered. “Anyway, we got every case that was insured. The underwriters seemed perfectly satisfied.”
A wave of color flushed Ruth’s face. She had, it seemed, tormented herself without a cause. Her father, whom she had suspected, was innocent. There was no dark secret attached to the wreck, as she had unjustly thought. Jimmy had banished her fears. The hardships he had borne had bought her release from a haunting dread.
She realized that he might wonder at her agitation, but, after all, this did not count. She was carried away by gratitude to him.
“Thank you for telling me,” she said, feeling the inadequacy of the words. “It makes a thrilling tale.”
“If it has pleased you, I’m content.”
“Pleased me! Well, I can assure you that it has done so.”
“Then I’m rewarded,” said Jimmy boldly, losing his head as he saw the gratitude in her eyes. “That’s all I wanted; finding the gold is less important.”
Ruth saw what was happening; his restraint was breaking down, and she meant to give it the last blow.
“And yet you must have been determined to get the gold, since all you had to face didn’t daunt you.”
“Yes,” said Jimmy with a steady look, “I wanted it badly, for a purpose.”
“Didn’t you want it for itself? That would have been a very natural thing.” Ruth hesitated. “But you haven’t mentioned your real reason.”
He gathered courage from the glance she gave him, though the next moment she turned her head.
“I’m half afraid, but it must be told. I was a steamboat mate without a ship, a laborer about the wharves and mills, and all the time I had a mad ambition locked up in my heart. Then my partner, Bethune, showed me a chance of realizing it, and I took that chance.”
“It must have been a strong ambition that sent you up to fight with the gales and ice.”
“It was. In fact, it was stronger than my judgment. I knew it was a forlorn hope, but I couldn’t give it up. You see, I had fallen in love with a girl.”
“Ah! I wonder when that happened? Was it one night when you met the Sound steamer with your launch?”
“Oh, no; long before that. It began one afternoon at Yokohama, when a girl in a dust-veil and the prettiest dress I’d ever seen came up the Empress’s gangway.”
“Then it must have been very sudden,” Ruth answered with a blush and a smile. “The veil was rather thick, and she didn’t speak to you.”
“That didn’t matter. She smiled her thanks, when I drew away a rope, and I’d never got so sweet and gracious a look. After that there were calm evenings when the Empress swung gently over the smooth heave and the girl left her friends and walked up and down the deck with me. I knew I was a presumptuous fool, but as soon as my watch was over I used to wait with an anxious heart, hoping that she might come.”
“And sometimes she didn’t.”
“Those were black nights,” said Jimmy. “While I waited I tried to think it would be better if I saw no more of her. But I knew all the time that I couldn’t take that prudent course.” He paused with an appealing gesture. “Ruth, haven’t I said enough?”
“Not quite. Did you think, when you went to find the wreck, that your success would make me think of you with more favor?”
“If the wreck had been full of gold, it would not have made me your equal; but I knew what your friends would think. It would have been insufferable that you should have had to apologize to them for me.”
Ruth gave him a smile that sent a thrill through him.
“Dear,” he said suddenly, “I want you – that’s all in the world that matters.”
She yielded shyly when he gathered her to him; and the little gilt clock on the mantel, with its poised Cupid, seemed to tick exultantly in the silence that followed.
A half-hour had passed when they heard footsteps in the hall, and Osborne came in. He glanced at them sharply, and Jimmy’s triumphant air and Ruth’s blush confirmed his suspicions.
“Ah!” he said. “I imagine you have something to tell me?”
“That is true,” said Jimmy; and Ruth smiled at her father.
“There is no reason why you should object, and you needn’t pretend to be vexed!” she pouted.
“I think Mr. Farquhar and I must have a talk,” Osborne answered quietly.
He made Jimmy sit down when Ruth had left them.
“Now,” he began, “I’ll confess to some surprise, and though, from what I’ve seen and heard of you, I can find no fault of a personal nature, there are some drawbacks.”
“Nobody realizes that better than myself,” Jimmy answered ruefully. “In fact, I can honestly say that they seemed serious enough to prevent my hopes from ever being realized until half an hour ago. The only excuse I can make is that I love your daughter.”
“It’s a good one, but, unfortunately, it doesn’t quite cover all the ground. May I ask about your plans for the future?”
“I’m afraid they’re not very ambitious, but they may lead to something. My partners and I intend to start a small towing and transport business with the salvage money.”
Osborne asked for an outline of the scheme, and listened with interest while Jimmy supplied it. The venture had obviously been well thought out, and he believed it would succeed. Farquhar and his friends had carried out their salvage operations in spite of Clay’s opposition, which spoke well for their resourcefulness and determination. Knowing something of his late partner’s methods, he could imagine the difficulties they had had to meet.
“I think you have chosen a suitable time, because it looks as if we were about to see a big extension of the coasting trade,” he said. “There is, however, the disadvantage that you’ll have to start in a small way. Now it’s possible that I might find you some more capital.”
“No, thanks!” said Jimmy firmly. “We have made up our minds not to borrow.”
Osborne gave him a dry smile.
“I suppose that means that you don’t see your way to taking any help from me?”
Jimmy felt embarrassed. As a matter of fact, he still suspected Osborne of complicity in some scheme to make an unlawful profit out of the wreck; and in that sense his offer might be regarded as a bribe.
“We feel that it would be better if we stood, so to speak, on our own feet,” he said.
“Perhaps you’re right. However, I don’t think you need object if I’m able to put any business in your way; but this is not what I meant to talk about. I cannot consent to an engagement just now, but after you have been twelve months in business you may come to me again, and we’ll see what progress you are making.”
“And in the meanwhile?” Jimmy asked anxiously.
“You are both free; I make no other stipulation. If Miss Dexter approves, my house is open to you.”
A few minutes afterward Jimmy found Ruth in the hall.
“Well?” she asked. “Was he very formidable?”
“I believe I got off better than I deserved.” Jimmy told her what Osborne had insisted on.
“So you are free for another year! I wonder whether you’re fickle.”
“I’m bound hand and foot forever! What’s more, I’ll hug my chains. But your father hinted that if I wished to see you, I’d have to win your aunt’s approval.”
“That won’t be hard,” Ruth laughed. “If you have no confidence in your own merits, you can leave it to me. Now, perhaps, you had better come and see her.”
Miss Dexter spent some time talking to Jimmy, and he found her blunt questions embarrassing; but she afterward remarked to her niece: “I like your sailor. He looks honest, and that is the great thing. Still, for some reasons, I’m sorry you didn’t take Aynsley, whom I’m fond of. It’s curious how little that young man resembles his father.”
“Clay had his good points,” Ruth said warmly. “He was very generous, and, although I don’t quite understand the matter, I think he really lost his life because he wanted to clear himself of all suspicion for his son’s sake.”
“It’s possible; there was something very curious about the wreck. He was a brigand, my dear; perhaps a rather gallant and magnanimous one, but a brigand, for all that.”
Osborne had come in quietly while she was talking.
“I owe Clay a good deal, and feel that he deserved more sympathy than he got,” he said. “He had his detractors, but the people who found most fault with him were not above suspicion themselves.”
“You are all brigands at heart,” Miss Dexter declared.
“I’m afraid there’s some truth in that,” Osborne admitted with a smile.
Jimmy left the house the next morning, and soon after he opened his modest office in Vancouver Aynsley called on him.
“I’ve come to congratulate you, first of all,” he said. “No doubt, you know you are an exceptionally lucky man.”
“I’m convinced of it,” Jimmy answered. “But in a sense, you’re premature; I’m only on probation yet.”
He was conscious of some embarrassment, because he had learned from Clay about Aynsley’s affection for Ruth.
“Well, there’s another matter. We raft a good deal of lumber down to the sea for shipment, and now and then buy logs of special quality on the coast. I don’t see why you shouldn’t do our towing for us. I suppose you’re open for business?”
“We surely are.” Jimmy gave him a steady look. “You’re very generous in offering me a lift up.”
There was silence for a few moments, and then Aynsley smiled.
“I’ll admit that if I’d ever had a chance before you entered the field, I might have felt very bitter, but I know I hadn’t one from the first. As Ruth has taken you, I’m trying sincerely to wish you both happiness; and, if you don’t mind my putting it so, I’ve a feeling that she might have chosen worse.”
“Thank you!”
“Well, we’ll let that go. I suspect my father had some reason for being grateful to you; he gave me the impression that you had taken a load off his mind. I’m in your debt on that score, but quite apart from this, it might be advantageous to both of us if you did our towing. Suppose we see what we can make of it as a business proposition?”
They had arrived at a satisfactory arrangement when Aynsley left the office, and during the next few weeks more work was offered the new firm than they could comfortably attend to. In a few months they decided to buy a large and powerful tug, which was somewhat out of repair, and after refitting her they found that they were able to keep her busy. Then they were fortunate in towing one or two exceptionally large booms of logs safely down the coast in bad weather, and it soon became known that they could be relied on. When the work was difficult Jimmy took charge of it in person with Moran’s help, while Bethune attended to the office and secured the good opinion of their customers.
It was, however, not until early in the next year that they really made their mark. A big American collier had stranded and been damaged when approaching the Wellington mines, and Jimmy assisted the salvors in getting her off. Then the owners, deciding that it would be cheaper to send her home for repairs, asked for tenders for towing her to Portland. Getting a hint from the captain, Jimmy hurried back and held a consultation with his partners.
“We must get this contract, even if we make nothing out of it,” Bethune declared. “It’s our first big job and will give us a chance of showing what we can do. I suppose you feel confident about taking her down the coast?”
“It won’t be easy. She has lost her propeller and carried her stern-frame away. The jury rudder they have rigged won’t steer her well, and I don’t think the plates they’ve bolted on to her torn bilge will keep out much water if she gets straining hard. However, I’ll try it if you can find me another tug. She’s too big for one boat to hold.”
“There’s the old Guillemot. We ought to get her cheap on a short charter.”
Jimmy told him to see what he could do, and the next day Bethune sent off a formal offer. On receiving it, the managing owner of the collier crossed the boundary to consult with the captain.
“I’d like to give the San Francisco people the contract,” he said. “They’re accustomed to this kind of thing, and their boats are the best on the Pacific. They ask a big sum, but I feel we can rely on them.”
“You can rely on Farquhar. The salvage gang wouldn’t have got her off if it hadn’t been for him.”
“I understand his firm’s a small one. His bid’s low, but he says he can tow her down.”
“Then you had better let him,” advised the captain. “What that man undertakes he’ll do. I’ve seen him at work.”
He said more to the same purpose, with the result that Bethune secured the contract, and Jimmy left Vancouver with two tugs immediately afterward. They passed Victoria with the broken-down vessel in fine weather, but that night it began to blow, and the gale that followed lasted a fortnight. What was worse, it blew for the most part straight in from the Pacific, piling a furious surf on shore. Three days after Jimmy left the Strait, the chartered tug put back with engines disabled, badly battered by the gale. Her skipper stated that he had left Jimmy with a broken hawser, hanging on to the collier, which was dragging him to leeward, nearer the dangerous coast. After that an incoming steamer reported having passed a disabled vessel with a tug standing by in the middle of a furious gale, but although in a dangerous position, she showed no signals and the weather prevented a close approach. Then there was no news for some time.
When offers to reinsure the collier were asked for, Bethune was summoned to Osborne’s house. He found it difficult to express a hopeful view, and Ruth’s anxious look haunted him long after he left. Then, as public interest was excited in the fate of the missing vessel, paragraphs about her began to appear in the newspapers. It was suggested that she and the tug had foundered in deep water, since no wreckage had been found along the coast.
At last, when hope had almost gone, she reeled in across the smoking Columbia bar one wild morning with her tug ahead, and Jimmy found himself famous when he brought her safe into harbor. Escaping from the reporters, he went off in search of coal, and put to sea as soon as he could; but the grateful captain talked, and the papers made a sensational story of the tow. It appeared that Jimmy had smashed two boats in replacing broken hawsers in a dangerous sea, and had held on to the disabled vessel while she drove up to the edge of the breakers that hammered a rocky coast. Then a sudden shift of wind saved them, but the next night the collier broke adrift, and he spent two days stubbornly searching for her in the haze and spray. She was in serious peril when he found her, but again he towed her clear, and afterward fought a long, stern fight that seemed bound to be a losing one against the fury of the sea.
Jimmy arrived in Vancouver early one morning, and that afternoon he reached Osborne’s house, looking gaunt and worn. Osborne met him in the hall and gave him his hand in a very friendly manner.
“I must congratulate you,” he said. “You have lifted your firm into first rank by one bold stroke. If you allow your friends to help you, there’s an opportunity for a big development of your business.”
“That isn’t what concerns me most,” Jimmy replied meaningly.
“Well,” smiled Osborne, “I think I’m safe in trusting Ruth to you. Though the year’s not up yet, you have made good.”
As Ruth came forward Osborne moved away, and the girl looked at Jimmy with glowing eyes before she yielded herself to his arms.
“I’ve been hearing wonderful things about you, dear, but, after all, I knew what you could do, and now I only want to realize that I’ve got you safely back,” she said.
