Brandon of the Engineers
Page 178"If you have a passenger list handy, you might let me see it," Dick said
as he took the tickets.
The purser gave him a list, and he noted Kenwardine's name near the
bottom.
"We may as well be comfortable, although we're not going far," he
resumed. "What berths have you left?"
"You can pick your place," said the purser. "We haven't many passengers
this trip, and there's nobody on the starboard alleyway. However, if you
want a hot bath in the morning, you had better sleep to port. They've
broken a pipe on the other side."
A bath is a luxury in the Caribbean, but white men who have lived any
time in the tropics prefer it warm, and Dick saw why the passengers had
chosen the port alleyway. He decided to take the other, since Kenwardine
"We'll have the starboard rooms," he said. "One can go without a bath for
once, and you'll no doubt reach Kingston to-morrow night."
"I expect so," agreed the purser. "Still, we mayn't be allowed to steam
in until the next morning. They're taking rather troublesome precautions
in the British ports since the commerce-raider got to work."
Dick signed to the others and crossed the after well towards the poop in
a curiously grim mood. He hated the subterfuge he had practised, and
there was something very repugnant in this stealthy tracking down of his
man, but the chase was nearly over and he meant to finish it. Defenseless
merchant seamen could not be allowed to suffer for his squeamishness.
"Don Sebastian and I will wait in the second-class smoking-room until she
starts," he said to Jake. "I want you to lounge about the poop deck and
as if he means to go ashore."
He disappeared with his companion, and Jake went up a ladder and sat down
on the poop, where he was some distance from the saloon passengers.
Kenwardine was less likely to be alarmed at seeing him, but he did not
like his part. The man had welcomed him to his house, and although he had
lost some money there, Jake did not believe his host had meant to plunder
him. After all, Dick and Don Sebastian might be mistaken, and he felt
mean as he watched the gangway. A hint from him would enable Kenwardine
to escape, and it was galling to feel that it must not be given. Indeed,
as time went on, Jake began to wish that Kenwardine would learn that they
were on board and take alarm. He was not sure he would warn Dick if the
fellow tried to steal away.
and she was towed towards the harbor. The steamer's winches rattled as
they hove up cargo from the barge, but Jake had seen that there was not
much left and she would sail as soon as the last load was hoisted in.
Lighting a cigarette, he ran his eye along the saloon-deck. A few
passengers in white clothes walked up and down, and he studied their
faces as they passed the lights, but Kenwardine was not among them. A
group leaned upon the rails in the shadow of a boat, and Jake felt angry
because he could not see them well. The suspense was getting keen, and he
wished Kenwardine would steal down the ladder and jump into a boat before
he could give the alarm.