Brandon of the Engineers Part 22

"Eat them!" Jake exclaimed with a pitying look. "Well, I suppose it's the only use you have for fruit." He took a stalk fringed with rich red bloom and laid it across the dark green fruit, which was packed among glossy leaves. "Now, perhaps, you'll see why I bought it. I rather think it makes a dainty offering."

"Ah!" said d.i.c.k. "To whom do you propose to offer it?"

"Miss Kenwardine," Jake replied with a twinkle; "though of course her proper color's Madonna blue."

d.i.c.k said nothing, but walked on, and when Jake asked where he was going, answered shortly: "To the telephone."

"Well," said Jake, "knowing you as I do, I suspected something of the kind. With the romance of the South all round you, you can't rise above concrete and coal."

He followed d.i.c.k to the public telephone office and sat down in the box with the flowers in his hands. A line had recently been run along the coast, and although the service was bad, d.i.c.k, after some trouble, got connected with a port official at Arenas.

"Did a tug and three coal barges put into your harbor last night?" he asked.

"No, senor," was the answer, and d.i.c.k asked for the coal wharf at Adexe.

"Why didn't you call them first?" Jake inquired.

"I had a reason. The tug was standing to leeward when she left us, but if her skipper meant to come back to Santa Brigida, he'd have to put into Arenas, where he'd find shelter."

"Then you're not sure he meant to come back?"

"I've some doubts," d.i.c.k answered dryly, and was told that he was connected with the Adexe wharf.

"What about the coal for the Fuller irrigation works?" he asked.

"The tug and four lighters left last night," somebody answered in Castilian, and d.i.c.k imagined from the harshness of the voice that one of the wharf-hands was speaking.

"That is so," he said. "Has she returned yet?"

"No, senor," said the man. "The tug----"

He broke off, and there was silence for some moments, after which a different voice took up the conversation in English.

"Sorry it may be a day or two before we can send more of your coal. The tug's engines----"

"Has she got back?" d.i.c.k demanded sharply.

"Speak louder; I cannot hear."

d.i.c.k did so, but the other did not seem to understand.

"In two or three days. You have one lighter."

"We have. I want to know if the tug----"

"The damage is not serious," the other broke in.

"Then I'm to understand she's back in port?"

A broken murmur answered, but by and by d.i.c.k caught the words, "Not longer than two days."

Then he rang off, and pushing Jake's chair out of the way, shut the door.

"It's plain that they don't mean to tell me what I want to know," he remarked. "The first man might have told the truth, if they had let him, but somebody pulled him away. My opinion is that the tug's not at Adexe and didn't go there."

They went back to the hotel, and d.i.c.k sat down on a bench in the patio and lighted his pipe.

"There's something very curious about the matter," he said.

"When the tug left us she seemed to be heading farther off sh.o.r.e than was necessary," Jake agreed. "Still, the broken water wouldn't matter so much when she had the wind astern."

"Her skipper wouldn't run off his course and lengthen the distance because the wind was fair."

"No, I don't suppose he would."

"Well," said d.i.c.k, "my impression is that he didn't mean to start at all, and wouldn't have done so if I hadn't turned him out."

Jake laughed. "After all, there's no use in making a mystery out of nothing. The people offered us the coal, and you don't suspect a dark plot to stop the works. What would they gain by that?"

"Nothing that I can see. I don't think they meant to stop the works; but they wanted the coal. It's not at Adexe, and there's no other port the tug could reach. Where has it gone?"

"It doesn't seem to matter, so long as we get a supply before our stock runs out."

"Try to look at the thing as I do," d.i.c.k insisted with a frown. "I forced the skipper to go to sea, and as soon as he had a good excuse his tow-rope parted, besides which the last barge went adrift from the rest.

Her hawser, however, wasn't broken. It was slipped from the craft she was made fast to. Then, though the tug's engines were out of order, she steamed to leeward very fast and, I firmly believe, hasn't gone back to Adexe."

"I expect there's a very simple explanation," Jake replied. "The truth is you have a rather senseless suspicion of Kenwardine."

"I'll own I don't trust him," d.i.c.k answered quietly.

Jake made an impatient gesture. "Let's see if we can get breakfast, because I'm going to his house afterwards."

"They won't have got up yet."

"It's curious that you don't know more about their habits after living there. Miss Kenwardine goes out with Lucille before the sun gets hot, and her father's about as early as you are."

"What does he do in the morning?"

"I haven't inquired, but I've found him in the room he calls his office.

You're misled by the idea that his occupation is gambling."

d.i.c.k did not reply, and was silent during breakfast. He understood Jake's liking for Kenwardine because there was no doubt the man had charm. His careless, genial air set one at one's ease; he had a pleasant smile, and a surface frankness that inspired confidence. d.i.c.k admitted that if he had not lost the plans at his house, he would have found it difficult to suspect him. But Jake was right on one point; Kenwardine might play for high stakes, but gambling was not his main occupation. He had some more important business. The theft of the plans, however, offered no clue to this. Kenwardine was an adventurer and might have thought he could sell the drawings, but since he had left England shortly afterwards, it was evident that he was not a regular foreign spy. It was some relief to think so, and although there was a mystery about the coal, which d.i.c.k meant to fathom if he could, nothing indicated that Kenwardine's trickery had any political aim.

d.i.c.k dismissed the matter and remembered with half-jealous uneasiness that Jake seemed to know a good deal about Kenwardine's household. The lad, of course, had gone to make inquiries when he was ill, and had probably been well received. He was very little younger than Clare, and Fuller was known to be rich. It would suit Kenwardine if Jake fell in love with the girl, and if not, his extravagance might be exploited. For all that, d.i.c.k determined that his comrade should not be victimized.

When breakfast was over they left the hotel and presently met Clare, who was followed by Lucille carrying a basket. She looked very fresh and cool in her white dress. On the whole, d.i.c.k would sooner have avoided the meeting, but Jake stopped and Clare included d.i.c.k in her smile of greeting.

"I have been to the market with Lucille," she said. "The fruit and the curious things they have upon the stalls are worth seeing. But you seem to have been there, though I did not notice you."