Denry the Audacious Part 15

There could be no question that Simeon had come out comfortable. But he was the c.o.xswain. The rowers seemed to be aware that the boat was vast and beamy.

"Shall we row up to it?" Simeon inquired, pointing to the wreck.

Then a pale face appeared above the gunwale, and an expiring, imploring voice said:

"No. We 'll go back." Whereupon the pale face vanished again.

Denry had never before been outside the bay. In the navigation of pantechnicons on the squall-swept basins of ca.n.a.ls he might have been a great master, but he was unfitted for the open sea. At that moment he would have been almost ready to give the lifeboat and all that he owned for the privilege of returning to land by train. The inward journey was so long that Denry lost hope of ever touching his native island again.

And then there was a b.u.mp. And he disembarked, with hope burning up again cheerfully in his bosom. And it was a quarter to six.

By the first post, which arrived at half-past seven, there came a brown package, "The ring!" he thought, starting horribly. But the package was a cube of three inches, and would have held a hundred rings. He undid the cover, and saw on half a sheet of note-paper the words, "Thank you so much for the lovely time you gave me. I hope you will like this.

NELLIE."

He was touched. If Ruth was hard, mercenary, costly, her young and ingenuous companion could at any rate be grateful and sympathetic. Yes, he was touched. He had imagined himself to be dead to all human affections, but it was not so. The package contained chocolate, and his nose at once perceived that it was chocolate impregnated with lemon-the surprising but agreeable compound accidentally invented by Nellie on the previous day at the pier buffet. The little thing must have spent a part of the previous afternoon in preparing it, and she must have put the package in the post at Crewe. Secretive and delightful little thing!

After his recent experience beyond the bay he had imagined himself to be incapable of ever eating again, but it was not so. The lemon gave a peculiar astringent, appetising, _settling_ quality to the chocolate.

And he ate even with gusto. The result was that, instead of waiting for the nine o'clock boarding-house breakfast, he hurried energetically into the streets and called on a jobbing printer whom he had seen on the previous evening. As Ruth had said on the night of the wreck-there is nothing like chocolate for sustaining you.

III

At ten o'clock two Norwegian sailors, who could only smile in answer to the questions which a.s.sailed them, were distributing the following handbill on the Parade:

WRECK OF THE "HJALMAR."

--- HEROISM AT LLANDUDNO.

--- Every hour, at 11, 12, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 o'clock, THE IDENTICAL (guaranteed) LIFEBOAT which rescued the crew of the "HJALMAR"

will leave the beach for the scene of the wreck.

--- Manned by Simeon Edwards, the oldest boatman in LLANDUDNO, and by members of the rescued crew, genuine Norwegians (guaranteed).

--- SIMEON EDWARDS, c.o.xSWAIN.

Return fare, with use of cork belt and life lines if desired, 2s. 6d.

--- A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY.

A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE.

--- P.S.-The bravery of the lifeboatmen has been the theme of the Press throughout the Princ.i.p.ality and neighbouring counties.

E. D. MACHIN.

At eleven o'clock there was an eager crowd down on the beach, where, with some planks and a piece of rock, Simeon had arranged an embarkation pier for the lifeboat. One man, in overalls, stood up to his knees in the water and escorted pa.s.sengers up the planks, while Simeon's confidence-generating beard received them into the broad waist of the boat. The rowers wore sou'westers and were secured to the craft by life-lines, and these conveniences were also offered, with life-belts, to the intrepid excursionists. A paper was pinned in the stern: "Licensed to carry fourteen." (Denry had just paid the fee.) But quite forty people were anxious to make the first voyage.

"No more!" shrilled Simeon solemnly. And the wader scrambled in and the boat slid away.

"Fares please!" shrilled Simeon.

He collected one pound fifteen, and slowly b.u.t.toned it up in the right-hand pocket of his blue trousers.

"Now, my lads, with a will!" he gave the orders. And then with deliberate method he lighted his pipe. And the lifeboat shot away.

Close by the planks stood a young man in a negligent att.i.tude, and with a look on his face as if to say:

"Please do not imagine that I have the slightest interest in this affair." He stared consistently out to sea until the boat had disappeared round the Little Orme, and then he took a few turns on the sands, in and out amid the castles. His heart was beating in a most disconcerting manner. After a time he resumed his perusal of the sea.

And the lifeboat reappeared and grew larger and larger, and finally arrived at the spot from which it had departed, only higher up the beach because the tide was rising. And Simeon debarked first, and there was a small blue and red model of a lifeboat in his hand, which he shook to a sound of coins.

"_For_ the Lifeboat Fund! _For_ the Lifeboat Fund!" he gravely intoned.

Every debarking pa.s.senger dropped a coin into the slit.

In five minutes the boat was refilled, and Simeon had put the value of fourteen more half-crowns into his pocket.

The lips of the young man on the beach moved, and he murmured:

"That makes over three pounds! Well, I 'm dashed!"

At the hour appointed for dinner he went to St. Asaph's Road, but could eat nothing. He could only keep repeating very softly to himself, "Well, I 'm dashed!"

Throughout the afternoon the compet.i.tion for places in the lifeboat grew keener and more dangerous. Denry's craft was by no means the sole craft engaged in carrying people to see the wreck. There were dozens of boats in the business, which had suddenly sprung up that morning, the sea being then fairly inoffensive for the first time since the height of the storm. But the other boats simply took what the lifeboat left. The guaranteed ident.i.ty of the lifeboat, and of the Nors.e.m.e.n (who replied to questions in gibberish), and of Simeon himself; the sou'-westers, the life-belts, and the lines; even the collection for the Lifeboat Fund at the close of the voyage: all these matters resolved themselves into a fascination which Llandudno could not resist.

And in regard to the collection, a remarkable crisis arose. The model of a lifeboat became full, gorged to the slot. And the local secretary of the Fund had the key. The model was despatched to him by special messenger to open and to empty, and in the meantime Simeon used his sou'-wester as a collecting box. This contretemps was impressive. At night Denry received twelve pounds odd at the hands of Simeon Edwards.

He showered the odd in largesse on his heroic crew, who had also received many tips. By the evening post the fatal ring arrived from Ruth, as he antic.i.p.ated. He was just about to throw it into the sea, when he thought better of the idea, and stuck it in his pocket. He tried still to feel that his life had been blighted by Ruth. But he could not. The twelve pounds, largely in silver, weighed so heavy in his pocket. He said to himself:

"Of course this can't last!"

IV

Then came the day when he first heard someone saying discreetly behind him:

"That's the lifeboat chap!"

Or more briefly:

"That's him!"

Implying that in all Llandudno "him" could mean only one person.

And for a time he went about the streets self-consciously. However, that self-consciousness soon pa.s.sed off, and he wore his fame as easily as he wore his collar.

The lifeboat trips to the _Hjalmar_ became a feature of daily life in Llandudno. The p.r.o.nunciation of the ship's name went through a troublous period. Some said the "j" ought to be p.r.o.nounced to the exclusion of the "h," and others maintained the contrary. In the end the first two letters were both abandoned utterly, also the last-but n.o.body had ever paid any attention to the last. The facetious had a trick of calling the wreck "Inkerman." This definite settlement of the p.r.o.nunciation of the name was a sign that the pleasure-seekers of Llandudno had definitely fallen in love with the lifeboat trip habit.

Denry's timid fear that the phenomenon which put money into his pocket could not continue was quite falsified. It continued violently. And Denry wished that the _Hjalmar_ had been wrecked a month earlier. He calculated that the tardiness of the _Hjalmar_ in wrecking itself had involved him in a loss of some four hundred pounds. If only the catastrophe had happened early in July, instead of early in August, and he had been there! Why, if forty _Hjalmars_ had been wrecked, and then forty crews saved by forty different lifeboats, and Denry had bought all the lifeboats, he could have filled them all!

Still, the regularity of his receipts was extremely satisfactory and comforting. The thing had somehow the air of being a miracle; at any rate of being connected with magic. It seemed to him that nothing could have stopped the visitors to Llandudno from fighting for places in his lifeboat and paying handsomely for the privilege. They had begun the practice, and they looked as if they meant to go on with the practice eternally. He thought that the monotony of it would strike them unfavourably. But no! He thought that they would revolt against doing what everyone had done. But no! Hundreds of persons arrived fresh from the railway station every day, and they all appeared to be drawn to that lifeboat as to a magnet. They all seemed to know instantly and instinctively that to be correct in Llandudno they must make at least one trip in Denry's lifeboat.

He was pocketing an income which far exceeded his most golden visions.

And therefore naturally his first idea was to make that income larger and larger still. He commenced by putting up the price of the afternoon trips. There was a vast deal too much compet.i.tion for seats in the afternoon. This compet.i.tion led to quarrels, unseemly language, and deplorable loss of temper. It also led to loss of time. Denry was therefore benefiting humanity by charging three shillings after two o'clock. This simple and benign device equalised the compet.i.tion throughout the day, and made Denry richer by seven or eight pounds a week.