The Dust of Conflict Page 5

  V -- APPLEBY MAKES A FRIEND

  IT was blowing a moderate gale, and the "Aurania," steaming at fullspeed into it, rolled viciously. A half-moon shone out low down beneathwisps of whirling cloud, and the big black seas shook their frothingcrests high aloft against the silvery light as they swept in longsuccession out of the night. The steamer met them with dippingforecastle from which the spray blew aft in clouds, lurched and hove herstreaming bows high above the froth, rolled until one rail seemed levelwith the sea, and slid down into the hollow, out of which her head swungslowly up to meet the onslaught of the next. Bitter spray was flyingeverywhere, her decks ran water; but it was only between foremast andforecastle head she shipped it in cascades, and little groups ofpassengers stood where they could find shelter. They had finished theirdinner with some difficulty, and because the vessel rolled so that itwas not an easy task to keep one's seat or footing had found theirattempts to amuse themselves below a waste of effort.

  Bernard Appleby stood a little apart from one group of them under thelee of a deck-house. Tony had lent him fifty pounds, and he had takenthe cheapest berth obtainable which would permit him to travel saloon.This was apparently a reckless extravagance, but Appleby had inherited acertain shrewdness from his father, who had risen from the ranks, anddecided that the risk was warranted. He would, he told himself,certainly make acquaintances, and possibly a friend, during the passage,while he knew that the majority of those who travelled by those vesselswere Americans who had acquired a competence by commerce, and couldtherefore direct him how to find an opening for his energies if theyfelt inclined. He had already made the acquaintance of five or six ofthem, and acquired a good deal of information about the great Republic,which did not, however, promise to be of much use to him.

  Still, he was by no means dejected. Bernard Appleby had a good courage,and there was in him a longing for adventure which he had hitherto heldin check. He knew that the gates of the old life were closed againsthim, but this caused him no regret, for he had not the least desire togo back to it. Indeed, he wondered how he had borne the monotonousdrudgery he detested, and practised an almost Spartan self-denial solong, and it was with a curious content he looked forward into the nightover the plunging bows. The throb of hard-driven engines, roar of wind,and crash of shattered seas that fell back seething from the forecastle,stirred the blood in him. It all spoke of stress and effort, but therewas a suggestion of triumph in it, for while the white-crested phalanxesarrayed themselves against her the great ship that man had made went on,battered and streaming, but irresistible. Appleby felt that there werein him capacities for effort and endurance equal to those of other menwho had fought their way to fortune, if he could find a field for them.

  Then he became interested in his companions. There were two women amongthem, and he could see the figure of one silhouetted against the blueand silver of the night when the steamer rolled. It was a dainty figurein spite of the big cape that fluttered about it; while the loose wispsof hair that blew out from under the little cap in no way detracted fromthe piquancy of the half-seen face and head. Appleby recognized the girlas Miss Nettie Harding, whom he sat opposite to at the saloon table.

  "Keep a good hold, Miss Harding!" said one of the men beside her. "Thisboat is trying to roll her funnels out of her, and it seems to me quitepossible for one to pitch right over the rail."

  The girl's laugh reached Appleby through the roar of the gale, as shestood, poised lightly, with one hand on the guardrail that ran along thedeck-house, and the deck slanting like a roof beneath her, while thewhite chaos of a shattered sea swirled by, as it seemed, directlybeneath her. Then she fell against the deck-house as the steamer rolledback again until her streaming plates on that side were high above thebrine, and a woman said, "Can't you be careful, Nettie?"

  There was a crash beneath the dipping bows, a great cloud of spraywhirled up, and a man's voice said: "Hold on, everybody! She has goneslap into an extra big one."

  There was a few seconds interval while the wet deck rose up before theroll began, and then the "Aurania" swung back with a vicious jerk.Appleby heard a faint cry, and saw Miss Harding reel away from the deck-house. The sea lay apparently straight beneath her, with the steamer'sslanted rail a foot or two above it. Almost simultaneously he sprang,and felt the girl's shoulder under his hand. How he span her round andthrust himself behind her he did not know, but next moment he struck therail a heavy blow, and the girl crushed him against it. He afterwardsdecided that they could scarcely have fallen over it; but that fact wasnot apparent just then, and flinging himself on hands and knees hedragged the girl down with him. As he did so two of her companions camesliding down to their assistance, and the four glissaded back to thedeck-house amidst several inches of very cold water as the followingroll began. Appleby helped Miss Harding to her feet, and into thelighted companion, where she turned to him, flushed, gasping, anddripping, with a grateful smile.

  "That was awfully good of you," she said. "I should have been hurtagainst the rail, anyway, if you hadn't got in front of me. But yourface is bleeding. I hope I didn't hurt you."

  Appleby said he was not hurt in the least, though his shoulder feltunpleasantly sore; and leaving her with an elder lady who came in withthe rest he hastened to his state-room, where he struggled into dryclothing, an operation which is not altogether simple on board a rollingsteamer. There was also a lacerated bruise on his forehead whichrequired some little attention, and while he was occupied with it a manwho tapped upon the door came in. He was apparently of middle age, andhad a shrewd, lean face, with blue eyes that had a twinkle in them. Hesat down and waited until Appleby turned to him. Then he held out acard.

  "I guess you will know my name, but there's my address. Put it in yourwallet," he said.

  "Mr. Cyrus P. Harding," said Appleby. "What can I do for you?"

  The man laughed pleasantly. "That is rather what I should ask you.Anyway, I want to thank you for the help you rendered my daughter."

  Appleby made a little whimsical gesture. "The conventional answer fitsthe case. It was nothing, sir."

  "Well," said Harding dryly, "it would have been a good deal to me if mygirl had gone out over the rail."

  "I don't think that could have happened."

  Harding nodded, but the twinkle snowed more plainly in his eyes. "Idon't either, but I guess you were not quite sure of it then, and thereare men who would have made the most of the thing. I understand you gotbetween her and the rail, anyway, and that is what gave you the bruiseon the head."

  "I'm glad I had so much sense. I have, however, had more seriousbruises, and may get them again. I hope Miss Harding is none the worse."

  "No," said Harding. "She seems quite pleased with herself. It's anadventure, and she likes them. She will thank you to-morrow, and I don'twant to intrude on you. Still, you haven't told me what to call you, andI hope to see more of you."

  Appleby was a young man, and the fall against the rail had shaken him,or his answer would have been more prompt and decided.

  "Walthew Broughton," he said.

  Harding, he fancied, looked at him curiously, and then smiled as he wentout; but there was a trifle more color than usual in Appleby's face whenhe took up the card. It bore a business address in New York, but therewas written across it, apparently in haste, "Sonoma, Glenwood, HudsonRiver."

  "I wonder if that has any special significance," he said. "I will notforce myself upon the man, but it's quite evident I can't afford tostand off if he means to be friendly."

  He met Miss Harding on deck next morning, and she graciously allowed himto find her a chair, pack her wraps about her, and then sit close bytalking to her for half an hour, which he had cause for surmisingexcited the indignation of other passengers. He found her vivacious,witty, and almost astonishingly well-informed, for Nettie Harding hadenjoyed all the advantages the great Republic offers its daughters, andthese are many. Still, he knew that it is a mistake to overdo anything,and, though Miss Harding still appeared contente
d with his company, tookhimself away when two or three of her feminine companions appeared. Theyhad questions to ask and Nettie Harding laughed.

  "Then the Englishman can talk?" said one.

  "Yes," said Nettie Harding reflectively, "he can. Still, he's sensible,and doesn't say too much. I'm rather fond of those quiet men. There wasanother point that pleased me. He didn't hang about where he would besure to meet me, and then appear astonished when what he expectedhappened, as some men would have done, but waited until I walked up tohim."

  "After all, he only picked you up off the deck. There was really nodanger; and I would like to have kodaked you holding on to each other.In daylight it would have made quite an amusing picture."

  "Anyway, I must have hurt him, because he put himself between the railand me," said Nettie Harding. "You see, I do weigh something, though I'ma good deal lighter than you are, Miriam."

  Miriam, whose proportions were not exactly sylph-like, appeared slightlynettled, but the others laughed.

  "He is quite good-looking," said one of them. "Now, such a send-offwould make a good beginning for a romance. Quite sure you don't mean tofall in love with him, Nettie? No doubt he's poor but distinguished, orhe wouldn't be coming out to us."

  Miss Harding smiled, but there was a trace of softness in her eyes,which were of a fine deep tint of blue. "I don't think so, and there isa difficulty. I'm in love already--with the man I'm going to marry."

  A girl who had not spoken nodded sympathetically, for she knew the storyof Nettie Harding's engagement to an officer of the United States navywho was far from rich.

  "This year--next year, Nettie?" she said.

  Miss Harding smiled a little. "This one's nearly through, and I'm goingto Cuba early in the next."

  "Cuba can't be a nice place just now, with the patriots and filibustersrunning loose all over it," said the girl called Miriam. "What do youwant to go there for?"

  "My father's going. He has a good many dollars planted out there, and Ifancy he is getting anxious about them. I quite often go round with him;and Julian will be away in the Bering Sea."

  She rose, for a cold wind still swept the sun-flecked Atlantic; but shespoke to Appleby at lunch, and also at dinner that evening, after whichher father carried him off to the smoking-room. There was a considerabledifference between their ages and views of life, but a friendship thatwas free alike from patronage or presumption sprang up between them inspite of it. Cyrus Harding was an American, and what is usually termed aself-made man, but he did not attempt to force his belief in himself andhis country upon everybody else, though it was sincere enough. He wastypically lean in face and frame, but his dress was as unostentatious ashis speech, and he wore no diamonds, which are, indeed, not usuallydisplayed by men of substance in his country. The little glint in hiskeen blue eyes, together with the formation of his mouth and chin,however, hinted that he possessed a good deal of character.

  Being a man who noticed everything, he was quite aware that Applebyspent at least an hour in the aggregate in his daughter's company everyday, and said nothing. Nettie was, he knew, a very capable young woman,and Appleby, he fancied, a gentleman, which was, in the meanwhile,sufficient for him. A friendship may also be made rapidly at sea, and onthe seventh day out he asked Appleby a question. They were leaning onthe rail together cigar in hand while the ship rolling her mastheadsathwart the blue swung with an easy lurch over the long smooth heave ofshining sea.

  "What is bringing you out to our country?" he said.

  Appleby laughed. "What I expect is quite the usual thing. The difficultyof getting a living in the old one."

  Harding looked him over. "Army too expensive?"

  Appleby flushed a little. "I have never been in it, though I think I wasmeant for a soldier."

  "One can't always be what he was meant for," said Harding, with a littledry smile. "It's a general belief among young men in my country thatthey were specially designed for millionaires, but only a few of themget there. Got any dollars?"

  Appleby made a calculation. "Taking the rate at 4.80, I have about onehundred and twenty."

  He had expected his companion to show signs of astonishment at hisrashness, but Harding nodded. "I began with five but I was younger thanyou are," he said. "Business pays best yonder. What are you strongestat?"

  "I can ride and shoot a little, which is what seems most likely tofurther my intentions, and speak Spanish reasonably well. These, Isurmise, are very doubtful advantages, but I have no liking for businesswhatever. Is there anything to be made out of horses or cattle?"

  "Oh yes," said Harding dryly. "There are men who make a good deal, butyou want ten or fifteen thousand dollars to begin with, anyway. It'sonly a big ranch that pays. Quite sure you wouldn't like to try yourhand at business? I could introduce you to one or two men if you cameout to Glenwood and stayed a week with me."

  Appleby felt that the keen blue eyes were quietly scrutinizing him."No," he said. "There is a fact I must mention which I also think wouldprevent you wishing to entertain me. A business man hiring anybody wouldhave questions to ask, and I left the old country suddenly. I am notsure that a charge of manslaughter has not been brought against me bythis time."

  Harding did not seem in the least astonished; in fact, his veryimpassiveness had its humorous aspect, as Appleby recognized.

  "Did you kill the man?" he asked.

  "No," said Appleby, "I did not even attempt it; though in the face ofcircumstances I think nobody would believe me. Still, that's a story Ican't go into, though it seemed the correct thing to mention it to you."

  Harding nodded gravely. "The straight road is the shortest one, thoughit's quite often steep," he said. "Now, I had a notion you had somedifficulty of that kind."

  "I don't know that there is anything in my appearance which especiallysuggests the criminal."

  "Well," said Harding, with a little laugh, "you didn't seem quite sureof your own name when you told it me; but I've handled a good many menin my time, and found out how to grade them before I began. I wasn'tvery often wrong. Now, it seemed to me there was no particular meannessabout you, and homicide isn't thought such a serious thing in mycountry, when it's necessary. Before I was your age I had to hold on toall I had in the world with the pistol one night down in New Mexico--andI held on."

  His face grew a trifle grim, but Appleby was glancing out towards thesaffron glare of sunset on the ocean's rim. "I want to live in the open,and see what the life men lead outside your cities is like," he said."There is nobody to worry about me, and I don't mind the risks. Can yousuggest anything with a chance of dollars in it a little outside thebeaten track?"

  "You speak Spanish?"

  "I was born at Gibraltar, and lived in Spain until I was ten years old."

  "Well," said Harding, "as it happens, I can suggest something that mightsuit you, though I would rather, in spite of what you told me, havefound you a business opportunity. The men who play the game will wantgood nerves, but there are dollars in it for the right ones. It'srunning arms to Cuba."

  A little gleam crept into Appleby's eyes, and he flung up his head. "Ithink," he said quietly, "that is the very thing I would have wishedfor."

  "Then," said Harding, "I'll give you a letter to some friends of mine inTexas."

  He went away by and by, and Appleby decided that the cost of his saloonpassage had been a good investment. Still, he wondered what Hardingcould have to do with such a risky business as he surmised the smugglingof arms into Cuba must be, until he strolled round the deck with hisdaughter in the moonlight that evening.

  "I think you have made a useful friend to-day," she said.

  Appleby looked at her with a little astonishment, and the girl smiledwhen he said, "I don't understand."

  "I mean Cyrus P. Harding. There are quite a number of men with dollarsanxious to be on good terms with him."

  "What have I done to please him?"

  "You wouldn't come to Glenwood," and the girl laughed again. "No, Idon't mean that exa
ctly, but I need not explain. Cyrus P. Harding neverdid a mean thing in his life, you see."

  Appleby smiled at her. "So one would surmise. In my country we ratherbelieve in heredity."

  "Pshaw!" said the girl. "There really isn't much in compliments whenthey're served out all round. But if you are going to Cuba I may see youthere."

  "Will you be in Cuba?"

  Nettie Harding nodded. "My father has no end of dollars there--in tobaccoand sugar."

  "I wonder if one could ask what induced Mr. Harding to invest money insuch an unsettled country as Cuba is just now?"

  Nettie Harding looked up at him confidentially. "It's a thing I wouldn'ttell everybody, and if I did I shouldn't be believed," she said. "Well,Cyrus Harding can see ever so far ahead, and I never knew him mistakenyet. Some day something will happen in Cuba that will give us an excusefor turning the Spaniards out and straightening things up. They needit."

  "But if the thing doesn't happen?"

  Nettie Harding laughed. "Then I shouldn't wonder if he and a few othermen made it."

  Some of her companions joined them, and she said nothing more toAppleby; but they met again that evening, and she induced him to promisethat he would spend at least one day at Glenwood, while when theydisembarked in New York Harding walked down the gangway with his hand onAppleby's shoulder as though on excellent terms with him. He also kepthim in conversation during the Customs searching, and when a littleunobtrusive man sauntered by said to the officer, "Can't you go throughthis gentleman's baggage next? He is coming to Glenwood with me."

  The unobtrusive man drew a little nearer, glancing at Appleby, and thentouched Harding's shoulder.

  "Is that gentleman a friend of yours, Mr. Harding?" he asked.

  "Of course," said Harding. "He is staying with me. We have business onhand we couldn't fix up at sea."

  Appleby caught his warning glance, and stood very still with his heartthumping, apparently gazing at something across the shed, go that theman could only see the back of his head.

  "In that case, I guess I'm wasting time," said the man, who laughed."Still, you understand we have to take precautions, Mr. Harding."

  He went away, and Appleby turned to Harding with a little flush in hisface as he asked, "Who is that man?"

  "That," said Harding, with a dry smile, "is one of the smartest of ourNew York detectives."

  They reached his house at Glenwood that afternoon, and Appleby spent twopleasant days there. On the third he left for New York, and NettieHarding smiled as she shook hands with him.

  "I wonder whether we shall see you in Cuba?" she said.

  "It will not be my fault if you do not," said Appleby. "I am heavilyindebted to you and your father."

  As it happened, he afterwards saw Nettie Harding in Cuba, and paid hisdebt; for Appleby, who had gone out under a cloud that Tony's sweetheartmight retain her faith in him, was one of the men who do not take thekindness that is offered them and immediately forget.