It was the only humane speech I used to hear at that time.And it came from a doctor, ap-propriately enough.
A doctor is humane by definition.But that man was so in reality.His speech was not professional.
I was not ill.But other people were, and that was the reason of his visiting the ship.
He was the doctor of our Legation and, of course, of the Consulate, too.He looked after the ship's health, which generally was poor, and trembling, as it were, on the verge of a break-up.Yes.The men ailed.And thus time was not only money, but life as well.
I had never seen such a steady ship's company.
As the doctor remarked to me: "You seem to have a most respectable lot of seamen." Not only were they consistently sober, but they did not even want to go ashore.Care was taken to expose them as little as possible to the sun.They were employed on light work under the awnings.And the humane doctor commended me.
"Your arrangements appear to me to be very judicious, my dear Captain."It is difficult to express how much that pro-nouncement comforted me.The doctor's round, full face framed in a light-coloured whisker was the perfection of a dignified amenity.He was the only human being in the world who seemed to take the slightest interest in me.He would generally sit in the cabin for half an hour or so at every visit.
I said to him one day:
"I suppose the only thing now is to take care of them as you are doing till I can get the ship to sea?"He inclined his head, shutting his eyes under the large spectacles, and murmured:
"The sea...undoubtedly."
The first member of the crew fairly knocked over was the steward--the first man to whom I had spoken on board.He was taken ashore (with choleric symptoms) and died there at the end of a week.Then, while I was still under the startling impression of this first home-thrust of the climate, Mr.Burns gave up and went to bed in a raging fever without saying a word to anybody.
I believe he had partly fretted himself into that illness; the climate did the rest with the swiftness of an invisible monster ambushed in the air, in the water, in the mud of the river-bank.Mr.Burns was a predestined victim.
I discovered him lying on his back, glaring sul-lenly and radiating heat on one like a small furnace.
He would hardly answer my questions, and only grumbled.Couldn't a man take an afternoon off duty with a bad headache--for once?
That evening, as I sat in the saloon after dinner, I could hear him muttering continuously in his room.Ransome, who was clearing the table, said to me:
"I am afraid, sir, I won't be able to give the mate all the attention he's likely to need.I will have to be forward in the galley a great part of my time."Ransome was the cook.The mate had pointed him out to me the first day, standing on the deck, his arms crossed on his broad chest, gazing on the river.
Even at a distance his well-proportioned figure, something thoroughly sailor-like in his poise, made him noticeable.On nearer view the intelligent, quiet eyes, a well-bred face, the disciplined in-dependence of his manner made up an attractive personality.When, in addition, Mr.Burns told me that he was the best seaman in the ship, I ex-pressed my surprise that in his earliest prime and of such appearance he should sign on as cook on board a ship.
"It's his heart," Mr.Burns had said."There's something wrong with it.He mustn't exert him-self too much or he may drop dead suddenly."And he was the only one the climate had not touched--perhaps because, carrying a deadly enemy in his breast, he had schooled himself into a systematic control of feelings and movements.
When one was in the secret this was apparent in his manner.After the poor steward died, and as he could not be replaced by a white man in this Oriental port, Ransome had volunteered to do the double work.
"I can do it all right, sir, as long as I go about it quietly," he had assured me.
But obviously he couldn't be expected to take up sick-nursing in addition.Moreover, the doctor peremptorily ordered Mr.Burns ashore.
With a seaman on each side holding him up under the arms, the mate went over the gangway more sullen than ever.We built him up with pil-lows in the gharry, and he made an effort to say brokenly:
"Now--you've got--what you wanted--got me out of--the ship.""You were never more mistaken in your life, Mr.Burns," I said quietly, duly smiling at him;and the trap drove off to a sort of sanatorium, a pavilion of bricks which the doctor had in the grounds of his residence.
I visited Mr.Burns regularly.After the first few days, when he didn't know anybody, he re-ceived me as if I had come either to gloat over an enemy or else to curry favour with a deeply wronged person.It was either one or the other, just as it happened according to his fantastic sick-room moods.Whichever it was, he managed to convey it to me even during the period when he ap-peared almost too weak to talk.I treated him to my invariable kindliness.
Then one day, suddenly, a surge of downright panic burst through all this craziness.
If I left him behind in this deadly place he would die.He felt it, he was certain of it.But Iwouldn't have the heart to leave him ashore.He had a wife and child in Sydney.
He produced his wasted forearms from under the sheet which covered him and clasped his fleshless claws.He would die! He would die here....
He absolutely managed to sit up, but only for a moment, and when he fell back I really thought that he would die there and then.I called to the Bengali dispenser, and hastened away from the room.
Next day he upset me thoroughly by renewing his entreaties.I returned an evasive answer, and left him the picture of ghastly despair.The day after I went in with reluctance, and he attacked me at once in a much stronger voice and with an abundance of argument which was quite startling.
He presented his case with a sort of crazy vigour, and asked me finally how would I like to have a man's death on my conscience? He wanted me to promise that I would not sail without him.
I said that I really must consult the doctor first.
