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The Wreck Of The Titan
by
What Captain Barry had in mind, Rowland was too weak to inquire. On their arrival at the bark he was assisted by his friend to a couch in the cabin, where he spent the rest of the day, unable to leave it. Meanwhile, Captain Barry had gone ashore again.
Returning toward evening, he said to the man on the couch: “I’ve got your pay, Rowland, and signed a receipt for it to that attorney. He paid it out of his own pocket. You could have worked that company for fifty thousand, or more; but I knew you wouldn’t touch their money, and so, only struck him for your wages. You’re entitled to a month’s pay. Here it is–American money–about seventeen.” He gave Rowland a roll of bills.
“Now here’s something else, Rowland,” he continued, producing an envelope. “In consideration of the fact that you lost all your clothes and later, your arm, through the carelessness of the company’s officers, Mr. Thompson offers you this.” Rowland opened the envelope. In it were two first cabin tickets from Liverpool to New York. Flushing hotly, he said, bitterly:
“It seems that I’m not to escape it, after all.”
“Take ’em, old man, take ’em; in fact, I took ’em for you, and you and the kid are booked. And I made Thompson agree to settle your doctor’s bill and expenses with that Sheeny. ‘Tisn’t bribery. I’d heel you myself for the run over, but, hang it, you’ll take nothing from me. You’ve got to get the young un over. You’re the only one to do it. The old gentleman was an American, alone here–hadn’t even a lawyer, that I could find. The boat sails in the morning and the night train leaves in two hours. Think of that mother, Rowland. Why, man, I’d travel round the world to stand in your shoes when you hand Myra over. I’ve got a child of my own.” The captain’s eyes were winking hard and fast, and Rowland’s were shining.
“Yes, I’ll take the passage,” he said, with a smile. “I accept the bribe.”
“That’s right. You’ll be strong and healthy when you land, and when that mother’s through thanking you, and you have to think of yourself, remember–I want a mate and will be here a month before sailing. Write to me, care o’ Lloyds, if you want the berth, and I’ll send you advance money to get back with.”
“Thank you, captain,” said Rowland, as he took the other’s hand and then glanced at his empty sleeve; “but my going to sea is ended. Even a mate needs two hands.”
“Well, suit yourself, Rowland; I’ll take you mate without any hands at all while you had your brains. It’s done me good to meet a man like you; and–say, old man, you won’t take it wrong from me, will you? It’s none o’ my business, but you’re too all-fired good a man to drink. You haven’t had a nip for two months. Are you going to begin?”
“Never again,” said Rowland, rising. “I’ve a future now, as well as a past.”
CHAPTER XIV
It was near noon of the next day that Rowland, seated in a steamer-chair with Myra and looking out on a sail-spangled stretch of blue from the saloon-deck of a west-bound liner, remembered that he had made no provisions to have Mrs. Selfridge notified by cable of the safety of her child; and unless Mr. Meyer or his associates gave the story to the press it would not be known.
“Well,” he mused, “joy will not kill, and I shall witness it in its fullness if I take her by surprise. But the chances are that it will get into the papers before I reach her. It is too good for Mr. Meyer to keep.”
But the story was not given out immediately. Mr. Meyer called a conference of the underwriters concerned with him in the insurance of the Titan at which it was decided to remain silent concerning the card they hoped to play, and to spend a little time and money in hunting for other witnesses among the Titan’s crew, and in interviewing Captain Barry, to the end of improving his memory. A few stormy meetings with this huge obstructionist convinced them of the futility of further effort in his direction, and, after finding at the end of a week that every surviving member of the Titan’s port watch, as well as a few of the other, had been induced to sign for Cape voyages, or had otherwise disappeared, they decided to give the story told by Rowland to the press in the hope that publicity would avail to bring to light corroboratory evidence.