"That wireless operator," he continued hastily, "tells me there is a most amusing place a few miles down the coast, Las Bocas, a sort of Coney Island, where the government people go for the summer. There"s surf bathing and roulette and cafes chantants. He says there"s some Spanish dancers----"
The guests of the SERAPIS exclaimed with interest; the senator smiled.
To Marshall the general enthusiasm over the thought of a ride on a merry-go-round suggested that the friends of Mr. Livingstone had found their own society far from satisfying.
Greatly encouraged, Livingstone continued, with enthusiasm:
"And that wireless man said," he added, "that with the launch we can get there in half an hour. We might run down after dinner." He turned to Marshall.
"Will you join us, Mr. Consul?" he asked, "and dine with us, first?"
Marshall accepted with genuine pleasure. It had been many months since he had sat at table with his own people. But he shook his head doubtfully.
"I was wondering about Las Bocas," he explained, "if your going there might not get you in trouble at the next port. With a yacht, I think it is different, but Las Bocas is under quarantine."
There was a chorus of exclamations.
"It"s not serious," Marshall explained. "There was bubonic plague there, or something like it. You would be in no danger from that. It is only that you might be held up by the regulations. Pa.s.senger steamers can"t land any one who has been there at any other port of the West Indies.
The English are especially strict. The Royal Mail won"t even receive any one on board here without a certificate from the English consul saying he has not visited Las Bocas. For an American they would require the same guarantee from me. But I don"t think the regulations extend to yachts. I will inquire. I don"t wish to deprive you of any of the many pleasures of Porto Banos," he added, smiling, "but if you were refused a landing at your next port I would blame myself."
"It"s all right," declared Livingstone decidedly. "It"s just as you say; yachts and warships are exempt. Besides, I carry my own doctor, and if he won"t give us a clean bill of health, I"ll make him walk the plank.
At eight, then, at dinner. I"ll send the cutter for you. I can"t give you a salute, Mr. Consul, but you shall have all the side boys I can muster."
Those from the yacht parted from their consul in the most friendly spirit.
"I think he"s charming!" exclaimed Miss Cairns. "And did you notice his novels? They were in every language. It must be terribly lonely down here, for a man like that."
"He"s the first of our consuls we"ve met on this trip," growled her father, "that we"ve caught sober."
"Sober!" exclaimed his wife indignantly.
"He"s one of the Marshalls of Vermont. I asked him."
"I wonder," mused Hanley, "how much the place is worth? Hamilton, one of the new senators, has been deviling the life out of me to send his son somewhere. Says if he stays in Washington he"ll disgrace the family. I should think this place would drive any man to drink himself to death in three months, and young Hamilton, from what I"ve seen of him, ought to be able to do it in a week. That would leave the place open for the next man."
"There"s a postmaster in my State thinks he carried it." The senator smiled grimly. "He has consumption, and wants us to give him a consulship in the tropics. I"ll tell him I"ve seen Porto Banos, and that it"s just the place for him."
The senator"s pleasantry was not well received. But Miss Cairns alone had the temerity to speak of what the others were thinking.
"What would become of Mr. Marshall?" she asked. The senator smiled tolerantly.
"I don"t know that I was thinking of Mr. Marshall," he said. "I can"t recall anything he has done for this administration. You see, Miss Cairns," he explained, in the tone of one addressing a small child, "Marshall has been abroad now for forty years, at the expense of the taxpayers. Some of us think men who have lived that long on their fellow-countrymen had better come home and get to work."
Livingstone nodded solemnly in a.s.sent. He did not wish a post abroad at the expense of the taxpayers. He was willing to pay for it. And then, with "ex-Minister" on his visiting cards, and a sense of duty well performed, for the rest of his life he could join the other expatriates in Paris.
Just before dinner, the cruiser RALEIGH having discovered the whereabouts of the SERAPIS by wireless, entered the harbor, and Admiral Hardy came to the yacht to call upon the senator, in whose behalf he had been scouring the Caribbean Seas. Having paid his respects to that personage, the admiral fell boisterously upon Marshall.
The two old gentlemen were friends of many years. They had met, officially and unofficially, in many strange parts of the world. To each the chance reunion was a piece of tremendous good fortune. And throughout dinner the guests of Livingstone, already bored with each other, found in them and their talk of former days new and delightful entertainment. So much so that when, Marshall having a.s.sured them that the local quarantine regulations did not extend to a yacht, the men departed for Las Bocas, the women insisted that he and admiral remain behind.
It was for Marshall a wondrous evening. To foregather with his old friend whom he had known since Hardy was a mad midshipman, to sit at the feet of his own charming countrywomen, to listen to their soft, modulated laughter, to note how quickly they saw that to him the evening was a great event, and with what tact each contributed to make it the more memorable; all served to wipe out the months of bitter loneliness, the stigma of failure, the sense of undeserved neglect. In the moonlight, on the cool quarter-deck, they sat, in a half-circle, each of the two friends telling tales out of school, tales of which the other was the hero or the victim, "inside" stories of great occasions, ceremonies, bombardments, unrecorded "shirt-sleeve" diplomacy.
Hardy had helped to open the Suez Ca.n.a.l. Marshall had a.s.sisted the Queen of Madagascar to escape from the French invaders. On the Barbary Coast Hardy had chased pirates. In Edinburgh Marshall had played chess with Carlyle. He had seen Paris in mourning in the days of the siege, Paris in terror in the days of the Commune; he had known Garibaldi, Gambetta, the younger Dumas, the creator of Pickwick.
"Do you remember that time in Tangier," the admiral urged, "when I was a midshipman, and got into the bashaw"s harem?"
"Do you remember how I got you out?" Marshall replied grimly.
"And," demanded Hardy, "do you remember when Adelina Patti paid a visit to the KEARSARGE at Ma.r.s.eilles in "65--George Dewey was our second officer--and you were bowing and backing away from her, and you backed into an open hatch, and she said "my French isn"t up to it" what was it she said?"
"I didn"t hear it," said Marshall; "I was too far down the hatch."
"Do you mean the old KEARSARGE?" asked Mrs. Cairns. "Were you in the service then, Mr. Marshall?"
With loyal pride in his friend, the admiral answered for him:
"He was our consul-general at Ma.r.s.eilles!"
There was an uncomfortable moment. Even those denied imagination could not escape the contrast, could see in their mind"s eye the great harbor of Ma.r.s.eilles, crowded with the shipping of the world, surrounding it the beautiful city, the rival of Paris to the north, and on the battleship the young consul-general making his bow to the young Empress of Song. And now, before their actual eyes, they saw the village of Porto Banos, a black streak in the night, a row of mud shacks, at the end of the wharf a single lantern yellow in the clear moonlight.
Later in the evening Miss Cairns led the admiral to one side.
"Admiral," she began eagerly, "tell me about your friend. Why is he here? Why don"t they give him a place worthy of him? I"ve seen many of our representatives abroad, and I know we cannot afford to waste men like that." The girl exclaimed indignantly: "He"s one of the most interesting men I"ve ever met! He"s lived everywhere, known every one.
He"s a distinguished man, a cultivated man; even I can see he knows his work, that he"s a diplomat, born, trained, that he"s----" The admiral interrupted with a growl.
"You don"t have to tell ME about Henry," he protested. "I"ve known Henry twenty-five years. If Henry got his deserts," he exclaimed hotly, "he wouldn"t be a consul on this coral reef; he"d be a minister in Europe.
Look at me! We"re the same age. We started together. When Lincoln sent him to Morocco as consul, he signed my commission as a midshipman.
Now I"m an admiral. Henry has twice my brains and he"s been a consul-general, and he"s HERE, back at the foot of the ladder!"
"Why?" demanded the girl.
"Because the navy is a service and the consular service isn"t a service.
Men like Senator Hanley use it to pay their debts. While Henry"s been serving his country abroad, he"s lost his friends, lost his "pull."
Those politicians up at Washington have no use for him. They don"t consider that a consul like Henry can make a million dollars for his countrymen. He can keep them from shipping goods where there"s no market, show them where there is a market." The admiral snorted contemptuously. "You don"t have to tell ME the value of a good consul.
But those politicians don"t consider that. They only see that he has a job worth a few hundred dollars, and they want it, and if he hasn"t other politicians to protect him, they"ll take it." The girl raised her head.
"Why don"t you speak to the senator?" she asked. "Tell him you"ve known him for years, that----"
"Glad to do it!" exclaimed the admiral heartily. "It won"t be the first time. But Henry mustn"t know. He"s too confoundedly touchy. He hates the IDEA of influence, hates men like Hanley, who abuse it. If he thought anything was given to him except on his merits, he wouldn"t take it."
"Then we won"t tell him," said the girl. For a moment she hesitated.
"If I spoke to Mr. Hanley," she asked, "told him what I learned to-night of Mr. Marshall, would it have any effect?"
"Don"t know how it will affect Hanley," said the sailor, "but if you asked me to make anybody a consul-general, I"d make him an amba.s.sador."
Later in the evening Hanley and Livingstone were seated alone on deck. The visit to Las Bocas had not proved amusing, but, much to Livingstone"s relief, his honored guest was now in good-humor. He took his cigar from his lips, only to sip at a long cool drink. He was in a mood flatteringly confidential and communicative.
"People have the strangest idea of what I can do for them," he laughed.
It was his pose to pretend he was without authority. "They believe I"ve only to wave a wand, and get them anything they want. I thought I"d be safe from them on board a yacht."