For Jacinta

Austin was writing in the saloon, which was a little cooler than his room, at about eight o'clock that night, while Jacinta and Mrs. Hatherly made ineffectual attempts to read i...

The _Carsegarry_ was not a fast vessel. Like most of the ocean tramp species, she had been built to carry the largest possible cargo on a very moderate consumption of coal, and...

It was late one hot night when Austin first met Captain Farquhar of the S.S. _Carsegarry_ in a calle of Santa Cruz, and the worthy shipmaster, being then in a somewhat unpleasan...

The _Estremedura_ lay rolling gently off the quaint old Spanish city of Santa Cruz, Teneriffe, most of the following day. It was, indeed, late in the afternoon when she went to...

The afternoon was wearing through, but it was still almost insufferably hot when Jefferson stood with his hand upon the valve of the _Cumbria_'s forward winch. She lay with her...

It was the day after the dance at the Catalina, and Austin was running into Las Palmas harbour in a powerful steam launch which had been lent him to convey certain documents to...

Mrs. Hatherly decided during the ride to the beach that she had seen quite enough of that island in the three days she had spent there, and she had already gone off to the _Estr...

It was a fine morning, and the signal, "Steamer approaching from the South," was flying from the staff high up on the Isleta hill, when Pancho Brown's boat lay heaving on the sm...

It was about seven o'clock in the evening when sobrecargo Austin boarded the little mail-boat _Estremedura_ as she lay rolling at anchor on the long, moon-lit heave that worked...

Austin was quite aware that he had his work cut out when he was left in command of the _Cumbria_, with half her crew sick, and her skipper raving deliriously. He knew very littl...

The bush was dim with steamy shade when Austin and Jefferson plodded along a little path behind the beach where the oil was stored. It was with difficulty they made their way, f...

Three weeks had passed since his interview with Austin before Jefferson was ready to sail, and he spent most of the time in strenuous activity. He had cabled to England for a bi...

They were not long over the meal, and when Austin thrust his plate aside, Jefferson, who had waited at least five minutes for him, rose with a little twinkle, which seemed to ex...

It was a clear, moonlight night when Pancho Brown, Mrs. Hatherly, and Erminio Oliviera, the _Estremedura_'s captain, sat in big cane chairs on the veranda of the Hotel Catalina,...

It was towards the end of the afternoon when the skipper of the West-coast mailboat, peering through his glasses, made out two palms that rose apparently straight out of the sea...

The grey light was growing clearer, and the mangroves taking shape among the fleecy mist, when Austin stood looking down upon the creek in the heavy, windless morning. There was...

A week had passed without their finding any gum, when one evening Austin stood beside Jefferson in the _Cumbria_'s forecastle. It felt as hot as an oven, though the damp fell in...

A full moon hung over the white city, and the drowsy murmur of the surf broke fitfully through the music of the artillery band when Austin sat listlessly on a bench in the plaza...

A week had slipped by since the negro's visit, and Austin and Jefferson were sitting late in the skipper's room. There had been no change in the weather, and it was then, if pos...

The rain came down in sheets, and the mangrove roots were hidden by the yellow flood, when Jefferson stood, dripping, on the _Cumbria_'s bridge. Her iron deck was level, the stu...

An hour had passed since their first meeting, when Austin, Jefferson, and two navy men sat round a little table that had been laid out upon the _Cumbria_'s bridge deck. It was s...

A half-moon shone in a rift between the massed banks of cloud when Austin stood looking down into the trench four of the Spaniards were digging. It ran partly across the islet,...

Austin had been gone a fortnight when Jacinta and Muriel Gascoyne sat under the lee of the _Estremedura_'s deck-house one morning, on their way to Las Palmas. Above them the mas...

Jefferson was standing at the open door of the house beneath the _Cumbria_'s bridge when Austin first caught sight of him, as he groped his way forward along the slanted deck. T...

It was fifteen days after he boarded the steamer when Austin reached Las Palmas in a condition which, at least, prevented him chafing at the delay as he otherwise would have don...

It was in the heat of the afternoon Mrs. Hatherly and Muriel drove into old-world Laguna, which stands high upon the hill slopes above Santa Cruz. It was built four hundred year...

A faint light was creeping into the skipper's room when Austin awakened, and, seeing his comrade's berth unoccupied, went out on deck. The swamps were wrapped in woolly vapour,...

It was in the small hours when Austin wakened, and, listening a moment, stretched his aching limbs with a little sigh of content. The odds and ends on the table beside him were...

Darkness was closing down on the faintly shining sea, and the dull murmur of the surf grew louder as the trade-breeze died away, when Jacinta and Muriel Gascoyne sat in the ster...

Deep stillness hung over the dingy mangroves, and there was not a breath of air astir, while Austin, who lay among the palm oil puncheons beside the creek, was oppressed by a se...