ABSTRACT
FOUR or five weeks after the farewell spoken in the Lime Street Boarding-house, Cuthbertson leant over the starboard wing of the bridge during the early morning watch. The monotonous cry of the lookout, “the lights are bright and all’s well,” had roused him from a reverie during which he had been pondering idly on the strange sequence of mishaps which had dogged the Countess of Rutland from the start. The cruise, in fact, had been little else than a chapter of accidents, for at the very outset some error in the transmission of the machinery, which formed the most vital part of their cargo, had sent them coasting from port to port for nearly 346a month. Frantic wires and messages from the Admiralty at last ran it to earth on a Great Western siding, but even when it had been safely shipped at Barry Docks, fortune still refused to smile. Coming down the Bristol Channel an ominous crack had been discovered in the tail-shaft and then, finally, the cylinder had broken down during some heavy weather in the Bay, which necessitated putting in for a fortnight’s stay at St. Nazaire in order to effect repairs. True that this had enabled him to exchange several letters with Elsa, but he could not help remembering with disgust that, had things gone smoothly, he should have been by now homeward bound, eagerly awaiting the realization of Smith’s promise with regard to Elsa. Instead of that delightful thought, it was now the second week of October and yet they were still shouldering through the desolate longitudes to the east of Fernando Noronha, which had been assigned as their rendezvous with the fleet by a paternal Admiralty. But it was little use dwelling on these thoughts, he reflected; the life of a tramp’s officer was little else than a series of delays and disappointments. So he stalked from one end of the bridge to the other, glanced at the steering card to see that the man was. holding her fairly well on their course; until a sharp crackling and buzzing from the Marconi installation,. which had been fitted up close to the main hatch, brought his thoughts to the curious mystery which had been their main topic of conversation on the run out.
