New York (N.Y.) -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Short stories
The customs officials crowded importantly into their boat and rowed out
to the _Karlsefin_. A boat from the steamer landed her purser with his
papers, and took out the quarantine doctor with his green umbrella and
clinical thermometer. Next a swarm of Caribs began to load upon
lighters the thousands of bunches of bananas heaped upon the shore and
row them out to the steamer. The _Karlsefin_ had no passenger list, and
was soon done with the attention of the authorities. The purser
declared that the steamer would remain at anchor until morning, taking
on her fruit during the night. The _Karlsefin_ had come, he said, from
New York, to which port her latest load of oranges and cocoanuts had
been conveyed. Two or three of the freighter sloops were engaged to
assist in the work, for the captain was anxious to make a quick return
in order to reap the advantage offered by a certain dearth of fruit in
the States.
About four o’clock in the afternoon another of those marine monsters,
not very familiar in those waters, hove in sight, following the fateful
_Idalia_—a graceful steam yacht, painted a light buff, clean-cut as a
steel engraving. The beautiful vessel hovered off shore, see-sawing the
waves as lightly as a duck in a rain barrel. A swift boat manned by a
crew in uniform came ashore, and a stocky-built man leaped to the
sands.
The new-comer seemed to turn a disapproving eye upon the rather motley
congregation of native Anchurians, and made his way at once toward
Goodwin, who was the most conspicuously Anglo-Saxon figure present.
Goodwin greeted him with courtesy.
Conversation developed that the newly landed one was named Smith, and
that he had come in a yacht. A meagre biography, truly; for the yacht
was most apparent; and the “Smith” not beyond a reasonable guess before
the revelation. Yet to the eye of Goodwin, who had seen several things,
there was a discrepancy between Smith and his yacht. A bullet-headed
man Smith was, with an oblique, dead eye and the moustache of a
cocktail-mixer. And unless he had shifted costumes before putting off
for shore he had affronted the deck of his correct vessel clad in a
pearl-gray derby, a gay plaid suit and vaudeville neckwear. Men owning
pleasure yachts generally harmonize better with them.
Smith looked business, but he was no advertiser. He commented upon the
scenery, remarking upon its fidelity to the pictures in the geography;
and then inquired for the United States consul. Goodwin pointed out the
starred-and-striped bunting hanging above the little consulate, which
was concealed behind the orange-trees.
“Mr. Geddie, the consul, will be sure to be there,” said Goodwin. “He
was very nearly drowned a few days ago while taking a swim in the sea,
and the doctor has ordered him to remain indoors for some time.”
Smith plowed his way through the sand to the consulate, his
haberdashery creating violent discord against the smooth tropical blues
and greens.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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