Greenmantle - John Buchan

he died.'
'Was that him you have been burying?' I asked.
'Even so. He was a good man and my wife's cousin, and now I have no
engineer. Only a fool of a boy from Hamburg. I have just come from wiring to
my owners for a fresh man, but even if he comes by the quickest train he will
scarcely overtake us before Vienna or even Buda.'
I saw light at last.
'We will go together,' I said, 'and cancel that wire. For behold, Herr Captain, I
am an engineer, and will gladly keep an eye on your boilers till we get to
Rustchuk.'
He looked at me doubtfully.
'I am speaking truth,' I said. 'Before the war I was an engineer in Damaraland.
Mining was my branch, but I had a good general training, and I know enough to
run a river-boat. Have no fear. I promise you I will earn my passage.'
His face cleared, and he looked what he was, an honest, good-humoured
North German seaman.
'Come then in God's name,' he cried, 'and we will make a bargain. I will let
the telegraph sleep. I require authority from the Government to take a passenger,
but I need none to engage a new engineer.'
He sent one of the hands back to the village to cancel his wire. In ten minutes
I found myself on board, and ten minutes later we were out in mid-stream and
our tows were lumbering into line. Coffee was being made ready in the cabin,
and while I waited for it I picked up the captain's binoculars and scanned the
place I had left.
I saw some curious things. On the first road I had struck on leaving the
cottage there were men on bicycles moving rapidly. They seemed to wear
uniform. On the next parallel road, the one that ran through the village, I could
see others. I noticed, too, that several figures appeared to be beating the
intervening fields.