CONTENTS
I.[The Voice of the Spanish Main]
II.[The Sea Dogs of Devon]
III.[A Great Galleon]
IV.[The Anger of Colonel Fajardo]
V.[Richard Cary Strolls Alone]
VI.[The Troubled Heart of Teresa]
VII.[The Man who Lied]
VIII.[Upon the City Wall]
IX.[The Good Hermit of La Popa]
X.[The Great Yellow Tiger]
XI.[Spanish Treasure!]
XII.[Ricardo Writes a Letter]
XIII.[The Master Takes Command]
XIV.[Shaking a Crew Together]
XV.[In the House of Mystery]
XVI.[Blind Roads of Destiny]
XVII.[Teresa, her Pilgrimage]
XVIII.[Rubio Sanchez Finds Friends]
XIX.[The Intruder from Ecuador]
XX.[Ricardo Plays it Alone]
XXI.[The Happiness of Papa Bazán]
XXII.[The Face of the Waters]
XXIII.[The Castaway]
XXIV.[A Tranquil Haven]

Four Bells: A Tale of the Caribbean

CHAPTER I

THE VOICE OF THE SPANISH MAIN

The romance of the sea! Damned rubbish, he called it. The trade of seafaring was one way to earn a living. This was about all you could say for it. He had been lured into the merchant service as the aftermath of an enlistment in the Naval Reserve for the duration of the war. There was a great hurrah, as you will recall, over the mighty fleet of new cargo ships which were to restore the Stars and Stripes to blue water—Columbia’s return to the ocean, and all that—a splendid revival of the days of Yankee ships and sailors of long ago—a career for ambitious, adventurous American youth.

This was true enough until the bubble broke. The painful malady of deflation suddenly afflicted the world’s commerce. Much of Columbia’s mighty fleet rusted at its moorings. Ambitious American youth walked the streets in quest of jobs afloat or relinquished the sea to the Briton and the Scandinavian. It could not be said that the nation was deeply stirred by this calamity. In a manner of speaking, it had long since turned its back to the coast and could not be persuaded to face about.

This Richard Cary was one of the young men who had not been cast high and dry by the ebb tide of maritime affairs. No auspicious slant of fortune favored him. He earned what came to him in the way of employment and promotion. All he knew was the hard schooling of North Atlantic voyages in bull-nosed brutes of war-built freighters that would neither steam nor steer.

During the period of booming prosperity, the supply of competent officers fell far short of the demand. Any ancient mariner with a master’s license and fairly sound legs could get a ship. Foreign skippers were given “red ink tickets” and shoved aboard big American steamers.