As they stole along under the palms Bilbao’s heart fairly bubbled with mirth as he realised the possibilities of this new adventure. It would take him out on the seas again! It was evident that his present quiet life was palling upon him. No one knew why he was hiding from the arm of the law in Bougainville, and no one cared. All that can positively be stated here is that his heart was bursting to escape from the rough settlement where Germans drank lager and beach combers slept between their drinks. Such happiness was too much for him.
“Splendid!” he reiterated, as he brought his open hand down on Hillary’s back. But Hillary cared not; his heart sang within him like a bird: whisky and his comrade’s mighty belief in the success of all that they might undertake had made him entirely careless of the moment. “Go it, boy!” said Ulysses to the young apprentice, rattling the money in his capacious pocket, and Hillary joined lustily in the rollicking chorus of some Spanish chantey.
When they eventually arrived outside Hillary’s lodgings Samuel Bilbao swore that he lived there. And Hillary? Well, he was so confused that he obsequiously followed Ulysses in at that worthy’s kind invitation. And Mango Pango lay on her little bed-mat in the outhouse and could not believe her ears that night, as she mumbled to herself: “Surely not nicer Hill-eary shouting wilder song in ze middle night, up dere in his bedrooms?” And then the astounded Mango Pango heard no more, for Ulysses was comfortably fast asleep in Hillary’s bed—while the apprentice slept on the floor.
In the morning Hillary’s landlady fairly gasped to see so big and so handsome a man in her quiet young lodger’s company. And as for pretty Mango Pango, she opened her eyes and stared at Ulysses as though God sat there in front of her. And when Ulysses swallowed a quart of boiling tea and then sat her on his massive lap, her eyes shone like diamonds. Though Hillary’s head felt a bit heavy after the preceding night’s libations he could not help smiling as Samuel Bilbao kissed the Polynesian maid’s dusky ear and whispered pretty things to her. And was Mango Pango abashed? Not in the least. It was very evident that Samuel Bilbao was smitten with that dusky maid’s charms.
But all these recorded things are small enough compared with the great venture that they were entering upon. Even Ulysses realised that time was valuable and that many difficulties might beset their path before they could hire a schooner and keep their promise to Everard. And more, the young apprentice quickly gave Bilbao a hint that they’d better be off, and that Mango Pango’s charms could wait till a later date.
That same day Ulysses went down to the beach and tried to get round all the schooners’ skippers off Bougainville. But it turned out that none was willing to accept the fee Bilbao offered for the hire of a schooner, or to take him as passenger to the coast of New Guinea.
Just as Hillary and his comrade were getting dubious about their chances they heard that a schooner, the Sea Foam, was about to sail for New Britain and then on to Dutch New Guinea. In a moment Bilbao had hired a boat and was rowed out to the Sea Foam, which lay a quarter of a mile off, by the barrier reefs. Bilbao at once went aboard and interviewed the skipper, and found that he was a mean man and wanted more money than Ulysses possessed to alter his course or take Ulysses for a passage at all.
When Bilbao returned to Parsons’s grog bar, where he had arranged to meet Hillary, he looked worried. It was evident to the young apprentice that he had entered heart and soul into the whole business. The fact was that he was anxious to clear out of Bougainville, and so the scheme in hand offered him all that he wanted: money, a change, and the forlorn hope and excitement that were meat and drink to his volcanic temperament.
“Don’t despair, boy,” said he to Hillary, “Bilbao never caved in yet while the world went round the sun.” Then they both went back to Hillary’s lodgings. Ulysses seemed deep in thought as they passed under the palms. Then he said to Hillary: “The chief mate of that Sea Foam is an old pal of mine.”
“Is he?” said the apprentice, wondering what Ulysses was driving at.