“Your plants do not seem to have suffered much from the wind, sir,” said Kit; “maybe it is because you treat your men better.”
“Well,” Mr. Ysnard laughed, “there is no great merit in that. They do better work for me because I treat them well, and it pays better in the end. Slave labor is always the poorest.”
The next day the lighters ventured out again, and there was more work for Kit on the mole. Then when the cargo was all landed the loading began, and he was kept on deck to keep tally of the number of bales received. That took six full days, and still there was no sign of the mail steamer returning.
“The storm must have delayed her,” Captain Griffith said. “No use to send letters home now; for she has to touch at Havana, and we go direct, and we’ll beat her up. We’ll be off to-morrow.”
Kit asked and received permission to go ashore to say good-by to the agent who had been so hospitable to him. He had spent so much time in the little town that it almost seemed like leaving home again. Mr. Ysnard shook his hand warmly at parting.
“I have enjoyed having you here,” he said. “I like to see a bright, faithful young chap like you. Our young Mexicans are slow coaches beside you American boys. I was going to send you out a barrel of Mexican fruit that I had put up for you, so I’ll have it put in your boat. Keep pulling, my boy, and some day you may be down here in a better position than cabin boy.”
Kit tried to think it over as he returned to the ship, but he could not explain to himself what he had done to make Mr. Ysnard take such an interest in him. There was something about him, he could not help seeing, that pleased both the Captain and the agent; and he was glad of it, though he did not know what it was.
When the ship passed the Sandy Hook signal station, eight days later, the flags that she set told the brief story of the homeward voyage.
“North Cape,” they said, “eight days from Sisal, with hemp. Smooth passage.”
And when a few hours afterwards she lay at her old place in front of Martin’s Stores, her bow almost rubbed against the stern of a little tug.