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XIV.

Jack now found that one of the most pressing duties which devolved upon him was to float the 'Rose Casey.' Before the locomotives could be set to work they needed a supply of coal, and the town depôts had been emptied of their last basketful in the scarcity of fuel. He hoped that the line could be opened up to Waikato to tap further supplies, but to reach that point would need some small stock in hand for working necessities. The furnaces of the little steamer could, with some slight alterations, be adapted to the consumption of firewood, but for the locomotives coal was not to be done without. If he could set the steamer afloat he hoped to be able to procure the supplies which had been provided in case of emergency at some of the harbour ports and at small coastal stations. He therefore directed the full force of the labour at his command to the task of floating the vessel.

It was an arduous task. Large bands of women were occupied in driving the teams, or setting up heavy beams of wood and in laying sills and cross-pieces as slides. While they were doing this, Jack was busy cleaning the engines, explaining the use of the various page 98parts, and the theory of the steam engine to his girl classes. He would work busily at the machinery, then leave the shop and superintend the process of fixing the timbers of derricks and windlasses. He was here, there, and everywhere; now hauling on a rope, now adzing a beam, now aloft fixing a doubtful bearing. With all his care, however, and attempts at ubiquity, the accidents were appalling. The workwomen were never for an hour without an accident, some of them, alas! fatal; several were wounded with adzes and cutting tools, many hurt by the fall of some heavy wooden shears, others by being entangled in the bight of a running rope. Nerve would fail just at the critical moment when some heavy weight was moving into place, and there would be a wild stampede, followed by shrieks, and the carrying of some victim to the ambulance cart. Jack's prognostication about the necessity for a large hospital and nursing staff was sorrowfully fulfilled, and a number of beds were filled with the ship-yard accidents. These were supplemented by victims brought in from the country districts, where they had been hurt by animals, from the yards where cattle and sheep were slaughtered, and from the farriers' shops where the horses were shod. The casualties were enough to make anyone despair, but Jack nerved himself with a resolution, as painful as it was intense, to disregard the present suffering of the few for the ultimate good of the community. He said to himself bitterly that he was a very poor second-hand Providence, but that he must do what he thought right. At the end of several days he found that all was in order, and that the great attempt must be made; so, getting up steam on board and turning it on to the donkey-engine, the signal was given. The seaward cables strained tight, the gangs of women hauled their best and page 99circled the windlasses, and, with a kind of sighing sound, the gallant little steamer left her bed of repose and with a rush slid onwards to her home in the salt water. Cheers went up; Jack, with the few who had remained on board during the launch, covered the halyards with bunting, and, taking on board a boat-load of admirers, went hither and thither about the harbour. It was a glad moment for all in the town as they stood in groups watching the steamer once more sending its clouds of smoky steam and its shrill whistle abroad in the wind; an omen of brighter days and returning hopefulness. Jack soon found that he could entrust the management of the vessel to others, for many of the girls began to take delight in the machinery, and the navigation (thanks to the yachting habits of Aucklanders) was more familiar to them than to him. Several of them were first-rate local pilots; so, giving them directions as to which places they should search for supplies of coal, he left the care of the vessel in their hands.

About this time Jack was importuned by some of his followers to establish a Court, with titles and order of precedence, etc. They pointed out that a king without a court was an anomaly, that it would add greatly to his prestige to be surrounded by a glittering throng of nobles, and that, as there was no money in circulation, some scheme of reward was necessary for those who distinguished themselves for the public good. Jack answered them by telling them that he wanted no more tinsel about the officials than he could help; that though he was king he had no personal pride at all, and was contented to help them in his dirty dress as an engineer or farmer, as well as in pretty clothes. On being urged still further, he declared that he would leave it to their Parliament to decide if titles were desirable things, but page 100that all members of the Council should have the prefixed title of Lady. This was to be a temporary honour, suitable for a thorough democracy, as he understood that (in spite of his position) they knew themselves to be. He issued a proclamation to that effect, and hoped that the matter was settled.

Jack was troubled by many such small matters, and his best refuge was in hard material work. One evening, after a long day's toil at the railway workshop, he resolved to take a solitary stroll Going to his room he attired himself in an ulster-like cloak coming down nearly to his heels, a garb in which, at a little distance, his sex was almost undiscernable; a small cap completed his costume. Rejoicing in his escape to solitude he passed under the deep shadows of the oaks surrounding the Residency, and, dipping the descent to the Strand, ascended Parnell Hill. The moonlight was flooding the air and making the night full of tranquil beauty. Turning to the left, he wandered down to the seashore in St. George's Bay, and there on the grass by the margin of the sea, seated himself in quietude for an hour of dreamy thought. The harbour, empty of passing vessels and boats which had once made it busy, lay stretched before him for miles, only bounded by the triple-peaked volcano which, exhausted of its fires, rose rugged against the horizon. Lonely as the place seemed, he was not its only occupant, for at a few paces from him another figure, its outline black against the high lights from the moon's rays, sat in a brooding attitude by the shore, but so still in its isolation that it was not in any way a disturbing element in the restful scene.

Jack sat awhile watching the long ripples breaking on the sand, twisting their shining silver ribands along the edge of the shore. The last weeks had been so full page 101of novelty and excitement that every night had found him worn out by excess of feeling and by downright exertion of mind and body, but the peace of the night scene wrought calmness and allowed his contemplation to take the form of connected thought. There was however, no garment of comfort into which he could weave the threads of reflection. The responsibility upon him appeared so vast, the near pressure of immense necessities so imminent, that he hardly dared to venture to face the outlook. Whence was he to procure stores of food for such numbers of people? Many of these works he was himself ignorant how to commence or carry on, although his training and observation had taught him much of others. The burden was enormous, and through the scented air of the summer night a veil of great weakness seemed to fall upon him, half enshrouding his manhood and his faith in the future in its depressing folds. "Where is comfort?" he said, "I feel myself alone in the universe!"