Denry the Audacious

by Arnold Bennett

  "Shall we row up to it?" Simeon inquired, pointing to the wreck.

  Then a pale face appeared above the gunwale, and an expiring, imploringvoice said:

  "No. We 'll go back." Whereupon the pale face vanished again.

  Denry had never before been outside the bay. In the navigation ofpantechnicons on the squall-swept basins of canals he might have been agreat master, but he was unfitted for the open sea. At that moment hewould have been almost ready to give the lifeboat and all that he ownedfor the privilege of returning to land by train. The inward journey wasso long that Denry lost hope of ever touching his native island again.And then there was a bump. And he disembarked, with hope burning upagain cheerfully in his bosom. And it was a quarter to six.

  By the first post, which arrived at half-past seven, there came a brownpackage, "The ring!" he thought, starting horribly. But the package wasa cube of three inches, and would have held a hundred rings. He undidthe cover, and saw on half a sheet of note-paper the words, "Thank youso much for the lovely time you gave me. I hope you will like this.NELLIE."

  He was touched. If Ruth was hard, mercenary, costly, her young andingenuous companion could at any rate be grateful and sympathetic. Yes,he was touched. He had imagined himself to be dead to all humanaffections, but it was not so. The package contained chocolate, and hisnose at once perceived that it was chocolate impregnated with lemon--thesurprising but agreeable compound accidentally invented by Nellie on theprevious day at the pier buffet. The little thing must have spent a partof the previous afternoon in preparing it, and she must have put thepackage in the post at Crewe. Secretive and delightful little thing!After his recent experience beyond the bay he had imagined himself to beincapable of ever eating again, but it was not so. The lemon gave apeculiar astringent, appetising, _settling_ quality to the chocolate.And he ate even with gusto. The result was that, instead of waiting forthe nine o'clock boarding-house breakfast, he hurried energetically intothe streets and called on a jobbing printer whom he had seen on theprevious evening. As Ruth had said on the night of the wreck--there isnothing like chocolate for sustaining you.

  III

  At ten o'clock two Norwegian sailors, who could only smile in answer tothe questions which assailed them, were distributing the followinghandbill on the Parade:

  WRECK OF THE "HJALMAR." ------ HEROISM AT LLANDUDNO. ------ Every hour, at 11, 12, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 o'clock, THE IDENTICAL (guaranteed) LIFEBOAT which rescued the crew of the "HJALMAR" will leave the beach for the scene of the wreck. ------ Manned by Simeon Edwards, the oldest boatman in LLANDUDNO, and by members of the rescued crew, genuine Norwegians (guaranteed). ------ SIMEON EDWARDS, COXSWAIN. Return fare, with use of cork belt and life lines if desired, 2s. 6d. ------ A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY. A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE. ------ P.S.--The bravery of the lifeboatmen has been the theme of the Press throughout the Principality and neighbouring counties.

  E. D. MACHIN. ------

  At eleven o'clock there was an eager crowd down on the beach, where,with some planks and a piece of rock, Simeon had arranged an embarkationpier for the lifeboat. One man, in overalls, stood up to his knees inthe water and escorted passengers up the planks, while Simeon'sconfidence-generating beard received them into the broad waist of theboat. The rowers wore sou'westers and were secured to the craft bylife-lines, and these conveniences were also offered, with life-belts,to the intrepid excursionists. A paper was pinned in the stern:"Licensed to carry fourteen." (Denry had just paid the fee.) But quiteforty people were anxious to make the first voyage.

  "No more!" shrilled Simeon solemnly. And the wader scrambled in and theboat slid away.

  "Fares please!" shrilled Simeon.

  He collected one pound fifteen, and slowly buttoned it up in theright-hand pocket of his blue trousers.

  "Now, my lads, with a will!" he gave the orders. And then withdeliberate method he lighted his pipe. And the lifeboat shot away.

  Close by the planks stood a young man in a negligent attitude, and witha look on his face as if to say:

  "Please do not imagine that I have the slightest interest in thisaffair." He stared consistently out to sea until the boat haddisappeared round the Little Orme, and then he took a few turns on thesands, in and out amid the castles. His heart was beating in a mostdisconcerting manner. After a time he resumed his perusal of the sea.And the lifeboat reappeared and grew larger and larger, and finallyarrived at the spot from which it had departed, only higher up the beachbecause the tide was rising. And Simeon debarked first, and there was asmall blue and red model of a lifeboat in his hand, which he shook to asound of coins.

  "_For_ the Lifeboat Fund! _For_ the Lifeboat Fund!" he gravely intoned.

  Every debarking passenger dropped a coin into the slit.

  In five minutes the boat was refilled, and Simeon had put the value offourteen more half-crowns into his pocket.

  The lips of the young man on the beach moved, and he murmured:

  "That makes over three pounds! Well, I 'm dashed!"

  At the hour appointed for dinner he went to St. Asaph's Road, but couldeat nothing. He could only keep repeating very softly to himself,"Well, I 'm dashed!"

  Throughout the afternoon the competition for places in the lifeboat grewkeener and more dangerous. Denry's craft was by no means the sole craftengaged in carrying people to see the wreck. There were dozens of boatsin the business, which had suddenly sprung up that morning, the seabeing then fairly inoffensive for the first time since the height of thestorm. But the other boats simply took what the lifeboat left. Theguaranteed identity of the lifeboat, and of the Norsemen (who replied toquestions in gibberish), and of Simeon himself; the sou'-westers, thelife-belts, and the lines; even the collection for the Lifeboat Fund atthe close of the voyage: all these matters resolved themselves into afascination which Llandudno could not resist.

  And in regard to the collection, a remarkable crisis arose. The modelof a lifeboat became full, gorged to the slot. And the local secretaryof the Fund had the key. The model was despatched to him by specialmessenger to open and to empty, and in the meantime Simeon used hissou'-wester as a collecting box. This contretemps was impressive. Atnight Denry received twelve pounds odd at the hands of Simeon Edwards.He showered the odd in largesse on his heroic crew, who had alsoreceived many tips. By the evening post the fatal ring arrived fromRuth, as he anticipated. He was just about to throw it into the sea,when he thought better of the idea, and stuck it in his pocket. Hetried still to feel that his life had been blighted by Ruth. But hecould not. The twelve pounds, largely in silver, weighed so heavy inhis pocket. He said to himself:

  "Of course this can't last!"

  IV

  Then came the day when he first heard someone saying discreetly behindhim:

  "That's the lifeboat chap!"

  Or more briefly:

  "That's him!"

  Implying that in all Llandudno "him" could mean only one person.

  And for a time he went about the streets self-consciously. However,that self-consciousness soon passed off, and he wore his fame as easilyas he wore his collar.

  The lifeboat trips to the _Hjalmar_ became a feature of daily life inLlandudno. The pronunciation of the ship's name went through atroublous period. Some said the "j" ought to be pronounced to theexclusion of the "h," and others maintained the contrary. In the endthe first two letters were both abandoned utterly
, also the last--butnobody had ever paid any attention to the last. The facetious had atrick of calling the wreck "Inkerman." This definite settlement of thepronunciation of the name was a sign that the pleasure-seekers ofLlandudno had definitely fallen in love with the lifeboat trip habit.Denry's timid fear that the phenomenon which put money into his pocketcould not continue was quite falsified. It continued violently. AndDenry wished that the _Hjalmar_ had been wrecked a month earlier. Hecalculated that the tardiness of the _Hjalmar_ in wrecking itself hadinvolved him in a loss of some four hundred pounds. If only thecatastrophe had happened early in July, instead of early in August, andhe had been there! Why, if forty _Hjalmars_ had been wrecked, and thenforty crews saved by forty different lifeboats, and Denry had bought allthe lifeboats, he could have filled them all!

  Still, the regularity of his receipts was extremely satisfactory andcomforting. The thing had somehow the air of being a miracle; at anyrate of being connected with magic. It seemed to him that nothing couldhave stopped the visitors to Llandudno from fighting for places in hislifeboat and paying handsomely for the privilege. They had begun thepractice, and they looked as if they meant to go on with the practiceeternally. He thought that the monotony of it would strike themunfavourably. But no! He thought that they would revolt against doingwhat everyone had done. But no! Hundreds of persons arrived fresh fromthe railway station every day, and they all appeared to be drawn to thatlifeboat as to a magnet. They all seemed to know instantly andinstinctively that to be correct in Llandudno they must make at leastone trip in Denry's lifeboat.

  He was pocketing an income which far exceeded his most golden visions.And therefore naturally his first idea was to make that income largerand larger still. He commenced by putting up the price of the afternoontrips. There was a vast deal too much competition for seats in theafternoon. This competition led to quarrels, unseemly language, anddeplorable loss of temper. It also led to loss of time. Denry wastherefore benefiting humanity by charging three shillings after twoo'clock. This simple and benign device equalised the competitionthroughout the day, and made Denry richer by seven or eight pounds aweek.

  But his fertility of invention did not stop there. One morning theearliest excursionists saw a sort of Robinson Crusoe marooned on thestrip of beach near the wreck. All that heartless fate had left himappeared to be a machine on a tripod and a few black bags. And therewas no shelter for him save a shallow cave. The poor fellow was quiterespectably dressed. Simeon steered the boat round by the beach, whichshelved down sharply, and as he did so the Robinson Crusoe hid his headin a cloth, as though ashamed, or as though he had gone mad and believedhimself to be an ostrich. Then apparently he thought the better of it,and gazed boldly forth again. And the boat passed on its starboard sidewithin a dozen feet of him and his machine. Then it put about andpassed on the port side. And the same thing occurred on every trip.And the last trippers of the day left Robinson Crusoe on the strip ofbeach in his solitude.

  The next morning a photographer's shop on the Parade pulled down itsshutters and displayed posters all over the upper part of its windows:

  "THE LIFEBOAT PHOTOGRAPH BUREAU."

  And the lower part of the windows held sixteen different largephotographs of the lifeboat broadside on. The likenesses of over ahundred visitors, many of them with sou'-westers, cork belts, and lifelines, could be clearly distinguished in these picturesque groups. Anotice said:

  "_Copies of any of these magnificent permanent photographs can be supplied, handsomely mounted, at a charge of two shillings each. Orders executed in rotation, and delivered by post if necessary. It is respectfully requested that cash be paid with order. Otherwise orders cannot be accepted._"

  Very few of those who had made the trip could resist the fascination ofa photograph of themselves in a real lifeboat, manned by real heroes,and real Norwegians on real waves, especially if they had worn the gearappropriate to lifeboats. The windows of the shop were beset throughoutthe day with crowds anxious to see who was in the lifeboat, and who hadcome out well, and who was a perfect fright. The orders on the firstday amounted to over fifteen pounds, for not everybody was content withone photograph. The novelty was acute and enchanting and it reneweditself each day. "Let's go down and look at the lifeboat photographs,"people would say, when they were wondering what to do next. Somepersons who had not "taken nicely" would perform a special trip in thelifeboat and would wear special clothes and compose special faces forthe ordeal. The Mayor of Ashby-de-la-Zouch for that year ordered twohundred copies of a photograph which showed himself in the centre, forpresentation as New Year's cards. On the mornings after very dull daysor wet days, when photography had been impossible or unsatisfactory,Llandudno felt that something lacked. Here it may be mentioned thatinclement weather (of which, for the rest, there was little) scarcelyinterfered with Denry's receipts. Imagine a lifeboat being deterred byrain or by a breath of wind! There were tarpaulins. When the tide wasstrong and adverse, male passengers were allowed to pull, without extracharge, though naturally they would give a trifle to this or that memberof the professional crew.

  Denry's arrangement with the photographer was so simple that a childcould have grasped it. The photographer paid him sixpence on everyphotograph sold. This was Denry's only connection with thephotographer. The sixpences totalled over a dozen pounds a week.Regardless of cost, Denry reprinted his article from the _StaffordshireSignal_ descriptive of the night of the wreck, with a photograph of thelifeboat and its crew, and presented a copy of the sheet to every clientof his photographic department.

  V

  Llandudno was next titillated by the mysterious "Chocolate Remedy" whichmade its first appearance in a small boat that plied off RobinsonCrusoe's strip of beach. Not infrequently passengers in the lifeboatwere inconvenienced by displeasing and even distressing sensations, asDenry had once been inconvenienced. He felt deeply for them. TheChocolate Remedy was designed to alleviate the symptoms whilecaptivating the palate. It was one of the most agreeable remedies thatthe wit of man ever invented. It tasted like chocolate, and yet therewas an astringent flavour of lemon in it--a flavour that flattered thestomach into a good opinion of itself and seemed to say, "All's rightwith the world." The stuff was retailed in sixpenny packets, and youwere advised to eat only a very little of it at a time, and not tomasticate, but merely to permit melting. Then the Chocolate Remedy cameto be sold on the lifeboat itself, and you were informed that if you"took" it before starting on the wave, no wave could disarrange you.And, indeed, many persons who followed this advice suffered no distress,and were proud accordingly and duly informed the world. Then theChocolate Remedy began to be sold everywhere. Young people bought itbecause they enjoyed it, and perfectly ignored the advice againstover-indulgence and against mastication. The Chocolate Remedy penetratedlike the refrain of a popular song to other seaside places. It was onsale from Morecambe to Barmouth, and at all the landing-stages of thesteamers for the Isle of Man and Anglesey. Nothing surprised Denry somuch as the vogue of the Chocolate Remedy. It was a serious anxiety tohim, and he muddled both the manufacture and the distribution of theremedy, from simple ignorance and inexperience. His chief difficulty atfirst had been to obtain small cakes of chocolate that were not stampedwith the maker's name or mark. Chocolate manufacturers seemed to have apassion for imprinting their quakerly names on every bit of stuff theysold. Having at length obtained a supply, he was silly enough to spendtime in preparing the remedy himself in his bedroom! He might as wellhave tried to feed the British Army from his mother's kitchen. Atlength he went to a confectioner in Rhyl and a green-grocer inLlandudno, and by giving away half the secret to each he contrived tokeep the whole secret to himself. But even then he was manifestlyunequal to the situation created by the demand for the Chocolate Remedy.It was a situation that needed the close attention of half a dozen menof business. It was quite different from the affair of the lif
eboat.

  One night a man who had been staying a day or two in the boarding-housein St. Asaph's Road said to Denry:

  "Look here, mister. I go straight to the point. What 'll you take?"

  And he explained what he meant. What would Denry take for the entiresecret and rights of the Chocolate Remedy and the use of the name"Machin" ("without which none was genuine").

  "What do you offer?" Denry asked.

  "Well, I 'll give you a hundred pounds down, and that's my last word."

  Denry was staggered. A hundred pounds for simply nothing at all--fordipping bits of chocolate in lemon-juice!

  He shook his head.

  "I 'll take two hundred," he replied.

  And he got two hundred. It was probably the worst bargain that he evermade in his life. For the Chocolate Remedy continued obstinately indemand for ten years afterwards. But he was glad to be rid of thething; it was spoiling his sleep and wearing him out.

  He had other worries. The boatmen of Llandudno regarded him as an enemyof the human race. If they had not been nature's gentlemen they wouldhave burnt him alive at a stake. Cregeen, in particular, consistentlyreferred to him in terms which could not have been more severe had Denrybeen the assassin of Cregeen's wife and seven children. In daring tomake over a hundred pounds a week out of a ramshackle old lifeboat thatCregeen had sold to him for thirty-five pounds, Denry was outragingCregeen's moral code. Cregeen had paid thirty-five pounds for the_Fleetwing_, a craft immeasurably superior to Denry's nameless tub. Andwas Cregeen making a hundred pounds a week out of it? Not a hundredshillings! Cregeen genuinely thought that he had a right to halfDenry's profits. Old Simeon, too, seemed to think that _he_ had a rightto a large percentage of the same profits. And the Corporation, thoughit was notorious that excursionists visited the town purposely to voyagein the lifeboat, the Corporation made difficulties--about the embarkingand disembarking, about the photographic strip of beach, about thecrowds on the pavement outside the photograph shop. Denry learnt thathe had committed the sin of not being a native of Llandudno. He was astranger, and he was taking money out of the town. At times he wishedhe could have been born again. His friend and saviour was the localsecretary of the Lifeboat Institution, who happened to be a towncouncillor. This worthy man, to whom Denry paid over about a pound aday, was invaluable to him. Further, Denry was invited--naycommanded--to contribute to nearly every church, chapel, mission, andcharity in Carnarvonshire, Flintshire, and other counties. Hisyouthfulness was not accepted as an excuse. And as his gross profitscould be calculated by any dunce who chose to stand on the beach forhalf a day, it was not easy for him to pretend that he was on the brinkof starvation. He could only ward off attacks by stating with vague,convinced sadness that his expenses were much greater than any one couldimagine.