CHAPTER V 

THE TOMATO FINCA 

Three weeks had passed since his interview with Austin before Jefferson was ready to sail, and he spent most of the time in strenuous activity. He had cabled to England for a big centrifugal pump and a second-hand locomotive-type boiler, while, when they arrived, Macallister said that five hundred pounds would not tempt him to raise full steam on the latter. He also purchased a broken-down launch, and, though she was cheap, the cost of her and the pump, with other necessaries, made a considerable hole in his remaining Â£2,000. It was for this reason he undertook to make the needful repairs himself, with the help of a steamer's donkey-man who had somehow got left behind, while Austin and Macallister spent most of the week during which the _Estremedura_ lay at Las Palmas in the workshop he had extemporised. He appeared to know a little about machinery, and could, at least, handle hack-saw and file in a fashion which moved Macallister to approbation, while Austin noticed that the latter's sardonic smile became less frequent as he and the American worked together. 

Jefferson was grimly in earnest, and it was evident that his thoroughness, which overlooked nothing, compelled the engineer's admiration. It also occurred to Austin that, while there are many ways in which a lover may prove his devotion, few other men would probably have cared for the one Jefferson had undertaken. He was not a very knightly figure when he emerged, smeared with rust and scale, from the second-hand boiler, or crawled about the launch's engines with blackened face and hands; but Austin, who remembered it was for Muriel Gascoyne he had staked all his little capital in that desperate venture, forebore to smile. He knew rather better than Jefferson did that it was a very forlorn hope indeed the latter was venturing on. One cannot heave a stranded steamer off without strenuous physical exertion, and the white man who attempts the latter in a good many parts of Western Africa incontinently dies.  QUESTIONS:

Q1:
1. What is the chapter at hand?
2. What number of chapter is this?
3. Which is this in the sequence of chapters?
Q2:
1. What is the chapter's title?
2. What is the chapter called?
3. What name is given to the chapter?
Q3:
1. What has Jefferson been doing for the past three weeks?
2. What has Jefferson been up to for the last three weeks?
3. These past three weeks, what has been Jefferson's business?
Q4:
1. How much money did Jefferson have left?
2. What was the amount of money remaining for Jefferson?
3. How much cash did Jefferson still have on hand?
Q5:
1. What was Jefferson getting ready to do?
2. What was Jefferson preparing for?
3. What would Jefferson soon be doing?
Q6:
1. What was a purchase that Jefferson made?
2. What was one thing that Jefferson bought?
3. What was something that Jefferson acquired?
Q7:
1. Where did Jefferson get his centrifugal pump?
2. Where was Jefferson's centrifugal pump purchased?
3. In what country did Jefferson buy his centrifugal pump?
Q8:
1. What was a purchase that Jefferson made, besides a centrifugal pump?
2. What was one thing that Jefferson bought, other than a centrifugal pump?
3. What was something that Jefferson acquired, in addition to the centrifugal pump?
Q9:
1. Was the locomotive-type boiler new?
2. Did Jefferson purchase a new locomotive-type boiler?
3. Was Jefferson's locomotive-type boiler purchased brand new?
Q10:
1. Was Jefferson's locomotive-type boiler any good?
2. Did Jefferrson's locomotive-type boiler work well?
3. Did Jefferson purchase a well-functioning locomotive-type boiler?
Q11:
1. What was a purchase that Jefferson made, besides a centrifugal pump and locomotive-type boiler?
2. What was one thing that Jefferson bought, other than a centrifugal pump and locomotive-type boiler?
3. What was something that Jefferson acquired, in addition to the centrifugal pump and locomotive-type boiler?
Q12:
1. Did Jefferson have enough money for all of his purchases?
2. Did Jefferson have sufficient funds to cover all his purchases?
3. Was Jefferson able to financially cover everything he bought?
Q13:
1. Was Jefferson able to pay for repairs?
2. Did Jefferson have enough funds for repairs?
3. Did Jefferson have the necessary funds to cover repairs?
Q14:
1. How did Jefferson get the repairs done?
2. How was Jefferson able to cover the cost of repairs?
3. How did Jefferson manage to do repairs?
Q15:
1. Who helped Jefferson?
2. Who lent Jefferson a hand?
3. From whom did Jefferson receive aid?
