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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of His Unknown Wife, by Louis Tracy
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: His Unknown Wife
+
+Author: Louis Tracy
+
+Release Date: January 26, 2011 [EBook #35074]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HIS UNKNOWN WIFE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by D Alexander and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ HIS UNKNOWN WIFE
+
+ BY
+
+ LOUIS TRACY
+
+ AUTHOR OF
+
+ THE WINGS OF THE MORNING,
+ FLOWER OF THE GORSE, ETC.
+
+ NEW YORK
+ GROSSET & DUNLAP
+ PUBLISHERS
+
+
+
+
+ COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY
+ EDWARD J. CLODE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+SHARP WORK
+
+
+"Prisoner, attention! His excellency the President has permitted Señor
+Steinbaum to visit you."
+
+The "prisoner" was lying on his back on a plank bed, with his hands
+tucked beneath his head to obtain some measure of protection from the
+roll of rough fiber matting which formed a pillow. He did not pay the
+slightest heed to the half-caste Spanish jailer's gruff command. But the
+visitor's name stirred him. He turned his head, apparently to make sure
+that he was not being deceived, and rose on an elbow.
+
+"Hello, Steinbaum!" he said in English. "What's the swindle? Excuse this
+terseness, but I have to die in an hour, or even less, if a sunbeam
+hasn't misled me."
+
+"There's no swindle this time, Mr. Maseden," came the guttural answer.
+"I'm sorry I cannot help you, but I want you to do a good turn for a
+lady."
+
+"A lady! What lady?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"If _you_ don't know the lady that is a recommendation in itself. At any
+rate, what sort of good turn can a man condemned to death do for any
+lady?"
+
+"She wants to marry you."
+
+Then the man who, by his own showing, was rapidly nearing the close of
+his earthly career, sprang erect and looked so threatening that his
+visitor shrank back a pace, while the half-caste jailer's right hand
+clutched the butt of a revolver.
+
+"Whatever else I may have thought you, I never regarded you as a
+fool, Steinbaum," he said sternly. "Go away, man! Have you no sense
+of decency? You and that skunk Enrico Suarez, have done your worst
+against me and succeeded. When I am dead the 'state' will collar my
+property--and I am well aware that in this instance the 'state' will
+be represented by Señor Enrico Suarez and Mr. Fritz Steinbaum. You are
+about to murder and rob me. Can't you leave me in peace during the last
+few minutes of my life? Be off, or you may find that in coming here you
+have acted foolishly for once."
+
+"_Ach, was!_" sighed Steinbaum, nevertheless retreating another step
+towards the door and the watchful half-caste, who had been warned to
+shoot straight and quickly if the prisoner attacked the august person of
+the portly financier. "I tell you the truth, and you will not listen. It
+is as I say. A lady, a stranger, arrived in Cartagena last night. She
+heard of you this morning. She asked: 'Is he married, this American?'
+They said, 'No.' Then she came to me and begged me to use my influence
+with the President. She said: 'If this American gentleman is to be shot,
+I am sorry; but it cannot matter to him if he is married, and it will
+oblige me very much.' I told her--"
+
+The speaker's voice grew husky and he paused to clear his throat.
+Maseden smiled wanly at the mad absurdity of it, but he was beginning to
+believe some part of Steinbaum's story.
+
+"And what did you tell her?" he broke in.
+
+"I told her that you were Quixotic in some things, and you might agree."
+
+"But what on earth does the lady gain by it? Suarez and you will take
+mighty good care she doesn't get away with my ranch and money. Does she
+want my name?"
+
+"Perhaps."
+
+Maseden took thought a moment.
+
+"It has never been dishonored during my life," he said quietly. "I would
+need to be assured that it will not be smirched after my death."
+
+Steinbaum was stout. A certain anxiety to succeed in an extraordinary
+mission, joined to the warm, moist atmosphere of the cell, had induced a
+copious perspiration.
+
+"_Ach, Gott!_" he purred despairingly. "I know nothing. She told me
+nothing. She offered to pay me for the trouble--"
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"Why not? I run some risk in acting so. She is American, like yourself.
+She came to me--"
+
+"American, you say! Is she young?"
+
+"I think so. I have not seen her face. She wears a thick veil."
+
+Romance suddenly spread its fairy wings in that squalid South American
+prison-house. Maseden's spirit was fired to perform a last act of
+chivalry, of mercy, it might be, in behalf of some unhappy girl of his
+own race. The sheer folly of this amazing marriage moved him to grim
+mirth.
+
+"Very well," he said with a half-hearted laugh. "I'll do it! But, as
+_you_ are mixing the cards, Steinbaum, there must be a joker in the pack
+somewhere. I'm a pretty quick thinker, you know, and I shall probably
+see through your proposition before I die, though I am damned if I can
+size it up right off."
+
+"Mr. Maseden, I assure you, on my--well, you and I never were friends
+and never will be, but I have told you the real facts this time."
+
+"When is the wedding to take place?"
+
+"Now."
+
+"Great Scott! Did the lady come with you?"
+
+"Yes. She is here with a priest and a notary."
+
+Maseden peered over the jailer's shoulder into the whitewashed passage
+beyond the half-open door, as though he expected to find a shrouded
+figure standing there. Steinbaum interpreted his glance.
+
+"She is in the great hall," he said. "The guard is waiting at the end of
+the corridor."
+
+"Oh, it's to be a military wedding, then?"
+
+"Yes, in a sense."
+
+The younger man appreciated the nice distinction Steinbaum was drawing.
+The waiting "guard" was the firing-party.
+
+"What time is it?" he demanded, so sharply that the fat man started. For
+a skilled intriguer Steinbaum was ridiculously nervous.
+
+"A quarter past seven."
+
+"Allow me to put the question as delicately as possible, but--er--is
+there any extension of time beyond eight o'clock?"
+
+"Señor Suarez would not give one minute."
+
+"He knows about the ceremony, of course?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What a skunk the man is! How he must fear me! Such Spartan
+inflexibility is foreign to the Spanish nature.... By the way,
+Steinbaum, did you ever, in your innocent youth, hear the opera
+'Maritana,' or see a play called 'Don Cesar de Bazan'?"
+
+"Why waste time, Mr. Maseden?" cried the other impatiently. He loathed
+the environment of that dim cell, with its slightly foetid air,
+suggestive of yellow jack and dysentery. He was so obviously ill at
+ease, so fearful lest he should fail in an extraordinary negotiation,
+that, given less strenuous conditions, the younger man must have read
+more into the proposal than appeared on the face of it.
+
+But the sands of life were running short for Maseden. Outwardly cool and
+imperturbably American, his soul was in revolt. For all that he laughed
+cheerfully.
+
+"Waste time, indeed!" he cried. "I, who have less than forty-five
+minutes to live!... Now, these are my terms."
+
+"There are no terms," broke in Steinbaum harshly. "You oblige the lady,
+or you don't. Please yourself."
+
+"Ah, that's better. That sounds more like the hound that I know you are.
+Yet, I insist on my terms.
+
+"I was dragged out of bed in my pajamas at four o'clock this morning,
+and not even permitted to dress. They hardly waited to get me a pair of
+boots. I haven't a red cent in my pocket, which is a figure of speech,
+because I haven't a pocket. If you think you can borrow from an old
+comedy just so much of the situation as suits your purpose and disregard
+the costume and appearance of the star actor, you're mistaken.
+
+"I gather from your furious grunts that you don't understand me. Very
+well. I'll come straight to the point. If I am to marry the lady of your
+choice, I demand the right to appear at the altar decently clad and with
+enough good money in my pocket to stand a few bottles of wine to the
+gallant blackguards who are about to shoot me.
+
+"Those are my terms, Steinbaum. Take them or leave them! But don't
+accuse _me_ of wasting time. It's up to you to arrange the stage
+setting. I might have insisted on a shave, but I won't.
+
+"The lady will not expect me to kiss her, I suppose?... By gad, she must
+be a person of strange tastes. Why any young woman should want to marry
+a man because he's going to be shot half an hour later is one of those
+mysteries which the feminine mind may comprehend, but it's beyond me.
+However, that's her affair, not mine.
+
+"Now, Steinbaum, hurry up! _I'm_ talking for the mere sake of hearing my
+own voice, but _you're_ keeping the lady in suspense."
+
+Maseden had indeed correctly described his own attitude. He was wholly
+indifferent to the personal element in the bizarre compact proposed by
+his arch-enemy, on whom he had turned his back while speaking.
+
+The sight of a bloated, angry, perplexed face of the coarsest type was
+mentally disturbing. He elected rather to watch the shaft of sunlight
+coming through the long, narrow slit in a four-foot wall which served as
+a window. He knew that his cell was on the northeast side of the prison,
+and the traveling sunbeam had already marked the flight of time with
+sufficient accuracy since he was thrust into that dismal place.
+
+He had been sentenced to death just one hour and a half after being
+arrested. The evidence, like the trial, was a travesty of justice. His
+excellency Don Enrico Suarez, elected president of the Republic of San
+Juan at midnight, and confirmed in power by the bullet which removed his
+predecessor, wreaked vengeance speedily on the American intruder who had
+helped to mar his schemes twice in two years.
+
+There would be a diplomatic squabble about the judicial murder of a
+citizen of the United States, of course. The American and British
+consuls would protest, and both countries would dispatch warships to
+Cartagena, which was at once the capital of the republic and its chief
+port. But of what avail such wrangling after one was dead?
+
+Dead, at twenty-eight, when the world was bright and fortune was
+apparently smiling! Dead, because he supported dear old Domenico
+Valdes, the murdered president, and one of the few honest, God-fearing
+men in a rotten little South American state which would have been swept
+out of putrid existence long ago were it not for the policy of the
+Monroe Doctrine. Maseden knew that no power on earth would save him now,
+because Suarez and he could not exist in the same community, and Suarez
+was supreme in the Republic of San Juan--supreme, that is, until some
+other cut-throat climbed to the presidency over a rival's corpse.
+Steinbaum, a crafty person who played the game of high politics with
+some ability and seldom failed to advance his own and his allies'
+interests, had backed Suarez financially and would become his jackal for
+the time.
+
+It was rather surprising that such a master-plotter should have admitted
+a fore-knowledge of Maseden's fate, and this element in the situation
+suddenly dawned on Maseden himself. The arrest, the trial, and the
+condemnation were alike kept secret.
+
+The American consul, a Portuguese merchant, possessed enough backbone to
+demand the postponement of the execution until he had communicated with
+Washington, and in this action he would have been supported by the
+representative of Great Britain. But he would know nothing about the
+judicial crime until it was an accomplished fact.
+
+How, then, had some enterprising young lady--
+
+"By the way, Steinbaum, you might explain--"
+
+Maseden swung on his heel; the matrimonial agent had vanished.
+
+"The señor signified that he would return soon," said the jailer.
+
+"He's gone for the clothes!" mused Maseden, his thoughts promptly
+reverting to the fantastic marriage project. "The sly old fox is
+devilish anxious to get me spliced before my number goes up. I wonder
+why? And where in the world will he raise a suitable rig? Hang it all, I
+wish I had a little longer to live. This business becomes more
+interesting every minute!"
+
+Though he was sure the attempt would be hopeless, Maseden resolved to
+make one last effort. He looked the half-caste squarely in the face.
+
+"Get me out of this before Señor Steinbaum comes back and I'll give you
+twenty thousand dollars gold," he said quietly.
+
+The man met his glance without flinching.
+
+"I could not help you, señor, if you paid me a million dollars," he
+answered. "It is your life or mine--those are my orders. And it is
+useless to think of attacking me," he added, because for one moment
+black despair scowled menacingly from Maseden's strong features. "There
+are ten men at each door of the corridor ready to shoot you at the least
+sign of any attempt to escape."
+
+"The preparations for the wedding are fairly complete, then?"
+
+Maseden spoke Spanish fluently, and the half-caste grinned at the joke.
+
+"It will soon be over, señor," was all he could find to say.
+
+The condemned man knew that the fellow was not to be bribed at the cost
+of his own life. He turned again and grew interested once more in the
+shaft of sunlight. How quickly it moved! He calculated that before it
+reached a certain crack in the masonry he would have passed into
+"yesterday's seven thousand years."
+
+It was not a pleasing conceit. In self-defense, as it were, he bent his
+wits on to the proposed marriage. He was half inclined to regret the
+chivalrous impulse which spurred him to agree to it. Yet there was a
+spice of humor in the fact that a man who was regarded as an inveterate
+woman-hater by the dusky young ladies of San Juan should be led to the
+altar literally at the eleventh hour.
+
+What manner of woman could this unknown bride be? What motive swayed
+her? Perhaps it was better not to ask. But if the knot were tied by a
+priest, a notary and a European financier, it was evidently intended to
+be a valid undertaking.
+
+And why was Steinbaum so interested? Was the would-be Mrs. Maseden so
+well endowed with this world's goods that she spared no expense in
+attaining her object?
+
+The most contrary emotions surged through Maseden's conscience. He was
+by turns curious, sympathetic, suspicious, absurdly eager to learn more.
+
+In this last mood he resolved to have one straight look at the lady.
+Surely a man was entitled to see his bride's face! Yes, come what might,
+he would insist that she must raise the "thick, white veil" which had
+hitherto screened her features from Steinbaum's goggle eyes--supposing,
+that is, the rascal had told the truth.
+
+A hinge creaked, and the half-caste announced that the señor was
+returning. In a few seconds Steinbaum panted in. He was carrying a
+gorgeous uniform of sky-blue cloth with facings of silver braid. As he
+dumped a pair of brilliant patent-leather top-boots on the stone floor a
+glittering helmet fell from among the clothes and rolled to Maseden's
+feet.
+
+"See here, Steinbaum, what tomfoolery is this?" cried the American
+wrathfully.
+
+"It is your tomfoolery, not mine," came the heated retort. "Where am I
+to get a suit of clothes for you? These will fit, I think. I borrowed
+them from the President's _aide-de-camp_, Captain Ferdinando Gomez."
+
+Maseden knew Captain Gomez--a South American dandy of the first water.
+For the moment the ludicrous side of the business banished all other
+considerations.
+
+"What!" he laughed, "am I to be married in the giddy rig of the biggest
+ass in Cartagena? Well, I give in. As I'm to be shot at eight,
+Ferdinando's fine feathers will be in a sad mess, because I'll not take
+'em off again unless I'm undressed forcibly. Good Lord! Does my unknown
+bride realize what sort of rare bird she's going to espouse?...
+
+"Yes, yes, we're losing time. Chuck over those pants. Gomez is not quite
+my height, but his togs may be O. K."
+
+As a matter of fact, Philip Alexander Maseden looked a very fine
+figure of a man when arrayed in all the glory of the presidential
+_aide-de-camp_. The only trouble was that the elegant top-boots were
+confoundedly tight, being, in truth, a size too small for their vain
+owner; but the bridegroom-elect put up with this inconvenience.
+
+He had not far to walk. A few steps to the right lay the "great hall"
+in which, according to Steinbaum, the ceremony would take place. Very
+little farther to the left was the enclosed _patio_, or courtyard, in
+which he would be shot within thirty minutes!
+
+"I'm dashed if I feel a bit like dying," he said, as he strode by
+Steinbaum's side along the outer corridor. "If the time was about
+fourteen hours later I might imagine I was going to a fancy dress ball,
+though I wouldn't be able to dance much in these confounded boots."
+
+The stout financier made no reply. He was singularly ill at ease. Any
+critical onlooker, not cognizant of the facts, would take him and not
+Maseden to be the man condemned to death.
+
+A heavy, iron-clamped door leading to the row of cells was wide open.
+Some soldiers, lined up close to it in the hall, were craning their
+necks to catch a first glimpse of the Americano who was about to marry
+and die in the same breath, so to speak.
+
+Beyond, near a table in the center of the spacious chamber, stood a
+group that arrested the eye--a Spanish priest, in vestments of
+semi-state; an olive-skinned man whom Maseden recognized as a legal
+practitioner of fair repute in a community where chicanery flourished,
+and a slenderly-built woman of middle height, though taller than either
+of her companions, whose stylish coat and skirt of thin, gray cloth,
+and smart shoes tied with little bows of black ribbon, were strangely
+incongruous with the black lace mantilla which draped her head and
+shoulders, and held in position a double veil tied firmly beneath her
+chin.
+
+Maseden was so astonished at discovering the identity of the lawyer that
+he momentarily lost interest in the mysterious woman who would soon be
+his wife.
+
+"Señor Porilla!" he cried. "I am glad you are here. Do you understand--"
+
+"It is forbidden!" hissed Steinbaum. "One more word, and back you go to
+your cell!"
+
+"Oh, is that part of the compact?" said Maseden cheerfully. "Well, well!
+We must not make matters unpleasant for a lady--must we, Steinbaum?...
+Now, madam, raise your veil, and let me at least have the honor of
+knowing what sort of person the future Mrs. Philip Alexander Maseden
+will be!"
+
+The only answer was a stifled but quite audible sob, and Maseden had an
+impression that the lady might put a summary stop to the proceedings by
+fainting.
+
+Steinbaum, however, had recovered his nerve in the stronger light of the
+great hall, especially since the soldiers had gathered around.
+
+"The señora declines to unveil," he growled in Spanish. "Begin, _padre_!
+There is not a moment to spare."
+
+The ecclesiastic opened a book and plunged forthwith into the marriage
+service. Maseden was aware that the shrinking figure by his side was
+trembling violently, and a wave of pity for her surged through his
+heart.
+
+"Cheer up!" he whispered. "It's only a matter of form, anyhow; and I'm
+glad to be able to help you. I don't care a red cent what your motive
+is."
+
+Steinbaum gurgled ominously, and the bridegroom said no more. Clearly,
+though he had given no bond, he was imperiling the fulfillment of this
+unhappy girl's desire if he talked.
+
+But he kept his wits alert. It was evident that the lady understood
+little Latin and no Spanish. She was quite unable to follow the sonorous
+phrases. When the portly priest, who seemed to have small relish for the
+part he was compelled to play in this amazing marriage, asked Maseden if
+he would have "this woman" to be his wedded wife, the bridegroom
+answered "Yes," in Spanish; but a similar question addressed to the
+bride found her dumb.
+
+"Say 'I will,'" murmured Maseden in her ear.
+
+She turned slightly. At that instant their heads came close together,
+and the long, unfamiliar fragrance of a woman's well-tended hair reached
+him.
+
+It had an extraordinary effect. Memories of his mother, of a simple
+old-world dwelling in a Vermont village, rushed in on him with an
+almost overwhelming force.
+
+His superb self-possession nearly gave way. He felt that he might break
+down under the intolerable strain.
+
+He feared, during a few seconds of anguish, that he might reveal his
+heartache to these men of inferior races.
+
+Then the pride of a regal birthright came to his aid, and a species of
+most vivid and poignant consciousness succeeded. He heard Steinbaum's
+gruff sponsorship for the bride, obeyed smilingly when told to take her
+right hand in his right hand, and looked with singular intentness at the
+long, straight, artistic fingers which he held.
+
+It was a beautifully modeled hand, well kept, but cold and tremulous.
+The queer conceit leaped up in him that though he might never look on
+the face of his wedded wife he would know that hand if they met again
+only at the Judgment Seat!
+
+Then, in a dazed way which impressed the onlookers as the height of
+American nonchalance, he said, after the celebrant: "I, Philip
+Alexander, take thee, Madeleine--"
+
+Madeleine! So that was the Christian name of the woman whom he was
+taking "till death do us part," for the Spanish liturgy provided almost
+an exact equivalent of the English service. Madeleine! He had never
+even known any girl of the name. Somehow, he liked it. Outwardly so
+calm, he was inwardly aflame with a new longing for life and all that
+life meant.
+
+His jumbled wits were peremptorily recalled to the demands of the moment
+by the would-be bride's failure to repeat her share of the marriage vow,
+when it became her turn to take Maseden's hand.
+
+The priest nodded, and Steinbaum, now carrying himself with a certain
+truculence, essayed to lead the girl's faltering tongue through the
+Spanish phrases.
+
+"The lady must understand what she is saying," broke in Maseden,
+dominating the gruff man by sheer force of will.
+
+"Now," he said, and his voice grew gentle as he turned to the woman he
+had just promised "to have and to hold," "to love and cherish," and
+thereto plighted his troth--"when the priest pauses, I will translate,
+and you must speak the words aloud."
+
+He listened, in a waking trance, to the clear, well-bred accents of a
+woman of his own people uttering the binding pledge of matrimony. The
+Spanish sentences recalled the English version, which he supplied with
+singular accuracy, seeing that he had only attended two weddings
+previously, and those during his boyhood.
+
+"Madeleine"--he would learn her surname when he signed the register--was
+obviously hard pressed to retain her senses till the end. She was
+sobbing pitifully, and the knowledge that her distress was induced by
+the fate immediately in store for the man whom she was espousing "by
+God's holy ordinance" tested Maseden's steel nerve to the very limit of
+endurance.
+
+But he held on with that tenacious chivalry which is the finest
+characteristic of his class, and even smiled at Steinbaum's fumbling in
+a waistcoat pocket for a ring. He was putting the ring on the fourth
+finger of his wife's left hand and pronouncing the last formula of the
+ceremony, when he caught an agonized whisper:
+
+"Please, _please_, forgive me! I cannot help myself. I am--more than
+sorry for you. I shall pray for you--and think of you--always!"
+
+And it was in that instant, while breathlessly catching each syllable of
+a broken plea for sympathy and gage of lasting remembrance, that
+Maseden's bemused faculties saw a means of saving his life.
+
+Though a forlorn hope, at the best, with a hundred chances of failure
+against one of success, he would seize that hundredth chance. What
+matter if he were shot at quarter to eight instead of at eight o'clock?
+Steel before, he was unemotional as marble now, a man of stone with a
+brain of diamond clarity.
+
+If events followed their normal and reasonable course, he would be free
+of these accursed walls within a few minutes. Come what might, he would
+strike a lusty blow for freedom. If he failed, and sank into eternal
+night, one or more of the half-caste hirelings now so ready to fulfill
+the murderous schemes of President Suarez and his henchman Steinbaum
+would escort an American's spirit to the realm beyond the shadows.
+
+He did not stop to think that an unknown woman's strange whim should
+have made possible that which, without her presence in his prison-house,
+was absolutely impossible; still less did he trouble as to the future,
+immediate or remote. His mind's eye was fixed on a sunbeam creeping
+stealthily towards a crack in the masonry of that detestable cell.
+
+He meant to cheat that sunbeam, one way or the other!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+TIME _VERSUS_ ETERNITY
+
+
+Henceforth Maseden concentrated all his faculties on the successful
+performance of the trick which might win him clear of the castle of San
+Juan. Nothing in the wide world mattered less to him than that the
+newly-made bride should stoop to sign the register after he had done so,
+or that by turning to address Steinbaum he was deliberately throwing
+away the opportunity thus afforded of learning her surname.
+
+When an avowed enemy first broached the subject of this extraordinary
+marriage, he had made a bitter jest on the use in real life of a
+well-worn histrionic situation. And now, perforce, he had become an
+actor of rare merit. Each look, each word must lead up to the grand
+climax. The penalty of failure was not the boredom of an audience, but
+death; such a "curtain" would sharpen the dullest wits, and Maseden, if
+wholly innocent of stage experience hitherto, was not dull.
+
+He scored his first point while the bride was signing her name. Beaming
+on Steinbaum, he said cheerfully:
+
+"I bargained for money, Shylock. You've had your pound of flesh. Where
+are my ducats?"
+
+Steinbaum produced a ten-dollar bill. He even forced a smile. Seemingly
+he was anxious to keep the prisoner in this devil-may-care mood.
+
+"Not half enough!" cried Maseden, and he broke into Spanish.
+
+"Hi, my gallant _caballeros_, isn't there another squad in the _patio_?"
+
+"_Si, señor!_" cried several voices.
+
+Even these crude, half-caste soldiers revealed the Latin sense of the
+dramatic and picturesque. They appreciated the American's cavalier air.
+That morning's doings would lose naught in the telling when the story
+spread through the cafés of Cartagena.
+
+And what a story they would have to tell! Little could they guess its
+scope, its sensations yet to come.
+
+"Very well, then! At least another ten-spot, Steinbaum.... But, mind
+you, sergeant, not a drop till the volley is fired! You might miss, you
+know!"
+
+The man whom he addressed as sergeant eyed the two notes with an amiable
+grin.
+
+"You will feel nothing, señor--we promise you that," he said wondering,
+perhaps, why the prisoner did not bestow the largesse at once.
+
+"Excellent! Lead on, friend! I want my last few minutes to myself."
+
+"There are some documents to complete," put in Steinbaum hastily, with a
+quick hand-flourish to the notary.
+
+Señor Porilla spread two legal-looking parchments on the table.
+
+"These are conveyances of your property to your wife," he explained. "I
+am instructed to see that everything is done in accordance with the laws
+of the Republic. By these deeds you--"
+
+"Hand over everything to the lady. Is _that_ it? I understand. Where do
+I sign? Here? Thank you. And here? Nothing else ... Mrs. Maseden, I have
+given you my name and all my worldly goods. Pray make good use of both
+endowments.... Now, I demand to be left alone."
+
+Without so much as a farewell glance at his wife, who, to keep herself
+from falling, was leaning on the table, he strode off in the direction
+of the corridor into which his cell opened. It was a vital part of his
+scheme that he should enter first.
+
+The jailer would have left the door open. Maseden was determined that it
+should be closed.
+
+Captain Gomez's tight boots pinched his toes cruelly as he walked, but
+he recked little of that minor inconvenience at the moment. In four or
+five rapid paces he reached the doorway and passed through it. There he
+turned with his right hand on the door itself, and his left hand,
+carrying the helmet, raised in a parting salute. He smiled most affably,
+and, of set purpose, spoke in Spanish.
+
+"Good-by, señora!" he said. "Farewell, gentlemen! I shall remember this
+pleasant gathering as long as I live!"
+
+The half-caste was at his prisoner's side, and enjoying the episode
+thoroughly. He would swill his share of the wine, of course, and the
+hour of the _siesta_ should find him comfortably drunk.
+
+Maseden flourished his left hand again, and the plumed helmet
+temporarily obscured the jailer's vision. The door swung on its hinges.
+The lock clashed. In the same instant the American's clenched right fist
+landed on the half-caste's jaw, finding with scientific accuracy the
+cluster of nerves which the world of pugilism terms "the point."
+
+It was a perfect blow, clean and hard, delivered by an athlete. Out of
+the tail of his eye, Maseden had seen _where_ to hit. He knew _how_ to
+hit already, and put every ounce of his weight, each shred of his boxing
+knowledge, into that one punch.
+
+It had to be a complete "knock-out," or his plan miscarried. A cry, a
+struggle, a revolver shot, would have brought a score of assailants
+thundering on each door.
+
+As it happened, however, the hapless Spaniard collapsed as though he
+were struck dead by heart-failure or apoplexy. Maseden caught the inert
+body before it reached the stone floor, and carried it swiftly into the
+cell. Improvising a gag out of his discarded pajamas, he bound the
+half-caste's hands and feet together behind his back, utilizing the
+man's own leather belt for the purpose.
+
+These things were done swiftly but without nervous haste. The very
+essence of the plan was the conviction that no forward step should be
+taken without making sure that the prior moves were complete and
+thorough.
+
+He had detached from the jailer's belt a chain carrying a bunch of
+keys and the revolver in its leather holster. Before slipping this
+latter over the belt he was wearing, he examined it. Though somewhat
+old-fashioned, it seemed to be thoroughly serviceable, and held six
+cartridges with bull-nose bullets of heavy caliber.
+
+Then he searched the unconscious man's pockets for cigarettes and
+matches. Here he encountered an unforeseen delay. Every Spaniard carries
+either cigarettes or the materials for rolling them, but this fellow
+seemed to be an exception.
+
+Now, a cigarette formed an almost indispensable item in Maseden's
+scheme; but time was even more precious, and he was about to abandon the
+search when he noticed that one button-hole of the jailer's tunic was
+far more frayed than any other. He tore open the coat, and found both
+cigarettes and matches in an inside breast pocket.
+
+Not one man in a million, in similar conditions, would have been
+cool-headed enough to observe such a trivial detail as a frayed
+button-hole.
+
+Next he examined the bunch of keys, and came to the conclusion, rightly
+as it transpired, that the same large key fitted the locks of both
+doors; which, however, were heavily barred by external draw-bolts.
+
+Jamming on the helmet--like the glittering boots, it was a size too
+small--he lowered the chin-strap, lighted a cigarette, and limped
+quickly along the corridor towards the _patio_, which filled a square
+equal in size to the area of the great hall.
+
+As he left the cell he heard the half-caste's breathing become more
+regular. The man would soon recover his senses. Would the gag prove
+effective? Maseden dared not wait to make sure.
+
+He could have induced a more lasting silence, but even life itself might
+be purchased too dearly; he took the risk of a speedy uproar.
+
+Unlocking the door, with a confident rattling of keys and chain, he
+shouted:
+
+"Hi, guards! Draw the bolts!"
+
+The soldiers in the _patio_ were ready for some such summons, though the
+hour was slightly in advance of the time fixed for the American's
+execution, so the order was obeyed with alacrity. Maseden appeared in
+the doorway, taking care that the door did not swing far back. He blew a
+great cloud of smoke; growled over his shoulder: "I'll return in five
+minutes," pulled the door to, and swaggered past the waiting troops, not
+forgetting to salute as they shouldered their rifles.
+
+A long time afterwards he learned that he actually owed his escape to
+Captain Ferdinando Gomez's tight boots. One of the men was observant,
+and inclined to be skeptical.
+
+"Who's that?" he said. "Not el Capitan Ferdinando, I'll swear!"
+
+"Idiot!" grinned another. "Look at his limp! He pinches his toes till he
+can hardly walk."
+
+At the gateway, or porch, leading to the _patio_, stood a sentry, who,
+luckily, was gazing seaward. Maseden conserved the cigarette for another
+volume of smoke, and pulled down the chin-strap determinedly.
+
+He got beyond this dragon without any difficulty. Indeed, the man was
+taken by surprise, and only noticed him when he had gone by.
+
+Maseden was now in a graveled square. Behind him, and to the left, stood
+the time-darkened walls of the old Spanish fortress. In front, broken
+only by a line of trees and the squat humps of six antiquated cannons,
+sparkled the blue expanse of the Pacific. To the right lay the port, the
+new town, and such measure of freedom as he might win.
+
+He had yet to pass the main entrance to the castle, where, in addition
+to a sentry, would surely be stationed some sharp-eyed servants, each
+and all on the _qui vive_ at that early hour, and stirred to unusual
+activity by the morning's news, because Cartagena regarded a change of
+president by means of a revolution as a sort of movable holiday.
+
+At this crisis, luck befriended him. In the shade of the trees opposite
+the main gate was an orderly holding a horse. The animal's trappings
+showed that it did not belong to a private soldier, and the fact that
+the man stood to attention as Maseden approached seemed to indicate that
+which was actually the fact--the charger belonged to none other than the
+president's _aide-de-camp_.
+
+Fortune seldom bestows her favors in what the casino-jargon of Monte
+Carlo describes as "intermittent sequences," or, in plain language,
+alternate _coups_ of red and black, successive strokes of good and bad
+luck. The fickle goddess rather inclines to runs on a color. Having
+brought Maseden to the very brink of the grave, she had decided to help
+him now.
+
+As it turned out, Gomez's soldier servant had been injured during the
+overnight disturbance, and the deputy was a newcomer.
+
+He saluted, held bridle and stirrup while Maseden mounted, and strolled
+casually across the square to inquire whether he ought to wait or go
+back to his quarters. He succeeded in puzzling the very sergeant who was
+mentally contriving the best means of securing the lion's, or
+sergeant's, share of twenty dollars' worth of wine.
+
+"Captain Gomez has not gone out," snapped the calculator. "Get out of
+the way! Don't stand there like the ears of a donkey! I have occupation.
+The Señor Steinbaum is putting a lady into his car, and she is very
+ill."
+
+So the trooper was unceremoniously brushed aside. A little later he
+might have reminded the sergeant of the folly of counting chickens
+before the eggs are hatched.
+
+Maseden was a first-rate horseman, but, owing to the discomfort of
+excruciatingly tight boots and a wobbly helmet, he did not enjoy the
+first half mile of a fast gallop down the winding road which he was
+obliged to follow before he could strike into the country. Beneath, to
+the left, and on a plateau in front, were respectively the ancient and
+modern sections of Cartagena. But, having succeeded thus far, he had
+made up his mind inflexibly as to the course he would pursue.
+
+He meant to reach his own ranch, twelve miles inland, within the hour.
+He reckoned that, in the easy-going South American way, it would not be
+occupied as yet by an armed guard. An officer had rummaged among his
+papers that morning, but came away with the others.
+
+In any event, in that direction, and there only, lay any real chance of
+ultimate safety.
+
+On his estate there were two men at least in whom he might place trust;
+and even if he could not enter the house, one of them might obtain for
+him the clothes and money without which he had not the remotest prospect
+of getting away alive from the Republic of San Juan.
+
+He had pocketed Steinbaum's twenty dollars in order to hire a horse, but
+the unwitting hospitality of Captain Gomez had provided him with a
+better animal than was to be picked up at the nearest _posada_. Indeed,
+with the exception of an automobile, a luxury that was few and far
+between in Cartagena, he could not have secured a swifter or more
+reliable conveyance than this very steed, which would cover the twelve
+miles in less than an hour, and had also saved him a quarter of an
+hour's running walk, an experience savoring of Chinese torture when
+undertaken in tight boots.
+
+The notion of possible pursuit by a party of soldiers in a car had
+barely occurred to him when he heard the rapid panting of an automobile
+in the rear.
+
+He slackened pace, took a shorter grip of the reins, and loosened the
+revolver in its case. Flight was ridiculous, unless he made across
+country; a last resource, involving a fatal loss of time.
+
+He took nothing for granted. Steinbaum was one of the half-dozen
+car-owners in Cartagena, and this was surely he, escorting Señor Porilla
+and the lady back to the town.
+
+They might pass him without recognition. If they didn't, he would shoot
+Steinbaum and put a bullet into a tire. There would be no half measures.
+Suarez and his ally had declared war on him to the death, and war they
+would have without stint or quarter.
+
+It was a ticklish moment when the fast-running car drew near. Maseden
+affected to bend over and examine the horse's fore action, as though he
+suspected lameness or a loose shoe. He gave one swift underlook into the
+limousine as it sped by and fancied he saw Porilla, seated with his
+back to the engine, bending forward.
+
+That was all. The car raced on and was speedily lost in a dust-cloud.
+
+So far, so good. He was dodging peril in the hairbreadth fashion
+popularly ascribed to warriors on a stricken field. Yet his mount was
+hardly in a canter again before he was plunged without warning into the
+most ticklish dilemma of all.
+
+Steinbaum's car had just turned to the left, where the road bifurcated a
+few hundred yards ahead, when another car came flying down the other
+road--that which the fugitive himself must take for nearly half a mile;
+and this second menace harbored no less a personage than Don Enrico
+Suarez, president of the Republic of San Juan!
+
+It was an open car, too, and the president was seated alone in the
+tonneau.
+
+Maseden jumped to the instant conclusion that his enemy was hurrying to
+witness his execution, probably to jeer at him for having ventured to
+cross the predestined path of a conqueror. But, even though he passed,
+Suarez would know that the gaily bedizened horseman was not his
+glittering _aide-de-camp_.
+
+To permit the president to reach the Castle meant the beginning of an
+irresistible pursuit within five minutes. However, that consideration
+did not bother the Vermonter if for no better reason than that he was
+determined it should not come into play.
+
+He smiled thoughtfully, adjusted the helmet once more, and voiced his
+sentiments aloud.
+
+"Good!" he said. "This time, Enrico, you and I square accounts!"
+
+Pulling up, he took the middle of the road, wheeling the horse "half
+left," and holding up his right hand. The chauffeur saw him, slackened
+speed, and finally halted within a distance of a few feet. From first to
+last, the man regarded the newcomer as being Captain Gomez. The
+wind-screen was up, and the roads were dust-laden, so he could not see
+with absolute accuracy. Moreover, events followed each other so rapidly
+that he was given no chance to correct an erroneous first impression.
+
+The car being stopped, Maseden moved on, passing by the left. Drawing
+the revolver, he fired at the front right-hand tire at such close range
+that it was impossible to miss. The reports of the weapon and the
+bursting tube were simultaneous.
+
+The next shot would have lodged in the president's heart if the startled
+horse had not swerved. As it was, quite a nasty hole was torn in the
+presidential anatomy; Suarez, himself fumbling for an automatic pistol,
+sank back in the tonneau a severely if not mortally wounded man.
+
+For one fateful instant, the eyes of the two had met and clashed, and
+recognition was mutual.
+
+A third bullet plowed through the back right-hand tire, and Maseden
+galloped off, the horse being only too eager to get away from the
+racket.
+
+The American did not look behind to ascertain what the chauffeur was
+doing. It really did not matter a great deal. Speed and direction were
+the paramount conditions during the next fifty minutes. The die was cast
+now beyond all hope of revocation. He was at war with the Republic, and,
+although he had rendered its citizens a valuable service in shooting
+their rascally president, they might not regard the incident in its
+proper light until a period far too late to benefit the philanthropist.
+
+As a matter of fact, interesting historically and otherwise, the
+chauffeur was convinced that Captain Ferdinando Gomez had assassinated
+his master, and said so, with many oaths, when he summoned assistance
+from a neighboring house. It may also be placed on record here that
+about the same time the gallant _aide-de-camp_ had come to suspect that
+his beautiful uniform, if not returned promptly, might be sadly smirched
+by a score of bullets, with accessories; and was kicking up a fearful
+row because no one could get at the jailer and rescue that gala costume
+before the prisoner was led forth to execution.
+
+In a word, the Republic's presidential affairs were greatly mixed, and
+remained in inextricable confusion until long after Maseden drew rein on
+a blown horse at the gate of his own _estancia_.
+
+The ranch, known as Los Andes, and one of the finest estates in San
+Juan, provided the original bone of contention between Maseden and
+Suarez. It had been built up, during thirty lazy years, by a distant
+cousin of Suarez, an elderly bachelor, who grew coffee and maize, and
+reared stock in a haphazard way.
+
+Seven years earlier he had met the young American in New York, took a
+liking to him, and offered to employ him as overseer while teaching him
+the business. The pupil soon became the instructor. Scientific methods
+were introduced, direct markets were tapped, and the produce of the
+estate was quadrupled within a few seasons.
+
+Then the older man died, and left the ranch and its contents to his
+assistant. There was not much money--the capital was sunk in stock and
+improvement--so a number of free and independent burghers of Cartagena
+received smaller amounts than they expected.
+
+Suarez was one of the beneficiaries, seven in all. Six took the
+situation calmly. He alone was irreconcilable, and blustered about legal
+proceedings, only desisting when persuaded that he had no case, even for
+the venal courts of San Juan.
+
+And now, on that sultry January morning, the lawful owner of the Los
+Andes ranch, while awaiting the appearance of a peon, who, he knew, was
+tending some cattle in a byre behind the lodge, was wondering whether or
+not he might urge a tired charger into a final canter to the door of his
+own house without bringing about a pitched battle when he arrived there.
+
+At last came Pedro--every second man in South America is named after the
+chief of the Apostles--a brown, lithe, Indian-looking person. But he was
+Spanish enough in the expression of his emotions.
+
+"By the eleven thousand virgins!" he cried joyously, after a first stare
+of incredulity, for the eyes rolled in his head at sight of Maseden's
+garb, "it is not true, then, master, that you are a prisoner!"
+
+"Who says that I am?" inquired Maseden.
+
+"They say it up there at the _estancia_, señor," and Pedro jerked a
+thumb towards an avenue of mahogany trees.
+
+"They say? Who say?"
+
+Pedro was scared, but Maseden had taught his helpers to answer
+truthfully.
+
+"Old Lopez said it, señor. He told me the president's men had charged
+him to touch nothing till they returned."
+
+Maseden's heart throbbed more furiously at that reply than at aught
+which had befallen him during the few pregnant hours since dawn.
+
+"Those rascals have gone, then?" he said, so placidly that the peon was
+bewildered.
+
+"_Si, señor._ Did they not go with you?"
+
+"Yes. I was not sure of all.... Close and lock the gate, Pedro. Leave
+other things. Saddle your mustang and mount guard at the bend in the
+avenue, from which you can watch the Cartagena road. If you see horses,
+or an automobile, coming this way, ride to the house and tell me."
+
+"_Si, señor._"
+
+Pedro hurried off. Maseden rode on at the best pace the spent horse was
+capable of. He might lose a potential fortune--though the shooting of
+Suarez should remove the worst of the hostile influences arrayed against
+him--but surely he could now save his life.
+
+He had never realized how dear life was at twenty-eight until that
+morning. Hitherto he had given no thought to it. Now he wanted to live
+till he was eighty!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+ADIOS, SAN JUAN
+
+
+Suarez was not dead. He was not even dangerously wounded. A two-ounce
+bullet had dealt an upper left rib a blow like the kick of a horse, but
+at such an angle that the bone deflected its flight. Consequently, a
+fractured sternal costa, loss of blood, and a most painful flesh wound
+formed for Suarez the collective outcome of Maseden's disturbed aiming.
+
+In effect, the president regained consciousness about the time Captain
+Gomez had succeeded in persuading several members of the new government
+that it was not he, but an escaped prisoner, who had so grievously
+maltreated the head of the Republic.
+
+A doctor announced that Señor Suarez must be given complete rest and
+freedom from public affairs during the ensuing week or ten days. Even
+the wrathful president himself, after making known the true identity of
+his assailant, felt that he had no option other than placing the affairs
+of the nation temporarily in the hands of his associates.
+
+He made the best of an awkward situation, therefore, and issued a
+vainglorious decree announcing the change.
+
+Now, even San Juan could not provide a second revolution within
+twelve hours. States, like human beings, can experience a surfeit
+of excitement; moreover, the next gang of office-seekers had not yet
+emerged from the welter of parties. Sometimes, too, in South America,
+a disabled president is preferable to an active one, because the
+heads of departments can do a little pilfering on their own account.
+
+So San Juan became virtuously indignant over the "attempted
+assassination" of that renowned "liberator," Enrico Suarez. A hue and
+cry was raised for the scoundrelly American, several supporters of real
+law and order in the State were arrested, and cavalry and police rode
+forth on Maseden's trail.
+
+This planning and scheming and explaining consumed valuable time,
+however. It was high noon when a party of horsemen, headed by a
+well-informed guide, in the person of the ranch superintendent, "old"
+Lopez, tore along the avenue of mahogany trees at Los Andes.
+
+Lopez, a wizened, shrewd, and sufficiently trustworthy half-breed, was
+not betraying his employer. He was merely carrying out explicit
+instructions. Maseden had no desire to place his faithful servants in
+the power of the Cartagena harpies. He was literally fighting for his
+life now. He meant to meet violence with greater violence, guile with
+deeper guile.
+
+When a Covenanter buckles on the sword, let professional swashbucklers
+take heed; when an honest man plots, let rogues beware. A clear-headed
+American, armed against oppression, can be at once a most lusty warrior
+and the astutest of strategists.
+
+"It is the unexpected that happens," said Disraeli in one of his
+happiest epigrams. A few strenuous hours spent in the Republic of San
+Juan in Maseden's plight would have yielded the cynic material for a
+dozen like quips, if he had survived the experience.
+
+When Maseden reached the _estancia_ he was received by Lopez with even
+greater amazement than was displayed by the peon. Being a privileged
+person, the old fellow expressed himself in absolutely untranslatable
+language. After a lurid preamble, he went on:
+
+"But, thanks to the heavenly ones, I see you again, señor, safe and
+sound, though in a strange livery. Is it true, then, that the president
+is dead?"
+
+"Yes. Both of them, I believe."
+
+Maseden laughed wearily. He was tired, and the day was only beginning.
+He knew, of course, that Lopez meant Valdez, having probably, as yet,
+not so much as heard of Suarez as chief of the Republic.
+
+"I'll explain matters," he said. "Stand by to catch me if I fall when I
+dismount. The devil take all dudes and their vanities! These boots have
+nearly killed me."
+
+In a minute the offending jack boots were off and flung into the
+veranda, the helmet after them. The horse was given over to the care of
+a peon, and Maseden went to his bedroom.
+
+A glance at a big safe showed that the letter lock had defied curiosity,
+and no serious attempt had been made to force it. He saw that the
+drawers in a bureau in the adjoining room had been ransacked hastily.
+Probably, the new president's emissaries were instructed to look for a
+list of "conspirators"--of well-affected citizens, that is--who meant to
+support the honorable _régime_ of Valdez.
+
+"Now, listen while I talk," said Maseden, tearing open the tight-fitting
+blue coat. "I can put faith in you, I suppose?"
+
+"Señor--"
+
+"Yes, I take it for granted. Besides, if you stick to me you may come
+out on top yourself. Valdez is dead. He was murdered last night, and
+Enrico Suarez stepped into his shoes.... Oh, I know Enrico's real name,
+but I haven't a second to spare. I was sentenced to death early this
+morning, and married about an hour ago, just before being taken out to
+be shot.... Well, I got away; how--is of no concern to you. In fact, it
+is better that you shouldn't know.
+
+"A lady will come into possession here. She will call herself the Señora
+Maseden. Señor Porilla will introduce her. She and the lawyer are
+playing some game to suit Suarez and Steinbaum, the German consul at
+Cartagena. My escape may bother them a bit, but I cannot guess just how
+things will work out. What orders did Enrico's lieutenant give you?"
+
+The foreman's wits were rather mixed by his master's extraordinary
+budget of news, but he answered readily.
+
+"He told me, señor, if I valued my life, to see that nothing was
+disturbed in the _estancia_ till the president came or sent a
+representative."
+
+"I thought so. That gives me a sporting chance."
+
+Maseden had changed rapidly into his own clothes, an ordinary riding
+costume suitable to a tropical climate. He opened the safe, stuffed some
+papers into his pockets, also a quantity of gold, silver, and notes.
+
+Then he wrote a letter, and filled in a check. Having addressed and
+stamped the envelope, he handed it to his assistant.
+
+"In five minutes or less, you will be riding at a steady gallop towards
+Cartagena," he said. "If possible, deliver that letter yourself to Señor
+Peguero, the American consul. By 'possible' I mean if you are not held
+up by soldiers or police on the way. Otherwise, keep it concealed, and
+post it when the opportunity serves."
+
+Lopez knew the pleasant methods of his fellow-republicans.
+
+"They may search me, señor," he said.
+
+"Not if you do as I tell you. Curse me fluently enough, and they'll look
+on you as their best friend."
+
+"Señor!" protested the old man.
+
+"Yes. I mean it. Call me all the names you can lay tongue to. When I
+leave this room I'll follow you, revolver in hand. Be careful to scowl
+and act unwillingly. I want some food and a couple of bottles of wine,
+also a leather bottle full of water and a tin cup. Saddle the Cid, and
+see that three or four good measures of corn are put in the saddle-bags
+with the other things.
+
+"When I vanish rush to the stables, pick out a good mustang, and be in
+Cartagena within the hour. If not interfered with, take the letter to
+Señor Peguero. Don't wait for an answer, but hurry at top speed to the
+Castle, where you must tell some one that I came back to the ranch and
+ordered you about at the muzzle of a revolver.
+
+"Lead the soldiers straight here. If Captain Gomez is in command, assure
+him that you rescued his uniform, and he'll be your friend forever.
+Should you meet them on the way, turn back with them. You understand?
+You're for the president and against me."
+
+Lopez smiled till his face was a mass of wrinkles. He was beginning to
+see through the scheme, and was Spaniard enough to appreciate the leaven
+of intrigue.
+
+"But when and where shall I find you, señor, if you are taking a long
+journey?" he said, still grinning.
+
+"Not a mile away, if all goes well. Soon after dusk come to the Grove of
+the Doves at sunset. I'll turn up. If you are delayed, and it is dark,
+hoot like an owl, and I'll answer. If you don't come at all I'll know
+it's too dangerous, and will be there again at dawn, at noon, and at
+sunset to-morrow. Pick up some news in Cartagena. You will be told, of
+course, that I have shot Suarez. Be careful to show your horrified
+surprise, and ask if the dear man is really dead. If he is, try and find
+out who is in power. Of course there's a bare chance that Porilla may be
+made president, in which case I might be given a fair trial when an
+American man-of-war is anchored in the roads.... Oh, by the way, you
+might find out who the lady is I married this morning."
+
+"Señor!" gasped Lopez, in sheer bewilderment.
+
+"I haven't the remotest notion who she is, or even what she looks like,"
+laughed Maseden. "Now, there's no more time for talk," and he raised his
+voice. "Obey me at once, you lazy old hound, or I'll blow your brains
+out! Send a peon for the Cid. Fail me in one single thing, and I'll put
+a bullet through your head!... Margarita! Some bread and meat, quick!
+I'll soon show you who is master in this house. Suarez may give orders
+in Cartagena, but I give them here!"
+
+Lopez hurried out, wringing his hands. Maseden followed, brandishing the
+revolver. Some timid servants, who had gathered in the _patio_ at the
+news of their employer's return, made as though they would run, but he
+stopped them with a fierce threat, and, while munching the food brought
+by an aged housekeeper, behaved and spoke so outrageously that they
+thought he was mad.
+
+Poor creatures! They had served him well in the past. Now he was trying
+to save their lives by giving them something to say against him when
+questioned by the president's henchmen.
+
+Meanwhile, he had a sharp ear for the hoof-beats of a galloping horse.
+Pedro, knowing nothing of the scene in the _estancia_, was still on
+guard at the bend in the avenue, and might be trusted to give warning of
+the enemy's approach. But Maseden was allowed to eat his fill.
+
+A very terrified Lopez brought a hardy-looking mustang to the gateway,
+and his master saw a repeating rifle slung to the saddle. That was a
+thoughtful thing. Such a weapon might be exceedingly useful.
+
+"Where are the cartridges?" he thundered.
+
+"Here, most excellent one," stammered the other, producing a bandolier.
+
+The American swung into the saddle, swore at his co-conspirator
+heartily, and was off.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So Lopez had a fine tale to tell when his mustang loped up to the
+entrance of the Castle of San Juan. He had a fine tale to hear, too, as
+he rode back to the ranch with a body of horse led by the fastidious and
+color-loving Ferdinando Gomez.
+
+The servants, of course, bore out the superintendent's story of
+Maseden's extraordinary behavior. Obviously, no one at the _estancia_
+was to blame for this daring prisoner's second escape. The officer who
+had arrested him at daybreak should have left a guard in charge, but the
+plain truth was that the Cartagena men had been so anxious to take part
+in the stirring doings anticipated at the capital that no heed was given
+to this flaw in the procedure.
+
+That night, however, when Maseden met Lopez at the rendezvous, the
+Spaniard's account of events was not reassuring.
+
+Suarez was living, and not very badly hurt, it was true; but every man's
+hand seemed to be against the foreigner who had tried to kill him.
+Maseden was puzzled, at first, by this excess of patriotism on the part
+of the citizens of Cartagena and San Juan generally.
+
+"What do they think has become of me?" he inquired.
+
+"They argue, señor, that you have ridden into the interior, and
+telegrams have been sent to all the inland towns ordering your instant
+arrest. If you resist you are to be shot dead, and a reward of one
+thousand dollars will be paid when you are identified."
+
+"Do they pay for me dead only?"
+
+"They offer two thousand for you alive, señor."
+
+"Just to have the pleasure of potting me as per schedule.... Any fear
+that you have been followed to-night, old friend?"
+
+"None, señor. The soldiers at the _estancia_ believe you are many miles
+away. Moreover, I have put good wine on the table."
+
+"Who is in charge there? Captain Gomez?"
+
+"No, señor, a stranger. _El capitan_ went back to Cartagena. He nearly
+wept when he saw his boots. You had split them."
+
+"You gave the consul my letter?"
+
+"I dropped it in his box, señor. I thought that was wiser."
+
+"So it was. I should have remembered that. What of the lady?"
+
+"The lady you married, señor?"
+
+"Of course. You wouldn't have me interested in some other lady on my
+wedding day, you old reprobate?"
+
+The half-breed laughed softly.
+
+"Even that wouldn't be so strange a thing as what has really happened,
+señor. No one knows who the lady is. One man, a distant cousin of mine,
+told me he heard she landed from a ship only late last night."
+
+"Great Scott!" muttered Maseden in English, "what a Sphinx-like person!
+She must be descended from the Man in the Iron Mask." Then he went on:
+
+"Didn't your cousin know where she was staying in Cartagena? Surely
+there must have been a good deal of public curiosity about her. Twenty
+people were present at the marriage. It was no secret."
+
+"I understand that she had gone to Señor Steinbaum's house. She fainted
+after the ceremony, my cousin said, and had to be carried into an
+automobile, but he knew nothing more."
+
+The veiled Madeleine had felt the strain, then! Somehow the knowledge of
+her collapse touched a chord of sentiment in Maseden's heart, but his
+own desperate plight effectually banished all other considerations at
+the moment.
+
+True, he was safe for the night, and for many days to come, if the
+foreman's fidelity remained unshaken. The ranch was called Los Andes
+because it contained a chain of little hills all covered with valuable
+timber, among which he could hide without real difficulty.
+
+But of what avail this precarious lurking on his own estate? He must
+take speedy and effectual steps to get clear of San Juan altogether
+until such time as he could secure adequate protection, and have his
+case thrashed out by a tribunal to whose decision even Enrico Suarez,
+the president of the Republic, must bow.
+
+One thing was quite certain--never again could he settle down in
+unmolested possession of his property. Though the shooting of Suarez was
+an unfortunate necessity, its effect would be enduring and disastrous.
+
+He had thought out every phase of the problem during the long, hot hours
+beneath the trees, and the half-breed's account of the trend of public
+feeling decided his adoption of the boldest course of all. He would go
+to Cartagena, where he was hardly known, save to a few merchants and
+shopkeepers, a banker and one or two members of the Consular community,
+and board some outward-bound vessel.
+
+Fortunately, he had plenty of money, and, glory be, could speak both
+Spanish and the San Juan patois like a native. If his luck held, he
+would cheat Suarez yet.
+
+"Lopez," he said, after a long pause, "I must leave the ranch for many a
+day, probably forever. If I stay here I'll only plunge you into trouble
+and get myself captured. Now, do me one last service. Have you any
+clothes belonging to that _vaquero_ nephew of yours who broke his neck
+in a race last Easter?"
+
+"I have his overalls, a _fiesta_ jacket, some shirts and a sombrero,
+señor."
+
+"Bring them, and speedily. I'll give you a good price."
+
+"They are yours for nothing, señor."
+
+"I don't deal on those terms, Lopez. Off with you. I'll wait here."
+
+"Anything else, señor?"
+
+"Yes. I was nearly forgetting. Bring his saddle, too. My own saddle
+might be recognized. I have a long ride before me, so hurry."
+
+Within half an hour the good-hearted old foreman was richer by five
+hundred dollars, while Maseden, a dashing cowboy, though unkempt as to
+face and hands, was riding across country by starlight.
+
+He did not tell Lopez his real objective. There was no need. The old
+fellow occasionally indulged in a burst of dissipation, and if his
+tongue wagged then he might blurt out some boastful phrase which would
+bring down on him the merciless wrath of the authorities.
+
+At dawn the fugitive received another slice of real luck. He had just
+entered a main road leading from San Luis, a town thirty miles from
+Cartagena, when he came upon a cowherd sitting by the roadside and
+bemoaning his misfortunes. The man was commissioned to drive some cattle
+to a sale-ring in the city, and had scratched an ankle rather badly
+while whacking one of the steers out of a bed of thorns.
+
+Such an incident was common enough in his life, but on this occasion
+either the thorn was poisonous or some foreign matter had lodged in the
+wound, because the limb had swollen greatly and was so painful that he
+could hardly walk.
+
+Maseden played the Good Samaritan. He ascertained the drover's name, his
+master's, and the address of the salesman; the rest was easy. Helping
+the sufferer into a wayside hovel, he promised to send back a messenger
+later with an official receipt, took charge of the animals himself, and
+reached Cartagena as Ramon Aliones, the accredited representative of a
+San Luis rancher.
+
+The sale-ring was near the harbor, and he mounted a man on his own
+broncho to deliver the drover's voucher for the safe arrival of the herd
+at its destination. He asked for, and obtained, a duplicate, which he
+kept. This same emissary readily disposed of the horse and saddle at a
+ruinous price when told that the newcomer was not only thirsty, but
+meant to see the sights of the capital.
+
+A cheap restaurant, some wineshops, and a vile billiard saloon provided
+shelter for the rest of the day. Before night fell, Maseden had
+ascertained three things: He was supposed to be riding hard into the
+interior; the lady he had married was really a stranger and was
+Steinbaum's guest, and a large steamer, the _Southern Cross_, flying the
+Stars and Stripes, was due to leave port at midnight.
+
+She should have sailed some hours earlier, but the drastic changes in
+the marine department entailed by the day's happenings had delayed
+certain formalities connected with her manifests.
+
+"For a time, señor," explained the ship's chandler who gave him this
+latter information, "no one would sign anything. You see, a name on a
+paper would prove conclusively which president you favored. You
+understand?"
+
+Maseden understood perfectly.
+
+"It is well that you and I, señor, have no truck with these presidents,
+or we might be in trouble," he laughed. "As it is, another bottle, and
+to the devil with all politicians!"
+
+Under cover of the darkness the American slipped away from his boon
+companions, now comfortably drunk at his expense. Having no luggage, he
+bought a second-hand leather trunk and some cheap underclothing, such as
+a muleteer might reasonably possess. He also secured the repeating rifle
+and cartridges which he had left in a restaurant, and, thus reinforced,
+made for the Plaza, where Cartagenians of both sexes and all ages were
+gathered to enjoy the cool breeze that comes from the Pacific with
+sunset.
+
+From that point he knew he could see the _Southern Cross_ lying at
+anchor in the roadstead. She was there, sure enough, nearly a mile out,
+and he was puzzling his wits for a pretext to hire a boat and board her
+without attracting notice when chance solved the problem for him.
+
+Two men passed. They were talking English, and he heard one addressing
+the other by name.
+
+"Tell you what, Sturgess," the speaker was saying, "I'd be hull down on
+Cartagena to-night if the skipper would only bring up at Valparaiso. But
+his first port of call is Buenos Ayres, and I've got to make Valparaiso
+before I see good old New York again, so here I'm fixed till a coasting
+steamer comes along. Great Cæsar's ghost, I wish I were going with you!"
+
+The second man, Sturgess, was carrying a suitcase, and the two were
+evidently making for a short pier which supplied landing places for
+small craft at various stages of the tide.
+
+Maseden quickened his pace, overtook them, and said in Spanish that he
+wished to book a passage to Buenos Ayres on the _Southern Cross_, and,
+if the Señor Americano would permit him to board the vessel in his boat,
+he (Maseden) would gladly carry the bag to the pier.
+
+Sturgess evidently did not understand Spanish, and asked his companion
+to interpret. He laughed on hearing the queer offer.
+
+"Guess I can handle the grip myself, and the gallant _vaquero_ is pretty
+well loaded with his own outfit," he said, "but he is welcome to a trip
+on my catamaran, if it's of any service."
+
+Maseden, however, insisted on giving some return for the favor, and
+secured the suitcase. Now, if any sharp-eyed watcher on the pier saw
+him, he would pass as the traveler's servant.
+
+Within half an hour he was aboard the ship, and had bargained for a
+spare berth in the forecastle with the crew. He would be compelled to
+rough it, and remain as dirty and disheveled as possible until the ship
+reached Buenos Ayres. Obviously, no matter what his personal wrongs
+might be, he could not make the captain of the _Southern Cross_ a party
+to the escape from Cartagena of the man who had nearly succeeded in
+ridding the republic of its president.
+
+But the prospect of hard fare and worse accommodations did not trouble
+him at all. He had nearly ten thousand dollars in his pockets. If the
+note sent through Lopez to the American Consul was acted on promptly, a
+further sum of fifteen thousand dollars lying to his credit in a local
+bank was now in safe keeping.
+
+Really, considering that he had been so near death that morning, he had
+a good deal to be thankful for if he never saw Cartagena or the Los
+Andes ranch again.
+
+As for the marriage, what of it? A knot so easily tied could be untied
+with equal readiness. He hadn't the least doubt but that an American
+court of law would declare the ceremony illegal.
+
+At any rate, he could jump that fence when he reached it. At present, in
+sporting phrase, he was going strong with a lot in hand.
+
+He kept well out of sight when a government launch came off, and a port
+official boarded the vessel.
+
+He never knew what a narrow escape he had when the chief steward who
+acted as purser, was asked if any new addition had been made to the
+passenger list. The ship's officer was not a good Spanish scholar. He
+thought the question applied to the cargo, and answered "no."
+
+Then, after a wait that seemed interminable, the snorting and growling
+of a steam winch and the unwilling rasp of the anchor chain chanted a
+symphonic chorus in Maseden's ears. Those harsh sounds sang of freedom
+and life, of golden years on a most excellent earth instead of an
+eternity in the grave. He came on deck to watch the Castle of San Juan
+dwindle and vanish in the deep, blue glamour of a perfect tropical
+night.
+
+He was standing on the open part of the main deck, close to the fore
+hold, when he heard English voices from the promenade deck high above
+his head.
+
+A man's somewhat querulous accents reached him first.
+
+"Well, at this time two days ago, I little thought I'd be on a steamer
+going south to-night," said the speaker.
+
+There was no answer, though it was evident that the petulant philosopher
+was not addressing the silent air.
+
+"I suppose you girls are still mooning about that fellow getting away
+from the Castle?" grumbled the same voice. "I tell you he has no
+earthly chance of winning clear. Steinbaum will see to that. His record
+is none too good, and a question in the American Senate would just about
+finish him, even in San Juan. So Mr. Philip Alexander Maseden might just
+as well have been shot yesterday morning as to-day or to-morrow. They're
+hot on his track now, Steinbaum told me--
+
+"Eh? Yes, I know he did _me_ a good turn, but, damn it all, that was
+merely because he was going to die, not because he was a first-rate life
+for an insurance office. It was no business of mine that he and Suarez
+couldn't agree.... Oh, let's go to our cabins! Tears always put my
+nerves on a raw edge! Anyone would think you had lost a real husband on
+your wedding day!"
+
+There was a movement of shadowy forms. Maseden thought he could
+distinguish a woman's white hand rest for an instant on the ship's rail.
+Was that the hand he thought he would remember until the Day of
+Judgment? He could not say.
+
+The one fact that lifted itself out of the welter of incoherent fancies
+whirling in his mind was an almost incontrovertible one. If his ears had
+not deceived him, he and his unknown but lawful wife were
+fellow-passengers on board the _Southern Cross_!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+"FIND THE LADY"
+
+
+A slight mist hung over the sea--sure outcome of the tremendous range of
+the thermometer between noon and midnight in a tropical clime. The sky
+was cloudless, and the stars clustered in myriads.
+
+Though the Southern Hemisphere falls far short of the glory of the north
+in constellations of the first magnitude, the extraordinary clearness of
+the upper air near the equator enhances the stellar display. It would
+almost seem that nature knows she may veil her ample splendors in the
+north, but must make the most of her scantier charms in the south.
+
+Maseden, swinging on his heel in sheer bewilderment, suddenly found
+himself face to face with the Southern Cross, hanging low above the
+horizon. Had an impossible meteor flamed forth from the familiar cluster
+of stars and shot in awe-inspiring flight across the whole arc of the
+heavens northward to the line, it would not have surprised him more than
+the discovery that his "wife" was on board the ship.
+
+That was a stupendous fact before which the whirl of adventure of the
+long day now drawing to a close subsided into calm remoteness.
+
+"Madeleine," the woman he had married, was his fellow-passenger! He
+would surely see her many times during the voyage to Buenos Ayres! He
+would hear her voice, which he could not fail to recognize.
+
+She, on her part, would probably identify him at the first glance. How
+would she handle an extraordinary situation? Would she claim him as her
+husband, repudiate him scornfully, or utterly ignore him? He could not
+even guess.
+
+There was no telling what a woman would do who had elected to marry a
+man whom she had never met, whose very name, in all likelihood, she had
+never heard, merely because he happened to be a prisoner condemned to
+speedy death.
+
+Yet she could not be a particularly cold-blooded person. She had wept
+for him, had whispered her heartfelt grief; had promised to pray for and
+think of him always. Even the man with the high-pitched voice of a
+hypochondriac--presumably, from the manner of his address, her
+father--had hinted that her suffering had already passed the bounds set
+for one who, to serve her own ends, had gone through that amazing
+ceremony.
+
+Maseden did not actually marshal his thoughts thus clearly. If compelled
+to bend his wits to the task, he might have spoken or written in such
+wise. But an active brain has its own haphazard methods of weighing a
+new and distracting problem; it will ask and answer a dozen startling
+questions simultaneously.
+
+In the midst of Maseden's strange and formless imaginings the ship's
+course was changed a couple of points to the southward, and the Southern
+Cross was shut out of sight by the forecastle head. Then, and not until
+then, did the coincidence of the vessel's name with that of the
+constellation occur to his bemused wits.
+
+He laughed cheerfully.
+
+"By gad!" he said, "all the signs of the zodiac must have clustered
+about my horoscope on this 15th of January. When I get ashore I must
+find an astrologer and ask him to expound."
+
+The sound of his own voice brought a belated warning to Maseden of the
+folly he had committed in speaking aloud.
+
+There was no other occupant of the fore deck at the moment. A look-out
+man in the bows could not possibly have overheard, because of the
+whistling of the breeze created by the ship's momentum and the plash of
+the curved waves set up by the cut-water, and it was highly improbable
+that words uttered in a conversational tone would have reached the
+bridge.
+
+But behind him rose the three decks of the superstructure, and there
+might be eavesdroppers on the promenade deck or in one of the two dark
+gangways running aft.
+
+He glanced over his shoulder to right and left. Apparently he had
+escaped this time. No matter what developments took place in the near
+future, he was by no means anxious as yet to reveal his nationality.
+Each hour brought home, more and more forcibly, the misfortune of the
+chance which left him no alternative but the shooting of Suarez that
+morning.
+
+The act was absolutely essential to his own safety, but it put him
+clearly out of court. At any rate, the authorities of no South American
+state would listen to a recital of his earlier wrongs. If, as was highly
+probable, a sensational account of the attempted assassination of the
+new president had been tacked on to the telegrams announcing the _coup
+d'état_ in San Juan, and he, Maseden, were painted as a desperado of
+mark, it might even be feared that the settled and respectable Argentine
+Republic would arrest him and endeavor to send him back to San Juan for
+trial.
+
+Of course, the United States Consul in Buenos Ayres would have something
+to say about it, but there was a very real danger of consular efforts
+being overruled. No matter how distasteful the rôle, Philip Alexander
+Maseden must continue to masquerade as Ramon Aliones, _vaquero_, until
+he could leave the ship and assume another alias.
+
+It was soon borne in on him how narrow was the margin which still
+separated him from disaster. He had gone to his berth, an unsavory hutch
+next to a larger cabin tenanted by deck-hands, when the door was thrust
+wide (he had left it half open while undressing, there being no electric
+switch within) and a lamp flashed in his eyes.
+
+A short, stockily-built man, whom Maseden rightly took for the captain,
+stood there, accompanied by another man, seemingly a Spanish steward.
+
+"Now, then," came the gruff question, "what's this I hear about your
+speaking English to yourself? Who are you? What's your name?"
+
+Luckily, Maseden was so surprised that he did not answer. The swarthy
+steward, a thin, lantern-jawed person, grinned. Maseden saw that the man
+was wearing canvas shoes with india-rubber soles, and guessed the truth
+instantly.
+
+His nerve had been tested many times that day; nor did it fail him now.
+Gazing blankly at the captain, he said, in Spanish, that he did not
+understand.
+
+"Tell him, Alfonso, that you heard him speaking English a few minutes
+since.... Hi, you! Stop that! No smoking in your berth."
+
+Maseden was rolling a cigarette in true Spanish style. The captain was
+obviously suspicious, so the situation called for a touch of stage
+artistry.
+
+Alfonso translated, pricking his ears for Maseden's reply. But he hailed
+from the east coast, whereas Maseden used the _patois_ of San Juan.
+
+"You made a natural mistake, señor," said the American easily. "I was
+talking to the stars, a habit of mine when alone on the _pampas_, and
+their names would sound somewhat like the words of a barbarous tongue."
+
+"And a foolish habit, too!" commented the captain when he heard the
+explanation. "Do you know any of 'em?" and he glanced up at the strip of
+sky visible from where he stood.
+
+The smiling _vaquero_ stepped out on to the open deck. Oh, yes, all the
+chief stars were old friends of his. He pointed to the "Sea-serpent,"
+the "Crow," and the "Great Dog," giving the Spanish equivalents.
+
+The steward, of course, densely ignorant in such things, and already
+half convinced that he had blundered, was only anxious now to avoid
+being rated by the captain for having gone to him with a cock-and-bull
+story. Somehow, Maseden sensed this fact, and made smooth the path.
+
+"They are strange names," he said with a laugh, "but we of the plains
+often have to find the way on land as a sailor on the sea."
+
+"Has he any papers?" demanded the captain, apparently satisfied that the
+passenger was really acquainted with the chief star-groups.
+
+Maseden produced that thrice-fortunate duplicate of the receipt for
+cattle brought from the San Luis ranch to Cartagena by Ramon Aliones
+that very day. The captain examined it, and turned wrathfully on the
+steward.
+
+"Be off to the devil!" he growled. "Find some other job than bothering
+me with your fool's tales!"
+
+When Alfonso had vanished, he added, seemingly as an afterthought:
+
+"If I was a _vaquero_ with a dirty face, I wouldn't worry about clean
+fingernails or wear silk underclothing, and I'd do my star-gazing in
+dumb show!"
+
+With that he, too, strode away. Undoubtedly, the captain of the
+_Southern Cross_ was no fool.
+
+Five minutes later the silk vest and pants which Maseden had not
+troubled to change while donning the gay attire of old Lopez's nephew,
+went into the Pacific through the small port-hole which redeemed the
+cabin's otherwise stuffy atmosphere. Happily the bunk, though crude,
+was clean, and long enough to hold a tall man.
+
+Maseden fancied he would lie awake for hours. In reality, he was dead
+tired, and slept the sleep of sheer exhaustion until wakened by a
+loud-voiced intimation that all crimson-hued Dagoes must rouse
+themselves if they didn't want to be stirred up by a hose-pipe.
+
+Now, if there was one thing more than another that Maseden liked when
+on board ship, it was a cold salt-water bath. But he dared neither
+take a bath nor wash his face. Personal cleanliness is not a marked
+characteristic of South American cowboys. That he should display
+close-cropped hair instead of an abundance of oiled and curly tresses
+was a fact singular enough in itself, without inviting attention by
+the use of soap and water.
+
+Perforce, he remained filthy. The captain's hint was very much to the
+point.
+
+The _Southern Cross_ was not a regular passenger boat. Primarily a
+trader, carrying nitrate or grain to home ports, and coal thence to
+various points on the southern or western seaboard of South America,
+she was equipped with a few cabins, about a dozen all told, on the upper
+deck.
+
+The so-called second-class accommodation was several degrees worse than
+the steerage on a crack Atlantic liner. That is to say, the human
+freight ranked a long way after cargo. The food was plentiful, though
+rough. Even for saloon passengers there was neither stewardess nor
+doctor.
+
+As a matter of course, a passenger list would be an absurdity. The chief
+steward acted as purser, and knew the names of all on board after five
+minutes' study of his ledger. Passengers and ship's officers soon became
+acquainted. Within twenty-four hours Maseden had ascertained that a Mr.
+James Gray, with his two daughters, occupied staterooms; but, for the
+life of him, he could not learn the ladies' Christian names.
+
+He cudgeled his brains to try and remember whether or not his "wife" had
+signed the register as Madeleine Gray; but the effort failed completely.
+He knew why, for the best of reasons; yet the knowledge did not render
+failure less tantalizing.
+
+It is one thing to be dazzled by the prospect of escape from the seeming
+certainty of death within a few minutes, but quite another to be on the
+same ship as the lady you have married two days earlier, yet neither
+know her name nor be positive as to her identity.
+
+This, however, was literally Maseden's predicament when chance favored
+him with a long, steady look at the Misses Gray. He could not be
+mistaken, because there were no other ladies on board.
+
+Thus when a very pretty girl, wearing a muslin dress and hat of Leghorn
+straw, appeared at the forward rail of the promenade deck and gazed
+wistfully out over the sea, Maseden's heart fluttered more violently
+than he would have thought possible as the effect of a casual glance at
+any woman.
+
+So, then, this fair, slim creature, whose unheeding eyes had dwelt on
+him for a fleeting second ere they sought the horizon, was his wife! It
+was an extraordinary notion; fantastic, yet not wholly unpleasing. It
+would be rather a joke, if opportunity offered, to flirt with her. He
+had never flirted with any girl, and hardly knew how to begin; but much
+reading had taught him that the lady herself might prove an admirable
+coach if so minded.
+
+Of course, there was room for error in one respect. He might have
+married the sister, who, thus far, nearly midday, had not been visible
+during daylight. He calculated the pros and cons of the situation. If
+his "wife" was feeling the strain of that unnerving experience in the
+great hall of the Castle of San Juan, she might now be resting in her
+stateroom. But why should the sister, on whose shoulders, one would
+suppose, sat no such heavy load of care, come on deck alone and scan the
+blue Pacific with that dreamy air?
+
+Yes, by Jove, this really must be his wife! Somehow, poetic justice
+demanded that she, and not her sister, should meet him thus
+unconsciously.
+
+In covert fashion he began to study her. The deck on which she stood was
+fully twenty feet above him, and she was still further separated from
+him by some thirty feet of the fore hatch, but he noted that her eyes
+were of the Parma violet tint so frequently met with in the heroines of
+fiction, yet all too seldom seen in real life. Being a mere man, he was
+not aware that blue eyes in shadow assume that exact tint. At any rate,
+as eyes, they were more than satisfactory.
+
+Her nose was well modeled, with broad, flexible nostrils, unfailing
+sign of good health and an equable disposition. Her lips were prettily
+curved, and the oval face, framed in a cluster of brown hair, was poised
+on a perfectly molded neck. She owned shapely arms; he had already had
+occasion to admire her hands; a small, neatly-shod foot was visible
+under the lowest rail as the girl leaned on her elbows in an attitude
+of unstudied grace.
+
+Altogether, Mr. Maseden liked the looks of Mrs. Maseden!
+
+He was beginning to revel in sentiment when the edifice of seemingly
+substantial fact so swiftly constructed by a fertile imagination was
+dissipated into space by hearing a voice--_the_ voice, he was
+sure--coming from some unseen part of the upper deck.
+
+"Ah! There you are, Nina!" it said. "I've been looking for you
+everywhere! How long have you been here?"
+
+Nina! So this fairy was only the _sister_. Maseden smiled grimly behind
+a cloud of cigarette smoke because of the absurd shock which the words
+administered. He was sharply aware of a sense of disappointment, a
+feeling so far-fetched as to be almost ludicrous.
+
+What in the world did it matter to which of these two he was married?
+In all probability he would never exchange a word with either, and his
+first serious business on reaching a civilized country would be to get
+rid of the incubus with which a set of phenomenal circumstances alone
+had saddled him.
+
+At last, however, he would really see his wife, and thus end one phase
+of a curious entanglement. Nina had half turned. Evidently she realized
+that Madeleine meant to join her. Maseden leaned back against the
+external paneling of his cubby-hole and looked aloft now with curiosity
+at once quickened and undisguised.
+
+But he was fated to suffer many minor shocks that day. Madeleine
+appeared, and presented such an exact replica of Nina that, at first
+sight, and in the strong shadows cast by the canvas screen which alone
+rendered that portion of the deck habitable while the sun was up, it was
+practically impossible for a stranger to differentiate between them.
+
+Maseden discovered later that Madeleine was twenty-two and Nina nearly
+twenty-four; but the marked resemblance between the pair, accentuated
+by their trick of dressing alike, led people to take them for twins.
+Moreover, each so admirably duplicated the other in voice and mannerisms
+that only near relatives or intimate friends could be certain which was
+speaking if the owner of the voice remained invisible.
+
+For a little while, too, Maseden's mind was reduced to chaos by hearing
+Nina address her sister as "Madge." He was vouchsafed the merest glimpse
+of Madge's face, because, after a quick, heedless look at him and at a
+half-caste sailor readjusting the hatches covering the fore hold, she
+turned her back to the rail and said something that Maseden could not
+overhear.
+
+A man joined the two girls, whereupon Nina also faced aft. The newcomer,
+standing well away under the screen, could not be seen at all, and
+Maseden thought it must be Mr. Gray, the querulous person whose
+outspoken utterances had first warned Maseden that his wife was on
+board.
+
+But he erred again. Some comment passed by Nina raised a laugh, and
+Maseden recognized the voice of Mr. Sturgess, whose baggage he had
+carried overnight.
+
+"I guess _not_!" he was saying, with a humorous stress on each word. "As
+a summer resort, San Juan disagreed with my complaint, Miss Gray."
+
+"Have you been ill, then?" came the natural query.
+
+"No, but I might have been had I remained there too long," was the
+answer. "A change of president in one of these small republics is like a
+bad railroad smash--you never know who'll get hurt. I've a notion that
+Mr. Gray must have felt sort of relieved when he brought you two young
+ladies safe and sound aboard this ship."
+
+"We didn't see anything specially alarming," said Nina. "Madge went out
+twice during the day with Mr. Steinbaum, a trader, and the streets were
+very quiet, she thought."
+
+Madge! Was "Madge" a family diminutive for Madeleine? Maseden neither
+knew nor cared. Nina's harmless chatter had told him the truth. Madge
+most certainly did find the streets quiet, if the story brought by Lopez
+from Cartagena was correct; namely, that she had been carried out of the
+Castle in a dead faint.
+
+And now the heartless creature was actually laughing!
+
+"One cannot take a South American revolution quite seriously--it always
+has something comical about it," she cried, and it was astounding how
+closely the one sister's voice resembled the other's. "I understand that
+some poor people were shot the night before last, but I saw a man who
+keeps a restaurant opposite Mr. Steinbaum's house produce a device with
+flags and a scroll. On the scroll was painted 'Long Live Valdez.' He
+drew some fresh letters over the first part of the name, dabbed on
+plenty of black and white paint, and the new legend ran 'Long Live
+Suarez.' The whole thing was done, and the flags were out, in less than
+five minutes."
+
+Sturgess evidently asked for and obtained permission to smoke. He came
+to the rail. Both girls faced forward again, and Maseden was free to
+compare them.
+
+Madge, or Madeleine, as he preferred to style her, seemed to be a trifle
+paler than Nina. Otherwise, her likeness to her sister was almost
+uncanny, if that ill-omened word might be applied to two remarkably
+pretty girls. Neither of the girls wore gloves, but Maseden looked in
+vain for the heavy gold wedding-ring which Steinbaum's thoroughness had
+supplied when wanted.
+
+At that moment an officer appeared on the main deck. The fore hold had
+to be opened, it seemed. A quartermaster, summoned from the forecastle,
+hoisted a block and tackle to a derrick. The noise effectually drowned
+the talk of the trio on the upper deck until the tackle was rigged, and
+a couple of hatches were removed. The half-caste sailor was about to
+descend into the hold just as Sturgess's somewhat staccato accents
+reached Maseden clearly again.
+
+"Say, did you ladies hear of the American who was to be shot early
+yesterday morning? A most thrilling yarn was spun by a friend of mine
+who knows Cartagena from A to Z. He said--"
+
+Maseden was on the alert to detect the slightest variation of expression
+on Madeleine's face. She bent forward, her hands tightly clutching the
+rail, and darted a piteous under look at her sister. Thus it happened
+that Maseden alone was gazing upward, and he saw, out of the tail of
+his eye, the heavy block detaching itself from the derrick and falling
+straight on top of the sailor, who had a leg over the coaming of the
+hatch and a foot on the first rung of the iron ladder leading down into
+the hold.
+
+With a quickness born of many a tussle with a bucking broncho, Maseden
+leaped, caught the rope held by the quartermaster, and jerked it
+violently. The block missed the half-caste by a few inches, and clanged
+in the hold far beneath.
+
+The tenth part of a second decided whether the sailor should be dashed
+headlong into the depths or left wholly unscathed. As it was, he and
+every onlooker realized that the rakish-looking _vaquero_ had saved his
+life.
+
+In the impulsive way of his race, the man darted forward, threw his arms
+around Maseden's neck, and kissed him. To his very great surprise, his
+rescuer thrust him off, and said angrily:
+
+"Don't be such a damn fool!"
+
+An exclamation, almost a slight scream, came from the upper deck.
+Maseden knew in an instant that this time he had blundered beyond
+repair. Madeleine had heard his voice, and had recognized him. Moreover,
+the officer, the quartermaster, even the grateful Spaniard, were eyeing
+him with unmixed amazement.
+
+The fat _was_ in the fire this time! In another moment would come
+denunciation and arrest, and then--back to the firing squad! What should
+he do?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+ROMANCE RECEIVES A COLD DOUCHE
+
+
+But none of these thoughts showed in Maseden's face. He laughed easily
+and explained in voluble Spanish that he swore in English occasionally,
+having picked up the correct formula from an American señor with whom
+he once took a hunting trip into the interior.
+
+The sailor, hearing this flow of a language he understood, and not able
+to measure the idiomatic fluency of Maseden's English, accepted the
+story without demur, but the fourth officer and quartermaster, both
+Americans, were evidently puzzled.
+
+He soon got rid of the too-effusive half-caste, and retired to his
+berth. Thank goodness, since the one person on board mainly concerned
+was perforce aware of his identity, he was free to wash his face and
+take a bath! To oblige a lady he would have remained unwashed all the
+way to Buenos Ayres; now, every other consideration might go hang.
+
+Finding a steward, he gave further cause for bewilderment by asking to
+be allowed to use a bath-room.
+
+Greatly to Maseden's relief, his lapse into the vernacular seemed to
+evoke little or no comment subsequently. The captain heard of it, but
+was far too irritated by the faulty behavior of a ring-bolt (examination
+showed a bad flaw in the metal) to pay any special heed. As for the
+half-caste sailor, his gratitude to Maseden took the form of describing
+him admiringly as "the _vaquero_ who could swear like an _Americano_,"
+an equivocal compliment which actually fostered the belief that Maseden
+was what he represented himself to be--a vagabond cowboy migrating from
+one coast of the great South American continent to the other.
+
+His peculiar habits, therefore, shown in such trivial details as a
+desire for personal cleanliness and a certain fastidiousness at table,
+were attributed to the same exotic tutelage. Of course, when he spoke
+any intelligent Spaniard could have detected faults in phrase or
+pronunciation, but he had a ready resource in the _patois_ of San Juan,
+and no man on board was competent to assess him accurately by both
+standards.
+
+He settled down quickly to the exigencies of life at sea. Five days
+after leaving Cartagena he was an expert in the matter of keeping his
+feet when the vessel was rolling or pitching, or performing a corkscrew
+movement which combined the worst features of each.
+
+When the _Southern Cross_ entered more southerly latitudes her
+passengers were given ample opportunity to test their skill in this
+respect. The weather grew colder each day, and with the drop in the
+thermometer came gray skies and rough seas.
+
+There are two tracks for ocean-going steamers bound down the west coast.
+The open Pacific offers no hindrance to safe navigation, except an
+occasional heavy gale. The inner course, through Smyth's Channel, is
+sheltered but tortuous, and the commander of the _Southern Cross_
+elected to save time by heading direct for the Straits of Tierra del
+Fuego. The ship was speedy and well-found. A stiff nor'wester tended
+rather to help her along, and she should reach Buenos Ayres within
+fifteen days.
+
+Maseden contrived to buy a heavy poncho, or cloak, from one of the crew.
+Wrapped in this useful garment, he patrolled the small space of deck at
+his disposal, and kept an unfailing eye for the reappearance at the
+for'ard rail of one or other of the Misses Gray; yet day after day
+slipped by and they remained obstinately hidden.
+
+Once or twice, when the weather permitted, he climbed to the fore deck,
+whence he could scan a large part of the promenade deck on both the port
+and starboard sides. On the port side, however, a wind-screen
+intervened.
+
+Twice he thought he saw Madeleine Gray leaning on the port rail, talking
+to Sturgess--and wearing the very dress in which she was married! Either
+by accident or design she vanished almost instantly on each occasion.
+
+It was nonsensical, of course, but he began to harbor a sentiment of
+annoyance with Sturgess, who, by some queer contriving of fortune,
+seemed to be drawn rather to the company of Madeleine than of sister
+Nina. Any real feeling of jealousy would have been absurd, almost
+ludicrous, under the circumstances.
+
+For all that, Maseden couldn't understand why the fellow apparently
+devoted himself to the company of one sister to the neglect, or
+intentional exclusion, of the other; while the lady's behavior, assuming
+that she knew of the presence of her "husband" within a few yards, was,
+to say the least, reprehensible if not provocative.
+
+By this time, Maseden was fully convinced that his wife had recognized
+him. Oddly enough, the somewhat bizarre costume he wore would help in
+betraying him to her eyes. She had seen him only when arrayed in even
+more startling guise. Her memory of him, therefore, would depend wholly
+on his features and physique, and the incongruity of an unmistakably
+American voice coming from a _vaquero_ could not fail to be enhanced by
+the gala attire affected by that erstwhile gay spark, old Lopez's
+nephew.
+
+Moreover, Maseden had bribed the forecastle steward to find out from one
+of the saloon attendants what had happened to the two ladies on the
+promenade deck when the pulley fell. One of them, the man said, was so
+startled that she nearly fainted, and the American señor had carried her
+to a chair.
+
+Obviously, on an American vessel, with American officers, engineers, and
+quartermasters, for one whose only tongue was Spanish it was difficult
+to extract information. The Spanish-speaking members of the crew knew
+little or nothing of the passengers, while Maseden's part of the ship
+was as completely shut off from the saloon as are the dwellings of the
+poor from the palaces of the rich.
+
+Many times was he tempted to change his quarters, and thus tacitly admit
+his identity; but cold prudence as often forbade any such folly. Even if
+the full extent of his adventures in Cartagena were unknown on board, it
+was a quite certain thing that the story must have reached Buenos Ayres
+long ago.
+
+Bad as was the odor of the republic in the outer world, it still
+possessed the rights of a sovereign state, and the last thing Maseden
+desired was an enforced return to the Castle of San Juan, there to stand
+his trial anew for conspiracy, plus an undoubted attempt to murder the
+president! That would be a stiff price to pay merely in order to sate
+his curiosity as to the motive underlying a woman's strange whim.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the sixth night of the voyage the opportunity for which he was
+looking was offered as unexpectedly as it had been persistently withheld
+earlier.
+
+After a very unpleasant day of wind and rain the weather improved
+markedly. True, the sky had not cleared, and the darkness which fell
+swiftly over a leaden sea was of a quality almost palpable.
+
+Had he troubled to recall the sealore gleaned from many books of travel,
+Maseden would have known that such a change was by no means indicative
+of smoother seas and days of sunshine in the near future. The ship was
+merely crossing the center of a cyclonic area. Ere morning she would
+probably meet a fiercer gale than that through which she had just
+passed.
+
+Such minor considerations as to the state of the elements carried little
+weight, however, when contrasted with the immediate and solid fact that
+Maseden, giving an upward eye to the promenade deck about nine o'clock,
+discerned a solitary female figure leaning on the rail.
+
+Since there were no other women on board, this must be either Madeleine
+or Nina. As it happened, the forecastle was deserted, in the sense that
+its usual occupants were either asleep or busied with the duties of the
+hour. Above the girl's head paced the officer of the watch. Up in the
+bows were two men on the look-out. Otherwise, the fore part of the ship
+was untenanted save for Maseden himself and the slim, cloaked form which
+seemed to be peering aimlessly into the impenetrable wall of darkness
+ahead.
+
+Apparently the wind had died down. There were no sounds save the normal
+ones--the onward rush of the ship, the swish of an occasional swell
+cleft by the cut-water, the steady thud of the screw, and the equally
+regular creaking of planks and panels swollen by heavy rain after
+undergoing tropical heat.
+
+It was a night rich with suggestion of mystery and romance. Some new
+ichor stirred in Maseden's veins, firing his spirit to emprise. Come
+what might, he resolved to have speech with the lady, be she wife in
+name or merely sister-in-law!
+
+But how contrive it? If he hailed her from the main deck, the officer on
+the bridge would overhear, and straightway play a domineering hand in
+the game. If he went aft, through a narrow gangway leading past the
+engine-room and various officers' cabins, he could reach a sliding door
+giving access to the saloon companion, but his presence there would
+undoubtedly be noticed, evoking a stern order to betake himself to his
+own quarters.
+
+The third method was the direct one. A series of iron rungs led
+vertically up the face of the superstructure, and, as sailors
+occasionally passed that way, the girl would not necessarily be
+alarmed by seeing a man coming up.
+
+The officer on duty might detect him, of course; but even he was liable
+to mistake him for one of the ship's company.
+
+It has been seen already that Maseden was of the rare order of mankind
+which, having once made up its mind, acts unhesitatingly. No sooner had
+he elected for the iron ladder than he had crossed the deck and was
+mounting rapidly. It chanced that the officer did not see him.
+
+In a few seconds he was standing on the promenade deck. Then he had an
+attack of stage-fright. Many an actor has strode valiantly from wings to
+footlights only to find his tongue glued to the roof of his mouth. This
+was Maseden's "star turn," and not a word could he utter!
+
+By a singular coincidence, the lady was equally nervous. She gave scant
+attention to the commonplace occurrence that a member of the crew should
+walk aft from the dim interior of the forecastle and hurry up the
+ladder, but the situation altered dramatically when a faint gleam from
+a window of the smoking-room fell on the tarnished silver braid and gilt
+buttons of Maseden's jacket of black cloth and velvet.
+
+The light, such as it was, fell directly on the girl's face as she
+turned towards the intruder. Her eyes, blue sapphires by day, were now
+strangely dark. Maseden saw that her expression was one of panic if not
+of actual terror. He was unpleasantly reminded of a bird fascinated by a
+snake; the displeasing simile stirred his wits and unlocked his tongue.
+
+"I'm sorry if I have frightened you," he said quietly, "but the chance
+of securing a few words of explanation seemed too good to be lost. You
+owe me something of the kind, don't you?"
+
+"Why?" came the truly feminine reply.
+
+"Because, unless I am greatly mistaken, you are the lady whom I had the
+honor of marrying in the Castle of San Juan at Cartagena. You may be
+known as Miss Madge Gray on board this ship, but your name in the
+register was Madeleine."
+
+"My name is Nina, not Madge."
+
+Maseden was taken aback for a few seconds, yet the fact could not be
+gainsaid that the speaker, whether Madge or Nina, did not repudiate the
+general accuracy of his statement. Moreover, he was almost sure of his
+ground now. His "wife" was probably flirting with Sturgess. Nina, as
+usual, was left to her own devices, since the forecastle steward had
+reported that Señor Gray was ill and confined to his cabin.
+
+"At any rate, you do not deny that either your sister or yourself is
+legally entitled to pose as Mrs. Philip Alexander Maseden?" he said.
+
+"I am not aware that either of us can fairly be described as posing in
+that distinguished capacity."
+
+The retort was glib enough. It amused the man.
+
+"Perhaps I put the bald truth rather awkwardly," he said. "Let me, then,
+ask a plain question. Did I marry you, or your sister, last Tuesday
+morning?"
+
+"You certainly err if you think that I shall discuss the affairs of my
+family with a complete stranger," was the unhesitating answer.
+
+"Yet you, or your sister, did not scruple to marry one."
+
+"Are _you_ Mr. Maseden?"
+
+"I am. Haven't I said so? I implied it, at any rate."
+
+"Then why are you in disguise, posing--it is your own word--as a Spanish
+cowboy?"
+
+"Because I'm trying to save my miserable life. Don't think me
+ungrateful, madam. I owe my escape to the phenomenal circumstances
+brought about by the desire of a charming young lady to become
+Mrs. Maseden, if only for a brief half hour. I am not claiming
+any--privileges, shall I say?--on that account. But I can hardly credit
+that, having gone through the ordeal of such a ceremony, you would
+refuse to tell me your motive, so I reluctantly revert to my first
+opinion, namely, that your sister is my wife."
+
+"Reluctantly! Why reluctantly?"
+
+There was more than a touch of bewilderment in the cry. Maseden
+interpreted it as a fencer's trick to gain time.
+
+"I don't mind being absolutely candid," he laughed. "You see, time hangs
+heavy on my hands here. I have nothing to do except watch for a glimpse
+of an unknown wife. Queer, isn't it? Anyhow, my fate doesn't seem to
+worry sister Madge, who finds consolation elsewhere; so, of the two, if
+I must be wed to one of you, I imagine I would prefer you."
+
+"I think you are intolerably rude, Mr. Maseden. Madge was right when she
+said--"
+
+She checked herself with a little gasp of dismay. Maseden laughed again.
+
+"Please don't spare me," he cried. "What did Madge say?"
+
+"I decline to discuss the matter any further."
+
+"But why should we quarrel over a minor point? You have tacitly
+admitted that your sister married me. Give me some notion of her motive.
+That is all I ask. It may help."
+
+"How help?"
+
+"When I take unto myself a wife I expect to be allowed some freedom of
+choice in the matter. I certainly refuse to have her picked for me by a
+rascal like Steinbaum. If I win clear of Buenos Ayres and reach New York
+I shall take the speediest steps to undo the matrimonial knot tied in
+Cartagena. There may be legal complications, which will be attended, I
+suppose, by a certain amount of publicity. It will help some, as Mr.
+Sturgess would say, if I know just why the lady wanted to wed in the
+first instance. Surely there is reason behind that simple request. Your
+sister begged to be allowed to marry me because I was condemned to
+death. At least, such was Steinbaum's story. Was _that_ true, to begin
+with?"
+
+No answer. Maseden felt that he had cornered her.
+
+"There must have been some such ground for an extraordinary action," he
+went on. "To the best of my knowledge she had never seen me. I question
+if she even knew my name. I--"
+
+A door opened, and a stream of light fell on the deck some feet away.
+Sturgess's voice reached them clearly.
+
+"Guess she's tucked up cozy in a deck chair," he was saying. "It's no
+time to retire to roost yet, anyhow."
+
+"Please go now," whispered Nina tremulously. "You mustn't be seen
+talking to me. I--I'll discuss things with Madge, and if possible, come
+here about the same hour to-morrow, or next day. I--I'll do my best."
+
+Without another word, Maseden swung himself over the rail. When below
+the level of the deck he clung to the ladder and listened, not meaning
+to act ungenerously, but because of the other man's rapid approach.
+
+"Ah, there you are, Miss Nina!" cried Sturgess. "Sister Madge is bored
+stiff by my company, but was polite enough to pretend that she was
+anxious about you."
+
+"I've been star-gazing," said the girl, hastening towards him.
+
+"So've I," grinned Sturgess. "You two girls have the finest eyes I've
+ever--"
+
+His voice trailed away into silence. Maseden dropped to the deck.
+
+"Hang it all!" he muttered, strangely disconsolate. "When Fate took me
+by the scruff of the neck and married me to one of two sisters, neither
+of whom I had ever seen, she might have been kind enough, the jade, to
+tie me to the right one!"
+
+Yet, even to his thinking, Madge and Nina were like as a couple of pins!
+Being an eminently sensible sort of fellow, he realized in the next
+breath that Madge might be quite as nice a girl as Nina.
+
+Then the thought struck him that she was purposely making things easier
+for him by cultivating a friendship with Sturgess. In any case, Sturgess
+was obviously destined to act as a pawn in the game. Even he, Maseden,
+had not scrupled to use that gentleman at sight when anxious to board
+the _Southern Cross_ without attracting the attention of the
+news-mongering boatmen of Cartagena.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That night he lay awake for hours. For one thing, the ship was running
+into bad weather again, and complained nosily of the buffeting her stout
+frame was receiving. For another, his own course was beset with
+difficulties. He failed completely to understand the attitude of sister
+Nina.
+
+If Madeleine--or Madge, as he had better learned to distinguish her--had
+sought marriage with a man about to die as a means to escape from some
+unbearable duress, was her plight accentuated rather than bettered by
+the fact that her husband still lived? If so, the announcement that he
+meant to obtain a legal dissolution of the bond at the earliest possible
+moment would relieve the tension.
+
+But what if her need demanded that she should remain wed, a wife in
+name only? A development of that sort foreshadowed complexities of a
+rare order. Maseden knew himself as one capable of Quixotic action--even
+the scheming Steinbaum had paid him _that_ tribute--but it was asking
+too much that he should go through life burdened with a wife who treated
+him as a benevolent stranger.
+
+Common sense urged that they should meet and discuss a most trying and
+equivocal situation as frankly and fully as might be. Why, then, had
+Nina Gray been so disturbed, so anxious to keep the married pair apart?
+Both girls knew he was alive. What purpose could it serve that the fact
+should be ignored?
+
+He puzzled his brain to recall incidents he had heard of Steinbaum's
+history, but investigation along that line drew a blank. Was Suarez
+mixed up in the embroglio? It was unlikely. Though the man had spent
+some years in the United States and in Europe, he had not left San Juan
+since he, Maseden, came there, and, before that period, both Madge and
+Nina Gray must have been girls in short frocks and long tresses.
+
+Perhaps the father's record would provide a clew. Somehow, though he had
+never set eyes on Mr. Gray save as a shadowy form on a dark night,
+Maseden sensed him as unsympathetic. He was forced to form a judgment on
+the flimsiest of material, having none other; but Gray's voice, his way
+of speaking to his daughters, had grated.
+
+First impressions are treacherous guides; nevertheless the philosopher
+whom they cannot mislead does not exist.
+
+The following day was the longest in Maseden's experience. Monotony, in
+itself, is wearying; when, to a dull routine of meals and occasional
+talk with men of an inferior type is added the positive discomfort of
+confinement in the most exposed and cramped part of a ship during a
+stiff gale, monotony becomes akin to torture.
+
+At last, however, night fell. There was no improvement in the weather,
+which, if anything, grew worse; but a change in the ship's course, or a
+shifting of the wind--no one to whom Maseden might speak could give him
+any reliable data on the point--brought the _Southern Cross_ on a more
+even keel.
+
+Here, at least, was some slight compensation for the leaden-footed hours
+of waiting. Nina Gray might be a good sailor, but it was hardly
+reasonable to expect that she would keep her tryst when the big steamer
+was trying alternately to stand on end or roll bodily over to port.
+
+About nine o'clock Maseden made out a shrouded figure in the position
+where his "sister-in-law" had stood the previous night. He hastened
+from the shelter of the forecastle, and was promptly drenched from head
+to foot by a shower of spray. He was half-way up the ladder when a voice
+reached him.
+
+"Please go back," it said. "I'll come to the gangway on the starboard
+side."
+
+He regained the deck, made for the right-hand gangway, and soon had the
+satisfaction of seeing the girl walking swiftly along the dimly-lighted
+corridor.
+
+He hardly knew how to greet her. To bid her "Good evening," or murmur
+some platitude about her goodness in keeping the appointment in such
+vile weather, would have sounded banal.
+
+The lady, however, when they came face to face, settled all doubts on
+the question of etiquette by saying breathlessly:
+
+"I have had a long talk with my sister, Mr. Maseden, and she bids me
+tell you that she cannot meet you herself. You were so generous, so kind
+to her, at a moment when your thoughts might well have been centered in
+your own terrible fate, that she cannot bear the ordeal of asking you
+the last favor of forgetting her.
+
+"Of course, every facility will be given for the dissolution of the
+marriage. I have written here the address of a firm of lawyers in
+Philadelphia who will act with your legal representatives when the
+matter comes before the courts. For your own purposes, I understand,
+you wish to remain unknown while on board this ship. We have arranged to
+travel to New York by the first American liner sailing from Buenos Ayres
+after our arrival. Perhaps you will be good enough to choose another
+vessel, or, if your affairs are urgent, _we_ would wait for a later one.
+Can you let me know your wishes now in that matter?"
+
+Maseden was so astonished that he literally caught the girl by the
+shoulder and turned her partly round so that the light of a distant lamp
+fell on her face. The buffeting of the gale, aided, no doubt, by a
+feeling of excitement, had lent her a fine color, but, if her utterance
+was a trifle broken at first, it had soon become calm and measured, nor
+did she seem to resent his cavalier treatment.
+
+"Are you joking?" he said, smiling in sheer perplexity.
+
+"I fail to find any humor in my words," came the instant reply.
+
+"Quite so. They might have been framed by a lawyer. Isn't there a ghost
+of a joke in that mere fact?"
+
+"It appeared to my sister, and I fully agree with her, that we are
+suggesting the best way, the only way, out of an embarrassing dilemma."
+
+"Yes," agreed Maseden, drawing a long breath. "I agree to all the
+terms; I insist only on priority of sailing from Buenos Ayres. I don't
+see why I should risk my life just to save you a trifling
+inconvenience."
+
+"Then here is the address I spoke of," and she proffered an envelope.
+
+"Good. We'll leave the rest to the law, Miss Nina."
+
+"Thank you. Good-by."
+
+She would have passed him, but he was on the after side of the gangway,
+and his outstretched hand restrained her.
+
+"One moment, please," he said. "I want you to tell your sister that she
+has thoroughly--disillusioned me."
+
+"I'll do that," she assured him, and he could not help but regard her
+airy self-possession as the most surprising factor in a remarkable
+situation.
+
+"And you, too," he went on. "Something has happened to you since last
+night. Somehow you are--harder. Forgive me if I choose unpleasant
+adjectives."
+
+She hesitated before replying. Perhaps she felt the quiet scorn
+underlying the words.
+
+"Where my unhappy family is concerned, the forgiveness must come wholly
+from you," she said at last. "May I go now, Mr. Maseden? Once more,
+thank you for all that you have done and will do. Remember, when this
+miserable affair reaches the newspapers, it is not your reputation that
+will suffer, but the woman's!"
+
+She left him gazing blankly after her. There was a tense _vibrato_ in
+the tone of the girl's voice that touched some responsive chord in the
+man's breast.
+
+Then he became aware that he was soaked to the skin, and the wind was
+piercingly cold.
+
+He murmured a phrase strongly reminiscent of the _Americano_ who took
+hunting trips into the interior of Central America, and hurried to his
+cabin, where he stripped and rubbed his limbs to a glow before turning
+in.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+AN UNFORESEEN DISASTER
+
+
+During the night the storm developed into that elemental chaos which the
+landsman exaggerates into a hurricane and the sailor logs as a strong
+northwesterly gale. Passage along the open decks of the _Southern Cross_
+became a hazardous undertaking, an experiment just practicable for a
+strong man clad in oilskins and seaboots, but positively dangerous for
+one unable to interpret the vagaries of a ship plunging through a heavy
+sea. A broken limb or ugly bruise was the certain penalty of an
+incautious movement, if, indeed, one was not swept overboard.
+
+For a passenger--a non-combatant, so to speak--the only certain way to
+insure physical safety was to lie prone in a bunk, with a hand ever
+ready to seize the nearest rail when an unusually violent lurch tilted
+the vessel to an angle of forty-five degrees and simultaneously drove
+her nose into a veritable mountain of water.
+
+Maseden contrived to sleep fitfully until a thin gray light, trickling
+through a tiny port when momentarily free of wave-wash, told him that
+another day had dawned. The din was incessant. Inanimate things may be
+inarticulate to human ears, but they speak a language of their own on
+such occasions--an inchoate tongue made up of banging and clattering, of
+stunning vibrations, of wind-shrieks, of the groaning of steel
+framework, riveted plates, and seasoned timber.
+
+The _Southern Cross_ was tackling her work with stubborn energy, but she
+complained of its severity in every fibre. Ships, like men, prefer easy
+conditions, and growl in their own peculiar manner when compelled to
+wage a fierce and continuous fight for mere existence.
+
+Of course a sailor never permits himself to think of his own craft in
+such wise. "Dirty weather" is simply an unpleasant episode in the
+routine of a voyage. He regards it much as the average city man views
+wind and rain--displeasing additions to life's minor worries, but not to
+be considered as affecting the daily task.
+
+In a modern, well-found steamship such negative faith is fully
+justified, and the ship's company of the _Southern Cross_ went about
+their several duties as methodically as though the vessel were roped
+securely alongside a pier in the North River.
+
+The center of the forecastle held a roomy compartment in which meals
+were served for the crew, and Maseden took refuge there as soon as he
+was dressed. He obtained an early cup of coffee, and derived some
+comfort from the fact, communicated by the half-caste sailor he had
+saved from the falling pulley, that about the same time next day they
+would sight the Evangelistas light, and soon thereafter be in the
+land-locked water of the Straits of Magellan.
+
+He realized, of course, that sight or sound of either Madge Gray or her
+sister was hardly to be expected during the next twenty-four hours. In
+fact, he might not see them again before Buenos Ayres was reached.
+
+On the whole, it would be better so, he decided. A thrilling and
+most dramatic incident in a life not otherwise noteworthy for its
+vicissitudes would close when he was safe on board a homeward-bound mail
+steamer. After that would come some small experience of a court of law.
+
+For the rest, if he contrived to cheat the newspapers of the full
+details, he would actually risk his repute as a veracious citizen if he
+told the plain truth about one day's history in the Republic of San
+Juan.
+
+Once, in his teens, when in London during a never-to-be-forgotten
+European tour, a friend of his father's pointed out a small, alert man,
+dressed in gray tweeds, who was hailing a cab in Pall Mall, and said:
+
+"Look, Alec! That is Evans of the Guides. I met him five years ago in
+Lucknow, and even at that date he had killed his sixty-first tiger on
+foot and alone. He never shoots stripes any other way. He says it isn't
+quite sporting to tackle the brute from the comparative safety of a
+howdah or a _machan_--a platform rigged in a tree, you know."
+
+Philip Alexander Maseden, aged sixteen, neither knew nor cared what a
+_machan_ was. His faculties were absorbed in the difficult task of
+reconciling a dapper little man in a gray suit, skipping nimbly into a
+cab in Pall Mall, with a redoubtable Nimrod who had bagged sixty-one
+tigers after tracking them into their jungles.
+
+And that was the record of five years earlier. Perhaps in the meantime
+the bold _shikari_ had added dozens to the total. A mighty hunter,
+Evans, but hard to reconcile with his environment.
+
+Seated in the wet, creaking cabin, and watching through a window which
+opened aft the turmoil of seas leaping venomously at and over the stout
+bulk of the _Southern Cross_, Maseden thought of Evans of the Guides,
+and his cohort of tiger-ghosts. Yet not one tiger among the lot had
+brought Evans so near death as he, Maseden, was when Steinbaum entered
+his cell on that fateful morning, and, in the closest shave Evans was
+ever favored with, a violent end had not been averted by stranger means.
+
+How would the story of "Madeleine," Suarez, and Captain Gomez's boots
+sound if told in a cosy corner of a Fifth Avenue club?
+
+By reason of his position in the fore part of the vessel, Maseden could
+survey the bridge, chart-house and some part of the promenade deck.
+The head of the officer on watch was visible above the canvas screen
+which those who go down to the sea in ships have christened the
+"devil-dodger." The officer's sou'wester was tied on firmly, and the
+placid expression of the strong, weather-stained face was clearly
+discernible. For the most part, he looked straight ahead, with an
+occasional glance back, or over the side into the spume and froth
+churned up by the ship's passage. Once in a while he would draw away
+from the screen and compare the course shown by the compass with that
+steered by the quartermaster at the wheel.
+
+For lack of something better to occupy his mind, Maseden followed each
+movement of the man on the bridge. Thus, singularly enough, next to the
+officer himself, and possibly a look-out in the bows, he was the first
+person on board to become aware of a peril which suddenly beset the
+_Southern Cross_.
+
+What that peril was he could not guess, but he saw that the officer was
+shouting instructions to the quartermaster, and in the same instant the
+clang of a bell showed that the engine-room telegraph was in use.
+
+Almost immediately the ship's speed slackened, and as she yielded to the
+pressure of wind and wave the clamor of her struggle sank to comparative
+silence.
+
+A few seconds later the captain appeared on the bridge. He, like the
+officer, gave particular heed to something which lay straight ahead.
+Evidently he approved of the action taken by his subordinate, because,
+as well as Maseden could judge, he stood beside the telegraph, with a
+hand on the lever, but made no further alteration in the ship's speed.
+
+Naturally Maseden wondered what had happened and watched closely for
+developments. In better weather he would have gone outside, but it was
+positively dangerous now to stand close to the ship's rail, or, indeed,
+remain on any part of the open deck, while the shadow of an attempt on
+his part to climb the forecastle ladder would have evoked a gruff order
+to return.
+
+Within a minute or less, however, he made out that the _Southern Cross_
+was passing through a quantity of wreckage, mostly rough-hewn timber.
+Here and there a spar would unexpectedly thrust its tapering point
+high above the tawny vortex of the waves; at odd times a portion of a
+bulkhead and fragments of white-painted panels would be revealed for
+an instant. Some unfortunate sailing ship had been torn to shreds by
+the gale, and the steamer was just passing through that section of the
+sea-plain still cumbered by her fragments, though the tragedy itself had
+probably occurred many a mile away from that particular point on the
+map.
+
+By this time the stopping of the engines had aroused every member of the
+crew not on watch. Some of the men, bleary-eyed with sleep, gathered in
+the cabin, and their comments were illuminating.
+
+"Wind-jammer gone with all hands," said one man, after a critical glance
+at the flotsam on both sides of the ship.
+
+"What for have we slowed up?" inquired another. "The old man ain't
+thinkin' of lowerin' a boat, is he?"
+
+"Lower a boat, saphead, in a sea like this!" scoffed the first speaker.
+
+"Wouldn't he try to rescue any poor sailor-men who may be clingin' to
+the wreck?" came the retort.
+
+"As though any sort of blisterin' wreck could live in this weather! Try
+again, Jimmy. We're dodgin' planks an' ropes; that's our special stunt
+just now. One o' them hefty chunks o' lumber would knock a hole in us
+below the water-line before you could say 'knife'. An' how about a sail
+an' cordage wrappin' themselves lovin'ly around the screw? Where 'ud
+_we_ be then?... There you are. What did I tell you?"
+
+A heavy thud, altogether different from the blow delivered by a wave,
+shook the _Southern Cross_ from stem to stern. The captain looked over
+the port side, and followed the movement of some unseen object until it
+was swept well clear of the ship. The engines, which had been stopped
+completely, were rung on to "Slow ahead" again. They remained at that
+speed for half a minute, not longer. Then they were stopped once more,
+and the officer of the watch quitted the bridge hurriedly.
+
+"What the devil's the matter _now_?" growled the more experienced critic
+anxiously. "That punch we got can't of started a plate, or all hands
+would 'a' bin piped on deck!"
+
+Singularly enough, he either forgot or was afraid to voice his own
+prediction as to a possible alternative. The big foremast which had
+struck the ship's quarter was stout enough, most unluckily, to support a
+thin wire rope, and this unseen assailant had fouled the propeller. In
+all likelihood, had the captain given the order "Full speed ahead," the
+evil thing might have been thrown clear before mischief was done.
+
+As it was, the very care with which the _Southern Cross_ was navigated
+led to her undoing. With each slow turn of the screw the snake-like rope
+which was destined to choke the life out of a gallant ship had coiled
+itself into a death grip.
+
+Soon some of the strands were forced between propeller and shaft-casing.
+The solid steel cylinder of the shaft became fixed as in a vise. The
+engines were powerless. To apply their force was only to increase the
+resistance. They could not be driven either ahead or astern.
+
+The _Southern Cross_ promptly fell away to the southeast under the
+stress of wind and tide. After her, forming a sort of sea-anchor,
+lolloped the derelict foremast which, by its buoyancy, was the first
+cause of all the mischief.
+
+Mostly it was towed astern. Sometimes a giant wave would snatch it up
+and drive it like a battering ram against the ship's counter.
+
+These blows were generally harmless, the rounded butt of the spar
+glancing off from the acute angle presented by the molded stern-plates.
+Once or twice, however, the rudder was struck squarely, so the chief
+officer, aided by some of the men, quickly put an end to the capacity
+of this novel battering-ram for inflating further damage by lassoing
+and hauling aboard the whole mass of wreckage--mast, yards and tattered
+sails alike.
+
+Then a gruesome discovery was made. Tied to the mast was the corpse
+of a man, but so bruised and battered as to be wholly unrecognizable.
+The poor body, nearly naked, and maimed and torn almost out of human
+semblance, was stitched in a strip of wet canvas, weighted with a few
+furnace bars, and committed to the deep again without a moment's loss
+of time.
+
+But its brief presence had not been helpful. Singularly enough, sailors
+are not only fatalists, which they may well be, but superstitious. No
+man voiced his sentiments; nevertheless, each felt in his heart the ship
+was doomed.
+
+Collectively, they would try to save the ship. As individuals, the
+paramount question now was--how and when might they endeavor to save
+their own lives?
+
+Of course there was neither any sign of panic nor shirking of orders.
+The ship was stanch and eminently seaworthy. She was actually far more
+comfortable while drifting thus helplessly before the gale than when
+battling through it.
+
+Yet every sailor on board, from the captain down to the scullery-man,
+knew that some forty miles ahead lay a shore so forbidding and
+inhospitable that the United States government charts--than which there
+are none so detailed and up-to-date--give navigators the significant
+warning to keep well out to sea, as the coast-line has not been surveyed
+in detail.
+
+Yet the case was not immediately desperate. Forty miles of sea-room was
+better than none. If the gale abated, and an anchor was dropped, it was
+probable that the engineers' cold chisels would soon cut away the wire
+octopus.
+
+Moreover, there was a chance that some other steamer might pick them up
+and earn a magnificent salvage by a tow to Punta Arenas.
+
+So after breakfast the uncanny harbinger of disaster provided by the
+body of the drowned sailor was, if not forgotten, at least generally
+ignored. Pipes were lighted. Men not otherwise occupied gathered in
+groups, while every eye strove to pierce the gray haze of the spindrift
+whipped off the waves by each furious gust, each hoping to be the first
+to discover the friendly smoke-pall of a passing ship.
+
+Certain ominous preparations were made, however. Boats were cleared of
+their wrappings and stocked with water and provisions. Life-belts were
+examined, and their straps adjusted.
+
+As the day wore, and noon was reached, the chance of encountering
+another ship became increasingly remote. Sea and wind showed no signs of
+falling. Indeed, a slight rise in the barometer was not an encouraging
+token. "First rise after low foretells stronger blow" is as true to-day
+as when Admiral Fitzroy wrote his weather-lore doggerel, and the
+principles of meteorology hold good equally north and south of the
+equator.
+
+For a time the captain tried to steady the ship with the canvas
+fore-and-aft sails which big steamships use occasionally in fine weather
+to help the rudder. This devise certainly got the _Southern Cross_ under
+control again, and the crew were vastly astonished when bid furl the
+sails after half an hour.
+
+Surprise ceased when some of them got an opportunity to squint into a
+compass. The wind had veered from northwest to a point south of west.
+
+Only a miracle could save the ship now. It seemed as though the very
+forces of nature had conspired to bring about her undoing.
+
+From that moment a gloom fell on the little community. Men muttered
+brief words, or chatted in whispers. A few paid furtive visits to their
+bunks, and rummaged in kit-bags for some treasured curio or personal
+belonging which could be stowed away in a pocket. It was not a question
+now as to whether the _Southern Cross_ would survive, but when and
+where she would strike, and what sort of fighting chance would be given
+of reaching a bleak shore alive.
+
+Every one knew that it would be the wildest folly to lower a boat in
+such a heavy sea. The sole remaining hope was that the ship would escape
+the outer fringe of reefs, and drive into some rock-bound creek where
+the boats might live.
+
+By means of a properly constructed sea-anchor the captain kept the
+vessel's head toward the east. Thus, when land was sighted, if any
+semblance of a channel offered, it might be possible to steer in that
+direction.
+
+Men were told off to be in readiness to hoist the sails again at a
+moment's notice. The anchors were cleared, both fore and aft. Nothing
+else could be done but watch and wait, while the great ship rolled into
+yawning gulfs or slid down huge curves of yellow-gray water, rolled and
+slid ever onward to sure destruction.
+
+During those weary hours, so slow in passing, so swift in succession
+when sped, Maseden had not once set eyes on his wife or her sister. He
+had seen Sturgess talking to the captain and first officer, but neither
+of the ladies appeared on deck.
+
+Still it was an easy thing to imagine just what was going on. The two
+women were the only persons on board left in ignorance of the certain
+fate awaiting the _Southern Cross_. They were told the half truth that
+the engines were disabled, but that the vessel was in no immediate
+danger.
+
+It was better so. Of what avail to frighten them needlessly? The ship
+would have been absolutely safe if the gale blew from the east instead
+of the west. Even now she might survive. Her chances were of the
+slenderest nature, but there would be ample time to get the women
+into an upper deck saloon or the chart-room when the position became
+desperate. Why embitter the few hours of life yet remaining by knowledge
+of the dreadful fate which threatened when the end came?
+
+About two o'clock an undulating blur on the eastern horizon told of
+land. To the best of the captain's judgment the _Southern Cross_ was off
+Hanover Island when the accident happened, and her relative longitude
+had altered but very slightly during the forty-mile drift. It was now or
+never if anything was to be done to save her.
+
+The forbidding and mountainous coast-line straight ahead was broken up
+by all manner of deep-water channels, each giving access, by devious
+ways, to the sheltered Smyth's Channel; but so barricaded by sunken
+reefs and steep islets as to present almost insuperable obstacles to
+the free passage of a large vessel.
+
+Small whalers and guano-boats would not dare any of these straits in
+fine weather. For the _Southern Cross_ to make the attempt, even
+provided she ran the gantlet of the barrier reef, was indeed the
+forlornest of forlorn hopes.
+
+The chief engineer had already assured the captain many times that any
+further pressure by the engines would inflict irreparable damage, so,
+risking everything on the throw of the dice and wishful to know the
+worst, at any rate, before daylight vanished, he ordered the sails to
+be hoisted again.
+
+All hands were brought on deck, life-belts were adjusted, and boats'
+crews stood by. At that moment Maseden caught a glimpse of the two
+girls. They, with other passengers, were summoned by the ship's officers
+and placed in the smoke-room, which, by reason of its situation beneath
+the bridge, provided a convenient gathering ground in case the boats
+were lowered.
+
+He saw them only for a moment--two cloaked figures, wearing cloth caps
+tied tightly to their heads with motor-veils. He could not distinguish
+Madge from Nina.
+
+It was a strange and most bizarre notion that when the gates of eternity
+were opening a second time before his eyes the woman who was his lawful
+wife should now be sharing his peril, yet be separated from him far
+more effectually than in the Castle of San Juan.
+
+The incongruity of their position did not trouble him greatly, however.
+Soon he ceased thinking about it. He realized that he, as an individual,
+could do nothing but obey orders and abide by the decree of Providence.
+
+He was not frightened. Some hours earlier, knowing the physical features
+of the western coast of South America, he had decided that the odds were
+a thousand to one against the escape of the ship and her seventy-four
+occupants. He hoped that when the end came it might not be a long
+drawn-out agony--that was all. For the rest, he looked forward with a
+certain spice of curiosity to the fight which captain and crew would
+make against the giant forces of nature.
+
+An awesome panorama of mighty cliffs, inaccessible islands and isolated
+rocks over which the seas dashed with extraordinary fury, was opening up
+with ever-increasing clearness. A mist of driven froth and spindrift
+hung low over the surface of the water, but the great hills of the
+interior were distinctly visible.
+
+Irregular white patches near their summits marked the presence of huge
+glaciers. Lower down the valleys were choked with black masses of firs.
+Countless generations of trees had grown, and fallen, and rotted,
+ultimately forming a new, if unstable, basis for more recent growths.
+
+An occasional red scar down a hillside revealed the latest landslide. A
+cascade would leap out from the topmost part of a forest and bury itself
+again in the depths.
+
+These outstanding features were all on a huge scale. It was a weird,
+monstrous land, a place utterly unfitted for human habitation, a part of
+creation quite out of keeping with the rest of the world. Surveying it
+impartially, one might wonder whether it had traveled far in advance of
+the general scheme of things or lagged millions of years behind.
+
+But its aspect was sinister and forbidding in the extreme, and never
+have its depressing characteristics been etched in darker shadows than
+when viewed that January day from the decks of the ill-fated _Southern
+Cross_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE WRECK
+
+
+Up to the last the ship's path was dogged by misfortune. She approached
+Hanover Island at a point where the sea was comparatively open; hence,
+the tremendous waves rolling in from the Pacific were not only unchecked
+by island breakwaters, but their volume and force were actually
+increased by the gradual upward trend of the rock floor.
+
+Still, undaunted by conditions which suggested the plight of a doomed
+craft being hurried to the lip of a cataract, keen eyes searched the
+frowning coast-line for one of the many estuaries which pierced the
+land, some merely the mouths of short-lived rivers, others again
+carrying the ocean currents to the very base of the Andes.
+
+At last an opening did seem to present itself. The great rock walls,
+springing sheer from sea level to a height of a thousand feet or more,
+fell apart, and, so far as might be judged, a wide and deep channel
+flowed inland.
+
+It was at this crisis, when life or death for all on board might depend
+on the veriest trifle, that the captain had to decide whether or not to
+let go both anchors and endeavor to ride out the gale.
+
+He was an experienced and cool-headed sailor. He knew quite well that
+the odds were heavy against an anchor holding in such ground, or, if it
+held, against any cable standing the strain of a six-thousand-ton ship
+in that terrific sea. But, as Maseden learned subsequently, he sought
+advice.
+
+The first and second officers were consulted in turn, and each confirmed
+their chief's opinion that the only practicable course was to run into
+the passage which still offered a comparatively clear way ahead.
+
+So the _Southern Cross_ sped on.
+
+The second officer came forward with some of the crew to superintend the
+dropping of the anchor. The fourth officer took charge of the aft
+anchor. All other members of the crew stood by the boats.
+
+Maseden, feeling oddly remote and unclassed among men of his own race,
+followed the second officer to the forecastle deck. There, at least, he
+could stare his fill at the inferno of rock and broken water which the
+vessel was approaching, though even his landsman's eyes saw that she was
+in a waterway of considerable width, while each mile now traversed must
+tend to diminish the seas and bring a secure anchorage within the bounds
+of possibility.
+
+No one paid heed to him. Among these stolid sailor-men he was a "Dago,"
+a somewhat dandified specimen of the swaggering _vaqueros_ they had met
+at times in the drinking dens of South American ports. He was minded to
+have speech with the second officer, and proclaim once and for all that
+he was of the same kith and kin; but the impulse was stayed by a glance
+at the set, resolute face, intent only on obeying a signal from the
+captain. It was no time for confidences. He questioned even if the
+sailor would have answered.
+
+A touch on a lever would set a winch spinning as the anchor leaped to
+its task. The man charged with carrying out that duty without hitch or
+delay could spare thought for nothing else.
+
+One of the deck-hands, stationed near the chocks, chanced to be the very
+Spaniard whose life had been endangered by the falling block on the day
+after the ship left Cartagena. The ship's carpenter was ill, and the
+Spaniard was carpenter's mate.
+
+Maseden caught his eye, and the man smiled wanly.
+
+"You did me a good turn the other day, señor," he said. "Let me repay
+you now."
+
+"But how?" came the surprised inquiry.
+
+"Underneath my bunk, the lowest one on the left in number seven berth,
+you will find my kit-bag. Beneath some clothes is a bottle of good old
+brandy. Get it, and drink it quickly."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"You will put a pint of honest liquor to good use, and in ten minutes
+you won't care what happens."
+
+"I have no desire to die drunk," said Maseden quietly.
+
+The Spaniard shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"You'll never have a better excuse for swallowing excellent cognac," he
+grinned.
+
+"Shut up, you two!" growled the officer.
+
+He had not understood a word of their talk. He simply voiced the
+eminently American notion that anything said in the Spanish language
+could not be of the least importance just then.
+
+Oddly enough, Maseden was angered by being thus outcasted, as it were.
+He was tempted to retort, but happily checked the words on his lips.
+Nerves were apt to be on a raw edge in such conditions, he remembered.
+Even the stern-faced ship's officer, awaiting a command which would
+settle the fate of the _Southern Cross_ once and for all, might well
+resent the magpie chattering of a couple of Spaniards.
+
+Maseden turned for an instant to look at the bridge. The captain stood
+there, apparently the most unmoved person on board. The sails, tugging
+fiercely at their rings and bolts, still kept the ship under control,
+notwithstanding the ten-knot tidal current which carried her onward
+irresistibly. The foresail was bellied out to port, so the captain
+remained on the starboard side of the bridge, whence he had an
+uninterrupted view ahead.
+
+Suddenly two cloaked figures emerged from the obscurity of the
+smoking-room and hurried to the transverse rail which guarded the fore
+part of the promenade deck. With them came some men, among whom Maseden
+recognized Sturgess; while another man, who caught the arm of one of the
+girls in a helpless sort of way, was probably Mr. Gray.
+
+Evidently there was no concealing the ship's peril from the passengers
+now. Everyone wore a life-belt, and was clothed to resist the cold. A
+plausible explanation of this general flocking out on to the deck was
+that they had discerned the cleft in the rocky heights through a blurred
+window, and refused to remain any longer in the sheltered uncertainty of
+the smoking-room.
+
+At this period there was little or no difficulty in keeping one's feet.
+The great hull of the _Southern Cross_ swung easily on an even keel with
+the onrush of the sea-river. The ship was not fighting now, but
+yielding--a complacent leviathan held captive by a most puissant and
+ruthless enemy.
+
+During the few seconds Maseden stared at the veiled women. One of those
+two--which one he could not tell--was his wife. It was the maddest, most
+fantastic thing he had ever heard of. In a spirit of sheer deviltry he
+waved a greeting. One of the girls raised a hand to her face--perhaps to
+her lips.
+
+What did it matter? In all human probability that was their eternal
+farewell. He waved again, and turned resolutely to scan the frowning
+headlands now rapidly closing in on both sides of the vessel's path.
+
+About that time a new and disturbing sound reached his ears. Hitherto
+there had been nothing but the unceasing chant of the gale, the thud and
+swish of the seas, the steady plaint of the ship, and an occasional
+crash like a volley of musketry when the crest was torn off some giant
+roller and flung against poop or superstructure. But now there came a
+crashing, booming noise, irregular, yet almost continuous, and ever
+growing louder and more insistent; a noise almost exactly similar to
+distant gun-fire and the snarling explosions of heavy projectiles.
+
+It was the noise of the bitterest and longest war ever waged. Those old
+enemies, sea and land, were engaged in deadly combat, and, as ever, the
+sea was winning.
+
+Even while the _Southern Cross_ swung past an overhanging fortress of
+rock, a mighty bastion crumbled into ruin. It was singular to watch a
+cloud of dust mingle with the spindrift--to note how the next breaker
+climbed higher in assault over the vantage ground provided by the
+successful sap.
+
+A disconcerting feature of the ship's hurried transit into this
+unchartered territory was the clearness with which all things were
+visible above a height of some twelve feet from the surface of the sea;
+whereas, below that level, the clouds of spray and flying scud formed an
+almost impenetrable wall.
+
+Taking his eyes from the everchanging panorama, Maseden looked over the
+side. The foam-flecked water was black but fairly transparent. In its
+depths he was astounded by the sight of writhing, sinister shapes like
+the arms of innumerable devil-fish.
+
+At first he experienced a shock of surprise so close akin to horror that
+he felt the chill of it, as though one of these fearsome tentacles were
+already twined around his shrinking body. Then he realized that he had
+been startled by some gigantic species of seaweed. The ship was crossing
+a submarine forest. Down there in the depths on this January day in the
+southern hemisphere some mysterious form of plant life was enjoying its
+leafy June.
+
+But science had no joys for him in that hour. Better the outlook on crag
+and clearing sky than a furtive glimpse of the limbs and foliage of
+that monstrous growth.
+
+All at once a cry from the look-out in the bows sent a quiver through
+every hearer.
+
+"Rock ahead!"
+
+After a pause, measured by seconds, but seeming like as many minutes,
+the same voice shouted:
+
+"Channel opens to starboard!"
+
+The ship answered the helm. She swept past a jagged little islet so
+closely that a sailor could have cast a coil of rope ashore.
+
+Forthwith another sound mingled with the crash of the breakers. The rock
+had been bored right through by the waves, and the gale set up a note in
+the tunnel such as no organ-builder ever dreamed of.
+
+That mighty chord pursued the _Southern Cross_ for nearly half a mile.
+It was a melancholy and depressing wail. Maseden, whose faculties were
+supernaturally alert, noticed that the South American sailor's face had
+turned a sickly green. The man was paralyzed with fright. His right hand
+fumbled in a weak attempt to cross himself.
+
+Out of the tail of his eye the second officer caught the gesture.
+
+"Pull yourself together, you swab!" he said bitingly. "What the hell
+good will you be if you give way like that?"
+
+The Spaniard grasped the sense of command in the words rather than their
+meaning. He was no coward. He even contrived to grin. It was a tonic to
+be cursed by an American, even though the pierced rock howled like a
+lost soul!
+
+Still the _Southern Cross_ drove on. The tidal stream was, if anything,
+swifter than ever, but the size of the waves had diminished sensibly.
+The walls of the straits had closed in to within a half-mile span. There
+could not be the slightest doubt that the vessel was actually passing
+through one of the waterways which connect the Pacific with Smyth's
+Channel.
+
+Maseden, after scanning the interior highlands for the hundredth time,
+glanced again at the second officer. The grimness of the clean-cut,
+stern face had somewhat relaxed. Quite unconsciously the sailor's
+expression showed that hope had replaced calm-visaged despair. Given an
+unhindered run of another mile, the ship could at least drop anchor with
+some prospect of success.
+
+The strength of the tide would diminish in less than an hour, and it
+might be possible to maneuver in the slack water for a comparatively
+safe berth. Next day, if the weather moderated as promised by the
+barometer, the steam pinnace could spy out the land in front.
+
+Smyth's Channel was not so far away--perhaps fifty miles. Once there,
+the _Southern Cross_ could repair damage and proceed under her own steam
+to Punta Arenas.
+
+A gleam of yellow light irradiated the surface mist, which had grown
+markedly denser. The clouds were parting, and the sun was vouchsafing
+some thin rays from the northwest.
+
+The mere sight was cheering. The blood ran warmer in the veins. It was
+as though the ship's company, after days and nights of cold and
+starvation, had been miraculously supplied with food and hot liquids.
+
+Then the golden radiance died away, and simultaneously came the cry:
+
+"Reef ahead!"
+
+There was no need for further warning by the men in the bows. The
+_Southern Cross_ had hardly traveled her own length before every person
+in the fore part of the ship, together with the occupants of bridge and
+promenade deck, became aware that a seemingly impassable barrier lay
+right across the channel. At the same time the line of cliffs fell away
+to the southward.
+
+Beyond the reef, then, lay a wide stretch of land-locked water; its
+unexpected existence explained the frantic haste of the tidal current.
+It was cruel luck that nature should have thrown one of her defensive
+works across that bottle-neck entrance. A few cables' lengths away was
+safety; here, unavoidable--sullen and rigid as death himself--were the
+rock fangs.
+
+At the supreme moment the second officer never turned his head. His eyes
+were riveted on the motionless figure standing on the starboard side of
+the bridge.
+
+The captain raised his hand; the sails flapped loudly in the wind; both
+anchors splashed overboard with hoarse rattling of chains. The after
+anchor failed, but the forward one held at a depth of ten fathoms.
+
+The second officer was quick to note the sudden strain, and eased
+it--once, twice, three times. But it was now or never. The ship was
+swinging in the stream, and her stern-post would just clear the fringe
+of the reef if the anchor made good its grip.
+
+The _Southern Cross_ had gone round, with a heavy lurch to port, caused
+by the tremendous pressure of wind and wave, and was almost stationary
+when the cable parted. The thick chain flew back with all the impetus of
+six thousand tons in motion behind it.
+
+Missing Maseden by a hair's breadth, it struck the foretop, and the spar
+snapped like a carrot. It fell forward, and the identical block which
+had nearly brought about the death of the South American sailor now
+caught his rescuer on the side of the head.
+
+In the same instant a heavy stay dragged Maseden bodily over the
+fore-rail and he pitched headlong to the deck, where, however, the
+actual fall was broken by the stout canvas of the sail.
+
+A woman screamed, but he could not hear, being knocked insensible.
+
+"All hands amidships!" shouted the captain, and there was a race for the
+ladders. One man, however, the Spaniard, stooped over the young
+American's body. His eyes were streaming with tears.
+
+"Good-by, friend!" he sobbed. "Maybe this is a better way than that
+opened by my bottle of brandy!"
+
+He was sure that the _vaquero_ who swore like an _Americano_ had been
+killed, because blood was flowing freely from a scalp wound; but he
+lifted Maseden's inert form, and, without any valid reason behind the
+action, placed him in his bunk, as the cabin door stood open.
+
+Then he ran after the others.
+
+Poor fellow! He little dreamed that he was repaying a thousand-fold the
+few extra days of life the good-looking _vaquero_ had given him.
+
+Almost immediately the ship struck. There was a fearsome crash of
+rending plates and torn ribs, the great vessel reeled over, struck again
+and bumped clear of the outer reef.
+
+Now, too late, the after anchor lodged in a sunken crevice; the cable
+did not yield, because the vessel was sucked into a sort of backwash and
+driven, bow on, close to an apparently unscalable cliff.
+
+She settled rapidly. As it happened a submerged rock smashed her
+keel-plate beneath the engine-room, and the engines, together with the
+stout framework to which the superstructure was bolted amidships, became
+anchored there, offering a new obstacle to the onward race of the seas
+pouring over the reef.
+
+Every boat was either smashed instantaneously or wrenched bodily from
+its davits. Two-thirds of the hull fell away almost at once, the
+forecastle tilting towards the cliff, and the poop being swept into deep
+water.
+
+With the after part went at least half the ship's company, their last
+cries of despair being smothered by the continuous roar of the wind and
+the thunder of the waves. The bridge, with the rooms immediately below,
+remained fairly upright, but the smoking-room, and officers' quarters
+close to it, were swept by water breast high.
+
+Some one--who it was will never be known--had ordered the passengers to
+run into the smoking-room when the forward cable parted. Now, with the
+magnificent courage invariably shown by American sailors even when the
+gates of death gape wide before their eyes, the first and second
+officers contrived to hoist the two girls to the chart-room behind the
+bridge.
+
+Sturgess, behaving with great gallantry, helped the women first, and
+then their father, who was floating in the room, to reach the only
+available gangway. Others followed, but the difficulty of rescue--if
+such a sorrowful transition might be called a rescue--was enhanced by
+the noise and sudden darkness.
+
+Ever the central citadel of the _Southern Cross_ was sinking lower. Ever
+the leaping waves and their clouds of spray tended more and more to shut
+out the light.
+
+Seven people were plucked from immediate death in this fashion. All
+told, officers, crew and passengers, the survivors of seventy-four souls
+numbered twelve.
+
+There was a thirteenth, because Maseden was lying high and dry in his
+bunk. But of him they took no count.
+
+They gathered in the chart-room. Those who still retained their senses
+tried to revive the more fortunate ones to whom was vouchsafed a
+merciful oblivion of their common plight. Even in the temporary haven of
+the chart-room the conditions quickly savored of utter misery. The
+windows were blown away. The doors were jammed open by the warping of
+the deck. Wind, waves and sheets of spray seemed to vie with demoniac
+energy as to which could be most cruel and deadly. The ceaseless
+warping and working of what was left of the ship presaged complete
+collapse at any moment, and the din of the reef was stupefying.
+
+Still, the captain did not abate one jot of his cool demeanor. He eyed
+the sea, the rocks, the remains of his ship and the beetling crags from
+which he was cut off by sixty feet of raging water.
+
+Then he deliberately turned his back on it all. Going to a locker, he
+produced a screwdriver and began methodically drawing the screws of the
+door-hinges.
+
+The chief officer thought that the other man's brain had yielded to the
+stress.
+
+"What are you doing, sir?" he said, placing a hand gently on his
+friend's shoulder.
+
+"We haven't a ten-million to one chance of remaining here till the gale
+gives out," was the calm answer, "but we may as well rig up some sort of
+protection from the weather. There are four lockers and four doors.
+Let's block up those broken windows as well as we can."
+
+A curiously admiring light shone in the chief officer's eyes. He said
+nothing, but helped. Soon a corner was completely walled. They decided
+it was better to have one section thoroughly shielded than the whole
+only partially.
+
+They made a quick job of it. The girls, Mr. Gray, and two men recovering
+consciousness were allotted to the angle.
+
+Then the captain opened one of the three bottles of claret stored in a
+locker, and portioned out the contents among the survivors.
+
+There was no need to measure the share of a heavily-built Spaniard who
+was reputed to be a wealthy rancher from the Argentine. His spine was
+broken when the ship lurched over the reef. He was found dead when they
+tried to move him to the sheltered corner.
+
+And now a pall of darkness spread swiftly over the face of the waters.
+The tide fell, but the ship sank with it. She no longer rocked and shook
+under the blows of the waves. It seemed as though she knew herself
+crippled beyond all hope of succor, and only awaited another tide to
+meet annihilation.
+
+Wind and sea were more furious than ever. In all likelihood, the gale
+would blow itself out next day. But long before dawn the rising tide
+would have made short work of what was left of the _Southern Cross_.
+
+Never was a small company of Christian people in a more hopeless
+position. Every boat was gone. They had no food. They were wet to the
+skin, and pierced with bitter cold. Even the hardy captain's teeth
+chattered as he took a pipe from his pocket, rolled some tobacco between
+the palms of his hands, and said smilingly to those near him:
+
+"This is one of the occasions when a water-tight pipe-lighter is a real
+treasure. Who'd like a smoke? You must find your own pipes. I can supply
+some 'baccy and a light!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+ONE CHANCE IN A MILLION
+
+
+Maseden was badly hurt and quite stunned. Of that there could be no
+manner of doubt. He was blissfully unaware of the destruction of the
+ship, and did not regain his senses until long after the captain and
+some few of the men gathered in the dismantled chart-room had indulged
+in what was to prove their last pipeful of tobacco.
+
+Even when a species of ordered perception was restored he was wholly
+unable during an hour or more to collect his wits sufficiently to
+understand just what had happened.
+
+Certain phenomena were vaguely disturbing; that was all. He knew, for
+instance, that the _Southern Cross_ was wrecked, because the deck was
+tilted permanently at an alarming angle. As the downward slope was
+forward, however, and his bunk lay across it and on the forward side of
+the door the physical outcome was by no means unpleasant, since his body
+was wedged comfortably between the mattress and the bulkhead.
+
+He was dry and warm. The weather-proof garments of the pampas were
+admirably adapted to resist exposure, while the pitch of the deck, aided
+by the conformation of the bows, diminished the striking power of the
+waves and carried the spray and broken water clean over the remains of
+the forecastle.
+
+Maseden's position resembled that of a man ensconced in a dry niche of a
+cave behind a waterfall. So long as he did not move and the cavern held
+intact he was safe and comfortable. Happily, a long time elapsed between
+the first glimmer of consciousness and the moment when the knowledge was
+borne in on him that he was actually beset by immediate and most deadly
+peril.
+
+He imagined that the ship had been cast ashore after he met with some
+rather serious accident, that some kind Samaritan had tucked him into
+his own berth, and that, in due course, some one would look in on him
+with a cheery inquiry as to how he was faring. His answer would have
+been that his head ached abominably, that his mouth and throat were on
+fire, and that a long drink of cold water was the one thing needed to
+send him to sleep and speedy recovery.
+
+He did not realize that when he dropped face downward into the folds of
+the sail he had swallowed a quantity of salt water lodged there
+instantly by the pelting seas. It was not until he moved, and yielded
+to a fit of vomiting, which relieved the pain in his head and cleared
+his faculties, that the dreadful truth began to dawn in his mind.
+
+Once, however, the process of clear reasoning set in, it developed
+rapidly. He noticed, in the first instance, that the angle of the deck
+was becoming steeper. It was strange, he thought, that although the
+light was failing, no one came near. His ears, too, told him that seas
+were still hammering furiously on every side.
+
+Finally, a marked movement of the forecastle as it slipped over a smooth
+rock race, owing to the increase of dead weight brought about by the
+falling tide, induced a species of alarmed curiosity which proved a most
+potent tonic. At one moment feeling hardly able to move, the next he was
+scrambling out of the bunk and climbing crab-like through the doorway.
+
+Then he saw that the forecastle deck had been torn away in line with the
+forward bulkhead of the fore hold. With some difficulty, being still
+physically weak and shaken, he raised head and shoulders above this
+jagged edge and peered over.
+
+Then he understood. The ship was in pieces on the reef. Two bits of her
+still remained; the forecastle, a stubborn wedge nearly always the last
+part of a steel-built vessel to collapse, and the bridge, with its
+backing of the chart house. All else had gone--the funnels had fallen
+an hour earlier.
+
+Even the steel plates and stout wood work of the superstructure had
+melted away from the six strong ribs to which the sunken engines were
+bolted, leaving the bridge and chart house in air.
+
+Already, too, one of the six pillars which had proved the salvation of
+that forlorn aerie had yielded to the strain and snapped. In the
+half-light it was difficult to discern just what support was given to
+the squat rectangle of the chart-house; Maseden had to look long and
+steadily through the flying scud before he gathered the exact facts.
+
+The upper deck of the forecastle shut off any glimpse of the cliffs. All
+he could see was the reef, much more visible now, but still partially
+submerged by every sea; beyond it, a howling wilderness of broken water,
+and in the midst of this depressing picture, the ghost-like chart-house
+and bridge.
+
+But he recalled vividly enough the sight of an awesome precipice close
+at hand before something had hit him and robbed him of senses. If the
+ship, or what was left of her, was lodged on the reef towards which she
+was being driven at the time of his mishap, the shore could not be far
+distant.
+
+Within a foot of where he lay on the deck, clinging to it as a man
+might save himself from falling off the steeply-pitched roof of a house,
+was the big bole of the foremast, on which the rings of the sails formed
+a sort of ladder. He pulled himself up, stretched his body along the
+mast in the opposite direction, and made out the uneven summit of the
+cliff above the straight line of the upper deck.
+
+He was exposed to the weather here, but the waves were not breaking
+across the forecastle now, and the spray and biting wind tended
+rather to dissipate the feeling of lassitude which had proved quite
+overpowering while he remained in the bunk. He raised himself cautiously
+another foot or so, and the rugged wall of the precipice loomed so close
+that at first he fancied the wreck was touching it.
+
+The broken topmast, however, swaying in the wind, and still held to its
+more solid support by a couple of wire stays, pointed drunkenly at the
+cliff, and the pulley dangling from it was occasionally dashed by the
+gale against an overhanging ledge.
+
+Even while Maseden was arriving at a pretty accurate estimate of the way
+in which he had been injured--because he now recalled the parting of
+the anchor cable--the forecastle moved again, the wet and frowning wall
+became even more visible, and although an awesome gap intervened, the
+swaying, pointed spar seemed to offer a fantastic glimpse of a means of
+escape.
+
+As yet, the truck, or top of the mast, was fully sixteen feet distant
+from the face of the cliff. But it had been twenty feet or more distant
+a moment ago, and that last movement of the hull had lessened the width
+of the chasm.
+
+What if the spar jammed? Could a man obtain foothold on that slimy rock
+surface?
+
+He thought it possible. A deep crevice seemed to promise some vague
+prospect of upward progress to one who could climb, and to whom any risk
+was preferable to the certain fate which must attend remaining on the
+wreck during the coming tide.
+
+But, notwithstanding his partial recovery, he still felt very feeble and
+quite unequal to more exertion. As nothing in the way of an attempt to
+save his life was possible until the broken topmast was lodged firmly
+against the cliff, he wondered whether he would find some sort of food
+in the forecastle.
+
+It was improbable, of course. Meals were brought from the cook's galley
+amidships, and utensils only were stored in the lockers of the dingy
+saloon in which he and many of the sailors used to eat.
+
+Still, spurred by the necessity of doing something to take his mind off
+the fearsome alternative should the forecastle topple over sideways, or
+even remain in its present position, he turned his back on the cliff.
+With never a glance at the bridge, he regained the sloping deck, lowered
+himself to the doorway of his own cabin, and peered into the gloom in
+the effort to determine how best and where to begin his search.
+
+At first his heart sank, because the saloon was awash. Then he
+remembered the Spanish sailor's queer offer of a bottle of brandy,
+stored in a kit-bag in number seven berth, "the lowest bunk on the
+left."
+
+Number seven! Had he not seen the man at odd times entering or leaving
+the second cabin on the port side? At any rate, there was no harm in
+trying.
+
+Crawling farther into the darkness, he walked on what was normally the
+cross bulkhead of the saloon, groped to a doorway, found a kit-bag in
+the stated position, opened it, and came upon a bottle of brandy!
+
+He drank a little. Luckily it was not the raw spirit beloved of such
+men as its late owner, but sound, mellow liquor, which the Spaniard
+had probably bought as a medicine.
+
+Be that as it may, the brandy exercised the magical effect which good
+cognac always produces in those wise enough not to vitiate the blood
+with alcohol when in robust health. For the first time since he was
+struck down, Maseden felt himself capable of putting forth physical
+effort involving sustained muscular exertion.
+
+He returned to his own cabin, secured the poncho, or cloak, and wrapped
+the bottle in it. Rummaging round in the dark, he laid hands on a strap,
+with which he buckled the folded poncho tightly to his shoulders. Then
+reviewing the prospects which awaited an unfortunate castaway on that
+inhospitable coast, he endeavored to get at his own trunk.
+
+Therein, however, he failed. The iron frame of the bunk had buckled, and
+the trunk was held as in a vise.
+
+Realizing that he had very little time before the light in the interior
+of the forecastle would vanish altogether, he hurried back to the
+Spaniard's berth and hauled out the kit-bag. He had an uncomfortable
+feeling that he was robbing the dead, but if it were practicable to land
+any sort of stores the effort should be made.
+
+He had not a moment to spare for further search. The forecastle slipped
+again, and he experienced no little difficulty in regaining his perch on
+the solid stump of the foremast, on which, so nearly had it approached
+the horizontal, he could sit quite easily.
+
+The dangling spar, he estimated, was now about eight feet from the
+cliff. Would it catch the rock wall while any glimmer of light remained,
+or would some new movement of the wreck divert its progress? He could
+only hope for the best and be ready to seize the opportunity when, if
+ever, it presented itself.
+
+To his thinking, the gale was moderating; but he dared not indulge in
+the smallest hope that the forecastle would live through the next tide.
+The heavy swell of the Pacific after a westerly storm would create a
+worse sea on the reef than that already experienced. Probably the
+breakers would be more destructive immediately after than during the
+gale.
+
+It was at that moment, when in a plight seldom equaled and never
+surpassed by any man destined to survive a disastrous shipwreck, that
+Maseden's thoughts reverted to his fellow passengers. There was no
+need to watch the spar, since he could not fail to become aware of any
+further movement of the forecastle, so he lashed the kit-bag to a sail
+ring, again turned his back on the cliff, and gave close attention to
+the chart-house.
+
+Despite the increasing darkness it was a good deal more visible now
+than when he had looked that way earlier. No dense clouds of spray or
+spindrift intervened; hence he noticed for the first time the improvised
+shutters which had replaced the glass front of the structure on the
+seaward side.
+
+He was wondering whether or not it was possible that some one might
+still be living on the only other part of the ship still intact, when
+he became aware of a figure silhouetted against the sky above the canvas
+screen of the bridge.
+
+It was, in fact, the captain, who crept out of the chart-house every now
+and then to examine the state of the iron uprights and the condition of
+the reef. The gallant old sailor had abandoned, or never formed, any
+notion of escape, because nothing could live for an instant on the reef
+itself, and he could not possibly detect the chance of salvation offered
+by the broken mast. But the nature of the man demanded that he should
+keep watch and ward over those committed to his care. In all likelihood
+he experienced a vague sense of relief in being able to discharge even
+the melancholy duty of noting the gradual breaking-up of the supports.
+
+Three had gone, two on the port side and one on the starboard. When the
+third stanchion yielded on the port side, bridge and chart-room would
+fall with a crash and there would be an end. He said nothing of this to
+the unhappy company within.
+
+"The weather is improving," he told them cheerfully, as Maseden heard
+later. "I can't honestly give you any prospect of escape, but--while
+there's life there's hope!"
+
+And all the time he was listening for the ominous crack which would be
+the precursor of that final sinking into the depths! The marvel was
+that the middle of the ship had held together so long, but by no miracle
+known to man could what was left of her survive the next tide.
+
+Yet why should he add to misery already abyssmal? Death would be a
+blessed relief; waiting for certain death was the worst of tortures.
+
+No one answered. The survivors--of the twelve four were dead now--were
+perishing with cold and dumbly resigned to their wretched fate. Had it
+not been for the protection afforded by the improvised screen, none
+would have been alive even then.
+
+The wind still swirled and eddied into every nook and cranny. Though
+huddled together, the little group of men and women were conscious of
+no warmth. It was with the greatest difficulty that those not clad in
+oilskins kept any garments on their bodies.
+
+So merciless is the havoc of the sea that its victims are stripped naked
+even while clinging to the battered hulk of a ship, though this last
+device of a seemingly demoniac savagery is easily accounted for. No
+product of loom or spinning machine can withstand the disintegrating
+effects of breaking waves helped by a fierce gale. The seams and
+fastenings of ordinary garments cannot resist the combined assault. In
+such circumstances, a woman's flimsy attire will be torn off her in a
+few minutes, while the strongest of boots have been known to collapse
+after some hours of this kind of exposure.
+
+Luckily a number of oilskins were kept in the chart-room of the
+_Southern Cross_; these were quickly served out to the shivering girls,
+whose clothing had practically melted away as though made of thin paper.
+
+Soon after the captain had tried to hearten them with that scrap of
+proverbial philosophy, one of the girls, Nina, screamed in an elfin note
+that dominated even the roaring of the reef for an instant. Her father
+had collapsed. It was useless to pretend that he might only have
+fainted. They who fell now were doomed. In Mr. Gray's case, he was dead
+ere he sank down.
+
+The chief officer put a consoling hand on the girl's shoulder. He was a
+Bostonian, and had daughters of his own. In that hour of tribulation his
+speech reverted to the homely accents of New England.
+
+"It comes hard to see your father drop like that," he said. "But it's
+better so. He's just spared a bit of the trouble we may have to face."
+
+"It is not that," wailed the girl brokenly. "I'm thinking of my mother.
+She will never know. Oh, if I could only make her understand, I would
+not care!"
+
+A strange answer, the sailor deemed it, most probably. At that instant
+he caught the captain's eye. Both men had the same thought. The dead
+should be thrown overboard and thus lessen the weight supported by the
+one stanchion on the port side.
+
+But of what avail were such precautions? They might as well all go
+together, the quick and the dead. Why should any of them wish to live on
+until the sea rose again in the small hours of the morning?
+
+The girls were crying in each other's arms. Two of the men lifted Gray's
+body and placed it with four others. Five gone out of twelve!
+
+The captain, speaking in the most matter-of-fact way, suggested that
+they should open and drink the last bottle of claret before the light
+failed.
+
+"It's a poor substitute for a meal," he said, "but it's the only thing
+we can lay hands on."
+
+The chief officer nodded his head towards the grief-stricken sisters.
+
+"Maybe we can wait a bit longer," he said. "You couldn't persuade them
+to touch it just now.... What's that, sir? Did you hear anything?"
+
+"No. What could we possibly hear?"
+
+"It sounded like a voice, some one hailing."
+
+"I think I know whose voice it is," said the captain. He himself had
+almost yielded to the delusion. It was distressing to find the same
+eery symptom of speedy breakdown in his old friend, the chief officer.
+
+Both men listened, nevertheless, and were convinced. In silence they
+went out into the open, walking stealthily. Each knew that any undue
+movement might send the remains of the ship headlong to the reef. They
+strained their eyes in the only possible direction from which a voice
+might have come--the scrap of forecastle, sixty feet nearer the
+headland, or, incredible as it seemed, the headland itself. They could
+see nothing. Maseden's body was not only in line with the receding angle
+of the foremast, but that piece of the wreck was merged in the gloom of
+the towering rock.
+
+Maseden saw them, however, and shouted again, striving his uttermost now
+that he had attracted attention.
+
+With each effort at speech his voice was becoming stronger. Though it
+was useless to think of conveying an intelligible message through the
+uproar of wind and water, he fancied he could get into communication
+with the inmates of the chart-room, provided they were on the alert. In
+effect, he had a knife, and was surrounded by an abundance of tangled
+cordage, and it would be a strange thing if after so many years of
+active life on a South American ranch he could not cast a weighted lasso
+as far as the bridge.
+
+He began fashioning the necessary coil at once, working with feverish
+haste, because his refuge was on the move again, and ever towards the
+land. A trial cast fell short, as he had not allowed enough lee-way for
+the wind. He was gathering up the rope preparatory to another effort
+when a great voice boomed at him from the shadows:
+
+"You have no chance here. You are as well off where you are. If you hear
+me, hail three times!"
+
+The captain was using a megaphone.
+
+Maseden yelled "Hi!" three times, thinking the short, sharp syllable
+would carry best. Then, with splendid judgment, he threw the lasso in a
+lateral parabola that landed its end across the rail of the bridge,
+where it was promptly made fast by the first officer.
+
+Again came that mighty voice:
+
+"Is there any hope of escape on your side? If so, hail three times."
+
+He replied. After a short delay he heard the order:
+
+"Haul in!"
+
+Attached to the noose of his rope was another rope, and a second thinner
+one, rigged as a "whip," or communicating cord. Tied at the junction was
+the megaphone. The intent of the senders was plain. He was to bawl
+directions, and they would obey.
+
+He fancied that by this time the topmast must be near the rock, if not
+quite touching it, but he had decided already that he would either save
+those hapless people in the chart-room or die in the attempt.
+
+Perhaps his "wife" was there yet. Unless those American sailors had
+broken the first law of their order of chivalry, the women committed to
+their care had been safeguarded.
+
+Well, he owed her a life. Now he might be able to repay the debt in
+full.
+
+He had never before handled a speaking trumpet, so his initial essay was
+brief:
+
+"Can you hear?"
+
+He could just catch three faint sounds in answer.
+
+"As soon as a sailor can cross by the rope, send one," he shouted, "I
+shall need help at this end. I have made fast the heavy rope. Shall I
+haul in the whip?"
+
+There was a pause of a few seconds, but he counted on that. Then he felt
+three tugs on the thinner cord, and began to haul steadily. Soon, by the
+sagging of the main rope and the weight at the end of the whip, he
+realized that some one was making the transit.
+
+Before long he discerned a figure coming towards him hand over hand
+along the rope. The man's feet were caught midway by the seas boiling
+over the reef, but Maseden knew that the gallant fellow's forward
+movement was never checked, and in a very little while the breathless
+chief officer was seated astride the mast beneath him.
+
+"Who in the world are you?" demanded the newcomer; at any rate, he used
+words to that effect.
+
+Maseden answered in kind, and explained his project; whereupon the chief
+officer seized the megaphone and bellowed the necessary instructions. On
+a given signal the two men hauled on the whip.
+
+This time a figure lashed to a life-buoy, which, in turn, was tied to a
+pulley traveling on the guide-rope, came to them out of the darkness. It
+was a woman, hardly in her senses, yet able to obey when told to sit
+astride the mast and hold fast to a ring.
+
+"We can hardly find room for five more people here," shouted the chief
+officer. "Are you game to shin along the mast and see if that loose spar
+is practicable yet?"
+
+"Yes," said Maseden.
+
+He vanished in the darkness. He was absent fully five minutes, a period
+which, to the waiting chief officer, who alone knew what was actually
+happening, must have seemed like as many hours. Then Maseden returned.
+By this time there were two more astride the foremast, four in all. He
+tied the nearest one to his back with a rope.
+
+"Can you steady yourself by placing your hands on my shoulders, but not
+around my neck?" he said.
+
+For answer two slim hands caught his shoulders. He began working his way
+forward into the gloom.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE LOTTERY
+
+
+Maseden's prolonged absence on the first occasion was readily accounted
+for by what he had done. When he reached the end of the foremast--at the
+junction of spars known to the sailor as the couplings--he found that
+the topmast was, in fact, thrust tightly against the rock wall.
+
+Thus far, his most sanguine calculations had been justified to the
+letter.
+
+It was impossible to determine how the other end of that precarious
+bridge was secured. He saw at once, however, that a great strain was
+being placed already on the stays which attached it, by chance and
+loosely at first, but now with ever-increasing rigidity, to the lower
+mast. He thought that a vigorous kick would ease the pressure by partly
+freeing one of the wire ropes which had become entangled in the
+splintered wood.
+
+Of course, he was only choosing the lesser of two evils. If the spar
+snapped a second time, the last hope of rescue was absolutely destroyed.
+On the other hand, by reducing the thrust on the retaining spar, the
+forecastle might slip.
+
+He kicked, and the stay was released! To the best of his belief the
+wreck did not move.
+
+Fastening the seaward end of the topmast in a rough and ready fashion,
+in such wise that it was held in position, yet allowed some play if
+subjected to irresistible weight, he tested it with one hand. It
+remained taut. Then, murmuring something which had the semblance of a
+prayer, he committed himself to the crossing.
+
+The wind carried his body out at an astonishing angle, but he held on.
+Of course, he had not far to travel, because a steamer's topmast is of
+no great length, but, if he lives to become a centenarian, Maseden will
+never forget the extraordinary thrill of thankfulness and jubilation
+which ran through every fibre when his right foot rested on a projecting
+knob of rock.
+
+A ghostly light coming from the white maelstrom beneath enabled him to
+make sure that the crevice in which the spar had stuck extended some
+distance into the face of the cliff. He scrambled ashore, and found that
+a narrow ledge ran inward about the height of his breast. It was
+practicable as far as a hand could reach; so, well knowing how precious
+was every second, he commenced the return journey.
+
+He simply did not allow himself to think. The slightest hesitation might
+have been fatal. He could form no sort of estimate of his own nervous
+strength. He knew that any man's willpower may carry him to a certain
+point and then desert him. He realized that he was leaving a sort of
+safety for a no mean chance of speedy death; but there is safety that is
+dishonor, and death that is everlastingly honorable.
+
+Without any semblance of hesitation, this gallant young American swung
+forth to the desolation and chaos he had just quitted.
+
+Nor did his spirit quail when he had deposited a helpless woman on the
+ledge. But his hands fumbled in untying the rope which had bound her to
+him, and he became conscious of an affrighting lassitude which brought
+with it a grimmer menace than the howling furies of the reef.
+
+He tried to persuade himself that the poncho strapped to his back had
+made the burden of another body almost unbearable. Hurriedly unfastening
+it, he said to his collapsed companion--or, rather shouted, because the
+din created by the breakers was almost stupefying:
+
+"Are you able to hold this?"
+
+Probably she replied, but her utterance was swept away by the wind ere
+the words had crossed her lips. She took the folded cloak in her hands,
+and the action sufficed.
+
+Then Maseden left her. During this second crossing to the forecastle he
+knew beyond range of doubt that he had reached the limit of physical
+endurance. He had eaten nothing during many hours, he had been knocked
+insensible and had lost a good deal of blood. It was not in human nature
+that any man, howsoever fit and active he might be, could survive these
+heavy drains on his energies and yet put forth the sustained effort now
+called for.
+
+It tasked his grit to the uttermost to go on this time. He knew in his
+heart that a third double passage was not to be thought of.
+
+So, during the brief respite while a wholly insensible woman was being
+tied to him, he contrived to shout to the nearest man on the spar:
+
+"I'm all in! You fellows must follow as best you can. It's not so bad
+for a man crossing alone. Turn your back to the wind."
+
+He had adopted that method while carrying the girl already on the rock,
+and the force of the gale had seemed to exert less drag on his arms.
+
+It needed a real life-and-death struggle to gain the ledge this time.
+During a minute or longer he could not even endeavor to undo the rope.
+He merely lurched forward on to the tiny platform and sank in a heap
+with the inert body of a girl bound to his back. Then he felt dizzily
+that someone was gaining a foothold on the rock behind. With a mighty
+effort he bundled his own body and the girl's out of the way.
+
+He fancied he heard a shout and a scream, but was beyond knowing or
+caring what had happened. Had he slipped down into the raging vortex
+beneath and been whirled to almost instant death he would have felt a
+sense of relief that the long drawn-out and unequal fight was ended.
+
+He revived under the stress of a new horror. He found himself gazing
+blankly into a dim obscurity in which there was neither broken topmast
+nor unheaved forecastle. The tons of metal piled on a slippery rock had
+vanished completely, and the hapless few who had survived the slow agony
+of those hours of waiting in the chart-room were hurled to death at the
+very moment when fate tantalized them with the prospect of rescue!
+
+Someone bawled huskily in his ear:
+
+"They've gone! My God! What rotten luck! I could almost have touched the
+man crossing behind me!... Can we get these girls out of this?... Which
+way did you come?"
+
+It was the young American passenger, Sturgess. He imagined that the man
+who had brought hope and life to the doomed survivors of the _Southern
+Cross_ had reached the vessel from the land and could now pilot the
+three who alone were saved to some place where food and repose would be
+attainable.
+
+"I'm tied to someone," Maseden contrived to say. "Try and unfasten the
+rope, and shove me up on to the ledge.... I'm all in, but I'll soon be
+better.... Mind you hold fast yourself!"
+
+Sturgess, though only a degree less exhausted, did as he was asked.
+Sprawling weakly over the prostrate body of the second of the two girls,
+Maseden felt in the darkness for the other one.
+
+He discovered that she had collapsed sideways in a faint, but, by some
+marvel, the folded cloak had not rolled down the side of the precipice.
+His hands were feeble and numb, but he contrived to unfasten the strap.
+The bottle of brandy was uninjured, and, so unnerved was he by knowing
+that the spirit probably meant all the difference between life and death
+for four people--at any rate till dawn--that he actually dropped it.
+
+Again Providence intervened. It fell on the thick poncho, and did not
+break.
+
+Filled with savage resolve to conquer this weakness, he grasped the
+bottle more firmly, drew the cork with his teeth, and, resisting the
+impulse to swallow the contents in great gulps, sipped some of the
+liquor slowly.
+
+He did not offer any to the others at that moment. His mind was clearing
+now, and he saw that the one vital thing needed was that he should
+recover control of his mental and bodily powers. A few minutes more or
+less of collapse mattered not so much to his companions as that he
+should lead or carry them to a less exposed position. Then the brandy
+would be really effective. At present, to hand it around in the
+darkness, while wind and spindrift were whipping them with scorpions,
+was merely courting the disaster which he himself had so narrowly
+averted.
+
+The other man had gained the ledge. He could not see Maseden, because
+each inch of space increased an obscurity already akin to that of a
+tomb, but he leaned forward and caught his arm.
+
+"Say!" he yelled. "Isn't there some way out? We'll die quick if we stop
+here!"
+
+"You must wait a little," said Maseden. "I, like yourself, was on board
+the ship. I'm going to stand up now and prospect a bit by feeling my
+way. Take care that neither of the women falls off. They _are_ women,
+aren't they?"
+
+"Yes. D'ye think we'd send men ashore first?"
+
+"I was not certain that both girls were still living."
+
+What a time and place for a discussion on the etiquette of life-saving
+at sea! It was typical of their race and type.
+
+Placing the bottle in a breast pocket Maseden rose cautiously to his
+feet. Gripping the rock with his hands, he stepped over the unconscious
+form of the first girl he brought ashore. Evidently she had collapsed
+when the forecastle was swept away before her eyes.
+
+The ledge led straight into the crevice he had entered during daylight,
+and though very uneven, trended generally upward. He had to depend, of
+course, wholly on the sense of touch, since the darkness here was that
+of a deep mine.
+
+Some thirty feet inland he was halted abruptly. The ledge seemed to
+widen out and then end against an overhanging rock. But the place was
+dry, and the wind hardly penetrated, while the deafening thunder of the
+reef had died down to a harsh growl. By comparison with the sea face
+this secluded nook was a niche in Paradise. At any rate, here it was
+possible to await daylight without necessarily dying from exposure.
+
+He hurried back, having memorized each inequality of floor and wall on
+the journey of exploration.
+
+"Are you able to carry one of those girls?" he shouted to Sturgess when
+he was once more in the midst of the external uproar.
+
+"How far?"
+
+"Not more than fifteen short strides. Take her in your left arm, and
+feel the rock face on the right. Keep close in. I'm not certain about
+the width of this ledge. It rises a little, but is fairly straight."
+
+"Go right ahead!"
+
+Soon the two men were in the haven of shelter at the further end. Each
+was clasping an inanimate woman, but happily, speech no longer demanded
+a straining of vocal chords.
+
+"Is this the limit of the accommodation?" inquired Sturgess, obeying his
+guide's restraining hand.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Do we sit right down and hope that the sun will rise sometime?"
+
+"Not yet.... Here! Grope this way. I am giving you a bottle of brandy.
+Drink some, not much, because we must hoard it. Then we'll try and get a
+few drops between these girls' teeth. After that we must rub their hands
+and ankles till the friction hurts. It may revive them. I don't know. It
+is the only plan I can think of. When they recover, if ever, we'll seat
+them side by side with their backs to the rock, you and I will squeeze
+close, one on each side, and I have a poncho which will cover the lot.
+By that means we may obtain some degree of warmth in common."
+
+"Old man, you said a page full!"
+
+There was silence for a few seconds. Then Sturgess said gratefully:
+
+"Gee! That's some tonic! Now, how about those girls?"
+
+"Give me the bottle. This lady was conscious when I brought her ashore.
+She may recover quickly."
+
+The almost tangible blackness in which the little group of people was
+wrapped greatly enhanced the difficulties attending restorative
+measures. Maseden discovered that the abundant hair of the girl he was
+hugging so closely to his heart had become loose, and was in a wet
+tangle about her throat and mouth.
+
+The clinging strands were troublesome, but, by prizing her lips open
+between a finger and thumb, he contrived to make her swallow a few drops
+of the brandy. In fact, while he was yet doubting the efficacy of the
+dose, some slight convulsive movements showed that consciousness was
+returning.
+
+He laid her carefully down, and told the American to do likewise with
+the sister. Sturgess seemed to be curiously slow to obey, and Maseden
+admonished him sharply, thinking the other might be dazed.
+
+"Now, rub hard!" he said. "First her left hand--then her left ankle."
+
+Both set to work with a will. Maseden could not understand why the
+unhappy girl should be nearly naked. The stockings had fallen about her
+shoes. For the rest, her chief garment was an oilskin coat.
+
+He, be it remembered, had been spared the hard usage of the waves, and
+his clothing was better adapted to existing conditions. He was shocked
+to find how cold she was, how icy and lifeless her flesh. He urged
+Sturgess not to spare her.
+
+Their rough and ready massage soon proved effective. The girl gasped
+something incoherent, and strove to withdraw her limbs from a distinctly
+strenuous handling.
+
+"_She's_ nearly all right, now," announced Maseden briskly. "Sharp's the
+word with the other one."
+
+The second patient offered a longer task. By the time she gave any sign
+of life her sister was frantically asking what had become of her, and
+was only quieted by Maseden saying sternly:
+
+"You will help most by not bothering us. We are doing our best for your
+sister. She is here, and may recover. That is all I can tell you."
+
+"We? Who are we?" came the broken cry.
+
+"Mr. Sturgess, yourself, your sister and I. My name is Maseden."
+
+He caught a strangled gasp of astonishment, but Sturgess broke in
+breathlessly, for the exertion was warming him:
+
+"Great Scott! You've got my name pat, Mr. Maseden. D'ye mean--to
+tell--me--you were--on board--that poor old ship?"
+
+"Rub! And don't talk!... She moved a little then."
+
+His judgment was well founded. Within a few minutes he heard the second
+girl address her sister as Nina.
+
+So this one was Madge, his wife! He had literally brought her back from
+the very gates of death. He could not even see her. What a curious
+coincidence that when she saved his life, and he saved hers, she was
+equally hidden from him; then by a veil, now by the pall of the darkest
+night he had ever experienced!
+
+The girls began exchanging broken confidences. Madge, who had fainted
+while being towed across the fearsome chasm between bridge and
+forecastle, did not know of the loss of the captain and chief and second
+officers, with a passenger, until told by Nina. She wept bitterly, and
+Maseden could not help noticing that Sturgess tried to console her in a
+very lover-like manner.
+
+He actually smiled at the tragic humor of it all, especially when Nina
+seemed to sense his thought, and valiantly interfered by bidding Madge
+not to add to their misery by useless grief. He refrained purposely from
+giving them any more brandy until some time had elapsed. Now that their
+faculties were restored, he knew, from his own experiences, that their
+tongues and palates were on fire with the salt-laden atmosphere they had
+perforce inhaled during so many hours.
+
+But each minute of quiet in this sheltered nook, and in breathable air,
+would do much to alleviate their suffering, and he trusted to the brandy
+to put them to sleep.
+
+In effect, that was what actually happened. When each of the four had
+swallowed a small quantity of the spirit Maseden and Sturgess nestled in
+beside the two girls and tucked the poncho over knees and feet. The
+bodies of the men served as excellent shields. In the physical and
+mental reaction which set in with the consciousness of assured
+safety--because that was what both girls thought, and neither man cared
+to weaken their faith--they were sound asleep within half an hour of the
+time they left the wreck.
+
+Sturgess, too, was worn out, and slept fitfully, but it was long before
+Maseden's overtaxed nerves would yield. He could not help speculating as
+to what wretched hap the coming day might bring. There was a gnawing
+dread in his mind that they might be lodged in a fissure of an
+unscalable cliff. If that were so, what a fearsome prospect lay before
+them! The mere notion was unendurable, and he resolutely refused to
+dwell on it.
+
+Then he mused on the queer chance which, even in this small company,
+divorced him from his wife. He had rescued Nina first. By the accident
+of situation he was nearest the rock which closed the ledge, and she
+next. It was her body, not his wife's, to which he was close pressed,
+and in which his more vigorous frame had already induced a certain
+comfortable warmth.
+
+Her head had fallen on his shoulder. An unconscious movement revealed
+that some roughness in the rock wall was hurtful, so he put his left arm
+around her neck and pillowed her gently.
+
+Try as he might, he found himself still brooding on the chances of the
+coming day. Fortune favoring, they might find a way to the summit of the
+cliff. Would they be much better off? Water they would surely
+obtain--but what of food?
+
+Somehow, in such woful plight, a man's mind turns instinctively to a
+pipe. He actually had a cherished briar between his teeth and a tobacco
+pouch in his hand, when his heart sank at the remembrance that he had
+struck the last match in the only box of matches in his pocket after
+breakfast that morning. He recollected tossing the empty box into the
+sea. Subsequently, in lighting a cigar, he had borrowed a match.
+
+Searching his pockets without disturbing the exhausted girl by his side,
+he made sure of the unhappy truth. He had no match. Even if they reached
+the interior of the island they could not possibly start a fire.
+
+He knew at once that Sturgess, who had been soaked in salt water for
+many hours, was in a worse predicament than himself, because his own
+clothing was dry inside, whereas the other was wet to the skin, and any
+matches he might have carried must be in a pulp.
+
+Tucked away in a money belt, Maseden carried ten thousand dollars in
+American bills, yet one small box of matches would be of far greater
+practical value in that hour than all the money. Slight wonder, then, if
+his stout heart failed him at last and the darkness closed in on his
+soul as on his eyes.
+
+The sleeping girl, conscious only of warmth and protection, snuggled her
+head a little nearer.
+
+"Mother, darling," she murmured, "we had to do it! We had no choice. It
+was for your dear sake!"
+
+That was all--some troubled confidence of a dream--but it sufficed to
+set Maseden musing on the strange vortex into which fate had sucked him
+from the peace and seclusion of Los Andes ranch.
+
+His mind wandered. He saw again the magnificent groves of mahogany trees
+and coyal palms, with their golden flowers fully three feet in height,
+and the _chicka_ sap oozing from the bark. He sauntered through the
+well-cultivated plantations of bananas, yams, arrow-root, guavas, and
+all the fruit and cereals which that favored region of Central America
+produces in such abundance that men grow lazy and are content to plot
+and thieve rather than toil. He particularly recalled a number of
+"chocolate" trees, the marvelous growth which yields a more delicately
+flavored beverage than the cocoa-tree.
+
+The original owner of the ranch prided himself on these
+trees--botanically, the _Herrania purpurea_--because they were not
+indigenous to San Juan, but had been brought from Guatemala. Los Andes
+ranch was indeed a veritable Garden of Eden.
+
+While roaming through it in spirit Maseden dropped off to sleep.
+
+And that was a kindly act on the part of a Providence which marks even
+the fall of a sparrow from a house-top. A full day lay before this man
+and those others committed to his care. Even a couple of hours' fitful
+repose served as a splendid restorative. Without some such respite he
+could never have faced and carried through the almost Sisyphean task
+which awaited him at daylight.
+
+He awoke with a shiver. He was chilled to the bone. Not knowing what he
+was doing, he had drawn the poncho closely over Nina Gray, leaving his
+own limbs almost uncovered. Startled lest the others might be stiff in
+death, since his clothes were dry, while theirs, such as they possessed,
+were wet, he touched the girl's cheek. It was quite warm and soft.
+
+The oilskins she and her sister wore and the huddling together of the
+four under the heavy poncho had generated a moist heat which probably
+helped to preserve the two delicate women from some type of deadly
+pneumonia.
+
+At first it did not strike Maseden as strange that he should be able to
+see her face. As the initial feeling of panic passed, and he glanced
+around, he understood what had happened. The sky was clear, and the
+moon, late risen, was spreading a mild radiance over rocks and sea.
+
+By raising himself a little, so as not to disturb the sleeper still
+trustfully tucked under his arm, he peered sidewise down on the reef.
+The tide was high, and great rollers were smashing over the barrier
+which had broken the _Southern Cross_.
+
+So far as he could tell, not a vestige of the ship remained. Bridge and
+chart-house had vanished. He fancied that some part of the framework
+accounted for a particularly vexed boiling of the surges on a spot where
+the engines and stoke-hold had lodged. But that was only guesswork.
+
+The morning tide had done its work with thoroughness. The _Southern
+Cross_ had become a memory.
+
+Then he surveyed the ledge and the cleft. Apparently, at this point, he
+was some twenty feet above high-water mark. To the left was the sea. To
+the right, the rock overhung the ledge in such wise that the place was
+almost a cave. This fact, combined with the elevation of the opposite
+wall, explained the shelter the castaways had been vouchsafed from the
+bitter gale now blowing itself out. But it was affrighting to realize
+that the very physical feature which provided a refuge might also immure
+them in a living tomb.
+
+He shuddered, and moved involuntarily, and the girl awoke with a start.
+
+She lifted her head, and gazed at him with uncomprehending eyes.
+
+"Where am I?" she said, rather in wonderment than alarm.
+
+"Somewhere on the coast of Chile," he said.
+
+She extricated a hand from the folds of the poncho and swept the errant
+hair from her face. Turning partly, she looked at her sister and
+Sturgess.
+
+"I remember now," she said slowly. Then she discovered that Maseden's
+arm was supporting her shoulders.
+
+"Have you held me like that all night?" she inquired.
+
+"'All night' is a figure of speech. It is not yet daybreak. This is
+moonlight."
+
+"The moon! Does the moon still shine? But your arm must be weary."
+
+Maseden was just beginning to realize that he owned a left arm.
+Circulation was being restored, and he knew it.
+
+"Now that you mention it," he said quietly, "I believe it is."
+
+She spoke again, but he was in such agony that he broke out in a
+perspiration, a most fortunate circumstance, since he was perished with
+cold. The spasm did not last long, however, and he found his voice
+again.
+
+"Are you Miss Nina Gray?" he asked, and, in the same breath, was
+conscious of the absurd formality of the question in the conditions.
+
+She did not answer.
+
+"We may as well become acquainted," he went on, smiling at the queer
+turn their first words had taken.
+
+"Now I remember everything," she said, burying her face in her hands.
+
+"I can't have you crying," he muttered with a certain roughness. "Tears
+won't help. We're in a pretty bad fix, and must meet developments
+calmly."
+
+"I'm not crying," she said, dropping her hands, and looking at him as
+though to offer proof.
+
+"Then you can at least tell me your name, though I'm almost sure that
+you are Nina. Even here, your sister, who is also my wife, keeps away
+from me."
+
+"That is unjust. You saved both of us, but I kept my senses, and she did
+not. You asked me if I was Nina Gray. I am not. My name is Nina Forbes."
+
+Maseden was stung into a revolt as fantastic as it was sudden.
+
+"Good Lord!" he cried. "Are you married?"
+
+"Please let me explain. Mr. Gray was not my father, but my stepfather.
+My mother married again. I--wanted to tell you. But does it really
+matter? Why are we discussing such trivial things? Are we four the only
+survivors of the wreck?"
+
+"I suppose so."
+
+"Mr. Gray died--while we were in the chart-room. He was an invalid--a
+neurotic. He could not withstand hardship of any sort. But the captain
+and chief officer were behind me on that mast.... Ah! I had forgotten
+that. I fainted, didn't I?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Madge stirred uneasily. Their voices had aroused her.
+
+"Don't be unkind to Madge," said the girl hurriedly. "Neither of us
+could help what happened in San Juan. We thought we were acting for the
+best. Our lives are still in jeopardy, I imagine. Won't you be good and
+forget that unfortunate marriage?"
+
+"I won't talk of it, if that is what you mean. But I can hardly regard
+it as unfortunate. It undoubtedly saved my life."
+
+Madge awoke with a cry.
+
+"Nina!" she screamed. "Oh, Nina, is that you? Are we really alive?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE VIGIL
+
+
+Sturgess awoke, too. Soon they were talking freely, and Maseden not only
+learned the heart-breaking story of the dozen refugees pent in the
+chart-house, but was told how he himself came by the blow on the head
+which took away his senses.
+
+Madge Gray, or Forbes, as he must now call her, was moved to thank
+Providence for the intervention of the Spanish sailor.
+
+"If that man hadn't picked you up, Mr. Maseden," she said, "you would
+have been washed overboard a few seconds later. Then nothing could have
+saved any of us."
+
+She seemed to be completely unaware of the sensation she created by
+addressing her rescuer by name. Maseden felt Nina's nervous little
+start, but Sturgess put his astonishment into words.
+
+"Maseden!" he cried. "You know our friend, then?"
+
+"I--I heard his name before--on the ship," came the faltered answer.
+
+"Well, you heard more than _I_ did.... Are you the mysterious
+English-speaking _vaquero_ who lived in the forecastle?" and the
+questioner bent a puzzled face sideways to try and discern the other
+man's features.
+
+"Yes," said Maseden promptly. "There need be no mystery about it now. I
+got into trouble in Cartagena, shot the president-elect, and escaped in
+the disguise of a Spanish cowboy."
+
+"Gee!" exclaimed Sturgess.
+
+For some reason best known to himself he displayed no further curiosity
+in the matter, though he might well have wondered how Madge Forbes had
+come to identify that picturesque-looking person, Ramon Aliones, with
+the American whose exploits had set all Cartagena agog the day before
+the _Southern Cross_ sailed.
+
+There was an uncomfortable pause, which Maseden broke by a laugh.
+
+"So you see, Mr. Sturgess, I owed you a good turn, though you never
+guessed it. By your kindness in letting me carry your bag and share your
+boat I got away from my pursuers without attracting attention."
+
+"Gee!" said Sturgess again.
+
+His comment probably denoted bewilderment. It may also have shown that
+the speaker had just ascertained something which supplied food for
+thought. In the half light Maseden allowed himself to smile, because the
+conceit instantly leaped into his mind that his fellow-countryman might
+have been told of that amazing marriage, and was now engaged in fitting
+together certain pieces of the puzzle.
+
+If, for instance, Sturgess suspected that Madge Forbes was the lady who
+figured in that extraordinary episode, he must realize that in paying
+her such marked attention during the voyage he had placed himself, if
+not her, in a somewhat equivocal position.
+
+"I had reason to believe that the captain recognized me," went on
+Maseden. "Probably that is how Miss Forbes came to hear my name."
+
+"Miss Forbes!"
+
+There was no mistaking the new note of surprise, even of annoyance, in
+Sturgess's voice. He was gathering information at a rapid rate, and
+evidently found some difficulty in assimilating it.
+
+"Yes," broke in Nina Forbes. "That is my sister's name, and my own. Mr.
+Gray was our stepfather. We passed as his daughters while traveling. The
+arrangement prevented all sorts of misunderstandings. In any event, it
+concerned none but ourselves. I only mentioned the fact casually to Mr.
+Maseden a few minutes ago."
+
+Some men might have caught a rebuke in the girl's words. Not so
+Sturgess.
+
+"I'm tickled to death at hearing it, anyhow," he said cheerfully. "The
+one thing I couldn't understand was how you two girls could be that poor
+chap's daughters.... Well, now we're all properly introduced, let's talk
+as though we really knew one another. Has any one the beginning of a
+notion as to the time."
+
+Then Maseden remembered that he was wearing a watch which he had wound
+that morning. He produced it, and was able to discern the hands.
+
+"A quarter past two," he announced.
+
+A silence fell on them. Somehow the intimate and homely fact that one of
+the little company possessed a watch which had not stopped served rather
+to enhance than allay the sense of peril and abandonment which their
+brief talk had dispelled for the moment. A soldier who took part in that
+glorious but terrible retreat from Mons confessed afterwards that his
+spirit quailed once, and that was when he read the route names on a
+London suburban omnibus lying disabled and abandoned by the roadside.
+
+The Marble Arch, Edgware Road, Maida Vale and Cricklewood--what had
+these familiar localities to do with the crash of shell-fire and the
+spattering of bullets on the _pavé_? Similarly, the forlorn castaways on
+Hanover Island felt that a watch was an absurdly civilized thing among
+the loud-voiced savageries of wind and wave.
+
+The moonlight died away, too, with a suddenness that was almost
+unnerving. True, the moon had only vanished behind a cloud-bank. But her
+face was veiled effectually, and the growing darkness soon showed that
+she would not be visible again that night.
+
+They tried to sleep, but the effort failed. Lack of food was a more
+serious matter now than mere physical exhaustion. All four were young
+and vigorous enough to withstand fatigue, and to wake up refreshed after
+the brief repose they had already enjoyed.
+
+But they were stiff and cramped, and their blood was beginning to yield
+to a deadly chill. Though they huddled together as closely as possible,
+there was no resisting the steady encroachment of the bitter cold.
+
+At last Maseden counseled that they all stand up, and, despite the
+urgent need of conserving their energies, obtain some measure of warmth
+by stretching their limbs and breathing deeply.
+
+He even suggested that they should sing, but the effort to start a
+popular chorus was such a lamentable failure that they laughed dismally.
+
+Then he tried story telling. He judged, and quite rightly, that the
+majority of his hearers would be deeply interested in a recital of his
+own recent adventures.
+
+Greatly daring, he left out no detail, and, in a darkness which was
+almost tangible because of its density, he was well aware how alert was
+every ear to catch the true version of an extraordinary marriage.
+
+No one interrupted. They just listened intently. Once, when he asked if
+he was wearying them by a too exact description of events at the ranch
+after his escape, Nina Forbes said quietly:
+
+"Please tell us everything, Mr. Maseden. I have never heard anything
+half so interesting. You have caused me to forget where I am, and I can
+give you no higher praise."
+
+At last he made an end, dwelling purposely on the light note of his
+troubles with the Spanish sailor who claimed a vested right in him after
+the incident of the falling block.
+
+Sturgess put a direct question or two.
+
+"You don't seem to have any sort of a notion as to who the lady was?" he
+began.
+
+"I only know that her Christian name was Madeleine," answered Maseden
+readily. "She was about to sign the register when the idea of getting
+out of the Castle dawned on me, and, from that instant, I thought of
+nothing else. I hadn't much time, you know. The plan had to be concocted
+and carried out almost in the same breath. And there was no room for
+failure. The least slip, either in time or method, and I was a dead
+man."
+
+"Madeleine!" mused Sturgess aloud. "She was English, or American, I
+suppose?"
+
+"American, I imagine. Undoubtedly one or the other."
+
+"And that fat Steinbaum was the marriage broker! I know Steinbaum--a
+thug, if ever there was one.... What are you going to do about it, Mr.
+Maseden?"
+
+"Do about what?"
+
+"Well, if you win clear from this present rather doubtful
+proposition--and we're backing you in that for all we're worth, ain't
+we, girls?--you're tied up to a wife whom you don't know, and I guess
+the one place in which you're likely to find her is off the map for you
+for keeps."
+
+"I'm not versed in the law," laughed Maseden, "but it will be a queer
+thing if I should be compelled to regard myself as married to a lady
+whom I have seen, certainly, but do not want."
+
+"How do you know you don't want her?"
+
+"I know nothing whatsoever about her."
+
+"That's just it. That's where you may be hipped. She may be a peach, the
+finest ever. Suppose, for the sake of argument, one of these two, Miss
+Madge or Miss Nina--"
+
+"The lady's name happened to be Madeleine," put in Madge instantly. "If
+the ceremony was meant to be valid she would undoubtedly sign her right
+name."
+
+"Just so. You missed my point."
+
+Maseden thought it advisable to come to the rescue. He had conveyed to
+the one vitally interested listener that her secret was safe for the
+time, and this should suffice.
+
+"I am inclined to think that I shall be proof against my nominal wife's
+charms, no matter how great they may be," he said emphatically. "There
+is a romantic side to the affair, I admit, but I cannot blind myself to
+the fact that it possesses a prosaic one as well. Association with a
+skunk like Steinbaum is hardly the best of credentials, in the first
+place. Secondly, one asks what motive any woman could have in wishing to
+marry a man condemned to die. I'm not flattering myself that my personal
+qualifications carried much weight.
+
+"Admittedly, the lady wanted to wed because I was about to disappear. I
+give her the credit of believing that she would never have gone through
+with the farce if she had the least reason to think that I would not be
+dead within the next half hour. But the fact remains that she was
+callous and calculating--whether to serve her own ends or some other
+person's is immaterial.... No, Mr. Sturgess; when, if ever, I choose a
+wife, it is long odds against her name being Madeleine."
+
+Nina Forbes laughed, though her teeth chattered with the cold.
+
+"The calm way in which men speak of 'choosing' a wife always amuses me,"
+she said. "If any man told me he had 'chosen' me I should feel inclined
+to box his ears."
+
+"It isn't the best of words," put in Sturgess promptly, "but it conveys
+a real compliment. A fellow meets a girl, _the_ girl, and some
+electrical arrangement jangles at the back of his head. 'This is _it_,'
+says a voice. 'Go to it, good and hard,' and he goes. That's the only
+sort of choice he's given. The girl can always turn him down, you know.
+Still, she can't help feeling flattered. She says to herself, 'That poor
+fellow, Charles K. Sturgess, is only a mutt, but he did think me the
+best ever, so he had good taste.' What do you think, Miss Madge?"
+
+Then he and the others discovered that Madge was crying. The frivolous
+chatter intended to hide a dread reality had failed in its object. They
+were shivering with cold again, and ever more conscious of gnawing
+hunger. The prospect of escape was more than doubtful. Fate seemed to be
+playing a pitiless game with every soul on board the _Southern Cross_,
+having swept some to instant death, while retaining others for
+destruction by idle whim. The renewed darkness, the continuous uproar
+of the reef, had broken the girl's nerve.
+
+Maseden fancied that he had placed too great a strain on her by
+detailing with such precision the sequence of events during those
+crowded hours at Cartagena.
+
+"I think," he said gravely, "that we ought to lie down again, and await
+patiently the coming of daylight. The sun rises, no matter what else may
+happen, and dawn cannot be long delayed now."
+
+They obeyed him. They looked to him for guidance, but they were glad he
+did not call for any effort. Even the light-hearted, apparently
+irresponsible Sturgess, who, if he had to die, would depart this life
+with a jest on his lips, was stilled by the sheer hopelessness of their
+condition.
+
+After one of those hours which seem to belong to eternity rather than to
+time, a quality of grayness made itself felt in the overwhelming gloom.
+Soon the serrated edge of the opposite wall of rock became a fixed and
+rigid thing against a background of cloud. In this new world of horror
+and suffering the break of day, to all appearances, came from the west!
+
+This phenomenon was easily explained. Near by, on the east, rose the
+tremendous peaks of the Andes, so the plain of the sea on the western
+horizon caught the first shafts of light long before they filtered into
+the fiords and gorges of the coast-line tucked in at the base of those
+great hills.
+
+Not that it mattered a jot to those desolate ones where the sun rose
+that day. They would have given little heed had the earth rolled over on
+a new axis, and dawn come from the South Pole!
+
+As soon as daylight was sufficiently advanced to render the rock
+fissures clearly visible, Maseden roused his tiny flock from the stupor
+of sheer exhaustion. He was a man born to lead, and the necessity to
+spur on and exhort others proved his own salvation. He was stiff and
+sore, and his head still ached abominably, but he rose to his feet with
+an energetic shout that quickened the blood in his hearers' veins.
+
+"Now, folk," he said, "the first order of the day is breakfast, and then
+strike camp!"
+
+Breakfast! They thought he was crazy. But he took the bottle of brandy
+from a crevice in which he had lodged it securely overnight, and
+Sturgess uttered a cackling laugh.
+
+"I'm doing pretty well for a life-long teetotaller," he wheezed. "When a
+fellow like me falls off the water-wagon, he generally drops with a dull
+thud, but _I_ must have set up a record. After lunching and dining
+yesterday on claret, I supped on brandy last night and am about to
+breakfast on the same.... Girls, help yourself and pass the decanter!"
+
+Maseden held up the bottle to the light. It had never contained more
+than a pint, and nearly half had gone. A small coin served as a measure
+to divide the contents into five portions.
+
+"Each of us drinks a _peseta_-worth," he said. "There must be neither
+half measures nor extra ones. The last _peseta_-worth remains in the
+bottle. Is that agreed?"
+
+"I want very little, please," said Nina Forbes. "Just enough to moisten
+my lips and tongue--"
+
+"You're going to do as you're bid," was the gruff answer. "I advise you
+to sip your portion, by all means, but you _must_ take it. As a penalty
+for disobedience, you'll start."
+
+She made no further protest, but swallowed her dose meekly. Sister Madge
+followed. Sturgess was minded to argue, but met Maseden's dour glance,
+and took his share. The first mouthful of the spirit acted on him like
+an elixir of life. He drank down to the allotted mark, and handed the
+bottle to Maseden.
+
+"Now, girls," he chortled, "this is the guy who really needs watching.
+If he doesn't play fair let's heave him into the sea."
+
+So three pairs of eyes saw to it that their rescuer had his full
+allowance. Then the bottle was put away, and the castaways took stock
+of their surroundings.
+
+At first sight the position was grotesquely disheartening. Beneath, to
+the left, was the sea. Behind them rose an overhanging wall of rock,
+which swung round to the right and cut off the ledge. The cleft itself
+was some twelve feet wide, and the opposite wall rose fully ten feet. In
+a word, no chamois or mountain goat could have made the transit.
+
+They all surveyed the situation from every point of view afforded by the
+fifteen feet of ledge. There was no reason to express opinions. Escape,
+in any direction, looked frankly impossible.
+
+Then Maseden examined the cleft beneath.
+
+"We cannot go up," he said quietly. "In that case, as we certainly don't
+mean to stay here, I'm going down."
+
+It was feasible, with care, to climb down to sea level, but the huge
+rollers breaking over the reef sent a heavy backwash against the cliff.
+The swirl of water rose and fell three feet at a time, with enough force
+to throw the strongest man off his balance.
+
+"Do you mean that you intend jumping into the sea, Mr. Maseden?" said
+Madge Forbes.
+
+She was quite calm now. She put that vital question as coolly as though
+it implied nothing more than a swimmer's pastime. Their eyes clashed,
+and, for the first time, the man saw that Madge possessed no small share
+of Nina's self-control. Her earlier collapse was of the body, not of the
+soul.
+
+"It doesn't mean that I shall willingly commit suicide," he answered.
+"If it comes to that, I suggest that we all go together. I'm merely
+taking a prospecting trip. There's no way out above. I must see what
+offers below."
+
+Without another word he sat on the lip of the rock on which they stood,
+and lowered himself to a tiny ledge which gave foothold. They watched
+him making his way down. It was no easy climb, but he did not hurry.
+Twice he advanced, and climbed a little higher to a point whence descent
+was more practicable. At last he vanished.
+
+Sturgess, craning his neck over the seaward side of their narrow perch,
+could not see him, while the growl of the reef shut out all minor
+sounds.
+
+Maseden was not long absent, but the three people whom he had left
+confessed afterwards that of all the nerve-racking experiences they had
+undergone since the ship struck, that silent waiting was the worst.
+
+At last he reappeared. Nina, farthest up the cleft, was the first to see
+him, and she cried shrilly:
+
+"Oh, thank God! He's got a rope!"
+
+A rope! Of what avail was a rope? Yet three hearts thrilled with great
+expectation. Why should Maseden bring a rope? It meant something, some
+plan, some definite means towards the one great object. They had an
+abounding faith in him.
+
+The rope was slung around his shoulders in a noose, and he seemed to be
+tugging at some heavy weight which yielded but slowly to the strain.
+When he was still below the level of the ledge he undid the noose and
+passed it to Sturgess.
+
+"Hold tight!" he shouted. "I've picked up the broken foremast. I'm going
+down to clear it off the rocks. When I yell, haul away steadily."
+
+They asked no questions. Maseden simply must be right. They listened
+eagerly for the signal, and put all their strength to the task when it
+came.
+
+Soon the truck of the foremast appeared. Then the full length of the
+spar could be seen, with Maseden guiding it. He had tied the rope at a
+point about one-third of the length from the truck. When it was poised
+so that lifting alone was required he shouted to them to stop, and
+rejoined them, breathless, but bright-eyed.
+
+"There's no means of escape by the sea," he explained, "so we must try
+the cliff. This is our bridge. I think it will span the gully. Anyhow,
+it is worth trying."
+
+Then they understood, and measuring glances were cast from spar to
+opposing crest. It would be a close thing, but, as Maseden said, it was
+certainly worth trying.
+
+In a minute, or less, the broken mast was standing up-ended on the
+ledge. Then, with its base jammed into a crevice, it was lowered by the
+rope across the chasm. It just touched the top of the rock wall.
+
+They actually cheered, but the women's hearts missed a couple of beats
+when Maseden began to climb again. He worked his way upward without
+haste, found a toe-grip on the rock, raised himself carefully, and again
+disappeared from sight.
+
+This time he was not so long away. He looked down on them with a
+confident smile.
+
+"There's a chance," he said. "A ghost of a chance. Now I'm coming back!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+PROGRESS
+
+
+When he stood beside them once more on the ledge he told them what he
+had seen.
+
+"It's a fortress of rock up there, and nothing else," he said. "We may
+have to climb at least a couple of hundred feet. Have any of you ever
+done any Alpine work?"
+
+No; they knew nothing of the perils or delights of mountaineering.
+
+"I'm in the same boat," he confessed, "but I've read a lot about it, and
+I've noticed one thing in our favor--the pitch of the strata is downward
+towards the land, and that kind of rock face gives the best and safest
+foothold. Moreover, this cleft, or fault, seems to continue a long way
+up.
+
+"Now, we haven't a minute to spare. Each hour will find us weaker. The
+weather, too, is clear, and the rock fairly dry, but wind and rain, or
+fog, would prove our worst enemies. There is plenty of cordage down
+below. I'll gather all within reach. It may prove useful."
+
+He seemed to have no more to say, and was stooping to begin the descent
+when Sturgess grabbed him by the shoulder.
+
+"Wait a second, commodore!" he cried. "You've got your job cut out, and
+I'll obey orders and keep a close tongue, you bet; but when it comes to
+collecting rope lengths, that is _my_ particular stunt, as I sell hemp,
+among other things. You just rest up a while."
+
+Maseden nodded, and made way for a willing deputy. It was only fit and
+proper that he, too, should conserve his energies.
+
+"'Round the corner to the left," he said, "you'll find a sloping rock.
+Some wreckage is lodged in an eddy alongside it. Secure the cordage, and
+any other odds and ends you think useful. Shin up here with a few rope
+lengths at once. I want them straight away. Have you a strong knife?"
+
+Yes, Sturgess luckily did possess a serviceable knife. By the time he
+had handed over a number of rope strands Maseden, helped by the girls,
+had hauled back the mast, to which he began attaching short loops, or
+stirrups, about two feet apart. He did not expect that either Madge
+Forbes or her sister would be able to climb the mast, and it was almost
+a sheer impossibility that he and Sturgess should carry them time and
+again. So the mast, after serving twice as a bridge, was now to become a
+ladder.
+
+Sturgess returned with a curiously mixed spoil--a good deal of rope, a
+sou'wester, a long, thin line--probably the whip used to establish the
+connection between bridge and forecastle while parts of the _Southern
+Cross_ still held together--and the ship's flag, the ensign which was
+flying at the poop when the ship struck.
+
+Water was dripping off him. Evidently he had either been caught by a sea
+or had slipped off a rock.
+
+"Accident?" inquired Maseden.
+
+"Not quite. I had to risk something to get these," and he produced from
+his pockets a dozen large oysters.
+
+No party of _gourmets_ ever sat down to a feast with greater zest than
+those four hungry people. Probably, in view of the labors and hardships
+they were yet fated to undergo, the oysters saved their lives. There is
+no knowing. Human endurance can be stretched to surprising limits, but,
+seeing that they were destined to taste no other food during twelve long
+hours of arduous exertion, the value of Sturgess's find can hardly be
+overrated.
+
+The oysters were of a really excellent species, though under the
+circumstances they were sure to be palatable, no matter what their
+actual qualities.
+
+"I suppose I need hardly ask if there are any more to be had?" inquired
+Maseden, when the meal was dispatched.
+
+"No, sir," grinned Sturgess.
+
+He left it at that, but the others realized that he had probably risked
+his life more than once in the effort to secure even that modest supply.
+
+The meal, slight though it was, not only gave them a new strength--it
+brought hope. If only they could win a way to the interior, and reach
+the land-locked waters of the bay which opened up behind the frowning
+barrier they must yet scale, in all likelihood they would at least
+obtain a plentiful store of shell-fish.
+
+Nina Forbes uttered a quaint little laugh as she threw the last empty
+shell on to the rocks beneath.
+
+"Now," she said, "I am quite ready for the soup and a joint."
+
+"Oh, don't be horrid!" cried Madge. "You've gone and made me feel
+ravenous again."
+
+"He, or she, who would eat must first labor," said Maseden. "Thanks to
+friend Sturgess, we've enjoyed a first-rate snack. I've never sampled
+manna, but I'll back the proteids in three fat oysters against those in
+a pound of manna any day. Now, let's get to business. If I'm not
+mistaken we're going to tackle a stiff proposition."
+
+He knotted some stout cord around his own waist and that of each of the
+others, and slung the longest available coil over his shoulders. Then
+the mast was fixed in its place across the ravine, and he climbed to the
+opposite crest by straddling the pole, putting his feet in the loops,
+and pulling himself up by both hands.
+
+Throwing back the rope, he told Sturgess to see that it was fastened
+securely to one of the girls on the belt already in position. He
+purposely refrained from specifying which one. By chance, Madge Forbes
+stood nearest, and it was she who came.
+
+The crossing was awkward rather than dangerous, and rendered far more
+difficult by the fact that the unwilling acrobat was compelled to expose
+her naked limbs. But after the first shock common sense came to her aid,
+and she straightway abandoned any useless effort to observe the
+conventions.
+
+Still, she blushed furiously, and was trembling when Maseden caught her
+hands and helped her to land.
+
+"Thank Heaven we've kept our boots," he said, unfastening the rope.
+"Just look at the ground we have to cover, and think what it would mean
+if our feet were bare."
+
+The comment was merely one of those matter-of-fact bits of philosophy
+which are most effective in the major crises of life. It was so
+true that a display of leg or ankle mattered little afterwards.
+Nevertheless, a similar ordeal caused Nina to blush, too, but she
+laughed when Madge cried ruefully:
+
+"What in the world has happened to my ankles? They are scrubbed and
+bruised dreadfully."
+
+"That was last night's treatment, my dear," said her sister. "I escaped
+more lightly than you."
+
+"But what do you mean? I felt some soreness, but imagined I knocked
+myself in coming from the wreck."
+
+"You were in a dead faint, so Mr. Maseden and Mr. Sturgess massaged you
+unmercifully."
+
+Madge surveyed damages again.
+
+"I must have been very bad if I stood that," she said.
+
+"You'll be worse before we see the other side of this cliff," murmured
+Nina, casting a critical eye over the precipitous ground in front.
+
+It is not to be wondered at if the girls' hearts quailed at the sight.
+They were standing on a sloping terrace, of no great depth, which ended
+abruptly at the foot of a towering cliff. A little to the right ran
+the line of the cleft, but so forbidding was its appearance, and so
+apparently unscalable its broken ledges, that the same thought occurred
+to each--what if they had but left a narrow, sheltered prison for a
+wider and more exposed one?
+
+Maseden, however, allowed no time for reflection. He and Sturgess had
+already dragged the foremast after them, and were shouldering it in the
+direction of the first hump of rock which seemed to offer a way into the
+cleft. Any other route was absolutely impossible.
+
+After one last glance at the reef which had slain a gallant ship and so
+many lives, they quitted the ledge which had proved their salvation. It
+was then five o'clock in the morning. At four o'clock that afternoon
+they flung themselves, utterly spent, on a carpet of thick moss which
+coated the landward slope of the most westerly point of Hanover Island.
+
+Their hands and knees were torn and bleeding, their fingernails broken,
+their bones aching and their eyes bloodshot. But they had triumphed,
+though many a time it had seemed that if Providence meant to be kind,
+an avalanche of loose stones or a slip on treacherous shale would have
+hurled them to speedy death on the rocks beneath.
+
+On five separate occasions they had found themselves strung out on
+a narrow ledge which merged to nothingness in the sheer wall of a
+precipice. Five times had they to go back and essay a different path,
+often beginning again fifty or even a hundred feet below the point they
+had reached. They were obliged to drag or carry the heavy topmast every
+inch of the way, because, without its aid, either as a bridge or a
+ladder, they could never have surmounted a tithe of the obstacles
+encountered.
+
+In those eleven awful hours they had climbed not two, but five hundred
+feet, a distance which, on the level, a good runner would traverse in
+about twenty seconds, whereas it took them an average of a minute to
+climb one foot.
+
+The marvel was that the women could have done it at all, even with the
+help which both men gave unstintedly. During the last weary hours no one
+uttered an unnecessary word. Each of the four was determined to go on,
+not for his or her own sake, but for the sake of the others. They were
+roped together. If one fell, it meant disaster to all. So, with splendid
+grit, each resolved not to fall so long as hand would hold or foot lodge
+on the tiniest projection.
+
+But, with final success, came utter collapse. Even Maseden, far stronger
+physically than Sturgess, fell like a log. True, he had borne far more
+than his share of the day's toil. No matter what his inmost thoughts, he
+had never, to outward seeming, lost heart. It was he who always found
+the new line, he who earliest decided to turn back and try again.
+
+It was he, too, who called now for renewed exertion after some minutes
+of complete and blissful repose.
+
+"Sorry to disturb your _siesta_," he cried, with a woful assumption of
+cheery confidence, "but we must reach the shore, if possible, before
+night falls. Oysters and Chablis await us there. _En avant, messieurs et
+'dames!_"
+
+Nina Forbes sat up and brushed the hair from her eyes.
+
+"I don't think I can walk another yard. Won't you leave me here?" she
+demanded.
+
+"No."
+
+"Are we to carry that mast with us?"
+
+"Why not? We may need it."
+
+Her eyes followed Maseden's down the slope. Compared with the sullen,
+frowning realm of rock they had quitted, this eastern side of the island
+resembled a Paradise. The moss on which they were resting was thick and
+wiry. A hundred feet beneath were fir-trees, sparse and stunted at
+first, but soon growing luxuriantly, yet promising, to Maseden's
+weighing eye, a barrier nearly as formidable as the fearsome wall of
+rock they had just surmounted.
+
+He knew that which was happily hidden from the others. In this wild
+land, seldom, if ever, trodden by the foot of man, the forests throve on
+the bones of their own dead progenitors. Aged trees fell and rotted
+where they lay, and the roots of newcomers found substance among the
+heaped-up logs. Gales and landslides helped to swell the mad jumble of
+decaying trunks, which formed an impassable layer hardly ever less than
+fifteen feet in depth and often going beyond thirty feet.
+
+Of the two, Maseden believed he would sooner tackle another wall of rock
+rather than essay to cross that belt of fantastic growths.
+
+But, down there was water--perhaps food--certainly shelter. He guessed
+that at an altitude where hardy Alpine mosses alone flourished the cold
+would be intense at night. Already there was a shrewd nip in the breeze.
+They must not dawdle another instant.
+
+He made up his mind to head for a gap in the trees which seemed to mark
+a recent land-slip, and trust to fortune that the gradient might not be
+too steep. Better any open risk than the fall of perhaps the whole party
+into a pit of dead wood choked with foetid and noisome fungus growths.
+Once caught in such a trap, they might never emerge.
+
+And now they met with their greatest among many pieces of luck that day.
+The opening Maseden had noticed was not the track of an avalanche, but a
+rough water-course, through which the torrential rain-storms of the
+coast tumbled headlong to the sea.
+
+Notwithstanding the long-continued gale, the descent was so steep that
+only a vestige of a stream trickled down the main gully. Here and there
+lay a pool. Though the water was brackish, it was strongly pigmented
+with iron, and the roots of vigorous young trees seemed to find
+sustenance in it.
+
+At any rate, they must drink or die, so they drank, though Maseden
+warned them to be moderate. They laved their wounds, which were
+intensely sore at first, owing to the encrustation of salt on their
+skins. But here, again, nature's surgery, if painful, was effective.
+Salt is a rough and ready antiseptic. None of them owned any real
+medical knowledge. In their hard case ignorance was surely bliss,
+because they must have had the narrowest of escapes from tetanus.
+
+The descent, though trying, was not specially perilous. Three times did
+the mast bring them down small cataracts, and many times across
+extraordinarily ingenious log barriers, set up against the stress of
+falling water by nature's own engineering methods.
+
+Once, indeed, a heavy boulder, poised in unexpected balance, toppled
+over just as they had reached the base of a waterfall. It would have
+crushed Nina Forbes to a pulp had not Maseden seen the stone move. As it
+was, he snatched her aside, and a ton of rock crashed harmlessly on to
+the very spot where she had been standing the fifth part of a second
+earlier.
+
+Such an incident, happening in civilized surroundings, would have been
+regarded as phenomenal, something akin to an escape from a train wreck.
+Here it passed as a mere item in the day's trials. It did not even shake
+the girl's nerve.
+
+"I suppose I ought to say 'thank you,' but I'm not quite sure you have
+done me a service," she murmured wearily.
+
+Hitherto both she and her sister had been so brave, so uncomplaining,
+that Maseden took warning from the words. The two girls were at the
+extreme limit of their powers of endurance, mentally and physically. It
+was five o'clock in the evening. After a day and a night of passive
+misery they had been subjected to every sort of muscular strain during
+nearly twelve hours, and might collapse at any moment now.
+
+"Courage!" he said, with a gentleness curiously in contrast with the
+rather gruff and hectoring manner he had adopted all day. "You haven't
+noticed how near the sea is. We shall be on shore in a few minutes."
+
+The girl's lips parted in a wan smile.
+
+"You are wonderful," was all she said, but the pathos underlying the
+tribute wrung his heart.
+
+Somehow, anyhow, they slithered and dropped down the remaining steps of
+their Calvary. During the last few feet they were able to leave behind
+the friendly topmast, but the shadows were falling when they stood,
+forlornly triumphant, on the flat rocks which served as the beach of
+the estuary.
+
+The two girls sank at once to a moss-covered boulder. They looked so
+deathly white beneath the tan of exposure and the crust of dirt and
+blood not altogether removed when they bathed their faces in the pool,
+that Maseden unstrapped the poncho which he carried slung to his
+shoulders and produced from its folds that thrice-precious bottle of
+brandy.
+
+The patients weakly resisted his demand that they should share nearly
+the whole of the mouthful of spirit which remained; but he was firm, and
+they drank. Sturgess, who staggered and nearly fell when he tried to
+move after the brief halt, was given a few drops; Maseden himself had
+what was left. Then he filled the bottle with water, and each took a
+long drink.
+
+There is this supreme virtue in water, that, while slaking thirst, it
+stays the worst pangs of hunger, and Maseden had enough strength in
+reserve to hurry off in search of oysters, or any sort of shell-fish,
+before daylight failed wholly. He was fortunate in finding a
+well-stocked bed almost at once.
+
+He alone knew what agony he endured when his bruised and torn fingers
+were plunged into ice-cold salt water. But he persevered, and gathered
+such a quantity that in ten minutes he and his companions were enjoying
+a really satisfying meal.
+
+While they ate, they examined their surroundings. It was half tide. A
+bleak, rocky foreshore provided at least an ideal breeding-ground for
+oysters. Behind them rose the solemn bank of pine-trees through which
+they had come. On the right, only half a mile away, stood the great
+shoulder of rock which shut out the Pacific on that northern side of the
+estuary. In front, two miles or more distant, lay a jumble of forests
+and wild hills, and a similar vista spread far to the left, because the
+estuary widened to a span of several miles.
+
+It was, indeed, a wild, desolate, awe-inspiring land, a territory
+abandoned of mankind! In such regions old-time sailors found fearsome
+monsters, amphibious reptiles larger than ships, and gnomes of demoniac
+aspect.
+
+Such visions were easy to conjure up. Nina Forbes saw one now in the
+dusk.
+
+"Oh, what is that?" she cried, in genuine alarm, gazing seaward with
+terror-laden eyes.
+
+It took some time to unmask the strange denizen of the deep which she
+had discovered. Three seals, lying in a row on a flat rock, looked
+remarkably like the accepted pictures of a sea-serpent, but the illusion
+was destroyed when one of the creatures dived, followed, in turn, by
+each of the others, in one, two, three order.
+
+"We must rise before dawn to-morrow," said Maseden. "Seals are good to
+eat. You and I, Sturgess, can cut one off when the pack comes on shore."
+
+"Seals may be good to eat, but they will also be hard to eat if we are
+unable to cook them," put in Madge.
+
+"There were times to-day when I could have eaten seal cooked or
+uncooked," admitted Nina.
+
+"Probably such times will recur to-morrow," said Maseden. "You will soon
+grow tired of oysters for every meal. Did you ever hear of the sailing
+ship which took a cargo of bottled porter from Dublin to Cape Town?
+After crossing the line she was caught in a gale, disabled, and carried
+hundreds of miles out of her course. She ran short of water, so, during
+three wretched weeks, officers and crew drank stout for breakfast,
+dinner and supper. When, at last, the vessel reached Table Bay, if
+porter was suggested as a beverage to any member of the ship's company
+there was instant trouble."
+
+"Still," said Madge thoughtfully, "I don't think I shall like raw
+seal.... You are very clever, Mr. Maseden. You must find some means of
+making a fire."
+
+Maseden glanced up at the darkening sky.
+
+"At present the pressing problem is where are we to sleep," he said.
+
+"Under the deodars," suggested Sturgess promptly.
+
+"Yes, I suppose so. But we must make haste."
+
+"If you ask me to put up any sort of hustle, I'll crack into small
+fragments," said Sturgess, rising to his feet slowly and stiffly.
+
+But this young American--a typical New Yorker in every inch--was blessed
+with a valiant heart. He helped Maseden to break and cut small branches
+of the fragrant pines, and pile them beneath the largest tree they could
+find on a comparatively level piece of ground above high-water mark. The
+two girls were half carried to this soft couch, which invited sharp
+comparison with the wet, slimy rock of the previous night.
+
+Despite their protests, they were wrapped in the now dry ship's flag and
+the poncho, while the men covered themselves with the oilskins, the coat
+which Sturgess had found on the reef coming in very useful for Maseden.
+
+Then they slept. And how they slept! The mere fact that they had eaten a
+quantity of good food induced utter weariness and exhaustion.
+
+During the night it rained heavily, and the tide pounded fiercely on the
+boulders only a few feet below their resting-place. But they hardly
+moved, and certainly paid no heed.
+
+Maseden was awakened by a veritable cascade of water on his face; the
+tree, after the manner of its kind, though shooting the rain generally
+off its layers of branches, now in full summer foliage, provided
+occasional channels through which the torrent poured as from a spout,
+and he was stretched beneath one. He swore softly, saw that the others
+were undisturbed, moved his position slightly, and fell sound asleep
+again.
+
+As for rising betimes to catch a seal, it was broad daylight when he
+shook off the almost overpowering desire to go on sleeping.
+
+Nina and Madge were lying in each other's arms, breathing easily, and
+looking extraordinarily well. Beyond them, Sturgess lay like a log, his
+clean-cut, somewhat cynical features relaxed in a smile. It was a pity
+to rouse him, but Maseden saw by his watch that they had enjoyed nine
+hours of real repose, and, as the weather was fine again and there was a
+promise of sunshine, it behooved them to be up and doing.
+
+So he shook his compatriot gently by the shoulder, and Sturgess was
+awake instantly.
+
+"Gosh!" he said, gazing at a patch of blue sky overhead. "I was just
+ordering clams on ice in Louis Martin's. It must have been a memory of
+those oysters."
+
+Maseden, by a gesture, warned him not to speak loudly, whereupon
+Sturgess sat up, saw the two girls, grinned, and stole quietly after
+his companion.
+
+"Say," he confided, when at a safe distance, "they're the limit, aren't
+they?"
+
+"They're all right, so far as girls go," agreed Maseden.
+
+"Oh, come off your perch! Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?
+If we win through I'm going to marry Madge, or I'll know the reason why,
+and if you have half the gumption we credit you with you'll tack on to
+sister Nina as soon as you've shunted that sporty young person who
+grabbed you at the cannon's mouth in Cartagena."
+
+"Will you oblige me by not talking such damn nonsense?" growled Maseden,
+blazing into sudden and incomprehensible wrath.
+
+"Calm yourself, _hidalgo_!" came the quiet answer. "Sorry if I've butted
+in on your private affairs. Having fixed things for myself, I thought
+I'd do you a good turn, too. That's all."
+
+"Don't you realize that you are hardly playing the game by even hinting
+at such possibilities in present conditions?"
+
+Maseden regretted the words the instant they were uttered. Sturgess
+stopped as though he had been struck, and his somewhat sallow face
+flushed darkly.
+
+"It will be a pretty mean business if you and I manage to quarrel, won't
+it?" he said thickly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+A PEEP INTO THE FUTURE
+
+
+"Oh, forget it!" cried Maseden, more angry now with himself than with
+the youngster whose candor had provoked this outburst. "I didn't intend
+to be offensive. My mind was running on the day's worries. We're in a
+deuce of a fix, and I can see no way out of it. If I annoyed you by a
+careless expression, I apologize."
+
+"Rub it off the slate, friend. I only want to put in a first bid for
+Madge, so to speak."
+
+"But, for all you know, she may be--engaged to some other man," Maseden
+could not help retorting.
+
+"Nix on the other fellow. He's not on in this film. I'll have him beaten
+to a frazzle long before I see good old New York again."
+
+Then Maseden did contrive to choke back the very obvious comment that
+Madge Forbes might even be married already. Sufficient for the day was
+the problem thereof. It was not matrimony that was bothering him, though
+the queer marriage tie contracted in San Juan seemed fated to make its
+fetters felt even in the wilderness. He was wondering what would happen
+if, as was highly probable, they were marooned on an island rarely if
+ever visited by man.
+
+He laughed grimly.
+
+"New York is away below the horizon this morning," he said. "Let's go
+and hunt more oysters!"
+
+Still, for the life of him he could not altogether get rid of the
+spectre raised by Sturgess's almost banal candor. The New Yorker was
+unmistakably a good fellow. He had behaved like a man during twenty-four
+hours which tested one's moral fibre as pure metal is separated from
+dross in a furnace. Was it quite fair that he should be kept in
+ignorance of the astounding fact that Madge Forbes, and none other, was
+the heroine of that extraordinary ceremony in the Castle of San Juan?
+
+Why not tell him? There was every reason to believe that he had indulged
+in no overt love-making as yet. Why not emulate his outspokenness, and
+thus spare him the certain shock of discovery?
+
+Moreover, when the truth came out, would he not feel with justice that
+he had been very badly treated both by Maseden and the woman whom he
+professed to love?
+
+Maseden squirmed under the thought. Such a discussion, at such a moment,
+savored of rank lunacy, but it was better to act crazily than
+dishonorably.
+
+Then came a reflection that hurt like a cut from a jagged knife.
+Sturgess was an impressionable youngster. He might easily transfer his
+wooing from Madge to Nina.
+
+Maseden could not help asking himself why a torturing question of that
+kind should come to plague him at a time when their lives were in dire
+jeopardy. They might, by chance, exist a week, a month--several months
+in that dreadful fastness of rock, forest and sea, but the briefest
+glance towards the interior showed how desperate was their case, and he
+knew only too well that the absence of proper food, of fire, of
+clothing, of everything that renders life tolerable and joyous, would
+soon bring mortal sickness in its train, even though they ran the
+gantlet of other perils like unto those of yesterday.
+
+Why, he wondered, in addition to ending these present evils, should he
+be called on to solve a fine point in ethics?
+
+He did not realize how clearly the torment in his soul was revealed in
+his face until Sturgess demanded cheerfully:
+
+"What's worrying you now, boss? You ain't chewing on that little
+misunderstanding of a minute ago, are you?"
+
+Maseden smiled dourly. Here was an opening, and he would take it, no
+matter what the personal cost.
+
+"No. That is not my way," he said. "I was merely turning over in my mind
+a somewhat ticklish problem. Sometimes, when a man does not know how to
+act for the best, it is not a bad plan to run counter to one's own
+inclinations. Then, at any rate, there is no fear of selfishness warping
+one's judgment. In this instance--"
+
+"Is the tide rising or falling?" interrupted Sturgess excitedly.
+
+"Falling."
+
+"Good.... What's that?"
+
+They were walking in the direction of the oyster bed which Maseden had
+found overnight. The beach was strewn with boulders, the surface of each
+a mosaic of myriads of tiny mussels. The rock floor was not quite flat,
+but dipped slightly eastward, and the outcrop of every stratum, worn
+smooth by countless tides, offered a number of irregular paths by which
+it was possible to walk dry-shod a mile or more towards mid-channel.
+
+Between these tracks, so to speak, the water lodged in pools, and here,
+too, as might be expected, the smaller rocks gathered, mostly in groups.
+
+Among one such pile Sturgess's sharp eyes had detected some wreckage.
+
+Now, any sort of flotsam or jetsam might be peculiarly useful to folk
+whose belongings had been reduced to a cloak, a ship's flag, a few
+oilskins, and, in the case of the women, little else. The sight of a
+cabin trunk, up-ended among a litter of woodwork and tangled iron, drove
+into the special Limbo provided for all vain and foolish things the
+personal difficulty which was perplexing Maseden.
+
+He hurried on, and soon was aware of an oddly familiar aspect about the
+trunk, battered though it was, and discolored by long immersion in salt
+water.
+
+"Well, if this isn't something like a miracle!" he cried when he could
+believe his senses. "Here is my own trunk! The last time I saw it, it
+was wedged between the forecastle deck and the iron frame of a bunk."
+
+"The court accepts the evidence," chortled Sturgess. "We find in close
+conjunction the remains of a bunk and a deck. If you produce a key, and
+unlock the aforesaid trunk, it will be declared yours without further
+inquiry."
+
+"There is no key. It is only strapped."
+
+"What's inside?"
+
+"Some underclothing, socks and shirts.... By Jove! When dried, they will
+be invaluable to those two girls.... How in the world did they contrive
+to lose most of their clothing? You were all fully dressed when the
+ship struck, I suppose?"
+
+"I guess your college class didn't include a course of heavy seas
+washing through a deck-house every half minute during a whole day. What
+sort of feminine rig would stand the tearing rush of tons of water hour
+after hour? Man alive, I had the devil's own job to keep any of my own
+clothes on, and would never have succeeded if I wasn't well buttoned up
+in an oilskin. As for the girls' skirts and things, they simply fell off
+'em. At first they made frantic efforts to save a few rags, but they had
+to give up. I saw Madge's skirt washed overboard in strips. All the
+seams parted. I'm in pretty bad shape myself. Look here."
+
+Sturgess opened his oilskin coat, and showed how the lining had fallen
+out of his coat and the back had parted from the front of his waistcoat.
+
+"If it hadn't been for the oilskins we would all have been stripped
+stark naked," he went on. "Gee! It's marvelous what one can withstand in
+the shape of exposure when one is pushed to it good and hard. I should
+have said that those two girls would have died fourteen times on the
+wreck, let alone the hour before dawn yesterday."
+
+Maseden, meanwhile, was pulling the trunk free from the twisted frame of
+the bunk, which, screwed to the deck, had carried a precious argosy
+nearly a mile from the reef; then, most luckily, it had caught in a
+clump of seaweed, and remained anchored during two ebbs.
+
+"We needn't bother to open it here," he said. "I know exactly what is
+inside--rough stuff, bought to maintain my disguise as a _vaquero_, but
+all the better for present purposes."
+
+He paused dramatically, and said something which might, perhaps, sound
+better in Spanish. When a man who has not been perturbed in the least
+degree by grave and imminent danger shows signs of real excitement, his
+emotion is apt to be contagious, and his companion's eyes sparkled.
+
+"Holy gee! What is it?" he almost yelped. "Spit it out! Don't mind me!"
+
+"This trunk contains a gun and cartridges!"
+
+"Gosh! I thought it must be either a steam launch or an aëroplane! What
+is there to shoot, anyhow?"
+
+"Don't you understand? Waterproof cartridges mean fire. We'll have a
+roaring fire within five minutes."
+
+"Put it there!" shouted Sturgess, holding out his right hand. "There's
+millions of tons of iron-stone in that hill above the wood. Let's start
+a ship-yard!"
+
+They were so elated that they forgot to gather any oysters, and even
+neglected to take away the iron and wires of the bunk, scraps of metal
+which might prove of inestimable worth in the days to come. Luckily,
+however, they had plenty of time, because the tide would fall during
+another couple of hours.
+
+Maseden's hands almost trembled as he undid the straps. Now that fortune
+had proved so kind he feared lest the cartridges might be spoiled. But a
+bullet torn from a brass case was followed by grains of dry, black
+powder.
+
+Soon he had manufactured a squib. Dead branches off the pines--always
+the best of fire-wood, and far preferable to dead wood lying on the
+ground--were heaped in a suitable place, and, in less than the specified
+five minutes, a good fire was crackling merrily.
+
+There were logs in plenty. Had they chosen, the two men could have built
+a furnace fierce enough to roast an ox whole.
+
+It was good to see the wonderment on the faces of Madge and Nina when
+they awoke to find an array of coarse flax and woolen garments steaming
+in front of the blaze, and a dozen big oysters, cooked in the shells,
+awaiting each of them. About that time, too, the sun appeared, and his
+first rays changed the temperature of the land-locked estuary from
+biting cold to an agreeable warmth.
+
+So the four breakfasted, and, at the close of the meal, held a council
+of war. With a charred stick, Maseden drew on a rock a rough map of
+Hanover Island.
+
+"I overheard from one of the crew of the _Southern Cross_," he said,
+"that the ship was supposed to be drifting towards Nelson Straits, which
+is the only opening into Smyth's Channel ever attempted hereabouts, even
+in fine weather, by small sealers and guano-boats. Now, it happens," he
+went on reflectively, "that this coast has always had a strange
+fascination for me."
+
+"It was a treat to see you clinging to it lovingly for hours at a time
+yesterday," put in Sturgess.
+
+"We want to hear what Mr. Maseden has to say," cried Madge sharply.
+
+"Sorry. I shan't interrupt again. But, before the court resumes may I
+throw in a small suggestion? How about dropping these formal Misters and
+Misses? My front names are Charles Knight, usually shorted by my friends
+and admirers into C. K. What's yours, Maseden?"
+
+"Philip Alexander, otherwise 'Alec.'"
+
+"Got you. Now, girls, what do Nina and Madge stand for?"
+
+He little guessed the explosive quality of that harmless question, but
+he did wonder why both Nina and Madge should blush furiously, and why
+their eyes should flash a species of appeal to Maseden.
+
+Nina was the first to recover her composure.
+
+"Nina and Madge should serve all ordinary purposes, C. K.," she said
+with a rather nervous laugh.
+
+"They'll do fine," agreed Sturgess. But he did not forget his own
+surprise--and the cause of it.
+
+Maseden, quite unprepared for this verbal bombshell, plunged into
+generalities somewhat hurriedly.
+
+"Barring the polar regions, the southern part of Chile is the wildest
+and least known part of the world," he said. "It is extraordinary in the
+fact that every ship which sails to the west coast of both the Americas
+from Europe, and vice versâ, either passes it in the Pacific or winds
+among its islands for hundreds of miles along Smyth's Channel; yet it
+remains, for the greater part, unexplored and almost uncharted. Darwin
+came here in the _Beagle_, and the sailor to-day depends on observations
+made during that voyage, taken nearly three-quarters of a century ago.
+Darwin's Journal, and other of his works containing references to South
+America, shortened many an evening for me on the ranch."
+
+He paused a moment, before adding, in an explanatory way:
+
+"My place, Los Andes, was a good twelve miles from Cartagena, and I had
+no English-speaking neighbors. I told you last night, if you remember,
+how I came to settle down there?"
+
+Sturgess, though evidently burning to ask a question, merely nodded,
+grinning cheerfully when he caught Nina's eye.
+
+"I only want you to understand why I claim some knowledge, such as it
+is, of this locality," continued Maseden. "At the southwest corner of
+Hanover Island is a ten-mile patch called Cambridge Island, and the two
+form the northern boundary of Nelson Straits. But in the channel between
+them are two smaller islands, and, unless I am greatly mistaken, there
+they are."
+
+He pointed across the estuary, and indicated a break in the coast-line,
+beyond which other more distant hills were visible.
+
+"It follows," he went on, "that when we sail up this channel to the
+left, we shall find ourselves in Nelson Straits, and, after covering
+fifty or sixty miles of fairly open water--open, that is, in the sense
+that there is plenty of it--we shall be in Smyth's Channel, and in the
+track of passing ships."
+
+He paused, but did not try to ignore the plain demand legible on three
+intent faces.
+
+"Yes; that is the only way," he said quietly. "We are here. We are
+alive. There is plenty of wood, and we have brains, hands, and fire. We
+must construct some sort of a raft, something in the style of the
+lumber-rafts built on big rivers, and take advantage of the tides. Our
+present position is quite inaccessible by land, and, I fear, equally
+unapproachable by water.
+
+"And I'll tell you why I think so. Within quarter of a mile of us are
+some splendid oyster-beds. The coastal aborigines live mainly on
+shell-fish, and this store would have been visited by them times out of
+number if they could get at it. But I have seen no heaps of shells, such
+as must have remained if the savages came here.
+
+"What has stopped them? Impassable forests, glaciers, and precipices on
+land, dangerous reefs and fierce tidal currents by sea. The geological
+feature which helped our climb yesterday must create reef after reef
+across the track of the channel.
+
+"You see those pathways there?" and he stretched a hand towards the
+series of rock outcrops lining the shore like groins. "They have been
+almost leveled by the storms of centuries. But the _Southern Cross_ was
+lost on one of them, and there must be scores of others between here and
+Smyth's Channel. There may be passages between many if not all, but it
+is self-evident that navigation is far too risky for the small coracles
+of the natives. We must go slowly and safely, if possible. If our raft
+will not cross a reef, we must abandon it, and build another on the far
+side. We may have to do that six times, a dozen times, even in sixty
+miles. There is no other means of escape. We may be weeks, months, in
+winning through, but that is our only practicable plan."
+
+"Gee!" murmured Sturgess. "And I'm due in New York on February 10!"
+
+The sheer absurdity of naming a date relaxed the tension. They all
+laughed, though not with the light-hearted mirth which four young people
+might reasonably display after dodging death continuously during
+twenty-four hours.
+
+"By the way, what day is it?" inquired Nina Forbes wistfully.
+
+"Sunday, January 23," said Sturgess. "I know, because it was my birthday
+yesterday. Somewhere about eleven o'clock a. m., I was twenty-seven. I
+didn't make a fuss about it. Just at that time, wise Alec here was
+holding on to a rock by his teeth and one toe, and telling us we had to
+go back carefully after a beastly difficult climb."
+
+"Sunday!" repeated the girl.
+
+Her thoughts traveled many a thousand miles to the quiet little New
+Jersey township where her mother was living during the absence of
+husband and daughters in South America. It was winter in the North, and
+there might be snow on the fields and ice on the streams, but snow and
+ice conforming to New Jersey notions of order and seemliness.
+
+What a contrast between the white mantle marked out in rectangles by the
+country roads and ditches, with here and there a group of trees, a trim
+shrubbery, a red-roofed farm or dwelling house, and this chaos of rock,
+forest, cliff and ocean!
+
+"Will the loss of the _Southern Cross_ be reported?" she asked suddenly.
+The query was addressed to no one in particular, but Maseden answered.
+
+"Her non-arrival will be noted at Punta Arenas," he said. "After a time
+the insurance people will post her as 'missing.' Then she will be
+assumed to be lost. Possibly some of the wreckage may be picked up. Or a
+boat. What became of all the boats?"
+
+"Some of 'em were stove in, others washed clean off their davits," said
+Sturgess. "It was absolutely impossible to lower one. No one who did not
+witness it would have believed that a fine ship could break to pieces so
+quickly. Gee whiz! One minute I was standing near the fore-rail, looking
+at the narrowing entrance in full confidence that we should win through,
+and the next I was fighting for my life in the smoking-room, up to my
+waist in water."
+
+"You are not quite doing yourself justice, C. K.," said Madge. "You were
+fighting for other people's lives as well. I have the clearest
+recollection of being hauled up the companion ladder to the bridge by
+you and one of the ship's officers. Then you went back and helped Nina
+and Mr. Gray."
+
+"That is what I was there for," was the prompt reply.
+
+"This being Sunday, do we labor or rest, Alec?" inquired Nina.
+
+It was the first time either girl had used Maseden's Christian name, and
+the sound on a woman's lips was like a caress. He reddened, and smiled.
+Nina's eyes met his, and dropped confusedly.
+
+"We rest," he said. "We need rest. At least, I am free to confess that
+_I_ do. You energetic people are inclined to forget that I began a
+really strenuous life by receiving a rap on the head that put me out of
+commission during several hours.... Now, Mr. Sturgess--sorry, C. K.--and
+I are going on a little tour along the coast. We shall be away an hour
+or more. I advise you two to rig yourselves as best you can in my
+superfluous garments. Make sure they are quite dry. It may seem rather
+absurd, but putting on damp clothing is an altogether different thing
+from allowing wet clothes to dry on your body. Keep a good fire. There
+is nothing to be afraid of. In this strange land there are neither
+animals nor reptiles."
+
+"Nor birds," said Nina.
+
+"Yes, plenty of birds, but the nesting season is long over, and many of
+the sea-birds have gone south. As we progress further inland we shall
+come across great colonies of puffins, ducks and swans. Curiously
+enough, there are plenty of humming-birds, which is about the last
+species one would expect off-hand to find in these wastes.... Come
+along, C. K. Let us try and circumvent the wily seal."
+
+"Why not shoot one?" said Sturgess.
+
+"Because I have only twenty-four cartridges, and each one may yet be
+worth its weight in diamonds. Remember, everybody!--we only use the
+rifle in the last extremity, either for food, or fire, or actual
+self-preservation. Once lighted, on no account must the fire be allowed
+to die out. Even when we build a raft, we can imitate the natives, and
+carry a fire with us. To save us men from temptation to-day, should we
+find a seal, we'll leave the gun with the ladies.
+
+"A couple of cudgels, with ends sharpened and hardened in the fire,
+should serve our needs, and do the seal's business as well. If not, we
+must try again, and exist on oysters until we become more expert....
+I'll put five cartridges in the magazine, and show you girls how it
+works. If you regard each shell as worth, say, five thousand dollars,
+you'll appreciate the net value of the whole twenty-four."
+
+Within a few minutes Maseden and Sturgess set off. The tide was now at
+its lowest point, so they had no difficulty in walking in almost any
+direction. Their first act was to drag ashore the remains of the bunk.
+Given a quantity of malleable iron and a fire, it would not be an
+impossible task to construct some rough tools.
+
+While placing this treasure-trove above high-water mark they saw the two
+girls examining the stock of underclothes which Providence had literally
+provided for their needs.
+
+"Gosh!" said Sturgess, almost reverently. "It beats me to know how a
+couple of delicate women could endure the hardships we have gone
+through."
+
+"But women are not delicate. I don't understand why men invariably
+harbor that delusion. In passive resistance women are more steadfast,
+even hardier, than men. That is an essential, don't you see? The
+continuance of the race depends far more on the female than on the male.
+Civilization tries to upset the great principles of life, but fails,
+luckily. Savage tribes are aware of that elementary fact. Low down in
+the social scale the women do all the work, while the men loaf around,
+and only get busy when hunting or fighting."
+
+"Tell you what, Alec," said Sturgess admiringly, "once fairly started,
+you talk like a book."
+
+Such a remark could hardly fail to act as a gag on one of Maseden's
+temperament. By habit a silent man, he shrank from even the semblance of
+loquacity. Sturgess could extract no further information from him. He in
+his turn soon learned to guard his tongue when the Vermonter was in the
+talking vein, and unconsciously pouring out the stock of knowledge and
+philosophy garnered during those peaceful years on the ranch.
+
+"We had better go this way," said Maseden, pointing towards the west.
+"Don't you think it advisable to search the coast seaward? There have
+been three tides since the ship struck, and anything likely to come
+ashore should have shown up by this time."
+
+"Go right ahead, Alec. What you say goes."
+
+Their search was fruitless. Indeed, the position in which the leather
+trunk was found proved that the set of the current on a rising tide was
+in the direction of the channel between the two small islands.
+
+Maseden had little or no experience of the sea and its vagaries, or he
+would have noticed this highly significant fact, and thus saved himself
+and his companions much hardship and a good deal of needless risk.
+
+Of course, he saw quickly that there was a remarkable absence of
+wreckage on the north side of the estuary, but he attributed it to the
+fury of the gale, which must have driven a great body of water far into
+the network of channels which stretched inland, with a resultant
+outpouring when the wind pressure was relaxed.
+
+The only satisfactory outcome of a close visit to the bar was the
+complete vindication of their means of escape from the ledge. It would
+have been a sheer impossibility to round the point at or slightly above
+sea-level. The tides of untold ages had literally scooped a chasm out of
+the cliff, and perversely chosen to batter a passage through the rock
+rather than take the open path farther south.
+
+They could not see the reef which had destroyed the _Southern Cross_.
+But they could hear it. Ever above the clatter of the rollers on the
+nearer rocks they caught the sullen roar of the outer fury.
+
+"Let's clear out of this," said Sturgess suddenly. "That noise sends a
+chill right down my backbone."
+
+Maseden turned at once. In any case, they could not have remained there
+much longer, because the tide was on the flow, and they had yet to
+discover how swiftly it covered the rock-paved foreshore.
+
+They did not hurry, but kept a sharp look-out for seals, seeing several,
+but at a great distance. While they were yet nearly a quarter of a mile
+from the camping ground, from which came a pillar of smoke, showing that
+the fire was not being neglected, they were startled by a gun-shot.
+
+It smote the air with a sound that was all the more insistent in that it
+was wholly unexpected. It drove into the sea, with a loud splash, a seal
+close at hand which had been hidden by a rock, and even brought a pair
+of circling bustards from some eyrie high up on the hills.
+
+With never a word to one another, both men began to run.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE SECOND SHIPWRECK
+
+
+A series of reefs does not supply the best of surfaces for a sprint.
+Maseden slipped on a bed of seaweed and fell headlong, fortunately
+escaping injury. Sturgess, lighter, perhaps more adroit on his feet--it
+came out subsequently that he was an accomplished skater--stumbled
+several times, but contrived to keep going.
+
+Thus he was the first to reach Madge Forbes, who hurried to meet them,
+followed by Nina, the latter walking more leisurely and carrying the
+rifle.
+
+"What has happened?" gasped Sturgess. He saw that the girl was pale and
+frightened. She and her sister were continually looking backward, as
+though expecting to find they were being pursued.
+
+"I think--it is all right--now," she said brokenly. "Nina shot at
+it--the most awful monster I have ever seen."
+
+"Had it two legs, or four?"
+
+Sturgess was incorrigible. Notwithstanding the start caused by the sound
+of the gun, he grinned. The girl turned to Nina.
+
+"Please tell them, Nina, that we are not romancing," she cried
+indignantly.
+
+Nina handed the rifle to Maseden.
+
+"Put this thing right," she said coolly. "It won't work, but I'm sure I
+hit the beast with the first bullet."
+
+Maseden pressed down the lever, and saw that a cartridge had jammed, as
+the extractor lever had not been jerked downward with sufficient force.
+He began adjusting matters with the blade of his knife.
+
+"Were you attacked by an animal?" he inquired.
+
+"We don't know exactly what it was," said Madge. "When you left us we
+decided to have a bath before putting on dry clothes. As our only towel
+was the ship's flag, we arranged that each should rub the other dry with
+her hands. We had just finished dressing, and Nina had gone to pile
+fresh logs on the fire, when I heard a splash in the water of the creek.
+I looked around and saw a fearful creature, bigger than a horse, which
+barked at me. I shrieked, and Nina ran with the rifle. The thing barked
+again--it was only a few feet away--so she fired. Then we both made
+off."
+
+"You disturbed a seal, I expect."
+
+"No. If those were seals we saw last night, this was no seal," said Nina
+decisively. "It had small, fiery eyes and long tusks. I think it had
+flappers, though, in place of feet, but it was enormous."
+
+"Sounds like a walrus," put in Sturgess.
+
+"There are no walruses in the South Pacific," said Maseden. "Anyhow, now
+that the magazine works all right, let's go and have a look."
+
+Ample corroboration of the girl's story was soon forthcoming. The
+splashing of water behind the group of big rocks sheltering the pool in
+which they had taken their bath showed that something unusual was going
+on.
+
+They all reached the spot in time to witness the last struggles of a
+gigantic sea-lion, one of the most fearsome-looking of the ocean's many
+strange denizens. The shot fired by Nina Forbes had struck it fairly in
+the throat, inflicting a wound which speedily proved mortal.
+
+The animal was a full-grown male, fully ten feet in length, with a neck
+and shoulders of huge proportions. Its tusks and bristles gave it a most
+menacing aspect. The wonder was not that the bathers ran, but that Nina
+had the courage to face such a monster.
+
+Maseden was delighted, and patted her on the shoulder.
+
+"Well done!" he cried. "You've supplied the larder with fresh meat for
+days. We must even try our 'prentice hands at curing what we can't eat
+to-day or to-morrow."
+
+The girl herself was not elated by her triumph. The water in which the
+sea-lion lay was deeply tinged with its blood, which had also
+bespattered the rocks.
+
+"I have never before killed any living creature," she said in a rather
+miserable tone. "Why did the stupid thing attack us? We were doing it no
+harm."
+
+Maseden laughed.
+
+"Off you go, both of you!" he said. "C. K. and I have the job of our
+lives now. It will be no joke disjointing this fellow with a couple of
+pocket-knives. But if the fact brings any consolation, I may tell you
+that a sea-lion when irritated can be a very ugly customer. Probably
+this one was sleeping in the sun under the lee of a rock, and you may
+have come unpleasantly near him without knowing it. When he awoke and
+saw you he was curious. Instead of slinking off, he roared at you, and
+might easily have killed the pair of you!"
+
+"Can't we help?" inquired Nina, seeing that Maseden meant to lose no
+time.
+
+"No."
+
+"But we ought to," she persisted. "We must get used to such work."
+
+"You can do something quite as serviceable by rigging a few lines on
+stout poles, where there is plenty of sun and air, and seeing that a big
+fire is kept up.... And, by the way, don't come this way till we call
+you. We shan't be--presentable."
+
+The two disappeared without further question.
+
+"This will be a messy undertaking," Maseden explained to his assistant.
+"The best thing we can do is strip, or our clothes will be in an awful
+state."
+
+At the outset they abandoned any thought of actually dismembering the
+colossal carcass. They skinned it with difficulty, and then cut off the
+flesh in layers. After an hour's hard endeavor they had gathered a fine
+store of meat, while the pelt, after being well washed in salt water,
+was stretched on a flat rock to dry.
+
+They were dressing again when a new trouble arose. From out of the void
+had gathered a flock of vultures. These fierce, evil-looking birds were
+so daring in their efforts to raid the pile of meat that two actually
+allowed themselves to be knocked over by the staves the men carried.
+
+Sturgess remained on guard, therefore, while Maseden took the strips and
+hung them on the lines the girls had already prepared.
+
+Madge volunteered to do the cooking. She had found two flat, thin
+stones, somewhat resembling hard slate, and she fancied that by placing
+some steaks between these and covering them with glowing charcoal the
+trick would be achieved. As a matter of fact, she succeeded wonderfully
+well. Even Nina, sniffing her portion, vowed that the shooting of a
+sea-lion had its compensations.
+
+More vultures arrived. The sea-lion's bones were rapidly picked clean,
+but one of the men had to keep close watch all day over the curing
+operations.
+
+An amusing argument arose as to the correct method of drying meat.
+Maseden held that he distinctly remembered reading that _biltong_, or
+South African antelope steak, was prepared by hanging the strips in the
+sun. The girls were positive that this would cause putrefaction, and
+that the meat should be placed in the shade.
+
+As Maseden was not quite sure of his facts, he compromised as to a
+quarter of the supply, with the result that this smaller quantity was
+rendered uneatable.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The story of Alexander Selkirk has been told so often, and in so many
+forms, that it will not bear repeating here. During a whole fortnight
+these four young people devoted their wits and their muscles to the
+all-important task of feeding themselves and securing some means of
+escape into the interior. The men soon learned how to circumvent the
+wily seal, and thus store plenty of meat and skins, which latter, with
+sinews and a knife, were converted first into garments for the women
+and, as supplies increased, into a tent.
+
+Maseden noticed that the high-water mark fell daily, so he reasoned that
+the _Southern Cross_ struck during a high spring tide, and that the neap
+would occur in fourteen days. He laid his plans on that assumption,
+which was justified almost to a day.
+
+Another gale blew up, but despite its discomfort it helped them
+materially, because the men loosened a barrier of logs which had formed
+high up the wooded cliff, and the rain freshet brought down far more
+timber than was needed for the biggest raft they could hope to
+construct.
+
+After some experiments they decided to make it a three-tier one, and
+flexible in the center. Hence it was fully thirty feet in length, the
+average length of a thick log being fifteen feet after its roots and
+thin section had been burnt off. For the same reason the raft was
+fifteen feet wide. It had a step in the forepart for their old friend,
+the broken topmast. They dispensed with a rudder, believing they could
+guide their ark with poles.
+
+Observation showed that the tide flowed swiftly in mid-stream, and their
+well-matured project was to push out to a prearranged point at
+high-water, anchor while the tide fell, and travel as far as practicable
+on the next tide. They tried to avoid all risks that could be foreseen.
+
+The raft was built in the waterway which Madge had termed the
+"creek"--the gulley cleared for itself by the torrent whose dry bed had
+offered them a road through the otherwise impenetrable forest. Every
+test of stability their inventiveness could devise proved that an area
+of thirty feet by fifteen of logs arranged in three rows would support
+four or five times the weight they were likely to place on it. By
+manipulating the poles Maseden and Sturgess found that they could
+control the movements of even such an unwieldy bulk, while if the wind
+suited they might rig a sail of skins.
+
+They were able to build quickly and well because of three essentials.
+The timber was at hand, they had a fire, and in the pieces of rope and
+strips of iron and wire they had invaluable means of making the
+structure secure.
+
+At last, on the fifteenth day after the wreck, Maseden poled out the
+raft during the slack tide at high-water, and fastened it to ropes
+already fixed and buoyed nearly a quarter of a mile from the shore. He
+would allow none of the others to accompany him, nor did he carry any of
+the few stores they possessed. He could not be absolutely certain that
+the cables would withstand the strain, and if the raft were swept
+seaward by the falling tide only one life was in jeopardy, while
+Sturgess might be able to help him from the shore.
+
+His vigil was watched by anxious eyes, especially when he thought fit to
+ease the stress on the ropes by planting a long pole against a big rock
+which he knew rested a few feet astern and below the surface. The two
+hours of half-tide were the worst, but the anchors held. Three hours
+later the raft was aground and he came ashore.
+
+It was then nearly dark, as their first voyage would naturally be taken
+in broad daylight. Nothing was said at the time, but he was told
+afterwards, that for no conceivable guerdon would any of the three again
+go through the agony of suspense they endured while the raft swung and
+lurched in the fierce current.
+
+Meat, fresh and dried, a quantity of oysters, the leather trunk, and a
+charcoal fire cunningly packed in oyster shells kept in position by
+wire--this cooking brazier being the invention of Nina Forbes--formed
+the cargo. Most fortunately Maseden carried the poncho and the rifle
+slung across his back with rope, and the cartridges were in his pockets.
+
+They slept on board. Soon after daybreak the raft was afloat, but was
+not allowed to move until there was a fair depth of water, owing to the
+very great probability of the whole structure being dashed to pieces
+against some awkwardly placed boulder. At last, however, Maseden
+thought the channel was practicable, and the ropes were cast loose,
+being sacrificed, of course, but that could not be helped.
+
+They were off! The first of the sixty miles was already slipping away.
+They were so excited, so bent on the adventure ahead, that none of them
+thought of looking back until Providence Beach, which was the name they
+gave their refuge, was nearly out of sight.
+
+Suddenly Madge Forbes remembered, and turned her eyes in that direction.
+She waved a hand and cried:
+
+"Good-by, trees and rocks! You were kind to me and to all of us! I have
+not had two such happy weeks since I came to South America!"
+
+Maseden heard, but paid no particular heed. For one thing, he had
+decided now not to re-open the question of the extraordinary relations
+between his wife and himself until, if ever, they reached civilization
+again. For another, he was busily conning the channel and noting the
+behavior of their clumsy but quite buoyant craft.
+
+He estimated the pace of the current at fully six miles an hour. The
+raft was traveling about half that rate, which was quite fast enough for
+his liking, so, although there was a strong breeze from the west, he did
+not hoist the "sail." He stood on the port side and Sturgess on the
+starboard. The two girls were seated on a pile of fir branches behind
+the mast, which was stayed by ropes in such wise that all four had
+something to cling to if the raft struck a sunken rock and lurched
+suddenly.
+
+The project was to drift as far inland as the day's tide would take
+them, pole ashore at the nearest suitable place, and repeat the
+overnight anchoring until they reached smooth water, when they might
+perhaps make longer voyages. If they ran six miles that day they would
+have done admirably. Providing Maseden's calculations as to their
+precise locality were reasonably accurate, the next day would bring them
+into a much wider arm of the sea.
+
+Here the conditions might vary, but they would adapt themselves to
+circumstances, always bearing in mind the exceeding wisdom of the
+Italian proverb: _Che va piano va sano_--"He goes safely who goes
+cautiously."
+
+But there are other proverbs which are equally applicable to human
+affairs, and especially to the hazards awaiting rafts floating on
+unknown waters. For an hour they ran on gaily, with little or no
+trouble, because the men could see broken water a long way ahead and
+promptly piloted their argosy towards the open channel.
+
+Then came the unexpected, or, to be exact, the crisis arose which
+Maseden had foreseen many days earlier, but forgotten as the raft grew
+strong and seaworthy under their hands.
+
+About four miles from Providence Beach the gap between the two small
+islands which shut off Hanover Island from its southerly neighbor came
+into full view. Maseden anticipated a little difficulty at this point,
+but he was quite unprepared for that which really took place.
+
+He had every reason to believe that the main stream would flow straight
+ahead until the second island was passed; he meant to land on Hanover
+Island again, just short of the easterly end of Island Number Two.
+Therefore he was annoyed, but not alarmed at first, at finding that the
+current carried the raft into the straits between the islets.
+
+The others, of course, noticed the change of direction, and being well
+aware of his hopes and plans, asked him in chorus if this deviation
+mattered.
+
+"I don't see that it does," he said. "In any case, we must follow the
+tide, and if this is the short cut so much the better."
+
+He told them that which he actually believed. Still, at the back of his
+head lay an uneasiness hard to account for. The raft was traveling south
+now, not east, having swept round the bend in magnificent style. The
+precipitous heights were closing in, but the channel was fully a quarter
+of a mile in width. He would vastly have preferred skirting the wooded
+slopes of Hanover Island, because these smaller islets were absolutely
+barren in this hitherto invisible section, but, having no choice in the
+matter, silenced his doubts by recalling his first and quite correct
+theory that the real deep-water passage lay beyond, the _Southern Cross_
+having in fact struck several miles north of Nelson Straits.
+
+Owing to the steady narrowing of the waterway the rate at which they
+traveled was increasing momentarily, though progress was delightfully
+smooth and easy. The simile did not occur to any of the four until
+complete disaster had befallen them, but the silent, resistless onrush
+of the current was ominously suggestive of the course of some great
+river during the last few miles before it hurls itself over a cataract.
+
+Hanover Island soon vanished from sight altogether, and the towering
+cliffs on either hand seemed to merge into an unbroken barrier ahead.
+But the tidal race hurried on, so there must be an outlet, and this
+presented itself, after a sharp turn to eastward again, when they had
+covered a couple of miles on the new course.
+
+They were only given the briefest warning of the peril into which they
+were being carried. The stream flung itself against a great mass of
+rock, which had been undermined until the upper edge of the precipice
+hung out fifty feet or more over the rushing waters beneath. A most
+uncanny maelstrom was thus created.
+
+No sooner had the two men seen the danger than they labored with might
+and main to slew the raft away to the opposite shore.
+
+They succeeded in avoiding the first jumble of black rocks which lay at
+the base of the cliff, but the whole character of the stream changed
+instantly. It became a furious turmoil of broken water. The raft was
+hurled hither and thither as though by some titanic force, and a few
+yards farther on was dashed against a second and even more terrifying
+reef.
+
+The violence of the impact smashed the whole structure to pieces. Had
+not the logs been arranged in tiers crosswise they must have split up
+instantly, but the method in which they were put together held them for
+one precious moment while the men each clutched one of the girls and
+leaped for the nearest rock.
+
+By rare good luck they kept their feet, and reached a great flat mass
+which, judged by appearances, had only recently fallen.
+
+Further advance or retreat was alike impossible. On three sides roared
+the cheated torrent; behind and above, canopy-wise, towered the cliff.
+If the evidence of ominous fissures and lateral cracks were to be read
+aright, there was no telling the moment when they might be buried under
+another avalanche of thousands of tons of stone.
+
+Every tide deepened the sap. They were imprisoned in one of nature's own
+quarries, where work was relentless and unceasing.
+
+Once again idle chance had decided that Maseden should save Nina and
+Sturgess Madge. Not that it mattered a jot. If ever four people were in
+hapless case, it was they. For a time even to Maseden, who had never
+lost faith in his star, it seemed that the best fortune that could now
+befall would be for the trembling rock overhead to crash down on them.
+
+The din was terrific, and the water level was rising so rapidly that
+five minutes after they had gained their present position the boulders
+to which they had sprung from the sundering platform of logs were a foot
+deep in the swirling current. Each of the girls, wholly unconscious of
+her attitude, clung despairingly to the man at her side and watched the
+climbing surge with somber eyes.
+
+They were too stunned to yield to fear, and the life of the past
+fortnight had so steeled their nerves and strengthened their bodies that
+fainting was no longer the readiest means of obtaining a merciful
+respite from present horrors. Rather did a bitter rage possess them, for
+it was a harsh and monstrous decree of fate which had not only robbed
+them of a hard-won means of escape, but immersed them in a veritable
+condemned cell.
+
+Maseden, like the others, was watching the encroaching water-line in a
+benumbed way when he became aware that Nina was speaking. He looked into
+her drawn face and tried to smile, though a sort of mist clouded his
+eyes.
+
+"What is it, girlie?" he said, putting his mouth close to her ear and
+addressing her as though she were a timid child.
+
+"Is this the end?" she cried, imitating him.
+
+"Not yet, anyhow," and he gave her a reassuring hug.
+
+"Tell me--if you think--we have only a few more minutes," she said.
+
+He read nothing into the request save a natural desire that she should
+be prepared for the worst and try to cross the Great Divide with a
+prayer on her lips. The pitiful words helped to dispel the cloud which
+had befogged his wits, and he began to weigh the pros and cons of the
+forlornest of forlorn hopes.
+
+The water was lapping their feet. The rock arched outward over their
+heads. Between the spot where they stood and the actual wall of rock
+there was already a flowing stream.
+
+He looked at his watch. The hour was seven o'clock, and he estimated the
+time of high-water at about half-past seven. Then, as when he was lying
+along the foremast of the _Southern Cross_ amid the thunders of the
+reef, a tiny seed of hope sprang into life in his brain. If they could
+outlast the tide there was still a chance!
+
+The very fact that this chaos of fallen cliff created a fearsome rapid
+in the tide-way showed that the passage must be fairly open during low
+water. If promptness in decision could enable a man to conquer a
+difficulty, Maseden was certainly not lacking in that attitude.
+
+"Come!" he said. "Not for the first time, we must put our backs to the
+wall. We may find a good grip for our feet before the water mounts too
+high. The four of us must lace arms and cling together. I believe the
+tide will not rise above our knees. At any rate, we cannot be swept away
+easily. It is worth trying."
+
+She nodded. Turning to her sister, she explained Maseden's scheme. Soon
+they were braced against the rock and facing valiantly their new ordeal.
+
+In the Middle Ages, when a lust for inflicting torture infected some men
+like a cancerous growth, a favorite method of at once punishing and
+destroying an unfortunate enemy was to chain him in a dungeon to which a
+tidal river had access, and leave him there until the slow-rising flood
+drowned him.
+
+They were in some such plight, self-chained to a rock, though not
+knowing when a sudden swirl of water might sweep them to speedy death.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE TURN OF THE TIDE
+
+
+The change, when it came, came swiftly. It was as though the
+All-Powerful bade the waters cease their snarling and stilled the fury
+of the reef. During nearly an hour the sea lapped the very thighs of the
+four castaways, but the roar of battle between rocks and current had
+died down and it was possible to hear the spoken word.
+
+Sturgess was the first to break the spell cast on the whole party by the
+seeming imminence of death.
+
+"If ever I set foot in New York again I'll be good and go to church
+Sundays," he said. "This is Sunday, February 6, an' I guess I've been as
+near Kingdom Come to-day as I'm likely to get on a round trip ticket."
+
+For a little while no one passed any comment. Sunday! The mere name of
+the day had a bizarre sound. What had God-given Sunday and its peaceful
+associations to do with this grim and savage wilderness?
+
+Suddenly Nina Forbes began to recite the Lord's Prayer. One by
+one the others joined in. The concluding petition had a peculiar
+appropriateness. If ever four Christian people might appeal to be
+delivered from evil, surely these four were in great need of heavenly
+succor.
+
+"That's fine!" said Sturgess, almost cheerfully, when a hearty "Amen"
+had relieved their surcharged feelings. "Me for the pine pew and the
+right sort of preacher when next I stroll out of West Fifty-seventh
+Street into Broadway of a Sabbath morning. Anyhow, to-day being Sunday,
+and the hour rather early, which way do we head for the nearest church
+when the tide falls, commodore?"
+
+Maseden had already weighed that very question, but the utter collapse
+of the voyage on which he had founded such high hopes had chastened his
+pride.
+
+"I think we had better put it to the vote," he said. "I've led you into
+such a death-trap already that I don't feel equal to a decision."
+
+He had been watching a big rock on the opposite shore. A little while
+ago it was awash; now it was submerged, yet the water was appreciably
+lower where they were standing.
+
+The seeming contradiction was puzzling. He had yet to learn that the
+laws governing water in motion are extraordinarily complex--take to
+witness the varying levels of the whirlpool in the Niagara River and the
+almost phenomenal height of the central stream in the Niagara rapids.
+
+"Guess we're satisfied with your control so far," said Sturgess. "What
+are you making a kick about? You prophesied just what would occur, and
+that's more than the average wizard can do."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Didn't you tell us we might strike a score of reefs between Providence
+Beach and Smyth's Channel, and that we should be lucky if we didn't have
+to build 'steen rafts?"
+
+Maseden smiled. The rock he had marked as an index was reappearing, and
+the water had sunk another inch below his knees. The tide had
+unquestionably turned; the water banked up on the opposite shore was
+also yielding to the new force.
+
+"I never anticipated another complete shipwreck," he said. "We have lost
+everything, ropes, skins, food--our chief supporter, the broken
+foremast--even our flag."
+
+"But we still have the rifle and cartridges, and we're plus a
+fortnight's experience. If we don't start life again better fixed than
+when we climbed to the ledge in the dark from the forecastle of the
+_Southern Cross_, call me a Dutchman."
+
+"I agree with C. K.," Nina chimed in. "Even here there must be some sort
+of a passage at low water. Which way shall we go--back or forward?"
+
+"We gain nothing by going back," said Maseden slowly. "For one thing, we
+are on the wrong side of the channel. For another, I have been taking
+stock of the peculiar vagaries of the tide during the past fifteen
+minutes, and I imagine that there is a slight difference in the water
+level between this point and that which we left this morning. Still
+water attains a dead level, of course, but strong tides have rules of
+their own.
+
+"Now, supposing the tide from the Pacific runs into Providence Beach a
+few minutes earlier than it reaches Nelson Straits, that would account
+for the terrific rush in which we were caught. For the same cause, the
+falling tide should be far less strenuous here, but stronger there, and
+I do really believe that opposite our camp the ebb tide always developed
+a swifter current than the flood."
+
+"I'm sure of it," agreed Sturgess. "They were both pretty hefty, but
+this morning's flood didn't begin to compare with last night's ebb. You
+ought to know. You went through it alone on board the raft."
+
+"Then the answer is, 'Go forward,'" said Madge.
+
+"I think so. Let us be guided by events. We have the best part of the
+day before us. Surely we can find some safer lodgment than this before
+night falls."
+
+The others knew that Maseden's voice had lost its confident ring, but
+the fact that they had so narrowly dodged death barred all other
+considerations.
+
+In his heart of hearts he was deadly afraid that they might indeed be
+compelled to return to Hanover Island. The sheer barrenness of the islet
+on which they were now stranded was its vital defect. Probably they
+would still find shell-fish, still knock an occasional seal on the head,
+but wood they must have, both for fire and raft building, and it seemed
+to him that there were no trees nearer than the slopes facing Providence
+Beach.
+
+However, having come so far, they might at least have a look at the
+conditions on the south side, where lay yet another island; and there
+was also the unalterable fact that if they must escape by using the
+tides, their first day's experiences, though resulting in disaster, had
+brought them many miles in the right direction.
+
+Perhaps they had met and conquered their greatest danger. They had paid
+a dear price for victory, but that was nothing new in war.
+
+Of course there was a long and wearisome wait before they could do other
+than sit on the slowly emerging rocks. But it was something gained when
+they were free to climb out into the open and see the sky over their
+heads. The silent, nerve-racking menace of the canopied rock was quite
+as unbearable as the loud-mouthed threats of sea and reef.
+
+Madge, slightly less self-contained than her sister, promptly voiced her
+relief.
+
+"If I live to be older than I want to be I shall never forget one awful
+crack in the roof just above us," she said. "I couldn't keep my eyes off
+it. It seemed to be opening and shutting all the time with a horrible
+slowness."
+
+"How old do you want to be?" demanded Sturgess, readily seizing the
+chance to divert her thoughts from a nightmare memory.
+
+"Forty-five," she answered without any hesitation.
+
+"Gee! That leaves me less than eighteen years to live!"
+
+"I wasn't thinking of you, C. K."
+
+"But your limit rouses one's curiosity. Why forty-five, any more than
+fifty or sixty? Granted good health, heaps of people enjoy life at
+sixty."
+
+"At forty-five a woman begins to fade and men grow horrid," she
+announced calmly, as though stating an incontrovertible thesis.
+
+"Please don't talk rubbish, either of you," interrupted Nina sharply.
+"Alec, can't we dodge along from rock to rock? It seems to be ever so
+much more open half a mile ahead."
+
+"Let's try," said Maseden.
+
+He wondered vaguely why Nina broke in on her sister's quaint theorizing.
+Any nonsense which took their minds off the troubles of the hour was a
+good thing in itself.
+
+They scrambled and slithered through the passage, which resembled the
+moraine of a glacier, save that the rocks were on the same plane, and
+the central stream was clear and greenish instead of being nearly milk
+white. Once they were held up fully fifteen minutes because the channel
+ran close to an overhanging rock which really looked as though it might
+be brought down by the disturbance of a pebble.
+
+Then Maseden was moved to make investigations, and discovered that the
+main waterway was extraordinarily deep. In other words, the sea had
+preferred to scoop out a ditch rather than flow through the ample space
+bordering Hanover Island. Even at low tide there was deep water here.
+
+"We must go on, one at a time," he said, and led the way.
+
+He found that Nina Forbes was close behind.
+
+"Remain where you are!" he said gruffly. "I'll tell you when to follow
+and indicate the best track."
+
+She frowned, and her eyes sparkled, but she obeyed. Sturgess, too,
+growled a protest.
+
+"He ought to give me that kind of try-out," he said. "If there's
+trouble, and I go under, it won't matter so much. But you girls can't
+spare Alec. He's worth twenty of me when it comes to a show-down."
+
+However, they all crossed the danger point safely, and each in turn
+noticed that which Maseden alone had been able to see at first--that a
+huge buttress had fallen quite recently, probably during the preceding
+tide, so the whole mass might crumble into ruin at any moment. As was
+their way, once a danger had passed they did not discuss it again.
+Sturgess, of course, had something to say, though it only bore
+inferentially on this latest risk.
+
+"I always had a notion that the New York Fire Department was a pretty
+nervy proposition," he informed all and sundry during a halt on the only
+strip of open beach yet encountered in their new exploration, "but I
+guess I can show the chief a few fresh stunts first time I blow into
+headquarters on East Sixty-seventh Street."
+
+Sturgess's airy references to New York were excellent tonics. He refused
+to regard that great city and its ordered life as dreamlike figments of
+the imagination. To him the flaring lights of Broadway ever glimmered
+above the horizon. Had he sighted the Statue of Liberty around the next
+bend _that_ would mean reality; _this_, the dreary expanse of dead
+hills, water and black rock, would have been the dream.
+
+Maseden, recovering his poise, had resumed his everyday air of
+well-grounded optimism. At any rate, he argued, the four of them were
+living and uninjured. They still owned those thrice-precious cartridges,
+the rifle and the poncho. They had many hours of daylight before them,
+and would surely find drinkable water and food before dark.
+
+Happily the weather was fine, though clouds banking up in the west told
+of a possible gale, which might blow itself out in a few hours, or last
+as many days, or weeks. In that climate there was no knowing. The
+almanac declared that it was high summer, yet it would be no uncommon
+event if a snowstorm came from the southwest and mantled all the land a
+foot deep.
+
+As for their clothes being wet, these young people thought little of
+such a trifle. Their skins were becoming, in the expressive Indian
+phrase, "all face."
+
+So they trudged on, heading for the mouth of the defile. In the far
+distance they discerned the broken line of another mountainous island,
+the lower slopes black with forests.
+
+"That's a good sign, folk," said Maseden, smiling cheerfully once more.
+"We're making for a timber belt. When you come to think of it, trees
+simply couldn't grow on these rocks, and the watershed seems to fall
+away on both sides of the gorge, which must have been cut by an
+earthquake."
+
+His eyes had been searching constantly for signs of the raft's wreckage,
+but never so much as a splintered log could he see. Nina, not so
+preoccupied, was gazing farther afield.
+
+Suddenly she stopped, and something in her manner arrested the others.
+
+"I don't think I'm mistaken," she said, "but are not those two points
+the flanks of these islands?"
+
+"There can be little doubt of that," agreed Maseden, following her
+glance towards the gap some three or four miles in front. It was
+difficult to estimate distance accurately in that region of vast
+solitudes.
+
+"Then, if that is so," she went on in a puzzled tone, "where does the
+remainder of the land go to? The cliffs end not so very far away. Why
+don't we see other bits sticking out?"
+
+The underlying sense of the question was clearer than its form. For some
+undetermined cause the passage between the islands evidently widened
+considerably before it closed in at the ultimate southern exit.
+Hopefulness is often a close blend of curiosity and expectation. They
+pressed on more rapidly, eager as children to see what lay around the
+corner.
+
+They were soon enlightened, and most agreeably so. They entered a
+spacious amphitheatre--in its way, almost a place of beauty. Not only
+were the hillsides clothed with pines and other trees, but, rarest sight
+of all along that stark coast, strips of white sand bordered the
+foreshore.
+
+The tidal water, now near the lowest ebb, was placid as a lake, and on
+its surface disported flocks of many varieties of wild fowl. Moreover,
+wreckage began to line the beach at high-water mark. They found the
+planks and spars of many ships, some quite fresh, and evidently the
+remains of the _Southern Cross_; others weather-beaten, even crumbling
+with age.
+
+Remains of the raft were discovered, and Nina shrieked with joy at sight
+of the ship's flag, hardly damaged, lying on its halliard alongside the
+broken topmast.
+
+Madge claimed the most remarkable bit of flotsam--nothing less than the
+brandy bottle, unbroken, but nearly full of salt water, half buried in
+sand.
+
+It was their only drinking utensil, and therefore prized very highly.
+How it had passed through the turmoil of the rapids was one of those
+mysteries which voyaging bottles alone can solve; and they, if sometimes
+eloquent of humanity's adventures, are invariably silent as to their
+own.
+
+The skins of the sea-lion and seals had vanished. Indeed, a very close
+search of a three-mile semi-circular beach, conducted for reasons which
+shall presently appear, yielded no trace of them.
+
+There was a dramatic fitness in thus reaching a land of plenty after
+enduring the horrors of the pass.
+
+"It's like a fairy tale," cried Nina joyously. "This is the enchanted
+realm, guarded by dragons which must be slain ere the prince can enter."
+
+"Gosh!" grinned Sturgess, "she's calling you a prince now, Alec. Say,
+Madge, can't you invent a name for me?"
+
+"Yes, you're the Ugly Duckling which grew into a Swan."
+
+"Huh! I'll think that over. Far be it from me, fair maid, to dispute
+your views as to my future plumage. Now, Alec, your turn. It's up to you
+to christen Nina."
+
+"Cinderella, maid of all work," said Maseden promptly. "So, let's get
+busy, the lot of us. Girls, you'll probably find an oyster-bed on that
+reef over there. Sturgess and I will hunt for water, and bring you a
+bottleful. Then we must set to work and build a shack above high-water
+mark before night. We're going to stop here and launch a more navigable
+craft next time."
+
+"Your highness has forgotten one thing," said Nina, with sudden gravity.
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"It is still Sunday."
+
+With one accord they dropped to their knees and thanked Providence for
+the mercy which had been shown them. Such prayers are the spontaneous
+tribute of the overflowing heart. They are not to be uttered aloud or
+recorded in the written word.
+
+The men had no difficulty in locating a stream, owing to the "creek," as
+Madge had phrased it, which marked the approach of each torrent to the
+sea. Here, too, were oysters in abundance. Whether or not the bivalves
+liked a certain admixture of fresh water and brine, their enthusiastic
+admirers did not know; but certainly the best-stocked beds were
+invariably situated near the mouth of a mountain stream.
+
+With a plentiful supply of shaped planks, cordage, even rusty nails,
+they soon knocked together a low hut, not more than breast high, and
+closed at one end. The ship's flag curtained off the inner section,
+which was allotted to the two girls, while the men could sleep, on
+guard, as it were, in the outer part.
+
+As night came on they started a fire and cooked two birds of the penguin
+type, which allowed themselves to be chased and captured. The flesh was
+tough and none too well flavored, but the feasters were not hard to
+please. When the repast was ended, and they sat on piles of soft sand
+looking out over the darkening expanse of waters, for the tide was high
+again, Maseden electrified Sturgess by saying:
+
+"Do you smoke, C. K.?"
+
+"Does a duck swim?" was the prompt reply.
+
+Maseden produced from his coat pocket a pipe and tin of tobacco.
+
+The other eyed them with downright amazement.
+
+"Well, can you beat it?" he cried. "What else have you got in your
+pocket, old scout? A bottle of rye whisky and a box of chocolates for
+the girls, or what?"
+
+"I've reached the end of my resources now," laughed Maseden. "I resolved
+to keep this small stock of tobacco till the time came when we might
+regard half our troubles as ended. I think we've reached that stage
+to-night. After this morning's escape I shall never again lose hope
+until the light goes out forever."
+
+"Oh, please, don't put it that way," said Nina.
+
+"I mean it as an optimist," he exclaimed. "If I have to swim in the open
+sea, or am buried under a landslide, I shall still believe, while my
+senses last, that Providence will see me through. Do you know why? You
+might supply many good reasons, but not _the_ reason. Ten minutes after
+we climbed under that overhanging rock, it fell. I happened to look
+back, and saw it collapse. None of us heard the crash, because we were
+close to a rather noisy rapid at the moment. But I actually saw the
+thing happen."
+
+"Why didn't you tell us at the time?" inquired Madge.
+
+"I thought our nervous systems, collectively, had borne enough strain
+just then.... Here you are, C. K. I give you first turn with the pipe."
+
+"Not on your life!" vowed Sturgess, flaming into volcanic energy. "If I
+never smoke again, I'll not touch that pipe until you've gone right
+through a packed bowl-full."
+
+Maseden knew that his friend meant what he said, so filled and lighted
+the pipe immediately.
+
+"It's a moot point," he commented philosophically, "whether you don't
+enjoy smoking more in anticipation than I in actuality. I haven't smoked
+now during sixteen days, and I believe I could give it up for sixteen
+years if need be."
+
+"Good gracious!" tittered Madge. "Poor C. K. will have only two years of
+his beloved New York."
+
+It was a subtle thrust. Sturgess himself was the first to see its point.
+
+"Gosh!" he said. "S'pose we four had to live here straight on for
+sixteen years!"
+
+Nina Forbes seemed to have a keener sense of the dangerous trend of
+such careless talk than her sister.
+
+"I do wish you two wouldn't babble," she broke in sharply. "Alec is
+simply chock full of information. I can see it in his calculating eye.
+For instance--"
+
+Maseden took the cue readily.
+
+"For instance," he said. "This inland lagoon explains the rush of the
+tide this morning. The greater part of the water which runs through the
+pass never goes back. It floods this immense area, is held up by the
+tide from the south, but goes out that way, because, by some irregular
+tidal action, the ebb begins in that direction. Therefore, an ideal
+backwash is set up, which accounts for all the wreckage strewed on the
+beach. Parts of ships which were lost a century ago will be stored here.
+The place is a maritime museum."
+
+"We may find a whole ship," exclaimed Madge.
+
+"What? After coming through the hell-gate we have left behind?"
+
+"The bottle came through," she persisted.
+
+"Though it's a black bottle it must have been white with fear many a
+score of times. Have you noticed the way in which the logs of our own
+raft were battered and bruised?... No, the way in was vile, and, I had
+better warn you now, the way out may be worse."
+
+"Oh, why?" cried both girls.
+
+"Because of the absence of Indians. Consider what an ideal site
+this would be for a colony of savages. Plenty of fish, birds and
+oysters--sand--even a few level strips which might be cultivated--if
+the South American Indian ever does till the land. The logic of the
+situation is clear. Our refuge is inaccessible. That is just the
+difference between romance and reality. In the fairy tale, once you slay
+the dragons guarding the enchanted palace the remainder is a compound of
+nectar and kisses. In real life, having stormed the fortress, you find
+yourself besieged."
+
+None disputed his conclusions. They were learning to think like him,
+and each had been struck by the virgin solitude of this land-locked
+sea-lake, which must compare favorably with the most fertile and
+exceedingly scarce localities of the kind in an area of many scores
+of thousands of square miles.
+
+"Anyhow, while you finish your pipe, it's up to me to fix the fire,"
+said Sturgess blithely, leaping to his feet, and beginning to arrange a
+number of big flat stones around and above a pile of glowing charcoal
+in such wise that rain could not extinguish it, and a few twigs placed
+among the embers next morning would quickly burst into a blaze.
+
+They had taught themselves these minor aids to comfort. Madge had
+constructed a very creditable field oven, and Nina, with a bit of
+sharpened wire and a supply of dried sinews, could sew a skin as a
+cobbler stitches the sole on to a boot. Physically all four were in
+splendid condition, so it was a sheer impossibility that they should
+remain downcast in spirit. Maseden knew that quite well when he recited
+the trials they must yet face and conquer. He addressed them as
+co-workers, not as pampered young people who must be humored into
+putting forth the necessary efforts if they would win through finally.
+
+They slept that night as soundly as though the morning's tribulation
+was something they had read in a book. Rain pounded on their shelter,
+but it was roofed with pine branches above the planks, and not a drop
+entered. They awoke into a world of blue sky and sunshine, and, after
+breakfasting on oysters, cold fowl, and good water, spent an idle hour
+in watching the tidal race from the north.
+
+Then, after tending the fire, they set off on a tour of the shore,
+meaning to note every scrap of wreckage which might be of value.
+Moreover, Maseden was specially anxious to have a peep at the southern
+exit.
+
+And thus they made the great discovery.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE SIMPLE LIFE
+
+
+Who found the boat? The question has not been answered to this day. Four
+people held and vehemently expressed different opinions; if they had not
+agreed ultimately to pool the credit, the foundations of six very firm
+friendships might have been endangered, because even the sisters were at
+logger-heads on the point.
+
+No one could dispute the fact that it was Nina Forbes who, with
+outstretched hand and pointing finger, exclaimed dramatically:
+
+"What is that?"
+
+But the other three yielded her no prior right on that account. Were
+they not all looking at it, and thinking that which Nina said?
+
+Each could establish a most reasonable claim if the matter were
+adjudicated by a prize court. Firstly, Maseden had ordered a close
+survey of the coast, and, if this very proper precaution had not been
+taken, the boat would be rotting yet on an uncharted beach. Secondly, if
+Sturgess had not slipped on a rock and scarified his chin rather badly
+there would, thirdly, have been no need for Madge to suggest that he
+should wash the wound in fresh water, and even insist that this should
+be done.
+
+Lastly, there was Nina, who literally demanded an explanation of a long,
+low strip of taut canvas visible above a small sand hill on which tufts
+of coarse grass were struggling for life.
+
+The simplest way out of the difficulty was to admit that sheer,
+unadulterated good luck brought about an incident which probably changed
+the whole course of events, though a white and shining patch of skin on
+Sturgess's left leg testifies to this day that his accident was
+primarily responsible for it.
+
+Two fair-sized streams ran from the hills into the straits on that side.
+Near the first was pitched the camp. Well hidden near the second was the
+boat.
+
+Now, these rivulets, though fairly deep and swift, were not torrents;
+that is to say, they drained a watershed by no means so steep as Hanover
+Island. Their volume was more regular, inasmuch as they were not wholly
+the outcome of the latest downpour of rain. To avoid the necessity of
+fording them, one had to walk a long way seaward until their waters
+began to spread over the reef in a hundred little runnels, and one could
+leap from rock to rock.
+
+Indeed, it was while Sturgess was so doing that he barked his shin, a
+most painful if not dangerous operation; in this instance, it evoked
+language which the girls pretended not to hear.
+
+Having crossed the stream, however, Madge examined the damage, and would
+have it that the sufferer take off his boot and sock, and forthwith lave
+the wound in fresh water.
+
+What he really wanted to do was to wander away out of earshot and
+relieve his feelings by the spoken word. He obeyed, however, and all
+four went up the right bank (which, as Sturgess and Madge jointly cited
+in their contention, they certainly would not have done otherwise) to a
+point where the river was free of salt-water.
+
+In the result, curiously enough, Sturgess's excoriated wound was left
+absolutely to its own devices. Both he and Madge, not to mention the
+other two, were startled out of any further thought of such a minor
+casualty by coming full tilt on to a ship's boat, trimly sheeted in gray
+canvas, dry-docked, one might say, behind a sandhill.
+
+After an incredulous stare, Maseden answered Nina's eager question.
+
+"It is one of the life-boats of the _Southern Cross_," he said, and his
+voice was hushed, almost reverent. "There is her number, with the ship's
+name. She was carried on the starboard side, just behind the forward
+rail on the promenade deck. I used to look up at her and admire her
+lines."
+
+By this time they had raced up alongside the craft. She appeared to be
+undamaged. Maseden unlaced a portion of the canvas cover. She was dry
+as a bone inside.
+
+"Say, Alec, d'you know that every boat was stocked with provisions and
+water for twenty people for fourteen days? I heard the captain give the
+order."
+
+Sturgess was so excited that he almost yelped the words.
+
+"I saw the stewards putting the stuff on board," said Maseden.
+
+"There's tea, and coffee, and condensed milk, and butter, and tins of
+meat and jam," cried Nina.
+
+"And ship's biscuits, and a spirit stove, and matches, and barrels of
+water," chimed in Madge.
+
+Maseden was tapping the planks and peering at so much of the keel as
+was visible, but he could find no sign of injury. The smart white paint
+had been badly scraped amidships and in the bows, but the wood was
+not splintered. To the best of his belief the craft was thoroughly
+seaworthy. She carried her full complement of oars, a mast, and lugsail.
+In fact, she was almost in the exact condition in which she had left the
+ship.
+
+Two pulleys and a part of a broken davit showed how she had been
+wrenched bodily from her berth and flung into the sea by the first great
+wave that crashed over the _Southern_ _Cross_ when the steamship swung
+broadside on to the reef under the pull of the aft anchor.
+
+"Come along, everybody!" shouted Maseden, and the ring of triumph in his
+voice revealed the depth of his feelings. "We start building a new camp
+at once. Within less than a fortnight the spring tides which brought her
+here will be with us again, and we must be ready for them."
+
+"Can't we launch her on rollers?" demanded Sturgess.
+
+"I doubt it. She was docked here by a backwash which does not occur very
+often, judging by the herbage growing among the sand. She is a heavy
+craft, too. I don't think the four of us could move her. We'll have
+rollers in readiness, of course, but we must cut a channel for the tide,
+and so make sure of floating her.... By Jove! _What_ a piece of luck!"
+
+It took them an hour or more to sober down. For once, Maseden's orders
+were tacitly ignored, even by himself. Instead of helping in the
+construction of another hut the girls were busy with the lashings of the
+canvas cover. Every true woman has the instinct of the good housewife,
+and these two could not rest content until they had examined and
+classified the stores.
+
+None of them could resist the temptation of a bottle of coffee extract,
+some condensed milk and a tin of biscuits. The spirit-stove was
+lighted, some water boiled and they drank hot coffee and ate wheat for
+the first time in seventeen days.
+
+Their greatest surprise was the quantity and variety of stores on board.
+There were knives and forks, enameled plates and cups, even such minor
+requisites as salt, pepper and mustard.
+
+Of course, the chief steward of the _Southern Cross_ had been given many
+hours in which to make preparations. Being a resourceful man, when the
+lockers were packed with their regulation supplies he stuffed "extras"
+into odd corners.
+
+Poor fellow! The pity was that an adverse fate had denied him any
+benefit from his own foresight.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Although the castaways entered with good heart upon their second
+campaign against the forces of nature, the immense advantages now
+enjoyed as compared with their condition on Hanover Island did not blind
+them to the difficulties yet to be faced and conquered ere the haunts of
+civilized man might be reached. There was no gainsaying the cogency of
+Maseden's logic; the absence of aborigines from a spot so favored as
+Rotunda Bay (the name allotted to their new location), supplied positive
+proof of the impracticable nature of all approaches by sea.
+
+How far the barriers might extend they had no means of knowing. They
+could guess how forbidding they were from the character of the northerly
+channel, and it was easy to believe that one such dangerous passage
+alone would not have deterred tribesmen accustomed to navigate these
+perilous waters.
+
+So, in the intervals of labor, they gave close heed to the tides and
+their action. For instance, Maseden would knock together a small raft,
+launch it at high water and watch its subsequent course. He found, at
+first, that it stranded invariably. Then he took it to the tiny estuary
+of the second river, waited until the ebb was well established, and let
+it swing out with the current.
+
+This time, as he anticipated, it was carried swiftly southward, and was
+seen no more, thus confirming his belief that the rise and fall of the
+tide set up a circular movement of an immense body of water always
+tending in the same southerly direction, retarded during the flow, with
+resultant acceleration during the ebb.
+
+One day, when observation farther afield was desired, they all four set
+off soon after dawn, and were close to the southern narrows at high
+water. Then, as the shore gradually became practicable, they followed
+the receding tide until farther advance became dangerous. Seen from a
+distance, one of the cliffs offered a not impossible climb, and closer
+inspection showed that, by hard work, and some roping, they could reach
+the summit.
+
+The girls, who had positively refused to be left "at home," were now
+equally determined to make the ascent. The soles of their light boots
+had long since given out, but each and all now wore moccasins of
+sealskin, and very serviceable and comfortable footgear these proved,
+being impervious to the jars of the roughest rock surface, and most
+excellent for climbing.
+
+After an hour's hard work they stood on a narrow saddle overlooking
+a seaward precipice, and the vista before their eyes was at once
+awe-inspiring and disheartening. Mile after mile, nothing but broken
+water met the eye. The reefs were countless. In fact, the resistance
+they offered to the incoming tide direct from the Pacific was such that,
+in all likelihood, it accounted for the delay which set up the
+extraordinary race past Hell Gate.
+
+Even Sturgess was upset by the far-flung chaos. A strong wind was
+blowing up there, and he sank his voice in the hope that his words
+would reach Maseden only.
+
+"Rotten!" he said. "It would knock the stuffing out of a brass dog."
+
+"No secrets, please," cried Madge promptly. "What did you say, C. K.?
+Are you telling Alec that there is no way out?"
+
+"Yep," was the disconsolate reply.
+
+"We have not quite determined that fact yet," said Maseden coolly.
+"Having done a stiff climb, suppose we get our money's worth, and sit
+down? Never mind the unpleasant prospect in front. Let's keep a sharp
+look-out for a log traveling in mid-stream, and watch it as long as
+possible."
+
+Nina, who was endowed with excellent good sight, was the first to detect
+a nearly submerged tree-trunk bobbing about in the channel, nearly a
+mile distant. The atmosphere happened, however, to be unusually clear
+that day, so they could follow the progress of the derelict for another
+mile or more. As soon as it emerged from the actual channel between the
+two headlands, it swung away to the left, or eastward, and kept on that
+course until lost in the waste of waters.
+
+Maseden whistled in sheer vexation when he gave up the attempt to follow
+this floating index any longer.
+
+"What is it now, son?" inquired Sturgess.
+
+"The worst," snapped the other vindictively.
+
+"Great Scott! Didn't you like the look of that log. I thought it
+lolloped along in a devil-may-care style that was rather attractive."
+
+"But it turned towards the land, and not towards the sea."
+
+"I guess that's so."
+
+"And doesn't that convey any meaning to you?"
+
+"Sure. The tides hereabouts go all ways for Sundays. Before that thing
+reaches Nelson Straits it has to round the eastern end of the island
+opposite.... Yes, yes, Alec. You've wised me up on heaps of things
+I didn't give a hooraw in Hades for at one time. I can tell the time
+by the sun, skin an eel, or a seal, or a teal, open oysters like
+a bar-keep, and read an eddy like a Mississippi pilot. And, to my
+reckoning, our boat, or any boat, has as much chance of winning through
+that proposition out there as a lump of butter in a fiery furnace. I
+never did hold very strongly by that story about Shadrack, Mesack and
+Abednego. I've a notion we haven't got the complete facts. One day in
+Pittsburg--"
+
+"Silence, please, for the passing of the next log, which happens to be
+a boat!"
+
+Nina's voice rang out clearly. She well knew the astounding significance
+of the words, but the daily round of hardship and adventure were molding
+her character on new and stronger lines. She was not, nor ever could be
+again, the somewhat conventional young lady who had sailed from San Juan
+little more than a month ago. She could face now, with an unflinching
+and critical eye, perils which then would have blanched her cheek and
+set the blood pulsing in her veins.
+
+Even her sister, who had not made out the object to which Nina had
+called attention, put an alarming question quite calmly.
+
+"A boat!" she cried. "Oh, Nina, not _our_ boat?"
+
+So many seemingly impossible things had occurred that the stout
+life-boat they left tied securely in a small dock which was flooded
+by each tide might conceivably have broken loose.
+
+"No," came the reassuring answer. "Not our boat. It looks like one of
+the native coracles Alec has told us of. But it is empty. At any rate,
+there is no one sitting upright in it."
+
+By this time the others had seen the craft, which she was the first to
+detect. In their anxiety and excitement they stood up, one by one, as
+though the couple of feet thus gained would give a better view-point.
+There could not be the least doubt that they were looking at a
+roughly-fashioned but distinctly seaworthy boat, which danced along on
+the crest of a rapid current, and whirled around, as though in sport,
+when some black rock thrust its obstructing fangs into the tide-way.
+Apparently, it was traveling quite safely.
+
+Then, as if to give them a really useful object lesson, it was caught
+between two rocks and turned clean over. A second somersault righted
+it, and, like the log, it sped away to the east.
+
+Maseden brought back the dazed and troubled wits of his companions to
+the particular business in hand.
+
+"See that you are properly roped," he said. "We're heading for camp, as
+quickly as we can get there. Don't hurry over the first part of the
+descent, however. There are two bad places on the rock face."
+
+They reached the shore safely, unroped, and set off to walk three hard
+miles in record time. As they neared their refuge they saw the boat, now
+aground in its tiny canal. Near at hand were the white embers of their
+fire, which would soon be ablaze when fresh logs were added. Some
+washing, stretched on a line, lent a strangely domestic touch to the
+encampment.
+
+But the one profoundly relieving fact was self-evident. No party of
+marauding Indians had swooped down on their ark and its stores. Wherever
+the derelict boat had come from, its occupants were not to be seen in
+any part of Rotunda Bay. As Maseden put it tersely:
+
+"We found it hard enough to get here. Others seemed to have tried and
+failed."
+
+Still he and Sturgess decided to mount guard that night. The girls were
+not supposed to know of this new arrangement, until Maseden was about
+to awaken Sturgess for his second spell of sentry-go. Then Nina emerged
+from the rear portion of the shack.
+
+"Lend me your watch, Alec," she said pleasantly. "I'll take these
+two hours.... No, you mustn't argue, there's a dear--fellow--"
+the concluding word was added rather hurriedly, being an obvious
+afterthought. "I'll call Madge next, and it will be broad daylight
+by the time her spell is ended."
+
+"I'm not sleepy," he murmured, sinking his voice so as not to disturb
+the others. "I was only going to rouse C. K. because he will be annoyed
+if I don't stick to schedule."
+
+"I haven't slept at all," the girl confessed. "If you're not going to
+rest, let us talk. Or, perhaps, that is not quite the right thing to
+do."
+
+"Not if there was any real fear of an attack," said Maseden, leading her
+to the small sand hillock near the boat. "I am convinced we are safe
+enough, but I should never forgive myself if the camp were rushed owing
+to our negligence.... Sit here. The tide is rising. We can distinguish
+the water-line, and remain unseen ourselves. Of course, we should speak
+hardly above a whisper."
+
+Some inequality in the sloping surface brought them rather close
+together when they sat down. Nina moved, with a little laugh of
+apology. Her action was quite involuntary, but it nettled Maseden.
+
+"I don't want to flirt with you, if that is what you are afraid of," he
+grunted. "In present conditions spooning would be rather absurd. Not
+that my particular sort of marriage tie would restrain me. Don't think
+it. Enforced obedience of that sort is foreign to my nature."
+
+"I gather that you really want to quarrel with me," was the glib answer.
+
+Of course, any woman of average wit could have put a man in the wrong at
+once with equal readiness though given a far less vulnerable opening,
+but Maseden realized his blunder and drew back.
+
+"A too strenuous life seems to have spoiled my temper," he said. "I used
+to be regarded as a somewhat easy-going person."
+
+"Probably that was because you had things all your own way."
+
+"You may be right. A man is the poorest judge of his own virtues or
+faults. For instance, I have always prided myself on a certain quality
+of quick decision, once my mind was made up. But of late I find myself
+lacking even in that respect."
+
+"Isn't it possible you are not actually sure of your own mind?"
+
+"Shall I submit the case to you?"
+
+"Would that be wise? I would remind you of your own phrase--in present
+conditions."
+
+"But I think you ought to know," he persisted. "Weeks ago, on the day
+you shot the sea-lion, in fact, C. K. told me he meant to marry Madge,
+if the lady is willing, that is. The statement startled me, to put it
+mildly. I rather scoffed at it, which nettled him, naturally. I was on
+the point of acquainting him with the facts, but was stopped by the
+gun-shot. Since then he has never mentioned the matter again, and I have
+been averse from pulling it in by the scruff of the neck--"
+
+"Why do so now?" put in the girl quickly.
+
+He could not see her face, but the note of alarm in her voice was not
+even disguised.
+
+"Because, day by day, I see more and more clearly that our friend's love
+of your sister is a very real thing. I see, too, or think that I see, a
+response on her part. From a common sense point of view, what else could
+one expect? Two young people, each eminently agreeable, are thrown
+together by fate in circumstances of great and continuous personal
+danger. The artificial intercourse of civilized life is impossible from
+the outset. They see each other as they really are. Each has to depend
+on real characteristics, not on shams. Can one imagine a more ideal
+method of choosing one's future partner than those in which we have
+lived during the past month?"
+
+This was what lawyers call a leading question, and Nina shied at it
+instantly.
+
+"Everything you have said may be true, Alec," she said, "but you have
+advanced no reason whatever for disturbing our pleasant relations.
+Surely all these problems may be allowed to settle themselves when, if
+ever, we re-enter the everyday world?"
+
+"That is just my difficulty," continued Maseden doggedly; he was
+resolved now to have an irritating hindrance to pleasant relations
+settled once and for all. "Is it fair to Sturgess to let him believe
+there is no bar to his wooing? Of course, my marriage was a farce, and
+can be dismissed as such. But what will C. K. think, what will he say,
+when he hears of it? Won't our silence--yes, _our_ silence--you cannot
+shirk a part of the responsibility--be open to misinterpretation? May it
+not bring about the very catastrophe we want to avoid?"
+
+"I really don't understand," said the girl in a frightened way.
+
+"Then I must make my meaning clear, even though it hurts," he said
+determinedly. "If I tell Sturgess now about the Cartagena ceremony,
+though rather late in the day, it is not too late; whereas, if I wait
+till we reach New York, how astounded and mystified he will be by the
+legal process which I must set on foot to secure your sister's freedom
+and my own! Why, the result might be tragic. If C. K. knows now, he can,
+if he chooses, seek from Madge an explanation of the whole mad business.
+She may give or withhold it--that is for her to decide. But at least we
+shall all be acting squarely and above-board. I put it to you strongly,
+for the sake of each one of us, that Sturgess should be told the whole
+truth."
+
+For a little while there was silence. Nina seemed to be weighing the
+pros and cons of the matter with much care.
+
+"I think you are right," she said at last. "I differ from you only in a
+small but--to a woman--very important particular. Madge, not you, should
+tell C. K. what happened in Cartagena. It is her privilege. It will come
+better from her. In the morning, when opportunity offers, she and I will
+talk things over. I am sure I can persuade her as to the course she
+should adopt.
+
+"Leave it to me, Alec. Before to-morrow evening C. K. shall have heard
+the full story of that unfortunate marriage. He will tell you so
+himself. After that, I suppose, your troubled conscience will be at
+rest, and the matter need not be discussed further until it comes before
+the courts."
+
+"I seem to have annoyed you pretty badly by raising the point now," said
+Maseden.
+
+"No, indeed! It is not so. In a sense, I am glad. My sister and I are
+very dear to one another, Alec, and no one likes to parade the family
+skeleton, even in such a remote place as Rotunda Bay."
+
+Maseden felt that he had bungled the whole business rather badly, but he
+saw no advantage in leaving anything unsaid.
+
+"What I cannot make out," he muttered savagely, "is how I ever came to
+regard you and Madge as being so much alike. Of course, you resemble
+each other physically, but in temperament you are wide apart as the
+poles."
+
+"Dear me! This is really interesting. In what respects do we differ?"
+
+"Madge is emotional, you are self-contained. She would have cried had I
+spoken to her about you as I have spoken of her to you, but you survey
+the problem coolly, and solve it, probably on the best lines. Sometimes,
+you puzzle, at others, vex me. You are ready and willing to confide in
+Sturgess, but refuse me your confidence. I find Madge easy to read; you
+remain an enigma. I believe you would almost die rather than enlighten
+me as to the true history of my marriage."
+
+"Oh, bother your marriage! Can't you talk of something else?"
+
+"I am prepared to talk about you during the next hour."
+
+"How boring for both of us."
+
+"Only a minute ago you welcomed my efforts as an analyst."
+
+"I was mistook, as the children say. These personal matters seem
+ineffably stupid when one sees the dawn appearing over the walls of our
+prison. We may never get away from here, or lose our lives in the
+attempt. It will be of very small significance then as to why a
+sorely-tried girl agreed to marry a man she had never seen, and who was
+under sentence to die before the ink was dry in the register.... Still,
+Alec, I'm pleased we have had such a candid discussion. I have come
+round to your point of view, too. It is _not_ fair to C. K. to keep him
+in the dark. To-morrow, as ever is, if you don't work us so hard that we
+have no time for chatter, I promise you that Madge shall tell him
+everything."
+
+"And me nothing?"
+
+"That is implied in the bargain, is it not? Does it really concern you?
+You were speaking for C. K., not for yourself.... Oh, no, we're not
+going to re-open the argument. Just let matters remain where they are,
+please. I want you to satisfy a woman's curiosity on a matter of more
+immediate importance. When do you purpose leaving here? Shouldn't we
+start soon? At this season we have fine weather of a sort. Don't we
+incur a good deal of risk by each week of delay?"
+
+"Hullo, you two!" came a cherry voice. "A nice bunco game you've played
+on me! There was I, snoring like a hog, while you were spooning under
+the stars. Wise Alec and Naughty Nina! But wait till I tell your poor
+deluded sister. A whole tribe of Indians could have crept up and
+tomahawked you where you sat."
+
+They started apart, almost guiltily. Each shared the same thought. How
+much, or how little, had Sturgess heard?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE DOWRY
+
+
+Both Maseden and Nina looked and felt like tongued-tied children, and
+Sturgess was not slow to note their confusion.
+
+"Gee, if there was an orchard anywhere around, I'd think you two had
+been stealing apples," he cried. "Sorry, Nina, if I've butted in on a
+heart-to-heart talk, but it's not often I can josh our wise Alec, so I'm
+bound to take the few chances that come along."
+
+He little knew evidently how closely their talk had concerned him, and
+the fact that he had not overheard anything which would supply a clue to
+the topic under discussion was, in itself, a great relief.
+
+"Nina appeared when I was about to call you," said Maseden quietly. "She
+demanded her share of the watch, and as I was not inclined for sleep I
+remained on duty. Of course that is no excuse for an inattentive sentry.
+I propose that you shoot me straight off and imprison Nina for the
+remainder of her natural life."
+
+"I sentence the pair of you to rest until breakfast is ready. There's
+no appeal from the court. About, turn! Quick, march!"
+
+Nina hurried away. Maseden, thinking he would not be able to close an
+eye, followed her slowly, lay down, and was soon asleep.
+
+The boat's stores had revealed neither soap nor towels, so the early
+morning wash remained a primitive affair. A pool in the stream was set
+apart for the girls, while the men scrubbed among the rocks. Sturgess
+aroused Maseden a few minutes before breakfast was ready.
+
+"Come this way," he said, nodding in the direction of the boat. "I want
+to show you something."
+
+Maseden noticed that the other man's hands and moccasins were soiled
+with the whitish-brown deposit through which a channel for the boat had
+been delved. Then he saw that no small part of the said channel was
+blocked by the débris of a fresh excavation.
+
+Now, among the treasures on the boat were a couple of axes. Given an ax,
+some spice of ingenuity and a fair stock of patience, and any man can
+fashion an astonishing variety of useful articles. Singularly enough,
+Sturgess, who was gifted with the artist's sense of proportion, could
+hew a spade out of a plank more skillfully than Maseden, and he was
+inordinately proud of the achievement.
+
+"What the deuce have you been up to?" demanded Maseden at sight of so
+much misdirected industry.
+
+"You wouldn't guess in a week," was the complacent answer. "This morning
+I was standing around doing nothing, when, as the tide fell, I spotted a
+bulge in the right bank of our canal. I wondered what had caused it,
+after our trouble in lining the walls with stakes, so I nosed around
+with a shovel. Then I got all fussed up, and didn't care where I threw
+the dirt.... See what _I've_ found, old scout!"
+
+By this time they were in the trench, from which the tide had only
+recently receded. Sturgess's zeal had cleared away some two cubic yards
+of silt, and Maseden saw at once that a part of the hull of a small
+vessel of some sort had been laid bare. Moreover, a few blows with an ax
+had removed sufficient of the rotting timbers to give access to the
+hulk's interior.
+
+It was a most interesting find. An old-time craft had been brought to
+her last resting-place within a few feet of the spot where the _Southern
+Cross's_ life-boat was embedded. Evidently in the course of years she
+had sunk in the soft deposit, and probably formed a nucleus for a new
+sand-bank. At any rate, she was completely covered, and lay there keel
+uppermost.
+
+"Have you been inside?" said Maseden, eyeing the doorway broken by the
+ax.
+
+"You bet your life," said Sturgess.
+
+"Was the air foul?"
+
+"Fine. I guess the lime hereabouts attended to that. Anyhow, I carried
+in a blazing stick, and it burned all right."
+
+"Skeletons on board?"
+
+"Not a bone that I could see."
+
+"What are you keeping back, then? You can't humbug me, C. K. There's
+something on your chest. Get it off!"
+
+Sturgess craned his neck over the edge of the channel to make sure that
+neither of the girls was near.
+
+"From hints I've picked up now and then, when Madge felt she must either
+talk or bust, I've come to the conclusion that old man Gray's death
+means poverty to that small bunch," he said. "Now, _I'm_ pretty well
+fixed, and I guess _you'll_ never be hard pushed to buy a food ticket,
+so I want your brainy assistance to arrange things for the girls'
+benefit. See? It should--kind of--make matters easy--when it comes to a
+show-down."
+
+"What have you come across? Spanish treasure?"
+
+Maseden peered into the dimly lighted interior of the wreck. Apparently
+the inverted deck was about four feet below the level of the opening,
+and Sturgess had broken into the after part of the hull.
+
+"Let me go ahead and pass out the boodle," said Sturgess. "I found it
+in a wooden box, which is clamped with iron, but it has nearly fallen to
+pieces."
+
+He lowered himself to what had been the ceiling of a cabin, and moved
+cautiously among a litter of rotting wood, evidently the furniture which
+had once rendered the tiny apartment habitable. He came back with laden
+hands, and passed out a curiously shaped jug, or flagon.
+
+Maseden examined it critically.
+
+"By Jove!" he cried; "this is Aztec work, and hammered out of solid
+gold!"
+
+"There's five more of the same sort," said Sturgess, in a voice cracked
+with excitement. "And _this_ strikes me as something worth while."
+
+He produced a crudely modeled figure of a puma, the body in silver and
+the head, feet, and tail in gold. The eyes and claws were of polished
+quartz, and were bright as when the ornament left the hands of the
+Mexican lapidary who fashioned it. The metals, of course, were
+tarnished, the silver being black with age, but both men realized that
+they were gazing at a splendid specimen of a long-forgotten art.
+
+"How much of this sort of stuff is there?" said Maseden, his imagination
+running riot as to the possible history of this unrecorded argosy.
+
+"Twelve pieces altogether," chuckled Sturgess. "Six gold pitchers, four
+animals and two carved dishes, each of gold. I've rummaged around
+carefully, and that's the lot. For'ard of this section is a hold, and,
+from what I can make out, it was loaded with furs and cloth, but the
+cargo is all mussed up with salt and lime."
+
+"Show me one of the dishes."
+
+Sturgess brought forth an oval-shaped dish, made, like the vessels, of
+solid gold. On its broad rim were chased twelve weird-looking creatures
+which reminded Maseden of the signs of the Zodiac; in the sunken center
+appeared a very elaborate design consisting of four trees, a bird
+perched on the topmost branches of each. Long afterwards he learned that
+this cartoon represented, in Aztec picture-writing, the four famous
+chiefs who founded the Aztec dynasty.
+
+At any rate, he knew at the time that the hoard which Sturgess had
+discovered was of great archæological interest, apart from the intrinsic
+value of the precious metals, itself no small sum.
+
+"We ought to devote the necessary time to a thorough survey of the
+wreck," he said thoughtfully. "Meanwhile what have you at the back of
+your head about Nina and Madge? What did you mean by saying it would
+make matters easier?"
+
+"Well, suppose you and I agree to give 'em the proceeds of the sale,"
+and Sturgess handled one of the jugs lovingly. "There's sixty ounces of
+pure specie in this pretty thing alone, I'll bet. Then, if it dates away
+back, the price goes up like a rocket."
+
+Maseden knew that the really important part of his question had been
+avoided.
+
+"We must think it over," he said.
+
+"Think _what_ over?"
+
+Sturgess, whose face was on a level with Maseden's knees, scowled up at
+his friend with such an air of indignant surprise that the other man
+laughed.
+
+"I am not planning a daylight robbery of two fatherless orphans,"
+explained Maseden. "Our difficulty will be to persuade these two to
+accept their legitimate half share, let alone the whole of the plunder.
+Shan't we give them a hail, and let them see the pirate's _cache_ before
+breakfast? Because that is what it is. These things were stolen from
+some Aztec shrine."
+
+"Why Aztec?"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Peru is a far more likely place."
+
+"Yes, if these utensils were not of Mexican origin. The signs on the
+dishes are the animal-names used in the Aztec calendar."
+
+"Crushed again!" said Sturgess, clambering out of the wreck. "But say,
+professor, how did you ever manage to stow away those odds and ends of
+information? I'm your age, and not exactly a fool, but I never had time
+to read."
+
+"You never made time, you mean. If you had lived seven years on a
+solitary ranch you would be forced to buy books and read them. My
+inclination turned naturally to the records of the country I lived in.
+The stories of the Spanish invaders in Mexico to the north and Peru to
+the south were more romantic than any novel. You've heard of Captain
+Kidd, the buccaneer, of course, but I suppose you know nothing of the
+Welshman Henry Morgan, and his exploits on the Spanish Main?"
+
+"Not as much as would go on a dime in big type."
+
+"Well, Morgan would have made Kidd shine his boots if they had ever
+met."
+
+"Gee whiz! Hennery must have been _some_ Thug.... Hi, Madge. Where's
+Nina?"
+
+"You two ought to have been washed quarter of an hour ago," came Madge's
+wrathful cry. "I've been looking for you everywhere. Breakfast will be
+spoiled!"
+
+"Madge is quite right," said Maseden. "Breakfast is more important than
+loot. Eat first, and discuss the pile afterwards."
+
+This sound advice availed him or Sturgess little afterwards. Both girls
+were vexed that the discovery was kept from them even during that short
+space of half an hour. They were placated, however, by being allowed to
+share in the labor of clearing a sufficient area around and above the
+wreck to permit of its exact size being ascertained. It was only a small
+craft, the keel measuring some fifty feet in length, yet, as Maseden was
+careful to point out, the early navigators deemed such vessels large
+enough to cross the mighty Atlantic.
+
+When the tide rose, and the wreck was flooded again, it floated. This
+was foreseen, and the expectant watchers had a number of stout poles in
+readiness, with which they under-pinned the hull on one side. Thus it
+was rendered much easier of access later.
+
+Beyond a couple of beautifully carved and chased rapiers, the blades of
+which were largely protected by leather scabbards hardened by salt
+water, and a number of copper cooking utensils, they found nothing more
+of value. The cargo, which appeared to have been furs and mats of
+painted reeds, was wholly destroyed. The vessel had carried two masts,
+whose stumps, broken off short near the deck, seemed to indicate the
+mischance which had befallen her in the Pacific. There were no cannon or
+other arms of any sort in or under the wreck, but as she had surely come
+there by way of Providence Beach and Hell Gate, she had probably rolled
+over countless times during the journey.
+
+She was built of oak. The bluff bows and high-pitched forecastle and
+poop dated her as a product of the early seventeenth century. No trace
+of a name was discernible, but the bulwarks had been torn off. The
+absence of an elaborate figurehead was significant. She was a strongly
+constructed, but not highly finished little ship.
+
+As to her history or nationality, the only reliable tokens were the
+swords, which were Spanish, with Toledo blades. The copper cooking-pots
+were Mexican. In a word, she was ostensibly a trader, and Maseden
+believed that the iron-clamped box containing the treasure had been
+hidden beneath the floor of the cabin, because the planks were broken
+where the heavy package had apparently fallen through.
+
+One thing was certain. The similarity of the six flagons, the two dishes
+and the four animal figures showed that they came from an Aztec
+_teocalli_, or temple, of great wealth and importance. It was highly
+improbable that any town on the west coast of Mexico contained any such
+fame. If, therefore, they had been looted from the interior of the
+country, a reasonable assumption was that some band of Spanish
+adventurers, finding the way hopelessly blocked to the east, fought
+their way westward, and actually built the vessel which should convey
+them to far-off Cadiz.
+
+It was a strange hap that laid bare their plunder to the eyes of four
+descendants of the race which was destined to sweep them and their
+barbarous methods off the high seas.
+
+After a day of hard work and many thrills, Maseden was moved to accept
+the discovery as a good omen.
+
+"I had in my mind to suggest that we should renew our voyage by
+to-morrow's first tide," he said, as they sat near the camp-fire after
+the evening meal. "Just as the Romans consulted the oracle before
+starting on any great undertaking, so have we been given a happy augury
+by having thrust into our hands, so to speak, a notable treasure.
+Friends, I propose that we accept the decision of the gods, and weigh
+anchor in the morning."
+
+For no assignable reason, the suddenness of this resolve seemed to
+startle the others.
+
+"Have you made up your mind, then, that the channel is practicable?"
+inquired Sturgess after a marked pause.
+
+"The only channel we know is practicable," said Maseden.
+
+"Do you mean that we should return the way we came?" put in Nina in an
+awed tone.
+
+"It offers our only means of escape," was the grave answer. "To my mind,
+if we attempt the southern exit we go to certain death. We have a roomy
+boat, a sail, and oars. By putting off slightly before high water we can
+reach the mouth of the gorge just on the turn of the tide. I think we
+can get through without any real difficulty, and even beach our boat in
+the open and shallow channel of Hanover Island which we were making for
+when the raft was swept out of its course. We have discussed the tides
+many times, and we all believe that we shall find ourselves in the main
+tidal stream again on the other side of that island opposite," and he
+pointed to the mass of black hills outlined against the eastern sky. "It
+is only the 'lesser of two evils,' I admit, but it yields a possibility;
+whereas I regard any attempt to navigate the southern avenue as
+absolutely fatal."
+
+"Why the rush for the morning tide?" queried Sturgess.
+
+Then Maseden laughed.
+
+"You have fallen a victim to the prospecting mania," he said cheerfully.
+"Having made a good strike, you want to follow it up. I don't blame you.
+I believe this beach would pay well for digging. Before you were through
+with the search you would have a fine collection of odds and ends. But
+I'm minded to be superstitious for once. That puma with the glistening
+eyes has seemed to wink at me all day and say 'Get me and yourself out
+of this quick!' I don't want to impose my wishes on you others, but my
+advice is: Start to-morrow!"
+
+Madge, listening intently, nodded.
+
+"You are always right," she said emphatically. "'Whither thou goest, I
+will go; and where thou lodgest--'"
+
+She hesitated, as though conscious that her tongue was running away with
+her. The quotation, though apt, was peculiarly infelicitous. It did not
+please Sturgess; it reminded Maseden of an extraordinary relationship
+which he had tried in vain to ignore; it jarred on Nina Forbes's
+sensitiveness, because it recalled the promise she had made at dawn but
+had not had any opportunity of fulfilling.
+
+She it was who broke up the conclave abruptly by springing to her feet.
+
+"If we're going sailing the angry seas to-morrow, it's high time we were
+trying to sleep," she said. "Come, Madge.... By the way, is there to be
+any more guard-mounting to-night?"
+
+"Yes, and you have no concern therein," said Maseden firmly.
+
+"Who's keeping guard?" inquired Madge. "This is the first I've heard of
+it."
+
+"Alec has had an attack of the fidgets ever since he saw that empty
+coracle," said Nina. "But I'm the worst sort of sentry, anyhow, and you
+would be no better, dear, so let us snooze selfishly, and be ready to
+help the men in to-morrow's hard work."
+
+"I've never before known a verse from the Bible break up a meeting like
+that," commented Sturgess thoughtfully when the girls had gone.
+"Somebody might have heaved a tin of kerosene into the fire, the way
+Nina jumped up."
+
+"The words may have evoked distressing memories," said Maseden
+incautiously.
+
+"As how?"
+
+Sturgess's alert brain was very wide awake at that moment, but Maseden
+contrived to extricate himself.
+
+"That famous phrase of Ruth's contains the essence of an otherwise
+uninteresting Biblical story," he said. "If Ruth had not been so
+faithful to her mother-in-law we might never have heard of her."
+
+"Was Naomi her mother-in-law?"
+
+"Yes. Ruth, herself a widow, married Boaz."
+
+"I guess I was sort of mixed up about it."
+
+"Lots of people are," said Maseden dryly, and the subject dropped.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+They were astir early and, when the tide served, put off with as little
+ceremony as though they were going on a river picnic.
+
+The boat, of course, was far more easily managed than the raft. By
+keeping in the slack water inshore they contrived to reach the mouth of
+the gorge about the beginning of the ebb, and their calculations were
+completely verified by the smoothness and safety of their subsequent
+passage.
+
+Maseden stood in the bows with an oar in readiness to sheer away from
+any obstruction in mid-stream. The two girls each took an oar, and
+Sturgess steered, also with an oar, as the broad-bladed rudder ran a
+foot deeper than the keel, being intended to act as a center-board when
+the sail was in use.
+
+So preoccupied were they with their task that they hardly noticed the
+spot where the cliff had fallen away soon after they had passed beneath.
+Even the canopied rock on which they found sanctuary after the loss of
+the raft merely attracted a momentary glance. Madge, eyeing the fissure
+which had so terrified her, was about to say something when a warning
+shout from Maseden caused her to pull a few vigorous strokes.
+
+They sheered past a flat boulder. A couple of vultures, scared by the
+unwonted apparition of a boat, flapped aloft, and they all saw,
+stretched on the rock, some portions of a human skeleton which most
+certainly had not been there when they came that way little more than a
+fortnight earlier.
+
+The uncanny sight vanished as swiftly as it came. None spoke. The pace
+of the stream was quickening, and each had to be in instant readiness to
+obey orders.
+
+At this stage Maseden asked the girls to reverse their positions and
+pull steadily. In consequence they were backing water, and thus checking
+the boat's way appreciably. By this means they rounded an awkward corner
+without any trouble, and again their eyes dwelt on the towering hills
+and wooded slopes of Hanover Island.
+
+Maseden and Sturgess now began to press laterally towards the eastern
+channel. Two possible openings were abandoned because of the ugly reefs
+sighted only a couple of hundred yards away. At last, when practically
+in the center of a two-mile-wide passage between the three islands,
+Maseden saw a long stretch of open water.
+
+Shipping a pair of oars, and leaving the steering and general look-out
+to Sturgess, he called on the girls to pull in the orthodox way. The
+three bent to the task. After ten minutes of really strenuous effort
+they were sensible of a greatly diminished drag in the current. Five
+minutes later they were in slack water, and speedily thereafter the boat
+ran aground.
+
+"Hooray!" yelled Sturgess, who alone had any breath left to celebrate
+their victory. Somehow, little as they had gained in actual distance,
+since Providence Beach was only three miles away, they all felt that
+their chief enemy was conquered. They had profited by the initial
+mistake of keeping in mid-channel; they had learned a great deal about
+the tricks and changes of the Pacific tides; they had secured a
+first-rate boat, and, lodged in skins as a portion of the ballast, was a
+treasure of no mean proportions.
+
+Small wonder that they were elated, or that Maseden's strong face
+softened into a smile of satisfaction as he drove the boat's anchor
+securely into a crevice in the rocky beach.
+
+But he neither forgot the skeleton on the rock in Hell Gate nor failed
+to interpret correctly its sinister message, so it was his careful
+scrutiny that first revealed a figure lying on the shore at high-water
+mark about a quarter of a mile to the east. He surveyed it steadily for
+a while until the others, too, saw it. Then he made up his mind as to
+the only practicable course of action. He unhooked the anchor.
+
+"All hands overboard," he said quietly. "We must get the boat afloat."
+
+They obeyed instantly. The girls returned on board, their task being to
+steady the boat with the oars. Maseden took a cudgel, which he preferred
+to a sword, and hurried towards the prone figure. Sturgess followed,
+some fifty yards behind, with the rifle, his mission being to cover the
+retreat, if need be.
+
+Neither Nina nor Madge uttered a word. They were becoming hardened to
+danger. They knew full well that, for some unimaginable reason, a
+territory hitherto closed to Indians was now open to them, and Maseden
+had left his companions under no delusions as to the characteristics of
+the wretched tribes which infest the lower coast and islands of Chile.
+
+But the particular business of the women at the moment was to keep the
+boat in such a position that the men could jump in and shove off into
+deep water without delay, and they attended to that and nothing else.
+
+War makes soldiers, and the struggle for life had assuredly made these
+two girls brave women.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+RUNNING THE GANTLET
+
+
+Maseden was not greatly concerned about the dead Indian lying on the
+shore. What he really expected was a sudden rush of savages from an
+ambuscade, since it was now certain that a party of natives had
+descended on Hanover Island. Some might have escaped, but others had
+come to grief.
+
+The mere presence of a body showed that one, at least, must have died
+quite recently, while the bleaching bones passed in Hell Gate had
+probably been alive two days earlier. Some vultures were already
+circling high overhead, and he wondered why the birds had not begun
+their ghoulish task.
+
+He could not recollect what manner of sepulture the aborigines adopted,
+but, from every point of view, it was more than strange to find a corpse
+abandoned on the beach in such conditions, unless, indeed, some drowned
+man had just been cast up there by the receding tide.
+
+If that were so, why did the vultures wait?
+
+He was on the alert, therefore, for any suspicious movement among the
+nearest trees and tall grasses, and warned Sturgess to keep a sharp
+look-out in the same direction.
+
+"These natives are treacherous brutes," he said. "They may have seen
+that our boat was heading this way, and be simply waiting an opportunity
+to stick harpoons into us. Don't shoot actually on sight, but be ready
+to put a stopper on anything like an attack."
+
+The words had hardly left his lips when the body on the beach moved!
+Slowly and, as it seemed, painfully, the Indian raised head and
+shoulders, and turned in the direction of the voice, finally sitting up
+sideways and using the right arm as a support.
+
+Then, as Maseden drew near, he saw that this was not a man, but a woman,
+a woman so emaciated and feeble that the first astonished glance he took
+her to be middle-aged, whereas, in reality, she was not yet eighteen.
+She was stark naked, and he soon discovered that her left leg was
+broken.
+
+The unfortunate wretch had dragged herself to an oyster bed, as an array
+of freshly opened shells testified; but there was no great supply in
+that place; the water was too shallow. At any rate, Maseden had no other
+means of estimating how long she had been there; indeed, he gave little
+thought to that consideration, because the problem of what to do with
+her arose instantly.
+
+He argued, however, that the members of her tribe could not be close at
+hand, since the merest instinct of self-preservation would lead them to
+assist one of their number rendered helpless by an accident, though,
+among these wild folk, an old woman might be regarded as of no account.
+
+He spoke to her in Spanish, asking what had happened, and she appeared
+to have a vague sense of his meaning; but her eyes were glistening with
+terror and fever, and he could make nothing of a mumbled reply except a
+word that sounded like _humo_, "smoke." She showed extreme fear at sight
+of the gun carried by Sturgess. Holding out her left hand as if pleading
+for mercy, she collapsed with a groan.
+
+Sturgess, of course, was as fully aware as his companion of the
+difficulties raised by the discovery of this maimed creature.
+
+"Well, by way of a change, Alec, I guess we're up against a mighty tough
+proposition," he said, scratching his head in sheer perplexity.
+
+"We have only one course open, I take it," said Maseden, though he, like
+Sturgess, felt that they might well have been spared this additional
+burden.
+
+"That's so. But--are broken legs in your line?"
+
+"I have a notion that the bone-setter has to straighten and adjust the
+fracture by main force, and then bind the limb tightly, leaving the
+rest to nature. We have a spare oar. Chop the blade into two lengths of
+about fifteen inches, and get the girls to cut narrow strips out of the
+canvas cover. Bring me my oilskin, and what is left of the cover. We can
+carry her in that. Leave the rifle with me--and hurry! On no account
+must either Nina or Madge come away from the boat. Be sure and impress
+that on them. We may have to run for our lives any second."
+
+Sturgess soon returned with the improvised splints and bandages. He also
+brought a tin of beef essence which Madge had found among the boat's
+stores and was hoarding carefully for such Lucullian feast when soup
+would appear on the menu.
+
+When Maseden spoke of the remains of the canvas cover he had in mind the
+fact that the girls had fashioned the greater part of the coarse
+material into divided skirts. Seals were not plentiful in Rotunda Bay,
+and the devising of garments had become a sheer necessity.
+
+They persuaded the Indian girl to swallow some of the beef extract.
+After tasting the first mouthful she would have emptied the tin, but
+this Maseden would not permit, because he knew the ordeal that was
+coming.
+
+It was a tough job, too. In a sense, it almost proved more trying for
+the amateur surgeons than for their unfortunate patient. Luckily, she
+fainted at the first wrench. Then they set their teeth and pulled the
+broken bones into their correct positions as well as they could adjudge
+them. When the girl revived she was already clothed in the oilskin and
+slung in the canvas sheet as in a hammock, while the limb was bound
+immovably between two roughly fashioned splints.
+
+Maseden imagined that this creature of the wild was, in all probability,
+as hardy as a cormorant, and equally voracious. At any rate, when laid
+in the boat, she gobbled up the remaining contents of the tin, ate
+ravenously of ship's biscuits and salt beef, and drank a mug of coffee
+in a gulp. When she discovered that no more food would be supplied she
+yielded to an evidently overwhelming desire to sleep.
+
+Before closing her eyes, however, she had something to say. She was
+afraid of the men, but obviously placed trust in the two girls, neither
+of whom knew a syllable of Spanish beyond the few phrases which all
+travelers in South America must perforce acquire.
+
+Madge, having the gift of music, contrived to mimic certain words with
+tolerable accuracy, and "smoke," "boats," "bad men," seemed, to
+Maseden's ear, to emerge from the guttural Indian accents. In one
+important respect, the wishes of the new addition to the party were
+quite understandable. She pointed to Providence Beach, indicated the
+boat, and made it clear that she counselled a prompt move eastward.
+
+At last Maseden evolved a fairly intelligible notion of what she was
+endeavoring to convey. He believed, and rightly so, that she was telling
+her rescuers how a number of Indians had been attracted to Hanover
+Island by the smoke of the castaways' fire. They assumed a wreck, with
+its prospect of loot, and, egged on by greed, had ultimately dared a
+passage hitherto regarded as impracticable. Some had been killed; others
+had escaped, and were now on the camping-ground at Providence Beach.
+
+Apparently the girl was warning these strangers against her own people
+and recommending a speedy flight to safer quarters. Oddly enough, her
+advice coincided with Maseden's own views. By landing on that part of
+the coast, and lighting a fire, they would be incurring a grave risk if
+there were Indians about, since the few miles' strip of shore, difficult
+though it was, would be negotiated easily by natives.
+
+The abandonment of the injured girl he could not account for, nor was he
+sure the boat had been observed, granted even that Providence Beach was
+not actually occupied by savages. But he was not inclined to take any
+chances. Deep water flowed yet in the main channel, and the day was not
+far advanced.
+
+So he and Sturgess shipped the oars and pulled until they were weary;
+before night fell they had met the rising tide, and made a good landing,
+not on Hanover Island, but on the eastern end of Island Number Two.
+
+They slept in the boat as best they could, the men taking turns at
+mounting guard, as in addition to the now somewhat improbable chance of
+being attacked, their craft had to be maneuvered into slack water as the
+tide rose and fell. They were all heartily glad to see the dawn and eat
+a good meal.
+
+The very smell of food awakened the Indian girl. Like a healthy animal
+recovering from hardship, she was growing plumper and comelier under
+their very eyes. With each hour she shed a year in appearance, and her
+confidence increased in about the same ration.
+
+When she discovered that Maseden alone spoke Spanish she tried to
+explain matters to him. But her own knowledge of the language was of the
+slightest, and he was only able to confirm his overnight belief as to
+the danger of remaining in the vicinity of their first landing-place.
+
+Singularly his close acquaintance with the San Juan _patois_ proved most
+helpful. It occurred to him that this might be so, as the root words of
+Indian tribes throughout the South American continent have undergone
+fewer changes than would have been the case among civilized peoples.
+Many were in use among the Spanish half-castes on the ranch, and this
+aborigine grasped their meaning at once. Good linguist though he was,
+however, Maseden failed to extract more than a glimmering of sense from
+her uncouth accents.
+
+But none could fail to be impressed by her relief when the boat was
+afloat and traveling east. They soon quitted the channel between the
+islands and entered the wide expanse of Nelson Straits. The weather was
+fine, and a steady wind from the southwest encouraged Maseden to rig the
+sail.
+
+Having a wholesome respect for the Pacific tides, he meant to hug the
+coast of Hanover Island. But after studying the clouds intently for an
+hour, the Indian girl signified that she wished to be lifted in her
+hammock. She then pointed to some small islands just distinguishable on
+the horizon, and apparently situated in the middle of the straits.
+
+She saw the hesitancy in Maseden's face, and by this time had evidently
+singled him out as the leader of the party. Then she turned to Nina
+Forbes, and her gestures said as plainly, no doubt, as her words:
+
+"If _I_ can't persuade him, perhaps _you_ can. Tell him to take the
+course I recommend."
+
+For some reason Nina's cheeks grew scarlet under the brown tan of
+constant exposure to the weather, nor did a pronounced wink by Sturgess
+at Madge tend to restore her composure. But she met the Indian girl's
+appeal with seeming nonchalance and bravely ignored the obvious
+inference.
+
+"I suppose she thinks that I may exercise some influence in the matter,
+Alec," she said, striving in vain to suppress a nervous little laugh. "I
+do honestly believe she means well. She is extraordinarily grateful to
+us. I have been watching her, and there is a dog-like devotion in her
+eyes when we render any little service that is reassuring."
+
+"Those islets out there may be bare rocks," protested Maseden. He had
+little knowledge of sailing boats, and hesitated at a long trip in these
+fickle waters.
+
+"Perhaps that is why she wishes us to go that way. They lie due east,
+and that is something in their favor."
+
+Still was he dubious, largely owing to the intervening stretch of open
+sea, but again he essayed to question their would-be pilot.
+
+The girl was quite emphatic in her direction as to the course, and
+equally opposed to the more cautious method he favored. A good deal of
+this was expressed in pantomime, but it was none the less
+understandable.
+
+Finally, finding that the others had faith in her, Maseden nodded to
+Madge, who was at the tiller, as the rudder had been shipped when the
+sail was hoisted; and the boat was put across the wind. The Indian girl
+smiled, and was satisfied. They lifted her down to her place amidships,
+where her head rested on the package of treasure, and she remained there
+contentedly many hours.
+
+Long before the violet-hued blurs in front took definite shape as a
+group of two fair-sized islands, with trees, lying among a great many
+stark rocks, sticking straight up out of the sea, the voyagers became
+aware of at least one good reason for their guide's choice of direction.
+The coast of Hanover Island began to fall away sharply to the northeast,
+and a wide gap opened up between it and the nearest land, a gap which
+must have been crossed in any event.
+
+Maseden himself was the first to admit that they had been given sound
+advice.
+
+Luckily the wind remained steady, and brought their craft on at a fair
+pace against a falling tide. Nevertheless it was a long sail, far longer
+than any of them had anticipated, and the shadows were deepening when
+the men again lifted the Indian girl level with the gunwale to find out
+if she could recommend the safest way of approaching a particularly
+forbidding shore.
+
+She understood at once what they wanted, and indicated a narrow channel
+between two gigantic outlying rocks. Though it was precisely the one of
+three possible waterways which no stranger would have chosen, they did
+not dream now of disputing her judgment. The passage was made more
+easily than they had counted on, and a second time was their faith
+justified, because a strip of white beach soon showed on the line where
+trees and sea met.
+
+The boat was run ashore, and a fire was lighted. The weather had become
+much colder, probably owing to the absence of shelter from the hills
+under which they had camped during the past month. The Indian girl
+offered no objection to the fire. In fact, when laid near it in a sand
+hollow, she fell asleep long before any of them.
+
+The boat, of course, had to be safeguarded, as they landed at low water.
+Were it not for a fissure in the rock which permitted them to row fully
+a quarter of a mile nearer high-water mark than would have been possible
+otherwise, they must have devoted a wearisome time to the task of
+hauling her in as the tide rose. Fortunately, there was no heavy surf.
+The reefs they had seen some fifteen miles to the westward had broken up
+the long Pacific rollers, and the breeze was not strong enough to
+disturb this inland sea.
+
+Nina and Madge elected to sleep on the sand.
+
+"You can have too much of a good thing," explained Madge laughingly,
+"and, greatly as I prize our ark, I am tired of it to-day. Every bone in
+my body is aching."
+
+They had, of course, given up each skin and strip of canvas they
+possessed in order to render the Indian girl more comfortable during the
+voyage, and a ship's boat can be a most irksome conveyance in such
+circumstances.
+
+When the tide was high Sturgess and Maseden, before they, too, turned
+in, rose to make sure that the anchor could not drag during the night,
+and Sturgess electrified his friend by choosing that odd moment to
+allude to the Cartagena marriage.
+
+"Say, Alec," he said, "you sure have had the time of your life ever
+since you were hauled off to San Juan and sentenced to be shot."
+
+Maseden imagined that the New Yorker was merely referring to the
+incidents following the shipwreck.
+
+"I don't see exactly how life has been more of a sizzle for me than for
+you and the girls," he said.
+
+"Ah, come off it, Alec!" laughed the other. "You know better than that.
+But I guess I'll have to hand the explanation on a tray. Madge and Nina
+have told the facts about your wedding. Gosh! What a jolt it must have
+given you to find your wife on board the _Southern Cross_!"
+
+"You _know_?" gasped Maseden.
+
+"Yep. They up and told me while you were gathering fire-wood. Nina said
+she had promised you to put the full hand on the table at the first
+opportunity. She's done it."
+
+"Nina! Didn't Madge say anything?"
+
+"You bet your life. She was tickled to death. It's been worrying her no
+end."
+
+"May I ask--"
+
+"No, you mayn't. It was square of you, Alec, to insist that I should
+come in on the inside track. Of course, I wasn't born and bred in little
+old New York for nothing, and I had my doubts a while back. One day,
+too, you were within an ace of blurting out the whole yarn. I remember
+it well. I'm glad now you didn't. It would have made things kind of
+difficult for me. But both girls are a bit shy where you're concerned.
+You don't blame 'em, do you?"
+
+Maseden was absolutely bewildered. Sturgess was an irresponsible,
+devil-may-care fellow in many respects, but these effervescent qualities
+cloaked a fine sensibility, and it was astounding to find him treating
+the matter so lightly.
+
+"I--I hardly know what to say," he stammered.
+
+"Say nothing. The tangle will straighten out in time. We're going to win
+through all right, so let us forget the San Juan affair till it
+overtakes us. You ain't going to switch off from Nina on to Madge, I
+guess, so you and I won't quarrel, and the other kinks in the chain will
+sort themselves if we all go easy."
+
+"Tell me this. What was the cause of the marriage?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"You don't _know_?" Each word was a crescendo of astonishment.
+
+"No. What business is it of mine, anyhow?"
+
+"But you yourself have told me that you mean to marry Madge."
+
+"Sure as death."
+
+"Yet--"
+
+"Sorry, Alec. I've promised to keep mum. Suppose we leave it at that."
+
+"What is there to keep mum about?"
+
+"Hanged if _I_ can tell you, though you yourself haven't been what you
+might call bursting with information during the past month."
+
+"It was a woman's secret, C. K."
+
+"And that's just how I size it up at this sitting."
+
+Sturgess's logic was unanswerable, but Maseden was in high dudgeon as
+he strode back to the camp-fire. He was far more angry with Nina than
+with Madge. He suspected that Madge simply followed her sister's
+instructions, and the injustice of this steady refusal of confidence
+was aggravated by the fact that Sturgess seemed to know more about the
+ins and outs of the affair now than he did.
+
+True, the New Yorker said he was still in ignorance of the motive which
+led up to the marriage, yet he had hinted at the possession of knowledge
+withheld from the man who had saved their lives not once but a dozen
+times. Nina was to blame. Maseden was certain of that. He would have
+liked to shake her.
+
+As it happened, she was either sound asleep or pretending it, so he,
+too, curled up in the sand and slept till long after dawn.
+
+The new day began with an unexpected difficulty. The Indian girl was
+cheerful as a grig during breakfast. She ascertained their names, which
+she pronounced fairly well. "Nina" she had no trouble with. "Madge" she
+made into "Mad-je." Maseden was "Ah-lek," and Sturgess "See-ke." Her
+own name had a barbarous sound, if, indeed, it was a name at all; so
+Madge christened her "Topsy," which seemed to please her. But her
+light-heartedness vanished when she saw preparations being made to renew
+the voyage. She protested volubly, pointed to a colony of seals and
+well-filled beds of oysters, and generally implied an earnest desire to
+remain on the island.
+
+Eastward, it would appear, were other "bad men" and "much smoke," but,
+whatsoever her motive, Maseden sternly overruled her. She was greatly
+distressed when placed on board the boat, and sulked for a couple of
+hours. As the coast drew near, however, she evinced renewed anxiety, and
+signified that she would act as pilot again.
+
+The land seemed to be a replica of seaward islands; a fast-running tidal
+stream passed due east between two gaunt promontories. According to
+Maseden's reckoning the straits they were now entering should open into
+Smyth's Channel, and he bent his wits to the task of getting Topsy to
+understand that he wanted to meet one of the big ships which follow that
+route.
+
+He believed she understood, but there could be no doubting she was so
+deeply concerned as to the probable whereabouts of the inhabitants of
+the coast region that she gave little heed to the wishes of her
+rescuers.
+
+Oblivious of the pain she must be enduring, she contrived to
+perch herself in the bows, and scanned each bay and inlet of the
+ever-narrowing passage, though this was no subsidiary channel, but a
+deep and swift tide-way. The wind was strong and favorable and the boat
+was traveling fully eight knots an hour, a speed which no native craft
+could hope to rival. Still, Topsy's marked uneasiness led Maseden to
+examine the rifle and make sure that its mechanism was in good order
+and the magazine charged.
+
+He had no definite notion as to the type of weapons used by the Indians.
+Nearly all savages are armed with spears and clubs, but he believed
+that a people so low in the social scale as these South American nomads
+would not possess firearms. At any rate, he bade all hands keep a sharp
+look-out, and specifically ordered Sturgess and the girls to take cover
+in the event of an attack, unless an actual attempt was made to board
+the boat, in which case the girls could thrust with the rapiers and
+Sturgess might do good work with an ax.
+
+They ran on several miles without incident, and were beginning to think
+that their guide was, perhaps, swayed more by recollection of earlier
+sufferings than by any active peril of the hour, when Topsy, whose
+piercing black eyes were ever and anon turned to the bluffs on either
+hand, uttered a sharp cry and pointed to a low cliff overhanging a bay
+they had just passed on the left.
+
+Three thin columns of smoke were ascending from its summit.
+
+Maseden could make nothing of her excited speech, but he understood her
+gestures readily, and took it that the smoke was a signal, while the
+danger, whatever it may be, lay ahead.
+
+And, indeed, they had not long to wait for an explanation. From around
+a point not a mile distant, and directly in front, appeared a number of
+coracles, eight all told, and each containing two men, or a man and a
+woman. It was clear that this flotilla meant to waylay them, and the
+terror exhibited by the Indian girl was only too eloquent as to the fate
+of the boat's occupants if they allowed themselves to be overpowered.
+
+Maseden disposed his forces promptly. Sturgess was given the tiller.
+Topsy was put back on her couch in the bottom of the boat, and Nina and
+Madge were told to crouch by her side until their help was called for.
+From the outset the Americans did not dream of attempting to parley.
+Topsy's unfeigned dread was sufficient to ban any such quixotic notion.
+
+The coracles were strung out in an irregular line, covering a width of
+about four hundred yards, and, in laying his plans, Maseden recalled the
+strategy of a certain great admiral.
+
+"Head slap for their center," he told Sturgess confidently. "That
+was Nelson's favorite way of attack. If possible, he always broke
+the enemy's line in two, and I suppose it paid him. I think these
+heavy-caliber bullets will rip a native craft as though it were made
+of brown paper, and I should be able to sink at least four before
+the others can close in."
+
+Sturgess nodded.
+
+"What Nelson says goes," he grinned.
+
+The battle opened at a range of one hundred yards, and Maseden's first
+shot buckled the framework of the nearest coracle, so that it sank like
+a stone. There was a spurt of steam as the fire which every Indian boat
+carries reached the water, and two men swam away like otters.
+
+The second shot struck a little too high. It whizzed through the craft's
+hide cover and lodged in an Indian's body, because the man yelled
+frantically. Maseden fired again, and damaged another coracle.
+
+But by this time he had made the unpleasing discovery that these light
+skiffs could be propelled very rapidly for a short distance. In each a
+man or woman was paddling with furious energy, while their companions
+were using slings. Small, heavy stones rattled against and into the
+boat.
+
+Sturgess was struck twice on the breast and left shoulder, and was only
+saved from serious injury by the stout oilskin coat he was wearing. Even
+so, he went white with pain, but he neither uttered a word nor neglected
+his task, which was to keep the sail filled and the boat traveling.
+
+Maseden had two objects in mind--to beat off their assailants and yet
+keep sufficient ammunition in stock lest other Indians were encountered
+later. He sank two more coracles, and had killed or wounded three men,
+when a flint pebble struck him on the head, finding the exact spot where
+he was injured during the wreck.
+
+He sank to his knees, and tried to say something. He believed he heard a
+crash and some shouting. Then the sky and hills and swift-running waters
+whirled in a mad dance before his eyes, and he lost consciousness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE SETTLEMENT
+
+
+Just as before, when he awoke on board the _Southern Cross_ in
+surroundings so bewildering that he gave up the effort to localize
+them, his puzzled eyes now surveyed white-painted panelled walls, a
+brass-bound port-light, and some tapestry curtains. At any other time he
+would have realized at once that he was in a ship's cabin, but now an
+uncomprehending stare soon yielded to a torpor of pain.
+
+He believed that a gentle hand adjusted a bandage on his head, and was
+aware of a grateful coldness where before there had been heat and a
+throbbing ache. Afterwards--he thought it was immediately, though the
+interval was a full half hour--he looked again at the walls and ceiling
+with something of real recognition in his glance.
+
+"Glad to see you're regaining your wits, Mr. Alexander," said a man's
+voice, a strange but very pleasant voice. "Lucky for you you've got the
+right sort of thick head, or, from what I hear, it would certainly have
+been cracked twice."
+
+Mr. Alexander! Who was he? And where was he? Where were--
+
+"May he talk a little now, doctor?" and Maseden would have had to be
+very dead if he did not know that Nina Forbes was sitting by his side.
+He turned, and even remembered to repress a groan lest some one in
+authority might not grant her request.
+
+Even so the doctor was dubious.
+
+"He must not be allowed to get excited," he said.
+
+"Then may he listen to me a minute?"
+
+"Yes, if you really keep to schedule."
+
+"Don't move, Alec!" whispered Nina, and there seemed to be a note in
+her voice that Maseden had heard only once before, though he could not
+recall the occasion. "We're on board a mail steamer bound for England,
+but she touches at Punta Arenas and Buenos Ayres, so you must be 'Mr.
+Alexander,' not 'Mr. Maseden,' until we reach home. Don't ask why just
+now. I'll tell you to-morrow, or next day, when you are stronger. You
+will trust me, won't you?"
+
+"Trust you, Nina! Yes, forever!"
+
+He looked at her, as though to make sure that his senses were not
+deceiving him and that it was really Nina Forbes who sat there, a Nina
+with her hair nicely combed and coiled and wearing a particularly
+attractive pink jersey and white serge skirt.
+
+He thought that her eyes--those frank blue eyes he had gazed into so
+often--were suffused with tears.
+
+"Why are you crying?" he demanded, with just a hint of that domineering
+way of his.
+
+"Not for grief," she said quietly. "But you must drink this now, and go
+to sleep. When you awaken again, perhaps the doctor will let C. K. come
+and chat with you."
+
+"C. K.? Is he all right?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And Madge?"
+
+"Yes. Not another word. Drink--to please me."
+
+"I'll do anything to please you."
+
+He swallowed some milk and soda-water; took a whole tumbler-full, in
+fact.
+
+"That's fine," he said. "Now I'll hold your hand and you'll tell me--"
+
+"You're going to close your eyes and lie still," she said firmly. "If
+you don't I'll leave you. If you do, I'll stay here."
+
+"I'm bribed," he said, smiling. Soon he slept, but this was nature's
+healing sleep, not the coma of insensibility. When next he entered a
+world of reality he found Sturgess sitting where Nina had been.
+
+"Going strong now, Alec?" inquired his friend.
+
+Maseden did not answer at once. He wanted to be quite sure that the
+wretched throbbing in his head had ceased. Yes; there was a great
+soreness, but it was of the scalp, not of the internal mechanism. He
+sat bolt upright.
+
+"Hi!" shouted Sturgess, "you mustn't do that! Gosh! The doctor man will
+raise Cain with me if he knows I let you move."
+
+"I'm all right, C. K."
+
+"You're going to flatten out straight away, or I'll shriek for help."
+
+Maseden lay down. The dominant emotion of the moment was curiosity.
+Perhaps, if he kept quiet, Sturgess would talk.
+
+At any rate, the New Yorker was much relieved, and said so.
+
+"You've nearly hopped it," he explained anxiously. "It was a case of
+touch and go with you for two days, and--"
+
+"Two days!" gasped Maseden. "Have I been stretched here two days?"
+
+"And more. We were picked up by the _Valentia_ on Thursday evening, and
+now it is Sunday morning."
+
+"Everything seems to happen on a Sunday," said Maseden inconsequently;
+but Sturgess understood.
+
+"Sunday is our day," he agreed. "Now, if you don't butt into the
+soliloquy, but show an intelligent interest by an occasional nod, I'll
+switch you on to the Information Bureau. The doc said I might, just to
+stop you from worrying.
+
+"When an Indian with a spit lip got you with a stone at about five yards
+there were two coracles on each side of us. I suspicioned that the Thugs
+in them meant to spring aboard at the same time, which would have meant
+trouble, so it was up to me to spoil the combination. I shoved the helm
+hard over and drove into the two on the port side. Our heavy boat went
+through them as though they were jelly-fish, and the sudden rise of our
+starboard gunwale upset the calculations of the other crowd.
+
+"Everybody, including you, rolled over with the sudden lurch, but Nina
+gathered herself together, grabbed your gun, stood straight on her feet,
+and said to me: 'Do you know which of these men hit Alec?' 'Yes,' I
+said, 'that joker with the criss-cross mouth. But you lie down. We're
+clear now.' Without another word she drew a steady bead on the
+stone-slinger and got him with the first shot.
+
+"Then she attended to you. It seemed almost as though we had reached the
+limit, with you lying like dead, and me weak and sick, because the
+slingers gave me a couple to begin with, and the Indian girl screaming
+for all she was worth. Nina was just crooning over you like a mother
+nursing an ailing baby, so Madge came and took the tiller--not before
+time, as I didn't know enough to run with the wind again.
+
+"We missed a howling reef by a hair's breadth--missed it only because
+the new course had taken us close inshore towards the north. Half an
+hour later we were in Smyth's Channel, and didn't know it, so we would
+have been sailing yet into the middle of the Andes if the _Valentia_
+hadn't bumped around a corner. Since then we three have been setting the
+scene for you when you come on deck. The passengers are the right sort,
+every man and woman among 'em all wool and a yard wide. Tell you what,
+Alec--I'd better warn you--Nina and Madge have fixed up a star turn for
+you on your first appearance."
+
+Sturgess paused to grin largely, so Maseden broke in with a question.
+
+"Are we at sea now?" he inquired.
+
+"No. We're anchored at Punta Arenas. The girls have gone ashore to see
+that Topsy is well fixed in a mission-house. The man who runs it came
+aboard for mail. He talks Topsy's lingo, so now we know why we happened
+on her. She broke her leg when one of half a dozen coracles was upset,
+and the brutes simply left her there to die, as they were in such a
+dashed hurry to go for the supposed loot of a wrecked ship. She will be
+all right here. I've attended to the financial side of it. They tell me
+that a hundred dollars will make her a great heiress."
+
+"What about my name--Alexander?"
+
+"Gee whiz! I was nearly forgetting. That was Nina's notion. She's real
+cute, that girl. She sized up the position in San Juan, and in case
+there might be any difficulty while the ship is in South American waters
+gave your name as Philip Alexander. She remembered that there was a Mr.
+Alexander on board the _Southern Cross_, and it would be just silly to
+try and pass you off as a broncho-buster. No one gave any heed to your
+clothes. Our collective rig was so cubist or futurist, in general
+effect, that your _vaquero_ outfit passed with the rest.
+
+"The skipper is about your size, and he has sent you a suit. The girls
+are buying linen and underclothes for all of us in Punta Arenas. I had
+no money, so instead of borrowing from the other people I went through
+your pants for five hundred dollars. You'll find a note with your wad,
+so that you can collect if I peg out before we find a bank."
+
+Then Maseden laughed, and was heard by the doctor, who was coming along
+the gangway.
+
+"Halloa!" he said. "Was it you who laughed, Mr. Alexander?"
+
+"Yes, doctor."
+
+"Any pain in your head?"
+
+"Outside, yes; inside, no."
+
+"Feeling sick?"
+
+"Sick. I could eat a pound of grilled steak."
+
+"You'll do! Wonderful health resort, that wild land you've been
+wandering through. You have survived the nastiest concussion, short of
+absolutely fatal injuries, I've come across. I can't prescribe steak
+just yet, but if you get through the night without a temperature I'll
+allow you on deck to-morrow for a couple of hours."
+
+Maseden chafed against the enforced rest, and rebelled against a diet
+of milk and beef tea, but the doctor was wiser than he, and the patient
+acknowledged it when really strong again.
+
+On the day the ship left Buenos Ayres he was able to dress unaided and
+reach a chair on deck without a helping arm. The boat which had proved
+the salvation of the castaways had been hoisted on board, and that
+particular part of the deck was allotted to the party of four. The other
+passengers were never tired of hearing them recount their adventures,
+and Maseden, to his secret amazement, discovered that Nina Forbes seemed
+to find delight in attracting an audience.
+
+Madge and Sturgess could, and did, stroll off together for many an
+uninterrupted chat, but Nina was always surrounded by a coterie of
+strangers, some of them men, young men, frankly admiring young men.
+
+Maseden endured this state of affairs until the ship had signalled her
+name and destination at Fernando Noronha, whence there was a straight
+run home. Then, disobeying the doctor, and coming on deck for the first
+time after dinner, he found Nina ensconced in her corner alone.
+
+He took her by surprise. She would have sprung up, but he stopped her
+with a firm hand.
+
+"No, you don't," he said, pulling a chair around and seating himself so
+that his broad back offered a barrier to any would-be intruder. "You and
+I are going to have a heart-to-heart talk, Nina. I've been waiting many
+days for the chance of it, and now is the time."
+
+She tried to laugh carelessly.
+
+"What an alarming announcement," she tittered. "Wherein have I erred
+that I am to be catechised? Or is it only a lecture on general
+behavior?"
+
+"I'll tell you. While we were trying to dodge the worries of existence
+round about Hanover Island I gave little real thought to my own affairs.
+But the calm of the past few days has enabled me to sort out events in
+what I may term their natural sequence, and the second rap on the head
+may have restored my wits to their average working capacity. Perhaps it
+will simplify matters if I begin at the beginning. The woman I
+married--"
+
+"Are you still harping on that unfortunate marriage?"
+
+The tone was flippant enough, but its studied nonchalance was a trifle
+overdone.
+
+"Yes," he said quietly. "I promise that you will not be bored by the
+facts I intend to put before you--now--to-night--unless you resolve not
+to listen."
+
+There was no answer. Somehow, every woman knows just how far she may
+play with a man. Had Nina Forbes chosen, she might have sent her true
+lover out of her life that instant. She did not so choose. Indeed,
+nothing was further from her mind. She did not commit the error of
+imagining that Maseden would pester her with his wooing and wait her
+good pleasure to yield. His temperament did not incline to gusts of
+passion. She must hear him now or lose him forever.
+
+"Of course I'll listen," she said timidly.
+
+"Thank you. Well, then, my wife signed the register as Madeleine. That
+is not your sister's name."
+
+"No."
+
+"Nor yours?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Yet you led me to believe that I had married your sister?"
+
+"No. You assumed it."
+
+"What really happened was that you assumed the name of Madeleine. Nina,
+_you_ are my wife!"
+
+"In a sense, yes."
+
+Though the promenade deck was lighted by a few lamps, there was a
+certain gloom in that corner. Nina's face was discernable, but not its
+expression, and a curious hardening in her voice brought to Maseden a
+whiff of surprise, almost of anxiety. Happily he had mapped out the line
+he meant to follow, and adhered to it inflexibly.
+
+"In the sense that you are legally Mrs. Philip Alexander Maseden," he
+persisted.
+
+"I may or may not be. I am not sure. I used a name not my own. It was
+the first that come into my head--a frightened woman's attempt to leave
+herself some loophole of escape in the future."
+
+"You are mistaken, Nina. I know enough about the law to say definitely
+that it is the ceremony which counts, not the name. You will see at once
+that this must be so. If you married another man to-morrow, and signed
+yourself 'Mary Smith,' you would still be committing bigamy."
+
+At that she laughed.
+
+"I must really be careful," she said.
+
+"I only want to fix in your mind the absolute finality of that early
+morning wedding in the Castle of San Juan. It makes matters easier."
+
+"To my thinking it makes them most complex."
+
+"Not at all. You and I have only reversed the usual procedure.
+Common-place folk meet, fall in love, go through a more or less
+frenzied period of being engaged, and, finally, get married. We began
+by getting married. Circumstances beyond our control stopped the
+natural progression of the affair, but I suggest that the frenzied
+part of the business might well start now."
+
+He caught her left hand and held it. She did not endeavor to withdraw
+it, but he was startled by her seeming indifference. Still, being a
+determined person, even in such a delicate matter as love-making, he
+pursued his theme.
+
+"You well know that I mean to marry you, Nina, though I have regarded
+myself as bound to your sister until freed by process of law," he went
+on. "But I ought to have guessed sooner that Madge would never have
+allowed Sturgess to become so openly her slave if she had contracted to
+love, honor and obey me. She might, indeed, have shared my view that the
+marriage was a make-believe affair as between her and me, but she would
+have held it as binding until the law declared her free. Then, that day
+in Hell Gate, when the hazard of a few minutes would decide whether we
+lived or died, you meant to tell me the truth before the end came. Is
+that so?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"You have no right to ask." Her voice was very low.
+
+"I can answer my own question. You wanted to die in my arms, Nina, with
+our first and last kiss on our lips. Fool that I was, I was so concerned
+about the height of a tide-mark on a rock that I gave no heed to the
+faltering speech of the woman I loved. The next time I heard those same
+accents from you was when I came to my senses on board this ship. For a
+few seconds you bared your heart again, Nina, and again I was deaf.
+
+"You must forgive me, sweetheart, though such grievous lack of
+perception was really the highest compliment I could pay you. The notion
+that I was married to Madge was firmly established in my mind, and I
+literally dared not tell you that you were the one woman in the world
+for me till the other obstacle was removed. Seldom, if ever, I suppose,
+has any man been in such a position. Of course, there would have been no
+difficulty at all if I had happened to guess the truth--"
+
+"That is just where you are mistaken, Alec," and the words came with a
+sorrowful earnestness that Maseden found vastly disconcerting. "What
+woman with a shred of self-respect would agree to regard such a union as
+ours binding? Now, you have had your say; let me have mine," and she
+snatched her hand away vehemently. "I married you as part of an infamous
+compact between that trader, Steinbaum, and Mr. Gray.
+
+"My family is not wealthy, Alec. When my mother married a second time
+she did so largely on account of Madge and myself. She lacked money to
+educate us, or give us the social position every good mother desires
+for her daughters. But Mr. Gray, though a man of means, frittered away
+a good income in foolish speculations. He was worth half a million
+dollars, and believed himself such a financial genius that he could soon
+be a multi-millionaire. Instead of making money, he lost it, and the
+latest of his follies was to finance Enrico Suarez in a scheme to seize
+the presidency. The attempt was to have been made two years ago, but was
+postponed, or defeated, I don't know which--"
+
+"Defeated," put in Maseden. "I know, because I helped to put a stopper
+on it."
+
+"Well, the collapse of that undertaking and its golden promise
+frightened my stepfather. After a lot of correspondence between
+Steinbaum and himself he came to South America, bringing with him
+practically the remnants of his fortune. My mother was too ill to
+accompany him, and he refused to travel alone, so we two girls were
+given the trip. Naturally, we were quite ignorant of the facts, and
+believed he was merely visiting a little republic in which he had
+financial interests.
+
+"By chance we arrived in Cartagena on the very day Suarez had planned
+for the president's murder--and yours, too, for that matter. Your arrest
+and condemnation gave the conspirators a chance of repaying Mr. Gray
+the money he had advanced. They were afraid he would lodge an official
+complaint, and get the State Department to interfere. But they had
+not the means in hard cash, and it occurred to one of them--Suarez, I
+believe--that if one of Mr. Gray's daughters married you, and inherited
+your estate, the property could be sold for a sum sufficient to clear
+his claim and leave a balance for the other thieves.
+
+"That is the precious project in which I, the elder of the two, became a
+pawn. Mr. Gray terrified me into compliance by telling me that we would
+be paupers on our return home. For myself I cared little, but when I
+thought of my mother I yielded. I am not excusing myself, Alec, though
+I little guessed the true nature of the bargain. I see now that Suarez
+and Steinbaum wished to avoid the actual semblance of having committed
+daylight murder and robbery. They might justify your death as a rebel
+against the state, but they could not explain away the seizure of your
+property, whereas its sale by your widow would be a most reasonable
+proceeding.
+
+"Please understand that I believed I was only carrying out a formal
+undertaking meant to enable my stepfather to recover money honestly
+lent. Even so, my resolution faltered at the last moment, and I signed
+the register in my mother's name. And now I have bared my heart to you,
+and you see how--utterly--impossible--it is--Oh, Alec, don't be cruel!
+Don't torture me! I can never, never be your wife, because I can never
+forgive myself!"
+
+Alec, the wise, as Sturgess had often styled him, showed exceeding
+wisdom now by letting her cry her fill. Never a word did he say until
+the tempest subsided. Then he took her hand again and drew her to him.
+
+"Tell me one thing, Nina," he said gently. "What became of the ring--our
+ring?"
+
+"It is tied around my neck--on a bit of ribbon," she sobbed.
+
+"Then it shall remain there until we reach New York," he said.
+
+"But--I want--to keep it--as a souvenir--of all that has passed," she
+said brokenly.
+
+"So you shall, dear one. You would never feel satisfied, anyhow, with a
+Spanish marriage, so we'll try an American one."
+
+"Alec, I cuc--cuc--can't marry you. I'm too ashamed."
+
+He laughed happily, and drew her to him.
+
+"You can't wriggle out of the knot now, girlie," he said. "But, just to
+behave like other folk, we'll begin again at the beginning, and not at
+the end. Nina, do you think you can learn to love me quick enough to
+permit of a real wedding when we arrive in New York? You and I have gone
+through so many experiences since we met that we can dispense with some
+of the preliminaries to courtship. Shall we fix a date now? Say three
+weeks after we land, or sooner, if matters can be arranged."
+
+She lifted her tear-stained face, and her soul went out to his in their
+first kiss.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Sturgess, when he heard of the latest development, "got busy," as he put
+it, on his own account. He, of course, had been told the exact facts by
+Nina on that night passed on the island in Nelson Straits. The upshot
+of the general agreement speedily arrived at was a noteworthy double
+wedding, at which, as a topic of conversation, the beauty of the brides
+rivaled, if it did not eclipse, their extraordinary adventures.
+
+It should be said, as a fitting rounding off of a record of singular
+events, that Maseden not only obtained the money held in trust for him
+by the consul at Cartagena, but the proceeds of the sale of the ranch
+as well. Enrico Suarez was stabbed to the heart by a maniac with a
+grievance. Señor Porilla, an honest man, according to South American
+standards, became president, and saw to it that Maseden's rights were
+safeguarded. Even the wily Steinbaum was compelled to disgorge to Gray's
+executors.
+
+The Aztec treasure was sold for a mint of money to a millionaire
+collector, and this sum was settled on Mrs. Gray for life, with
+reversion to her daughters in equal shares.
+
+If any one is really curious to ascertain the identity and whereabouts
+of Mr. and Mrs. Philip Alexander Maseden or Mr. and Mrs. C. K. Sturgess,
+all that is necessary is to visit a town on the coast of Maine any
+August, and keep an eye peeled for a ship's life-boat converted into a
+yawl and named "_The Ark_." Therein will be found some very pleasant
+people, and, with the help of the foregoing history, the rest of the
+task should be simplicity itself.
+
+                              THE END.
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:
+
+Minor changes have been made to correct typesetters' errors; otherwise,
+every effort has been made to remain true to the author's words and
+intent.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of His Unknown Wife, by Louis Tracy
+
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+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of His Unknown Wife, by Louis Tracy.
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of His Unknown Wife, by Louis Tracy
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: His Unknown Wife
+
+Author: Louis Tracy
+
+Release Date: January 26, 2011 [EBook #35074]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HIS UNKNOWN WIFE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by D Alexander and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="centerbox bbox">
+<p>&#160;</p>
+
+<h1>HIS UNKNOWN WIFE</h1>
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+
+<h2>LOUIS TRACY</h2>
+
+<p class="center">AUTHOR OF<br />
+<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14917">THE WINGS OF THE MORNING</a>,<br />
+FLOWER OF THE GORSE, <span class="smcap">Etc.</span></p>
+
+<p class="gap">&#160;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 100px;">
+<img src="images/i001.jpg" width="100" height="68" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="gap">&#160;</p>
+
+<p class="center">NEW YORK<br />
+GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP<br />
+PUBLISHERS</p></div>
+
+<hr class="large" />
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1916, by</span><br />
+EDWARD J. CLODE</p>
+
+<hr class="large" />
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="70%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" summary="CONTENTS">
+
+<tr><td align="right">I.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Sharp Work</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">II.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Time <i>versus</i> Eternity</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_21">21</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">III.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Adios, San Juan</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">IV.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">&#8220;Find the Lady&#8221;</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_58">58</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">V.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Romance Receives a Cold Douche</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_75">75</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">VI.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">An Unforeseen Disaster</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_95">95</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">VII.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Wreck</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_112">112</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">VIII.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">One Chance in a Million</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_129">129</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">IX.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Lottery</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_147">147</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">X.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Vigil</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_168">168</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">XI.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Progress</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_184">184</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">XII.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">A Peep into the Future</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_202">202</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">XIII.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Second Shipwreck</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_222">222</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">XIV.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Turn of the Tide</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_239">239</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">XV.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Simple Life</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_257">257</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">XVI.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Dowry</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_277">277</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">XVII.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Running the Gantlet</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_295">295</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">XVIII.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Settlement</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_315">315</a></td></tr>
+
+</table></div>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h3>SHARP WORK</h3>
+
+<p style="float: left; font-size: 100%; line-height: 80%; margin-top: 0;">&#8220;</p><p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">P</span>risoner, attention! His excellency the President has permitted Se&ntilde;or
+Steinbaum to visit you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The &#8220;prisoner&#8221; was lying on his back on a plank bed, with his hands
+tucked beneath his head to obtain some measure of protection from the
+roll of rough fiber matting which formed a pillow. He did not pay the
+slightest heed to the half-caste Spanish jailer&#8217;s gruff command. But the
+visitor&#8217;s name stirred him. He turned his head, apparently to make sure
+that he was not being deceived, and rose on an elbow.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hello, Steinbaum!&#8221; he said in English. &#8220;What&#8217;s the swindle? Excuse this
+terseness, but I have to die in an hour, or even less, if a sunbeam
+hasn&#8217;t misled me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s no swindle this time, Mr. Maseden,&#8221; came the guttural answer.
+&#8220;I&#8217;m sorry I cannot help you, but I want you to do a good turn for a
+lady.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;A lady! What lady?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If <i>you</i> don&#8217;t know the lady that is a recommendation in itself. At any
+rate, what sort of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>good turn can a man condemned to death do for any
+lady?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;She wants to marry you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Then the man who, by his own showing, was rapidly nearing the close of
+his earthly career, sprang erect and looked so threatening that his
+visitor shrank back a pace, while the half-caste jailer&#8217;s right hand
+clutched the butt of a revolver.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Whatever else I may have thought you, I never regarded you as a fool,
+Steinbaum,&#8221; he said sternly. &#8220;Go away, man! Have you no sense of
+decency? You and that skunk Enrico Suarez, have done your worst against
+me and succeeded. When I am dead the &#8216;state&#8217; will collar my
+property&mdash;and I am well aware that in this instance the &#8216;state&#8217; will be
+represented by Se&ntilde;or Enrico Suarez and Mr. Fritz Steinbaum. You are
+about to murder and rob me. Can&#8217;t you leave me in peace during the last
+few minutes of my life? Be off, or you may find that in coming here you
+have acted foolishly for once.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<i>Ach, was!</i>&#8221; sighed Steinbaum, nevertheless retreating another step
+towards the door and the watchful half-caste, who had been warned to
+shoot straight and quickly if the prisoner attacked the august person of
+the portly financier. &#8220;I tell you the truth, and you will not listen. It
+is as I say. A lady, a stranger, arrived in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span>Cartagena last night. She
+heard of you this morning. She asked: &#8216;Is he married, this American?&#8217;
+They said, &#8216;No.&#8217; Then she came to me and begged me to use my influence
+with the President. She said: &#8216;If this American gentleman is to be shot,
+I am sorry; but it cannot matter to him if he is married, and it will
+oblige me very much.&#8217; I told her&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The speaker&#8217;s voice grew husky and he paused to clear his throat.
+Maseden smiled wanly at the mad absurdity of it, but he was beginning to
+believe some part of Steinbaum&#8217;s story.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And what did you tell her?&#8221; he broke in.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I told her that you were Quixotic in some things, and you might agree.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But what on earth does the lady gain by it? Suarez and you will take
+mighty good care she doesn&#8217;t get away with my ranch and money. Does she
+want my name?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Perhaps.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden took thought a moment.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It has never been dishonored during my life,&#8221; he said quietly. &#8220;I would
+need to be assured that it will not be smirched after my death.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Steinbaum was stout. A certain anxiety to succeed in an extraordinary
+mission, joined to the warm, moist atmosphere of the cell, had induced a
+copious perspiration.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;<i>Ach, Gott!</i>&#8221; he purred despairingly. &#8220;I know nothing. She told me
+nothing. She offered to pay me for the trouble&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ah!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why not? I run some risk in acting so. She is American, like yourself.
+She came to me&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;American, you say! Is she young?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I think so. I have not seen her face. She wears a thick veil.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Romance suddenly spread its fairy wings in that squalid South American
+prison-house. Maseden&#8217;s spirit was fired to perform a last act of
+chivalry, of mercy, it might be, in behalf of some unhappy girl of his
+own race. The sheer folly of this amazing marriage moved him to grim
+mirth.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Very well,&#8221; he said with a half-hearted laugh. &#8220;I&#8217;ll do it! But, as
+<i>you</i> are mixing the cards, Steinbaum, there must be a joker in the pack
+somewhere. I&#8217;m a pretty quick thinker, you know, and I shall probably
+see through your proposition before I die, though I am damned if I can
+size it up right off.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Mr. Maseden, I assure you, on my&mdash;well, you and I never were friends
+and never will be, but I have told you the real facts this time.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;When is the wedding to take place?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Great Scott! Did the lady come with you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Yes. She is here with a priest and a notary.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden peered over the jailer&#8217;s shoulder into the whitewashed passage
+beyond the half-open door, as though he expected to find a shrouded
+figure standing there. Steinbaum interpreted his glance.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;She is in the great hall,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The guard is waiting at the end of
+the corridor.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, it&#8217;s to be a military wedding, then?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, in a sense.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The younger man appreciated the nice distinction Steinbaum was drawing.
+The waiting &#8220;guard&#8221; was the firing-party.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What time is it?&#8221; he demanded, so sharply that the fat man started. For
+a skilled intriguer Steinbaum was ridiculously nervous.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;A quarter past seven.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Allow me to put the question as delicately as possible, but&mdash;er&mdash;is
+there any extension of time beyond eight o&#8217;clock?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Se&ntilde;or Suarez would not give one minute.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He knows about the ceremony, of course?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What a skunk the man is! How he must fear me! Such Spartan
+inflexibility is foreign to the Spanish nature.... By the way,
+Steinbaum, did you ever, in your innocent youth, hear the opera
+&#8216;Maritana,&#8217; or see a play called &#8216;Don Cesar de Bazan&#8217;?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Why waste time, Mr. Maseden?&#8221; cried the other impatiently. He loathed
+the environment of that dim cell, with its slightly f&oelig;tid air,
+suggestive of yellow jack and dysentery. He was so obviously ill at
+ease, so fearful lest he should fail in an extraordinary negotiation,
+that, given less strenuous conditions, the younger man must have read
+more into the proposal than appeared on the face of it.</p>
+
+<p>But the sands of life were running short for Maseden. Outwardly cool and
+imperturbably American, his soul was in revolt. For all that he laughed
+cheerfully.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Waste time, indeed!&#8221; he cried. &#8220;I, who have less than forty-five
+minutes to live!... Now, these are my terms.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There are no terms,&#8221; broke in Steinbaum harshly. &#8220;You oblige the lady,
+or you don&#8217;t. Please yourself.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ah, that&#8217;s better. That sounds more like the hound that I know you are.
+Yet, I insist on my terms.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I was dragged out of bed in my pajamas at four o&#8217;clock this morning,
+and not even permitted to dress. They hardly waited to get me a pair of
+boots. I haven&#8217;t a red cent in my pocket, which is a figure of speech,
+because I haven&#8217;t a pocket. If you think you can borrow from an old
+comedy just so much of the situation as suits your purpose and disregard
+the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>costume and appearance of the star actor, you&#8217;re mistaken.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I gather from your furious grunts that you don&#8217;t understand me. Very
+well. I&#8217;ll come straight to the point. If I am to marry the lady of your
+choice, I demand the right to appear at the altar decently clad and with
+enough good money in my pocket to stand a few bottles of wine to the
+gallant blackguards who are about to shoot me.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Those are my terms, Steinbaum. Take them or leave them! But don&#8217;t
+accuse <i>me</i> of wasting time. It&#8217;s up to you to arrange the stage
+setting. I might have insisted on a shave, but I won&#8217;t.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The lady will not expect me to kiss her, I suppose?... By gad, she must
+be a person of strange tastes. Why any young woman should want to marry
+a man because he&#8217;s going to be shot half an hour later is one of those
+mysteries which the feminine mind may comprehend, but it&#8217;s beyond me.
+However, that&#8217;s her affair, not mine.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now, Steinbaum, hurry up! <i>I&#8217;m</i> talking for the mere sake of hearing my
+own voice, but <i>you&#8217;re</i> keeping the lady in suspense.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden had indeed correctly described his own attitude. He was wholly
+indifferent to the personal element in the bizarre compact proposed by
+his arch-enemy, on whom <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>he had turned his back while speaking.</p>
+
+<p>The sight of a bloated, angry, perplexed face of the coarsest type was
+mentally disturbing. He elected rather to watch the shaft of sunlight
+coming through the long, narrow slit in a four-foot wall which served as
+a window. He knew that his cell was on the northeast side of the prison,
+and the traveling sunbeam had already marked the flight of time with
+sufficient accuracy since he was thrust into that dismal place.</p>
+
+<p>He had been sentenced to death just one hour and a half after being
+arrested. The evidence, like the trial, was a travesty of justice. His
+excellency Don Enrico Suarez, elected president of the Republic of San
+Juan at midnight, and confirmed in power by the bullet which removed his
+predecessor, wreaked vengeance speedily on the American intruder who had
+helped to mar his schemes twice in two years.</p>
+
+<p>There would be a diplomatic squabble about the judicial murder of a
+citizen of the United States, of course. The American and British
+consuls would protest, and both countries would dispatch warships to
+Cartagena, which was at once the capital of the republic and its chief
+port. But of what avail such wrangling after one was dead?</p>
+
+<p>Dead, at twenty-eight, when the world was bright and fortune was
+apparently smiling! <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>Dead, because he supported dear old Domenico
+Valdes, the murdered president, and one of the few honest, God-fearing
+men in a rotten little South American state which would have been swept
+out of putrid existence long ago were it not for the policy of the
+Monroe Doctrine. Maseden knew that no power on earth would save him now,
+because Suarez and he could not exist in the same community, and Suarez
+was supreme in the Republic of San Juan&mdash;supreme, that is, until some
+other cut-throat climbed to the presidency over a rival&#8217;s corpse.
+Steinbaum, a crafty person who played the game of high politics with
+some ability and seldom failed to advance his own and his allies&#8217;
+interests, had backed Suarez financially and would become his jackal for
+the time.</p>
+
+<p>It was rather surprising that such a master-plotter should have admitted
+a fore-knowledge of Maseden&#8217;s fate, and this element in the situation
+suddenly dawned on Maseden himself. The arrest, the trial, and the
+condemnation were alike kept secret.</p>
+
+<p>The American consul, a Portuguese merchant, possessed enough backbone to
+demand the postponement of the execution until he had communicated with
+Washington, and in this action he would have been supported by the
+representative of Great Britain. But he would know nothing <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>about the
+judicial crime until it was an accomplished fact.</p>
+
+<p>How, then, had some enterprising young lady&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;By the way, Steinbaum, you might explain&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden swung on his heel; the matrimonial agent had vanished.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The se&ntilde;or signified that he would return soon,&#8221; said the jailer.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s gone for the clothes!&#8221; mused Maseden, his thoughts promptly
+reverting to the fantastic marriage project. &#8220;The sly old fox is
+devilish anxious to get me spliced before my number goes up. I wonder
+why? And where in the world will he raise a suitable rig? Hang it all, I
+wish I had a little longer to live. This business becomes more
+interesting every minute!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Though he was sure the attempt would be hopeless, Maseden resolved to
+make one last effort. He looked the half-caste squarely in the face.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Get me out of this before Se&ntilde;or Steinbaum comes back and I&#8217;ll give you
+twenty thousand dollars gold,&#8221; he said quietly.</p>
+
+<p>The man met his glance without flinching.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I could not help you, se&ntilde;or, if you paid me a million dollars,&#8221; he
+answered. &#8220;It is your life or mine&mdash;those are my orders. And it is
+useless to think of attacking me,&#8221; he added, because <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>for one moment
+black despair scowled menacingly from Maseden&#8217;s strong features. &#8220;There
+are ten men at each door of the corridor ready to shoot you at the least
+sign of any attempt to escape.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The preparations for the wedding are fairly complete, then?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden spoke Spanish fluently, and the half-caste grinned at the joke.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It will soon be over, se&ntilde;or,&#8221; was all he could find to say.</p>
+
+<p>The condemned man knew that the fellow was not to be bribed at the cost
+of his own life. He turned again and grew interested once more in the
+shaft of sunlight. How quickly it moved! He calculated that before it
+reached a certain crack in the masonry he would have passed into
+&#8220;yesterday&#8217;s seven thousand years.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was not a pleasing conceit. In self-defense, as it were, he bent his
+wits on to the proposed marriage. He was half inclined to regret the
+chivalrous impulse which spurred him to agree to it. Yet there was a
+spice of humor in the fact that a man who was regarded as an inveterate
+woman-hater by the dusky young ladies of San Juan should be led to the
+altar literally at the eleventh hour.</p>
+
+<p>What manner of woman could this unknown bride be? What motive swayed
+her? Perhaps it was better not to ask. But if the knot were <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>tied by a
+priest, a notary and a European financier, it was evidently intended to
+be a valid undertaking.</p>
+
+<p>And why was Steinbaum so interested? Was the would-be Mrs. Maseden so
+well endowed with this world&#8217;s goods that she spared no expense in
+attaining her object?</p>
+
+<p>The most contrary emotions surged through Maseden&#8217;s conscience. He was
+by turns curious, sympathetic, suspicious, absurdly eager to learn more.</p>
+
+<p>In this last mood he resolved to have one straight look at the lady.
+Surely a man was entitled to see his bride&#8217;s face! Yes, come what might,
+he would insist that she must raise the &#8220;thick, white veil&#8221; which had
+hitherto screened her features from Steinbaum&#8217;s goggle eyes&mdash;supposing,
+that is, the rascal had told the truth.</p>
+
+<p>A hinge creaked, and the half-caste announced that the se&ntilde;or was
+returning. In a few seconds Steinbaum panted in. He was carrying a
+gorgeous uniform of sky-blue cloth with facings of silver braid. As he
+dumped a pair of brilliant patent-leather top-boots on the stone floor a
+glittering helmet fell from among the clothes and rolled to Maseden&#8217;s
+feet.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;See here, Steinbaum, what tomfoolery is this?&#8221; cried the American
+wrathfully.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is your tomfoolery, not mine,&#8221; came the heated retort. &#8220;Where am I
+to get a suit of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>clothes for you? These will fit, I think. I borrowed
+them from the President&#8217;s <i>aide-de-camp</i>, Captain Ferdinando Gomez.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden knew Captain Gomez&mdash;a South American dandy of the first water.
+For the moment the ludicrous side of the business banished all other
+considerations.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What!&#8221; he laughed, &#8220;am I to be married in the giddy rig of the biggest
+ass in Cartagena? Well, I give in. As I&#8217;m to be shot at eight,
+Ferdinando&#8217;s fine feathers will be in a sad mess, because I&#8217;ll not take
+&#8217;em off again unless I&#8217;m undressed forcibly. Good Lord! Does my unknown
+bride realize what sort of rare bird she&#8217;s going to espouse?...</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, yes, we&#8217;re losing time. Chuck over those pants. Gomez is not quite
+my height, but his togs may be O. K.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact, Philip Alexander Maseden looked a very fine figure
+of a man when arrayed in all the glory of the presidential
+<i>aide-de-camp</i>. The only trouble was that the elegant top-boots were
+confoundedly tight, being, in truth, a size too small for their vain
+owner; but the bridegroom-elect put up with this inconvenience.</p>
+
+<p>He had not far to walk. A few steps to the right lay the &#8220;great hall&#8221; in
+which, according to Steinbaum, the ceremony would take place. Very
+little farther to the left was the enclosed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span><i>patio</i>, or courtyard, in
+which he would be shot within thirty minutes!</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m dashed if I feel a bit like dying,&#8221; he said, as he strode by
+Steinbaum&#8217;s side along the outer corridor. &#8220;If the time was about
+fourteen hours later I might imagine I was going to a fancy dress ball,
+though I wouldn&#8217;t be able to dance much in these confounded boots.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The stout financier made no reply. He was singularly ill at ease. Any
+critical onlooker, not cognizant of the facts, would take him and not
+Maseden to be the man condemned to death.</p>
+
+<p>A heavy, iron-clamped door leading to the row of cells was wide open.
+Some soldiers, lined up close to it in the hall, were craning their
+necks to catch a first glimpse of the Americano who was about to marry
+and die in the same breath, so to speak.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond, near a table in the center of the spacious chamber, stood a
+group that arrested the eye&mdash;a Spanish priest, in vestments of
+semi-state; an olive-skinned man whom Maseden recognized as a legal
+practitioner of fair repute in a community where chicanery flourished,
+and a slenderly-built woman of middle height, though taller than either
+of her companions, whose stylish coat and skirt of thin, gray cloth, and
+smart shoes tied with little bows of black ribbon, were strangely
+incongruous with the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>black lace mantilla which draped her head and
+shoulders, and held in position a double veil tied firmly beneath her
+chin.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden was so astonished at discovering the identity of the lawyer that
+he momentarily lost interest in the mysterious woman who would soon be
+his wife.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Se&ntilde;or Porilla!&#8221; he cried. &#8220;I am glad you are here. Do you understand&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is forbidden!&#8221; hissed Steinbaum. &#8220;One more word, and back you go to
+your cell!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, is that part of the compact?&#8221; said Maseden cheerfully. &#8220;Well, well!
+We must not make matters unpleasant for a lady&mdash;must we, Steinbaum?...
+Now, madam, raise your veil, and let me at least have the honor of
+knowing what sort of person the future Mrs. Philip Alexander Maseden
+will be!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The only answer was a stifled but quite audible sob, and Maseden had an
+impression that the lady might put a summary stop to the proceedings by
+fainting.</p>
+
+<p>Steinbaum, however, had recovered his nerve in the stronger light of the
+great hall, especially since the soldiers had gathered around.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The se&ntilde;ora declines to unveil,&#8221; he growled in Spanish. &#8220;Begin, <i>padre</i>!
+There is not a moment to spare.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The ecclesiastic opened a book and plunged forthwith into the marriage
+service. Maseden <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>was aware that the shrinking figure by his side was
+trembling violently, and a wave of pity for her surged through his
+heart.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Cheer up!&#8221; he whispered. &#8220;It&#8217;s only a matter of form, anyhow; and I&#8217;m
+glad to be able to help you. I don&#8217;t care a red cent what your motive
+is.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Steinbaum gurgled ominously, and the bridegroom said no more. Clearly,
+though he had given no bond, he was imperiling the fulfillment of this
+unhappy girl&#8217;s desire if he talked.</p>
+
+<p>But he kept his wits alert. It was evident that the lady understood
+little Latin and no Spanish. She was quite unable to follow the sonorous
+phrases. When the portly priest, who seemed to have small relish for the
+part he was compelled to play in this amazing marriage, asked Maseden if
+he would have &#8220;this woman&#8221; to be his wedded wife, the bridegroom
+answered &#8220;Yes,&#8221; in Spanish; but a similar question addressed to the
+bride found her dumb.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Say &#8216;I will,&#8217;&#8221; murmured Maseden in her ear.</p>
+
+<p>She turned slightly. At that instant their heads came close together,
+and the long, unfamiliar fragrance of a woman&#8217;s well-tended hair reached
+him.</p>
+
+<p>It had an extraordinary effect. Memories of his mother, of a simple
+old-world dwelling in a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>Vermont village, rushed in on him with an
+almost overwhelming force.</p>
+
+<p>His superb self-possession nearly gave way. He felt that he might break
+down under the intolerable strain.</p>
+
+<p>He feared, during a few seconds of anguish, that he might reveal his
+heartache to these men of inferior races.</p>
+
+<p>Then the pride of a regal birthright came to his aid, and a species of
+most vivid and poignant consciousness succeeded. He heard Steinbaum&#8217;s
+gruff sponsorship for the bride, obeyed smilingly when told to take her
+right hand in his right hand, and looked with singular intentness at the
+long, straight, artistic fingers which he held.</p>
+
+<p>It was a beautifully modeled hand, well kept, but cold and tremulous.
+The queer conceit leaped up in him that though he might never look on
+the face of his wedded wife he would know that hand if they met again
+only at the Judgment Seat!</p>
+
+<p>Then, in a dazed way which impressed the onlookers as the height of
+American nonchalance, he said, after the celebrant: &#8220;I, Philip
+Alexander, take thee, Madeleine&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine! So that was the Christian name of the woman whom he was
+taking &#8220;till death do us part,&#8221; for the Spanish liturgy provided almost
+an exact equivalent of the English service. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>Madeleine! He had never
+even known any girl of the name. Somehow, he liked it. Outwardly so
+calm, he was inwardly aflame with a new longing for life and all that
+life meant.</p>
+
+<p>His jumbled wits were peremptorily recalled to the demands of the moment
+by the would-be bride&#8217;s failure to repeat her share of the marriage vow,
+when it became her turn to take Maseden&#8217;s hand.</p>
+
+<p>The priest nodded, and Steinbaum, now carrying himself with a certain
+truculence, essayed to lead the girl&#8217;s faltering tongue through the
+Spanish phrases.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The lady must understand what she is saying,&#8221; broke in Maseden,
+dominating the gruff man by sheer force of will.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now,&#8221; he said, and his voice grew gentle as he turned to the woman he
+had just promised &#8220;to have and to hold,&#8221; &#8220;to love and cherish,&#8221; and
+thereto plighted his troth&mdash;&#8220;when the priest pauses, I will translate,
+and you must speak the words aloud.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He listened, in a waking trance, to the clear, well-bred accents of a
+woman of his own people uttering the binding pledge of matrimony. The
+Spanish sentences recalled the English version, which he supplied with
+singular accuracy, seeing that he had only attended two weddings
+previously, and those during his boyhood.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Madeleine&#8221;&mdash;he would learn her surname when he signed the register&mdash;was
+obviously hard pressed to retain her senses till the end. She was
+sobbing pitifully, and the knowledge that her distress was induced by
+the fate immediately in store for the man whom she was espousing &#8220;by
+God&#8217;s holy ordinance&#8221; tested Maseden&#8217;s steel nerve to the very limit of
+endurance.</p>
+
+<p>But he held on with that tenacious chivalry which is the finest
+characteristic of his class, and even smiled at Steinbaum&#8217;s fumbling in
+a waistcoat pocket for a ring. He was putting the ring on the fourth
+finger of his wife&#8217;s left hand and pronouncing the last formula of the
+ceremony, when he caught an agonized whisper:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Please, <i>please</i>, forgive me! I cannot help myself. I am&mdash;more than
+sorry for you. I shall pray for you&mdash;and think of you&mdash;always!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>And it was in that instant, while breathlessly catching each syllable of
+a broken plea for sympathy and gage of lasting remembrance, that
+Maseden&#8217;s bemused faculties saw a means of saving his life.</p>
+
+<p>Though a forlorn hope, at the best, with a hundred chances of failure
+against one of success, he would seize that hundredth chance. What
+matter if he were shot at quarter to eight instead of at eight o&#8217;clock?
+Steel before, he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>was unemotional as marble now, a man of stone with a
+brain of diamond clarity.</p>
+
+<p>If events followed their normal and reasonable course, he would be free
+of these accursed walls within a few minutes. Come what might, he would
+strike a lusty blow for freedom. If he failed, and sank into eternal
+night, one or more of the half-caste hirelings now so ready to fulfill
+the murderous schemes of President Suarez and his henchman Steinbaum
+would escort an American&#8217;s spirit to the realm beyond the shadows.</p>
+
+<p>He did not stop to think that an unknown woman&#8217;s strange whim should
+have made possible that which, without her presence in his prison-house,
+was absolutely impossible; still less did he trouble as to the future,
+immediate or remote. His mind&#8217;s eye was fixed on a sunbeam creeping
+stealthily towards a crack in the masonry of that detestable cell.</p>
+
+<p>He meant to cheat that sunbeam, one way or the other!</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h3>TIME <i>VERSUS</i> ETERNITY</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">H</span>enceforth Maseden concentrated all his faculties on the successful
+performance of the trick which might win him clear of the castle of San
+Juan. Nothing in the wide world mattered less to him than that the
+newly-made bride should stoop to sign the register after he had done so,
+or that by turning to address Steinbaum he was deliberately throwing
+away the opportunity thus afforded of learning her surname.</p>
+
+<p>When an avowed enemy first broached the subject of this extraordinary
+marriage, he had made a bitter jest on the use in real life of a
+well-worn histrionic situation. And now, perforce, he had become an
+actor of rare merit. Each look, each word must lead up to the grand
+climax. The penalty of failure was not the boredom of an audience, but
+death; such a &#8220;curtain&#8221; would sharpen the dullest wits, and Maseden, if
+wholly innocent of stage experience hitherto, was not dull.</p>
+
+<p>He scored his first point while the bride was signing her name. Beaming
+on Steinbaum, he said cheerfully:</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;I bargained for money, Shylock. You&#8217;ve had your pound of flesh. Where
+are my ducats?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Steinbaum produced a ten-dollar bill. He even forced a smile. Seemingly
+he was anxious to keep the prisoner in this devil-may-care mood.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Not half enough!&#8221; cried Maseden, and he broke into Spanish.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hi, my gallant <i>caballeros</i>, isn&#8217;t there another squad in the <i>patio</i>?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<i>Si, se&ntilde;or!</i>&#8221; cried several voices.</p>
+
+<p>Even these crude, half-caste soldiers revealed the Latin sense of the
+dramatic and picturesque. They appreciated the American&#8217;s cavalier air.
+That morning&#8217;s doings would lose naught in the telling when the story
+spread through the caf&eacute;s of Cartagena.</p>
+
+<p>And what a story they would have to tell! Little could they guess its
+scope, its sensations yet to come.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Very well, then! At least another ten-spot, Steinbaum.... But, mind
+you, sergeant, not a drop till the volley is fired! You might miss, you
+know!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The man whom he addressed as sergeant eyed the two notes with an amiable
+grin.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You will feel nothing, se&ntilde;or&mdash;we promise you that,&#8221; he said wondering,
+perhaps, why the prisoner did not bestow the largesse at once.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Excellent! Lead on, friend! I want my last few minutes to myself.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There are some documents to complete,&#8221; put in Steinbaum hastily, with a
+quick hand-flourish to the notary.</p>
+
+<p>Se&ntilde;or Porilla spread two legal-looking parchments on the table.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;These are conveyances of your property to your wife,&#8221; he explained. &#8220;I
+am instructed to see that everything is done in accordance with the laws
+of the Republic. By these deeds you&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hand over everything to the lady. Is <i>that</i> it? I understand. Where do
+I sign? Here? Thank you. And here? Nothing else ... Mrs. Maseden, I have
+given you my name and all my worldly goods. Pray make good use of both
+endowments.... Now, I demand to be left alone.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Without so much as a farewell glance at his wife, who, to keep herself
+from falling, was leaning on the table, he strode off in the direction
+of the corridor into which his cell opened. It was a vital part of his
+scheme that he should enter first.</p>
+
+<p>The jailer would have left the door open. Maseden was determined that it
+should be closed.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Gomez&#8217;s tight boots pinched his toes cruelly as he walked, but
+he recked little of that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>minor inconvenience at the moment. In four or
+five rapid paces he reached the doorway and passed through it. There he
+turned with his right hand on the door itself, and his left hand,
+carrying the helmet, raised in a parting salute. He smiled most affably,
+and, of set purpose, spoke in Spanish.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Good-by, se&ntilde;ora!&#8221; he said. &#8220;Farewell, gentlemen! I shall remember this
+pleasant gathering as long as I live!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The half-caste was at his prisoner&#8217;s side, and enjoying the episode
+thoroughly. He would swill his share of the wine, of course, and the
+hour of the <i>siesta</i> should find him comfortably drunk.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden flourished his left hand again, and the plumed helmet
+temporarily obscured the jailer&#8217;s vision. The door swung on its hinges.
+The lock clashed. In the same instant the American&#8217;s clenched right fist
+landed on the half-caste&#8217;s jaw, finding with scientific accuracy the
+cluster of nerves which the world of pugilism terms &#8220;the point.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was a perfect blow, clean and hard, delivered by an athlete. Out of
+the tail of his eye, Maseden had seen <i>where</i> to hit. He knew <i>how</i> to
+hit already, and put every ounce of his weight, each shred of his boxing
+knowledge, into that one punch.</p>
+
+<p>It had to be a complete &#8220;knock-out,&#8221; or his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>plan miscarried. A cry, a
+struggle, a revolver shot, would have brought a score of assailants
+thundering on each door.</p>
+
+<p>As it happened, however, the hapless Spaniard collapsed as though he
+were struck dead by heart-failure or apoplexy. Maseden caught the inert
+body before it reached the stone floor, and carried it swiftly into the
+cell. Improvising a gag out of his discarded pajamas, he bound the
+half-caste&#8217;s hands and feet together behind his back, utilizing the
+man&#8217;s own leather belt for the purpose.</p>
+
+<p>These things were done swiftly but without nervous haste. The very
+essence of the plan was the conviction that no forward step should be
+taken without making sure that the prior moves were complete and
+thorough.</p>
+
+<p>He had detached from the jailer&#8217;s belt a chain carrying a bunch of keys
+and the revolver in its leather holster. Before slipping this latter
+over the belt he was wearing, he examined it. Though somewhat
+old-fashioned, it seemed to be thoroughly serviceable, and held six
+cartridges with bull-nose bullets of heavy caliber.</p>
+
+<p>Then he searched the unconscious man&#8217;s pockets for cigarettes and
+matches. Here he encountered an unforeseen delay. Every Spaniard carries
+either cigarettes or the materials for rolling them, but this fellow
+seemed to be an exception.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></p><p>Now, a cigarette formed an almost indispensable item in Maseden&#8217;s
+scheme; but time was even more precious, and he was about to abandon the
+search when he noticed that one button-hole of the jailer&#8217;s tunic was
+far more frayed than any other. He tore open the coat, and found both
+cigarettes and matches in an inside breast pocket.</p>
+
+<p>Not one man in a million, in similar conditions, would have been
+cool-headed enough to observe such a trivial detail as a frayed
+button-hole.</p>
+
+<p>Next he examined the bunch of keys, and came to the conclusion, rightly
+as it transpired, that the same large key fitted the locks of both
+doors; which, however, were heavily barred by external draw-bolts.</p>
+
+<p>Jamming on the helmet&mdash;like the glittering boots, it was a size too
+small&mdash;he lowered the chin-strap, lighted a cigarette, and limped
+quickly along the corridor towards the <i>patio</i>, which filled a square
+equal in size to the area of the great hall.</p>
+
+<p>As he left the cell he heard the half-caste&#8217;s breathing become more
+regular. The man would soon recover his senses. Would the gag prove
+effective? Maseden dared not wait to make sure.</p>
+
+<p>He could have induced a more lasting silence, but even life itself might
+be purchased too <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>dearly; he took the risk of a speedy uproar.</p>
+
+<p>Unlocking the door, with a confident rattling of keys and chain, he
+shouted:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hi, guards! Draw the bolts!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The soldiers in the <i>patio</i> were ready for some such summons, though the
+hour was slightly in advance of the time fixed for the American&#8217;s
+execution, so the order was obeyed with alacrity. Maseden appeared in
+the doorway, taking care that the door did not swing far back. He blew a
+great cloud of smoke; growled over his shoulder: &#8220;I&#8217;ll return in five
+minutes,&#8221; pulled the door to, and swaggered past the waiting troops, not
+forgetting to salute as they shouldered their rifles.</p>
+
+<p>A long time afterwards he learned that he actually owed his escape to
+Captain Ferdinando Gomez&#8217;s tight boots. One of the men was observant,
+and inclined to be skeptical.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Who&#8217;s that?&#8221; he said. &#8220;Not el Capitan Ferdinando, I&#8217;ll swear!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Idiot!&#8221; grinned another. &#8220;Look at his limp! He pinches his toes till he
+can hardly walk.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>At the gateway, or porch, leading to the <i>patio</i>, stood a sentry, who,
+luckily, was gazing seaward. Maseden conserved the cigarette for another
+volume of smoke, and pulled down the chin-strap determinedly.</p>
+
+<p>He got beyond this dragon without any <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>difficulty. Indeed, the man was
+taken by surprise, and only noticed him when he had gone by.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden was now in a graveled square. Behind him, and to the left, stood
+the time-darkened walls of the old Spanish fortress. In front, broken
+only by a line of trees and the squat humps of six antiquated cannons,
+sparkled the blue expanse of the Pacific. To the right lay the port, the
+new town, and such measure of freedom as he might win.</p>
+
+<p>He had yet to pass the main entrance to the castle, where, in addition
+to a sentry, would surely be stationed some sharp-eyed servants, each
+and all on the <i>qui vive</i> at that early hour, and stirred to unusual
+activity by the morning&#8217;s news, because Cartagena regarded a change of
+president by means of a revolution as a sort of movable holiday.</p>
+
+<p>At this crisis, luck befriended him. In the shade of the trees opposite
+the main gate was an orderly holding a horse. The animal&#8217;s trappings
+showed that it did not belong to a private soldier, and the fact that
+the man stood to attention as Maseden approached seemed to indicate that
+which was actually the fact&mdash;the charger belonged to none other than the
+president&#8217;s <i>aide-de-camp</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Fortune seldom bestows her favors in what the casino-jargon of Monte
+Carlo describes as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>&#8220;intermittent sequences,&#8221; or, in plain language,
+alternate <i>coups</i> of red and black, successive strokes of good and bad
+luck. The fickle goddess rather inclines to runs on a color. Having
+brought Maseden to the very brink of the grave, she had decided to help
+him now.</p>
+
+<p>As it turned out, Gomez&#8217;s soldier servant had been injured during the
+overnight disturbance, and the deputy was a newcomer.</p>
+
+<p>He saluted, held bridle and stirrup while Maseden mounted, and strolled
+casually across the square to inquire whether he ought to wait or go
+back to his quarters. He succeeded in puzzling the very sergeant who was
+mentally contriving the best means of securing the lion&#8217;s, or
+sergeant&#8217;s, share of twenty dollars&#8217; worth of wine.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Captain Gomez has not gone out,&#8221; snapped the calculator. &#8220;Get out of
+the way! Don&#8217;t stand there like the ears of a donkey! I have occupation.
+The Se&ntilde;or Steinbaum is putting a lady into his car, and she is very
+ill.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>So the trooper was unceremoniously brushed aside. A little later he
+might have reminded the sergeant of the folly of counting chickens
+before the eggs are hatched.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden was a first-rate horseman, but, owing to the discomfort of
+excruciatingly tight boots and a wobbly helmet, he did not enjoy the
+first half mile of a fast gallop down the winding road <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>which he was
+obliged to follow before he could strike into the country. Beneath, to
+the left, and on a plateau in front, were respectively the ancient and
+modern sections of Cartagena. But, having succeeded thus far, he had
+made up his mind inflexibly as to the course he would pursue.</p>
+
+<p>He meant to reach his own ranch, twelve miles inland, within the hour.
+He reckoned that, in the easy-going South American way, it would not be
+occupied as yet by an armed guard. An officer had rummaged among his
+papers that morning, but came away with the others.</p>
+
+<p>In any event, in that direction, and there only, lay any real chance of
+ultimate safety.</p>
+
+<p>On his estate there were two men at least in whom he might place trust;
+and even if he could not enter the house, one of them might obtain for
+him the clothes and money without which he had not the remotest prospect
+of getting away alive from the Republic of San Juan.</p>
+
+<p>He had pocketed Steinbaum&#8217;s twenty dollars in order to hire a horse, but
+the unwitting hospitality of Captain Gomez had provided him with a
+better animal than was to be picked up at the nearest <i>posada</i>. Indeed,
+with the exception of an automobile, a luxury that was few and far
+between in Cartagena, he could not have secured a swifter or more
+reliable conveyance <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>than this very steed, which would cover the twelve
+miles in less than an hour, and had also saved him a quarter of an
+hour&#8217;s running walk, an experience savoring of Chinese torture when
+undertaken in tight boots.</p>
+
+<p>The notion of possible pursuit by a party of soldiers in a car had
+barely occurred to him when he heard the rapid panting of an automobile
+in the rear.</p>
+
+<p>He slackened pace, took a shorter grip of the reins, and loosened the
+revolver in its case. Flight was ridiculous, unless he made across
+country; a last resource, involving a fatal loss of time.</p>
+
+<p>He took nothing for granted. Steinbaum was one of the half-dozen
+car-owners in Cartagena, and this was surely he, escorting Se&ntilde;or Porilla
+and the lady back to the town.</p>
+
+<p>They might pass him without recognition. If they didn&#8217;t, he would shoot
+Steinbaum and put a bullet into a tire. There would be no half measures.
+Suarez and his ally had declared war on him to the death, and war they
+would have without stint or quarter.</p>
+
+<p>It was a ticklish moment when the fast-running car drew near. Maseden
+affected to bend over and examine the horse&#8217;s fore action, as though he
+suspected lameness or a loose shoe. He gave one swift underlook into the
+limousine as it sped by and fancied he saw Porilla, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>seated with his
+back to the engine, bending forward.</p>
+
+<p>That was all. The car raced on and was speedily lost in a dust-cloud.</p>
+
+<p>So far, so good. He was dodging peril in the hairbreadth fashion
+popularly ascribed to warriors on a stricken field. Yet his mount was
+hardly in a canter again before he was plunged without warning into the
+most ticklish dilemma of all.</p>
+
+<p>Steinbaum&#8217;s car had just turned to the left, where the road bifurcated a
+few hundred yards ahead, when another car came flying down the other
+road&mdash;that which the fugitive himself must take for nearly half a mile;
+and this second menace harbored no less a personage than Don Enrico
+Suarez, president of the Republic of San Juan!</p>
+
+<p>It was an open car, too, and the president was seated alone in the
+tonneau.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden jumped to the instant conclusion that his enemy was hurrying to
+witness his execution, probably to jeer at him for having ventured to
+cross the predestined path of a conqueror. But, even though he passed,
+Suarez would know that the gaily bedizened horseman was not his
+glittering <i>aide-de-camp</i>.</p>
+
+<p>To permit the president to reach the Castle meant the beginning of an
+irresistible pursuit within five minutes. However, that consideration
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>did not bother the Vermonter if for no better reason than that he was
+determined it should not come into play.</p>
+
+<p>He smiled thoughtfully, adjusted the helmet once more, and voiced his
+sentiments aloud.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Good!&#8221; he said. &#8220;This time, Enrico, you and I square accounts!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Pulling up, he took the middle of the road, wheeling the horse &#8220;half
+left,&#8221; and holding up his right hand. The chauffeur saw him, slackened
+speed, and finally halted within a distance of a few feet. From first to
+last, the man regarded the newcomer as being Captain Gomez. The
+wind-screen was up, and the roads were dust-laden, so he could not see
+with absolute accuracy. Moreover, events followed each other so rapidly
+that he was given no chance to correct an erroneous first impression.</p>
+
+<p>The car being stopped, Maseden moved on, passing by the left. Drawing
+the revolver, he fired at the front right-hand tire at such close range
+that it was impossible to miss. The reports of the weapon and the
+bursting tube were simultaneous.</p>
+
+<p>The next shot would have lodged in the president&#8217;s heart if the startled
+horse had not swerved. As it was, quite a nasty hole was torn in the
+presidential anatomy; Suarez, himself fumbling for an automatic pistol,
+sank back in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>the tonneau a severely if not mortally wounded man.</p>
+
+<p>For one fateful instant, the eyes of the two had met and clashed, and
+recognition was mutual.</p>
+
+<p>A third bullet plowed through the back right-hand tire, and Maseden
+galloped off, the horse being only too eager to get away from the
+racket.</p>
+
+<p>The American did not look behind to ascertain what the chauffeur was
+doing. It really did not matter a great deal. Speed and direction were
+the paramount conditions during the next fifty minutes. The die was cast
+now beyond all hope of revocation. He was at war with the Republic, and,
+although he had rendered its citizens a valuable service in shooting
+their rascally president, they might not regard the incident in its
+proper light until a period far too late to benefit the philanthropist.</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact, interesting historically and otherwise, the
+chauffeur was convinced that Captain Ferdinando Gomez had assassinated
+his master, and said so, with many oaths, when he summoned assistance
+from a neighboring house. It may also be placed on record here that
+about the same time the gallant <i>aide-de-camp</i> had come to suspect that
+his beautiful uniform, if not returned promptly, might be sadly smirched
+by a score of bullets, with accessories; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>and was kicking up a fearful
+row because no one could get at the jailer and rescue that gala costume
+before the prisoner was led forth to execution.</p>
+
+<p>In a word, the Republic&#8217;s presidential affairs were greatly mixed, and
+remained in inextricable confusion until long after Maseden drew rein on
+a blown horse at the gate of his own <i>estancia</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The ranch, known as Los Andes, and one of the finest estates in San
+Juan, provided the original bone of contention between Maseden and
+Suarez. It had been built up, during thirty lazy years, by a distant
+cousin of Suarez, an elderly bachelor, who grew coffee and maize, and
+reared stock in a haphazard way.</p>
+
+<p>Seven years earlier he had met the young American in New York, took a
+liking to him, and offered to employ him as overseer while teaching him
+the business. The pupil soon became the instructor. Scientific methods
+were introduced, direct markets were tapped, and the produce of the
+estate was quadrupled within a few seasons.</p>
+
+<p>Then the older man died, and left the ranch and its contents to his
+assistant. There was not much money&mdash;the capital was sunk in stock and
+improvement&mdash;so a number of free and independent burghers of Cartagena
+received smaller amounts than they expected.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p><p>Suarez was one of the beneficiaries, seven in all. Six took the
+situation calmly. He alone was irreconcilable, and blustered about legal
+proceedings, only desisting when persuaded that he had no case, even for
+the venal courts of San Juan.</p>
+
+<p>And now, on that sultry January morning, the lawful owner of the Los
+Andes ranch, while awaiting the appearance of a peon, who, he knew, was
+tending some cattle in a byre behind the lodge, was wondering whether or
+not he might urge a tired charger into a final canter to the door of his
+own house without bringing about a pitched battle when he arrived there.</p>
+
+<p>At last came Pedro&mdash;every second man in South America is named after the
+chief of the Apostles&mdash;a brown, lithe, Indian-looking person. But he was
+Spanish enough in the expression of his emotions.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;By the eleven thousand virgins!&#8221; he cried joyously, after a first stare
+of incredulity, for the eyes rolled in his head at sight of Maseden&#8217;s
+garb, &#8220;it is not true, then, master, that you are a prisoner!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Who says that I am?&#8221; inquired Maseden.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;They say it up there at the <i>estancia</i>, se&ntilde;or,&#8221; and Pedro jerked a
+thumb towards an avenue of mahogany trees.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;They say? Who say?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p><p>Pedro was scared, but Maseden had taught his helpers to answer
+truthfully.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Old Lopez said it, se&ntilde;or. He told me the president&#8217;s men had charged
+him to touch nothing till they returned.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden&#8217;s heart throbbed more furiously at that reply than at aught
+which had befallen him during the few pregnant hours since dawn.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Those rascals have gone, then?&#8221; he said, so placidly that the peon was
+bewildered.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<i>Si, se&ntilde;or.</i> Did they not go with you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes. I was not sure of all.... Close and lock the gate, Pedro. Leave
+other things. Saddle your mustang and mount guard at the bend in the
+avenue, from which you can watch the Cartagena road. If you see horses,
+or an automobile, coming this way, ride to the house and tell me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<i>Si, se&ntilde;or.</i>&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Pedro hurried off. Maseden rode on at the best pace the spent horse was
+capable of. He might lose a potential fortune&mdash;though the shooting of
+Suarez should remove the worst of the hostile influences arrayed against
+him&mdash;but surely he could now save his life.</p>
+
+<p>He had never realized how dear life was at twenty-eight until that
+morning. Hitherto he had given no thought to it. Now he wanted to live
+till he was eighty!</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h3>ADIOS, SAN JUAN</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">S</span>uarez was not dead. He was not even dangerously wounded. A two-ounce
+bullet had dealt an upper left rib a blow like the kick of a horse, but
+at such an angle that the bone deflected its flight. Consequently, a
+fractured sternal costa, loss of blood, and a most painful flesh wound
+formed for Suarez the collective outcome of Maseden&#8217;s disturbed aiming.</p>
+
+<p>In effect, the president regained consciousness about the time Captain
+Gomez had succeeded in persuading several members of the new government
+that it was not he, but an escaped prisoner, who had so grievously
+maltreated the head of the Republic.</p>
+
+<p>A doctor announced that Se&ntilde;or Suarez must be given complete rest and
+freedom from public affairs during the ensuing week or ten days. Even
+the wrathful president himself, after making known the true identity of
+his assailant, felt that he had no option other than placing the affairs
+of the nation temporarily in the hands of his associates.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p><p>He made the best of an awkward situation, therefore, and issued a
+vainglorious decree announcing the change.</p>
+
+<p>Now, even San Juan could not provide a second revolution within twelve
+hours. States, like human beings, can experience a surfeit of
+excitement; moreover, the next gang of office-seekers had not yet
+emerged from the welter of parties. Sometimes, too, in South America, a
+disabled president is preferable to an active one, because the heads of
+departments can do a little pilfering on their own account.</p>
+
+<p>So San Juan became virtuously indignant over the &#8220;attempted
+assassination&#8221; of that renowned &#8220;liberator,&#8221; Enrico Suarez. A hue and
+cry was raised for the scoundrelly American, several supporters of real
+law and order in the State were arrested, and cavalry and police rode
+forth on Maseden&#8217;s trail.</p>
+
+<p>This planning and scheming and explaining consumed valuable time,
+however. It was high noon when a party of horsemen, headed by a
+well-informed guide, in the person of the ranch superintendent, &#8220;old&#8221;
+Lopez, tore along the avenue of mahogany trees at Los Andes.</p>
+
+<p>Lopez, a wizened, shrewd, and sufficiently trustworthy half-breed, was
+not betraying his employer. He was merely carrying out explicit
+instructions. Maseden had no desire to place his faithful servants in
+the power of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>Cartagena harpies. He was literally fighting for his
+life now. He meant to meet violence with greater violence, guile with
+deeper guile.</p>
+
+<p>When a Covenanter buckles on the sword, let professional swashbucklers
+take heed; when an honest man plots, let rogues beware. A clear-headed
+American, armed against oppression, can be at once a most lusty warrior
+and the astutest of strategists.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is the unexpected that happens,&#8221; said Disraeli in one of his
+happiest epigrams. A few strenuous hours spent in the Republic of San
+Juan in Maseden&#8217;s plight would have yielded the cynic material for a
+dozen like quips, if he had survived the experience.</p>
+
+<p>When Maseden reached the <i>estancia</i> he was received by Lopez with even
+greater amazement than was displayed by the peon. Being a privileged
+person, the old fellow expressed himself in absolutely untranslatable
+language. After a lurid preamble, he went on:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But, thanks to the heavenly ones, I see you again, se&ntilde;or, safe and
+sound, though in a strange livery. Is it true, then, that the president
+is dead?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes. Both of them, I believe.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden laughed wearily. He was tired, and the day was only beginning.
+He knew, of course, that Lopez meant Valdez, having probably, as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>yet,
+not so much as heard of Suarez as chief of the Republic.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll explain matters,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Stand by to catch me if I fall when I
+dismount. The devil take all dudes and their vanities! These boots have
+nearly killed me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>In a minute the offending jack boots were off and flung into the
+veranda, the helmet after them. The horse was given over to the care of
+a peon, and Maseden went to his bedroom.</p>
+
+<p>A glance at a big safe showed that the letter lock had defied curiosity,
+and no serious attempt had been made to force it. He saw that the
+drawers in a bureau in the adjoining room had been ransacked hastily.
+Probably, the new president&#8217;s emissaries were instructed to look for a
+list of &#8220;conspirators&#8221;&mdash;of well-affected citizens, that is&mdash;who meant to
+support the honorable <i>r&eacute;gime</i> of Valdez.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now, listen while I talk,&#8221; said Maseden, tearing open the tight-fitting
+blue coat. &#8220;I can put faith in you, I suppose?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Se&ntilde;or&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, I take it for granted. Besides, if you stick to me you may come
+out on top yourself. Valdez is dead. He was murdered last night, and
+Enrico Suarez stepped into his shoes.... Oh, I know Enrico&#8217;s real name,
+but I haven&#8217;t a second to spare. I was sentenced to death early this
+morning, and married about an hour <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>ago, just before being taken out to
+be shot.... Well, I got away; how&mdash;is of no concern to you. In fact, it
+is better that you shouldn&#8217;t know.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;A lady will come into possession here. She will call herself the Se&ntilde;ora
+Maseden. Se&ntilde;or Porilla will introduce her. She and the lawyer are
+playing some game to suit Suarez and Steinbaum, the German consul at
+Cartagena. My escape may bother them a bit, but I cannot guess just how
+things will work out. What orders did Enrico&#8217;s lieutenant give you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The foreman&#8217;s wits were rather mixed by his master&#8217;s extraordinary
+budget of news, but he answered readily.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He told me, se&ntilde;or, if I valued my life, to see that nothing was
+disturbed in the <i>estancia</i> till the president came or sent a
+representative.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I thought so. That gives me a sporting chance.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden had changed rapidly into his own clothes, an ordinary riding
+costume suitable to a tropical climate. He opened the safe, stuffed some
+papers into his pockets, also a quantity of gold, silver, and notes.</p>
+
+<p>Then he wrote a letter, and filled in a check. Having addressed and
+stamped the envelope, he handed it to his assistant.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;In five minutes or less, you will be riding at a steady gallop towards
+Cartagena,&#8221; he said. &#8220;If possible, deliver that letter yourself to Se&ntilde;or
+Peguero, the American consul. By &#8216;possible&#8217; I mean if you are not held
+up by soldiers or police on the way. Otherwise, keep it concealed, and
+post it when the opportunity serves.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Lopez knew the pleasant methods of his fellow-republicans.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;They may search me, se&ntilde;or,&#8221; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Not if you do as I tell you. Curse me fluently enough, and they&#8217;ll look
+on you as their best friend.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Se&ntilde;or!&#8221; protested the old man.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes. I mean it. Call me all the names you can lay tongue to. When I
+leave this room I&#8217;ll follow you, revolver in hand. Be careful to scowl
+and act unwillingly. I want some food and a couple of bottles of wine,
+also a leather bottle full of water and a tin cup. Saddle the Cid, and
+see that three or four good measures of corn are put in the saddle-bags
+with the other things.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;When I vanish rush to the stables, pick out a good mustang, and be in
+Cartagena within the hour. If not interfered with, take the letter to
+Se&ntilde;or Peguero. Don&#8217;t wait for an answer, but hurry at top speed to the
+Castle, where you must tell some one that I came back to the ranch <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>and
+ordered you about at the muzzle of a revolver.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Lead the soldiers straight here. If Captain Gomez is in command, assure
+him that you rescued his uniform, and he&#8217;ll be your friend forever.
+Should you meet them on the way, turn back with them. You understand?
+You&#8217;re for the president and against me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Lopez smiled till his face was a mass of wrinkles. He was beginning to
+see through the scheme, and was Spaniard enough to appreciate the leaven
+of intrigue.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But when and where shall I find you, se&ntilde;or, if you are taking a long
+journey?&#8221; he said, still grinning.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Not a mile away, if all goes well. Soon after dusk come to the Grove of
+the Doves at sunset. I&#8217;ll turn up. If you are delayed, and it is dark,
+hoot like an owl, and I&#8217;ll answer. If you don&#8217;t come at all I&#8217;ll know
+it&#8217;s too dangerous, and will be there again at dawn, at noon, and at
+sunset to-morrow. Pick up some news in Cartagena. You will be told, of
+course, that I have shot Suarez. Be careful to show your horrified
+surprise, and ask if the dear man is really dead. If he is, try and find
+out who is in power. Of course there&#8217;s a bare chance that Porilla may be
+made president, in which case I might be given a fair trial when an
+American man-of-war is anchored in the roads.... Oh, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>by the way, you
+might find out who the lady is I married this morning.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Se&ntilde;or!&#8221; gasped Lopez, in sheer bewilderment.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I haven&#8217;t the remotest notion who she is, or even what she looks like,&#8221;
+laughed Maseden. &#8220;Now, there&#8217;s no more time for talk,&#8221; and he raised his
+voice. &#8220;Obey me at once, you lazy old hound, or I&#8217;ll blow your brains
+out! Send a peon for the Cid. Fail me in one single thing, and I&#8217;ll put
+a bullet through your head!... Margarita! Some bread and meat, quick!
+I&#8217;ll soon show you who is master in this house. Suarez may give orders
+in Cartagena, but I give them here!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Lopez hurried out, wringing his hands. Maseden followed, brandishing the
+revolver. Some timid servants, who had gathered in the <i>patio</i> at the
+news of their employer&#8217;s return, made as though they would run, but he
+stopped them with a fierce threat, and, while munching the food brought
+by an aged housekeeper, behaved and spoke so outrageously that they
+thought he was mad.</p>
+
+<p>Poor creatures! They had served him well in the past. Now he was trying
+to save their lives by giving them something to say against him when
+questioned by the president&#8217;s henchmen.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, he had a sharp ear for the hoof-beats <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>of a galloping horse.
+Pedro, knowing nothing of the scene in the <i>estancia</i>, was still on
+guard at the bend in the avenue, and might be trusted to give warning of
+the enemy&#8217;s approach. But Maseden was allowed to eat his fill.</p>
+
+<p>A very terrified Lopez brought a hardy-looking mustang to the gateway,
+and his master saw a repeating rifle slung to the saddle. That was a
+thoughtful thing. Such a weapon might be exceedingly useful.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Where are the cartridges?&#8221; he thundered.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Here, most excellent one,&#8221; stammered the other, producing a bandolier.</p>
+
+<p>The American swung into the saddle, swore at his co-conspirator
+heartily, and was off.</p>
+
+<hr class="medium" />
+
+<p>So Lopez had a fine tale to tell when his mustang loped up to the
+entrance of the Castle of San Juan. He had a fine tale to hear, too, as
+he rode back to the ranch with a body of horse led by the fastidious and
+color-loving Ferdinando Gomez.</p>
+
+<p>The servants, of course, bore out the superintendent&#8217;s story of
+Maseden&#8217;s extraordinary behavior. Obviously, no one at the <i>estancia</i>
+was to blame for this daring prisoner&#8217;s second escape. The officer who
+had arrested him at daybreak should have left a guard in charge, but the
+plain truth was that the Cartagena <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>men had been so anxious to take part
+in the stirring doings anticipated at the capital that no heed was given
+to this flaw in the procedure.</p>
+
+<p>That night, however, when Maseden met Lopez at the rendezvous, the
+Spaniard&#8217;s account of events was not reassuring.</p>
+
+<p>Suarez was living, and not very badly hurt, it was true; but every man&#8217;s
+hand seemed to be against the foreigner who had tried to kill him.
+Maseden was puzzled, at first, by this excess of patriotism on the part
+of the citizens of Cartagena and San Juan generally.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What do they think has become of me?&#8221; he inquired.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;They argue, se&ntilde;or, that you have ridden into the interior, and
+telegrams have been sent to all the inland towns ordering your instant
+arrest. If you resist you are to be shot dead, and a reward of one
+thousand dollars will be paid when you are identified.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Do they pay for me dead only?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;They offer two thousand for you alive, se&ntilde;or.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Just to have the pleasure of potting me as per schedule.... Any fear
+that you have been followed to-night, old friend?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;None, se&ntilde;or. The soldiers at the <i>estancia</i> believe you are many miles
+away. Moreover, I have put good wine on the table.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Who is in charge there? Captain Gomez?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, se&ntilde;or, a stranger. <i>El capitan</i> went back to Cartagena. He nearly
+wept when he saw his boots. You had split them.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You gave the consul my letter?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I dropped it in his box, se&ntilde;or. I thought that was wiser.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;So it was. I should have remembered that. What of the lady?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The lady you married, se&ntilde;or?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Of course. You wouldn&#8217;t have me interested in some other lady on my
+wedding day, you old reprobate?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The half-breed laughed softly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Even that wouldn&#8217;t be so strange a thing as what has really happened,
+se&ntilde;or. No one knows who the lady is. One man, a distant cousin of mine,
+told me he heard she landed from a ship only late last night.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Great Scott!&#8221; muttered Maseden in English, &#8220;what a Sphinx-like person!
+She must be descended from the Man in the Iron Mask.&#8221; Then he went on:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Didn&#8217;t your cousin know where she was staying in Cartagena? Surely
+there must have been a good deal of public curiosity about her. Twenty
+people were present at the marriage. It was no secret.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I understand that she had gone to Se&ntilde;or Steinbaum&#8217;s house. She fainted
+after the ceremony, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>my cousin said, and had to be carried into an
+automobile, but he knew nothing more.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The veiled Madeleine had felt the strain, then! Somehow the knowledge of
+her collapse touched a chord of sentiment in Maseden&#8217;s heart, but his
+own desperate plight effectually banished all other considerations at
+the moment.</p>
+
+<p>True, he was safe for the night, and for many days to come, if the
+foreman&#8217;s fidelity remained unshaken. The ranch was called Los Andes
+because it contained a chain of little hills all covered with valuable
+timber, among which he could hide without real difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>But of what avail this precarious lurking on his own estate? He must
+take speedy and effectual steps to get clear of San Juan altogether
+until such time as he could secure adequate protection, and have his
+case thrashed out by a tribunal to whose decision even Enrico Suarez,
+the president of the Republic, must bow.</p>
+
+<p>One thing was quite certain&mdash;never again could he settle down in
+unmolested possession of his property. Though the shooting of Suarez was
+an unfortunate necessity, its effect would be enduring and disastrous.</p>
+
+<p>He had thought out every phase of the problem during the long, hot hours
+beneath the trees, and the half-breed&#8217;s account of the trend of public
+feeling decided his adoption of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>boldest course of all. He would go
+to Cartagena, where he was hardly known, save to a few merchants and
+shopkeepers, a banker and one or two members of the Consular community,
+and board some outward-bound vessel.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately, he had plenty of money, and, glory be, could speak both
+Spanish and the San Juan patois like a native. If his luck held, he
+would cheat Suarez yet.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Lopez,&#8221; he said, after a long pause, &#8220;I must leave the ranch for many a
+day, probably forever. If I stay here I&#8217;ll only plunge you into trouble
+and get myself captured. Now, do me one last service. Have you any
+clothes belonging to that <i>vaquero</i> nephew of yours who broke his neck
+in a race last Easter?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I have his overalls, a <i>fiesta</i> jacket, some shirts and a sombrero,
+se&ntilde;or.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Bring them, and speedily. I&#8217;ll give you a good price.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;They are yours for nothing, se&ntilde;or.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t deal on those terms, Lopez. Off with you. I&#8217;ll wait here.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Anything else, se&ntilde;or?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes. I was nearly forgetting. Bring his saddle, too. My own saddle
+might be recognized. I have a long ride before me, so hurry.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Within half an hour the good-hearted old foreman was richer by five
+hundred dollars, while Maseden, a dashing cowboy, though unkempt <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>as to
+face and hands, was riding across country by starlight.</p>
+
+<p>He did not tell Lopez his real objective. There was no need. The old
+fellow occasionally indulged in a burst of dissipation, and if his
+tongue wagged then he might blurt out some boastful phrase which would
+bring down on him the merciless wrath of the authorities.</p>
+
+<p>At dawn the fugitive received another slice of real luck. He had just
+entered a main road leading from San Luis, a town thirty miles from
+Cartagena, when he came upon a cowherd sitting by the roadside and
+bemoaning his misfortunes. The man was commissioned to drive some cattle
+to a sale-ring in the city, and had scratched an ankle rather badly
+while whacking one of the steers out of a bed of thorns.</p>
+
+<p>Such an incident was common enough in his life, but on this occasion
+either the thorn was poisonous or some foreign matter had lodged in the
+wound, because the limb had swollen greatly and was so painful that he
+could hardly walk.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden played the Good Samaritan. He ascertained the drover&#8217;s name, his
+master&#8217;s, and the address of the salesman; the rest was easy. Helping
+the sufferer into a wayside hovel, he promised to send back a messenger
+later with an official receipt, took charge of the animals himself, and
+reached Cartagena as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>Ramon Aliones, the accredited representative of a
+San Luis rancher.</p>
+
+<p>The sale-ring was near the harbor, and he mounted a man on his own
+broncho to deliver the drover&#8217;s voucher for the safe arrival of the herd
+at its destination. He asked for, and obtained, a duplicate, which he
+kept. This same emissary readily disposed of the horse and saddle at a
+ruinous price when told that the newcomer was not only thirsty, but
+meant to see the sights of the capital.</p>
+
+<p>A cheap restaurant, some wineshops, and a vile billiard saloon provided
+shelter for the rest of the day. Before night fell, Maseden had
+ascertained three things: He was supposed to be riding hard into the
+interior; the lady he had married was really a stranger and was
+Steinbaum&#8217;s guest, and a large steamer, the <i>Southern Cross</i>, flying the
+Stars and Stripes, was due to leave port at midnight.</p>
+
+<p>She should have sailed some hours earlier, but the drastic changes in
+the marine department entailed by the day&#8217;s happenings had delayed
+certain formalities connected with her manifests.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;For a time, se&ntilde;or,&#8221; explained the ship&#8217;s chandler who gave him this
+latter information, &#8220;no one would sign anything. You see, a name on a
+paper would prove conclusively which president you favored. You
+understand?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p><p>Maseden understood perfectly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is well that you and I, se&ntilde;or, have no truck with these presidents,
+or we might be in trouble,&#8221; he laughed. &#8220;As it is, another bottle, and
+to the devil with all politicians!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Under cover of the darkness the American slipped away from his boon
+companions, now comfortably drunk at his expense. Having no luggage, he
+bought a second-hand leather trunk and some cheap underclothing, such as
+a muleteer might reasonably possess. He also secured the repeating rifle
+and cartridges which he had left in a restaurant, and, thus reinforced,
+made for the Plaza, where Cartagenians of both sexes and all ages were
+gathered to enjoy the cool breeze that comes from the Pacific with
+sunset.</p>
+
+<p>From that point he knew he could see the <i>Southern Cross</i> lying at
+anchor in the roadstead. She was there, sure enough, nearly a mile out,
+and he was puzzling his wits for a pretext to hire a boat and board her
+without attracting notice when chance solved the problem for him.</p>
+
+<p>Two men passed. They were talking English, and he heard one addressing
+the other by name.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Tell you what, Sturgess,&#8221; the speaker was saying, &#8220;I&#8217;d be hull down on
+Cartagena to-night if the skipper would only bring up at Valparaiso. But
+his first port of call is Buenos <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>Ayres, and I&#8217;ve got to make Valparaiso
+before I see good old New York again, so here I&#8217;m fixed till a coasting
+steamer comes along. Great C&aelig;sar&#8217;s ghost, I wish I were going with you!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The second man, Sturgess, was carrying a suitcase, and the two were
+evidently making for a short pier which supplied landing places for
+small craft at various stages of the tide.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden quickened his pace, overtook them, and said in Spanish that he
+wished to book a passage to Buenos Ayres on the <i>Southern Cross</i>, and,
+if the Se&ntilde;or Americano would permit him to board the vessel in his boat,
+he (Maseden) would gladly carry the bag to the pier.</p>
+
+<p>Sturgess evidently did not understand Spanish, and asked his companion
+to interpret. He laughed on hearing the queer offer.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Guess I can handle the grip myself, and the gallant <i>vaquero</i> is pretty
+well loaded with his own outfit,&#8221; he said, &#8220;but he is welcome to a trip
+on my catamaran, if it&#8217;s of any service.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden, however, insisted on giving some return for the favor, and
+secured the suitcase. Now, if any sharp-eyed watcher on the pier saw
+him, he would pass as the traveler&#8217;s servant.</p>
+
+<p>Within half an hour he was aboard the ship, and had bargained for a
+spare berth in the forecastle with the crew. He would be compelled to
+rough it, and remain as dirty and disheveled <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>as possible until the ship
+reached Buenos Ayres. Obviously, no matter what his personal wrongs
+might be, he could not make the captain of the <i>Southern Cross</i> a party
+to the escape from Cartagena of the man who had nearly succeeded in
+ridding the republic of its president.</p>
+
+<p>But the prospect of hard fare and worse accommodations did not trouble
+him at all. He had nearly ten thousand dollars in his pockets. If the
+note sent through Lopez to the American Consul was acted on promptly, a
+further sum of fifteen thousand dollars lying to his credit in a local
+bank was now in safe keeping.</p>
+
+<p>Really, considering that he had been so near death that morning, he had
+a good deal to be thankful for if he never saw Cartagena or the Los
+Andes ranch again.</p>
+
+<p>As for the marriage, what of it? A knot so easily tied could be untied
+with equal readiness. He hadn&#8217;t the least doubt but that an American
+court of law would declare the ceremony illegal.</p>
+
+<p>At any rate, he could jump that fence when he reached it. At present, in
+sporting phrase, he was going strong with a lot in hand.</p>
+
+<p>He kept well out of sight when a government launch came off, and a port
+official boarded the vessel.</p>
+
+<p>He never knew what a narrow escape he had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>when the chief steward who
+acted as purser, was asked if any new addition had been made to the
+passenger list. The ship&#8217;s officer was not a good Spanish scholar. He
+thought the question applied to the cargo, and answered &#8220;no.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Then, after a wait that seemed interminable, the snorting and growling
+of a steam winch and the unwilling rasp of the anchor chain chanted a
+symphonic chorus in Maseden&#8217;s ears. Those harsh sounds sang of freedom
+and life, of golden years on a most excellent earth instead of an
+eternity in the grave. He came on deck to watch the Castle of San Juan
+dwindle and vanish in the deep, blue glamour of a perfect tropical
+night.</p>
+
+<p>He was standing on the open part of the main deck, close to the fore
+hold, when he heard English voices from the promenade deck high above
+his head.</p>
+
+<p>A man&#8217;s somewhat querulous accents reached him first.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, at this time two days ago, I little thought I&#8217;d be on a steamer
+going south to-night,&#8221; said the speaker.</p>
+
+<p>There was no answer, though it was evident that the petulant philosopher
+was not addressing the silent air.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I suppose you girls are still mooning about that fellow getting away
+from the Castle?&#8221; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>grumbled the same voice. &#8220;I tell you he has no
+earthly chance of winning clear. Steinbaum will see to that. His record
+is none too good, and a question in the American Senate would just about
+finish him, even in San Juan. So Mr. Philip Alexander Maseden might just
+as well have been shot yesterday morning as to-day or to-morrow. They&#8217;re
+hot on his track now, Steinbaum told me&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Eh? Yes, I know he did <i>me</i> a good turn, but, damn it all, that was
+merely because he was going to die, not because he was a first-rate life
+for an insurance office. It was no business of mine that he and Suarez
+couldn&#8217;t agree.... Oh, let&#8217;s go to our cabins! Tears always put my
+nerves on a raw edge! Anyone would think you had lost a real husband on
+your wedding day!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>There was a movement of shadowy forms. Maseden thought he could
+distinguish a woman&#8217;s white hand rest for an instant on the ship&#8217;s rail.
+Was that the hand he thought he would remember until the Day of
+Judgment? He could not say.</p>
+
+<p>The one fact that lifted itself out of the welter of incoherent fancies
+whirling in his mind was an almost incontrovertible one. If his ears had
+not deceived him, he and his unknown but lawful wife were
+fellow-passengers on board the <i>Southern Cross</i>!</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h3>&#8220;FIND THE LADY&#8221;</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">A</span> slight mist hung over the sea&mdash;sure outcome of the tremendous range of
+the thermometer between noon and midnight in a tropical clime. The sky
+was cloudless, and the stars clustered in myriads.</p>
+
+<p>Though the Southern Hemisphere falls far short of the glory of the north
+in constellations of the first magnitude, the extraordinary clearness of
+the upper air near the equator enhances the stellar display. It would
+almost seem that nature knows she may veil her ample splendors in the
+north, but must make the most of her scantier charms in the south.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden, swinging on his heel in sheer bewilderment, suddenly found
+himself face to face with the Southern Cross, hanging low above the
+horizon. Had an impossible meteor flamed forth from the familiar cluster
+of stars and shot in awe-inspiring flight across the whole arc of the
+heavens northward to the line, it would not have surprised him more than
+the discovery that his &#8220;wife&#8221; was on board the ship.</p>
+
+<p>That was a stupendous fact before which the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>whirl of adventure of the
+long day now drawing to a close subsided into calm remoteness.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Madeleine,&#8221; the woman he had married, was his fellow-passenger! He
+would surely see her many times during the voyage to Buenos Ayres! He
+would hear her voice, which he could not fail to recognize.</p>
+
+<p>She, on her part, would probably identify him at the first glance. How
+would she handle an extraordinary situation? Would she claim him as her
+husband, repudiate him scornfully, or utterly ignore him? He could not
+even guess.</p>
+
+<p>There was no telling what a woman would do who had elected to marry a
+man whom she had never met, whose very name, in all likelihood, she had
+never heard, merely because he happened to be a prisoner condemned to
+speedy death.</p>
+
+<p>Yet she could not be a particularly cold-blooded person. She had wept
+for him, had whispered her heartfelt grief; had promised to pray for and
+think of him always. Even the man with the high-pitched voice of a
+hypochondriac&mdash;presumably, from the manner of his address, her
+father&mdash;had hinted that her suffering had already passed the bounds set
+for one who, to serve her own ends, had gone through that amazing
+ceremony.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p><p>Maseden did not actually marshal his thoughts thus clearly. If compelled
+to bend his wits to the task, he might have spoken or written in such
+wise. But an active brain has its own haphazard methods of weighing a
+new and distracting problem; it will ask and answer a dozen startling
+questions simultaneously.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of Maseden&#8217;s strange and formless imaginings the ship&#8217;s
+course was changed a couple of points to the southward, and the Southern
+Cross was shut out of sight by the forecastle head. Then, and not until
+then, did the coincidence of the vessel&#8217;s name with that of the
+constellation occur to his bemused wits.</p>
+
+<p>He laughed cheerfully.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;By gad!&#8221; he said, &#8220;all the signs of the zodiac must have clustered
+about my horoscope on this 15th of January. When I get ashore I must
+find an astrologer and ask him to expound.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The sound of his own voice brought a belated warning to Maseden of the
+folly he had committed in speaking aloud.</p>
+
+<p>There was no other occupant of the fore deck at the moment. A look-out
+man in the bows could not possibly have overheard, because of the
+whistling of the breeze created by the ship&#8217;s momentum and the plash of
+the curved waves set up by the cut-water, and it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>was highly improbable
+that words uttered in a conversational tone would have reached the
+bridge.</p>
+
+<p>But behind him rose the three decks of the superstructure, and there
+might be eavesdroppers on the promenade deck or in one of the two dark
+gangways running aft.</p>
+
+<p>He glanced over his shoulder to right and left. Apparently he had
+escaped this time. No matter what developments took place in the near
+future, he was by no means anxious as yet to reveal his nationality.
+Each hour brought home, more and more forcibly, the misfortune of the
+chance which left him no alternative but the shooting of Suarez that
+morning.</p>
+
+<p>The act was absolutely essential to his own safety, but it put him
+clearly out of court. At any rate, the authorities of no South American
+state would listen to a recital of his earlier wrongs. If, as was highly
+probable, a sensational account of the attempted assassination of the
+new president had been tacked on to the telegrams announcing the <i>coup
+d&#8217;&eacute;tat</i> in San Juan, and he, Maseden, were painted as a desperado of
+mark, it might even be feared that the settled and respectable Argentine
+Republic would arrest him and endeavor to send him back to San Juan for
+trial.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, the United States Consul in Buenos Ayres would have something
+to say about <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>it, but there was a very real danger of consular efforts
+being overruled. No matter how distasteful the r&ocirc;le, Philip Alexander
+Maseden must continue to masquerade as Ramon Aliones, <i>vaquero</i>, until
+he could leave the ship and assume another alias.</p>
+
+<p>It was soon borne in on him how narrow was the margin which still
+separated him from disaster. He had gone to his berth, an unsavory hutch
+next to a larger cabin tenanted by deck-hands, when the door was thrust
+wide (he had left it half open while undressing, there being no electric
+switch within) and a lamp flashed in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>A short, stockily-built man, whom Maseden rightly took for the captain,
+stood there, accompanied by another man, seemingly a Spanish steward.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now, then,&#8221; came the gruff question, &#8220;what&#8217;s this I hear about your
+speaking English to yourself? Who are you? What&#8217;s your name?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Luckily, Maseden was so surprised that he did not answer. The swarthy
+steward, a thin, lantern-jawed person, grinned. Maseden saw that the man
+was wearing canvas shoes with india-rubber soles, and guessed the truth
+instantly.</p>
+
+<p>His nerve had been tested many times that day; nor did it fail him now.
+Gazing blankly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>at the captain, he said, in Spanish, that he did not
+understand.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Tell him, Alfonso, that you heard him speaking English a few minutes
+since.... Hi, you! Stop that! No smoking in your berth.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden was rolling a cigarette in true Spanish style. The captain was
+obviously suspicious, so the situation called for a touch of stage
+artistry.</p>
+
+<p>Alfonso translated, pricking his ears for Maseden&#8217;s reply. But he hailed
+from the east coast, whereas Maseden used the <i>patois</i> of San Juan.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You made a natural mistake, se&ntilde;or,&#8221; said the American easily. &#8220;I was
+talking to the stars, a habit of mine when alone on the <i>pampas</i>, and
+their names would sound somewhat like the words of a barbarous tongue.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And a foolish habit, too!&#8221; commented the captain when he heard the
+explanation. &#8220;Do you know any of &#8217;em?&#8221; and he glanced up at the strip of
+sky visible from where he stood.</p>
+
+<p>The smiling <i>vaquero</i> stepped out on to the open deck. Oh, yes, all the
+chief stars were old friends of his. He pointed to the &#8220;Sea-serpent,&#8221;
+the &#8220;Crow,&#8221; and the &#8220;Great Dog,&#8221; giving the Spanish equivalents.</p>
+
+<p>The steward, of course, densely ignorant in such things, and already
+half convinced that he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>had blundered, was only anxious now to avoid
+being rated by the captain for having gone to him with a cock-and-bull
+story. Somehow, Maseden sensed this fact, and made smooth the path.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;They are strange names,&#8221; he said with a laugh, &#8220;but we of the plains
+often have to find the way on land as a sailor on the sea.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Has he any papers?&#8221; demanded the captain, apparently satisfied that the
+passenger was really acquainted with the chief star-groups.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden produced that thrice-fortunate duplicate of the receipt for
+cattle brought from the San Luis ranch to Cartagena by Ramon Aliones
+that very day. The captain examined it, and turned wrathfully on the
+steward.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Be off to the devil!&#8221; he growled. &#8220;Find some other job than bothering
+me with your fool&#8217;s tales!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>When Alfonso had vanished, he added, seemingly as an afterthought:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If I was a <i>vaquero</i> with a dirty face, I wouldn&#8217;t worry about clean
+fingernails or wear silk underclothing, and I&#8217;d do my star-gazing in
+dumb show!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>With that he, too, strode away. Undoubtedly, the captain of the
+<i>Southern Cross</i> was no fool.</p>
+
+<p>Five minutes later the silk vest and pants <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>which Maseden had not
+troubled to change while donning the gay attire of old Lopez&#8217;s nephew,
+went into the Pacific through the small port-hole which redeemed the
+cabin&#8217;s otherwise stuffy atmosphere. Happily the bunk, though crude, was
+clean, and long enough to hold a tall man.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden fancied he would lie awake for hours. In reality, he was dead
+tired, and slept the sleep of sheer exhaustion until wakened by a
+loud-voiced intimation that all crimson-hued Dagoes must rouse
+themselves if they didn&#8217;t want to be stirred up by a hose-pipe.</p>
+
+<p>Now, if there was one thing more than another that Maseden liked when on
+board ship, it was a cold salt-water bath. But he dared neither take a
+bath nor wash his face. Personal cleanliness is not a marked
+characteristic of South American cowboys. That he should display
+close-cropped hair instead of an abundance of oiled and curly tresses
+was a fact singular enough in itself, without inviting attention by the
+use of soap and water.</p>
+
+<p>Perforce, he remained filthy. The captain&#8217;s hint was very much to the
+point.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Southern Cross</i> was not a regular passenger boat. Primarily a
+trader, carrying nitrate or grain to home ports, and coal thence to
+various points on the southern or western <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>seaboard of South America,
+she was equipped with a few cabins, about a dozen all told, on the upper
+deck.</p>
+
+<p>The so-called second-class accommodation was several degrees worse than
+the steerage on a crack Atlantic liner. That is to say, the human
+freight ranked a long way after cargo. The food was plentiful, though
+rough. Even for saloon passengers there was neither stewardess nor
+doctor.</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of course, a passenger list would be an absurdity. The chief
+steward acted as purser, and knew the names of all on board after five
+minutes&#8217; study of his ledger. Passengers and ship&#8217;s officers soon became
+acquainted. Within twenty-four hours Maseden had ascertained that a Mr.
+James Gray, with his two daughters, occupied staterooms; but, for the
+life of him, he could not learn the ladies&#8217; Christian names.</p>
+
+<p>He cudgeled his brains to try and remember whether or not his &#8220;wife&#8221; had
+signed the register as Madeleine Gray; but the effort failed completely.
+He knew why, for the best of reasons; yet the knowledge did not render
+failure less tantalizing.</p>
+
+<p>It is one thing to be dazzled by the prospect of escape from the seeming
+certainty of death within a few minutes, but quite another to be on the
+same ship as the lady you have married <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>two days earlier, yet neither
+know her name nor be positive as to her identity.</p>
+
+<p>This, however, was literally Maseden&#8217;s predicament when chance favored
+him with a long, steady look at the Misses Gray. He could not be
+mistaken, because there were no other ladies on board.</p>
+
+<p>Thus when a very pretty girl, wearing a muslin dress and hat of Leghorn
+straw, appeared at the forward rail of the promenade deck and gazed
+wistfully out over the sea, Maseden&#8217;s heart fluttered more violently
+than he would have thought possible as the effect of a casual glance at
+any woman.</p>
+
+<p>So, then, this fair, slim creature, whose unheeding eyes had dwelt on
+him for a fleeting second ere they sought the horizon, was his wife! It
+was an extraordinary notion; fantastic, yet not wholly unpleasing. It
+would be rather a joke, if opportunity offered, to flirt with her. He
+had never flirted with any girl, and hardly knew how to begin; but much
+reading had taught him that the lady herself might prove an admirable
+coach if so minded.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, there was room for error in one respect. He might have
+married the sister, who, thus far, nearly midday, had not been visible
+during daylight. He calculated the pros and cons of the situation. If
+his &#8220;wife&#8221; was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>feeling the strain of that unnerving experience in the
+great hall of the Castle of San Juan, she might now be resting in her
+stateroom. But why should the sister, on whose shoulders, one would
+suppose, sat no such heavy load of care, come on deck alone and scan the
+blue Pacific with that dreamy air?</p>
+
+<p>Yes, by Jove, this really must be his wife! Somehow, poetic justice
+demanded that she, and not her sister, should meet him thus
+unconsciously.</p>
+
+<p>In covert fashion he began to study her. The deck on which she stood was
+fully twenty feet above him, and she was still further separated from
+him by some thirty feet of the fore hatch, but he noted that her eyes
+were of the Parma violet tint so frequently met with in the heroines of
+fiction, yet all too seldom seen in real life. Being a mere man, he was
+not aware that blue eyes in shadow assume that exact tint. At any rate,
+as eyes, they were more than satisfactory.</p>
+
+<p>Her nose was well modeled, with broad, flexible nostrils, unfailing sign
+of good health and an equable disposition. Her lips were prettily
+curved, and the oval face, framed in a cluster of brown hair, was poised
+on a perfectly molded neck. She owned shapely arms; he had already had
+occasion to admire her hands; a small, neatly-shod foot was visible
+under the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>lowest rail as the girl leaned on her elbows in an attitude
+of unstudied grace.</p>
+
+<p>Altogether, Mr. Maseden liked the looks of Mrs. Maseden!</p>
+
+<p>He was beginning to revel in sentiment when the edifice of seemingly
+substantial fact so swiftly constructed by a fertile imagination was
+dissipated into space by hearing a voice&mdash;<i>the</i> voice, he was
+sure&mdash;coming from some unseen part of the upper deck.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ah! There you are, Nina!&#8221; it said. &#8220;I&#8217;ve been looking for you
+everywhere! How long have you been here?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Nina! So this fairy was only the <i>sister</i>. Maseden smiled grimly behind
+a cloud of cigarette smoke because of the absurd shock which the words
+administered. He was sharply aware of a sense of disappointment, a
+feeling so far-fetched as to be almost ludicrous.</p>
+
+<p>What in the world did it matter to which of these two he was married? In
+all probability he would never exchange a word with either, and his
+first serious business on reaching a civilized country would be to get
+rid of the incubus with which a set of phenomenal circumstances alone
+had saddled him.</p>
+
+<p>At last, however, he would really see his wife, and thus end one phase
+of a curious entanglement. Nina had half turned. Evidently she realized
+that Madeleine meant to join her. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>Maseden leaned back against the
+external paneling of his cubby-hole and looked aloft now with curiosity
+at once quickened and undisguised.</p>
+
+<p>But he was fated to suffer many minor shocks that day. Madeleine
+appeared, and presented such an exact replica of Nina that, at first
+sight, and in the strong shadows cast by the canvas screen which alone
+rendered that portion of the deck habitable while the sun was up, it was
+practically impossible for a stranger to differentiate between them.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden discovered later that Madeleine was twenty-two and Nina nearly
+twenty-four; but the marked resemblance between the pair, accentuated by
+their trick of dressing alike, led people to take them for twins.
+Moreover, each so admirably duplicated the other in voice and mannerisms
+that only near relatives or intimate friends could be certain which was
+speaking if the owner of the voice remained invisible.</p>
+
+<p>For a little while, too, Maseden&#8217;s mind was reduced to chaos by hearing
+Nina address her sister as &#8220;Madge.&#8221; He was vouchsafed the merest glimpse
+of Madge&#8217;s face, because, after a quick, heedless look at him and at a
+half-caste sailor readjusting the hatches covering the fore hold, she
+turned her back to the rail and said something that Maseden could not
+overhear.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p><p>A man joined the two girls, whereupon Nina also faced aft. The newcomer,
+standing well away under the screen, could not be seen at all, and
+Maseden thought it must be Mr. Gray, the querulous person whose
+outspoken utterances had first warned Maseden that his wife was on
+board.</p>
+
+<p>But he erred again. Some comment passed by Nina raised a laugh, and
+Maseden recognized the voice of Mr. Sturgess, whose baggage he had
+carried overnight.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I guess <i>not</i>!&#8221; he was saying, with a humorous stress on each word. &#8220;As
+a summer resort, San Juan disagreed with my complaint, Miss Gray.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Have you been ill, then?&#8221; came the natural query.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, but I might have been had I remained there too long,&#8221; was the
+answer. &#8220;A change of president in one of these small republics is like a
+bad railroad smash&mdash;you never know who&#8217;ll get hurt. I&#8217;ve a notion that
+Mr. Gray must have felt sort of relieved when he brought you two young
+ladies safe and sound aboard this ship.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We didn&#8217;t see anything specially alarming,&#8221; said Nina. &#8220;Madge went out
+twice during the day with Mr. Steinbaum, a trader, and the streets were
+very quiet, she thought.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Madge! Was &#8220;Madge&#8221; a family diminutive <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>for Madeleine? Maseden neither
+knew nor cared. Nina&#8217;s harmless chatter had told him the truth. Madge
+most certainly did find the streets quiet, if the story brought by Lopez
+from Cartagena was correct; namely, that she had been carried out of the
+Castle in a dead faint.</p>
+
+<p>And now the heartless creature was actually laughing!</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;One cannot take a South American revolution quite seriously&mdash;it always
+has something comical about it,&#8221; she cried, and it was astounding how
+closely the one sister&#8217;s voice resembled the other&#8217;s. &#8220;I understand that
+some poor people were shot the night before last, but I saw a man who
+keeps a restaurant opposite Mr. Steinbaum&#8217;s house produce a device with
+flags and a scroll. On the scroll was painted &#8216;Long Live Valdez.&#8217; He
+drew some fresh letters over the first part of the name, dabbed on
+plenty of black and white paint, and the new legend ran &#8216;Long Live
+Suarez.&#8217; The whole thing was done, and the flags were out, in less than
+five minutes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Sturgess evidently asked for and obtained permission to smoke. He came
+to the rail. Both girls faced forward again, and Maseden was free to
+compare them.</p>
+
+<p>Madge, or Madeleine, as he preferred to style her, seemed to be a trifle
+paler than Nina. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>Otherwise, her likeness to her sister was almost
+uncanny, if that ill-omened word might be applied to two remarkably
+pretty girls. Neither of the girls wore gloves, but Maseden looked in
+vain for the heavy gold wedding-ring which Steinbaum&#8217;s thoroughness had
+supplied when wanted.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment an officer appeared on the main deck. The fore hold had
+to be opened, it seemed. A quartermaster, summoned from the forecastle,
+hoisted a block and tackle to a derrick. The noise effectually drowned
+the talk of the trio on the upper deck until the tackle was rigged, and
+a couple of hatches were removed. The half-caste sailor was about to
+descend into the hold just as Sturgess&#8217;s somewhat staccato accents
+reached Maseden clearly again.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Say, did you ladies hear of the American who was to be shot early
+yesterday morning? A most thrilling yarn was spun by a friend of mine
+who knows Cartagena from A to Z. He said&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden was on the alert to detect the slightest variation of expression
+on Madeleine&#8217;s face. She bent forward, her hands tightly clutching the
+rail, and darted a piteous under look at her sister. Thus it happened
+that Maseden alone was gazing upward, and he saw, out of the tail of his
+eye, the heavy block detaching itself from the derrick and falling
+straight on top of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>sailor, who had a leg over the coaming of the
+hatch and a foot on the first rung of the iron ladder leading down into
+the hold.</p>
+
+<p>With a quickness born of many a tussle with a bucking broncho, Maseden
+leaped, caught the rope held by the quartermaster, and jerked it
+violently. The block missed the half-caste by a few inches, and clanged
+in the hold far beneath.</p>
+
+<p>The tenth part of a second decided whether the sailor should be dashed
+headlong into the depths or left wholly unscathed. As it was, he and
+every onlooker realized that the rakish-looking <i>vaquero</i> had saved his
+life.</p>
+
+<p>In the impulsive way of his race, the man darted forward, threw his arms
+around Maseden&#8217;s neck, and kissed him. To his very great surprise, his
+rescuer thrust him off, and said angrily:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t be such a damn fool!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>An exclamation, almost a slight scream, came from the upper deck.
+Maseden knew in an instant that this time he had blundered beyond
+repair. Madeleine had heard his voice, and had recognized him. Moreover,
+the officer, the quartermaster, even the grateful Spaniard, were eyeing
+him with unmixed amazement.</p>
+
+<p>The fat <i>was</i> in the fire this time! In another moment would come
+denunciation and arrest, and then&mdash;back to the firing squad! What should
+he do?</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h3>ROMANCE RECEIVES A COLD DOUCHE</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">B</span>ut none of these thoughts showed in Maseden&#8217;s face. He laughed easily
+and explained in voluble Spanish that he swore in English occasionally,
+having picked up the correct formula from an American se&ntilde;or with whom
+he once took a hunting trip into the interior.</p>
+
+<p>The sailor, hearing this flow of a language he understood, and not able
+to measure the idiomatic fluency of Maseden&#8217;s English, accepted the
+story without demur, but the fourth officer and quartermaster, both
+Americans, were evidently puzzled.</p>
+
+<p>He soon got rid of the too-effusive half-caste, and retired to his
+berth. Thank goodness, since the one person on board mainly concerned
+was perforce aware of his identity, he was free to wash his face and
+take a bath! To oblige a lady he would have remained unwashed all the
+way to Buenos Ayres; now, every other consideration might go hang.</p>
+
+<p>Finding a steward, he gave further cause for bewilderment by asking to
+be allowed to use a bath-room.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span></p><p>Greatly to Maseden&#8217;s relief, his lapse into the vernacular seemed to
+evoke little or no comment subsequently. The captain heard of it, but
+was far too irritated by the faulty behavior of a ring-bolt (examination
+showed a bad flaw in the metal) to pay any special heed. As for the
+half-caste sailor, his gratitude to Maseden took the form of describing
+him admiringly as &#8220;the <i>vaquero</i> who could swear like an <i>Americano</i>,&#8221;
+an equivocal compliment which actually fostered the belief that Maseden
+was what he represented himself to be&mdash;a vagabond cowboy migrating from
+one coast of the great South American continent to the other.</p>
+
+<p>His peculiar habits, therefore, shown in such trivial details as a
+desire for personal cleanliness and a certain fastidiousness at table,
+were attributed to the same exotic tutelage. Of course, when he spoke
+any intelligent Spaniard could have detected faults in phrase or
+pronunciation, but he had a ready resource in the <i>patois</i> of San Juan,
+and no man on board was competent to assess him accurately by both
+standards.</p>
+
+<p>He settled down quickly to the exigencies of life at sea. Five days
+after leaving Cartagena he was an expert in the matter of keeping his
+feet when the vessel was rolling or pitching, or performing a corkscrew
+movement which combined the worst features of each.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p><p>When the <i>Southern Cross</i> entered more southerly latitudes her
+passengers were given ample opportunity to test their skill in this
+respect. The weather grew colder each day, and with the drop in the
+thermometer came gray skies and rough seas.</p>
+
+<p>There are two tracks for ocean-going steamers bound down the west coast.
+The open Pacific offers no hindrance to safe navigation, except an
+occasional heavy gale. The inner course, through Smyth&#8217;s Channel, is
+sheltered but tortuous, and the commander of the <i>Southern Cross</i>
+elected to save time by heading direct for the Straits of Tierra del
+Fuego. The ship was speedy and well-found. A stiff nor&#8217;wester tended
+rather to help her along, and she should reach Buenos Ayres within
+fifteen days.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden contrived to buy a heavy poncho, or cloak, from one of the crew.
+Wrapped in this useful garment, he patrolled the small space of deck at
+his disposal, and kept an unfailing eye for the reappearance at the
+for&#8217;ard rail of one or other of the Misses Gray; yet day after day
+slipped by and they remained obstinately hidden.</p>
+
+<p>Once or twice, when the weather permitted, he climbed to the fore deck,
+whence he could scan a large part of the promenade deck on both the port
+and starboard sides. On the port side, however, a wind-screen
+intervened.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p><p>Twice he thought he saw Madeleine Gray leaning on the port rail, talking
+to Sturgess&mdash;and wearing the very dress in which she was married! Either
+by accident or design she vanished almost instantly on each occasion.</p>
+
+<p>It was nonsensical, of course, but he began to harbor a sentiment of
+annoyance with Sturgess, who, by some queer contriving of fortune,
+seemed to be drawn rather to the company of Madeleine than of sister
+Nina. Any real feeling of jealousy would have been absurd, almost
+ludicrous, under the circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>For all that, Maseden couldn&#8217;t understand why the fellow apparently
+devoted himself to the company of one sister to the neglect, or
+intentional exclusion, of the other; while the lady&#8217;s behavior, assuming
+that she knew of the presence of her &#8220;husband&#8221; within a few yards, was,
+to say the least, reprehensible if not provocative.</p>
+
+<p>By this time, Maseden was fully convinced that his wife had recognized
+him. Oddly enough, the somewhat bizarre costume he wore would help in
+betraying him to her eyes. She had seen him only when arrayed in even
+more startling guise. Her memory of him, therefore, would depend wholly
+on his features and physique, and the incongruity of an unmistakably
+American voice coming from a <i>vaquero</i> could not fail to be enhanced by
+the gala attire affected by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>that erstwhile gay spark, old Lopez&#8217;s
+nephew.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, Maseden had bribed the forecastle steward to find out from one
+of the saloon attendants what had happened to the two ladies on the
+promenade deck when the pulley fell. One of them, the man said, was so
+startled that she nearly fainted, and the American se&ntilde;or had carried her
+to a chair.</p>
+
+<p>Obviously, on an American vessel, with American officers, engineers, and
+quartermasters, for one whose only tongue was Spanish it was difficult
+to extract information. The Spanish-speaking members of the crew knew
+little or nothing of the passengers, while Maseden&#8217;s part of the ship
+was as completely shut off from the saloon as are the dwellings of the
+poor from the palaces of the rich.</p>
+
+<p>Many times was he tempted to change his quarters, and thus tacitly admit
+his identity; but cold prudence as often forbade any such folly. Even if
+the full extent of his adventures in Cartagena were unknown on board, it
+was a quite certain thing that the story must have reached Buenos Ayres
+long ago.</p>
+
+<p>Bad as was the odor of the republic in the outer world, it still
+possessed the rights of a sovereign state, and the last thing Maseden
+desired was an enforced return to the Castle of San Juan, there to stand
+his trial anew for conspiracy, plus an undoubted attempt to murder <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>the
+president! That would be a stiff price to pay merely in order to sate
+his curiosity as to the motive underlying a woman&#8217;s strange whim.</p>
+
+<hr class="medium" />
+
+<p>On the sixth night of the voyage the opportunity for which he was
+looking was offered as unexpectedly as it had been persistently withheld
+earlier.</p>
+
+<p>After a very unpleasant day of wind and rain the weather improved
+markedly. True, the sky had not cleared, and the darkness which fell
+swiftly over a leaden sea was of a quality almost palpable.</p>
+
+<p>Had he troubled to recall the sealore gleaned from many books of travel,
+Maseden would have known that such a change was by no means indicative
+of smoother seas and days of sunshine in the near future. The ship was
+merely crossing the center of a cyclonic area. Ere morning she would
+probably meet a fiercer gale than that through which she had just
+passed.</p>
+
+<p>Such minor considerations as to the state of the elements carried little
+weight, however, when contrasted with the immediate and solid fact that
+Maseden, giving an upward eye to the promenade deck about nine o&#8217;clock,
+discerned a solitary female figure leaning on the rail.</p>
+
+<p>Since there were no other women on board, this must be either Madeleine
+or Nina. As it happened, the forecastle was deserted, in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>sense that
+its usual occupants were either asleep or busied with the duties of the
+hour. Above the girl&#8217;s head paced the officer of the watch. Up in the
+bows were two men on the look-out. Otherwise, the fore part of the ship
+was untenanted save for Maseden himself and the slim, cloaked form which
+seemed to be peering aimlessly into the impenetrable wall of darkness
+ahead.</p>
+
+<p>Apparently the wind had died down. There were no sounds save the normal
+ones&mdash;the onward rush of the ship, the swish of an occasional swell
+cleft by the cut-water, the steady thud of the screw, and the equally
+regular creaking of planks and panels swollen by heavy rain after
+undergoing tropical heat.</p>
+
+<p>It was a night rich with suggestion of mystery and romance. Some new
+ichor stirred in Maseden&#8217;s veins, firing his spirit to emprise. Come
+what might, he resolved to have speech with the lady, be she wife in
+name or merely sister-in-law!</p>
+
+<p>But how contrive it? If he hailed her from the main deck, the officer on
+the bridge would overhear, and straightway play a domineering hand in
+the game. If he went aft, through a narrow gangway leading past the
+engine-room and various officers&#8217; cabins, he could reach a sliding door
+giving access to the saloon companion, but his presence there would
+undoubtedly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>be noticed, evoking a stern order to betake himself to his
+own quarters.</p>
+
+<p>The third method was the direct one. A series of iron rungs led
+vertically up the face of the superstructure, and, as sailors
+occasionally passed that way, the girl would not necessarily be alarmed
+by seeing a man coming up.</p>
+
+<p>The officer on duty might detect him, of course; but even he was liable
+to mistake him for one of the ship&#8217;s company.</p>
+
+<p>It has been seen already that Maseden was of the rare order of mankind
+which, having once made up its mind, acts unhesitatingly. No sooner had
+he elected for the iron ladder than he had crossed the deck and was
+mounting rapidly. It chanced that the officer did not see him.</p>
+
+<p>In a few seconds he was standing on the promenade deck. Then he had an
+attack of stage-fright. Many an actor has strode valiantly from wings to
+footlights only to find his tongue glued to the roof of his mouth. This
+was Maseden&#8217;s &#8220;star turn,&#8221; and not a word could he utter!</p>
+
+<p>By a singular coincidence, the lady was equally nervous. She gave scant
+attention to the commonplace occurrence that a member of the crew should
+walk aft from the dim interior of the forecastle and hurry up the
+ladder, but the situation altered dramatically when a faint <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>gleam from
+a window of the smoking-room fell on the tarnished silver braid and gilt
+buttons of Maseden&#8217;s jacket of black cloth and velvet.</p>
+
+<p>The light, such as it was, fell directly on the girl&#8217;s face as she
+turned towards the intruder. Her eyes, blue sapphires by day, were now
+strangely dark. Maseden saw that her expression was one of panic if not
+of actual terror. He was unpleasantly reminded of a bird fascinated by a
+snake; the displeasing simile stirred his wits and unlocked his tongue.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m sorry if I have frightened you,&#8221; he said quietly, &#8220;but the chance
+of securing a few words of explanation seemed too good to be lost. You
+owe me something of the kind, don&#8217;t you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why?&#8221; came the truly feminine reply.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Because, unless I am greatly mistaken, you are the lady whom I had the
+honor of marrying in the Castle of San Juan at Cartagena. You may be
+known as Miss Madge Gray on board this ship, but your name in the
+register was Madeleine.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;My name is Nina, not Madge.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden was taken aback for a few seconds, yet the fact could not be
+gainsaid that the speaker, whether Madge or Nina, did not repudiate the
+general accuracy of his statement. Moreover, he was almost sure of his
+ground now. His &#8220;wife&#8221; was probably flirting with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>Sturgess. Nina, as
+usual, was left to her own devices, since the forecastle steward had
+reported that Se&ntilde;or Gray was ill and confined to his cabin.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;At any rate, you do not deny that either your sister or yourself is
+legally entitled to pose as Mrs. Philip Alexander Maseden?&#8221; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I am not aware that either of us can fairly be described as posing in
+that distinguished capacity.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The retort was glib enough. It amused the man.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Perhaps I put the bald truth rather awkwardly,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Let me, then,
+ask a plain question. Did I marry you, or your sister, last Tuesday
+morning?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You certainly err if you think that I shall discuss the affairs of my
+family with a complete stranger,&#8221; was the unhesitating answer.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yet you, or your sister, did not scruple to marry one.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Are <i>you</i> Mr. Maseden?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I am. Haven&#8217;t I said so? I implied it, at any rate.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Then why are you in disguise, posing&mdash;it is your own word&mdash;as a Spanish
+cowboy?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Because I&#8217;m trying to save my miserable life. Don&#8217;t think me
+ungrateful, madam. I owe <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>my escape to the phenomenal circumstances
+brought about by the desire of a charming young lady to become Mrs.
+Maseden, if only for a brief half hour. I am not claiming
+any&mdash;privileges, shall I say?&mdash;on that account. But I can hardly credit
+that, having gone through the ordeal of such a ceremony, you would
+refuse to tell me your motive, so I reluctantly revert to my first
+opinion, namely, that your sister is my wife.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Reluctantly! Why reluctantly?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>There was more than a touch of bewilderment in the cry. Maseden
+interpreted it as a fencer&#8217;s trick to gain time.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t mind being absolutely candid,&#8221; he laughed. &#8220;You see, time hangs
+heavy on my hands here. I have nothing to do except watch for a glimpse
+of an unknown wife. Queer, isn&#8217;t it? Anyhow, my fate doesn&#8217;t seem to
+worry sister Madge, who finds consolation elsewhere; so, of the two, if
+I must be wed to one of you, I imagine I would prefer you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I think you are intolerably rude, Mr. Maseden. Madge was right when she
+said&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She checked herself with a little gasp of dismay. Maseden laughed again.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Please don&#8217;t spare me,&#8221; he cried. &#8220;What did Madge say?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I decline to discuss the matter any further.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But why should we quarrel over a minor <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>point? You have tacitly
+admitted that your sister married me. Give me some notion of her motive.
+That is all I ask. It may help.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;How help?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;When I take unto myself a wife I expect to be allowed some freedom of
+choice in the matter. I certainly refuse to have her picked for me by a
+rascal like Steinbaum. If I win clear of Buenos Ayres and reach New York
+I shall take the speediest steps to undo the matrimonial knot tied in
+Cartagena. There may be legal complications, which will be attended, I
+suppose, by a certain amount of publicity. It will help some, as Mr.
+Sturgess would say, if I know just why the lady wanted to wed in the
+first instance. Surely there is reason behind that simple request. Your
+sister begged to be allowed to marry me because I was condemned to
+death. At least, such was Steinbaum&#8217;s story. Was <i>that</i> true, to begin
+with?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>No answer. Maseden felt that he had cornered her.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There must have been some such ground for an extraordinary action,&#8221; he
+went on. &#8220;To the best of my knowledge she had never seen me. I question
+if she even knew my name. I&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>A door opened, and a stream of light fell on the deck some feet away.
+Sturgess&#8217;s voice reached them clearly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Guess she&#8217;s tucked up cozy in a deck chair,&#8221; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>he was saying. &#8220;It&#8217;s no
+time to retire to roost yet, anyhow.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Please go now,&#8221; whispered Nina tremulously. &#8220;You mustn&#8217;t be seen
+talking to me. I&mdash;I&#8217;ll discuss things with Madge, and if possible, come
+here about the same hour to-morrow, or next day. I&mdash;I&#8217;ll do my best.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Without another word, Maseden swung himself over the rail. When below
+the level of the deck he clung to the ladder and listened, not meaning
+to act ungenerously, but because of the other man&#8217;s rapid approach.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ah, there you are, Miss Nina!&#8221; cried Sturgess. &#8220;Sister Madge is bored
+stiff by my company, but was polite enough to pretend that she was
+anxious about you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve been star-gazing,&#8221; said the girl, hastening towards him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;So&#8217;ve I,&#8221; grinned Sturgess. &#8220;You two girls have the finest eyes I&#8217;ve
+ever&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>His voice trailed away into silence. Maseden dropped to the deck.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hang it all!&#8221; he muttered, strangely disconsolate. &#8220;When Fate took me
+by the scruff of the neck and married me to one of two sisters, neither
+of whom I had ever seen, she might have been kind enough, the jade, to
+tie me to the right one!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Yet, even to his thinking, Madge and Nina were like as a couple of pins!
+Being an eminently <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>sensible sort of fellow, he realized in the next
+breath that Madge might be quite as nice a girl as Nina.</p>
+
+<p>Then the thought struck him that she was purposely making things easier
+for him by cultivating a friendship with Sturgess. In any case, Sturgess
+was obviously destined to act as a pawn in the game. Even he, Maseden,
+had not scrupled to use that gentleman at sight when anxious to board
+the <i>Southern Cross</i> without attracting the attention of the
+news-mongering boatmen of Cartagena.</p>
+
+<hr class="medium" />
+
+<p>That night he lay awake for hours. For one thing, the ship was running
+into bad weather again, and complained nosily of the buffeting her stout
+frame was receiving. For another, his own course was beset with
+difficulties. He failed completely to understand the attitude of sister
+Nina.</p>
+
+<p>If Madeleine&mdash;or Madge, as he had better learned to distinguish her&mdash;had
+sought marriage with a man about to die as a means to escape from some
+unbearable duress, was her plight accentuated rather than bettered by
+the fact that her husband still lived? If so, the announcement that he
+meant to obtain a legal dissolution of the bond at the earliest possible
+moment would relieve the tension.</p>
+
+<p>But what if her need demanded that she <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>should remain wed, a wife in
+name only? A development of that sort foreshadowed complexities of a
+rare order. Maseden knew himself as one capable of Quixotic action&mdash;even
+the scheming Steinbaum had paid him <i>that</i> tribute&mdash;but it was asking
+too much that he should go through life burdened with a wife who treated
+him as a benevolent stranger.</p>
+
+<p>Common sense urged that they should meet and discuss a most trying and
+equivocal situation as frankly and fully as might be. Why, then, had
+Nina Gray been so disturbed, so anxious to keep the married pair apart?
+Both girls knew he was alive. What purpose could it serve that the fact
+should be ignored?</p>
+
+<p>He puzzled his brain to recall incidents he had heard of Steinbaum&#8217;s
+history, but investigation along that line drew a blank. Was Suarez
+mixed up in the embroglio? It was unlikely. Though the man had spent
+some years in the United States and in Europe, he had not left San Juan
+since he, Maseden, came there, and, before that period, both Madge and
+Nina Gray must have been girls in short frocks and long tresses.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the father&#8217;s record would provide a clew. Somehow, though he had
+never set eyes on Mr. Gray save as a shadowy form on a dark night,
+Maseden sensed him as unsympathetic. He was forced to form a judgment on
+the flimsiest <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>of material, having none other; but Gray&#8217;s voice, his way
+of speaking to his daughters, had grated.</p>
+
+<p>First impressions are treacherous guides; nevertheless the philosopher
+whom they cannot mislead does not exist.</p>
+
+<p>The following day was the longest in Maseden&#8217;s experience. Monotony, in
+itself, is wearying; when, to a dull routine of meals and occasional
+talk with men of an inferior type is added the positive discomfort of
+confinement in the most exposed and cramped part of a ship during a
+stiff gale, monotony becomes akin to torture.</p>
+
+<p>At last, however, night fell. There was no improvement in the weather,
+which, if anything, grew worse; but a change in the ship&#8217;s course, or a
+shifting of the wind&mdash;no one to whom Maseden might speak could give him
+any reliable data on the point&mdash;brought the <i>Southern Cross</i> on a more
+even keel.</p>
+
+<p>Here, at least, was some slight compensation for the leaden-footed hours
+of waiting. Nina Gray might be a good sailor, but it was hardly
+reasonable to expect that she would keep her tryst when the big steamer
+was trying alternately to stand on end or roll bodily over to port.</p>
+
+<p>About nine o&#8217;clock Maseden made out a shrouded figure in the position
+where his &#8220;sister-in-law&#8221; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>had stood the previous night. He hastened
+from the shelter of the forecastle, and was promptly drenched from head
+to foot by a shower of spray. He was half-way up the ladder when a voice
+reached him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Please go back,&#8221; it said. &#8220;I&#8217;ll come to the gangway on the starboard
+side.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He regained the deck, made for the right-hand gangway, and soon had the
+satisfaction of seeing the girl walking swiftly along the dimly-lighted
+corridor.</p>
+
+<p>He hardly knew how to greet her. To bid her &#8220;Good evening,&#8221; or murmur
+some platitude about her goodness in keeping the appointment in such
+vile weather, would have sounded banal.</p>
+
+<p>The lady, however, when they came face to face, settled all doubts on
+the question of etiquette by saying breathlessly:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I have had a long talk with my sister, Mr. Maseden, and she bids me
+tell you that she cannot meet you herself. You were so generous, so kind
+to her, at a moment when your thoughts might well have been centered in
+your own terrible fate, that she cannot bear the ordeal of asking you
+the last favor of forgetting her.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Of course, every facility will be given for the dissolution of the
+marriage. I have written here the address of a firm of lawyers in
+Philadelphia who will act with your legal representatives when the
+matter comes before the courts. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>For your own purposes, I understand,
+you wish to remain unknown while on board this ship. We have arranged to
+travel to New York by the first American liner sailing from Buenos Ayres
+after our arrival. Perhaps you will be good enough to choose another
+vessel, or, if your affairs are urgent, <i>we</i> would wait for a later one.
+Can you let me know your wishes now in that matter?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden was so astonished that he literally caught the girl by the
+shoulder and turned her partly round so that the light of a distant lamp
+fell on her face. The buffeting of the gale, aided, no doubt, by a
+feeling of excitement, had lent her a fine color, but, if her utterance
+was a trifle broken at first, it had soon become calm and measured, nor
+did she seem to resent his cavalier treatment.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Are you joking?&#8221; he said, smiling in sheer perplexity.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I fail to find any humor in my words,&#8221; came the instant reply.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Quite so. They might have been framed by a lawyer. Isn&#8217;t there a ghost
+of a joke in that mere fact?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It appeared to my sister, and I fully agree with her, that we are
+suggesting the best way, the only way, out of an embarrassing dilemma.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes,&#8221; agreed Maseden, drawing a long <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>breath. &#8220;I agree to all the
+terms; I insist only on priority of sailing from Buenos Ayres. I don&#8217;t
+see why I should risk my life just to save you a trifling
+inconvenience.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Then here is the address I spoke of,&#8221; and she proffered an envelope.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Good. We&#8217;ll leave the rest to the law, Miss Nina.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Thank you. Good-by.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She would have passed him, but he was on the after side of the gangway,
+and his outstretched hand restrained her.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;One moment, please,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I want you to tell your sister that she
+has thoroughly&mdash;disillusioned me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll do that,&#8221; she assured him, and he could not help but regard her
+airy self-possession as the most surprising factor in a remarkable
+situation.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And you, too,&#8221; he went on. &#8220;Something has happened to you since last
+night. Somehow you are&mdash;harder. Forgive me if I choose unpleasant
+adjectives.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She hesitated before replying. Perhaps she felt the quiet scorn
+underlying the words.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Where my unhappy family is concerned, the forgiveness must come wholly
+from you,&#8221; she said at last. &#8220;May I go now, Mr. Maseden? Once more,
+thank you for all that you have done and will do. Remember, when this
+miserable <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>affair reaches the newspapers, it is not your reputation that
+will suffer, but the woman&#8217;s!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She left him gazing blankly after her. There was a tense <i>vibrato</i> in
+the tone of the girl&#8217;s voice that touched some responsive chord in the
+man&#8217;s breast.</p>
+
+<p>Then he became aware that he was soaked to the skin, and the wind was
+piercingly cold.</p>
+
+<p>He murmured a phrase strongly reminiscent of the <i>Americano</i> who took
+hunting trips into the interior of Central America, and hurried to his
+cabin, where he stripped and rubbed his limbs to a glow before turning
+in.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h3>AN UNFORESEEN DISASTER</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">D</span>uring the night the storm developed into that elemental chaos which the
+landsman exaggerates into a hurricane and the sailor logs as a strong
+northwesterly gale. Passage along the open decks of the <i>Southern Cross</i>
+became a hazardous undertaking, an experiment just practicable for a
+strong man clad in oilskins and seaboots, but positively dangerous for
+one unable to interpret the vagaries of a ship plunging through a heavy
+sea. A broken limb or ugly bruise was the certain penalty of an
+incautious movement, if, indeed, one was not swept overboard.</p>
+
+<p>For a passenger&mdash;a non-combatant, so to speak&mdash;the only certain way to
+insure physical safety was to lie prone in a bunk, with a hand ever
+ready to seize the nearest rail when an unusually violent lurch tilted
+the vessel to an angle of forty-five degrees and simultaneously drove
+her nose into a veritable mountain of water.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden contrived to sleep fitfully until a thin gray light, trickling
+through a tiny port <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>when momentarily free of wave-wash, told him that
+another day had dawned. The din was incessant. Inanimate things may be
+inarticulate to human ears, but they speak a language of their own on
+such occasions&mdash;an inchoate tongue made up of banging and clattering, of
+stunning vibrations, of wind-shrieks, of the groaning of steel
+framework, riveted plates, and seasoned timber.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Southern Cross</i> was tackling her work with stubborn energy, but she
+complained of its severity in every fibre. Ships, like men, prefer easy
+conditions, and growl in their own peculiar manner when compelled to
+wage a fierce and continuous fight for mere existence.</p>
+
+<p>Of course a sailor never permits himself to think of his own craft in
+such wise. &#8220;Dirty weather&#8221; is simply an unpleasant episode in the
+routine of a voyage. He regards it much as the average city man views
+wind and rain&mdash;displeasing additions to life&#8217;s minor worries, but not to
+be considered as affecting the daily task.</p>
+
+<p>In a modern, well-found steamship such negative faith is fully
+justified, and the ship&#8217;s company of the <i>Southern Cross</i> went about
+their several duties as methodically as though the vessel were roped
+securely alongside a pier in the North River.</p>
+
+<p>The center of the forecastle held a roomy <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>compartment in which meals
+were served for the crew, and Maseden took refuge there as soon as he
+was dressed. He obtained an early cup of coffee, and derived some
+comfort from the fact, communicated by the half-caste sailor he had
+saved from the falling pulley, that about the same time next day they
+would sight the Evangelistas light, and soon thereafter be in the
+land-locked water of the Straits of Magellan.</p>
+
+<p>He realized, of course, that sight or sound of either Madge Gray or her
+sister was hardly to be expected during the next twenty-four hours. In
+fact, he might not see them again before Buenos Ayres was reached.</p>
+
+<p>On the whole, it would be better so, he decided. A thrilling and most
+dramatic incident in a life not otherwise noteworthy for its
+vicissitudes would close when he was safe on board a homeward-bound mail
+steamer. After that would come some small experience of a court of law.</p>
+
+<p>For the rest, if he contrived to cheat the newspapers of the full
+details, he would actually risk his repute as a veracious citizen if he
+told the plain truth about one day&#8217;s history in the Republic of San
+Juan.</p>
+
+<p>Once, in his teens, when in London during a never-to-be-forgotten
+European tour, a friend of his father&#8217;s pointed out a small, alert man,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>dressed in gray tweeds, who was hailing a cab in Pall Mall, and said:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Look, Alec! That is Evans of the Guides. I met him five years ago in
+Lucknow, and even at that date he had killed his sixty-first tiger on
+foot and alone. He never shoots stripes any other way. He says it isn&#8217;t
+quite sporting to tackle the brute from the comparative safety of a
+howdah or a <i>machan</i>&mdash;a platform rigged in a tree, you know.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Philip Alexander Maseden, aged sixteen, neither knew nor cared what a
+<i>machan</i> was. His faculties were absorbed in the difficult task of
+reconciling a dapper little man in a gray suit, skipping nimbly into a
+cab in Pall Mall, with a redoubtable Nimrod who had bagged sixty-one
+tigers after tracking them into their jungles.</p>
+
+<p>And that was the record of five years earlier. Perhaps in the meantime
+the bold <i>shikari</i> had added dozens to the total. A mighty hunter,
+Evans, but hard to reconcile with his environment.</p>
+
+<p>Seated in the wet, creaking cabin, and watching through a window which
+opened aft the turmoil of seas leaping venomously at and over the stout
+bulk of the <i>Southern Cross</i>, Maseden thought of Evans of the Guides,
+and his cohort of tiger-ghosts. Yet not one tiger among the lot had
+brought Evans so near death as he, Maseden, was when Steinbaum entered
+his cell <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>on that fateful morning, and, in the closest shave Evans was
+ever favored with, a violent end had not been averted by stranger means.</p>
+
+<p>How would the story of &#8220;Madeleine,&#8221; Suarez, and Captain Gomez&#8217;s boots
+sound if told in a cosy corner of a Fifth Avenue club?</p>
+
+<p>By reason of his position in the fore part of the vessel, Maseden could
+survey the bridge, chart-house and some part of the promenade deck. The
+head of the officer on watch was visible above the canvas screen which
+those who go down to the sea in ships have christened the
+&#8220;devil-dodger.&#8221; The officer&#8217;s sou&#8217;wester was tied on firmly, and the
+placid expression of the strong, weather-stained face was clearly
+discernible. For the most part, he looked straight ahead, with an
+occasional glance back, or over the side into the spume and froth
+churned up by the ship&#8217;s passage. Once in a while he would draw away
+from the screen and compare the course shown by the compass with that
+steered by the quartermaster at the wheel.</p>
+
+<p>For lack of something better to occupy his mind, Maseden followed each
+movement of the man on the bridge. Thus, singularly enough, next to the
+officer himself, and possibly a look-out in the bows, he was the first
+person on board to become aware of a peril which suddenly beset the
+<i>Southern Cross</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p><p>What that peril was he could not guess, but he saw that the officer was
+shouting instructions to the quartermaster, and in the same instant the
+clang of a bell showed that the engine-room telegraph was in use.</p>
+
+<p>Almost immediately the ship&#8217;s speed slackened, and as she yielded to the
+pressure of wind and wave the clamor of her struggle sank to comparative
+silence.</p>
+
+<p>A few seconds later the captain appeared on the bridge. He, like the
+officer, gave particular heed to something which lay straight ahead.
+Evidently he approved of the action taken by his subordinate, because,
+as well as Maseden could judge, he stood beside the telegraph, with a
+hand on the lever, but made no further alteration in the ship&#8217;s speed.</p>
+
+<p>Naturally Maseden wondered what had happened and watched closely for
+developments. In better weather he would have gone outside, but it was
+positively dangerous now to stand close to the ship&#8217;s rail, or, indeed,
+remain on any part of the open deck, while the shadow of an attempt on
+his part to climb the forecastle ladder would have evoked a gruff order
+to return.</p>
+
+<p>Within a minute or less, however, he made out that the <i>Southern Cross</i>
+was passing through a quantity of wreckage, mostly rough-hewn timber.
+Here and there a spar would <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>unexpectedly thrust its tapering point high
+above the tawny vortex of the waves; at odd times a portion of a
+bulkhead and fragments of white-painted panels would be revealed for an
+instant. Some unfortunate sailing ship had been torn to shreds by the
+gale, and the steamer was just passing through that section of the
+sea-plain still cumbered by her fragments, though the tragedy itself had
+probably occurred many a mile away from that particular point on the
+map.</p>
+
+<p>By this time the stopping of the engines had aroused every member of the
+crew not on watch. Some of the men, bleary-eyed with sleep, gathered in
+the cabin, and their comments were illuminating.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Wind-jammer gone with all hands,&#8221; said one man, after a critical glance
+at the flotsam on both sides of the ship.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What for have we slowed up?&#8221; inquired another. &#8220;The old man ain&#8217;t
+thinkin&#8217; of lowerin&#8217; a boat, is he?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Lower a boat, saphead, in a sea like this!&#8221; scoffed the first speaker.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Wouldn&#8217;t he try to rescue any poor sailor-men who may be clingin&#8217; to
+the wreck?&#8221; came the retort.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;As though any sort of blisterin&#8217; wreck could live in this weather! Try
+again, Jimmy. We&#8217;re dodgin&#8217; planks an&#8217; ropes; that&#8217;s our <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>special stunt
+just now. One o&#8217; them hefty chunks o&#8217; lumber would knock a hole in us
+below the water-line before you could say &#8216;knife&#8217;. An&#8217; how about a sail
+an&#8217; cordage wrappin&#8217; themselves lovin&#8217;ly around the screw? Where &#8217;ud
+<i>we</i> be then?... There you are. What did I tell you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>A heavy thud, altogether different from the blow delivered by a wave,
+shook the <i>Southern Cross</i> from stem to stern. The captain looked over
+the port side, and followed the movement of some unseen object until it
+was swept well clear of the ship. The engines, which had been stopped
+completely, were rung on to &#8220;Slow ahead&#8221; again. They remained at that
+speed for half a minute, not longer. Then they were stopped once more,
+and the officer of the watch quitted the bridge hurriedly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What the devil&#8217;s the matter <i>now</i>?&#8221; growled the more experienced critic
+anxiously. &#8220;That punch we got can&#8217;t of started a plate, or all hands
+would &#8217;a&#8217; bin piped on deck!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Singularly enough, he either forgot or was afraid to voice his own
+prediction as to a possible alternative. The big foremast which had
+struck the ship&#8217;s quarter was stout enough, most unluckily, to support a
+thin wire rope, and this unseen assailant had fouled the propeller. In
+all likelihood, had the captain given the order &#8220;Full speed ahead,&#8221; the
+evil thing might <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>have been thrown clear before mischief was done.</p>
+
+<p>As it was, the very care with which the <i>Southern Cross</i> was navigated
+led to her undoing. With each slow turn of the screw the snake-like rope
+which was destined to choke the life out of a gallant ship had coiled
+itself into a death grip.</p>
+
+<p>Soon some of the strands were forced between propeller and shaft-casing.
+The solid steel cylinder of the shaft became fixed as in a vise. The
+engines were powerless. To apply their force was only to increase the
+resistance. They could not be driven either ahead or astern.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Southern Cross</i> promptly fell away to the southeast under the
+stress of wind and tide. After her, forming a sort of sea-anchor,
+lolloped the derelict foremast which, by its buoyancy, was the first
+cause of all the mischief.</p>
+
+<p>Mostly it was towed astern. Sometimes a giant wave would snatch it up
+and drive it like a battering ram against the ship&#8217;s counter.</p>
+
+<p>These blows were generally harmless, the rounded butt of the spar
+glancing off from the acute angle presented by the molded stern-plates.
+Once or twice, however, the rudder was struck squarely, so the chief
+officer, aided by some of the men, quickly put an end to the capacity
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>of this novel battering-ram for inflating further damage by lassoing
+and hauling aboard the whole mass of wreckage&mdash;mast, yards and tattered
+sails alike.</p>
+
+<p>Then a gruesome discovery was made. Tied to the mast was the corpse of a
+man, but so bruised and battered as to be wholly unrecognizable. The
+poor body, nearly naked, and maimed and torn almost out of human
+semblance, was stitched in a strip of wet canvas, weighted with a few
+furnace bars, and committed to the deep again without a moment&#8217;s loss of
+time.</p>
+
+<p>But its brief presence had not been helpful. Singularly enough, sailors
+are not only fatalists, which they may well be, but superstitious. No
+man voiced his sentiments; nevertheless, each felt in his heart the ship
+was doomed.</p>
+
+<p>Collectively, they would try to save the ship. As individuals, the
+paramount question now was&mdash;how and when might they endeavor to save
+their own lives?</p>
+
+<p>Of course there was neither any sign of panic nor shirking of orders.
+The ship was stanch and eminently seaworthy. She was actually far more
+comfortable while drifting thus helplessly before the gale than when
+battling through it.</p>
+
+<p>Yet every sailor on board, from the captain down to the scullery-man,
+knew that some forty <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>miles ahead lay a shore so forbidding and
+inhospitable that the United States government charts&mdash;than which there
+are none so detailed and up-to-date&mdash;give navigators the significant
+warning to keep well out to sea, as the coast-line has not been surveyed
+in detail.</p>
+
+<p>Yet the case was not immediately desperate. Forty miles of sea-room was
+better than none. If the gale abated, and an anchor was dropped, it was
+probable that the engineers&#8217; cold chisels would soon cut away the wire
+octopus.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, there was a chance that some other steamer might pick them up
+and earn a magnificent salvage by a tow to Punta Arenas.</p>
+
+<p>So after breakfast the uncanny harbinger of disaster provided by the
+body of the drowned sailor was, if not forgotten, at least generally
+ignored. Pipes were lighted. Men not otherwise occupied gathered in
+groups, while every eye strove to pierce the gray haze of the spindrift
+whipped off the waves by each furious gust, each hoping to be the first
+to discover the friendly smoke-pall of a passing ship.</p>
+
+<p>Certain ominous preparations were made, however. Boats were cleared of
+their wrappings and stocked with water and provisions. Life-belts were
+examined, and their straps adjusted.</p>
+
+<p>As the day wore, and noon was reached, the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>chance of encountering
+another ship became increasingly remote. Sea and wind showed no signs of
+falling. Indeed, a slight rise in the barometer was not an encouraging
+token. &#8220;First rise after low foretells stronger blow&#8221; is as true to-day
+as when Admiral Fitzroy wrote his weather-lore doggerel, and the
+principles of meteorology hold good equally north and south of the
+equator.</p>
+
+<p>For a time the captain tried to steady the ship with the canvas
+fore-and-aft sails which big steamships use occasionally in fine weather
+to help the rudder. This devise certainly got the <i>Southern Cross</i> under
+control again, and the crew were vastly astonished when bid furl the
+sails after half an hour.</p>
+
+<p>Surprise ceased when some of them got an opportunity to squint into a
+compass. The wind had veered from northwest to a point south of west.</p>
+
+<p>Only a miracle could save the ship now. It seemed as though the very
+forces of nature had conspired to bring about her undoing.</p>
+
+<p>From that moment a gloom fell on the little community. Men muttered
+brief words, or chatted in whispers. A few paid furtive visits to their
+bunks, and rummaged in kit-bags for some treasured curio or personal
+belonging which could be stowed away in a pocket. It was not a question
+now as to whether the <i>Southern Cross</i> <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>would survive, but when and
+where she would strike, and what sort of fighting chance would be given
+of reaching a bleak shore alive.</p>
+
+<p>Every one knew that it would be the wildest folly to lower a boat in
+such a heavy sea. The sole remaining hope was that the ship would escape
+the outer fringe of reefs, and drive into some rock-bound creek where
+the boats might live.</p>
+
+<p>By means of a properly constructed sea-anchor the captain kept the
+vessel&#8217;s head toward the east. Thus, when land was sighted, if any
+semblance of a channel offered, it might be possible to steer in that
+direction.</p>
+
+<p>Men were told off to be in readiness to hoist the sails again at a
+moment&#8217;s notice. The anchors were cleared, both fore and aft. Nothing
+else could be done but watch and wait, while the great ship rolled into
+yawning gulfs or slid down huge curves of yellow-gray water, rolled and
+slid ever onward to sure destruction.</p>
+
+<p>During those weary hours, so slow in passing, so swift in succession
+when sped, Maseden had not once set eyes on his wife or her sister. He
+had seen Sturgess talking to the captain and first officer, but neither
+of the ladies appeared on deck.</p>
+
+<p>Still it was an easy thing to imagine just what was going on. The two
+women were the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>only persons on board left in ignorance of the certain
+fate awaiting the <i>Southern Cross</i>. They were told the half truth that
+the engines were disabled, but that the vessel was in no immediate
+danger.</p>
+
+<p>It was better so. Of what avail to frighten them needlessly? The ship
+would have been absolutely safe if the gale blew from the east instead
+of the west. Even now she might survive. Her chances were of the
+slenderest nature, but there would be ample time to get the women into
+an upper deck saloon or the chart-room when the position became
+desperate. Why embitter the few hours of life yet remaining by knowledge
+of the dreadful fate which threatened when the end came?</p>
+
+<p>About two o&#8217;clock an undulating blur on the eastern horizon told of
+land. To the best of the captain&#8217;s judgment the <i>Southern Cross</i> was off
+Hanover Island when the accident happened, and her relative longitude
+had altered but very slightly during the forty-mile drift. It was now or
+never if anything was to be done to save her.</p>
+
+<p>The forbidding and mountainous coast-line straight ahead was broken up
+by all manner of deep-water channels, each giving access, by devious
+ways, to the sheltered Smyth&#8217;s Channel; but so barricaded by sunken
+reefs and steep islets as to present almost insuperable obstacles to the
+free passage of a large vessel.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p><p>Small whalers and guano-boats would not dare any of these straits in
+fine weather. For the <i>Southern Cross</i> to make the attempt, even
+provided she ran the gantlet of the barrier reef, was indeed the
+forlornest of forlorn hopes.</p>
+
+<p>The chief engineer had already assured the captain many times that any
+further pressure by the engines would inflict irreparable damage, so,
+risking everything on the throw of the dice and wishful to know the
+worst, at any rate, before daylight vanished, he ordered the sails to be
+hoisted again.</p>
+
+<p>All hands were brought on deck, life-belts were adjusted, and boats&#8217;
+crews stood by. At that moment Maseden caught a glimpse of the two
+girls. They, with other passengers, were summoned by the ship&#8217;s officers
+and placed in the smoke-room, which, by reason of its situation beneath
+the bridge, provided a convenient gathering ground in case the boats
+were lowered.</p>
+
+<p>He saw them only for a moment&mdash;two cloaked figures, wearing cloth caps
+tied tightly to their heads with motor-veils. He could not distinguish
+Madge from Nina.</p>
+
+<p>It was a strange and most bizarre notion that when the gates of eternity
+were opening a second time before his eyes the woman who was his lawful
+wife should now be sharing his peril, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>yet be separated from him far
+more effectually than in the Castle of San Juan.</p>
+
+<p>The incongruity of their position did not trouble him greatly, however.
+Soon he ceased thinking about it. He realized that he, as an individual,
+could do nothing but obey orders and abide by the decree of Providence.</p>
+
+<p>He was not frightened. Some hours earlier, knowing the physical features
+of the western coast of South America, he had decided that the odds were
+a thousand to one against the escape of the ship and her seventy-four
+occupants. He hoped that when the end came it might not be a long
+drawn-out agony&mdash;that was all. For the rest, he looked forward with a
+certain spice of curiosity to the fight which captain and crew would
+make against the giant forces of nature.</p>
+
+<p>An awesome panorama of mighty cliffs, inaccessible islands and isolated
+rocks over which the seas dashed with extraordinary fury, was opening up
+with ever-increasing clearness. A mist of driven froth and spindrift
+hung low over the surface of the water, but the great hills of the
+interior were distinctly visible.</p>
+
+<p>Irregular white patches near their summits marked the presence of huge
+glaciers. Lower down the valleys were choked with black masses of firs.
+Countless generations of trees had grown, and fallen, and rotted,
+ultimately <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>forming a new, if unstable, basis for more recent growths.</p>
+
+<p>An occasional red scar down a hillside revealed the latest landslide. A
+cascade would leap out from the topmost part of a forest and bury itself
+again in the depths.</p>
+
+<p>These outstanding features were all on a huge scale. It was a weird,
+monstrous land, a place utterly unfitted for human habitation, a part of
+creation quite out of keeping with the rest of the world. Surveying it
+impartially, one might wonder whether it had traveled far in advance of
+the general scheme of things or lagged millions of years behind.</p>
+
+<p>But its aspect was sinister and forbidding in the extreme, and never
+have its depressing characteristics been etched in darker shadows than
+when viewed that January day from the decks of the ill-fated <i>Southern
+Cross</i>.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE WRECK</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">U</span>p to the last the ship&#8217;s path was dogged by misfortune. She approached
+Hanover Island at a point where the sea was comparatively open; hence,
+the tremendous waves rolling in from the Pacific were not only unchecked
+by island breakwaters, but their volume and force were actually
+increased by the gradual upward trend of the rock floor.</p>
+
+<p>Still, undaunted by conditions which suggested the plight of a doomed
+craft being hurried to the lip of a cataract, keen eyes searched the
+frowning coast-line for one of the many estuaries which pierced the
+land, some merely the mouths of short-lived rivers, others again
+carrying the ocean currents to the very base of the Andes.</p>
+
+<p>At last an opening did seem to present itself. The great rock walls,
+springing sheer from sea level to a height of a thousand feet or more,
+fell apart, and, so far as might be judged, a wide and deep channel
+flowed inland.</p>
+
+<p>It was at this crisis, when life or death for all on board might depend
+on the veriest trifle, that the captain had to decide whether or not to
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>let go both anchors and endeavor to ride out the gale.</p>
+
+<p>He was an experienced and cool-headed sailor. He knew quite well that
+the odds were heavy against an anchor holding in such ground, or, if it
+held, against any cable standing the strain of a six-thousand-ton ship
+in that terrific sea. But, as Maseden learned subsequently, he sought
+advice.</p>
+
+<p>The first and second officers were consulted in turn, and each confirmed
+their chief&#8217;s opinion that the only practicable course was to run into
+the passage which still offered a comparatively clear way ahead.</p>
+
+<p>So the <i>Southern Cross</i> sped on.</p>
+
+<p>The second officer came forward with some of the crew to superintend the
+dropping of the anchor. The fourth officer took charge of the aft
+anchor. All other members of the crew stood by the boats.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden, feeling oddly remote and unclassed among men of his own race,
+followed the second officer to the forecastle deck. There, at least, he
+could stare his fill at the inferno of rock and broken water which the
+vessel was approaching, though even his landsman&#8217;s eyes saw that she was
+in a waterway of considerable width, while each mile now traversed must
+tend to diminish the seas and bring a secure anchorage within the bounds
+of possibility.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span></p><p>No one paid heed to him. Among these stolid sailor-men he was a &#8220;Dago,&#8221;
+a somewhat dandified specimen of the swaggering <i>vaqueros</i> they had met
+at times in the drinking dens of South American ports. He was minded to
+have speech with the second officer, and proclaim once and for all that
+he was of the same kith and kin; but the impulse was stayed by a glance
+at the set, resolute face, intent only on obeying a signal from the
+captain. It was no time for confidences. He questioned even if the
+sailor would have answered.</p>
+
+<p>A touch on a lever would set a winch spinning as the anchor leaped to
+its task. The man charged with carrying out that duty without hitch or
+delay could spare thought for nothing else.</p>
+
+<p>One of the deck-hands, stationed near the chocks, chanced to be the very
+Spaniard whose life had been endangered by the falling block on the day
+after the ship left Cartagena. The ship&#8217;s carpenter was ill, and the
+Spaniard was carpenter&#8217;s mate.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden caught his eye, and the man smiled wanly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You did me a good turn the other day, se&ntilde;or,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Let me repay
+you now.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But how?&#8221; came the surprised inquiry.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Underneath my bunk, the lowest one on the left in number seven berth,
+you will find my kit-bag. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>Beneath some clothes is a bottle of good old
+brandy. Get it, and drink it quickly.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You will put a pint of honest liquor to good use, and in ten minutes
+you won&#8217;t care what happens.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I have no desire to die drunk,&#8221; said Maseden quietly.</p>
+
+<p>The Spaniard shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ll never have a better excuse for swallowing excellent cognac,&#8221; he
+grinned.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Shut up, you two!&#8221; growled the officer.</p>
+
+<p>He had not understood a word of their talk. He simply voiced the
+eminently American notion that anything said in the Spanish language
+could not be of the least importance just then.</p>
+
+<p>Oddly enough, Maseden was angered by being thus outcasted, as it were.
+He was tempted to retort, but happily checked the words on his lips.
+Nerves were apt to be on a raw edge in such conditions, he remembered.
+Even the stern-faced ship&#8217;s officer, awaiting a command which would
+settle the fate of the <i>Southern Cross</i> once and for all, might well
+resent the magpie chattering of a couple of Spaniards.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden turned for an instant to look at the bridge. The captain stood
+there, apparently the most unmoved person on board. The sails, tugging
+fiercely at their rings and bolts, still kept the ship under control,
+notwithstanding <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>the ten-knot tidal current which carried her onward
+irresistibly. The foresail was bellied out to port, so the captain
+remained on the starboard side of the bridge, whence he had an
+uninterrupted view ahead.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly two cloaked figures emerged from the obscurity of the
+smoking-room and hurried to the transverse rail which guarded the fore
+part of the promenade deck. With them came some men, among whom Maseden
+recognized Sturgess; while another man, who caught the arm of one of the
+girls in a helpless sort of way, was probably Mr. Gray.</p>
+
+<p>Evidently there was no concealing the ship&#8217;s peril from the passengers
+now. Everyone wore a life-belt, and was clothed to resist the cold. A
+plausible explanation of this general flocking out on to the deck was
+that they had discerned the cleft in the rocky heights through a blurred
+window, and refused to remain any longer in the sheltered uncertainty of
+the smoking-room.</p>
+
+<p>At this period there was little or no difficulty in keeping one&#8217;s feet.
+The great hull of the <i>Southern Cross</i> swung easily on an even keel with
+the onrush of the sea-river. The ship was not fighting now, but
+yielding&mdash;a complacent leviathan held captive by a most puissant and
+ruthless enemy.</p>
+
+<p>During the few seconds Maseden stared at <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>the veiled women. One of those
+two&mdash;which one he could not tell&mdash;was his wife. It was the maddest, most
+fantastic thing he had ever heard of. In a spirit of sheer deviltry he
+waved a greeting. One of the girls raised a hand to her face&mdash;perhaps to
+her lips.</p>
+
+<p>What did it matter? In all human probability that was their eternal
+farewell. He waved again, and turned resolutely to scan the frowning
+headlands now rapidly closing in on both sides of the vessel&#8217;s path.</p>
+
+<p>About that time a new and disturbing sound reached his ears. Hitherto
+there had been nothing but the unceasing chant of the gale, the thud and
+swish of the seas, the steady plaint of the ship, and an occasional
+crash like a volley of musketry when the crest was torn off some giant
+roller and flung against poop or superstructure. But now there came a
+crashing, booming noise, irregular, yet almost continuous, and ever
+growing louder and more insistent; a noise almost exactly similar to
+distant gun-fire and the snarling explosions of heavy projectiles.</p>
+
+<p>It was the noise of the bitterest and longest war ever waged. Those old
+enemies, sea and land, were engaged in deadly combat, and, as ever, the
+sea was winning.</p>
+
+<p>Even while the <i>Southern Cross</i> swung past an overhanging fortress of
+rock, a mighty bastion <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>crumbled into ruin. It was singular to watch a
+cloud of dust mingle with the spindrift&mdash;to note how the next breaker
+climbed higher in assault over the vantage ground provided by the
+successful sap.</p>
+
+<p>A disconcerting feature of the ship&#8217;s hurried transit into this
+unchartered territory was the clearness with which all things were
+visible above a height of some twelve feet from the surface of the sea;
+whereas, below that level, the clouds of spray and flying scud formed an
+almost impenetrable wall.</p>
+
+<p>Taking his eyes from the everchanging panorama, Maseden looked over the
+side. The foam-flecked water was black but fairly transparent. In its
+depths he was astounded by the sight of writhing, sinister shapes like
+the arms of innumerable devil-fish.</p>
+
+<p>At first he experienced a shock of surprise so close akin to horror that
+he felt the chill of it, as though one of these fearsome tentacles were
+already twined around his shrinking body. Then he realized that he had
+been startled by some gigantic species of seaweed. The ship was crossing
+a submarine forest. Down there in the depths on this January day in the
+southern hemisphere some mysterious form of plant life was enjoying its
+leafy June.</p>
+
+<p>But science had no joys for him in that hour. Better the outlook on crag
+and clearing sky than <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>a furtive glimpse of the limbs and foliage of
+that monstrous growth.</p>
+
+<p>All at once a cry from the look-out in the bows sent a quiver through
+every hearer.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Rock ahead!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>After a pause, measured by seconds, but seeming like as many minutes,
+the same voice shouted:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Channel opens to starboard!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The ship answered the helm. She swept past a jagged little islet so
+closely that a sailor could have cast a coil of rope ashore.</p>
+
+<p>Forthwith another sound mingled with the crash of the breakers. The rock
+had been bored right through by the waves, and the gale set up a note in
+the tunnel such as no organ-builder ever dreamed of.</p>
+
+<p>That mighty chord pursued the <i>Southern Cross</i> for nearly half a mile.
+It was a melancholy and depressing wail. Maseden, whose faculties were
+supernaturally alert, noticed that the South American sailor&#8217;s face had
+turned a sickly green. The man was paralyzed with fright. His right hand
+fumbled in a weak attempt to cross himself.</p>
+
+<p>Out of the tail of his eye the second officer caught the gesture.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Pull yourself together, you swab!&#8221; he said bitingly. &#8220;What the hell
+good will you be if you give way like that?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p><p>The Spaniard grasped the sense of command in the words rather than their
+meaning. He was no coward. He even contrived to grin. It was a tonic to
+be cursed by an American, even though the pierced rock howled like a
+lost soul!</p>
+
+<p>Still the <i>Southern Cross</i> drove on. The tidal stream was, if anything,
+swifter than ever, but the size of the waves had diminished sensibly.
+The walls of the straits had closed in to within a half-mile span. There
+could not be the slightest doubt that the vessel was actually passing
+through one of the waterways which connect the Pacific with Smyth&#8217;s
+Channel.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden, after scanning the interior highlands for the hundredth time,
+glanced again at the second officer. The grimness of the clean-cut,
+stern face had somewhat relaxed. Quite unconsciously the sailor&#8217;s
+expression showed that hope had replaced calm-visaged despair. Given an
+unhindered run of another mile, the ship could at least drop anchor with
+some prospect of success.</p>
+
+<p>The strength of the tide would diminish in less than an hour, and it
+might be possible to maneuver in the slack water for a comparatively
+safe berth. Next day, if the weather moderated as promised by the
+barometer, the steam pinnace could spy out the land in front.</p>
+
+<p>Smyth&#8217;s Channel was not so far away&mdash;perhaps <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>fifty miles. Once there,
+the <i>Southern Cross</i> could repair damage and proceed under her own steam
+to Punta Arenas.</p>
+
+<p>A gleam of yellow light irradiated the surface mist, which had grown
+markedly denser. The clouds were parting, and the sun was vouchsafing
+some thin rays from the northwest.</p>
+
+<p>The mere sight was cheering. The blood ran warmer in the veins. It was
+as though the ship&#8217;s company, after days and nights of cold and
+starvation, had been miraculously supplied with food and hot liquids.</p>
+
+<p>Then the golden radiance died away, and simultaneously came the cry:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Reef ahead!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>There was no need for further warning by the men in the bows. The
+<i>Southern Cross</i> had hardly traveled her own length before every person
+in the fore part of the ship, together with the occupants of bridge and
+promenade deck, became aware that a seemingly impassable barrier lay
+right across the channel. At the same time the line of cliffs fell away
+to the southward.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond the reef, then, lay a wide stretch of land-locked water; its
+unexpected existence explained the frantic haste of the tidal current.
+It was cruel luck that nature should have thrown one of her defensive
+works across that bottle-neck entrance. A few cables&#8217; lengths <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>away was
+safety; here, unavoidable&mdash;sullen and rigid as death himself&mdash;were the
+rock fangs.</p>
+
+<p>At the supreme moment the second officer never turned his head. His eyes
+were riveted on the motionless figure standing on the starboard side of
+the bridge.</p>
+
+<p>The captain raised his hand; the sails flapped loudly in the wind; both
+anchors splashed overboard with hoarse rattling of chains. The after
+anchor failed, but the forward one held at a depth of ten fathoms.</p>
+
+<p>The second officer was quick to note the sudden strain, and eased
+it&mdash;once, twice, three times. But it was now or never. The ship was
+swinging in the stream, and her stern-post would just clear the fringe
+of the reef if the anchor made good its grip.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Southern Cross</i> had gone round, with a heavy lurch to port, caused
+by the tremendous pressure of wind and wave, and was almost stationary
+when the cable parted. The thick chain flew back with all the impetus of
+six thousand tons in motion behind it.</p>
+
+<p>Missing Maseden by a hair&#8217;s breadth, it struck the foretop, and the spar
+snapped like a carrot. It fell forward, and the identical block which
+had nearly brought about the death of the South American sailor now
+caught his rescuer on the side of the head.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p><p>In the same instant a heavy stay dragged Maseden bodily over the
+fore-rail and he pitched headlong to the deck, where, however, the
+actual fall was broken by the stout canvas of the sail.</p>
+
+<p>A woman screamed, but he could not hear, being knocked insensible.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;All hands amidships!&#8221; shouted the captain, and there was a race for the
+ladders. One man, however, the Spaniard, stooped over the young
+American&#8217;s body. His eyes were streaming with tears.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Good-by, friend!&#8221; he sobbed. &#8220;Maybe this is a better way than that
+opened by my bottle of brandy!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He was sure that the <i>vaquero</i> who swore like an <i>Americano</i> had been
+killed, because blood was flowing freely from a scalp wound; but he
+lifted Maseden&#8217;s inert form, and, without any valid reason behind the
+action, placed him in his bunk, as the cabin door stood open.</p>
+
+<p>Then he ran after the others.</p>
+
+<p>Poor fellow! He little dreamed that he was repaying a thousand-fold the
+few extra days of life the good-looking <i>vaquero</i> had given him.</p>
+
+<p>Almost immediately the ship struck. There was a fearsome crash of
+rending plates and torn ribs, the great vessel reeled over, struck again
+and bumped clear of the outer reef.</p>
+
+<p>Now, too late, the after anchor lodged in a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>sunken crevice; the cable
+did not yield, because the vessel was sucked into a sort of backwash and
+driven, bow on, close to an apparently unscalable cliff.</p>
+
+<p>She settled rapidly. As it happened a submerged rock smashed her
+keel-plate beneath the engine-room, and the engines, together with the
+stout framework to which the superstructure was bolted amidships, became
+anchored there, offering a new obstacle to the onward race of the seas
+pouring over the reef.</p>
+
+<p>Every boat was either smashed instantaneously or wrenched bodily from
+its davits. Two-thirds of the hull fell away almost at once, the
+forecastle tilting towards the cliff, and the poop being swept into deep
+water.</p>
+
+<p>With the after part went at least half the ship&#8217;s company, their last
+cries of despair being smothered by the continuous roar of the wind and
+the thunder of the waves. The bridge, with the rooms immediately below,
+remained fairly upright, but the smoking-room, and officers&#8217; quarters
+close to it, were swept by water breast high.</p>
+
+<p>Some one&mdash;who it was will never be known&mdash;had ordered the passengers to
+run into the smoking-room when the forward cable parted. Now, with the
+magnificent courage invariably shown by American sailors even when the
+gates of death gape wide before their eyes, the first <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>and second
+officers contrived to hoist the two girls to the chart-room behind the
+bridge.</p>
+
+<p>Sturgess, behaving with great gallantry, helped the women first, and
+then their father, who was floating in the room, to reach the only
+available gangway. Others followed, but the difficulty of rescue&mdash;if
+such a sorrowful transition might be called a rescue&mdash;was enhanced by
+the noise and sudden darkness.</p>
+
+<p>Ever the central citadel of the <i>Southern Cross</i> was sinking lower. Ever
+the leaping waves and their clouds of spray tended more and more to shut
+out the light.</p>
+
+<p>Seven people were plucked from immediate death in this fashion. All
+told, officers, crew and passengers, the survivors of seventy-four souls
+numbered twelve.</p>
+
+<p>There was a thirteenth, because Maseden was lying high and dry in his
+bunk. But of him they took no count.</p>
+
+<p>They gathered in the chart-room. Those who still retained their senses
+tried to revive the more fortunate ones to whom was vouchsafed a
+merciful oblivion of their common plight. Even in the temporary haven of
+the chart-room the conditions quickly savored of utter misery. The
+windows were blown away. The doors were jammed open by the warping of
+the deck. Wind, waves and sheets of spray seemed to vie with demoniac
+energy as to which could be most <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>cruel and deadly. The ceaseless
+warping and working of what was left of the ship presaged complete
+collapse at any moment, and the din of the reef was stupefying.</p>
+
+<p>Still, the captain did not abate one jot of his cool demeanor. He eyed
+the sea, the rocks, the remains of his ship and the beetling crags from
+which he was cut off by sixty feet of raging water.</p>
+
+<p>Then he deliberately turned his back on it all. Going to a locker, he
+produced a screwdriver and began methodically drawing the screws of the
+door-hinges.</p>
+
+<p>The chief officer thought that the other man&#8217;s brain had yielded to the
+stress.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What are you doing, sir?&#8221; he said, placing a hand gently on his
+friend&#8217;s shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We haven&#8217;t a ten-million to one chance of remaining here till the gale
+gives out,&#8221; was the calm answer, &#8220;but we may as well rig up some sort of
+protection from the weather. There are four lockers and four doors.
+Let&#8217;s block up those broken windows as well as we can.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>A curiously admiring light shone in the chief officer&#8217;s eyes. He said
+nothing, but helped. Soon a corner was completely walled. They decided
+it was better to have one section thoroughly shielded than the whole
+only partially.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p><p>They made a quick job of it. The girls, Mr. Gray, and two men recovering
+consciousness were allotted to the angle.</p>
+
+<p>Then the captain opened one of the three bottles of claret stored in a
+locker, and portioned out the contents among the survivors.</p>
+
+<p>There was no need to measure the share of a heavily-built Spaniard who
+was reputed to be a wealthy rancher from the Argentine. His spine was
+broken when the ship lurched over the reef. He was found dead when they
+tried to move him to the sheltered corner.</p>
+
+<p>And now a pall of darkness spread swiftly over the face of the waters.
+The tide fell, but the ship sank with it. She no longer rocked and shook
+under the blows of the waves. It seemed as though she knew herself
+crippled beyond all hope of succor, and only awaited another tide to
+meet annihilation.</p>
+
+<p>Wind and sea were more furious than ever. In all likelihood, the gale
+would blow itself out next day. But long before dawn the rising tide
+would have made short work of what was left of the <i>Southern Cross</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Never was a small company of Christian people in a more hopeless
+position. Every boat was gone. They had no food. They were wet to the
+skin, and pierced with bitter cold. Even the hardy captain&#8217;s teeth
+chattered as he took a pipe from his pocket, rolled some tobacco between
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>the palms of his hands, and said smilingly to those near him:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;This is one of the occasions when a water-tight pipe-lighter is a real
+treasure. Who&#8217;d like a smoke? You must find your own pipes. I can supply
+some &#8217;baccy and a light!&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>ONE CHANCE IN A MILLION</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">M</span>aseden was badly hurt and quite stunned. Of that there could be no
+manner of doubt. He was blissfully unaware of the destruction of the
+ship, and did not regain his senses until long after the captain and
+some few of the men gathered in the dismantled chart-room had indulged
+in what was to prove their last pipeful of tobacco.</p>
+
+<p>Even when a species of ordered perception was restored he was wholly
+unable during an hour or more to collect his wits sufficiently to
+understand just what had happened.</p>
+
+<p>Certain phenomena were vaguely disturbing; that was all. He knew, for
+instance, that the <i>Southern Cross</i> was wrecked, because the deck was
+tilted permanently at an alarming angle. As the downward slope was
+forward, however, and his bunk lay across it and on the forward side of
+the door the physical outcome was by no means unpleasant, since his body
+was wedged comfortably between the mattress and the bulkhead.</p>
+
+<p>He was dry and warm. The weather-proof <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>garments of the pampas were
+admirably adapted to resist exposure, while the pitch of the deck, aided
+by the conformation of the bows, diminished the striking power of the
+waves and carried the spray and broken water clean over the remains of
+the forecastle.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden&#8217;s position resembled that of a man ensconced in a dry niche of a
+cave behind a waterfall. So long as he did not move and the cavern held
+intact he was safe and comfortable. Happily, a long time elapsed between
+the first glimmer of consciousness and the moment when the knowledge was
+borne in on him that he was actually beset by immediate and most deadly
+peril.</p>
+
+<p>He imagined that the ship had been cast ashore after he met with some
+rather serious accident, that some kind Samaritan had tucked him into
+his own berth, and that, in due course, some one would look in on him
+with a cheery inquiry as to how he was faring. His answer would have
+been that his head ached abominably, that his mouth and throat were on
+fire, and that a long drink of cold water was the one thing needed to
+send him to sleep and speedy recovery.</p>
+
+<p>He did not realize that when he dropped face downward into the folds of
+the sail he had swallowed a quantity of salt water lodged there
+instantly by the pelting seas. It was not until he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>moved, and yielded
+to a fit of vomiting, which relieved the pain in his head and cleared
+his faculties, that the dreadful truth began to dawn in his mind.</p>
+
+<p>Once, however, the process of clear reasoning set in, it developed
+rapidly. He noticed, in the first instance, that the angle of the deck
+was becoming steeper. It was strange, he thought, that although the
+light was failing, no one came near. His ears, too, told him that seas
+were still hammering furiously on every side.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, a marked movement of the forecastle as it slipped over a smooth
+rock race, owing to the increase of dead weight brought about by the
+falling tide, induced a species of alarmed curiosity which proved a most
+potent tonic. At one moment feeling hardly able to move, the next he was
+scrambling out of the bunk and climbing crab-like through the doorway.</p>
+
+<p>Then he saw that the forecastle deck had been torn away in line with the
+forward bulkhead of the fore hold. With some difficulty, being still
+physically weak and shaken, he raised head and shoulders above this
+jagged edge and peered over.</p>
+
+<p>Then he understood. The ship was in pieces on the reef. Two bits of her
+still remained; the forecastle, a stubborn wedge nearly always the last
+part of a steel-built vessel to collapse, and the bridge, with its
+backing of the chart house. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>All else had gone&mdash;the funnels had fallen
+an hour earlier.</p>
+
+<p>Even the steel plates and stout wood work of the superstructure had
+melted away from the six strong ribs to which the sunken engines were
+bolted, leaving the bridge and chart house in air.</p>
+
+<p>Already, too, one of the six pillars which had proved the salvation of
+that forlorn aerie had yielded to the strain and snapped. In the
+half-light it was difficult to discern just what support was given to
+the squat rectangle of the chart-house; Maseden had to look long and
+steadily through the flying scud before he gathered the exact facts.</p>
+
+<p>The upper deck of the forecastle shut off any glimpse of the cliffs. All
+he could see was the reef, much more visible now, but still partially
+submerged by every sea; beyond it, a howling wilderness of broken water,
+and in the midst of this depressing picture, the ghost-like chart-house
+and bridge.</p>
+
+<p>But he recalled vividly enough the sight of an awesome precipice close
+at hand before something had hit him and robbed him of senses. If the
+ship, or what was left of her, was lodged on the reef towards which she
+was being driven at the time of his mishap, the shore could not be far
+distant.</p>
+
+<p>Within a foot of where he lay on the deck, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>clinging to it as a man
+might save himself from falling off the steeply-pitched roof of a house,
+was the big bole of the foremast, on which the rings of the sails formed
+a sort of ladder. He pulled himself up, stretched his body along the
+mast in the opposite direction, and made out the uneven summit of the
+cliff above the straight line of the upper deck.</p>
+
+<p>He was exposed to the weather here, but the waves were not breaking
+across the forecastle now, and the spray and biting wind tended rather
+to dissipate the feeling of lassitude which had proved quite
+overpowering while he remained in the bunk. He raised himself cautiously
+another foot or so, and the rugged wall of the precipice loomed so close
+that at first he fancied the wreck was touching it.</p>
+
+<p>The broken topmast, however, swaying in the wind, and still held to its
+more solid support by a couple of wire stays, pointed drunkenly at the
+cliff, and the pulley dangling from it was occasionally dashed by the
+gale against an overhanging ledge.</p>
+
+<p>Even while Maseden was arriving at a pretty accurate estimate of the way
+in which he had been injured&mdash;because he now recalled the parting of the
+anchor cable&mdash;the forecastle moved again, the wet and frowning wall
+became even more visible, and although an awesome gap intervened, the
+swaying, pointed spar seemed to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>offer a fantastic glimpse of a means of
+escape.</p>
+
+<p>As yet, the truck, or top of the mast, was fully sixteen feet distant
+from the face of the cliff. But it had been twenty feet or more distant
+a moment ago, and that last movement of the hull had lessened the width
+of the chasm.</p>
+
+<p>What if the spar jammed? Could a man obtain foothold on that slimy rock
+surface?</p>
+
+<p>He thought it possible. A deep crevice seemed to promise some vague
+prospect of upward progress to one who could climb, and to whom any risk
+was preferable to the certain fate which must attend remaining on the
+wreck during the coming tide.</p>
+
+<p>But, notwithstanding his partial recovery, he still felt very feeble and
+quite unequal to more exertion. As nothing in the way of an attempt to
+save his life was possible until the broken topmast was lodged firmly
+against the cliff, he wondered whether he would find some sort of food
+in the forecastle.</p>
+
+<p>It was improbable, of course. Meals were brought from the cook&#8217;s galley
+amidships, and utensils only were stored in the lockers of the dingy
+saloon in which he and many of the sailors used to eat.</p>
+
+<p>Still, spurred by the necessity of doing something to take his mind off
+the fearsome alternative should the forecastle topple over sideways, or
+even remain in its present position, he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>turned his back on the cliff.
+With never a glance at the bridge, he regained the sloping deck, lowered
+himself to the doorway of his own cabin, and peered into the gloom in
+the effort to determine how best and where to begin his search.</p>
+
+<p>At first his heart sank, because the saloon was awash. Then he
+remembered the Spanish sailor&#8217;s queer offer of a bottle of brandy,
+stored in a kit-bag in number seven berth, &#8220;the lowest bunk on the
+left.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Number seven! Had he not seen the man at odd times entering or leaving
+the second cabin on the port side? At any rate, there was no harm in
+trying.</p>
+
+<p>Crawling farther into the darkness, he walked on what was normally the
+cross bulkhead of the saloon, groped to a doorway, found a kit-bag in
+the stated position, opened it, and came upon a bottle of brandy!</p>
+
+<p>He drank a little. Luckily it was not the raw spirit beloved of such men
+as its late owner, but sound, mellow liquor, which the Spaniard had
+probably bought as a medicine.</p>
+
+<p>Be that as it may, the brandy exercised the magical effect which good
+cognac always produces in those wise enough not to vitiate the blood
+with alcohol when in robust health. For the first time since he was
+struck down, Maseden felt himself capable of putting forth <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>physical
+effort involving sustained muscular exertion.</p>
+
+<p>He returned to his own cabin, secured the poncho, or cloak, and wrapped
+the bottle in it. Rummaging round in the dark, he laid hands on a strap,
+with which he buckled the folded poncho tightly to his shoulders. Then
+reviewing the prospects which awaited an unfortunate castaway on that
+inhospitable coast, he endeavored to get at his own trunk.</p>
+
+<p>Therein, however, he failed. The iron frame of the bunk had buckled, and
+the trunk was held as in a vise.</p>
+
+<p>Realizing that he had very little time before the light in the interior
+of the forecastle would vanish altogether, he hurried back to the
+Spaniard&#8217;s berth and hauled out the kit-bag. He had an uncomfortable
+feeling that he was robbing the dead, but if it were practicable to land
+any sort of stores the effort should be made.</p>
+
+<p>He had not a moment to spare for further search. The forecastle slipped
+again, and he experienced no little difficulty in regaining his perch on
+the solid stump of the foremast, on which, so nearly had it approached
+the horizontal, he could sit quite easily.</p>
+
+<p>The dangling spar, he estimated, was now about eight feet from the
+cliff. Would it catch the rock wall while any glimmer of light remained,
+or would some new movement of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>wreck divert its progress? He could
+only hope for the best and be ready to seize the opportunity when, if
+ever, it presented itself.</p>
+
+<p>To his thinking, the gale was moderating; but he dared not indulge in
+the smallest hope that the forecastle would live through the next tide.
+The heavy swell of the Pacific after a westerly storm would create a
+worse sea on the reef than that already experienced. Probably the
+breakers would be more destructive immediately after than during the
+gale.</p>
+
+<p>It was at that moment, when in a plight seldom equaled and never
+surpassed by any man destined to survive a disastrous shipwreck, that
+Maseden&#8217;s thoughts reverted to his fellow passengers. There was no need
+to watch the spar, since he could not fail to become aware of any
+further movement of the forecastle, so he lashed the kit-bag to a sail
+ring, again turned his back on the cliff, and gave close attention to
+the chart-house.</p>
+
+<p>Despite the increasing darkness it was a good deal more visible now than
+when he had looked that way earlier. No dense clouds of spray or
+spindrift intervened; hence he noticed for the first time the improvised
+shutters which had replaced the glass front of the structure on the
+seaward side.</p>
+
+<p>He was wondering whether or not it was possible that some one might
+still be living on the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>only other part of the ship still intact, when
+he became aware of a figure silhouetted against the sky above the canvas
+screen of the bridge.</p>
+
+<p>It was, in fact, the captain, who crept out of the chart-house every now
+and then to examine the state of the iron uprights and the condition of
+the reef. The gallant old sailor had abandoned, or never formed, any
+notion of escape, because nothing could live for an instant on the reef
+itself, and he could not possibly detect the chance of salvation offered
+by the broken mast. But the nature of the man demanded that he should
+keep watch and ward over those committed to his care. In all likelihood
+he experienced a vague sense of relief in being able to discharge even
+the melancholy duty of noting the gradual breaking-up of the supports.</p>
+
+<p>Three had gone, two on the port side and one on the starboard. When the
+third stanchion yielded on the port side, bridge and chart-room would
+fall with a crash and there would be an end. He said nothing of this to
+the unhappy company within.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The weather is improving,&#8221; he told them cheerfully, as Maseden heard
+later. &#8220;I can&#8217;t honestly give you any prospect of escape, but&mdash;while
+there&#8217;s life there&#8217;s hope!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>And all the time he was listening for the ominous crack which would be
+the precursor of that final sinking into the depths! The marvel <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>was
+that the middle of the ship had held together so long, but by no miracle
+known to man could what was left of her survive the next tide.</p>
+
+<p>Yet why should he add to misery already abyssmal? Death would be a
+blessed relief; waiting for certain death was the worst of tortures.</p>
+
+<p>No one answered. The survivors&mdash;of the twelve four were dead now&mdash;were
+perishing with cold and dumbly resigned to their wretched fate. Had it
+not been for the protection afforded by the improvised screen, none
+would have been alive even then.</p>
+
+<p>The wind still swirled and eddied into every nook and cranny. Though
+huddled together, the little group of men and women were conscious of no
+warmth. It was with the greatest difficulty that those not clad in
+oilskins kept any garments on their bodies.</p>
+
+<p>So merciless is the havoc of the sea that its victims are stripped naked
+even while clinging to the battered hulk of a ship, though this last
+device of a seemingly demoniac savagery is easily accounted for. No
+product of loom or spinning machine can withstand the disintegrating
+effects of breaking waves helped by a fierce gale. The seams and
+fastenings of ordinary garments cannot resist the combined assault. In
+such circumstances, a woman&#8217;s flimsy attire will be torn off her in a
+few minutes, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>while the strongest of boots have been known to collapse
+after some hours of this kind of exposure.</p>
+
+<p>Luckily a number of oilskins were kept in the chart-room of the
+<i>Southern Cross</i>; these were quickly served out to the shivering girls,
+whose clothing had practically melted away as though made of thin paper.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after the captain had tried to hearten them with that scrap of
+proverbial philosophy, one of the girls, Nina, screamed in an elfin note
+that dominated even the roaring of the reef for an instant. Her father
+had collapsed. It was useless to pretend that he might only have
+fainted. They who fell now were doomed. In Mr. Gray&#8217;s case, he was dead
+ere he sank down.</p>
+
+<p>The chief officer put a consoling hand on the girl&#8217;s shoulder. He was a
+Bostonian, and had daughters of his own. In that hour of tribulation his
+speech reverted to the homely accents of New England.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It comes hard to see your father drop like that,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But it&#8217;s
+better so. He&#8217;s just spared a bit of the trouble we may have to face.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is not that,&#8221; wailed the girl brokenly. &#8220;I&#8217;m thinking of my mother.
+She will never know. Oh, if I could only make her understand, I would
+not care!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>A strange answer, the sailor deemed it, most <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>probably. At that instant
+he caught the captain&#8217;s eye. Both men had the same thought. The dead
+should be thrown overboard and thus lessen the weight supported by the
+one stanchion on the port side.</p>
+
+<p>But of what avail were such precautions? They might as well all go
+together, the quick and the dead. Why should any of them wish to live on
+until the sea rose again in the small hours of the morning?</p>
+
+<p>The girls were crying in each other&#8217;s arms. Two of the men lifted Gray&#8217;s
+body and placed it with four others. Five gone out of twelve!</p>
+
+<p>The captain, speaking in the most matter-of-fact way, suggested that
+they should open and drink the last bottle of claret before the light
+failed.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a poor substitute for a meal,&#8221; he said, &#8220;but it&#8217;s the only thing
+we can lay hands on.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The chief officer nodded his head towards the grief-stricken sisters.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Maybe we can wait a bit longer,&#8221; he said. &#8220;You couldn&#8217;t persuade them
+to touch it just now.... What&#8217;s that, sir? Did you hear anything?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No. What could we possibly hear?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It sounded like a voice, some one hailing.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I think I know whose voice it is,&#8221; said the captain. He himself had
+almost yielded to the delusion. It was distressing to find the same
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>eery symptom of speedy breakdown in his old friend, the chief officer.</p>
+
+<p>Both men listened, nevertheless, and were convinced. In silence they
+went out into the open, walking stealthily. Each knew that any undue
+movement might send the remains of the ship headlong to the reef. They
+strained their eyes in the only possible direction from which a voice
+might have come&mdash;the scrap of forecastle, sixty feet nearer the
+headland, or, incredible as it seemed, the headland itself. They could
+see nothing. Maseden&#8217;s body was not only in line with the receding angle
+of the foremast, but that piece of the wreck was merged in the gloom of
+the towering rock.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden saw them, however, and shouted again, striving his uttermost now
+that he had attracted attention.</p>
+
+<p>With each effort at speech his voice was becoming stronger. Though it
+was useless to think of conveying an intelligible message through the
+uproar of wind and water, he fancied he could get into communication
+with the inmates of the chart-room, provided they were on the alert. In
+effect, he had a knife, and was surrounded by an abundance of tangled
+cordage, and it would be a strange thing if after so many years of
+active life on a South American ranch he could not cast a weighted lasso
+as far as the bridge.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span></p><p>He began fashioning the necessary coil at once, working with feverish
+haste, because his refuge was on the move again, and ever towards the
+land. A trial cast fell short, as he had not allowed enough lee-way for
+the wind. He was gathering up the rope preparatory to another effort
+when a great voice boomed at him from the shadows:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You have no chance here. You are as well off where you are. If you hear
+me, hail three times!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The captain was using a megaphone.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden yelled &#8220;Hi!&#8221; three times, thinking the short, sharp syllable
+would carry best. Then, with splendid judgment, he threw the lasso in a
+lateral parabola that landed its end across the rail of the bridge,
+where it was promptly made fast by the first officer.</p>
+
+<p>Again came that mighty voice:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Is there any hope of escape on your side? If so, hail three times.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He replied. After a short delay he heard the order:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Haul in!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Attached to the noose of his rope was another rope, and a second thinner
+one, rigged as a &#8220;whip,&#8221; or communicating cord. Tied at the junction was
+the megaphone. The intent of the senders was plain. He was to bawl
+directions, and they would obey.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p><p>He fancied that by this time the topmast must be near the rock, if not
+quite touching it, but he had decided already that he would either save
+those hapless people in the chart-room or die in the attempt.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps his &#8220;wife&#8221; was there yet. Unless those American sailors had
+broken the first law of their order of chivalry, the women committed to
+their care had been safeguarded.</p>
+
+<p>Well, he owed her a life. Now he might be able to repay the debt in
+full.</p>
+
+<p>He had never before handled a speaking trumpet, so his initial essay was
+brief:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Can you hear?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He could just catch three faint sounds in answer.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;As soon as a sailor can cross by the rope, send one,&#8221; he shouted, &#8220;I
+shall need help at this end. I have made fast the heavy rope. Shall I
+haul in the whip?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>There was a pause of a few seconds, but he counted on that. Then he felt
+three tugs on the thinner cord, and began to haul steadily. Soon, by the
+sagging of the main rope and the weight at the end of the whip, he
+realized that some one was making the transit.</p>
+
+<p>Before long he discerned a figure coming towards him hand over hand
+along the rope. The man&#8217;s feet were caught midway by the seas boiling
+over the reef, but Maseden knew that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>the gallant fellow&#8217;s forward
+movement was never checked, and in a very little while the breathless
+chief officer was seated astride the mast beneath him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Who in the world are you?&#8221; demanded the newcomer; at any rate, he used
+words to that effect.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden answered in kind, and explained his project; whereupon the chief
+officer seized the megaphone and bellowed the necessary instructions. On
+a given signal the two men hauled on the whip.</p>
+
+<p>This time a figure lashed to a life-buoy, which, in turn, was tied to a
+pulley traveling on the guide-rope, came to them out of the darkness. It
+was a woman, hardly in her senses, yet able to obey when told to sit
+astride the mast and hold fast to a ring.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We can hardly find room for five more people here,&#8221; shouted the chief
+officer. &#8220;Are you game to shin along the mast and see if that loose spar
+is practicable yet?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes,&#8221; said Maseden.</p>
+
+<p>He vanished in the darkness. He was absent fully five minutes, a period
+which, to the waiting chief officer, who alone knew what was actually
+happening, must have seemed like as many hours. Then Maseden returned.
+By this time there were two more astride the foremast, four <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>in all. He
+tied the nearest one to his back with a rope.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Can you steady yourself by placing your hands on my shoulders, but not
+around my neck?&#8221; he said.</p>
+
+<p>For answer two slim hands caught his shoulders. He began working his way
+forward into the gloom.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<h3>THE LOTTERY</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">M</span>aseden&#8217;s prolonged absence on the first occasion was readily accounted
+for by what he had done. When he reached the end of the foremast&mdash;at the
+junction of spars known to the sailor as the couplings&mdash;he found that
+the topmast was, in fact, thrust tightly against the rock wall.</p>
+
+<p>Thus far, his most sanguine calculations had been justified to the
+letter.</p>
+
+<p>It was impossible to determine how the other end of that precarious
+bridge was secured. He saw at once, however, that a great strain was
+being placed already on the stays which attached it, by chance and
+loosely at first, but now with ever-increasing rigidity, to the lower
+mast. He thought that a vigorous kick would ease the pressure by partly
+freeing one of the wire ropes which had become entangled in the
+splintered wood.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, he was only choosing the lesser of two evils. If the spar
+snapped a second time, the last hope of rescue was absolutely destroyed.
+On the other hand, by reducing the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>thrust on the retaining spar, the
+forecastle might slip.</p>
+
+<p>He kicked, and the stay was released! To the best of his belief the
+wreck did not move.</p>
+
+<p>Fastening the seaward end of the topmast in a rough and ready fashion,
+in such wise that it was held in position, yet allowed some play if
+subjected to irresistible weight, he tested it with one hand. It
+remained taut. Then, murmuring something which had the semblance of a
+prayer, he committed himself to the crossing.</p>
+
+<p>The wind carried his body out at an astonishing angle, but he held on.
+Of course, he had not far to travel, because a steamer&#8217;s topmast is of
+no great length, but, if he lives to become a centenarian, Maseden will
+never forget the extraordinary thrill of thankfulness and jubilation
+which ran through every fibre when his right foot rested on a projecting
+knob of rock.</p>
+
+<p>A ghostly light coming from the white maelstrom beneath enabled him to
+make sure that the crevice in which the spar had stuck extended some
+distance into the face of the cliff. He scrambled ashore, and found that
+a narrow ledge ran inward about the height of his breast. It was
+practicable as far as a hand could reach; so, well knowing how precious
+was every second, he commenced the return journey.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p><p>He simply did not allow himself to think. The slightest hesitation might
+have been fatal. He could form no sort of estimate of his own nervous
+strength. He knew that any man&#8217;s willpower may carry him to a certain
+point and then desert him. He realized that he was leaving a sort of
+safety for a no mean chance of speedy death; but there is safety that is
+dishonor, and death that is everlastingly honorable.</p>
+
+<p>Without any semblance of hesitation, this gallant young American swung
+forth to the desolation and chaos he had just quitted.</p>
+
+<p>Nor did his spirit quail when he had deposited a helpless woman on the
+ledge. But his hands fumbled in untying the rope which had bound her to
+him, and he became conscious of an affrighting lassitude which brought
+with it a grimmer menace than the howling furies of the reef.</p>
+
+<p>He tried to persuade himself that the poncho strapped to his back had
+made the burden of another body almost unbearable. Hurriedly unfastening
+it, he said to his collapsed companion&mdash;or, rather shouted, because the
+din created by the breakers was almost stupefying:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Are you able to hold this?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Probably she replied, but her utterance was swept away by the wind ere
+the words had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>crossed her lips. She took the folded cloak in her hands,
+and the action sufficed.</p>
+
+<p>Then Maseden left her. During this second crossing to the forecastle he
+knew beyond range of doubt that he had reached the limit of physical
+endurance. He had eaten nothing during many hours, he had been knocked
+insensible and had lost a good deal of blood. It was not in human nature
+that any man, howsoever fit and active he might be, could survive these
+heavy drains on his energies and yet put forth the sustained effort now
+called for.</p>
+
+<p>It tasked his grit to the uttermost to go on this time. He knew in his
+heart that a third double passage was not to be thought of.</p>
+
+<p>So, during the brief respite while a wholly insensible woman was being
+tied to him, he contrived to shout to the nearest man on the spar:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m all in! You fellows must follow as best you can. It&#8217;s not so bad
+for a man crossing alone. Turn your back to the wind.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He had adopted that method while carrying the girl already on the rock,
+and the force of the gale had seemed to exert less drag on his arms.</p>
+
+<p>It needed a real life-and-death struggle to gain the ledge this time.
+During a minute or longer he could not even endeavor to undo the rope.
+He merely lurched forward on to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>tiny platform and sank in a heap
+with the inert body of a girl bound to his back. Then he felt dizzily
+that someone was gaining a foothold on the rock behind. With a mighty
+effort he bundled his own body and the girl&#8217;s out of the way.</p>
+
+<p>He fancied he heard a shout and a scream, but was beyond knowing or
+caring what had happened. Had he slipped down into the raging vortex
+beneath and been whirled to almost instant death he would have felt a
+sense of relief that the long drawn-out and unequal fight was ended.</p>
+
+<p>He revived under the stress of a new horror. He found himself gazing
+blankly into a dim obscurity in which there was neither broken topmast
+nor unheaved forecastle. The tons of metal piled on a slippery rock had
+vanished completely, and the hapless few who had survived the slow agony
+of those hours of waiting in the chart-room were hurled to death at the
+very moment when fate tantalized them with the prospect of rescue!</p>
+
+<p>Someone bawled huskily in his ear:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;They&#8217;ve gone! My God! What rotten luck! I could almost have touched the
+man crossing behind me!... Can we get these girls out of this?... Which
+way did you come?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was the young American passenger, Sturgess. He imagined that the man
+who had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>brought hope and life to the doomed survivors of the <i>Southern
+Cross</i> had reached the vessel from the land and could now pilot the
+three who alone were saved to some place where food and repose would be
+attainable.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m tied to someone,&#8221; Maseden contrived to say. &#8220;Try and unfasten the
+rope, and shove me up on to the ledge.... I&#8217;m all in, but I&#8217;ll soon be
+better.... Mind you hold fast yourself!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Sturgess, though only a degree less exhausted, did as he was asked.
+Sprawling weakly over the prostrate body of the second of the two girls,
+Maseden felt in the darkness for the other one.</p>
+
+<p>He discovered that she had collapsed sideways in a faint, but, by some
+marvel, the folded cloak had not rolled down the side of the precipice.
+His hands were feeble and numb, but he contrived to unfasten the strap.
+The bottle of brandy was uninjured, and, so unnerved was he by knowing
+that the spirit probably meant all the difference between life and death
+for four people&mdash;at any rate till dawn&mdash;that he actually dropped it.</p>
+
+<p>Again Providence intervened. It fell on the thick poncho, and did not
+break.</p>
+
+<p>Filled with savage resolve to conquer this weakness, he grasped the
+bottle more firmly, drew the cork with his teeth, and, resisting the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>impulse to swallow the contents in great gulps, sipped some of the
+liquor slowly.</p>
+
+<p>He did not offer any to the others at that moment. His mind was clearing
+now, and he saw that the one vital thing needed was that he should
+recover control of his mental and bodily powers. A few minutes more or
+less of collapse mattered not so much to his companions as that he
+should lead or carry them to a less exposed position. Then the brandy
+would be really effective. At present, to hand it around in the
+darkness, while wind and spindrift were whipping them with scorpions,
+was merely courting the disaster which he himself had so narrowly
+averted.</p>
+
+<p>The other man had gained the ledge. He could not see Maseden, because
+each inch of space increased an obscurity already akin to that of a
+tomb, but he leaned forward and caught his arm.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Say!&#8221; he yelled. &#8220;Isn&#8217;t there some way out? We&#8217;ll die quick if we stop
+here!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You must wait a little,&#8221; said Maseden. &#8220;I, like yourself, was on board
+the ship. I&#8217;m going to stand up now and prospect a bit by feeling my
+way. Take care that neither of the women falls off. They <i>are</i> women,
+aren&#8217;t they?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes. D&#8217;ye think we&#8217;d send men ashore first?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;I was not certain that both girls were still living.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>What a time and place for a discussion on the etiquette of life-saving
+at sea! It was typical of their race and type.</p>
+
+<p>Placing the bottle in a breast pocket Maseden rose cautiously to his
+feet. Gripping the rock with his hands, he stepped over the unconscious
+form of the first girl he brought ashore. Evidently she had collapsed
+when the forecastle was swept away before her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>The ledge led straight into the crevice he had entered during daylight,
+and though very uneven, trended generally upward. He had to depend, of
+course, wholly on the sense of touch, since the darkness here was that
+of a deep mine.</p>
+
+<p>Some thirty feet inland he was halted abruptly. The ledge seemed to
+widen out and then end against an overhanging rock. But the place was
+dry, and the wind hardly penetrated, while the deafening thunder of the
+reef had died down to a harsh growl. By comparison with the sea face
+this secluded nook was a niche in Paradise. At any rate, here it was
+possible to await daylight without necessarily dying from exposure.</p>
+
+<p>He hurried back, having memorized each inequality of floor and wall on
+the journey of exploration.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Are you able to carry one of those girls?&#8221; he shouted to Sturgess when
+he was once more in the midst of the external uproar.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;How far?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Not more than fifteen short strides. Take her in your left arm, and
+feel the rock face on the right. Keep close in. I&#8217;m not certain about
+the width of this ledge. It rises a little, but is fairly straight.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Go right ahead!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Soon the two men were in the haven of shelter at the further end. Each
+was clasping an inanimate woman, but happily, speech no longer demanded
+a straining of vocal chords.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Is this the limit of the accommodation?&#8221; inquired Sturgess, obeying his
+guide&#8217;s restraining hand.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Do we sit right down and hope that the sun will rise sometime?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Not yet.... Here! Grope this way. I am giving you a bottle of brandy.
+Drink some, not much, because we must hoard it. Then we&#8217;ll try and get a
+few drops between these girls&#8217; teeth. After that we must rub their hands
+and ankles till the friction hurts. It may revive them. I don&#8217;t know. It
+is the only plan I can think of. When they recover, if ever, we&#8217;ll seat
+them side by side with their backs to the rock, you and I will squeeze
+close, one on each side, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>and I have a poncho which will cover the lot.
+By that means we may obtain some degree of warmth in common.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Old man, you said a page full!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>There was silence for a few seconds. Then Sturgess said gratefully:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Gee! That&#8217;s some tonic! Now, how about those girls?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Give me the bottle. This lady was conscious when I brought her ashore.
+She may recover quickly.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The almost tangible blackness in which the little group of people was
+wrapped greatly enhanced the difficulties attending restorative
+measures. Maseden discovered that the abundant hair of the girl he was
+hugging so closely to his heart had become loose, and was in a wet
+tangle about her throat and mouth.</p>
+
+<p>The clinging strands were troublesome, but, by prizing her lips open
+between a finger and thumb, he contrived to make her swallow a few drops
+of the brandy. In fact, while he was yet doubting the efficacy of the
+dose, some slight convulsive movements showed that consciousness was
+returning.</p>
+
+<p>He laid her carefully down, and told the American to do likewise with
+the sister. Sturgess seemed to be curiously slow to obey, and Maseden
+admonished him sharply, thinking the other might be dazed.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Now, rub hard!&#8221; he said. &#8220;First her left hand&mdash;then her left ankle.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Both set to work with a will. Maseden could not understand why the
+unhappy girl should be nearly naked. The stockings had fallen about her
+shoes. For the rest, her chief garment was an oilskin coat.</p>
+
+<p>He, be it remembered, had been spared the hard usage of the waves, and
+his clothing was better adapted to existing conditions. He was shocked
+to find how cold she was, how icy and lifeless her flesh. He urged
+Sturgess not to spare her.</p>
+
+<p>Their rough and ready massage soon proved effective. The girl gasped
+something incoherent, and strove to withdraw her limbs from a distinctly
+strenuous handling.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<i>She&#8217;s</i> nearly all right, now,&#8221; announced Maseden briskly. &#8220;Sharp&#8217;s the
+word with the other one.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The second patient offered a longer task. By the time she gave any sign
+of life her sister was frantically asking what had become of her, and
+was only quieted by Maseden saying sternly:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You will help most by not bothering us. We are doing our best for your
+sister. She is here, and may recover. That is all I can tell you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We? Who are we?&#8221; came the broken cry.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Mr. Sturgess, yourself, your sister and I. My name is Maseden.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He caught a strangled gasp of astonishment, but Sturgess broke in
+breathlessly, for the exertion was warming him:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Great Scott! You&#8217;ve got my name pat, Mr. Maseden. D&#8217;ye mean&mdash;to
+tell&mdash;me&mdash;you were&mdash;on board&mdash;that poor old ship?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Rub! And don&#8217;t talk!... She moved a little then.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>His judgment was well founded. Within a few minutes he heard the second
+girl address her sister as Nina.</p>
+
+<p>So this one was Madge, his wife! He had literally brought her back from
+the very gates of death. He could not even see her. What a curious
+coincidence that when she saved his life, and he saved hers, she was
+equally hidden from him; then by a veil, now by the pall of the darkest
+night he had ever experienced!</p>
+
+<p>The girls began exchanging broken confidences. Madge, who had fainted
+while being towed across the fearsome chasm between bridge and
+forecastle, did not know of the loss of the captain and chief and second
+officers, with a passenger, until told by Nina. She wept bitterly, and
+Maseden could not help noticing that Sturgess tried to console her in a
+very lover-like manner.</p>
+
+<p>He actually smiled at the tragic humor of it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>all, especially when Nina
+seemed to sense his thought, and valiantly interfered by bidding Madge
+not to add to their misery by useless grief. He refrained purposely from
+giving them any more brandy until some time had elapsed. Now that their
+faculties were restored, he knew, from his own experiences, that their
+tongues and palates were on fire with the salt-laden atmosphere they had
+perforce inhaled during so many hours.</p>
+
+<p>But each minute of quiet in this sheltered nook, and in breathable air,
+would do much to alleviate their suffering, and he trusted to the brandy
+to put them to sleep.</p>
+
+<p>In effect, that was what actually happened. When each of the four had
+swallowed a small quantity of the spirit Maseden and Sturgess nestled in
+beside the two girls and tucked the poncho over knees and feet. The
+bodies of the men served as excellent shields. In the physical and
+mental reaction which set in with the consciousness of assured
+safety&mdash;because that was what both girls thought, and neither man cared
+to weaken their faith&mdash;they were sound asleep within half an hour of the
+time they left the wreck.</p>
+
+<p>Sturgess, too, was worn out, and slept fitfully, but it was long before
+Maseden&#8217;s overtaxed nerves would yield. He could not help speculating as
+to what wretched hap the coming <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>day might bring. There was a gnawing
+dread in his mind that they might be lodged in a fissure of an
+unscalable cliff. If that were so, what a fearsome prospect lay before
+them! The mere notion was unendurable, and he resolutely refused to
+dwell on it.</p>
+
+<p>Then he mused on the queer chance which, even in this small company,
+divorced him from his wife. He had rescued Nina first. By the accident
+of situation he was nearest the rock which closed the ledge, and she
+next. It was her body, not his wife&#8217;s, to which he was close pressed,
+and in which his more vigorous frame had already induced a certain
+comfortable warmth.</p>
+
+<p>Her head had fallen on his shoulder. An unconscious movement revealed
+that some roughness in the rock wall was hurtful, so he put his left arm
+around her neck and pillowed her gently.</p>
+
+<p>Try as he might, he found himself still brooding on the chances of the
+coming day. Fortune favoring, they might find a way to the summit of the
+cliff. Would they be much better off? Water they would surely
+obtain&mdash;but what of food?</p>
+
+<p>Somehow, in such woful plight, a man&#8217;s mind turns instinctively to a
+pipe. He actually had a cherished briar between his teeth and a tobacco
+pouch in his hand, when his heart sank <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>at the remembrance that he had
+struck the last match in the only box of matches in his pocket after
+breakfast that morning. He recollected tossing the empty box into the
+sea. Subsequently, in lighting a cigar, he had borrowed a match.</p>
+
+<p>Searching his pockets without disturbing the exhausted girl by his side,
+he made sure of the unhappy truth. He had no match. Even if they reached
+the interior of the island they could not possibly start a fire.</p>
+
+<p>He knew at once that Sturgess, who had been soaked in salt water for
+many hours, was in a worse predicament than himself, because his own
+clothing was dry inside, whereas the other was wet to the skin, and any
+matches he might have carried must be in a pulp.</p>
+
+<p>Tucked away in a money belt, Maseden carried ten thousand dollars in
+American bills, yet one small box of matches would be of far greater
+practical value in that hour than all the money. Slight wonder, then, if
+his stout heart failed him at last and the darkness closed in on his
+soul as on his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>The sleeping girl, conscious only of warmth and protection, snuggled her
+head a little nearer.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Mother, darling,&#8221; she murmured, &#8220;we had to do it! We had no choice. It
+was for your dear sake!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p><p>That was all&mdash;some troubled confidence of a dream&mdash;but it sufficed to
+set Maseden musing on the strange vortex into which fate had sucked him
+from the peace and seclusion of Los Andes ranch.</p>
+
+<p>His mind wandered. He saw again the magnificent groves of mahogany trees
+and coyal palms, with their golden flowers fully three feet in height,
+and the <i>chicka</i> sap oozing from the bark. He sauntered through the
+well-cultivated plantations of bananas, yams, arrow-root, guavas, and
+all the fruit and cereals which that favored region of Central America
+produces in such abundance that men grow lazy and are content to plot
+and thieve rather than toil. He particularly recalled a number of
+&#8220;chocolate&#8221; trees, the marvelous growth which yields a more delicately
+flavored beverage than the cocoa-tree.</p>
+
+<p>The original owner of the ranch prided himself on these
+trees&mdash;botanically, the <i>Herrania purpurea</i>&mdash;because they were not
+indigenous to San Juan, but had been brought from Guatemala. Los Andes
+ranch was indeed a veritable Garden of Eden.</p>
+
+<p>While roaming through it in spirit Maseden dropped off to sleep.</p>
+
+<p>And that was a kindly act on the part of a Providence which marks even
+the fall of a sparrow from a house-top. A full day lay before <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>this man
+and those others committed to his care. Even a couple of hours&#8217; fitful
+repose served as a splendid restorative. Without some such respite he
+could never have faced and carried through the almost Sisyphean task
+which awaited him at daylight.</p>
+
+<p>He awoke with a shiver. He was chilled to the bone. Not knowing what he
+was doing, he had drawn the poncho closely over Nina Gray, leaving his
+own limbs almost uncovered. Startled lest the others might be stiff in
+death, since his clothes were dry, while theirs, such as they possessed,
+were wet, he touched the girl&#8217;s cheek. It was quite warm and soft.</p>
+
+<p>The oilskins she and her sister wore and the huddling together of the
+four under the heavy poncho had generated a moist heat which probably
+helped to preserve the two delicate women from some type of deadly
+pneumonia.</p>
+
+<p>At first it did not strike Maseden as strange that he should be able to
+see her face. As the initial feeling of panic passed, and he glanced
+around, he understood what had happened. The sky was clear, and the
+moon, late risen, was spreading a mild radiance over rocks and sea.</p>
+
+<p>By raising himself a little, so as not to disturb the sleeper still
+trustfully tucked under his arm, he peered sidewise down on the reef.
+The tide was high, and great rollers were <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>smashing over the barrier
+which had broken the <i>Southern Cross</i>.</p>
+
+<p>So far as he could tell, not a vestige of the ship remained. Bridge and
+chart-house had vanished. He fancied that some part of the framework
+accounted for a particularly vexed boiling of the surges on a spot where
+the engines and stoke-hold had lodged. But that was only guesswork.</p>
+
+<p>The morning tide had done its work with thoroughness. The <i>Southern
+Cross</i> had become a memory.</p>
+
+<p>Then he surveyed the ledge and the cleft. Apparently, at this point, he
+was some twenty feet above high-water mark. To the left was the sea. To
+the right, the rock overhung the ledge in such wise that the place was
+almost a cave. This fact, combined with the elevation of the opposite
+wall, explained the shelter the castaways had been vouchsafed from the
+bitter gale now blowing itself out. But it was affrighting to realize
+that the very physical feature which provided a refuge might also immure
+them in a living tomb.</p>
+
+<p>He shuddered, and moved involuntarily, and the girl awoke with a start.</p>
+
+<p>She lifted her head, and gazed at him with uncomprehending eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Where am I?&#8221; she said, rather in wonderment than alarm.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Somewhere on the coast of Chile,&#8221; he said.</p>
+
+<p>She extricated a hand from the folds of the poncho and swept the errant
+hair from her face. Turning partly, she looked at her sister and
+Sturgess.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I remember now,&#8221; she said slowly. Then she discovered that Maseden&#8217;s
+arm was supporting her shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Have you held me like that all night?&#8221; she inquired.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;All night&#8217; is a figure of speech. It is not yet daybreak. This is
+moonlight.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The moon! Does the moon still shine? But your arm must be weary.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden was just beginning to realize that he owned a left arm.
+Circulation was being restored, and he knew it.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now that you mention it,&#8221; he said quietly, &#8220;I believe it is.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She spoke again, but he was in such agony that he broke out in a
+perspiration, a most fortunate circumstance, since he was perished with
+cold. The spasm did not last long, however, and he found his voice
+again.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Are you Miss Nina Gray?&#8221; he asked, and, in the same breath, was
+conscious of the absurd formality of the question in the conditions.</p>
+
+<p>She did not answer.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We may as well become acquainted,&#8221; he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>went on, smiling at the queer
+turn their first words had taken.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now I remember everything,&#8221; she said, burying her face in her hands.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I can&#8217;t have you crying,&#8221; he muttered with a certain roughness. &#8220;Tears
+won&#8217;t help. We&#8217;re in a pretty bad fix, and must meet developments
+calmly.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not crying,&#8221; she said, dropping her hands, and looking at him as
+though to offer proof.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Then you can at least tell me your name, though I&#8217;m almost sure that
+you are Nina. Even here, your sister, who is also my wife, keeps away
+from me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That is unjust. You saved both of us, but I kept my senses, and she did
+not. You asked me if I was Nina Gray. I am not. My name is Nina Forbes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden was stung into a revolt as fantastic as it was sudden.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Good Lord!&#8221; he cried. &#8220;Are you married?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Please let me explain. Mr. Gray was not my father, but my stepfather.
+My mother married again. I&mdash;wanted to tell you. But does it really
+matter? Why are we discussing such trivial things? Are we four the only
+survivors of the wreck?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I suppose so.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Mr. Gray died&mdash;while we were in the chart-room. He was an invalid&mdash;a
+neurotic. He could not withstand hardship of any sort. But the captain
+and chief officer were behind me on that mast.... Ah! I had forgotten
+that. I fainted, didn&#8217;t I?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Madge stirred uneasily. Their voices had aroused her.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t be unkind to Madge,&#8221; said the girl hurriedly. &#8220;Neither of us
+could help what happened in San Juan. We thought we were acting for the
+best. Our lives are still in jeopardy, I imagine. Won&#8217;t you be good and
+forget that unfortunate marriage?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I won&#8217;t talk of it, if that is what you mean. But I can hardly regard
+it as unfortunate. It undoubtedly saved my life.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Madge awoke with a cry.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Nina!&#8221; she screamed. &#8220;Oh, Nina, is that you? Are we really alive?&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<h3>THE VIGIL</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">S</span>turgess awoke, too. Soon they were talking freely, and Maseden not only
+learned the heart-breaking story of the dozen refugees pent in the
+chart-house, but was told how he himself came by the blow on the head
+which took away his senses.</p>
+
+<p>Madge Gray, or Forbes, as he must now call her, was moved to thank
+Providence for the intervention of the Spanish sailor.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If that man hadn&#8217;t picked you up, Mr. Maseden,&#8221; she said, &#8220;you would
+have been washed overboard a few seconds later. Then nothing could have
+saved any of us.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She seemed to be completely unaware of the sensation she created by
+addressing her rescuer by name. Maseden felt Nina&#8217;s nervous little
+start, but Sturgess put his astonishment into words.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Maseden!&#8221; he cried. &#8220;You know our friend, then?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&mdash;I heard his name before&mdash;on the ship,&#8221; came the faltered answer.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, you heard more than <i>I</i> did.... Are <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>you the mysterious
+English-speaking <i>vaquero</i> who lived in the forecastle?&#8221; and the
+questioner bent a puzzled face sideways to try and discern the other
+man&#8217;s features.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes,&#8221; said Maseden promptly. &#8220;There need be no mystery about it now. I
+got into trouble in Cartagena, shot the president-elect, and escaped in
+the disguise of a Spanish cowboy.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Gee!&#8221; exclaimed Sturgess.</p>
+
+<p>For some reason best known to himself he displayed no further curiosity
+in the matter, though he might well have wondered how Madge Forbes had
+come to identify that picturesque-looking person, Ramon Aliones, with
+the American whose exploits had set all Cartagena agog the day before
+the <i>Southern Cross</i> sailed.</p>
+
+<p>There was an uncomfortable pause, which Maseden broke by a laugh.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;So you see, Mr. Sturgess, I owed you a good turn, though you never
+guessed it. By your kindness in letting me carry your bag and share your
+boat I got away from my pursuers without attracting attention.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Gee!&#8221; said Sturgess again.</p>
+
+<p>His comment probably denoted bewilderment. It may also have shown that
+the speaker had just ascertained something which supplied food for
+thought. In the half light Maseden allowed himself to smile, because the
+conceit instantly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>leaped into his mind that his fellow-countryman might
+have been told of that amazing marriage, and was now engaged in fitting
+together certain pieces of the puzzle.</p>
+
+<p>If, for instance, Sturgess suspected that Madge Forbes was the lady who
+figured in that extraordinary episode, he must realize that in paying
+her such marked attention during the voyage he had placed himself, if
+not her, in a somewhat equivocal position.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I had reason to believe that the captain recognized me,&#8221; went on
+Maseden. &#8220;Probably that is how Miss Forbes came to hear my name.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Miss Forbes!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>There was no mistaking the new note of surprise, even of annoyance, in
+Sturgess&#8217;s voice. He was gathering information at a rapid rate, and
+evidently found some difficulty in assimilating it.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes,&#8221; broke in Nina Forbes. &#8220;That is my sister&#8217;s name, and my own. Mr.
+Gray was our stepfather. We passed as his daughters while traveling. The
+arrangement prevented all sorts of misunderstandings. In any event, it
+concerned none but ourselves. I only mentioned the fact casually to Mr.
+Maseden a few minutes ago.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Some men might have caught a rebuke in the girl&#8217;s words. Not so
+Sturgess.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m tickled to death at hearing it, anyhow,&#8221; he said cheerfully. &#8220;The
+one thing I couldn&#8217;t understand was how you two girls could be that poor
+chap&#8217;s daughters.... Well, now we&#8217;re all properly introduced, let&#8217;s talk
+as though we really knew one another. Has any one the beginning of a
+notion as to the time.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Then Maseden remembered that he was wearing a watch which he had wound
+that morning. He produced it, and was able to discern the hands.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;A quarter past two,&#8221; he announced.</p>
+
+<p>A silence fell on them. Somehow the intimate and homely fact that one of
+the little company possessed a watch which had not stopped served rather
+to enhance than allay the sense of peril and abandonment which their
+brief talk had dispelled for the moment. A soldier who took part in that
+glorious but terrible retreat from Mons confessed afterwards that his
+spirit quailed once, and that was when he read the route names on a
+London suburban omnibus lying disabled and abandoned by the roadside.</p>
+
+<p>The Marble Arch, Edgware Road, Maida Vale and Cricklewood&mdash;what had
+these familiar localities to do with the crash of shell-fire and the
+spattering of bullets on the <i>pav&eacute;</i>? Similarly, the forlorn castaways on
+Hanover Island felt that a watch was an absurdly civilized thing <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>among
+the loud-voiced savageries of wind and wave.</p>
+
+<p>The moonlight died away, too, with a suddenness that was almost
+unnerving. True, the moon had only vanished behind a cloud-bank. But her
+face was veiled effectually, and the growing darkness soon showed that
+she would not be visible again that night.</p>
+
+<p>They tried to sleep, but the effort failed. Lack of food was a more
+serious matter now than mere physical exhaustion. All four were young
+and vigorous enough to withstand fatigue, and to wake up refreshed after
+the brief repose they had already enjoyed.</p>
+
+<p>But they were stiff and cramped, and their blood was beginning to yield
+to a deadly chill. Though they huddled together as closely as possible,
+there was no resisting the steady encroachment of the bitter cold.</p>
+
+<p>At last Maseden counseled that they all stand up, and, despite the
+urgent need of conserving their energies, obtain some measure of warmth
+by stretching their limbs and breathing deeply.</p>
+
+<p>He even suggested that they should sing, but the effort to start a
+popular chorus was such a lamentable failure that they laughed dismally.</p>
+
+<p>Then he tried story telling. He judged, and quite rightly, that the
+majority of his hearers <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>would be deeply interested in a recital of his
+own recent adventures.</p>
+
+<p>Greatly daring, he left out no detail, and, in a darkness which was
+almost tangible because of its density, he was well aware how alert was
+every ear to catch the true version of an extraordinary marriage.</p>
+
+<p>No one interrupted. They just listened intently. Once, when he asked if
+he was wearying them by a too exact description of events at the ranch
+after his escape, Nina Forbes said quietly:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Please tell us everything, Mr. Maseden. I have never heard anything
+half so interesting. You have caused me to forget where I am, and I can
+give you no higher praise.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>At last he made an end, dwelling purposely on the light note of his
+troubles with the Spanish sailor who claimed a vested right in him after
+the incident of the falling block.</p>
+
+<p>Sturgess put a direct question or two.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You don&#8217;t seem to have any sort of a notion as to who the lady was?&#8221; he
+began.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I only know that her Christian name was Madeleine,&#8221; answered Maseden
+readily. &#8220;She was about to sign the register when the idea of getting
+out of the Castle dawned on me, and, from that instant, I thought of
+nothing else. I hadn&#8217;t much time, you know. The plan had to be concocted
+and carried out almost in the same <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>breath. And there was no room for
+failure. The least slip, either in time or method, and I was a dead
+man.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Madeleine!&#8221; mused Sturgess aloud. &#8220;She was English, or American, I
+suppose?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;American, I imagine. Undoubtedly one or the other.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And that fat Steinbaum was the marriage broker! I know Steinbaum&mdash;a
+thug, if ever there was one.... What are you going to do about it, Mr.
+Maseden?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Do about what?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, if you win clear from this present rather doubtful
+proposition&mdash;and we&#8217;re backing you in that for all we&#8217;re worth, ain&#8217;t
+we, girls?&mdash;you&#8217;re tied up to a wife whom you don&#8217;t know, and I guess
+the one place in which you&#8217;re likely to find her is off the map for you
+for keeps.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not versed in the law,&#8221; laughed Maseden, &#8220;but it will be a queer
+thing if I should be compelled to regard myself as married to a lady
+whom I have seen, certainly, but do not want.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;How do you know you don&#8217;t want her?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I know nothing whatsoever about her.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s just it. That&#8217;s where you may be hipped. She may be a peach, the
+finest ever. Suppose, for the sake of argument, one of these two, Miss
+Madge or Miss Nina&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;The lady&#8217;s name happened to be Madeleine,&#8221; put in Madge instantly. &#8220;If
+the ceremony was meant to be valid she would undoubtedly sign her right
+name.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Just so. You missed my point.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden thought it advisable to come to the rescue. He had conveyed to
+the one vitally interested listener that her secret was safe for the
+time, and this should suffice.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I am inclined to think that I shall be proof against my nominal wife&#8217;s
+charms, no matter how great they may be,&#8221; he said emphatically. &#8220;There
+is a romantic side to the affair, I admit, but I cannot blind myself to
+the fact that it possesses a prosaic one as well. Association with a
+skunk like Steinbaum is hardly the best of credentials, in the first
+place. Secondly, one asks what motive any woman could have in wishing to
+marry a man condemned to die. I&#8217;m not flattering myself that my personal
+qualifications carried much weight.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Admittedly, the lady wanted to wed because I was about to disappear. I
+give her the credit of believing that she would never have gone through
+with the farce if she had the least reason to think that I would not be
+dead within the next half hour. But the fact remains that she was
+callous and calculating&mdash;whether to serve her own ends or some other
+person&#8217;s is immaterial.... No, Mr. Sturgess; when, if ever, I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>choose a
+wife, it is long odds against her name being Madeleine.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Nina Forbes laughed, though her teeth chattered with the cold.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The calm way in which men speak of &#8216;choosing&#8217; a wife always amuses me,&#8221;
+she said. &#8220;If any man told me he had &#8216;chosen&#8217; me I should feel inclined
+to box his ears.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It isn&#8217;t the best of words,&#8221; put in Sturgess promptly, &#8220;but it conveys
+a real compliment. A fellow meets a girl, <i>the</i> girl, and some
+electrical arrangement jangles at the back of his head. &#8216;This is <i>it</i>,&#8217;
+says a voice. &#8216;Go to it, good and hard,&#8217; and he goes. That&#8217;s the only
+sort of choice he&#8217;s given. The girl can always turn him down, you know.
+Still, she can&#8217;t help feeling flattered. She says to herself, &#8216;That poor
+fellow, Charles K. Sturgess, is only a mutt, but he did think me the
+best ever, so he had good taste.&#8217; What do you think, Miss Madge?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Then he and the others discovered that Madge was crying. The frivolous
+chatter intended to hide a dread reality had failed in its object. They
+were shivering with cold again, and ever more conscious of gnawing
+hunger. The prospect of escape was more than doubtful. Fate seemed to be
+playing a pitiless game with every soul on board the <i>Southern Cross</i>,
+having swept some to instant death, while retaining others for
+destruction by idle whim. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>The renewed darkness, the continuous uproar
+of the reef, had broken the girl&#8217;s nerve.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden fancied that he had placed too great a strain on her by
+detailing with such precision the sequence of events during those
+crowded hours at Cartagena.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I think,&#8221; he said gravely, &#8220;that we ought to lie down again, and await
+patiently the coming of daylight. The sun rises, no matter what else may
+happen, and dawn cannot be long delayed now.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>They obeyed him. They looked to him for guidance, but they were glad he
+did not call for any effort. Even the light-hearted, apparently
+irresponsible Sturgess, who, if he had to die, would depart this life
+with a jest on his lips, was stilled by the sheer hopelessness of their
+condition.</p>
+
+<p>After one of those hours which seem to belong to eternity rather than to
+time, a quality of grayness made itself felt in the overwhelming gloom.
+Soon the serrated edge of the opposite wall of rock became a fixed and
+rigid thing against a background of cloud. In this new world of horror
+and suffering the break of day, to all appearances, came from the west!</p>
+
+<p>This phenomenon was easily explained. Near by, on the east, rose the
+tremendous peaks of the Andes, so the plain of the sea on the western
+horizon caught the first shafts of light long before <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>they filtered into
+the fiords and gorges of the coast-line tucked in at the base of those
+great hills.</p>
+
+<p>Not that it mattered a jot to those desolate ones where the sun rose
+that day. They would have given little heed had the earth rolled over on
+a new axis, and dawn come from the South Pole!</p>
+
+<p>As soon as daylight was sufficiently advanced to render the rock
+fissures clearly visible, Maseden roused his tiny flock from the stupor
+of sheer exhaustion. He was a man born to lead, and the necessity to
+spur on and exhort others proved his own salvation. He was stiff and
+sore, and his head still ached abominably, but he rose to his feet with
+an energetic shout that quickened the blood in his hearers&#8217; veins.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now, folk,&#8221; he said, &#8220;the first order of the day is breakfast, and then
+strike camp!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Breakfast! They thought he was crazy. But he took the bottle of brandy
+from a crevice in which he had lodged it securely overnight, and
+Sturgess uttered a cackling laugh.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m doing pretty well for a life-long teetotaller,&#8221; he wheezed. &#8220;When a
+fellow like me falls off the water-wagon, he generally drops with a dull
+thud, but <i>I</i> must have set up a record. After lunching and dining
+yesterday on claret, I supped on brandy last night and am <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>about to
+breakfast on the same.... Girls, help yourself and pass the decanter!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden held up the bottle to the light. It had never contained more
+than a pint, and nearly half had gone. A small coin served as a measure
+to divide the contents into five portions.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Each of us drinks a <i>peseta</i>-worth,&#8221; he said. &#8220;There must be neither
+half measures nor extra ones. The last <i>peseta</i>-worth remains in the
+bottle. Is that agreed?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I want very little, please,&#8221; said Nina Forbes. &#8220;Just enough to moisten
+my lips and tongue&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re going to do as you&#8217;re bid,&#8221; was the gruff answer. &#8220;I advise you
+to sip your portion, by all means, but you <i>must</i> take it. As a penalty
+for disobedience, you&#8217;ll start.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She made no further protest, but swallowed her dose meekly. Sister Madge
+followed. Sturgess was minded to argue, but met Maseden&#8217;s dour glance,
+and took his share. The first mouthful of the spirit acted on him like
+an elixir of life. He drank down to the allotted mark, and handed the
+bottle to Maseden.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now, girls,&#8221; he chortled, &#8220;this is the guy who really needs watching.
+If he doesn&#8217;t play fair let&#8217;s heave him into the sea.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>So three pairs of eyes saw to it that their rescuer had his full
+allowance. Then the bottle <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>was put away, and the castaways took stock
+of their surroundings.</p>
+
+<p>At first sight the position was grotesquely disheartening. Beneath, to
+the left, was the sea. Behind them rose an overhanging wall of rock,
+which swung round to the right and cut off the ledge. The cleft itself
+was some twelve feet wide, and the opposite wall rose fully ten feet. In
+a word, no chamois or mountain goat could have made the transit.</p>
+
+<p>They all surveyed the situation from every point of view afforded by the
+fifteen feet of ledge. There was no reason to express opinions. Escape,
+in any direction, looked frankly impossible.</p>
+
+<p>Then Maseden examined the cleft beneath.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We cannot go up,&#8221; he said quietly. &#8220;In that case, as we certainly don&#8217;t
+mean to stay here, I&#8217;m going down.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was feasible, with care, to climb down to sea level, but the huge
+rollers breaking over the reef sent a heavy backwash against the cliff.
+The swirl of water rose and fell three feet at a time, with enough force
+to throw the strongest man off his balance.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Do you mean that you intend jumping into the sea, Mr. Maseden?&#8221; said
+Madge Forbes.</p>
+
+<p>She was quite calm now. She put that vital question as coolly as though
+it implied nothing more than a swimmer&#8217;s pastime. Their eyes <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span>clashed,
+and, for the first time, the man saw that Madge possessed no small share
+of Nina&#8217;s self-control. Her earlier collapse was of the body, not of the
+soul.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It doesn&#8217;t mean that I shall willingly commit suicide,&#8221; he answered.
+&#8220;If it comes to that, I suggest that we all go together. I&#8217;m merely
+taking a prospecting trip. There&#8217;s no way out above. I must see what
+offers below.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Without another word he sat on the lip of the rock on which they stood,
+and lowered himself to a tiny ledge which gave foothold. They watched
+him making his way down. It was no easy climb, but he did not hurry.
+Twice he advanced, and climbed a little higher to a point whence descent
+was more practicable. At last he vanished.</p>
+
+<p>Sturgess, craning his neck over the seaward side of their narrow perch,
+could not see him, while the growl of the reef shut out all minor
+sounds.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden was not long absent, but the three people whom he had left
+confessed afterwards that of all the nerve-racking experiences they had
+undergone since the ship struck, that silent waiting was the worst.</p>
+
+<p>At last he reappeared. Nina, farthest up the cleft, was the first to see
+him, and she cried shrilly:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, thank God! He&#8217;s got a rope!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span></p><p>A rope! Of what avail was a rope? Yet three hearts thrilled with great
+expectation. Why should Maseden bring a rope? It meant something, some
+plan, some definite means towards the one great object. They had an
+abounding faith in him.</p>
+
+<p>The rope was slung around his shoulders in a noose, and he seemed to be
+tugging at some heavy weight which yielded but slowly to the strain.
+When he was still below the level of the ledge he undid the noose and
+passed it to Sturgess.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hold tight!&#8221; he shouted. &#8220;I&#8217;ve picked up the broken foremast. I&#8217;m going
+down to clear it off the rocks. When I yell, haul away steadily.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>They asked no questions. Maseden simply must be right. They listened
+eagerly for the signal, and put all their strength to the task when it
+came.</p>
+
+<p>Soon the truck of the foremast appeared. Then the full length of the
+spar could be seen, with Maseden guiding it. He had tied the rope at a
+point about one-third of the length from the truck. When it was poised
+so that lifting alone was required he shouted to them to stop, and
+rejoined them, breathless, but bright-eyed.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s no means of escape by the sea,&#8221; he explained, &#8220;so we must try
+the cliff. This <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>is our bridge. I think it will span the gully. Anyhow,
+it is worth trying.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Then they understood, and measuring glances were cast from spar to
+opposing crest. It would be a close thing, but, as Maseden said, it was
+certainly worth trying.</p>
+
+<p>In a minute, or less, the broken mast was standing up-ended on the
+ledge. Then, with its base jammed into a crevice, it was lowered by the
+rope across the chasm. It just touched the top of the rock wall.</p>
+
+<p>They actually cheered, but the women&#8217;s hearts missed a couple of beats
+when Maseden began to climb again. He worked his way upward without
+haste, found a toe-grip on the rock, raised himself carefully, and again
+disappeared from sight.</p>
+
+<p>This time he was not so long away. He looked down on them with a
+confident smile.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a chance,&#8221; he said. &#8220;A ghost of a chance. Now I&#8217;m coming back!&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<h3>PROGRESS</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">W</span>hen he stood beside them once more on the ledge he told them what he
+had seen.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a fortress of rock up there, and nothing else,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We may
+have to climb at least a couple of hundred feet. Have any of you ever
+done any Alpine work?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>No; they knew nothing of the perils or delights of mountaineering.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m in the same boat,&#8221; he confessed, &#8220;but I&#8217;ve read a lot about it, and
+I&#8217;ve noticed one thing in our favor&mdash;the pitch of the strata is downward
+towards the land, and that kind of rock face gives the best and safest
+foothold. Moreover, this cleft, or fault, seems to continue a long way
+up.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now, we haven&#8217;t a minute to spare. Each hour will find us weaker. The
+weather, too, is clear, and the rock fairly dry, but wind and rain, or
+fog, would prove our worst enemies. There is plenty of cordage down
+below. I&#8217;ll gather all within reach. It may prove useful.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He seemed to have no more to say, and was stooping to begin the descent
+when Sturgess grabbed him by the shoulder.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Wait a second, commodore!&#8221; he cried. &#8220;You&#8217;ve got your job cut out, and
+I&#8217;ll obey orders and keep a close tongue, you bet; but when it comes to
+collecting rope lengths, that is <i>my</i> particular stunt, as I sell hemp,
+among other things. You just rest up a while.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden nodded, and made way for a willing deputy. It was only fit and
+proper that he, too, should conserve his energies.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8217;Round the corner to the left,&#8221; he said, &#8220;you&#8217;ll find a sloping rock.
+Some wreckage is lodged in an eddy alongside it. Secure the cordage, and
+any other odds and ends you think useful. Shin up here with a few rope
+lengths at once. I want them straight away. Have you a strong knife?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Yes, Sturgess luckily did possess a serviceable knife. By the time he
+had handed over a number of rope strands Maseden, helped by the girls,
+had hauled back the mast, to which he began attaching short loops, or
+stirrups, about two feet apart. He did not expect that either Madge
+Forbes or her sister would be able to climb the mast, and it was almost
+a sheer impossibility that he and Sturgess should carry them time and
+again. So the mast, after serving twice as a bridge, was now to become a
+ladder.</p>
+
+<p>Sturgess returned with a curiously mixed spoil&mdash;a good deal of rope, a
+sou&#8217;wester, a long, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>thin line&mdash;probably the whip used to establish the
+connection between bridge and forecastle while parts of the <i>Southern
+Cross</i> still held together&mdash;and the ship&#8217;s flag, the ensign which was
+flying at the poop when the ship struck.</p>
+
+<p>Water was dripping off him. Evidently he had either been caught by a sea
+or had slipped off a rock.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Accident?&#8221; inquired Maseden.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Not quite. I had to risk something to get these,&#8221; and he produced from
+his pockets a dozen large oysters.</p>
+
+<p>No party of <i>gourmets</i> ever sat down to a feast with greater zest than
+those four hungry people. Probably, in view of the labors and hardships
+they were yet fated to undergo, the oysters saved their lives. There is
+no knowing. Human endurance can be stretched to surprising limits, but,
+seeing that they were destined to taste no other food during twelve long
+hours of arduous exertion, the value of Sturgess&#8217;s find can hardly be
+overrated.</p>
+
+<p>The oysters were of a really excellent species, though under the
+circumstances they were sure to be palatable, no matter what their
+actual qualities.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I suppose I need hardly ask if there are any more to be had?&#8221; inquired
+Maseden, when the meal was dispatched.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;No, sir,&#8221; grinned Sturgess.</p>
+
+<p>He left it at that, but the others realized that he had probably risked
+his life more than once in the effort to secure even that modest supply.</p>
+
+<p>The meal, slight though it was, not only gave them a new strength&mdash;it
+brought hope. If only they could win a way to the interior, and reach
+the land-locked waters of the bay which opened up behind the frowning
+barrier they must yet scale, in all likelihood they would at least
+obtain a plentiful store of shell-fish.</p>
+
+<p>Nina Forbes uttered a quaint little laugh as she threw the last empty
+shell on to the rocks beneath.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now,&#8221; she said, &#8220;I am quite ready for the soup and a joint.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, don&#8217;t be horrid!&#8221; cried Madge. &#8220;You&#8217;ve gone and made me feel
+ravenous again.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He, or she, who would eat must first labor,&#8221; said Maseden. &#8220;Thanks to
+friend Sturgess, we&#8217;ve enjoyed a first-rate snack. I&#8217;ve never sampled
+manna, but I&#8217;ll back the proteids in three fat oysters against those in
+a pound of manna any day. Now, let&#8217;s get to business. If I&#8217;m not
+mistaken we&#8217;re going to tackle a stiff proposition.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He knotted some stout cord around his own waist and that of each of the
+others, and slung <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>the longest available coil over his shoulders. Then
+the mast was fixed in its place across the ravine, and he climbed to the
+opposite crest by straddling the pole, putting his feet in the loops,
+and pulling himself up by both hands.</p>
+
+<p>Throwing back the rope, he told Sturgess to see that it was fastened
+securely to one of the girls on the belt already in position. He
+purposely refrained from specifying which one. By chance, Madge Forbes
+stood nearest, and it was she who came.</p>
+
+<p>The crossing was awkward rather than dangerous, and rendered far more
+difficult by the fact that the unwilling acrobat was compelled to expose
+her naked limbs. But after the first shock common sense came to her aid,
+and she straightway abandoned any useless effort to observe the
+conventions.</p>
+
+<p>Still, she blushed furiously, and was trembling when Maseden caught her
+hands and helped her to land.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Thank Heaven we&#8217;ve kept our boots,&#8221; he said, unfastening the rope.
+&#8220;Just look at the ground we have to cover, and think what it would mean
+if our feet were bare.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The comment was merely one of those matter-of-fact bits of philosophy
+which are most effective in the major crises of life. It was so true
+that a display of leg or ankle mattered <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>little afterwards.
+Nevertheless, a similar ordeal caused Nina to blush, too, but she
+laughed when Madge cried ruefully:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What in the world has happened to my ankles? They are scrubbed and
+bruised dreadfully.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That was last night&#8217;s treatment, my dear,&#8221; said her sister. &#8220;I escaped
+more lightly than you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But what do you mean? I felt some soreness, but imagined I knocked
+myself in coming from the wreck.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You were in a dead faint, so Mr. Maseden and Mr. Sturgess massaged you
+unmercifully.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Madge surveyed damages again.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I must have been very bad if I stood that,&#8221; she said.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ll be worse before we see the other side of this cliff,&#8221; murmured
+Nina, casting a critical eye over the precipitous ground in front.</p>
+
+<p>It is not to be wondered at if the girls&#8217; hearts quailed at the sight.
+They were standing on a sloping terrace, of no great depth, which ended
+abruptly at the foot of a towering cliff. A little to the right ran the
+line of the cleft, but so forbidding was its appearance, and so
+apparently unscalable its broken ledges, that the same thought occurred
+to each&mdash;what if they had but left a narrow, sheltered prison for a
+wider and more exposed one?</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></p><p>Maseden, however, allowed no time for reflection. He and Sturgess had
+already dragged the foremast after them, and were shouldering it in the
+direction of the first hump of rock which seemed to offer a way into the
+cleft. Any other route was absolutely impossible.</p>
+
+<p>After one last glance at the reef which had slain a gallant ship and so
+many lives, they quitted the ledge which had proved their salvation. It
+was then five o&#8217;clock in the morning. At four o&#8217;clock that afternoon
+they flung themselves, utterly spent, on a carpet of thick moss which
+coated the landward slope of the most westerly point of Hanover Island.</p>
+
+<p>Their hands and knees were torn and bleeding, their fingernails broken,
+their bones aching and their eyes bloodshot. But they had triumphed,
+though many a time it had seemed that if Providence meant to be kind, an
+avalanche of loose stones or a slip on treacherous shale would have
+hurled them to speedy death on the rocks beneath.</p>
+
+<p>On five separate occasions they had found themselves strung out on a
+narrow ledge which merged to nothingness in the sheer wall of a
+precipice. Five times had they to go back and essay a different path,
+often beginning again fifty or even a hundred feet below the point they
+had reached. They were obliged to drag or carry the heavy topmast every
+inch of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>way, because, without its aid, either as a bridge or a
+ladder, they could never have surmounted a tithe of the obstacles
+encountered.</p>
+
+<p>In those eleven awful hours they had climbed not two, but five hundred
+feet, a distance which, on the level, a good runner would traverse in
+about twenty seconds, whereas it took them an average of a minute to
+climb one foot.</p>
+
+<p>The marvel was that the women could have done it at all, even with the
+help which both men gave unstintedly. During the last weary hours no one
+uttered an unnecessary word. Each of the four was determined to go on,
+not for his or her own sake, but for the sake of the others. They were
+roped together. If one fell, it meant disaster to all. So, with splendid
+grit, each resolved not to fall so long as hand would hold or foot lodge
+on the tiniest projection.</p>
+
+<p>But, with final success, came utter collapse. Even Maseden, far stronger
+physically than Sturgess, fell like a log. True, he had borne far more
+than his share of the day&#8217;s toil. No matter what his inmost thoughts, he
+had never, to outward seeming, lost heart. It was he who always found
+the new line, he who earliest decided to turn back and try again.</p>
+
+<p>It was he, too, who called now for renewed exertion after some minutes
+of complete and blissful repose.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Sorry to disturb your <i>siesta</i>,&#8221; he cried, with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>a woful assumption of
+cheery confidence, &#8220;but we must reach the shore, if possible, before
+night falls. Oysters and Chablis await us there. <i>En avant, messieurs et
+&#8217;dames!</i>&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Nina Forbes sat up and brushed the hair from her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think I can walk another yard. Won&#8217;t you leave me here?&#8221; she
+demanded.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Are we to carry that mast with us?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why not? We may need it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes followed Maseden&#8217;s down the slope. Compared with the sullen,
+frowning realm of rock they had quitted, this eastern side of the island
+resembled a Paradise. The moss on which they were resting was thick and
+wiry. A hundred feet beneath were fir-trees, sparse and stunted at
+first, but soon growing luxuriantly, yet promising, to Maseden&#8217;s
+weighing eye, a barrier nearly as formidable as the fearsome wall of
+rock they had just surmounted.</p>
+
+<p>He knew that which was happily hidden from the others. In this wild
+land, seldom, if ever, trodden by the foot of man, the forests throve on
+the bones of their own dead progenitors. Aged trees fell and rotted
+where they lay, and the roots of newcomers found substance among the
+heaped-up logs. Gales and landslides helped to swell the mad jumble of
+decaying trunks, which formed an impassable layer <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>hardly ever less than
+fifteen feet in depth and often going beyond thirty feet.</p>
+
+<p>Of the two, Maseden believed he would sooner tackle another wall of rock
+rather than essay to cross that belt of fantastic growths.</p>
+
+<p>But, down there was water&mdash;perhaps food&mdash;certainly shelter. He guessed
+that at an altitude where hardy Alpine mosses alone flourished the cold
+would be intense at night. Already there was a shrewd nip in the breeze.
+They must not dawdle another instant.</p>
+
+<p>He made up his mind to head for a gap in the trees which seemed to mark
+a recent land-slip, and trust to fortune that the gradient might not be
+too steep. Better any open risk than the fall of perhaps the whole party
+into a pit of dead wood choked with f&oelig;tid and noisome fungus growths.
+Once caught in such a trap, they might never emerge.</p>
+
+<p>And now they met with their greatest among many pieces of luck that day.
+The opening Maseden had noticed was not the track of an avalanche, but a
+rough water-course, through which the torrential rain-storms of the
+coast tumbled headlong to the sea.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the long-continued gale, the descent was so steep that
+only a vestige of a stream trickled down the main gully. Here and there
+lay a pool. Though the water was brackish, it was strongly pigmented
+with iron, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>the roots of vigorous young trees seemed to find
+sustenance in it.</p>
+
+<p>At any rate, they must drink or die, so they drank, though Maseden
+warned them to be moderate. They laved their wounds, which were
+intensely sore at first, owing to the encrustation of salt on their
+skins. But here, again, nature&#8217;s surgery, if painful, was effective.
+Salt is a rough and ready antiseptic. None of them owned any real
+medical knowledge. In their hard case ignorance was surely bliss,
+because they must have had the narrowest of escapes from tetanus.</p>
+
+<p>The descent, though trying, was not specially perilous. Three times did
+the mast bring them down small cataracts, and many times across
+extraordinarily ingenious log barriers, set up against the stress of
+falling water by nature&#8217;s own engineering methods.</p>
+
+<p>Once, indeed, a heavy boulder, poised in unexpected balance, toppled
+over just as they had reached the base of a waterfall. It would have
+crushed Nina Forbes to a pulp had not Maseden seen the stone move. As it
+was, he snatched her aside, and a ton of rock crashed harmlessly on to
+the very spot where she had been standing the fifth part of a second
+earlier.</p>
+
+<p>Such an incident, happening in civilized surroundings, would have been
+regarded as phenomenal, something akin to an escape from a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>train wreck.
+Here it passed as a mere item in the day&#8217;s trials. It did not even shake
+the girl&#8217;s nerve.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I suppose I ought to say &#8216;thank you,&#8217; but I&#8217;m not quite sure you have
+done me a service,&#8221; she murmured wearily.</p>
+
+<p>Hitherto both she and her sister had been so brave, so uncomplaining,
+that Maseden took warning from the words. The two girls were at the
+extreme limit of their powers of endurance, mentally and physically. It
+was five o&#8217;clock in the evening. After a day and a night of passive
+misery they had been subjected to every sort of muscular strain during
+nearly twelve hours, and might collapse at any moment now.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Courage!&#8221; he said, with a gentleness curiously in contrast with the
+rather gruff and hectoring manner he had adopted all day. &#8220;You haven&#8217;t
+noticed how near the sea is. We shall be on shore in a few minutes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The girl&#8217;s lips parted in a wan smile.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You are wonderful,&#8221; was all she said, but the pathos underlying the
+tribute wrung his heart.</p>
+
+<p>Somehow, anyhow, they slithered and dropped down the remaining steps of
+their Calvary. During the last few feet they were able to leave behind
+the friendly topmast, but the shadows were falling when they stood,
+forlornly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>triumphant, on the flat rocks which served as the beach of
+the estuary.</p>
+
+<p>The two girls sank at once to a moss-covered boulder. They looked so
+deathly white beneath the tan of exposure and the crust of dirt and
+blood not altogether removed when they bathed their faces in the pool,
+that Maseden unstrapped the poncho which he carried slung to his
+shoulders and produced from its folds that thrice-precious bottle of
+brandy.</p>
+
+<p>The patients weakly resisted his demand that they should share nearly
+the whole of the mouthful of spirit which remained; but he was firm, and
+they drank. Sturgess, who staggered and nearly fell when he tried to
+move after the brief halt, was given a few drops; Maseden himself had
+what was left. Then he filled the bottle with water, and each took a
+long drink.</p>
+
+<p>There is this supreme virtue in water, that, while slaking thirst, it
+stays the worst pangs of hunger, and Maseden had enough strength in
+reserve to hurry off in search of oysters, or any sort of shell-fish,
+before daylight failed wholly. He was fortunate in finding a
+well-stocked bed almost at once.</p>
+
+<p>He alone knew what agony he endured when his bruised and torn fingers
+were plunged into ice-cold salt water. But he persevered, and gathered
+such a quantity that in ten minutes he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>and his companions were enjoying
+a really satisfying meal.</p>
+
+<p>While they ate, they examined their surroundings. It was half tide. A
+bleak, rocky foreshore provided at least an ideal breeding-ground for
+oysters. Behind them rose the solemn bank of pine-trees through which
+they had come. On the right, only half a mile away, stood the great
+shoulder of rock which shut out the Pacific on that northern side of the
+estuary. In front, two miles or more distant, lay a jumble of forests
+and wild hills, and a similar vista spread far to the left, because the
+estuary widened to a span of several miles.</p>
+
+<p>It was, indeed, a wild, desolate, awe-inspiring land, a territory
+abandoned of mankind! In such regions old-time sailors found fearsome
+monsters, amphibious reptiles larger than ships, and gnomes of demoniac
+aspect.</p>
+
+<p>Such visions were easy to conjure up. Nina Forbes saw one now in the
+dusk.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, what is that?&#8221; she cried, in genuine alarm, gazing seaward with
+terror-laden eyes.</p>
+
+<p>It took some time to unmask the strange denizen of the deep which she
+had discovered. Three seals, lying in a row on a flat rock, looked
+remarkably like the accepted pictures of a sea-serpent, but the illusion
+was destroyed when one of the creatures dived, followed, in turn, by
+each of the others, in one, two, three order.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;We must rise before dawn to-morrow,&#8221; said Maseden. &#8220;Seals are good to
+eat. You and I, Sturgess, can cut one off when the pack comes on shore.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Seals may be good to eat, but they will also be hard to eat if we are
+unable to cook them,&#8221; put in Madge.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There were times to-day when I could have eaten seal cooked or
+uncooked,&#8221; admitted Nina.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Probably such times will recur to-morrow,&#8221; said Maseden. &#8220;You will soon
+grow tired of oysters for every meal. Did you ever hear of the sailing
+ship which took a cargo of bottled porter from Dublin to Cape Town?
+After crossing the line she was caught in a gale, disabled, and carried
+hundreds of miles out of her course. She ran short of water, so, during
+three wretched weeks, officers and crew drank stout for breakfast,
+dinner and supper. When, at last, the vessel reached Table Bay, if
+porter was suggested as a beverage to any member of the ship&#8217;s company
+there was instant trouble.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Still,&#8221; said Madge thoughtfully, &#8220;I don&#8217;t think I shall like raw
+seal.... You are very clever, Mr. Maseden. You must find some means of
+making a fire.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden glanced up at the darkening sky.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;At present the pressing problem is where are we to sleep,&#8221; he said.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Under the deodars,&#8221; suggested Sturgess promptly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, I suppose so. But we must make haste.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If you ask me to put up any sort of hustle, I&#8217;ll crack into small
+fragments,&#8221; said Sturgess, rising to his feet slowly and stiffly.</p>
+
+<p>But this young American&mdash;a typical New Yorker in every inch&mdash;was blessed
+with a valiant heart. He helped Maseden to break and cut small branches
+of the fragrant pines, and pile them beneath the largest tree they could
+find on a comparatively level piece of ground above high-water mark. The
+two girls were half carried to this soft couch, which invited sharp
+comparison with the wet, slimy rock of the previous night.</p>
+
+<p>Despite their protests, they were wrapped in the now dry ship&#8217;s flag and
+the poncho, while the men covered themselves with the oilskins, the coat
+which Sturgess had found on the reef coming in very useful for Maseden.</p>
+
+<p>Then they slept. And how they slept! The mere fact that they had eaten a
+quantity of good food induced utter weariness and exhaustion.</p>
+
+<p>During the night it rained heavily, and the tide pounded fiercely on the
+boulders only a few feet below their resting-place. But they hardly
+moved, and certainly paid no heed.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden was awakened by a veritable cascade <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>of water on his face; the
+tree, after the manner of its kind, though shooting the rain generally
+off its layers of branches, now in full summer foliage, provided
+occasional channels through which the torrent poured as from a spout,
+and he was stretched beneath one. He swore softly, saw that the others
+were undisturbed, moved his position slightly, and fell sound asleep
+again.</p>
+
+<p>As for rising betimes to catch a seal, it was broad daylight when he
+shook off the almost overpowering desire to go on sleeping.</p>
+
+<p>Nina and Madge were lying in each other&#8217;s arms, breathing easily, and
+looking extraordinarily well. Beyond them, Sturgess lay like a log, his
+clean-cut, somewhat cynical features relaxed in a smile. It was a pity
+to rouse him, but Maseden saw by his watch that they had enjoyed nine
+hours of real repose, and, as the weather was fine again and there was a
+promise of sunshine, it behooved them to be up and doing.</p>
+
+<p>So he shook his compatriot gently by the shoulder, and Sturgess was
+awake instantly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Gosh!&#8221; he said, gazing at a patch of blue sky overhead. &#8220;I was just
+ordering clams on ice in Louis Martin&#8217;s. It must have been a memory of
+those oysters.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden, by a gesture, warned him not to speak loudly, whereupon
+Sturgess sat up, saw <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>the two girls, grinned, and stole quietly after
+his companion.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Say,&#8221; he confided, when at a safe distance, &#8220;they&#8217;re the limit, aren&#8217;t
+they?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;They&#8217;re all right, so far as girls go,&#8221; agreed Maseden.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, come off your perch! Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?
+If we win through I&#8217;m going to marry Madge, or I&#8217;ll know the reason why,
+and if you have half the gumption we credit you with you&#8217;ll tack on to
+sister Nina as soon as you&#8217;ve shunted that sporty young person who
+grabbed you at the cannon&#8217;s mouth in Cartagena.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Will you oblige me by not talking such damn nonsense?&#8221; growled Maseden,
+blazing into sudden and incomprehensible wrath.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Calm yourself, <i>hidalgo</i>!&#8221; came the quiet answer. &#8220;Sorry if I&#8217;ve butted
+in on your private affairs. Having fixed things for myself, I thought
+I&#8217;d do you a good turn, too. That&#8217;s all.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t you realize that you are hardly playing the game by even hinting
+at such possibilities in present conditions?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden regretted the words the instant they were uttered. Sturgess
+stopped as though he had been struck, and his somewhat sallow face
+flushed darkly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It will be a pretty mean business if you and I manage to quarrel, won&#8217;t
+it?&#8221; he said thickly.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<h3>A PEEP INTO THE FUTURE</h3>
+
+<p style="float: left; font-size: 100%; line-height: 80%; margin-top: 0;">&#8220;</p><p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">O</span>h, forget it!&#8221; cried Maseden, more angry now with himself than with
+the youngster whose candor had provoked this outburst. &#8220;I didn&#8217;t intend
+to be offensive. My mind was running on the day&#8217;s worries. We&#8217;re in a
+deuce of a fix, and I can see no way out of it. If I annoyed you by a
+careless expression, I apologize.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Rub it off the slate, friend. I only want to put in a first bid for
+Madge, so to speak.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But, for all you know, she may be&mdash;engaged to some other man,&#8221; Maseden
+could not help retorting.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Nix on the other fellow. He&#8217;s not on in this film. I&#8217;ll have him beaten
+to a frazzle long before I see good old New York again.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Then Maseden did contrive to choke back the very obvious comment that
+Madge Forbes might even be married already. Sufficient for the day was
+the problem thereof. It was not matrimony that was bothering him, though
+the queer marriage tie contracted in San Juan seemed fated to make its
+fetters felt even in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>the wilderness. He was wondering what would happen
+if, as was highly probable, they were marooned on an island rarely if
+ever visited by man.</p>
+
+<p>He laughed grimly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;New York is away below the horizon this morning,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Let&#8217;s go
+and hunt more oysters!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Still, for the life of him he could not altogether get rid of the
+spectre raised by Sturgess&#8217;s almost banal candor. The New Yorker was
+unmistakably a good fellow. He had behaved like a man during twenty-four
+hours which tested one&#8217;s moral fibre as pure metal is separated from
+dross in a furnace. Was it quite fair that he should be kept in
+ignorance of the astounding fact that Madge Forbes, and none other, was
+the heroine of that extraordinary ceremony in the Castle of San Juan?</p>
+
+<p>Why not tell him? There was every reason to believe that he had indulged
+in no overt love-making as yet. Why not emulate his outspokenness, and
+thus spare him the certain shock of discovery?</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, when the truth came out, would he not feel with justice that
+he had been very badly treated both by Maseden and the woman whom he
+professed to love?</p>
+
+<p>Maseden squirmed under the thought. Such a discussion, at such a moment,
+savored of rank <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>lunacy, but it was better to act crazily than
+dishonorably.</p>
+
+<p>Then came a reflection that hurt like a cut from a jagged knife.
+Sturgess was an impressionable youngster. He might easily transfer his
+wooing from Madge to Nina.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden could not help asking himself why a torturing question of that
+kind should come to plague him at a time when their lives were in dire
+jeopardy. They might, by chance, exist a week, a month&mdash;several months
+in that dreadful fastness of rock, forest and sea, but the briefest
+glance towards the interior showed how desperate was their case, and he
+knew only too well that the absence of proper food, of fire, of
+clothing, of everything that renders life tolerable and joyous, would
+soon bring mortal sickness in its train, even though they ran the
+gantlet of other perils like unto those of yesterday.</p>
+
+<p>Why, he wondered, in addition to ending these present evils, should he
+be called on to solve a fine point in ethics?</p>
+
+<p>He did not realize how clearly the torment in his soul was revealed in
+his face until Sturgess demanded cheerfully:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s worrying you now, boss? You ain&#8217;t chewing on that little
+misunderstanding of a minute ago, are you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden smiled dourly. Here was an opening, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>and he would take it, no
+matter what the personal cost.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No. That is not my way,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I was merely turning over in my mind
+a somewhat ticklish problem. Sometimes, when a man does not know how to
+act for the best, it is not a bad plan to run counter to one&#8217;s own
+inclinations. Then, at any rate, there is no fear of selfishness warping
+one&#8217;s judgment. In this <span style="white-space: nowrap">instance&mdash;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Is the tide rising or falling?&#8221; interrupted Sturgess excitedly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Falling.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Good.... What&#8217;s that?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>They were walking in the direction of the oyster bed which Maseden had
+found overnight. The beach was strewn with boulders, the surface of each
+a mosaic of myriads of tiny mussels. The rock floor was not quite flat,
+but dipped slightly eastward, and the outcrop of every stratum, worn
+smooth by countless tides, offered a number of irregular paths by which
+it was possible to walk dry-shod a mile or more towards mid-channel.</p>
+
+<p>Between these tracks, so to speak, the water lodged in pools, and here,
+too, as might be expected, the smaller rocks gathered, mostly in groups.</p>
+
+<p>Among one such pile Sturgess&#8217;s sharp eyes had detected some wreckage.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p><p>Now, any sort of flotsam or jetsam might be peculiarly useful to folk
+whose belongings had been reduced to a cloak, a ship&#8217;s flag, a few
+oilskins, and, in the case of the women, little else. The sight of a
+cabin trunk, up-ended among a litter of woodwork and tangled iron, drove
+into the special Limbo provided for all vain and foolish things the
+personal difficulty which was perplexing Maseden.</p>
+
+<p>He hurried on, and soon was aware of an oddly familiar aspect about the
+trunk, battered though it was, and discolored by long immersion in salt
+water.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, if this isn&#8217;t something like a miracle!&#8221; he cried when he could
+believe his senses. &#8220;Here is my own trunk! The last time I saw it, it
+was wedged between the forecastle deck and the iron frame of a bunk.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The court accepts the evidence,&#8221; chortled Sturgess. &#8220;We find in close
+conjunction the remains of a bunk and a deck. If you produce a key, and
+unlock the aforesaid trunk, it will be declared yours without further
+inquiry.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There is no key. It is only strapped.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s inside?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Some underclothing, socks and shirts.... By Jove! When dried, they will
+be invaluable to those two girls.... How in the world did they contrive
+to lose most of their clothing? <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>You were all fully dressed when the
+ship struck, I suppose?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I guess your college class didn&#8217;t include a course of heavy seas
+washing through a deck-house every half minute during a whole day. What
+sort of feminine rig would stand the tearing rush of tons of water hour
+after hour? Man alive, I had the devil&#8217;s own job to keep any of my own
+clothes on, and would never have succeeded if I wasn&#8217;t well buttoned up
+in an oilskin. As for the girls&#8217; skirts and things, they simply fell off
+&#8217;em. At first they made frantic efforts to save a few rags, but they had
+to give up. I saw Madge&#8217;s skirt washed overboard in strips. All the
+seams parted. I&#8217;m in pretty bad shape myself. Look here.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Sturgess opened his oilskin coat, and showed how the lining had fallen
+out of his coat and the back had parted from the front of his waistcoat.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If it hadn&#8217;t been for the oilskins we would all have been stripped
+stark naked,&#8221; he went on. &#8220;Gee! It&#8217;s marvelous what one can withstand in
+the shape of exposure when one is pushed to it good and hard. I should
+have said that those two girls would have died fourteen times on the
+wreck, let alone the hour before dawn yesterday.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden, meanwhile, was pulling the trunk free from the twisted frame of
+the bunk, which, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span>screwed to the deck, had carried a precious argosy
+nearly a mile from the reef; then, most luckily, it had caught in a
+clump of seaweed, and remained anchored during two ebbs.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We needn&#8217;t bother to open it here,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I know exactly what is
+inside&mdash;rough stuff, bought to maintain my disguise as a <i>vaquero</i>, but
+all the better for present purposes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He paused dramatically, and said something which might, perhaps, sound
+better in Spanish. When a man who has not been perturbed in the least
+degree by grave and imminent danger shows signs of real excitement, his
+emotion is apt to be contagious, and his companion&#8217;s eyes sparkled.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Holy gee! What is it?&#8221; he almost yelped. &#8220;Spit it out! Don&#8217;t mind me!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;This trunk contains a gun and cartridges!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Gosh! I thought it must be either a steam launch or an a&euml;roplane! What
+is there to shoot, anyhow?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t you understand? Waterproof cartridges mean fire. We&#8217;ll have a
+roaring fire within five minutes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Put it there!&#8221; shouted Sturgess, holding out his right hand. &#8220;There&#8217;s
+millions of tons of iron-stone in that hill above the wood. Let&#8217;s start
+a ship-yard!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>They were so elated that they forgot to gather <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span>any oysters, and even
+neglected to take away the iron and wires of the bunk, scraps of metal
+which might prove of inestimable worth in the days to come. Luckily,
+however, they had plenty of time, because the tide would fall during
+another couple of hours.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden&#8217;s hands almost trembled as he undid the straps. Now that fortune
+had proved so kind he feared lest the cartridges might be spoiled. But a
+bullet torn from a brass case was followed by grains of dry, black
+powder.</p>
+
+<p>Soon he had manufactured a squib. Dead branches off the pines&mdash;always
+the best of fire-wood, and far preferable to dead wood lying on the
+ground&mdash;were heaped in a suitable place, and, in less than the specified
+five minutes, a good fire was crackling merrily.</p>
+
+<p>There were logs in plenty. Had they chosen, the two men could have built
+a furnace fierce enough to roast an ox whole.</p>
+
+<p>It was good to see the wonderment on the faces of Madge and Nina when
+they awoke to find an array of coarse flax and woolen garments steaming
+in front of the blaze, and a dozen big oysters, cooked in the shells,
+awaiting each of them. About that time, too, the sun appeared, and his
+first rays changed the temperature of the land-locked estuary from
+biting cold to an agreeable warmth.</p>
+
+<p>So the four breakfasted, and, at the close of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span>the meal, held a council
+of war. With a charred stick, Maseden drew on a rock a rough map of
+Hanover Island.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I overheard from one of the crew of the <i>Southern Cross</i>,&#8221; he said,
+&#8220;that the ship was supposed to be drifting towards Nelson Straits, which
+is the only opening into Smyth&#8217;s Channel ever attempted hereabouts, even
+in fine weather, by small sealers and guano-boats. Now, it happens,&#8221; he
+went on reflectively, &#8220;that this coast has always had a strange
+fascination for me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It was a treat to see you clinging to it lovingly for hours at a time
+yesterday,&#8221; put in Sturgess.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We want to hear what Mr. Maseden has to say,&#8221; cried Madge sharply.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Sorry. I shan&#8217;t interrupt again. But, before the court resumes may I
+throw in a small suggestion? How about dropping these formal Misters and
+Misses? My front names are Charles Knight, usually shorted by my friends
+and admirers into C. K. What&#8217;s yours, Maseden?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Philip Alexander, otherwise &#8216;Alec.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Got you. Now, girls, what do Nina and Madge stand for?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He little guessed the explosive quality of that harmless question, but
+he did wonder why both Nina and Madge should blush furiously, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span>why
+their eyes should flash a species of appeal to Maseden.</p>
+
+<p>Nina was the first to recover her composure.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Nina and Madge should serve all ordinary purposes, C. K.,&#8221; she said
+with a rather nervous laugh.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;They&#8217;ll do fine,&#8221; agreed Sturgess. But he did not forget his own
+surprise&mdash;and the cause of it.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden, quite unprepared for this verbal bombshell, plunged into
+generalities somewhat hurriedly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Barring the polar regions, the southern part of Chile is the wildest
+and least known part of the world,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It is extraordinary in the
+fact that every ship which sails to the west coast of both the Americas
+from Europe, and vice vers&acirc;, either passes it in the Pacific or winds
+among its islands for hundreds of miles along Smyth&#8217;s Channel; yet it
+remains, for the greater part, unexplored and almost uncharted. Darwin
+came here in the <i>Beagle</i>, and the sailor to-day depends on observations
+made during that voyage, taken nearly three-quarters of a century ago.
+Darwin&#8217;s Journal, and other of his works containing references to South
+America, shortened many an evening for me on the ranch.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He paused a moment, before adding, in an explanatory way:</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;My place, Los Andes, was a good twelve miles from Cartagena, and I had
+no English-speaking neighbors. I told you last night, if you remember,
+how I came to settle down there?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Sturgess, though evidently burning to ask a question, merely nodded,
+grinning cheerfully when he caught Nina&#8217;s eye.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I only want you to understand why I claim some knowledge, such as it
+is, of this locality,&#8221; continued Maseden. &#8220;At the southwest corner of
+Hanover Island is a ten-mile patch called Cambridge Island, and the two
+form the northern boundary of Nelson Straits. But in the channel between
+them are two smaller islands, and, unless I am greatly mistaken, there
+they are.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He pointed across the estuary, and indicated a break in the coast-line,
+beyond which other more distant hills were visible.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It follows,&#8221; he went on, &#8220;that when we sail up this channel to the
+left, we shall find ourselves in Nelson Straits, and, after covering
+fifty or sixty miles of fairly open water&mdash;open, that is, in the sense
+that there is plenty of it&mdash;we shall be in Smyth&#8217;s Channel, and in the
+track of passing ships.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He paused, but did not try to ignore the plain demand legible on three
+intent faces.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes; that is the only way,&#8221; he said quietly. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span>&#8220;We are here. We are
+alive. There is plenty of wood, and we have brains, hands, and fire. We
+must construct some sort of a raft, something in the style of the
+lumber-rafts built on big rivers, and take advantage of the tides. Our
+present position is quite inaccessible by land, and, I fear, equally
+unapproachable by water.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And I&#8217;ll tell you why I think so. Within quarter of a mile of us are
+some splendid oyster-beds. The coastal aborigines live mainly on
+shell-fish, and this store would have been visited by them times out of
+number if they could get at it. But I have seen no heaps of shells, such
+as must have remained if the savages came here.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What has stopped them? Impassable forests, glaciers, and precipices on
+land, dangerous reefs and fierce tidal currents by sea. The geological
+feature which helped our climb yesterday must create reef after reef
+across the track of the channel.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You see those pathways there?&#8221; and he stretched a hand towards the
+series of rock outcrops lining the shore like groins. &#8220;They have been
+almost leveled by the storms of centuries. But the <i>Southern Cross</i> was
+lost on one of them, and there must be scores of others between here and
+Smyth&#8217;s Channel. There may be passages between many if not all, but it
+is self-evident that navigation is far too risky for the small <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span>coracles
+of the natives. We must go slowly and safely, if possible. If our raft
+will not cross a reef, we must abandon it, and build another on the far
+side. We may have to do that six times, a dozen times, even in sixty
+miles. There is no other means of escape. We may be weeks, months, in
+winning through, but that is our only practicable plan.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Gee!&#8221; murmured Sturgess. &#8220;And I&#8217;m due in New York on February 10!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The sheer absurdity of naming a date relaxed the tension. They all
+laughed, though not with the light-hearted mirth which four young people
+might reasonably display after dodging death continuously during
+twenty-four hours.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;By the way, what day is it?&#8221; inquired Nina Forbes wistfully.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Sunday, January 23,&#8221; said Sturgess. &#8220;I know, because it was my birthday
+yesterday. Somewhere about eleven o&#8217;clock a. m., I was twenty-seven. I
+didn&#8217;t make a fuss about it. Just at that time, wise Alec here was
+holding on to a rock by his teeth and one toe, and telling us we had to
+go back carefully after a beastly difficult climb.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Sunday!&#8221; repeated the girl.</p>
+
+<p>Her thoughts traveled many a thousand miles to the quiet little New
+Jersey township where her mother was living during the absence of
+husband and daughters in South America. It <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>was winter in the North, and
+there might be snow on the fields and ice on the streams, but snow and
+ice conforming to New Jersey notions of order and seemliness.</p>
+
+<p>What a contrast between the white mantle marked out in rectangles by the
+country roads and ditches, with here and there a group of trees, a trim
+shrubbery, a red-roofed farm or dwelling house, and this chaos of rock,
+forest, cliff and ocean!</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Will the loss of the <i>Southern Cross</i> be reported?&#8221; she asked suddenly.
+The query was addressed to no one in particular, but Maseden answered.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Her non-arrival will be noted at Punta Arenas,&#8221; he said. &#8220;After a time
+the insurance people will post her as &#8216;missing.&#8217; Then she will be
+assumed to be lost. Possibly some of the wreckage may be picked up. Or a
+boat. What became of all the boats?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Some of &#8217;em were stove in, others washed clean off their davits,&#8221; said
+Sturgess. &#8220;It was absolutely impossible to lower one. No one who did not
+witness it would have believed that a fine ship could break to pieces so
+quickly. Gee whiz! One minute I was standing near the fore-rail, looking
+at the narrowing entrance in full confidence that we should win through,
+and the next I was fighting for my life in the smoking-room, up to my
+waist in water.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;You are not quite doing yourself justice, C. K.,&#8221; said Madge. &#8220;You were
+fighting for other people&#8217;s lives as well. I have the clearest
+recollection of being hauled up the companion ladder to the bridge by
+you and one of the ship&#8217;s officers. Then you went back and helped Nina
+and Mr. Gray.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That is what I was there for,&#8221; was the prompt reply.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;This being Sunday, do we labor or rest, Alec?&#8221; inquired Nina.</p>
+
+<p>It was the first time either girl had used Maseden&#8217;s Christian name, and
+the sound on a woman&#8217;s lips was like a caress. He reddened, and smiled.
+Nina&#8217;s eyes met his, and dropped confusedly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We rest,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We need rest. At least, I am free to confess that
+<i>I</i> do. You energetic people are inclined to forget that I began a
+really strenuous life by receiving a rap on the head that put me out of
+commission during several hours.... Now, Mr. Sturgess&mdash;sorry, C. K.&mdash;and
+I are going on a little tour along the coast. We shall be away an hour
+or more. I advise you two to rig yourselves as best you can in my
+superfluous garments. Make sure they are quite dry. It may seem rather
+absurd, but putting on damp clothing is an altogether different thing
+from allowing wet clothes to dry on your body. Keep a good fire. There
+is nothing <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span>to be afraid of. In this strange land there are neither
+animals nor reptiles.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Nor birds,&#8221; said Nina.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, plenty of birds, but the nesting season is long over, and many of
+the sea-birds have gone south. As we progress further inland we shall
+come across great colonies of puffins, ducks and swans. Curiously
+enough, there are plenty of humming-birds, which is about the last
+species one would expect off-hand to find in these wastes.... Come
+along, C. K. Let us try and circumvent the wily seal.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why not shoot one?&#8221; said Sturgess.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Because I have only twenty-four cartridges, and each one may yet be
+worth its weight in diamonds. Remember, everybody!&mdash;we only use the
+rifle in the last extremity, either for food, or fire, or actual
+self-preservation. Once lighted, on no account must the fire be allowed
+to die out. Even when we build a raft, we can imitate the natives, and
+carry a fire with us. To save us men from temptation to-day, should we
+find a seal, we&#8217;ll leave the gun with the ladies.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;A couple of cudgels, with ends sharpened and hardened in the fire,
+should serve our needs, and do the seal&#8217;s business as well. If not, we
+must try again, and exist on oysters until we become more expert....
+I&#8217;ll put five cartridges in the magazine, and show you girls how it
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span>works. If you regard each shell as worth, say, five thousand dollars,
+you&#8217;ll appreciate the net value of the whole twenty-four.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Within a few minutes Maseden and Sturgess set off. The tide was now at
+its lowest point, so they had no difficulty in walking in almost any
+direction. Their first act was to drag ashore the remains of the bunk.
+Given a quantity of malleable iron and a fire, it would not be an
+impossible task to construct some rough tools.</p>
+
+<p>While placing this treasure-trove above high-water mark they saw the two
+girls examining the stock of underclothes which Providence had literally
+provided for their needs.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Gosh!&#8221; said Sturgess, almost reverently. &#8220;It beats me to know how a
+couple of delicate women could endure the hardships we have gone
+through.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But women are not delicate. I don&#8217;t understand why men invariably
+harbor that delusion. In passive resistance women are more steadfast,
+even hardier, than men. That is an essential, don&#8217;t you see? The
+continuance of the race depends far more on the female than on the male.
+Civilization tries to upset the great principles of life, but fails,
+luckily. Savage tribes are aware of that elementary fact. Low down in
+the social scale the women do all the work, while the men loaf around,
+and only get busy when hunting or fighting.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Tell you what, Alec,&#8221; said Sturgess admiringly, &#8220;once fairly started,
+you talk like a book.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Such a remark could hardly fail to act as a gag on one of Maseden&#8217;s
+temperament. By habit a silent man, he shrank from even the semblance of
+loquacity. Sturgess could extract no further information from him. He in
+his turn soon learned to guard his tongue when the Vermonter was in the
+talking vein, and unconsciously pouring out the stock of knowledge and
+philosophy garnered during those peaceful years on the ranch.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We had better go this way,&#8221; said Maseden, pointing towards the west.
+&#8220;Don&#8217;t you think it advisable to search the coast seaward? There have
+been three tides since the ship struck, and anything likely to come
+ashore should have shown up by this time.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Go right ahead, Alec. What you say goes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Their search was fruitless. Indeed, the position in which the leather
+trunk was found proved that the set of the current on a rising tide was
+in the direction of the channel between the two small islands.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden had little or no experience of the sea and its vagaries, or he
+would have noticed this highly significant fact, and thus saved himself
+and his companions much hardship and a good deal of needless risk.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span></p><p>Of course, he saw quickly that there was a remarkable absence of
+wreckage on the north side of the estuary, but he attributed it to the
+fury of the gale, which must have driven a great body of water far into
+the network of channels which stretched inland, with a resultant
+outpouring when the wind pressure was relaxed.</p>
+
+<p>The only satisfactory outcome of a close visit to the bar was the
+complete vindication of their means of escape from the ledge. It would
+have been a sheer impossibility to round the point at or slightly above
+sea-level. The tides of untold ages had literally scooped a chasm out of
+the cliff, and perversely chosen to batter a passage through the rock
+rather than take the open path farther south.</p>
+
+<p>They could not see the reef which had destroyed the <i>Southern Cross</i>.
+But they could hear it. Ever above the clatter of the rollers on the
+nearer rocks they caught the sullen roar of the outer fury.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Let&#8217;s clear out of this,&#8221; said Sturgess suddenly. &#8220;That noise sends a
+chill right down my backbone.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden turned at once. In any case, they could not have remained there
+much longer, because the tide was on the flow, and they had yet to
+discover how swiftly it covered the rock-paved foreshore.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span></p><p>They did not hurry, but kept a sharp look-out for seals, seeing several,
+but at a great distance. While they were yet nearly a quarter of a mile
+from the camping ground, from which came a pillar of smoke, showing that
+the fire was not being neglected, they were startled by a gun-shot.</p>
+
+<p>It smote the air with a sound that was all the more insistent in that it
+was wholly unexpected. It drove into the sea, with a loud splash, a seal
+close at hand which had been hidden by a rock, and even brought a pair
+of circling bustards from some eyrie high up on the hills.</p>
+
+<p>With never a word to one another, both men began to run.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SECOND SHIPWRECK</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">A</span> series of reefs does not supply the best of surfaces for a sprint.
+Maseden slipped on a bed of seaweed and fell headlong, fortunately
+escaping injury. Sturgess, lighter, perhaps more adroit on his feet&mdash;it
+came out subsequently that he was an accomplished skater&mdash;stumbled
+several times, but contrived to keep going.</p>
+
+<p>Thus he was the first to reach Madge Forbes, who hurried to meet them,
+followed by Nina, the latter walking more leisurely and carrying the
+rifle.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What has happened?&#8221; gasped Sturgess. He saw that the girl was pale and
+frightened. She and her sister were continually looking backward, as
+though expecting to find they were being pursued.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I think&mdash;it is all right&mdash;now,&#8221; she said brokenly. &#8220;Nina shot at
+it&mdash;the most awful monster I have ever seen.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Had it two legs, or four?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Sturgess was incorrigible. Notwithstanding the start caused by the sound
+of the gun, he grinned. The girl turned to Nina.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Please tell them, Nina, that we are not romancing,&#8221; she cried
+indignantly.</p>
+
+<p>Nina handed the rifle to Maseden.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Put this thing right,&#8221; she said coolly. &#8220;It won&#8217;t work, but I&#8217;m sure I
+hit the beast with the first bullet.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden pressed down the lever, and saw that a cartridge had jammed, as
+the extractor lever had not been jerked downward with sufficient force.
+He began adjusting matters with the blade of his knife.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Were you attacked by an animal?&#8221; he inquired.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We don&#8217;t know exactly what it was,&#8221; said Madge. &#8220;When you left us we
+decided to have a bath before putting on dry clothes. As our only towel
+was the ship&#8217;s flag, we arranged that each should rub the other dry with
+her hands. We had just finished dressing, and Nina had gone to pile
+fresh logs on the fire, when I heard a splash in the water of the creek.
+I looked around and saw a fearful creature, bigger than a horse, which
+barked at me. I shrieked, and Nina ran with the rifle. The thing barked
+again&mdash;it was only a few feet away&mdash;so she fired. Then we both made
+off.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You disturbed a seal, I expect.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No. If those were seals we saw last night, this was no seal,&#8221; said Nina
+decisively. &#8220;It had small, fiery eyes and long tusks. I think it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span>had
+flappers, though, in place of feet, but it was enormous.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Sounds like a walrus,&#8221; put in Sturgess.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There are no walruses in the South Pacific,&#8221; said Maseden. &#8220;Anyhow, now
+that the magazine works all right, let&#8217;s go and have a look.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Ample corroboration of the girl&#8217;s story was soon forthcoming. The
+splashing of water behind the group of big rocks sheltering the pool in
+which they had taken their bath showed that something unusual was going
+on.</p>
+
+<p>They all reached the spot in time to witness the last struggles of a
+gigantic sea-lion, one of the most fearsome-looking of the ocean&#8217;s many
+strange denizens. The shot fired by Nina Forbes had struck it fairly in
+the throat, inflicting a wound which speedily proved mortal.</p>
+
+<p>The animal was a full-grown male, fully ten feet in length, with a neck
+and shoulders of huge proportions. Its tusks and bristles gave it a most
+menacing aspect. The wonder was not that the bathers ran, but that Nina
+had the courage to face such a monster.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden was delighted, and patted her on the shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well done!&#8221; he cried. &#8220;You&#8217;ve supplied the larder with fresh meat for
+days. We must even try our &#8217;prentice hands at curing what we can&#8217;t eat
+to-day or to-morrow.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span></p><p>The girl herself was not elated by her triumph. The water in which the
+sea-lion lay was deeply tinged with its blood, which had also
+bespattered the rocks.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I have never before killed any living creature,&#8221; she said in a rather
+miserable tone. &#8220;Why did the stupid thing attack us? We were doing it no
+harm.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden laughed.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Off you go, both of you!&#8221; he said. &#8220;C. K. and I have the job of our
+lives now. It will be no joke disjointing this fellow with a couple of
+pocket-knives. But if the fact brings any consolation, I may tell you
+that a sea-lion when irritated can be a very ugly customer. Probably
+this one was sleeping in the sun under the lee of a rock, and you may
+have come unpleasantly near him without knowing it. When he awoke and
+saw you he was curious. Instead of slinking off, he roared at you, and
+might easily have killed the pair of you!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Can&#8217;t we help?&#8221; inquired Nina, seeing that Maseden meant to lose no
+time.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But we ought to,&#8221; she persisted. &#8220;We must get used to such work.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You can do something quite as serviceable by rigging a few lines on
+stout poles, where there is plenty of sun and air, and seeing that a big
+fire is kept up.... And, by the way, don&#8217;t <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span>come this way till we call
+you. We shan&#8217;t be&mdash;presentable.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The two disappeared without further question.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;This will be a messy undertaking,&#8221; Maseden explained to his assistant.
+&#8220;The best thing we can do is strip, or our clothes will be in an awful
+state.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>At the outset they abandoned any thought of actually dismembering the
+colossal carcass. They skinned it with difficulty, and then cut off the
+flesh in layers. After an hour&#8217;s hard endeavor they had gathered a fine
+store of meat, while the pelt, after being well washed in salt water,
+was stretched on a flat rock to dry.</p>
+
+<p>They were dressing again when a new trouble arose. From out of the void
+had gathered a flock of vultures. These fierce, evil-looking birds were
+so daring in their efforts to raid the pile of meat that two actually
+allowed themselves to be knocked over by the staves the men carried.</p>
+
+<p>Sturgess remained on guard, therefore, while Maseden took the strips and
+hung them on the lines the girls had already prepared.</p>
+
+<p>Madge volunteered to do the cooking. She had found two flat, thin
+stones, somewhat resembling hard slate, and she fancied that by placing
+some steaks between these and covering them with glowing charcoal the
+trick would be <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span>achieved. As a matter of fact, she succeeded wonderfully
+well. Even Nina, sniffing her portion, vowed that the shooting of a
+sea-lion had its compensations.</p>
+
+<p>More vultures arrived. The sea-lion&#8217;s bones were rapidly picked clean,
+but one of the men had to keep close watch all day over the curing
+operations.</p>
+
+<p>An amusing argument arose as to the correct method of drying meat.
+Maseden held that he distinctly remembered reading that <i>biltong</i>, or
+South African antelope steak, was prepared by hanging the strips in the
+sun. The girls were positive that this would cause putrefaction, and
+that the meat should be placed in the shade.</p>
+
+<p>As Maseden was not quite sure of his facts, he compromised as to a
+quarter of the supply, with the result that this smaller quantity was
+rendered uneatable.</p>
+
+<hr class="medium" />
+
+<p>The story of Alexander Selkirk has been told so often, and in so many
+forms, that it will not bear repeating here. During a whole fortnight
+these four young people devoted their wits and their muscles to the
+all-important task of feeding themselves and securing some means of
+escape into the interior. The men soon learned how to circumvent the
+wily seal, and thus store plenty of meat and skins, which latter, with
+sinews and a knife, were converted first into <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>garments for the women
+and, as supplies increased, into a tent.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden noticed that the high-water mark fell daily, so he reasoned that
+the <i>Southern Cross</i> struck during a high spring tide, and that the neap
+would occur in fourteen days. He laid his plans on that assumption,
+which was justified almost to a day.</p>
+
+<p>Another gale blew up, but despite its discomfort it helped them
+materially, because the men loosened a barrier of logs which had formed
+high up the wooded cliff, and the rain freshet brought down far more
+timber than was needed for the biggest raft they could hope to
+construct.</p>
+
+<p>After some experiments they decided to make it a three-tier one, and
+flexible in the center. Hence it was fully thirty feet in length, the
+average length of a thick log being fifteen feet after its roots and
+thin section had been burnt off. For the same reason the raft was
+fifteen feet wide. It had a step in the forepart for their old friend,
+the broken topmast. They dispensed with a rudder, believing they could
+guide their ark with poles.</p>
+
+<p>Observation showed that the tide flowed swiftly in mid-stream, and their
+well-matured project was to push out to a prearranged point at
+high-water, anchor while the tide fell, and travel as far as practicable
+on the next tide. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>They tried to avoid all risks that could be foreseen.</p>
+
+<p>The raft was built in the waterway which Madge had termed the
+&#8220;creek&#8221;&mdash;the gulley cleared for itself by the torrent whose dry bed had
+offered them a road through the otherwise impenetrable forest. Every
+test of stability their inventiveness could devise proved that an area
+of thirty feet by fifteen of logs arranged in three rows would support
+four or five times the weight they were likely to place on it. By
+manipulating the poles Maseden and Sturgess found that they could
+control the movements of even such an unwieldy bulk, while if the wind
+suited they might rig a sail of skins.</p>
+
+<p>They were able to build quickly and well because of three essentials.
+The timber was at hand, they had a fire, and in the pieces of rope and
+strips of iron and wire they had invaluable means of making the
+structure secure.</p>
+
+<p>At last, on the fifteenth day after the wreck, Maseden poled out the
+raft during the slack tide at high-water, and fastened it to ropes
+already fixed and buoyed nearly a quarter of a mile from the shore. He
+would allow none of the others to accompany him, nor did he carry any of
+the few stores they possessed. He could not be absolutely certain that
+the cables would withstand the strain, and if the raft were swept
+seaward by the falling tide only one life was in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span>jeopardy, while
+Sturgess might be able to help him from the shore.</p>
+
+<p>His vigil was watched by anxious eyes, especially when he thought fit to
+ease the stress on the ropes by planting a long pole against a big rock
+which he knew rested a few feet astern and below the surface. The two
+hours of half-tide were the worst, but the anchors held. Three hours
+later the raft was aground and he came ashore.</p>
+
+<p>It was then nearly dark, as their first voyage would naturally be taken
+in broad daylight. Nothing was said at the time, but he was told
+afterwards, that for no conceivable guerdon would any of the three again
+go through the agony of suspense they endured while the raft swung and
+lurched in the fierce current.</p>
+
+<p>Meat, fresh and dried, a quantity of oysters, the leather trunk, and a
+charcoal fire cunningly packed in oyster shells kept in position by
+wire&mdash;this cooking brazier being the invention of Nina Forbes&mdash;formed
+the cargo. Most fortunately Maseden carried the poncho and the rifle
+slung across his back with rope, and the cartridges were in his pockets.</p>
+
+<p>They slept on board. Soon after daybreak the raft was afloat, but was
+not allowed to move until there was a fair depth of water, owing to the
+very great probability of the whole structure being dashed to pieces
+against some awkwardly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span>placed boulder. At last, however, Maseden
+thought the channel was practicable, and the ropes were cast loose,
+being sacrificed, of course, but that could not be helped.</p>
+
+<p>They were off! The first of the sixty miles was already slipping away.
+They were so excited, so bent on the adventure ahead, that none of them
+thought of looking back until Providence Beach, which was the name they
+gave their refuge, was nearly out of sight.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Madge Forbes remembered, and turned her eyes in that direction.
+She waved a hand and cried:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Good-by, trees and rocks! You were kind to me and to all of us! I have
+not had two such happy weeks since I came to South America!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden heard, but paid no particular heed. For one thing, he had
+decided now not to re-open the question of the extraordinary relations
+between his wife and himself until, if ever, they reached civilization
+again. For another, he was busily conning the channel and noting the
+behavior of their clumsy but quite buoyant craft.</p>
+
+<p>He estimated the pace of the current at fully six miles an hour. The
+raft was traveling about half that rate, which was quite fast enough for
+his liking, so, although there was a strong breeze from the west, he did
+not hoist the &#8220;sail.&#8221; He stood on the port side and Sturgess on the
+starboard. The two girls were seated on a pile of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>fir branches behind
+the mast, which was stayed by ropes in such wise that all four had
+something to cling to if the raft struck a sunken rock and lurched
+suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>The project was to drift as far inland as the day&#8217;s tide would take
+them, pole ashore at the nearest suitable place, and repeat the
+overnight anchoring until they reached smooth water, when they might
+perhaps make longer voyages. If they ran six miles that day they would
+have done admirably. Providing Maseden&#8217;s calculations as to their
+precise locality were reasonably accurate, the next day would bring them
+into a much wider arm of the sea.</p>
+
+<p>Here the conditions might vary, but they would adapt themselves to
+circumstances, always bearing in mind the exceeding wisdom of the
+Italian proverb: <i>Che va piano va sano</i>&mdash;&#8220;He goes safely who goes
+cautiously.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But there are other proverbs which are equally applicable to human
+affairs, and especially to the hazards awaiting rafts floating on
+unknown waters. For an hour they ran on gaily, with little or no
+trouble, because the men could see broken water a long way ahead and
+promptly piloted their argosy towards the open channel.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the unexpected, or, to be exact, the crisis arose which
+Maseden had foreseen many days earlier, but forgotten as the raft <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>grew
+strong and seaworthy under their hands.</p>
+
+<p>About four miles from Providence Beach the gap between the two small
+islands which shut off Hanover Island from its southerly neighbor came
+into full view. Maseden anticipated a little difficulty at this point,
+but he was quite unprepared for that which really took place.</p>
+
+<p>He had every reason to believe that the main stream would flow straight
+ahead until the second island was passed; he meant to land on Hanover
+Island again, just short of the easterly end of Island Number Two.
+Therefore he was annoyed, but not alarmed at first, at finding that the
+current carried the raft into the straits between the islets.</p>
+
+<p>The others, of course, noticed the change of direction, and being well
+aware of his hopes and plans, asked him in chorus if this deviation
+mattered.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t see that it does,&#8221; he said. &#8220;In any case, we must follow the
+tide, and if this is the short cut so much the better.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He told them that which he actually believed. Still, at the back of his
+head lay an uneasiness hard to account for. The raft was traveling south
+now, not east, having swept round the bend in magnificent style. The
+precipitous heights were closing in, but the channel was fully a quarter
+of a mile in width. He would <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>vastly have preferred skirting the wooded
+slopes of Hanover Island, because these smaller islets were absolutely
+barren in this hitherto invisible section, but, having no choice in the
+matter, silenced his doubts by recalling his first and quite correct
+theory that the real deep-water passage lay beyond, the <i>Southern Cross</i>
+having in fact struck several miles north of Nelson Straits.</p>
+
+<p>Owing to the steady narrowing of the waterway the rate at which they
+traveled was increasing momentarily, though progress was delightfully
+smooth and easy. The simile did not occur to any of the four until
+complete disaster had befallen them, but the silent, resistless onrush
+of the current was ominously suggestive of the course of some great
+river during the last few miles before it hurls itself over a cataract.</p>
+
+<p>Hanover Island soon vanished from sight altogether, and the towering
+cliffs on either hand seemed to merge into an unbroken barrier ahead.
+But the tidal race hurried on, so there must be an outlet, and this
+presented itself, after a sharp turn to eastward again, when they had
+covered a couple of miles on the new course.</p>
+
+<p>They were only given the briefest warning of the peril into which they
+were being carried. The stream flung itself against a great mass of
+rock, which had been undermined until the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>upper edge of the precipice
+hung out fifty feet or more over the rushing waters beneath. A most
+uncanny maelstrom was thus created.</p>
+
+<p>No sooner had the two men seen the danger than they labored with might
+and main to slew the raft away to the opposite shore.</p>
+
+<p>They succeeded in avoiding the first jumble of black rocks which lay at
+the base of the cliff, but the whole character of the stream changed
+instantly. It became a furious turmoil of broken water. The raft was
+hurled hither and thither as though by some titanic force, and a few
+yards farther on was dashed against a second and even more terrifying
+reef.</p>
+
+<p>The violence of the impact smashed the whole structure to pieces. Had
+not the logs been arranged in tiers crosswise they must have split up
+instantly, but the method in which they were put together held them for
+one precious moment while the men each clutched one of the girls and
+leaped for the nearest rock.</p>
+
+<p>By rare good luck they kept their feet, and reached a great flat mass
+which, judged by appearances, had only recently fallen.</p>
+
+<p>Further advance or retreat was alike impossible. On three sides roared
+the cheated torrent; behind and above, canopy-wise, towered the cliff.
+If the evidence of ominous fissures and lateral cracks were to be read
+aright, there was no telling the moment when they might be <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span>buried under
+another avalanche of thousands of tons of stone.</p>
+
+<p>Every tide deepened the sap. They were imprisoned in one of nature&#8217;s own
+quarries, where work was relentless and unceasing.</p>
+
+<p>Once again idle chance had decided that Maseden should save Nina and
+Sturgess Madge. Not that it mattered a jot. If ever four people were in
+hapless case, it was they. For a time even to Maseden, who had never
+lost faith in his star, it seemed that the best fortune that could now
+befall would be for the trembling rock overhead to crash down on them.</p>
+
+<p>The din was terrific, and the water level was rising so rapidly that
+five minutes after they had gained their present position the boulders
+to which they had sprung from the sundering platform of logs were a foot
+deep in the swirling current. Each of the girls, wholly unconscious of
+her attitude, clung despairingly to the man at her side and watched the
+climbing surge with somber eyes.</p>
+
+<p>They were too stunned to yield to fear, and the life of the past
+fortnight had so steeled their nerves and strengthened their bodies that
+fainting was no longer the readiest means of obtaining a merciful
+respite from present horrors. Rather did a bitter rage possess them, for
+it was a harsh and monstrous decree of fate which had not only robbed
+them of a hard-won means <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span>of escape, but immersed them in a veritable
+condemned cell.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden, like the others, was watching the encroaching water-line in a
+benumbed way when he became aware that Nina was speaking. He looked into
+her drawn face and tried to smile, though a sort of mist clouded his
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What is it, girlie?&#8221; he said, putting his mouth close to her ear and
+addressing her as though she were a timid child.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Is this the end?&#8221; she cried, imitating him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Not yet, anyhow,&#8221; and he gave her a reassuring hug.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Tell me&mdash;if you think&mdash;we have only a few more minutes,&#8221; she said.</p>
+
+<p>He read nothing into the request save a natural desire that she should
+be prepared for the worst and try to cross the Great Divide with a
+prayer on her lips. The pitiful words helped to dispel the cloud which
+had befogged his wits, and he began to weigh the pros and cons of the
+forlornest of forlorn hopes.</p>
+
+<p>The water was lapping their feet. The rock arched outward over their
+heads. Between the spot where they stood and the actual wall of rock
+there was already a flowing stream.</p>
+
+<p>He looked at his watch. The hour was seven o&#8217;clock, and he estimated the
+time of high-water at about half-past seven. Then, as when he was lying
+along the foremast of the <i>Southern Cross</i> <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>amid the thunders of the
+reef, a tiny seed of hope sprang into life in his brain. If they could
+outlast the tide there was still a chance!</p>
+
+<p>The very fact that this chaos of fallen cliff created a fearsome rapid
+in the tide-way showed that the passage must be fairly open during low
+water. If promptness in decision could enable a man to conquer a
+difficulty, Maseden was certainly not lacking in that attitude.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Come!&#8221; he said. &#8220;Not for the first time, we must put our backs to the
+wall. We may find a good grip for our feet before the water mounts too
+high. The four of us must lace arms and cling together. I believe the
+tide will not rise above our knees. At any rate, we cannot be swept away
+easily. It is worth trying.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She nodded. Turning to her sister, she explained Maseden&#8217;s scheme. Soon
+they were braced against the rock and facing valiantly their new ordeal.</p>
+
+<p>In the Middle Ages, when a lust for inflicting torture infected some men
+like a cancerous growth, a favorite method of at once punishing and
+destroying an unfortunate enemy was to chain him in a dungeon to which a
+tidal river had access, and leave him there until the slow-rising flood
+drowned him.</p>
+
+<p>They were in some such plight, self-chained to a rock, though not
+knowing when a sudden swirl of water might sweep them to speedy death.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE TURN OF THE TIDE</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">T</span>he change, when it came, came swiftly. It was as though the
+All-Powerful bade the waters cease their snarling and stilled the fury
+of the reef. During nearly an hour the sea lapped the very thighs of the
+four castaways, but the roar of battle between rocks and current had
+died down and it was possible to hear the spoken word.</p>
+
+<p>Sturgess was the first to break the spell cast on the whole party by the
+seeming imminence of death.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If ever I set foot in New York again I&#8217;ll be good and go to church
+Sundays,&#8221; he said. &#8220;This is Sunday, February 6, an&#8217; I guess I&#8217;ve been as
+near Kingdom Come to-day as I&#8217;m likely to get on a round trip ticket.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>For a little while no one passed any comment. Sunday! The mere name of
+the day had a bizarre sound. What had God-given Sunday and its peaceful
+associations to do with this grim and savage wilderness?</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Nina Forbes began to recite the Lord&#8217;s Prayer. One by one the
+others joined in. The concluding petition had a peculiar
+appropriateness. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span>If ever four Christian people might appeal to be
+delivered from evil, surely these four were in great need of heavenly
+succor.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s fine!&#8221; said Sturgess, almost cheerfully, when a hearty &#8220;Amen&#8221;
+had relieved their surcharged feelings. &#8220;Me for the pine pew and the
+right sort of preacher when next I stroll out of West Fifty-seventh
+Street into Broadway of a Sabbath morning. Anyhow, to-day being Sunday,
+and the hour rather early, which way do we head for the nearest church
+when the tide falls, commodore?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden had already weighed that very question, but the utter collapse
+of the voyage on which he had founded such high hopes had chastened his
+pride.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I think we had better put it to the vote,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I&#8217;ve led you into
+such a death-trap already that I don&#8217;t feel equal to a decision.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He had been watching a big rock on the opposite shore. A little while
+ago it was awash; now it was submerged, yet the water was appreciably
+lower where they were standing.</p>
+
+<p>The seeming contradiction was puzzling. He had yet to learn that the
+laws governing water in motion are extraordinarily complex&mdash;take to
+witness the varying levels of the whirlpool in the Niagara River and the
+almost phenomenal <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span>height of the central stream in the Niagara rapids.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Guess we&#8217;re satisfied with your control so far,&#8221; said Sturgess. &#8220;What
+are you making a kick about? You prophesied just what would occur, and
+that&#8217;s more than the average wizard can do.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What do you mean?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Didn&#8217;t you tell us we might strike a score of reefs between Providence
+Beach and Smyth&#8217;s Channel, and that we should be lucky if we didn&#8217;t have
+to build &#8217;steen rafts?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden smiled. The rock he had marked as an index was reappearing, and
+the water had sunk another inch below his knees. The tide had
+unquestionably turned; the water banked up on the opposite shore was
+also yielding to the new force.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I never anticipated another complete shipwreck,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We have lost
+everything, ropes, skins, food&mdash;our chief supporter, the broken
+foremast&mdash;even our flag.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But we still have the rifle and cartridges, and we&#8217;re plus a
+fortnight&#8217;s experience. If we don&#8217;t start life again better fixed than
+when we climbed to the ledge in the dark from the forecastle of the
+<i>Southern Cross</i>, call me a Dutchman.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I agree with C. K.,&#8221; Nina chimed in. &#8220;Even here there must be some sort
+of a passage at <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>low water. Which way shall we go&mdash;back or forward?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We gain nothing by going back,&#8221; said Maseden slowly. &#8220;For one thing, we
+are on the wrong side of the channel. For another, I have been taking
+stock of the peculiar vagaries of the tide during the past fifteen
+minutes, and I imagine that there is a slight difference in the water
+level between this point and that which we left this morning. Still
+water attains a dead level, of course, but strong tides have rules of
+their own.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now, supposing the tide from the Pacific runs into Providence Beach a
+few minutes earlier than it reaches Nelson Straits, that would account
+for the terrific rush in which we were caught. For the same cause, the
+falling tide should be far less strenuous here, but stronger there, and
+I do really believe that opposite our camp the ebb tide always developed
+a swifter current than the flood.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m sure of it,&#8221; agreed Sturgess. &#8220;They were both pretty hefty, but
+this morning&#8217;s flood didn&#8217;t begin to compare with last night&#8217;s ebb. You
+ought to know. You went through it alone on board the raft.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Then the answer is, &#8216;Go forward,&#8217;&#8221; said Madge.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I think so. Let us be guided by events. We have the best part of the
+day before us. Surely <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span>we can find some safer lodgment than this before
+night falls.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The others knew that Maseden&#8217;s voice had lost its confident ring, but
+the fact that they had so narrowly dodged death barred all other
+considerations.</p>
+
+<p>In his heart of hearts he was deadly afraid that they might indeed be
+compelled to return to Hanover Island. The sheer barrenness of the islet
+on which they were now stranded was its vital defect. Probably they
+would still find shell-fish, still knock an occasional seal on the head,
+but wood they must have, both for fire and raft building, and it seemed
+to him that there were no trees nearer than the slopes facing Providence
+Beach.</p>
+
+<p>However, having come so far, they might at least have a look at the
+conditions on the south side, where lay yet another island; and there
+was also the unalterable fact that if they must escape by using the
+tides, their first day&#8217;s experiences, though resulting in disaster, had
+brought them many miles in the right direction.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps they had met and conquered their greatest danger. They had paid
+a dear price for victory, but that was nothing new in war.</p>
+
+<p>Of course there was a long and wearisome wait before they could do other
+than sit on the slowly emerging rocks. But it was something gained when
+they were free to climb out into <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span>the open and see the sky over their
+heads. The silent, nerve-racking menace of the canopied rock was quite
+as unbearable as the loud-mouthed threats of sea and reef.</p>
+
+<p>Madge, slightly less self-contained than her sister, promptly voiced her
+relief.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If I live to be older than I want to be I shall never forget one awful
+crack in the roof just above us,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I couldn&#8217;t keep my eyes off
+it. It seemed to be opening and shutting all the time with a horrible
+slowness.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;How old do you want to be?&#8221; demanded Sturgess, readily seizing the
+chance to divert her thoughts from a nightmare memory.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Forty-five,&#8221; she answered without any hesitation.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Gee! That leaves me less than eighteen years to live!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I wasn&#8217;t thinking of you, C. K.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But your limit rouses one&#8217;s curiosity. Why forty-five, any more than
+fifty or sixty? Granted good health, heaps of people enjoy life at
+sixty.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;At forty-five a woman begins to fade and men grow horrid,&#8221; she
+announced calmly, as though stating an incontrovertible thesis.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Please don&#8217;t talk rubbish, either of you,&#8221; interrupted Nina sharply.
+&#8220;Alec, can&#8217;t we dodge along from rock to rock? It seems to be ever so
+much more open half a mile ahead.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Let&#8217;s try,&#8221; said Maseden.</p>
+
+<p>He wondered vaguely why Nina broke in on her sister&#8217;s quaint theorizing.
+Any nonsense which took their minds off the troubles of the hour was a
+good thing in itself.</p>
+
+<p>They scrambled and slithered through the passage, which resembled the
+moraine of a glacier, save that the rocks were on the same plane, and
+the central stream was clear and greenish instead of being nearly milk
+white. Once they were held up fully fifteen minutes because the channel
+ran close to an overhanging rock which really looked as though it might
+be brought down by the disturbance of a pebble.</p>
+
+<p>Then Maseden was moved to make investigations, and discovered that the
+main waterway was extraordinarily deep. In other words, the sea had
+preferred to scoop out a ditch rather than flow through the ample space
+bordering Hanover Island. Even at low tide there was deep water here.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We must go on, one at a time,&#8221; he said, and led the way.</p>
+
+<p>He found that Nina Forbes was close behind.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Remain where you are!&#8221; he said gruffly. &#8220;I&#8217;ll tell you when to follow
+and indicate the best track.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She frowned, and her eyes sparkled, but she obeyed. Sturgess, too,
+growled a protest.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;He ought to give me that kind of try-out,&#8221; he said. &#8220;If there&#8217;s
+trouble, and I go under, it won&#8217;t matter so much. But you girls can&#8217;t
+spare Alec. He&#8217;s worth twenty of me when it comes to a show-down.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>However, they all crossed the danger point safely, and each in turn
+noticed that which Maseden alone had been able to see at first&mdash;that a
+huge buttress had fallen quite recently, probably during the preceding
+tide, so the whole mass might crumble into ruin at any moment. As was
+their way, once a danger had passed they did not discuss it again.
+Sturgess, of course, had something to say, though it only bore
+inferentially on this latest risk.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I always had a notion that the New York Fire Department was a pretty
+nervy proposition,&#8221; he informed all and sundry during a halt on the only
+strip of open beach yet encountered in their new exploration, &#8220;but I
+guess I can show the chief a few fresh stunts first time I blow into
+headquarters on East Sixty-seventh Street.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Sturgess&#8217;s airy references to New York were excellent tonics. He refused
+to regard that great city and its ordered life as dreamlike figments of
+the imagination. To him the flaring lights of Broadway ever glimmered
+above the horizon. Had he sighted the Statue of Liberty around the next
+bend <i>that</i> would mean reality; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span><i>this</i>, the dreary expanse of dead
+hills, water and black rock, would have been the dream.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden, recovering his poise, had resumed his everyday air of
+well-grounded optimism. At any rate, he argued, the four of them were
+living and uninjured. They still owned those thrice-precious cartridges,
+the rifle and the poncho. They had many hours of daylight before them,
+and would surely find drinkable water and food before dark.</p>
+
+<p>Happily the weather was fine, though clouds banking up in the west told
+of a possible gale, which might blow itself out in a few hours, or last
+as many days, or weeks. In that climate there was no knowing. The
+almanac declared that it was high summer, yet it would be no uncommon
+event if a snowstorm came from the southwest and mantled all the land a
+foot deep.</p>
+
+<p>As for their clothes being wet, these young people thought little of
+such a trifle. Their skins were becoming, in the expressive Indian
+phrase, &#8220;all face.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>So they trudged on, heading for the mouth of the defile. In the far
+distance they discerned the broken line of another mountainous island,
+the lower slopes black with forests.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s a good sign, folk,&#8221; said Maseden, smiling cheerfully once more.
+&#8220;We&#8217;re making for a timber belt. When you come to think of it, trees
+simply couldn&#8217;t grow on these rocks, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span>and the watershed seems to fall
+away on both sides of the gorge, which must have been cut by an
+earthquake.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>His eyes had been searching constantly for signs of the raft&#8217;s wreckage,
+but never so much as a splintered log could he see. Nina, not so
+preoccupied, was gazing farther afield.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly she stopped, and something in her manner arrested the others.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;m mistaken,&#8221; she said, &#8220;but are not those two points
+the flanks of these islands?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There can be little doubt of that,&#8221; agreed Maseden, following her
+glance towards the gap some three or four miles in front. It was
+difficult to estimate distance accurately in that region of vast
+solitudes.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Then, if that is so,&#8221; she went on in a puzzled tone, &#8220;where does the
+remainder of the land go to? The cliffs end not so very far away. Why
+don&#8217;t we see other bits sticking out?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The underlying sense of the question was clearer than its form. For some
+undetermined cause the passage between the islands evidently widened
+considerably before it closed in at the ultimate southern exit.
+Hopefulness is often a close blend of curiosity and expectation. They
+pressed on more rapidly, eager as children to see what lay around the
+corner.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span></p><p>They were soon enlightened, and most agreeably so. They entered a
+spacious amphitheatre&mdash;in its way, almost a place of beauty. Not only
+were the hillsides clothed with pines and other trees, but, rarest sight
+of all along that stark coast, strips of white sand bordered the
+foreshore.</p>
+
+<p>The tidal water, now near the lowest ebb, was placid as a lake, and on
+its surface disported flocks of many varieties of wild fowl. Moreover,
+wreckage began to line the beach at high-water mark. They found the
+planks and spars of many ships, some quite fresh, and evidently the
+remains of the <i>Southern Cross</i>; others weather-beaten, even crumbling
+with age.</p>
+
+<p>Remains of the raft were discovered, and Nina shrieked with joy at sight
+of the ship&#8217;s flag, hardly damaged, lying on its halliard alongside the
+broken topmast.</p>
+
+<p>Madge claimed the most remarkable bit of flotsam&mdash;nothing less than the
+brandy bottle, unbroken, but nearly full of salt water, half buried in
+sand.</p>
+
+<p>It was their only drinking utensil, and therefore prized very highly.
+How it had passed through the turmoil of the rapids was one of those
+mysteries which voyaging bottles alone can solve; and they, if sometimes
+eloquent of humanity&#8217;s adventures, are invariably silent as to their
+own.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span></p><p>The skins of the sea-lion and seals had vanished. Indeed, a very close
+search of a three-mile semi-circular beach, conducted for reasons which
+shall presently appear, yielded no trace of them.</p>
+
+<p>There was a dramatic fitness in thus reaching a land of plenty after
+enduring the horrors of the pass.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s like a fairy tale,&#8221; cried Nina joyously. &#8220;This is the enchanted
+realm, guarded by dragons which must be slain ere the prince can enter.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Gosh!&#8221; grinned Sturgess, &#8220;she&#8217;s calling you a prince now, Alec. Say,
+Madge, can&#8217;t you invent a name for me?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, you&#8217;re the Ugly Duckling which grew into a Swan.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Huh! I&#8217;ll think that over. Far be it from me, fair maid, to dispute
+your views as to my future plumage. Now, Alec, your turn. It&#8217;s up to you
+to christen Nina.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Cinderella, maid of all work,&#8221; said Maseden promptly. &#8220;So, let&#8217;s get
+busy, the lot of us. Girls, you&#8217;ll probably find an oyster-bed on that
+reef over there. Sturgess and I will hunt for water, and bring you a
+bottleful. Then we must set to work and build a shack above high-water
+mark before night. We&#8217;re going to stop here and launch a more navigable
+craft next time.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Your highness has forgotten one thing,&#8221; said Nina, with sudden gravity.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What is that?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is still Sunday.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>With one accord they dropped to their knees and thanked Providence for
+the mercy which had been shown them. Such prayers are the spontaneous
+tribute of the overflowing heart. They are not to be uttered aloud or
+recorded in the written word.</p>
+
+<p>The men had no difficulty in locating a stream, owing to the &#8220;creek,&#8221; as
+Madge had phrased it, which marked the approach of each torrent to the
+sea. Here, too, were oysters in abundance. Whether or not the bivalves
+liked a certain admixture of fresh water and brine, their enthusiastic
+admirers did not know; but certainly the best-stocked beds were
+invariably situated near the mouth of a mountain stream.</p>
+
+<p>With a plentiful supply of shaped planks, cordage, even rusty nails,
+they soon knocked together a low hut, not more than breast high, and
+closed at one end. The ship&#8217;s flag curtained off the inner section,
+which was allotted to the two girls, while the men could sleep, on
+guard, as it were, in the outer part.</p>
+
+<p>As night came on they started a fire and cooked two birds of the penguin
+type, which allowed themselves to be chased and captured. The flesh was
+tough and none too well flavored, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>but the feasters were not hard to
+please. When the repast was ended, and they sat on piles of soft sand
+looking out over the darkening expanse of waters, for the tide was high
+again, Maseden electrified Sturgess by saying:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Do you smoke, C. K.?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Does a duck swim?&#8221; was the prompt reply.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden produced from his coat pocket a pipe and tin of tobacco.</p>
+
+<p>The other eyed them with downright amazement.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, can you beat it?&#8221; he cried. &#8220;What else have you got in your
+pocket, old scout? A bottle of rye whisky and a box of chocolates for
+the girls, or what?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve reached the end of my resources now,&#8221; laughed Maseden. &#8220;I resolved
+to keep this small stock of tobacco till the time came when we might
+regard half our troubles as ended. I think we&#8217;ve reached that stage
+to-night. After this morning&#8217;s escape I shall never again lose hope
+until the light goes out forever.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, please, don&#8217;t put it that way,&#8221; said Nina.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I mean it as an optimist,&#8221; he exclaimed. &#8220;If I have to swim in the open
+sea, or am buried under a landslide, I shall still believe, while my
+senses last, that Providence will see me through. Do you know why? You
+might supply many good reasons, but not <i>the</i> reason. Ten minutes after
+we climbed under that overhanging rock, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span>it fell. I happened to look
+back, and saw it collapse. None of us heard the crash, because we were
+close to a rather noisy rapid at the moment. But I actually saw the
+thing happen.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why didn&#8217;t you tell us at the time?&#8221; inquired Madge.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I thought our nervous systems, collectively, had borne enough strain
+just then.... Here you are, C. K. I give you first turn with the pipe.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Not on your life!&#8221; vowed Sturgess, flaming into volcanic energy. &#8220;If I
+never smoke again, I&#8217;ll not touch that pipe until you&#8217;ve gone right
+through a packed bowl-full.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden knew that his friend meant what he said, so filled and lighted
+the pipe immediately.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a moot point,&#8221; he commented philosophically, &#8220;whether you don&#8217;t
+enjoy smoking more in anticipation than I in actuality. I haven&#8217;t smoked
+now during sixteen days, and I believe I could give it up for sixteen
+years if need be.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Good gracious!&#8221; tittered Madge. &#8220;Poor C. K. will have only two years of
+his beloved New York.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was a subtle thrust. Sturgess himself was the first to see its point.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Gosh!&#8221; he said. &#8220;S&#8217;pose we four had to live here straight on for
+sixteen years!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Nina Forbes seemed to have a keener sense <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span>of the dangerous trend of
+such careless talk than her sister.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I do wish you two wouldn&#8217;t babble,&#8221; she broke in sharply. &#8220;Alec is
+simply chock full of information. I can see it in his calculating eye.
+For instance&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden took the cue readily.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;For instance,&#8221; he said. &#8220;This inland lagoon explains the rush of the
+tide this morning. The greater part of the water which runs through the
+pass never goes back. It floods this immense area, is held up by the
+tide from the south, but goes out that way, because, by some irregular
+tidal action, the ebb begins in that direction. Therefore, an ideal
+backwash is set up, which accounts for all the wreckage strewed on the
+beach. Parts of ships which were lost a century ago will be stored here.
+The place is a maritime museum.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We may find a whole ship,&#8221; exclaimed Madge.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What? After coming through the hell-gate we have left behind?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The bottle came through,&#8221; she persisted.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Though it&#8217;s a black bottle it must have been white with fear many a
+score of times. Have you noticed the way in which the logs of our own
+raft were battered and bruised?... No, the way in was vile, and, I had
+better warn you now, the way out may be worse.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Oh, why?&#8221; cried both girls.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Because of the absence of Indians. Consider what an ideal site this
+would be for a colony of savages. Plenty of fish, birds and
+oysters&mdash;sand&mdash;even a few level strips which might be cultivated&mdash;if the
+South American Indian ever does till the land. The logic of the
+situation is clear. Our refuge is inaccessible. That is just the
+difference between romance and reality. In the fairy tale, once you slay
+the dragons guarding the enchanted palace the remainder is a compound of
+nectar and kisses. In real life, having stormed the fortress, you find
+yourself besieged.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>None disputed his conclusions. They were learning to think like him, and
+each had been struck by the virgin solitude of this land-locked
+sea-lake, which must compare favorably with the most fertile and
+exceedingly scarce localities of the kind in an area of many scores of
+thousands of square miles.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Anyhow, while you finish your pipe, it&#8217;s up to me to fix the fire,&#8221;
+said Sturgess blithely, leaping to his feet, and beginning to arrange a
+number of big flat stones around and above a pile of glowing charcoal in
+such wise that rain could not extinguish it, and a few twigs placed
+among the embers next morning would quickly burst into a blaze.</p>
+
+<p>They had taught themselves these minor aids <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>to comfort. Madge had
+constructed a very creditable field oven, and Nina, with a bit of
+sharpened wire and a supply of dried sinews, could sew a skin as a
+cobbler stitches the sole on to a boot. Physically all four were in
+splendid condition, so it was a sheer impossibility that they should
+remain downcast in spirit. Maseden knew that quite well when he recited
+the trials they must yet face and conquer. He addressed them as
+co-workers, not as pampered young people who must be humored into
+putting forth the necessary efforts if they would win through finally.</p>
+
+<p>They slept that night as soundly as though the morning&#8217;s tribulation was
+something they had read in a book. Rain pounded on their shelter, but it
+was roofed with pine branches above the planks, and not a drop entered.
+They awoke into a world of blue sky and sunshine, and, after
+breakfasting on oysters, cold fowl, and good water, spent an idle hour
+in watching the tidal race from the north.</p>
+
+<p>Then, after tending the fire, they set off on a tour of the shore,
+meaning to note every scrap of wreckage which might be of value.
+Moreover, Maseden was specially anxious to have a peep at the southern
+exit.</p>
+
+<p>And thus they made the great discovery.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SIMPLE LIFE</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">W</span>ho found the boat? The question has not been answered to this day. Four
+people held and vehemently expressed different opinions; if they had not
+agreed ultimately to pool the credit, the foundations of six very firm
+friendships might have been endangered, because even the sisters were at
+logger-heads on the point.</p>
+
+<p>No one could dispute the fact that it was Nina Forbes who, with
+outstretched hand and pointing finger, exclaimed dramatically:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What is that?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But the other three yielded her no prior right on that account. Were
+they not all looking at it, and thinking that which Nina said?</p>
+
+<p>Each could establish a most reasonable claim if the matter were
+adjudicated by a prize court. Firstly, Maseden had ordered a close
+survey of the coast, and, if this very proper precaution had not been
+taken, the boat would be rotting yet on an uncharted beach. Secondly, if
+Sturgess had not slipped on a rock and scarified his chin rather badly
+there would, thirdly, have been no need for Madge to suggest that he
+should wash the wound in fresh water, and even insist that this should
+be done.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span></p><p>Lastly, there was Nina, who literally demanded an explanation of a long,
+low strip of taut canvas visible above a small sand hill on which tufts
+of coarse grass were struggling for life.</p>
+
+<p>The simplest way out of the difficulty was to admit that sheer,
+unadulterated good luck brought about an incident which probably changed
+the whole course of events, though a white and shining patch of skin on
+Sturgess&#8217;s left leg testifies to this day that his accident was
+primarily responsible for it.</p>
+
+<p>Two fair-sized streams ran from the hills into the straits on that side.
+Near the first was pitched the camp. Well hidden near the second was the
+boat.</p>
+
+<p>Now, these rivulets, though fairly deep and swift, were not torrents;
+that is to say, they drained a watershed by no means so steep as Hanover
+Island. Their volume was more regular, inasmuch as they were not wholly
+the outcome of the latest downpour of rain. To avoid the necessity of
+fording them, one had to walk a long way seaward until their waters
+began to spread over the reef in a hundred little runnels, and one could
+leap from rock to rock.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, it was while Sturgess was so doing that he barked his shin, a
+most painful if not dangerous operation; in this instance, it evoked
+language which the girls pretended not to hear.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p><p>Having crossed the stream, however, Madge examined the damage, and would
+have it that the sufferer take off his boot and sock, and forthwith lave
+the wound in fresh water.</p>
+
+<p>What he really wanted to do was to wander away out of earshot and
+relieve his feelings by the spoken word. He obeyed, however, and all
+four went up the right bank (which, as Sturgess and Madge jointly cited
+in their contention, they certainly would not have done otherwise) to a
+point where the river was free of salt-water.</p>
+
+<p>In the result, curiously enough, Sturgess&#8217;s excoriated wound was left
+absolutely to its own devices. Both he and Madge, not to mention the
+other two, were startled out of any further thought of such a minor
+casualty by coming full tilt on to a ship&#8217;s boat, trimly sheeted in gray
+canvas, dry-docked, one might say, behind a sandhill.</p>
+
+<p>After an incredulous stare, Maseden answered Nina&#8217;s eager question.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is one of the life-boats of the <i>Southern Cross</i>,&#8221; he said, and his
+voice was hushed, almost reverent. &#8220;There is her number, with the ship&#8217;s
+name. She was carried on the starboard side, just behind the forward
+rail on the promenade deck. I used to look up at her and admire her
+lines.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>By this time they had raced up alongside the craft. She appeared to be
+undamaged. Maseden <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span>unlaced a portion of the canvas cover. She was dry
+as a bone inside.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Say, Alec, d&#8217;you know that every boat was stocked with provisions and
+water for twenty people for fourteen days? I heard the captain give the
+order.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Sturgess was so excited that he almost yelped the words.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I saw the stewards putting the stuff on board,&#8221; said Maseden.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s tea, and coffee, and condensed milk, and butter, and tins of
+meat and jam,&#8221; cried Nina.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And ship&#8217;s biscuits, and a spirit stove, and matches, and barrels of
+water,&#8221; chimed in Madge.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden was tapping the planks and peering at so much of the keel as was
+visible, but he could find no sign of injury. The smart white paint had
+been badly scraped amidships and in the bows, but the wood was not
+splintered. To the best of his belief the craft was thoroughly
+seaworthy. She carried her full complement of oars, a mast, and lugsail.
+In fact, she was almost in the exact condition in which she had left the
+ship.</p>
+
+<p>Two pulleys and a part of a broken davit showed how she had been
+wrenched bodily from her berth and flung into the sea by the first great
+wave that crashed over the <i>Southern</i> <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span><i>Cross</i> when the steamship swung
+broadside on to the reef under the pull of the aft anchor.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Come along, everybody!&#8221; shouted Maseden, and the ring of triumph in his
+voice revealed the depth of his feelings. &#8220;We start building a new camp
+at once. Within less than a fortnight the spring tides which brought her
+here will be with us again, and we must be ready for them.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Can&#8217;t we launch her on rollers?&#8221; demanded Sturgess.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I doubt it. She was docked here by a backwash which does not occur very
+often, judging by the herbage growing among the sand. She is a heavy
+craft, too. I don&#8217;t think the four of us could move her. We&#8217;ll have
+rollers in readiness, of course, but we must cut a channel for the tide,
+and so make sure of floating her.... By Jove! <i>What</i> a piece of luck!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It took them an hour or more to sober down. For once, Maseden&#8217;s orders
+were tacitly ignored, even by himself. Instead of helping in the
+construction of another hut the girls were busy with the lashings of the
+canvas cover. Every true woman has the instinct of the good housewife,
+and these two could not rest content until they had examined and
+classified the stores.</p>
+
+<p>None of them could resist the temptation of a bottle of coffee extract,
+some condensed milk and a tin of biscuits. The spirit-stove was
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span>lighted, some water boiled and they drank hot coffee and ate wheat for
+the first time in seventeen days.</p>
+
+<p>Their greatest surprise was the quantity and variety of stores on board.
+There were knives and forks, enameled plates and cups, even such minor
+requisites as salt, pepper and mustard.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, the chief steward of the <i>Southern Cross</i> had been given many
+hours in which to make preparations. Being a resourceful man, when the
+lockers were packed with their regulation supplies he stuffed &#8220;extras&#8221;
+into odd corners.</p>
+
+<p>Poor fellow! The pity was that an adverse fate had denied him any
+benefit from his own foresight.</p>
+
+<hr class="medium" />
+
+<p>Although the castaways entered with good heart upon their second
+campaign against the forces of nature, the immense advantages now
+enjoyed as compared with their condition on Hanover Island did not blind
+them to the difficulties yet to be faced and conquered ere the haunts of
+civilized man might be reached. There was no gainsaying the cogency of
+Maseden&#8217;s logic; the absence of aborigines from a spot so favored as
+Rotunda Bay (the name allotted to their new location), supplied positive
+proof of the impracticable nature of all approaches by sea.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span></p><p>How far the barriers might extend they had no means of knowing. They
+could guess how forbidding they were from the character of the northerly
+channel, and it was easy to believe that one such dangerous passage
+alone would not have deterred tribesmen accustomed to navigate these
+perilous waters.</p>
+
+<p>So, in the intervals of labor, they gave close heed to the tides and
+their action. For instance, Maseden would knock together a small raft,
+launch it at high water and watch its subsequent course. He found, at
+first, that it stranded invariably. Then he took it to the tiny estuary
+of the second river, waited until the ebb was well established, and let
+it swing out with the current.</p>
+
+<p>This time, as he anticipated, it was carried swiftly southward, and was
+seen no more, thus confirming his belief that the rise and fall of the
+tide set up a circular movement of an immense body of water always
+tending in the same southerly direction, retarded during the flow, with
+resultant acceleration during the ebb.</p>
+
+<p>One day, when observation farther afield was desired, they all four set
+off soon after dawn, and were close to the southern narrows at high
+water. Then, as the shore gradually became practicable, they followed
+the receding tide until farther advance became dangerous. Seen from a
+distance, one of the cliffs offered a not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>impossible climb, and closer
+inspection showed that, by hard work, and some roping, they could reach
+the summit.</p>
+
+<p>The girls, who had positively refused to be left &#8220;at home,&#8221; were now
+equally determined to make the ascent. The soles of their light boots
+had long since given out, but each and all now wore moccasins of
+sealskin, and very serviceable and comfortable footgear these proved,
+being impervious to the jars of the roughest rock surface, and most
+excellent for climbing.</p>
+
+<p>After an hour&#8217;s hard work they stood on a narrow saddle overlooking a
+seaward precipice, and the vista before their eyes was at once
+awe-inspiring and disheartening. Mile after mile, nothing but broken
+water met the eye. The reefs were countless. In fact, the resistance
+they offered to the incoming tide direct from the Pacific was such that,
+in all likelihood, it accounted for the delay which set up the
+extraordinary race past Hell Gate.</p>
+
+<p>Even Sturgess was upset by the far-flung chaos. A strong wind was
+blowing up there, and he sank his voice in the hope that his words would
+reach Maseden only.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Rotten!&#8221; he said. &#8220;It would knock the stuffing out of a brass dog.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No secrets, please,&#8221; cried Madge promptly. &#8220;What did you say, C. K.?
+Are you telling Alec that there is no way out?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Yep,&#8221; was the disconsolate reply.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We have not quite determined that fact yet,&#8221; said Maseden coolly.
+&#8220;Having done a stiff climb, suppose we get our money&#8217;s worth, and sit
+down? Never mind the unpleasant prospect in front. Let&#8217;s keep a sharp
+look-out for a log traveling in mid-stream, and watch it as long as
+possible.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Nina, who was endowed with excellent good sight, was the first to detect
+a nearly submerged tree-trunk bobbing about in the channel, nearly a
+mile distant. The atmosphere happened, however, to be unusually clear
+that day, so they could follow the progress of the derelict for another
+mile or more. As soon as it emerged from the actual channel between the
+two headlands, it swung away to the left, or eastward, and kept on that
+course until lost in the waste of waters.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden whistled in sheer vexation when he gave up the attempt to follow
+this floating index any longer.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What is it now, son?&#8221; inquired Sturgess.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The worst,&#8221; snapped the other vindictively.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Great Scott! Didn&#8217;t you like the look of that log. I thought it
+lolloped along in a devil-may-care style that was rather attractive.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But it turned towards the land, and not towards the sea.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I guess that&#8217;s so.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;And doesn&#8217;t that convey any meaning to you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Sure. The tides hereabouts go all ways for Sundays. Before that thing
+reaches Nelson Straits it has to round the eastern end of the island
+opposite.... Yes, yes, Alec. You&#8217;ve wised me up on heaps of things I
+didn&#8217;t give a hooraw in Hades for at one time. I can tell the time by
+the sun, skin an eel, or a seal, or a teal, open oysters like a
+bar-keep, and read an eddy like a Mississippi pilot. And, to my
+reckoning, our boat, or any boat, has as much chance of winning through
+that proposition out there as a lump of butter in a fiery furnace. I
+never did hold very strongly by that story about Shadrack, Mesack and
+Abednego. I&#8217;ve a notion we haven&#8217;t got the complete facts. One day in
+Pittsburg&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Silence, please, for the passing of the next log, which happens to be a
+boat!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Nina&#8217;s voice rang out clearly. She well knew the astounding significance
+of the words, but the daily round of hardship and adventure were molding
+her character on new and stronger lines. She was not, nor ever could be
+again, the somewhat conventional young lady who had sailed from San Juan
+little more than a month ago. She could face now, with an unflinching
+and critical eye, perils which then would have <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span>blanched her cheek and
+set the blood pulsing in her veins.</p>
+
+<p>Even her sister, who had not made out the object to which Nina had
+called attention, put an alarming question quite calmly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;A boat!&#8221; she cried. &#8220;Oh, Nina, not <i>our</i> boat?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>So many seemingly impossible things had occurred that the stout
+life-boat they left tied securely in a small dock which was flooded by
+each tide might conceivably have broken loose.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No,&#8221; came the reassuring answer. &#8220;Not our boat. It looks like one of
+the native coracles Alec has told us of. But it is empty. At any rate,
+there is no one sitting upright in it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>By this time the others had seen the craft, which she was the first to
+detect. In their anxiety and excitement they stood up, one by one, as
+though the couple of feet thus gained would give a better view-point.
+There could not be the least doubt that they were looking at a
+roughly-fashioned but distinctly seaworthy boat, which danced along on
+the crest of a rapid current, and whirled around, as though in sport,
+when some black rock thrust its obstructing fangs into the tide-way.
+Apparently, it was traveling quite safely.</p>
+
+<p>Then, as if to give them a really useful object lesson, it was caught
+between two rocks and turned clean over. A second somersault <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span>righted
+it, and, like the log, it sped away to the east.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden brought back the dazed and troubled wits of his companions to
+the particular business in hand.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;See that you are properly roped,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We&#8217;re heading for camp, as
+quickly as we can get there. Don&#8217;t hurry over the first part of the
+descent, however. There are two bad places on the rock face.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>They reached the shore safely, unroped, and set off to walk three hard
+miles in record time. As they neared their refuge they saw the boat, now
+aground in its tiny canal. Near at hand were the white embers of their
+fire, which would soon be ablaze when fresh logs were added. Some
+washing, stretched on a line, lent a strangely domestic touch to the
+encampment.</p>
+
+<p>But the one profoundly relieving fact was self-evident. No party of
+marauding Indians had swooped down on their ark and its stores. Wherever
+the derelict boat had come from, its occupants were not to be seen in
+any part of Rotunda Bay. As Maseden put it tersely:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We found it hard enough to get here. Others seemed to have tried and
+failed.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Still he and Sturgess decided to mount guard that night. The girls were
+not supposed to know of this new arrangement, until Maseden <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span>was about
+to awaken Sturgess for his second spell of sentry-go. Then Nina emerged
+from the rear portion of the shack.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Lend me your watch, Alec,&#8221; she said pleasantly. &#8220;I&#8217;ll take these two
+hours.... No, you mustn&#8217;t argue, there&#8217;s a dear&mdash;fellow&mdash;&#8221; the
+concluding word was added rather hurriedly, being an obvious
+afterthought. &#8220;I&#8217;ll call Madge next, and it will be broad daylight by
+the time her spell is ended.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not sleepy,&#8221; he murmured, sinking his voice so as not to disturb
+the others. &#8220;I was only going to rouse C. K. because he will be annoyed
+if I don&#8217;t stick to schedule.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I haven&#8217;t slept at all,&#8221; the girl confessed. &#8220;If you&#8217;re not going to
+rest, let us talk. Or, perhaps, that is not quite the right thing to
+do.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Not if there was any real fear of an attack,&#8221; said Maseden, leading her
+to the small sand hillock near the boat. &#8220;I am convinced we are safe
+enough, but I should never forgive myself if the camp were rushed owing
+to our negligence.... Sit here. The tide is rising. We can distinguish
+the water-line, and remain unseen ourselves. Of course, we should speak
+hardly above a whisper.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Some inequality in the sloping surface brought them rather close
+together when they sat down. Nina moved, with a little laugh of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span>apology. Her action was quite involuntary, but it nettled Maseden.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t want to flirt with you, if that is what you are afraid of,&#8221; he
+grunted. &#8220;In present conditions spooning would be rather absurd. Not
+that my particular sort of marriage tie would restrain me. Don&#8217;t think
+it. Enforced obedience of that sort is foreign to my nature.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I gather that you really want to quarrel with me,&#8221; was the glib answer.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, any woman of average wit could have put a man in the wrong at
+once with equal readiness though given a far less vulnerable opening,
+but Maseden realized his blunder and drew back.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;A too strenuous life seems to have spoiled my temper,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I used
+to be regarded as a somewhat easy-going person.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Probably that was because you had things all your own way.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You may be right. A man is the poorest judge of his own virtues or
+faults. For instance, I have always prided myself on a certain quality
+of quick decision, once my mind was made up. But of late I find myself
+lacking even in that respect.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Isn&#8217;t it possible you are not actually sure of your own mind?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Shall I submit the case to you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Would that be wise? I would remind you of your own phrase&mdash;in present
+conditions.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But I think you ought to know,&#8221; he persisted. &#8220;Weeks ago, on the day
+you shot the sea-lion, in fact, C. K. told me he meant to marry Madge,
+if the lady is willing, that is. The statement startled me, to put it
+mildly. I rather scoffed at it, which nettled him, naturally. I was on
+the point of acquainting him with the facts, but was stopped by the
+gun-shot. Since then he has never mentioned the matter again, and I have
+been averse from pulling it in by the scruff of the neck&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why do so now?&#8221; put in the girl quickly.</p>
+
+<p>He could not see her face, but the note of alarm in her voice was not
+even disguised.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Because, day by day, I see more and more clearly that our friend&#8217;s love
+of your sister is a very real thing. I see, too, or think that I see, a
+response on her part. From a common sense point of view, what else could
+one expect? Two young people, each eminently agreeable, are thrown
+together by fate in circumstances of great and continuous personal
+danger. The artificial intercourse of civilized life is impossible from
+the outset. They see each other as they really are. Each has to depend
+on real characteristics, not on shams. Can one imagine a more ideal
+method of choosing one&#8217;s future partner <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span>than those in which we have
+lived during the past month?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>This was what lawyers call a leading question, and Nina shied at it
+instantly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Everything you have said may be true, Alec,&#8221; she said, &#8220;but you have
+advanced no reason whatever for disturbing our pleasant relations.
+Surely all these problems may be allowed to settle themselves when, if
+ever, we re-enter the everyday world?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That is just my difficulty,&#8221; continued Maseden doggedly; he was
+resolved now to have an irritating hindrance to pleasant relations
+settled once and for all. &#8220;Is it fair to Sturgess to let him believe
+there is no bar to his wooing? Of course, my marriage was a farce, and
+can be dismissed as such. But what will C. K. think, what will he say,
+when he hears of it? Won&#8217;t our silence&mdash;yes, <i>our</i> silence&mdash;you cannot
+shirk a part of the responsibility&mdash;be open to misinterpretation? May it
+not bring about the very catastrophe we want to avoid?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I really don&#8217;t understand,&#8221; said the girl in a frightened way.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Then I must make my meaning clear, even though it hurts,&#8221; he said
+determinedly. &#8220;If I tell Sturgess now about the Cartagena ceremony,
+though rather late in the day, it is not too late; whereas, if I wait
+till we reach New York, how astounded and mystified he will be <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span>by the
+legal process which I must set on foot to secure your sister&#8217;s freedom
+and my own! Why, the result might be tragic. If C. K. knows now, he can,
+if he chooses, seek from Madge an explanation of the whole mad business.
+She may give or withhold it&mdash;that is for her to decide. But at least we
+shall all be acting squarely and above-board. I put it to you strongly,
+for the sake of each one of us, that Sturgess should be told the whole
+truth.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>For a little while there was silence. Nina seemed to be weighing the
+pros and cons of the matter with much care.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I think you are right,&#8221; she said at last. &#8220;I differ from you only in a
+small but&mdash;to a woman&mdash;very important particular. Madge, not you, should
+tell C. K. what happened in Cartagena. It is her privilege. It will come
+better from her. In the morning, when opportunity offers, she and I will
+talk things over. I am sure I can persuade her as to the course she
+should adopt.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Leave it to me, Alec. Before to-morrow evening C. K. shall have heard
+the full story of that unfortunate marriage. He will tell you so
+himself. After that, I suppose, your troubled conscience will be at
+rest, and the matter need not be discussed further until it comes before
+the courts.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I seem to have annoyed you pretty badly by raising the point now,&#8221; said
+Maseden.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;No, indeed! It is not so. In a sense, I am glad. My sister and I are
+very dear to one another, Alec, and no one likes to parade the family
+skeleton, even in such a remote place as Rotunda Bay.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden felt that he had bungled the whole business rather badly, but he
+saw no advantage in leaving anything unsaid.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What I cannot make out,&#8221; he muttered savagely, &#8220;is how I ever came to
+regard you and Madge as being so much alike. Of course, you resemble
+each other physically, but in temperament you are wide apart as the
+poles.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Dear me! This is really interesting. In what respects do we differ?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Madge is emotional, you are self-contained. She would have cried had I
+spoken to her about you as I have spoken of her to you, but you survey
+the problem coolly, and solve it, probably on the best lines. Sometimes,
+you puzzle, at others, vex me. You are ready and willing to confide in
+Sturgess, but refuse me your confidence. I find Madge easy to read; you
+remain an enigma. I believe you would almost die rather than enlighten
+me as to the true history of my marriage.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, bother your marriage! Can&#8217;t you talk of something else?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I am prepared to talk about you during the next hour.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;How boring for both of us.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Only a minute ago you welcomed my efforts as an analyst.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I was mistook, as the children say. These personal matters seem
+ineffably stupid when one sees the dawn appearing over the walls of our
+prison. We may never get away from here, or lose our lives in the
+attempt. It will be of very small significance then as to why a
+sorely-tried girl agreed to marry a man she had never seen, and who was
+under sentence to die before the ink was dry in the register.... Still,
+Alec, I&#8217;m pleased we have had such a candid discussion. I have come
+round to your point of view, too. It is <i>not</i> fair to C. K. to keep him
+in the dark. To-morrow, as ever is, if you don&#8217;t work us so hard that we
+have no time for chatter, I promise you that Madge shall tell him
+everything.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And me nothing?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That is implied in the bargain, is it not? Does it really concern you?
+You were speaking for C. K., not for yourself.... Oh, no, we&#8217;re not
+going to re-open the argument. Just let matters remain where they are,
+please. I want you to satisfy a woman&#8217;s curiosity on a matter of more
+immediate importance. When do you purpose leaving here? Shouldn&#8217;t we
+start soon? At this season we have fine weather <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span>of a sort. Don&#8217;t we
+incur a good deal of risk by each week of delay?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hullo, you two!&#8221; came a cherry voice. &#8220;A nice bunco game you&#8217;ve played
+on me! There was I, snoring like a hog, while you were spooning under
+the stars. Wise Alec and Naughty Nina! But wait till I tell your poor
+deluded sister. A whole tribe of Indians could have crept up and
+tomahawked you where you sat.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>They started apart, almost guiltily. Each shared the same thought. How
+much, or how little, had Sturgess heard?</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE DOWRY</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">B</span>oth Maseden and Nina looked and felt like tongued-tied children, and
+Sturgess was not slow to note their confusion.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Gee, if there was an orchard anywhere around, I&#8217;d think you two had
+been stealing apples,&#8221; he cried. &#8220;Sorry, Nina, if I&#8217;ve butted in on a
+heart-to-heart talk, but it&#8217;s not often I can josh our wise Alec, so I&#8217;m
+bound to take the few chances that come along.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He little knew evidently how closely their talk had concerned him, and
+the fact that he had not overheard anything which would supply a clue to
+the topic under discussion was, in itself, a great relief.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Nina appeared when I was about to call you,&#8221; said Maseden quietly. &#8220;She
+demanded her share of the watch, and as I was not inclined for sleep I
+remained on duty. Of course that is no excuse for an inattentive sentry.
+I propose that you shoot me straight off and imprison Nina for the
+remainder of her natural life.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I sentence the pair of you to rest until breakfast <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span>is ready. There&#8217;s
+no appeal from the court. About, turn! Quick, march!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Nina hurried away. Maseden, thinking he would not be able to close an
+eye, followed her slowly, lay down, and was soon asleep.</p>
+
+<p>The boat&#8217;s stores had revealed neither soap nor towels, so the early
+morning wash remained a primitive affair. A pool in the stream was set
+apart for the girls, while the men scrubbed among the rocks. Sturgess
+aroused Maseden a few minutes before breakfast was ready.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Come this way,&#8221; he said, nodding in the direction of the boat. &#8220;I want
+to show you something.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden noticed that the other man&#8217;s hands and moccasins were soiled
+with the whitish-brown deposit through which a channel for the boat had
+been delved. Then he saw that no small part of the said channel was
+blocked by the d&eacute;bris of a fresh excavation.</p>
+
+<p>Now, among the treasures on the boat were a couple of axes. Given an ax,
+some spice of ingenuity and a fair stock of patience, and any man can
+fashion an astonishing variety of useful articles. Singularly enough,
+Sturgess, who was gifted with the artist&#8217;s sense of proportion, could
+hew a spade out of a plank more skillfully than Maseden, and he was
+inordinately proud of the achievement.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What the deuce have you been up to?&#8221; demanded <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span>Maseden at sight of so
+much misdirected industry.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You wouldn&#8217;t guess in a week,&#8221; was the complacent answer. &#8220;This morning
+I was standing around doing nothing, when, as the tide fell, I spotted a
+bulge in the right bank of our canal. I wondered what had caused it,
+after our trouble in lining the walls with stakes, so I nosed around
+with a shovel. Then I got all fussed up, and didn&#8217;t care where I threw
+the dirt.... See what <i>I&#8217;ve</i> found, old scout!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>By this time they were in the trench, from which the tide had only
+recently receded. Sturgess&#8217;s zeal had cleared away some two cubic yards
+of silt, and Maseden saw at once that a part of the hull of a small
+vessel of some sort had been laid bare. Moreover, a few blows with an ax
+had removed sufficient of the rotting timbers to give access to the
+hulk&#8217;s interior.</p>
+
+<p>It was a most interesting find. An old-time craft had been brought to
+her last resting-place within a few feet of the spot where the <i>Southern
+Cross&#8217;s</i> life-boat was embedded. Evidently in the course of years she
+had sunk in the soft deposit, and probably formed a nucleus for a new
+sand-bank. At any rate, she was completely covered, and lay there keel
+uppermost.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Have you been inside?&#8221; said Maseden, eyeing the doorway broken by the
+ax.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You bet your life,&#8221; said Sturgess.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Was the air foul?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Fine. I guess the lime hereabouts attended to that. Anyhow, I carried
+in a blazing stick, and it burned all right.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Skeletons on board?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Not a bone that I could see.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What are you keeping back, then? You can&#8217;t humbug me, C. K. There&#8217;s
+something on your chest. Get it off!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Sturgess craned his neck over the edge of the channel to make sure that
+neither of the girls was near.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;From hints I&#8217;ve picked up now and then, when Madge felt she must either
+talk or bust, I&#8217;ve come to the conclusion that old man Gray&#8217;s death
+means poverty to that small bunch,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Now, <i>I&#8217;m</i> pretty well
+fixed, and I guess <i>you&#8217;ll</i> never be hard pushed to buy a food ticket,
+so I want your brainy assistance to arrange things for the girls&#8217;
+benefit. See? It should&mdash;kind of&mdash;make matters easy&mdash;when it comes to a
+show-down.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What have you come across? Spanish treasure?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden peered into the dimly lighted interior of the wreck. Apparently
+the inverted deck was about four feet below the level of the opening,
+and Sturgess had broken into the after part of the hull.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Let me go ahead and pass out the boodle,&#8221; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span>said Sturgess. &#8220;I found it
+in a wooden box, which is clamped with iron, but it has nearly fallen to
+pieces.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He lowered himself to what had been the ceiling of a cabin, and moved
+cautiously among a litter of rotting wood, evidently the furniture which
+had once rendered the tiny apartment habitable. He came back with laden
+hands, and passed out a curiously shaped jug, or flagon.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden examined it critically.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;By Jove!&#8221; he cried; &#8220;this is Aztec work, and hammered out of solid
+gold!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s five more of the same sort,&#8221; said Sturgess, in a voice cracked
+with excitement. &#8220;And <i>this</i> strikes me as something worth while.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He produced a crudely modeled figure of a puma, the body in silver and
+the head, feet, and tail in gold. The eyes and claws were of polished
+quartz, and were bright as when the ornament left the hands of the
+Mexican lapidary who fashioned it. The metals, of course, were
+tarnished, the silver being black with age, but both men realized that
+they were gazing at a splendid specimen of a long-forgotten art.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;How much of this sort of stuff is there?&#8221; said Maseden, his imagination
+running riot as to the possible history of this unrecorded argosy.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Twelve pieces altogether,&#8221; chuckled Sturgess. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span>&#8220;Six gold pitchers, four
+animals and two carved dishes, each of gold. I&#8217;ve rummaged around
+carefully, and that&#8217;s the lot. For&#8217;ard of this section is a hold, and,
+from what I can make out, it was loaded with furs and cloth, but the
+cargo is all mussed up with salt and lime.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Show me one of the dishes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Sturgess brought forth an oval-shaped dish, made, like the vessels, of
+solid gold. On its broad rim were chased twelve weird-looking creatures
+which reminded Maseden of the signs of the Zodiac; in the sunken center
+appeared a very elaborate design consisting of four trees, a bird
+perched on the topmost branches of each. Long afterwards he learned that
+this cartoon represented, in Aztec picture-writing, the four famous
+chiefs who founded the Aztec dynasty.</p>
+
+<p>At any rate, he knew at the time that the hoard which Sturgess had
+discovered was of great arch&aelig;ological interest, apart from the intrinsic
+value of the precious metals, itself no small sum.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We ought to devote the necessary time to a thorough survey of the
+wreck,&#8221; he said thoughtfully. &#8220;Meanwhile what have you at the back of
+your head about Nina and Madge? What did you mean by saying it would
+make matters easier?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, suppose you and I agree to give &#8217;em <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span>the proceeds of the sale,&#8221;
+and Sturgess handled one of the jugs lovingly. &#8220;There&#8217;s sixty ounces of
+pure specie in this pretty thing alone, I&#8217;ll bet. Then, if it dates away
+back, the price goes up like a rocket.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden knew that the really important part of his question had been
+avoided.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We must think it over,&#8221; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Think <i>what</i> over?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Sturgess, whose face was on a level with Maseden&#8217;s knees, scowled up at
+his friend with such an air of indignant surprise that the other man
+laughed.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I am not planning a daylight robbery of two fatherless orphans,&#8221;
+explained Maseden. &#8220;Our difficulty will be to persuade these two to
+accept their legitimate half share, let alone the whole of the plunder.
+Shan&#8217;t we give them a hail, and let them see the pirate&#8217;s <i>cache</i> before
+breakfast? Because that is what it is. These things were stolen from
+some Aztec shrine.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why Aztec?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why not?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Peru is a far more likely place.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, if these utensils were not of Mexican origin. The signs on the
+dishes are the animal-names used in the Aztec calendar.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Crushed again!&#8221; said Sturgess, clambering out of the wreck. &#8220;But say,
+professor, how did you ever manage to stow away those odds and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span>ends of
+information? I&#8217;m your age, and not exactly a fool, but I never had time
+to read.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You never made time, you mean. If you had lived seven years on a
+solitary ranch you would be forced to buy books and read them. My
+inclination turned naturally to the records of the country I lived in.
+The stories of the Spanish invaders in Mexico to the north and Peru to
+the south were more romantic than any novel. You&#8217;ve heard of Captain
+Kidd, the buccaneer, of course, but I suppose you know nothing of the
+Welshman Henry Morgan, and his exploits on the Spanish Main?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Not as much as would go on a dime in big type.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, Morgan would have made Kidd shine his boots if they had ever
+met.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Gee whiz! Hennery must have been <i>some</i> Thug.... Hi, Madge. Where&#8217;s
+Nina?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You two ought to have been washed quarter of an hour ago,&#8221; came Madge&#8217;s
+wrathful cry. &#8220;I&#8217;ve been looking for you everywhere. Breakfast will be
+spoiled!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Madge is quite right,&#8221; said Maseden. &#8220;Breakfast is more important than
+loot. Eat first, and discuss the pile afterwards.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>This sound advice availed him or Sturgess little afterwards. Both girls
+were vexed that the discovery was kept from them even during that short
+space of half an hour. They were <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span>placated, however, by being allowed to
+share in the labor of clearing a sufficient area around and above the
+wreck to permit of its exact size being ascertained. It was only a small
+craft, the keel measuring some fifty feet in length, yet, as Maseden was
+careful to point out, the early navigators deemed such vessels large
+enough to cross the mighty Atlantic.</p>
+
+<p>When the tide rose, and the wreck was flooded again, it floated. This
+was foreseen, and the expectant watchers had a number of stout poles in
+readiness, with which they under-pinned the hull on one side. Thus it
+was rendered much easier of access later.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond a couple of beautifully carved and chased rapiers, the blades of
+which were largely protected by leather scabbards hardened by salt
+water, and a number of copper cooking utensils, they found nothing more
+of value. The cargo, which appeared to have been furs and mats of
+painted reeds, was wholly destroyed. The vessel had carried two masts,
+whose stumps, broken off short near the deck, seemed to indicate the
+mischance which had befallen her in the Pacific. There were no cannon or
+other arms of any sort in or under the wreck, but as she had surely come
+there by way of Providence Beach and Hell Gate, she had probably rolled
+over countless times during the journey.</p>
+
+<p>She was built of oak. The bluff bows and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span>high-pitched forecastle and
+poop dated her as a product of the early seventeenth century. No trace
+of a name was discernible, but the bulwarks had been torn off. The
+absence of an elaborate figurehead was significant. She was a strongly
+constructed, but not highly finished little ship.</p>
+
+<p>As to her history or nationality, the only reliable tokens were the
+swords, which were Spanish, with Toledo blades. The copper cooking-pots
+were Mexican. In a word, she was ostensibly a trader, and Maseden
+believed that the iron-clamped box containing the treasure had been
+hidden beneath the floor of the cabin, because the planks were broken
+where the heavy package had apparently fallen through.</p>
+
+<p>One thing was certain. The similarity of the six flagons, the two dishes
+and the four animal figures showed that they came from an Aztec
+<i>teocalli</i>, or temple, of great wealth and importance. It was highly
+improbable that any town on the west coast of Mexico contained any such
+fame. If, therefore, they had been looted from the interior of the
+country, a reasonable assumption was that some band of Spanish
+adventurers, finding the way hopelessly blocked to the east, fought
+their way westward, and actually built the vessel which should convey
+them to far-off Cadiz.</p>
+
+<p>It was a strange hap that laid bare their <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span>plunder to the eyes of four
+descendants of the race which was destined to sweep them and their
+barbarous methods off the high seas.</p>
+
+<p>After a day of hard work and many thrills, Maseden was moved to accept
+the discovery as a good omen.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I had in my mind to suggest that we should renew our voyage by
+to-morrow&#8217;s first tide,&#8221; he said, as they sat near the camp-fire after
+the evening meal. &#8220;Just as the Romans consulted the oracle before
+starting on any great undertaking, so have we been given a happy augury
+by having thrust into our hands, so to speak, a notable treasure.
+Friends, I propose that we accept the decision of the gods, and weigh
+anchor in the morning.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>For no assignable reason, the suddenness of this resolve seemed to
+startle the others.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Have you made up your mind, then, that the channel is practicable?&#8221;
+inquired Sturgess after a marked pause.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The only channel we know is practicable,&#8221; said Maseden.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Do you mean that we should return the way we came?&#8221; put in Nina in an
+awed tone.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It offers our only means of escape,&#8221; was the grave answer. &#8220;To my mind,
+if we attempt the southern exit we go to certain death. We have a roomy
+boat, a sail, and oars. By putting off slightly before high water we can
+reach the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span>mouth of the gorge just on the turn of the tide. I think we
+can get through without any real difficulty, and even beach our boat in
+the open and shallow channel of Hanover Island which we were making for
+when the raft was swept out of its course. We have discussed the tides
+many times, and we all believe that we shall find ourselves in the main
+tidal stream again on the other side of that island opposite,&#8221; and he
+pointed to the mass of black hills outlined against the eastern sky. &#8220;It
+is only the &#8216;lesser of two evils,&#8217; I admit, but it yields a possibility;
+whereas I regard any attempt to navigate the southern avenue as
+absolutely fatal.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why the rush for the morning tide?&#8221; queried Sturgess.</p>
+
+<p>Then Maseden laughed.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You have fallen a victim to the prospecting mania,&#8221; he said cheerfully.
+&#8220;Having made a good strike, you want to follow it up. I don&#8217;t blame you.
+I believe this beach would pay well for digging. Before you were through
+with the search you would have a fine collection of odds and ends. But
+I&#8217;m minded to be superstitious for once. That puma with the glistening
+eyes has seemed to wink at me all day and say &#8216;Get me and yourself out
+of this quick!&#8217; I don&#8217;t want to impose my wishes on you others, but my
+advice is: Start to-morrow!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Madge, listening intently, nodded.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;You are always right,&#8221; she said emphatically. &#8220;&#8216;Whither thou goest, I
+will go; and where thou lodgest&mdash;&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She hesitated, as though conscious that her tongue was running away with
+her. The quotation, though apt, was peculiarly infelicitous. It did not
+please Sturgess; it reminded Maseden of an extraordinary relationship
+which he had tried in vain to ignore; it jarred on Nina Forbes&#8217;s
+sensitiveness, because it recalled the promise she had made at dawn but
+had not had any opportunity of fulfilling.</p>
+
+<p>She it was who broke up the conclave abruptly by springing to her feet.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If we&#8217;re going sailing the angry seas to-morrow, it&#8217;s high time we were
+trying to sleep,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Come, Madge.... By the way, is there to be
+any more guard-mounting to-night?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, and you have no concern therein,&#8221; said Maseden firmly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Who&#8217;s keeping guard?&#8221; inquired Madge. &#8220;This is the first I&#8217;ve heard of
+it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Alec has had an attack of the fidgets ever since he saw that empty
+coracle,&#8221; said Nina. &#8220;But I&#8217;m the worst sort of sentry, anyhow, and you
+would be no better, dear, so let us snooze selfishly, and be ready to
+help the men in to-morrow&#8217;s hard work.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve never before known a verse from the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span>Bible break up a meeting like
+that,&#8221; commented Sturgess thoughtfully when the girls had gone.
+&#8220;Somebody might have heaved a tin of kerosene into the fire, the way
+Nina jumped up.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The words may have evoked distressing memories,&#8221; said Maseden
+incautiously.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;As how?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Sturgess&#8217;s alert brain was very wide awake at that moment, but Maseden
+contrived to extricate himself.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That famous phrase of Ruth&#8217;s contains the essence of an otherwise
+uninteresting Biblical story,&#8221; he said. &#8220;If Ruth had not been so
+faithful to her mother-in-law we might never have heard of her.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Was Naomi her mother-in-law?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes. Ruth, herself a widow, married Boaz.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I guess I was sort of mixed up about it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Lots of people are,&#8221; said Maseden dryly, and the subject dropped.</p>
+
+<hr class="medium" />
+
+<p>They were astir early and, when the tide served, put off with as little
+ceremony as though they were going on a river picnic.</p>
+
+<p>The boat, of course, was far more easily managed than the raft. By
+keeping in the slack water inshore they contrived to reach the mouth of
+the gorge about the beginning of the ebb, and their calculations were
+completely verified by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span>the smoothness and safety of their subsequent
+passage.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden stood in the bows with an oar in readiness to sheer away from
+any obstruction in mid-stream. The two girls each took an oar, and
+Sturgess steered, also with an oar, as the broad-bladed rudder ran a
+foot deeper than the keel, being intended to act as a center-board when
+the sail was in use.</p>
+
+<p>So preoccupied were they with their task that they hardly noticed the
+spot where the cliff had fallen away soon after they had passed beneath.
+Even the canopied rock on which they found sanctuary after the loss of
+the raft merely attracted a momentary glance. Madge, eyeing the fissure
+which had so terrified her, was about to say something when a warning
+shout from Maseden caused her to pull a few vigorous strokes.</p>
+
+<p>They sheered past a flat boulder. A couple of vultures, scared by the
+unwonted apparition of a boat, flapped aloft, and they all saw,
+stretched on the rock, some portions of a human skeleton which most
+certainly had not been there when they came that way little more than a
+fortnight earlier.</p>
+
+<p>The uncanny sight vanished as swiftly as it came. None spoke. The pace
+of the stream was quickening, and each had to be in instant readiness to
+obey orders.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span></p><p>At this stage Maseden asked the girls to reverse their positions and
+pull steadily. In consequence they were backing water, and thus checking
+the boat&#8217;s way appreciably. By this means they rounded an awkward corner
+without any trouble, and again their eyes dwelt on the towering hills
+and wooded slopes of Hanover Island.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden and Sturgess now began to press laterally towards the eastern
+channel. Two possible openings were abandoned because of the ugly reefs
+sighted only a couple of hundred yards away. At last, when practically
+in the center of a two-mile-wide passage between the three islands,
+Maseden saw a long stretch of open water.</p>
+
+<p>Shipping a pair of oars, and leaving the steering and general look-out
+to Sturgess, he called on the girls to pull in the orthodox way. The
+three bent to the task. After ten minutes of really strenuous effort
+they were sensible of a greatly diminished drag in the current. Five
+minutes later they were in slack water, and speedily thereafter the boat
+ran aground.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hooray!&#8221; yelled Sturgess, who alone had any breath left to celebrate
+their victory. Somehow, little as they had gained in actual distance,
+since Providence Beach was only three miles away, they all felt that
+their chief enemy was conquered. They had profited by the initial
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span>mistake of keeping in mid-channel; they had learned a great deal about
+the tricks and changes of the Pacific tides; they had secured a
+first-rate boat, and, lodged in skins as a portion of the ballast, was a
+treasure of no mean proportions.</p>
+
+<p>Small wonder that they were elated, or that Maseden&#8217;s strong face
+softened into a smile of satisfaction as he drove the boat&#8217;s anchor
+securely into a crevice in the rocky beach.</p>
+
+<p>But he neither forgot the skeleton on the rock in Hell Gate nor failed
+to interpret correctly its sinister message, so it was his careful
+scrutiny that first revealed a figure lying on the shore at high-water
+mark about a quarter of a mile to the east. He surveyed it steadily for
+a while until the others, too, saw it. Then he made up his mind as to
+the only practicable course of action. He unhooked the anchor.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;All hands overboard,&#8221; he said quietly. &#8220;We must get the boat afloat.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>They obeyed instantly. The girls returned on board, their task being to
+steady the boat with the oars. Maseden took a cudgel, which he preferred
+to a sword, and hurried towards the prone figure. Sturgess followed,
+some fifty yards behind, with the rifle, his mission being to cover the
+retreat, if need be.</p>
+
+<p>Neither Nina nor Madge uttered a word. They were becoming hardened to
+danger. They <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span>knew full well that, for some unimaginable reason, a
+territory hitherto closed to Indians was now open to them, and Maseden
+had left his companions under no delusions as to the characteristics of
+the wretched tribes which infest the lower coast and islands of Chile.</p>
+
+<p>But the particular business of the women at the moment was to keep the
+boat in such a position that the men could jump in and shove off into
+deep water without delay, and they attended to that and nothing else.</p>
+
+<p>War makes soldiers, and the struggle for life had assuredly made these
+two girls brave women.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+
+<h3>RUNNING THE GANTLET</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">M</span>aseden was not greatly concerned about the dead Indian lying on the
+shore. What he really expected was a sudden rush of savages from an
+ambuscade, since it was now certain that a party of natives had
+descended on Hanover Island. Some might have escaped, but others had
+come to grief.</p>
+
+<p>The mere presence of a body showed that one, at least, must have died
+quite recently, while the bleaching bones passed in Hell Gate had
+probably been alive two days earlier. Some vultures were already
+circling high overhead, and he wondered why the birds had not begun
+their ghoulish task.</p>
+
+<p>He could not recollect what manner of sepulture the aborigines adopted,
+but, from every point of view, it was more than strange to find a corpse
+abandoned on the beach in such conditions, unless, indeed, some drowned
+man had just been cast up there by the receding tide.</p>
+
+<p>If that were so, why did the vultures wait?</p>
+
+<p>He was on the alert, therefore, for any suspicious movement among the
+nearest trees and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span>tall grasses, and warned Sturgess to keep a sharp
+look-out in the same direction.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;These natives are treacherous brutes,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They may have seen
+that our boat was heading this way, and be simply waiting an opportunity
+to stick harpoons into us. Don&#8217;t shoot actually on sight, but be ready
+to put a stopper on anything like an attack.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The words had hardly left his lips when the body on the beach moved!
+Slowly and, as it seemed, painfully, the Indian raised head and
+shoulders, and turned in the direction of the voice, finally sitting up
+sideways and using the right arm as a support.</p>
+
+<p>Then, as Maseden drew near, he saw that this was not a man, but a woman,
+a woman so emaciated and feeble that the first astonished glance he took
+her to be middle-aged, whereas, in reality, she was not yet eighteen.
+She was stark naked, and he soon discovered that her left leg was
+broken.</p>
+
+<p>The unfortunate wretch had dragged herself to an oyster bed, as an array
+of freshly opened shells testified; but there was no great supply in
+that place; the water was too shallow. At any rate, Maseden had no other
+means of estimating how long she had been there; indeed, he gave little
+thought to that consideration, because the problem of what to do with
+her arose instantly.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span></p><p>He argued, however, that the members of her tribe could not be close at
+hand, since the merest instinct of self-preservation would lead them to
+assist one of their number rendered helpless by an accident, though,
+among these wild folk, an old woman might be regarded as of no account.</p>
+
+<p>He spoke to her in Spanish, asking what had happened, and she appeared
+to have a vague sense of his meaning; but her eyes were glistening with
+terror and fever, and he could make nothing of a mumbled reply except a
+word that sounded like <i>humo</i>, &#8220;smoke.&#8221; She showed extreme fear at sight
+of the gun carried by Sturgess. Holding out her left hand as if pleading
+for mercy, she collapsed with a groan.</p>
+
+<p>Sturgess, of course, was as fully aware as his companion of the
+difficulties raised by the discovery of this maimed creature.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, by way of a change, Alec, I guess we&#8217;re up against a mighty tough
+proposition,&#8221; he said, scratching his head in sheer perplexity.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We have only one course open, I take it,&#8221; said Maseden, though he, like
+Sturgess, felt that they might well have been spared this additional
+burden.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s so. But&mdash;are broken legs in your line?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I have a notion that the bone-setter has to straighten and adjust the
+fracture by main <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span>force, and then bind the limb tightly, leaving the
+rest to nature. We have a spare oar. Chop the blade into two lengths of
+about fifteen inches, and get the girls to cut narrow strips out of the
+canvas cover. Bring me my oilskin, and what is left of the cover. We can
+carry her in that. Leave the rifle with me&mdash;and hurry! On no account
+must either Nina or Madge come away from the boat. Be sure and impress
+that on them. We may have to run for our lives any second.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Sturgess soon returned with the improvised splints and bandages. He also
+brought a tin of beef essence which Madge had found among the boat&#8217;s
+stores and was hoarding carefully for such Lucullian feast when soup
+would appear on the menu.</p>
+
+<p>When Maseden spoke of the remains of the canvas cover he had in mind the
+fact that the girls had fashioned the greater part of the coarse
+material into divided skirts. Seals were not plentiful in Rotunda Bay,
+and the devising of garments had become a sheer necessity.</p>
+
+<p>They persuaded the Indian girl to swallow some of the beef extract.
+After tasting the first mouthful she would have emptied the tin, but
+this Maseden would not permit, because he knew the ordeal that was
+coming.</p>
+
+<p>It was a tough job, too. In a sense, it almost proved more trying for
+the amateur surgeons <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span>than for their unfortunate patient. Luckily, she
+fainted at the first wrench. Then they set their teeth and pulled the
+broken bones into their correct positions as well as they could adjudge
+them. When the girl revived she was already clothed in the oilskin and
+slung in the canvas sheet as in a hammock, while the limb was bound
+immovably between two roughly fashioned splints.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden imagined that this creature of the wild was, in all probability,
+as hardy as a cormorant, and equally voracious. At any rate, when laid
+in the boat, she gobbled up the remaining contents of the tin, ate
+ravenously of ship&#8217;s biscuits and salt beef, and drank a mug of coffee
+in a gulp. When she discovered that no more food would be supplied she
+yielded to an evidently overwhelming desire to sleep.</p>
+
+<p>Before closing her eyes, however, she had something to say. She was
+afraid of the men, but obviously placed trust in the two girls, neither
+of whom knew a syllable of Spanish beyond the few phrases which all
+travelers in South America must perforce acquire.</p>
+
+<p>Madge, having the gift of music, contrived to mimic certain words with
+tolerable accuracy, and &#8220;smoke,&#8221; &#8220;boats,&#8221; &#8220;bad men,&#8221; seemed, to
+Maseden&#8217;s ear, to emerge from the guttural Indian accents. In one
+important respect, the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span>wishes of the new addition to the party were
+quite understandable. She pointed to Providence Beach, indicated the
+boat, and made it clear that she counselled a prompt move eastward.</p>
+
+<p>At last Maseden evolved a fairly intelligible notion of what she was
+endeavoring to convey. He believed, and rightly so, that she was telling
+her rescuers how a number of Indians had been attracted to Hanover
+Island by the smoke of the castaways&#8217; fire. They assumed a wreck, with
+its prospect of loot, and, egged on by greed, had ultimately dared a
+passage hitherto regarded as impracticable. Some had been killed; others
+had escaped, and were now on the camping-ground at Providence Beach.</p>
+
+<p>Apparently the girl was warning these strangers against her own people
+and recommending a speedy flight to safer quarters. Oddly enough, her
+advice coincided with Maseden&#8217;s own views. By landing on that part of
+the coast, and lighting a fire, they would be incurring a grave risk if
+there were Indians about, since the few miles&#8217; strip of shore, difficult
+though it was, would be negotiated easily by natives.</p>
+
+<p>The abandonment of the injured girl he could not account for, nor was he
+sure the boat had been observed, granted even that Providence Beach was
+not actually occupied by savages. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span>But he was not inclined to take any
+chances. Deep water flowed yet in the main channel, and the day was not
+far advanced.</p>
+
+<p>So he and Sturgess shipped the oars and pulled until they were weary;
+before night fell they had met the rising tide, and made a good landing,
+not on Hanover Island, but on the eastern end of Island Number Two.</p>
+
+<p>They slept in the boat as best they could, the men taking turns at
+mounting guard, as in addition to the now somewhat improbable chance of
+being attacked, their craft had to be maneuvered into slack water as the
+tide rose and fell. They were all heartily glad to see the dawn and eat
+a good meal.</p>
+
+<p>The very smell of food awakened the Indian girl. Like a healthy animal
+recovering from hardship, she was growing plumper and comelier under
+their very eyes. With each hour she shed a year in appearance, and her
+confidence increased in about the same ration.</p>
+
+<p>When she discovered that Maseden alone spoke Spanish she tried to
+explain matters to him. But her own knowledge of the language was of the
+slightest, and he was only able to confirm his overnight belief as to
+the danger of remaining in the vicinity of their first landing-place.</p>
+
+<p>Singularly his close acquaintance with the San Juan <i>patois</i> proved most
+helpful. It occurred <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span>to him that this might be so, as the root words of
+Indian tribes throughout the South American continent have undergone
+fewer changes than would have been the case among civilized peoples.
+Many were in use among the Spanish half-castes on the ranch, and this
+aborigine grasped their meaning at once. Good linguist though he was,
+however, Maseden failed to extract more than a glimmering of sense from
+her uncouth accents.</p>
+
+<p>But none could fail to be impressed by her relief when the boat was
+afloat and traveling east. They soon quitted the channel between the
+islands and entered the wide expanse of Nelson Straits. The weather was
+fine, and a steady wind from the southwest encouraged Maseden to rig the
+sail.</p>
+
+<p>Having a wholesome respect for the Pacific tides, he meant to hug the
+coast of Hanover Island. But after studying the clouds intently for an
+hour, the Indian girl signified that she wished to be lifted in her
+hammock. She then pointed to some small islands just distinguishable on
+the horizon, and apparently situated in the middle of the straits.</p>
+
+<p>She saw the hesitancy in Maseden&#8217;s face, and by this time had evidently
+singled him out as the leader of the party. Then she turned to Nina
+Forbes, and her gestures said as plainly, no doubt, as her words:</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;If <i>I</i> can&#8217;t persuade him, perhaps <i>you</i> can. Tell him to take the
+course I recommend.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>For some reason Nina&#8217;s cheeks grew scarlet under the brown tan of
+constant exposure to the weather, nor did a pronounced wink by Sturgess
+at Madge tend to restore her composure. But she met the Indian girl&#8217;s
+appeal with seeming nonchalance and bravely ignored the obvious
+inference.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I suppose she thinks that I may exercise some influence in the matter,
+Alec,&#8221; she said, striving in vain to suppress a nervous little laugh. &#8220;I
+do honestly believe she means well. She is extraordinarily grateful to
+us. I have been watching her, and there is a dog-like devotion in her
+eyes when we render any little service that is reassuring.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Those islets out there may be bare rocks,&#8221; protested Maseden. He had
+little knowledge of sailing boats, and hesitated at a long trip in these
+fickle waters.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Perhaps that is why she wishes us to go that way. They lie due east,
+and that is something in their favor.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Still was he dubious, largely owing to the intervening stretch of open
+sea, but again he essayed to question their would-be pilot.</p>
+
+<p>The girl was quite emphatic in her direction as to the course, and
+equally opposed to the more cautious method he favored. A good deal <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span>of
+this was expressed in pantomime, but it was none the less
+understandable.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, finding that the others had faith in her, Maseden nodded to
+Madge, who was at the tiller, as the rudder had been shipped when the
+sail was hoisted; and the boat was put across the wind. The Indian girl
+smiled, and was satisfied. They lifted her down to her place amidships,
+where her head rested on the package of treasure, and she remained there
+contentedly many hours.</p>
+
+<p>Long before the violet-hued blurs in front took definite shape as a
+group of two fair-sized islands, with trees, lying among a great many
+stark rocks, sticking straight up out of the sea, the voyagers became
+aware of at least one good reason for their guide&#8217;s choice of direction.
+The coast of Hanover Island began to fall away sharply to the northeast,
+and a wide gap opened up between it and the nearest land, a gap which
+must have been crossed in any event.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden himself was the first to admit that they had been given sound
+advice.</p>
+
+<p>Luckily the wind remained steady, and brought their craft on at a fair
+pace against a falling tide. Nevertheless it was a long sail, far longer
+than any of them had anticipated, and the shadows were deepening when
+the men again lifted the Indian girl level with the gunwale to find out
+if she could recommend the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span>safest way of approaching a particularly
+forbidding shore.</p>
+
+<p>She understood at once what they wanted, and indicated a narrow channel
+between two gigantic outlying rocks. Though it was precisely the one of
+three possible waterways which no stranger would have chosen, they did
+not dream now of disputing her judgment. The passage was made more
+easily than they had counted on, and a second time was their faith
+justified, because a strip of white beach soon showed on the line where
+trees and sea met.</p>
+
+<p>The boat was run ashore, and a fire was lighted. The weather had become
+much colder, probably owing to the absence of shelter from the hills
+under which they had camped during the past month. The Indian girl
+offered no objection to the fire. In fact, when laid near it in a sand
+hollow, she fell asleep long before any of them.</p>
+
+<p>The boat, of course, had to be safeguarded, as they landed at low water.
+Were it not for a fissure in the rock which permitted them to row fully
+a quarter of a mile nearer high-water mark than would have been possible
+otherwise, they must have devoted a wearisome time to the task of
+hauling her in as the tide rose. Fortunately, there was no heavy surf.
+The reefs they had seen some fifteen miles to the westward had broken up
+the long Pacific rollers, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span>the breeze was not strong enough to
+disturb this inland sea.</p>
+
+<p>Nina and Madge elected to sleep on the sand.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You can have too much of a good thing,&#8221; explained Madge laughingly,
+&#8220;and, greatly as I prize our ark, I am tired of it to-day. Every bone in
+my body is aching.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>They had, of course, given up each skin and strip of canvas they
+possessed in order to render the Indian girl more comfortable during the
+voyage, and a ship&#8217;s boat can be a most irksome conveyance in such
+circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>When the tide was high Sturgess and Maseden, before they, too, turned
+in, rose to make sure that the anchor could not drag during the night,
+and Sturgess electrified his friend by choosing that odd moment to
+allude to the Cartagena marriage.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Say, Alec,&#8221; he said, &#8220;you sure have had the time of your life ever
+since you were hauled off to San Juan and sentenced to be shot.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden imagined that the New Yorker was merely referring to the
+incidents following the shipwreck.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t see exactly how life has been more of a sizzle for me than for
+you and the girls,&#8221; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ah, come off it, Alec!&#8221; laughed the other. &#8220;You know better than that.
+But I guess I&#8217;ll have to hand the explanation on a tray. Madge <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span>and Nina
+have told the facts about your wedding. Gosh! What a jolt it must have
+given you to find your wife on board the <i>Southern Cross</i>!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You <i>know</i>?&#8221; gasped Maseden.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yep. They up and told me while you were gathering fire-wood. Nina said
+she had promised you to put the full hand on the table at the first
+opportunity. She&#8217;s done it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Nina! Didn&#8217;t Madge say anything?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You bet your life. She was tickled to death. It&#8217;s been worrying her no
+end.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;May I ask&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, you mayn&#8217;t. It was square of you, Alec, to insist that I should
+come in on the inside track. Of course, I wasn&#8217;t born and bred in little
+old New York for nothing, and I had my doubts a while back. One day,
+too, you were within an ace of blurting out the whole yarn. I remember
+it well. I&#8217;m glad now you didn&#8217;t. It would have made things kind of
+difficult for me. But both girls are a bit shy where you&#8217;re concerned.
+You don&#8217;t blame &#8217;em, do you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden was absolutely bewildered. Sturgess was an irresponsible,
+devil-may-care fellow in many respects, but these effervescent qualities
+cloaked a fine sensibility, and it was astounding to find him treating
+the matter so lightly.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;I&mdash;I hardly know what to say,&#8221; he stammered.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Say nothing. The tangle will straighten out in time. We&#8217;re going to win
+through all right, so let us forget the San Juan affair till it
+overtakes us. You ain&#8217;t going to switch off from Nina on to Madge, I
+guess, so you and I won&#8217;t quarrel, and the other kinks in the chain will
+sort themselves if we all go easy.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Tell me this. What was the cause of the marriage?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You don&#8217;t <i>know</i>?&#8221; Each word was a crescendo of astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No. What business is it of mine, anyhow?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But you yourself have told me that you mean to marry Madge.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Sure as death.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yet&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Sorry, Alec. I&#8217;ve promised to keep mum. Suppose we leave it at that.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What is there to keep mum about?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hanged if <i>I</i> can tell you, though you yourself haven&#8217;t been what you
+might call bursting with information during the past month.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It was a woman&#8217;s secret, C. K.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And that&#8217;s just how I size it up at this sitting.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Sturgess&#8217;s logic was unanswerable, but Maseden was in high dudgeon as he
+strode back to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span>the camp-fire. He was far more angry with Nina than with
+Madge. He suspected that Madge simply followed her sister&#8217;s
+instructions, and the injustice of this steady refusal of confidence was
+aggravated by the fact that Sturgess seemed to know more about the ins
+and outs of the affair now than he did.</p>
+
+<p>True, the New Yorker said he was still in ignorance of the motive which
+led up to the marriage, yet he had hinted at the possession of knowledge
+withheld from the man who had saved their lives not once but a dozen
+times. Nina was to blame. Maseden was certain of that. He would have
+liked to shake her.</p>
+
+<p>As it happened, she was either sound asleep or pretending it, so he,
+too, curled up in the sand and slept till long after dawn.</p>
+
+<p>The new day began with an unexpected difficulty. The Indian girl was
+cheerful as a grig during breakfast. She ascertained their names, which
+she pronounced fairly well. &#8220;Nina&#8221; she had no trouble with. &#8220;Madge&#8221; she
+made into &#8220;Mad-je.&#8221; Maseden was &#8220;Ah-lek,&#8221; and Sturgess &#8220;See-ke.&#8221; Her own
+name had a barbarous sound, if, indeed, it was a name at all; so Madge
+christened her &#8220;Topsy,&#8221; which seemed to please her. But her
+light-heartedness vanished when she saw preparations being made to renew
+the voyage. She protested volubly, pointed to a colony of seals and
+well-filled beds <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span>of oysters, and generally implied an earnest desire to
+remain on the island.</p>
+
+<p>Eastward, it would appear, were other &#8220;bad men&#8221; and &#8220;much smoke,&#8221; but,
+whatsoever her motive, Maseden sternly overruled her. She was greatly
+distressed when placed on board the boat, and sulked for a couple of
+hours. As the coast drew near, however, she evinced renewed anxiety, and
+signified that she would act as pilot again.</p>
+
+<p>The land seemed to be a replica of seaward islands; a fast-running tidal
+stream passed due east between two gaunt promontories. According to
+Maseden&#8217;s reckoning the straits they were now entering should open into
+Smyth&#8217;s Channel, and he bent his wits to the task of getting Topsy to
+understand that he wanted to meet one of the big ships which follow that
+route.</p>
+
+<p>He believed she understood, but there could be no doubting she was so
+deeply concerned as to the probable whereabouts of the inhabitants of
+the coast region that she gave little heed to the wishes of her
+rescuers.</p>
+
+<p>Oblivious of the pain she must be enduring, she contrived to perch
+herself in the bows, and scanned each bay and inlet of the
+ever-narrowing passage, though this was no subsidiary channel, but a
+deep and swift tide-way. The wind was strong and favorable and the boat
+was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span>traveling fully eight knots an hour, a speed which no native craft
+could hope to rival. Still, Topsy&#8217;s marked uneasiness led Maseden to
+examine the rifle and make sure that its mechanism was in good order and
+the magazine charged.</p>
+
+<p>He had no definite notion as to the type of weapons used by the Indians.
+Nearly all savages are armed with spears and clubs, but he believed that
+a people so low in the social scale as these South American nomads would
+not possess firearms. At any rate, he bade all hands keep a sharp
+look-out, and specifically ordered Sturgess and the girls to take cover
+in the event of an attack, unless an actual attempt was made to board
+the boat, in which case the girls could thrust with the rapiers and
+Sturgess might do good work with an ax.</p>
+
+<p>They ran on several miles without incident, and were beginning to think
+that their guide was, perhaps, swayed more by recollection of earlier
+sufferings than by any active peril of the hour, when Topsy, whose
+piercing black eyes were ever and anon turned to the bluffs on either
+hand, uttered a sharp cry and pointed to a low cliff overhanging a bay
+they had just passed on the left.</p>
+
+<p>Three thin columns of smoke were ascending from its summit.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden could make nothing of her excited <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span>speech, but he understood her
+gestures readily, and took it that the smoke was a signal, while the
+danger, whatever it may be, lay ahead.</p>
+
+<p>And, indeed, they had not long to wait for an explanation. From around a
+point not a mile distant, and directly in front, appeared a number of
+coracles, eight all told, and each containing two men, or a man and a
+woman. It was clear that this flotilla meant to waylay them, and the
+terror exhibited by the Indian girl was only too eloquent as to the fate
+of the boat&#8217;s occupants if they allowed themselves to be overpowered.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden disposed his forces promptly. Sturgess was given the tiller.
+Topsy was put back on her couch in the bottom of the boat, and Nina and
+Madge were told to crouch by her side until their help was called for.
+From the outset the Americans did not dream of attempting to parley.
+Topsy&#8217;s unfeigned dread was sufficient to ban any such quixotic notion.</p>
+
+<p>The coracles were strung out in an irregular line, covering a width of
+about four hundred yards, and, in laying his plans, Maseden recalled the
+strategy of a certain great admiral.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Head slap for their center,&#8221; he told Sturgess confidently. &#8220;That was
+Nelson&#8217;s favorite way of attack. If possible, he always broke the
+enemy&#8217;s line in two, and I suppose it paid him. I think these
+heavy-caliber bullets will rip a native <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span>craft as though it were made of
+brown paper, and I should be able to sink at least four before the
+others can close in.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Sturgess nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What Nelson says goes,&#8221; he grinned.</p>
+
+<p>The battle opened at a range of one hundred yards, and Maseden&#8217;s first
+shot buckled the framework of the nearest coracle, so that it sank like
+a stone. There was a spurt of steam as the fire which every Indian boat
+carries reached the water, and two men swam away like otters.</p>
+
+<p>The second shot struck a little too high. It whizzed through the craft&#8217;s
+hide cover and lodged in an Indian&#8217;s body, because the man yelled
+frantically. Maseden fired again, and damaged another coracle.</p>
+
+<p>But by this time he had made the unpleasing discovery that these light
+skiffs could be propelled very rapidly for a short distance. In each a
+man or woman was paddling with furious energy, while their companions
+were using slings. Small, heavy stones rattled against and into the
+boat.</p>
+
+<p>Sturgess was struck twice on the breast and left shoulder, and was only
+saved from serious injury by the stout oilskin coat he was wearing. Even
+so, he went white with pain, but he neither uttered a word nor neglected
+his task, which was to keep the sail filled and the boat traveling.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span></p><p>Maseden had two objects in mind&mdash;to beat off their assailants and yet
+keep sufficient ammunition in stock lest other Indians were encountered
+later. He sank two more coracles, and had killed or wounded three men,
+when a flint pebble struck him on the head, finding the exact spot where
+he was injured during the wreck.</p>
+
+<p>He sank to his knees, and tried to say something. He believed he heard a
+crash and some shouting. Then the sky and hills and swift-running waters
+whirled in a mad dance before his eyes, and he lost consciousness.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SETTLEMENT</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">J</span>ust as before, when he awoke on board the <i>Southern Cross</i> in
+surroundings so bewildering that he gave up the effort to localize them,
+his puzzled eyes now surveyed white-painted panelled walls, a
+brass-bound port-light, and some tapestry curtains. At any other time he
+would have realized at once that he was in a ship&#8217;s cabin, but now an
+uncomprehending stare soon yielded to a torpor of pain.</p>
+
+<p>He believed that a gentle hand adjusted a bandage on his head, and was
+aware of a grateful coldness where before there had been heat and a
+throbbing ache. Afterwards&mdash;he thought it was immediately, though the
+interval was a full half hour&mdash;he looked again at the walls and ceiling
+with something of real recognition in his glance.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Glad to see you&#8217;re regaining your wits, Mr. Alexander,&#8221; said a man&#8217;s
+voice, a strange but very pleasant voice. &#8220;Lucky for you you&#8217;ve got the
+right sort of thick head, or, from what I hear, it would certainly have
+been cracked twice.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span></p><p>Mr. Alexander! Who was he? And where was he? Where were&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;May he talk a little now, doctor?&#8221; and Maseden would have had to be
+very dead if he did not know that Nina Forbes was sitting by his side.
+He turned, and even remembered to repress a groan lest some one in
+authority might not grant her request.</p>
+
+<p>Even so the doctor was dubious.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He must not be allowed to get excited,&#8221; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Then may he listen to me a minute?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, if you really keep to schedule.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t move, Alec!&#8221; whispered Nina, and there seemed to be a note in her
+voice that Maseden had heard only once before, though he could not
+recall the occasion. &#8220;We&#8217;re on board a mail steamer bound for England,
+but she touches at Punta Arenas and Buenos Ayres, so you must be &#8216;Mr.
+Alexander,&#8217; not &#8216;Mr. Maseden,&#8217; until we reach home. Don&#8217;t ask why just
+now. I&#8217;ll tell you to-morrow, or next day, when you are stronger. You
+will trust me, won&#8217;t you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Trust you, Nina! Yes, forever!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her, as though to make sure that his senses were not
+deceiving him and that it was really Nina Forbes who sat there, a Nina
+with her hair nicely combed and coiled and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span>wearing a particularly
+attractive pink jersey and white serge skirt.</p>
+
+<p>He thought that her eyes&mdash;those frank blue eyes he had gazed into so
+often&mdash;were suffused with tears.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why are you crying?&#8221; he demanded, with just a hint of that domineering
+way of his.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Not for grief,&#8221; she said quietly. &#8220;But you must drink this now, and go
+to sleep. When you awaken again, perhaps the doctor will let C. K. come
+and chat with you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;C. K.? Is he all right?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And Madge?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes. Not another word. Drink&mdash;to please me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll do anything to please you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He swallowed some milk and soda-water; took a whole tumbler-full, in
+fact.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s fine,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Now I&#8217;ll hold your hand and you&#8217;ll tell me&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re going to close your eyes and lie still,&#8221; she said firmly. &#8220;If
+you don&#8217;t I&#8217;ll leave you. If you do, I&#8217;ll stay here.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m bribed,&#8221; he said, smiling. Soon he slept, but this was nature&#8217;s
+healing sleep, not the coma of insensibility. When next he entered a
+world of reality he found Sturgess sitting where Nina had been.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Going strong now, Alec?&#8221; inquired his friend.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span></p><p>Maseden did not answer at once. He wanted to be quite sure that the
+wretched throbbing in his head had ceased. Yes; there was a great
+soreness, but it was of the scalp, not of the internal mechanism. He sat
+bolt upright.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hi!&#8221; shouted Sturgess, &#8220;you mustn&#8217;t do that! Gosh! The doctor man will
+raise Cain with me if he knows I let you move.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m all right, C. K.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re going to flatten out straight away, or I&#8217;ll shriek for help.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden lay down. The dominant emotion of the moment was curiosity.
+Perhaps, if he kept quiet, Sturgess would talk.</p>
+
+<p>At any rate, the New Yorker was much relieved, and said so.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ve nearly hopped it,&#8221; he explained anxiously. &#8220;It was a case of
+touch and go with you for two days, and&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Two days!&#8221; gasped Maseden. &#8220;Have I been stretched here two days?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And more. We were picked up by the <i>Valentia</i> on Thursday evening, and
+now it is Sunday morning.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Everything seems to happen on a Sunday,&#8221; said Maseden inconsequently;
+but Sturgess understood.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Sunday is our day,&#8221; he agreed. &#8220;Now, if you don&#8217;t butt into the
+soliloquy, but show an intelligent interest by an occasional nod, I&#8217;ll
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span>switch you on to the Information Bureau. The doc said I might, just to
+stop you from worrying.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;When an Indian with a spit lip got you with a stone at about five yards
+there were two coracles on each side of us. I suspicioned that the Thugs
+in them meant to spring aboard at the same time, which would have meant
+trouble, so it was up to me to spoil the combination. I shoved the helm
+hard over and drove into the two on the port side. Our heavy boat went
+through them as though they were jelly-fish, and the sudden rise of our
+starboard gunwale upset the calculations of the other crowd.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Everybody, including you, rolled over with the sudden lurch, but Nina
+gathered herself together, grabbed your gun, stood straight on her feet,
+and said to me: &#8216;Do you know which of these men hit Alec?&#8217; &#8216;Yes,&#8217; I
+said, &#8216;that joker with the criss-cross mouth. But you lie down. We&#8217;re
+clear now.&#8217; Without another word she drew a steady bead on the
+stone-slinger and got him with the first shot.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Then she attended to you. It seemed almost as though we had reached the
+limit, with you lying like dead, and me weak and sick, because the
+slingers gave me a couple to begin with, and the Indian girl screaming
+for all she was worth. Nina was just crooning over you like a mother
+nursing an ailing baby, so Madge came and took <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span>the tiller&mdash;not before
+time, as I didn&#8217;t know enough to run with the wind again.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We missed a howling reef by a hair&#8217;s breadth&mdash;missed it only because
+the new course had taken us close inshore towards the north. Half an
+hour later we were in Smyth&#8217;s Channel, and didn&#8217;t know it, so we would
+have been sailing yet into the middle of the Andes if the <i>Valentia</i>
+hadn&#8217;t bumped around a corner. Since then we three have been setting the
+scene for you when you come on deck. The passengers are the right sort,
+every man and woman among &#8217;em all wool and a yard wide. Tell you what,
+Alec&mdash;I&#8217;d better warn you&mdash;Nina and Madge have fixed up a star turn for
+you on your first appearance.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Sturgess paused to grin largely, so Maseden broke in with a question.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Are we at sea now?&#8221; he inquired.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No. We&#8217;re anchored at Punta Arenas. The girls have gone ashore to see
+that Topsy is well fixed in a mission-house. The man who runs it came
+aboard for mail. He talks Topsy&#8217;s lingo, so now we know why we happened
+on her. She broke her leg when one of half a dozen coracles was upset,
+and the brutes simply left her there to die, as they were in such a
+dashed hurry to go for the supposed loot of a wrecked ship. She will be
+all right here. I&#8217;ve attended to the financial side of it. They tell me
+that a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span>hundred dollars will make her a great heiress.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What about my name&mdash;Alexander?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Gee whiz! I was nearly forgetting. That was Nina&#8217;s notion. She&#8217;s real
+cute, that girl. She sized up the position in San Juan, and in case
+there might be any difficulty while the ship is in South American waters
+gave your name as Philip Alexander. She remembered that there was a Mr.
+Alexander on board the <i>Southern Cross</i>, and it would be just silly to
+try and pass you off as a broncho-buster. No one gave any heed to your
+clothes. Our collective rig was so cubist or futurist, in general
+effect, that your <i>vaquero</i> outfit passed with the rest.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The skipper is about your size, and he has sent you a suit. The girls
+are buying linen and underclothes for all of us in Punta Arenas. I had
+no money, so instead of borrowing from the other people I went through
+your pants for five hundred dollars. You&#8217;ll find a note with your wad,
+so that you can collect if I peg out before we find a bank.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Then Maseden laughed, and was heard by the doctor, who was coming along
+the gangway.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Halloa!&#8221; he said. &#8220;Was it you who laughed, Mr. Alexander?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, doctor.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Any pain in your head?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Outside, yes; inside, no.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Feeling sick?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Sick. I could eat a pound of grilled steak.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ll do! Wonderful health resort, that wild land you&#8217;ve been
+wandering through. You have survived the nastiest concussion, short of
+absolutely fatal injuries, I&#8217;ve come across. I can&#8217;t prescribe steak
+just yet, but if you get through the night without a temperature I&#8217;ll
+allow you on deck to-morrow for a couple of hours.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maseden chafed against the enforced rest, and rebelled against a diet of
+milk and beef tea, but the doctor was wiser than he, and the patient
+acknowledged it when really strong again.</p>
+
+<p>On the day the ship left Buenos Ayres he was able to dress unaided and
+reach a chair on deck without a helping arm. The boat which had proved
+the salvation of the castaways had been hoisted on board, and that
+particular part of the deck was allotted to the party of four. The other
+passengers were never tired of hearing them recount their adventures,
+and Maseden, to his secret amazement, discovered that Nina Forbes seemed
+to find delight in attracting an audience.</p>
+
+<p>Madge and Sturgess could, and did, stroll off together for many an
+uninterrupted chat, but Nina was always surrounded by a coterie of
+strangers, some of them men, young men, frankly admiring young men.</p>
+
+<p>Maseden endured this state of affairs until the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span>ship had signalled her
+name and destination at Fernando Noronha, whence there was a straight
+run home. Then, disobeying the doctor, and coming on deck for the first
+time after dinner, he found Nina ensconced in her corner alone.</p>
+
+<p>He took her by surprise. She would have sprung up, but he stopped her
+with a firm hand.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, you don&#8217;t,&#8221; he said, pulling a chair around and seating himself so
+that his broad back offered a barrier to any would-be intruder. &#8220;You and
+I are going to have a heart-to-heart talk, Nina. I&#8217;ve been waiting many
+days for the chance of it, and now is the time.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She tried to laugh carelessly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What an alarming announcement,&#8221; she tittered. &#8220;Wherein have I erred
+that I am to be catechised? Or is it only a lecture on general
+behavior?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll tell you. While we were trying to dodge the worries of existence
+round about Hanover Island I gave little real thought to my own affairs.
+But the calm of the past few days has enabled me to sort out events in
+what I may term their natural sequence, and the second rap on the head
+may have restored my wits to their average working capacity. Perhaps it
+will simplify matters if I begin at the beginning. The woman I
+married&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Are you still harping on that unfortunate marriage?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span></p><p>The tone was flippant enough, but its studied nonchalance was a trifle
+overdone.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes,&#8221; he said quietly. &#8220;I promise that you will not be bored by the
+facts I intend to put before you&mdash;now&mdash;to-night&mdash;unless you resolve not
+to listen.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>There was no answer. Somehow, every woman knows just how far she may
+play with a man. Had Nina Forbes chosen, she might have sent her true
+lover out of her life that instant. She did not so choose. Indeed,
+nothing was further from her mind. She did not commit the error of
+imagining that Maseden would pester her with his wooing and wait her
+good pleasure to yield. His temperament did not incline to gusts of
+passion. She must hear him now or lose him forever.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Of course I&#8217;ll listen,&#8221; she said timidly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Thank you. Well, then, my wife signed the register as Madeleine. That
+is not your sister&#8217;s name.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Nor yours?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yet you led me to believe that I had married your sister?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No. You assumed it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What really happened was that you assumed the name of Madeleine. Nina,
+<i>you</i> are my wife!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;In a sense, yes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Though the promenade deck was lighted by a few lamps, there was a
+certain gloom in that corner. Nina&#8217;s face was discernable, but not its
+expression, and a curious hardening in her voice brought to Maseden a
+whiff of surprise, almost of anxiety. Happily he had mapped out the line
+he meant to follow, and adhered to it inflexibly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;In the sense that you are legally Mrs. Philip Alexander Maseden,&#8221; he
+persisted.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I may or may not be. I am not sure. I used a name not my own. It was
+the first that come into my head&mdash;a frightened woman&#8217;s attempt to leave
+herself some loophole of escape in the future.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You are mistaken, Nina. I know enough about the law to say definitely
+that it is the ceremony which counts, not the name. You will see at once
+that this must be so. If you married another man to-morrow, and signed
+yourself &#8216;Mary Smith,&#8217; you would still be committing bigamy.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>At that she laughed.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I must really be careful,&#8221; she said.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I only want to fix in your mind the absolute finality of that early
+morning wedding in the Castle of San Juan. It makes matters easier.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;To my thinking it makes them most complex.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Not at all. You and I have only reversed the usual procedure.
+Common-place folk meet, fall in love, go through a more or less frenzied
+period of being engaged, and, finally, get married. We began by getting
+married. Circumstances beyond our control stopped the natural
+progression of the affair, but I suggest that the frenzied part of the
+business might well start now.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He caught her left hand and held it. She did not endeavor to withdraw
+it, but he was startled by her seeming indifference. Still, being a
+determined person, even in such a delicate matter as love-making, he
+pursued his theme.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You well know that I mean to marry you, Nina, though I have regarded
+myself as bound to your sister until freed by process of law,&#8221; he went
+on. &#8220;But I ought to have guessed sooner that Madge would never have
+allowed Sturgess to become so openly her slave if she had contracted to
+love, honor and obey me. She might, indeed, have shared my view that the
+marriage was a make-believe affair as between her and me, but she would
+have held it as binding until the law declared her free. Then, that day
+in Hell Gate, when the hazard of a few minutes would decide whether we
+lived or died, you meant to tell me the truth before the end came. Is
+that so?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Why?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You have no right to ask.&#8221; Her voice was very low.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I can answer my own question. You wanted to die in my arms, Nina, with
+our first and last kiss on our lips. Fool that I was, I was so concerned
+about the height of a tide-mark on a rock that I gave no heed to the
+faltering speech of the woman I loved. The next time I heard those same
+accents from you was when I came to my senses on board this ship. For a
+few seconds you bared your heart again, Nina, and again I was deaf.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You must forgive me, sweetheart, though such grievous lack of
+perception was really the highest compliment I could pay you. The notion
+that I was married to Madge was firmly established in my mind, and I
+literally dared not tell you that you were the one woman in the world
+for me till the other obstacle was removed. Seldom, if ever, I suppose,
+has any man been in such a position. Of course, there would have been no
+difficulty at all if I had happened to guess the truth&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That is just where you are mistaken, Alec,&#8221; and the words came with a
+sorrowful earnestness that Maseden found vastly disconcerting. &#8220;What
+woman with a shred of self-respect would agree to regard such a union as
+ours binding? Now, you have had your say; let me <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span>have mine,&#8221; and she
+snatched her hand away vehemently. &#8220;I married you as part of an infamous
+compact between that trader, Steinbaum, and Mr. Gray.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;My family is not wealthy, Alec. When my mother married a second time
+she did so largely on account of Madge and myself. She lacked money to
+educate us, or give us the social position every good mother desires for
+her daughters. But Mr. Gray, though a man of means, frittered away a
+good income in foolish speculations. He was worth half a million
+dollars, and believed himself such a financial genius that he could soon
+be a multi-millionaire. Instead of making money, he lost it, and the
+latest of his follies was to finance Enrico Suarez in a scheme to seize
+the presidency. The attempt was to have been made two years ago, but was
+postponed, or defeated, I don&#8217;t know which&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Defeated,&#8221; put in Maseden. &#8220;I know, because I helped to put a stopper
+on it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, the collapse of that undertaking and its golden promise
+frightened my stepfather. After a lot of correspondence between
+Steinbaum and himself he came to South America, bringing with him
+practically the remnants of his fortune. My mother was too ill to
+accompany him, and he refused to travel alone, so we two girls were
+given the trip. Naturally, we <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span>were quite ignorant of the facts, and
+believed he was merely visiting a little republic in which he had
+financial interests.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;By chance we arrived in Cartagena on the very day Suarez had planned
+for the president&#8217;s murder&mdash;and yours, too, for that matter. Your arrest
+and condemnation gave the conspirators a chance of repaying Mr. Gray the
+money he had advanced. They were afraid he would lodge an official
+complaint, and get the State Department to interfere. But they had not
+the means in hard cash, and it occurred to one of them&mdash;Suarez, I
+believe&mdash;that if one of Mr. Gray&#8217;s daughters married you, and inherited
+your estate, the property could be sold for a sum sufficient to clear
+his claim and leave a balance for the other thieves.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That is the precious project in which I, the elder of the two, became a
+pawn. Mr. Gray terrified me into compliance by telling me that we would
+be paupers on our return home. For myself I cared little, but when I
+thought of my mother I yielded. I am not excusing myself, Alec, though I
+little guessed the true nature of the bargain. I see now that Suarez and
+Steinbaum wished to avoid the actual semblance of having committed
+daylight murder and robbery. They might justify your death as a rebel
+against the state, but they could not explain away the seizure of your
+property, whereas its sale by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span>your widow would be a most reasonable
+proceeding.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Please understand that I believed I was only carrying out a formal
+undertaking meant to enable my stepfather to recover money honestly
+lent. Even so, my resolution faltered at the last moment, and I signed
+the register in my mother&#8217;s name. And now I have bared my heart to you,
+and you see how&mdash;utterly&mdash;impossible&mdash;it is&mdash;Oh, Alec, don&#8217;t be cruel!
+Don&#8217;t torture me! I can never, never be your wife, because I can never
+forgive myself!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Alec, the wise, as Sturgess had often styled him, showed exceeding
+wisdom now by letting her cry her fill. Never a word did he say until
+the tempest subsided. Then he took her hand again and drew her to him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Tell me one thing, Nina,&#8221; he said gently. &#8220;What became of the ring&mdash;our
+ring?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is tied around my neck&mdash;on a bit of ribbon,&#8221; she sobbed.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Then it shall remain there until we reach New York,&#8221; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But&mdash;I want&mdash;to keep it&mdash;as a souvenir&mdash;of all that has passed,&#8221; she
+said brokenly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;So you shall, dear one. You would never feel satisfied, anyhow, with a
+Spanish marriage, so we&#8217;ll try an American one.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Alec, I cuc&mdash;cuc&mdash;can&#8217;t marry you. I&#8217;m too ashamed.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span></p><p>He laughed happily, and drew her to him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You can&#8217;t wriggle out of the knot now, girlie,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But, just to
+behave like other folk, we&#8217;ll begin again at the beginning, and not at
+the end. Nina, do you think you can learn to love me quick enough to
+permit of a real wedding when we arrive in New York? You and I have gone
+through so many experiences since we met that we can dispense with some
+of the preliminaries to courtship. Shall we fix a date now? Say three
+weeks after we land, or sooner, if matters can be arranged.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She lifted her tear-stained face, and her soul went out to his in their
+first kiss.</p>
+
+<hr class="medium" />
+
+<p>Sturgess, when he heard of the latest development, &#8220;got busy,&#8221; as he put
+it, on his own account. He, of course, had been told the exact facts by
+Nina on that night passed on the island in Nelson Straits. The upshot of
+the general agreement speedily arrived at was a noteworthy double
+wedding, at which, as a topic of conversation, the beauty of the brides
+rivaled, if it did not eclipse, their extraordinary adventures.</p>
+
+<p>It should be said, as a fitting rounding off of a record of singular
+events, that Maseden not only obtained the money held in trust for him
+by the consul at Cartagena, but the proceeds of the sale of the ranch as
+well. Enrico Suarez was stabbed to the heart by a maniac with a
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span>grievance. Se&ntilde;or Porilla, an honest man, according to South American
+standards, became president, and saw to it that Maseden&#8217;s rights were
+safeguarded. Even the wily Steinbaum was compelled to disgorge to Gray&#8217;s
+executors.</p>
+
+<p>The Aztec treasure was sold for a mint of money to a millionaire
+collector, and this sum was settled on Mrs. Gray for life, with
+reversion to her daughters in equal shares.</p>
+
+<p>If any one is really curious to ascertain the identity and whereabouts
+of Mr. and Mrs. Philip Alexander Maseden or Mr. and Mrs. C. K. Sturgess,
+all that is necessary is to visit a town on the coast of Maine any
+August, and keep an eye peeled for a ship&#8217;s life-boat converted into a
+yawl and named &#8220;<i>The Ark</i>.&#8221; Therein will be found some very pleasant
+people, and, with the help of the foregoing history, the rest of the
+task should be simplicity itself.</p>
+
+<h3>THE END.</h3>
+
+<hr class="large" />
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Transcriber&#8217;s Note:</span></h3>
+
+<p>1. Minor changes have been made to correct typesetters&#8217; errors; otherwise,
+every effort has been made to remain true to the author&#8217;s words and
+intent.</p>
+
+<p>2. The original of this etext did not have a Table of Contents; one has been
+added for the reader&#8217;s convenience.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of His Unknown Wife, by Louis Tracy
+
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+</body>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of His Unknown Wife, by Louis Tracy
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: His Unknown Wife
+
+Author: Louis Tracy
+
+Release Date: January 26, 2011 [EBook #35074]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HIS UNKNOWN WIFE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by D Alexander and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ HIS UNKNOWN WIFE
+
+ BY
+
+ LOUIS TRACY
+
+ AUTHOR OF
+
+ THE WINGS OF THE MORNING,
+ FLOWER OF THE GORSE, ETC.
+
+ NEW YORK
+ GROSSET & DUNLAP
+ PUBLISHERS
+
+
+
+
+ COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY
+ EDWARD J. CLODE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+SHARP WORK
+
+
+"Prisoner, attention! His excellency the President has permitted Senor
+Steinbaum to visit you."
+
+The "prisoner" was lying on his back on a plank bed, with his hands
+tucked beneath his head to obtain some measure of protection from the
+roll of rough fiber matting which formed a pillow. He did not pay the
+slightest heed to the half-caste Spanish jailer's gruff command. But the
+visitor's name stirred him. He turned his head, apparently to make sure
+that he was not being deceived, and rose on an elbow.
+
+"Hello, Steinbaum!" he said in English. "What's the swindle? Excuse this
+terseness, but I have to die in an hour, or even less, if a sunbeam
+hasn't misled me."
+
+"There's no swindle this time, Mr. Maseden," came the guttural answer.
+"I'm sorry I cannot help you, but I want you to do a good turn for a
+lady."
+
+"A lady! What lady?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"If _you_ don't know the lady that is a recommendation in itself. At any
+rate, what sort of good turn can a man condemned to death do for any
+lady?"
+
+"She wants to marry you."
+
+Then the man who, by his own showing, was rapidly nearing the close of
+his earthly career, sprang erect and looked so threatening that his
+visitor shrank back a pace, while the half-caste jailer's right hand
+clutched the butt of a revolver.
+
+"Whatever else I may have thought you, I never regarded you as a
+fool, Steinbaum," he said sternly. "Go away, man! Have you no sense
+of decency? You and that skunk Enrico Suarez, have done your worst
+against me and succeeded. When I am dead the 'state' will collar my
+property--and I am well aware that in this instance the 'state' will
+be represented by Senor Enrico Suarez and Mr. Fritz Steinbaum. You are
+about to murder and rob me. Can't you leave me in peace during the last
+few minutes of my life? Be off, or you may find that in coming here you
+have acted foolishly for once."
+
+"_Ach, was!_" sighed Steinbaum, nevertheless retreating another step
+towards the door and the watchful half-caste, who had been warned to
+shoot straight and quickly if the prisoner attacked the august person of
+the portly financier. "I tell you the truth, and you will not listen. It
+is as I say. A lady, a stranger, arrived in Cartagena last night. She
+heard of you this morning. She asked: 'Is he married, this American?'
+They said, 'No.' Then she came to me and begged me to use my influence
+with the President. She said: 'If this American gentleman is to be shot,
+I am sorry; but it cannot matter to him if he is married, and it will
+oblige me very much.' I told her--"
+
+The speaker's voice grew husky and he paused to clear his throat.
+Maseden smiled wanly at the mad absurdity of it, but he was beginning to
+believe some part of Steinbaum's story.
+
+"And what did you tell her?" he broke in.
+
+"I told her that you were Quixotic in some things, and you might agree."
+
+"But what on earth does the lady gain by it? Suarez and you will take
+mighty good care she doesn't get away with my ranch and money. Does she
+want my name?"
+
+"Perhaps."
+
+Maseden took thought a moment.
+
+"It has never been dishonored during my life," he said quietly. "I would
+need to be assured that it will not be smirched after my death."
+
+Steinbaum was stout. A certain anxiety to succeed in an extraordinary
+mission, joined to the warm, moist atmosphere of the cell, had induced a
+copious perspiration.
+
+"_Ach, Gott!_" he purred despairingly. "I know nothing. She told me
+nothing. She offered to pay me for the trouble--"
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"Why not? I run some risk in acting so. She is American, like yourself.
+She came to me--"
+
+"American, you say! Is she young?"
+
+"I think so. I have not seen her face. She wears a thick veil."
+
+Romance suddenly spread its fairy wings in that squalid South American
+prison-house. Maseden's spirit was fired to perform a last act of
+chivalry, of mercy, it might be, in behalf of some unhappy girl of his
+own race. The sheer folly of this amazing marriage moved him to grim
+mirth.
+
+"Very well," he said with a half-hearted laugh. "I'll do it! But, as
+_you_ are mixing the cards, Steinbaum, there must be a joker in the pack
+somewhere. I'm a pretty quick thinker, you know, and I shall probably
+see through your proposition before I die, though I am damned if I can
+size it up right off."
+
+"Mr. Maseden, I assure you, on my--well, you and I never were friends
+and never will be, but I have told you the real facts this time."
+
+"When is the wedding to take place?"
+
+"Now."
+
+"Great Scott! Did the lady come with you?"
+
+"Yes. She is here with a priest and a notary."
+
+Maseden peered over the jailer's shoulder into the whitewashed passage
+beyond the half-open door, as though he expected to find a shrouded
+figure standing there. Steinbaum interpreted his glance.
+
+"She is in the great hall," he said. "The guard is waiting at the end of
+the corridor."
+
+"Oh, it's to be a military wedding, then?"
+
+"Yes, in a sense."
+
+The younger man appreciated the nice distinction Steinbaum was drawing.
+The waiting "guard" was the firing-party.
+
+"What time is it?" he demanded, so sharply that the fat man started. For
+a skilled intriguer Steinbaum was ridiculously nervous.
+
+"A quarter past seven."
+
+"Allow me to put the question as delicately as possible, but--er--is
+there any extension of time beyond eight o'clock?"
+
+"Senor Suarez would not give one minute."
+
+"He knows about the ceremony, of course?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What a skunk the man is! How he must fear me! Such Spartan
+inflexibility is foreign to the Spanish nature.... By the way,
+Steinbaum, did you ever, in your innocent youth, hear the opera
+'Maritana,' or see a play called 'Don Cesar de Bazan'?"
+
+"Why waste time, Mr. Maseden?" cried the other impatiently. He loathed
+the environment of that dim cell, with its slightly foetid air,
+suggestive of yellow jack and dysentery. He was so obviously ill at
+ease, so fearful lest he should fail in an extraordinary negotiation,
+that, given less strenuous conditions, the younger man must have read
+more into the proposal than appeared on the face of it.
+
+But the sands of life were running short for Maseden. Outwardly cool and
+imperturbably American, his soul was in revolt. For all that he laughed
+cheerfully.
+
+"Waste time, indeed!" he cried. "I, who have less than forty-five
+minutes to live!... Now, these are my terms."
+
+"There are no terms," broke in Steinbaum harshly. "You oblige the lady,
+or you don't. Please yourself."
+
+"Ah, that's better. That sounds more like the hound that I know you are.
+Yet, I insist on my terms.
+
+"I was dragged out of bed in my pajamas at four o'clock this morning,
+and not even permitted to dress. They hardly waited to get me a pair of
+boots. I haven't a red cent in my pocket, which is a figure of speech,
+because I haven't a pocket. If you think you can borrow from an old
+comedy just so much of the situation as suits your purpose and disregard
+the costume and appearance of the star actor, you're mistaken.
+
+"I gather from your furious grunts that you don't understand me. Very
+well. I'll come straight to the point. If I am to marry the lady of your
+choice, I demand the right to appear at the altar decently clad and with
+enough good money in my pocket to stand a few bottles of wine to the
+gallant blackguards who are about to shoot me.
+
+"Those are my terms, Steinbaum. Take them or leave them! But don't
+accuse _me_ of wasting time. It's up to you to arrange the stage
+setting. I might have insisted on a shave, but I won't.
+
+"The lady will not expect me to kiss her, I suppose?... By gad, she must
+be a person of strange tastes. Why any young woman should want to marry
+a man because he's going to be shot half an hour later is one of those
+mysteries which the feminine mind may comprehend, but it's beyond me.
+However, that's her affair, not mine.
+
+"Now, Steinbaum, hurry up! _I'm_ talking for the mere sake of hearing my
+own voice, but _you're_ keeping the lady in suspense."
+
+Maseden had indeed correctly described his own attitude. He was wholly
+indifferent to the personal element in the bizarre compact proposed by
+his arch-enemy, on whom he had turned his back while speaking.
+
+The sight of a bloated, angry, perplexed face of the coarsest type was
+mentally disturbing. He elected rather to watch the shaft of sunlight
+coming through the long, narrow slit in a four-foot wall which served as
+a window. He knew that his cell was on the northeast side of the prison,
+and the traveling sunbeam had already marked the flight of time with
+sufficient accuracy since he was thrust into that dismal place.
+
+He had been sentenced to death just one hour and a half after being
+arrested. The evidence, like the trial, was a travesty of justice. His
+excellency Don Enrico Suarez, elected president of the Republic of San
+Juan at midnight, and confirmed in power by the bullet which removed his
+predecessor, wreaked vengeance speedily on the American intruder who had
+helped to mar his schemes twice in two years.
+
+There would be a diplomatic squabble about the judicial murder of a
+citizen of the United States, of course. The American and British
+consuls would protest, and both countries would dispatch warships to
+Cartagena, which was at once the capital of the republic and its chief
+port. But of what avail such wrangling after one was dead?
+
+Dead, at twenty-eight, when the world was bright and fortune was
+apparently smiling! Dead, because he supported dear old Domenico
+Valdes, the murdered president, and one of the few honest, God-fearing
+men in a rotten little South American state which would have been swept
+out of putrid existence long ago were it not for the policy of the
+Monroe Doctrine. Maseden knew that no power on earth would save him now,
+because Suarez and he could not exist in the same community, and Suarez
+was supreme in the Republic of San Juan--supreme, that is, until some
+other cut-throat climbed to the presidency over a rival's corpse.
+Steinbaum, a crafty person who played the game of high politics with
+some ability and seldom failed to advance his own and his allies'
+interests, had backed Suarez financially and would become his jackal for
+the time.
+
+It was rather surprising that such a master-plotter should have admitted
+a fore-knowledge of Maseden's fate, and this element in the situation
+suddenly dawned on Maseden himself. The arrest, the trial, and the
+condemnation were alike kept secret.
+
+The American consul, a Portuguese merchant, possessed enough backbone to
+demand the postponement of the execution until he had communicated with
+Washington, and in this action he would have been supported by the
+representative of Great Britain. But he would know nothing about the
+judicial crime until it was an accomplished fact.
+
+How, then, had some enterprising young lady--
+
+"By the way, Steinbaum, you might explain--"
+
+Maseden swung on his heel; the matrimonial agent had vanished.
+
+"The senor signified that he would return soon," said the jailer.
+
+"He's gone for the clothes!" mused Maseden, his thoughts promptly
+reverting to the fantastic marriage project. "The sly old fox is
+devilish anxious to get me spliced before my number goes up. I wonder
+why? And where in the world will he raise a suitable rig? Hang it all, I
+wish I had a little longer to live. This business becomes more
+interesting every minute!"
+
+Though he was sure the attempt would be hopeless, Maseden resolved to
+make one last effort. He looked the half-caste squarely in the face.
+
+"Get me out of this before Senor Steinbaum comes back and I'll give you
+twenty thousand dollars gold," he said quietly.
+
+The man met his glance without flinching.
+
+"I could not help you, senor, if you paid me a million dollars," he
+answered. "It is your life or mine--those are my orders. And it is
+useless to think of attacking me," he added, because for one moment
+black despair scowled menacingly from Maseden's strong features. "There
+are ten men at each door of the corridor ready to shoot you at the least
+sign of any attempt to escape."
+
+"The preparations for the wedding are fairly complete, then?"
+
+Maseden spoke Spanish fluently, and the half-caste grinned at the joke.
+
+"It will soon be over, senor," was all he could find to say.
+
+The condemned man knew that the fellow was not to be bribed at the cost
+of his own life. He turned again and grew interested once more in the
+shaft of sunlight. How quickly it moved! He calculated that before it
+reached a certain crack in the masonry he would have passed into
+"yesterday's seven thousand years."
+
+It was not a pleasing conceit. In self-defense, as it were, he bent his
+wits on to the proposed marriage. He was half inclined to regret the
+chivalrous impulse which spurred him to agree to it. Yet there was a
+spice of humor in the fact that a man who was regarded as an inveterate
+woman-hater by the dusky young ladies of San Juan should be led to the
+altar literally at the eleventh hour.
+
+What manner of woman could this unknown bride be? What motive swayed
+her? Perhaps it was better not to ask. But if the knot were tied by a
+priest, a notary and a European financier, it was evidently intended to
+be a valid undertaking.
+
+And why was Steinbaum so interested? Was the would-be Mrs. Maseden so
+well endowed with this world's goods that she spared no expense in
+attaining her object?
+
+The most contrary emotions surged through Maseden's conscience. He was
+by turns curious, sympathetic, suspicious, absurdly eager to learn more.
+
+In this last mood he resolved to have one straight look at the lady.
+Surely a man was entitled to see his bride's face! Yes, come what might,
+he would insist that she must raise the "thick, white veil" which had
+hitherto screened her features from Steinbaum's goggle eyes--supposing,
+that is, the rascal had told the truth.
+
+A hinge creaked, and the half-caste announced that the senor was
+returning. In a few seconds Steinbaum panted in. He was carrying a
+gorgeous uniform of sky-blue cloth with facings of silver braid. As he
+dumped a pair of brilliant patent-leather top-boots on the stone floor a
+glittering helmet fell from among the clothes and rolled to Maseden's
+feet.
+
+"See here, Steinbaum, what tomfoolery is this?" cried the American
+wrathfully.
+
+"It is your tomfoolery, not mine," came the heated retort. "Where am I
+to get a suit of clothes for you? These will fit, I think. I borrowed
+them from the President's _aide-de-camp_, Captain Ferdinando Gomez."
+
+Maseden knew Captain Gomez--a South American dandy of the first water.
+For the moment the ludicrous side of the business banished all other
+considerations.
+
+"What!" he laughed, "am I to be married in the giddy rig of the biggest
+ass in Cartagena? Well, I give in. As I'm to be shot at eight,
+Ferdinando's fine feathers will be in a sad mess, because I'll not take
+'em off again unless I'm undressed forcibly. Good Lord! Does my unknown
+bride realize what sort of rare bird she's going to espouse?...
+
+"Yes, yes, we're losing time. Chuck over those pants. Gomez is not quite
+my height, but his togs may be O. K."
+
+As a matter of fact, Philip Alexander Maseden looked a very fine
+figure of a man when arrayed in all the glory of the presidential
+_aide-de-camp_. The only trouble was that the elegant top-boots were
+confoundedly tight, being, in truth, a size too small for their vain
+owner; but the bridegroom-elect put up with this inconvenience.
+
+He had not far to walk. A few steps to the right lay the "great hall"
+in which, according to Steinbaum, the ceremony would take place. Very
+little farther to the left was the enclosed _patio_, or courtyard, in
+which he would be shot within thirty minutes!
+
+"I'm dashed if I feel a bit like dying," he said, as he strode by
+Steinbaum's side along the outer corridor. "If the time was about
+fourteen hours later I might imagine I was going to a fancy dress ball,
+though I wouldn't be able to dance much in these confounded boots."
+
+The stout financier made no reply. He was singularly ill at ease. Any
+critical onlooker, not cognizant of the facts, would take him and not
+Maseden to be the man condemned to death.
+
+A heavy, iron-clamped door leading to the row of cells was wide open.
+Some soldiers, lined up close to it in the hall, were craning their
+necks to catch a first glimpse of the Americano who was about to marry
+and die in the same breath, so to speak.
+
+Beyond, near a table in the center of the spacious chamber, stood a
+group that arrested the eye--a Spanish priest, in vestments of
+semi-state; an olive-skinned man whom Maseden recognized as a legal
+practitioner of fair repute in a community where chicanery flourished,
+and a slenderly-built woman of middle height, though taller than either
+of her companions, whose stylish coat and skirt of thin, gray cloth,
+and smart shoes tied with little bows of black ribbon, were strangely
+incongruous with the black lace mantilla which draped her head and
+shoulders, and held in position a double veil tied firmly beneath her
+chin.
+
+Maseden was so astonished at discovering the identity of the lawyer that
+he momentarily lost interest in the mysterious woman who would soon be
+his wife.
+
+"Senor Porilla!" he cried. "I am glad you are here. Do you understand--"
+
+"It is forbidden!" hissed Steinbaum. "One more word, and back you go to
+your cell!"
+
+"Oh, is that part of the compact?" said Maseden cheerfully. "Well, well!
+We must not make matters unpleasant for a lady--must we, Steinbaum?...
+Now, madam, raise your veil, and let me at least have the honor of
+knowing what sort of person the future Mrs. Philip Alexander Maseden
+will be!"
+
+The only answer was a stifled but quite audible sob, and Maseden had an
+impression that the lady might put a summary stop to the proceedings by
+fainting.
+
+Steinbaum, however, had recovered his nerve in the stronger light of the
+great hall, especially since the soldiers had gathered around.
+
+"The senora declines to unveil," he growled in Spanish. "Begin, _padre_!
+There is not a moment to spare."
+
+The ecclesiastic opened a book and plunged forthwith into the marriage
+service. Maseden was aware that the shrinking figure by his side was
+trembling violently, and a wave of pity for her surged through his
+heart.
+
+"Cheer up!" he whispered. "It's only a matter of form, anyhow; and I'm
+glad to be able to help you. I don't care a red cent what your motive
+is."
+
+Steinbaum gurgled ominously, and the bridegroom said no more. Clearly,
+though he had given no bond, he was imperiling the fulfillment of this
+unhappy girl's desire if he talked.
+
+But he kept his wits alert. It was evident that the lady understood
+little Latin and no Spanish. She was quite unable to follow the sonorous
+phrases. When the portly priest, who seemed to have small relish for the
+part he was compelled to play in this amazing marriage, asked Maseden if
+he would have "this woman" to be his wedded wife, the bridegroom
+answered "Yes," in Spanish; but a similar question addressed to the
+bride found her dumb.
+
+"Say 'I will,'" murmured Maseden in her ear.
+
+She turned slightly. At that instant their heads came close together,
+and the long, unfamiliar fragrance of a woman's well-tended hair reached
+him.
+
+It had an extraordinary effect. Memories of his mother, of a simple
+old-world dwelling in a Vermont village, rushed in on him with an
+almost overwhelming force.
+
+His superb self-possession nearly gave way. He felt that he might break
+down under the intolerable strain.
+
+He feared, during a few seconds of anguish, that he might reveal his
+heartache to these men of inferior races.
+
+Then the pride of a regal birthright came to his aid, and a species of
+most vivid and poignant consciousness succeeded. He heard Steinbaum's
+gruff sponsorship for the bride, obeyed smilingly when told to take her
+right hand in his right hand, and looked with singular intentness at the
+long, straight, artistic fingers which he held.
+
+It was a beautifully modeled hand, well kept, but cold and tremulous.
+The queer conceit leaped up in him that though he might never look on
+the face of his wedded wife he would know that hand if they met again
+only at the Judgment Seat!
+
+Then, in a dazed way which impressed the onlookers as the height of
+American nonchalance, he said, after the celebrant: "I, Philip
+Alexander, take thee, Madeleine--"
+
+Madeleine! So that was the Christian name of the woman whom he was
+taking "till death do us part," for the Spanish liturgy provided almost
+an exact equivalent of the English service. Madeleine! He had never
+even known any girl of the name. Somehow, he liked it. Outwardly so
+calm, he was inwardly aflame with a new longing for life and all that
+life meant.
+
+His jumbled wits were peremptorily recalled to the demands of the moment
+by the would-be bride's failure to repeat her share of the marriage vow,
+when it became her turn to take Maseden's hand.
+
+The priest nodded, and Steinbaum, now carrying himself with a certain
+truculence, essayed to lead the girl's faltering tongue through the
+Spanish phrases.
+
+"The lady must understand what she is saying," broke in Maseden,
+dominating the gruff man by sheer force of will.
+
+"Now," he said, and his voice grew gentle as he turned to the woman he
+had just promised "to have and to hold," "to love and cherish," and
+thereto plighted his troth--"when the priest pauses, I will translate,
+and you must speak the words aloud."
+
+He listened, in a waking trance, to the clear, well-bred accents of a
+woman of his own people uttering the binding pledge of matrimony. The
+Spanish sentences recalled the English version, which he supplied with
+singular accuracy, seeing that he had only attended two weddings
+previously, and those during his boyhood.
+
+"Madeleine"--he would learn her surname when he signed the register--was
+obviously hard pressed to retain her senses till the end. She was
+sobbing pitifully, and the knowledge that her distress was induced by
+the fate immediately in store for the man whom she was espousing "by
+God's holy ordinance" tested Maseden's steel nerve to the very limit of
+endurance.
+
+But he held on with that tenacious chivalry which is the finest
+characteristic of his class, and even smiled at Steinbaum's fumbling in
+a waistcoat pocket for a ring. He was putting the ring on the fourth
+finger of his wife's left hand and pronouncing the last formula of the
+ceremony, when he caught an agonized whisper:
+
+"Please, _please_, forgive me! I cannot help myself. I am--more than
+sorry for you. I shall pray for you--and think of you--always!"
+
+And it was in that instant, while breathlessly catching each syllable of
+a broken plea for sympathy and gage of lasting remembrance, that
+Maseden's bemused faculties saw a means of saving his life.
+
+Though a forlorn hope, at the best, with a hundred chances of failure
+against one of success, he would seize that hundredth chance. What
+matter if he were shot at quarter to eight instead of at eight o'clock?
+Steel before, he was unemotional as marble now, a man of stone with a
+brain of diamond clarity.
+
+If events followed their normal and reasonable course, he would be free
+of these accursed walls within a few minutes. Come what might, he would
+strike a lusty blow for freedom. If he failed, and sank into eternal
+night, one or more of the half-caste hirelings now so ready to fulfill
+the murderous schemes of President Suarez and his henchman Steinbaum
+would escort an American's spirit to the realm beyond the shadows.
+
+He did not stop to think that an unknown woman's strange whim should
+have made possible that which, without her presence in his prison-house,
+was absolutely impossible; still less did he trouble as to the future,
+immediate or remote. His mind's eye was fixed on a sunbeam creeping
+stealthily towards a crack in the masonry of that detestable cell.
+
+He meant to cheat that sunbeam, one way or the other!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+TIME _VERSUS_ ETERNITY
+
+
+Henceforth Maseden concentrated all his faculties on the successful
+performance of the trick which might win him clear of the castle of San
+Juan. Nothing in the wide world mattered less to him than that the
+newly-made bride should stoop to sign the register after he had done so,
+or that by turning to address Steinbaum he was deliberately throwing
+away the opportunity thus afforded of learning her surname.
+
+When an avowed enemy first broached the subject of this extraordinary
+marriage, he had made a bitter jest on the use in real life of a
+well-worn histrionic situation. And now, perforce, he had become an
+actor of rare merit. Each look, each word must lead up to the grand
+climax. The penalty of failure was not the boredom of an audience, but
+death; such a "curtain" would sharpen the dullest wits, and Maseden, if
+wholly innocent of stage experience hitherto, was not dull.
+
+He scored his first point while the bride was signing her name. Beaming
+on Steinbaum, he said cheerfully:
+
+"I bargained for money, Shylock. You've had your pound of flesh. Where
+are my ducats?"
+
+Steinbaum produced a ten-dollar bill. He even forced a smile. Seemingly
+he was anxious to keep the prisoner in this devil-may-care mood.
+
+"Not half enough!" cried Maseden, and he broke into Spanish.
+
+"Hi, my gallant _caballeros_, isn't there another squad in the _patio_?"
+
+"_Si, senor!_" cried several voices.
+
+Even these crude, half-caste soldiers revealed the Latin sense of the
+dramatic and picturesque. They appreciated the American's cavalier air.
+That morning's doings would lose naught in the telling when the story
+spread through the cafes of Cartagena.
+
+And what a story they would have to tell! Little could they guess its
+scope, its sensations yet to come.
+
+"Very well, then! At least another ten-spot, Steinbaum.... But, mind
+you, sergeant, not a drop till the volley is fired! You might miss, you
+know!"
+
+The man whom he addressed as sergeant eyed the two notes with an amiable
+grin.
+
+"You will feel nothing, senor--we promise you that," he said wondering,
+perhaps, why the prisoner did not bestow the largesse at once.
+
+"Excellent! Lead on, friend! I want my last few minutes to myself."
+
+"There are some documents to complete," put in Steinbaum hastily, with a
+quick hand-flourish to the notary.
+
+Senor Porilla spread two legal-looking parchments on the table.
+
+"These are conveyances of your property to your wife," he explained. "I
+am instructed to see that everything is done in accordance with the laws
+of the Republic. By these deeds you--"
+
+"Hand over everything to the lady. Is _that_ it? I understand. Where do
+I sign? Here? Thank you. And here? Nothing else ... Mrs. Maseden, I have
+given you my name and all my worldly goods. Pray make good use of both
+endowments.... Now, I demand to be left alone."
+
+Without so much as a farewell glance at his wife, who, to keep herself
+from falling, was leaning on the table, he strode off in the direction
+of the corridor into which his cell opened. It was a vital part of his
+scheme that he should enter first.
+
+The jailer would have left the door open. Maseden was determined that it
+should be closed.
+
+Captain Gomez's tight boots pinched his toes cruelly as he walked, but
+he recked little of that minor inconvenience at the moment. In four or
+five rapid paces he reached the doorway and passed through it. There he
+turned with his right hand on the door itself, and his left hand,
+carrying the helmet, raised in a parting salute. He smiled most affably,
+and, of set purpose, spoke in Spanish.
+
+"Good-by, senora!" he said. "Farewell, gentlemen! I shall remember this
+pleasant gathering as long as I live!"
+
+The half-caste was at his prisoner's side, and enjoying the episode
+thoroughly. He would swill his share of the wine, of course, and the
+hour of the _siesta_ should find him comfortably drunk.
+
+Maseden flourished his left hand again, and the plumed helmet
+temporarily obscured the jailer's vision. The door swung on its hinges.
+The lock clashed. In the same instant the American's clenched right fist
+landed on the half-caste's jaw, finding with scientific accuracy the
+cluster of nerves which the world of pugilism terms "the point."
+
+It was a perfect blow, clean and hard, delivered by an athlete. Out of
+the tail of his eye, Maseden had seen _where_ to hit. He knew _how_ to
+hit already, and put every ounce of his weight, each shred of his boxing
+knowledge, into that one punch.
+
+It had to be a complete "knock-out," or his plan miscarried. A cry, a
+struggle, a revolver shot, would have brought a score of assailants
+thundering on each door.
+
+As it happened, however, the hapless Spaniard collapsed as though he
+were struck dead by heart-failure or apoplexy. Maseden caught the inert
+body before it reached the stone floor, and carried it swiftly into the
+cell. Improvising a gag out of his discarded pajamas, he bound the
+half-caste's hands and feet together behind his back, utilizing the
+man's own leather belt for the purpose.
+
+These things were done swiftly but without nervous haste. The very
+essence of the plan was the conviction that no forward step should be
+taken without making sure that the prior moves were complete and
+thorough.
+
+He had detached from the jailer's belt a chain carrying a bunch of
+keys and the revolver in its leather holster. Before slipping this
+latter over the belt he was wearing, he examined it. Though somewhat
+old-fashioned, it seemed to be thoroughly serviceable, and held six
+cartridges with bull-nose bullets of heavy caliber.
+
+Then he searched the unconscious man's pockets for cigarettes and
+matches. Here he encountered an unforeseen delay. Every Spaniard carries
+either cigarettes or the materials for rolling them, but this fellow
+seemed to be an exception.
+
+Now, a cigarette formed an almost indispensable item in Maseden's
+scheme; but time was even more precious, and he was about to abandon the
+search when he noticed that one button-hole of the jailer's tunic was
+far more frayed than any other. He tore open the coat, and found both
+cigarettes and matches in an inside breast pocket.
+
+Not one man in a million, in similar conditions, would have been
+cool-headed enough to observe such a trivial detail as a frayed
+button-hole.
+
+Next he examined the bunch of keys, and came to the conclusion, rightly
+as it transpired, that the same large key fitted the locks of both
+doors; which, however, were heavily barred by external draw-bolts.
+
+Jamming on the helmet--like the glittering boots, it was a size too
+small--he lowered the chin-strap, lighted a cigarette, and limped
+quickly along the corridor towards the _patio_, which filled a square
+equal in size to the area of the great hall.
+
+As he left the cell he heard the half-caste's breathing become more
+regular. The man would soon recover his senses. Would the gag prove
+effective? Maseden dared not wait to make sure.
+
+He could have induced a more lasting silence, but even life itself might
+be purchased too dearly; he took the risk of a speedy uproar.
+
+Unlocking the door, with a confident rattling of keys and chain, he
+shouted:
+
+"Hi, guards! Draw the bolts!"
+
+The soldiers in the _patio_ were ready for some such summons, though the
+hour was slightly in advance of the time fixed for the American's
+execution, so the order was obeyed with alacrity. Maseden appeared in
+the doorway, taking care that the door did not swing far back. He blew a
+great cloud of smoke; growled over his shoulder: "I'll return in five
+minutes," pulled the door to, and swaggered past the waiting troops, not
+forgetting to salute as they shouldered their rifles.
+
+A long time afterwards he learned that he actually owed his escape to
+Captain Ferdinando Gomez's tight boots. One of the men was observant,
+and inclined to be skeptical.
+
+"Who's that?" he said. "Not el Capitan Ferdinando, I'll swear!"
+
+"Idiot!" grinned another. "Look at his limp! He pinches his toes till he
+can hardly walk."
+
+At the gateway, or porch, leading to the _patio_, stood a sentry, who,
+luckily, was gazing seaward. Maseden conserved the cigarette for another
+volume of smoke, and pulled down the chin-strap determinedly.
+
+He got beyond this dragon without any difficulty. Indeed, the man was
+taken by surprise, and only noticed him when he had gone by.
+
+Maseden was now in a graveled square. Behind him, and to the left, stood
+the time-darkened walls of the old Spanish fortress. In front, broken
+only by a line of trees and the squat humps of six antiquated cannons,
+sparkled the blue expanse of the Pacific. To the right lay the port, the
+new town, and such measure of freedom as he might win.
+
+He had yet to pass the main entrance to the castle, where, in addition
+to a sentry, would surely be stationed some sharp-eyed servants, each
+and all on the _qui vive_ at that early hour, and stirred to unusual
+activity by the morning's news, because Cartagena regarded a change of
+president by means of a revolution as a sort of movable holiday.
+
+At this crisis, luck befriended him. In the shade of the trees opposite
+the main gate was an orderly holding a horse. The animal's trappings
+showed that it did not belong to a private soldier, and the fact that
+the man stood to attention as Maseden approached seemed to indicate that
+which was actually the fact--the charger belonged to none other than the
+president's _aide-de-camp_.
+
+Fortune seldom bestows her favors in what the casino-jargon of Monte
+Carlo describes as "intermittent sequences," or, in plain language,
+alternate _coups_ of red and black, successive strokes of good and bad
+luck. The fickle goddess rather inclines to runs on a color. Having
+brought Maseden to the very brink of the grave, she had decided to help
+him now.
+
+As it turned out, Gomez's soldier servant had been injured during the
+overnight disturbance, and the deputy was a newcomer.
+
+He saluted, held bridle and stirrup while Maseden mounted, and strolled
+casually across the square to inquire whether he ought to wait or go
+back to his quarters. He succeeded in puzzling the very sergeant who was
+mentally contriving the best means of securing the lion's, or
+sergeant's, share of twenty dollars' worth of wine.
+
+"Captain Gomez has not gone out," snapped the calculator. "Get out of
+the way! Don't stand there like the ears of a donkey! I have occupation.
+The Senor Steinbaum is putting a lady into his car, and she is very
+ill."
+
+So the trooper was unceremoniously brushed aside. A little later he
+might have reminded the sergeant of the folly of counting chickens
+before the eggs are hatched.
+
+Maseden was a first-rate horseman, but, owing to the discomfort of
+excruciatingly tight boots and a wobbly helmet, he did not enjoy the
+first half mile of a fast gallop down the winding road which he was
+obliged to follow before he could strike into the country. Beneath, to
+the left, and on a plateau in front, were respectively the ancient and
+modern sections of Cartagena. But, having succeeded thus far, he had
+made up his mind inflexibly as to the course he would pursue.
+
+He meant to reach his own ranch, twelve miles inland, within the hour.
+He reckoned that, in the easy-going South American way, it would not be
+occupied as yet by an armed guard. An officer had rummaged among his
+papers that morning, but came away with the others.
+
+In any event, in that direction, and there only, lay any real chance of
+ultimate safety.
+
+On his estate there were two men at least in whom he might place trust;
+and even if he could not enter the house, one of them might obtain for
+him the clothes and money without which he had not the remotest prospect
+of getting away alive from the Republic of San Juan.
+
+He had pocketed Steinbaum's twenty dollars in order to hire a horse, but
+the unwitting hospitality of Captain Gomez had provided him with a
+better animal than was to be picked up at the nearest _posada_. Indeed,
+with the exception of an automobile, a luxury that was few and far
+between in Cartagena, he could not have secured a swifter or more
+reliable conveyance than this very steed, which would cover the twelve
+miles in less than an hour, and had also saved him a quarter of an
+hour's running walk, an experience savoring of Chinese torture when
+undertaken in tight boots.
+
+The notion of possible pursuit by a party of soldiers in a car had
+barely occurred to him when he heard the rapid panting of an automobile
+in the rear.
+
+He slackened pace, took a shorter grip of the reins, and loosened the
+revolver in its case. Flight was ridiculous, unless he made across
+country; a last resource, involving a fatal loss of time.
+
+He took nothing for granted. Steinbaum was one of the half-dozen
+car-owners in Cartagena, and this was surely he, escorting Senor Porilla
+and the lady back to the town.
+
+They might pass him without recognition. If they didn't, he would shoot
+Steinbaum and put a bullet into a tire. There would be no half measures.
+Suarez and his ally had declared war on him to the death, and war they
+would have without stint or quarter.
+
+It was a ticklish moment when the fast-running car drew near. Maseden
+affected to bend over and examine the horse's fore action, as though he
+suspected lameness or a loose shoe. He gave one swift underlook into the
+limousine as it sped by and fancied he saw Porilla, seated with his
+back to the engine, bending forward.
+
+That was all. The car raced on and was speedily lost in a dust-cloud.
+
+So far, so good. He was dodging peril in the hairbreadth fashion
+popularly ascribed to warriors on a stricken field. Yet his mount was
+hardly in a canter again before he was plunged without warning into the
+most ticklish dilemma of all.
+
+Steinbaum's car had just turned to the left, where the road bifurcated a
+few hundred yards ahead, when another car came flying down the other
+road--that which the fugitive himself must take for nearly half a mile;
+and this second menace harbored no less a personage than Don Enrico
+Suarez, president of the Republic of San Juan!
+
+It was an open car, too, and the president was seated alone in the
+tonneau.
+
+Maseden jumped to the instant conclusion that his enemy was hurrying to
+witness his execution, probably to jeer at him for having ventured to
+cross the predestined path of a conqueror. But, even though he passed,
+Suarez would know that the gaily bedizened horseman was not his
+glittering _aide-de-camp_.
+
+To permit the president to reach the Castle meant the beginning of an
+irresistible pursuit within five minutes. However, that consideration
+did not bother the Vermonter if for no better reason than that he was
+determined it should not come into play.
+
+He smiled thoughtfully, adjusted the helmet once more, and voiced his
+sentiments aloud.
+
+"Good!" he said. "This time, Enrico, you and I square accounts!"
+
+Pulling up, he took the middle of the road, wheeling the horse "half
+left," and holding up his right hand. The chauffeur saw him, slackened
+speed, and finally halted within a distance of a few feet. From first to
+last, the man regarded the newcomer as being Captain Gomez. The
+wind-screen was up, and the roads were dust-laden, so he could not see
+with absolute accuracy. Moreover, events followed each other so rapidly
+that he was given no chance to correct an erroneous first impression.
+
+The car being stopped, Maseden moved on, passing by the left. Drawing
+the revolver, he fired at the front right-hand tire at such close range
+that it was impossible to miss. The reports of the weapon and the
+bursting tube were simultaneous.
+
+The next shot would have lodged in the president's heart if the startled
+horse had not swerved. As it was, quite a nasty hole was torn in the
+presidential anatomy; Suarez, himself fumbling for an automatic pistol,
+sank back in the tonneau a severely if not mortally wounded man.
+
+For one fateful instant, the eyes of the two had met and clashed, and
+recognition was mutual.
+
+A third bullet plowed through the back right-hand tire, and Maseden
+galloped off, the horse being only too eager to get away from the
+racket.
+
+The American did not look behind to ascertain what the chauffeur was
+doing. It really did not matter a great deal. Speed and direction were
+the paramount conditions during the next fifty minutes. The die was cast
+now beyond all hope of revocation. He was at war with the Republic, and,
+although he had rendered its citizens a valuable service in shooting
+their rascally president, they might not regard the incident in its
+proper light until a period far too late to benefit the philanthropist.
+
+As a matter of fact, interesting historically and otherwise, the
+chauffeur was convinced that Captain Ferdinando Gomez had assassinated
+his master, and said so, with many oaths, when he summoned assistance
+from a neighboring house. It may also be placed on record here that
+about the same time the gallant _aide-de-camp_ had come to suspect that
+his beautiful uniform, if not returned promptly, might be sadly smirched
+by a score of bullets, with accessories; and was kicking up a fearful
+row because no one could get at the jailer and rescue that gala costume
+before the prisoner was led forth to execution.
+
+In a word, the Republic's presidential affairs were greatly mixed, and
+remained in inextricable confusion until long after Maseden drew rein on
+a blown horse at the gate of his own _estancia_.
+
+The ranch, known as Los Andes, and one of the finest estates in San
+Juan, provided the original bone of contention between Maseden and
+Suarez. It had been built up, during thirty lazy years, by a distant
+cousin of Suarez, an elderly bachelor, who grew coffee and maize, and
+reared stock in a haphazard way.
+
+Seven years earlier he had met the young American in New York, took a
+liking to him, and offered to employ him as overseer while teaching him
+the business. The pupil soon became the instructor. Scientific methods
+were introduced, direct markets were tapped, and the produce of the
+estate was quadrupled within a few seasons.
+
+Then the older man died, and left the ranch and its contents to his
+assistant. There was not much money--the capital was sunk in stock and
+improvement--so a number of free and independent burghers of Cartagena
+received smaller amounts than they expected.
+
+Suarez was one of the beneficiaries, seven in all. Six took the
+situation calmly. He alone was irreconcilable, and blustered about legal
+proceedings, only desisting when persuaded that he had no case, even for
+the venal courts of San Juan.
+
+And now, on that sultry January morning, the lawful owner of the Los
+Andes ranch, while awaiting the appearance of a peon, who, he knew, was
+tending some cattle in a byre behind the lodge, was wondering whether or
+not he might urge a tired charger into a final canter to the door of his
+own house without bringing about a pitched battle when he arrived there.
+
+At last came Pedro--every second man in South America is named after the
+chief of the Apostles--a brown, lithe, Indian-looking person. But he was
+Spanish enough in the expression of his emotions.
+
+"By the eleven thousand virgins!" he cried joyously, after a first stare
+of incredulity, for the eyes rolled in his head at sight of Maseden's
+garb, "it is not true, then, master, that you are a prisoner!"
+
+"Who says that I am?" inquired Maseden.
+
+"They say it up there at the _estancia_, senor," and Pedro jerked a
+thumb towards an avenue of mahogany trees.
+
+"They say? Who say?"
+
+Pedro was scared, but Maseden had taught his helpers to answer
+truthfully.
+
+"Old Lopez said it, senor. He told me the president's men had charged
+him to touch nothing till they returned."
+
+Maseden's heart throbbed more furiously at that reply than at aught
+which had befallen him during the few pregnant hours since dawn.
+
+"Those rascals have gone, then?" he said, so placidly that the peon was
+bewildered.
+
+"_Si, senor._ Did they not go with you?"
+
+"Yes. I was not sure of all.... Close and lock the gate, Pedro. Leave
+other things. Saddle your mustang and mount guard at the bend in the
+avenue, from which you can watch the Cartagena road. If you see horses,
+or an automobile, coming this way, ride to the house and tell me."
+
+"_Si, senor._"
+
+Pedro hurried off. Maseden rode on at the best pace the spent horse was
+capable of. He might lose a potential fortune--though the shooting of
+Suarez should remove the worst of the hostile influences arrayed against
+him--but surely he could now save his life.
+
+He had never realized how dear life was at twenty-eight until that
+morning. Hitherto he had given no thought to it. Now he wanted to live
+till he was eighty!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+ADIOS, SAN JUAN
+
+
+Suarez was not dead. He was not even dangerously wounded. A two-ounce
+bullet had dealt an upper left rib a blow like the kick of a horse, but
+at such an angle that the bone deflected its flight. Consequently, a
+fractured sternal costa, loss of blood, and a most painful flesh wound
+formed for Suarez the collective outcome of Maseden's disturbed aiming.
+
+In effect, the president regained consciousness about the time Captain
+Gomez had succeeded in persuading several members of the new government
+that it was not he, but an escaped prisoner, who had so grievously
+maltreated the head of the Republic.
+
+A doctor announced that Senor Suarez must be given complete rest and
+freedom from public affairs during the ensuing week or ten days. Even
+the wrathful president himself, after making known the true identity of
+his assailant, felt that he had no option other than placing the affairs
+of the nation temporarily in the hands of his associates.
+
+He made the best of an awkward situation, therefore, and issued a
+vainglorious decree announcing the change.
+
+Now, even San Juan could not provide a second revolution within
+twelve hours. States, like human beings, can experience a surfeit
+of excitement; moreover, the next gang of office-seekers had not yet
+emerged from the welter of parties. Sometimes, too, in South America,
+a disabled president is preferable to an active one, because the
+heads of departments can do a little pilfering on their own account.
+
+So San Juan became virtuously indignant over the "attempted
+assassination" of that renowned "liberator," Enrico Suarez. A hue and
+cry was raised for the scoundrelly American, several supporters of real
+law and order in the State were arrested, and cavalry and police rode
+forth on Maseden's trail.
+
+This planning and scheming and explaining consumed valuable time,
+however. It was high noon when a party of horsemen, headed by a
+well-informed guide, in the person of the ranch superintendent, "old"
+Lopez, tore along the avenue of mahogany trees at Los Andes.
+
+Lopez, a wizened, shrewd, and sufficiently trustworthy half-breed, was
+not betraying his employer. He was merely carrying out explicit
+instructions. Maseden had no desire to place his faithful servants in
+the power of the Cartagena harpies. He was literally fighting for his
+life now. He meant to meet violence with greater violence, guile with
+deeper guile.
+
+When a Covenanter buckles on the sword, let professional swashbucklers
+take heed; when an honest man plots, let rogues beware. A clear-headed
+American, armed against oppression, can be at once a most lusty warrior
+and the astutest of strategists.
+
+"It is the unexpected that happens," said Disraeli in one of his
+happiest epigrams. A few strenuous hours spent in the Republic of San
+Juan in Maseden's plight would have yielded the cynic material for a
+dozen like quips, if he had survived the experience.
+
+When Maseden reached the _estancia_ he was received by Lopez with even
+greater amazement than was displayed by the peon. Being a privileged
+person, the old fellow expressed himself in absolutely untranslatable
+language. After a lurid preamble, he went on:
+
+"But, thanks to the heavenly ones, I see you again, senor, safe and
+sound, though in a strange livery. Is it true, then, that the president
+is dead?"
+
+"Yes. Both of them, I believe."
+
+Maseden laughed wearily. He was tired, and the day was only beginning.
+He knew, of course, that Lopez meant Valdez, having probably, as yet,
+not so much as heard of Suarez as chief of the Republic.
+
+"I'll explain matters," he said. "Stand by to catch me if I fall when I
+dismount. The devil take all dudes and their vanities! These boots have
+nearly killed me."
+
+In a minute the offending jack boots were off and flung into the
+veranda, the helmet after them. The horse was given over to the care of
+a peon, and Maseden went to his bedroom.
+
+A glance at a big safe showed that the letter lock had defied curiosity,
+and no serious attempt had been made to force it. He saw that the
+drawers in a bureau in the adjoining room had been ransacked hastily.
+Probably, the new president's emissaries were instructed to look for a
+list of "conspirators"--of well-affected citizens, that is--who meant to
+support the honorable _regime_ of Valdez.
+
+"Now, listen while I talk," said Maseden, tearing open the tight-fitting
+blue coat. "I can put faith in you, I suppose?"
+
+"Senor--"
+
+"Yes, I take it for granted. Besides, if you stick to me you may come
+out on top yourself. Valdez is dead. He was murdered last night, and
+Enrico Suarez stepped into his shoes.... Oh, I know Enrico's real name,
+but I haven't a second to spare. I was sentenced to death early this
+morning, and married about an hour ago, just before being taken out to
+be shot.... Well, I got away; how--is of no concern to you. In fact, it
+is better that you shouldn't know.
+
+"A lady will come into possession here. She will call herself the Senora
+Maseden. Senor Porilla will introduce her. She and the lawyer are
+playing some game to suit Suarez and Steinbaum, the German consul at
+Cartagena. My escape may bother them a bit, but I cannot guess just how
+things will work out. What orders did Enrico's lieutenant give you?"
+
+The foreman's wits were rather mixed by his master's extraordinary
+budget of news, but he answered readily.
+
+"He told me, senor, if I valued my life, to see that nothing was
+disturbed in the _estancia_ till the president came or sent a
+representative."
+
+"I thought so. That gives me a sporting chance."
+
+Maseden had changed rapidly into his own clothes, an ordinary riding
+costume suitable to a tropical climate. He opened the safe, stuffed some
+papers into his pockets, also a quantity of gold, silver, and notes.
+
+Then he wrote a letter, and filled in a check. Having addressed and
+stamped the envelope, he handed it to his assistant.
+
+"In five minutes or less, you will be riding at a steady gallop towards
+Cartagena," he said. "If possible, deliver that letter yourself to Senor
+Peguero, the American consul. By 'possible' I mean if you are not held
+up by soldiers or police on the way. Otherwise, keep it concealed, and
+post it when the opportunity serves."
+
+Lopez knew the pleasant methods of his fellow-republicans.
+
+"They may search me, senor," he said.
+
+"Not if you do as I tell you. Curse me fluently enough, and they'll look
+on you as their best friend."
+
+"Senor!" protested the old man.
+
+"Yes. I mean it. Call me all the names you can lay tongue to. When I
+leave this room I'll follow you, revolver in hand. Be careful to scowl
+and act unwillingly. I want some food and a couple of bottles of wine,
+also a leather bottle full of water and a tin cup. Saddle the Cid, and
+see that three or four good measures of corn are put in the saddle-bags
+with the other things.
+
+"When I vanish rush to the stables, pick out a good mustang, and be in
+Cartagena within the hour. If not interfered with, take the letter to
+Senor Peguero. Don't wait for an answer, but hurry at top speed to the
+Castle, where you must tell some one that I came back to the ranch and
+ordered you about at the muzzle of a revolver.
+
+"Lead the soldiers straight here. If Captain Gomez is in command, assure
+him that you rescued his uniform, and he'll be your friend forever.
+Should you meet them on the way, turn back with them. You understand?
+You're for the president and against me."
+
+Lopez smiled till his face was a mass of wrinkles. He was beginning to
+see through the scheme, and was Spaniard enough to appreciate the leaven
+of intrigue.
+
+"But when and where shall I find you, senor, if you are taking a long
+journey?" he said, still grinning.
+
+"Not a mile away, if all goes well. Soon after dusk come to the Grove of
+the Doves at sunset. I'll turn up. If you are delayed, and it is dark,
+hoot like an owl, and I'll answer. If you don't come at all I'll know
+it's too dangerous, and will be there again at dawn, at noon, and at
+sunset to-morrow. Pick up some news in Cartagena. You will be told, of
+course, that I have shot Suarez. Be careful to show your horrified
+surprise, and ask if the dear man is really dead. If he is, try and find
+out who is in power. Of course there's a bare chance that Porilla may be
+made president, in which case I might be given a fair trial when an
+American man-of-war is anchored in the roads.... Oh, by the way, you
+might find out who the lady is I married this morning."
+
+"Senor!" gasped Lopez, in sheer bewilderment.
+
+"I haven't the remotest notion who she is, or even what she looks like,"
+laughed Maseden. "Now, there's no more time for talk," and he raised his
+voice. "Obey me at once, you lazy old hound, or I'll blow your brains
+out! Send a peon for the Cid. Fail me in one single thing, and I'll put
+a bullet through your head!... Margarita! Some bread and meat, quick!
+I'll soon show you who is master in this house. Suarez may give orders
+in Cartagena, but I give them here!"
+
+Lopez hurried out, wringing his hands. Maseden followed, brandishing the
+revolver. Some timid servants, who had gathered in the _patio_ at the
+news of their employer's return, made as though they would run, but he
+stopped them with a fierce threat, and, while munching the food brought
+by an aged housekeeper, behaved and spoke so outrageously that they
+thought he was mad.
+
+Poor creatures! They had served him well in the past. Now he was trying
+to save their lives by giving them something to say against him when
+questioned by the president's henchmen.
+
+Meanwhile, he had a sharp ear for the hoof-beats of a galloping horse.
+Pedro, knowing nothing of the scene in the _estancia_, was still on
+guard at the bend in the avenue, and might be trusted to give warning of
+the enemy's approach. But Maseden was allowed to eat his fill.
+
+A very terrified Lopez brought a hardy-looking mustang to the gateway,
+and his master saw a repeating rifle slung to the saddle. That was a
+thoughtful thing. Such a weapon might be exceedingly useful.
+
+"Where are the cartridges?" he thundered.
+
+"Here, most excellent one," stammered the other, producing a bandolier.
+
+The American swung into the saddle, swore at his co-conspirator
+heartily, and was off.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So Lopez had a fine tale to tell when his mustang loped up to the
+entrance of the Castle of San Juan. He had a fine tale to hear, too, as
+he rode back to the ranch with a body of horse led by the fastidious and
+color-loving Ferdinando Gomez.
+
+The servants, of course, bore out the superintendent's story of
+Maseden's extraordinary behavior. Obviously, no one at the _estancia_
+was to blame for this daring prisoner's second escape. The officer who
+had arrested him at daybreak should have left a guard in charge, but the
+plain truth was that the Cartagena men had been so anxious to take part
+in the stirring doings anticipated at the capital that no heed was given
+to this flaw in the procedure.
+
+That night, however, when Maseden met Lopez at the rendezvous, the
+Spaniard's account of events was not reassuring.
+
+Suarez was living, and not very badly hurt, it was true; but every man's
+hand seemed to be against the foreigner who had tried to kill him.
+Maseden was puzzled, at first, by this excess of patriotism on the part
+of the citizens of Cartagena and San Juan generally.
+
+"What do they think has become of me?" he inquired.
+
+"They argue, senor, that you have ridden into the interior, and
+telegrams have been sent to all the inland towns ordering your instant
+arrest. If you resist you are to be shot dead, and a reward of one
+thousand dollars will be paid when you are identified."
+
+"Do they pay for me dead only?"
+
+"They offer two thousand for you alive, senor."
+
+"Just to have the pleasure of potting me as per schedule.... Any fear
+that you have been followed to-night, old friend?"
+
+"None, senor. The soldiers at the _estancia_ believe you are many miles
+away. Moreover, I have put good wine on the table."
+
+"Who is in charge there? Captain Gomez?"
+
+"No, senor, a stranger. _El capitan_ went back to Cartagena. He nearly
+wept when he saw his boots. You had split them."
+
+"You gave the consul my letter?"
+
+"I dropped it in his box, senor. I thought that was wiser."
+
+"So it was. I should have remembered that. What of the lady?"
+
+"The lady you married, senor?"
+
+"Of course. You wouldn't have me interested in some other lady on my
+wedding day, you old reprobate?"
+
+The half-breed laughed softly.
+
+"Even that wouldn't be so strange a thing as what has really happened,
+senor. No one knows who the lady is. One man, a distant cousin of mine,
+told me he heard she landed from a ship only late last night."
+
+"Great Scott!" muttered Maseden in English, "what a Sphinx-like person!
+She must be descended from the Man in the Iron Mask." Then he went on:
+
+"Didn't your cousin know where she was staying in Cartagena? Surely
+there must have been a good deal of public curiosity about her. Twenty
+people were present at the marriage. It was no secret."
+
+"I understand that she had gone to Senor Steinbaum's house. She fainted
+after the ceremony, my cousin said, and had to be carried into an
+automobile, but he knew nothing more."
+
+The veiled Madeleine had felt the strain, then! Somehow the knowledge of
+her collapse touched a chord of sentiment in Maseden's heart, but his
+own desperate plight effectually banished all other considerations at
+the moment.
+
+True, he was safe for the night, and for many days to come, if the
+foreman's fidelity remained unshaken. The ranch was called Los Andes
+because it contained a chain of little hills all covered with valuable
+timber, among which he could hide without real difficulty.
+
+But of what avail this precarious lurking on his own estate? He must
+take speedy and effectual steps to get clear of San Juan altogether
+until such time as he could secure adequate protection, and have his
+case thrashed out by a tribunal to whose decision even Enrico Suarez,
+the president of the Republic, must bow.
+
+One thing was quite certain--never again could he settle down in
+unmolested possession of his property. Though the shooting of Suarez was
+an unfortunate necessity, its effect would be enduring and disastrous.
+
+He had thought out every phase of the problem during the long, hot hours
+beneath the trees, and the half-breed's account of the trend of public
+feeling decided his adoption of the boldest course of all. He would go
+to Cartagena, where he was hardly known, save to a few merchants and
+shopkeepers, a banker and one or two members of the Consular community,
+and board some outward-bound vessel.
+
+Fortunately, he had plenty of money, and, glory be, could speak both
+Spanish and the San Juan patois like a native. If his luck held, he
+would cheat Suarez yet.
+
+"Lopez," he said, after a long pause, "I must leave the ranch for many a
+day, probably forever. If I stay here I'll only plunge you into trouble
+and get myself captured. Now, do me one last service. Have you any
+clothes belonging to that _vaquero_ nephew of yours who broke his neck
+in a race last Easter?"
+
+"I have his overalls, a _fiesta_ jacket, some shirts and a sombrero,
+senor."
+
+"Bring them, and speedily. I'll give you a good price."
+
+"They are yours for nothing, senor."
+
+"I don't deal on those terms, Lopez. Off with you. I'll wait here."
+
+"Anything else, senor?"
+
+"Yes. I was nearly forgetting. Bring his saddle, too. My own saddle
+might be recognized. I have a long ride before me, so hurry."
+
+Within half an hour the good-hearted old foreman was richer by five
+hundred dollars, while Maseden, a dashing cowboy, though unkempt as to
+face and hands, was riding across country by starlight.
+
+He did not tell Lopez his real objective. There was no need. The old
+fellow occasionally indulged in a burst of dissipation, and if his
+tongue wagged then he might blurt out some boastful phrase which would
+bring down on him the merciless wrath of the authorities.
+
+At dawn the fugitive received another slice of real luck. He had just
+entered a main road leading from San Luis, a town thirty miles from
+Cartagena, when he came upon a cowherd sitting by the roadside and
+bemoaning his misfortunes. The man was commissioned to drive some cattle
+to a sale-ring in the city, and had scratched an ankle rather badly
+while whacking one of the steers out of a bed of thorns.
+
+Such an incident was common enough in his life, but on this occasion
+either the thorn was poisonous or some foreign matter had lodged in the
+wound, because the limb had swollen greatly and was so painful that he
+could hardly walk.
+
+Maseden played the Good Samaritan. He ascertained the drover's name, his
+master's, and the address of the salesman; the rest was easy. Helping
+the sufferer into a wayside hovel, he promised to send back a messenger
+later with an official receipt, took charge of the animals himself, and
+reached Cartagena as Ramon Aliones, the accredited representative of a
+San Luis rancher.
+
+The sale-ring was near the harbor, and he mounted a man on his own
+broncho to deliver the drover's voucher for the safe arrival of the herd
+at its destination. He asked for, and obtained, a duplicate, which he
+kept. This same emissary readily disposed of the horse and saddle at a
+ruinous price when told that the newcomer was not only thirsty, but
+meant to see the sights of the capital.
+
+A cheap restaurant, some wineshops, and a vile billiard saloon provided
+shelter for the rest of the day. Before night fell, Maseden had
+ascertained three things: He was supposed to be riding hard into the
+interior; the lady he had married was really a stranger and was
+Steinbaum's guest, and a large steamer, the _Southern Cross_, flying the
+Stars and Stripes, was due to leave port at midnight.
+
+She should have sailed some hours earlier, but the drastic changes in
+the marine department entailed by the day's happenings had delayed
+certain formalities connected with her manifests.
+
+"For a time, senor," explained the ship's chandler who gave him this
+latter information, "no one would sign anything. You see, a name on a
+paper would prove conclusively which president you favored. You
+understand?"
+
+Maseden understood perfectly.
+
+"It is well that you and I, senor, have no truck with these presidents,
+or we might be in trouble," he laughed. "As it is, another bottle, and
+to the devil with all politicians!"
+
+Under cover of the darkness the American slipped away from his boon
+companions, now comfortably drunk at his expense. Having no luggage, he
+bought a second-hand leather trunk and some cheap underclothing, such as
+a muleteer might reasonably possess. He also secured the repeating rifle
+and cartridges which he had left in a restaurant, and, thus reinforced,
+made for the Plaza, where Cartagenians of both sexes and all ages were
+gathered to enjoy the cool breeze that comes from the Pacific with
+sunset.
+
+From that point he knew he could see the _Southern Cross_ lying at
+anchor in the roadstead. She was there, sure enough, nearly a mile out,
+and he was puzzling his wits for a pretext to hire a boat and board her
+without attracting notice when chance solved the problem for him.
+
+Two men passed. They were talking English, and he heard one addressing
+the other by name.
+
+"Tell you what, Sturgess," the speaker was saying, "I'd be hull down on
+Cartagena to-night if the skipper would only bring up at Valparaiso. But
+his first port of call is Buenos Ayres, and I've got to make Valparaiso
+before I see good old New York again, so here I'm fixed till a coasting
+steamer comes along. Great Caesar's ghost, I wish I were going with you!"
+
+The second man, Sturgess, was carrying a suitcase, and the two were
+evidently making for a short pier which supplied landing places for
+small craft at various stages of the tide.
+
+Maseden quickened his pace, overtook them, and said in Spanish that he
+wished to book a passage to Buenos Ayres on the _Southern Cross_, and,
+if the Senor Americano would permit him to board the vessel in his boat,
+he (Maseden) would gladly carry the bag to the pier.
+
+Sturgess evidently did not understand Spanish, and asked his companion
+to interpret. He laughed on hearing the queer offer.
+
+"Guess I can handle the grip myself, and the gallant _vaquero_ is pretty
+well loaded with his own outfit," he said, "but he is welcome to a trip
+on my catamaran, if it's of any service."
+
+Maseden, however, insisted on giving some return for the favor, and
+secured the suitcase. Now, if any sharp-eyed watcher on the pier saw
+him, he would pass as the traveler's servant.
+
+Within half an hour he was aboard the ship, and had bargained for a
+spare berth in the forecastle with the crew. He would be compelled to
+rough it, and remain as dirty and disheveled as possible until the ship
+reached Buenos Ayres. Obviously, no matter what his personal wrongs
+might be, he could not make the captain of the _Southern Cross_ a party
+to the escape from Cartagena of the man who had nearly succeeded in
+ridding the republic of its president.
+
+But the prospect of hard fare and worse accommodations did not trouble
+him at all. He had nearly ten thousand dollars in his pockets. If the
+note sent through Lopez to the American Consul was acted on promptly, a
+further sum of fifteen thousand dollars lying to his credit in a local
+bank was now in safe keeping.
+
+Really, considering that he had been so near death that morning, he had
+a good deal to be thankful for if he never saw Cartagena or the Los
+Andes ranch again.
+
+As for the marriage, what of it? A knot so easily tied could be untied
+with equal readiness. He hadn't the least doubt but that an American
+court of law would declare the ceremony illegal.
+
+At any rate, he could jump that fence when he reached it. At present, in
+sporting phrase, he was going strong with a lot in hand.
+
+He kept well out of sight when a government launch came off, and a port
+official boarded the vessel.
+
+He never knew what a narrow escape he had when the chief steward who
+acted as purser, was asked if any new addition had been made to the
+passenger list. The ship's officer was not a good Spanish scholar. He
+thought the question applied to the cargo, and answered "no."
+
+Then, after a wait that seemed interminable, the snorting and growling
+of a steam winch and the unwilling rasp of the anchor chain chanted a
+symphonic chorus in Maseden's ears. Those harsh sounds sang of freedom
+and life, of golden years on a most excellent earth instead of an
+eternity in the grave. He came on deck to watch the Castle of San Juan
+dwindle and vanish in the deep, blue glamour of a perfect tropical
+night.
+
+He was standing on the open part of the main deck, close to the fore
+hold, when he heard English voices from the promenade deck high above
+his head.
+
+A man's somewhat querulous accents reached him first.
+
+"Well, at this time two days ago, I little thought I'd be on a steamer
+going south to-night," said the speaker.
+
+There was no answer, though it was evident that the petulant philosopher
+was not addressing the silent air.
+
+"I suppose you girls are still mooning about that fellow getting away
+from the Castle?" grumbled the same voice. "I tell you he has no
+earthly chance of winning clear. Steinbaum will see to that. His record
+is none too good, and a question in the American Senate would just about
+finish him, even in San Juan. So Mr. Philip Alexander Maseden might just
+as well have been shot yesterday morning as to-day or to-morrow. They're
+hot on his track now, Steinbaum told me--
+
+"Eh? Yes, I know he did _me_ a good turn, but, damn it all, that was
+merely because he was going to die, not because he was a first-rate life
+for an insurance office. It was no business of mine that he and Suarez
+couldn't agree.... Oh, let's go to our cabins! Tears always put my
+nerves on a raw edge! Anyone would think you had lost a real husband on
+your wedding day!"
+
+There was a movement of shadowy forms. Maseden thought he could
+distinguish a woman's white hand rest for an instant on the ship's rail.
+Was that the hand he thought he would remember until the Day of
+Judgment? He could not say.
+
+The one fact that lifted itself out of the welter of incoherent fancies
+whirling in his mind was an almost incontrovertible one. If his ears had
+not deceived him, he and his unknown but lawful wife were
+fellow-passengers on board the _Southern Cross_!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+"FIND THE LADY"
+
+
+A slight mist hung over the sea--sure outcome of the tremendous range of
+the thermometer between noon and midnight in a tropical clime. The sky
+was cloudless, and the stars clustered in myriads.
+
+Though the Southern Hemisphere falls far short of the glory of the north
+in constellations of the first magnitude, the extraordinary clearness of
+the upper air near the equator enhances the stellar display. It would
+almost seem that nature knows she may veil her ample splendors in the
+north, but must make the most of her scantier charms in the south.
+
+Maseden, swinging on his heel in sheer bewilderment, suddenly found
+himself face to face with the Southern Cross, hanging low above the
+horizon. Had an impossible meteor flamed forth from the familiar cluster
+of stars and shot in awe-inspiring flight across the whole arc of the
+heavens northward to the line, it would not have surprised him more than
+the discovery that his "wife" was on board the ship.
+
+That was a stupendous fact before which the whirl of adventure of the
+long day now drawing to a close subsided into calm remoteness.
+
+"Madeleine," the woman he had married, was his fellow-passenger! He
+would surely see her many times during the voyage to Buenos Ayres! He
+would hear her voice, which he could not fail to recognize.
+
+She, on her part, would probably identify him at the first glance. How
+would she handle an extraordinary situation? Would she claim him as her
+husband, repudiate him scornfully, or utterly ignore him? He could not
+even guess.
+
+There was no telling what a woman would do who had elected to marry a
+man whom she had never met, whose very name, in all likelihood, she had
+never heard, merely because he happened to be a prisoner condemned to
+speedy death.
+
+Yet she could not be a particularly cold-blooded person. She had wept
+for him, had whispered her heartfelt grief; had promised to pray for and
+think of him always. Even the man with the high-pitched voice of a
+hypochondriac--presumably, from the manner of his address, her
+father--had hinted that her suffering had already passed the bounds set
+for one who, to serve her own ends, had gone through that amazing
+ceremony.
+
+Maseden did not actually marshal his thoughts thus clearly. If compelled
+to bend his wits to the task, he might have spoken or written in such
+wise. But an active brain has its own haphazard methods of weighing a
+new and distracting problem; it will ask and answer a dozen startling
+questions simultaneously.
+
+In the midst of Maseden's strange and formless imaginings the ship's
+course was changed a couple of points to the southward, and the Southern
+Cross was shut out of sight by the forecastle head. Then, and not until
+then, did the coincidence of the vessel's name with that of the
+constellation occur to his bemused wits.
+
+He laughed cheerfully.
+
+"By gad!" he said, "all the signs of the zodiac must have clustered
+about my horoscope on this 15th of January. When I get ashore I must
+find an astrologer and ask him to expound."
+
+The sound of his own voice brought a belated warning to Maseden of the
+folly he had committed in speaking aloud.
+
+There was no other occupant of the fore deck at the moment. A look-out
+man in the bows could not possibly have overheard, because of the
+whistling of the breeze created by the ship's momentum and the plash of
+the curved waves set up by the cut-water, and it was highly improbable
+that words uttered in a conversational tone would have reached the
+bridge.
+
+But behind him rose the three decks of the superstructure, and there
+might be eavesdroppers on the promenade deck or in one of the two dark
+gangways running aft.
+
+He glanced over his shoulder to right and left. Apparently he had
+escaped this time. No matter what developments took place in the near
+future, he was by no means anxious as yet to reveal his nationality.
+Each hour brought home, more and more forcibly, the misfortune of the
+chance which left him no alternative but the shooting of Suarez that
+morning.
+
+The act was absolutely essential to his own safety, but it put him
+clearly out of court. At any rate, the authorities of no South American
+state would listen to a recital of his earlier wrongs. If, as was highly
+probable, a sensational account of the attempted assassination of the
+new president had been tacked on to the telegrams announcing the _coup
+d'etat_ in San Juan, and he, Maseden, were painted as a desperado of
+mark, it might even be feared that the settled and respectable Argentine
+Republic would arrest him and endeavor to send him back to San Juan for
+trial.
+
+Of course, the United States Consul in Buenos Ayres would have something
+to say about it, but there was a very real danger of consular efforts
+being overruled. No matter how distasteful the role, Philip Alexander
+Maseden must continue to masquerade as Ramon Aliones, _vaquero_, until
+he could leave the ship and assume another alias.
+
+It was soon borne in on him how narrow was the margin which still
+separated him from disaster. He had gone to his berth, an unsavory hutch
+next to a larger cabin tenanted by deck-hands, when the door was thrust
+wide (he had left it half open while undressing, there being no electric
+switch within) and a lamp flashed in his eyes.
+
+A short, stockily-built man, whom Maseden rightly took for the captain,
+stood there, accompanied by another man, seemingly a Spanish steward.
+
+"Now, then," came the gruff question, "what's this I hear about your
+speaking English to yourself? Who are you? What's your name?"
+
+Luckily, Maseden was so surprised that he did not answer. The swarthy
+steward, a thin, lantern-jawed person, grinned. Maseden saw that the man
+was wearing canvas shoes with india-rubber soles, and guessed the truth
+instantly.
+
+His nerve had been tested many times that day; nor did it fail him now.
+Gazing blankly at the captain, he said, in Spanish, that he did not
+understand.
+
+"Tell him, Alfonso, that you heard him speaking English a few minutes
+since.... Hi, you! Stop that! No smoking in your berth."
+
+Maseden was rolling a cigarette in true Spanish style. The captain was
+obviously suspicious, so the situation called for a touch of stage
+artistry.
+
+Alfonso translated, pricking his ears for Maseden's reply. But he hailed
+from the east coast, whereas Maseden used the _patois_ of San Juan.
+
+"You made a natural mistake, senor," said the American easily. "I was
+talking to the stars, a habit of mine when alone on the _pampas_, and
+their names would sound somewhat like the words of a barbarous tongue."
+
+"And a foolish habit, too!" commented the captain when he heard the
+explanation. "Do you know any of 'em?" and he glanced up at the strip of
+sky visible from where he stood.
+
+The smiling _vaquero_ stepped out on to the open deck. Oh, yes, all the
+chief stars were old friends of his. He pointed to the "Sea-serpent,"
+the "Crow," and the "Great Dog," giving the Spanish equivalents.
+
+The steward, of course, densely ignorant in such things, and already
+half convinced that he had blundered, was only anxious now to avoid
+being rated by the captain for having gone to him with a cock-and-bull
+story. Somehow, Maseden sensed this fact, and made smooth the path.
+
+"They are strange names," he said with a laugh, "but we of the plains
+often have to find the way on land as a sailor on the sea."
+
+"Has he any papers?" demanded the captain, apparently satisfied that the
+passenger was really acquainted with the chief star-groups.
+
+Maseden produced that thrice-fortunate duplicate of the receipt for
+cattle brought from the San Luis ranch to Cartagena by Ramon Aliones
+that very day. The captain examined it, and turned wrathfully on the
+steward.
+
+"Be off to the devil!" he growled. "Find some other job than bothering
+me with your fool's tales!"
+
+When Alfonso had vanished, he added, seemingly as an afterthought:
+
+"If I was a _vaquero_ with a dirty face, I wouldn't worry about clean
+fingernails or wear silk underclothing, and I'd do my star-gazing in
+dumb show!"
+
+With that he, too, strode away. Undoubtedly, the captain of the
+_Southern Cross_ was no fool.
+
+Five minutes later the silk vest and pants which Maseden had not
+troubled to change while donning the gay attire of old Lopez's nephew,
+went into the Pacific through the small port-hole which redeemed the
+cabin's otherwise stuffy atmosphere. Happily the bunk, though crude,
+was clean, and long enough to hold a tall man.
+
+Maseden fancied he would lie awake for hours. In reality, he was dead
+tired, and slept the sleep of sheer exhaustion until wakened by a
+loud-voiced intimation that all crimson-hued Dagoes must rouse
+themselves if they didn't want to be stirred up by a hose-pipe.
+
+Now, if there was one thing more than another that Maseden liked when
+on board ship, it was a cold salt-water bath. But he dared neither
+take a bath nor wash his face. Personal cleanliness is not a marked
+characteristic of South American cowboys. That he should display
+close-cropped hair instead of an abundance of oiled and curly tresses
+was a fact singular enough in itself, without inviting attention by
+the use of soap and water.
+
+Perforce, he remained filthy. The captain's hint was very much to the
+point.
+
+The _Southern Cross_ was not a regular passenger boat. Primarily a
+trader, carrying nitrate or grain to home ports, and coal thence to
+various points on the southern or western seaboard of South America,
+she was equipped with a few cabins, about a dozen all told, on the upper
+deck.
+
+The so-called second-class accommodation was several degrees worse than
+the steerage on a crack Atlantic liner. That is to say, the human
+freight ranked a long way after cargo. The food was plentiful, though
+rough. Even for saloon passengers there was neither stewardess nor
+doctor.
+
+As a matter of course, a passenger list would be an absurdity. The chief
+steward acted as purser, and knew the names of all on board after five
+minutes' study of his ledger. Passengers and ship's officers soon became
+acquainted. Within twenty-four hours Maseden had ascertained that a Mr.
+James Gray, with his two daughters, occupied staterooms; but, for the
+life of him, he could not learn the ladies' Christian names.
+
+He cudgeled his brains to try and remember whether or not his "wife" had
+signed the register as Madeleine Gray; but the effort failed completely.
+He knew why, for the best of reasons; yet the knowledge did not render
+failure less tantalizing.
+
+It is one thing to be dazzled by the prospect of escape from the seeming
+certainty of death within a few minutes, but quite another to be on the
+same ship as the lady you have married two days earlier, yet neither
+know her name nor be positive as to her identity.
+
+This, however, was literally Maseden's predicament when chance favored
+him with a long, steady look at the Misses Gray. He could not be
+mistaken, because there were no other ladies on board.
+
+Thus when a very pretty girl, wearing a muslin dress and hat of Leghorn
+straw, appeared at the forward rail of the promenade deck and gazed
+wistfully out over the sea, Maseden's heart fluttered more violently
+than he would have thought possible as the effect of a casual glance at
+any woman.
+
+So, then, this fair, slim creature, whose unheeding eyes had dwelt on
+him for a fleeting second ere they sought the horizon, was his wife! It
+was an extraordinary notion; fantastic, yet not wholly unpleasing. It
+would be rather a joke, if opportunity offered, to flirt with her. He
+had never flirted with any girl, and hardly knew how to begin; but much
+reading had taught him that the lady herself might prove an admirable
+coach if so minded.
+
+Of course, there was room for error in one respect. He might have
+married the sister, who, thus far, nearly midday, had not been visible
+during daylight. He calculated the pros and cons of the situation. If
+his "wife" was feeling the strain of that unnerving experience in the
+great hall of the Castle of San Juan, she might now be resting in her
+stateroom. But why should the sister, on whose shoulders, one would
+suppose, sat no such heavy load of care, come on deck alone and scan the
+blue Pacific with that dreamy air?
+
+Yes, by Jove, this really must be his wife! Somehow, poetic justice
+demanded that she, and not her sister, should meet him thus
+unconsciously.
+
+In covert fashion he began to study her. The deck on which she stood was
+fully twenty feet above him, and she was still further separated from
+him by some thirty feet of the fore hatch, but he noted that her eyes
+were of the Parma violet tint so frequently met with in the heroines of
+fiction, yet all too seldom seen in real life. Being a mere man, he was
+not aware that blue eyes in shadow assume that exact tint. At any rate,
+as eyes, they were more than satisfactory.
+
+Her nose was well modeled, with broad, flexible nostrils, unfailing
+sign of good health and an equable disposition. Her lips were prettily
+curved, and the oval face, framed in a cluster of brown hair, was poised
+on a perfectly molded neck. She owned shapely arms; he had already had
+occasion to admire her hands; a small, neatly-shod foot was visible
+under the lowest rail as the girl leaned on her elbows in an attitude
+of unstudied grace.
+
+Altogether, Mr. Maseden liked the looks of Mrs. Maseden!
+
+He was beginning to revel in sentiment when the edifice of seemingly
+substantial fact so swiftly constructed by a fertile imagination was
+dissipated into space by hearing a voice--_the_ voice, he was
+sure--coming from some unseen part of the upper deck.
+
+"Ah! There you are, Nina!" it said. "I've been looking for you
+everywhere! How long have you been here?"
+
+Nina! So this fairy was only the _sister_. Maseden smiled grimly behind
+a cloud of cigarette smoke because of the absurd shock which the words
+administered. He was sharply aware of a sense of disappointment, a
+feeling so far-fetched as to be almost ludicrous.
+
+What in the world did it matter to which of these two he was married?
+In all probability he would never exchange a word with either, and his
+first serious business on reaching a civilized country would be to get
+rid of the incubus with which a set of phenomenal circumstances alone
+had saddled him.
+
+At last, however, he would really see his wife, and thus end one phase
+of a curious entanglement. Nina had half turned. Evidently she realized
+that Madeleine meant to join her. Maseden leaned back against the
+external paneling of his cubby-hole and looked aloft now with curiosity
+at once quickened and undisguised.
+
+But he was fated to suffer many minor shocks that day. Madeleine
+appeared, and presented such an exact replica of Nina that, at first
+sight, and in the strong shadows cast by the canvas screen which alone
+rendered that portion of the deck habitable while the sun was up, it was
+practically impossible for a stranger to differentiate between them.
+
+Maseden discovered later that Madeleine was twenty-two and Nina nearly
+twenty-four; but the marked resemblance between the pair, accentuated
+by their trick of dressing alike, led people to take them for twins.
+Moreover, each so admirably duplicated the other in voice and mannerisms
+that only near relatives or intimate friends could be certain which was
+speaking if the owner of the voice remained invisible.
+
+For a little while, too, Maseden's mind was reduced to chaos by hearing
+Nina address her sister as "Madge." He was vouchsafed the merest glimpse
+of Madge's face, because, after a quick, heedless look at him and at a
+half-caste sailor readjusting the hatches covering the fore hold, she
+turned her back to the rail and said something that Maseden could not
+overhear.
+
+A man joined the two girls, whereupon Nina also faced aft. The newcomer,
+standing well away under the screen, could not be seen at all, and
+Maseden thought it must be Mr. Gray, the querulous person whose
+outspoken utterances had first warned Maseden that his wife was on
+board.
+
+But he erred again. Some comment passed by Nina raised a laugh, and
+Maseden recognized the voice of Mr. Sturgess, whose baggage he had
+carried overnight.
+
+"I guess _not_!" he was saying, with a humorous stress on each word. "As
+a summer resort, San Juan disagreed with my complaint, Miss Gray."
+
+"Have you been ill, then?" came the natural query.
+
+"No, but I might have been had I remained there too long," was the
+answer. "A change of president in one of these small republics is like a
+bad railroad smash--you never know who'll get hurt. I've a notion that
+Mr. Gray must have felt sort of relieved when he brought you two young
+ladies safe and sound aboard this ship."
+
+"We didn't see anything specially alarming," said Nina. "Madge went out
+twice during the day with Mr. Steinbaum, a trader, and the streets were
+very quiet, she thought."
+
+Madge! Was "Madge" a family diminutive for Madeleine? Maseden neither
+knew nor cared. Nina's harmless chatter had told him the truth. Madge
+most certainly did find the streets quiet, if the story brought by Lopez
+from Cartagena was correct; namely, that she had been carried out of the
+Castle in a dead faint.
+
+And now the heartless creature was actually laughing!
+
+"One cannot take a South American revolution quite seriously--it always
+has something comical about it," she cried, and it was astounding how
+closely the one sister's voice resembled the other's. "I understand that
+some poor people were shot the night before last, but I saw a man who
+keeps a restaurant opposite Mr. Steinbaum's house produce a device with
+flags and a scroll. On the scroll was painted 'Long Live Valdez.' He
+drew some fresh letters over the first part of the name, dabbed on
+plenty of black and white paint, and the new legend ran 'Long Live
+Suarez.' The whole thing was done, and the flags were out, in less than
+five minutes."
+
+Sturgess evidently asked for and obtained permission to smoke. He came
+to the rail. Both girls faced forward again, and Maseden was free to
+compare them.
+
+Madge, or Madeleine, as he preferred to style her, seemed to be a trifle
+paler than Nina. Otherwise, her likeness to her sister was almost
+uncanny, if that ill-omened word might be applied to two remarkably
+pretty girls. Neither of the girls wore gloves, but Maseden looked in
+vain for the heavy gold wedding-ring which Steinbaum's thoroughness had
+supplied when wanted.
+
+At that moment an officer appeared on the main deck. The fore hold had
+to be opened, it seemed. A quartermaster, summoned from the forecastle,
+hoisted a block and tackle to a derrick. The noise effectually drowned
+the talk of the trio on the upper deck until the tackle was rigged, and
+a couple of hatches were removed. The half-caste sailor was about to
+descend into the hold just as Sturgess's somewhat staccato accents
+reached Maseden clearly again.
+
+"Say, did you ladies hear of the American who was to be shot early
+yesterday morning? A most thrilling yarn was spun by a friend of mine
+who knows Cartagena from A to Z. He said--"
+
+Maseden was on the alert to detect the slightest variation of expression
+on Madeleine's face. She bent forward, her hands tightly clutching the
+rail, and darted a piteous under look at her sister. Thus it happened
+that Maseden alone was gazing upward, and he saw, out of the tail of
+his eye, the heavy block detaching itself from the derrick and falling
+straight on top of the sailor, who had a leg over the coaming of the
+hatch and a foot on the first rung of the iron ladder leading down into
+the hold.
+
+With a quickness born of many a tussle with a bucking broncho, Maseden
+leaped, caught the rope held by the quartermaster, and jerked it
+violently. The block missed the half-caste by a few inches, and clanged
+in the hold far beneath.
+
+The tenth part of a second decided whether the sailor should be dashed
+headlong into the depths or left wholly unscathed. As it was, he and
+every onlooker realized that the rakish-looking _vaquero_ had saved his
+life.
+
+In the impulsive way of his race, the man darted forward, threw his arms
+around Maseden's neck, and kissed him. To his very great surprise, his
+rescuer thrust him off, and said angrily:
+
+"Don't be such a damn fool!"
+
+An exclamation, almost a slight scream, came from the upper deck.
+Maseden knew in an instant that this time he had blundered beyond
+repair. Madeleine had heard his voice, and had recognized him. Moreover,
+the officer, the quartermaster, even the grateful Spaniard, were eyeing
+him with unmixed amazement.
+
+The fat _was_ in the fire this time! In another moment would come
+denunciation and arrest, and then--back to the firing squad! What should
+he do?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+ROMANCE RECEIVES A COLD DOUCHE
+
+
+But none of these thoughts showed in Maseden's face. He laughed easily
+and explained in voluble Spanish that he swore in English occasionally,
+having picked up the correct formula from an American senor with whom
+he once took a hunting trip into the interior.
+
+The sailor, hearing this flow of a language he understood, and not able
+to measure the idiomatic fluency of Maseden's English, accepted the
+story without demur, but the fourth officer and quartermaster, both
+Americans, were evidently puzzled.
+
+He soon got rid of the too-effusive half-caste, and retired to his
+berth. Thank goodness, since the one person on board mainly concerned
+was perforce aware of his identity, he was free to wash his face and
+take a bath! To oblige a lady he would have remained unwashed all the
+way to Buenos Ayres; now, every other consideration might go hang.
+
+Finding a steward, he gave further cause for bewilderment by asking to
+be allowed to use a bath-room.
+
+Greatly to Maseden's relief, his lapse into the vernacular seemed to
+evoke little or no comment subsequently. The captain heard of it, but
+was far too irritated by the faulty behavior of a ring-bolt (examination
+showed a bad flaw in the metal) to pay any special heed. As for the
+half-caste sailor, his gratitude to Maseden took the form of describing
+him admiringly as "the _vaquero_ who could swear like an _Americano_,"
+an equivocal compliment which actually fostered the belief that Maseden
+was what he represented himself to be--a vagabond cowboy migrating from
+one coast of the great South American continent to the other.
+
+His peculiar habits, therefore, shown in such trivial details as a
+desire for personal cleanliness and a certain fastidiousness at table,
+were attributed to the same exotic tutelage. Of course, when he spoke
+any intelligent Spaniard could have detected faults in phrase or
+pronunciation, but he had a ready resource in the _patois_ of San Juan,
+and no man on board was competent to assess him accurately by both
+standards.
+
+He settled down quickly to the exigencies of life at sea. Five days
+after leaving Cartagena he was an expert in the matter of keeping his
+feet when the vessel was rolling or pitching, or performing a corkscrew
+movement which combined the worst features of each.
+
+When the _Southern Cross_ entered more southerly latitudes her
+passengers were given ample opportunity to test their skill in this
+respect. The weather grew colder each day, and with the drop in the
+thermometer came gray skies and rough seas.
+
+There are two tracks for ocean-going steamers bound down the west coast.
+The open Pacific offers no hindrance to safe navigation, except an
+occasional heavy gale. The inner course, through Smyth's Channel, is
+sheltered but tortuous, and the commander of the _Southern Cross_
+elected to save time by heading direct for the Straits of Tierra del
+Fuego. The ship was speedy and well-found. A stiff nor'wester tended
+rather to help her along, and she should reach Buenos Ayres within
+fifteen days.
+
+Maseden contrived to buy a heavy poncho, or cloak, from one of the crew.
+Wrapped in this useful garment, he patrolled the small space of deck at
+his disposal, and kept an unfailing eye for the reappearance at the
+for'ard rail of one or other of the Misses Gray; yet day after day
+slipped by and they remained obstinately hidden.
+
+Once or twice, when the weather permitted, he climbed to the fore deck,
+whence he could scan a large part of the promenade deck on both the port
+and starboard sides. On the port side, however, a wind-screen
+intervened.
+
+Twice he thought he saw Madeleine Gray leaning on the port rail, talking
+to Sturgess--and wearing the very dress in which she was married! Either
+by accident or design she vanished almost instantly on each occasion.
+
+It was nonsensical, of course, but he began to harbor a sentiment of
+annoyance with Sturgess, who, by some queer contriving of fortune,
+seemed to be drawn rather to the company of Madeleine than of sister
+Nina. Any real feeling of jealousy would have been absurd, almost
+ludicrous, under the circumstances.
+
+For all that, Maseden couldn't understand why the fellow apparently
+devoted himself to the company of one sister to the neglect, or
+intentional exclusion, of the other; while the lady's behavior, assuming
+that she knew of the presence of her "husband" within a few yards, was,
+to say the least, reprehensible if not provocative.
+
+By this time, Maseden was fully convinced that his wife had recognized
+him. Oddly enough, the somewhat bizarre costume he wore would help in
+betraying him to her eyes. She had seen him only when arrayed in even
+more startling guise. Her memory of him, therefore, would depend wholly
+on his features and physique, and the incongruity of an unmistakably
+American voice coming from a _vaquero_ could not fail to be enhanced by
+the gala attire affected by that erstwhile gay spark, old Lopez's
+nephew.
+
+Moreover, Maseden had bribed the forecastle steward to find out from one
+of the saloon attendants what had happened to the two ladies on the
+promenade deck when the pulley fell. One of them, the man said, was so
+startled that she nearly fainted, and the American senor had carried her
+to a chair.
+
+Obviously, on an American vessel, with American officers, engineers, and
+quartermasters, for one whose only tongue was Spanish it was difficult
+to extract information. The Spanish-speaking members of the crew knew
+little or nothing of the passengers, while Maseden's part of the ship
+was as completely shut off from the saloon as are the dwellings of the
+poor from the palaces of the rich.
+
+Many times was he tempted to change his quarters, and thus tacitly admit
+his identity; but cold prudence as often forbade any such folly. Even if
+the full extent of his adventures in Cartagena were unknown on board, it
+was a quite certain thing that the story must have reached Buenos Ayres
+long ago.
+
+Bad as was the odor of the republic in the outer world, it still
+possessed the rights of a sovereign state, and the last thing Maseden
+desired was an enforced return to the Castle of San Juan, there to stand
+his trial anew for conspiracy, plus an undoubted attempt to murder the
+president! That would be a stiff price to pay merely in order to sate
+his curiosity as to the motive underlying a woman's strange whim.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the sixth night of the voyage the opportunity for which he was
+looking was offered as unexpectedly as it had been persistently withheld
+earlier.
+
+After a very unpleasant day of wind and rain the weather improved
+markedly. True, the sky had not cleared, and the darkness which fell
+swiftly over a leaden sea was of a quality almost palpable.
+
+Had he troubled to recall the sealore gleaned from many books of travel,
+Maseden would have known that such a change was by no means indicative
+of smoother seas and days of sunshine in the near future. The ship was
+merely crossing the center of a cyclonic area. Ere morning she would
+probably meet a fiercer gale than that through which she had just
+passed.
+
+Such minor considerations as to the state of the elements carried little
+weight, however, when contrasted with the immediate and solid fact that
+Maseden, giving an upward eye to the promenade deck about nine o'clock,
+discerned a solitary female figure leaning on the rail.
+
+Since there were no other women on board, this must be either Madeleine
+or Nina. As it happened, the forecastle was deserted, in the sense that
+its usual occupants were either asleep or busied with the duties of the
+hour. Above the girl's head paced the officer of the watch. Up in the
+bows were two men on the look-out. Otherwise, the fore part of the ship
+was untenanted save for Maseden himself and the slim, cloaked form which
+seemed to be peering aimlessly into the impenetrable wall of darkness
+ahead.
+
+Apparently the wind had died down. There were no sounds save the normal
+ones--the onward rush of the ship, the swish of an occasional swell
+cleft by the cut-water, the steady thud of the screw, and the equally
+regular creaking of planks and panels swollen by heavy rain after
+undergoing tropical heat.
+
+It was a night rich with suggestion of mystery and romance. Some new
+ichor stirred in Maseden's veins, firing his spirit to emprise. Come
+what might, he resolved to have speech with the lady, be she wife in
+name or merely sister-in-law!
+
+But how contrive it? If he hailed her from the main deck, the officer on
+the bridge would overhear, and straightway play a domineering hand in
+the game. If he went aft, through a narrow gangway leading past the
+engine-room and various officers' cabins, he could reach a sliding door
+giving access to the saloon companion, but his presence there would
+undoubtedly be noticed, evoking a stern order to betake himself to his
+own quarters.
+
+The third method was the direct one. A series of iron rungs led
+vertically up the face of the superstructure, and, as sailors
+occasionally passed that way, the girl would not necessarily be
+alarmed by seeing a man coming up.
+
+The officer on duty might detect him, of course; but even he was liable
+to mistake him for one of the ship's company.
+
+It has been seen already that Maseden was of the rare order of mankind
+which, having once made up its mind, acts unhesitatingly. No sooner had
+he elected for the iron ladder than he had crossed the deck and was
+mounting rapidly. It chanced that the officer did not see him.
+
+In a few seconds he was standing on the promenade deck. Then he had an
+attack of stage-fright. Many an actor has strode valiantly from wings to
+footlights only to find his tongue glued to the roof of his mouth. This
+was Maseden's "star turn," and not a word could he utter!
+
+By a singular coincidence, the lady was equally nervous. She gave scant
+attention to the commonplace occurrence that a member of the crew should
+walk aft from the dim interior of the forecastle and hurry up the
+ladder, but the situation altered dramatically when a faint gleam from
+a window of the smoking-room fell on the tarnished silver braid and gilt
+buttons of Maseden's jacket of black cloth and velvet.
+
+The light, such as it was, fell directly on the girl's face as she
+turned towards the intruder. Her eyes, blue sapphires by day, were now
+strangely dark. Maseden saw that her expression was one of panic if not
+of actual terror. He was unpleasantly reminded of a bird fascinated by a
+snake; the displeasing simile stirred his wits and unlocked his tongue.
+
+"I'm sorry if I have frightened you," he said quietly, "but the chance
+of securing a few words of explanation seemed too good to be lost. You
+owe me something of the kind, don't you?"
+
+"Why?" came the truly feminine reply.
+
+"Because, unless I am greatly mistaken, you are the lady whom I had the
+honor of marrying in the Castle of San Juan at Cartagena. You may be
+known as Miss Madge Gray on board this ship, but your name in the
+register was Madeleine."
+
+"My name is Nina, not Madge."
+
+Maseden was taken aback for a few seconds, yet the fact could not be
+gainsaid that the speaker, whether Madge or Nina, did not repudiate the
+general accuracy of his statement. Moreover, he was almost sure of his
+ground now. His "wife" was probably flirting with Sturgess. Nina, as
+usual, was left to her own devices, since the forecastle steward had
+reported that Senor Gray was ill and confined to his cabin.
+
+"At any rate, you do not deny that either your sister or yourself is
+legally entitled to pose as Mrs. Philip Alexander Maseden?" he said.
+
+"I am not aware that either of us can fairly be described as posing in
+that distinguished capacity."
+
+The retort was glib enough. It amused the man.
+
+"Perhaps I put the bald truth rather awkwardly," he said. "Let me, then,
+ask a plain question. Did I marry you, or your sister, last Tuesday
+morning?"
+
+"You certainly err if you think that I shall discuss the affairs of my
+family with a complete stranger," was the unhesitating answer.
+
+"Yet you, or your sister, did not scruple to marry one."
+
+"Are _you_ Mr. Maseden?"
+
+"I am. Haven't I said so? I implied it, at any rate."
+
+"Then why are you in disguise, posing--it is your own word--as a Spanish
+cowboy?"
+
+"Because I'm trying to save my miserable life. Don't think me
+ungrateful, madam. I owe my escape to the phenomenal circumstances
+brought about by the desire of a charming young lady to become
+Mrs. Maseden, if only for a brief half hour. I am not claiming
+any--privileges, shall I say?--on that account. But I can hardly credit
+that, having gone through the ordeal of such a ceremony, you would
+refuse to tell me your motive, so I reluctantly revert to my first
+opinion, namely, that your sister is my wife."
+
+"Reluctantly! Why reluctantly?"
+
+There was more than a touch of bewilderment in the cry. Maseden
+interpreted it as a fencer's trick to gain time.
+
+"I don't mind being absolutely candid," he laughed. "You see, time hangs
+heavy on my hands here. I have nothing to do except watch for a glimpse
+of an unknown wife. Queer, isn't it? Anyhow, my fate doesn't seem to
+worry sister Madge, who finds consolation elsewhere; so, of the two, if
+I must be wed to one of you, I imagine I would prefer you."
+
+"I think you are intolerably rude, Mr. Maseden. Madge was right when she
+said--"
+
+She checked herself with a little gasp of dismay. Maseden laughed again.
+
+"Please don't spare me," he cried. "What did Madge say?"
+
+"I decline to discuss the matter any further."
+
+"But why should we quarrel over a minor point? You have tacitly
+admitted that your sister married me. Give me some notion of her motive.
+That is all I ask. It may help."
+
+"How help?"
+
+"When I take unto myself a wife I expect to be allowed some freedom of
+choice in the matter. I certainly refuse to have her picked for me by a
+rascal like Steinbaum. If I win clear of Buenos Ayres and reach New York
+I shall take the speediest steps to undo the matrimonial knot tied in
+Cartagena. There may be legal complications, which will be attended, I
+suppose, by a certain amount of publicity. It will help some, as Mr.
+Sturgess would say, if I know just why the lady wanted to wed in the
+first instance. Surely there is reason behind that simple request. Your
+sister begged to be allowed to marry me because I was condemned to
+death. At least, such was Steinbaum's story. Was _that_ true, to begin
+with?"
+
+No answer. Maseden felt that he had cornered her.
+
+"There must have been some such ground for an extraordinary action," he
+went on. "To the best of my knowledge she had never seen me. I question
+if she even knew my name. I--"
+
+A door opened, and a stream of light fell on the deck some feet away.
+Sturgess's voice reached them clearly.
+
+"Guess she's tucked up cozy in a deck chair," he was saying. "It's no
+time to retire to roost yet, anyhow."
+
+"Please go now," whispered Nina tremulously. "You mustn't be seen
+talking to me. I--I'll discuss things with Madge, and if possible, come
+here about the same hour to-morrow, or next day. I--I'll do my best."
+
+Without another word, Maseden swung himself over the rail. When below
+the level of the deck he clung to the ladder and listened, not meaning
+to act ungenerously, but because of the other man's rapid approach.
+
+"Ah, there you are, Miss Nina!" cried Sturgess. "Sister Madge is bored
+stiff by my company, but was polite enough to pretend that she was
+anxious about you."
+
+"I've been star-gazing," said the girl, hastening towards him.
+
+"So've I," grinned Sturgess. "You two girls have the finest eyes I've
+ever--"
+
+His voice trailed away into silence. Maseden dropped to the deck.
+
+"Hang it all!" he muttered, strangely disconsolate. "When Fate took me
+by the scruff of the neck and married me to one of two sisters, neither
+of whom I had ever seen, she might have been kind enough, the jade, to
+tie me to the right one!"
+
+Yet, even to his thinking, Madge and Nina were like as a couple of pins!
+Being an eminently sensible sort of fellow, he realized in the next
+breath that Madge might be quite as nice a girl as Nina.
+
+Then the thought struck him that she was purposely making things easier
+for him by cultivating a friendship with Sturgess. In any case, Sturgess
+was obviously destined to act as a pawn in the game. Even he, Maseden,
+had not scrupled to use that gentleman at sight when anxious to board
+the _Southern Cross_ without attracting the attention of the
+news-mongering boatmen of Cartagena.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That night he lay awake for hours. For one thing, the ship was running
+into bad weather again, and complained nosily of the buffeting her stout
+frame was receiving. For another, his own course was beset with
+difficulties. He failed completely to understand the attitude of sister
+Nina.
+
+If Madeleine--or Madge, as he had better learned to distinguish her--had
+sought marriage with a man about to die as a means to escape from some
+unbearable duress, was her plight accentuated rather than bettered by
+the fact that her husband still lived? If so, the announcement that he
+meant to obtain a legal dissolution of the bond at the earliest possible
+moment would relieve the tension.
+
+But what if her need demanded that she should remain wed, a wife in
+name only? A development of that sort foreshadowed complexities of a
+rare order. Maseden knew himself as one capable of Quixotic action--even
+the scheming Steinbaum had paid him _that_ tribute--but it was asking
+too much that he should go through life burdened with a wife who treated
+him as a benevolent stranger.
+
+Common sense urged that they should meet and discuss a most trying and
+equivocal situation as frankly and fully as might be. Why, then, had
+Nina Gray been so disturbed, so anxious to keep the married pair apart?
+Both girls knew he was alive. What purpose could it serve that the fact
+should be ignored?
+
+He puzzled his brain to recall incidents he had heard of Steinbaum's
+history, but investigation along that line drew a blank. Was Suarez
+mixed up in the embroglio? It was unlikely. Though the man had spent
+some years in the United States and in Europe, he had not left San Juan
+since he, Maseden, came there, and, before that period, both Madge and
+Nina Gray must have been girls in short frocks and long tresses.
+
+Perhaps the father's record would provide a clew. Somehow, though he had
+never set eyes on Mr. Gray save as a shadowy form on a dark night,
+Maseden sensed him as unsympathetic. He was forced to form a judgment on
+the flimsiest of material, having none other; but Gray's voice, his way
+of speaking to his daughters, had grated.
+
+First impressions are treacherous guides; nevertheless the philosopher
+whom they cannot mislead does not exist.
+
+The following day was the longest in Maseden's experience. Monotony, in
+itself, is wearying; when, to a dull routine of meals and occasional
+talk with men of an inferior type is added the positive discomfort of
+confinement in the most exposed and cramped part of a ship during a
+stiff gale, monotony becomes akin to torture.
+
+At last, however, night fell. There was no improvement in the weather,
+which, if anything, grew worse; but a change in the ship's course, or a
+shifting of the wind--no one to whom Maseden might speak could give him
+any reliable data on the point--brought the _Southern Cross_ on a more
+even keel.
+
+Here, at least, was some slight compensation for the leaden-footed hours
+of waiting. Nina Gray might be a good sailor, but it was hardly
+reasonable to expect that she would keep her tryst when the big steamer
+was trying alternately to stand on end or roll bodily over to port.
+
+About nine o'clock Maseden made out a shrouded figure in the position
+where his "sister-in-law" had stood the previous night. He hastened
+from the shelter of the forecastle, and was promptly drenched from head
+to foot by a shower of spray. He was half-way up the ladder when a voice
+reached him.
+
+"Please go back," it said. "I'll come to the gangway on the starboard
+side."
+
+He regained the deck, made for the right-hand gangway, and soon had the
+satisfaction of seeing the girl walking swiftly along the dimly-lighted
+corridor.
+
+He hardly knew how to greet her. To bid her "Good evening," or murmur
+some platitude about her goodness in keeping the appointment in such
+vile weather, would have sounded banal.
+
+The lady, however, when they came face to face, settled all doubts on
+the question of etiquette by saying breathlessly:
+
+"I have had a long talk with my sister, Mr. Maseden, and she bids me
+tell you that she cannot meet you herself. You were so generous, so kind
+to her, at a moment when your thoughts might well have been centered in
+your own terrible fate, that she cannot bear the ordeal of asking you
+the last favor of forgetting her.
+
+"Of course, every facility will be given for the dissolution of the
+marriage. I have written here the address of a firm of lawyers in
+Philadelphia who will act with your legal representatives when the
+matter comes before the courts. For your own purposes, I understand,
+you wish to remain unknown while on board this ship. We have arranged to
+travel to New York by the first American liner sailing from Buenos Ayres
+after our arrival. Perhaps you will be good enough to choose another
+vessel, or, if your affairs are urgent, _we_ would wait for a later one.
+Can you let me know your wishes now in that matter?"
+
+Maseden was so astonished that he literally caught the girl by the
+shoulder and turned her partly round so that the light of a distant lamp
+fell on her face. The buffeting of the gale, aided, no doubt, by a
+feeling of excitement, had lent her a fine color, but, if her utterance
+was a trifle broken at first, it had soon become calm and measured, nor
+did she seem to resent his cavalier treatment.
+
+"Are you joking?" he said, smiling in sheer perplexity.
+
+"I fail to find any humor in my words," came the instant reply.
+
+"Quite so. They might have been framed by a lawyer. Isn't there a ghost
+of a joke in that mere fact?"
+
+"It appeared to my sister, and I fully agree with her, that we are
+suggesting the best way, the only way, out of an embarrassing dilemma."
+
+"Yes," agreed Maseden, drawing a long breath. "I agree to all the
+terms; I insist only on priority of sailing from Buenos Ayres. I don't
+see why I should risk my life just to save you a trifling
+inconvenience."
+
+"Then here is the address I spoke of," and she proffered an envelope.
+
+"Good. We'll leave the rest to the law, Miss Nina."
+
+"Thank you. Good-by."
+
+She would have passed him, but he was on the after side of the gangway,
+and his outstretched hand restrained her.
+
+"One moment, please," he said. "I want you to tell your sister that she
+has thoroughly--disillusioned me."
+
+"I'll do that," she assured him, and he could not help but regard her
+airy self-possession as the most surprising factor in a remarkable
+situation.
+
+"And you, too," he went on. "Something has happened to you since last
+night. Somehow you are--harder. Forgive me if I choose unpleasant
+adjectives."
+
+She hesitated before replying. Perhaps she felt the quiet scorn
+underlying the words.
+
+"Where my unhappy family is concerned, the forgiveness must come wholly
+from you," she said at last. "May I go now, Mr. Maseden? Once more,
+thank you for all that you have done and will do. Remember, when this
+miserable affair reaches the newspapers, it is not your reputation that
+will suffer, but the woman's!"
+
+She left him gazing blankly after her. There was a tense _vibrato_ in
+the tone of the girl's voice that touched some responsive chord in the
+man's breast.
+
+Then he became aware that he was soaked to the skin, and the wind was
+piercingly cold.
+
+He murmured a phrase strongly reminiscent of the _Americano_ who took
+hunting trips into the interior of Central America, and hurried to his
+cabin, where he stripped and rubbed his limbs to a glow before turning
+in.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+AN UNFORESEEN DISASTER
+
+
+During the night the storm developed into that elemental chaos which the
+landsman exaggerates into a hurricane and the sailor logs as a strong
+northwesterly gale. Passage along the open decks of the _Southern Cross_
+became a hazardous undertaking, an experiment just practicable for a
+strong man clad in oilskins and seaboots, but positively dangerous for
+one unable to interpret the vagaries of a ship plunging through a heavy
+sea. A broken limb or ugly bruise was the certain penalty of an
+incautious movement, if, indeed, one was not swept overboard.
+
+For a passenger--a non-combatant, so to speak--the only certain way to
+insure physical safety was to lie prone in a bunk, with a hand ever
+ready to seize the nearest rail when an unusually violent lurch tilted
+the vessel to an angle of forty-five degrees and simultaneously drove
+her nose into a veritable mountain of water.
+
+Maseden contrived to sleep fitfully until a thin gray light, trickling
+through a tiny port when momentarily free of wave-wash, told him that
+another day had dawned. The din was incessant. Inanimate things may be
+inarticulate to human ears, but they speak a language of their own on
+such occasions--an inchoate tongue made up of banging and clattering, of
+stunning vibrations, of wind-shrieks, of the groaning of steel
+framework, riveted plates, and seasoned timber.
+
+The _Southern Cross_ was tackling her work with stubborn energy, but she
+complained of its severity in every fibre. Ships, like men, prefer easy
+conditions, and growl in their own peculiar manner when compelled to
+wage a fierce and continuous fight for mere existence.
+
+Of course a sailor never permits himself to think of his own craft in
+such wise. "Dirty weather" is simply an unpleasant episode in the
+routine of a voyage. He regards it much as the average city man views
+wind and rain--displeasing additions to life's minor worries, but not to
+be considered as affecting the daily task.
+
+In a modern, well-found steamship such negative faith is fully
+justified, and the ship's company of the _Southern Cross_ went about
+their several duties as methodically as though the vessel were roped
+securely alongside a pier in the North River.
+
+The center of the forecastle held a roomy compartment in which meals
+were served for the crew, and Maseden took refuge there as soon as he
+was dressed. He obtained an early cup of coffee, and derived some
+comfort from the fact, communicated by the half-caste sailor he had
+saved from the falling pulley, that about the same time next day they
+would sight the Evangelistas light, and soon thereafter be in the
+land-locked water of the Straits of Magellan.
+
+He realized, of course, that sight or sound of either Madge Gray or her
+sister was hardly to be expected during the next twenty-four hours. In
+fact, he might not see them again before Buenos Ayres was reached.
+
+On the whole, it would be better so, he decided. A thrilling and
+most dramatic incident in a life not otherwise noteworthy for its
+vicissitudes would close when he was safe on board a homeward-bound mail
+steamer. After that would come some small experience of a court of law.
+
+For the rest, if he contrived to cheat the newspapers of the full
+details, he would actually risk his repute as a veracious citizen if he
+told the plain truth about one day's history in the Republic of San
+Juan.
+
+Once, in his teens, when in London during a never-to-be-forgotten
+European tour, a friend of his father's pointed out a small, alert man,
+dressed in gray tweeds, who was hailing a cab in Pall Mall, and said:
+
+"Look, Alec! That is Evans of the Guides. I met him five years ago in
+Lucknow, and even at that date he had killed his sixty-first tiger on
+foot and alone. He never shoots stripes any other way. He says it isn't
+quite sporting to tackle the brute from the comparative safety of a
+howdah or a _machan_--a platform rigged in a tree, you know."
+
+Philip Alexander Maseden, aged sixteen, neither knew nor cared what a
+_machan_ was. His faculties were absorbed in the difficult task of
+reconciling a dapper little man in a gray suit, skipping nimbly into a
+cab in Pall Mall, with a redoubtable Nimrod who had bagged sixty-one
+tigers after tracking them into their jungles.
+
+And that was the record of five years earlier. Perhaps in the meantime
+the bold _shikari_ had added dozens to the total. A mighty hunter,
+Evans, but hard to reconcile with his environment.
+
+Seated in the wet, creaking cabin, and watching through a window which
+opened aft the turmoil of seas leaping venomously at and over the stout
+bulk of the _Southern Cross_, Maseden thought of Evans of the Guides,
+and his cohort of tiger-ghosts. Yet not one tiger among the lot had
+brought Evans so near death as he, Maseden, was when Steinbaum entered
+his cell on that fateful morning, and, in the closest shave Evans was
+ever favored with, a violent end had not been averted by stranger means.
+
+How would the story of "Madeleine," Suarez, and Captain Gomez's boots
+sound if told in a cosy corner of a Fifth Avenue club?
+
+By reason of his position in the fore part of the vessel, Maseden could
+survey the bridge, chart-house and some part of the promenade deck.
+The head of the officer on watch was visible above the canvas screen
+which those who go down to the sea in ships have christened the
+"devil-dodger." The officer's sou'wester was tied on firmly, and the
+placid expression of the strong, weather-stained face was clearly
+discernible. For the most part, he looked straight ahead, with an
+occasional glance back, or over the side into the spume and froth
+churned up by the ship's passage. Once in a while he would draw away
+from the screen and compare the course shown by the compass with that
+steered by the quartermaster at the wheel.
+
+For lack of something better to occupy his mind, Maseden followed each
+movement of the man on the bridge. Thus, singularly enough, next to the
+officer himself, and possibly a look-out in the bows, he was the first
+person on board to become aware of a peril which suddenly beset the
+_Southern Cross_.
+
+What that peril was he could not guess, but he saw that the officer was
+shouting instructions to the quartermaster, and in the same instant the
+clang of a bell showed that the engine-room telegraph was in use.
+
+Almost immediately the ship's speed slackened, and as she yielded to the
+pressure of wind and wave the clamor of her struggle sank to comparative
+silence.
+
+A few seconds later the captain appeared on the bridge. He, like the
+officer, gave particular heed to something which lay straight ahead.
+Evidently he approved of the action taken by his subordinate, because,
+as well as Maseden could judge, he stood beside the telegraph, with a
+hand on the lever, but made no further alteration in the ship's speed.
+
+Naturally Maseden wondered what had happened and watched closely for
+developments. In better weather he would have gone outside, but it was
+positively dangerous now to stand close to the ship's rail, or, indeed,
+remain on any part of the open deck, while the shadow of an attempt on
+his part to climb the forecastle ladder would have evoked a gruff order
+to return.
+
+Within a minute or less, however, he made out that the _Southern Cross_
+was passing through a quantity of wreckage, mostly rough-hewn timber.
+Here and there a spar would unexpectedly thrust its tapering point
+high above the tawny vortex of the waves; at odd times a portion of a
+bulkhead and fragments of white-painted panels would be revealed for
+an instant. Some unfortunate sailing ship had been torn to shreds by
+the gale, and the steamer was just passing through that section of the
+sea-plain still cumbered by her fragments, though the tragedy itself had
+probably occurred many a mile away from that particular point on the
+map.
+
+By this time the stopping of the engines had aroused every member of the
+crew not on watch. Some of the men, bleary-eyed with sleep, gathered in
+the cabin, and their comments were illuminating.
+
+"Wind-jammer gone with all hands," said one man, after a critical glance
+at the flotsam on both sides of the ship.
+
+"What for have we slowed up?" inquired another. "The old man ain't
+thinkin' of lowerin' a boat, is he?"
+
+"Lower a boat, saphead, in a sea like this!" scoffed the first speaker.
+
+"Wouldn't he try to rescue any poor sailor-men who may be clingin' to
+the wreck?" came the retort.
+
+"As though any sort of blisterin' wreck could live in this weather! Try
+again, Jimmy. We're dodgin' planks an' ropes; that's our special stunt
+just now. One o' them hefty chunks o' lumber would knock a hole in us
+below the water-line before you could say 'knife'. An' how about a sail
+an' cordage wrappin' themselves lovin'ly around the screw? Where 'ud
+_we_ be then?... There you are. What did I tell you?"
+
+A heavy thud, altogether different from the blow delivered by a wave,
+shook the _Southern Cross_ from stem to stern. The captain looked over
+the port side, and followed the movement of some unseen object until it
+was swept well clear of the ship. The engines, which had been stopped
+completely, were rung on to "Slow ahead" again. They remained at that
+speed for half a minute, not longer. Then they were stopped once more,
+and the officer of the watch quitted the bridge hurriedly.
+
+"What the devil's the matter _now_?" growled the more experienced critic
+anxiously. "That punch we got can't of started a plate, or all hands
+would 'a' bin piped on deck!"
+
+Singularly enough, he either forgot or was afraid to voice his own
+prediction as to a possible alternative. The big foremast which had
+struck the ship's quarter was stout enough, most unluckily, to support a
+thin wire rope, and this unseen assailant had fouled the propeller. In
+all likelihood, had the captain given the order "Full speed ahead," the
+evil thing might have been thrown clear before mischief was done.
+
+As it was, the very care with which the _Southern Cross_ was navigated
+led to her undoing. With each slow turn of the screw the snake-like rope
+which was destined to choke the life out of a gallant ship had coiled
+itself into a death grip.
+
+Soon some of the strands were forced between propeller and shaft-casing.
+The solid steel cylinder of the shaft became fixed as in a vise. The
+engines were powerless. To apply their force was only to increase the
+resistance. They could not be driven either ahead or astern.
+
+The _Southern Cross_ promptly fell away to the southeast under the
+stress of wind and tide. After her, forming a sort of sea-anchor,
+lolloped the derelict foremast which, by its buoyancy, was the first
+cause of all the mischief.
+
+Mostly it was towed astern. Sometimes a giant wave would snatch it up
+and drive it like a battering ram against the ship's counter.
+
+These blows were generally harmless, the rounded butt of the spar
+glancing off from the acute angle presented by the molded stern-plates.
+Once or twice, however, the rudder was struck squarely, so the chief
+officer, aided by some of the men, quickly put an end to the capacity
+of this novel battering-ram for inflating further damage by lassoing
+and hauling aboard the whole mass of wreckage--mast, yards and tattered
+sails alike.
+
+Then a gruesome discovery was made. Tied to the mast was the corpse
+of a man, but so bruised and battered as to be wholly unrecognizable.
+The poor body, nearly naked, and maimed and torn almost out of human
+semblance, was stitched in a strip of wet canvas, weighted with a few
+furnace bars, and committed to the deep again without a moment's loss
+of time.
+
+But its brief presence had not been helpful. Singularly enough, sailors
+are not only fatalists, which they may well be, but superstitious. No
+man voiced his sentiments; nevertheless, each felt in his heart the ship
+was doomed.
+
+Collectively, they would try to save the ship. As individuals, the
+paramount question now was--how and when might they endeavor to save
+their own lives?
+
+Of course there was neither any sign of panic nor shirking of orders.
+The ship was stanch and eminently seaworthy. She was actually far more
+comfortable while drifting thus helplessly before the gale than when
+battling through it.
+
+Yet every sailor on board, from the captain down to the scullery-man,
+knew that some forty miles ahead lay a shore so forbidding and
+inhospitable that the United States government charts--than which there
+are none so detailed and up-to-date--give navigators the significant
+warning to keep well out to sea, as the coast-line has not been surveyed
+in detail.
+
+Yet the case was not immediately desperate. Forty miles of sea-room was
+better than none. If the gale abated, and an anchor was dropped, it was
+probable that the engineers' cold chisels would soon cut away the wire
+octopus.
+
+Moreover, there was a chance that some other steamer might pick them up
+and earn a magnificent salvage by a tow to Punta Arenas.
+
+So after breakfast the uncanny harbinger of disaster provided by the
+body of the drowned sailor was, if not forgotten, at least generally
+ignored. Pipes were lighted. Men not otherwise occupied gathered in
+groups, while every eye strove to pierce the gray haze of the spindrift
+whipped off the waves by each furious gust, each hoping to be the first
+to discover the friendly smoke-pall of a passing ship.
+
+Certain ominous preparations were made, however. Boats were cleared of
+their wrappings and stocked with water and provisions. Life-belts were
+examined, and their straps adjusted.
+
+As the day wore, and noon was reached, the chance of encountering
+another ship became increasingly remote. Sea and wind showed no signs of
+falling. Indeed, a slight rise in the barometer was not an encouraging
+token. "First rise after low foretells stronger blow" is as true to-day
+as when Admiral Fitzroy wrote his weather-lore doggerel, and the
+principles of meteorology hold good equally north and south of the
+equator.
+
+For a time the captain tried to steady the ship with the canvas
+fore-and-aft sails which big steamships use occasionally in fine weather
+to help the rudder. This devise certainly got the _Southern Cross_ under
+control again, and the crew were vastly astonished when bid furl the
+sails after half an hour.
+
+Surprise ceased when some of them got an opportunity to squint into a
+compass. The wind had veered from northwest to a point south of west.
+
+Only a miracle could save the ship now. It seemed as though the very
+forces of nature had conspired to bring about her undoing.
+
+From that moment a gloom fell on the little community. Men muttered
+brief words, or chatted in whispers. A few paid furtive visits to their
+bunks, and rummaged in kit-bags for some treasured curio or personal
+belonging which could be stowed away in a pocket. It was not a question
+now as to whether the _Southern Cross_ would survive, but when and
+where she would strike, and what sort of fighting chance would be given
+of reaching a bleak shore alive.
+
+Every one knew that it would be the wildest folly to lower a boat in
+such a heavy sea. The sole remaining hope was that the ship would escape
+the outer fringe of reefs, and drive into some rock-bound creek where
+the boats might live.
+
+By means of a properly constructed sea-anchor the captain kept the
+vessel's head toward the east. Thus, when land was sighted, if any
+semblance of a channel offered, it might be possible to steer in that
+direction.
+
+Men were told off to be in readiness to hoist the sails again at a
+moment's notice. The anchors were cleared, both fore and aft. Nothing
+else could be done but watch and wait, while the great ship rolled into
+yawning gulfs or slid down huge curves of yellow-gray water, rolled and
+slid ever onward to sure destruction.
+
+During those weary hours, so slow in passing, so swift in succession
+when sped, Maseden had not once set eyes on his wife or her sister. He
+had seen Sturgess talking to the captain and first officer, but neither
+of the ladies appeared on deck.
+
+Still it was an easy thing to imagine just what was going on. The two
+women were the only persons on board left in ignorance of the certain
+fate awaiting the _Southern Cross_. They were told the half truth that
+the engines were disabled, but that the vessel was in no immediate
+danger.
+
+It was better so. Of what avail to frighten them needlessly? The ship
+would have been absolutely safe if the gale blew from the east instead
+of the west. Even now she might survive. Her chances were of the
+slenderest nature, but there would be ample time to get the women
+into an upper deck saloon or the chart-room when the position became
+desperate. Why embitter the few hours of life yet remaining by knowledge
+of the dreadful fate which threatened when the end came?
+
+About two o'clock an undulating blur on the eastern horizon told of
+land. To the best of the captain's judgment the _Southern Cross_ was off
+Hanover Island when the accident happened, and her relative longitude
+had altered but very slightly during the forty-mile drift. It was now or
+never if anything was to be done to save her.
+
+The forbidding and mountainous coast-line straight ahead was broken up
+by all manner of deep-water channels, each giving access, by devious
+ways, to the sheltered Smyth's Channel; but so barricaded by sunken
+reefs and steep islets as to present almost insuperable obstacles to
+the free passage of a large vessel.
+
+Small whalers and guano-boats would not dare any of these straits in
+fine weather. For the _Southern Cross_ to make the attempt, even
+provided she ran the gantlet of the barrier reef, was indeed the
+forlornest of forlorn hopes.
+
+The chief engineer had already assured the captain many times that any
+further pressure by the engines would inflict irreparable damage, so,
+risking everything on the throw of the dice and wishful to know the
+worst, at any rate, before daylight vanished, he ordered the sails to
+be hoisted again.
+
+All hands were brought on deck, life-belts were adjusted, and boats'
+crews stood by. At that moment Maseden caught a glimpse of the two
+girls. They, with other passengers, were summoned by the ship's officers
+and placed in the smoke-room, which, by reason of its situation beneath
+the bridge, provided a convenient gathering ground in case the boats
+were lowered.
+
+He saw them only for a moment--two cloaked figures, wearing cloth caps
+tied tightly to their heads with motor-veils. He could not distinguish
+Madge from Nina.
+
+It was a strange and most bizarre notion that when the gates of eternity
+were opening a second time before his eyes the woman who was his lawful
+wife should now be sharing his peril, yet be separated from him far
+more effectually than in the Castle of San Juan.
+
+The incongruity of their position did not trouble him greatly, however.
+Soon he ceased thinking about it. He realized that he, as an individual,
+could do nothing but obey orders and abide by the decree of Providence.
+
+He was not frightened. Some hours earlier, knowing the physical features
+of the western coast of South America, he had decided that the odds were
+a thousand to one against the escape of the ship and her seventy-four
+occupants. He hoped that when the end came it might not be a long
+drawn-out agony--that was all. For the rest, he looked forward with a
+certain spice of curiosity to the fight which captain and crew would
+make against the giant forces of nature.
+
+An awesome panorama of mighty cliffs, inaccessible islands and isolated
+rocks over which the seas dashed with extraordinary fury, was opening up
+with ever-increasing clearness. A mist of driven froth and spindrift
+hung low over the surface of the water, but the great hills of the
+interior were distinctly visible.
+
+Irregular white patches near their summits marked the presence of huge
+glaciers. Lower down the valleys were choked with black masses of firs.
+Countless generations of trees had grown, and fallen, and rotted,
+ultimately forming a new, if unstable, basis for more recent growths.
+
+An occasional red scar down a hillside revealed the latest landslide. A
+cascade would leap out from the topmost part of a forest and bury itself
+again in the depths.
+
+These outstanding features were all on a huge scale. It was a weird,
+monstrous land, a place utterly unfitted for human habitation, a part of
+creation quite out of keeping with the rest of the world. Surveying it
+impartially, one might wonder whether it had traveled far in advance of
+the general scheme of things or lagged millions of years behind.
+
+But its aspect was sinister and forbidding in the extreme, and never
+have its depressing characteristics been etched in darker shadows than
+when viewed that January day from the decks of the ill-fated _Southern
+Cross_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE WRECK
+
+
+Up to the last the ship's path was dogged by misfortune. She approached
+Hanover Island at a point where the sea was comparatively open; hence,
+the tremendous waves rolling in from the Pacific were not only unchecked
+by island breakwaters, but their volume and force were actually
+increased by the gradual upward trend of the rock floor.
+
+Still, undaunted by conditions which suggested the plight of a doomed
+craft being hurried to the lip of a cataract, keen eyes searched the
+frowning coast-line for one of the many estuaries which pierced the
+land, some merely the mouths of short-lived rivers, others again
+carrying the ocean currents to the very base of the Andes.
+
+At last an opening did seem to present itself. The great rock walls,
+springing sheer from sea level to a height of a thousand feet or more,
+fell apart, and, so far as might be judged, a wide and deep channel
+flowed inland.
+
+It was at this crisis, when life or death for all on board might depend
+on the veriest trifle, that the captain had to decide whether or not to
+let go both anchors and endeavor to ride out the gale.
+
+He was an experienced and cool-headed sailor. He knew quite well that
+the odds were heavy against an anchor holding in such ground, or, if it
+held, against any cable standing the strain of a six-thousand-ton ship
+in that terrific sea. But, as Maseden learned subsequently, he sought
+advice.
+
+The first and second officers were consulted in turn, and each confirmed
+their chief's opinion that the only practicable course was to run into
+the passage which still offered a comparatively clear way ahead.
+
+So the _Southern Cross_ sped on.
+
+The second officer came forward with some of the crew to superintend the
+dropping of the anchor. The fourth officer took charge of the aft
+anchor. All other members of the crew stood by the boats.
+
+Maseden, feeling oddly remote and unclassed among men of his own race,
+followed the second officer to the forecastle deck. There, at least, he
+could stare his fill at the inferno of rock and broken water which the
+vessel was approaching, though even his landsman's eyes saw that she was
+in a waterway of considerable width, while each mile now traversed must
+tend to diminish the seas and bring a secure anchorage within the bounds
+of possibility.
+
+No one paid heed to him. Among these stolid sailor-men he was a "Dago,"
+a somewhat dandified specimen of the swaggering _vaqueros_ they had met
+at times in the drinking dens of South American ports. He was minded to
+have speech with the second officer, and proclaim once and for all that
+he was of the same kith and kin; but the impulse was stayed by a glance
+at the set, resolute face, intent only on obeying a signal from the
+captain. It was no time for confidences. He questioned even if the
+sailor would have answered.
+
+A touch on a lever would set a winch spinning as the anchor leaped to
+its task. The man charged with carrying out that duty without hitch or
+delay could spare thought for nothing else.
+
+One of the deck-hands, stationed near the chocks, chanced to be the very
+Spaniard whose life had been endangered by the falling block on the day
+after the ship left Cartagena. The ship's carpenter was ill, and the
+Spaniard was carpenter's mate.
+
+Maseden caught his eye, and the man smiled wanly.
+
+"You did me a good turn the other day, senor," he said. "Let me repay
+you now."
+
+"But how?" came the surprised inquiry.
+
+"Underneath my bunk, the lowest one on the left in number seven berth,
+you will find my kit-bag. Beneath some clothes is a bottle of good old
+brandy. Get it, and drink it quickly."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"You will put a pint of honest liquor to good use, and in ten minutes
+you won't care what happens."
+
+"I have no desire to die drunk," said Maseden quietly.
+
+The Spaniard shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"You'll never have a better excuse for swallowing excellent cognac," he
+grinned.
+
+"Shut up, you two!" growled the officer.
+
+He had not understood a word of their talk. He simply voiced the
+eminently American notion that anything said in the Spanish language
+could not be of the least importance just then.
+
+Oddly enough, Maseden was angered by being thus outcasted, as it were.
+He was tempted to retort, but happily checked the words on his lips.
+Nerves were apt to be on a raw edge in such conditions, he remembered.
+Even the stern-faced ship's officer, awaiting a command which would
+settle the fate of the _Southern Cross_ once and for all, might well
+resent the magpie chattering of a couple of Spaniards.
+
+Maseden turned for an instant to look at the bridge. The captain stood
+there, apparently the most unmoved person on board. The sails, tugging
+fiercely at their rings and bolts, still kept the ship under control,
+notwithstanding the ten-knot tidal current which carried her onward
+irresistibly. The foresail was bellied out to port, so the captain
+remained on the starboard side of the bridge, whence he had an
+uninterrupted view ahead.
+
+Suddenly two cloaked figures emerged from the obscurity of the
+smoking-room and hurried to the transverse rail which guarded the fore
+part of the promenade deck. With them came some men, among whom Maseden
+recognized Sturgess; while another man, who caught the arm of one of the
+girls in a helpless sort of way, was probably Mr. Gray.
+
+Evidently there was no concealing the ship's peril from the passengers
+now. Everyone wore a life-belt, and was clothed to resist the cold. A
+plausible explanation of this general flocking out on to the deck was
+that they had discerned the cleft in the rocky heights through a blurred
+window, and refused to remain any longer in the sheltered uncertainty of
+the smoking-room.
+
+At this period there was little or no difficulty in keeping one's feet.
+The great hull of the _Southern Cross_ swung easily on an even keel with
+the onrush of the sea-river. The ship was not fighting now, but
+yielding--a complacent leviathan held captive by a most puissant and
+ruthless enemy.
+
+During the few seconds Maseden stared at the veiled women. One of those
+two--which one he could not tell--was his wife. It was the maddest, most
+fantastic thing he had ever heard of. In a spirit of sheer deviltry he
+waved a greeting. One of the girls raised a hand to her face--perhaps to
+her lips.
+
+What did it matter? In all human probability that was their eternal
+farewell. He waved again, and turned resolutely to scan the frowning
+headlands now rapidly closing in on both sides of the vessel's path.
+
+About that time a new and disturbing sound reached his ears. Hitherto
+there had been nothing but the unceasing chant of the gale, the thud and
+swish of the seas, the steady plaint of the ship, and an occasional
+crash like a volley of musketry when the crest was torn off some giant
+roller and flung against poop or superstructure. But now there came a
+crashing, booming noise, irregular, yet almost continuous, and ever
+growing louder and more insistent; a noise almost exactly similar to
+distant gun-fire and the snarling explosions of heavy projectiles.
+
+It was the noise of the bitterest and longest war ever waged. Those old
+enemies, sea and land, were engaged in deadly combat, and, as ever, the
+sea was winning.
+
+Even while the _Southern Cross_ swung past an overhanging fortress of
+rock, a mighty bastion crumbled into ruin. It was singular to watch a
+cloud of dust mingle with the spindrift--to note how the next breaker
+climbed higher in assault over the vantage ground provided by the
+successful sap.
+
+A disconcerting feature of the ship's hurried transit into this
+unchartered territory was the clearness with which all things were
+visible above a height of some twelve feet from the surface of the sea;
+whereas, below that level, the clouds of spray and flying scud formed an
+almost impenetrable wall.
+
+Taking his eyes from the everchanging panorama, Maseden looked over the
+side. The foam-flecked water was black but fairly transparent. In its
+depths he was astounded by the sight of writhing, sinister shapes like
+the arms of innumerable devil-fish.
+
+At first he experienced a shock of surprise so close akin to horror that
+he felt the chill of it, as though one of these fearsome tentacles were
+already twined around his shrinking body. Then he realized that he had
+been startled by some gigantic species of seaweed. The ship was crossing
+a submarine forest. Down there in the depths on this January day in the
+southern hemisphere some mysterious form of plant life was enjoying its
+leafy June.
+
+But science had no joys for him in that hour. Better the outlook on crag
+and clearing sky than a furtive glimpse of the limbs and foliage of
+that monstrous growth.
+
+All at once a cry from the look-out in the bows sent a quiver through
+every hearer.
+
+"Rock ahead!"
+
+After a pause, measured by seconds, but seeming like as many minutes,
+the same voice shouted:
+
+"Channel opens to starboard!"
+
+The ship answered the helm. She swept past a jagged little islet so
+closely that a sailor could have cast a coil of rope ashore.
+
+Forthwith another sound mingled with the crash of the breakers. The rock
+had been bored right through by the waves, and the gale set up a note in
+the tunnel such as no organ-builder ever dreamed of.
+
+That mighty chord pursued the _Southern Cross_ for nearly half a mile.
+It was a melancholy and depressing wail. Maseden, whose faculties were
+supernaturally alert, noticed that the South American sailor's face had
+turned a sickly green. The man was paralyzed with fright. His right hand
+fumbled in a weak attempt to cross himself.
+
+Out of the tail of his eye the second officer caught the gesture.
+
+"Pull yourself together, you swab!" he said bitingly. "What the hell
+good will you be if you give way like that?"
+
+The Spaniard grasped the sense of command in the words rather than their
+meaning. He was no coward. He even contrived to grin. It was a tonic to
+be cursed by an American, even though the pierced rock howled like a
+lost soul!
+
+Still the _Southern Cross_ drove on. The tidal stream was, if anything,
+swifter than ever, but the size of the waves had diminished sensibly.
+The walls of the straits had closed in to within a half-mile span. There
+could not be the slightest doubt that the vessel was actually passing
+through one of the waterways which connect the Pacific with Smyth's
+Channel.
+
+Maseden, after scanning the interior highlands for the hundredth time,
+glanced again at the second officer. The grimness of the clean-cut,
+stern face had somewhat relaxed. Quite unconsciously the sailor's
+expression showed that hope had replaced calm-visaged despair. Given an
+unhindered run of another mile, the ship could at least drop anchor with
+some prospect of success.
+
+The strength of the tide would diminish in less than an hour, and it
+might be possible to maneuver in the slack water for a comparatively
+safe berth. Next day, if the weather moderated as promised by the
+barometer, the steam pinnace could spy out the land in front.
+
+Smyth's Channel was not so far away--perhaps fifty miles. Once there,
+the _Southern Cross_ could repair damage and proceed under her own steam
+to Punta Arenas.
+
+A gleam of yellow light irradiated the surface mist, which had grown
+markedly denser. The clouds were parting, and the sun was vouchsafing
+some thin rays from the northwest.
+
+The mere sight was cheering. The blood ran warmer in the veins. It was
+as though the ship's company, after days and nights of cold and
+starvation, had been miraculously supplied with food and hot liquids.
+
+Then the golden radiance died away, and simultaneously came the cry:
+
+"Reef ahead!"
+
+There was no need for further warning by the men in the bows. The
+_Southern Cross_ had hardly traveled her own length before every person
+in the fore part of the ship, together with the occupants of bridge and
+promenade deck, became aware that a seemingly impassable barrier lay
+right across the channel. At the same time the line of cliffs fell away
+to the southward.
+
+Beyond the reef, then, lay a wide stretch of land-locked water; its
+unexpected existence explained the frantic haste of the tidal current.
+It was cruel luck that nature should have thrown one of her defensive
+works across that bottle-neck entrance. A few cables' lengths away was
+safety; here, unavoidable--sullen and rigid as death himself--were the
+rock fangs.
+
+At the supreme moment the second officer never turned his head. His eyes
+were riveted on the motionless figure standing on the starboard side of
+the bridge.
+
+The captain raised his hand; the sails flapped loudly in the wind; both
+anchors splashed overboard with hoarse rattling of chains. The after
+anchor failed, but the forward one held at a depth of ten fathoms.
+
+The second officer was quick to note the sudden strain, and eased
+it--once, twice, three times. But it was now or never. The ship was
+swinging in the stream, and her stern-post would just clear the fringe
+of the reef if the anchor made good its grip.
+
+The _Southern Cross_ had gone round, with a heavy lurch to port, caused
+by the tremendous pressure of wind and wave, and was almost stationary
+when the cable parted. The thick chain flew back with all the impetus of
+six thousand tons in motion behind it.
+
+Missing Maseden by a hair's breadth, it struck the foretop, and the spar
+snapped like a carrot. It fell forward, and the identical block which
+had nearly brought about the death of the South American sailor now
+caught his rescuer on the side of the head.
+
+In the same instant a heavy stay dragged Maseden bodily over the
+fore-rail and he pitched headlong to the deck, where, however, the
+actual fall was broken by the stout canvas of the sail.
+
+A woman screamed, but he could not hear, being knocked insensible.
+
+"All hands amidships!" shouted the captain, and there was a race for the
+ladders. One man, however, the Spaniard, stooped over the young
+American's body. His eyes were streaming with tears.
+
+"Good-by, friend!" he sobbed. "Maybe this is a better way than that
+opened by my bottle of brandy!"
+
+He was sure that the _vaquero_ who swore like an _Americano_ had been
+killed, because blood was flowing freely from a scalp wound; but he
+lifted Maseden's inert form, and, without any valid reason behind the
+action, placed him in his bunk, as the cabin door stood open.
+
+Then he ran after the others.
+
+Poor fellow! He little dreamed that he was repaying a thousand-fold the
+few extra days of life the good-looking _vaquero_ had given him.
+
+Almost immediately the ship struck. There was a fearsome crash of
+rending plates and torn ribs, the great vessel reeled over, struck again
+and bumped clear of the outer reef.
+
+Now, too late, the after anchor lodged in a sunken crevice; the cable
+did not yield, because the vessel was sucked into a sort of backwash and
+driven, bow on, close to an apparently unscalable cliff.
+
+She settled rapidly. As it happened a submerged rock smashed her
+keel-plate beneath the engine-room, and the engines, together with the
+stout framework to which the superstructure was bolted amidships, became
+anchored there, offering a new obstacle to the onward race of the seas
+pouring over the reef.
+
+Every boat was either smashed instantaneously or wrenched bodily from
+its davits. Two-thirds of the hull fell away almost at once, the
+forecastle tilting towards the cliff, and the poop being swept into deep
+water.
+
+With the after part went at least half the ship's company, their last
+cries of despair being smothered by the continuous roar of the wind and
+the thunder of the waves. The bridge, with the rooms immediately below,
+remained fairly upright, but the smoking-room, and officers' quarters
+close to it, were swept by water breast high.
+
+Some one--who it was will never be known--had ordered the passengers to
+run into the smoking-room when the forward cable parted. Now, with the
+magnificent courage invariably shown by American sailors even when the
+gates of death gape wide before their eyes, the first and second
+officers contrived to hoist the two girls to the chart-room behind the
+bridge.
+
+Sturgess, behaving with great gallantry, helped the women first, and
+then their father, who was floating in the room, to reach the only
+available gangway. Others followed, but the difficulty of rescue--if
+such a sorrowful transition might be called a rescue--was enhanced by
+the noise and sudden darkness.
+
+Ever the central citadel of the _Southern Cross_ was sinking lower. Ever
+the leaping waves and their clouds of spray tended more and more to shut
+out the light.
+
+Seven people were plucked from immediate death in this fashion. All
+told, officers, crew and passengers, the survivors of seventy-four souls
+numbered twelve.
+
+There was a thirteenth, because Maseden was lying high and dry in his
+bunk. But of him they took no count.
+
+They gathered in the chart-room. Those who still retained their senses
+tried to revive the more fortunate ones to whom was vouchsafed a
+merciful oblivion of their common plight. Even in the temporary haven of
+the chart-room the conditions quickly savored of utter misery. The
+windows were blown away. The doors were jammed open by the warping of
+the deck. Wind, waves and sheets of spray seemed to vie with demoniac
+energy as to which could be most cruel and deadly. The ceaseless
+warping and working of what was left of the ship presaged complete
+collapse at any moment, and the din of the reef was stupefying.
+
+Still, the captain did not abate one jot of his cool demeanor. He eyed
+the sea, the rocks, the remains of his ship and the beetling crags from
+which he was cut off by sixty feet of raging water.
+
+Then he deliberately turned his back on it all. Going to a locker, he
+produced a screwdriver and began methodically drawing the screws of the
+door-hinges.
+
+The chief officer thought that the other man's brain had yielded to the
+stress.
+
+"What are you doing, sir?" he said, placing a hand gently on his
+friend's shoulder.
+
+"We haven't a ten-million to one chance of remaining here till the gale
+gives out," was the calm answer, "but we may as well rig up some sort of
+protection from the weather. There are four lockers and four doors.
+Let's block up those broken windows as well as we can."
+
+A curiously admiring light shone in the chief officer's eyes. He said
+nothing, but helped. Soon a corner was completely walled. They decided
+it was better to have one section thoroughly shielded than the whole
+only partially.
+
+They made a quick job of it. The girls, Mr. Gray, and two men recovering
+consciousness were allotted to the angle.
+
+Then the captain opened one of the three bottles of claret stored in a
+locker, and portioned out the contents among the survivors.
+
+There was no need to measure the share of a heavily-built Spaniard who
+was reputed to be a wealthy rancher from the Argentine. His spine was
+broken when the ship lurched over the reef. He was found dead when they
+tried to move him to the sheltered corner.
+
+And now a pall of darkness spread swiftly over the face of the waters.
+The tide fell, but the ship sank with it. She no longer rocked and shook
+under the blows of the waves. It seemed as though she knew herself
+crippled beyond all hope of succor, and only awaited another tide to
+meet annihilation.
+
+Wind and sea were more furious than ever. In all likelihood, the gale
+would blow itself out next day. But long before dawn the rising tide
+would have made short work of what was left of the _Southern Cross_.
+
+Never was a small company of Christian people in a more hopeless
+position. Every boat was gone. They had no food. They were wet to the
+skin, and pierced with bitter cold. Even the hardy captain's teeth
+chattered as he took a pipe from his pocket, rolled some tobacco between
+the palms of his hands, and said smilingly to those near him:
+
+"This is one of the occasions when a water-tight pipe-lighter is a real
+treasure. Who'd like a smoke? You must find your own pipes. I can supply
+some 'baccy and a light!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+ONE CHANCE IN A MILLION
+
+
+Maseden was badly hurt and quite stunned. Of that there could be no
+manner of doubt. He was blissfully unaware of the destruction of the
+ship, and did not regain his senses until long after the captain and
+some few of the men gathered in the dismantled chart-room had indulged
+in what was to prove their last pipeful of tobacco.
+
+Even when a species of ordered perception was restored he was wholly
+unable during an hour or more to collect his wits sufficiently to
+understand just what had happened.
+
+Certain phenomena were vaguely disturbing; that was all. He knew, for
+instance, that the _Southern Cross_ was wrecked, because the deck was
+tilted permanently at an alarming angle. As the downward slope was
+forward, however, and his bunk lay across it and on the forward side of
+the door the physical outcome was by no means unpleasant, since his body
+was wedged comfortably between the mattress and the bulkhead.
+
+He was dry and warm. The weather-proof garments of the pampas were
+admirably adapted to resist exposure, while the pitch of the deck, aided
+by the conformation of the bows, diminished the striking power of the
+waves and carried the spray and broken water clean over the remains of
+the forecastle.
+
+Maseden's position resembled that of a man ensconced in a dry niche of a
+cave behind a waterfall. So long as he did not move and the cavern held
+intact he was safe and comfortable. Happily, a long time elapsed between
+the first glimmer of consciousness and the moment when the knowledge was
+borne in on him that he was actually beset by immediate and most deadly
+peril.
+
+He imagined that the ship had been cast ashore after he met with some
+rather serious accident, that some kind Samaritan had tucked him into
+his own berth, and that, in due course, some one would look in on him
+with a cheery inquiry as to how he was faring. His answer would have
+been that his head ached abominably, that his mouth and throat were on
+fire, and that a long drink of cold water was the one thing needed to
+send him to sleep and speedy recovery.
+
+He did not realize that when he dropped face downward into the folds of
+the sail he had swallowed a quantity of salt water lodged there
+instantly by the pelting seas. It was not until he moved, and yielded
+to a fit of vomiting, which relieved the pain in his head and cleared
+his faculties, that the dreadful truth began to dawn in his mind.
+
+Once, however, the process of clear reasoning set in, it developed
+rapidly. He noticed, in the first instance, that the angle of the deck
+was becoming steeper. It was strange, he thought, that although the
+light was failing, no one came near. His ears, too, told him that seas
+were still hammering furiously on every side.
+
+Finally, a marked movement of the forecastle as it slipped over a smooth
+rock race, owing to the increase of dead weight brought about by the
+falling tide, induced a species of alarmed curiosity which proved a most
+potent tonic. At one moment feeling hardly able to move, the next he was
+scrambling out of the bunk and climbing crab-like through the doorway.
+
+Then he saw that the forecastle deck had been torn away in line with the
+forward bulkhead of the fore hold. With some difficulty, being still
+physically weak and shaken, he raised head and shoulders above this
+jagged edge and peered over.
+
+Then he understood. The ship was in pieces on the reef. Two bits of her
+still remained; the forecastle, a stubborn wedge nearly always the last
+part of a steel-built vessel to collapse, and the bridge, with its
+backing of the chart house. All else had gone--the funnels had fallen
+an hour earlier.
+
+Even the steel plates and stout wood work of the superstructure had
+melted away from the six strong ribs to which the sunken engines were
+bolted, leaving the bridge and chart house in air.
+
+Already, too, one of the six pillars which had proved the salvation of
+that forlorn aerie had yielded to the strain and snapped. In the
+half-light it was difficult to discern just what support was given to
+the squat rectangle of the chart-house; Maseden had to look long and
+steadily through the flying scud before he gathered the exact facts.
+
+The upper deck of the forecastle shut off any glimpse of the cliffs. All
+he could see was the reef, much more visible now, but still partially
+submerged by every sea; beyond it, a howling wilderness of broken water,
+and in the midst of this depressing picture, the ghost-like chart-house
+and bridge.
+
+But he recalled vividly enough the sight of an awesome precipice close
+at hand before something had hit him and robbed him of senses. If the
+ship, or what was left of her, was lodged on the reef towards which she
+was being driven at the time of his mishap, the shore could not be far
+distant.
+
+Within a foot of where he lay on the deck, clinging to it as a man
+might save himself from falling off the steeply-pitched roof of a house,
+was the big bole of the foremast, on which the rings of the sails formed
+a sort of ladder. He pulled himself up, stretched his body along the
+mast in the opposite direction, and made out the uneven summit of the
+cliff above the straight line of the upper deck.
+
+He was exposed to the weather here, but the waves were not breaking
+across the forecastle now, and the spray and biting wind tended
+rather to dissipate the feeling of lassitude which had proved quite
+overpowering while he remained in the bunk. He raised himself cautiously
+another foot or so, and the rugged wall of the precipice loomed so close
+that at first he fancied the wreck was touching it.
+
+The broken topmast, however, swaying in the wind, and still held to its
+more solid support by a couple of wire stays, pointed drunkenly at the
+cliff, and the pulley dangling from it was occasionally dashed by the
+gale against an overhanging ledge.
+
+Even while Maseden was arriving at a pretty accurate estimate of the way
+in which he had been injured--because he now recalled the parting of
+the anchor cable--the forecastle moved again, the wet and frowning wall
+became even more visible, and although an awesome gap intervened, the
+swaying, pointed spar seemed to offer a fantastic glimpse of a means of
+escape.
+
+As yet, the truck, or top of the mast, was fully sixteen feet distant
+from the face of the cliff. But it had been twenty feet or more distant
+a moment ago, and that last movement of the hull had lessened the width
+of the chasm.
+
+What if the spar jammed? Could a man obtain foothold on that slimy rock
+surface?
+
+He thought it possible. A deep crevice seemed to promise some vague
+prospect of upward progress to one who could climb, and to whom any risk
+was preferable to the certain fate which must attend remaining on the
+wreck during the coming tide.
+
+But, notwithstanding his partial recovery, he still felt very feeble and
+quite unequal to more exertion. As nothing in the way of an attempt to
+save his life was possible until the broken topmast was lodged firmly
+against the cliff, he wondered whether he would find some sort of food
+in the forecastle.
+
+It was improbable, of course. Meals were brought from the cook's galley
+amidships, and utensils only were stored in the lockers of the dingy
+saloon in which he and many of the sailors used to eat.
+
+Still, spurred by the necessity of doing something to take his mind off
+the fearsome alternative should the forecastle topple over sideways, or
+even remain in its present position, he turned his back on the cliff.
+With never a glance at the bridge, he regained the sloping deck, lowered
+himself to the doorway of his own cabin, and peered into the gloom in
+the effort to determine how best and where to begin his search.
+
+At first his heart sank, because the saloon was awash. Then he
+remembered the Spanish sailor's queer offer of a bottle of brandy,
+stored in a kit-bag in number seven berth, "the lowest bunk on the
+left."
+
+Number seven! Had he not seen the man at odd times entering or leaving
+the second cabin on the port side? At any rate, there was no harm in
+trying.
+
+Crawling farther into the darkness, he walked on what was normally the
+cross bulkhead of the saloon, groped to a doorway, found a kit-bag in
+the stated position, opened it, and came upon a bottle of brandy!
+
+He drank a little. Luckily it was not the raw spirit beloved of such
+men as its late owner, but sound, mellow liquor, which the Spaniard
+had probably bought as a medicine.
+
+Be that as it may, the brandy exercised the magical effect which good
+cognac always produces in those wise enough not to vitiate the blood
+with alcohol when in robust health. For the first time since he was
+struck down, Maseden felt himself capable of putting forth physical
+effort involving sustained muscular exertion.
+
+He returned to his own cabin, secured the poncho, or cloak, and wrapped
+the bottle in it. Rummaging round in the dark, he laid hands on a strap,
+with which he buckled the folded poncho tightly to his shoulders. Then
+reviewing the prospects which awaited an unfortunate castaway on that
+inhospitable coast, he endeavored to get at his own trunk.
+
+Therein, however, he failed. The iron frame of the bunk had buckled, and
+the trunk was held as in a vise.
+
+Realizing that he had very little time before the light in the interior
+of the forecastle would vanish altogether, he hurried back to the
+Spaniard's berth and hauled out the kit-bag. He had an uncomfortable
+feeling that he was robbing the dead, but if it were practicable to land
+any sort of stores the effort should be made.
+
+He had not a moment to spare for further search. The forecastle slipped
+again, and he experienced no little difficulty in regaining his perch on
+the solid stump of the foremast, on which, so nearly had it approached
+the horizontal, he could sit quite easily.
+
+The dangling spar, he estimated, was now about eight feet from the
+cliff. Would it catch the rock wall while any glimmer of light remained,
+or would some new movement of the wreck divert its progress? He could
+only hope for the best and be ready to seize the opportunity when, if
+ever, it presented itself.
+
+To his thinking, the gale was moderating; but he dared not indulge in
+the smallest hope that the forecastle would live through the next tide.
+The heavy swell of the Pacific after a westerly storm would create a
+worse sea on the reef than that already experienced. Probably the
+breakers would be more destructive immediately after than during the
+gale.
+
+It was at that moment, when in a plight seldom equaled and never
+surpassed by any man destined to survive a disastrous shipwreck, that
+Maseden's thoughts reverted to his fellow passengers. There was no
+need to watch the spar, since he could not fail to become aware of any
+further movement of the forecastle, so he lashed the kit-bag to a sail
+ring, again turned his back on the cliff, and gave close attention to
+the chart-house.
+
+Despite the increasing darkness it was a good deal more visible now
+than when he had looked that way earlier. No dense clouds of spray or
+spindrift intervened; hence he noticed for the first time the improvised
+shutters which had replaced the glass front of the structure on the
+seaward side.
+
+He was wondering whether or not it was possible that some one might
+still be living on the only other part of the ship still intact, when
+he became aware of a figure silhouetted against the sky above the canvas
+screen of the bridge.
+
+It was, in fact, the captain, who crept out of the chart-house every now
+and then to examine the state of the iron uprights and the condition of
+the reef. The gallant old sailor had abandoned, or never formed, any
+notion of escape, because nothing could live for an instant on the reef
+itself, and he could not possibly detect the chance of salvation offered
+by the broken mast. But the nature of the man demanded that he should
+keep watch and ward over those committed to his care. In all likelihood
+he experienced a vague sense of relief in being able to discharge even
+the melancholy duty of noting the gradual breaking-up of the supports.
+
+Three had gone, two on the port side and one on the starboard. When the
+third stanchion yielded on the port side, bridge and chart-room would
+fall with a crash and there would be an end. He said nothing of this to
+the unhappy company within.
+
+"The weather is improving," he told them cheerfully, as Maseden heard
+later. "I can't honestly give you any prospect of escape, but--while
+there's life there's hope!"
+
+And all the time he was listening for the ominous crack which would be
+the precursor of that final sinking into the depths! The marvel was
+that the middle of the ship had held together so long, but by no miracle
+known to man could what was left of her survive the next tide.
+
+Yet why should he add to misery already abyssmal? Death would be a
+blessed relief; waiting for certain death was the worst of tortures.
+
+No one answered. The survivors--of the twelve four were dead now--were
+perishing with cold and dumbly resigned to their wretched fate. Had it
+not been for the protection afforded by the improvised screen, none
+would have been alive even then.
+
+The wind still swirled and eddied into every nook and cranny. Though
+huddled together, the little group of men and women were conscious of
+no warmth. It was with the greatest difficulty that those not clad in
+oilskins kept any garments on their bodies.
+
+So merciless is the havoc of the sea that its victims are stripped naked
+even while clinging to the battered hulk of a ship, though this last
+device of a seemingly demoniac savagery is easily accounted for. No
+product of loom or spinning machine can withstand the disintegrating
+effects of breaking waves helped by a fierce gale. The seams and
+fastenings of ordinary garments cannot resist the combined assault. In
+such circumstances, a woman's flimsy attire will be torn off her in a
+few minutes, while the strongest of boots have been known to collapse
+after some hours of this kind of exposure.
+
+Luckily a number of oilskins were kept in the chart-room of the
+_Southern Cross_; these were quickly served out to the shivering girls,
+whose clothing had practically melted away as though made of thin paper.
+
+Soon after the captain had tried to hearten them with that scrap of
+proverbial philosophy, one of the girls, Nina, screamed in an elfin note
+that dominated even the roaring of the reef for an instant. Her father
+had collapsed. It was useless to pretend that he might only have
+fainted. They who fell now were doomed. In Mr. Gray's case, he was dead
+ere he sank down.
+
+The chief officer put a consoling hand on the girl's shoulder. He was a
+Bostonian, and had daughters of his own. In that hour of tribulation his
+speech reverted to the homely accents of New England.
+
+"It comes hard to see your father drop like that," he said. "But it's
+better so. He's just spared a bit of the trouble we may have to face."
+
+"It is not that," wailed the girl brokenly. "I'm thinking of my mother.
+She will never know. Oh, if I could only make her understand, I would
+not care!"
+
+A strange answer, the sailor deemed it, most probably. At that instant
+he caught the captain's eye. Both men had the same thought. The dead
+should be thrown overboard and thus lessen the weight supported by the
+one stanchion on the port side.
+
+But of what avail were such precautions? They might as well all go
+together, the quick and the dead. Why should any of them wish to live on
+until the sea rose again in the small hours of the morning?
+
+The girls were crying in each other's arms. Two of the men lifted Gray's
+body and placed it with four others. Five gone out of twelve!
+
+The captain, speaking in the most matter-of-fact way, suggested that
+they should open and drink the last bottle of claret before the light
+failed.
+
+"It's a poor substitute for a meal," he said, "but it's the only thing
+we can lay hands on."
+
+The chief officer nodded his head towards the grief-stricken sisters.
+
+"Maybe we can wait a bit longer," he said. "You couldn't persuade them
+to touch it just now.... What's that, sir? Did you hear anything?"
+
+"No. What could we possibly hear?"
+
+"It sounded like a voice, some one hailing."
+
+"I think I know whose voice it is," said the captain. He himself had
+almost yielded to the delusion. It was distressing to find the same
+eery symptom of speedy breakdown in his old friend, the chief officer.
+
+Both men listened, nevertheless, and were convinced. In silence they
+went out into the open, walking stealthily. Each knew that any undue
+movement might send the remains of the ship headlong to the reef. They
+strained their eyes in the only possible direction from which a voice
+might have come--the scrap of forecastle, sixty feet nearer the
+headland, or, incredible as it seemed, the headland itself. They could
+see nothing. Maseden's body was not only in line with the receding angle
+of the foremast, but that piece of the wreck was merged in the gloom of
+the towering rock.
+
+Maseden saw them, however, and shouted again, striving his uttermost now
+that he had attracted attention.
+
+With each effort at speech his voice was becoming stronger. Though it
+was useless to think of conveying an intelligible message through the
+uproar of wind and water, he fancied he could get into communication
+with the inmates of the chart-room, provided they were on the alert. In
+effect, he had a knife, and was surrounded by an abundance of tangled
+cordage, and it would be a strange thing if after so many years of
+active life on a South American ranch he could not cast a weighted lasso
+as far as the bridge.
+
+He began fashioning the necessary coil at once, working with feverish
+haste, because his refuge was on the move again, and ever towards the
+land. A trial cast fell short, as he had not allowed enough lee-way for
+the wind. He was gathering up the rope preparatory to another effort
+when a great voice boomed at him from the shadows:
+
+"You have no chance here. You are as well off where you are. If you hear
+me, hail three times!"
+
+The captain was using a megaphone.
+
+Maseden yelled "Hi!" three times, thinking the short, sharp syllable
+would carry best. Then, with splendid judgment, he threw the lasso in a
+lateral parabola that landed its end across the rail of the bridge,
+where it was promptly made fast by the first officer.
+
+Again came that mighty voice:
+
+"Is there any hope of escape on your side? If so, hail three times."
+
+He replied. After a short delay he heard the order:
+
+"Haul in!"
+
+Attached to the noose of his rope was another rope, and a second thinner
+one, rigged as a "whip," or communicating cord. Tied at the junction was
+the megaphone. The intent of the senders was plain. He was to bawl
+directions, and they would obey.
+
+He fancied that by this time the topmast must be near the rock, if not
+quite touching it, but he had decided already that he would either save
+those hapless people in the chart-room or die in the attempt.
+
+Perhaps his "wife" was there yet. Unless those American sailors had
+broken the first law of their order of chivalry, the women committed to
+their care had been safeguarded.
+
+Well, he owed her a life. Now he might be able to repay the debt in
+full.
+
+He had never before handled a speaking trumpet, so his initial essay was
+brief:
+
+"Can you hear?"
+
+He could just catch three faint sounds in answer.
+
+"As soon as a sailor can cross by the rope, send one," he shouted, "I
+shall need help at this end. I have made fast the heavy rope. Shall I
+haul in the whip?"
+
+There was a pause of a few seconds, but he counted on that. Then he felt
+three tugs on the thinner cord, and began to haul steadily. Soon, by the
+sagging of the main rope and the weight at the end of the whip, he
+realized that some one was making the transit.
+
+Before long he discerned a figure coming towards him hand over hand
+along the rope. The man's feet were caught midway by the seas boiling
+over the reef, but Maseden knew that the gallant fellow's forward
+movement was never checked, and in a very little while the breathless
+chief officer was seated astride the mast beneath him.
+
+"Who in the world are you?" demanded the newcomer; at any rate, he used
+words to that effect.
+
+Maseden answered in kind, and explained his project; whereupon the chief
+officer seized the megaphone and bellowed the necessary instructions. On
+a given signal the two men hauled on the whip.
+
+This time a figure lashed to a life-buoy, which, in turn, was tied to a
+pulley traveling on the guide-rope, came to them out of the darkness. It
+was a woman, hardly in her senses, yet able to obey when told to sit
+astride the mast and hold fast to a ring.
+
+"We can hardly find room for five more people here," shouted the chief
+officer. "Are you game to shin along the mast and see if that loose spar
+is practicable yet?"
+
+"Yes," said Maseden.
+
+He vanished in the darkness. He was absent fully five minutes, a period
+which, to the waiting chief officer, who alone knew what was actually
+happening, must have seemed like as many hours. Then Maseden returned.
+By this time there were two more astride the foremast, four in all. He
+tied the nearest one to his back with a rope.
+
+"Can you steady yourself by placing your hands on my shoulders, but not
+around my neck?" he said.
+
+For answer two slim hands caught his shoulders. He began working his way
+forward into the gloom.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE LOTTERY
+
+
+Maseden's prolonged absence on the first occasion was readily accounted
+for by what he had done. When he reached the end of the foremast--at the
+junction of spars known to the sailor as the couplings--he found that
+the topmast was, in fact, thrust tightly against the rock wall.
+
+Thus far, his most sanguine calculations had been justified to the
+letter.
+
+It was impossible to determine how the other end of that precarious
+bridge was secured. He saw at once, however, that a great strain was
+being placed already on the stays which attached it, by chance and
+loosely at first, but now with ever-increasing rigidity, to the lower
+mast. He thought that a vigorous kick would ease the pressure by partly
+freeing one of the wire ropes which had become entangled in the
+splintered wood.
+
+Of course, he was only choosing the lesser of two evils. If the spar
+snapped a second time, the last hope of rescue was absolutely destroyed.
+On the other hand, by reducing the thrust on the retaining spar, the
+forecastle might slip.
+
+He kicked, and the stay was released! To the best of his belief the
+wreck did not move.
+
+Fastening the seaward end of the topmast in a rough and ready fashion,
+in such wise that it was held in position, yet allowed some play if
+subjected to irresistible weight, he tested it with one hand. It
+remained taut. Then, murmuring something which had the semblance of a
+prayer, he committed himself to the crossing.
+
+The wind carried his body out at an astonishing angle, but he held on.
+Of course, he had not far to travel, because a steamer's topmast is of
+no great length, but, if he lives to become a centenarian, Maseden will
+never forget the extraordinary thrill of thankfulness and jubilation
+which ran through every fibre when his right foot rested on a projecting
+knob of rock.
+
+A ghostly light coming from the white maelstrom beneath enabled him to
+make sure that the crevice in which the spar had stuck extended some
+distance into the face of the cliff. He scrambled ashore, and found that
+a narrow ledge ran inward about the height of his breast. It was
+practicable as far as a hand could reach; so, well knowing how precious
+was every second, he commenced the return journey.
+
+He simply did not allow himself to think. The slightest hesitation might
+have been fatal. He could form no sort of estimate of his own nervous
+strength. He knew that any man's willpower may carry him to a certain
+point and then desert him. He realized that he was leaving a sort of
+safety for a no mean chance of speedy death; but there is safety that is
+dishonor, and death that is everlastingly honorable.
+
+Without any semblance of hesitation, this gallant young American swung
+forth to the desolation and chaos he had just quitted.
+
+Nor did his spirit quail when he had deposited a helpless woman on the
+ledge. But his hands fumbled in untying the rope which had bound her to
+him, and he became conscious of an affrighting lassitude which brought
+with it a grimmer menace than the howling furies of the reef.
+
+He tried to persuade himself that the poncho strapped to his back had
+made the burden of another body almost unbearable. Hurriedly unfastening
+it, he said to his collapsed companion--or, rather shouted, because the
+din created by the breakers was almost stupefying:
+
+"Are you able to hold this?"
+
+Probably she replied, but her utterance was swept away by the wind ere
+the words had crossed her lips. She took the folded cloak in her hands,
+and the action sufficed.
+
+Then Maseden left her. During this second crossing to the forecastle he
+knew beyond range of doubt that he had reached the limit of physical
+endurance. He had eaten nothing during many hours, he had been knocked
+insensible and had lost a good deal of blood. It was not in human nature
+that any man, howsoever fit and active he might be, could survive these
+heavy drains on his energies and yet put forth the sustained effort now
+called for.
+
+It tasked his grit to the uttermost to go on this time. He knew in his
+heart that a third double passage was not to be thought of.
+
+So, during the brief respite while a wholly insensible woman was being
+tied to him, he contrived to shout to the nearest man on the spar:
+
+"I'm all in! You fellows must follow as best you can. It's not so bad
+for a man crossing alone. Turn your back to the wind."
+
+He had adopted that method while carrying the girl already on the rock,
+and the force of the gale had seemed to exert less drag on his arms.
+
+It needed a real life-and-death struggle to gain the ledge this time.
+During a minute or longer he could not even endeavor to undo the rope.
+He merely lurched forward on to the tiny platform and sank in a heap
+with the inert body of a girl bound to his back. Then he felt dizzily
+that someone was gaining a foothold on the rock behind. With a mighty
+effort he bundled his own body and the girl's out of the way.
+
+He fancied he heard a shout and a scream, but was beyond knowing or
+caring what had happened. Had he slipped down into the raging vortex
+beneath and been whirled to almost instant death he would have felt a
+sense of relief that the long drawn-out and unequal fight was ended.
+
+He revived under the stress of a new horror. He found himself gazing
+blankly into a dim obscurity in which there was neither broken topmast
+nor unheaved forecastle. The tons of metal piled on a slippery rock had
+vanished completely, and the hapless few who had survived the slow agony
+of those hours of waiting in the chart-room were hurled to death at the
+very moment when fate tantalized them with the prospect of rescue!
+
+Someone bawled huskily in his ear:
+
+"They've gone! My God! What rotten luck! I could almost have touched the
+man crossing behind me!... Can we get these girls out of this?... Which
+way did you come?"
+
+It was the young American passenger, Sturgess. He imagined that the man
+who had brought hope and life to the doomed survivors of the _Southern
+Cross_ had reached the vessel from the land and could now pilot the
+three who alone were saved to some place where food and repose would be
+attainable.
+
+"I'm tied to someone," Maseden contrived to say. "Try and unfasten the
+rope, and shove me up on to the ledge.... I'm all in, but I'll soon be
+better.... Mind you hold fast yourself!"
+
+Sturgess, though only a degree less exhausted, did as he was asked.
+Sprawling weakly over the prostrate body of the second of the two girls,
+Maseden felt in the darkness for the other one.
+
+He discovered that she had collapsed sideways in a faint, but, by some
+marvel, the folded cloak had not rolled down the side of the precipice.
+His hands were feeble and numb, but he contrived to unfasten the strap.
+The bottle of brandy was uninjured, and, so unnerved was he by knowing
+that the spirit probably meant all the difference between life and death
+for four people--at any rate till dawn--that he actually dropped it.
+
+Again Providence intervened. It fell on the thick poncho, and did not
+break.
+
+Filled with savage resolve to conquer this weakness, he grasped the
+bottle more firmly, drew the cork with his teeth, and, resisting the
+impulse to swallow the contents in great gulps, sipped some of the
+liquor slowly.
+
+He did not offer any to the others at that moment. His mind was clearing
+now, and he saw that the one vital thing needed was that he should
+recover control of his mental and bodily powers. A few minutes more or
+less of collapse mattered not so much to his companions as that he
+should lead or carry them to a less exposed position. Then the brandy
+would be really effective. At present, to hand it around in the
+darkness, while wind and spindrift were whipping them with scorpions,
+was merely courting the disaster which he himself had so narrowly
+averted.
+
+The other man had gained the ledge. He could not see Maseden, because
+each inch of space increased an obscurity already akin to that of a
+tomb, but he leaned forward and caught his arm.
+
+"Say!" he yelled. "Isn't there some way out? We'll die quick if we stop
+here!"
+
+"You must wait a little," said Maseden. "I, like yourself, was on board
+the ship. I'm going to stand up now and prospect a bit by feeling my
+way. Take care that neither of the women falls off. They _are_ women,
+aren't they?"
+
+"Yes. D'ye think we'd send men ashore first?"
+
+"I was not certain that both girls were still living."
+
+What a time and place for a discussion on the etiquette of life-saving
+at sea! It was typical of their race and type.
+
+Placing the bottle in a breast pocket Maseden rose cautiously to his
+feet. Gripping the rock with his hands, he stepped over the unconscious
+form of the first girl he brought ashore. Evidently she had collapsed
+when the forecastle was swept away before her eyes.
+
+The ledge led straight into the crevice he had entered during daylight,
+and though very uneven, trended generally upward. He had to depend, of
+course, wholly on the sense of touch, since the darkness here was that
+of a deep mine.
+
+Some thirty feet inland he was halted abruptly. The ledge seemed to
+widen out and then end against an overhanging rock. But the place was
+dry, and the wind hardly penetrated, while the deafening thunder of the
+reef had died down to a harsh growl. By comparison with the sea face
+this secluded nook was a niche in Paradise. At any rate, here it was
+possible to await daylight without necessarily dying from exposure.
+
+He hurried back, having memorized each inequality of floor and wall on
+the journey of exploration.
+
+"Are you able to carry one of those girls?" he shouted to Sturgess when
+he was once more in the midst of the external uproar.
+
+"How far?"
+
+"Not more than fifteen short strides. Take her in your left arm, and
+feel the rock face on the right. Keep close in. I'm not certain about
+the width of this ledge. It rises a little, but is fairly straight."
+
+"Go right ahead!"
+
+Soon the two men were in the haven of shelter at the further end. Each
+was clasping an inanimate woman, but happily, speech no longer demanded
+a straining of vocal chords.
+
+"Is this the limit of the accommodation?" inquired Sturgess, obeying his
+guide's restraining hand.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Do we sit right down and hope that the sun will rise sometime?"
+
+"Not yet.... Here! Grope this way. I am giving you a bottle of brandy.
+Drink some, not much, because we must hoard it. Then we'll try and get a
+few drops between these girls' teeth. After that we must rub their hands
+and ankles till the friction hurts. It may revive them. I don't know. It
+is the only plan I can think of. When they recover, if ever, we'll seat
+them side by side with their backs to the rock, you and I will squeeze
+close, one on each side, and I have a poncho which will cover the lot.
+By that means we may obtain some degree of warmth in common."
+
+"Old man, you said a page full!"
+
+There was silence for a few seconds. Then Sturgess said gratefully:
+
+"Gee! That's some tonic! Now, how about those girls?"
+
+"Give me the bottle. This lady was conscious when I brought her ashore.
+She may recover quickly."
+
+The almost tangible blackness in which the little group of people was
+wrapped greatly enhanced the difficulties attending restorative
+measures. Maseden discovered that the abundant hair of the girl he was
+hugging so closely to his heart had become loose, and was in a wet
+tangle about her throat and mouth.
+
+The clinging strands were troublesome, but, by prizing her lips open
+between a finger and thumb, he contrived to make her swallow a few drops
+of the brandy. In fact, while he was yet doubting the efficacy of the
+dose, some slight convulsive movements showed that consciousness was
+returning.
+
+He laid her carefully down, and told the American to do likewise with
+the sister. Sturgess seemed to be curiously slow to obey, and Maseden
+admonished him sharply, thinking the other might be dazed.
+
+"Now, rub hard!" he said. "First her left hand--then her left ankle."
+
+Both set to work with a will. Maseden could not understand why the
+unhappy girl should be nearly naked. The stockings had fallen about her
+shoes. For the rest, her chief garment was an oilskin coat.
+
+He, be it remembered, had been spared the hard usage of the waves, and
+his clothing was better adapted to existing conditions. He was shocked
+to find how cold she was, how icy and lifeless her flesh. He urged
+Sturgess not to spare her.
+
+Their rough and ready massage soon proved effective. The girl gasped
+something incoherent, and strove to withdraw her limbs from a distinctly
+strenuous handling.
+
+"_She's_ nearly all right, now," announced Maseden briskly. "Sharp's the
+word with the other one."
+
+The second patient offered a longer task. By the time she gave any sign
+of life her sister was frantically asking what had become of her, and
+was only quieted by Maseden saying sternly:
+
+"You will help most by not bothering us. We are doing our best for your
+sister. She is here, and may recover. That is all I can tell you."
+
+"We? Who are we?" came the broken cry.
+
+"Mr. Sturgess, yourself, your sister and I. My name is Maseden."
+
+He caught a strangled gasp of astonishment, but Sturgess broke in
+breathlessly, for the exertion was warming him:
+
+"Great Scott! You've got my name pat, Mr. Maseden. D'ye mean--to
+tell--me--you were--on board--that poor old ship?"
+
+"Rub! And don't talk!... She moved a little then."
+
+His judgment was well founded. Within a few minutes he heard the second
+girl address her sister as Nina.
+
+So this one was Madge, his wife! He had literally brought her back from
+the very gates of death. He could not even see her. What a curious
+coincidence that when she saved his life, and he saved hers, she was
+equally hidden from him; then by a veil, now by the pall of the darkest
+night he had ever experienced!
+
+The girls began exchanging broken confidences. Madge, who had fainted
+while being towed across the fearsome chasm between bridge and
+forecastle, did not know of the loss of the captain and chief and second
+officers, with a passenger, until told by Nina. She wept bitterly, and
+Maseden could not help noticing that Sturgess tried to console her in a
+very lover-like manner.
+
+He actually smiled at the tragic humor of it all, especially when Nina
+seemed to sense his thought, and valiantly interfered by bidding Madge
+not to add to their misery by useless grief. He refrained purposely from
+giving them any more brandy until some time had elapsed. Now that their
+faculties were restored, he knew, from his own experiences, that their
+tongues and palates were on fire with the salt-laden atmosphere they had
+perforce inhaled during so many hours.
+
+But each minute of quiet in this sheltered nook, and in breathable air,
+would do much to alleviate their suffering, and he trusted to the brandy
+to put them to sleep.
+
+In effect, that was what actually happened. When each of the four had
+swallowed a small quantity of the spirit Maseden and Sturgess nestled in
+beside the two girls and tucked the poncho over knees and feet. The
+bodies of the men served as excellent shields. In the physical and
+mental reaction which set in with the consciousness of assured
+safety--because that was what both girls thought, and neither man cared
+to weaken their faith--they were sound asleep within half an hour of the
+time they left the wreck.
+
+Sturgess, too, was worn out, and slept fitfully, but it was long before
+Maseden's overtaxed nerves would yield. He could not help speculating as
+to what wretched hap the coming day might bring. There was a gnawing
+dread in his mind that they might be lodged in a fissure of an
+unscalable cliff. If that were so, what a fearsome prospect lay before
+them! The mere notion was unendurable, and he resolutely refused to
+dwell on it.
+
+Then he mused on the queer chance which, even in this small company,
+divorced him from his wife. He had rescued Nina first. By the accident
+of situation he was nearest the rock which closed the ledge, and she
+next. It was her body, not his wife's, to which he was close pressed,
+and in which his more vigorous frame had already induced a certain
+comfortable warmth.
+
+Her head had fallen on his shoulder. An unconscious movement revealed
+that some roughness in the rock wall was hurtful, so he put his left arm
+around her neck and pillowed her gently.
+
+Try as he might, he found himself still brooding on the chances of the
+coming day. Fortune favoring, they might find a way to the summit of the
+cliff. Would they be much better off? Water they would surely
+obtain--but what of food?
+
+Somehow, in such woful plight, a man's mind turns instinctively to a
+pipe. He actually had a cherished briar between his teeth and a tobacco
+pouch in his hand, when his heart sank at the remembrance that he had
+struck the last match in the only box of matches in his pocket after
+breakfast that morning. He recollected tossing the empty box into the
+sea. Subsequently, in lighting a cigar, he had borrowed a match.
+
+Searching his pockets without disturbing the exhausted girl by his side,
+he made sure of the unhappy truth. He had no match. Even if they reached
+the interior of the island they could not possibly start a fire.
+
+He knew at once that Sturgess, who had been soaked in salt water for
+many hours, was in a worse predicament than himself, because his own
+clothing was dry inside, whereas the other was wet to the skin, and any
+matches he might have carried must be in a pulp.
+
+Tucked away in a money belt, Maseden carried ten thousand dollars in
+American bills, yet one small box of matches would be of far greater
+practical value in that hour than all the money. Slight wonder, then, if
+his stout heart failed him at last and the darkness closed in on his
+soul as on his eyes.
+
+The sleeping girl, conscious only of warmth and protection, snuggled her
+head a little nearer.
+
+"Mother, darling," she murmured, "we had to do it! We had no choice. It
+was for your dear sake!"
+
+That was all--some troubled confidence of a dream--but it sufficed to
+set Maseden musing on the strange vortex into which fate had sucked him
+from the peace and seclusion of Los Andes ranch.
+
+His mind wandered. He saw again the magnificent groves of mahogany trees
+and coyal palms, with their golden flowers fully three feet in height,
+and the _chicka_ sap oozing from the bark. He sauntered through the
+well-cultivated plantations of bananas, yams, arrow-root, guavas, and
+all the fruit and cereals which that favored region of Central America
+produces in such abundance that men grow lazy and are content to plot
+and thieve rather than toil. He particularly recalled a number of
+"chocolate" trees, the marvelous growth which yields a more delicately
+flavored beverage than the cocoa-tree.
+
+The original owner of the ranch prided himself on these
+trees--botanically, the _Herrania purpurea_--because they were not
+indigenous to San Juan, but had been brought from Guatemala. Los Andes
+ranch was indeed a veritable Garden of Eden.
+
+While roaming through it in spirit Maseden dropped off to sleep.
+
+And that was a kindly act on the part of a Providence which marks even
+the fall of a sparrow from a house-top. A full day lay before this man
+and those others committed to his care. Even a couple of hours' fitful
+repose served as a splendid restorative. Without some such respite he
+could never have faced and carried through the almost Sisyphean task
+which awaited him at daylight.
+
+He awoke with a shiver. He was chilled to the bone. Not knowing what he
+was doing, he had drawn the poncho closely over Nina Gray, leaving his
+own limbs almost uncovered. Startled lest the others might be stiff in
+death, since his clothes were dry, while theirs, such as they possessed,
+were wet, he touched the girl's cheek. It was quite warm and soft.
+
+The oilskins she and her sister wore and the huddling together of the
+four under the heavy poncho had generated a moist heat which probably
+helped to preserve the two delicate women from some type of deadly
+pneumonia.
+
+At first it did not strike Maseden as strange that he should be able to
+see her face. As the initial feeling of panic passed, and he glanced
+around, he understood what had happened. The sky was clear, and the
+moon, late risen, was spreading a mild radiance over rocks and sea.
+
+By raising himself a little, so as not to disturb the sleeper still
+trustfully tucked under his arm, he peered sidewise down on the reef.
+The tide was high, and great rollers were smashing over the barrier
+which had broken the _Southern Cross_.
+
+So far as he could tell, not a vestige of the ship remained. Bridge and
+chart-house had vanished. He fancied that some part of the framework
+accounted for a particularly vexed boiling of the surges on a spot where
+the engines and stoke-hold had lodged. But that was only guesswork.
+
+The morning tide had done its work with thoroughness. The _Southern
+Cross_ had become a memory.
+
+Then he surveyed the ledge and the cleft. Apparently, at this point, he
+was some twenty feet above high-water mark. To the left was the sea. To
+the right, the rock overhung the ledge in such wise that the place was
+almost a cave. This fact, combined with the elevation of the opposite
+wall, explained the shelter the castaways had been vouchsafed from the
+bitter gale now blowing itself out. But it was affrighting to realize
+that the very physical feature which provided a refuge might also immure
+them in a living tomb.
+
+He shuddered, and moved involuntarily, and the girl awoke with a start.
+
+She lifted her head, and gazed at him with uncomprehending eyes.
+
+"Where am I?" she said, rather in wonderment than alarm.
+
+"Somewhere on the coast of Chile," he said.
+
+She extricated a hand from the folds of the poncho and swept the errant
+hair from her face. Turning partly, she looked at her sister and
+Sturgess.
+
+"I remember now," she said slowly. Then she discovered that Maseden's
+arm was supporting her shoulders.
+
+"Have you held me like that all night?" she inquired.
+
+"'All night' is a figure of speech. It is not yet daybreak. This is
+moonlight."
+
+"The moon! Does the moon still shine? But your arm must be weary."
+
+Maseden was just beginning to realize that he owned a left arm.
+Circulation was being restored, and he knew it.
+
+"Now that you mention it," he said quietly, "I believe it is."
+
+She spoke again, but he was in such agony that he broke out in a
+perspiration, a most fortunate circumstance, since he was perished with
+cold. The spasm did not last long, however, and he found his voice
+again.
+
+"Are you Miss Nina Gray?" he asked, and, in the same breath, was
+conscious of the absurd formality of the question in the conditions.
+
+She did not answer.
+
+"We may as well become acquainted," he went on, smiling at the queer
+turn their first words had taken.
+
+"Now I remember everything," she said, burying her face in her hands.
+
+"I can't have you crying," he muttered with a certain roughness. "Tears
+won't help. We're in a pretty bad fix, and must meet developments
+calmly."
+
+"I'm not crying," she said, dropping her hands, and looking at him as
+though to offer proof.
+
+"Then you can at least tell me your name, though I'm almost sure that
+you are Nina. Even here, your sister, who is also my wife, keeps away
+from me."
+
+"That is unjust. You saved both of us, but I kept my senses, and she did
+not. You asked me if I was Nina Gray. I am not. My name is Nina Forbes."
+
+Maseden was stung into a revolt as fantastic as it was sudden.
+
+"Good Lord!" he cried. "Are you married?"
+
+"Please let me explain. Mr. Gray was not my father, but my stepfather.
+My mother married again. I--wanted to tell you. But does it really
+matter? Why are we discussing such trivial things? Are we four the only
+survivors of the wreck?"
+
+"I suppose so."
+
+"Mr. Gray died--while we were in the chart-room. He was an invalid--a
+neurotic. He could not withstand hardship of any sort. But the captain
+and chief officer were behind me on that mast.... Ah! I had forgotten
+that. I fainted, didn't I?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Madge stirred uneasily. Their voices had aroused her.
+
+"Don't be unkind to Madge," said the girl hurriedly. "Neither of us
+could help what happened in San Juan. We thought we were acting for the
+best. Our lives are still in jeopardy, I imagine. Won't you be good and
+forget that unfortunate marriage?"
+
+"I won't talk of it, if that is what you mean. But I can hardly regard
+it as unfortunate. It undoubtedly saved my life."
+
+Madge awoke with a cry.
+
+"Nina!" she screamed. "Oh, Nina, is that you? Are we really alive?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE VIGIL
+
+
+Sturgess awoke, too. Soon they were talking freely, and Maseden not only
+learned the heart-breaking story of the dozen refugees pent in the
+chart-house, but was told how he himself came by the blow on the head
+which took away his senses.
+
+Madge Gray, or Forbes, as he must now call her, was moved to thank
+Providence for the intervention of the Spanish sailor.
+
+"If that man hadn't picked you up, Mr. Maseden," she said, "you would
+have been washed overboard a few seconds later. Then nothing could have
+saved any of us."
+
+She seemed to be completely unaware of the sensation she created by
+addressing her rescuer by name. Maseden felt Nina's nervous little
+start, but Sturgess put his astonishment into words.
+
+"Maseden!" he cried. "You know our friend, then?"
+
+"I--I heard his name before--on the ship," came the faltered answer.
+
+"Well, you heard more than _I_ did.... Are you the mysterious
+English-speaking _vaquero_ who lived in the forecastle?" and the
+questioner bent a puzzled face sideways to try and discern the other
+man's features.
+
+"Yes," said Maseden promptly. "There need be no mystery about it now. I
+got into trouble in Cartagena, shot the president-elect, and escaped in
+the disguise of a Spanish cowboy."
+
+"Gee!" exclaimed Sturgess.
+
+For some reason best known to himself he displayed no further curiosity
+in the matter, though he might well have wondered how Madge Forbes had
+come to identify that picturesque-looking person, Ramon Aliones, with
+the American whose exploits had set all Cartagena agog the day before
+the _Southern Cross_ sailed.
+
+There was an uncomfortable pause, which Maseden broke by a laugh.
+
+"So you see, Mr. Sturgess, I owed you a good turn, though you never
+guessed it. By your kindness in letting me carry your bag and share your
+boat I got away from my pursuers without attracting attention."
+
+"Gee!" said Sturgess again.
+
+His comment probably denoted bewilderment. It may also have shown that
+the speaker had just ascertained something which supplied food for
+thought. In the half light Maseden allowed himself to smile, because the
+conceit instantly leaped into his mind that his fellow-countryman might
+have been told of that amazing marriage, and was now engaged in fitting
+together certain pieces of the puzzle.
+
+If, for instance, Sturgess suspected that Madge Forbes was the lady who
+figured in that extraordinary episode, he must realize that in paying
+her such marked attention during the voyage he had placed himself, if
+not her, in a somewhat equivocal position.
+
+"I had reason to believe that the captain recognized me," went on
+Maseden. "Probably that is how Miss Forbes came to hear my name."
+
+"Miss Forbes!"
+
+There was no mistaking the new note of surprise, even of annoyance, in
+Sturgess's voice. He was gathering information at a rapid rate, and
+evidently found some difficulty in assimilating it.
+
+"Yes," broke in Nina Forbes. "That is my sister's name, and my own. Mr.
+Gray was our stepfather. We passed as his daughters while traveling. The
+arrangement prevented all sorts of misunderstandings. In any event, it
+concerned none but ourselves. I only mentioned the fact casually to Mr.
+Maseden a few minutes ago."
+
+Some men might have caught a rebuke in the girl's words. Not so
+Sturgess.
+
+"I'm tickled to death at hearing it, anyhow," he said cheerfully. "The
+one thing I couldn't understand was how you two girls could be that poor
+chap's daughters.... Well, now we're all properly introduced, let's talk
+as though we really knew one another. Has any one the beginning of a
+notion as to the time."
+
+Then Maseden remembered that he was wearing a watch which he had wound
+that morning. He produced it, and was able to discern the hands.
+
+"A quarter past two," he announced.
+
+A silence fell on them. Somehow the intimate and homely fact that one of
+the little company possessed a watch which had not stopped served rather
+to enhance than allay the sense of peril and abandonment which their
+brief talk had dispelled for the moment. A soldier who took part in that
+glorious but terrible retreat from Mons confessed afterwards that his
+spirit quailed once, and that was when he read the route names on a
+London suburban omnibus lying disabled and abandoned by the roadside.
+
+The Marble Arch, Edgware Road, Maida Vale and Cricklewood--what had
+these familiar localities to do with the crash of shell-fire and the
+spattering of bullets on the _pave_? Similarly, the forlorn castaways on
+Hanover Island felt that a watch was an absurdly civilized thing among
+the loud-voiced savageries of wind and wave.
+
+The moonlight died away, too, with a suddenness that was almost
+unnerving. True, the moon had only vanished behind a cloud-bank. But her
+face was veiled effectually, and the growing darkness soon showed that
+she would not be visible again that night.
+
+They tried to sleep, but the effort failed. Lack of food was a more
+serious matter now than mere physical exhaustion. All four were young
+and vigorous enough to withstand fatigue, and to wake up refreshed after
+the brief repose they had already enjoyed.
+
+But they were stiff and cramped, and their blood was beginning to yield
+to a deadly chill. Though they huddled together as closely as possible,
+there was no resisting the steady encroachment of the bitter cold.
+
+At last Maseden counseled that they all stand up, and, despite the
+urgent need of conserving their energies, obtain some measure of warmth
+by stretching their limbs and breathing deeply.
+
+He even suggested that they should sing, but the effort to start a
+popular chorus was such a lamentable failure that they laughed dismally.
+
+Then he tried story telling. He judged, and quite rightly, that the
+majority of his hearers would be deeply interested in a recital of his
+own recent adventures.
+
+Greatly daring, he left out no detail, and, in a darkness which was
+almost tangible because of its density, he was well aware how alert was
+every ear to catch the true version of an extraordinary marriage.
+
+No one interrupted. They just listened intently. Once, when he asked if
+he was wearying them by a too exact description of events at the ranch
+after his escape, Nina Forbes said quietly:
+
+"Please tell us everything, Mr. Maseden. I have never heard anything
+half so interesting. You have caused me to forget where I am, and I can
+give you no higher praise."
+
+At last he made an end, dwelling purposely on the light note of his
+troubles with the Spanish sailor who claimed a vested right in him after
+the incident of the falling block.
+
+Sturgess put a direct question or two.
+
+"You don't seem to have any sort of a notion as to who the lady was?" he
+began.
+
+"I only know that her Christian name was Madeleine," answered Maseden
+readily. "She was about to sign the register when the idea of getting
+out of the Castle dawned on me, and, from that instant, I thought of
+nothing else. I hadn't much time, you know. The plan had to be concocted
+and carried out almost in the same breath. And there was no room for
+failure. The least slip, either in time or method, and I was a dead
+man."
+
+"Madeleine!" mused Sturgess aloud. "She was English, or American, I
+suppose?"
+
+"American, I imagine. Undoubtedly one or the other."
+
+"And that fat Steinbaum was the marriage broker! I know Steinbaum--a
+thug, if ever there was one.... What are you going to do about it, Mr.
+Maseden?"
+
+"Do about what?"
+
+"Well, if you win clear from this present rather doubtful
+proposition--and we're backing you in that for all we're worth, ain't
+we, girls?--you're tied up to a wife whom you don't know, and I guess
+the one place in which you're likely to find her is off the map for you
+for keeps."
+
+"I'm not versed in the law," laughed Maseden, "but it will be a queer
+thing if I should be compelled to regard myself as married to a lady
+whom I have seen, certainly, but do not want."
+
+"How do you know you don't want her?"
+
+"I know nothing whatsoever about her."
+
+"That's just it. That's where you may be hipped. She may be a peach, the
+finest ever. Suppose, for the sake of argument, one of these two, Miss
+Madge or Miss Nina--"
+
+"The lady's name happened to be Madeleine," put in Madge instantly. "If
+the ceremony was meant to be valid she would undoubtedly sign her right
+name."
+
+"Just so. You missed my point."
+
+Maseden thought it advisable to come to the rescue. He had conveyed to
+the one vitally interested listener that her secret was safe for the
+time, and this should suffice.
+
+"I am inclined to think that I shall be proof against my nominal wife's
+charms, no matter how great they may be," he said emphatically. "There
+is a romantic side to the affair, I admit, but I cannot blind myself to
+the fact that it possesses a prosaic one as well. Association with a
+skunk like Steinbaum is hardly the best of credentials, in the first
+place. Secondly, one asks what motive any woman could have in wishing to
+marry a man condemned to die. I'm not flattering myself that my personal
+qualifications carried much weight.
+
+"Admittedly, the lady wanted to wed because I was about to disappear. I
+give her the credit of believing that she would never have gone through
+with the farce if she had the least reason to think that I would not be
+dead within the next half hour. But the fact remains that she was
+callous and calculating--whether to serve her own ends or some other
+person's is immaterial.... No, Mr. Sturgess; when, if ever, I choose a
+wife, it is long odds against her name being Madeleine."
+
+Nina Forbes laughed, though her teeth chattered with the cold.
+
+"The calm way in which men speak of 'choosing' a wife always amuses me,"
+she said. "If any man told me he had 'chosen' me I should feel inclined
+to box his ears."
+
+"It isn't the best of words," put in Sturgess promptly, "but it conveys
+a real compliment. A fellow meets a girl, _the_ girl, and some
+electrical arrangement jangles at the back of his head. 'This is _it_,'
+says a voice. 'Go to it, good and hard,' and he goes. That's the only
+sort of choice he's given. The girl can always turn him down, you know.
+Still, she can't help feeling flattered. She says to herself, 'That poor
+fellow, Charles K. Sturgess, is only a mutt, but he did think me the
+best ever, so he had good taste.' What do you think, Miss Madge?"
+
+Then he and the others discovered that Madge was crying. The frivolous
+chatter intended to hide a dread reality had failed in its object. They
+were shivering with cold again, and ever more conscious of gnawing
+hunger. The prospect of escape was more than doubtful. Fate seemed to be
+playing a pitiless game with every soul on board the _Southern Cross_,
+having swept some to instant death, while retaining others for
+destruction by idle whim. The renewed darkness, the continuous uproar
+of the reef, had broken the girl's nerve.
+
+Maseden fancied that he had placed too great a strain on her by
+detailing with such precision the sequence of events during those
+crowded hours at Cartagena.
+
+"I think," he said gravely, "that we ought to lie down again, and await
+patiently the coming of daylight. The sun rises, no matter what else may
+happen, and dawn cannot be long delayed now."
+
+They obeyed him. They looked to him for guidance, but they were glad he
+did not call for any effort. Even the light-hearted, apparently
+irresponsible Sturgess, who, if he had to die, would depart this life
+with a jest on his lips, was stilled by the sheer hopelessness of their
+condition.
+
+After one of those hours which seem to belong to eternity rather than to
+time, a quality of grayness made itself felt in the overwhelming gloom.
+Soon the serrated edge of the opposite wall of rock became a fixed and
+rigid thing against a background of cloud. In this new world of horror
+and suffering the break of day, to all appearances, came from the west!
+
+This phenomenon was easily explained. Near by, on the east, rose the
+tremendous peaks of the Andes, so the plain of the sea on the western
+horizon caught the first shafts of light long before they filtered into
+the fiords and gorges of the coast-line tucked in at the base of those
+great hills.
+
+Not that it mattered a jot to those desolate ones where the sun rose
+that day. They would have given little heed had the earth rolled over on
+a new axis, and dawn come from the South Pole!
+
+As soon as daylight was sufficiently advanced to render the rock
+fissures clearly visible, Maseden roused his tiny flock from the stupor
+of sheer exhaustion. He was a man born to lead, and the necessity to
+spur on and exhort others proved his own salvation. He was stiff and
+sore, and his head still ached abominably, but he rose to his feet with
+an energetic shout that quickened the blood in his hearers' veins.
+
+"Now, folk," he said, "the first order of the day is breakfast, and then
+strike camp!"
+
+Breakfast! They thought he was crazy. But he took the bottle of brandy
+from a crevice in which he had lodged it securely overnight, and
+Sturgess uttered a cackling laugh.
+
+"I'm doing pretty well for a life-long teetotaller," he wheezed. "When a
+fellow like me falls off the water-wagon, he generally drops with a dull
+thud, but _I_ must have set up a record. After lunching and dining
+yesterday on claret, I supped on brandy last night and am about to
+breakfast on the same.... Girls, help yourself and pass the decanter!"
+
+Maseden held up the bottle to the light. It had never contained more
+than a pint, and nearly half had gone. A small coin served as a measure
+to divide the contents into five portions.
+
+"Each of us drinks a _peseta_-worth," he said. "There must be neither
+half measures nor extra ones. The last _peseta_-worth remains in the
+bottle. Is that agreed?"
+
+"I want very little, please," said Nina Forbes. "Just enough to moisten
+my lips and tongue--"
+
+"You're going to do as you're bid," was the gruff answer. "I advise you
+to sip your portion, by all means, but you _must_ take it. As a penalty
+for disobedience, you'll start."
+
+She made no further protest, but swallowed her dose meekly. Sister Madge
+followed. Sturgess was minded to argue, but met Maseden's dour glance,
+and took his share. The first mouthful of the spirit acted on him like
+an elixir of life. He drank down to the allotted mark, and handed the
+bottle to Maseden.
+
+"Now, girls," he chortled, "this is the guy who really needs watching.
+If he doesn't play fair let's heave him into the sea."
+
+So three pairs of eyes saw to it that their rescuer had his full
+allowance. Then the bottle was put away, and the castaways took stock
+of their surroundings.
+
+At first sight the position was grotesquely disheartening. Beneath, to
+the left, was the sea. Behind them rose an overhanging wall of rock,
+which swung round to the right and cut off the ledge. The cleft itself
+was some twelve feet wide, and the opposite wall rose fully ten feet. In
+a word, no chamois or mountain goat could have made the transit.
+
+They all surveyed the situation from every point of view afforded by the
+fifteen feet of ledge. There was no reason to express opinions. Escape,
+in any direction, looked frankly impossible.
+
+Then Maseden examined the cleft beneath.
+
+"We cannot go up," he said quietly. "In that case, as we certainly don't
+mean to stay here, I'm going down."
+
+It was feasible, with care, to climb down to sea level, but the huge
+rollers breaking over the reef sent a heavy backwash against the cliff.
+The swirl of water rose and fell three feet at a time, with enough force
+to throw the strongest man off his balance.
+
+"Do you mean that you intend jumping into the sea, Mr. Maseden?" said
+Madge Forbes.
+
+She was quite calm now. She put that vital question as coolly as though
+it implied nothing more than a swimmer's pastime. Their eyes clashed,
+and, for the first time, the man saw that Madge possessed no small share
+of Nina's self-control. Her earlier collapse was of the body, not of the
+soul.
+
+"It doesn't mean that I shall willingly commit suicide," he answered.
+"If it comes to that, I suggest that we all go together. I'm merely
+taking a prospecting trip. There's no way out above. I must see what
+offers below."
+
+Without another word he sat on the lip of the rock on which they stood,
+and lowered himself to a tiny ledge which gave foothold. They watched
+him making his way down. It was no easy climb, but he did not hurry.
+Twice he advanced, and climbed a little higher to a point whence descent
+was more practicable. At last he vanished.
+
+Sturgess, craning his neck over the seaward side of their narrow perch,
+could not see him, while the growl of the reef shut out all minor
+sounds.
+
+Maseden was not long absent, but the three people whom he had left
+confessed afterwards that of all the nerve-racking experiences they had
+undergone since the ship struck, that silent waiting was the worst.
+
+At last he reappeared. Nina, farthest up the cleft, was the first to see
+him, and she cried shrilly:
+
+"Oh, thank God! He's got a rope!"
+
+A rope! Of what avail was a rope? Yet three hearts thrilled with great
+expectation. Why should Maseden bring a rope? It meant something, some
+plan, some definite means towards the one great object. They had an
+abounding faith in him.
+
+The rope was slung around his shoulders in a noose, and he seemed to be
+tugging at some heavy weight which yielded but slowly to the strain.
+When he was still below the level of the ledge he undid the noose and
+passed it to Sturgess.
+
+"Hold tight!" he shouted. "I've picked up the broken foremast. I'm going
+down to clear it off the rocks. When I yell, haul away steadily."
+
+They asked no questions. Maseden simply must be right. They listened
+eagerly for the signal, and put all their strength to the task when it
+came.
+
+Soon the truck of the foremast appeared. Then the full length of the
+spar could be seen, with Maseden guiding it. He had tied the rope at a
+point about one-third of the length from the truck. When it was poised
+so that lifting alone was required he shouted to them to stop, and
+rejoined them, breathless, but bright-eyed.
+
+"There's no means of escape by the sea," he explained, "so we must try
+the cliff. This is our bridge. I think it will span the gully. Anyhow,
+it is worth trying."
+
+Then they understood, and measuring glances were cast from spar to
+opposing crest. It would be a close thing, but, as Maseden said, it was
+certainly worth trying.
+
+In a minute, or less, the broken mast was standing up-ended on the
+ledge. Then, with its base jammed into a crevice, it was lowered by the
+rope across the chasm. It just touched the top of the rock wall.
+
+They actually cheered, but the women's hearts missed a couple of beats
+when Maseden began to climb again. He worked his way upward without
+haste, found a toe-grip on the rock, raised himself carefully, and again
+disappeared from sight.
+
+This time he was not so long away. He looked down on them with a
+confident smile.
+
+"There's a chance," he said. "A ghost of a chance. Now I'm coming back!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+PROGRESS
+
+
+When he stood beside them once more on the ledge he told them what he
+had seen.
+
+"It's a fortress of rock up there, and nothing else," he said. "We may
+have to climb at least a couple of hundred feet. Have any of you ever
+done any Alpine work?"
+
+No; they knew nothing of the perils or delights of mountaineering.
+
+"I'm in the same boat," he confessed, "but I've read a lot about it, and
+I've noticed one thing in our favor--the pitch of the strata is downward
+towards the land, and that kind of rock face gives the best and safest
+foothold. Moreover, this cleft, or fault, seems to continue a long way
+up.
+
+"Now, we haven't a minute to spare. Each hour will find us weaker. The
+weather, too, is clear, and the rock fairly dry, but wind and rain, or
+fog, would prove our worst enemies. There is plenty of cordage down
+below. I'll gather all within reach. It may prove useful."
+
+He seemed to have no more to say, and was stooping to begin the descent
+when Sturgess grabbed him by the shoulder.
+
+"Wait a second, commodore!" he cried. "You've got your job cut out, and
+I'll obey orders and keep a close tongue, you bet; but when it comes to
+collecting rope lengths, that is _my_ particular stunt, as I sell hemp,
+among other things. You just rest up a while."
+
+Maseden nodded, and made way for a willing deputy. It was only fit and
+proper that he, too, should conserve his energies.
+
+"'Round the corner to the left," he said, "you'll find a sloping rock.
+Some wreckage is lodged in an eddy alongside it. Secure the cordage, and
+any other odds and ends you think useful. Shin up here with a few rope
+lengths at once. I want them straight away. Have you a strong knife?"
+
+Yes, Sturgess luckily did possess a serviceable knife. By the time he
+had handed over a number of rope strands Maseden, helped by the girls,
+had hauled back the mast, to which he began attaching short loops, or
+stirrups, about two feet apart. He did not expect that either Madge
+Forbes or her sister would be able to climb the mast, and it was almost
+a sheer impossibility that he and Sturgess should carry them time and
+again. So the mast, after serving twice as a bridge, was now to become a
+ladder.
+
+Sturgess returned with a curiously mixed spoil--a good deal of rope, a
+sou'wester, a long, thin line--probably the whip used to establish the
+connection between bridge and forecastle while parts of the _Southern
+Cross_ still held together--and the ship's flag, the ensign which was
+flying at the poop when the ship struck.
+
+Water was dripping off him. Evidently he had either been caught by a sea
+or had slipped off a rock.
+
+"Accident?" inquired Maseden.
+
+"Not quite. I had to risk something to get these," and he produced from
+his pockets a dozen large oysters.
+
+No party of _gourmets_ ever sat down to a feast with greater zest than
+those four hungry people. Probably, in view of the labors and hardships
+they were yet fated to undergo, the oysters saved their lives. There is
+no knowing. Human endurance can be stretched to surprising limits, but,
+seeing that they were destined to taste no other food during twelve long
+hours of arduous exertion, the value of Sturgess's find can hardly be
+overrated.
+
+The oysters were of a really excellent species, though under the
+circumstances they were sure to be palatable, no matter what their
+actual qualities.
+
+"I suppose I need hardly ask if there are any more to be had?" inquired
+Maseden, when the meal was dispatched.
+
+"No, sir," grinned Sturgess.
+
+He left it at that, but the others realized that he had probably risked
+his life more than once in the effort to secure even that modest supply.
+
+The meal, slight though it was, not only gave them a new strength--it
+brought hope. If only they could win a way to the interior, and reach
+the land-locked waters of the bay which opened up behind the frowning
+barrier they must yet scale, in all likelihood they would at least
+obtain a plentiful store of shell-fish.
+
+Nina Forbes uttered a quaint little laugh as she threw the last empty
+shell on to the rocks beneath.
+
+"Now," she said, "I am quite ready for the soup and a joint."
+
+"Oh, don't be horrid!" cried Madge. "You've gone and made me feel
+ravenous again."
+
+"He, or she, who would eat must first labor," said Maseden. "Thanks to
+friend Sturgess, we've enjoyed a first-rate snack. I've never sampled
+manna, but I'll back the proteids in three fat oysters against those in
+a pound of manna any day. Now, let's get to business. If I'm not
+mistaken we're going to tackle a stiff proposition."
+
+He knotted some stout cord around his own waist and that of each of the
+others, and slung the longest available coil over his shoulders. Then
+the mast was fixed in its place across the ravine, and he climbed to the
+opposite crest by straddling the pole, putting his feet in the loops,
+and pulling himself up by both hands.
+
+Throwing back the rope, he told Sturgess to see that it was fastened
+securely to one of the girls on the belt already in position. He
+purposely refrained from specifying which one. By chance, Madge Forbes
+stood nearest, and it was she who came.
+
+The crossing was awkward rather than dangerous, and rendered far more
+difficult by the fact that the unwilling acrobat was compelled to expose
+her naked limbs. But after the first shock common sense came to her aid,
+and she straightway abandoned any useless effort to observe the
+conventions.
+
+Still, she blushed furiously, and was trembling when Maseden caught her
+hands and helped her to land.
+
+"Thank Heaven we've kept our boots," he said, unfastening the rope.
+"Just look at the ground we have to cover, and think what it would mean
+if our feet were bare."
+
+The comment was merely one of those matter-of-fact bits of philosophy
+which are most effective in the major crises of life. It was so
+true that a display of leg or ankle mattered little afterwards.
+Nevertheless, a similar ordeal caused Nina to blush, too, but she
+laughed when Madge cried ruefully:
+
+"What in the world has happened to my ankles? They are scrubbed and
+bruised dreadfully."
+
+"That was last night's treatment, my dear," said her sister. "I escaped
+more lightly than you."
+
+"But what do you mean? I felt some soreness, but imagined I knocked
+myself in coming from the wreck."
+
+"You were in a dead faint, so Mr. Maseden and Mr. Sturgess massaged you
+unmercifully."
+
+Madge surveyed damages again.
+
+"I must have been very bad if I stood that," she said.
+
+"You'll be worse before we see the other side of this cliff," murmured
+Nina, casting a critical eye over the precipitous ground in front.
+
+It is not to be wondered at if the girls' hearts quailed at the sight.
+They were standing on a sloping terrace, of no great depth, which ended
+abruptly at the foot of a towering cliff. A little to the right ran
+the line of the cleft, but so forbidding was its appearance, and so
+apparently unscalable its broken ledges, that the same thought occurred
+to each--what if they had but left a narrow, sheltered prison for a
+wider and more exposed one?
+
+Maseden, however, allowed no time for reflection. He and Sturgess had
+already dragged the foremast after them, and were shouldering it in the
+direction of the first hump of rock which seemed to offer a way into the
+cleft. Any other route was absolutely impossible.
+
+After one last glance at the reef which had slain a gallant ship and so
+many lives, they quitted the ledge which had proved their salvation. It
+was then five o'clock in the morning. At four o'clock that afternoon
+they flung themselves, utterly spent, on a carpet of thick moss which
+coated the landward slope of the most westerly point of Hanover Island.
+
+Their hands and knees were torn and bleeding, their fingernails broken,
+their bones aching and their eyes bloodshot. But they had triumphed,
+though many a time it had seemed that if Providence meant to be kind,
+an avalanche of loose stones or a slip on treacherous shale would have
+hurled them to speedy death on the rocks beneath.
+
+On five separate occasions they had found themselves strung out on
+a narrow ledge which merged to nothingness in the sheer wall of a
+precipice. Five times had they to go back and essay a different path,
+often beginning again fifty or even a hundred feet below the point they
+had reached. They were obliged to drag or carry the heavy topmast every
+inch of the way, because, without its aid, either as a bridge or a
+ladder, they could never have surmounted a tithe of the obstacles
+encountered.
+
+In those eleven awful hours they had climbed not two, but five hundred
+feet, a distance which, on the level, a good runner would traverse in
+about twenty seconds, whereas it took them an average of a minute to
+climb one foot.
+
+The marvel was that the women could have done it at all, even with the
+help which both men gave unstintedly. During the last weary hours no one
+uttered an unnecessary word. Each of the four was determined to go on,
+not for his or her own sake, but for the sake of the others. They were
+roped together. If one fell, it meant disaster to all. So, with splendid
+grit, each resolved not to fall so long as hand would hold or foot lodge
+on the tiniest projection.
+
+But, with final success, came utter collapse. Even Maseden, far stronger
+physically than Sturgess, fell like a log. True, he had borne far more
+than his share of the day's toil. No matter what his inmost thoughts, he
+had never, to outward seeming, lost heart. It was he who always found
+the new line, he who earliest decided to turn back and try again.
+
+It was he, too, who called now for renewed exertion after some minutes
+of complete and blissful repose.
+
+"Sorry to disturb your _siesta_," he cried, with a woful assumption of
+cheery confidence, "but we must reach the shore, if possible, before
+night falls. Oysters and Chablis await us there. _En avant, messieurs et
+'dames!_"
+
+Nina Forbes sat up and brushed the hair from her eyes.
+
+"I don't think I can walk another yard. Won't you leave me here?" she
+demanded.
+
+"No."
+
+"Are we to carry that mast with us?"
+
+"Why not? We may need it."
+
+Her eyes followed Maseden's down the slope. Compared with the sullen,
+frowning realm of rock they had quitted, this eastern side of the island
+resembled a Paradise. The moss on which they were resting was thick and
+wiry. A hundred feet beneath were fir-trees, sparse and stunted at
+first, but soon growing luxuriantly, yet promising, to Maseden's
+weighing eye, a barrier nearly as formidable as the fearsome wall of
+rock they had just surmounted.
+
+He knew that which was happily hidden from the others. In this wild
+land, seldom, if ever, trodden by the foot of man, the forests throve on
+the bones of their own dead progenitors. Aged trees fell and rotted
+where they lay, and the roots of newcomers found substance among the
+heaped-up logs. Gales and landslides helped to swell the mad jumble of
+decaying trunks, which formed an impassable layer hardly ever less than
+fifteen feet in depth and often going beyond thirty feet.
+
+Of the two, Maseden believed he would sooner tackle another wall of rock
+rather than essay to cross that belt of fantastic growths.
+
+But, down there was water--perhaps food--certainly shelter. He guessed
+that at an altitude where hardy Alpine mosses alone flourished the cold
+would be intense at night. Already there was a shrewd nip in the breeze.
+They must not dawdle another instant.
+
+He made up his mind to head for a gap in the trees which seemed to mark
+a recent land-slip, and trust to fortune that the gradient might not be
+too steep. Better any open risk than the fall of perhaps the whole party
+into a pit of dead wood choked with foetid and noisome fungus growths.
+Once caught in such a trap, they might never emerge.
+
+And now they met with their greatest among many pieces of luck that day.
+The opening Maseden had noticed was not the track of an avalanche, but a
+rough water-course, through which the torrential rain-storms of the
+coast tumbled headlong to the sea.
+
+Notwithstanding the long-continued gale, the descent was so steep that
+only a vestige of a stream trickled down the main gully. Here and there
+lay a pool. Though the water was brackish, it was strongly pigmented
+with iron, and the roots of vigorous young trees seemed to find
+sustenance in it.
+
+At any rate, they must drink or die, so they drank, though Maseden
+warned them to be moderate. They laved their wounds, which were
+intensely sore at first, owing to the encrustation of salt on their
+skins. But here, again, nature's surgery, if painful, was effective.
+Salt is a rough and ready antiseptic. None of them owned any real
+medical knowledge. In their hard case ignorance was surely bliss,
+because they must have had the narrowest of escapes from tetanus.
+
+The descent, though trying, was not specially perilous. Three times did
+the mast bring them down small cataracts, and many times across
+extraordinarily ingenious log barriers, set up against the stress of
+falling water by nature's own engineering methods.
+
+Once, indeed, a heavy boulder, poised in unexpected balance, toppled
+over just as they had reached the base of a waterfall. It would have
+crushed Nina Forbes to a pulp had not Maseden seen the stone move. As it
+was, he snatched her aside, and a ton of rock crashed harmlessly on to
+the very spot where she had been standing the fifth part of a second
+earlier.
+
+Such an incident, happening in civilized surroundings, would have been
+regarded as phenomenal, something akin to an escape from a train wreck.
+Here it passed as a mere item in the day's trials. It did not even shake
+the girl's nerve.
+
+"I suppose I ought to say 'thank you,' but I'm not quite sure you have
+done me a service," she murmured wearily.
+
+Hitherto both she and her sister had been so brave, so uncomplaining,
+that Maseden took warning from the words. The two girls were at the
+extreme limit of their powers of endurance, mentally and physically. It
+was five o'clock in the evening. After a day and a night of passive
+misery they had been subjected to every sort of muscular strain during
+nearly twelve hours, and might collapse at any moment now.
+
+"Courage!" he said, with a gentleness curiously in contrast with the
+rather gruff and hectoring manner he had adopted all day. "You haven't
+noticed how near the sea is. We shall be on shore in a few minutes."
+
+The girl's lips parted in a wan smile.
+
+"You are wonderful," was all she said, but the pathos underlying the
+tribute wrung his heart.
+
+Somehow, anyhow, they slithered and dropped down the remaining steps of
+their Calvary. During the last few feet they were able to leave behind
+the friendly topmast, but the shadows were falling when they stood,
+forlornly triumphant, on the flat rocks which served as the beach of
+the estuary.
+
+The two girls sank at once to a moss-covered boulder. They looked so
+deathly white beneath the tan of exposure and the crust of dirt and
+blood not altogether removed when they bathed their faces in the pool,
+that Maseden unstrapped the poncho which he carried slung to his
+shoulders and produced from its folds that thrice-precious bottle of
+brandy.
+
+The patients weakly resisted his demand that they should share nearly
+the whole of the mouthful of spirit which remained; but he was firm, and
+they drank. Sturgess, who staggered and nearly fell when he tried to
+move after the brief halt, was given a few drops; Maseden himself had
+what was left. Then he filled the bottle with water, and each took a
+long drink.
+
+There is this supreme virtue in water, that, while slaking thirst, it
+stays the worst pangs of hunger, and Maseden had enough strength in
+reserve to hurry off in search of oysters, or any sort of shell-fish,
+before daylight failed wholly. He was fortunate in finding a
+well-stocked bed almost at once.
+
+He alone knew what agony he endured when his bruised and torn fingers
+were plunged into ice-cold salt water. But he persevered, and gathered
+such a quantity that in ten minutes he and his companions were enjoying
+a really satisfying meal.
+
+While they ate, they examined their surroundings. It was half tide. A
+bleak, rocky foreshore provided at least an ideal breeding-ground for
+oysters. Behind them rose the solemn bank of pine-trees through which
+they had come. On the right, only half a mile away, stood the great
+shoulder of rock which shut out the Pacific on that northern side of the
+estuary. In front, two miles or more distant, lay a jumble of forests
+and wild hills, and a similar vista spread far to the left, because the
+estuary widened to a span of several miles.
+
+It was, indeed, a wild, desolate, awe-inspiring land, a territory
+abandoned of mankind! In such regions old-time sailors found fearsome
+monsters, amphibious reptiles larger than ships, and gnomes of demoniac
+aspect.
+
+Such visions were easy to conjure up. Nina Forbes saw one now in the
+dusk.
+
+"Oh, what is that?" she cried, in genuine alarm, gazing seaward with
+terror-laden eyes.
+
+It took some time to unmask the strange denizen of the deep which she
+had discovered. Three seals, lying in a row on a flat rock, looked
+remarkably like the accepted pictures of a sea-serpent, but the illusion
+was destroyed when one of the creatures dived, followed, in turn, by
+each of the others, in one, two, three order.
+
+"We must rise before dawn to-morrow," said Maseden. "Seals are good to
+eat. You and I, Sturgess, can cut one off when the pack comes on shore."
+
+"Seals may be good to eat, but they will also be hard to eat if we are
+unable to cook them," put in Madge.
+
+"There were times to-day when I could have eaten seal cooked or
+uncooked," admitted Nina.
+
+"Probably such times will recur to-morrow," said Maseden. "You will soon
+grow tired of oysters for every meal. Did you ever hear of the sailing
+ship which took a cargo of bottled porter from Dublin to Cape Town?
+After crossing the line she was caught in a gale, disabled, and carried
+hundreds of miles out of her course. She ran short of water, so, during
+three wretched weeks, officers and crew drank stout for breakfast,
+dinner and supper. When, at last, the vessel reached Table Bay, if
+porter was suggested as a beverage to any member of the ship's company
+there was instant trouble."
+
+"Still," said Madge thoughtfully, "I don't think I shall like raw
+seal.... You are very clever, Mr. Maseden. You must find some means of
+making a fire."
+
+Maseden glanced up at the darkening sky.
+
+"At present the pressing problem is where are we to sleep," he said.
+
+"Under the deodars," suggested Sturgess promptly.
+
+"Yes, I suppose so. But we must make haste."
+
+"If you ask me to put up any sort of hustle, I'll crack into small
+fragments," said Sturgess, rising to his feet slowly and stiffly.
+
+But this young American--a typical New Yorker in every inch--was blessed
+with a valiant heart. He helped Maseden to break and cut small branches
+of the fragrant pines, and pile them beneath the largest tree they could
+find on a comparatively level piece of ground above high-water mark. The
+two girls were half carried to this soft couch, which invited sharp
+comparison with the wet, slimy rock of the previous night.
+
+Despite their protests, they were wrapped in the now dry ship's flag and
+the poncho, while the men covered themselves with the oilskins, the coat
+which Sturgess had found on the reef coming in very useful for Maseden.
+
+Then they slept. And how they slept! The mere fact that they had eaten a
+quantity of good food induced utter weariness and exhaustion.
+
+During the night it rained heavily, and the tide pounded fiercely on the
+boulders only a few feet below their resting-place. But they hardly
+moved, and certainly paid no heed.
+
+Maseden was awakened by a veritable cascade of water on his face; the
+tree, after the manner of its kind, though shooting the rain generally
+off its layers of branches, now in full summer foliage, provided
+occasional channels through which the torrent poured as from a spout,
+and he was stretched beneath one. He swore softly, saw that the others
+were undisturbed, moved his position slightly, and fell sound asleep
+again.
+
+As for rising betimes to catch a seal, it was broad daylight when he
+shook off the almost overpowering desire to go on sleeping.
+
+Nina and Madge were lying in each other's arms, breathing easily, and
+looking extraordinarily well. Beyond them, Sturgess lay like a log, his
+clean-cut, somewhat cynical features relaxed in a smile. It was a pity
+to rouse him, but Maseden saw by his watch that they had enjoyed nine
+hours of real repose, and, as the weather was fine again and there was a
+promise of sunshine, it behooved them to be up and doing.
+
+So he shook his compatriot gently by the shoulder, and Sturgess was
+awake instantly.
+
+"Gosh!" he said, gazing at a patch of blue sky overhead. "I was just
+ordering clams on ice in Louis Martin's. It must have been a memory of
+those oysters."
+
+Maseden, by a gesture, warned him not to speak loudly, whereupon
+Sturgess sat up, saw the two girls, grinned, and stole quietly after
+his companion.
+
+"Say," he confided, when at a safe distance, "they're the limit, aren't
+they?"
+
+"They're all right, so far as girls go," agreed Maseden.
+
+"Oh, come off your perch! Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?
+If we win through I'm going to marry Madge, or I'll know the reason why,
+and if you have half the gumption we credit you with you'll tack on to
+sister Nina as soon as you've shunted that sporty young person who
+grabbed you at the cannon's mouth in Cartagena."
+
+"Will you oblige me by not talking such damn nonsense?" growled Maseden,
+blazing into sudden and incomprehensible wrath.
+
+"Calm yourself, _hidalgo_!" came the quiet answer. "Sorry if I've butted
+in on your private affairs. Having fixed things for myself, I thought
+I'd do you a good turn, too. That's all."
+
+"Don't you realize that you are hardly playing the game by even hinting
+at such possibilities in present conditions?"
+
+Maseden regretted the words the instant they were uttered. Sturgess
+stopped as though he had been struck, and his somewhat sallow face
+flushed darkly.
+
+"It will be a pretty mean business if you and I manage to quarrel, won't
+it?" he said thickly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+A PEEP INTO THE FUTURE
+
+
+"Oh, forget it!" cried Maseden, more angry now with himself than with
+the youngster whose candor had provoked this outburst. "I didn't intend
+to be offensive. My mind was running on the day's worries. We're in a
+deuce of a fix, and I can see no way out of it. If I annoyed you by a
+careless expression, I apologize."
+
+"Rub it off the slate, friend. I only want to put in a first bid for
+Madge, so to speak."
+
+"But, for all you know, she may be--engaged to some other man," Maseden
+could not help retorting.
+
+"Nix on the other fellow. He's not on in this film. I'll have him beaten
+to a frazzle long before I see good old New York again."
+
+Then Maseden did contrive to choke back the very obvious comment that
+Madge Forbes might even be married already. Sufficient for the day was
+the problem thereof. It was not matrimony that was bothering him, though
+the queer marriage tie contracted in San Juan seemed fated to make its
+fetters felt even in the wilderness. He was wondering what would happen
+if, as was highly probable, they were marooned on an island rarely if
+ever visited by man.
+
+He laughed grimly.
+
+"New York is away below the horizon this morning," he said. "Let's go
+and hunt more oysters!"
+
+Still, for the life of him he could not altogether get rid of the
+spectre raised by Sturgess's almost banal candor. The New Yorker was
+unmistakably a good fellow. He had behaved like a man during twenty-four
+hours which tested one's moral fibre as pure metal is separated from
+dross in a furnace. Was it quite fair that he should be kept in
+ignorance of the astounding fact that Madge Forbes, and none other, was
+the heroine of that extraordinary ceremony in the Castle of San Juan?
+
+Why not tell him? There was every reason to believe that he had indulged
+in no overt love-making as yet. Why not emulate his outspokenness, and
+thus spare him the certain shock of discovery?
+
+Moreover, when the truth came out, would he not feel with justice that
+he had been very badly treated both by Maseden and the woman whom he
+professed to love?
+
+Maseden squirmed under the thought. Such a discussion, at such a moment,
+savored of rank lunacy, but it was better to act crazily than
+dishonorably.
+
+Then came a reflection that hurt like a cut from a jagged knife.
+Sturgess was an impressionable youngster. He might easily transfer his
+wooing from Madge to Nina.
+
+Maseden could not help asking himself why a torturing question of that
+kind should come to plague him at a time when their lives were in dire
+jeopardy. They might, by chance, exist a week, a month--several months
+in that dreadful fastness of rock, forest and sea, but the briefest
+glance towards the interior showed how desperate was their case, and he
+knew only too well that the absence of proper food, of fire, of
+clothing, of everything that renders life tolerable and joyous, would
+soon bring mortal sickness in its train, even though they ran the
+gantlet of other perils like unto those of yesterday.
+
+Why, he wondered, in addition to ending these present evils, should he
+be called on to solve a fine point in ethics?
+
+He did not realize how clearly the torment in his soul was revealed in
+his face until Sturgess demanded cheerfully:
+
+"What's worrying you now, boss? You ain't chewing on that little
+misunderstanding of a minute ago, are you?"
+
+Maseden smiled dourly. Here was an opening, and he would take it, no
+matter what the personal cost.
+
+"No. That is not my way," he said. "I was merely turning over in my mind
+a somewhat ticklish problem. Sometimes, when a man does not know how to
+act for the best, it is not a bad plan to run counter to one's own
+inclinations. Then, at any rate, there is no fear of selfishness warping
+one's judgment. In this instance--"
+
+"Is the tide rising or falling?" interrupted Sturgess excitedly.
+
+"Falling."
+
+"Good.... What's that?"
+
+They were walking in the direction of the oyster bed which Maseden had
+found overnight. The beach was strewn with boulders, the surface of each
+a mosaic of myriads of tiny mussels. The rock floor was not quite flat,
+but dipped slightly eastward, and the outcrop of every stratum, worn
+smooth by countless tides, offered a number of irregular paths by which
+it was possible to walk dry-shod a mile or more towards mid-channel.
+
+Between these tracks, so to speak, the water lodged in pools, and here,
+too, as might be expected, the smaller rocks gathered, mostly in groups.
+
+Among one such pile Sturgess's sharp eyes had detected some wreckage.
+
+Now, any sort of flotsam or jetsam might be peculiarly useful to folk
+whose belongings had been reduced to a cloak, a ship's flag, a few
+oilskins, and, in the case of the women, little else. The sight of a
+cabin trunk, up-ended among a litter of woodwork and tangled iron, drove
+into the special Limbo provided for all vain and foolish things the
+personal difficulty which was perplexing Maseden.
+
+He hurried on, and soon was aware of an oddly familiar aspect about the
+trunk, battered though it was, and discolored by long immersion in salt
+water.
+
+"Well, if this isn't something like a miracle!" he cried when he could
+believe his senses. "Here is my own trunk! The last time I saw it, it
+was wedged between the forecastle deck and the iron frame of a bunk."
+
+"The court accepts the evidence," chortled Sturgess. "We find in close
+conjunction the remains of a bunk and a deck. If you produce a key, and
+unlock the aforesaid trunk, it will be declared yours without further
+inquiry."
+
+"There is no key. It is only strapped."
+
+"What's inside?"
+
+"Some underclothing, socks and shirts.... By Jove! When dried, they will
+be invaluable to those two girls.... How in the world did they contrive
+to lose most of their clothing? You were all fully dressed when the
+ship struck, I suppose?"
+
+"I guess your college class didn't include a course of heavy seas
+washing through a deck-house every half minute during a whole day. What
+sort of feminine rig would stand the tearing rush of tons of water hour
+after hour? Man alive, I had the devil's own job to keep any of my own
+clothes on, and would never have succeeded if I wasn't well buttoned up
+in an oilskin. As for the girls' skirts and things, they simply fell off
+'em. At first they made frantic efforts to save a few rags, but they had
+to give up. I saw Madge's skirt washed overboard in strips. All the
+seams parted. I'm in pretty bad shape myself. Look here."
+
+Sturgess opened his oilskin coat, and showed how the lining had fallen
+out of his coat and the back had parted from the front of his waistcoat.
+
+"If it hadn't been for the oilskins we would all have been stripped
+stark naked," he went on. "Gee! It's marvelous what one can withstand in
+the shape of exposure when one is pushed to it good and hard. I should
+have said that those two girls would have died fourteen times on the
+wreck, let alone the hour before dawn yesterday."
+
+Maseden, meanwhile, was pulling the trunk free from the twisted frame of
+the bunk, which, screwed to the deck, had carried a precious argosy
+nearly a mile from the reef; then, most luckily, it had caught in a
+clump of seaweed, and remained anchored during two ebbs.
+
+"We needn't bother to open it here," he said. "I know exactly what is
+inside--rough stuff, bought to maintain my disguise as a _vaquero_, but
+all the better for present purposes."
+
+He paused dramatically, and said something which might, perhaps, sound
+better in Spanish. When a man who has not been perturbed in the least
+degree by grave and imminent danger shows signs of real excitement, his
+emotion is apt to be contagious, and his companion's eyes sparkled.
+
+"Holy gee! What is it?" he almost yelped. "Spit it out! Don't mind me!"
+
+"This trunk contains a gun and cartridges!"
+
+"Gosh! I thought it must be either a steam launch or an aeroplane! What
+is there to shoot, anyhow?"
+
+"Don't you understand? Waterproof cartridges mean fire. We'll have a
+roaring fire within five minutes."
+
+"Put it there!" shouted Sturgess, holding out his right hand. "There's
+millions of tons of iron-stone in that hill above the wood. Let's start
+a ship-yard!"
+
+They were so elated that they forgot to gather any oysters, and even
+neglected to take away the iron and wires of the bunk, scraps of metal
+which might prove of inestimable worth in the days to come. Luckily,
+however, they had plenty of time, because the tide would fall during
+another couple of hours.
+
+Maseden's hands almost trembled as he undid the straps. Now that fortune
+had proved so kind he feared lest the cartridges might be spoiled. But a
+bullet torn from a brass case was followed by grains of dry, black
+powder.
+
+Soon he had manufactured a squib. Dead branches off the pines--always
+the best of fire-wood, and far preferable to dead wood lying on the
+ground--were heaped in a suitable place, and, in less than the specified
+five minutes, a good fire was crackling merrily.
+
+There were logs in plenty. Had they chosen, the two men could have built
+a furnace fierce enough to roast an ox whole.
+
+It was good to see the wonderment on the faces of Madge and Nina when
+they awoke to find an array of coarse flax and woolen garments steaming
+in front of the blaze, and a dozen big oysters, cooked in the shells,
+awaiting each of them. About that time, too, the sun appeared, and his
+first rays changed the temperature of the land-locked estuary from
+biting cold to an agreeable warmth.
+
+So the four breakfasted, and, at the close of the meal, held a council
+of war. With a charred stick, Maseden drew on a rock a rough map of
+Hanover Island.
+
+"I overheard from one of the crew of the _Southern Cross_," he said,
+"that the ship was supposed to be drifting towards Nelson Straits, which
+is the only opening into Smyth's Channel ever attempted hereabouts, even
+in fine weather, by small sealers and guano-boats. Now, it happens," he
+went on reflectively, "that this coast has always had a strange
+fascination for me."
+
+"It was a treat to see you clinging to it lovingly for hours at a time
+yesterday," put in Sturgess.
+
+"We want to hear what Mr. Maseden has to say," cried Madge sharply.
+
+"Sorry. I shan't interrupt again. But, before the court resumes may I
+throw in a small suggestion? How about dropping these formal Misters and
+Misses? My front names are Charles Knight, usually shorted by my friends
+and admirers into C. K. What's yours, Maseden?"
+
+"Philip Alexander, otherwise 'Alec.'"
+
+"Got you. Now, girls, what do Nina and Madge stand for?"
+
+He little guessed the explosive quality of that harmless question, but
+he did wonder why both Nina and Madge should blush furiously, and why
+their eyes should flash a species of appeal to Maseden.
+
+Nina was the first to recover her composure.
+
+"Nina and Madge should serve all ordinary purposes, C. K.," she said
+with a rather nervous laugh.
+
+"They'll do fine," agreed Sturgess. But he did not forget his own
+surprise--and the cause of it.
+
+Maseden, quite unprepared for this verbal bombshell, plunged into
+generalities somewhat hurriedly.
+
+"Barring the polar regions, the southern part of Chile is the wildest
+and least known part of the world," he said. "It is extraordinary in the
+fact that every ship which sails to the west coast of both the Americas
+from Europe, and vice versa, either passes it in the Pacific or winds
+among its islands for hundreds of miles along Smyth's Channel; yet it
+remains, for the greater part, unexplored and almost uncharted. Darwin
+came here in the _Beagle_, and the sailor to-day depends on observations
+made during that voyage, taken nearly three-quarters of a century ago.
+Darwin's Journal, and other of his works containing references to South
+America, shortened many an evening for me on the ranch."
+
+He paused a moment, before adding, in an explanatory way:
+
+"My place, Los Andes, was a good twelve miles from Cartagena, and I had
+no English-speaking neighbors. I told you last night, if you remember,
+how I came to settle down there?"
+
+Sturgess, though evidently burning to ask a question, merely nodded,
+grinning cheerfully when he caught Nina's eye.
+
+"I only want you to understand why I claim some knowledge, such as it
+is, of this locality," continued Maseden. "At the southwest corner of
+Hanover Island is a ten-mile patch called Cambridge Island, and the two
+form the northern boundary of Nelson Straits. But in the channel between
+them are two smaller islands, and, unless I am greatly mistaken, there
+they are."
+
+He pointed across the estuary, and indicated a break in the coast-line,
+beyond which other more distant hills were visible.
+
+"It follows," he went on, "that when we sail up this channel to the
+left, we shall find ourselves in Nelson Straits, and, after covering
+fifty or sixty miles of fairly open water--open, that is, in the sense
+that there is plenty of it--we shall be in Smyth's Channel, and in the
+track of passing ships."
+
+He paused, but did not try to ignore the plain demand legible on three
+intent faces.
+
+"Yes; that is the only way," he said quietly. "We are here. We are
+alive. There is plenty of wood, and we have brains, hands, and fire. We
+must construct some sort of a raft, something in the style of the
+lumber-rafts built on big rivers, and take advantage of the tides. Our
+present position is quite inaccessible by land, and, I fear, equally
+unapproachable by water.
+
+"And I'll tell you why I think so. Within quarter of a mile of us are
+some splendid oyster-beds. The coastal aborigines live mainly on
+shell-fish, and this store would have been visited by them times out of
+number if they could get at it. But I have seen no heaps of shells, such
+as must have remained if the savages came here.
+
+"What has stopped them? Impassable forests, glaciers, and precipices on
+land, dangerous reefs and fierce tidal currents by sea. The geological
+feature which helped our climb yesterday must create reef after reef
+across the track of the channel.
+
+"You see those pathways there?" and he stretched a hand towards the
+series of rock outcrops lining the shore like groins. "They have been
+almost leveled by the storms of centuries. But the _Southern Cross_ was
+lost on one of them, and there must be scores of others between here and
+Smyth's Channel. There may be passages between many if not all, but it
+is self-evident that navigation is far too risky for the small coracles
+of the natives. We must go slowly and safely, if possible. If our raft
+will not cross a reef, we must abandon it, and build another on the far
+side. We may have to do that six times, a dozen times, even in sixty
+miles. There is no other means of escape. We may be weeks, months, in
+winning through, but that is our only practicable plan."
+
+"Gee!" murmured Sturgess. "And I'm due in New York on February 10!"
+
+The sheer absurdity of naming a date relaxed the tension. They all
+laughed, though not with the light-hearted mirth which four young people
+might reasonably display after dodging death continuously during
+twenty-four hours.
+
+"By the way, what day is it?" inquired Nina Forbes wistfully.
+
+"Sunday, January 23," said Sturgess. "I know, because it was my birthday
+yesterday. Somewhere about eleven o'clock a. m., I was twenty-seven. I
+didn't make a fuss about it. Just at that time, wise Alec here was
+holding on to a rock by his teeth and one toe, and telling us we had to
+go back carefully after a beastly difficult climb."
+
+"Sunday!" repeated the girl.
+
+Her thoughts traveled many a thousand miles to the quiet little New
+Jersey township where her mother was living during the absence of
+husband and daughters in South America. It was winter in the North, and
+there might be snow on the fields and ice on the streams, but snow and
+ice conforming to New Jersey notions of order and seemliness.
+
+What a contrast between the white mantle marked out in rectangles by the
+country roads and ditches, with here and there a group of trees, a trim
+shrubbery, a red-roofed farm or dwelling house, and this chaos of rock,
+forest, cliff and ocean!
+
+"Will the loss of the _Southern Cross_ be reported?" she asked suddenly.
+The query was addressed to no one in particular, but Maseden answered.
+
+"Her non-arrival will be noted at Punta Arenas," he said. "After a time
+the insurance people will post her as 'missing.' Then she will be
+assumed to be lost. Possibly some of the wreckage may be picked up. Or a
+boat. What became of all the boats?"
+
+"Some of 'em were stove in, others washed clean off their davits," said
+Sturgess. "It was absolutely impossible to lower one. No one who did not
+witness it would have believed that a fine ship could break to pieces so
+quickly. Gee whiz! One minute I was standing near the fore-rail, looking
+at the narrowing entrance in full confidence that we should win through,
+and the next I was fighting for my life in the smoking-room, up to my
+waist in water."
+
+"You are not quite doing yourself justice, C. K.," said Madge. "You were
+fighting for other people's lives as well. I have the clearest
+recollection of being hauled up the companion ladder to the bridge by
+you and one of the ship's officers. Then you went back and helped Nina
+and Mr. Gray."
+
+"That is what I was there for," was the prompt reply.
+
+"This being Sunday, do we labor or rest, Alec?" inquired Nina.
+
+It was the first time either girl had used Maseden's Christian name, and
+the sound on a woman's lips was like a caress. He reddened, and smiled.
+Nina's eyes met his, and dropped confusedly.
+
+"We rest," he said. "We need rest. At least, I am free to confess that
+_I_ do. You energetic people are inclined to forget that I began a
+really strenuous life by receiving a rap on the head that put me out of
+commission during several hours.... Now, Mr. Sturgess--sorry, C. K.--and
+I are going on a little tour along the coast. We shall be away an hour
+or more. I advise you two to rig yourselves as best you can in my
+superfluous garments. Make sure they are quite dry. It may seem rather
+absurd, but putting on damp clothing is an altogether different thing
+from allowing wet clothes to dry on your body. Keep a good fire. There
+is nothing to be afraid of. In this strange land there are neither
+animals nor reptiles."
+
+"Nor birds," said Nina.
+
+"Yes, plenty of birds, but the nesting season is long over, and many of
+the sea-birds have gone south. As we progress further inland we shall
+come across great colonies of puffins, ducks and swans. Curiously
+enough, there are plenty of humming-birds, which is about the last
+species one would expect off-hand to find in these wastes.... Come
+along, C. K. Let us try and circumvent the wily seal."
+
+"Why not shoot one?" said Sturgess.
+
+"Because I have only twenty-four cartridges, and each one may yet be
+worth its weight in diamonds. Remember, everybody!--we only use the
+rifle in the last extremity, either for food, or fire, or actual
+self-preservation. Once lighted, on no account must the fire be allowed
+to die out. Even when we build a raft, we can imitate the natives, and
+carry a fire with us. To save us men from temptation to-day, should we
+find a seal, we'll leave the gun with the ladies.
+
+"A couple of cudgels, with ends sharpened and hardened in the fire,
+should serve our needs, and do the seal's business as well. If not, we
+must try again, and exist on oysters until we become more expert....
+I'll put five cartridges in the magazine, and show you girls how it
+works. If you regard each shell as worth, say, five thousand dollars,
+you'll appreciate the net value of the whole twenty-four."
+
+Within a few minutes Maseden and Sturgess set off. The tide was now at
+its lowest point, so they had no difficulty in walking in almost any
+direction. Their first act was to drag ashore the remains of the bunk.
+Given a quantity of malleable iron and a fire, it would not be an
+impossible task to construct some rough tools.
+
+While placing this treasure-trove above high-water mark they saw the two
+girls examining the stock of underclothes which Providence had literally
+provided for their needs.
+
+"Gosh!" said Sturgess, almost reverently. "It beats me to know how a
+couple of delicate women could endure the hardships we have gone
+through."
+
+"But women are not delicate. I don't understand why men invariably
+harbor that delusion. In passive resistance women are more steadfast,
+even hardier, than men. That is an essential, don't you see? The
+continuance of the race depends far more on the female than on the male.
+Civilization tries to upset the great principles of life, but fails,
+luckily. Savage tribes are aware of that elementary fact. Low down in
+the social scale the women do all the work, while the men loaf around,
+and only get busy when hunting or fighting."
+
+"Tell you what, Alec," said Sturgess admiringly, "once fairly started,
+you talk like a book."
+
+Such a remark could hardly fail to act as a gag on one of Maseden's
+temperament. By habit a silent man, he shrank from even the semblance of
+loquacity. Sturgess could extract no further information from him. He in
+his turn soon learned to guard his tongue when the Vermonter was in the
+talking vein, and unconsciously pouring out the stock of knowledge and
+philosophy garnered during those peaceful years on the ranch.
+
+"We had better go this way," said Maseden, pointing towards the west.
+"Don't you think it advisable to search the coast seaward? There have
+been three tides since the ship struck, and anything likely to come
+ashore should have shown up by this time."
+
+"Go right ahead, Alec. What you say goes."
+
+Their search was fruitless. Indeed, the position in which the leather
+trunk was found proved that the set of the current on a rising tide was
+in the direction of the channel between the two small islands.
+
+Maseden had little or no experience of the sea and its vagaries, or he
+would have noticed this highly significant fact, and thus saved himself
+and his companions much hardship and a good deal of needless risk.
+
+Of course, he saw quickly that there was a remarkable absence of
+wreckage on the north side of the estuary, but he attributed it to the
+fury of the gale, which must have driven a great body of water far into
+the network of channels which stretched inland, with a resultant
+outpouring when the wind pressure was relaxed.
+
+The only satisfactory outcome of a close visit to the bar was the
+complete vindication of their means of escape from the ledge. It would
+have been a sheer impossibility to round the point at or slightly above
+sea-level. The tides of untold ages had literally scooped a chasm out of
+the cliff, and perversely chosen to batter a passage through the rock
+rather than take the open path farther south.
+
+They could not see the reef which had destroyed the _Southern Cross_.
+But they could hear it. Ever above the clatter of the rollers on the
+nearer rocks they caught the sullen roar of the outer fury.
+
+"Let's clear out of this," said Sturgess suddenly. "That noise sends a
+chill right down my backbone."
+
+Maseden turned at once. In any case, they could not have remained there
+much longer, because the tide was on the flow, and they had yet to
+discover how swiftly it covered the rock-paved foreshore.
+
+They did not hurry, but kept a sharp look-out for seals, seeing several,
+but at a great distance. While they were yet nearly a quarter of a mile
+from the camping ground, from which came a pillar of smoke, showing that
+the fire was not being neglected, they were startled by a gun-shot.
+
+It smote the air with a sound that was all the more insistent in that it
+was wholly unexpected. It drove into the sea, with a loud splash, a seal
+close at hand which had been hidden by a rock, and even brought a pair
+of circling bustards from some eyrie high up on the hills.
+
+With never a word to one another, both men began to run.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE SECOND SHIPWRECK
+
+
+A series of reefs does not supply the best of surfaces for a sprint.
+Maseden slipped on a bed of seaweed and fell headlong, fortunately
+escaping injury. Sturgess, lighter, perhaps more adroit on his feet--it
+came out subsequently that he was an accomplished skater--stumbled
+several times, but contrived to keep going.
+
+Thus he was the first to reach Madge Forbes, who hurried to meet them,
+followed by Nina, the latter walking more leisurely and carrying the
+rifle.
+
+"What has happened?" gasped Sturgess. He saw that the girl was pale and
+frightened. She and her sister were continually looking backward, as
+though expecting to find they were being pursued.
+
+"I think--it is all right--now," she said brokenly. "Nina shot at
+it--the most awful monster I have ever seen."
+
+"Had it two legs, or four?"
+
+Sturgess was incorrigible. Notwithstanding the start caused by the sound
+of the gun, he grinned. The girl turned to Nina.
+
+"Please tell them, Nina, that we are not romancing," she cried
+indignantly.
+
+Nina handed the rifle to Maseden.
+
+"Put this thing right," she said coolly. "It won't work, but I'm sure I
+hit the beast with the first bullet."
+
+Maseden pressed down the lever, and saw that a cartridge had jammed, as
+the extractor lever had not been jerked downward with sufficient force.
+He began adjusting matters with the blade of his knife.
+
+"Were you attacked by an animal?" he inquired.
+
+"We don't know exactly what it was," said Madge. "When you left us we
+decided to have a bath before putting on dry clothes. As our only towel
+was the ship's flag, we arranged that each should rub the other dry with
+her hands. We had just finished dressing, and Nina had gone to pile
+fresh logs on the fire, when I heard a splash in the water of the creek.
+I looked around and saw a fearful creature, bigger than a horse, which
+barked at me. I shrieked, and Nina ran with the rifle. The thing barked
+again--it was only a few feet away--so she fired. Then we both made
+off."
+
+"You disturbed a seal, I expect."
+
+"No. If those were seals we saw last night, this was no seal," said Nina
+decisively. "It had small, fiery eyes and long tusks. I think it had
+flappers, though, in place of feet, but it was enormous."
+
+"Sounds like a walrus," put in Sturgess.
+
+"There are no walruses in the South Pacific," said Maseden. "Anyhow, now
+that the magazine works all right, let's go and have a look."
+
+Ample corroboration of the girl's story was soon forthcoming. The
+splashing of water behind the group of big rocks sheltering the pool in
+which they had taken their bath showed that something unusual was going
+on.
+
+They all reached the spot in time to witness the last struggles of a
+gigantic sea-lion, one of the most fearsome-looking of the ocean's many
+strange denizens. The shot fired by Nina Forbes had struck it fairly in
+the throat, inflicting a wound which speedily proved mortal.
+
+The animal was a full-grown male, fully ten feet in length, with a neck
+and shoulders of huge proportions. Its tusks and bristles gave it a most
+menacing aspect. The wonder was not that the bathers ran, but that Nina
+had the courage to face such a monster.
+
+Maseden was delighted, and patted her on the shoulder.
+
+"Well done!" he cried. "You've supplied the larder with fresh meat for
+days. We must even try our 'prentice hands at curing what we can't eat
+to-day or to-morrow."
+
+The girl herself was not elated by her triumph. The water in which the
+sea-lion lay was deeply tinged with its blood, which had also
+bespattered the rocks.
+
+"I have never before killed any living creature," she said in a rather
+miserable tone. "Why did the stupid thing attack us? We were doing it no
+harm."
+
+Maseden laughed.
+
+"Off you go, both of you!" he said. "C. K. and I have the job of our
+lives now. It will be no joke disjointing this fellow with a couple of
+pocket-knives. But if the fact brings any consolation, I may tell you
+that a sea-lion when irritated can be a very ugly customer. Probably
+this one was sleeping in the sun under the lee of a rock, and you may
+have come unpleasantly near him without knowing it. When he awoke and
+saw you he was curious. Instead of slinking off, he roared at you, and
+might easily have killed the pair of you!"
+
+"Can't we help?" inquired Nina, seeing that Maseden meant to lose no
+time.
+
+"No."
+
+"But we ought to," she persisted. "We must get used to such work."
+
+"You can do something quite as serviceable by rigging a few lines on
+stout poles, where there is plenty of sun and air, and seeing that a big
+fire is kept up.... And, by the way, don't come this way till we call
+you. We shan't be--presentable."
+
+The two disappeared without further question.
+
+"This will be a messy undertaking," Maseden explained to his assistant.
+"The best thing we can do is strip, or our clothes will be in an awful
+state."
+
+At the outset they abandoned any thought of actually dismembering the
+colossal carcass. They skinned it with difficulty, and then cut off the
+flesh in layers. After an hour's hard endeavor they had gathered a fine
+store of meat, while the pelt, after being well washed in salt water,
+was stretched on a flat rock to dry.
+
+They were dressing again when a new trouble arose. From out of the void
+had gathered a flock of vultures. These fierce, evil-looking birds were
+so daring in their efforts to raid the pile of meat that two actually
+allowed themselves to be knocked over by the staves the men carried.
+
+Sturgess remained on guard, therefore, while Maseden took the strips and
+hung them on the lines the girls had already prepared.
+
+Madge volunteered to do the cooking. She had found two flat, thin
+stones, somewhat resembling hard slate, and she fancied that by placing
+some steaks between these and covering them with glowing charcoal the
+trick would be achieved. As a matter of fact, she succeeded wonderfully
+well. Even Nina, sniffing her portion, vowed that the shooting of a
+sea-lion had its compensations.
+
+More vultures arrived. The sea-lion's bones were rapidly picked clean,
+but one of the men had to keep close watch all day over the curing
+operations.
+
+An amusing argument arose as to the correct method of drying meat.
+Maseden held that he distinctly remembered reading that _biltong_, or
+South African antelope steak, was prepared by hanging the strips in the
+sun. The girls were positive that this would cause putrefaction, and
+that the meat should be placed in the shade.
+
+As Maseden was not quite sure of his facts, he compromised as to a
+quarter of the supply, with the result that this smaller quantity was
+rendered uneatable.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The story of Alexander Selkirk has been told so often, and in so many
+forms, that it will not bear repeating here. During a whole fortnight
+these four young people devoted their wits and their muscles to the
+all-important task of feeding themselves and securing some means of
+escape into the interior. The men soon learned how to circumvent the
+wily seal, and thus store plenty of meat and skins, which latter, with
+sinews and a knife, were converted first into garments for the women
+and, as supplies increased, into a tent.
+
+Maseden noticed that the high-water mark fell daily, so he reasoned that
+the _Southern Cross_ struck during a high spring tide, and that the neap
+would occur in fourteen days. He laid his plans on that assumption,
+which was justified almost to a day.
+
+Another gale blew up, but despite its discomfort it helped them
+materially, because the men loosened a barrier of logs which had formed
+high up the wooded cliff, and the rain freshet brought down far more
+timber than was needed for the biggest raft they could hope to
+construct.
+
+After some experiments they decided to make it a three-tier one, and
+flexible in the center. Hence it was fully thirty feet in length, the
+average length of a thick log being fifteen feet after its roots and
+thin section had been burnt off. For the same reason the raft was
+fifteen feet wide. It had a step in the forepart for their old friend,
+the broken topmast. They dispensed with a rudder, believing they could
+guide their ark with poles.
+
+Observation showed that the tide flowed swiftly in mid-stream, and their
+well-matured project was to push out to a prearranged point at
+high-water, anchor while the tide fell, and travel as far as practicable
+on the next tide. They tried to avoid all risks that could be foreseen.
+
+The raft was built in the waterway which Madge had termed the
+"creek"--the gulley cleared for itself by the torrent whose dry bed had
+offered them a road through the otherwise impenetrable forest. Every
+test of stability their inventiveness could devise proved that an area
+of thirty feet by fifteen of logs arranged in three rows would support
+four or five times the weight they were likely to place on it. By
+manipulating the poles Maseden and Sturgess found that they could
+control the movements of even such an unwieldy bulk, while if the wind
+suited they might rig a sail of skins.
+
+They were able to build quickly and well because of three essentials.
+The timber was at hand, they had a fire, and in the pieces of rope and
+strips of iron and wire they had invaluable means of making the
+structure secure.
+
+At last, on the fifteenth day after the wreck, Maseden poled out the
+raft during the slack tide at high-water, and fastened it to ropes
+already fixed and buoyed nearly a quarter of a mile from the shore. He
+would allow none of the others to accompany him, nor did he carry any of
+the few stores they possessed. He could not be absolutely certain that
+the cables would withstand the strain, and if the raft were swept
+seaward by the falling tide only one life was in jeopardy, while
+Sturgess might be able to help him from the shore.
+
+His vigil was watched by anxious eyes, especially when he thought fit to
+ease the stress on the ropes by planting a long pole against a big rock
+which he knew rested a few feet astern and below the surface. The two
+hours of half-tide were the worst, but the anchors held. Three hours
+later the raft was aground and he came ashore.
+
+It was then nearly dark, as their first voyage would naturally be taken
+in broad daylight. Nothing was said at the time, but he was told
+afterwards, that for no conceivable guerdon would any of the three again
+go through the agony of suspense they endured while the raft swung and
+lurched in the fierce current.
+
+Meat, fresh and dried, a quantity of oysters, the leather trunk, and a
+charcoal fire cunningly packed in oyster shells kept in position by
+wire--this cooking brazier being the invention of Nina Forbes--formed
+the cargo. Most fortunately Maseden carried the poncho and the rifle
+slung across his back with rope, and the cartridges were in his pockets.
+
+They slept on board. Soon after daybreak the raft was afloat, but was
+not allowed to move until there was a fair depth of water, owing to the
+very great probability of the whole structure being dashed to pieces
+against some awkwardly placed boulder. At last, however, Maseden
+thought the channel was practicable, and the ropes were cast loose,
+being sacrificed, of course, but that could not be helped.
+
+They were off! The first of the sixty miles was already slipping away.
+They were so excited, so bent on the adventure ahead, that none of them
+thought of looking back until Providence Beach, which was the name they
+gave their refuge, was nearly out of sight.
+
+Suddenly Madge Forbes remembered, and turned her eyes in that direction.
+She waved a hand and cried:
+
+"Good-by, trees and rocks! You were kind to me and to all of us! I have
+not had two such happy weeks since I came to South America!"
+
+Maseden heard, but paid no particular heed. For one thing, he had
+decided now not to re-open the question of the extraordinary relations
+between his wife and himself until, if ever, they reached civilization
+again. For another, he was busily conning the channel and noting the
+behavior of their clumsy but quite buoyant craft.
+
+He estimated the pace of the current at fully six miles an hour. The
+raft was traveling about half that rate, which was quite fast enough for
+his liking, so, although there was a strong breeze from the west, he did
+not hoist the "sail." He stood on the port side and Sturgess on the
+starboard. The two girls were seated on a pile of fir branches behind
+the mast, which was stayed by ropes in such wise that all four had
+something to cling to if the raft struck a sunken rock and lurched
+suddenly.
+
+The project was to drift as far inland as the day's tide would take
+them, pole ashore at the nearest suitable place, and repeat the
+overnight anchoring until they reached smooth water, when they might
+perhaps make longer voyages. If they ran six miles that day they would
+have done admirably. Providing Maseden's calculations as to their
+precise locality were reasonably accurate, the next day would bring them
+into a much wider arm of the sea.
+
+Here the conditions might vary, but they would adapt themselves to
+circumstances, always bearing in mind the exceeding wisdom of the
+Italian proverb: _Che va piano va sano_--"He goes safely who goes
+cautiously."
+
+But there are other proverbs which are equally applicable to human
+affairs, and especially to the hazards awaiting rafts floating on
+unknown waters. For an hour they ran on gaily, with little or no
+trouble, because the men could see broken water a long way ahead and
+promptly piloted their argosy towards the open channel.
+
+Then came the unexpected, or, to be exact, the crisis arose which
+Maseden had foreseen many days earlier, but forgotten as the raft grew
+strong and seaworthy under their hands.
+
+About four miles from Providence Beach the gap between the two small
+islands which shut off Hanover Island from its southerly neighbor came
+into full view. Maseden anticipated a little difficulty at this point,
+but he was quite unprepared for that which really took place.
+
+He had every reason to believe that the main stream would flow straight
+ahead until the second island was passed; he meant to land on Hanover
+Island again, just short of the easterly end of Island Number Two.
+Therefore he was annoyed, but not alarmed at first, at finding that the
+current carried the raft into the straits between the islets.
+
+The others, of course, noticed the change of direction, and being well
+aware of his hopes and plans, asked him in chorus if this deviation
+mattered.
+
+"I don't see that it does," he said. "In any case, we must follow the
+tide, and if this is the short cut so much the better."
+
+He told them that which he actually believed. Still, at the back of his
+head lay an uneasiness hard to account for. The raft was traveling south
+now, not east, having swept round the bend in magnificent style. The
+precipitous heights were closing in, but the channel was fully a quarter
+of a mile in width. He would vastly have preferred skirting the wooded
+slopes of Hanover Island, because these smaller islets were absolutely
+barren in this hitherto invisible section, but, having no choice in the
+matter, silenced his doubts by recalling his first and quite correct
+theory that the real deep-water passage lay beyond, the _Southern Cross_
+having in fact struck several miles north of Nelson Straits.
+
+Owing to the steady narrowing of the waterway the rate at which they
+traveled was increasing momentarily, though progress was delightfully
+smooth and easy. The simile did not occur to any of the four until
+complete disaster had befallen them, but the silent, resistless onrush
+of the current was ominously suggestive of the course of some great
+river during the last few miles before it hurls itself over a cataract.
+
+Hanover Island soon vanished from sight altogether, and the towering
+cliffs on either hand seemed to merge into an unbroken barrier ahead.
+But the tidal race hurried on, so there must be an outlet, and this
+presented itself, after a sharp turn to eastward again, when they had
+covered a couple of miles on the new course.
+
+They were only given the briefest warning of the peril into which they
+were being carried. The stream flung itself against a great mass of
+rock, which had been undermined until the upper edge of the precipice
+hung out fifty feet or more over the rushing waters beneath. A most
+uncanny maelstrom was thus created.
+
+No sooner had the two men seen the danger than they labored with might
+and main to slew the raft away to the opposite shore.
+
+They succeeded in avoiding the first jumble of black rocks which lay at
+the base of the cliff, but the whole character of the stream changed
+instantly. It became a furious turmoil of broken water. The raft was
+hurled hither and thither as though by some titanic force, and a few
+yards farther on was dashed against a second and even more terrifying
+reef.
+
+The violence of the impact smashed the whole structure to pieces. Had
+not the logs been arranged in tiers crosswise they must have split up
+instantly, but the method in which they were put together held them for
+one precious moment while the men each clutched one of the girls and
+leaped for the nearest rock.
+
+By rare good luck they kept their feet, and reached a great flat mass
+which, judged by appearances, had only recently fallen.
+
+Further advance or retreat was alike impossible. On three sides roared
+the cheated torrent; behind and above, canopy-wise, towered the cliff.
+If the evidence of ominous fissures and lateral cracks were to be read
+aright, there was no telling the moment when they might be buried under
+another avalanche of thousands of tons of stone.
+
+Every tide deepened the sap. They were imprisoned in one of nature's own
+quarries, where work was relentless and unceasing.
+
+Once again idle chance had decided that Maseden should save Nina and
+Sturgess Madge. Not that it mattered a jot. If ever four people were in
+hapless case, it was they. For a time even to Maseden, who had never
+lost faith in his star, it seemed that the best fortune that could now
+befall would be for the trembling rock overhead to crash down on them.
+
+The din was terrific, and the water level was rising so rapidly that
+five minutes after they had gained their present position the boulders
+to which they had sprung from the sundering platform of logs were a foot
+deep in the swirling current. Each of the girls, wholly unconscious of
+her attitude, clung despairingly to the man at her side and watched the
+climbing surge with somber eyes.
+
+They were too stunned to yield to fear, and the life of the past
+fortnight had so steeled their nerves and strengthened their bodies that
+fainting was no longer the readiest means of obtaining a merciful
+respite from present horrors. Rather did a bitter rage possess them, for
+it was a harsh and monstrous decree of fate which had not only robbed
+them of a hard-won means of escape, but immersed them in a veritable
+condemned cell.
+
+Maseden, like the others, was watching the encroaching water-line in a
+benumbed way when he became aware that Nina was speaking. He looked into
+her drawn face and tried to smile, though a sort of mist clouded his
+eyes.
+
+"What is it, girlie?" he said, putting his mouth close to her ear and
+addressing her as though she were a timid child.
+
+"Is this the end?" she cried, imitating him.
+
+"Not yet, anyhow," and he gave her a reassuring hug.
+
+"Tell me--if you think--we have only a few more minutes," she said.
+
+He read nothing into the request save a natural desire that she should
+be prepared for the worst and try to cross the Great Divide with a
+prayer on her lips. The pitiful words helped to dispel the cloud which
+had befogged his wits, and he began to weigh the pros and cons of the
+forlornest of forlorn hopes.
+
+The water was lapping their feet. The rock arched outward over their
+heads. Between the spot where they stood and the actual wall of rock
+there was already a flowing stream.
+
+He looked at his watch. The hour was seven o'clock, and he estimated the
+time of high-water at about half-past seven. Then, as when he was lying
+along the foremast of the _Southern Cross_ amid the thunders of the
+reef, a tiny seed of hope sprang into life in his brain. If they could
+outlast the tide there was still a chance!
+
+The very fact that this chaos of fallen cliff created a fearsome rapid
+in the tide-way showed that the passage must be fairly open during low
+water. If promptness in decision could enable a man to conquer a
+difficulty, Maseden was certainly not lacking in that attitude.
+
+"Come!" he said. "Not for the first time, we must put our backs to the
+wall. We may find a good grip for our feet before the water mounts too
+high. The four of us must lace arms and cling together. I believe the
+tide will not rise above our knees. At any rate, we cannot be swept away
+easily. It is worth trying."
+
+She nodded. Turning to her sister, she explained Maseden's scheme. Soon
+they were braced against the rock and facing valiantly their new ordeal.
+
+In the Middle Ages, when a lust for inflicting torture infected some men
+like a cancerous growth, a favorite method of at once punishing and
+destroying an unfortunate enemy was to chain him in a dungeon to which a
+tidal river had access, and leave him there until the slow-rising flood
+drowned him.
+
+They were in some such plight, self-chained to a rock, though not
+knowing when a sudden swirl of water might sweep them to speedy death.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE TURN OF THE TIDE
+
+
+The change, when it came, came swiftly. It was as though the
+All-Powerful bade the waters cease their snarling and stilled the fury
+of the reef. During nearly an hour the sea lapped the very thighs of the
+four castaways, but the roar of battle between rocks and current had
+died down and it was possible to hear the spoken word.
+
+Sturgess was the first to break the spell cast on the whole party by the
+seeming imminence of death.
+
+"If ever I set foot in New York again I'll be good and go to church
+Sundays," he said. "This is Sunday, February 6, an' I guess I've been as
+near Kingdom Come to-day as I'm likely to get on a round trip ticket."
+
+For a little while no one passed any comment. Sunday! The mere name of
+the day had a bizarre sound. What had God-given Sunday and its peaceful
+associations to do with this grim and savage wilderness?
+
+Suddenly Nina Forbes began to recite the Lord's Prayer. One by
+one the others joined in. The concluding petition had a peculiar
+appropriateness. If ever four Christian people might appeal to be
+delivered from evil, surely these four were in great need of heavenly
+succor.
+
+"That's fine!" said Sturgess, almost cheerfully, when a hearty "Amen"
+had relieved their surcharged feelings. "Me for the pine pew and the
+right sort of preacher when next I stroll out of West Fifty-seventh
+Street into Broadway of a Sabbath morning. Anyhow, to-day being Sunday,
+and the hour rather early, which way do we head for the nearest church
+when the tide falls, commodore?"
+
+Maseden had already weighed that very question, but the utter collapse
+of the voyage on which he had founded such high hopes had chastened his
+pride.
+
+"I think we had better put it to the vote," he said. "I've led you into
+such a death-trap already that I don't feel equal to a decision."
+
+He had been watching a big rock on the opposite shore. A little while
+ago it was awash; now it was submerged, yet the water was appreciably
+lower where they were standing.
+
+The seeming contradiction was puzzling. He had yet to learn that the
+laws governing water in motion are extraordinarily complex--take to
+witness the varying levels of the whirlpool in the Niagara River and the
+almost phenomenal height of the central stream in the Niagara rapids.
+
+"Guess we're satisfied with your control so far," said Sturgess. "What
+are you making a kick about? You prophesied just what would occur, and
+that's more than the average wizard can do."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Didn't you tell us we might strike a score of reefs between Providence
+Beach and Smyth's Channel, and that we should be lucky if we didn't have
+to build 'steen rafts?"
+
+Maseden smiled. The rock he had marked as an index was reappearing, and
+the water had sunk another inch below his knees. The tide had
+unquestionably turned; the water banked up on the opposite shore was
+also yielding to the new force.
+
+"I never anticipated another complete shipwreck," he said. "We have lost
+everything, ropes, skins, food--our chief supporter, the broken
+foremast--even our flag."
+
+"But we still have the rifle and cartridges, and we're plus a
+fortnight's experience. If we don't start life again better fixed than
+when we climbed to the ledge in the dark from the forecastle of the
+_Southern Cross_, call me a Dutchman."
+
+"I agree with C. K.," Nina chimed in. "Even here there must be some sort
+of a passage at low water. Which way shall we go--back or forward?"
+
+"We gain nothing by going back," said Maseden slowly. "For one thing, we
+are on the wrong side of the channel. For another, I have been taking
+stock of the peculiar vagaries of the tide during the past fifteen
+minutes, and I imagine that there is a slight difference in the water
+level between this point and that which we left this morning. Still
+water attains a dead level, of course, but strong tides have rules of
+their own.
+
+"Now, supposing the tide from the Pacific runs into Providence Beach a
+few minutes earlier than it reaches Nelson Straits, that would account
+for the terrific rush in which we were caught. For the same cause, the
+falling tide should be far less strenuous here, but stronger there, and
+I do really believe that opposite our camp the ebb tide always developed
+a swifter current than the flood."
+
+"I'm sure of it," agreed Sturgess. "They were both pretty hefty, but
+this morning's flood didn't begin to compare with last night's ebb. You
+ought to know. You went through it alone on board the raft."
+
+"Then the answer is, 'Go forward,'" said Madge.
+
+"I think so. Let us be guided by events. We have the best part of the
+day before us. Surely we can find some safer lodgment than this before
+night falls."
+
+The others knew that Maseden's voice had lost its confident ring, but
+the fact that they had so narrowly dodged death barred all other
+considerations.
+
+In his heart of hearts he was deadly afraid that they might indeed be
+compelled to return to Hanover Island. The sheer barrenness of the islet
+on which they were now stranded was its vital defect. Probably they
+would still find shell-fish, still knock an occasional seal on the head,
+but wood they must have, both for fire and raft building, and it seemed
+to him that there were no trees nearer than the slopes facing Providence
+Beach.
+
+However, having come so far, they might at least have a look at the
+conditions on the south side, where lay yet another island; and there
+was also the unalterable fact that if they must escape by using the
+tides, their first day's experiences, though resulting in disaster, had
+brought them many miles in the right direction.
+
+Perhaps they had met and conquered their greatest danger. They had paid
+a dear price for victory, but that was nothing new in war.
+
+Of course there was a long and wearisome wait before they could do other
+than sit on the slowly emerging rocks. But it was something gained when
+they were free to climb out into the open and see the sky over their
+heads. The silent, nerve-racking menace of the canopied rock was quite
+as unbearable as the loud-mouthed threats of sea and reef.
+
+Madge, slightly less self-contained than her sister, promptly voiced her
+relief.
+
+"If I live to be older than I want to be I shall never forget one awful
+crack in the roof just above us," she said. "I couldn't keep my eyes off
+it. It seemed to be opening and shutting all the time with a horrible
+slowness."
+
+"How old do you want to be?" demanded Sturgess, readily seizing the
+chance to divert her thoughts from a nightmare memory.
+
+"Forty-five," she answered without any hesitation.
+
+"Gee! That leaves me less than eighteen years to live!"
+
+"I wasn't thinking of you, C. K."
+
+"But your limit rouses one's curiosity. Why forty-five, any more than
+fifty or sixty? Granted good health, heaps of people enjoy life at
+sixty."
+
+"At forty-five a woman begins to fade and men grow horrid," she
+announced calmly, as though stating an incontrovertible thesis.
+
+"Please don't talk rubbish, either of you," interrupted Nina sharply.
+"Alec, can't we dodge along from rock to rock? It seems to be ever so
+much more open half a mile ahead."
+
+"Let's try," said Maseden.
+
+He wondered vaguely why Nina broke in on her sister's quaint theorizing.
+Any nonsense which took their minds off the troubles of the hour was a
+good thing in itself.
+
+They scrambled and slithered through the passage, which resembled the
+moraine of a glacier, save that the rocks were on the same plane, and
+the central stream was clear and greenish instead of being nearly milk
+white. Once they were held up fully fifteen minutes because the channel
+ran close to an overhanging rock which really looked as though it might
+be brought down by the disturbance of a pebble.
+
+Then Maseden was moved to make investigations, and discovered that the
+main waterway was extraordinarily deep. In other words, the sea had
+preferred to scoop out a ditch rather than flow through the ample space
+bordering Hanover Island. Even at low tide there was deep water here.
+
+"We must go on, one at a time," he said, and led the way.
+
+He found that Nina Forbes was close behind.
+
+"Remain where you are!" he said gruffly. "I'll tell you when to follow
+and indicate the best track."
+
+She frowned, and her eyes sparkled, but she obeyed. Sturgess, too,
+growled a protest.
+
+"He ought to give me that kind of try-out," he said. "If there's
+trouble, and I go under, it won't matter so much. But you girls can't
+spare Alec. He's worth twenty of me when it comes to a show-down."
+
+However, they all crossed the danger point safely, and each in turn
+noticed that which Maseden alone had been able to see at first--that a
+huge buttress had fallen quite recently, probably during the preceding
+tide, so the whole mass might crumble into ruin at any moment. As was
+their way, once a danger had passed they did not discuss it again.
+Sturgess, of course, had something to say, though it only bore
+inferentially on this latest risk.
+
+"I always had a notion that the New York Fire Department was a pretty
+nervy proposition," he informed all and sundry during a halt on the only
+strip of open beach yet encountered in their new exploration, "but I
+guess I can show the chief a few fresh stunts first time I blow into
+headquarters on East Sixty-seventh Street."
+
+Sturgess's airy references to New York were excellent tonics. He refused
+to regard that great city and its ordered life as dreamlike figments of
+the imagination. To him the flaring lights of Broadway ever glimmered
+above the horizon. Had he sighted the Statue of Liberty around the next
+bend _that_ would mean reality; _this_, the dreary expanse of dead
+hills, water and black rock, would have been the dream.
+
+Maseden, recovering his poise, had resumed his everyday air of
+well-grounded optimism. At any rate, he argued, the four of them were
+living and uninjured. They still owned those thrice-precious cartridges,
+the rifle and the poncho. They had many hours of daylight before them,
+and would surely find drinkable water and food before dark.
+
+Happily the weather was fine, though clouds banking up in the west told
+of a possible gale, which might blow itself out in a few hours, or last
+as many days, or weeks. In that climate there was no knowing. The
+almanac declared that it was high summer, yet it would be no uncommon
+event if a snowstorm came from the southwest and mantled all the land a
+foot deep.
+
+As for their clothes being wet, these young people thought little of
+such a trifle. Their skins were becoming, in the expressive Indian
+phrase, "all face."
+
+So they trudged on, heading for the mouth of the defile. In the far
+distance they discerned the broken line of another mountainous island,
+the lower slopes black with forests.
+
+"That's a good sign, folk," said Maseden, smiling cheerfully once more.
+"We're making for a timber belt. When you come to think of it, trees
+simply couldn't grow on these rocks, and the watershed seems to fall
+away on both sides of the gorge, which must have been cut by an
+earthquake."
+
+His eyes had been searching constantly for signs of the raft's wreckage,
+but never so much as a splintered log could he see. Nina, not so
+preoccupied, was gazing farther afield.
+
+Suddenly she stopped, and something in her manner arrested the others.
+
+"I don't think I'm mistaken," she said, "but are not those two points
+the flanks of these islands?"
+
+"There can be little doubt of that," agreed Maseden, following her
+glance towards the gap some three or four miles in front. It was
+difficult to estimate distance accurately in that region of vast
+solitudes.
+
+"Then, if that is so," she went on in a puzzled tone, "where does the
+remainder of the land go to? The cliffs end not so very far away. Why
+don't we see other bits sticking out?"
+
+The underlying sense of the question was clearer than its form. For some
+undetermined cause the passage between the islands evidently widened
+considerably before it closed in at the ultimate southern exit.
+Hopefulness is often a close blend of curiosity and expectation. They
+pressed on more rapidly, eager as children to see what lay around the
+corner.
+
+They were soon enlightened, and most agreeably so. They entered a
+spacious amphitheatre--in its way, almost a place of beauty. Not only
+were the hillsides clothed with pines and other trees, but, rarest sight
+of all along that stark coast, strips of white sand bordered the
+foreshore.
+
+The tidal water, now near the lowest ebb, was placid as a lake, and on
+its surface disported flocks of many varieties of wild fowl. Moreover,
+wreckage began to line the beach at high-water mark. They found the
+planks and spars of many ships, some quite fresh, and evidently the
+remains of the _Southern Cross_; others weather-beaten, even crumbling
+with age.
+
+Remains of the raft were discovered, and Nina shrieked with joy at sight
+of the ship's flag, hardly damaged, lying on its halliard alongside the
+broken topmast.
+
+Madge claimed the most remarkable bit of flotsam--nothing less than the
+brandy bottle, unbroken, but nearly full of salt water, half buried in
+sand.
+
+It was their only drinking utensil, and therefore prized very highly.
+How it had passed through the turmoil of the rapids was one of those
+mysteries which voyaging bottles alone can solve; and they, if sometimes
+eloquent of humanity's adventures, are invariably silent as to their
+own.
+
+The skins of the sea-lion and seals had vanished. Indeed, a very close
+search of a three-mile semi-circular beach, conducted for reasons which
+shall presently appear, yielded no trace of them.
+
+There was a dramatic fitness in thus reaching a land of plenty after
+enduring the horrors of the pass.
+
+"It's like a fairy tale," cried Nina joyously. "This is the enchanted
+realm, guarded by dragons which must be slain ere the prince can enter."
+
+"Gosh!" grinned Sturgess, "she's calling you a prince now, Alec. Say,
+Madge, can't you invent a name for me?"
+
+"Yes, you're the Ugly Duckling which grew into a Swan."
+
+"Huh! I'll think that over. Far be it from me, fair maid, to dispute
+your views as to my future plumage. Now, Alec, your turn. It's up to you
+to christen Nina."
+
+"Cinderella, maid of all work," said Maseden promptly. "So, let's get
+busy, the lot of us. Girls, you'll probably find an oyster-bed on that
+reef over there. Sturgess and I will hunt for water, and bring you a
+bottleful. Then we must set to work and build a shack above high-water
+mark before night. We're going to stop here and launch a more navigable
+craft next time."
+
+"Your highness has forgotten one thing," said Nina, with sudden gravity.
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"It is still Sunday."
+
+With one accord they dropped to their knees and thanked Providence for
+the mercy which had been shown them. Such prayers are the spontaneous
+tribute of the overflowing heart. They are not to be uttered aloud or
+recorded in the written word.
+
+The men had no difficulty in locating a stream, owing to the "creek," as
+Madge had phrased it, which marked the approach of each torrent to the
+sea. Here, too, were oysters in abundance. Whether or not the bivalves
+liked a certain admixture of fresh water and brine, their enthusiastic
+admirers did not know; but certainly the best-stocked beds were
+invariably situated near the mouth of a mountain stream.
+
+With a plentiful supply of shaped planks, cordage, even rusty nails,
+they soon knocked together a low hut, not more than breast high, and
+closed at one end. The ship's flag curtained off the inner section,
+which was allotted to the two girls, while the men could sleep, on
+guard, as it were, in the outer part.
+
+As night came on they started a fire and cooked two birds of the penguin
+type, which allowed themselves to be chased and captured. The flesh was
+tough and none too well flavored, but the feasters were not hard to
+please. When the repast was ended, and they sat on piles of soft sand
+looking out over the darkening expanse of waters, for the tide was high
+again, Maseden electrified Sturgess by saying:
+
+"Do you smoke, C. K.?"
+
+"Does a duck swim?" was the prompt reply.
+
+Maseden produced from his coat pocket a pipe and tin of tobacco.
+
+The other eyed them with downright amazement.
+
+"Well, can you beat it?" he cried. "What else have you got in your
+pocket, old scout? A bottle of rye whisky and a box of chocolates for
+the girls, or what?"
+
+"I've reached the end of my resources now," laughed Maseden. "I resolved
+to keep this small stock of tobacco till the time came when we might
+regard half our troubles as ended. I think we've reached that stage
+to-night. After this morning's escape I shall never again lose hope
+until the light goes out forever."
+
+"Oh, please, don't put it that way," said Nina.
+
+"I mean it as an optimist," he exclaimed. "If I have to swim in the open
+sea, or am buried under a landslide, I shall still believe, while my
+senses last, that Providence will see me through. Do you know why? You
+might supply many good reasons, but not _the_ reason. Ten minutes after
+we climbed under that overhanging rock, it fell. I happened to look
+back, and saw it collapse. None of us heard the crash, because we were
+close to a rather noisy rapid at the moment. But I actually saw the
+thing happen."
+
+"Why didn't you tell us at the time?" inquired Madge.
+
+"I thought our nervous systems, collectively, had borne enough strain
+just then.... Here you are, C. K. I give you first turn with the pipe."
+
+"Not on your life!" vowed Sturgess, flaming into volcanic energy. "If I
+never smoke again, I'll not touch that pipe until you've gone right
+through a packed bowl-full."
+
+Maseden knew that his friend meant what he said, so filled and lighted
+the pipe immediately.
+
+"It's a moot point," he commented philosophically, "whether you don't
+enjoy smoking more in anticipation than I in actuality. I haven't smoked
+now during sixteen days, and I believe I could give it up for sixteen
+years if need be."
+
+"Good gracious!" tittered Madge. "Poor C. K. will have only two years of
+his beloved New York."
+
+It was a subtle thrust. Sturgess himself was the first to see its point.
+
+"Gosh!" he said. "S'pose we four had to live here straight on for
+sixteen years!"
+
+Nina Forbes seemed to have a keener sense of the dangerous trend of
+such careless talk than her sister.
+
+"I do wish you two wouldn't babble," she broke in sharply. "Alec is
+simply chock full of information. I can see it in his calculating eye.
+For instance--"
+
+Maseden took the cue readily.
+
+"For instance," he said. "This inland lagoon explains the rush of the
+tide this morning. The greater part of the water which runs through the
+pass never goes back. It floods this immense area, is held up by the
+tide from the south, but goes out that way, because, by some irregular
+tidal action, the ebb begins in that direction. Therefore, an ideal
+backwash is set up, which accounts for all the wreckage strewed on the
+beach. Parts of ships which were lost a century ago will be stored here.
+The place is a maritime museum."
+
+"We may find a whole ship," exclaimed Madge.
+
+"What? After coming through the hell-gate we have left behind?"
+
+"The bottle came through," she persisted.
+
+"Though it's a black bottle it must have been white with fear many a
+score of times. Have you noticed the way in which the logs of our own
+raft were battered and bruised?... No, the way in was vile, and, I had
+better warn you now, the way out may be worse."
+
+"Oh, why?" cried both girls.
+
+"Because of the absence of Indians. Consider what an ideal site
+this would be for a colony of savages. Plenty of fish, birds and
+oysters--sand--even a few level strips which might be cultivated--if
+the South American Indian ever does till the land. The logic of the
+situation is clear. Our refuge is inaccessible. That is just the
+difference between romance and reality. In the fairy tale, once you slay
+the dragons guarding the enchanted palace the remainder is a compound of
+nectar and kisses. In real life, having stormed the fortress, you find
+yourself besieged."
+
+None disputed his conclusions. They were learning to think like him,
+and each had been struck by the virgin solitude of this land-locked
+sea-lake, which must compare favorably with the most fertile and
+exceedingly scarce localities of the kind in an area of many scores
+of thousands of square miles.
+
+"Anyhow, while you finish your pipe, it's up to me to fix the fire,"
+said Sturgess blithely, leaping to his feet, and beginning to arrange a
+number of big flat stones around and above a pile of glowing charcoal
+in such wise that rain could not extinguish it, and a few twigs placed
+among the embers next morning would quickly burst into a blaze.
+
+They had taught themselves these minor aids to comfort. Madge had
+constructed a very creditable field oven, and Nina, with a bit of
+sharpened wire and a supply of dried sinews, could sew a skin as a
+cobbler stitches the sole on to a boot. Physically all four were in
+splendid condition, so it was a sheer impossibility that they should
+remain downcast in spirit. Maseden knew that quite well when he recited
+the trials they must yet face and conquer. He addressed them as
+co-workers, not as pampered young people who must be humored into
+putting forth the necessary efforts if they would win through finally.
+
+They slept that night as soundly as though the morning's tribulation
+was something they had read in a book. Rain pounded on their shelter,
+but it was roofed with pine branches above the planks, and not a drop
+entered. They awoke into a world of blue sky and sunshine, and, after
+breakfasting on oysters, cold fowl, and good water, spent an idle hour
+in watching the tidal race from the north.
+
+Then, after tending the fire, they set off on a tour of the shore,
+meaning to note every scrap of wreckage which might be of value.
+Moreover, Maseden was specially anxious to have a peep at the southern
+exit.
+
+And thus they made the great discovery.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE SIMPLE LIFE
+
+
+Who found the boat? The question has not been answered to this day. Four
+people held and vehemently expressed different opinions; if they had not
+agreed ultimately to pool the credit, the foundations of six very firm
+friendships might have been endangered, because even the sisters were at
+logger-heads on the point.
+
+No one could dispute the fact that it was Nina Forbes who, with
+outstretched hand and pointing finger, exclaimed dramatically:
+
+"What is that?"
+
+But the other three yielded her no prior right on that account. Were
+they not all looking at it, and thinking that which Nina said?
+
+Each could establish a most reasonable claim if the matter were
+adjudicated by a prize court. Firstly, Maseden had ordered a close
+survey of the coast, and, if this very proper precaution had not been
+taken, the boat would be rotting yet on an uncharted beach. Secondly, if
+Sturgess had not slipped on a rock and scarified his chin rather badly
+there would, thirdly, have been no need for Madge to suggest that he
+should wash the wound in fresh water, and even insist that this should
+be done.
+
+Lastly, there was Nina, who literally demanded an explanation of a long,
+low strip of taut canvas visible above a small sand hill on which tufts
+of coarse grass were struggling for life.
+
+The simplest way out of the difficulty was to admit that sheer,
+unadulterated good luck brought about an incident which probably changed
+the whole course of events, though a white and shining patch of skin on
+Sturgess's left leg testifies to this day that his accident was
+primarily responsible for it.
+
+Two fair-sized streams ran from the hills into the straits on that side.
+Near the first was pitched the camp. Well hidden near the second was the
+boat.
+
+Now, these rivulets, though fairly deep and swift, were not torrents;
+that is to say, they drained a watershed by no means so steep as Hanover
+Island. Their volume was more regular, inasmuch as they were not wholly
+the outcome of the latest downpour of rain. To avoid the necessity of
+fording them, one had to walk a long way seaward until their waters
+began to spread over the reef in a hundred little runnels, and one could
+leap from rock to rock.
+
+Indeed, it was while Sturgess was so doing that he barked his shin, a
+most painful if not dangerous operation; in this instance, it evoked
+language which the girls pretended not to hear.
+
+Having crossed the stream, however, Madge examined the damage, and would
+have it that the sufferer take off his boot and sock, and forthwith lave
+the wound in fresh water.
+
+What he really wanted to do was to wander away out of earshot and
+relieve his feelings by the spoken word. He obeyed, however, and all
+four went up the right bank (which, as Sturgess and Madge jointly cited
+in their contention, they certainly would not have done otherwise) to a
+point where the river was free of salt-water.
+
+In the result, curiously enough, Sturgess's excoriated wound was left
+absolutely to its own devices. Both he and Madge, not to mention the
+other two, were startled out of any further thought of such a minor
+casualty by coming full tilt on to a ship's boat, trimly sheeted in gray
+canvas, dry-docked, one might say, behind a sandhill.
+
+After an incredulous stare, Maseden answered Nina's eager question.
+
+"It is one of the life-boats of the _Southern Cross_," he said, and his
+voice was hushed, almost reverent. "There is her number, with the ship's
+name. She was carried on the starboard side, just behind the forward
+rail on the promenade deck. I used to look up at her and admire her
+lines."
+
+By this time they had raced up alongside the craft. She appeared to be
+undamaged. Maseden unlaced a portion of the canvas cover. She was dry
+as a bone inside.
+
+"Say, Alec, d'you know that every boat was stocked with provisions and
+water for twenty people for fourteen days? I heard the captain give the
+order."
+
+Sturgess was so excited that he almost yelped the words.
+
+"I saw the stewards putting the stuff on board," said Maseden.
+
+"There's tea, and coffee, and condensed milk, and butter, and tins of
+meat and jam," cried Nina.
+
+"And ship's biscuits, and a spirit stove, and matches, and barrels of
+water," chimed in Madge.
+
+Maseden was tapping the planks and peering at so much of the keel as
+was visible, but he could find no sign of injury. The smart white paint
+had been badly scraped amidships and in the bows, but the wood was
+not splintered. To the best of his belief the craft was thoroughly
+seaworthy. She carried her full complement of oars, a mast, and lugsail.
+In fact, she was almost in the exact condition in which she had left the
+ship.
+
+Two pulleys and a part of a broken davit showed how she had been
+wrenched bodily from her berth and flung into the sea by the first great
+wave that crashed over the _Southern_ _Cross_ when the steamship swung
+broadside on to the reef under the pull of the aft anchor.
+
+"Come along, everybody!" shouted Maseden, and the ring of triumph in his
+voice revealed the depth of his feelings. "We start building a new camp
+at once. Within less than a fortnight the spring tides which brought her
+here will be with us again, and we must be ready for them."
+
+"Can't we launch her on rollers?" demanded Sturgess.
+
+"I doubt it. She was docked here by a backwash which does not occur very
+often, judging by the herbage growing among the sand. She is a heavy
+craft, too. I don't think the four of us could move her. We'll have
+rollers in readiness, of course, but we must cut a channel for the tide,
+and so make sure of floating her.... By Jove! _What_ a piece of luck!"
+
+It took them an hour or more to sober down. For once, Maseden's orders
+were tacitly ignored, even by himself. Instead of helping in the
+construction of another hut the girls were busy with the lashings of the
+canvas cover. Every true woman has the instinct of the good housewife,
+and these two could not rest content until they had examined and
+classified the stores.
+
+None of them could resist the temptation of a bottle of coffee extract,
+some condensed milk and a tin of biscuits. The spirit-stove was
+lighted, some water boiled and they drank hot coffee and ate wheat for
+the first time in seventeen days.
+
+Their greatest surprise was the quantity and variety of stores on board.
+There were knives and forks, enameled plates and cups, even such minor
+requisites as salt, pepper and mustard.
+
+Of course, the chief steward of the _Southern Cross_ had been given many
+hours in which to make preparations. Being a resourceful man, when the
+lockers were packed with their regulation supplies he stuffed "extras"
+into odd corners.
+
+Poor fellow! The pity was that an adverse fate had denied him any
+benefit from his own foresight.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Although the castaways entered with good heart upon their second
+campaign against the forces of nature, the immense advantages now
+enjoyed as compared with their condition on Hanover Island did not blind
+them to the difficulties yet to be faced and conquered ere the haunts of
+civilized man might be reached. There was no gainsaying the cogency of
+Maseden's logic; the absence of aborigines from a spot so favored as
+Rotunda Bay (the name allotted to their new location), supplied positive
+proof of the impracticable nature of all approaches by sea.
+
+How far the barriers might extend they had no means of knowing. They
+could guess how forbidding they were from the character of the northerly
+channel, and it was easy to believe that one such dangerous passage
+alone would not have deterred tribesmen accustomed to navigate these
+perilous waters.
+
+So, in the intervals of labor, they gave close heed to the tides and
+their action. For instance, Maseden would knock together a small raft,
+launch it at high water and watch its subsequent course. He found, at
+first, that it stranded invariably. Then he took it to the tiny estuary
+of the second river, waited until the ebb was well established, and let
+it swing out with the current.
+
+This time, as he anticipated, it was carried swiftly southward, and was
+seen no more, thus confirming his belief that the rise and fall of the
+tide set up a circular movement of an immense body of water always
+tending in the same southerly direction, retarded during the flow, with
+resultant acceleration during the ebb.
+
+One day, when observation farther afield was desired, they all four set
+off soon after dawn, and were close to the southern narrows at high
+water. Then, as the shore gradually became practicable, they followed
+the receding tide until farther advance became dangerous. Seen from a
+distance, one of the cliffs offered a not impossible climb, and closer
+inspection showed that, by hard work, and some roping, they could reach
+the summit.
+
+The girls, who had positively refused to be left "at home," were now
+equally determined to make the ascent. The soles of their light boots
+had long since given out, but each and all now wore moccasins of
+sealskin, and very serviceable and comfortable footgear these proved,
+being impervious to the jars of the roughest rock surface, and most
+excellent for climbing.
+
+After an hour's hard work they stood on a narrow saddle overlooking
+a seaward precipice, and the vista before their eyes was at once
+awe-inspiring and disheartening. Mile after mile, nothing but broken
+water met the eye. The reefs were countless. In fact, the resistance
+they offered to the incoming tide direct from the Pacific was such that,
+in all likelihood, it accounted for the delay which set up the
+extraordinary race past Hell Gate.
+
+Even Sturgess was upset by the far-flung chaos. A strong wind was
+blowing up there, and he sank his voice in the hope that his words
+would reach Maseden only.
+
+"Rotten!" he said. "It would knock the stuffing out of a brass dog."
+
+"No secrets, please," cried Madge promptly. "What did you say, C. K.?
+Are you telling Alec that there is no way out?"
+
+"Yep," was the disconsolate reply.
+
+"We have not quite determined that fact yet," said Maseden coolly.
+"Having done a stiff climb, suppose we get our money's worth, and sit
+down? Never mind the unpleasant prospect in front. Let's keep a sharp
+look-out for a log traveling in mid-stream, and watch it as long as
+possible."
+
+Nina, who was endowed with excellent good sight, was the first to detect
+a nearly submerged tree-trunk bobbing about in the channel, nearly a
+mile distant. The atmosphere happened, however, to be unusually clear
+that day, so they could follow the progress of the derelict for another
+mile or more. As soon as it emerged from the actual channel between the
+two headlands, it swung away to the left, or eastward, and kept on that
+course until lost in the waste of waters.
+
+Maseden whistled in sheer vexation when he gave up the attempt to follow
+this floating index any longer.
+
+"What is it now, son?" inquired Sturgess.
+
+"The worst," snapped the other vindictively.
+
+"Great Scott! Didn't you like the look of that log. I thought it
+lolloped along in a devil-may-care style that was rather attractive."
+
+"But it turned towards the land, and not towards the sea."
+
+"I guess that's so."
+
+"And doesn't that convey any meaning to you?"
+
+"Sure. The tides hereabouts go all ways for Sundays. Before that thing
+reaches Nelson Straits it has to round the eastern end of the island
+opposite.... Yes, yes, Alec. You've wised me up on heaps of things
+I didn't give a hooraw in Hades for at one time. I can tell the time
+by the sun, skin an eel, or a seal, or a teal, open oysters like
+a bar-keep, and read an eddy like a Mississippi pilot. And, to my
+reckoning, our boat, or any boat, has as much chance of winning through
+that proposition out there as a lump of butter in a fiery furnace. I
+never did hold very strongly by that story about Shadrack, Mesack and
+Abednego. I've a notion we haven't got the complete facts. One day in
+Pittsburg--"
+
+"Silence, please, for the passing of the next log, which happens to be
+a boat!"
+
+Nina's voice rang out clearly. She well knew the astounding significance
+of the words, but the daily round of hardship and adventure were molding
+her character on new and stronger lines. She was not, nor ever could be
+again, the somewhat conventional young lady who had sailed from San Juan
+little more than a month ago. She could face now, with an unflinching
+and critical eye, perils which then would have blanched her cheek and
+set the blood pulsing in her veins.
+
+Even her sister, who had not made out the object to which Nina had
+called attention, put an alarming question quite calmly.
+
+"A boat!" she cried. "Oh, Nina, not _our_ boat?"
+
+So many seemingly impossible things had occurred that the stout
+life-boat they left tied securely in a small dock which was flooded
+by each tide might conceivably have broken loose.
+
+"No," came the reassuring answer. "Not our boat. It looks like one of
+the native coracles Alec has told us of. But it is empty. At any rate,
+there is no one sitting upright in it."
+
+By this time the others had seen the craft, which she was the first to
+detect. In their anxiety and excitement they stood up, one by one, as
+though the couple of feet thus gained would give a better view-point.
+There could not be the least doubt that they were looking at a
+roughly-fashioned but distinctly seaworthy boat, which danced along on
+the crest of a rapid current, and whirled around, as though in sport,
+when some black rock thrust its obstructing fangs into the tide-way.
+Apparently, it was traveling quite safely.
+
+Then, as if to give them a really useful object lesson, it was caught
+between two rocks and turned clean over. A second somersault righted
+it, and, like the log, it sped away to the east.
+
+Maseden brought back the dazed and troubled wits of his companions to
+the particular business in hand.
+
+"See that you are properly roped," he said. "We're heading for camp, as
+quickly as we can get there. Don't hurry over the first part of the
+descent, however. There are two bad places on the rock face."
+
+They reached the shore safely, unroped, and set off to walk three hard
+miles in record time. As they neared their refuge they saw the boat, now
+aground in its tiny canal. Near at hand were the white embers of their
+fire, which would soon be ablaze when fresh logs were added. Some
+washing, stretched on a line, lent a strangely domestic touch to the
+encampment.
+
+But the one profoundly relieving fact was self-evident. No party of
+marauding Indians had swooped down on their ark and its stores. Wherever
+the derelict boat had come from, its occupants were not to be seen in
+any part of Rotunda Bay. As Maseden put it tersely:
+
+"We found it hard enough to get here. Others seemed to have tried and
+failed."
+
+Still he and Sturgess decided to mount guard that night. The girls were
+not supposed to know of this new arrangement, until Maseden was about
+to awaken Sturgess for his second spell of sentry-go. Then Nina emerged
+from the rear portion of the shack.
+
+"Lend me your watch, Alec," she said pleasantly. "I'll take these
+two hours.... No, you mustn't argue, there's a dear--fellow--"
+the concluding word was added rather hurriedly, being an obvious
+afterthought. "I'll call Madge next, and it will be broad daylight
+by the time her spell is ended."
+
+"I'm not sleepy," he murmured, sinking his voice so as not to disturb
+the others. "I was only going to rouse C. K. because he will be annoyed
+if I don't stick to schedule."
+
+"I haven't slept at all," the girl confessed. "If you're not going to
+rest, let us talk. Or, perhaps, that is not quite the right thing to
+do."
+
+"Not if there was any real fear of an attack," said Maseden, leading her
+to the small sand hillock near the boat. "I am convinced we are safe
+enough, but I should never forgive myself if the camp were rushed owing
+to our negligence.... Sit here. The tide is rising. We can distinguish
+the water-line, and remain unseen ourselves. Of course, we should speak
+hardly above a whisper."
+
+Some inequality in the sloping surface brought them rather close
+together when they sat down. Nina moved, with a little laugh of
+apology. Her action was quite involuntary, but it nettled Maseden.
+
+"I don't want to flirt with you, if that is what you are afraid of," he
+grunted. "In present conditions spooning would be rather absurd. Not
+that my particular sort of marriage tie would restrain me. Don't think
+it. Enforced obedience of that sort is foreign to my nature."
+
+"I gather that you really want to quarrel with me," was the glib answer.
+
+Of course, any woman of average wit could have put a man in the wrong at
+once with equal readiness though given a far less vulnerable opening,
+but Maseden realized his blunder and drew back.
+
+"A too strenuous life seems to have spoiled my temper," he said. "I used
+to be regarded as a somewhat easy-going person."
+
+"Probably that was because you had things all your own way."
+
+"You may be right. A man is the poorest judge of his own virtues or
+faults. For instance, I have always prided myself on a certain quality
+of quick decision, once my mind was made up. But of late I find myself
+lacking even in that respect."
+
+"Isn't it possible you are not actually sure of your own mind?"
+
+"Shall I submit the case to you?"
+
+"Would that be wise? I would remind you of your own phrase--in present
+conditions."
+
+"But I think you ought to know," he persisted. "Weeks ago, on the day
+you shot the sea-lion, in fact, C. K. told me he meant to marry Madge,
+if the lady is willing, that is. The statement startled me, to put it
+mildly. I rather scoffed at it, which nettled him, naturally. I was on
+the point of acquainting him with the facts, but was stopped by the
+gun-shot. Since then he has never mentioned the matter again, and I have
+been averse from pulling it in by the scruff of the neck--"
+
+"Why do so now?" put in the girl quickly.
+
+He could not see her face, but the note of alarm in her voice was not
+even disguised.
+
+"Because, day by day, I see more and more clearly that our friend's love
+of your sister is a very real thing. I see, too, or think that I see, a
+response on her part. From a common sense point of view, what else could
+one expect? Two young people, each eminently agreeable, are thrown
+together by fate in circumstances of great and continuous personal
+danger. The artificial intercourse of civilized life is impossible from
+the outset. They see each other as they really are. Each has to depend
+on real characteristics, not on shams. Can one imagine a more ideal
+method of choosing one's future partner than those in which we have
+lived during the past month?"
+
+This was what lawyers call a leading question, and Nina shied at it
+instantly.
+
+"Everything you have said may be true, Alec," she said, "but you have
+advanced no reason whatever for disturbing our pleasant relations.
+Surely all these problems may be allowed to settle themselves when, if
+ever, we re-enter the everyday world?"
+
+"That is just my difficulty," continued Maseden doggedly; he was
+resolved now to have an irritating hindrance to pleasant relations
+settled once and for all. "Is it fair to Sturgess to let him believe
+there is no bar to his wooing? Of course, my marriage was a farce, and
+can be dismissed as such. But what will C. K. think, what will he say,
+when he hears of it? Won't our silence--yes, _our_ silence--you cannot
+shirk a part of the responsibility--be open to misinterpretation? May it
+not bring about the very catastrophe we want to avoid?"
+
+"I really don't understand," said the girl in a frightened way.
+
+"Then I must make my meaning clear, even though it hurts," he said
+determinedly. "If I tell Sturgess now about the Cartagena ceremony,
+though rather late in the day, it is not too late; whereas, if I wait
+till we reach New York, how astounded and mystified he will be by the
+legal process which I must set on foot to secure your sister's freedom
+and my own! Why, the result might be tragic. If C. K. knows now, he can,
+if he chooses, seek from Madge an explanation of the whole mad business.
+She may give or withhold it--that is for her to decide. But at least we
+shall all be acting squarely and above-board. I put it to you strongly,
+for the sake of each one of us, that Sturgess should be told the whole
+truth."
+
+For a little while there was silence. Nina seemed to be weighing the
+pros and cons of the matter with much care.
+
+"I think you are right," she said at last. "I differ from you only in a
+small but--to a woman--very important particular. Madge, not you, should
+tell C. K. what happened in Cartagena. It is her privilege. It will come
+better from her. In the morning, when opportunity offers, she and I will
+talk things over. I am sure I can persuade her as to the course she
+should adopt.
+
+"Leave it to me, Alec. Before to-morrow evening C. K. shall have heard
+the full story of that unfortunate marriage. He will tell you so
+himself. After that, I suppose, your troubled conscience will be at
+rest, and the matter need not be discussed further until it comes before
+the courts."
+
+"I seem to have annoyed you pretty badly by raising the point now," said
+Maseden.
+
+"No, indeed! It is not so. In a sense, I am glad. My sister and I are
+very dear to one another, Alec, and no one likes to parade the family
+skeleton, even in such a remote place as Rotunda Bay."
+
+Maseden felt that he had bungled the whole business rather badly, but he
+saw no advantage in leaving anything unsaid.
+
+"What I cannot make out," he muttered savagely, "is how I ever came to
+regard you and Madge as being so much alike. Of course, you resemble
+each other physically, but in temperament you are wide apart as the
+poles."
+
+"Dear me! This is really interesting. In what respects do we differ?"
+
+"Madge is emotional, you are self-contained. She would have cried had I
+spoken to her about you as I have spoken of her to you, but you survey
+the problem coolly, and solve it, probably on the best lines. Sometimes,
+you puzzle, at others, vex me. You are ready and willing to confide in
+Sturgess, but refuse me your confidence. I find Madge easy to read; you
+remain an enigma. I believe you would almost die rather than enlighten
+me as to the true history of my marriage."
+
+"Oh, bother your marriage! Can't you talk of something else?"
+
+"I am prepared to talk about you during the next hour."
+
+"How boring for both of us."
+
+"Only a minute ago you welcomed my efforts as an analyst."
+
+"I was mistook, as the children say. These personal matters seem
+ineffably stupid when one sees the dawn appearing over the walls of our
+prison. We may never get away from here, or lose our lives in the
+attempt. It will be of very small significance then as to why a
+sorely-tried girl agreed to marry a man she had never seen, and who was
+under sentence to die before the ink was dry in the register.... Still,
+Alec, I'm pleased we have had such a candid discussion. I have come
+round to your point of view, too. It is _not_ fair to C. K. to keep him
+in the dark. To-morrow, as ever is, if you don't work us so hard that we
+have no time for chatter, I promise you that Madge shall tell him
+everything."
+
+"And me nothing?"
+
+"That is implied in the bargain, is it not? Does it really concern you?
+You were speaking for C. K., not for yourself.... Oh, no, we're not
+going to re-open the argument. Just let matters remain where they are,
+please. I want you to satisfy a woman's curiosity on a matter of more
+immediate importance. When do you purpose leaving here? Shouldn't we
+start soon? At this season we have fine weather of a sort. Don't we
+incur a good deal of risk by each week of delay?"
+
+"Hullo, you two!" came a cherry voice. "A nice bunco game you've played
+on me! There was I, snoring like a hog, while you were spooning under
+the stars. Wise Alec and Naughty Nina! But wait till I tell your poor
+deluded sister. A whole tribe of Indians could have crept up and
+tomahawked you where you sat."
+
+They started apart, almost guiltily. Each shared the same thought. How
+much, or how little, had Sturgess heard?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE DOWRY
+
+
+Both Maseden and Nina looked and felt like tongued-tied children, and
+Sturgess was not slow to note their confusion.
+
+"Gee, if there was an orchard anywhere around, I'd think you two had
+been stealing apples," he cried. "Sorry, Nina, if I've butted in on a
+heart-to-heart talk, but it's not often I can josh our wise Alec, so I'm
+bound to take the few chances that come along."
+
+He little knew evidently how closely their talk had concerned him, and
+the fact that he had not overheard anything which would supply a clue to
+the topic under discussion was, in itself, a great relief.
+
+"Nina appeared when I was about to call you," said Maseden quietly. "She
+demanded her share of the watch, and as I was not inclined for sleep I
+remained on duty. Of course that is no excuse for an inattentive sentry.
+I propose that you shoot me straight off and imprison Nina for the
+remainder of her natural life."
+
+"I sentence the pair of you to rest until breakfast is ready. There's
+no appeal from the court. About, turn! Quick, march!"
+
+Nina hurried away. Maseden, thinking he would not be able to close an
+eye, followed her slowly, lay down, and was soon asleep.
+
+The boat's stores had revealed neither soap nor towels, so the early
+morning wash remained a primitive affair. A pool in the stream was set
+apart for the girls, while the men scrubbed among the rocks. Sturgess
+aroused Maseden a few minutes before breakfast was ready.
+
+"Come this way," he said, nodding in the direction of the boat. "I want
+to show you something."
+
+Maseden noticed that the other man's hands and moccasins were soiled
+with the whitish-brown deposit through which a channel for the boat had
+been delved. Then he saw that no small part of the said channel was
+blocked by the debris of a fresh excavation.
+
+Now, among the treasures on the boat were a couple of axes. Given an ax,
+some spice of ingenuity and a fair stock of patience, and any man can
+fashion an astonishing variety of useful articles. Singularly enough,
+Sturgess, who was gifted with the artist's sense of proportion, could
+hew a spade out of a plank more skillfully than Maseden, and he was
+inordinately proud of the achievement.
+
+"What the deuce have you been up to?" demanded Maseden at sight of so
+much misdirected industry.
+
+"You wouldn't guess in a week," was the complacent answer. "This morning
+I was standing around doing nothing, when, as the tide fell, I spotted a
+bulge in the right bank of our canal. I wondered what had caused it,
+after our trouble in lining the walls with stakes, so I nosed around
+with a shovel. Then I got all fussed up, and didn't care where I threw
+the dirt.... See what _I've_ found, old scout!"
+
+By this time they were in the trench, from which the tide had only
+recently receded. Sturgess's zeal had cleared away some two cubic yards
+of silt, and Maseden saw at once that a part of the hull of a small
+vessel of some sort had been laid bare. Moreover, a few blows with an ax
+had removed sufficient of the rotting timbers to give access to the
+hulk's interior.
+
+It was a most interesting find. An old-time craft had been brought to
+her last resting-place within a few feet of the spot where the _Southern
+Cross's_ life-boat was embedded. Evidently in the course of years she
+had sunk in the soft deposit, and probably formed a nucleus for a new
+sand-bank. At any rate, she was completely covered, and lay there keel
+uppermost.
+
+"Have you been inside?" said Maseden, eyeing the doorway broken by the
+ax.
+
+"You bet your life," said Sturgess.
+
+"Was the air foul?"
+
+"Fine. I guess the lime hereabouts attended to that. Anyhow, I carried
+in a blazing stick, and it burned all right."
+
+"Skeletons on board?"
+
+"Not a bone that I could see."
+
+"What are you keeping back, then? You can't humbug me, C. K. There's
+something on your chest. Get it off!"
+
+Sturgess craned his neck over the edge of the channel to make sure that
+neither of the girls was near.
+
+"From hints I've picked up now and then, when Madge felt she must either
+talk or bust, I've come to the conclusion that old man Gray's death
+means poverty to that small bunch," he said. "Now, _I'm_ pretty well
+fixed, and I guess _you'll_ never be hard pushed to buy a food ticket,
+so I want your brainy assistance to arrange things for the girls'
+benefit. See? It should--kind of--make matters easy--when it comes to a
+show-down."
+
+"What have you come across? Spanish treasure?"
+
+Maseden peered into the dimly lighted interior of the wreck. Apparently
+the inverted deck was about four feet below the level of the opening,
+and Sturgess had broken into the after part of the hull.
+
+"Let me go ahead and pass out the boodle," said Sturgess. "I found it
+in a wooden box, which is clamped with iron, but it has nearly fallen to
+pieces."
+
+He lowered himself to what had been the ceiling of a cabin, and moved
+cautiously among a litter of rotting wood, evidently the furniture which
+had once rendered the tiny apartment habitable. He came back with laden
+hands, and passed out a curiously shaped jug, or flagon.
+
+Maseden examined it critically.
+
+"By Jove!" he cried; "this is Aztec work, and hammered out of solid
+gold!"
+
+"There's five more of the same sort," said Sturgess, in a voice cracked
+with excitement. "And _this_ strikes me as something worth while."
+
+He produced a crudely modeled figure of a puma, the body in silver and
+the head, feet, and tail in gold. The eyes and claws were of polished
+quartz, and were bright as when the ornament left the hands of the
+Mexican lapidary who fashioned it. The metals, of course, were
+tarnished, the silver being black with age, but both men realized that
+they were gazing at a splendid specimen of a long-forgotten art.
+
+"How much of this sort of stuff is there?" said Maseden, his imagination
+running riot as to the possible history of this unrecorded argosy.
+
+"Twelve pieces altogether," chuckled Sturgess. "Six gold pitchers, four
+animals and two carved dishes, each of gold. I've rummaged around
+carefully, and that's the lot. For'ard of this section is a hold, and,
+from what I can make out, it was loaded with furs and cloth, but the
+cargo is all mussed up with salt and lime."
+
+"Show me one of the dishes."
+
+Sturgess brought forth an oval-shaped dish, made, like the vessels, of
+solid gold. On its broad rim were chased twelve weird-looking creatures
+which reminded Maseden of the signs of the Zodiac; in the sunken center
+appeared a very elaborate design consisting of four trees, a bird
+perched on the topmost branches of each. Long afterwards he learned that
+this cartoon represented, in Aztec picture-writing, the four famous
+chiefs who founded the Aztec dynasty.
+
+At any rate, he knew at the time that the hoard which Sturgess had
+discovered was of great archaeological interest, apart from the intrinsic
+value of the precious metals, itself no small sum.
+
+"We ought to devote the necessary time to a thorough survey of the
+wreck," he said thoughtfully. "Meanwhile what have you at the back of
+your head about Nina and Madge? What did you mean by saying it would
+make matters easier?"
+
+"Well, suppose you and I agree to give 'em the proceeds of the sale,"
+and Sturgess handled one of the jugs lovingly. "There's sixty ounces of
+pure specie in this pretty thing alone, I'll bet. Then, if it dates away
+back, the price goes up like a rocket."
+
+Maseden knew that the really important part of his question had been
+avoided.
+
+"We must think it over," he said.
+
+"Think _what_ over?"
+
+Sturgess, whose face was on a level with Maseden's knees, scowled up at
+his friend with such an air of indignant surprise that the other man
+laughed.
+
+"I am not planning a daylight robbery of two fatherless orphans,"
+explained Maseden. "Our difficulty will be to persuade these two to
+accept their legitimate half share, let alone the whole of the plunder.
+Shan't we give them a hail, and let them see the pirate's _cache_ before
+breakfast? Because that is what it is. These things were stolen from
+some Aztec shrine."
+
+"Why Aztec?"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Peru is a far more likely place."
+
+"Yes, if these utensils were not of Mexican origin. The signs on the
+dishes are the animal-names used in the Aztec calendar."
+
+"Crushed again!" said Sturgess, clambering out of the wreck. "But say,
+professor, how did you ever manage to stow away those odds and ends of
+information? I'm your age, and not exactly a fool, but I never had time
+to read."
+
+"You never made time, you mean. If you had lived seven years on a
+solitary ranch you would be forced to buy books and read them. My
+inclination turned naturally to the records of the country I lived in.
+The stories of the Spanish invaders in Mexico to the north and Peru to
+the south were more romantic than any novel. You've heard of Captain
+Kidd, the buccaneer, of course, but I suppose you know nothing of the
+Welshman Henry Morgan, and his exploits on the Spanish Main?"
+
+"Not as much as would go on a dime in big type."
+
+"Well, Morgan would have made Kidd shine his boots if they had ever
+met."
+
+"Gee whiz! Hennery must have been _some_ Thug.... Hi, Madge. Where's
+Nina?"
+
+"You two ought to have been washed quarter of an hour ago," came Madge's
+wrathful cry. "I've been looking for you everywhere. Breakfast will be
+spoiled!"
+
+"Madge is quite right," said Maseden. "Breakfast is more important than
+loot. Eat first, and discuss the pile afterwards."
+
+This sound advice availed him or Sturgess little afterwards. Both girls
+were vexed that the discovery was kept from them even during that short
+space of half an hour. They were placated, however, by being allowed to
+share in the labor of clearing a sufficient area around and above the
+wreck to permit of its exact size being ascertained. It was only a small
+craft, the keel measuring some fifty feet in length, yet, as Maseden was
+careful to point out, the early navigators deemed such vessels large
+enough to cross the mighty Atlantic.
+
+When the tide rose, and the wreck was flooded again, it floated. This
+was foreseen, and the expectant watchers had a number of stout poles in
+readiness, with which they under-pinned the hull on one side. Thus it
+was rendered much easier of access later.
+
+Beyond a couple of beautifully carved and chased rapiers, the blades of
+which were largely protected by leather scabbards hardened by salt
+water, and a number of copper cooking utensils, they found nothing more
+of value. The cargo, which appeared to have been furs and mats of
+painted reeds, was wholly destroyed. The vessel had carried two masts,
+whose stumps, broken off short near the deck, seemed to indicate the
+mischance which had befallen her in the Pacific. There were no cannon or
+other arms of any sort in or under the wreck, but as she had surely come
+there by way of Providence Beach and Hell Gate, she had probably rolled
+over countless times during the journey.
+
+She was built of oak. The bluff bows and high-pitched forecastle and
+poop dated her as a product of the early seventeenth century. No trace
+of a name was discernible, but the bulwarks had been torn off. The
+absence of an elaborate figurehead was significant. She was a strongly
+constructed, but not highly finished little ship.
+
+As to her history or nationality, the only reliable tokens were the
+swords, which were Spanish, with Toledo blades. The copper cooking-pots
+were Mexican. In a word, she was ostensibly a trader, and Maseden
+believed that the iron-clamped box containing the treasure had been
+hidden beneath the floor of the cabin, because the planks were broken
+where the heavy package had apparently fallen through.
+
+One thing was certain. The similarity of the six flagons, the two dishes
+and the four animal figures showed that they came from an Aztec
+_teocalli_, or temple, of great wealth and importance. It was highly
+improbable that any town on the west coast of Mexico contained any such
+fame. If, therefore, they had been looted from the interior of the
+country, a reasonable assumption was that some band of Spanish
+adventurers, finding the way hopelessly blocked to the east, fought
+their way westward, and actually built the vessel which should convey
+them to far-off Cadiz.
+
+It was a strange hap that laid bare their plunder to the eyes of four
+descendants of the race which was destined to sweep them and their
+barbarous methods off the high seas.
+
+After a day of hard work and many thrills, Maseden was moved to accept
+the discovery as a good omen.
+
+"I had in my mind to suggest that we should renew our voyage by
+to-morrow's first tide," he said, as they sat near the camp-fire after
+the evening meal. "Just as the Romans consulted the oracle before
+starting on any great undertaking, so have we been given a happy augury
+by having thrust into our hands, so to speak, a notable treasure.
+Friends, I propose that we accept the decision of the gods, and weigh
+anchor in the morning."
+
+For no assignable reason, the suddenness of this resolve seemed to
+startle the others.
+
+"Have you made up your mind, then, that the channel is practicable?"
+inquired Sturgess after a marked pause.
+
+"The only channel we know is practicable," said Maseden.
+
+"Do you mean that we should return the way we came?" put in Nina in an
+awed tone.
+
+"It offers our only means of escape," was the grave answer. "To my mind,
+if we attempt the southern exit we go to certain death. We have a roomy
+boat, a sail, and oars. By putting off slightly before high water we can
+reach the mouth of the gorge just on the turn of the tide. I think we
+can get through without any real difficulty, and even beach our boat in
+the open and shallow channel of Hanover Island which we were making for
+when the raft was swept out of its course. We have discussed the tides
+many times, and we all believe that we shall find ourselves in the main
+tidal stream again on the other side of that island opposite," and he
+pointed to the mass of black hills outlined against the eastern sky. "It
+is only the 'lesser of two evils,' I admit, but it yields a possibility;
+whereas I regard any attempt to navigate the southern avenue as
+absolutely fatal."
+
+"Why the rush for the morning tide?" queried Sturgess.
+
+Then Maseden laughed.
+
+"You have fallen a victim to the prospecting mania," he said cheerfully.
+"Having made a good strike, you want to follow it up. I don't blame you.
+I believe this beach would pay well for digging. Before you were through
+with the search you would have a fine collection of odds and ends. But
+I'm minded to be superstitious for once. That puma with the glistening
+eyes has seemed to wink at me all day and say 'Get me and yourself out
+of this quick!' I don't want to impose my wishes on you others, but my
+advice is: Start to-morrow!"
+
+Madge, listening intently, nodded.
+
+"You are always right," she said emphatically. "'Whither thou goest, I
+will go; and where thou lodgest--'"
+
+She hesitated, as though conscious that her tongue was running away with
+her. The quotation, though apt, was peculiarly infelicitous. It did not
+please Sturgess; it reminded Maseden of an extraordinary relationship
+which he had tried in vain to ignore; it jarred on Nina Forbes's
+sensitiveness, because it recalled the promise she had made at dawn but
+had not had any opportunity of fulfilling.
+
+She it was who broke up the conclave abruptly by springing to her feet.
+
+"If we're going sailing the angry seas to-morrow, it's high time we were
+trying to sleep," she said. "Come, Madge.... By the way, is there to be
+any more guard-mounting to-night?"
+
+"Yes, and you have no concern therein," said Maseden firmly.
+
+"Who's keeping guard?" inquired Madge. "This is the first I've heard of
+it."
+
+"Alec has had an attack of the fidgets ever since he saw that empty
+coracle," said Nina. "But I'm the worst sort of sentry, anyhow, and you
+would be no better, dear, so let us snooze selfishly, and be ready to
+help the men in to-morrow's hard work."
+
+"I've never before known a verse from the Bible break up a meeting like
+that," commented Sturgess thoughtfully when the girls had gone.
+"Somebody might have heaved a tin of kerosene into the fire, the way
+Nina jumped up."
+
+"The words may have evoked distressing memories," said Maseden
+incautiously.
+
+"As how?"
+
+Sturgess's alert brain was very wide awake at that moment, but Maseden
+contrived to extricate himself.
+
+"That famous phrase of Ruth's contains the essence of an otherwise
+uninteresting Biblical story," he said. "If Ruth had not been so
+faithful to her mother-in-law we might never have heard of her."
+
+"Was Naomi her mother-in-law?"
+
+"Yes. Ruth, herself a widow, married Boaz."
+
+"I guess I was sort of mixed up about it."
+
+"Lots of people are," said Maseden dryly, and the subject dropped.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+They were astir early and, when the tide served, put off with as little
+ceremony as though they were going on a river picnic.
+
+The boat, of course, was far more easily managed than the raft. By
+keeping in the slack water inshore they contrived to reach the mouth of
+the gorge about the beginning of the ebb, and their calculations were
+completely verified by the smoothness and safety of their subsequent
+passage.
+
+Maseden stood in the bows with an oar in readiness to sheer away from
+any obstruction in mid-stream. The two girls each took an oar, and
+Sturgess steered, also with an oar, as the broad-bladed rudder ran a
+foot deeper than the keel, being intended to act as a center-board when
+the sail was in use.
+
+So preoccupied were they with their task that they hardly noticed the
+spot where the cliff had fallen away soon after they had passed beneath.
+Even the canopied rock on which they found sanctuary after the loss of
+the raft merely attracted a momentary glance. Madge, eyeing the fissure
+which had so terrified her, was about to say something when a warning
+shout from Maseden caused her to pull a few vigorous strokes.
+
+They sheered past a flat boulder. A couple of vultures, scared by the
+unwonted apparition of a boat, flapped aloft, and they all saw,
+stretched on the rock, some portions of a human skeleton which most
+certainly had not been there when they came that way little more than a
+fortnight earlier.
+
+The uncanny sight vanished as swiftly as it came. None spoke. The pace
+of the stream was quickening, and each had to be in instant readiness to
+obey orders.
+
+At this stage Maseden asked the girls to reverse their positions and
+pull steadily. In consequence they were backing water, and thus checking
+the boat's way appreciably. By this means they rounded an awkward corner
+without any trouble, and again their eyes dwelt on the towering hills
+and wooded slopes of Hanover Island.
+
+Maseden and Sturgess now began to press laterally towards the eastern
+channel. Two possible openings were abandoned because of the ugly reefs
+sighted only a couple of hundred yards away. At last, when practically
+in the center of a two-mile-wide passage between the three islands,
+Maseden saw a long stretch of open water.
+
+Shipping a pair of oars, and leaving the steering and general look-out
+to Sturgess, he called on the girls to pull in the orthodox way. The
+three bent to the task. After ten minutes of really strenuous effort
+they were sensible of a greatly diminished drag in the current. Five
+minutes later they were in slack water, and speedily thereafter the boat
+ran aground.
+
+"Hooray!" yelled Sturgess, who alone had any breath left to celebrate
+their victory. Somehow, little as they had gained in actual distance,
+since Providence Beach was only three miles away, they all felt that
+their chief enemy was conquered. They had profited by the initial
+mistake of keeping in mid-channel; they had learned a great deal about
+the tricks and changes of the Pacific tides; they had secured a
+first-rate boat, and, lodged in skins as a portion of the ballast, was a
+treasure of no mean proportions.
+
+Small wonder that they were elated, or that Maseden's strong face
+softened into a smile of satisfaction as he drove the boat's anchor
+securely into a crevice in the rocky beach.
+
+But he neither forgot the skeleton on the rock in Hell Gate nor failed
+to interpret correctly its sinister message, so it was his careful
+scrutiny that first revealed a figure lying on the shore at high-water
+mark about a quarter of a mile to the east. He surveyed it steadily for
+a while until the others, too, saw it. Then he made up his mind as to
+the only practicable course of action. He unhooked the anchor.
+
+"All hands overboard," he said quietly. "We must get the boat afloat."
+
+They obeyed instantly. The girls returned on board, their task being to
+steady the boat with the oars. Maseden took a cudgel, which he preferred
+to a sword, and hurried towards the prone figure. Sturgess followed,
+some fifty yards behind, with the rifle, his mission being to cover the
+retreat, if need be.
+
+Neither Nina nor Madge uttered a word. They were becoming hardened to
+danger. They knew full well that, for some unimaginable reason, a
+territory hitherto closed to Indians was now open to them, and Maseden
+had left his companions under no delusions as to the characteristics of
+the wretched tribes which infest the lower coast and islands of Chile.
+
+But the particular business of the women at the moment was to keep the
+boat in such a position that the men could jump in and shove off into
+deep water without delay, and they attended to that and nothing else.
+
+War makes soldiers, and the struggle for life had assuredly made these
+two girls brave women.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+RUNNING THE GANTLET
+
+
+Maseden was not greatly concerned about the dead Indian lying on the
+shore. What he really expected was a sudden rush of savages from an
+ambuscade, since it was now certain that a party of natives had
+descended on Hanover Island. Some might have escaped, but others had
+come to grief.
+
+The mere presence of a body showed that one, at least, must have died
+quite recently, while the bleaching bones passed in Hell Gate had
+probably been alive two days earlier. Some vultures were already
+circling high overhead, and he wondered why the birds had not begun
+their ghoulish task.
+
+He could not recollect what manner of sepulture the aborigines adopted,
+but, from every point of view, it was more than strange to find a corpse
+abandoned on the beach in such conditions, unless, indeed, some drowned
+man had just been cast up there by the receding tide.
+
+If that were so, why did the vultures wait?
+
+He was on the alert, therefore, for any suspicious movement among the
+nearest trees and tall grasses, and warned Sturgess to keep a sharp
+look-out in the same direction.
+
+"These natives are treacherous brutes," he said. "They may have seen
+that our boat was heading this way, and be simply waiting an opportunity
+to stick harpoons into us. Don't shoot actually on sight, but be ready
+to put a stopper on anything like an attack."
+
+The words had hardly left his lips when the body on the beach moved!
+Slowly and, as it seemed, painfully, the Indian raised head and
+shoulders, and turned in the direction of the voice, finally sitting up
+sideways and using the right arm as a support.
+
+Then, as Maseden drew near, he saw that this was not a man, but a woman,
+a woman so emaciated and feeble that the first astonished glance he took
+her to be middle-aged, whereas, in reality, she was not yet eighteen.
+She was stark naked, and he soon discovered that her left leg was
+broken.
+
+The unfortunate wretch had dragged herself to an oyster bed, as an array
+of freshly opened shells testified; but there was no great supply in
+that place; the water was too shallow. At any rate, Maseden had no other
+means of estimating how long she had been there; indeed, he gave little
+thought to that consideration, because the problem of what to do with
+her arose instantly.
+
+He argued, however, that the members of her tribe could not be close at
+hand, since the merest instinct of self-preservation would lead them to
+assist one of their number rendered helpless by an accident, though,
+among these wild folk, an old woman might be regarded as of no account.
+
+He spoke to her in Spanish, asking what had happened, and she appeared
+to have a vague sense of his meaning; but her eyes were glistening with
+terror and fever, and he could make nothing of a mumbled reply except a
+word that sounded like _humo_, "smoke." She showed extreme fear at sight
+of the gun carried by Sturgess. Holding out her left hand as if pleading
+for mercy, she collapsed with a groan.
+
+Sturgess, of course, was as fully aware as his companion of the
+difficulties raised by the discovery of this maimed creature.
+
+"Well, by way of a change, Alec, I guess we're up against a mighty tough
+proposition," he said, scratching his head in sheer perplexity.
+
+"We have only one course open, I take it," said Maseden, though he, like
+Sturgess, felt that they might well have been spared this additional
+burden.
+
+"That's so. But--are broken legs in your line?"
+
+"I have a notion that the bone-setter has to straighten and adjust the
+fracture by main force, and then bind the limb tightly, leaving the
+rest to nature. We have a spare oar. Chop the blade into two lengths of
+about fifteen inches, and get the girls to cut narrow strips out of the
+canvas cover. Bring me my oilskin, and what is left of the cover. We can
+carry her in that. Leave the rifle with me--and hurry! On no account
+must either Nina or Madge come away from the boat. Be sure and impress
+that on them. We may have to run for our lives any second."
+
+Sturgess soon returned with the improvised splints and bandages. He also
+brought a tin of beef essence which Madge had found among the boat's
+stores and was hoarding carefully for such Lucullian feast when soup
+would appear on the menu.
+
+When Maseden spoke of the remains of the canvas cover he had in mind the
+fact that the girls had fashioned the greater part of the coarse
+material into divided skirts. Seals were not plentiful in Rotunda Bay,
+and the devising of garments had become a sheer necessity.
+
+They persuaded the Indian girl to swallow some of the beef extract.
+After tasting the first mouthful she would have emptied the tin, but
+this Maseden would not permit, because he knew the ordeal that was
+coming.
+
+It was a tough job, too. In a sense, it almost proved more trying for
+the amateur surgeons than for their unfortunate patient. Luckily, she
+fainted at the first wrench. Then they set their teeth and pulled the
+broken bones into their correct positions as well as they could adjudge
+them. When the girl revived she was already clothed in the oilskin and
+slung in the canvas sheet as in a hammock, while the limb was bound
+immovably between two roughly fashioned splints.
+
+Maseden imagined that this creature of the wild was, in all probability,
+as hardy as a cormorant, and equally voracious. At any rate, when laid
+in the boat, she gobbled up the remaining contents of the tin, ate
+ravenously of ship's biscuits and salt beef, and drank a mug of coffee
+in a gulp. When she discovered that no more food would be supplied she
+yielded to an evidently overwhelming desire to sleep.
+
+Before closing her eyes, however, she had something to say. She was
+afraid of the men, but obviously placed trust in the two girls, neither
+of whom knew a syllable of Spanish beyond the few phrases which all
+travelers in South America must perforce acquire.
+
+Madge, having the gift of music, contrived to mimic certain words with
+tolerable accuracy, and "smoke," "boats," "bad men," seemed, to
+Maseden's ear, to emerge from the guttural Indian accents. In one
+important respect, the wishes of the new addition to the party were
+quite understandable. She pointed to Providence Beach, indicated the
+boat, and made it clear that she counselled a prompt move eastward.
+
+At last Maseden evolved a fairly intelligible notion of what she was
+endeavoring to convey. He believed, and rightly so, that she was telling
+her rescuers how a number of Indians had been attracted to Hanover
+Island by the smoke of the castaways' fire. They assumed a wreck, with
+its prospect of loot, and, egged on by greed, had ultimately dared a
+passage hitherto regarded as impracticable. Some had been killed; others
+had escaped, and were now on the camping-ground at Providence Beach.
+
+Apparently the girl was warning these strangers against her own people
+and recommending a speedy flight to safer quarters. Oddly enough, her
+advice coincided with Maseden's own views. By landing on that part of
+the coast, and lighting a fire, they would be incurring a grave risk if
+there were Indians about, since the few miles' strip of shore, difficult
+though it was, would be negotiated easily by natives.
+
+The abandonment of the injured girl he could not account for, nor was he
+sure the boat had been observed, granted even that Providence Beach was
+not actually occupied by savages. But he was not inclined to take any
+chances. Deep water flowed yet in the main channel, and the day was not
+far advanced.
+
+So he and Sturgess shipped the oars and pulled until they were weary;
+before night fell they had met the rising tide, and made a good landing,
+not on Hanover Island, but on the eastern end of Island Number Two.
+
+They slept in the boat as best they could, the men taking turns at
+mounting guard, as in addition to the now somewhat improbable chance of
+being attacked, their craft had to be maneuvered into slack water as the
+tide rose and fell. They were all heartily glad to see the dawn and eat
+a good meal.
+
+The very smell of food awakened the Indian girl. Like a healthy animal
+recovering from hardship, she was growing plumper and comelier under
+their very eyes. With each hour she shed a year in appearance, and her
+confidence increased in about the same ration.
+
+When she discovered that Maseden alone spoke Spanish she tried to
+explain matters to him. But her own knowledge of the language was of the
+slightest, and he was only able to confirm his overnight belief as to
+the danger of remaining in the vicinity of their first landing-place.
+
+Singularly his close acquaintance with the San Juan _patois_ proved most
+helpful. It occurred to him that this might be so, as the root words of
+Indian tribes throughout the South American continent have undergone
+fewer changes than would have been the case among civilized peoples.
+Many were in use among the Spanish half-castes on the ranch, and this
+aborigine grasped their meaning at once. Good linguist though he was,
+however, Maseden failed to extract more than a glimmering of sense from
+her uncouth accents.
+
+But none could fail to be impressed by her relief when the boat was
+afloat and traveling east. They soon quitted the channel between the
+islands and entered the wide expanse of Nelson Straits. The weather was
+fine, and a steady wind from the southwest encouraged Maseden to rig the
+sail.
+
+Having a wholesome respect for the Pacific tides, he meant to hug the
+coast of Hanover Island. But after studying the clouds intently for an
+hour, the Indian girl signified that she wished to be lifted in her
+hammock. She then pointed to some small islands just distinguishable on
+the horizon, and apparently situated in the middle of the straits.
+
+She saw the hesitancy in Maseden's face, and by this time had evidently
+singled him out as the leader of the party. Then she turned to Nina
+Forbes, and her gestures said as plainly, no doubt, as her words:
+
+"If _I_ can't persuade him, perhaps _you_ can. Tell him to take the
+course I recommend."
+
+For some reason Nina's cheeks grew scarlet under the brown tan of
+constant exposure to the weather, nor did a pronounced wink by Sturgess
+at Madge tend to restore her composure. But she met the Indian girl's
+appeal with seeming nonchalance and bravely ignored the obvious
+inference.
+
+"I suppose she thinks that I may exercise some influence in the matter,
+Alec," she said, striving in vain to suppress a nervous little laugh. "I
+do honestly believe she means well. She is extraordinarily grateful to
+us. I have been watching her, and there is a dog-like devotion in her
+eyes when we render any little service that is reassuring."
+
+"Those islets out there may be bare rocks," protested Maseden. He had
+little knowledge of sailing boats, and hesitated at a long trip in these
+fickle waters.
+
+"Perhaps that is why she wishes us to go that way. They lie due east,
+and that is something in their favor."
+
+Still was he dubious, largely owing to the intervening stretch of open
+sea, but again he essayed to question their would-be pilot.
+
+The girl was quite emphatic in her direction as to the course, and
+equally opposed to the more cautious method he favored. A good deal of
+this was expressed in pantomime, but it was none the less
+understandable.
+
+Finally, finding that the others had faith in her, Maseden nodded to
+Madge, who was at the tiller, as the rudder had been shipped when the
+sail was hoisted; and the boat was put across the wind. The Indian girl
+smiled, and was satisfied. They lifted her down to her place amidships,
+where her head rested on the package of treasure, and she remained there
+contentedly many hours.
+
+Long before the violet-hued blurs in front took definite shape as a
+group of two fair-sized islands, with trees, lying among a great many
+stark rocks, sticking straight up out of the sea, the voyagers became
+aware of at least one good reason for their guide's choice of direction.
+The coast of Hanover Island began to fall away sharply to the northeast,
+and a wide gap opened up between it and the nearest land, a gap which
+must have been crossed in any event.
+
+Maseden himself was the first to admit that they had been given sound
+advice.
+
+Luckily the wind remained steady, and brought their craft on at a fair
+pace against a falling tide. Nevertheless it was a long sail, far longer
+than any of them had anticipated, and the shadows were deepening when
+the men again lifted the Indian girl level with the gunwale to find out
+if she could recommend the safest way of approaching a particularly
+forbidding shore.
+
+She understood at once what they wanted, and indicated a narrow channel
+between two gigantic outlying rocks. Though it was precisely the one of
+three possible waterways which no stranger would have chosen, they did
+not dream now of disputing her judgment. The passage was made more
+easily than they had counted on, and a second time was their faith
+justified, because a strip of white beach soon showed on the line where
+trees and sea met.
+
+The boat was run ashore, and a fire was lighted. The weather had become
+much colder, probably owing to the absence of shelter from the hills
+under which they had camped during the past month. The Indian girl
+offered no objection to the fire. In fact, when laid near it in a sand
+hollow, she fell asleep long before any of them.
+
+The boat, of course, had to be safeguarded, as they landed at low water.
+Were it not for a fissure in the rock which permitted them to row fully
+a quarter of a mile nearer high-water mark than would have been possible
+otherwise, they must have devoted a wearisome time to the task of
+hauling her in as the tide rose. Fortunately, there was no heavy surf.
+The reefs they had seen some fifteen miles to the westward had broken up
+the long Pacific rollers, and the breeze was not strong enough to
+disturb this inland sea.
+
+Nina and Madge elected to sleep on the sand.
+
+"You can have too much of a good thing," explained Madge laughingly,
+"and, greatly as I prize our ark, I am tired of it to-day. Every bone in
+my body is aching."
+
+They had, of course, given up each skin and strip of canvas they
+possessed in order to render the Indian girl more comfortable during the
+voyage, and a ship's boat can be a most irksome conveyance in such
+circumstances.
+
+When the tide was high Sturgess and Maseden, before they, too, turned
+in, rose to make sure that the anchor could not drag during the night,
+and Sturgess electrified his friend by choosing that odd moment to
+allude to the Cartagena marriage.
+
+"Say, Alec," he said, "you sure have had the time of your life ever
+since you were hauled off to San Juan and sentenced to be shot."
+
+Maseden imagined that the New Yorker was merely referring to the
+incidents following the shipwreck.
+
+"I don't see exactly how life has been more of a sizzle for me than for
+you and the girls," he said.
+
+"Ah, come off it, Alec!" laughed the other. "You know better than that.
+But I guess I'll have to hand the explanation on a tray. Madge and Nina
+have told the facts about your wedding. Gosh! What a jolt it must have
+given you to find your wife on board the _Southern Cross_!"
+
+"You _know_?" gasped Maseden.
+
+"Yep. They up and told me while you were gathering fire-wood. Nina said
+she had promised you to put the full hand on the table at the first
+opportunity. She's done it."
+
+"Nina! Didn't Madge say anything?"
+
+"You bet your life. She was tickled to death. It's been worrying her no
+end."
+
+"May I ask--"
+
+"No, you mayn't. It was square of you, Alec, to insist that I should
+come in on the inside track. Of course, I wasn't born and bred in little
+old New York for nothing, and I had my doubts a while back. One day,
+too, you were within an ace of blurting out the whole yarn. I remember
+it well. I'm glad now you didn't. It would have made things kind of
+difficult for me. But both girls are a bit shy where you're concerned.
+You don't blame 'em, do you?"
+
+Maseden was absolutely bewildered. Sturgess was an irresponsible,
+devil-may-care fellow in many respects, but these effervescent qualities
+cloaked a fine sensibility, and it was astounding to find him treating
+the matter so lightly.
+
+"I--I hardly know what to say," he stammered.
+
+"Say nothing. The tangle will straighten out in time. We're going to win
+through all right, so let us forget the San Juan affair till it
+overtakes us. You ain't going to switch off from Nina on to Madge, I
+guess, so you and I won't quarrel, and the other kinks in the chain will
+sort themselves if we all go easy."
+
+"Tell me this. What was the cause of the marriage?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"You don't _know_?" Each word was a crescendo of astonishment.
+
+"No. What business is it of mine, anyhow?"
+
+"But you yourself have told me that you mean to marry Madge."
+
+"Sure as death."
+
+"Yet--"
+
+"Sorry, Alec. I've promised to keep mum. Suppose we leave it at that."
+
+"What is there to keep mum about?"
+
+"Hanged if _I_ can tell you, though you yourself haven't been what you
+might call bursting with information during the past month."
+
+"It was a woman's secret, C. K."
+
+"And that's just how I size it up at this sitting."
+
+Sturgess's logic was unanswerable, but Maseden was in high dudgeon as
+he strode back to the camp-fire. He was far more angry with Nina than
+with Madge. He suspected that Madge simply followed her sister's
+instructions, and the injustice of this steady refusal of confidence
+was aggravated by the fact that Sturgess seemed to know more about the
+ins and outs of the affair now than he did.
+
+True, the New Yorker said he was still in ignorance of the motive which
+led up to the marriage, yet he had hinted at the possession of knowledge
+withheld from the man who had saved their lives not once but a dozen
+times. Nina was to blame. Maseden was certain of that. He would have
+liked to shake her.
+
+As it happened, she was either sound asleep or pretending it, so he,
+too, curled up in the sand and slept till long after dawn.
+
+The new day began with an unexpected difficulty. The Indian girl was
+cheerful as a grig during breakfast. She ascertained their names, which
+she pronounced fairly well. "Nina" she had no trouble with. "Madge" she
+made into "Mad-je." Maseden was "Ah-lek," and Sturgess "See-ke." Her
+own name had a barbarous sound, if, indeed, it was a name at all; so
+Madge christened her "Topsy," which seemed to please her. But her
+light-heartedness vanished when she saw preparations being made to renew
+the voyage. She protested volubly, pointed to a colony of seals and
+well-filled beds of oysters, and generally implied an earnest desire to
+remain on the island.
+
+Eastward, it would appear, were other "bad men" and "much smoke," but,
+whatsoever her motive, Maseden sternly overruled her. She was greatly
+distressed when placed on board the boat, and sulked for a couple of
+hours. As the coast drew near, however, she evinced renewed anxiety, and
+signified that she would act as pilot again.
+
+The land seemed to be a replica of seaward islands; a fast-running tidal
+stream passed due east between two gaunt promontories. According to
+Maseden's reckoning the straits they were now entering should open into
+Smyth's Channel, and he bent his wits to the task of getting Topsy to
+understand that he wanted to meet one of the big ships which follow that
+route.
+
+He believed she understood, but there could be no doubting she was so
+deeply concerned as to the probable whereabouts of the inhabitants of
+the coast region that she gave little heed to the wishes of her
+rescuers.
+
+Oblivious of the pain she must be enduring, she contrived to
+perch herself in the bows, and scanned each bay and inlet of the
+ever-narrowing passage, though this was no subsidiary channel, but a
+deep and swift tide-way. The wind was strong and favorable and the boat
+was traveling fully eight knots an hour, a speed which no native craft
+could hope to rival. Still, Topsy's marked uneasiness led Maseden to
+examine the rifle and make sure that its mechanism was in good order
+and the magazine charged.
+
+He had no definite notion as to the type of weapons used by the Indians.
+Nearly all savages are armed with spears and clubs, but he believed
+that a people so low in the social scale as these South American nomads
+would not possess firearms. At any rate, he bade all hands keep a sharp
+look-out, and specifically ordered Sturgess and the girls to take cover
+in the event of an attack, unless an actual attempt was made to board
+the boat, in which case the girls could thrust with the rapiers and
+Sturgess might do good work with an ax.
+
+They ran on several miles without incident, and were beginning to think
+that their guide was, perhaps, swayed more by recollection of earlier
+sufferings than by any active peril of the hour, when Topsy, whose
+piercing black eyes were ever and anon turned to the bluffs on either
+hand, uttered a sharp cry and pointed to a low cliff overhanging a bay
+they had just passed on the left.
+
+Three thin columns of smoke were ascending from its summit.
+
+Maseden could make nothing of her excited speech, but he understood her
+gestures readily, and took it that the smoke was a signal, while the
+danger, whatever it may be, lay ahead.
+
+And, indeed, they had not long to wait for an explanation. From around
+a point not a mile distant, and directly in front, appeared a number of
+coracles, eight all told, and each containing two men, or a man and a
+woman. It was clear that this flotilla meant to waylay them, and the
+terror exhibited by the Indian girl was only too eloquent as to the fate
+of the boat's occupants if they allowed themselves to be overpowered.
+
+Maseden disposed his forces promptly. Sturgess was given the tiller.
+Topsy was put back on her couch in the bottom of the boat, and Nina and
+Madge were told to crouch by her side until their help was called for.
+From the outset the Americans did not dream of attempting to parley.
+Topsy's unfeigned dread was sufficient to ban any such quixotic notion.
+
+The coracles were strung out in an irregular line, covering a width of
+about four hundred yards, and, in laying his plans, Maseden recalled the
+strategy of a certain great admiral.
+
+"Head slap for their center," he told Sturgess confidently. "That
+was Nelson's favorite way of attack. If possible, he always broke
+the enemy's line in two, and I suppose it paid him. I think these
+heavy-caliber bullets will rip a native craft as though it were made
+of brown paper, and I should be able to sink at least four before
+the others can close in."
+
+Sturgess nodded.
+
+"What Nelson says goes," he grinned.
+
+The battle opened at a range of one hundred yards, and Maseden's first
+shot buckled the framework of the nearest coracle, so that it sank like
+a stone. There was a spurt of steam as the fire which every Indian boat
+carries reached the water, and two men swam away like otters.
+
+The second shot struck a little too high. It whizzed through the craft's
+hide cover and lodged in an Indian's body, because the man yelled
+frantically. Maseden fired again, and damaged another coracle.
+
+But by this time he had made the unpleasing discovery that these light
+skiffs could be propelled very rapidly for a short distance. In each a
+man or woman was paddling with furious energy, while their companions
+were using slings. Small, heavy stones rattled against and into the
+boat.
+
+Sturgess was struck twice on the breast and left shoulder, and was only
+saved from serious injury by the stout oilskin coat he was wearing. Even
+so, he went white with pain, but he neither uttered a word nor neglected
+his task, which was to keep the sail filled and the boat traveling.
+
+Maseden had two objects in mind--to beat off their assailants and yet
+keep sufficient ammunition in stock lest other Indians were encountered
+later. He sank two more coracles, and had killed or wounded three men,
+when a flint pebble struck him on the head, finding the exact spot where
+he was injured during the wreck.
+
+He sank to his knees, and tried to say something. He believed he heard a
+crash and some shouting. Then the sky and hills and swift-running waters
+whirled in a mad dance before his eyes, and he lost consciousness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE SETTLEMENT
+
+
+Just as before, when he awoke on board the _Southern Cross_ in
+surroundings so bewildering that he gave up the effort to localize
+them, his puzzled eyes now surveyed white-painted panelled walls, a
+brass-bound port-light, and some tapestry curtains. At any other time he
+would have realized at once that he was in a ship's cabin, but now an
+uncomprehending stare soon yielded to a torpor of pain.
+
+He believed that a gentle hand adjusted a bandage on his head, and was
+aware of a grateful coldness where before there had been heat and a
+throbbing ache. Afterwards--he thought it was immediately, though the
+interval was a full half hour--he looked again at the walls and ceiling
+with something of real recognition in his glance.
+
+"Glad to see you're regaining your wits, Mr. Alexander," said a man's
+voice, a strange but very pleasant voice. "Lucky for you you've got the
+right sort of thick head, or, from what I hear, it would certainly have
+been cracked twice."
+
+Mr. Alexander! Who was he? And where was he? Where were--
+
+"May he talk a little now, doctor?" and Maseden would have had to be
+very dead if he did not know that Nina Forbes was sitting by his side.
+He turned, and even remembered to repress a groan lest some one in
+authority might not grant her request.
+
+Even so the doctor was dubious.
+
+"He must not be allowed to get excited," he said.
+
+"Then may he listen to me a minute?"
+
+"Yes, if you really keep to schedule."
+
+"Don't move, Alec!" whispered Nina, and there seemed to be a note in
+her voice that Maseden had heard only once before, though he could not
+recall the occasion. "We're on board a mail steamer bound for England,
+but she touches at Punta Arenas and Buenos Ayres, so you must be 'Mr.
+Alexander,' not 'Mr. Maseden,' until we reach home. Don't ask why just
+now. I'll tell you to-morrow, or next day, when you are stronger. You
+will trust me, won't you?"
+
+"Trust you, Nina! Yes, forever!"
+
+He looked at her, as though to make sure that his senses were not
+deceiving him and that it was really Nina Forbes who sat there, a Nina
+with her hair nicely combed and coiled and wearing a particularly
+attractive pink jersey and white serge skirt.
+
+He thought that her eyes--those frank blue eyes he had gazed into so
+often--were suffused with tears.
+
+"Why are you crying?" he demanded, with just a hint of that domineering
+way of his.
+
+"Not for grief," she said quietly. "But you must drink this now, and go
+to sleep. When you awaken again, perhaps the doctor will let C. K. come
+and chat with you."
+
+"C. K.? Is he all right?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And Madge?"
+
+"Yes. Not another word. Drink--to please me."
+
+"I'll do anything to please you."
+
+He swallowed some milk and soda-water; took a whole tumbler-full, in
+fact.
+
+"That's fine," he said. "Now I'll hold your hand and you'll tell me--"
+
+"You're going to close your eyes and lie still," she said firmly. "If
+you don't I'll leave you. If you do, I'll stay here."
+
+"I'm bribed," he said, smiling. Soon he slept, but this was nature's
+healing sleep, not the coma of insensibility. When next he entered a
+world of reality he found Sturgess sitting where Nina had been.
+
+"Going strong now, Alec?" inquired his friend.
+
+Maseden did not answer at once. He wanted to be quite sure that the
+wretched throbbing in his head had ceased. Yes; there was a great
+soreness, but it was of the scalp, not of the internal mechanism. He
+sat bolt upright.
+
+"Hi!" shouted Sturgess, "you mustn't do that! Gosh! The doctor man will
+raise Cain with me if he knows I let you move."
+
+"I'm all right, C. K."
+
+"You're going to flatten out straight away, or I'll shriek for help."
+
+Maseden lay down. The dominant emotion of the moment was curiosity.
+Perhaps, if he kept quiet, Sturgess would talk.
+
+At any rate, the New Yorker was much relieved, and said so.
+
+"You've nearly hopped it," he explained anxiously. "It was a case of
+touch and go with you for two days, and--"
+
+"Two days!" gasped Maseden. "Have I been stretched here two days?"
+
+"And more. We were picked up by the _Valentia_ on Thursday evening, and
+now it is Sunday morning."
+
+"Everything seems to happen on a Sunday," said Maseden inconsequently;
+but Sturgess understood.
+
+"Sunday is our day," he agreed. "Now, if you don't butt into the
+soliloquy, but show an intelligent interest by an occasional nod, I'll
+switch you on to the Information Bureau. The doc said I might, just to
+stop you from worrying.
+
+"When an Indian with a spit lip got you with a stone at about five yards
+there were two coracles on each side of us. I suspicioned that the Thugs
+in them meant to spring aboard at the same time, which would have meant
+trouble, so it was up to me to spoil the combination. I shoved the helm
+hard over and drove into the two on the port side. Our heavy boat went
+through them as though they were jelly-fish, and the sudden rise of our
+starboard gunwale upset the calculations of the other crowd.
+
+"Everybody, including you, rolled over with the sudden lurch, but Nina
+gathered herself together, grabbed your gun, stood straight on her feet,
+and said to me: 'Do you know which of these men hit Alec?' 'Yes,' I
+said, 'that joker with the criss-cross mouth. But you lie down. We're
+clear now.' Without another word she drew a steady bead on the
+stone-slinger and got him with the first shot.
+
+"Then she attended to you. It seemed almost as though we had reached the
+limit, with you lying like dead, and me weak and sick, because the
+slingers gave me a couple to begin with, and the Indian girl screaming
+for all she was worth. Nina was just crooning over you like a mother
+nursing an ailing baby, so Madge came and took the tiller--not before
+time, as I didn't know enough to run with the wind again.
+
+"We missed a howling reef by a hair's breadth--missed it only because
+the new course had taken us close inshore towards the north. Half an
+hour later we were in Smyth's Channel, and didn't know it, so we would
+have been sailing yet into the middle of the Andes if the _Valentia_
+hadn't bumped around a corner. Since then we three have been setting the
+scene for you when you come on deck. The passengers are the right sort,
+every man and woman among 'em all wool and a yard wide. Tell you what,
+Alec--I'd better warn you--Nina and Madge have fixed up a star turn for
+you on your first appearance."
+
+Sturgess paused to grin largely, so Maseden broke in with a question.
+
+"Are we at sea now?" he inquired.
+
+"No. We're anchored at Punta Arenas. The girls have gone ashore to see
+that Topsy is well fixed in a mission-house. The man who runs it came
+aboard for mail. He talks Topsy's lingo, so now we know why we happened
+on her. She broke her leg when one of half a dozen coracles was upset,
+and the brutes simply left her there to die, as they were in such a
+dashed hurry to go for the supposed loot of a wrecked ship. She will be
+all right here. I've attended to the financial side of it. They tell me
+that a hundred dollars will make her a great heiress."
+
+"What about my name--Alexander?"
+
+"Gee whiz! I was nearly forgetting. That was Nina's notion. She's real
+cute, that girl. She sized up the position in San Juan, and in case
+there might be any difficulty while the ship is in South American waters
+gave your name as Philip Alexander. She remembered that there was a Mr.
+Alexander on board the _Southern Cross_, and it would be just silly to
+try and pass you off as a broncho-buster. No one gave any heed to your
+clothes. Our collective rig was so cubist or futurist, in general
+effect, that your _vaquero_ outfit passed with the rest.
+
+"The skipper is about your size, and he has sent you a suit. The girls
+are buying linen and underclothes for all of us in Punta Arenas. I had
+no money, so instead of borrowing from the other people I went through
+your pants for five hundred dollars. You'll find a note with your wad,
+so that you can collect if I peg out before we find a bank."
+
+Then Maseden laughed, and was heard by the doctor, who was coming along
+the gangway.
+
+"Halloa!" he said. "Was it you who laughed, Mr. Alexander?"
+
+"Yes, doctor."
+
+"Any pain in your head?"
+
+"Outside, yes; inside, no."
+
+"Feeling sick?"
+
+"Sick. I could eat a pound of grilled steak."
+
+"You'll do! Wonderful health resort, that wild land you've been
+wandering through. You have survived the nastiest concussion, short of
+absolutely fatal injuries, I've come across. I can't prescribe steak
+just yet, but if you get through the night without a temperature I'll
+allow you on deck to-morrow for a couple of hours."
+
+Maseden chafed against the enforced rest, and rebelled against a diet
+of milk and beef tea, but the doctor was wiser than he, and the patient
+acknowledged it when really strong again.
+
+On the day the ship left Buenos Ayres he was able to dress unaided and
+reach a chair on deck without a helping arm. The boat which had proved
+the salvation of the castaways had been hoisted on board, and that
+particular part of the deck was allotted to the party of four. The other
+passengers were never tired of hearing them recount their adventures,
+and Maseden, to his secret amazement, discovered that Nina Forbes seemed
+to find delight in attracting an audience.
+
+Madge and Sturgess could, and did, stroll off together for many an
+uninterrupted chat, but Nina was always surrounded by a coterie of
+strangers, some of them men, young men, frankly admiring young men.
+
+Maseden endured this state of affairs until the ship had signalled her
+name and destination at Fernando Noronha, whence there was a straight
+run home. Then, disobeying the doctor, and coming on deck for the first
+time after dinner, he found Nina ensconced in her corner alone.
+
+He took her by surprise. She would have sprung up, but he stopped her
+with a firm hand.
+
+"No, you don't," he said, pulling a chair around and seating himself so
+that his broad back offered a barrier to any would-be intruder. "You and
+I are going to have a heart-to-heart talk, Nina. I've been waiting many
+days for the chance of it, and now is the time."
+
+She tried to laugh carelessly.
+
+"What an alarming announcement," she tittered. "Wherein have I erred
+that I am to be catechised? Or is it only a lecture on general
+behavior?"
+
+"I'll tell you. While we were trying to dodge the worries of existence
+round about Hanover Island I gave little real thought to my own affairs.
+But the calm of the past few days has enabled me to sort out events in
+what I may term their natural sequence, and the second rap on the head
+may have restored my wits to their average working capacity. Perhaps it
+will simplify matters if I begin at the beginning. The woman I
+married--"
+
+"Are you still harping on that unfortunate marriage?"
+
+The tone was flippant enough, but its studied nonchalance was a trifle
+overdone.
+
+"Yes," he said quietly. "I promise that you will not be bored by the
+facts I intend to put before you--now--to-night--unless you resolve not
+to listen."
+
+There was no answer. Somehow, every woman knows just how far she may
+play with a man. Had Nina Forbes chosen, she might have sent her true
+lover out of her life that instant. She did not so choose. Indeed,
+nothing was further from her mind. She did not commit the error of
+imagining that Maseden would pester her with his wooing and wait her
+good pleasure to yield. His temperament did not incline to gusts of
+passion. She must hear him now or lose him forever.
+
+"Of course I'll listen," she said timidly.
+
+"Thank you. Well, then, my wife signed the register as Madeleine. That
+is not your sister's name."
+
+"No."
+
+"Nor yours?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Yet you led me to believe that I had married your sister?"
+
+"No. You assumed it."
+
+"What really happened was that you assumed the name of Madeleine. Nina,
+_you_ are my wife!"
+
+"In a sense, yes."
+
+Though the promenade deck was lighted by a few lamps, there was a
+certain gloom in that corner. Nina's face was discernable, but not its
+expression, and a curious hardening in her voice brought to Maseden a
+whiff of surprise, almost of anxiety. Happily he had mapped out the line
+he meant to follow, and adhered to it inflexibly.
+
+"In the sense that you are legally Mrs. Philip Alexander Maseden," he
+persisted.
+
+"I may or may not be. I am not sure. I used a name not my own. It was
+the first that come into my head--a frightened woman's attempt to leave
+herself some loophole of escape in the future."
+
+"You are mistaken, Nina. I know enough about the law to say definitely
+that it is the ceremony which counts, not the name. You will see at once
+that this must be so. If you married another man to-morrow, and signed
+yourself 'Mary Smith,' you would still be committing bigamy."
+
+At that she laughed.
+
+"I must really be careful," she said.
+
+"I only want to fix in your mind the absolute finality of that early
+morning wedding in the Castle of San Juan. It makes matters easier."
+
+"To my thinking it makes them most complex."
+
+"Not at all. You and I have only reversed the usual procedure.
+Common-place folk meet, fall in love, go through a more or less
+frenzied period of being engaged, and, finally, get married. We began
+by getting married. Circumstances beyond our control stopped the
+natural progression of the affair, but I suggest that the frenzied
+part of the business might well start now."
+
+He caught her left hand and held it. She did not endeavor to withdraw
+it, but he was startled by her seeming indifference. Still, being a
+determined person, even in such a delicate matter as love-making, he
+pursued his theme.
+
+"You well know that I mean to marry you, Nina, though I have regarded
+myself as bound to your sister until freed by process of law," he went
+on. "But I ought to have guessed sooner that Madge would never have
+allowed Sturgess to become so openly her slave if she had contracted to
+love, honor and obey me. She might, indeed, have shared my view that the
+marriage was a make-believe affair as between her and me, but she would
+have held it as binding until the law declared her free. Then, that day
+in Hell Gate, when the hazard of a few minutes would decide whether we
+lived or died, you meant to tell me the truth before the end came. Is
+that so?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"You have no right to ask." Her voice was very low.
+
+"I can answer my own question. You wanted to die in my arms, Nina, with
+our first and last kiss on our lips. Fool that I was, I was so concerned
+about the height of a tide-mark on a rock that I gave no heed to the
+faltering speech of the woman I loved. The next time I heard those same
+accents from you was when I came to my senses on board this ship. For a
+few seconds you bared your heart again, Nina, and again I was deaf.
+
+"You must forgive me, sweetheart, though such grievous lack of
+perception was really the highest compliment I could pay you. The notion
+that I was married to Madge was firmly established in my mind, and I
+literally dared not tell you that you were the one woman in the world
+for me till the other obstacle was removed. Seldom, if ever, I suppose,
+has any man been in such a position. Of course, there would have been no
+difficulty at all if I had happened to guess the truth--"
+
+"That is just where you are mistaken, Alec," and the words came with a
+sorrowful earnestness that Maseden found vastly disconcerting. "What
+woman with a shred of self-respect would agree to regard such a union as
+ours binding? Now, you have had your say; let me have mine," and she
+snatched her hand away vehemently. "I married you as part of an infamous
+compact between that trader, Steinbaum, and Mr. Gray.
+
+"My family is not wealthy, Alec. When my mother married a second time
+she did so largely on account of Madge and myself. She lacked money to
+educate us, or give us the social position every good mother desires
+for her daughters. But Mr. Gray, though a man of means, frittered away
+a good income in foolish speculations. He was worth half a million
+dollars, and believed himself such a financial genius that he could soon
+be a multi-millionaire. Instead of making money, he lost it, and the
+latest of his follies was to finance Enrico Suarez in a scheme to seize
+the presidency. The attempt was to have been made two years ago, but was
+postponed, or defeated, I don't know which--"
+
+"Defeated," put in Maseden. "I know, because I helped to put a stopper
+on it."
+
+"Well, the collapse of that undertaking and its golden promise
+frightened my stepfather. After a lot of correspondence between
+Steinbaum and himself he came to South America, bringing with him
+practically the remnants of his fortune. My mother was too ill to
+accompany him, and he refused to travel alone, so we two girls were
+given the trip. Naturally, we were quite ignorant of the facts, and
+believed he was merely visiting a little republic in which he had
+financial interests.
+
+"By chance we arrived in Cartagena on the very day Suarez had planned
+for the president's murder--and yours, too, for that matter. Your arrest
+and condemnation gave the conspirators a chance of repaying Mr. Gray
+the money he had advanced. They were afraid he would lodge an official
+complaint, and get the State Department to interfere. But they had
+not the means in hard cash, and it occurred to one of them--Suarez, I
+believe--that if one of Mr. Gray's daughters married you, and inherited
+your estate, the property could be sold for a sum sufficient to clear
+his claim and leave a balance for the other thieves.
+
+"That is the precious project in which I, the elder of the two, became a
+pawn. Mr. Gray terrified me into compliance by telling me that we would
+be paupers on our return home. For myself I cared little, but when I
+thought of my mother I yielded. I am not excusing myself, Alec, though
+I little guessed the true nature of the bargain. I see now that Suarez
+and Steinbaum wished to avoid the actual semblance of having committed
+daylight murder and robbery. They might justify your death as a rebel
+against the state, but they could not explain away the seizure of your
+property, whereas its sale by your widow would be a most reasonable
+proceeding.
+
+"Please understand that I believed I was only carrying out a formal
+undertaking meant to enable my stepfather to recover money honestly
+lent. Even so, my resolution faltered at the last moment, and I signed
+the register in my mother's name. And now I have bared my heart to you,
+and you see how--utterly--impossible--it is--Oh, Alec, don't be cruel!
+Don't torture me! I can never, never be your wife, because I can never
+forgive myself!"
+
+Alec, the wise, as Sturgess had often styled him, showed exceeding
+wisdom now by letting her cry her fill. Never a word did he say until
+the tempest subsided. Then he took her hand again and drew her to him.
+
+"Tell me one thing, Nina," he said gently. "What became of the ring--our
+ring?"
+
+"It is tied around my neck--on a bit of ribbon," she sobbed.
+
+"Then it shall remain there until we reach New York," he said.
+
+"But--I want--to keep it--as a souvenir--of all that has passed," she
+said brokenly.
+
+"So you shall, dear one. You would never feel satisfied, anyhow, with a
+Spanish marriage, so we'll try an American one."
+
+"Alec, I cuc--cuc--can't marry you. I'm too ashamed."
+
+He laughed happily, and drew her to him.
+
+"You can't wriggle out of the knot now, girlie," he said. "But, just to
+behave like other folk, we'll begin again at the beginning, and not at
+the end. Nina, do you think you can learn to love me quick enough to
+permit of a real wedding when we arrive in New York? You and I have gone
+through so many experiences since we met that we can dispense with some
+of the preliminaries to courtship. Shall we fix a date now? Say three
+weeks after we land, or sooner, if matters can be arranged."
+
+She lifted her tear-stained face, and her soul went out to his in their
+first kiss.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Sturgess, when he heard of the latest development, "got busy," as he put
+it, on his own account. He, of course, had been told the exact facts by
+Nina on that night passed on the island in Nelson Straits. The upshot
+of the general agreement speedily arrived at was a noteworthy double
+wedding, at which, as a topic of conversation, the beauty of the brides
+rivaled, if it did not eclipse, their extraordinary adventures.
+
+It should be said, as a fitting rounding off of a record of singular
+events, that Maseden not only obtained the money held in trust for him
+by the consul at Cartagena, but the proceeds of the sale of the ranch
+as well. Enrico Suarez was stabbed to the heart by a maniac with a
+grievance. Senor Porilla, an honest man, according to South American
+standards, became president, and saw to it that Maseden's rights were
+safeguarded. Even the wily Steinbaum was compelled to disgorge to Gray's
+executors.
+
+The Aztec treasure was sold for a mint of money to a millionaire
+collector, and this sum was settled on Mrs. Gray for life, with
+reversion to her daughters in equal shares.
+
+If any one is really curious to ascertain the identity and whereabouts
+of Mr. and Mrs. Philip Alexander Maseden or Mr. and Mrs. C. K. Sturgess,
+all that is necessary is to visit a town on the coast of Maine any
+August, and keep an eye peeled for a ship's life-boat converted into a
+yawl and named "_The Ark_." Therein will be found some very pleasant
+people, and, with the help of the foregoing history, the rest of the
+task should be simplicity itself.
+
+                              THE END.
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:
+
+Minor changes have been made to correct typesetters' errors; otherwise,
+every effort has been made to remain true to the author's words and
+intent.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of His Unknown Wife, by Louis Tracy
+
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