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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Crime of the Under-seas, by Guy Boothby
+
+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: A Crime of the Under-seas
+
+Author: Guy Boothby
+
+Illustrator: Stanley L. Wood
+
+Release Date: May 15, 2011 [EBook #36118]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CRIME OF THE UNDER-SEAS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                    A CRIME OF THE UNDER-SEAS
+
+                         By GUY BOOTHBY
+
+_Author of "A Bid for Fortune" "Doctor Nikola" "The Beautiful
+White Devil" "Pharos, the Egyptian" etc. etc._
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS BY STANLEY L. WOOD
+
+
+    LONDON
+
+    WARD LOCK & CO LIMITED
+    1905
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "Dropped him again with a cry that echoed in my helmet."]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+A CRIME OF THE UNDER-SEAS
+
+THE PHANTOM STOCKMAN
+
+THE TREASURE OF SACRAMENTO NICK
+
+INTO THE OUTER DARKNESS
+
+THE STORY OF TOMMY DODD AND "THE ROOSTER"
+
+QUOD ERAT DEMONSTRANDUM
+
+CUPID AND PSYCHE
+
+MISPLACED AFFECTIONS
+
+IN GREAT WATERS
+
+MR. ARISTOCRAT
+
+THIS MAN AND THIS WOMAN
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+"DROPPED HIM AGAIN WITH A CRY THAT ECHOED IN MY HELMET."
+
+"I SPRANG TO MY FEET ON HEARING THIS. 'NOT THE FIRST!' I CRIED."
+
+"A NATIVE FRUIT-HAWKER CAME ROUND THE CORNER."
+
+"THEN, JUST AS HER NOSE GROUNDED, MY EYES CAUGHT SIGHT OF A BIG
+CREEPER-COVERED MASS."
+
+"ONE MOONLIGHT NIGHT ... SOMEBODY STEPPED UP BESIDE HIM."
+
+
+
+
+A Crime of the Under-Seas
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+There is an old saying that "one half of the world does not know how the
+other half lives," but how true this is very few of us really
+understand. In the East, indeed, it amounts almost to the marvellous.
+There are men engaged in trades there, some of them highly lucrative, of
+which the world in general has never heard, and which the ordinary
+stay-at-home Englishman would in all probability refuse to believe, even
+if the most trustworthy evidence were placed before him. For instance,
+on the evening from which I date the story I am now about to tell you,
+three of us were seated chatting together in the verandah of the Grand
+Oriental Hotel at Colombo. We were all old friends, and we had each of
+us arrived but recently in Ceylon. McDougall, the big red-haired
+Scotchman, who was sitting on my right, had put in an appearance from
+Tuticorin by a British India boat only that morning, and was due to
+leave again for Burmah the following night. As far as I could gather he
+earned his living mainly by smuggling dutiable articles into other
+countries, where the penalty, if one is caught, is a fine of at least
+one thousand pounds, or the chance of receiving upwards of five years'
+imprisonment. The man in the big chair next to him was Callingway, a
+Londoner, who had hailed the day before from South America, travelling
+in a P. and O. steamer from Australia. He was tracking an absconding
+Argentine Bank Manager, and, as it afterwards transpired, was, when we
+came in contact with him, on the point of getting possession of the
+money with which the other had left the country. Needless to say he was
+not a Government servant, nor were the Banking Company in question aware
+of his endeavours. Lastly there was myself, Christopher Collon, aged
+thirty-six, whose walk in life was even stranger, if such a thing were
+possible, than those of the two men I have just described. One thing at
+any rate is certain, and that is that if I had been called upon to give
+an accurate description of myself and my profession at that time, I
+should have found it extremely difficult to do so. Had I been the
+possessor of a smart London office, a private secretary, and half a
+dozen corresponding clerks, I should probably have called myself a
+private detective on a large scale, or, as they put it in the
+advertisement columns of our daily papers, a Private Enquiry Agent. Yet
+that description would scarcely have suited me; I was that and something
+more. At any rate it was a pretty hard life, and by the same token a
+fairly hazardous one. This will be the better understood when I say that
+one day I might receive a commission by cablegram from some London firm,
+who, we will suppose, had advanced goods to an Indian Rajah, and were
+unable to obtain payment for them. It was my business to make my way to
+his headquarters as soon as possible, and to get the money out of him by
+the best means in my power, eating nothing but what was cooked for me by
+my own servant meanwhile. As soon as I had done with him I might be sent
+on very much the same sort of errand to a Chinese Mandarin in Hankow or
+Canton, or possibly to worry a gold mining concession, or something of
+the sort, out of one of the innumerable Sultans of the protected Malayan
+States, those charming places where the head of the State asks you to
+dinner at six and you are found at midnight with six inches of cold
+_krise_ in your abdomen. On one occasion I remember being sent from
+Singapore to Kimberley at three hours' notice to meet and escort a
+Parsee diamond merchant from that town to Calcutta. And what was funnier
+still, though we travelled to Cape Town together, and even shared the
+same cabin on board the steamer afterwards, he never for an instant
+suspected that I was spying upon him. Oftentimes I used to wonder what
+he would have thought, had he only guessed that I knew he was carrying
+upwards of a million pounds worth of diamonds in the simple leather belt
+he wore next to his skin, and that every night I used, when he was
+asleep, to convince myself that everything was right and that the stones
+were still there. His was a precious life that voyage, at least so his
+friends in Calcutta thought, and if I could only tell you all that
+happened during our intercourse, you would not wonder that I was glad
+when we reached India, and I had handed him over to the chief partners
+of his firm. But there, if I were to go on telling you my adventures, I
+should be talking from now to Christmas. Rather let me get to the matter
+in hand, beside which everything I had ever attempted hitherto ranks as
+nothing. When I have done I think you will admit that the familiar
+saying, embodied in my first sentence, should be altered from "one half
+the world does not know how the other half lives" to "one half the world
+does not know how the other half _gets its living_." There is a
+distinction with a good deal of difference.
+
+I have often thought that there is no pleasanter spot in this strange
+old world of ours than the Grand Oriental Hotel, Colombo. Certainly
+there is not a more interesting place. There the student of character
+will have sufficient examples before him to keep him continually at
+work. Day and night vessels of all sorts and descriptions are entering
+the harbour, hailing from at least three of the four known quarters of
+the globe. At all hours men and women from Europe, from India, from
+Malaysia, from the further East, from Australia, and also from the
+Southern Seas and America _viā_ Australia, troop in and out of that
+hospitable caravanserai.
+
+On this particular occasion, having talked of many things and half a
+hundred times as many places, we had come back to the consideration of
+our lives and the lack of home comforts they contained.
+
+"If I could only see my way clear I'd throw it up, marry, and settle
+down," said Callingway; "not in England, or Scotland, or America, for
+that matter; but, to my thinking, in the loveliest island in the world."
+
+"And where may that be?" I inquired, for I had my own ideas on the
+subject.
+
+"Tasmania," he answered promptly. "The land of the red-faced apple. I
+know a little place on the Derwent that would suit me down to the
+ground."
+
+"I'd na gae ye a pinch of snuff for it," said McDougall, with
+conviction. "What's life worth to a man in them hole-and-corner places?
+When I've done wi' roamin' it's in my mind that I'll set myself down at
+a little place I ken the name of, fifty miles north of the Clyde, where
+there's a bit of fishing, and shootin', and, if ye want it, well, just a
+drappie of the finest whuskey that was ever brewed in old Scotie. It's
+ma thinkin' I've ruined ma digestion wi' all these outlandish liquors
+that I've been swallowin' these twenty years gone. Don't talk o' your
+Tasmanias to me. I'm nae fond o' them. What have you to say, Mr.
+Collon?"
+
+"You needn't be afraid. I'll not settle down as long as I can get
+about," I answered. "If you fellows are tired of your lives I'm not, and
+I'm certain of this much, Callingway, by the time you've been installed
+in your Tasmanian home twelve months, and you, McDougall, have been on
+your Scotch estate the same length of time, you'll both be heartily sick
+of them and wishing yourselves back once more in the old life out here."
+
+"Try me, that's all," replied Callingway fervently. "Think what our
+present life is. We are here to-day and gone to-morrow. We've not a foot
+of earth in the whole wide world that we can call our own. The only home
+we know is a numbered room in a hotel or a cabin aboard a ship. We never
+know when we get up in the morning whether by nightfall we shall not be
+lying stark and cold shot through the heart, or with six inches of cold
+steel through our lungs. Our nerves from year's end to year's end are
+strained to breaking pitch, and there's not a single decent woman to be
+found amongst the whole circle of our acquaintances. After all, a
+wife's----"
+
+"The lasses, the lasses, I agree with ye," interrupted McDougall without
+ceremony. "After all 'tis the lasses who make the joy o' livin'. Hear
+what Robbie says:--
+
+    "'Health to the sex! ilk guid chiel says,
+    Wi' merry dance in winter days,
+    An' we to share in common:
+    The gust o' joy, the balm o' woe,
+    The soul o' life, the Heav'n below,
+    Is rapture-giving woman.'"
+
+"If you're going to get on that strain you're hopeless," I said. "When
+Callingway begins to think it is time for him to settle down, and you,
+McDougall, start quoting Burns, then I come to the conclusion that I'd
+better bid you good-night."
+
+As I spoke a "ricksha" drew up at the steps, and, when the coolie had
+set down his shafts, an elderly gentleman alighted. Having paid the man
+his fare he entered the verandah, and so made his way into the house. I
+had got so accustomed to new arrivals by this time that, beyond thinking
+what a good picture of the substantial old English merchant this one
+would have made, I did not pay much attention to him.
+
+"Well," said Callingway, after the few minutes' pause which followed up
+my last remark, "I think I will ask you gentlemen to drink another
+whiskey and soda to my success, and then I will leave you and retire to
+my virtuous couch. My confounded boat sails at six o'clock to-morrow
+morning, and if I don't sail in her I shall lose the society of a most
+estimable gentleman whom I am accompanying as far as Hong Kong. As it
+looks like being a profitable transaction I've no desire he should give
+me the slip."
+
+He touched the bell on the table at his side, and when the boy arrived
+to answer it, ordered the refreshment in question. We drank to his
+success in the business he was about to undertake, and then both he and
+McDougall bade me good-night and retired, leaving me alone in the
+verandah. It was a lovely evening, and as I was not at all in the humour
+for sleep I lit another cheroot and remained on where I was, watching
+the glimmering lights in the harbour beyond, and listening to the
+jabbering of the "ricksha" boys on the stand across the road.
+
+As I sat there I could not help thinking of the curious life I was
+leading, of the many strange adventures I had had, and also of my
+miraculous escapes from what had seemed at the time to be almost certain
+death. Only that very day I had received an offer by telegram from a
+well-known and highly respected firm in Bombay inviting me to undertake
+a somewhat delicate piece of business in the Philippine Islands. The
+price offered me was, in every sense of the word, a good one; but I
+detested Spanish countries so much that if anything better turned up I
+was prepared to let the other fall through without a second thought. But
+one has to live, even in the East, and for this reason I did not feel
+justified in throwing dirty water away before I had got clean.
+
+As these thoughts were passing through my mind I distinctly heard some
+one step into the verandah from the door on my right, and a moment
+later, to my surprise, the stout old gentleman who, half an hour or so
+before, I had thought so typical of an English merchant, came round the
+chairs towards me. Having reached the place where I was sitting he
+stopped, and, taking a cheroot from his pocket, proceeded to light it.
+During the operation I noticed that he took careful stock of me, and,
+when he had finished, said quietly,--
+
+"Mr. Collon, I believe?"
+
+"That is my name," I answered, looking up at him through the cloud of
+smoke. "Pray how do you come to be acquainted with it?"
+
+"I have heard of you repeatedly," he replied.
+
+"Indeed," I said. "And pray is there any way in which I can be of
+service to you?"
+
+"I think so," he replied, with a smile. "As a matter of fact, I have
+just arrived from Madras, where, hearing in an indirect way that you
+were supposed to be in Ceylon, I undertook this journey on purpose to
+see you."
+
+"Indeed!" I answered, with considerable surprise. "And pray what is it
+you desire me to do for you?"
+
+"I want you to take charge of what I think promises to be one of the
+most extraordinary and complicated cases even in your extensive
+repertoire," he said.
+
+"If it is as you say, it must indeed be a singular one," I answered.
+"Perhaps it would not give you too much trouble to furnish me with the
+details."
+
+"I will do so with the greatest pleasure," he replied. "If you will
+permit me to take my seat beside you, you shall hear the story from
+beginning to end. I think, then, that you will agree with me that,
+provided you undertake it, it will, as I insinuated just now, in all
+probability prove the most sensational, as well as the most lucrative,
+case in which even you have hitherto been engaged."
+
+Thereupon he seated himself beside me, and told the following remarkable
+story.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+"In the first place, Mr. Collon," said the old gentleman, who had shown
+himself so anxious to obtain my services, "I must introduce myself to
+you. My name is Leversidge, John Leversidge, and I am the junior partner
+of the firm of Wilson, Burke & Leversidge, of Hatton Garden, Paris,
+Calcutta, and Melbourne. We are, as you will have gathered from our
+first address, diamond and precious stone merchants, and we do a very
+large business in the East generally; also among the Pacific Islands and
+in Australia. With the two last named our trade is confined principally
+to pearls and gold, neither of them having very much in the way of gems
+to offer. Still their connection is worth so much to us as to warrant us
+in keeping two buyers almost continuously employed; a fact, I think,
+which speaks for itself. Now it so turned out that some six months or so
+ago we received a cablegram in London announcing the fact that an
+enormous black pearl, in all probability the finest yet brought to
+light, had been discovered near one of the islands to the southward of
+New Guinea. It had been conveyed first to Thursday Island, which, as
+perhaps you are aware, is the head and centre of this particular
+industry in Australian waters, and later on, with a considerable amount
+of secrecy, to Sydney, where our agent, a man in whom we had the
+greatest trust, made it his business to see it on our behalf. The result
+was a cypher cablegram to our firm in London, to say that the jewel was,
+as far as his knowledge went, absolutely unique, and that in his opinion
+it behoved us to purchase it, even at the exorbitant price asked for it
+by the rascally individual into whose hands it had now fallen. This was
+a person by the name of Bollinson, a half-bred Swede I should say by the
+description we received of him; though, for my part, from the way he
+treated us, I should think Jew would be somewhat nearer the mark.
+Whatever his nationality may have been, however, the fact remains that
+he knew his business so well, that when we obtained possession of the
+pearl, which we were determined to have at any price, we had paid a sum
+for it nearly double what we had originally intended to give. But that
+mattered little to us, for we had the _most perfect confidence in our
+servant_, who had had to do with pearls all his life, and who since he
+had been in our employ had been fortunate enough to secure several
+splendid bargains for us. So, to make a long story short, when he cabled
+the price--though I must confess we whistled a little at the figure--we
+wired back: 'Buy, and bring it home yourself by next boat,' feeling
+convinced that we had done the right thing and should not regret it.
+Now, as you know, there is to be an Imperial wedding in Europe in six
+months' time, and as we had received instructions to submit for his
+inspection anything we might have worthy of the honour, we felt morally
+certain that the sovereign in question would take the jewel off our
+hands, and thus enable us to get our money back and a fair percentage of
+interest, besides repaying us for our outlay and our trouble. Sure
+enough next day a message came in to us to say that our agent had
+completed the sale and was leaving for England that day, not _viā_
+Melbourne and Adelaide, as we had supposed, or _viā_ Vancouver, which
+would have been the next best route; but by way of Queensland, the
+Barrier Reef, and the Arifura Sea, which was longer, and, as we very
+well knew, by no means so safe. Then he added the very significant
+information that since he had had the pearl in his keeping no less than
+_three separate and distinct attempts_ had been made by other people to
+obtain possession of it. All that, you must understand, happened eight
+weeks ago. I was in London at the time, and can therefore give you the
+information first hand."
+
+"Eight weeks exactly?" I asked, for I always like to be certain of my
+dates. Many a good case that I have taken in hand has collapsed for the
+simple reason that the parties instructing me had been a little slipshod
+in the matter of their dates.
+
+"Eight weeks to-morrow," he answered. "Or rather, since it is now past
+midnight, I think I might say eight weeks to-day. However, in this
+particular instance the date does not happen to be of much importance."
+
+"In that case I must beg your pardon for interrupting you," I said. "You
+were saying, I think, that your agent reported that, before he left
+Sydney, no less than three attempts were made by certain parties to
+obtain possession of the pearl in question."
+
+"That was so. But it is evident that he managed to elude them, otherwise
+he would have cabled again to us on the subject."
+
+"Did you then receive no further message from him?"
+
+"Only one from Brisbane to say that he had joined the mail-boat,
+_Monarch of Macedonia_, at that port, and would sail for England in her
+that day."
+
+On hearing the name of the vessel I gave a start of surprise, and I
+might almost say of horror. "Good heavens!" I cried; "do you mean to say
+he was on board the _Monarch of Macedonia_? Why, as all the world knows
+by this time, she struck a rock somewhere off the New Guinea Coast and
+went to the bottom with all hands but two."
+
+The old gentleman nodded his head. "Your information is quite correct,
+my dear sir," he said. "In a fog one night between eleven and twelve
+o'clock, she got in closer to the New Guinea Coast than she ought to
+have done, and struck on what was evidently an uncharted rock, and sank
+in between fifteen and twenty fathoms of water. Of her ship's company
+only two were saved, a foremast hand and a first saloon passenger, the
+Rev. W. Colway-Brown, a clergyman from Sydney. These two managed, by
+some extraordinary means, to secure a boat, and in her they made their
+way to the shore, which was between thirty and forty miles distant. Here
+they dwelt for a few days in peril of their lives from the natives, and
+were ultimately picked up by a trading schooner called _The Kissing
+Cup_, whose skipper carried them on to Thursday Island, where they were
+taken in and most kindly cared for."
+
+"And your agent? Did you learn anything of his fate?"
+
+"Nothing that was likely to be of any comfort to us," said the old
+fellow sadly. "We telegraphed as soon as we heard the news, of course,
+first to the agents in Brisbane, who, to prove that he sailed on board
+the vessel, wired us the number of his cabin, and then to the Rev.
+Colway-Brown, who was still in Thursday Island. The latter replied
+immediately to the effect that he remembered quite well seeing the
+gentleman in question on deck earlier in the evening, but that he saw
+nothing of him after the vessel struck, and could only suppose he must
+have been in bed when the accident happened. It was a most unhappy
+affair altogether, and, as you may suppose, we were not a little cut up
+at the loss of our old servant and trusted friend."
+
+"I can quite believe that," I answered. "And now what is it you want me
+to do to help you?"
+
+Mr. Leversidge was silent for a few seconds, and thinking he might be
+wondering how he should put the matter to me I did not interrupt him.
+
+"Well, Mr. Collon," he said, after a few moments' thought, "what we want
+you to do for us, is to proceed with me to the scene of the wreck as
+soon as possible, and to endeavour to obtain from her the pearl which
+our agent was bringing home to us. Your reputation as a diver is well
+known to us, and I might tell you that directly the news of the wreck
+reached us we said to each other, 'That pearl must be recovered at any
+cost, and Christopher Collon is the man for the work.' We will, of
+course, pay all expenses connected with the expedition. Will you
+therefore be good enough to tell me if you will undertake the work, and
+if so, what your charge will be?"
+
+Many and strange as my adventures had hitherto been, and curious (for
+that is the most charitable term, I think) as were some of the
+applications I had had made to me in my time, I don't think I had ever
+been made such an extraordinary offer as that brought under my notice by
+the old gentleman who had so unexpectedly come in search of me. He had
+not been far from the mark when he had said that this was likely to be
+one of the strangest cases that had ever come under my observation. Of
+one thing I was firmly convinced, and that was that I was not going to
+give him a decided answer at once. I did not know how my ground lay, and
+nothing was to be gained by giving my promise and being compelled to
+withdraw it afterwards. Besides, before I pledged myself, I wanted to
+find out how I stood with the law in the matter of the ship herself. I
+had no sort of desire to board her and bring off the jewel, and then
+find it advertised in all the papers of the world and myself called into
+court on a charge of wrecking or piracy, or whatever the particular term
+might be that covers that sort of crime.
+
+"You must give me time to think it over," I said, turning to the old
+gentleman beside me. "I want to discover my position. For all I know to
+the contrary I may be lending myself to a felony, and that would never
+do at all. Everybody is aware that the more adventures a jewel goes
+through the more valuable it becomes. On the other hand the arm of the
+law reaches a long way, and I am not going to be the cat that pulls your
+chestnuts out of the fire and burns her paws in so doing. That would
+scarcely suit Christopher Collon, however nice it might be for other
+people."
+
+"My dear sir," replied Mr. Leversidge, "you need have no fear at all on
+that score. We have no desire to incriminate you or to hurt your
+interests in any possible way. I shall take charge of the affair myself,
+and that should be sufficient guarantee that we are not going to run any
+undue risk. I have both my public and my private reputation at stake,
+and for my own sake you may be sure I shall take very good care that we
+do not come into collision with the law. The good name of my firm is
+also in the balance, and that should count for something. No, my dear
+sir, the most rigid and absolute secrecy will be maintained, and the
+arrangements will be as follows: If you are agreeable, and we can come
+to terms, we shall charter a vessel, if possible, in Batavia, fit her
+out with the necessary appliances, and sail in her with all speed to the
+spot where the catastrophe happened. Then you will descend to the
+vessel, discover our agent's luggage, which is certain to be in his
+cabin, we shall draw it up to the surface, examine it, obtain the pearl,
+and having done so sail again for Batavia, where the amount upon which
+we shall have agreed will be paid to you. After that we must separate;
+you will go your way, I shall go mine, and not a living soul will be the
+wiser."
+
+"That's all very well, but what about the officers and crew of the
+vessel we charter? Do you think they will not suspect; and how do you
+propose to square them?"
+
+"We will do that, never fear. They will be certain to believe, from the
+confident way in which we act, that we have the right to visit the
+vessel. Besides, when we have once parted from them, we shall never see
+them again. No, I do not think you need be afraid of them. Come, what do
+you say?"
+
+"I don't know what to say," I answered. "I'm not sure whether it would
+be worth my while to touch it. The risk is so great, and I've got
+another offer on hand just now that looks as if it might turn out well.
+All these things have to be considered before I can give you an answer."
+
+"Naturally," he replied. "But still I trust you will see your way to
+helping us. Your skill as a diver is well known, and I pay you the
+compliment of believing that you have one of the rarest of all gifts,
+the knowledge of how to hold your tongue when it is necessary. Just
+think it over and acquaint me with your decision in the morning."
+
+"Very good," I answered. "I will do so. You shall have my answer after
+breakfast, without fail."
+
+"I am glad to hear it, and I thank you. Now, good-night."
+
+"Good-night," I answered, and after that we separated to go to our
+respective rooms.
+
+By five o'clock next morning, after a troubled night, I had made up my
+mind. If the old gentleman would give the terms I wanted, I would do
+what he asked. Half of the amount was to be paid before we left Colombo,
+and the balance on our return to Batavia, or on the completion of our
+work, provided it did not last more than six months. All expenses were
+to be defrayed by his firm, and a document was to be given me,
+exonerating me from all blame should the law think fit to come down upon
+us for what we were doing. All this I embodied in a letter which I
+copied and sent to Mr. Leversidge's room while he was dressing.
+
+After breakfast he found me in the verandah.
+
+"Many thanks for your note," he said promptly. "I shall be most happy to
+agree to your terms. We will settle them at once, if you have no
+objection."
+
+"That is very kind of you," I answered; "but why this great hurry?"
+
+"Because we must leave in the mail-boat this afternoon for Batavia,
+_viā_ Singapore," he replied. "As you will see for yourself, there is no
+time to be lost."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+In every life there are certain to be incidents, often of the most
+trivial nature possible, which, little as we may think so at the time,
+are destined to remain with us, indelibly stamped upon our memories,
+until we shuffle off this mortal coil. As far as my own existence is
+concerned, I shall always remember the first view we obtained of Tanjong
+Priok, as the seaport of Batavia is called, on the day we arrived there
+from Singapore, engaged on the most extraordinary quest in which I had
+ever taken part. It was towards evening, and the sky, not merely the
+western, but indeed the whole length and breadth of the heavens, was
+suffused with the glorious tints of sunset. Such another I do not
+remember ever to have seen. In these later days, whenever I look back on
+that strange adventure, the first thing I see pictured in my mind's eye
+is that Dutch harbour with its shiny green wharves on one hand, its
+desolate, wind-tossed cocoa-nut trees upon the shore on the other, and
+that marvellously beautiful sky enveloping all like a blood-red mantle.
+
+The voyage from Ceylon to Singapore, and thence to Java, calls for no
+special comment, save that it was accomplished at the maximum of speed
+and the minimum of convenience. So great, however, was Mr. Leversidge's
+desire to get to the scene of the disaster, that he could scarcely wait
+even for the most necessary preparations to be made. The whole way from
+Colombo to Singapore he grumbled at the speed of the vessel, and when we
+broke down later on off the coast of Sumatra, I really thought he would
+have had a fit. However, as I have said before, we reached it at last,
+and despite the catastrophe, in fairly good time. Having done so, we
+went ashore, and, acting on my advice, installed ourselves at the Hotel
+de Nederlander. There are few more beautiful places in the world than
+Java, and few where I would less care to spend my life. It was
+Leversidge's first visit to the island, however, and, as is usual in
+such cases, its beauty exercised a powerful effect upon him. Java is
+like itself and nothing else in the whole scope of the Immemorial East.
+
+Once we were settled we began to think about our preparations for
+accomplishing the last part of our singular journey, namely, our voyage
+to the wreck. It was a delicate bit of business, and one that had to be
+undertaken in a careful manner in order that no suspicions might be
+aroused. The Dutch Government is as suspicious as a rat, and a great
+deal more watchful than most people give it the credit of being. If
+space permitted, which it does not, I could furnish you with tangible
+evidence on this head.
+
+"What do you intend doing first?" I had inquired of Mr. Leversidge, on
+the evening of our landing, when we sat together after dinner in the
+verandah outside our bedrooms.
+
+"To-morrow morning I shall commence my inquiries for a vessel to carry
+us on," he answered. "I do not, of course, in accordance with the
+promise I gave you, desire to compromise you in any way, but if you
+would give me a few hints as to the way in which I should proceed, I
+should be very grateful to you. This is the first time I have been in
+Java, and naturally I am not familiar with the ropes."
+
+"I'll do all I can for you, with great pleasure," I replied; "on the
+understanding, of course, that I take none of the responsibility. In the
+first place, you will want a smart little vessel that will get us down
+to the spot as quickly as possible. Then you will have to hire your
+diving gear, pumps, dress, etc., and these, as my life and the entire
+success of the business will depend upon them, must be of the very first
+quality. Having secured your boat, you must find a trustworthy skipper
+and crew. She must be provisioned, and when all that has been done, you
+must arrange to get away from Tanjong Priok without a soul here being
+the wiser as to what occasions your hurry. I take it that that is a fair
+summary of the case?"
+
+"You have hit it exactly," he answered; "but I'm afraid it's rather more
+difficult than you suppose. In the first place, I want to be certain of
+my man before I go to him. I don't want to make a false step and find
+myself confronted with a person who will not only refuse to entertain my
+request point-blank, but will inform the Government as soon as my back
+is turned of my intentions. That would ruin everything."
+
+"Well, if you want a man from whom you can make inquiries," I answered,
+"and at the same time feel safe in so doing, I think I can put you on
+the track of one. I've got his card in my bag now, and to-morrow morning
+I'll give it to you. One thing is very certain: if there is any one on
+this island who can help you, he is that man. But don't let him get an
+inkling that you're after pearls, whatever you do, or he'll want to
+stand in with you, as sure as you're born, or sell you to the Government
+if you don't let him have his own way. I know for a fact that he owns a
+fleet of schooners, all built for speed, though I expect when you ask
+him he will deny knowing anything at all about them. They're fitted up
+with the latest appliances in the way of pumps and gear, but I know
+nothing of the crews they carry. You must look after them yourself, only
+be very careful and keep your eyes open. Remember that every man about
+here is a sailor, or pretends to be. Oftener, however, he is as big a
+rascal as can be found in the East, and would not only play you false as
+soon as look at you, but would slit your throat on the first convenient
+opportunity, if for no other reward than to see how pretty you look
+while he is doing it. I've had to do with them for more years than I
+like to count, and I speak from experience. Now, with your permission,
+I'll be off to bed. I'll give you the fellow's address to-morrow
+morning."
+
+"Many thanks," he said. "I am sincerely grateful to you for the help you
+have rendered me."
+
+"Don't mention it. I only hope it may prove of real service to you.
+Good-night."
+
+"Good-night, my dear sir," he answered. "Good-night. I trust that we
+have now definitely started on our work, and that we are on the
+threshold of great events."
+
+Early next morning, that is to say after the early breakfast, which is
+served either in the bedrooms or in the verandahs, as visitors may
+prefer, I handed the old gentleman the card of the individual to whom I
+had referred on the previous evening, and he immediately set off in
+search of him. While he was gone I thought I would take a stroll down
+town and find out what was doing, so, donning my solar topee, I lit a
+cigar and set off. I had an old friend, who could tell me all I wanted
+to know--a man I had often found useful--and, what was better still, one
+whom I had impressed some time since with the belief that it would be by
+no means advisable to attempt to play fast and loose with me. He was a
+curious old fellow, of the name of Maalthaas, and claimed to be a
+Dutchman. But I happened to be aware that this was not his name; he was
+a native of Southern Germany, and had originally run away to escape
+military service. He dwelt at the top of a curious building in the main
+thoroughfare of the native town, the lower portion of which was
+inhabited by Chinamen, and it was his boast that he knew more of what
+was going on in the further East than even Li Chung Tang himself.
+
+I found him in the act of getting out of bed, and he looked as if he
+were suffering a recovery from a heavy opium bout, to which little
+excesses he was very partial. When I opened the door, he greeted me
+without showing the least surprise. A funnier little dried-up
+skin-and-bone creature no one could have desired to see.
+
+"Mynheer Collon?" he said, or rather gasped, for he was always
+asthmatical. "I somehow expected I should see you this morning."
+
+"Then your expectation is realized," I answered. "I happened to be in
+Batavia, so I thought I would look you up. It is months since I last set
+eyes on you."
+
+"But why did you leave Colombo so suddenly, Mynheer?" he asked
+inquisitively, disregarding the latter portion of my speech. "And how
+does it come about that you did not accept that offer to squeeze the
+dollars out of that tobacco firm in the Philippines?"
+
+"How the deuce do you know anything about that?" I asked in surprise,
+for it must be borne in mind that that business had been negotiated in
+the strictest secrecy, and I had no idea that any one else, save the
+parties mostly concerned, had any inkling of it, much less this
+withered-up old mummy in Java, who sat on his bed screwing his
+nutcracker face up into what he thought was a pleasant smile.
+
+"I am old, and deaf, and blind as a bat," he answered; "but I am young
+enough to have my wits about me. My ears are always open for a bit of
+gossip, and blind as I am I can see as far into the world as my
+neighbours."
+
+"You've got wonderfully sharp eyes, Daddy," I replied. "Everybody knows
+that. And what's more, you never make a mistake, do you? If I were as
+clever as you are I'd start opium smuggling in Formosa to-morrow, and
+make a fortune out of it."
+
+Now it so happened that this very industry was the only real failure the
+old man had had in his life, or, to be more exact, it was the only
+failure which had ever come to light. In consequence he was the more
+sensitive about it.
+
+"You think yourself very clever, don't you?" he asked, "but you're not
+quite as clever as old Maalthaas yet. For all he's so old he still has
+his wits about him. Supposing he could tell you your errand here, and
+why that white-haired old English merchant, Leversidge, is with you,
+eh?"
+
+"What do you know about Leversidge, you old wizard?" I cried; not,
+however, without a little feeling of nervousness, as I thought of what
+the consequences might be if this old rascal became aware of the game we
+were playing and of the necessity that existed for secrecy.
+
+"A good deal more than you think," he answered, with a sly chuckle.
+"When Hatton Garden takes Christopher Collon in tow, their little game
+is worth watching, it seems to me. At any rate, it's worth seeing if you
+can discover the reason of it all."
+
+"It is just possible it might gratify your curiosity," I said, "but for
+my own part I don't see exactly where the benefit would come in. They
+pay me fairly well; still----"
+
+"Still not the full value of the pearl?" he cried. "That's what you were
+going to say, I suppose?"
+
+The start I could not prevent myself from giving must have shown him
+that he had scored a bull's-eye. But I recovered myself almost
+instantly, and by that time had made up my mind as to the course I
+should pursue. "No, I don't suppose it is the full value of the pearl,"
+I answered. "It's hardly likely it would be. Still, we must live, and,
+as perhaps you know, business has not been very brisk of late. How have
+you been doing yourself?"
+
+"Nothing at all," he answered; and then added significantly, "I'm
+looking out for something now. 'Make hay while the sun shines,' is my
+motto, and I've always found it a good one."
+
+"I'm sorry, then, that I can't help you to anything," I said. "If I
+could you know I'd go out of my way to do so, don't you?"
+
+Once more he glanced at me and chuckled. From what I knew of his ways, I
+could see that there was some mischief still to come.
+
+"You were always grateful for a little help, my boy, weren't you? We've
+had many a good bit of business together at one time or another, if my
+poor old memory serves me. It is just possible now that I can do you a
+good turn, but I'm a poor man, and I want something for my trouble."
+
+"What can you do for me?" I asked, as I searched his crafty old face
+with my eyes, in the hopes of getting some inkling of what he had in his
+mind.
+
+"I can give you a warning about this present bit of work of yours," he
+said. "It may save you a lot of trouble, and not only trouble but a bit
+of danger, too, if what I hear is correct."
+
+"The deuce you can!" I said; "and pray, what may that warning be?"
+
+"Not too fast, my friend," he answered. "Before I tell you I want my
+return. Give me the information I ask, and you shall know all I've got
+to tell. It's worth hearing, I give you my word."
+
+"Well, what is it you want to know? I've trusted you before, and I don't
+mind doing so again. Ask your question and I'll answer it. But if you
+get up to any larks, or play me false, why just you look out for
+yourself, that's all."
+
+"I'm not going to play you false," he answered, with another contortion
+of his face. "What I want to know is, when you induced the Sultan of
+Pela-Pelu to hand you over that Portugee chap, for whom the
+Tsungli-Yamen in Pekin offered that reward, what was the threat you
+used? I've got a little game to play there, and I want to be able to
+pinch him so as to make him squeal in case he refuses me. Tell me how
+you managed it, and I'll give you the information you need."
+
+Before I answered him I took a minute or so to consider my position. I
+did not want to betray my secret unless I was absolutely compelled to do
+so, and yet I had good reason for believing that the old fellow would
+not have hinted that there was something I ought to know, unless his
+news were worth the telling. However, at last I made up my mind, took
+out my pocket-book and turned up a certain entry.
+
+"There it is," I said, as I handed it to him to read. "I got that
+information first hand, so I know it can be relied upon. I threatened
+him with exposure, and though he was very high up the tree before, he
+soon climbed down."
+
+Maalthaas read what was written on the page twice over, and then
+scribbled a few notes on a piece of paper, which he took from under his
+pillow. Having done so, he handed me back the book, which I pocketed.
+
+"Now what have you got to tell me?" I inquired.
+
+"First answer me one question," he said. "You're off to the wreck of the
+_Monarch of Macedonia_, are you not?"
+
+"I'm not going to say whether we are, or are not," I answered; "but
+suppose, for the sake of argument, we are. What then?"
+
+He leaned a little closer towards me, and his crafty old eyes twinkled
+in his head like two brilliant stars.
+
+"In that case," he said, "my advice is, make haste, for you may be sure
+of one thing, and that is that _you're not the first_."
+
+I sprang to my feet on hearing this. "Not the first!" I cried. "What the
+deuce do you mean? Why are we not the first?"
+
+[Illustration: "I sprang to my feet on hearing this. 'Not the first!' I
+cried."]
+
+"Because a schooner started yesterday for the wreck, with a full diving
+plant aboard. Jim Peach is running the show, _and he has Yokohama Joe
+with him_."
+
+I did not wait to hear any more, but picking up my hat made for the
+door, and before you could have counted fifty was flying up the street
+at my best speed. Jim Peach had beaten me once before, he was not going
+to do so again if I could help it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+As I reached the hotel again after my interview with that crafty old
+rascal, Maalthaas, I saw Mr. Leversidge entering it by another gate. I
+hurried after him and just managed to catch him as he was crossing the
+verandah to pass into his own sitting-room. He turned sharply round on
+hearing my step behind him, and one glance at my face must have told him
+that there was something the matter. His face turned pale, and I noticed
+that his mouth twitched nervously.
+
+"What is it?" he asked breathlessly. "What is it you have to tell me? I
+can see there is something wrong by your face."
+
+"There is indeed something wrong," I answered. "Come inside and let me
+tell you. I hurried back on purpose to let you know at once."
+
+"I am obliged to you," he said. "Now come inside. Your face frightens
+me. I fear bad news."
+
+"It is not good news I have to tell you, I'm afraid," I replied. "But
+still, if we're sharp, we may be able to remedy the mischief before it's
+too late. First and foremost you must understand that this morning I
+called upon an old friend who lives here, one of the sharpest men in the
+East, if not the very sharpest. He's a man who knows everything; who
+would in all probability be able to tell you why that Russian cruiser,
+which was due in Hong Kong last Friday, at the last moment put back to
+Vladivostock, though she did not require coal, and had nothing whatever
+the matter with her. Or he will tell you, as he did me, the reasons
+which induced a certain English jewel merchant to hasten to Colombo from
+Madras, and then come on to Java in company with a man named Christopher
+Collon."
+
+"Do you mean to say that our business here is known to people?" he cried
+in alarm. "In that case we are ruined."
+
+"Not quite, I think," I answered; and then with a little boastfulness
+which I could not help displaying, I added, "In the first place it is
+not known to _people_. Only to one person. In the second, Maalthaas may
+play fast and loose with a good many folk, but he dares not do so with
+me. I carry too many guns for him, and we are too useful to each other
+to endeavour in any way to spoil each other's games. But for him I
+should never have known what has happened now until it would have been
+too late to remedy it."
+
+"But you have not yet told me what _has_ happened," said Mr. Leversidge
+in an aggrieved tone.
+
+"Well, the fact of the matter is," I said, "while we have been
+congratulating ourselves on our sharpness, we have very nearly been
+forestalled in what we intended doing. In other words, we are not so
+early in the field as we thought we were."
+
+"What do you mean? Not so early in the field. Do you mean to tell me
+there is some one else trying to do what we are going to do? That some
+one else is setting off for the wreck?"
+
+"I do," I answered, with a nod of the head. "You have just hit it. A
+schooner left Tanjong Priok yesterday with a diver aboard, and as far as
+I can gather--and there seems to be no doubt about the matter--she was
+bound for the wreck."
+
+"Do you mean a Government vessel? Surely she must have been sent by the
+authorities?"
+
+"I don't mean anything of the sort," I said. "The only authority she is
+sent by is Jim Peach, one of the sharpest men in these waters. And when
+I tell you that he is aboard her, and that he has Yokohama Joe, the
+diver, with him, I guess you'll see there's real cause for alarm. At any
+rate, Mr. Leversidge, it's my opinion that if we're not there first we
+may as well give up all thought of the pearls, for they'll get them as
+sure as you're born--don't you make any mistake about that. I've never
+known Jimmy Peach fail in what he undertook but once. He's a bad 'un to
+beat is Jimmy. He knows these waters as well as you know Oxford Street,
+and if, as I expect, it's his own schooner he's gone in, then we shall
+have all our time taken up trying to catch her."
+
+As I said this the old gentleman's face was a study. Expressions of
+bewilderment, anxiety, greed, and vindictiveness seemed to struggle in
+it for the mastery. It was evident that, brought up as he had been with
+a profound respect for the sacred rights of property, it was impossible
+for him to believe that the man could live who would have the audacity
+to behave towards him, John Leversidge, of Hatton Garden, as Peach and
+his gang were now said to be doing. He clenched his fists as he realized
+that the success of the enterprise depended entirely upon our being able
+to beat the others at their own game, and from the gleam I saw in his
+eye I guessed that there was not much the old boy would not do and dare
+to get possession of what had been bought and paid for by his firm, and
+what he therefore considered to be his own lawful property.
+
+"If it is as you say, Mr. Collon," he said, at length, "there can be no
+possible doubt as to what sort of action we should take. Come what may
+we must be on the spot first. I believe I am doing as my firm would wish
+when I say that those other rascals must be outwitted at all costs. If
+this man you speak of, this Peach, is a bad one to beat, let me tell you
+so am I. We'll make a match of it and see who comes out best. I can
+assure you I have no fear for the result."
+
+"Bravely spoken," I said. "I like your spirit, Mr. Leversidge, and I'm
+with you hand and glove. I've beaten Jimmy before, and on this occasion
+I'll do so again."
+
+"I only hope and trust you may," he answered. "And now what do you
+advise? What steps should we take first? Give me your assistance, I beg,
+for you must of necessity be better versed in these sort of matters than
+I. It seems to me, however, that one thing is very certain: if these men
+sailed yesterday in their schooner, and they have a day's start of us,
+we shall find it difficult to catch them. We might do so, of course; but
+it would be safer to act as if we think we might not. For my own part I
+do not feel inclined to run the risk. I want to make it certain that we
+_do_ get there before them."
+
+"The only way to do that is, of course, to charter a steamer," I
+replied, "and that will run into a lot of money. But it will make it
+_certain_ that we get the better of them."
+
+"In such a case money is no object. We must keep our word to the
+Emperor, and to do that my firm would spend twice the sum this is likely
+to cost. But the question is, where are we to find the steamer we want?
+I found it difficult, nay, almost impossible, to get even a schooner
+this morning. And for the only one I could hear of the owner asked such
+a preposterous price that I did not feel disposed to give in to his
+demands until I had consulted you upon the subject, and made certain
+that we could not find another. What do you recommend?"
+
+I considered the matter for a moment. I had had experience of Java
+shipowners before, and I knew something of their pleasant little ways.
+Then an idea occurred to me.
+
+"I think if you will let me negotiate the matter, Mr. Leversidge," I
+said, "I may be able to obtain what you want. The man of whom I spoke to
+you just now, the same who gave me the information regarding Peach and
+his party, is the person to apply to. For a consideration I have no
+doubt he would find us a vessel, and though we may have to pay him for
+his trouble, he will take very good care that we are not swindled by any
+other party. There is one more suggestion I should like to make, and
+that is that you should let me telegraph to a person of my acquaintance
+in Thursday Island to send a schooner down to a certain part of the New
+Guinea coast, in charge of men he can trust. We could then on arrival
+tranship to her, and send the steamer back without letting those on
+board know anything of our errand. What do you think of that
+arrangement? In my opinion it would be the best course to pursue."
+
+"And I agree with you," he answered. "It is an admirable idea, and I am
+obliged to you for it. We will put it into execution without loss of
+time. As soon as you have seen this man Maalthaas we will send the
+message you speak of to Thursday Island."
+
+"I will see him at once," I replied. "There is no time to be lost. While
+we are talking here that schooner is making her way to the scene of the
+catastrophe as fast as she can go."
+
+I accordingly departed, and in something less than a quarter of an hour
+was once more seated in the venerable Maalthaas' room. It did not take
+long to let him know the favour we wanted of him, nor did it take long
+for him to let me understand upon what terms he was prepared to grant
+it. "You won't come down in your price at all, I suppose?" I said, when
+he had finished. "What you ask is a trifle stiff for such a simple
+service."
+
+"Not a guelder," he answered briefly.
+
+"Provided we agree, when can we sail?"
+
+"To-morrow morning at daylight, if you like. There will be no difficulty
+about that."
+
+"And you guarantee that the men you send with her can be trusted?"
+
+"Nobody in this world is to be trusted," he answered grimly. "I've never
+yet met the man who could not be bought at a price. And what's more if I
+did meet him I would be the last to trust him. What I will say is that
+the men who work the boat are as nearly trustworthy as I can get them.
+That's all."
+
+"All right. That will do. I will go back to my principal now and let him
+know what you say. If I don't return here within an hour you can reckon
+we agree to your terms, and you can go ahead."
+
+"No, thank you, Mynheer," said Maalthaas; "that won't do at all. If I
+receive the money within an hour, I shall take it that you agree, not
+otherwise. Half the money down and the remainder to be paid to the
+captain when you reach your destination. If you want him to wait for you
+and bring you back, you must pay half the return fare when you get
+aboard, and the balance when you return here. Do you understand?"
+
+"Perfectly. I will let you have an answer within an hour."
+
+Fifteen hours later the money had been paid, the cablegram to Thursday
+Island despatched, and we were standing on the deck of the Dutch steamer
+_König Ludwig_, making our way along the Java coast at the rate of a
+good fifteen knots an hour.
+
+"If Master Peach doesn't take care we shall be in a position to throw
+him a towline by this time on Saturday morning," I said to Mr.
+Leversidge, who was standing beside me.
+
+"I devoutly hope so," he answered. "At any rate, you may be sure we'll
+make a good race of it. What shall we call the stakes?"
+
+"The Race for a Dead Man's Pearls," said I. "How would that do?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+To my surprise before we had been twenty-four hours at sea every one on
+board the _König Ludwig_ seemed to have imbibed a measure of our
+eagerness, and to be aware that we were not in reality engaged in a
+pleasure trip, as had been given out, but in a race against a schooner
+which had sailed from the same port nearly forty-eight hours before. As
+a matter of fact it was Mr. Leversidge who was responsible for thus
+letting the cat out of the bag. Imperative as it was that the strictest
+reticence should be observed regarding our errand, his excitement was so
+great that he could not help confiding his hopes and fears, under the
+pledge of secrecy, of course, to half the ship's company. Fortunately,
+however, he had the presence of mind not to reveal the object of our
+voyage, though I fear many of them must have suspected it.
+
+It was on the seventh day after leaving Batavia that we reached that
+portion of the New Guinea coast where it had been arranged that the
+schooner, for which I had telegraphed to Thursday Island, should meet
+us. So far we had seen nothing of Peach's boat, and in our own hearts we
+felt justified in believing that we had beaten her. Now, if we could
+only change vessels, and get to the scene of action without loss of
+time, it looked as if we should stand an excellent chance of completing
+our business and getting away again before she could put in an
+appearance. After careful consideration we had agreed to allow the
+steamer to return without us to Java, and when we had done our work to
+continue our journey on board the schooner to Thursday Island. Here we
+would separate, Leversidge returning with his treasure to England _viā_
+Brisbane and Sydney, and I making my way by the next China boat to
+Hong-Kong, where I intended to lay by for a while on the strength of the
+money I was to receive from him. But, as you will shortly see, we were
+bargaining without our hosts. Events were destined to turn out in a very
+different way from what we expected.
+
+It was early morning--indeed, it still wanted an hour to sunrise--when
+the captain knocked at our respective cabins and informed us that we had
+reached the place to which it had been arranged in the contract he
+should carry us. We accordingly dressed with all possible speed, and
+having done so made our way on deck. When we reached it we found an
+unusually still morning, a heavy mist lying upon the face of the sea.
+The latter, as far as we could judge by the water alongside, was as
+smooth and pulseless as a millpond. Not a sound could be heard save the
+steady dripping of the moisture from the awning on the deck. Owing to
+the fog it was impossible to tell whether or not the schooner from
+Thursday Island had arrived at the rendezvous. She might have been near
+us, or she might be fifty miles away for all we could tell to the
+contrary.
+
+Once we thought we heard the sound of a block creaking a short distance
+away to port, but though we hailed at least a dozen times, and blew our
+whistles for some minutes, we were not rewarded with an answer.
+
+"This delay is really very annoying," said Mr. Leversidge testily, after
+we had tramped the deck together for upwards of an hour. "Every minute
+is of the utmost importance to us, for every hour we waste in inaction
+here is bringing the other schooner closer. As soon as this fog lifts we
+shall have to make up for lost time with a vengeance."
+
+How we got through the remainder of that morning I have only a very
+confused recollection. For my own part I believe I put in most of it
+with a book lying on the chartroom locker. Mr. Leversidge, on the other
+hand, was scarcely still for a minute at a time, but spent most of the
+morning running from place to place about the vessel, peering over the
+side to see if the fog were lifting, and consulting his watch and
+groaning audibly every time he returned it to his pocket. I don't know
+that I ever remember seeing a man more impatient.
+
+As soon as lunch was finished we returned to the deck, only to find the
+fog as thick as ever. The quiet that was over everything was most
+uncanny, and when one of us spoke his voice seemed to travel for miles.
+Still, however, we could hear nothing, much less see anything, of the
+schooner which was to have taken us on to our destination.
+
+"If this fog doesn't lift soon I believe I shall go mad," said
+Leversidge at last, bringing his hand down as he spoke with a smack upon
+the bulwarks. "For all we know to the contrary it may be fine where the
+wreck is, and all the time we are lying here inactive that rascal
+Peach's schooner, the _Nautch Girl_, is coming along hand over fist to
+spoil our work for us. I never knew anything so aggravating in my life."
+
+As if nature were regretting having given him so much anxiety, the words
+had scarcely left his mouth before there was a break in the fog away to
+port, and then with a quickness that seemed almost magical, seeing how
+thick it had been a moment before, the great curtain drew off the face
+of the deep, enabling us to see the low outline of the cape ten miles or
+so away to starboard, and, as if the better to please us, a small vessel
+heading towards us from the south-eastward. As soon as I brought the
+glass to bear upon her I knew her for the schooner I had cabled to
+Thursday Island about. An hour later she was hove-to within a cable's
+length of us, and we were moving our traps aboard as expeditiously as
+possible. Then sail was got on her once more, the _König Ludwig_
+whistled us a shrill farewell, and presently we were bowling across the
+blue seas toward our destination at as fine a rate of speed as any man
+could wish to see.
+
+For the remainder of that day we sailed on, making such good running of
+it that at sunrise on the morning following we found ourselves at the
+place for which we had been travelling--namely, the scene of the wreck
+of the unfortunate steamship _Monarch of Macedonia_. We were all on deck
+when we reached it, and never shall I forget the look of astonishment
+that came into Leversidge's face when the skipper sang out some orders,
+hove her to, and joined us at the taffrail, saying abruptly as he did
+so, "Gentlemen, here we are; I reckon this is the place to which you
+told me to bring you."
+
+"This the place!" he cried, as he looked round him at the smooth and
+smiling sea. "You surely don't mean to tell me that it was just here
+that the _Monarch of Macedonia_ met her cruel fate? I cannot believe
+it."
+
+"It's true, all the same," answered the skipper. "That's to say, as near
+as I can reckon it by observations. Just take a look at the chart and
+see for yourself."
+
+So saying he spread the roll of paper he carried in his hand upon the
+deck, and we all knelt down to examine it. In order to prove his
+position the skipper ran a dirty thumb-nail along his course, and made a
+mark with it about the approximate spot where he had hove the schooner
+to.
+
+"Do you mean to say that the unfortunate vessel lies beneath us now?"
+asked Mr. Leversidge, with a certain amount of awe in his voice.
+
+"As near as I can reckon it she ought to be somewhere about here,"
+returned the skipper, waving his hand casually around the neighbourhood.
+And then, taking a slip of paper from the pocket of his coat, he
+continued: "Here are the Admiralty Survey vessel's bearings of the rock
+upon which she struck, so we can't be very far out."
+
+Following Mr. Leversidge's example we went to the port side and looked
+over.
+
+"It seems a ghastly thing to think that down there lies that great
+vessel, the outcome of so much human thought and ingenuity, with the
+bodies of the men and women who perished in her still on board. I don't
+know that I envy you in your task of visiting her, Collon. By the way,
+what are the Government soundings?"
+
+"Seventeen fathoms," answered the skipper.
+
+"And you think she is lying some distance out from the rock on which she
+struck?"
+
+"I do. The survivors say that as soon as she struck, the officer of the
+watch reversed his engines and pulled her off, but before he could get
+more than a cable's length astern she sank like a stone."
+
+"I understand. And now, Mr. Collon, your part of the business commences.
+When do you propose to get to work? We must not delay any more than we
+can help, for the other schooner may be here at any moment."
+
+"I shall commence getting my things together immediately," I answered,
+"and, if all goes well, the first thing to-morrow morning I shall make
+my descent. It would not be worth while doing so this afternoon."
+
+Accordingly, as soon as our mid-day meal was finished, I had the pumps
+and diving gear brought on deck and spent the afternoon testing them and
+getting them ready for the work that lay before me on the morrow. By
+nightfall I was fully prepared to descend in search of the pearl.
+
+"Let us hope that by this time to-morrow we shall be on our way to
+Thursday Island with our work completed," said Leversidge to me as we
+leant against the taffrail later in the evening. "I don't know that I
+altogether care about thinking that all those poor dead folk are lying
+only a hundred feet or so beneath our keel. As soon as we have got what
+we want out of her we'll lose no time in packing up and being off."
+
+I was about to answer him, when something caused me to look across the
+sea to the westward. As I did so I gave a little cry of astonishment,
+for not more than five miles distant I could see the lights of a vessel
+coming towards us.
+
+"Look!" I cried, "what boat can that be?"
+
+Mr. Leversidge followed the direction of my hand. "If I'm not mistaken,"
+the skipper said, "that is the _Nautch Girl_--Peach's schooner."
+
+"Then there's trouble ahead. What on earth is to be done?"
+
+"I have no notion. We cannot compel him to turn back, and if he finds us
+diving here he will be certain to suspect our motive and to give
+information against us."
+
+We both turned and looked in the direction we had last seen the vessel,
+but to our amazement she was no longer there.
+
+"What does it mean?" cried Leversidge. "What can have become of her?"
+
+"I think I can tell you," said the skipper, "We're in for another fog."
+
+"A fog again," replied the old gentleman. "If that is so we're done
+for."
+
+"On the contrary," I said, "I think we're saved. Given a decent
+opportunity and I fancy I can see my way out of this scrape."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+Of all the thousand and one strange phenomena of the mighty deep, to my
+thinking there is none more extraordinary than the fogs which so
+suddenly spring up in Eastern waters. At one moment the entire expanse
+of sea lies plain and open before the eye; then a tiny cloud makes its
+appearance, like a little flaw in the perfect blue, far down on the
+horizon. It comes closer, and as it does so, spreads itself out in
+curling wreaths of vapour. Finally, the mariner finds himself cut off
+from everything, standing alone in a little world of his own, so tiny
+that it is even impossible for him to see a boat's length before his
+face. At night the effect is even more strange, for then it is
+impossible to see anything at all.
+
+On this particular occasion the fog came up quicker than I ever remember
+to have seen one do. We had hardly caught sight of the lights of the
+schooner, which we were convinced was none other than the _Nautch Girl_,
+than they disappeared again. But, as I had told Mr. Leversidge, that
+circumstance, instead of injuring us, was likely to prove our salvation.
+Had she come upon us in broad daylight while we were engaged upon our
+work on the wreck below, it would have been a case of diamond cut
+diamond, and the strongest would have won. Now, however, if she would
+only walk into the trap I was about to set for her, I felt confident in
+my own mind that we should come out of the scrape with flying colours.
+
+"We must not attempt to conceal our position," I said, turning to the
+skipper, whom I could now barely see. "If I were you I should keep that
+bell of yours ringing, it will serve to let Peach know that there is
+somebody already on the spot, and it will help to prepare his mind for
+what is to come."
+
+The skipper groped his way forward to give the necessary order, and
+presently the bell commenced to sound its note of warning. Thereupon we
+sat ourselves down on the skylight to await the arrival of the schooner
+with what composure we could command. Our patience, however, was
+destined to be sorely tried, for upwards of two hours elapsed before any
+sound reached us to inform us that she was in our neighbourhood. Then
+with an abruptness which was almost startling, a voice came to us across
+the silent sea.
+
+"If I have to visit you niggers in that boat," the speaker was saying,
+"I'll give you as good a booting as ever you had in your lives. Bend
+your backs to it and pull or I'll be amongst you before you can look
+round and put some ginger into you."
+
+There was no occasion to tell me whose voice it was. "That's Jimmy
+Peach," I said, turning to Mr. Leversidge, who was standing beside me at
+the bulwarks. "I know his pleasant way of talking to his crew. He's a
+sweet skipper is Jimmy, and the man he has with him, Yokohama Joe, is
+his equal in every respect."
+
+"But how have they managed to get here?" asked the old gentleman.
+"Theirs is not a steam vessel, and besides being pitch dark in this fog
+there's not a breath of wind."
+
+"They've got a boat out towing her," I answered. "If you listen for a
+moment you'll hear the creaking of the oars in the rowlocks. That's just
+what I reckoned they would do. Now I am going to give Master Jimmy one
+of the prettiest scares he has ever had in his life, and one that I
+think he will remember to his dying day. If he ever finds it out, and we
+meet ashore, I reckon things will hum a bit."
+
+So saying, I funnelled my mouth with my hands and shouted in the
+direction whence the voice had proceeded a few minutes before. "Ship
+ahoy! Is that the _Nautch Girl_, of Cooktown?"
+
+There was complete silence while a man could have counted a hundred.
+Then a voice hailed me in reply: "What vessel are you?"
+
+I was prepared for this question. "Her Majesty's gunboat _Panther_,
+anchored above the wreck of the _Monarch of Macedonia_," I answered.
+"Are you the _Nautch Girl_?"
+
+There was another long pause, then a different voice answered, "_Nautch
+Girl_ be hanged! We're the _bźche-de-mer_ schooner _Caroline Smithers_,
+of Cairns, from Macassar to Port Moresby."
+
+Once more I funnelled my hands and answered them. "All right," I
+replied, "just heave to a minute and I'll send a boat to make certain.
+I'm looking for the _Nautch Girl_, and, as she left Batavia ten days or
+so ago, she's just about due here now."
+
+Turning to Mr. Leversidge, who was standing beside me, I whispered, "If
+I'm not mistaken he'll clear out now as quickly as he knows how."
+
+"But why should he do so?" he inquired. "As long as he doesn't interfere
+with the wreck he has a perfect right to be here."
+
+"As you say, he _has_ a perfect right," I answered; "but you may bet
+your bottom dollar he'll be off as soon as possible. There is what the
+lawyers call a combination of circumstances against him. In the first
+place, I happen to know that he has been wanted very badly for some
+considerable time by the skipper of the _Panther_ for a little bit of
+business down in the Kingsmill Group. They have been trying to nab him
+everywhere, but so far he has been too smart for them. In addition, he
+is certain to think his mission to the wreck has been wired to Thursday
+Island, and between the two I fancy he will come to the conclusion that
+discretion is the better part of valour and will run for it. Hark! there
+he goes."
+
+We both listened, and a moment later could plainly distinguish the
+regular "cheep-cheep" of the oars as they towed the schooner away from
+us.
+
+"He has got out two boats now," I said, "and that shows he means to be
+off as fast as he can go. Somehow I don't think we shall be troubled by
+Master Peach again for a day or two. But won't he just be mad if he ever
+finds out how we've fooled him. The world won't be big enough to hold
+the pair of us. Now all we want is the fog to hold up till he's out of
+sight. I don't feel any wind."
+
+I wetted my finger and held it up above my head, but could feel nothing.
+The night was as still as it was foggy. Seeing, therefore, that it was
+no use our waiting about in the hope of the weather improving, I bade
+them good night, and, having been congratulated on my ruse for getting
+rid of Peach, and the success which had attended it, went below to my
+berth.
+
+Sure enough when we came on deck next morning the fog had disappeared,
+and with it the schooner _Nautch Girl_. A brisk breeze was blowing.
+Overhead the sky was sapphire blue, brilliant sunshine streamed upon our
+decks, while the sea around us was as green and transparent as an
+emerald. Little waves splashed alongside, and the schooner danced gaily
+at her anchor. After the fog of the previous night, it was like a new
+world, and when we had satisfied ourselves that our enemy was really out
+of sight it was a merry party that sat down to breakfast.
+
+As soon as the meal was finished we returned to the deck. The same
+glorious morning continued, with the difference, however, that by this
+time the sea had moderated somewhat. The crew were already at work
+preparing the diving apparatus for my descent. After the anxiety of the
+_Nautch Girl's_ arrival, the trick we had played upon her captain, and
+the excitement consequent upon it, it came upon me almost as a shock to
+see the main, or to be more exact, the only, object of my voyage brought
+so unmistakably and callously before me. I glanced over the side at the
+smiling sea, and as I did so thought of the visit I was about to pay to
+the unfortunate vessel which was lying so still and quiet beneath those
+treacherous waves. And for what? For a jewel that would ultimately
+decorate a mere earthly sovereign's person. It seemed like an act of the
+grossest sacrilege to disturb that domain of Death for such a vulgar
+purpose.
+
+"I see you are commencing your preparations," said Mr. Leversidge, who
+had come on deck while I was giving my instructions to the man in charge
+of the diving gear. "Before you do so had we not better study the cabin
+plan of the vessel herself, in order that you may have a good idea as to
+where the berth you are about to visit is situated?"
+
+"Perhaps it would be as well," I answered. "Where is the plan?"
+
+"I have it in my portmanteau," replied the old gentleman, and a moment
+later, bidding me remain where I was, he dived below in search of the
+article in question. Presently he returned, bringing with him a sheet of
+paper, which, when he spread it out upon the deck, I recognised as one
+of those printed forms supplied by steamship companies to intending
+passengers at the time of booking.
+
+"There," he said, as he smoothed it out and placed his finger on a tiny
+red cross, "that is the cabin our agent occupied. You enter by the
+companion on the promenade deck, and, having descended to the saloon,
+turn sharp to your left hand and pass down the port side till you reach
+the alleyway alongside the steward's pantry. Nineteen is the number, and
+our agent's berth was number one hundred and sixty-three, which, as you
+will observe from this plan, is the higher one on your left as you
+enter. The next cabin was that occupied by the Reverend Colway-Brown,
+who, as you are aware, was one of the persons who escaped. I think we
+may consider ourselves fortunate that he was a parson, otherwise we
+don't know what might have happened."
+
+Taking up the plan he had brought and examining it carefully, I tried to
+impress it upon my memory as far as possible. "Now," I said, "I think I
+know my ground; so let us get to work. The sooner the business is
+finished and the pearl is in your keeping the better I shall be
+pleased."
+
+"I shall have no objection to be done with it either, I can assure you,"
+he answered. "It has been a most tiresome and unpleasant affair for
+everybody concerned."
+
+I then strolled forward to the main hatch, beside which my dress had
+been placed. Everything was in readiness, and I thereupon commenced my
+toilet. To draw on the costume itself was the matter of only a few
+seconds. My feet were then placed in the great boots with their enormous
+leaden soles; the helmet, without the glass, was slipped over my head
+and rivetted to the collar plate around my neck, the leaden weights,
+each of twenty-eight pounds, were fastened to my chest and back, the
+life-line was tied round my waist, and the other end made fast to the
+bulwark beside which my tender would take his place during such time as
+I should remain below.
+
+"Now give me the lamp and the axe," I said, as I fumbled my way to the
+gangway where the ladder had been placed, and took up my position upon
+it. "After that you can screw in the glass and begin to pump as soon as
+you like. It won't be very long now, Mr. Leversidge, before you know
+your fate."
+
+"I wish you luck," he answered, and then my tender, who had been careful
+to dip the front glass in the water, screwed it in, and almost
+simultaneously the hands at the machine commenced to pump. I was in
+their world and yet standing in a world of my own, a sort of amphibious
+creature, half of land and half of sea.
+
+According to custom, I gave a last glance round to see that all was
+working properly, and then with a final wave of my hand to those upon
+the deck began to descend the ladder into the green water, little
+dreaming of the terrible surprise that was awaiting me at the bottom of
+the ocean.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+The novice when making his first descent beneath the waves in a diving
+dress is apt to find himself confronted with numerous surprises. In the
+first place he discovers that the dress itself, which, when he stood
+upon the deck, had appeared such a cumbersome and altogether unwieldy
+affair, becomes as light as any feather as soon as he is below the
+surface. To his amazement he is able to move about with as much freedom
+as he was accustomed to do on land. And despite the fact that his supply
+of air is being transmitted to him through many yards of piping from a
+pump on the deck above, and in consequence smells a little of
+india-rubber, he is relieved to find, when he has overcome his first
+nervousness, that he can breathe as comfortably and easily as when
+seated in the cabin of the vessel he has so lately quitted.
+
+As stated in the previous chapter, as soon as the glass had been screwed
+into the front of my helmet I waved a farewell to my friends on the
+schooner's deck and began to descend the ladder on my adventurous
+journey. Men may take from me what they please, but they can never
+destroy my reputation as a diver. And, indeed, the task I was about to
+attempt was one that any man might be proud of accomplishing
+successfully.
+
+The bottom on which I had landed was of white sand, covered here and
+there with short weeds and lumps of coral, the latter being of every
+conceivable shape and colour. Looking up I could distinguish through the
+green water the hull of the schooner, and could trace her cable running
+down to the anchor, which had dropped fifty feet or so from the spot
+where I now stood. Before me the bottom ascended almost precipitously,
+and, remembering what I had been told, I gathered that on the top of
+this was the rock upon which the unfortunate vessel had come to grief.
+Having noted these things, I turned myself about until I could see the
+boat herself. It was a strange and forlorn picture she presented. Her
+masts had gone by the board, and as I made my way towards her I could
+plainly distinguish the gaping rent in her bows which had wrought her
+ruin.
+
+Clambering over the mass of coral upon which she was lying, I walked
+round her examining her carefully, and, when I had done so, began to
+cast about me for a means of getting on board. This, however, proved a
+rather more difficult task than one would have at first imagined, for
+she had not heeled over as might have been supposed, but had settled
+down in her natural position in a sort of coral gully, and in
+consequence her sides were almost as steep as the walls of a house.
+However, I was not going to be beaten, so, taking my life-line in my
+hand, I signalled to my tender above, by a code I had previously
+arranged with him, to lower me the short iron ladder which had been
+brought in case its services should be required. Having obtained this I
+placed it against the vessel's side, but not before I had taken the
+precaution to attach one end of a line to it and the other to my waist,
+so that we should not part company and I be left without a means of
+getting out of the vessel again when once I was inside. Mounting by it,
+I clambered over the broken bulwarks and was soon at the entrance to the
+saloon companion ladder on the promenade deck. Already a terrible and
+significant change was to be noticed in her appearance: a thick green
+weed was growing on the once snow-white planks, and the brilliant
+brasses, which had been the pride and delight of her officers in bygone
+days, were now black and discoloured almost beyond recognition.
+Remembering what she had once been, the money she had cost, the grandeur
+of her launch and christening, and the pride with which she had once
+navigated the oceans of the world, it was enough to bring the tears into
+one's eyes now to see her lying so dead and helpless below the waves of
+which she had once been so bright an ornament. I thought of the men and
+women, the fathers and mothers, the handsome youths and pretty girls who
+had once walked those decks so confidently; of the friendships which had
+been begun upon them, and the farewells which had there been said, and
+then of that last dread scene at midnight when she had crashed into the
+unknown danger, and a few moments later had sunk down and down until she
+lay an inert and helpless mass upon the rocky bed where I now found her.
+
+Feeling that, if I wished to get my work done expeditiously, I had
+better not waste my time looking about me, I attempted to open the door
+of the saloon companion ladder, but the wood had swollen, and, in spite
+of my efforts, defied me. However, a few blows from my axe smashed it in
+and enabled me to enter. Inside the hatch it was too dark for me to see
+very clearly, but with the assistance of my electric lamp this
+difficulty was soon overcome, and, holding the latter above my head, I
+continued my descent.
+
+On the landing, half-way down, jammed into a corner, I encountered the
+first bodies, those of a man and woman. My movement through the water
+caused them to drop me a mocking curtsey as I passed, and I noticed that
+the man held the woman in his arms very tight, as though he were
+resolved that they should not be parted, even by King Death himself.
+
+Reaching the bottom of the ladder, I passed into the saloon, not without
+a shudder, however, as I thought of the work that lay before me. God
+help the poor dead folk I saw there! They were scattered about
+everywhere in the most grotesque attitudes. Some were floating against
+the roof, and some were entangled in the cleated chairs. I have entered
+many wrecks in my time, and have seen many curious and terrible sights,
+but what I saw in this ill-fated vessel surpassed anything I have ever
+met with in my experience. Any attempt to give a true description of it
+would be impossible. I must get on with my story and leave that to your
+imagination.
+
+By the time I had made my way so far I had had about enough of it for
+the time being, and stood in need of a rest. Accordingly I retraced my
+steps to the deck and signalled to my tender that I was about to return
+to the surface. The change, when I did so, from the semi-obscurity of
+that horrible world below the seas to the brilliant sunshine I found
+existing above, was almost startling in its abruptness. But it was good
+after what I had seen below to find myself once more in the company of
+living people. Leversidge's surprise at seeing me reappear so soon was
+almost pathetic. He could scarcely contain his eagerness to question me,
+and as soon as the front glass of my helmet had been removed he
+accordingly set to work.
+
+"What has brought you up from below so soon?" he inquired. "You have
+only been gone a quarter of an hour. Have you found the pearl?"
+
+I shook my head. "I have not even been able to discover the man's cabin
+yet," I answered. "I came up because I needed a rest. I'm working at a
+big depth, you must remember. And, besides, there are those who are far
+from being the best of company down below."
+
+"But tell me about the vessel herself," the old gentleman continued.
+"What is she like, and did you experience any difficulty in getting
+aboard her?"
+
+I answered his questions to the best of my ability, and after a few
+minutes' rest ordered the glass to be screwed into the helmet again, and
+then once more descended to the bottom of the ocean.
+
+Being familiar by this time with the best means of getting on board the
+wreck, it was not very long before I was making my way down the
+companion ladder into the saloon. Then, without wasting further time
+looking about me, I pushed on in search of the cabin I wanted, which, as
+I have already said, was on the port side, third door from the steward's
+pantry. It was not long before I found it, and had broken open the door.
+Having done so, I held my lamp aloft and entered. Never shall I forget
+the sight I saw there. Well prepared as I was for something gruesome,
+the horrible sight that now met my eyes almost overcame me. The body of
+Mr. Leversidge's unfortunate agent was lying on his chest, half in and
+half out of his bunk, for all the world as if he were looking for
+something under his pillow. His coat and waistcoat were off, otherwise
+he was fully dressed. Withdrawing my eyes from him, not without some
+difficulty, I looked about the cabin for his luggage, and for some
+moments could see no sign of it. Then I caught sight of a trunk and a
+Gladstone bag beneath one bunk, and another trunk beneath that opposite.
+All were as rotten as sodden brown paper, by reason of their long
+immersion in the salt water. By dint of some manoeuvring, however, I
+managed to get them out of the cabin into the alleyway without
+disturbing the body in the bunk, and then by degrees carried them up the
+companion ladder to the deck above. Having done this, I signalled to my
+friends to lower their lines, and, as soon as I had made them fast, had
+the satisfaction of seeing them drawn up to the schooner above. This
+having been accomplished, I returned once more to that awful cabin in
+order to search the body and to make quite sure that I had left nothing
+behind me that I might afterwards wish I had brought away.
+
+Reaching the cabin again, I--but there, how can I tell you the rest?
+Suffice it that I pulled the remains of what had once been Mr.
+Leversidge's agent out of his bunk, glanced at him, and then dropped him
+again with a cry that echoed in my helmet until I thought it would have
+burst the drums of both my ears. The shock of the discovery I had made
+was almost too much for me, and for upwards of a minute I leant against
+the bulkhead, staring at the poor corpse before me in stupefied
+amazement. Then I roused myself, and kneeling upon the floor began my
+search for something which, when I had found it, I placed carefully in
+the canvas bag I carried round my waist. Then I set off as fast as I
+could go to reach the surface once more. God knows I had made an
+astounding enough discovery in all conscience, and as I climbed the
+ladder I wondered what Mr. Leversidge would have to say to it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+So overpowered was I by the importance of the discovery I had made in
+the bowels of that sunken ship, that when I reached the top of the
+ladder and found myself standing once more among my fellow-men in the
+decent and clean world above the waves, it seemed as if I must begin my
+story to old Leversidge before the front glass of my helmet was removed;
+and, if such a thing were possible, his impatience was even greater than
+my own. There we stood, scarcely three feet apart, in the same world,
+breathing the same air, looking upon the same things, and yet to all
+intents and purposes for the time being as widely separate as the poles.
+
+As soon, however, as the glass was removed I accepted my tender's
+assistance, and clambering aboard seated myself on the combing of the
+main hatch. Beside me on the deck lay the sodden baggage, just as I had
+sent it up from the vessel below, as yet untouched. On seeing it I bade
+my tender, as soon as my helmet was removed, commence unpacking it.
+While he was thus employed Leversidge stood opposite me, his lips
+trembling and his fingers itching to draw me away in order that he might
+question me as to the result of my search. When, therefore, I was
+attired in civilized dress, he could no longer contain himself, but
+putting his arm through mine, and picking up the baggage from the seat,
+drew me away towards the cabin aft, where, having made certain that we
+were alone, he seated himself at the table and once more eagerly scanned
+my face.
+
+"What have you to tell me?" he inquired, in a voice so changed that it
+almost startled me. "You have discovered something which has surprised
+you. I can see that much in your face. What is it? Have you got the
+pearl?"
+
+"One thing at a time, if you please," I answered. "I must take your
+questions in their proper order. To begin with, let me confess that I
+have _not_ got the pearl. It is just possible that it may be in that
+luggage I sent up from below, though I must say for my own part I don't
+think it probable. At any rate, if it is not there, I can only hazard a
+guess as to where it can be. Certainly it is not on the person of the
+drowned man, for I searched him thoroughly before I came up."
+
+Almost before I had finished speaking he had seated himself on the floor
+beside the bag he had brought with him to the cabin. It must have been a
+cheap concern when new, for to wrench it open now was a matter of very
+small difficulty. The material of which it was composed was certainly
+not leather, but some sort of composition, which tore away from its
+fastenings like so much brown paper. I sat still, smoking my pipe and
+composedly watching him while he pitched on to the floor the various
+articles it contained. It was evident from the expression on his face
+that he was not repaid for his search. At any rate, signs of a pearl
+there were none, nor were there any indications to show that it had ever
+been kept in there at all. The old man turned the heap of clothes over
+and over, and afterwards examined the bag most carefully, but no amount
+of looking could show him the article for which he was so ardently
+searching. Having at length convinced himself that it was not there he
+turned to me again.
+
+"It is quite certain," he said, looking up at me sharply, "that it is
+not in this bag. Are you sure there was no other luggage in the cabin?"
+
+"Quite sure," I answered. "But, before we go any further, perhaps you
+had better let me tell you all that I discovered when I was down below.
+Heaven knows it throws a new enough light upon the subject."
+
+"Go on," he said, pushing the things he had taken out of the bag away
+from him as he spoke. "Tell me everything. You know how impatient I am.
+What is it you have discovered?"
+
+"I will tell you," I answered. "As I said just now, when I entered the
+cabin I saw the body of your agent lying half in and half out of his
+bunk. From the state of his toilet it was plain that he had not retired
+for the night when the vessel struck, as you remember the Reverend
+Colway-Brown stated. It struck me as strange, therefore, that he had not
+been able to get out of his cabin during the brief time allowed the
+unfortunate passengers for escape. However, that is neither here nor
+there. There is one point which dwarfs all the others. Having discovered
+this luggage, which you have now examined, and sent it up to you, I
+determined to search the person of the man himself for the pearl. I did
+so only to make one terrible discovery."
+
+"What was that?" cried Mr. Leversidge, in an agony of impatience. "For
+Heaven's sake, man, get on quicker with your story. Why don't you come
+to the point? Can't you see that you are driving me distracted with your
+shilly-shallying? What was the matter with our man that he caused such a
+shock to your feelings?"
+
+I paused for a moment, fixed my eyes hard upon him, and then said
+impressively, "_He has been murdered. His throat was cut from ear to
+ear._"
+
+If the matter had not been so terribly serious I should have felt
+inclined to laugh at the expression upon the old gentleman's face. He
+was as white as a sheet, his eyes started half out of his head, and his
+mouth opened and shut like a fish fresh taken from his native element.
+It was nearly half a minute before he could find sufficient voice to
+answer me.
+
+"Murdered!" he cried. "My God, what do you mean, Collon? You must be mad
+to say such a thing. How could he have been murdered? And who could have
+done it?"
+
+"That he was murdered admits of no doubt," I answered. "There was the
+proof before me. What is more, for the reason that the victim was
+preparing to retire to rest, it is plain it must have been done just
+before the vessel struck."
+
+"But who did it, think you? Did you discover any clue that could tell us
+that? Not that it matters much, seeing that both murderer and victim are
+now dead."
+
+"Don't be too sure of that. We know the victim is dead, but of the man
+who killed him I am not so sure."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+In answer I took from the locker beside me the small canvas bag I had
+worn strapped round my waist when I visited the vessel. I plunged my
+hand into it and drew out something that I pushed across the table to my
+friend. He picked it up with a cry of astonishment.
+
+"A razor!" he cried. "But doesn't this look as if the man did away with
+himself?"
+
+"I think not," I answered. "Just look at the white handle and tell me if
+you know the name upon it."
+
+He took out his glasses, and, having placed them upon his nose,
+carefully examined the bone handle of the deadly weapon I had given him.
+This time he was even more astonished than before, and, if the truth
+must be told, more shocked.
+
+"Colway-Brown," he said to himself; "why, bless my soul, that's the name
+of one of the sole survivors from the wreck, the person to whom we
+telegraphed from Batavia, the clergyman who gave us the last news of the
+dead man. What does this terrible thing mean?"
+
+"If you ask what I think," I said very slowly and deliberately, "I think
+it looks like a put-up job. If you will remember, when you gave me the
+outline of the case, you told me that attempts had been made to obtain
+the pearl before your agent left Australia. It is plain, therefore, that
+it was known to be in his possession. An individual accordingly ships as
+a parson, calls himself Colway-Brown, books a berth in the next cabin to
+that occupied by your unfortunate friend. There is only one thing,
+however, which beats me, and that, I must confess, is a stumper."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"I can't understand what induced him to murder the man on that
+particular night of all others. It was such a stupid place to choose. He
+might have done it in Thursday Island and have got safely ashore, or he
+might have waited until they got to Batavia. To do it between two ports
+of call, and at such a time of night, seems to me like the work of a
+madman, and I can't make head or tail of it."
+
+"Perhaps when the vessel struck the scoundrel determined to obtain the
+pearl or perish in the attempt."
+
+"I'm afraid that won't do either, for by his own confession we know the
+Rev. Colway-Brown was on deck at the time she struck. He could not,
+therefore, have made his way down the companion ladder, crossed the
+saloon, and passed along the alleyway to the cabin, have entered, cut
+your agent's throat, found and possessed himself of the pearl, have
+returned to the deck and saved his own life in the few seconds that
+elapsed between the moment of the vessel's striking and her foundering."
+
+"But if he did not do it then how do you account for it?" he asked.
+
+"I can't account for it at all," I answered. "One thing, however, is
+self-evident. The suspicion is strongest against Colway-Brown, and, as
+your pearl is not among the dead man's effects or upon his body, it is
+only natural to suppose that it is in the custody of that reverend
+gentleman, who was so fortunate as to get ashore, not only with his
+life, but as he thought without being detected in his crime."
+
+"The rascal, the double-dyed rascal. But he needn't think he has beaten
+us. I'll run him to earth and he shall swing for this, or my name is not
+Leversidge."
+
+"But you have got to catch him first," I said, "and from the sample he
+has already given us of his prowess I incline to the belief that he's as
+slippery a customer as ever wore shoe-leather."
+
+"Nevertheless he shall hang, or I'll know the reason why."
+
+"I think I can tell you the reason why," I said quietly. "He won't hang,
+because when everything is said and done it would be about the most
+inadvisable step you could take, in your own interests and those of your
+firm, to bring him before a court of Justice. You're not particularly
+anxious, I suppose, that the Government should become aware of your
+visit to this wreck?"
+
+"Very naturally," he replied. "I have already told you that, I think."
+
+"In that case how do you propose to show that you became aware of the
+fact that your man _was_ murdered? and if you will excuse my saying so,
+I cannot help thinking that you will find it an extremely difficult, if
+not quite impossible, task to prove that our friend Colway-Brown was the
+man who committed this terrible crime."
+
+"Not at all," he answered. "What about the razor? We know that it is his
+property, and if it was not with it that the murder was committed, how
+do you account for it being in his cabin?"
+
+"I am not attempting to account for it at all," I answered. "I am simply
+endeavouring to show you how futile it would be in all probability to
+try to bring the crime home to the man whom we suspect."
+
+"Then what do you propose doing?"
+
+I thought for a few moments before I answered.
+
+"Well, as far as I can see, the best plan would be," I said, "to follow
+our reverend friend up, and when we have got him in a close corner, just
+to tax him with his crime and threaten to hand him over to Justice if he
+does not return to you the property he stole. If this is judiciously
+managed there should not be much difficulty in obtaining from him what
+you want."
+
+"But supposing he has parted with the pearl in the meantime, what then?
+A nice position we should find ourselves in."
+
+"I don't think he is likely to dispose of it just yet," I answered. "You
+see he would not have an opportunity. He would be afraid to try it on in
+Thursday Island, where the pearl was known, or, for the matter of that,
+in Australia at all. What is more, he'll not be likely to hurry, having
+no notion that there is anybody on his track. He knows he is the only
+soul who escaped from the wreck, and he is certain to think his victim
+will remain undiscovered for all time. With a little luck you should be
+able to catch him before he can get away."
+
+"But you speak of _my_ catching him. Surely you do not intend to let me
+go on alone? Remember I set such store by your assistance."
+
+"If you wish it I will, of course, go through the business with you," I
+answered. "But it looks like being a bigger affair than I at first
+contemplated, and my time is valuable."
+
+"It shall be made worth your while; you need have no fear on that score.
+And now, I suppose, it is no use our remaining here; what shall we do?"
+
+"Up anchor and be off to Thursday Island as fast as we can go," I said
+promptly.
+
+"And when we get there?"
+
+"Seize the Reverend Colway-Brown as soon as possible, if he's there, and
+frighten him into handing over the jewel he has so wrongfully taken
+possession of, by the best methods in our power."
+
+"And if he has left the island?"
+
+"Then we'll follow him like bloodhounds until we catch him, even if we
+have to go half round the world to do it."
+
+"You mean it?"
+
+"I do," I answered.
+
+"Then shake hands on it."
+
+We shook hands, and in less than a quarter of an hour the schooner was
+bowling along under a merry breeze towards Thursday Island, and its most
+important inhabitant, as far as we were concerned, the Reverend
+Colway-Brown.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+The sun was in the act of disappearing behind the fringe of jungle which
+clothes the western hilltops of Thursday Island, when our schooner
+passed through Prince of Wales' Straits and dropped her anchor off the
+small township of Port Kennedy. Every one on board was on deck at the
+moment, and I can vouch for the fact that in two minds at least, those
+of Mr. Leversidge and myself, there was a feeling of intense excitement.
+Ever since we had sat together in the schooner's cabin, and I had told
+him of the terrible discovery I had made in his agent's berth on board
+the _Monarch of Macedonia_, we had been longing for the moment to arrive
+when we should reach the island, and either find ourselves face to face
+with the Reverend Colway-Brown or learn something which would eventually
+lead us to him. That he would be foolish enough, after what had
+happened, to remain any longer in the island than he could help, I did
+not for a moment suppose. He would naturally be anxious to put as many
+miles as possible between himself and the wreck, and also to reach some
+place where he could dispose of the jewel. There were half a hundred
+reasons why he should not attempt to do so in Thursday Island. In the
+first place, there was no one there who could give him the price he
+would be likely to ask, and in the second it must be remembered that it
+was in this very locality it had first made its appearance and attracted
+so much attention. To have shown it there, or to have allowed any one to
+have suspected its presence, would have been an act of the wildest
+folly, and it was plain that the Reverend Colway-Brown was no fool. For
+these reasons I felt convinced in my own mind that when we went ashore
+to make inquiries we should find our bird flown.
+
+Prior to sighting the island we had held a conference with the skipper
+in the deck-house, when Mr. Leversidge had discharged the amount due for
+the hire of the vessel, and at the same time had supplemented it with a
+handsome present to her officers and crew. As far as they were concerned
+I was sure the secret of our visit to the wreck would be in safe hands.
+
+This business matter having been settled to every one's satisfaction, as
+soon as the anchor was down we collected our baggage and descended into
+the boat which was waiting for us alongside. As we did so a steamer
+rounded the point and approached the anchorage. I recognised her and
+made a note of the fact in my own mind for future use, in case it should
+be necessary.
+
+It was not the first time I had been in Thursday Island by many a score,
+and I was well acquainted with the customs and peculiarities of the
+place and its inhabitants. I did not, therefore, waste my time making
+inquiries in any of the grog shanties beside the beach, but passed along
+the front until I reached the most gorgeous caravanserai of all, the
+Hotel of All Nations. It was here, I felt certain, if anywhere, that we
+should hear some tidings of the man we were after. Accordingly, I walked
+through the verandah, and, with Mr. Leversidge at my heels, entered the
+bar. The real business hour had not yet arrived, and for this reason,
+save for a Kanaka asleep in a corner, and a gorgeously upholstered youth
+polishing glasses behind the counter, the bar was deserted. It was plain
+that the latter had never seen me before, or, if he had, that he had
+forgotten both my name and the circumstances under which we had last
+met. I accordingly bade him call his employer to me.
+
+"Good gracious, can it be you, Mr. Collon?" exclaimed the latter as he
+entered the room and saw me standing before him; "I thought you were in
+China. Leastways, Bill Smith, of the _Coral Queen_, was only saying
+yesterday that the mate of the _Chang Tung_ saw you at Foochow the last
+time he was up there, which was about five months ago."
+
+"Five months is a long time," I said, with a laugh. "It is possible for
+a good deal to happen in that time. Five months ago, if you had told any
+of the people who went down in the _Monarch of Macedonia_ what was
+before them, they would not have believed you."
+
+"That was a bad thing, wasn't it?" he replied, shaking his head. "I
+suppose you know that the only persons who escaped were brought on here.
+As a matter of fact, I took them in."
+
+"I guessed as much," I answered. "I said to my friend here, as we came
+along, that I felt certain they would come to the Hotel of All Nations."
+
+"Yes; I took them in. The foremast hand, however, went up in the China
+boat the following day; but the Rev. Colway-Brown stayed longer."
+
+"The deuce he did!" As I said this I glanced at the bar-tender, who was
+listening with both his ears. I had no desire that he should hear what
+we had to say, so I drew his employer a little on one side, saying, "By
+the way, Birch, can we have five minutes with you alone in your own
+private room?"
+
+"And why not?" he replied. "Surely, if there's one man in this world
+who's we'come, it's you, Dick Collon. Come along with me, gentlemen, and
+let us have our talk together."
+
+A few moments later we were installed in the hospitable landlord's
+private office, from the windows of which a magnificent view could be
+obtained of the harbour, the islands beyond, and, on a very clear day,
+of Cape York, the most northerly coast line of Australia, peeping up
+miles away to the southward. Many and strange would be the stories that
+the room could tell were it possible for it to speak. In it men had sold
+their birthrights to all intents and purposes for a mess of pottage; in
+it others, who had hitherto been considered nobodies, had learnt the
+news that the tide of fortune had turned for them, and that for the
+future they were to take their places among the high-born of the earth.
+In that room men flying from justice in the South, who had believed
+themselves beyond the reach of pursuit and had come ashore while the
+mail-boat coaled, had been arrested. For me alone that room had at least
+a hundred different memories and associations. I had been familiar with
+it for many years, but this much I can safely say, never had I entered
+it on such a strange errand as that which was now engrossing all my
+attention.
+
+"Well, what can I do for you?" asked Birch, when he had invited us to be
+seated and had closed the door behind him.
+
+"I want to ask a particular favour of you," I said. "I want you to tell
+me all you know about the Reverend Colway-Brown."
+
+"The man we were speaking of just now?" Birch asked, with an expression
+of surprise; "the only survivor from the wreck?"
+
+"Exactly," I answered. "My friend here is very much interested in him,
+and is most anxious to find him."
+
+"In that case I am afraid you have come too late," Birch replied. "He
+left for Brisbane last week in the _Oodnadatta_. He wanted to get back
+to Sydney, he said, as soon as possible. We took up a collection for
+him, and the steamship company granted him a free passage South. I
+reckon the poor chap wanted it, for he'd lost everything he possessed in
+the world, and came out of that wreck just as near stone broke as a man
+could well be."
+
+"Feeling pretty miserable, too, I don't doubt," I said.
+
+"Miserable is no word for it," he answered; "you never saw such a
+doleful chap, nor I'll be bound one half so frightened, in your life.
+All the time he was in this house he was just ready to jump away from
+his own shadow at a moment's notice. As nervous and timid as a baby.
+Couldn't bear to be left by himself, and yet as unsociable as could be
+when you were with him. Small wonder, say I, when you come to think of
+what he had been through. It's a mystery to me how he came out of it
+alive."
+
+"Did he tell you much about it while he was here?" inquired Leversidge.
+"I suppose he gave you his experiences in detail?"
+
+"That's just the funny part of it," Birch replied. "Do what you would
+you could not get that poor chap to talk about 'that terrible night,' as
+he called it. On any other subject he could be interesting enough when
+he liked, but directly you began to question him about the wreck or
+anything connected with the vessel, he would put his hands up to his
+eyes and shudder as if he saw the whole thing happening over again. For
+my own part I don't think he'll ever be able to forget it. It will be a
+nightmare to him as long as he lives."
+
+"So I should imagine," said Leversidge, with such unusual emphasis that
+our host, who was in the act of pouring us out some refreshment, paused
+and looked at him in surprise.
+
+I hastened to continue the conversation. "Poor chap!" I said; "from all
+accounts he must have stood pretty close to death that night. Now what
+we are trying to do is to find him. You say he went South last week in
+the _Oodnadatta_, intending to bring up in Sydney. You don't happen to
+know what his address is there, do you? It is of the utmost importance
+to us that we should find him with as little delay as possible."
+
+Birch thought for a few moments, and then shook his head. "I'm afraid I
+can tell you nothing that would help you," he said. "All the fellow
+wanted from morning till night was to get South as fast as possible. His
+wife was in Sydney, he said, and he was afraid she would be anxious
+until she saw him in the flesh again. That was his one cry--get
+South--get South."
+
+"And he never told you whether he lived in Sydney or out in the Bush?"
+
+"He never told us where he lived at all. On that point he was as silent
+as an oyster."
+
+"But if he's a parson, it should not be a very difficult matter to find
+out where his charge is," said Mr. Leversidge; "particularly now that
+there's been all this light thrown on his name. Of course you know of
+what persuasion he was a minister?"
+
+Here to our amazement Birch smacked his knee and burst into a roar of
+laughter. This was more than I could stand. "Confound you," I said,
+"what on earth are you laughing at?"
+
+"At the idea of your asking me what persuasion he was a minister of.
+It's as good as a play."
+
+"How so? I don't see anything funny in it."
+
+"Don't you? Well, then, I do," returned Birch. "In the first place, my
+old friend Collon, and you, Mr. Leversidge, it gives you both away
+pretty thoroughly. You told me just now that you knew the man and wanted
+to help him. All I can say is, that if you do you know precious little
+about him. Why, gentlemen, I tell you that that parson was as tough a
+bird as any I've met. He may or may not be a labourer in the vineyard,
+but all I _can_ say is that, if he _is_, he's got the finest command of
+bad language for a minister that ever I've heard, and I can do a bit
+that way myself. The day after he landed here, one of my Kanaka boys
+spilt some hot soup on his hand at table, and he rounded on him and gave
+him the most infernal cursing ever I heard in all my born days. I tell
+you it made the whole table sit up like one man. If he talks to his
+congregation like that, it's no wonder they sent him home for a sea
+voyage."
+
+Leversidge and I looked at each other, you may be sure, on hearing this.
+
+"Well, if you can tell us nothing more, I'm afraid it's no use our
+waiting on in the island. There's a mail-boat at anchor now. I think the
+best thing we can do, Mr. Leversidge, would be to board her and set off
+for Brisbane, _en route_ to Sydney, as quickly as we can go."
+
+"I agree with you," answered my companion. "Good-day, Mr. Birch, and
+thank you for your courtesy."
+
+"Don't mention that, I beg, sir," returned the affable Birch. "I only
+wish I could do more to help you in your search for your friend."
+
+I shook hands with him in my turn, and was following Leversidge towards
+the verandah steps, when Birch called me back. Sinking his voice he
+said, "What is it, Dick, my lad? What's your little game? Why do you
+want this swearing parson so badly?"
+
+"A matter of business," I answered; "a mere matter of business."
+
+Birch smiled knowingly, and winked at me. "A Hatton Garden bit of
+business, I suppose," he said. "You surely don't think I failed to
+recognise your friend, did you? Now, shall I do you a good turn?"
+
+"By all means," I replied. "I'd do you one if I could."
+
+"Well, then, take this on board with you, and think it over at your
+leisure. The day the parson left us he came to me alone in my room
+yonder and offered me----"
+
+"Offered you what?" I said, forgetting that I might be overheard.
+
+"One of the finest black pearls I ever saw or heard of," he answered.
+"He wanted me to buy it, but I refused, so he had to take it away with
+him to his poor wife in Sydney. There, what do you think of that?"
+
+"Thank you, John," I said, warmly shaking him by the hand. "You've told
+me just what I wanted to know. Good-bye."
+
+On the way down the hill I informed Leversidge of what I had been told.
+He stopped in the dust and looked at me. "Good," he said, wagging his
+head sagaciously. "That removes all doubt as to whether he was the man
+who stole the pearls."
+
+"And it also proves without a shadow of a doubt that he was the demon
+who cut your agent's throat. My Reverend Colway-Brown, there is a day of
+retribution saving up for you, or I'm very much mistaken."
+
+"But what do you think of it all?"
+
+"What do I think? Why, I think his reverence must have been a little off
+his head when he offered Birch that pearl. It's by slips like that that
+they give themselves away. Now here's the boat; let's board her and
+continue the chase."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+Within an hour and a half of our setting foot ashore in Thursday Island
+from the schooner, we were on board the mail-boat _en route_ for
+Brisbane and the South. It was a glorious evening, and the beauty of the
+scenery as one approaches and enters the famous Albany Pass is, I am
+prepared to say, second to none in the maritime world. I am afraid,
+however, on this particular occasion our thoughts were too much occupied
+with the chase we were engaged in, and the news we had so lately
+received, for us to be able to give very much attention to anything
+else. Our quarry had had a good week's start of us, and it was just
+possible in that time he might have found an opportunity of giving us
+the slip altogether. But he was not going to do so if I could help it.
+For some reason or another, apart from the crime he had committed, I had
+conceived a violent hatred of the man, and I was fully determined not to
+let him slip through my fingers and escape to enjoy the fruits of his
+villainy if it could be prevented.
+
+On reaching Cooktown, our first port of call, and a starting-point of
+much of the island trade, I informed Mr. Leversidge that it was my
+intention to go ashore in order to make quite certain that he had not
+left his vessel there. The old gentleman was not feeling very well that
+day, and it was with the utmost reluctance that he confessed his
+inability to accompany me.
+
+"But my absence is of no consequence," he was kind enough to say. "I
+have the most implicit confidence in you, and I am sure you will make
+all the necessary inquiries quite as well without me. I have only one
+request to make, however, and that is, that you come on board again as
+soon as possible, in order to let me know if you have discovered
+anything that is likely to be of use to us. You can imagine how
+impatient I shall be to hear your news."
+
+"I won't be an instant longer than I can help," I answered. "As soon as
+I have made the necessary inquiries, I'll return."
+
+Then bidding him good-bye, I made my way ashore and up the one long and
+dusty street which constitutes the business portion of Cooktown. The
+first thing to be done was to visit the office of the steamship
+company's agent to endeavour to find out whether they could tell me
+anything concerning the Reverend Colway-Brown. This, it appeared, the
+agent was quite unable to do. He had seen the gentleman in question on
+board the vessel, he told me, but beyond having congratulated him on his
+marvellous escape, he had no further conversation with him. Somewhat
+disappointed at the meagreness of his information, I left him, and went
+on up the street, intending to make inquiries at an hotel kept by an old
+diving acquaintance, who, I felt sure, would have made it his business
+to see the man in question had he come ashore.
+
+Reaching the house, I entered it, to find my old mate sitting behind the
+bar, reading a sporting article from the _Australasian_ to a man who was
+lounging on a bench near the door smoking a cigar.
+
+On seeing me, he sprang to his feet, and, seizing my hand, shook it
+until I began to think he was never going to let it go again.
+
+"Dick Collon, by all that's glorious!" he cried. "Well, who'd have
+thought of seeing you down here again! I was told you had given up these
+waters altogether. What brings you to Cooktown?"
+
+"Can't you see?" I answered. "Don't I look as if I needed a change of
+air?"
+
+"Change of air be hanged!" he replied, with a laugh. "You never needed
+such a thing in your life. Is there any one with you?"
+
+"Only an old chap from England," I said; "I am showing him the beauties
+of Australia."
+
+"What's his name?"
+
+"Leversidge," I replied. "He's a little under the weather to-day, or I'd
+have brought him along with me. He's out here looking for a man--the
+chap, in fact, who escaped from the _Monarch of Macedonia_, the Reverend
+Colway-Brown."
+
+"The deuce he is! And can't he find him?"
+
+"He hasn't done so yet. It was to discover if you could tell us whether
+he came ashore here that brought me up to see you."
+
+"I'm sorry I can't help you, old man; but what does he want to see him
+about? That's, of course, if it isn't private business."
+
+"He wants to find out what the parson can tell him about a friend who
+went down in the boat from which he was so lucky as to escape--that's
+all."
+
+"Well, I'm only sorry I can't help you," he said, but with a little
+hesitation that I did not fail to notice. "And now tell me more about
+yourself. Remember, it's ages since last we met."
+
+We chatted for a while together about old days. Then the man who had
+been smoking near the door joined us in a drink, and after a little more
+talk about horse-racing and things in general I said I must be getting
+back to my boat. On hearing that I intended walking towards the harbour,
+the bookmaker-looking party, who had thrust himself upon us, decided to
+accompany me, and while we were upon the way was so good as to offer to
+show me, for a consideration, a number of excellent means of making a
+fortune upon the Australian turf. To his mortification, however, we
+parted, without my deciding to avail myself of his assistance.
+
+Upon my informing Mr. Leversidge, when I reached his cabin, of the
+success I had met with, we unitedly came to the conclusion that our man
+had not left the boat in Cooktown, as we had thought possible, but must
+have continued his voyage in her towards a more southern port. On
+hearing, however, that our departure would be delayed for at least a
+couple of hours, I determined to go ashore again for another stroll.
+Eventually I found myself once more in my old mate's house. He received
+me with great hilarity, and it soon became evident that during my
+absence he had been sampling his own wares to considerable purpose. The
+bar was crowded, and when I entered it was plain that he had been
+retailing some good jest, for the laughter that followed was long and
+uproarious.
+
+"Come in, old lad," he cried on seeing me. "You're the very man we want,
+for we were just talking of you. The boys here want to shake you by the
+hand."
+
+Wondering what the joke could be, and thinking it behoved me to find
+out, I complied with his request.
+
+"I don't know when I've laughed so much," began my friend, as he poured
+me out some whisky. "And I'll bet all I'm worth, you never as much as
+suspected, did you now?"
+
+"Never suspected what?" I asked, rather sharply, finding my temper
+rising at the grins I saw upon the faces round me. "Out with it, old
+man; let me know what the joke is."
+
+"Well, it's a good one, you may be sure of that," he answered. "There
+you were hob-nobbing together as thick as thieves. 'Ptarmigan's the
+horse,' says he. 'I'm not so sure,' say you. 'I'll back him against your
+choice for a fiver,' says he. But you weren't on. And all the time you
+never suspected for an instant that he was neither more nor less than
+the very man you were inquiring about this afternoon, the chap who
+escaped from the _Monarch of Macedonia_ a few weeks back."
+
+"What?" I cried, scarcely able to believe that I heard aright. "Do you
+mean to tell me that that seedy old beggar who talked so much about
+horse-racing and walked with me to the harbour side was the Reverend
+Colway-Brown, the man I asked you about?"
+
+"The very man," he answered, and as he did so he brought his hand down
+with a smack upon my shoulder. "I can tell you, Dick, I nearly burst my
+sides with laughing when I saw you two jabbering away together."
+
+Seeing how I had been taken in, the crowd in the bar thought fit to
+laugh. But when I ran my eye over them they changed their minds and
+looked another way. I was so angry, I could have thrashed Donovan for
+the trick he had played me. It didn't take him long, however, to see I
+was annoyed.
+
+"Come, come, Dick, old man," he said, "you mustn't be angry with me. I
+couldn't do anything else. He spent a week in my house here, you see,
+and was uncommon free with his money. What's more, when he came to me,
+he told me he didn't want it to be known that he was the man who
+escaped, as everybody stared at him so. For this reason he changed his
+name, and I promised I'd not give him away to anybody, so I couldn't,
+even to you."
+
+"It's plain I've been had, and badly too," I said angrily. "You've
+spoiled a rare good bit of business for me, and I don't take it kindly
+of you, Jim. Where is the fellow now?"
+
+"Aboard the schooner _Friendship_," he answered, "lying alongside your
+own boat. He's left my house now, so I don't mind telling you that. But
+you will have to look sharp if you want to catch him; he sails
+to-night."
+
+Without another word I left the place and ran down the street as hard as
+I could go. I remembered having seen the schooner alongside us when I
+had left the mail-boat, but when I got there now she was gone. "Where's
+the schooner that was lying here?" I inquired of some loafers I
+discovered hanging about the wharf.
+
+"The _Friendship_, do you mean?" asked one of the men. "Why, there she
+is, out yonder!"
+
+He pointed to a white sail that was just disappearing round the opposite
+headland. On seeing that, I clenched my fist with rage, and bestowed the
+reverse of a blessing upon Jim Donovan. But for his putting me off the
+scent I might by this time have brought the chase to a successful issue.
+However, the man was safely out of my clutches now, and no amount of
+wishing would bring him back again. I dreaded, however, the task of
+telling old Leversidge how easily I had been taken in.
+
+"Do you know where the schooner is bound for?" I inquired of the man
+beside me, who had all this time been watching my face.
+
+"For the Gilberts first, and then on to Honolulu," he answered.
+
+I thanked him and then made my way back to the steamer to acquaint my
+employer with my failure. He heard my tale out to the end, and though I
+could see he was bitterly disappointed, did not once upbraid me for my
+stupidity.
+
+"Nonsense, my dear fellow!" he said, in answer to my expression of
+regret. "You could not help it. You had never seen this Colway-Brown
+before, so how could you be expected to recognise him, particularly when
+he took such pains to deceive you? But what do you think is the best
+thing for us to do?"
+
+"We must get down to Sydney with all speed, and catch a steamer there
+for Honolulu. With decent luck we should arrive at the island first. In
+the meantime I'm going to hunt up the owners of the _Friendship_, and
+get permission to board their schooner when she arrives. They know me,
+and I think will grant it."
+
+This I did, and when I had explained my reason, in confidence, to the
+head of the firm, my request was immediately granted. Armed with a
+letter to their captain, I returned to the mail-boat, and in less than
+half an hour we were continuing our voyage to the South. Arriving at
+Brisbane, we caught the mail train to Sydney, and within five hours of
+our arrival in the capital of New South Wales were on board the steamer
+_Pride of the Pacific_, bound for Honolulu _viā_ Fiji. It was, indeed, a
+race against time, and the Reverend Colway-Brown, murderer and thief,
+was the prize.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+Who that has ever seen it will forget daybreak on a fine morning in
+Honolulu Harbour? Surely no one. The background of tree-clad island, so
+dark yet so suggestive of tropical luxuriance; the sky overhead so full
+of rainbow hues, and the sea so calm and yet possessed of all the
+colours of the inside of a pearl shell. When one sees it one is forced
+to the conclusion that there could never be another like it. It is
+beautiful beyond conception.
+
+The sun had not yet made his appearance above the horizon when Mr.
+Leversidge and I left the hotel at which we had been residing since our
+arrival in the island, and made our way down to the small steamer we had
+chartered, and which had been ordered to be ready to put to sea with us
+at a moment's notice. Information had been brought to us late the night
+before that the schooner, whose coming we had been so eagerly awaiting,
+had been sighted further down the coast, and, in consequence, we were
+anxious to put off to her as soon as might be.
+
+"The chase is growing exciting," said Mr. Leversidge, as we crossed the
+gangway and bade the skipper "Good-morning!" "It is to be hoped the
+reverend gentleman has not left his vessel in the Gilberts and made off
+in another direction. In that case we shall in all probability have lost
+sight of him for good and all."
+
+"I'm not afraid of that," I answered. "In the first place he would not
+be able to get enough for his booty there to make it worth his while to
+sell, and in the second I have a sort of conviction that he is making
+for America. Such a pearl as he has with him would command a much better
+figure in San Francisco than it would be likely to do either here or in
+the Gilberts, and from what I have seen of the man I should say he was
+quite smart enough to be aware of that fact."
+
+"I am glad to hear you say so," returned Mr. Leversidge. "Nevertheless,
+I shall not feel easy in my mind until I have it in my possession once
+more. I shall not forget the chase this man has given us as long as I
+live."
+
+"I don't suppose you will," I said. "It has been exciting enough in all
+conscience. I only hope the finish may be satisfactory."
+
+"I hope it may," he answered quietly. And just then I heard the skipper
+whistle the engine-room, and presently we cast off our moorings and got
+under weigh. Throwing a trail of black smoke behind us we left the
+harbour and passed out to sea, the mate at the wheel, the skipper pacing
+the bridge, and Leversidge and I straining our eyes in search of the
+vessel for which we were so anxiously waiting. It was upwards of an
+hour, however, before we saw her white sails rising above the sea line
+ahead of us. Half an hour later only five miles or so separated us, and
+every moment was bringing us closer to each other. When we had come so
+near that we could even distinguish the people standing on her decks, I
+approached our commander.
+
+"Now then, captain," I said, "the sooner you lay us on board that boat
+the better we shall be pleased. I've a letter to deliver to the skipper
+from his owners, and it must be in his possession with as little delay
+as possible."
+
+"I'll do my best," he answered, and immediately put his helm over.
+
+The schooner's captain, seeing that we wished to speak him, hove his
+vessel to, when our skipper sang out that he would send a boat. One was
+soon alongside, and into her, when her crew had taken their places at
+the oars, Mr. Leversidge and I bundled. Ten minutes later we had been
+hauled aboard the schooner, and I was presenting the captain with the
+letter I had received from his owners.
+
+He read it carefully, and having done so turned to me: "This is a pretty
+serious matter, Mr.----,"--here he paused and consulted the letter
+again--"Mr. Collon. But I don't see how I'm to gainsay you. My owners
+say I'm to permit you to act as you think best with regard to my
+passenger, so I suppose you must have your way. Still, I don't feel easy
+in my mind."
+
+"You need not worry yourself, captain," I said. "Whatever happens, you
+may be sure your owners will not hold you responsible. Is the man we
+want on deck, or must we look for him below?"
+
+"He's not out of his bunk yet, I believe," replied the skipper; "but if
+you will follow me below I'll soon ascertain."
+
+We accompanied him, as directed, along the deck and down the companion
+ladder. Entering the small cuddy he informed Mr. McGuire that two
+gentlemen desired to speak to him, and then shrugged his shoulders, and
+made his way up on deck again. He could barely have reached it before a
+man, clad in a suit of filthy pyjamas, and with his hair standing nearly
+on end, and his eyes almost out of his head, emerged from the cabin
+opposite which we were sitting and confronted us. I saw him start back
+against the bulwarks and throw up his hands as if to shut out the memory
+of our faces, and almost at the same moment I heard my companion utter a
+little cry, followed by the words, "My God, what's this?" Then McGuire,
+or Colway-Brown, by which name we knew him better, clutched at the
+panelling, missed it, and gradually slid down until he fell in a heap
+upon the deck. The recognition had been too much for him, and he had
+fainted.
+
+When he recovered his senses, we lifted him up and placed him on a
+locker beside the table. A more miserable figure could scarcely have
+been found in all the Southern Seas. Again and again he looked at
+Leversidge, and every time he looked he groaned. I was more puzzled than
+I could express. The old gentleman's face alone was worth walking a long
+way to see. At last he got his breath, and was able to use his voice.
+
+"You miserable, cheating hound!" he cried, springing to his feet and
+speaking with a vehemence that astonished me quite as much as the scene
+which occasioned it. "Do you mean to tell me that it is you who have
+been playing this trick upon us? Am I to understand that you are the dog
+who has led us this dance? By heavens, you shall pay for it as severely
+as ever man paid yet!"
+
+Here he paused for breath, and I seized the opportunity to ask for an
+explanation.
+
+"Don't you understand?" he cried, wheeling round to me, his eyes
+flaming, and his usually florid countenance now white with rage. "This
+miserable wretch is no more the Reverend Colway-Brown than I am."
+
+"Indeed!" I said, with my mouth wide open with surprise. "Then who is
+he?"
+
+"_My own agent--the man we trusted. The man who was to have brought the
+pearl to England!_"
+
+"This is really very pretty," I said, as soon as I had recovered from my
+astonishment. "And, what's more, it explains a good many things that I
+could not understand. No wonder he took fright when I mentioned your
+name at Donovan's Hotel in Cooktown. Had it not been for that bilious
+attack of yours you would have been with me, and, in that case, you
+would have recognised him, and we should have been spared this voyage
+across the Pacific. But still there is one matter that requires
+consideration." Here I turned to the wretched fellow before us. "If the
+Reverend Colway-Brown did not murder the agent, it is plain that the
+agent must have murdered the Reverend Colway-Brown. We gave the parson
+the credit of that business. It appears, however, that we were
+mistaken."
+
+By this time the wretched man's agony was almost painful to witness. Try
+how he would he could not recover his self-possession. Prior to that
+moment he had imagined himself accused of mere stealing, while the
+secret of the more serious charge he believed to be still safely locked
+up in the mail-boat cabin at the bottom of the sea. It came upon him,
+therefore, as a greater shock to find his crime discovered, and by the
+very man of all others of whom he had the greatest reason to be afraid.
+Small wonder that he felt ill at ease. In my own heart I'm afraid I
+pitied him, but not when I thought of the sinking mail-boat and the wild
+struggle in cabin 33.
+
+"What have you to say for yourself?" asked Leversidge, turning to the
+other again. "Are you aware that we have only to convey you ashore in
+order to give you into custody as the murderer of Colway-Brown?"
+
+"I am aware of that," cried the wretched man; "but you do not know
+everything. You do not know what I had to put up with. You can have no
+idea of the temptations that were placed in my way. He was one of the
+gang that dogged my steps first from Melbourne to Sydney, and then on to
+Brisbane. I was surrounded, morning, noon, and night, by thieves and
+murderers. I scarcely dared close my eyes for fear I should never open
+them again, or if I did that I should find my precious charge gone. This
+man you call Colway-Brown was the head of the gang, but it was not until
+we had reached Thursday Island that I found him out. Then he began to
+hang round me on deck and in my cabin, talking always of pearls and
+precious stones, and trying to induce me to be friendly with him. On the
+night of the wreck he came into my berth, just as I was thinking of
+retiring to rest. One glance showed me that he was under the influence
+of liquor, and I also noticed that he carried one hand in his pocket in
+a suspicious sort of fashion. Presently he came up alongside me as I
+stood beside my washstand basin, and before I knew what he was about had
+whipped a razor from his pocket and was trying for my throat. I was too
+startled by the suddenness of it all to cry out, but not sufficiently so
+as to be unable to defend myself. I wrestled with him with the strength
+of despair, and at last was fortunate enough to get the mastery and to
+throw him upon the deck. Then the devil, who arranges all these things
+for his own benefit, you may be sure, got hold of me, and for a few
+moments I was not conscious of what I did. I remember looking down at
+him as he lay below me on the deck, and I also remember seizing the
+razor, which had fallen from his hand, and giving myself a nasty cut in
+so doing. After that I am not sure of my actions; but one thing is very
+certain, when I rose to my feet his throat was cut from ear to ear. You,
+Mr. Leversidge, who are so angry with me now, may not believe me when I
+say so, but I tell you that I fell back against my berth trying to find
+the pluck to kill myself when I thought of what I had done. But I could
+not do it. I leaned against my bunk and hid my face in my blood-stained
+hands, sobbing as if my heart would break. Then I looked down at the
+man, and seeing that he was quite dead, wondered how I could best manage
+to save my neck from the fatal noose.
+
+"While I was trying to collect my thoughts, and wondering what I should
+do, the vessel quivered from stem to stern; then I heard a noise on
+deck, a shouting and trampling of feet. I immediately left my cabin and
+ran up the companion ladder as fast as I could go, only to find the
+great ship sinking. What happened during the next few minutes I cannot
+say; indeed, I do not remember anything of what happened until I found
+myself floating on the surface of the water, wondering how long I should
+remain alive. The rest you know. I was saved, with one other man, and,
+what was more, I had the pearl with me. It is my belief it is accursed.
+It was not until I was out of the water, and found that there were only
+two of us saved, that the idea occurred to me to impersonate the dead
+man, and thus keep the jewel for myself. I fought with it, God knows how
+hard, but it was too strong for me, and at last I gave in. The chances,
+I argued, were all in my favour. So far as I knew, with the exception of
+the foremast hand, who did not know one passenger from another, I was
+the only survivor. Your agent was supposed to be drowned. If, therefore,
+I called myself Colway-Brown, I might escape detection.
+
+"When I reached Thursday Island, intending to strike for America, where
+I thought I should have a better opportunity of selling my stolen
+property without being detected, I called myself by the name of the dead
+man. Then came your telegram asking for information concerning your
+agent. I answered it as I thought the spurious parson would have done,
+and told myself I should be troubled by you no more. The week following
+I left for the South, but every one was so curious to see me that I
+abandoned that idea and left the vessel at Cooktown, intending to change
+into this boat, and so make my way _viā_ Honolulu to the States. But it
+was not to be. You, sir, found me at Jim Donovan's Hotel, and it was
+only by a stroke of good fortune that I managed to give you the slip.
+Now you, Mr. Leversidge, have caught me, and it remains for you to say
+what you will do."
+
+I looked at Leversidge, who looked at me. The position was an awkward
+one. There could be no doubt that the man's story was a true one; and if
+so, for a part of it, at least, he deserved our pity.
+
+It was Mr. Leversidge who solved the difficulty by inquiring what had
+become of the pearl. In answer the man fumbled in the breast-pocket of
+his coat, and presently drew out a small flat box, which he passed
+across the table.
+
+"It is there, the cursed thing!" he said bitterly. "Would to God I had
+never seen it! It has wrought my ruin, body and soul."
+
+With feverish earnestness Mr. Leversidge opened the box, and took from
+the cotton wool, with which it was filled, the finest black pearl I had
+ever set eyes on in the whole course of my experience. Seeing it, I
+could easily understand the temptation it had given rise to in the
+other's heart. Mr. Leversidge, however, replaced it in its nest, and
+stowed the box away in his pocket. Then he turned to the wretched man
+before us.
+
+"You know in your own heart," he said, "whether the story you have told
+us regarding that man's death be true or not. In either case you may be
+sure of one thing, and that is, that your wretched secret is in safe
+keeping. May God forgive you, and permit you to work out your own
+salvation; we shall not punish you further. The rest is a matter for
+your own conscience."
+
+Ten minutes later we were back on our own steamer, returning to Honolulu
+as fast as she could carry us, little dreaming what awaited us there.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+It was well-nigh mid-day before we reached our hotel; but as soon as we
+did so Mr. Leversidge placed the small box containing the pearl in a
+safe place. Having had such difficulty in finding it, he had no desire
+to run the risk of losing it again. This done, we devoted half an hour
+to business, and after that I went down to the agent's office to make
+inquiries about the mail-boat for Japan, which was due to arrive from
+San Francisco the following day. The remainder of the afternoon was
+occupied with calls upon old friends, and it was not until well after
+nightfall that I returned to our hotel. On arriving there, to my
+surprise, I found Mr. Leversidge in my bedroom in a state of wildest
+excitement. He was standing in the middle of the room holding the small
+wooden box containing the pearl in his hand. I inquired what was the
+matter.
+
+"Thank Heaven you have returned," he cried. "Collon, I have made a
+terrible discovery. You will scarcely believe, but we've been swindled
+again, and in the most barefaced manner possible, by that seemingly
+repentant hound on board the steamer."
+
+"What on earth do you mean?" I inquired, scarcely able to credit what he
+said. "How have we been swindled?"
+
+In answer to my question he lifted the lid of the box and tipped its
+contents into the palm of his hand, which he held towards me in a
+theatrical fashion.
+
+"We've been horribly taken in," he said. "This is not the pearl my firm
+purchased. It is a dummy--a fake, a make-believe. That clever rascal
+must have manufactured it himself for this express purpose, and all his
+protestations were as false as the pearl itself."
+
+"What?" I cried. "I can't believe it. Let me look at the thing."
+
+Taking it from him I examined it carefully. What he said was true. It
+was not genuine. At the same time, however, I am prepared to assert that
+it was the finest forgery of its kind I have ever come across in a
+fairly extensive experience. Until that moment, in my own heart, I had
+been despising the spurious Colway-Brown for a mere chicken-hearted cur,
+who, as soon as he was collared, wept and whined, and declared himself
+over-tempted and deeply repentant. Now, however, I was beginning to have
+a greater respect for him than I had yet felt, and for the simple and
+sufficient reason that in a trial of skill he had proved one too many
+for us.
+
+"What can we do?" asked Mr. Leversidge. "By this time he may have
+changed to another boat, and have left the Island. In that case we shall
+have to commence our chase over again."
+
+I was about to reply, when one of the native servants of the hotel
+entered the room and handed Mr. Leversidge a note, which he opened.
+Having read it he passed it on to me.
+
+"Good heavens! I can scarcely believe it," I heard him say softly to
+himself. "Read that, Mr. Collon."
+
+The note was from the captain of the schooner _Friendship_, and ran as
+follows:--
+
+     "To J. Leversidge, Esq.,
+
+     "Pacific Hotel, Honolulu.
+
+     "Dear Sir,--
+
+     "I regret exceedingly having to inform you that the man whom
+     you visited on board my vessel this morning was, half an hour
+     ago, shot by a person who had evidently been awaiting his
+     arrival in this port. The murderer is in safe custody. As I
+     understand from him that you were, or had been until lately,
+     his employer, I thought it my duty to at once communicate with
+     you.
+
+     "I am, Sir,
+
+     "Yours very obediently,
+
+     "J. BOLSOVER."
+
+"This is retribution with a vengeance," I said. "But who can the
+murderer be?"
+
+"One of the gang who was after the pearl in Australia, I'll be bound,"
+returned Mr. Leversidge. Then the expression on his face suddenly
+changed, and he seized me by the arm. "For hundreds of reasons he would
+be certain to carry the pearl about his person. Can the murderer have
+stolen it, think you?"
+
+"We will very soon ascertain," I answered, springing from the chair into
+which I had just thrown myself. "Come, Mr. Leversidge, we'll be off to
+the boat at once. This is no time for half measures."
+
+So saying, we seized our hats and left the hotel in search of the
+schooner _Friendship_. When we got on board we found an unusual
+stillness reigning. The skipper greeted us at the entrance of the
+companion ladder and shook us by the hand. "This is a bad business,
+gentlemen," he said, "and I regret that it should have happened aboard
+my boat."
+
+"A very bad business, as you say," Mr. Leversidge replied. "How long ago
+did it happen?"
+
+"About an hour and a half," replied the other. "It was getting dark,
+when a man came aboard and asked to see your friend. He was standing
+just where we are now, and after they had said a few words they walked
+aft together. They must have started quarrelling at once, for as I went
+down the ladder to the cuddy I heard some high words pass between them,
+then a shot was fired, and your friend fell upon the deck. I rushed on
+deck and got there just in time to seize the murderer as he was going
+over the side. We clapped him in irons straight away, and as soon as we
+had done so, set ashore for the police."
+
+"And the murdered man?"
+
+"We carried him below, but he expired before we got him there. He lies
+now in his cabin. The police are coming to take him off in an hour's
+time. Perhaps you would like to see him?"
+
+"Thank you," said Mr. Leversidge, and the captain led the way to the
+berth below, where he left us alone with the dead man.
+
+"It's now, or never," I said. "If we want the pearl, we've got to find
+it before the police come off to take possession of the body, otherwise
+how are you going to establish your rights to it."
+
+"But where do you intend looking for it?" Mr. Leversidge inquired.
+
+"I'm going to begin by searching the body," I answered, "and then if we
+are permitted sufficient time, I shall take a look at his luggage. You
+had better guard the door."
+
+As I spoke I took from my pocket a small, but exceedingly sharp pair of
+folding scissors, which I make a point of always carrying about with me.
+Then drawing back the blanket with which the body was covered, I ran my
+practised fingers over it. It is wonderful what a number of
+hiding-places the human frame contains. But it is the business of my
+life to know them all, and on this particular occasion it was not long
+before I discovered that high up under his right arm his coat had been
+carefully padded. To cut the lining was the work of a few seconds, and
+the results justified my expectations. "Here is your pearl, Mr.
+Leversidge," I said, holding it up, and a moment later I handed him the
+jewel in question. "Now let us get on deck as soon as possible. You had
+better leave your address, however, with the captain, in order that the
+police may know where to find you should your presence be required at
+the inquest."
+
+He followed my advice, and then we descended to our boat alongside. Next
+morning, to obviate any chance of future inconvenience, we made it our
+business to attend at the police office, where we stated what we knew of
+the murdered man. Three hours later I bade Mr. Leversidge farewell on
+the hurricane deck of the American mail-boat.
+
+"Good-bye, Mr. Collon," he said. "It seems strange to be parting like
+this after all we have gone through together. I thank you from the
+bottom of my heart for your co-operation. There is only one question I
+wish to ask you before you go."
+
+"And what is that?"
+
+"Was I right, or was I wrong, when I told you in Ceylon that I thought
+this case would prove to be one of the most extraordinary even in your
+varied repertoire?"
+
+"You were quite right," I answered. "I have never known another like it.
+Good-bye."
+
+"Good-bye, and may you always be equally successful."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Three months later, when I was just bringing to a conclusion a delicate
+bit of business in Cochin China, the incoming mail-boat brought me a
+small packet, which, when I had opened it, I discovered contained a
+valuable diamond ring, with a card bearing this inscription:--"To
+Christopher Collon, in recognition of a signal service rendered to
+Wilson, Burke & Leversidge, of Hatton Garden."
+
+The great black pearl which was the cause of all that has been told in
+this story is now amongst the most valued jewels of an Empress. How
+little, when it lies black as night upon her snow-white bosom, does she
+think what it cost in human life, or of the part it played in the drama
+to which I now invariably refer as "A CRIME OF THE UNDER-SEAS."
+
+
+
+
+The Phantom Stockman
+
+
+"A remarkably charming situation, and as pretty a homestead as any I
+have seen in the Bush," I said. "You have certainly worked wonders
+during the short time you have been in possession."
+
+It was a moonlight night, and Jim Spicer and I were sitting in the
+verandah of Warradoona Station in Western New South Wales. Ten o'clock
+had struck nearly half an hour before, and, at a quarter past, Mrs.
+Spicer had bidden us "Good-night" and had gone off to bed. On hearing
+that I did not feel tired, her husband had invited me to bring my pipe
+and grog into the verandah, where we could chat about old times without
+disturbing anybody. I had only arrived that afternoon from Melbourne,
+and, as we had not met for more than three years, it may be easily
+imagined that we had much to say to each other. Years before we had been
+on a station together in Queensland, had done two overlanding trips in
+the same party, and had more than once tried our luck upon the
+gold-fields in partnership. Then he had taken a billet as manager of a
+big station in the Far West, and I had gone south to Melbourne to give
+up the Bush and settle down to the humdrum business I had inherited from
+my father. My surprise may therefore be understood when one morning I
+received a letter from my old comrade, informing me that he was married
+and had taken a property on Warradoona Creek. He brought his letter to a
+conclusion by telling me that if I stood in need of a holiday, and would
+care to undertake the long journey out to his place, he would not only
+give me a hearty welcome, but would be very thankful for my assistance
+in unravelling a mystery which up to the time of writing had baffled him
+completely. What the mystery was he did not say.
+
+Now, as all the Bush world knows, Warradoona, despite the fact that it
+is on the direct overlanding route to Western Queensland, is one of the
+most unget-at-able places on the face of our great Island Continent. To
+begin with, you have a four hundred mile railway journey, then a coach
+ride of upwards of two hundred more, which will bring you to the
+township of Yarrapanya, a settlement of four houses at the junction of
+Warradoona Creek with the Salt Bush River. In the township horses can be
+obtained, and with their assistance the remainder of the journey,
+upwards of a hundred miles, may be accomplished. At the best of times it
+is a tedious undertaking, but when the floods are out, or, on the other
+hand, in the summer season when there is no water at all, it becomes a
+peculiarly dangerous one. To compensate for these drawbacks, however,
+when you _do_ reach the station you will receive as hearty a welcome as
+any to be obtained in the Bush. The property itself is a large one, and
+certainly the best in that district. The homestead is a neat Bush
+building constructed of wood, roofed with shingles, and boasting on
+every side a broad verandah. It is built on the side of a hill and
+overlooks the plain that separates the higher land from the river. Away
+to the north where the Ranges trend in towards the Creek, there is a
+narrow pass through which come all the overlanding parties bringing
+cattle from Queensland to the south. To the southward a dense Mulga
+Scrub commences, and clothes the whole face of the hills as far as the
+eye can reach. Across the river and lying some thirty miles due west is
+Yarka Station, where, at the time of which I write, resided Jim's
+nearest neighbour, the Honourable Marmaduke Chudfield, a young
+Englishman, who, after he had given his family repeated opportunities of
+studying the more frivolous side of his character, had been shipped to
+Australia, where it was confidently hoped hard work and a limited supply
+of money would turn him into a staid and respectable colonist.
+
+"Yes," said Spicer, as he walked to the rail of the verandah, and looked
+down upon the moonlit plain, "it is, as you say, by no means a bad sort
+of place. As I shall show you to-morrow, the station buildings are above
+the average in point of completeness, the run is well sheltered and
+grassed, the supply of water is abundant, and, as you are aware, we are
+on the direct cattle route to the south. Moreover, I have got the place
+for a considerable period on exceptional terms."
+
+"I congratulate you most heartily. Now tell me the disadvantages; for I
+suppose there _are_ some."
+
+"So far as I have seen there is only one. At the same time, however, I
+must confess that that one is quite big enough to outweigh all the
+advantages put together. In point of fact, it was that very disadvantage
+that made me write to you last week and endeavour to induce you to pay
+us a visit."
+
+"Now I come to think of it, I remember in your letter you _did_ speak of
+some mystery that you wanted cleared up. What is it? In these prosaic
+days mysteries, save in mining matters, are few and far between. I am
+all impatience to hear what shape yours assumes."
+
+While I had been speaking Spicer had been leaning on the verandah rail
+looking down the hillside towards the river. Now he turned, and, placing
+his back against one of the posts that supported the roof, regarded me
+steadily for some seconds.
+
+"First and foremost, old man," he said, "try to bear it in mind that I
+don't want to be laughed at. I've got so much at stake that I'm as
+touchy on the subject as an old man with the gout. The trouble I have to
+contend with is that this place is supposed to be haunted. I know it's a
+silly sort of thing for a matter-of-fact fellow like myself to say; but
+still the fact remains, and a remarkably unpleasant fact it is."
+
+"The deuce it is," I replied. "And pray what is the place supposed to be
+haunted by?"
+
+"By a man on a white horse who rides about on a plain down yonder."
+
+"Is this only hearsay, or have you seen the apparition yourself?"
+
+"I have seen him on three occasions," replied Spicer solemnly. "The
+first time was the week after I arrived on the place, the second was
+three months ago, and the last was the very Saturday upon which I wrote
+to you. But as if that were not enough, we have been worried ever since
+our arrival by the most dismal noises in the house itself."
+
+"What sort of noises do you mean?"
+
+"By all sorts, confound them! Sometimes by a shriek about midnight that
+fetches you up in bed with the perspiration rolling off your face;
+sometimes by moans and groans; and sometimes, but not so often, by a
+peculiar noise that is for all the world like a human voice, muffled by
+a blanket, trying to say, 'Save me, save me,' and not succeeding very
+well. As you know, I am a fairly plucky man, and for that reason I think
+I might manage to stand it myself; but then I've got some one else to
+consider. I have to think of my wife. Under ordinary circumstances she
+is as plucky a little woman as ever made her home in the Bush, but no
+woman's nerves would stand the continual strain that is put upon them
+here. You see, my work often takes me out on the run for days at a time,
+and I have to leave her alone. Female servants we have none, not so much
+even as a solitary black gin. When we came up we brought a woman with us
+from Melbourne, but she only stayed a week and then went off with the
+first bullock team that passed this way. However, we managed, by
+offering big wages, to get another. She stayed a month, and then said
+she would prefer to go off to the township alone rather than stay
+another night upon the place. We have been here five months and a week,
+and during that time I have had four men cooks, three chief stockmen,
+eight inferior ditto, and ten horse boys. As for a strange black, I've
+not seen one near the place since I first set foot upon it. The last
+time I was staying the night at Chudfield's place across the river, I
+tried to persuade one he wanted to get rid of to come over and keep my
+own two boys company. His answer was significant. 'Baal (no) come up
+this fella,' he said. 'Too much debbil debbil alonga Warradoona.' The
+long and the short of the matter is, old friend, unless I can manage to
+put a stop to this phantom business I shall be a ruined man. All my
+savings are locked up in this place, and if I don't make it pay, well, I
+must sell up and go back to Queensland and be a servant again instead of
+a master."
+
+"It's a nasty position," I said. "I don't wonder you want to get it
+settled. By the way, how long has the place possessed this sinister
+reputation?"
+
+"Only for the last three years," he answered.
+
+"Is there any sort of story to account for it?"
+
+Spicer was silent for a moment.
+
+"Well, there you have me on a tender spot," he replied. "Though I don't
+like to own it, I must confess there _is_ a story."
+
+"Can you tell it to me?"
+
+"If you think it will help you to a solution of the problem I shall be
+glad to do so. You must understand that about three years ago a mob of
+cattle camped, according to custom, upon the plain down yonder. They
+were on their way from Queensland to Adelaide, in charge of an old
+drover named Burke, a worthy old fellow who'd been on the road all his
+life. During the evening a quarrel arose between him and his second in
+command. From high words they came to blows, and in the encounter the
+subordinate got the worst of it. He professed to be satisfied and turned
+into his blankets apparently sorry for what he had done. An hour later
+the third white man of the party mounted his horse and went out to watch
+the cattle, leaving the other two, as he thought, asleep. When he
+returned two hours later he found Burke stabbed to the heart and the
+other man missing. Do you remember, when you crossed the river to-day,
+noticing a grave enclosed by a white railing?"
+
+"Perfectly. I wondered at the time whose it could be."
+
+"Well, that's where Burke is buried."
+
+"The phantom, then, is supposed to be the ghost of the murdered man?
+What form does it take?"
+
+"It is that of an old man with a long grey beard; he is dressed all in
+white and is mounted upon a white horse, who carries his head rather
+high. He holds a stock-whip in his hand and wears a white felt hat
+pulled far down over his eyes."
+
+"Has anybody else seen him?"
+
+"Dozens of people. It drove away Jamison, the first owner of the place,
+and the original builder of this house. Williams, from Mindana, came
+next; he built the men's hut away to the left there, and cleared out bag
+and baggage exactly three months to a day after he had paid his purchase
+money. He said he would rather lose five thousand pounds than stop
+another night on the place. Macpherson, a long-headed Scotchman, as hard
+as a tenpenny nail, and about as emotional as a brickbat, came next. He
+paid his money and was not going to lose it just because he heard funny
+noises and saw queer sights. But at the end of six months he had changed
+his tune. Money was no object to him, he said; he was content to lose
+every penny he possessed in the world provided he saw no more of
+Warradoona. Benson followed Macpherson. He got the place dirt cheap,
+cattle thrown in, and, from what the folk in the township told me,
+seemed to think he'd done a mighty smart stroke of business."
+
+"What became of Benson?"
+
+"He returned to the south without even unpacking his bullock wagons. He
+has bought a place in New Zealand now, I believe. It was from him that I
+purchased the property."
+
+"And the price you paid for it?"
+
+"Would be less than a quarter of its value but for the Phantom Stockman.
+As it is, I am upset on an average three nights a week; my wife is
+frightened nearly out of her wits every time she goes to bed; and with
+the exception of my head stockman, Ruford, and two black boys, I can
+keep no servants upon the place, and in consequence have to work my
+stock short-handed, which is an impossibility. To put it plainly, either
+the Phantom Stockman or I must go. I thought all this out last week and
+the upshot of my cogitations was my letter to you. I know from
+experience that you've got a cool head, and I have had repeated evidence
+of your pluck. Young Chudfield, my next-door neighbour, the man who, for
+the sake of my company, has done his level best to persuade me to give
+the place a further trial, has promised to come over and give us a hand,
+and if we three can't settle the mystery between us, well, I think we
+ought to be ashamed of ourselves, that's all."
+
+"We'll certainly have a good try," I answered. "I'm not a believer in
+ghosts myself, and it will go hard with us if we can't manage to
+discover of what sort of material our troublesome friend is composed.
+One further question. Does he put in an appearance at regular intervals,
+or is he indiscriminate in his favours?"
+
+"As far as _he_ is personally concerned he is fairly regular. It is
+about the full of the moon that he appears to be most active, but the
+noises in the house go on at all hours, sometimes two or three nights in
+succession. Then perhaps there will be a week's silence, after which we
+will be worried night after night, till we are nearly driven
+distracted."
+
+"It seems a most mysterious affair," I said. "And I can quite understand
+that you are worried by it."
+
+"You would say so if you had to live here," he answered. "It gets on
+your nerves till you feel inclined to jump away from your own shadow.
+Now I expect you're tired, and would like to be off to roost. Help
+yourself to a night-cap, and then we'll have a look at your room
+together."
+
+I had leant forward to the table and taken up the demijohn containing
+the spirit--in point of fact, I was in the act of pouring some of its
+contents into my glass--when from the dark house behind us there came a
+long, low moan, followed by a shriek that cut the still night air like
+the sharp tearing of a sheet of calico. After that there was complete
+silence, which to my thinking was worse even than the scream. I sprang
+to my feet.
+
+"My God," I cried, "what's that?"
+
+But Spicer only laughed in a curious way.
+
+"You are being introduced to our supernatural friend," he replied. "Now
+you know the sort of thing we are being continually called upon to put
+up with."
+
+"But it sounded so intensely human," I said. "And yet, now I come to
+think of it, there was a peculiar muffled note about it that rather
+upsets my theory. One thing, however, is quite certain: it came from the
+house, and I should say from the centre passage."
+
+"You are quite right. That's where we always hear it. But if you think
+there is anybody hiding there you're mistaken. Come and look for
+yourself."
+
+So saying he led the way into the house. I followed him. As he had said,
+there was nobody to be seen. The passage in question was about twenty
+feet long by four wide. There was a door at each end, and two on either
+side. It was well lighted by an oil lamp supported on an iron bracket
+screwed into the woodwork. The walls were composed of weather boards,
+while the floor was covered by a strip of oilcloth, which stretched from
+end to end. Spicer lifted the lamp from its socket, and, opening one of
+the doors on the left, led me into the sitting-room. We explored it
+carefully, but there was nothing there that could in any way account for
+the noise we had heard. Having satisfied ourselves on this point, we
+crossed to the room on the opposite side of the passage. This was my
+bedroom, and in it, as in the other apartment, our search was
+unrewarded. The room next to it was Spicer's office, and, save a safe, a
+desk, a small cupboard, a chair, and a row of account books, contained
+nothing to excite our suspicion. We passed into the passage again.
+
+"This room," he said, pointing to the door opposite the office, "is our
+bedroom."
+
+He tapped on the door.
+
+"Minnie," he cried, "are you awake?"
+
+"Yes," was the answer, "and very frightened. How long will you be before
+you come to bed?"
+
+"I am coming now," he replied. Then, turning to me, he held out his
+hand. "Good-night," he said, "and pleasant dreams to you. It seems a
+shame to have brought you up here only to worry you with our troubles."
+
+"I am very glad, indeed, that I came," I replied. "And if I can help you
+to some solution of your difficulty I shall be still more glad."
+
+A quarter of an hour later I was in bed and asleep. If there was any
+further noise that night I did not hear it. I was tired after my long
+journey, and slept on until long after the sun had risen next morning.
+
+When I did turn out I went into the verandah, where I discovered my
+hostess.
+
+"Good-morning," she said, as she offered me her hand. "Jim has just gone
+across to the stockyard, but he will be back to breakfast in a moment."
+
+Many people might have been discovered in Australia who would have
+thanked their stars that they were not the proprietors of Warradoona
+Station, but there would have been few who would not have envied Spicer
+his partner in life. She was a pretty brunette, with wonderful brown
+eyes, and a sympathetic, motherly way about her that made every one feel
+at home in her company, even if they had never seen her until five
+minutes before.
+
+"I cannot tell you how very kind I think you are," she said, "to come to
+our assistance. You can imagine what a depressing effect this place has
+had upon Jim and myself. We have tried everything we can think of to
+solve the mystery, but without success. Now it remains to be seen
+whether you will fare any better than we have done."
+
+"I am going to do my best," I answered, and as I said so, Jim came up
+the steps.
+
+"Good-morning," he said as he reached the verandah. "I hope you slept
+well and that you were not disturbed by any more noises."
+
+"If there were any to hear they didn't wake me," I answered. "I suppose
+you have not discovered anything that throws any sort of light upon that
+scream we heard last night?"
+
+"Nothing at all," he replied, shaking his head. "But, to add to the
+discomfort we are already enduring, our cook has just informed me that
+he saw the White Horseman on the plain last night, and in consequence
+has given me notice that it is his intention to leave at mid-day. He
+says he would rather forfeit all his wages than remain another night."
+
+"Oh, Jim, I am sorry to hear that," said his wife. "We shall have great
+difficulty in getting another. We _do_ indeed seem doomed to
+misfortune."
+
+Jim said nothing, but I saw his mouth harden as we went in to breakfast.
+His patience was well-nigh exhausted, and I suspected that if the
+mystery were not solved before many days were over he would follow the
+example of his predecessors, forfeit all the money he had put into it,
+and sever his connection with Warradoona.
+
+During the morning I gave him a hand with some branding in the
+stockyard, and in the afternoon we went for a ride across the river,
+hoping to meet the mob of cattle his men were out collecting. We were
+unsuccessful, however, and it was dusk when we reached home again. By
+the time we had turned our horses loose, and placed our saddles on the
+racks, the full moon was rising above the Ranges behind the house. On
+reaching the verandah we heard voices in the sitting-room.
+
+"That's Marmaduke Chudfield, I'll wager a sovereign," said Jim. "I'm
+glad he's come over, for though he's rather a namby-pamby sort of
+individual, he's not bad company."
+
+A moment later we had entered the room, and I was being introduced to a
+tall, slim youth of perhaps eight-and-twenty years of age. His height
+could not have been much under six feet two, his face was devoid of
+beard or moustache, and boasted a somewhat vacuous expression, which a
+single eye-glass he wore continually only served to intensify. He spoke
+with a lisp and a drawl, and if one could judge by his own confessions,
+seemed to have no knowledge of any one thing in the whole system of the
+universe. In less than five minutes' conversation I had struck the bed
+rock of his intelligence, to use a mining phrase, and, while I had small
+doubt of his good nature, was not at all impressed by his sagacity. His
+station, Yarka, was, so Jim informed me later, a grand property, and
+carried a large number of cattle. This success, however, was in no sense
+due to Chudfield's exertions. To quote his own words, he "left
+everything to his overseer, a German, named Mulhauser, don't-cher-know,
+and didn't muddle things up by shoving his spoke in when it was no sort
+of jolly assistance, don't-cher-know. Cattle farming was not exactly his
+line, and if he had to pay a chap to work, well, he'd make him work,
+while he himself sat tight and had a jolly good time with continual
+trips to town and friends up to stay, and all that sort of thing,
+don't-cher-know."
+
+After dinner we sat in the verandah and smoked our pipes until close
+upon ten o'clock, when Mrs. Spicer bade us "Good-night" and retired to
+her own room, as on the previous evening. After she had left us, there
+was a lull in the conversation. The night was perfectly still, as only
+nights in the Bush can be; the moon was well above the roof, and in
+consequence the plain below us was well-nigh as bright as day. The only
+sound to be heard was the ticking of the clock in the sitting-room
+behind us, and the faint sighing of the night-breeze through the scrub
+timber on the hills behind the house. And here I must make a digression.
+I don't think I have so far explained that in front of the house there
+was an unkempt garden about fifty yards long by thirty wide, enclosed by
+a rough Bush fence. In an idle sort of way I sat smoking and watching
+the rails at the bottom. The beauty of the night seemed to exercise a
+soothing influence upon the three of us. Jim, however, was just about to
+speak when Chudfield sprang from his chair, and, pointing towards the
+fence, at which only a moment before I had been looking, cried, "What's
+that?"
+
+We followed the direction of his hand with our eyes, and as we did so
+leapt to our feet. Being but a sorry scene-painter I don't know exactly
+what words I should employ to make you see what we saw then. Scarcely
+fifty yards from us, seated upon a white horse, was a tall man, with a
+long grey beard, dressed altogether in white, even to his hat and boots.
+In his hand he carried a white stock-whip, which he balanced upon his
+hip. How he had managed to come so close without making a sound to warn
+us of his approach was more than I could understand; but this much was
+certain, come he did. The time, from our first seeing him to the moment
+of his wheeling his horse and riding silently away again, could not have
+been more than a minute, but all the same we were able to take perfect
+stock of him.
+
+"Follow me," shouted Jim, as he rushed down the steps and ran towards
+the gate at the bottom of the garden. We followed close at his heels,
+but by the time we reached the fence the Phantom Stockman had entirely
+disappeared. We stared across the moonlit plain until our eyes ached,
+but not a sign of the apparition we had seen rewarded us.
+
+"That is the third time he has been up here since I have had the place,"
+said our host, "and each time he has vanished before I could get close
+enough to have a good look at him."
+
+"What beats me was the fact that his horse made no sound," remarked the
+Honourable Marmaduke, "and yet the ground is hard enough hereabouts."
+
+"Wait here till I get a lantern," cried Spicer. "Don't go outside the
+fence, and then you won't obliterate any tracks he may have made."
+
+So saying he hastened back to the house, to return in about five minutes
+carrying in his hand a large lantern. With its assistance we carefully
+explored the ground on the other side of the fence, but to no purpose.
+There was not a sign of a horse's hoof to be seen.
+
+"Well, this beats cock fighting," said the Honourable, as Jim blew out
+the light and we turned to walk back to the house. "This is Hamlet's
+father's ghost with a vengeance, don't-cher-know. I shall be glad
+whenever he takes it into his head to pay me a visit at Yarka. I'm
+afraid in that case my respected parent would see me in England sooner
+than would be quite convenient to him."
+
+To this speech Jim replied never a word, nor did I think his remark
+worth an answer. Once in the verandah we separated, bidding each other
+good-night, Jim to go to his own room, the Honourable to take possession
+of the sofa in the sitting-room, upon which a bed had been made up for
+him, and I to my own dormitory. I saw Jim turn down the lamp in the
+passage and heard him blow it out as I shut my door. Then I undressed
+and jumped into bed.
+
+How long I had been asleep I do not know, but I have the most vivid
+remembrance of suddenly finding myself sitting up in bed with the sweat
+pouring off my face, and the echo of surely the most awful shriek mortal
+man ever heard ringing in my ears. Before I could recover my
+self-possession it rang out again, followed this time by a strange
+moaning sound that must have continued while I could have counted
+twenty. Thinking this had gone about far enough I jumped out of bed,
+opened the door, and ran into the passage, only to be seized by a pair
+of arms. Lifting my right hand I took my assailant by the throat, and
+just as I did so, Jim's door opened and he came out, holding a candle in
+his hand. Then it was that I made the discovery that it was not the
+ghost's throat I was clutching between my finger and thumb, but that of
+the Honourable.
+
+"Confound you two," said Jim angrily. "What on earth are you up to?"
+
+"Up to?" gasped Chudfield. "Why, I heard the most villainous scream just
+now that I ever heard in my life, and came running out of my room to see
+what was the matter, only to be collared by the throat by this chap."
+Then turning to me he continued, in his usual drawling way, "I believe
+you've half broken my neck, don't-cher-know."
+
+"Bother your neck," I cried shortly, for my dander was up and somebody
+had got to suffer for the fright I had received. "Jim, did you hear that
+scream?"
+
+"Worse luck," answered poor Jim. "I wish I could say I hadn't. What the
+deuce does it mean?"
+
+"It means," I replied sternly, "that if there's a ghost in this place
+I've got to see him before I'll be satisfied. And if it's a trick, well,
+I've got to find the chap that's playing it or know the reason why. When
+I do, I'll do what Chudfield here accuses me of half doing. I'll break
+his neck."
+
+With that I walked first to the door at one end of the passage and
+examined it, then to the other; after that I tried the door leading into
+the office. All three were securely locked on our side.
+
+"As far as I can remember, the sound seemed to come from about here," I
+said, pointing to the centre of the floor. "What is underneath these
+boards, Jim?"
+
+"Only solid Mother Earth," he replied. "I had some of the planks up when
+I came into the place and put new ones down."
+
+"Well, I'm going to sit up and await further developments," I said. "Do
+either of you feel inclined to share my vigil?"
+
+"I will do so with pleasure," said Jim.
+
+"And I too, if it's necessary," said the Honourable, with peculiar
+eagerness. "I'm not going to risk being wakened out of my sleep by
+another shriek like that."
+
+Jim went into his bedroom and said something to his wife. After that we
+dressed and made ourselves as comfortable as possible in the
+sitting-room. But though we remained there till daylight we heard
+nothing further. As day dawned we returned to our beds to sleep soundly
+until we were roused by Mrs. Spicer at eight o'clock.
+
+That afternoon, in spite of our jeers, the Honourable left us to return
+to his own abode. He had had enough and to spare of Warradoona, he said,
+and as he had not proved himself a very good plucked one, we did not
+exert ourselves very much to make him change his mind.
+
+"I never thought he'd prove to be such a coward," said Jim, as we
+watched the youth disappear behind the river timber. "Still, he's a man
+extra about the place, and if those wretched cattle are coming in
+to-night we shall want all the hands we can raise to look after them on
+the plain."
+
+"Do you think they will be here to-night?"
+
+"It's more than likely. They ought to have been in this morning, and as
+they can't halt in the scrub they'll be driven by force of circumstances
+into camping on the plain. In that case it will be a pound to a sixpence
+that our friend the Stockman will give us some trouble. He generally
+puts in an appearance when there's a mob passing through."
+
+"If he does we must tackle him, and decide once and for all the question
+of his--well, of his spirituality, shall I say? You can find a couple of
+revolvers, I suppose?"
+
+"Half a dozen if need be, and what's more, cartridges to fit them."
+
+We then walked back to the house together. It was tea time, and as soon
+as we had made ourselves tidy we sat down to it. Half way through the
+meal there was a heavy step in the verandah, and a moment later Ruford,
+Jim's one remaining stockman, entered the room.
+
+"So you've turned up at last," said Jim, as he became aware of the
+other's identity. "Where are the cattle?"
+
+"Camped on the plain," was the reply. "Bad luck to 'em. It was as much
+as I could do to get the two black boys to remain with them. Are you
+coming down?"
+
+"We'll be down in half an hour," said Jim. "This gentleman and myself
+will camp with you to-night and give you a hand. Now be off and get your
+tea."
+
+He disappeared without another word.
+
+"But if you two are going to help with the cattle, what is to become of
+me?" asked Mrs. Spicer. "I cannot be left here alone."
+
+"That's perfectly true," said Jim. "I never thought of it. Confound that
+miserable coward Chudfield. I'll tell you what I'll do, Minnie. I'll
+send Ruford up to take care of you. He won't be sorry for an evening's
+comfort, and it is most imperative that we should go down, you see, in
+case the Stockman should turn up to-night. If he does we hope to bring
+matters to a crisis."
+
+Faithful to our promise, as soon as the meal was over, we saddled our
+horses and rode down towards the camp fire that we could see burning
+brightly on the plain below.
+
+By the time we reached it the appearance of the night had changed,
+clouds had covered the sky, and a soft drizzle was falling. Ruford had
+taken the cattle down to the river, and when they had drunk their fill
+had tailed them slowly on to camp, where the two black boys were
+watching them. It was not a cheerful night, for the wind had risen, and
+was moaning among the she-oak trees like a million lost spirits. A more
+lonesome spot I never was in than that plain.
+
+As we approached the fire Ruford said snappishly,--
+
+"I suppose you think it's funny to hang round a camp, whispering and
+moaning, in order to frighten a man out of his wits."
+
+"Who has been hanging about the camp whispering and moaning?" asked
+Spicer. "Why, you duffer, we've only just come down from the Homestead.
+You must be either drunk or dreaming."
+
+"Dreaming be hanged!" he said. "I tell you that there's been some one
+moaning like old ---- round this 'ere camp ever since dusk!"
+
+"Moaning like your grandmother," said Spicer, descending from his saddle
+and tying his horse up to a tree near by. "I want you to go up to the
+house and camp there. Mrs. Spicer is all alone, and I think she may be
+frightened. We'll look after the cattle."
+
+When he had gone we stretched ourselves beside the fire on the blankets
+we found there and fell to yarning.
+
+I can see the whole scene now. Owing to the heavy clouds mentioned
+above, it was as dark as the inside of your hat, with not a gleam of
+light in the whole length and breadth of the sky. Ruford had stirred up
+the fire before he left us, and the flames were roaring upwards, when
+suddenly there came a long, peculiar moan from the scrub behind us that
+brought us up into a sitting posture like one man. We looked in the
+direction whence it seemed to come, and saw there, standing in the full
+light of the fire, a tall, thin man, of about fifty years of age. He had
+white hair and a long grey beard. He was dressed, even to his riding
+boots, in some white material, and he carried a stock-whip in his hand.
+His face was as pale as death and infinitely sad, and he seemed to be
+looking from one to the other of us as if he did not know which to
+address.
+
+We were both struck dumb with astonishment, until Spicer, raising
+himself on his elbow, shouted,--
+
+"Hullo, my man! Where do _you_ hail from?"
+
+Then the figure faded away into the darkness as quietly as it had come,
+and you can just imagine how we stared.
+
+"Well, this beats all the other manifestations into a cocked hat," cried
+Spicer, and seizing a burning stick and bidding me follow with another,
+he dashed into the scrub in the direction we supposed the stranger to
+have taken.
+
+For upwards of twenty minutes we searched high and low, in every
+possible hiding-place within fifty yards of the camp, but without
+success. Not a single trace of our mysterious visitor could we discover.
+Then we returned to the fire and lay down again.
+
+Spicer's watch was from nine to eleven, and as it was almost eight then,
+he resolved to try and snatch an hour's sleep before it would be
+necessary for him to get into the saddle once more. He soon gave up the
+attempt, however.
+
+Though we did not see any more of the stranger just then, I can assure
+you we were far from being easy in our minds. The cattle had suddenly
+become very restless, and from their lowing and snorting we could tell
+that they were uneasy. While we listened, the same peculiar moaning
+noise came from the scrub away to our left. It sounded for all the world
+like the crying of a woman in dreadful trouble, but though we peered
+repeatedly into the night, and twice crept away from the fire in that
+direction, we could discover nothing to account for it.
+
+At nine o'clock Spicer went on watch, and the black boys came into camp
+reporting the cattle as very restless.
+
+For some time after he had gone I lay on my blankets looking up at the
+sky. Clouds still covered the heavens, and it looked as if a wet night
+were pending. Sometime about ten o'clock Spicer called to me to join
+him, as something was radically wrong with the mob; so saddling my horse
+I rode out.
+
+As I went the clouds parted, and for a moment the moon shone brilliantly
+forth. It was a curious sight that I then beheld. The cattle--there were
+about five hundred of them--were all up, moving to and fro and bellowing
+continuously. What made us the more uneasy was the fact that, now and
+again, the old bull in command would separate himself from the mob and
+sniff the wind, after which he would let out a bellow that fairly shook
+the earth. Whenever he sees the leader do that, a cattleman knows that
+it behoves him to stand by and keep his eyes open for trouble.
+
+Coming up with Spicer, I asked him what he thought was the matter, but
+for some moments he did not answer.
+
+Then he said very mysteriously,--
+
+"Did you meet him as you came out?"
+
+"Meet whom?" I asked.
+
+"Why, our friend, the Phantom Stockman?"
+
+"The devil! And has he turned up again?"
+
+After looking cautiously round, Jim edged his horse up alongside mine
+and said quietly,--
+
+"He's been hovering round these cattle for the past half-hour. They can
+see him, and that's what's making them so confoundedly restless. You
+take my word for it, we shall have serious trouble directly!"
+
+"Confound it all," I said. "That will mean double watches all night, and
+in this drizzle too."
+
+"It can't be helped. But you had better tell the boys to be ready in
+case they are wanted. Look! Look! Here he comes again!"
+
+I looked in the direction he indicated, and, true enough, out of the
+thick mist which now hid the trees along the river bank, and into the
+half moonlight where we stood, rode the phantom whom we had seen two
+hours before by our camp fire. But there was a difference now; this time
+he was mounted on his white horse, and seemed to be like us on watch. At
+first I fancied my brain was creating a phantom for me out of the
+whirling mist; but the snorting and terror of the cattle, as they became
+aware of his presence, soon convinced me of his reality.
+
+Little by little the fellow edged round the scrub, and then disappeared
+into the fog again, to reappear a minute or two later on our left. Then
+he began to come slowly towards us. I can tell you the situation was
+uncanny enough to creep the flesh of a mummy. He was sitting loosely in
+his saddle, with his stock-whip balanced on his hip; indeed, to show how
+details impress themselves on one's mind, I can remember that he had one
+of his sleeves rolled up and that he carried his reins slung over his
+left arm.
+
+When he was within eight or ten paces of where we stood, my horse, which
+had been watching him as if turned to stone, suddenly gave a snort, and
+wheeling sharp round bolted across the plain as if the devil were behind
+him. Before I had gone fifty yards I heard Spicer come thundering after
+me, and we must have had a good two miles gallop before we could pull
+the terrified beasts up. Then we heard the cattle rushing a mile or so
+on our right.
+
+"I knew they'd go," wailed Spicer; "they're well-nigh mad with fright.
+Now, what the deuce is to be done?"
+
+"Try and head them, I suppose."
+
+"Come on, then, for all you're worth. It's neck or nothing with us now!"
+
+We set off down the angle of the plain as fast as our horses could lay
+their legs to the ground. It was a near thing, for, hard as we went, we
+were only just in time to prevent the leaders from plunging into the
+river. If you know anything of overlanding, you'll understand the work
+we had. As it was, I don't believe we could have managed it at all if it
+had not been for the extraneous--or, as I might perhaps say,
+_spiritual_--aid we received.
+
+While Spicer took the river side, I worked inland, along the bottom of
+the cliff, and as the two black boys had bolted for the Homestead long
+before the cattle broke, we had no one between us to bring up the tail.
+Suddenly, Heaven alone knows how, the Phantom Stockman came to our
+assistance; and a more perfect drover could scarcely have been found. He
+wheeled his cattle and brought up his stragglers, boxed 'em, and headed
+'em off, like the oldest hand. But however clever a bushman he may have
+been, it was plainly his own personality that effected the greatest
+good; for directly the mob saw him, they turned tail and stampeded back
+on to the plain like beasts possessed.
+
+At last, however, we got them rounded up together, and then Spicer rode
+over to where I stood and said,--
+
+"Give an eye to 'em, will you, while I slip back to the camp? I want to
+get something."
+
+I had not time to protest, for next minute he was gone, and I was left
+alone with that awful stranger whom I could still see dodging about in
+the mist. When he got back, Jim reined up alongside me and said,--
+
+"This is getting a little too monotonous to my thinking."
+
+"What are you going to do?" I gasped, my teeth chattering in my head
+like a pair of castanets.
+
+"Try the effect of this on him," he answered, and as he spoke he pulled
+a revolver from his pocket. "I don't care if it sends every beast across
+the river."
+
+At that moment, on his constant round, the phantom came into view again.
+On either side of him the cattle were sniffing and snorting at him,
+plainly showing that they were still wild with terror. This behaviour
+puzzled us completely, for we both knew that a mob would never treat an
+ordinary flesh-and-blood stockman in that way. When he got within twenty
+paces of us Spicer cried,--
+
+"Bail up, matey--or, by jingo, I'll put daylight into you!"
+
+Obedient to the order the figure instantly pulled up.
+
+The moon was bright enough now for us to see his face. And, though, as
+I've said before, I'm not a coward as a general rule, I can tell you
+that it made me feel fairly sick, so white and creepy-looking was it.
+Then he held up his hand as if in protest and started towards us.
+
+This didn't suit Spicer, however, for he yelled,--
+
+"Stand off! or by the living God I swear I'll fire. Stand off!"
+
+But the figure continued to come towards us. Then _Crack! Crack! Crack!_
+went the revolver, and next moment there was a frightful scream and the
+sound of galloping hoofs. I saw no more, for, as Jim fired, my horse
+reared and fell back, crushing me beneath him.
+
+I suppose I must have been stunned by the fall, for when I recovered my
+senses Spicer was leaning over me.
+
+"Is he gone?" I asked as soon as I could speak.
+
+"Yes! Gone like mad across the plain and the cattle with him. I must
+either have missed him, or the bullet must have passed clean through
+him."
+
+As there was now no further reason why we should remain where we were,
+we returned to the Homestead and told our tale. Then when it was light
+enough, we had our breakfast and mounted our horses and went out into
+the scrub to look for the cattle we had lost. By the time dusk fell we
+had collected three hundred and fifty out of the five hundred head
+Ruford had brought on to the plain. The poor beasts were quite knocked
+up; and as it was useless thinking of pushing them on in that condition,
+we were consequently compelled to camp them for one more night on that
+awful plain. But to our delight we saw no more of the Phantom Stockman.
+
+Next morning while we were at breakfast, Billy, the black boy, who had
+been out after the horses, came dashing up to the Homestead, almost
+beside himself with excitement.
+
+"Me been find him," he cried. "Me been find him, all same fellow what
+been make debbil-debbil longa here."
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Spicer, putting down his cup of tea. "Where
+have you found the man?"
+
+"Me been find him longa billabong. My word he most like dead, mine think
+it."
+
+Spicer made a sign to me, and without another word we jumped up and ran
+in the direction of the stockyard. Mounting our horses we followed our
+guide through the scrub for a distance of perhaps a mile and a half
+until we came to a small billabong or backwater of the main river.
+
+Away at the further end we could see a curious white heap, and towards
+it we galloped, making our horses put their best feet foremost, you may
+be sure.
+
+On reaching it, we found a man lying huddled up upon the ground beneath
+a low-growing tree. He was dressed in a complete suit of white flannel,
+his boots were painted the same colour, and even his hat was fixed up to
+match, white. Still looped over his ears was a long grey beard and
+moustache of false hair.
+
+Spicer dismounted and knelt beside him. After feeling his heart he
+plucked the beard away and almost shouted his astonishment aloud.
+
+"Good heavens!" he cried; "do you recognise this man?"
+
+I stooped and looked. _I don't know whether you will believe it, but the
+Phantom Stockman, the person who had performed such prodigies two nights
+before, was none other than our friend Chudfield, the young English
+owner of Yarka Station, across the river, the man who had appeared to be
+so frightened by the ghost, and who had made it his boast that he knew
+nothing at all about Bush-work._ For some moments we stood and stared at
+him in stupefied amazement. I was the first to speak.
+
+"Is he dead, do you think?" I asked.
+
+"Quite," said Spicer. "Look at this mark under his chin. Galloping
+through the scrub in the dark the other night to get away from us, he
+must have been caught by that bough up there and have been dashed from
+his saddle. Death must have been almost instantaneous."
+
+Round his waist was a long thin cord which ran away some twenty yards or
+so into the bush. We followed it up and discovered a large piece of raw
+hide tied to the end of it.
+
+Spicer examined the latter carefully.
+
+"The beast that owned this skin was only killed two days ago," he said.
+"Now I know why our cattle were so restless. They smelt the blood, and,
+as you are aware, that invariably terrifies them. Cunning beggar! he
+pretended to know nothing, and yet he knew enough for this."
+
+"Yes," I said; "but what about the other night when the phantom appeared
+at the garden fence, and this man was sitting in the verandah with us?"
+
+"Why, he probably wanted to disarm suspicion, and so sent his overseer,
+who must be in the secret, to play the part."
+
+"But what was his object in frightening you?"
+
+"Can't you guess? Well, just let me find out where our friend's
+stockyard is situated in the Ranges up yonder, and I think I'll be able
+to tell you. I remember now that when I came here his cattle were all
+over Warradoona, and that he used the place just as if it were his own,
+to say nothing of having his choice of all the unbranded and other
+cattle that former tenants had left upon it."
+
+Leaving the body where we had found it, to be picked up on our homeward
+journey, we crossed the river and plunged into the scrub beyond.
+
+An hour later we discovered, cunningly hidden in a lonely gulley, a big
+stockyard _in which our lost cattle were still penned up_. There was no
+one in sight and nothing to prove how the animals had got there, but a
+clearer case of duffing could scarcely have been found. Moreover, there
+were branding irons in the shed adjoining, and they were those of Yarka
+Station.
+
+"I think we know quite enough now," said Spicer solemnly, as we mounted
+our horses to return.
+
+"Enough to lay the Ghost of the Stockman of Warradoona at any rate," I
+replied.
+
+Three hours later we were at home once more, and Chudfield's body was
+lying in a hut, waiting for the police from Yarrapanya who would hold
+the inquest. A black boy had meanwhile been sent across to Yarka Station
+to inform the manager of the catastrophe.
+
+Our lunch that day was a mixture of happiness and sadness. Happiness,
+because the mystery of the Phantom Stockman had been cleared up for good
+and all; and sadness, because of the pain that was inseparable from the
+discovery of a friend's duplicity.
+
+When the meal was at an end we passed into the verandah. After a little
+conversation there, Spicer disappeared, to return in a few moments with
+a pick-axe and a basket of tools.
+
+"What are you going to do?" I inquired, as he set them down in the
+passage and took off his coat.
+
+"I want, if possible, to discover how those screams were worked," he
+replied. "It looks like being a long job; so if you will give me your
+assistance in ripping up these boards, I shall be very grateful."
+
+"Of course, I'll help," I said, and thereupon we set to work.
+
+But though we laboured for the best part of the afternoon, the result
+was disappointing in the extreme. Nothing but dry earth and
+wood-shavings confronted us.
+
+"That being so, we'll take down the posts that support the walls on
+either side," said Jim, and as he spoke he attacked that upon which the
+lamp was fixed. "If we can't find anything there we'll continue to pull
+the house to pieces until we do."
+
+But we were spared that trouble. On loosening the post in question we
+made an important discovery. It was hollow from end to end, and in the
+cavity reposed a lead pipe, about an inch in diameter. We consulted
+together for a moment, and then took the pick-axe into my bedroom and
+ripped up a plank in the floor. By this means we were able to see that
+the pipe crossed the room and passed under the further wall. Outside we
+picked it up once more and traced it past the well, the kitchen, and the
+stockyard, into the scrub, where it entered an enormous blasted gum tree
+standing fifty yards or so from the house.
+
+"I see the whole thing as clear as daylight," cried Spicer joyfully, as
+he mounted the tree and prepared to lower himself into the hollow. "I
+believe we've solved the mystery of the shrieks at night, and now the
+whole thing is as simple as A B C. Go back to the house and listen."
+
+I did as he wished, and when I had been in the passage about a minute,
+was rewarded by hearing a scream re-echo through the house, followed by
+a muffled cry, "Oh, save me! save me!"
+
+As the sound died away, Mrs. Spicer came running into the house from the
+kitchen with a scared face. A moment later we were joined by her
+husband.
+
+"Did you hear that scream, Jim?" she inquired anxiously. "I thought you
+said we should not be worried by it again?"
+
+He put his arm round her waist and drew her towards him.
+
+"Nor shall we, little woman," he said. "That scream was to let us know
+that the phantom is laid at last, and that after to-day this place is
+going to be as sweet and homely as any a man could wish to live in. That
+poor beggar in the hut there tried to keep it empty as long as he could
+for his own purposes, but I beat him in the end. Now I've got it for a
+quarter its value, and whatever else he may have done we must not forget
+that we owe that, at least, to our old enemy the Phantom Stockman of
+Warradoona."
+
+
+
+
+The Treasure of Sacramento Nick
+
+
+Away on the northernmost coast of Australia lies a little world all by
+itself and unlike anything else to be found in the whole immemorial
+East. Its chief centre is in Torres Straits, where the majority of the
+inhabitants employ themselves in pearl-fishing, gathering _bźche-de-mer_
+and tortoise-shell, and generally in accumulating those gigantic
+fortunes of which one hears so much and sees so little.
+
+Walking the streets of Thursday Island, the smallest of the group, yet
+the centre of commerce and the seat of such government as the Colony of
+Queensland can afford it, you will be struck with the number of
+nationalities represented. Dwelling together, if not in unity, certainly
+in unison, are Caucasians and Mongolians, Ethiopians and Malayans, John
+Chinaman living cheek by jowl with the barbarian Englishman, Cingalee
+with Portuguese, Frenchman with Kanaka--all prejudices alike forgotten
+in the one absorbing struggle for the unchanging British sovereign. On
+the verandahs of the hotels sit continually men who talk with the
+familiarity of old friends about the uttermost parts of the earth, and
+whose lives are mainly spent in places to which the average man never
+goes nor dreams of going. If you are a good listener they will tell you
+many things worth knowing; and towards midnight you will feel stealing
+over you a hazy conviction that the nineteenth century is as yet unborn,
+and that you are listening to the personal narrative of Sinbad the
+Sailor in an unexpurgated form.
+
+One afternoon as I was sitting in my verandah watching the China
+mail-boat steam to her anchorage, and wondering if I had energy enough
+to light a third cheroot, I felt my arm touched. Turning, I discovered a
+little Solomon boy, about ten years old, attired in an ancient pair of
+hunting breeches, and grinning from ear to ear. Having succeeded in
+attracting my attention, he handed me a letter. It was from my friend,
+McBain, the manager of a pearling station on an adjacent island, and set
+forth the welcome fact that he would be pleased to see me on a matter of
+some importance, if I could spare the time to dine with him that
+evening. There was nothing I could spare more easily or more willingly.
+
+Once comfortably seated in the verandah, McBain explained his reason for
+sending to me. "You'll think me mad, but I've got a curiosity here that
+I want to examine before any one else gets hold of him."
+
+"Black or white?" I asked, with but little interest, for we lived in a
+land of human curiosities.
+
+"White."
+
+"Nationality?"
+
+"Cosmopolitan, I should fancy."
+
+"Profession?"
+
+"Adventurer, with a marvellous big A."
+
+"And hailing from----?"
+
+"Well, he doesn't seem to know himself. One of my luggers took him out
+of an open boat about two degrees west of the Ladrones."
+
+"But he surely knows how he got into the boat? Men don't go pleasure
+trips across oceans without knowing whence they started. Hasn't he
+anything to say for himself?"
+
+"That's just what I want you to hear. Either the man's a superhuman
+liar, or else he's got a secret of the biggest thing on earth. We'll
+have him up to-night, and you shall judge for yourself."
+
+When dinner was over we took ourselves and our cigars into the cool
+verandah, and for half an hour or so sat smoking and talking of many
+things. Then a footstep crunched upon the path, and a tall, thin man
+stood before us.
+
+McBain rose and wished him "Good-evening," as he did so pushing a chair
+into such a position that I could see his face. "I beg your pardon, but
+I don't think you told me your name last night."
+
+"Sir, my name is Nicodemus B. Patten, of Sacramento City, State of
+California, U.S.A.--most times called Sacramento Nick."
+
+"Well, Mr. Patten, let me introduce you to a friend who is anxious to
+hear the curious story you told me last night. Will you smoke?"
+
+Gravely bowing to me, he selected a cheroot, lit it, and blew the smoke
+luxuriously through his nose. The lamp light fell full and fair upon his
+face, and instinctively I began to study it. It was a remarkable
+countenance, and, in spite of its irregularity of feature, contained a
+dignity of expression which rather disconcerted me. There were evident
+traces of bodily and mental suffering in the near past, but it was
+neither the one nor the other which had stamped the lines that so much
+puzzled me. After satisfying myself on certain other points, I begged
+him to begin.
+
+He did so without hesitation or previous thought.
+
+"Gentlemen, before I commence my story, let me tell you that when first
+the things I am going to tell you of came about, there were three of us:
+Esdras W. Dyson, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.A.; James Dance, of
+London, England; and Nicodemus B. Patten, of Sacramento City, now before
+you. I reckon most folks would have called us adventurers, for we'd
+ferreted into nearly every corner of the globe. Snakes alive! but I've
+seen things in my time that would fairly stagger even you, and I guess
+my story of to-night ain't the least curious of 'em.
+
+"Perhaps you don't remember the junk that fell foul of the _Bedford
+Castle_ nigh upon three years ago, when she was four days out from
+Singapore?"
+
+I remembered the circumstance perfectly. It was an act of flagrant
+piracy which had made some noise at the time; and I had also a faint
+recollection of having been told that white men were suspected of being
+mixed up in it. On being asked if he knew anything of the matter, he
+said: "Well, I don't _say_ we did, mind you; but I had a suspicion we
+were in China waters at the time. But bless you, in those days there
+were few places and few things that _we_ hadn't a finger in. Understand,
+I am telling you this because I don't want to sail under false colours,
+and also because such work is all over now; the firm's smashed up, and
+we'll never go on the Long Trail again.
+
+"Two years ago, for certain reasons not necessary to mention, we wanted
+to lay by for a while, so bringing up at Batavia fixed right on to the
+Nederlander. Java's a one-horse place for business purposes, but if you
+know the ropes--well, there's not a better place in the world to hide
+in.
+
+"Now, gentlemen both, you may take it from me that there never was such
+a chap for browsing about among niggers, finding out what was doing, and
+if there was anything to be made, as Esdras W. Dyson, of Milwaukee,
+U.S.A.
+
+"In the first place, he could patter any lingo from Chinese to Malay
+with a tongue that'd talk round the devil himself; and when he
+suspicioned a nigger had anything worth knowing--well, he'd just freeze
+to that charcoal sketch till he fairly got it out of him. Rigged out in
+native dress and properly coloured, he could pass in anywhere. It was he
+who found out the thing that ruined us, brought me here, and left Jim
+and himself feeding the fishes a thousand fathoms deep. Directly we
+arrived in Batavia he began hanging round the Native Quarter, making
+himself mighty agreeable for some particular information he wanted. He
+was away for two or three days; then one night as Dance and me were
+smoking on the piazza he came striding up the path in the devil's own
+hurry. 'Boys!' says he in a whisper, 'I'm on it, up to the hilt, the
+biggest and the all-firedest stroke of good fortune we've hit yet. I'm
+going _fantee_ to-night, so keep your weather eyes lifted, and when I
+say come, come right away!' With that he went to his room, and we could
+hear him rummaging about in his trunks.
+
+"A bit later a native fruit-hawker came round the corner, bowing and
+scraping towards us. We told him to clear out, but he commenced a
+pitiful yarn, all the time pushing his baskets closer to us. 'Fine
+Duriens and the sweetest of Mangosteens, if the Presence will only buy!'
+But the big night-watchman had caught sight of him, and came trundling
+down the piazza. You can reckon our astonishment, when the hawker said:
+'How is it, boys? Do you think they'll _savee_? Keep your kits packed
+and be prepared to _trek_ directly you get the word from me.' Here the
+watchman came up. 'On the word of a poor man, the Duriens are freshly
+plucked and the Mangosteens hung upon the trees this morning.' We
+refused to buy, and he went away crying his fruit towards the Native
+Quarter.
+
+[Illustration: "A native fruit-hawker came round the corner."]
+
+"For two or three days not a shadow of a sign came from him. Then one of
+those Chinese hawkers came into the square with two coolies carrying his
+goods, and as soon as we set eyes on the second nigger we recognised
+Milwaukee, and stood by to take his message in whatever form it might
+come. Pulling up at our chairs, the Chinkey told his men to set down
+their loads, himself coming across to us with a tray of fans, scents,
+and what not; but seeing Milwaukee had a packet of slippers in his
+hands, we only wanted slippers. The merchant sings out, and he brings
+'em over, handing one pair to Dance and another to me. We stepped inside
+to try them on, and, as we expected, in one of the shoes was a letter
+neatly stowed away. I forget now how it went, but it was to the effect
+that he had found out all he wanted to know, and that we were to meet
+him at eight on the Singapore Wharf at Tanjong Priok, bringing no kit
+save our revolvers.
+
+"After squaring things at the hotel, and destroying what was dangerous
+in our baggage, we _trekked_ for the Priok just as dusk was falling.
+Sharp at eight we were waiting on the wharf where the Messagerie boats
+lie, and wondering what the deuce was going to happen. Inside of ten
+minutes a native boat came pulling up the river, and as it passed us the
+rower sneezed twice, very sharp and sudden. It was an old signal, and
+Dance gave the return. The boatman hitches right on to the steps and
+comes ashore.
+
+"'Good boys,' says he, very quiet and careful; 'up to time, that's
+right. Now to business! D'ye see that schooner lying outside the
+breakwater? Well, she sails at daylight. I put the skipper and mate
+ashore not ten minutes ago, and they're to return in an hour. There's
+only three chaps aboard, and it's our business to cut her out before the
+others come back. D'ye understand?'
+
+"'But what d'ye reckon to do then, Milwaukee?' I asked, for it seemed a
+risky game, just for the sake of a mangy Dutch trader.
+
+"'Never you mind now; when I do tell you, you'll say it's worth the
+candle. Come, jump in here, and I'll pull you aboard!'
+
+"The harbour was as quiet as the sea out yonder; a Dutch man-of-war lay
+under the wing of the breakwater, and a Sourabaya mail-boat to the left
+of her. We passed between them, down towards the lighthouse, and out
+into the open. Outside there was a bit of a sea running, but Milwaukee
+was always hard to beat, and at last we managed to get alongside.
+Somebody, most likely the anchor-watch, caught our painter, and took a
+turn in it, saying in Dutch, 'You're back early, Mynheer.' By the time
+he twigged his mistake we were aboard, and Dance had clapped a stopper
+on his mouth. The others were below, and I reckon you'd have laughed if
+you could have seen the look on their faces when, after Milwaukee's
+thumping on the fo'c'stle, they turned out to find their craft in other
+hands. However, they soon saw what was up, and reckoned it was no use
+making fools of themselves. Then Milwaukee went to the wheel, singing
+out to get sail on her, and stand by to slip the cable. We knew our
+business, and in less than twenty minutes were humming down the coast a
+good ten knots an hour.
+
+"As soon as the course was set and everything going smooth, Milwaukee
+made right aft to where Dance was steering. 'I guess it's time,' says
+he, 'to let you into the secret. You know me and I know you, which is
+enough said between pards. We've been in many good things together, but
+this is going to be the biggest we've sighted yet. It doesn't mean
+hundreds of pounds, but thousands, millions maybe; anyhow, enough to set
+us three up as princes all the world over!'
+
+"'Sounds well; but how did you come to know of it?' we asked, a bit
+doubtful like.
+
+"Before answering, he took a squint at the card and then aloft. 'Keep
+her as she goes, Jim. How did I come to hear of it? How does a man hear
+anything? Why, by going to the places and among the folk who talk. I got
+wind of it months ago, but never came across anything straight out till
+I went _fantee_ among the niggers. Losh, boys, if you want yarns to
+raise your scalp, go down town and smoke among the darkies; I've done
+it, and you bet I know. There was one old chap who used to drop in every
+night, and smoke and chew and spit and lie till you couldn't rest. From
+his talk he'd once done a bit in our line, and his great sweat was about
+an island he'd been to fifty years ago, where there's an old Portugee
+treasure-ship aground, chock full of gold, diamonds, rubies, and pearls,
+all waitin' for the man as'll go to get 'em. At first I reckoned he
+lied, for how he got there he didn't rightly remember; but he swore he
+found the ship, and was in the act of broaching her cargo, when the
+natives came and sent him back to sea again. What he did get, except a
+bloomin' old dagger, was stolen from him in Saigon. Directly I sighted
+that instrument, I began to guess there might be something in his yarn
+after all; for, wherever he got it, it was a genuine Portugees weapon of
+a couple of hundred years back. Well, as any lubber knows, the Portugee
+sailed these seas two hundred years ago; why shouldn't one of 'em have
+been wrecked with all her cargo and never been heard of since? Answer me
+that! Anyhow, you bet I froze to that nigger.
+
+"'At first he played cunning and seemed to suspicion I was after
+something. So one night I got him alone and--d'ye remember Hottentot Joe
+in the Kimberley?--well, p'raps I played the same game on this old cove,
+and when he was sound off I began to pump him all I knew. The old chap
+had been sailing pretty near to the truth, but still he'd kept a bit up
+his sleeve; however, I got that bit, and here's his chart as near as I
+can fix it.'
+
+"So saying, he drew out a paper and held it to the binnacle. Then
+putting his finger on a coloured mark, he went on: 'It's a bit hazy
+steering after we get here, inasmuch as, being a nigger, he couldn't
+keep proper reckoning. But once among these islands, I guess we can't be
+far off the right one, and to find it--by God, we'll search every
+mud-bank in the Pacific! Accordin' to his fixin' it has a big mountain
+climbing from its centre, with a monster white rock half-way up, shaped
+like a man's fist. In a bee-line with the rock there's a creek running
+inland, big enough to float a seventy-four; follow that creek up a mile
+or so and you come to a lake, and on the other side of that lake's where
+the old barge ought to be. Now, what do you think?'
+
+"'What do I think? Why, I think, Milwaukee, you are a fool to have
+brought us on such a rotten chase, and we're bigger fools to have
+followed you. The island, I guess, never existed, and we'll get
+stretched for this boat by the first warship that sights us. But now we
+are here, we'd better make the best of it. What do you say, Jim?'
+
+"'I stand with you,' said Dance, and that settled it.
+
+"To make a long story short, we sailed that hooker right on end for nigh
+upon three weeks. The wind was mostly favourable, the boat had a
+slippery pair of heels, and the stores, considering they were laid in by
+Dutchmen, were none too bad. Only one thing was wrong to my thinking,
+and that was the supply of grog aboard. If I had my way there'd have
+been a gimlet through the lot; but Milwaukee was skipper, and wouldn't
+hear of it.
+
+"Tuesday, the thirteenth of January, saw the tether of the old darkie's
+chart, so we held a bit of a palaver, and settled to go on cruising
+about the islands which we were picking up and dropping every day.
+
+"You folk who live inside this rot-gut reef don't know what islands are.
+Out there, you see them on all sides, pushing their green heads up to
+watch the ships go by, with the air so warm, the sea so green, and the
+sky so blue that it's like living in a new world. Birds of every colour
+fly across your bows all day, and in the hush of night, lying out on
+deck, you can hear the waterfalls trickling ashore, and now and again
+the crash of a big tree falling in the jungle.
+
+"One forenoon while I was at the wheel, Milwaukee and Jim Dance fell to
+quarrelling. It started over nothing, and would have come to nothing but
+for that tarnation liquor. I sung out to them to stop; but it was no
+use, so leaving the hooker to look after herself, I went forrard. Before
+I could reach him, the skipper had drawn a revolver, and I heard Jim
+cry, 'For Gawd's sake don't shoot!' Then there was a report, and sure
+enough Dance fell dead.
+
+"Can you picture it? Overhead, the blue sky, a few white clouds, and the
+canvas just drawing; on the deck, poor Jim lying as if asleep, and
+Milwaukee leaning against the foremast staring at him. Seein' there was
+no use in keepin' the body aboard, I called one of the Dutchmen aft and
+told him to fix it up in a bit of canvas. Then together we hove it
+overboard; it sank with a dull plunge, and so we lost the first of our
+mess.
+
+"Milwaukee being too drunk to take his trick at the wheel, I stood it
+for him. A bit before sundown he comes on deck looking terrible fierce
+and haggard. Rolling aft, he says with a voice solemn as a judge:
+'Sacramento Nick, you're a good man and true. On your Bible oath, may
+God strike you dead if you lie, did I shoot James Dance, mariner?'
+
+"Seeing what was passing in his mind, I said simply, 'You did.'
+
+"'Was I drunk, being in charge of this vessel at the time?'
+
+"'You were!'
+
+"'That is your word and deed, so help you God?'
+
+"'Ay, ay!'
+
+"'Well, that being so, no more need be said. It's the sentence of the
+court. Shipmate, your hand.'
+
+"We shook hands, and he turned to the taffrail. Before I knew what he
+was about, he had leaped upon it and plunged into the sea. He only rose
+once; then the white belly of a shark showed uppermost, and never again
+did I see Esdras W. Dyson, of Milwaukee City, Wisconsin.
+
+"Three days later, when I was too dog-tired to keep watch, those
+cut-throat Dutchmen mutinied and sent me adrift in the long-boat with
+one week's provisions and a small beaker of water.
+
+"Strangers, have you ever been cast adrift? I can see you haven't; well,
+hope that your luck don't run that way. Fortunately it was fair weather,
+and I was able to rig a bit of a sail; but how long I was cruising among
+those islands, drat me if I know. Being ignorant, so to speak, of my
+position, one way was as another, and when short of provisions I'd just
+go ashore, pick fruit, fill my beaker, and then set sail again. One warm
+afternoon I found myself abreast of the largest island I'd seen yet.
+From its centre rose a high mountain, and, strike me dead if I lie,
+half-way up that last was _a big white rock, shaped like a man's fist_!
+When I saw it I was clean staggered; I stood up and stared till I could
+stare no longer. It was just as if I'd stumbled by mistake on the very
+island we'd set out to seek. By tacking I managed to get right under its
+lee, and there, sure enough, between two high banks was the entrance to
+a fairish river. Furling the sail, I took to my oars and pulled inside.
+The sun was close on down by this time, and I was dog-tired; so as
+nothing could be gained by bursting the boilers, when, as far as I knew,
+all the future was afore me, I anchored where I was, and stayed in my
+boat till morning.
+
+"You bet as soon as it was light I pushed on again, bringing out on a
+slap-up lake perhaps a mile long by half a mile across. The water was as
+clear as crystal and as smooth as glass. Making for a plain of dazzling
+white sand at the furthest end, I beached my boat and prepared to start
+explorations. Then, just as her nose grounded, my eyes caught sight of a
+big creeper-covered mass lying all alone in the centre of the plain. May
+I never know a shieve-hole from a harness-cask again, if it wasn't an
+old galleon of the identical pattern to be seen in the Columbus'
+picter-books. Trembling like a palsied monkey, I jumped out and ran for
+it.
+
+[Illustration: "Then, just as her nose grounded, my eyes caught sight of
+a big creeper-covered mass."]
+
+"She may have been close on a hundred tons burden, but it was impossible
+to calculate her size exactly for the heap of stuff that covered her.
+How she ever got on to that plain, and why she hadn't rotted clean away
+during the two hundred years or more she must have lain there, are
+things I can't explain. Anyhow, I didn't stay to puzzle 'em out then,
+but set to work hunting for a way to get inside her. From the main-deck
+seemed to be the best course, and to reach that I started hacking at the
+blooming creepers. It was harder work than you'd think, for they'd
+spliced and twisted 'emselves into cables, and a jack-knife was about as
+much use on 'em as a tooth-pick. When night came I'd done a big day's
+work, and had only just got a footing on her deck.
+
+"Next morning I went at it again, and by mid-day had the satisfaction of
+standing before the cuddy entrance. Again I felt the same dod-dratted
+funk creeping over me; but when I remembered the treasure, I said
+good-bye to that, and placed my shoulder against the door. It crumbled
+away and fell in a heap upon the deck, and when the dust had passed I
+found myself at the entrance of a small alleyway leading into the
+saloon. I entered it, stepping gingerly; but had only gone a few steps
+before the deck suddenly gave way, and I found myself disappearing with
+a crash into the lower regions. The fall was a darned sight bigger than
+I liked; but it served a purpose, for my weight on landing started a
+plank and brought a glimmer of light into the darkness.
+
+"Finding I was not hurt, I fell to groping for a way out again; then I
+noticed the rottenness of the timbers, and determined to enlarge the
+light I had just made. The two kicks and a shove brought a flood of
+sunshine pouring in, and a horrible sight met my eyes. I was standing
+beside an old-fashioned bed-place on which lay (you may believe me or
+not) the mummified body of a man stretched full out and hanging on to
+the stanchions like grim death. He was not alone, for in the centre of
+the cabin, clutching at a heavy table, was another chap, also perfectly
+preserved, half standing, with his feet braced against the thick
+cross-bars and his shrivelled parchment face, with its staring eyes
+turned towards me, grinning like a poisoned cat. My scalp seemed to lift
+and my innards to turn to water. Letting out one yell, I clambered for
+the open air.
+
+"Outside all was sunshine, blue sky, and bright colour, and, as if to
+set off what I had just left, a big butterfly came hovering towards me.
+In a few minutes my presence of mind returned, and I began to laugh at
+the idea of Sacramento Nick being afeared of dead men; so back I went in
+search of further mysteries. Again I entered the cuddy, and lowered
+myself into the under-cabin; but this time I was prepared for anything.
+The treasure-guard stared, but said nothing.
+
+"While I was wondering how I'd best set about my search, a smart breeze
+came whistling in, caught the figure at the table, disengaged his hold,
+and brought his old carcase with a dry rattle to the floor. With his
+fall a small piece of metal rolled to my feet, and picking it up I found
+it to be a key of real curious shape and workmanship. Fired with my
+discoveries, I slipped across to try it on the first of the chests I saw
+ranged round the cabin, when to my astonishment I found it open.
+Somebody had been there before me; perhaps I was too late! All of a
+sweat I looked in, but 'twas too dark; I tried to pull the whole chest
+towards the light, but it was a main sight too heavy. Then I plunged my
+hand in and--great Jehoshaphat, how I yelled! Clutching what I could
+hold, I dashed across the cabin, up into the light, and throwing myself
+upon the ground, spread what I had brought before me. It took less than
+a second to see that they were diamonds, and, by all the stars and
+stripes, diamonds of the first water! There they lay winking and
+blinking at me and the sun, and for the first time I began to _savee_ my
+amazing wealth. For the minute I was clean stark staring mad. I closed
+my eyes, and wondered if when I opened them again I should find it all a
+dream; but no, the beauties were there, looking brighter and even larger
+than before.
+
+"Gentlemen, it's strange how the habits and precautions of civilization
+linger with a man even in the queerest places. For while not twenty
+yards from where I stood was greater wealth than I or fifty men could
+ever spend, I found myself fearful of losing one, picking each gem up
+with scrupulous care, and securing it inside my jumper. The next box was
+locked, so I tried the key. In spite of age and rust the wards shot back
+and the cover lifted. Again I felt the touch of stones, and again
+seizing a handful, I went back into the light. This time they were
+rubies; Burmese rubies, my experience told me, and not a tarnation flaw
+in one of 'em. For a second time I carefully picked them up and was
+hiding 'em as before, when I happened to look round. Dash my buttons, if
+I was alone! On all sides were niggers regarding me with considerable
+attention. I sprang to my feet and felt for my revolver. Fool that I
+was, I had left it in the boat! Seeing that I was aware of their
+presence, they closed in on me, and as they did so I took stock of 'em.
+They were unlike other South Sea natives, being of better build and but
+little darker than myself. True, they were rigged out in a short
+loin-cloth not unlike _tappa_, but they carried neither spear nor
+shield. When I saw this I was for showing fight, but soon gave that idea
+up; they were too many for me.
+
+"After a few minutes' inspection they began to march me through the
+forest in a westerly direction, all the time talking a lingo that seemed
+curiously familiar. Just upon sunset we entered a large clearing on
+which stood a fair-sized native village, and I thought as I looked at it
+that, if ever I got out of this mess and turned to blackbirding, I'd
+know where to come for niggers. It contained perhaps fifty huts, all
+built of wood and with conical-shaped grass roofs. A trim garden ran
+down the centre, at the furthest end of which stood the largest and the
+most slap-up building of the lot. As soon as we hove in sight, a crowd
+came out to meet us, and in the middle of hundreds of yelling darkies I
+was marched up to the big house. The old chief, who had been bossing
+affairs with the swagger of a New York policeman, told me to wait while
+he carried his carcass up some steps and disappeared. After a little
+while he returned, and signified that I should follow him.
+
+"When I got inside I had plenty of time to look about me, for it must
+have been full half an hour before any one came. Then some grass
+curtains were drawn aside, and what looked like a man entered. I say
+_looked like_, because I ain't really clear in my mind as to _what_ he
+was; anyway, I shouldn't be far from the mark in sayin' he was quite a
+hundred years old, and just about as deformed as he well could be. He
+was as white as myself, and from the antics of the chief who had fetched
+me to his presence I could see that he had a great hold over the
+niggers. Throwing himself upon the ground, that old fool of a chief
+feebly wagged his toes till told to rise. Then he started explaining
+where he had found me and what I was doing.
+
+"During his yarn, old grandfer', whose name I afterwards found was Don
+Silvio, riddled me into augurholes with his evil little eyes; then,
+having ordered the chief out, he started to examine me himself. He spoke
+the same lingo as the niggers, a sort of bastard Portugee, and still
+looking me through and through, asked, 'Stranger, how came you to this
+island?'
+
+"I reckoned it best to keep the real truth from him, so said, 'I am a
+shipwrecked mariner, Seńor, and fetched here in an open boat.'
+
+"His eyes blazed, and his long, lean fingers twitched round his jewelled
+stick. 'And had you no thought of what treasure you might find?'
+
+"'Seńor,' said I, looking him square in the face, 'let me put it to you.
+Is it likely that a shipwrecked mariner would think of treasure?'
+
+"A storm was brewing in his eyes, and I guessed it would break on me.
+Suddenly he yelled: 'You lie--you dog, you thief--you lie! You came for
+what you could steal, but nothing shall you take away, nothing--not one
+stone. The Fates that consumed those who came aforetime shall consume
+you also. Shipwreck or no shipwreck, you shall die!'
+
+"He fell to beating a gong with his stick, and a dozen or so natives
+came tumbling in. They seemed to know their business, and before I had
+time to get in a word I was being dragged away down the street, to a
+small and securely guarded hut, where I was pushed in and the door
+closed. Disliking the look of things, as soon as I recovered my breath I
+started hunting about for a way of escape, but that was no good. Added
+to my other troubles, I was just famishing, and was beginning to fix it
+that my end was to be starvation, when footsteps approached, the door
+opened, and a native girl appeared, bearing on her head two wooden
+dishes which she set down before me. Being a favourite with the sex, I
+tried to draw her into conversation, but either she didn't understand my
+talk or fear had taken away her tongue; anyway, not a word would she
+utter. After she had left me I set to work on the food, and never before
+or since have I enjoyed a meal so much. Then stretching myself on some
+dry reeds in a corner I soon fell asleep.
+
+"I was awakened in the chill grey of dawn by the entrance of the same
+beauty, who put down my breakfast, saying as she did so, 'White man, eat
+well, for at sunrise you die!' For a moment the shock cleared me out of
+speech; I could only sit and stare at her. She seemed to see what was
+going on in my mind, and as if in comfort added, 'Stranger, why do you
+fear death? It can only come once!'
+
+"Her reasoning, though logical enough, wasn't of the kind calculated to
+meet my trouble, and when she had left me I started wondering if anybody
+in Sacramento City would ever hear of my fate, and bitterly cursing the
+day I set out in search of this villainous island. As I sat with my head
+upon my hands, the jewels I had stuck in my jumper fell to the floor and
+lay there taunting me with their sparkling splendour. Howsomever, it was
+no use crying over spilled milk; I had brought the situation on myself,
+and, whatever happened, must go through with it. Suddenly my ear caught
+the pat of naked feet outside the cell. Then the door was unbarred and
+the chief entered. 'Come, white man,' he said, 'all is made ready, and
+the axe waits for the bare flesh!' How would you have felt in such a
+situation? As for myself, I put a good face on it, and resolved, since I
+could no longer live a free and independent American citizen, to die as
+such. Pity, I thought, there wasn't a band. I was led up the village to
+the open plot before Don Silvio's house. It might have been the fourth
+of July for the crowd that was assembled. In the centre, for my special
+benefit, was an object which held an awful fascination for me; a
+curiously carved block of wood, dull brown in colour, and on two sides
+much stained and worn. It didn't take me a year to understand what it
+meant; and you may think it strange, seeing the nature of my position,
+but, true as gospel, I fell to wondering how my long neck would figure
+stretched across it.
+
+"When I was halted, I took it for granted that the work of dispatching
+me would commence at once, but I was mistaken. The execution could not
+take place until the arrival of Don Silvio, and the sun was a good hour
+up before there was a stir in the crowd, and the withered monkey-faced
+little devil came stumping towards me. If he had appeared a hundred
+years old in the half-dark of his house, he now looked double that age,
+but the fire in his eyes was as bright as ever. Hobbling to within a
+dozen paces of where I stood, he took thorough stock of me. Then,
+tapping the block with his stick, he said: 'Seńor, you are about to hunt
+treasure in a golden country, where I trust your efforts may meet with
+better success. I wish you farewell.' After relieving himself of this,
+he went to his seat; two natives raised a great grass umbrella above his
+head, and, all being comfortable, he gave orders for the performance to
+begin. A nigger stepped from the crowd and approached me, carrying in
+his hand an axe. Reaching the block he signed me to kneel. I took a last
+look round--first at the thick jungle, then at the great mountain
+pushing itself up into the blue sky. After that my eyes returned to the
+block, and, gentlemen both, a wonderful circumstance happened.
+Understand me clearly! Standing on either side of it were two thin
+columns of palest blue smoke, maybe six feet in height. As I stared at
+'em they gradually took the shapes of men, till I could make out the
+features of old Milwaukee and poor Jim Dance, of London Town. They
+seemed to be gently beckoning me and telling me not to fear. P'raps I
+kind of understood, for I stretched my long neck across the block
+without a sign of funk. I heard the cackling laugh of Don Silvio, I saw
+the headsman draw a step closer, his arms go up, and then I shut my
+eyes, and remember no more.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"When I came to my senses I was lying on the bed of rushes in my old
+quarters, and the native girl before mentioned was seated beside me. On
+putting my hand to my head to sort of fix matters, she laughed merrily,
+and said: 'Stranger, it is still there, but to-morrow it will certainly
+be gone!' Why they hadn't killed me I couldn't understand, unless it was
+to put me to the torture of waiting another day; anyhow, the following
+morning I was prepared for the guard when they came to lead me out.
+
+"Once more the crowd was there, once more that villainous old Don kept
+me waiting, and once more the axe went up but failed to strike. I was
+respited for another day. Well, this sort of thing happened every
+blessed morning, till I nearly went mad with the strain of it. On the
+eighth day, instead of being kept in the square, I was marched straight
+to the Don's house. The old pirate was waiting for me, and as soon as I
+arrived fell to questioning me about the outer world, seeming to take an
+all-fired interest in such parts of my own life as I thought fit to tell
+him. When he had found out all he wanted, he said: 'Go now, for the
+present you are free; but remember, if you but approach that ship by so
+much as half a mile, that same moment you die!' I stumbled out of his
+presence and down the street like a man dazed. That he had some reason
+for sparing my life was certain; but what it was, for the life of me I
+couldn't then determine. Arriving at my hut, I threw myself upon the
+rushes and tried to think it out.
+
+"That evening, a little after sundown, while walking outside the village
+and racking my brain for a chance of escape, an event happened which
+changed all my thoughts and plans. I was passing through a bit of
+jungle, where the fireflies were beginning to play to and fro, when I
+came face to face with the most beautiful girl I had ever seen,
+and--well, I'm a free-born American citizen, and as such the equal of
+any man living; but I reckon that young woman took the conceit out of
+me. She couldn't have been more than eighteen years of age: her skin was
+as white as milk, her hair and eyes of the deepest black; and when she
+walked it was like the sound of falling rose-leaves. Seeing me, she
+started with surprise, and was half-inclined to run; but something
+seemed to tell her I wasn't particular harmful, so overcoming her fear
+she said, 'Seńor, I am glad my grandfather has given you your freedom!'
+Her grandfather! Not being able to make it out, I said, 'Surely, miss,
+Don Silvio ain't your grandfather?' 'No, Seńor, he was my father's
+grandfather, but I call him so because the other is so tedious.' Perhaps
+my manner, as I say, didn't appear very dangerous; anyway, after this
+her bashfulness seemed to vanish, and we walked back to the village as
+comfortable as you please. She told me that it was she who had induced
+the old rascal to spare my life, and I reckon the look I gave her for
+that had something to do with the flush as spread across her face. She
+also let me into the risk I had run by breaking into the old galleon,
+which, accordin' to her tellin', was a sacred thing upon the island. She
+did not know how long it had lain there, but suspicioned her
+great-grandfather had commanded it as a young man, and that all the rest
+who came with him were dead,--a fact which, you bet, I could quite
+believe.
+
+"The moon was full up before we sighted the village, and when she left
+me I went back to my hut in a flumux of enchantment, as much in love as
+the veriest schoolboy. Somehow after this I never thought of escape, but
+set to work improving my quarters and laying out a garden. Every day Don
+Silvio came to question me, and you'd better guess I did my best to
+corral the old chap's confidence. How I got on you'll hear shortly.
+
+"Well, each evening as soon as the sun was down, I visited the grove
+beyond the village, where, sure enough, I always met the Don's
+great-granddaughter. Her beauty and amazin' innocence so held me that I
+was nearly mad to make her my wife; and when I found that she reckoned
+to have the same liking for me, I could bear it no longer, so went right
+off to ask the old man for her hand. Not having the least hope of being
+successful, you can judge of my surprise when he promised her to me
+straight away, and, what's more, fixed it that the wedding should take
+place next day. He kept his word, and on the following morning, in the
+presence of all the village, she became my wife.
+
+"The year that followed topped everything I ever knew of happiness. It
+slipped by in a rosy mist, and when our boy was born my cup was full. I
+proclaimed him American, according to the constitution of the United
+States, and the old Don announced a great feast in his honour. It was
+spread in the square, and all the village sat down to it. I can see the
+sight now: the shadowy outline of the mountain beyond the great flaring
+torches of sweet-smelling wood, the long rows of tables, the shouts and
+laughter of the niggers, and at the head, between my wife and her
+great-grandfather, the boy in his cradle. When the feast was right at
+its height, the old Don rose and handed me a silver mug filled with some
+sweet liquor. He told me to drink to my son's health, and suspecting no
+treachery, I did so. Next moment a change stole over me; I made a try to
+get on to my feet, but it was no use; everything seemed to be slipping
+away. I could just see my wife start towards me and the old Don pull her
+back, when my head sank on the table, and my senses left me.
+
+"The next thing I remember is finding myself lying precious sick and
+weak at the bottom of my own boat, with nothing but the big green seas
+rolling around me. The island had vanished, and with it my wife and
+child. At first I reckoned I must have been asleep and dreamed the last
+year; but no, the food with which the boat was stocked was clear enough
+evidence of its truth. For an eternity I sailed those cursed seas this
+way and that, seeking for the land I had lost; but I must have drifted
+into different waters, for I saw no more islands. My food ran out, and I
+had given up all hope of being saved, when one of your luggers hove in
+sight and picked me up.
+
+"Now, gentlemen, you've heard my story. Whether you believe it or not,
+of course I don't know; but I take my affidavy that all I have told you
+is true; and what's more, if you'll fit out a vessel to search for that
+island and its treasure, I'll take command of her. Should we find it, I
+reckon I can make you the two richest men on earth; and when I get my
+wife and child I shall be the happiest. In proof that the treasure's
+there, and as my contribution towards the expenses, I hand you this."
+From an inner pocket he produced a leather pouch, from which he took
+what at first appeared to be a small piece of crystal; on inspection it
+turned out to be a diamond, worth at least a hundred pounds. "That
+stone," said he, holding it at the angle which would best show its fire,
+"came from the coffers of the treasure-ship, and is the only one left
+out of all I saw and took. I will leave it with you for the present.
+Remember, there's thousands more aboard the old galleon, bigger and
+better nor that. Say, gentlemen, will you adventure for such
+merchandise?"
+
+It was too late to go into the question that night, so we bade him come
+up for a further talk in the morning. Rising, he gravely bowed to us,
+and without another word withdrew. Next day he was not to be found, nor
+has he ever made his appearance since. Whether he lost himself and fell
+into the sea, or whether he was an impostor and feared detection, I
+haven't the remotest idea. I only know that I have a valuable diamond in
+my possession, which I am waiting to restore to its uncommonly curious
+owner.
+
+
+
+
+Into the Outer Darkness
+
+
+    "I am not wrath, my own lost love, although
+    My heart is breaking--wrath I am not, no!
+    For all thou dost in diamonds blaze, no ray
+    Of light into thy heart's night finds its way.
+    I saw thee in a dream. Oh, piteous sight!
+    I saw thy heart all empty, all in night;
+    I saw the serpent gnawing at thy heart;
+    I saw how wretched, oh, my love, thou art!"
+
+    --Heine.
+
+
+You will, perhaps, remember how the soul of Tom Guilfoy was saved by his
+wife, how Godfrey Halkett was killed by his sweetheart, and how the
+plans of the Kangaroo Girl were shattered at one blow by a certain
+grandee aide-de-camp. All those things are matters of history. This is a
+story of a similar nature, but with a somewhat different ending.
+
+I am not going to tell you how I acquired my information, nor shall I
+say in which Australian colony the events occurred. If you have ever
+originated a scandal yourself, you will understand why and sympathise
+with me. Remember, however, personally, I don't blame them. Situated as
+they were, they couldn't have done otherwise. But I _do_ contend that it
+refutes the charge globe-trotters bring against us when they say _there
+is nothing underneath the surface of Australian society_.
+
+Officially, and for the purposes of trade, the man was named Cyril
+George Paton Haywood; his friends, however, called him Lancelot. The
+woman's maiden name was Alice Mary Whittaker, otherwise Guinevere; and
+as Lancelot and Guinevere, they are as famous through three colonies as
+a certain governor's mislaid particular despatch.
+
+Lancelot was in the Civil Service, Deputy-Assistant-Registrar-General of
+Lands, Titles, or something brilliant of that description.
+Departmentally, he ranked high, was entitled to wear a uniform on
+occasion, and boasted the right of private _entrée_ at vice-regal
+levees; financially, however, he was too low altogether. The greyheads
+lost no opportunity of affirming that he was too young, and even cadets
+know that it is impossible for a man to be accounted brilliant until age
+has removed the opportunity of showing it. That is why, according to the
+peculiarity of our legislation, we venerate and retain fossils to the
+detriment of younger and abler men.
+
+Among other things Lancelot was consumptive, and, apart from his salary,
+penniless. So he naturally loved Guinevere, with a love that was
+dog-like in its faithfulness, and she returned his passion with equal
+fervour. For three seasons, to my certain knowledge, they drove
+together, sat out dances together, and met on every conceivable
+opportunity. She was desperately thorough in everything she undertook.
+Any man who has ever danced with her will confirm this statement.
+
+Then King Arthur appeared on the scene, and languid society--we were in
+the hills for the hot months--sat down to watch results.
+
+Arthur was not an ideal knight in any way. His past was a sealed book,
+therefore it was adjudged disreputable; his present was a golden age, so
+he had evidently turned over a new leaf. He was worth a quarter of a
+million, men said; but even that couldn't prevent him from being a podgy
+little red man with a double chin, always horribly clean, and given to
+the display of many diamonds. He told Mrs. Whittaker, in confidence, at
+the Bellakers' ball, that he was anxious to marry and settle down if he
+could only meet the right sort of girl; and, being a good mother, she
+informed her husband, in the brougham on the way home, that she could
+put her hand on just the very identical maid.
+
+Whittaker said nothing, for he was fighting a financial crisis at the
+time; and, besides, he had every confidence in his wife.
+
+About a month later Arthur purchased a gorgeous summer palace half-way
+up the mountain-road, furnished it magnificently, and set himself to
+entertain on his own lines. He had for neighbours a dignified judge and
+a popular widow. The judge lent him tone, the widow gave him female
+society. Indirectly, he paid through the nose for both.
+
+Needless to say, every one was disposed to be cordial, for he gave
+delightful impromptu dances on cool summer evenings, and his iced
+champagne-cup was undeniable. He threw his tennis-courts open to society
+generally, and his billiard-room was the rendezvous for youths of
+sporting tastes for miles round. He also organized lovely moonlight
+riding picnics; and after a day in the sweltering heat of the plains, it
+was vastly refreshing to dodge through the cool gullies in congenial
+company.
+
+Early in the summer Lancelot took rooms in the township down the
+hillside, and in the evenings he would stroll quietly along the mountain
+roads with Guinevere. Of course every one else was strolling too, but
+that only gave zest to the affair; and as most of them were also playing
+at love, their presence hardly mattered.
+
+In the autumn, when people were beginning to think of returning to the
+city, Whittaker died, leaving his family almost unprovided for.
+
+King Arthur was among the first to tender his sympathies, and, I'm told,
+after five minutes' preamble, asked point-blank for Guinevere's hand in
+marriage.
+
+In spite of her grief, Mrs. Whittaker was able to grasp the majesty of
+his offer, and took care that night to show her daughter how necessary
+it was, for all their sakes, that she should marry well. Guinevere,
+however, could not see it in the same light. If it had been Lancelot,
+she would have been only too happy, she said; but even for her family's
+sake she was not going to marry anybody else. The mother postponed the
+matter for a week, then she argued, pleaded, threatened, and finally
+wept; but her daughter remained obstinate.
+
+Knowing all this, you can imagine our surprise when, two months later,
+the engagement of King Arthur to beautiful Guinevere was publicly
+announced. But what amazed us still more was the fact that Lancelot did
+not seem to be affected thereby in the very smallest degree. His heart
+complaint was rapidly developing itself, and perhaps his valve demanded
+his complete attention.
+
+If, however, we had seen a certain little letter, smeared with
+tear-stains and innumerable blotches, we might have understood matters;
+but as we did not, we had, like a certain lady of scriptural fame, to
+argue on what might be called insufficient premises.
+
+Towards the end of June, Arthur and Guinevere were married in the
+Anglican Cathedral, the Lord Bishop officiating.
+
+It was in all respects a brilliant wedding, and the bridegroom's present
+to the bride was a thing to see and marvel over. Guinevere walked
+through the ceremony as if she had been doing nothing else from
+childhood. (As I have said, she was desperately thorough in all she
+undertook.) Lancelot was not present; his health would not permit of it,
+he said.
+
+The happy couple left the same day in the steamer _Chang-Sha_, to spend
+their honeymoon in Japan.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One morning, on arrival at the office, Lancelot found a letter on his
+table. It was from an eminent firm of English solicitors, and informed
+him of the death of an unknown relative, who, in consideration perhaps
+of their never having met, had left him the sum of thirty thousand
+pounds snugly invested.
+
+He was barely interested, and asked what earthly manner of use it was to
+him now? Any one could see that he was growing daily worse, and I
+believe it was that very week that his doctor first insisted that he
+should resign his appointments and settle down in some quiet place,
+where he could not be excited in any shape or form. He was only
+thirty-three, but a very old man.
+
+Early in December the happy couple returned to the south. The hot
+weather had commenced, again everybody was resident in the hills. Arthur
+and his wife went straight to the palace on the mountain-road, and on
+her first "afternoon," Guinevere's large drawing-room was filled with
+callers. Two things were painfully evident to the least observant: she
+was only a walking skeleton, while her husband was cleaner and more
+distressfully polite than ever. At first, we didn't know how to account
+for it; but men who saw his brandy-pegs understood what they meant, and
+told their women-folk, who, as usual, spread the report abroad.
+
+Lancelot called on the Monday following their return, and Arthur
+welcomed him, if anything, a little too effusively. Guinevere crossed
+the room to shake hands, and the afternoon light enabled them to take
+stock of each other properly. They were a pair of ghosts, and each was
+shocked almost beyond the bounds of decency at the change in the other.
+He followed her to the Japanese afternoon tea-table, and took a cup of
+tea from her hands. The tremor of the cup and saucer told their own
+tale. Arthur watched them from the fireplace with the blandest of smiles
+upon his face. It pleased him to see the tears gather in his wife's
+eyes, as she recognised the change in her old lover. From that day
+forward, Lancelot was made free of the house, and Arthur insisted that
+he should be asked to every function, however great or small.
+
+Whatever his own thoughts might have been, Lancelot could not fail to
+see the pleasure his society gave Guinevere, so he settled it in his own
+mind that the invitations emanated from her. His health was too feeble
+to admit of his riding or playing tennis; but driving along the
+mountain-roads, strolling in the gardens, or idling in the music-room,
+he was her constant companion. Naturally, folk talked, though Arthur
+assured them that he was only too glad to see his wife happy with her
+old friends. But it was not true, the long brandy pawnee glasses in his
+study said so most emphatically.
+
+This sort of thing went on all through the summer months, until the
+roses began to bloom again in Guinevere's cheeks. Her husband noticed
+the change, but did not comment on it; he was going to have his day of
+reckoning by-and-by.
+
+One day Lancelot called upon a certain famous specialist (I'll tell you
+a pretty piece of scandal about his wife some day), and after a brief
+wait was shown into the consulting-room. He sniffed the professional
+smell of the place for five minutes, and while listening to the ticking
+of the clock upon the mantelpiece, made up his mind on a certain
+subject.
+
+After the specialist had completed a searching examination, Lancelot
+said,--"As you see, I am growing thinner every day; it nearly kills me
+to walk fifty yards, and my appetite has forsaken me completely. It's
+not the first time you've told men their fate: tell me mine. What is the
+length of my tether?"
+
+"My dear sir, my very dear sir!" that worthy man replied, as he put his
+paraphernalia back into their respective cases, "we must not despair!
+While there is life there is hope; with proper care you may yet----"
+
+"But I shall take no care. How long have I to live?"
+
+"As I have said, with scrupulous attention to detail and proper advice,
+say twelve months, possibly more."
+
+"And without that care?"
+
+"I cannot tell you--perhaps five minutes, perhaps five months; it
+depends upon yourself."
+
+"I am glad to hear that. Good-day!"
+
+As he stepped into his buggy a letter crinkled in his breast-pocket. He
+laid himself back on the seat, murmuring Heine's
+
+    "Lay your dear little hand on my heart, my fair!
+    Ah! you hear how it knocks on its chamber there?
+    In there dwells a carpenter grim and vile,
+    And he's shaping a coffin for me the while.
+
+    "There is knocking and hammering night and day;
+    Long since they have frightened my sleep away.
+    Oh, carpenter, show that you know your trade,
+    That so to sleep I may soon be laid!"
+
+Half-way up the mountain-road, Arthur overtook the buggy and cantered
+alongside.
+
+"You're looking pretty cheap, old man," he said; "better come to dinner
+to-night, and see if we can't cheer you up--7.30 as usual!"
+
+"Thanks! I think I will," answered Lancelot. "I don't feel particularly
+bright!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Immediately after dessert Guinevere retired, leaving her husband and
+their guest together.
+
+As Lancelot drew his handkerchief from his pocket, a letter came with it
+and fell unnoticed to the floor.
+
+On rising Arthur saw it and picked it up. He read it without apology,
+and as he did so his face set. Then he politely handed it to his guest,
+saying,--
+
+"I must beg your pardon, this is evidently your property!"
+
+Lancelot did not speak, but sank back in his chair while the other
+continued,--"This is really a most unfortunate affair; and so my wife is
+about to dishonour my name, in order to devote herself more exclusively
+to the care of your health?"
+
+"The fault is mine," stammered Lancelot, "only mine!"
+
+"My dear fellow, not at all. Judging from that letter, she is in love
+with you--possibly she is right. We won't argue that matter. She seems
+fond of playing the _rōle_ of St. Mary Magdala."
+
+"What do you mean to do?"
+
+"Turn her out of my house to-night, or settle the matter with you!"
+
+"Settle with me; but for God's sake spare her!"
+
+"Very well! Let us discuss the question quietly. As you know, I do not
+believe in what is called sentiment, and fortunately I am able to say,
+with a clear conscience, that I am not in love with my wife. Probably if
+I were, I should act otherwise. Now, what I propose is, that chance
+shall decide for us whether my wife leaves Australia, as she suggests,
+with you, or whether you go alone concealing your destination and
+promising never to communicate in any way with her again. Both are
+unpleasant alternatives, but my gain is, that in either case I shall be
+rid of you!"
+
+"Good God, man, what an unholy arrangement! Supposing I refuse?"
+
+"For her sake you cannot. I assure you I should turn her out of my house
+to-night!"
+
+"But will you treat her kindly if I agree?"
+
+"Isn't that rather a curious question from you to me? You must see that
+it depends entirely on her. Do you agree to my proposal?"
+
+"God help me, I have no alternative!"
+
+There was a long pause, during which Guinevere's music came faintly from
+the drawing-room.
+
+"Very well; in that case, we had better decide at once. What is my wife
+playing?"
+
+"An Andante and Scherzo of Beethoven's."
+
+"Do you know it?"
+
+"Thoroughly."
+
+"Then you have that much in your favour. See, here, it is just three and
+a half minutes to nine by that clock. If she stops before the first
+stroke of the hour, I win, and she stays with me, and _vice versā_. Do
+you agree?"
+
+"I cannot do otherwise. God help her; it is all my fault!"
+
+"Not at all, I assure you. Let us make ourselves comfortable. Will you
+try that port? No? You are foolish; it is an excellent vintage. Ah! one
+minute gone! What a lovely melody it is; and she plays it charmingly.
+The laughter of the Scherzo is delicious! May I trouble you for that
+decanter? Thank you! Two minutes gone. It appears as if my luck is going
+to fail me at last. Well, it can't be helped. I don't know which of us
+will be the gainer by the change. By the way, let me recommend you to go
+to Europe, and you might winter in Algiers; the climate you will find
+most ben----Ah! she has stopped. Well, I am afraid, Mr. Haywood, Fate
+has decided _against_ you. Shall I order your carriage?"
+
+Lancelot did not answer save by a little convulsive gasp. Then a little
+trickle of blood ran from his lips down his chin. The excitement had
+been too much for him; the frail cord that bound him to life had
+snapped, and he was dead.
+
+
+
+
+The Story of Tommy Dodd and "The Rooster"
+
+
+    "Keep back, in the yellow! Come up, on Othello!
+    Hold hard, on the chestnut! Turn round, on The Drag:
+    Keep back there, on Spartan! Back, you, sir, in tartan!
+    So! steady there! easy! and down went the flag."
+
+    --Adam Lindsay Gordon.
+
+
+Men in all ranks of society, from cabinet ministers to hotel clerks, are
+apt to underestimate the true importance of Little Things. Women never
+do, because it is their business in life to overestimate everything.
+Though these statements may seem paradoxical, when you've studied the
+sad history of Tommy Dodd and "The Rooster," my meaning will be as clear
+as noonday.
+
+Jack Medway's Love Affair was a case in point; for if he had paid proper
+attention to small matters, he would not have cuffed "The Rooster" in
+Bourke Street, nor emphasized the insult by calling him a "dirty brat";
+then most assuredly he would have married the girl of his heart, instead
+of a certain vivacious widow who now bullies his life away. Of course
+people bursting with common sense will deem it impossible that a rebuke
+given to a street-arab in Melbourne could affect the destinies of four
+people three years afterwards in North Queensland; nevertheless, without
+a shadow of doubt, such was the case. Just let me explain a little
+before you watch the course of events for yourself.
+
+In the first place, Tommy Dodd was a racehorse, and one who had earned
+fame for himself on every course in Victoria from Mosquito Creek to Cape
+Howe. That he was not originally intended for the turf was evident from
+the fact that he made his first appearance in Government employ; and it
+was not until he had nearly killed four telegraph messengers and two
+important citizens that he was deemed unfit for the public service. Then
+he was put up to auction, and Lazarus Levi secured him for a quarter of
+his real value. He was a most accommodating quadruped, and with not more
+than nine-stone-six on his back was able, when his owner so desired, to
+make even crack performers look ridiculous. He had one fault, however,
+and that was----But I'll tell you about that directly.
+
+"The Rooster" was another curiosity. His body was the body of a child,
+his face was the face of a lad; but his knowledge of the world, and the
+racing world in particular, could only have been gained in generations
+of experience. A great love for Tommy Dodd, and an intense hatred for
+the before-mentioned Mr. John Medway, of Barcoola Station, were among
+other of his peculiarities.
+
+Now it so happened that after Jack Medway was appointed manager of
+Barcoola, he fell in love. I don't push this forward as anything
+extraordinary; but, as the statement of the fact is necessary to the
+proper narration of this story, I am bound to repeat, Jack Medway was in
+love, and Gerty Morris was the object of his affection. He also
+_respected_ a dashing widow, named Leversidge.
+
+The trouble dates from the issue of the first advertisements in
+connection with the Barcoola Races. At this yearly festival every owner,
+manager, jackeroo and rouseabout, within a hundred miles of the course,
+makes it a point of honour to be present. Then, for the space of a week,
+life is one whirl of shows, picnics, dances, and meetings. But above all
+the races reigned supreme.
+
+One Sunday afternoon in Dr. Morris's verandah The Ladies' Bracelet was
+discussed, and Gerty Morris half hinted that Medway should enter a horse
+for it in her name. Naturally he jumped at the chance, and after summing
+up the strength of the most likely entries, cast about him for a nag.
+
+(At this point the curtain should fall upon Act I., with rosy limelight
+effects, suggestive of Dawning Love and High Ideas.)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When an owner runs a horse to suit his book he should not grumble if his
+method is discovered; for stewards do _sometimes_ see crooked running,
+and when they do they are apt to make things troublesome for that owner.
+Perhaps the proprietor of Tommy Dodd had met with some misfortune of
+this sort, for that sagacious animal suddenly disappeared from the
+southern racing world, and was seen therein no more.
+
+A month later a mob of horses came up to Queensland, and at the sale a
+long, lolloping chestnut gelding, name unknown, was knocked down to
+Medway for twenty pounds. Though he was not aware of the fact, he was
+now the owner of the famous Tommy Dodd.
+
+After the sale, driving home from the township, Beverley, of Kimona,
+nearly annihilated a drunken atom lying on the track. He picked him up
+and drove on. Next day, ascertaining that he possessed racing
+experience, he put him on to exercise The Gift. The Gift was his entry
+for The Bracelet, under the nomination of an _unknown_ Alice Brown, in
+whom everybody, of course, recognised the before-mentioned Miss Gertrude
+Morris. That atom was "The Rooster," who had followed Tommy Dodd from
+the south. And here again Fate played up against Jack Medway.
+
+(Curtain on Act II.: subdued lights and music suggestive of much
+Mystery.)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A week later the entries of the Barcoola Jockey Club's Autumn Meeting
+were announced, and Mr. J. Medway's Young Romeo, and Mr. R. Beverley's
+The Gift, were in the list of competitors.
+
+The training of both animals was proceeding satisfactorily, and the
+owner of Young Romeo, _alias_ Tommy Dodd, informed Miss Morris that the
+bracelet she so much coveted must certainly become her property.
+Beverley had written to her that morning to the same effect.
+
+"The Rooster" ferreted about until he discovered his equine friend's
+abode, and at the same time learnt all he cared to know about the owner.
+
+Then, remembering the insult of three years before, he saw a chance of
+revenge. He was quick-witted enough to notice the rivalry between
+Beverley and Medway, and he quite understood that both men had staked
+their life's happiness upon the issue of the race. He knew more about
+Tommy Dodd than any man living, so he took Beverley into his confidence,
+and revealed the animal's one peculiarity. That gentleman gave him a
+sovereign to hold his tongue, and as Young Romeo was the only horse he
+feared, he now saw his way clear to victory.
+
+(Here Act III. terminates, with much red fire and music suggestive of
+conspiracy.)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It is all nonsense to say that a good day's sport cannot be enjoyed
+without grand-stands, electric scratching-boards, and telegraphs. The
+Barcoola Jockey Club possessed none of these advantages, and yet their
+races were always wonderfully successful. The fact is, in North
+Queensland the horse is _the_ consideration; but the farther you go
+south, the nearer you get to directors' meetings and bank
+overdrafts--consequently, the more iniquitous and black-guardly the
+sport becomes.
+
+Jack Medway drove his party on to the course in great style, and pretty
+Gerty Morris sat beside him, looking the picture of health and
+happiness. Beverley watched the waggonette draw up in a good position,
+and smiled sardonically. (The Gift was as fit as hands could make him:
+Young Romeo was his only enemy; and armed with "The Rooster's"
+knowledge, he knew he held _him_ safe.)
+
+Now, the secret was very simple after all. Years before, when Tommy Dodd
+was in Government employ, he had been put to a good deal of torture by
+one small telegraph boy, whose peculiar pleasure it was to flay him
+daily with a green hide whip. When this amiable young gentleman had
+succeeded in rawing the horse's sides to his own satisfaction, he still
+further goaded the poor brute by raising the hide as if to strike, yet
+never letting it descend. The result of this was that, even in his
+racing days, Tommy Dodd could never be persuaded to pass a lifted whip.
+This was "The Rooster's" secret, and the sequel you shall know directly.
+
+The races opened splendidly. A Bush Handicap of 30 sovs., half a mile,
+was won after a determined struggle by Mr. Exton's Headstrong, 7 st. 2
+lb., totalisator dividend, £3 10s. The District Plate went to Mr.
+Goodwyn's Endymion, 6 st. 10 lb., totalisator dividend, £5 6s. After
+that, hampers were opened, and every one went to luncheon. Dick Beverley
+lunched with the Barcoola party, and made himself vastly agreeable to
+all concerned--his rival included. The Bracelet Stakes was the first
+event after luncheon, and the two men went away to dress.
+
+Young Romeo had been excellently prepared, and for old association's
+sake took to the process very kindly. "The Rooster" kept The Gift out of
+the way till he was wanted, on the plea that he was "a mighty nervous
+'oss to 'andle."
+
+After weighing in, Jack Medway offered Beverley a level fifty against
+his mount. "I'll take you," said Beverley, and strolled away to saddle.
+
+Every one was pleased with the appearance of Young Romeo. He carried
+himself prettily, and swept over the ground with that easy gliding
+motion characteristic of a thoroughbred. His rider looked and behaved
+well in the saddle, so the ladies were unanimous in their praise. The
+Gift was not a handsome horse, but he had a wear-and-tear appearance
+that was better than mere beauty, and more than one who could judge of
+horse-flesh slipped away to put "just a saver" on him. The remainder of
+the field were a very so-so lot indeed.
+
+As the rivals passed the Barcoola party in their preliminary canter,
+Gerty Morris scanned both men carefully, but could not make up her mind
+which she preferred. However, Medway had openly promised her the
+bracelet, so he had that in his favour. His colours were white jacket,
+red sleeves and cap; and she had worked a tiny sprig of ivy on the
+collar, of which he was inordinately proud.
+
+After a little delay at the post, the flag dropped to a good start.
+Warrigal was the first away, with Endymion and The Gift in close
+attendance; Young Romeo was unfortunate, and brought up the rear with
+The Jackeroo and Blush Rose. As they passed the windmill, Endymion
+changed places with Warrigal, and Young Romeo came up to fourth place.
+Then The Gift forged to the front and led by a length. On entering the
+dip, Medway pushed Young Romeo to second place, and remained there
+watching events until they came into the straight. The crowd, thinking
+all was over, commenced shouting, "The Gift wins," "The Gift in a
+canter," "The Gift," etc., etc., etc., until Jack Medway thought it time
+to make play, so he set sail in pursuit. Young Romeo was full of running
+and overhauled his rival foot by foot; when fifty yards from the post
+they were locked neck and neck. Both were doing all they knew. Then "The
+Rooster's" secret flashed through Beverley's mind, and instantly he
+raised his whip, _but did not strike_. Next moment he was past the post
+with a couple of lengths to spare. To every one's surprise, Young Romeo,
+on his right, had shut up like a concertina just as he had it all his
+own way. _The bracelet was the property of Miss Brown._
+
+Next day we were informed that Gerty Morris had accepted Beverley, of
+Kimona, with her parents' full consent, and, strange to say, at the
+dinner given to celebrate that wonderful event she wore the bracelet of
+the famous race. Medway was among those invited, but he declined the
+invitation on the plea that business demanded his presence elsewhere.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"I often think that if he knew everything he would be the first to
+regret having hurt 'The Rooster's' feelings that night in Bourke Street.
+They say he is not having a very happy time of it with his wife--once
+the Widow Leversidge."
+
+Now don't you think I'm right about the importance of Little Things?
+
+
+
+
+Quod Erat Demonstrandum
+
+
+    "That this is doctrine, simple, ancient, true;
+    Such is life's trial, as old Earth smiles and knows.
+    If you loved only what were worth your love,
+    Love were clear gain, and wholly well for you;
+    Make the low nature better by your throes!
+    Give earth yourself, go up for gain above!"
+
+    --R. Browning.
+
+
+Any afternoon, between three and five, you will probably find in the
+Club Library, somewhere near the S T E and T R A Bookcase, a thin,
+restless-eyed man of perhaps five-and-fifty years of age. He will answer
+to the name of Pennethorne--Cornelius Pennethorne--and he can
+_sometimes_ be trusted to converse in a fairly rational manner.
+Generally, however, he is chock-full of nonsensical ideas, founded on
+what he calls "Inferences from Established Principles," and these make
+it almost impossible for him to do anything, from tying his bootlace to
+reducing his Overdraft, except on theories of his own determining.
+
+He sold out of the Army because he had proved to the War Office that the
+science of modern warfare was founded on an entirely wrong basis, and
+the greyheads refused his aid to set it right. So, washing his hands of
+the whole affair, he came to Australia. This was in '69, or perhaps '70.
+
+Knowing nothing about station work, he gave sixty thousand pounds for a
+property on the Diamantina, in order to demonstrate his own theories on
+cattle-breeding. And when they proved unworkable, he spent a small
+fortune inventing a gold-crushing plant--another failure. In similar
+manner all his pet projects faded away, one after another, like
+cats'-paws on a big lagoon.
+
+But he learnt nothing from these rebuffs, and there was no _kudos_ to be
+gained by showing him what an utter ass he really was. You _can_ reason
+with some men, but not with Pennethorne: he came from obstinate Cornish
+stock; and as soon as he saw the theory of the moment a failure, he
+threw it away and dived deeper still into something else.
+
+When he had exhausted cattle-breeding, horse-breaking, irrigation and
+gold-mining, he hunted about for some other channel in which to sink his
+money; but for the moment nothing came to hand.
+
+Then some one sent him a pamphlet entitled "The Folklore of our
+Aboriginal Predecessors," or something of an equally idiotic nature; and
+in this he saw a fresh opening. His district was infested with blacks,
+so he plunged holus-bolus into their private affairs. He argued that the
+theory of their treatment was altogether wrong, and for three months he
+choked the Colonial Press with lengthy screeds denouncing every one
+concerned in their government. Beginning with the Protector of
+Aboriginals and his staff, he took in the Commissioner of Police, and
+clergy of all denominations. Then, working through the Legislative and
+Executive Councils, he finished with a great blare at the Governor
+himself. It never, for an instant, struck him that he was making an
+egregious ass of himself. That, probably, would be some one else's
+theory.
+
+Now of all this absurd man's absurd ideas, his fondest, and consequently
+his most absurd, was that, fundamentally, the nature of both blacks and
+whites is the same. He contended that education and opportunity are
+alone responsible for the difference. He said he would prove it.
+
+Taking from the nearest tribe a little half-caste girl, perhaps eight
+years of age, he sent her south to school, and, cutting off all
+communication with her people, sat himself down to watch results.
+
+After the child had been enjoying the advantages of every luxury for ten
+years, he went down to ascertain what progress she had made, and was
+astounded at the result. In place of the half-wild urchin he remembered,
+he found a well-mannered, accomplished girl, able to hold her own
+anywhere. She received him with an air of _abandon_ that staggered him,
+and he was pleased beyond measure. He said he would go down to the Club
+and show the scoffers there that one theory, at least, had proved
+successful.
+
+On reaching it he discovered a strange generation, and was not a little
+chagrined to find himself and his theories almost forgotten. The younger
+men watched him meandering about the rooms, and said to each other, "Who
+is this old bore Pennethorne, and what forgotten part of the interior
+does he come from?"
+
+So delighted was he with the success of his scheme that he sent the girl
+to Europe for a year, he himself returning to the Back-blocks. It must
+be remembered here that her colour was not pure black, but a sort of
+dirty brown, that she was by no means ill-looking, and that she had been
+perfectly educated.
+
+Then came the situation he should have foreseen, "When her education was
+completed, what was to be done with her?" In the loneliness of his
+station he thought and thought, but could come to no conclusion. She
+would know enough to make a perfect governess; but then, perhaps, no one
+would care to give her employment. It was impossible that she should go
+back to the tribe, and it was equally unlikely that any suitable man
+would ask her hand in marriage. He began to realize what a white
+elephant he had raised up for himself.
+
+One cold winter's night, when the rain was beating down and the wind
+whistling round the station-house, it flashed through his mind that it
+would be by no means unpleasant to exchange his grumpy old housekeeper
+for a younger woman--one who could make the evenings pleasant with music
+and intellectual conversation. But it would have this drawback--it would
+mean matrimony.
+
+All this time his _protégée_ was writing him charming letters from Rome
+and Naples, commenting shrewdly on all the wonders she was seeing.
+Sometimes on the run he would read these letters, and think out certain
+schemes all by himself.
+
+On her return he went down to Sydney for the special purpose of meeting
+her. He found a pretty little woman in a neat dark blue travelling dress
+awaiting him. Her white cuffs and collar contrasted charmingly with her
+dark complexion. She received him very nicely, and he noticed that she
+had picked up the little mannerisms of the better-class Englishwomen she
+had met. They drove to the Australian, and a week later were married by
+special licence.
+
+Most men who remembered him said he was a very big fool; the rest said
+that they would give _their_ opinions when they saw how events turned
+out.
+
+Directly they were married they posted straight off to the station. And
+herein Pennethorne acted very unwisely. He should have toured Tasmania
+and New Zealand, or visited Japan in the orthodox way. But he was unlike
+other men, and it was a moral impossibility for him to act like a
+rational being--his theories got in the way and tripped him up.
+
+For the first year or so everything progressed beautifully, and he wrote
+glowing accounts of his new life to the few men whose friendship he had
+thought worth retaining. Then the correspondence ceased abruptly, and
+his friends marvelled.
+
+Now, of all those who had scoffed at Pennethorne's theories, the most
+persistent was William Pevis Farrington, afterwards His Honour Mr.
+Justice Farrington. In the middle of his happiness, Pennethorne had
+invited the judge, if ever he should be travelling that way, etc.--you
+know the usual sort of thing--to put in a day or two with him, and see
+for himself how things stood. About a year later Farrington did happen
+to be somewhere in the district and called as requested.
+
+Meeting his host near the homestead, they rode up together, and
+Farrington noticed that Pennethorne decidedly looked his age. When they
+reached the house the latter, leaving his guest in the dining-room, went
+in search of his wife, to return about ten minutes later saying she was
+unwell. They dined alone. All through the meal Pennethorne seemed
+disturbed and uncomfortable, and when it was over led the way into the
+garden, where he said abruptly, "Farrington, you think me a madman,
+don't you?"
+
+The judge mumbled the only thing he could think of at the moment, and
+endeavoured to push the conversation off to a side track by an inquiry
+after Mrs. Pennethorne's health. It had precisely the contrary effect to
+what he intended.
+
+His friend had twelve years' arrears to work off before he could be
+considered, conversationally, a decent companion. So, setting to work,
+he poured into the unfortunate judge's ears his granary of theories,
+facts, and arguments. He marshalled his arguments, backed them up with
+his theories, and clinched all with his facts, his voice rising from its
+usual placid level to a higher note of almost childish entreaty.
+Unconsciously he was endeavouring to convince himself, through the
+medium of a second person, of the wisdom contained in his marriage
+experiment.
+
+Farrington listened attentively. His trained mind distinguished between
+what the other believed and what he was endeavouring to prove against
+his own convictions. However, he could see that the keynote of the whole
+harangue was Failure, but as every one admitted that the last experiment
+had proved entirely successful, in what direction did such failure lie?
+He was more than a little mixed, and by delicate cross-examination
+elicited certain facts that puzzled him still more.
+
+One thing was plainly evident: Pennethorne was very much in love with
+his wife. In the first place he was given to understand that no man
+could desire a more amiable wife than Mrs. Pennethorne had proved
+herself to be. This heading included virtues too numerous to
+mention--but she was not well. Nor could any man desire a more
+_accomplished_ wife than Mrs. Pennethorne, who was fit to be the
+helpmate of an Oxford Don--but she was not well. His assertions always
+had the same refrain--"She was not well!"
+
+Because he could not understand, Farrington became deeply interested.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Just before daylight the judge was wakened by his host. He saw in an
+instant that something terrible had happened.
+
+_Mrs. Pennethorne had disappeared in the night, her husband knew not
+whither!_
+
+Even with his teeth chattering in his head, and his palsied old hand
+rattling the candlestick, he was compelled to state _his theory_ of her
+absence.
+
+Farrington, seeing he was not responsible for his actions, acted for
+him. He routed out all the station hands and scoured the country. They
+spent all day searching the scrub, dragging the dams and waterholes, and
+at nightfall had to give it up as hopeless.
+
+Farrington and Pennethorne rode home together. Passing through a rocky
+gully, they noticed the smoke of a camp fire floating up into the still
+night air, and rode up to make inquiries. The blacks were at their
+evening meal. One filthy girl raised her head and looked up at them from
+her frowsy blankets. _It was Mrs. Pennethorne!_
+
+After thirteen years of civilization the race instinct had proved too
+strong: the reek of the camp fires, the call of the Bush, and the
+fascination of the old savage life had come back upon her with double
+intensity, and so the last theory had to be written down a failure.
+_Q.E.D._
+
+
+
+
+Cupid and Psyche
+
+
+    "Handsome, amiable, and clever,
+      With a fortune and a wife;
+    So I make my start whenever
+      I would build the fancy life.
+    After all the bright ideal,
+      What a gulf there is between
+    Things that are, alas! too real
+      And the things that might have been!"
+
+    --Henry S. Leigh.
+
+
+His name upon the ship's books was Edward Braithwaite Colchester, but
+between Tilbury and Sydney Harbour he was better known as Cupid. His
+mother was a widow with four more olive branches, absolutely dependent
+on her own and Teddy's exertions.
+
+At the best of times Kindergartens for the children of respectable
+tradespeople are not particularly remunerative, and the semi-detached
+villa in Sydenham was often sorely tried for petty cash. But when Teddy
+was appointed fourth officer of the X.Y.Z. Company's steamship _Cambrian
+Prince_, endless possibilities were opened up.
+
+If you will remember that everything in this world is ordained to a
+certain end, you will see that Teddy's future entirely depended on his
+falling in love--first love, of course, and not the matter-of-fact
+business-like affair that follows later.
+
+After his second voyage he obtained a fortnight's leave and hastened
+home. Being fond of tennis and such-like amusements, he was naturally
+brought into contact with many charming girls, who, because he was a
+strange man and a sailor, were effusively polite. Then he fell
+hopelessly in love with a horribly impossible girl, and in the
+excitement of the latest waltz proposed, and was accepted, on the
+strength of a fourth officer's pay, an incipient moustache, and a dozen
+or so brass buttons.
+
+During the next voyage his behaviour towards unmarried women was marked
+by that circumspection which should always characterize an engaged man.
+He never allowed himself to forget this for an instant, and his cabin
+had for its chief ornament a plush-framed likeness of a young lady
+gazing, with a wistful expression, over a palpably photographic sea.
+
+Now, it was necessary for his ultimate happiness that Teddy Colchester
+should learn that, like his own brass buttons, without constant
+burnishing, a young lady's affection is apt to lose much of its pristine
+brightness, and that too much sea air is good for neither. He ticked off
+the days of absence, and, as his calendar lessened, his affection
+increased.
+
+At Plymouth a letter met him--a jerky, inky, schoolgirl epistle,
+evidently written by a writer very cold and miserable; and the first
+reading stunned him. Had he seen a little more of the real world, he
+would have been able to read between the lines something to this effect:
+"You're Teddy, three months away, and I'm madly in love with a soldier."
+Then he would have noted that the writer was staying in Salisbury, after
+which he would have hunted up his home papers and discovered that the
+Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry Cavalry were encamped at Humington Down. But as
+he had only seen life through a telescope, he could not do this,
+consequently his pain was a trifle acute.
+
+His mother wrote him four pages of sympathy. But though she wondered at
+any girl jilting her boy, she could not help a feeling of satisfaction
+at its being still in her power to transmute three-quarters of his pay
+into food and raiment for her brood.
+
+Next voyage the _Cambrian Prince_ had her full complement of passengers,
+and the "Kangaroo Girl," whom perhaps you may remember, was of the
+number. At Plymouth a little reserved girl joined, and as she is
+considerably mixed up in this story, you must know that she rejoiced in
+the unpretentious name of Hinks.
+
+For the first week or so Teddy held very much aloof from the passengers,
+engaging himself entirely with recollections of the girl for whose sake
+he was going to live "only in a memory."
+
+Being an honest, straightforward young fellow, he of course followed the
+prescribed programme of all blighted love affairs. He began by pitying
+himself for the sorrow he was undergoing, then went on to picture the
+future that might have been theirs had she married him; but before they
+were clear of the Bay he had arrived at the invariable conclusion, and
+was pitying himself for pitying the girl who was foolish enough to jilt
+such an entirely estimable young man as Edward Braithwaite Colchester.
+
+One moonlight night, after leaving "Gib," he was leaning over the rails
+of the promenade deck, feeling sympathetically inclined to the world in
+general, when somebody stepped up beside him. It was Miss Hinks. She
+prefaced her conversation with two or three questions about the sea, and
+he made the astounding discovery that her voice possessed just the note
+of sympathy he required for his complaint. He had felt sorry for her
+because other people snubbed her, and she for him because she had been
+told exaggerated stories about his love affair. Together they made
+rather a curious couple.
+
+[Illustration: "One moonlight night ... somebody stepped up beside
+him."]
+
+When, under the supervision of the "Kangaroo Girl," the shore parties
+for Naples were being organized, Miss Hinks was tacitly left out.
+Somehow the impression got about that she was poor, and no one cared
+about paying her expenses. But eventually she did go, and it was in the
+charge of the fourth officer. When she thanked him for his kindness, he
+forgot for the moment his pledge "to live henceforth only in a memory."
+
+The "Kangaroo Girl," on discovering that Miss Hinks _had_ been on shore,
+under the escort of that "dear little pink officer," was vastly amused,
+and christened them Cupid and Psyche.
+
+Now, the end of it all was, that Teddy began to find himself caring less
+and less for the thumb-stained photograph in his locker, and more and
+more for the privilege of pumping his sorrows into a certain sympathetic
+ear. Shipboard allows so many opportunities of meeting; and, strange as
+it may appear, a broken heart is quickest mended when subjected to a
+second rending. This cure is based on the homoeopathic principle of
+like curing like.
+
+By the time they reached Aden he had convinced himself that his first
+love affair had been the result of a too generous nature, and that this
+second was the one and only _real_ passion of his life.
+
+At Colombo Miss Hinks went ashore with the doctor's party--tiffined at
+Mount Lavinia, dined at the Grand Oriental, and started back for the
+ship about nine o'clock.
+
+Teddy, begrimed with coal-dust, watched each boat load arrive, and as he
+did so his love increased.
+
+On account of the coal barges it was impossible for boats to come
+alongside, consequently their freight had to clamber from hulk to hulk.
+Miss Hinks was the last of her party to venture; and just as the doctor,
+holding out his hand, told her to jump, the hulk swayed out and she fell
+with a scream into the void. Then, before any one could realize what had
+happened, the barge rolled back into its place. Miss Hinks had
+disappeared.
+
+Teddy, from half-way up the gangway, tore off his coat, leapt into the
+water, and, at the risk of having his brains knocked out, dived and
+plunged between the boats, but without success. Then he saw something
+white astern, and swam towards it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The half-drowned couple must have come to an understanding in the
+rescuing-boat, for next day their engagement was announced.
+
+The "Kangaroo Girl" gave evidence of her wit when she said, "It was
+fortunate they were Cupid and Psyche, otherwise they would find love
+rather insufficient capital to begin housekeeping upon!"
+
+Teddy wrote to his mother from Adelaide, and she, poor woman, was not
+best pleased to hear the news. But a surprise was in store for us all.
+
+On the _Cambrian Prince's_ arrival in Sydney, Miss Hinks was met by an
+intensely respectable old gentleman, who, it appeared, was her
+solicitor. On being informed of the engagement, he examined Teddy with
+peculiar interest, and asked if he were aware of his good fortune. Miss
+Hinks smiled.
+
+Half an hour later we learnt that the girl whom we'd all been pitying
+for her poverty was none other than Miss Hinks-Gratton, _the
+millionairess and owner of innumerable station and town properties_!
+
+The Teddy of to-day is a director of half a dozen shipping companies,
+and he quite agrees with me "that everything in this world is ordained
+to a certain end."
+
+
+
+
+Misplaced Affections
+
+
+    "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
+      Old Time is still a-flying:
+    And this same flower that smiles to-day,
+      To-morrow will be dying.
+
+    "Then be not coy, but use your time;
+      And while ye may, go marry:
+    For having lost but once your prime,
+      You may for ever tarry."
+
+    --R. Herrick.
+
+
+The point I wish to illustrate is, that it is not safe, at any time, to
+play with such an inflammable passion as Love, even though it be to
+oblige one's nearest and dearest friend. Once upon a time pretty Mrs.
+Belverton used to laugh at me for warning her, but she is compelled to
+admit the truth of my argument now.
+
+It was Mrs. Belverton, you will remember, who originated the famous
+Under Fifty Riding Club, whose initials, _U.F.R.C._, over two crossed
+hunting-crops and a double snaffle, were construed, by irreverent folk,
+to mean _Unlimited Flirtation Religiously Conserved_. The Club is now
+defunct, but its influence will be traceable in several families for
+many years to come.
+
+The following events, you must know, occurred the summer before William
+Belverton received the honour of knighthood, and while he was renting
+Acacia Lodge at the corner of the Mountain Road, the house below Tom
+Guilfoy's, and nearly opposite the residence of the Kangaroo Girl of
+blessed memory.
+
+It was by extending her sympathies as guide, philosopher, and friend to
+all unhappy love affairs that Mrs. Belverton made herself famous in our
+Australian world; and many and extraordinary were the scrapes this
+little amusement dragged her into. Could her drawing-room curtains have
+spoken, they would have been able to throw light upon many matters of
+vital interest, but matters of such a delicate nature as to absolutely
+prohibit their publication here.
+
+The Otway-Belton couple, for instance, owe their present happiness to
+her assistance at a critical juncture in their family history; while the
+Lovelaces, man and wife, would to-day be separated by the whole length
+and breadth of our earth, but for her tact during a certain desperate
+five minutes in the Greenaways' verandah. So on, in numberless cases, to
+the end of the chapter.
+
+You must know that for three months during the particular year of which
+I am writing, we had with us a young globe-trotter, who rejoiced in the
+name of Poltwhistle. I can't tell you any more about him, save that he
+was a big Cornishman, rawboned, and vulgarly rich. His people should
+have been more considerate; they should have kept him quietly at home
+counting his money-bags, instead of allowing him to prowl about God's
+earth upsetting other people's carefully thought-out arrangements.
+
+The trouble all commenced with his meeting pretty little dimpled Jessie
+Halroyd at a Government House tennis-party and convincing himself, after
+less than half an hour's disjointed conversation, that she was quite the
+nicest girl he had ever encountered. He met her again next day at the
+Chief Justice's dinner-party. Then by dint of thinking continually in
+the same strain, he fell to imagining himself in love. But as she had
+long since given her affections to Lawrence Collivar, of the Treasury,
+and had not experience enough to conduct two affairs at one and the same
+time, his behaviour struck us all as entirely ridiculous.
+
+Having called on Mrs. Halroyd the Monday following, where he was fed and
+made much of, he set to work thenceforward to pester the daughter with
+his attentions. It was another example of the Lancaster trouble, of
+which I've told you elsewhere, only with the positions turned wrong-side
+uppermost.
+
+For nearly a month this persecution was steadily and systematically
+carried on, until people, who had nothing at all to do with it, began to
+talk, and the girl herself was at her wits' end to find a loophole of
+escape. I must tell you at this point, that, even before the
+Cornishman's coming, her own selection had been barely tolerated by the
+Home Authorities; now, in the glare of Poltwhistle's thousands, it was
+discountenanced altogether. But Jessie thought she loved Collivar, and
+she used to grind her pretty little teeth with rage when Poltwhistle
+came into the room, and say she was not going to give up Lawrence,
+whatever happened. Then she suddenly remembered Mrs. Belverton, and with
+desperate courage went down, told her all, and implored her aid.
+
+Now it so happened that Mrs. Belverton had nothing to do just then, and
+stood in need of excitement. Moreover, Collivar was her own special and
+particular _protégé_. In fact, it was neither more nor less than _her_
+influence that had given him his rapid advancement in the Public
+Service, and through this influence his love for little Jessie Halroyd.
+She was educating him, she said, to make an ideal husband, and she was
+certainly not going to allow a rawboned New Arrival to upset her plans.
+
+At the end of the interview, taking the girl's hand in hers, she said
+comfortingly,--
+
+"Go home, my dear, and try to enjoy yourself; snub Mr. Poltwhistle
+whenever you see him, and leave the rest to me!"
+
+When she was alone, this excellent woman settled herself down in her
+cushions, and devoted half an hour to careful contemplation.
+
+She understood that with a man whose skull went up to nothing at the
+back of his head, like Poltwhistle's, ordinary measures would be worse
+than useless, so she decided upon a scheme that embodied an honour which
+even kings and princes might have envied.
+
+That same night she was booked to dine with Arthur and Guinevere, of
+whom I have also told you, on the Mountain Road, and Providence (which
+is more mixed up in these little matters than most people imagine)
+placed on her left hand none other than the Cornishman himself.
+
+Having heard a great deal of the famous Mrs. Belverton and her sharp
+sayings, he was prepared to be more than a little afraid of her. She
+observed this and utilised it to the best advantages.
+
+Neglecting every one else, even her own lawful partner, who, I may tell
+you, was a globe-trotter of no small importance, she made herself
+infinitely charming to the angular gawk beside her, and to such good
+purpose that, before Belverton began, according to custom, to brag about
+his port, he was in a whirlwind of enchantment, and had forgotten his
+original admiration for good and all.
+
+Next day as he was riding down to tennis at the Halroyds', he met Mrs.
+Belverton outside the library. Looking at him through the lace of a
+pretty red parasol, and with the most innocent of faces, she asked his
+advice as to the sort of literature she should peruse. Of course that
+necessitated sending home his horse and overhauling the
+bookshelves--with any woman a dangerous proceeding, but with Mrs.
+Belverton an act of more than suicidal folly. A child might have
+foreseen the result. Before they had reached shelf B he had completely
+lost his head, and when they left the library, he disregarded his tennis
+appointment and begged to be allowed to carry home her books for her.
+
+She kept him with her until all chance of tennis was over, then having
+filled him with pound cake, tea, and improving conversation, sent him
+away, vowing that he had at last met perfection in womankind.
+
+Her scheme was succeeding admirably, for Poltwhistle from that hour
+forsook his former flame altogether. Mrs. Halroyd wondered; but her
+daughter professed delight, and seeing this, Collivar prosecuted his
+wooing with renewed ardour.
+
+But Mrs. Belverton, with all her cleverness, had made one
+miscalculation, and the effect was more than usually disastrous. She had
+forgotten the fact that Jessie Halroyd was, in spite of her heart
+trouble, little more than a child. And the upshot of this was that when
+that young lady saw Poltwhistle no longer worshipped at her shrine, but
+was inclining towards another woman, prettier and more accomplished than
+herself, she allowed her school-girl's vanity to be hurt.
+
+Within a week of her visit to Acacia Lodge, she had developed an idea
+that, all things considered, Poltwhistle was by no means bad looking,
+and certainly everybody knew that he was rich. Within a fortnight,
+Collivar having offended her, she was sure that she liked him quite as
+much as most men; and in less than three weeks (so strangely perverse is
+woman) she had snubbed Collivar, and was hating Mrs. Belverton with all
+her heart and soul for enticing the Cornishman's attentions away from
+herself.
+
+Then it became Collivar's turn to seek assistance; and at this juncture,
+as the situation looked like getting beyond even her, Mrs. Belverton
+lost her temper and said some very bitter things about everybody
+concerned, herself included.
+
+However, to sit down and allow herself to be beaten formed no part of
+that lady's nature; so carefully reviewing the case, she realized that
+the only possible way out of the difficulty was a reversal of her former
+tactics. To this end she dropped Poltwhistle and took up Collivar,
+hoping thereby to turn the jealous girl's thoughts back into their
+original channel.
+
+The Hillites stared and said to each other:--
+
+"Dear, dear! What a shocking flirt that Mrs. Belverton is, to be sure!
+First it was that nice Mr. Poltwhistle, and now it's young Collivar, of
+the Treasury. Her conduct is really too outrageous!"
+
+One muggy Saturday afternoon, towards the end of the hot weather, the
+Under Fifty Riding Club met opposite the library to ride to The Summit
+for tea and strawberries. There was a good attendance of members, and
+Mrs. Belverton, Miss Halroyd, Poltwhistle, and Collivar were among the
+number.
+
+Every one paired off in the orthodox fashion, and as Collivar annexed
+Mrs. Belverton, Poltwhistle was obliged to content himself with Miss
+Halroyd. He was not too polite in consequence.
+
+Before they reached the summit of the mount, thick clouds had gathered
+in the sky, and heavy thunder was rumbling along the hills. The Club
+members ate their strawberries, flirted about the grounds, and started
+for home just as dusk was falling.
+
+The same pairing was adopted on the return journey, and Poltwhistle,
+from his place in the rear, watched the other couple with jealous,
+hungry eyes.
+
+It was a tempestuous evening. Heavy thunder rolled continuously, and
+when, nearly half-way home, the clouds burst and the rain poured down,
+there was a general rush for shelter. Mrs. Belverton, to her dismay,
+found herself, in the half darkness, sitting on her horse, beneath a big
+gum-tree, with both Collivar and Poltwhistle for her companions.
+
+The latter, whose manners were about on a par with his modesty, had left
+Miss Halroyd on the road to seek shelter for herself.
+
+With a hurricane of rage in her heart, the poor girl, now, according to
+her lights, thoroughly in love, saw the reason of his conduct and
+followed him, reaching the other side of the tree unperceived. It was so
+dark you could hardly distinguish your hand before your face, and the
+rain was simply pouring down.
+
+Sometimes, when she is in a communicative mood, Mrs. Belverton can be
+persuaded to tell the story of that half-hour under the gum-tree, and
+she catalogues it as the funniest thirty minutes she has ever
+experienced. But though she laughs about it now, I fancy she did not
+enjoy it so much at the time.
+
+From each hinting that the other should retire, both men fell to
+justifying their presence there, and finished by whispering into the
+lady's ears, between the thunder-claps, protestations of their undying
+love and devotion.
+
+Then, while the thunder was crashing, the lightning flashing, the rain
+soaking them through and through, and Mrs. Belverton was wondering how
+it was all to end, Jessie Halroyd rode round the tree.
+
+They all stared, you may be sure, and because Mrs. Belverton had
+adventured the whole miserable business for her sake, she naturally
+hissed,--
+
+"False friend, false friend, I hate you! Oh, Mrs. Belverton, how I hate
+you--I could kill you!"
+
+A flash of lightning showed her face. It was all white and quivering,
+like a badly made _blanc-mange_ pudding. There was a pause till somebody
+said very innocently, and I am told it was the funniest part of the
+whole affair,--
+
+"My dear child, you're getting wet through; do bring your horse into
+shelter!"
+
+But before the sentence was finished the girl had turned her horse's
+head and was galloping down the streaming road at break-neck speed.
+
+Then Mrs. Belverton gathered her wits together and set to work to
+undeceive her two admirers. All things considered, the operation must
+have been a curious one. When it was accomplished she rode home alone,
+meditating, I presume, on the futilities of this mundane existence.
+
+The sad conclusion we, the Hillites, have come to, is that both
+Poltwhistle and Collivar hate their would-be benefactress most cordially
+for endeavouring to promote their happiness, and abominate each other
+still more for interfering and spoiling sport. While Miss Halroyd, who
+goes home next mail-day, hates all three with an undying hatred, and of
+course cannot be made to understand that her own folly alone is
+responsible for everything that happened. Personally, I should be more
+interested to know what easy-going William Belverton thinks about it
+all.
+
+
+
+
+In Great Waters
+
+
+    "Short shrift! sharp fate! dark doom to dree!
+    Hard struggle, though quickly ending!
+    At home or abroad, by land or sea,
+    In peace or war, sore trials must be,
+    And worse may happen to you or to me,
+    For none are secure and none can flee
+      From a destiny impending."
+
+    --Adam Lindsay Gordon.
+
+
+"Don't thank me; I'm sure I'm equally obliged to you. I haven't seen a
+strange face these three months; and though I am that despised animal, a
+broken-down gentleman, I've never quite been able to overcome a foolish
+hankering after some dealing with my old caste again. Pardon the implied
+compliment!
+
+"You'd better hobble your horses and turn them loose towards the creek.
+I'll run them up in the morning with my own.
+
+"Having done that, if you're hungry, you'll find tea in the billy, and
+damper and meat in those ration bags. It's Queensland boundary rider's
+fare, but the best I can offer you.
+
+"Monotonous country? By Heavens, yes! The children in exile knew no
+worse. On all sides, sand, mulga, and desolation--desolation, mulga, and
+sand, and unceasing regret, the portion of every man who has his lot in
+it!
+
+"Have you quite finished? Then light your pipe. No, no! not with a vesta
+like a new chum, but with a fire-stick--so! When you've been in the Bush
+as long as I have, you will see in a match something more than a
+pipe-light. But by that time you will be on the high road to a still
+more peculiar wisdom, which will never be of service to you.
+
+"Now, draw your blankets to the fire and cease thinking of your horses.
+They're on good feed, so let them eat their fill. If what I hear of the
+country out back is true, they'll get no more this side of the Barcoo.
+
+"What do I say? How do I know that you are new to the country? Simply
+enough! By the light in your eyes, the palms of your hands, and the
+freshness of your voice. Besides, when a man has been long in the West,
+does he stand up for want of a chair? Forgive my rudeness, but you'll
+learn it all soon enough.
+
+"Talking of classes! Consider the class I represent. In this country it
+is a numerous one, and the Bush is both our refuge and our cemetery. As
+we wish to know nobody, so we desire that nobody shall ever know us; and
+being beyond the reach of pride or shame, we live entirely in memories
+of the past, through which we enjoy a keener torture than any creed or
+sect can promise us hereafter. If you have the understanding, you might
+write the book of our misery, and, believe me, you'd have an
+inexhaustible reservoir upon which to draw.
+
+"Before you came out you had a different notion of Australia? Exactly!
+Folk who live sixteen thousand miles away, and own bank-books and fat
+stomachs, have one idea of it; while we, who exist like Esau, in the Red
+Sand itself, if you approached us properly, would give quite another.
+Now, I knew of a case once--but I beg your pardon!
+
+"That old hut at the Creek Bend you passed at mid-day? Three black posts
+and a wreck of charred timber, yellow boulders against an umber cliff,
+and two dingoe pups rioting on the threshold--isn't that the picture?
+
+"Well, if you think it dreary and lonesome to-day, try and imagine it
+when it was the furthest boundary west, with only the Great Unknown
+between the ranges at our back and the Timor Sea.
+
+"For reasons which could not interest you, I was the first to live
+there. Curiously enough, my hut-keeper was also of our caste. By
+nationality he was a Hungarian, and in addition to other things, he was
+a studious disciple of Goethe, and the finest zither player I have ever
+heard. It's about his connection with that hut that I wish to tell you.
+
+"As men seldom quarrel when ambition has gone out of their lives, for a
+year we came as near a certain sort of happiness as a remorseless Heaven
+would permit. Then everything suddenly changed.
+
+"One day, after a long stretch of dry weather that looked almost like
+settling in for a drought, welcome storm-clouds gathered in the west,
+and night closed in with a vigorous downpour. The creek, which for
+months past had been merely a chain of half-dry waterholes, began to
+trickle briskly round its bends, and in the morning had risen to the
+size of a respectable torrent. Next day, Thursday, it was a banker, and
+still the rain continued. By Friday evening the flood was upon us. And
+such a flood as you never in your life saw or dreamed of!
+
+"To give you some idea of its size, you must imagine this plain, from
+the mountains behind you to the scrub yonder, one vast sheet of foaming,
+roaring, rushing, eddying water.
+
+"Opposite the old hut we are talking of it was many miles in width, and
+for more than a week we were hemmed in upon a tiny island (the hut
+stands on a slight elevation, as you perhaps have observed), with the
+waters drawing a line of yeast-like foam daily closer and closer to our
+door. There was no escape, and I doubt if either of us would have taken
+advantage of it if there had been.
+
+"Morning, noon, and night, the flood went roaring and rushing by,
+carrying on its bosom forest trees, and hopeless beasts of all sorts,
+sizes, and descriptions. And each moment saw us waiting for the lip-lap
+upon the threshold which should signal the destruction of the hut and
+our immediate departure for Eternity!
+
+"Now you must remember that in life there is no such thing as chance.
+Every existence has its allotted span, and to avoid the pre-ordained
+termination is impossible for any man. You may smile, but I am convinced
+that what I say is correct, and this is a case in point.
+
+"On the ninth night of our imprisonment we were sitting in our one room,
+trying to keep warm, and listening to the storm outside. The wind,
+moaning through the logs, played with the firelight and threw a thousand
+fantastic shadows on the rough-hewn walls.
+
+"When life carries no future for a man, you will readily understand that
+he becomes callous, even as to the means of his death; so, even with
+destruction hovering over him, Yadeski sought company in his music.
+Drawing his zither from its case, he laid it on the table and allowed
+his fingers to stray across the strings. The sweet, sad melody that
+followed lent an air of almost reverence to the bare walls and homeless
+aspect of the room.
+
+"The storm outside yelled and muttered by turns; but, heedless of it, he
+played on, wandering from the folk-songs of the old grey Magyar villages
+to the pęans of victorious hunters, from mighty trampling war-chants to
+tender, crooning cradle-songs.
+
+"Suddenly a shout rang out clear and distinct above the storm. It was
+the cry of a man who, feeling the hand of Death clutching at his
+weasand, knows that unless help comes quickly that grip will tighten and
+his life go from him. Before he could call again, we had rushed into the
+storm.
+
+"The wind blew a hurricane, the waters snarled at the tiny hill and
+rolled in black waves, that might almost have been taken for the sea, to
+our feet. Battling in the direction whence the sound proceeded, Yadeski
+called with all the strength of his lungs. His voice, however, was lost
+in the general turmoil. But at the same instant, as if in answer, a
+white face rose through the foam not a dozen paces from our feet.
+Yadeski instantly plunged in, the face vanished, and for a moment I lost
+sight of both. Then they rose within an arm's length of where I stood,
+and I went in and dragged them out--the working of Fate, mind you!
+
+"Between us we carried the stranger to our hut and laid him before the
+fire.
+
+"For more than an hour, despite our exertions, he remained unconscious;
+then his eyes slowly opened, and in a few moments his power of speech
+returned to him. Two words escaped his lips, and when he heard them my
+hut-keeper fell back against the wall with ashen face.
+
+"A soft sleep followed the return to consciousness, and I turned into my
+bunk. Yadeski, however, sat gazing into the fire with an expression on
+his face I could not, for the life of me, understand. All night he must
+have kept the same position; but when the sun rose he shook himself
+together and set about his preparation of the morning meal.
+
+"By the light of day I saw that the stranger was a young man of
+prepossessing appearance. He explained that he was a Hungarian, and had
+only been in Australia a month. From what I could gather he was
+travelling to some new country that had lately been taken up further to
+the north-west. When crossing the river, which, by reason of the floods,
+was very much congested, the waters had separated him from his party and
+had washed his horse from under him. He was carried mile after mile
+battling for life, spent half a day in a tree, which was eventually
+washed from under him, was borne out into the main stream, and, but for
+our timely assistance, would soon have been a dead man.
+
+"I hope I am not wearying you?
+
+"Well, day after day the flood continued, and for more than a week our
+chance guest was compelled to remain with us. Then the waters fell as
+quickly as they had risen, and when the safety of the track was once
+more assured, he decided to resume his journey.
+
+"The night before he left us we were sitting round the fire listening to
+Yadeski's music. As was his custom, he wandered from air to air,
+seemingly unconscious of our presence.
+
+"The stranger listened with his eyes full of an insatiable hunger.
+
+"From gentlest pianissimo the music rose to a wild, fierce note of
+despair. An unearthly pathos seized the instrument--an inexplicable, yet
+intense longing, a vague desire for something unattainable, took
+possession of us. Then the music ceased abruptly, the spell was broken,
+and the younger man, springing to his feet, cried, in a voice tremulous
+with excitement,--
+
+"'Oh, where, tell me where you learned that dreadful air?'
+
+"The musician did not answer, but sat gazing into the fire. Shaking him
+by the shoulder, the younger man repeated his question till, as one in a
+dream, Yadeski muttered,--
+
+"'Many years ago, far from here. What does it matter?'
+
+"'Matter! Why, man, it was that air that brought me out here; it was
+that cursed air that killed my----' But he stopped, and leaned against
+the wall.
+
+"'Let me tell you why I asked you that question,' he said at length,
+when he had recovered his calmness. 'We spoke to-night of Buda. I was
+born within ten miles of it, the eldest of a family of eight. Our farm
+was as good land as any in the district, and we had held it under the
+Counts Romanyi for centuries. My father, I must tell you, died when I
+was only nine years old, and so my mother, who was famous through the
+district for her beauty and her zither-playing, was left alone to look
+after us.
+
+"'One evening while she sat playing, as was her custom, at our cottage
+door, the Count passed, and, hearing her music, stopped to buy a glass
+of milk. He was an accomplished musician himself, and at his request she
+played to him. Then, after saying many pretty things, and distributing a
+handful of coins from his pocket among us children, he rode away.
+
+"'Next day he came again, and the next, and so on, day by day, till we
+children, who had hitherto feared his name more than God's, grew so bold
+that we could quite look upon him as one of ourselves.
+
+"'Ah, how well I remember the night he played that hellish air for the
+first time! I can see the drift-smoke lying low upon the land, and smell
+the smell of the pines floating down the mountain-side. I can see my
+mother sitting, watching, and listening like one spellbound. It must
+have been the music of the devil, for it ate into her heart, and the
+same day a week later, a neighbour came to tell us that our mother would
+not come back to us again.
+
+"'Six years after, when I was almost a man, she returned. I can remember
+that homecoming as if it were but yesterday.
+
+"'It was a night late in winter, and the young moon was shining faintly
+above the snow. A knocking came to the door, and I opened it upon a heap
+of rags--my mother!
+
+"'She died with the dawn, but not before she had told me everything. I
+want now to meet the Count. I have sworn that the hour I come face to
+face with him shall be his last! Wouldn't you do the same?'
+
+"Yadeski's head had sunk on his outstretched arms, and, but for a
+certain tremulous movement of his shoulders, he might well have been
+asleep. I lay in the shadow of my bunk, wondering what it all might
+mean.
+
+"'I commenced my search in Vienna, where he had a house; but it seems he
+was in serious trouble with the Government, and had fled from Austria. I
+followed him to Italy, to England, and to America, but in vain. I have
+continued it all over the world; but I do not despair, for I am certain
+that, sooner or later, God will lead me to his side.'
+
+"Controlling his voice with an effort, Yadeski asked,--
+
+"'And what then?'
+
+"'Ah! what then? But I fear I have wearied you with my story. I am
+sorry. Good-night!'
+
+"He dropped on to his blankets, curled himself up, and spoke no more.
+Only the crackling of the burning logs disturbed the silence.
+
+"Just before dawn I was awakened by the sound of gentlest music--the
+same weird melody we had heard earlier in the evening. It began, but was
+never finished.
+
+"Unseen by us, a thick glaze was creeping over the player's eyes, and
+his supple fingers were stiffening in the grasp of Death. The music grew
+fainter, and still more faint, until finally it merged itself into a
+thick, monotonous drip--drip--drip, which caught the first red signs of
+day as they stole into us under the old hut door.
+
+"Then there was a curiously heavy sob, and a half-turn of the musician's
+figure. After which a long, keen-bladed knife fell from the table, and
+the clatter roused us both to action.
+
+"But Yadeski was beyond the reach of human vengeance. He had severed a
+vein in his arm, and so bled peacefully to death. _Quo cunque nomine de
+mortuis nil nisi bonum loqua._
+
+"See, here comes the moon, and the wind with her. You'd better take this
+extra blanket. It will be cold before dawn.
+
+"Hark! The horses have crossed the creek and are making towards the hut
+we've just been talking of. They will be miles away in the morning.
+Never mind! Good-night!"
+
+
+
+
+Mr. Aristocrat
+
+
+    "'Shepherd, what's love? I pray thee tell.'
+    'It is that fountain and that well
+    Where pleasure and repentance dwell;
+    It is perhaps that sauncing bell
+    That tolls us all to heaven or hell,
+    And this is love as I heard tell.'"
+
+    --Sir Walter Raleigh.
+
+
+The Australian Bush is pre-eminently a charnel-house of human lives, and
+therefore of the affections. Innumerable histories, neatly folded up and
+hidden away in the by-places of the great island continent, labelled
+_Not wanted till the Judgment Day_, will prove this indisputably. When
+Gabriel's trump shall call the sleepers from their resting-places in the
+shadows of the frowning mountains, in the long, grey gullies, and from
+the deserts and hopeless open plains, Australia's Bush contingent will
+be among the saddest and most miserable to face the Judgment Throne.
+"Mr. Aristocrat" will be there, and his case alone will be worth
+hearing.
+
+At the time I'm going to tell you about we were pushing out to new
+country at the head of the Flinders River, in Northern Queensland, and
+when three camps this side of our destination, horses and men knocked
+up, things began to look the very reverse of cheering. Night was coming
+on; the cold wind murmured among the rocks, and the high cane-grass
+bowed its head before it, whispering, "Weep, weep, weep." Then the full
+moon soared over the gaunt shoulders of the hills that peaked up into
+the lonely sky, and as she rose, we saw in front of us the lights of
+Mintabera Head Station.
+
+To come across a dwelling in such a wilderness was a stroke of good
+fortune we did not expect. We rode up, made ourselves and our errand
+known, and were hospitably received. The manager, who came out to greet
+us, was a middle-aged man, very tall and broad-shouldered. He was also
+very quiet and reserved, which may or may not have been because he had
+been cut off from the doubtful advantages of civilization for so many
+years. He took me into the house and set his best before me. After
+dinner we lit our pipes, and sat talking in the verandah until about
+nine o'clock, when I craved permission to retire. My host accompanied me
+to my room, and before saying "good-night," surprised me by inquiring if
+I was to be easily frightened. Asking "By what?" he replied, "By
+anything; by noises you might hear, or things you might see."
+
+On my assuring him that I thought my nerves were equal to a considerable
+strain, he left me to puzzle it out alone.
+
+I was more mystified than I cared to own, and to tell the honest truth,
+I crawled into bed, half wishing that, after all, we had camped in the
+gully, as had been at first proposed. But, as nothing out of the common
+occurred for fully half an hour, I rolled over, and was soon in the land
+of dreams.
+
+It must have been about midnight when I was suddenly awakened and
+brought up to a sitting posture by a scream, so terrible, so unearthly,
+that I could compare it to nothing I had ever heard before. Three times
+it rang out shrill and distinct upon the still night-air, and at each
+repetition my heart thumped with a new violence against my ribs, and the
+perspiration rolled in streams down my face. Then came the words (it was
+certainly a woman's voice), "They're coming! they're coming! Will nobody
+save me?" Leaping out of bed, I huddled on my clothes, seized a
+revolver, and rushed across the verandah in the direction whence I
+thought the sound proceeded.
+
+It was a glorious night, and the moon shone full and clear into the room
+where we had dined; but, before I could look in and satisfy my
+curiosity, my arm was seized from behind, and turning, I confronted the
+manager.
+
+"Hush, hush!" he whispered. "Not a word, for God's sake. Watch and
+listen!"
+
+He pointed into the room, and my eyes followed the direction of his
+hand.
+
+In the centre, looking straight before her, rigid as a marble statue,
+every muscle braced for action, stood the most beautiful and majestic
+woman I have ever seen in my life. To the stateliness of a Greek goddess
+she united the beauty of a Cleopatra. Her eyes rivetted my attention;
+they seemed to blaze from their sockets; her expression was that of a
+tigress wounded and waiting for the death-stroke. But her hair was the
+most weird part of her appearance, for it hung in glorious profusion
+down to her waist, and was white as the driven snow.
+
+When we looked she had paused for a moment, as if listening, and then
+came that awful blood-curdling cry again:--
+
+"They're coming! they're coming! Will nobody save me?"
+
+It was so horrible that my blood felt as if it were freezing into solid
+ice. However, before I could pull myself together, her whole demeanour
+had changed, and she was kneeling on the floor kissing and caressing
+something she believed to be beneath her. Then, gradually, her voice
+died away in heart-rending sobs, and at this juncture my host went in
+and lifted her up. She seemed to have lost all power of recognition, and
+allowed him to lead her in a dazed sort of way to her room.
+
+As he passed me the manager whispered, "Wait here!"
+
+On his return, he led me across the verandah and into the garden. When
+we were out of hearing of the house, and leaning on the slip-rails of
+the horse paddock he told me the following extraordinary story, and the
+glorious night and the long sighing night-breeze sweeping down from the
+mountains seemed a fitting accompaniment to his tale.
+
+"Fourteen years ago," he said, "by God's ordinance and with the blessing
+of the Church of England, I married that woman whom you saw just now in
+there.
+
+"All my family were against it from the beginning. They had no name and
+no story bad enough for her. One said she bore a most suspicious
+character; another, that she had a temper like a fiend; but the
+principal charge against her was that she had been a governess in a
+certain nobleman's household, and had been the cause of the eldest son's
+leaving home. However, I didn't care for anything they said; I was madly
+in love, and I believe I would have married her if she had been proved
+to have been the vilest wretch unhung.
+
+"After we'd been married a month or so she begged me to sell my bit of a
+farm in Somersetshire and take her to Australia.
+
+"Accordingly, I got rid of the place that had been in our family for
+centuries, and having packed up, set off, nearly breaking my old
+mother's heart by doing so.
+
+"Arriving in Sydney, I took a small house down Bondi way, and made
+myself comfortable; but I couldn't be idle long, so after properly
+providing for her happiness there, I said good-bye to her for a while,
+and came into the Bush. Every time I could get a holiday I'd run down to
+Sydney, and I believe, in a way, she was glad to see me, though her
+manner was never anything but cold.
+
+"By-and-by I drifted into Queensland, worked my way north, and then got
+the management of this place. You must remember that it was almost
+unknown country out here then, and what with blacks and wild dogs, want
+of water, and ignorance of the lay of the land, I had troubles enough to
+drive a man crazy. Before we had been here a year we were very hard
+pushed for men, and the owner sent me up a young Englishman, who, he
+said, was anxious to get as far out of the ken of the world as possible.
+I didn't ask any questions, but made him as welcome as I could. He was a
+decent enough young fellow, tall, graceful, and very self-contained.
+Somehow, the hands took to calling him 'Mr. Aristocrat,' and the name
+fitted him like a glove. He came up with pack-horses, and among other
+letters he brought me one from my wife.
+
+"'She had grown hopelessly tired of Sydney and the south,' she said,
+'and after mature consideration, was coming out to join me in the Bush.'
+
+"I didn't know what to do. We were too rough out here then for any
+decent woman. But as she had evidently started and couldn't be stopped,
+we had to make the best of it, and accordingly up she came with the next
+bullock-teams.
+
+"Poor idiot that I was, I thought it was the beginning of a new era in
+my life, and certainly for a week or two she seemed pleased to be with
+me again. But I was soon to be undeceived.
+
+"About a month after her arrival I had reason to go out on the run for a
+few days, and it was necessary for me to take all the available hands
+with me. While rolling my swag close to the corner of the verandah, to
+my astonishment I heard my wife's voice in the room within raised in
+tones of which I had never thought it capable. She was evidently beside
+herself with fury, and on stepping into the verandah, I could see that
+the object of her anger was none other than the young Englishman, 'Mr.
+Aristocrat.'
+
+"I tell you, sir, she was tongue-lashing that man as I never heard a
+woman do in my life before, and by the time I had stood there two
+minutes I had learnt enough to shatter all my hopes, to kill my
+happiness, and to convince me of her double-dyed treachery to myself.
+
+"She paused for breath, and then began again:--
+
+"'So, you cowardly, snivelling hound,' she hissed, with all the
+concentrated venom of a snake, 'you thought you could sneak out of
+England, so that I shouldn't know it, did you? But you couldn't. You
+thought you could crawl out of Sydney so quietly that I shouldn't follow
+you--did you? But you couldn't. You thought you could run away up here
+to hide without my discovering and following your tracks--did you? But
+you couldn't. No! No!! No!!! Go where you will, my lord, even down to
+hell itself, and I'll track you there, to mock you, and to proclaim it
+so that all the world shall hear, that this is a pitiful coward who
+ruined a woman's life, and hadn't manhood enough in him to stand up and
+make it good to her.'
+
+"The young fellow only covered his face with his hands, and said, 'O
+God! when will all this end?'
+
+"'When you've done what you----' she was beginning again, but I could
+bear it no longer, so pushed my way into the room between them.
+
+"When she saw me the expression on her face changed at once, and she
+came smiling to greet me like the Jezebel she was. But I wanted to have
+nothing to say to her, so I put her on one side and closed with _him_.
+He looked at me in a dazed sort of way for a moment. But only for that
+space of time. Then a sort of Baresark madness came over him, and he
+sprang upon me like a fiend. All the time we fought she sat watching us
+with the same awful smile upon her face. When I had nearly killed him I
+ordered him off the station, and, without a word to her, fled the house.
+
+"That day we made a good stage on our journey, and by nightfall were
+camped alongside the Cliff Lagoon (you'll probably camp there to-morrow
+evening). I sought my blankets early, and, about an hour before
+daylight, being unable to sleep, went out into the scrub to find and run
+in the horses. On my return to the camp, I discovered one of the station
+black boys, alongside the fire, jabbering and gesticulating wildly to an
+excited audience. As I came up he was saying,--
+
+"'So, my word, I look; him _baal budgerie_ black fellah along a'
+station. Bang--bang--bang! him plenty dead white fellah.'
+
+"There was no need for him to say more. I knew what it meant. And in
+less time than it takes to tell we were on the road back, galloping like
+madmen over rough or smooth country, regardless of everything but the
+need for haste. In less than two hours we dashed up to the yards, those
+you see down yonder, just in time to drive off the black brutes as they
+were rushing the house.
+
+"You will understand for yourself what a close shave it was when I tell
+you that when we arrived the roof of the homestead was half burnt
+through, while the hut and outhouse had long since been reduced to
+ashes. The bodies of the old cook, and a tame black boy, named Rocca,
+lay dead in the open--speared while running for the hut. It was a
+horrible sight, and enough to turn a man sick, but I hadn't time to
+think of _them_. I was looking for my wife; and until I heard a cry and
+recognised her voice I thought she must be dead. Then, as I pushed open
+the half-burnt door of the station-house (the brutes had thrown
+fire-sticks everywhere), she shrieked out as you heard her to-night.
+
+"'They're coming! they're coming! Will nobody save me?' When I entered
+the room she was kneeling in the centre, surrounded by broken furniture
+and portions of the smouldering roof, wringing her hands, and wailing
+over a body on the floor.
+
+"Though she was begrimed with dirt, smoke, and blood, she looked
+surpassingly beautiful; but--I don't know whether you will believe
+me--the terrors of that night had turned her hair snow-white, just as it
+is to-day. The overseer led her to a seat, and I knelt beside the body
+on the floor. It was 'Mr. Aristocrat.'
+
+"He was well-nigh dead; it needed no doctor's knowledge to see that. He
+lay in a large pool of blood, and breathed with difficulty; but after I
+had given him water he revived sufficiently to tell me what had
+happened.
+
+"It appeared he had left the station as I had ordered him; but, as he
+went, his suspicions were aroused by the number of smoke-signals going
+up from the surrounding hills. Knowing they meant mischief, he kept his
+eyes open, and when, before dark, he saw a tribe of blacks creeping up
+the valley, he remembered that, save the cook and a black boy, the woman
+was alone, and made back on his tracks as fast as he was able. But he
+was too late; they had already surrounded the building, and had killed
+the two men we found lying in the open. Then he heard the woman's
+shriek, and forgot everything but the fact that she must be saved.
+
+"Racing across the open, he made a dash for the house. She saw his
+sacrifice and opened the door, but not before two spears were sticking
+in his side. Plucking them out, he set to work to defend her.
+
+"Fortunately, I had left a rifle and plenty of ammunition behind me; so
+all through that sweltering, awful night he fought them inch by inch,
+with his wounds draining his life-blood out of him, to save the woman
+who had wrecked his life. By God, sir! whatever he may have been
+earlier, he was a brave man then, and I honour him for it! By his own
+telling he killed three of them. Then as day was breaking, a part of the
+roof fell in, and he received another spear through the broken door.
+This brought him to the ground; and at that moment we arrived, and drove
+the devils off.
+
+"With his last strength, he drew me down to him and whispered that on
+his dying word he had always acted honourably towards me; and that, in
+spite of her tempting, he had never yielded to her. By the God before
+whose throne he was just about to stand, he swore this; and upon my
+honour, sir, I believe he spoke the truth.
+
+"When he had finished speaking, she rose and mocked him, calling me fool
+and idiot for listening to his raving. Then, for the first and last time
+in my life, I threatened her, and she was silent.
+
+"As the sun rose and pierced the smouldering roof, 'Mr. Aristocrat'
+whispered, "I want you to do me a favour. I want you to tell them at
+home that I forgive them. They misjudged me, you see, and it will make
+things a bit easier for my mother."
+
+"Then, with that sacred name upon his lips, he passed quietly away from
+the scene of his sacrifice into the mysteries of the world beyond.
+
+"When he was dead, the woman that is my wife crawled from the place
+where she lay, and threw herself upon the body, moaning as if her heart
+would break. We took her away. But from that day forward her reason was
+gone.
+
+"Ever since that time, at the same hour, night after night, year after
+year, she has gone through that awful tragedy in the old room yonder;
+and with the loneliness of this life around me, I have to hear and bear
+it. The strangest part of it is that I haven't the heart to put her away
+from me.
+
+"Now you understand the meaning of the scene you witnessed to-night, and
+you can see in my case the fulfilment of the Church's order, 'Whom God
+hath joined, let no man put asunder!'"
+
+We walked back to the house together, and he left me at my bedroom door;
+but though I went back to my bed, had I been offered the gold of all the
+Indies I could not have slept a wink.
+
+Next morning our horses were run up, and after breakfast we set off on
+our way again. When we had travelled about a mile, the manager, who was
+riding a short distance with us for company's sake, led me off the track
+to a grassy knoll beside a creek bend. Here, under a fine coolabah, I
+discovered a neatly fenced-in grave.
+
+Beneath the tree, and at the head of the little mound, was a small white
+board, and on it were these two words,--
+
+"_Mr. Aristocrat._"
+
+
+
+
+This Man and This Woman
+
+
+    "What matters Life, what matters Death,
+      What boots of vain remorse?
+    When days are dead, wherein we lived,
+      Our hearts should die--_of course_!"
+
+    --_Song of the Vain Regret._
+
+
+First and foremost it must be understood that when men and women cross
+the Borderland of Discretion into that Never-never Country where
+wedding-rings are forgotten and family correspondence abruptly ceases,
+they do so, believing it to be unlikely that they will ever meet any one
+out of the old life again.
+
+This fallacy may be attributed to one of two things: either to an
+insufficient knowledge of their world, or to an exaggerated idea of
+their own exclusiveness. The first is the more common, but the one is as
+fatal as the other.
+
+It is quite possible, after such a lapse of time, that no one will
+remember the "Clitheroe, Gwynne-Harden" episode. Yet it made a great
+stir at the time. Clitheroe, I fancy, was in the army; while the woman
+was the wife of Gwynne-Harden, the banker. She came of good family, was
+intensely proud, and, among other things, of more or less account, had
+the reputation of being the acknowledged beauty of that season.
+
+Clitheroe and The Other Man's Wife were unwise to the borders of
+madness. For had they been content to worship each other according to
+society's certificated code--surely sufficiently elastic--no trouble
+would have ensued. But, for some reason or other, they were not
+satisfied to jog along in the ordinary way; but must needs meet in all
+sorts of hole-and-corner places, correspond in cipher, and send letters
+by hand, rather than by post. Naturally, people talked, and the scandal,
+by its obtrusiveness, became proverbial. All through the season they
+were in each other's pockets, and during Goodwood week, after a period
+of sentimental shilly-shallying, they disappeared for ever and a day.
+
+Gwynne-Harden, though it was said he loved his wife with an exceeding
+great love, was a philosopher in his own way. After the first shock he
+made no attempt to find her; on the other hand, he put the money the
+search would have cost him into Bolivian Rails, a doubtful, but still a
+better, investment, he said. Having done this, he placed all the
+belongings she had left behind her in an attic under lock and key,
+bought a new brand of cigars, and endeavoured to forget all about her.
+
+Four years later he went into the House, where he managed to interest
+himself in Colonial affairs. Moreover, he had the sense to stick to his
+work, and leave female society alone. He was a shrewd, cynical man, with
+taste for epigram, and said to himself, "I am matrimonial Mahomet, for
+the reason that, because I refuse to apply for a divorce, I hover
+between a possible heaven and an accomplished hell." Which was a bitter,
+but, under the circumstances, perhaps excusable speech.
+
+Now, here comes the part of the story I am anxious to dwell upon. Three
+years after the exodus just narrated, being desirous of extending his
+political information, Gwynne-Harden set out for Australia with a sheaf
+of introductions in his despatch-box. Downing Street busied herself on
+his behalf, and, in consequence, Her Majesty's representatives were
+politely instructed to yield him all the assistance in their power. It
+is well to be a Somebody in the land, and, as any globe-trotter will
+inform you, a Vice-Regal introduction is a lever by no means to be
+despised.
+
+When the Governor of a certain Colony had banqueted, fźted, and
+endeavoured to turn his guest inside out for his own purposes, he handed
+him over to the tender mercies of his Colonial Secretary, or whatever
+you call the leader of the gang then in power.
+
+This gentleman had his own opinions on the subject of globe-trotters,
+and argued that the majority were shown too much in order that they
+might absorb too little. Therefore, he said he would take Gwynne-Harden
+under his protection, and enact Gamaliel in his own way.
+
+To this end he lured his victim into a lengthy driving tour through the
+squatting districts, in order that he might see the backbone of the
+country for himself and form his own conclusions. The idea was ingenuous
+in the main, but because he had left all consideration of the past out
+of his calculations it failed entirely in its purpose. Even Colonial
+Secretaries are powerless against Fate.
+
+As they proceeded from station to station on their route, they were
+received with that hospitality for which the Australian Bush is so
+justly famous. And, like the proverbial owl, Gwynne-Harden said little,
+but thought the more.
+
+Between three and four o'clock one roasting afternoon, the travellers
+saw, on the rise before them, the charming homestead of Woodnooro
+Station. The Colonial Secretary looked forward to a pleasant visit, for
+he had stayed there before.
+
+They resigned their buggy to the care of a black boy in the
+horse-paddock, and as they approached the house, the Secretary explained
+to Gwynne-Harden all the good things he knew of the owner and his wife.
+He devoted considerable space to his description of the latter, and in
+answer the banker smiled grimly.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Leaving the small flower-garden behind them, they enter a cool stone
+verandah, where a lady rises from a long cane chair to greet them. The
+Colonial Secretary dashes forward to take her hand....
+
+_Colonial Secretary_ ... "Mr. Gwynne-Harden--Mrs. Chichester."
+
+_Mrs. Chichester_ (as white as a ghost, vainly feeling for the wall
+behind her with her left hand, while she fumbles at her collar with her
+right): "Mr. Gwynne-Harden!" (Then slowly and with prodigious exertion):
+"I--I--I'm--I hope you are very well."
+
+_Mr. Gwynne-Harden_ (with a curious expression in his face, which the
+Colonial Secretary attributes to nervousness): "Extremely well, I thank
+you!"
+
+_Colonial Secretary_: "I am looking forward to having the pleasure of
+introducing Mr. Gwynne-Harden to your husband, Mrs. Chichester."
+
+_Mrs. Chichester_ (with a supreme effort): "I'm sorry to say my husband
+is camped on the run at present."
+
+_Mr. Gwynne-Harden_: "Then I must await his return with proper patience.
+_I shall be delighted to meet him, I am sure._ Mrs. Chichester, is
+anything the matter?"
+
+_Mrs. Chichester_ (still fumbling at her neck): "No, no--r--r--really
+nothing. I feel the heat very much, that is all. Won't you come inside?"
+(Rises and leads the way into the dining-room, where she unlocks a
+sideboard, and puts whisky on the table.) "I'm sure you must need some
+refreshment after your long and hot drive."
+
+_Colonial Secretary_ (enthusiastically, pointing to a creeper through
+the door).... "By Jove! look here, Harden; isn't this perfect? I
+challenge you to find its equal anywhere--the _Buginvillea Speciosa_ in
+all its glory. Ah! I beg your pardon, Mrs. Chichester."
+
+_Mrs. Chichester_ (passing him): "Thank you. If you will excuse me, I
+think I will go and see about your rooms." [_Exits across verandah._]
+
+The Colonial Secretary solemnly takes to himself a whisky-peg, while
+Gwynne-Harden, turning his back, fixes his eye-glass and critically
+examines two photos on the mantelpiece.
+
+_Colonial Secretary_ (warmly, referring to their hostess): "Egad,
+Harden, what would many men give for a wife like that?"
+
+_Mr. Gwynne-Harden_ (dropping his eye-glass, and facing round): "What,
+indeed!"
+
+They adjourn to the verandah, where enter to them a small and very dirty
+child, presumably a boy, who scrutinizes both men carefully before
+venturing near.
+
+_Mr. Gwynne-Harden_: "Ah, my little man, and pray what may your name
+be?"
+
+_Child_: "Jack 'Ister."
+
+_Colonial Secretary_: "Anglisé--Jack Chichester. He is a fine boy, and
+typical of the country. Come here, Jack. How old are you?"
+
+_Child_: "I'se free--Baby's one."
+
+_Mr. Gwynne-Harden_: "So there's a baby, too, eh?"
+
+_Mrs. Chichester_ (appearing at the end of the verandah): "Jack, it's
+your bed-time. Say good-night, and come along at once."
+
+Jack goes to Gwynne-Harden, and holds up his face to be kissed; but the
+honour is declined. The Colonial Secretary accepts it effusively. Then
+mother and child disappear together.
+
+_Colonial Secretary_ (laughingly): "You don't seem fond of kissing
+children!"
+
+_Mr. Gwynne-Harden_: "Not other people's children, thank you!"
+
+_Colonial Secretary_ (who has never heard the scandal, to himself): "I
+wonder if there's a Mrs. Gwynne-Harden?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The quarter of an hour preceding dinner._ Gwynne-Harden is standing
+with his hands on the chimney-piece, looking into the empty fireplace.
+To him enter Mrs. Chichester.
+
+_Mrs. Chichester_ (advancing): "George! George--for myself I ask
+nothing; but for my children's sakes. Oh, George, be merciful!"
+
+_Mr. Gwynne-Harden_ (turning): "Mrs. Chichester, I beg your pardon ten
+thousand times for not seeing you enter. This light is so deceptive,
+perhaps you thought I was your husband!"
+
+_Mrs. Chichester_: "George, have you forgotten me?"
+
+_Mr. Gwynne-Harden_: "My dear _Mrs. Chichester_, pray let me turn up the
+lamp, then you will see whom you are addressing. I am Mr. Gwynne-Harden,
+and if you will pardon my saying so, I don't remember ever having seen
+your face before. If I have, I have been rude enough to forget the
+circumstance. _Your husband's_ acquaintance I shall----"
+
+_Mrs. Chichester_: "What of my husband?"
+
+_Mr. Gwynne-Harden_: "Only that I shall hope to meet him face to face
+very soon."
+
+Enter the Colonial Secretary simultaneously with dinner.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_10 p.m., the same evening. Scene--Gwynne-Harden's bedroom._ He divests
+himself of his coat and waistcoat, and having done so, discovers a note
+addressed to himself upon the table. He reads it, and then looks long
+and fixedly at his own reflection in the glass.
+
+_Mr. Gwynne-Harden_ (tearing the note into a hundred pieces): "Humph!
+This is certainly the Nineteenth Century--well, I'll sleep on it."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Next morning the Colonial Secretary and his companion, without any
+apparent reason, changed their plans and continued their journey. When
+the buggy was at the door and the latter came to bid his hostess
+farewell, he said,--
+
+"I am very sorry that we are compelled to go, for I shall not have an
+opportunity now of meeting your husband, Mrs. Chichester. And as I leave
+for England in a month, _it is improbable that we shall ever meet_!"
+
+To this speech Mrs. Chichester, so the Colonial Secretary thought,
+rather illogically said,--
+
+"God bless you!"
+
+
+
+
+OTHER PUBLICATIONS
+
+
+WORKS BY GUY BOOTHBY
+
+
+    IN STRANGE COMPANY
+    THE MARRIAGE OF ESTHER
+    A BID FOR FORTUNE
+    THE BEAUTIFUL WHITE DEVIL
+    DR. NIKOLA
+    THE FASCINATION OF THE KING
+    BUSHIGRAMS
+    THE LUST OF HATE
+    ACROSS THE WORLD FOR A WIFE
+    PHAROS, THE EGYPTIAN
+    LOVE MADE MANIFEST
+    THE RED RAT'S DAUGHTER
+    A MAKER OF NATIONS
+    A PRINCE OF SWINDLERS
+    A SAILOR'S BRIDE
+    LONG LIVE THE KING
+    MY INDIAN QUEEN
+    SHEILAH McLEOD
+    FAREWELL, NIKOLA
+    MY STRANGEST CASE
+    THE KIDNAPPED PRESIDENT
+    CONNIE BURT
+    A TWO-FOLD INHERITANCE
+    A BID FOR FREEDOM
+
+
+WORKS BY E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM.
+
+All Illustrated.
+
+The Master Mummer.
+
+A romance of quality. A Princess of the Kingdom of Bartena is kept out
+of the way so that her position may be filled by that of her cousin. Her
+temporary guardian is killed, and, knowing nothing of her parentage, and
+while without friends, she finds one in an English gentleman, who makes
+a place for her in his house. Then a thousand intrigues to get her out
+of his hands are set on foot. It is without doubt the most romantic and
+entertaining novel which Mr. Oppenheim has yet written.
+
+
+The Betrayal.
+
+The Dundee Advertiser says:--"Mr. Oppenheim's skill has never been
+displayed to better advantage than here.... He has excelled himself, and
+to assert this is to declare the novel superior to nine out of ten of
+its contemporaries."
+
+
+Anna, The Adventuress.
+
+
+The Globe says:--"The story is ingeniously imagined and cleverly wrought
+out. Mr. Oppenheim has the gift of invention and keeps his readers on
+the tenter-hooks of suspense."
+
+The Daily News says:--"Mr. Oppenheim keeps his readers on the alert from
+cover to cover, and the story is a fascinating medley of romance and
+mystery."
+
+The Yellow Crayon.
+
+The Daily Express says:--"Mr. Oppenheim has a vivid imagination and much
+sympathy, fine powers of narrative, and can suggest a life history in a
+sentence. As a painter of the rough life of mining camps, of any strong
+and striking scenes where animal passions enter, he is as good as Henry
+Kingsley, with whom, indeed, in many respects, he has strong points of
+resemblance."
+
+
+A Prince of Sinners.
+
+Vanity Fair says:--"A vivid and powerful story. Mr. Oppenheim knows the
+world and he can tell a tale, and the unusual nature of the setting in
+which his leading characters live and work out their love story gives
+this book distinction among the novels of the season."
+
+The World says:--"Excellent. A book to read, enjoy, and think over."
+
+
+The Traitors.
+
+The Athenęum says:--"Its interest begins on the first page and ends on
+the last. The plot is ingenious and well-managed, the movement of the
+story is admirably swift and smooth, and the characters are exceedingly
+vivacious. The reader's excitement is kept on the stretch to the very
+end."
+
+
+A Millionaire of Yesterday.
+
+The Daily Telegraph says:--"The story is admirably constructed, and
+developed simply and forcibly. It abounds in dramatic situations, and
+there is more than one note of pathos which at once captures our
+sympathies. We cannot but welcome with enthusiasm a really well-told
+story like 'A Millionaire of Yesterday.' At the same time there is no
+lack of character-study in this very satisfactory book."
+
+
+The Survivor.
+
+The Nottingham Guardian says:--"We must give a conspicuous place on its
+merits to this excellent story. It is only necessary to read a page or
+two in order to become deeply interested in the central figure of the
+story; while the opening scenes, on which not a word is wasted, impress
+by their originality and power, and give promise of something worth
+following up. A story marked by brilliant and terse narration, vivid
+touches of characterization, and a plot that is consistent and yet
+fruitful in surprises."
+
+
+The Great Awakening.
+
+The Yorkshire Post says:--"A weird and fascinating story, which, for
+real beauty and originality, ranks far above the ordinary novel."
+
+The Daily Telegraph says:--"Possesses an absorbing interest; it has also
+an extraordinary fascination."
+
+
+As a Man Lives.
+
+The Sketch says:--"The interest of the book, always keen and absorbing,
+is due to some extent to a puzzle so admirably planned as to defy the
+penetration of the most experienced novel reader."
+
+
+A Daughter of the Marionis.
+
+The Scotsman says:--"Mr. Oppenheim's stories always display much
+melodramatic power and considerable originality and ingenuity of
+construction. These and other qualities of the successful writer of
+romance are manifest in 'A Daughter of the Marionis.' Full of passion,
+action, strongly contrasted scenery, motives, and situations."
+
+
+Mr. Bernard Brown.
+
+The Daily Graphic says:--"Mr. E. Phillips Oppenheim has a remarkable
+gift of making up an exciting story."
+
+The Aberdeen Daily Journal says:--"The story is rich in sensational
+incident and dramatic situations. It is seldom, indeed, that we meet
+with a novel of such power and fascination."
+
+
+The Man and His Kingdom.
+
+The Freeman's Journal says:--"It is high praise to say that in this
+novel the author has surpassed his previous thrilling and delightful
+story, 'The Mysterious Mr. Sabin.' Yet that high praise is eminently
+deserved. The story is worthy of Merriman at his very best. It is a
+genuine treat for the ravenous and often disappointed novel reader."
+
+
+The World's Great Snare.
+
+The World says:--"If engrossing interest, changing episode, deep insight
+into human character, and bright diction are the _sine qua non_ of a
+successful novel, then this book cannot but bound at once into popular
+favour. It is so full withal of so many dramatic incidents, thoroughly
+exciting and realistic. There is not one dull page from beginning to
+end."
+
+
+A Monk of Cruta.
+
+The Bookman says:--"Intensely dramatic. The book is an achievement at
+which the author may well be gratified."
+
+
+Mysterious Mr. Sabin.
+
+The Literary World says:--"As a story of incident, with a deep-laid and
+exciting plot, this of the 'Mysterious Mr. Sabin' can hardly be
+surpassed."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A Crime of the Under-seas, by Guy Boothby
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CRIME OF THE UNDER-SEAS ***
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Crime of the Under-seas, by Guy Boothby
+
+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: A Crime of the Under-seas
+
+Author: Guy Boothby
+
+Illustrator: Stanley L. Wood
+
+Release Date: May 15, 2011 [EBook #36118]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CRIME OF THE UNDER-SEAS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
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+
+
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+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+<h1>A CRIME OF THE UNDER-SEAS</h1>
+
+<h2>By GUY BOOTHBY</h2>
+
+<h3><i>Author of "A Bid for Fortune" "Doctor Nikola" "The Beautiful
+White Devil"<br /> "Pharos, the Egyptian" etc. etc.</i></h3>
+
+<h3>ILLUSTRATIONS BY STANLEY L. WOOD</h3>
+
+
+<h3>LONDON<br />
+WARD LOCK &amp; CO LIMITED<br />
+1905</h3>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="illus1" id="illus1"></a>
+<img src="images/illus1.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<h3>"Dropped him again with a cry that echoed in my helmet."</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. -->
+<p>
+<a href="#A_Crime_of_the_Under-Seas"><b>A Crime of the Under-Seas</b></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_I"><b>CHAPTER I</b></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_II"><b>CHAPTER II</b></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_III"><b>CHAPTER III</b></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><b>CHAPTER IV</b></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_V"><b>CHAPTER V</b></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><b>CHAPTER VI</b></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><b>CHAPTER VII</b></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><b>CHAPTER VIII</b></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><b>CHAPTER IX</b></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_X"><b>CHAPTER X</b></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><b>CHAPTER XI</b></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><b>CHAPTER XII</b></a><br /><br />
+<a href="#The_Phantom_Stockman"><b>The Phantom Stockman</b></a><br />
+<a href="#The_Treasure_of_Sacramento_Nick"><b>The Treasure of Sacramento Nick</b></a><br />
+<a href="#Into_the_Outer_Darkness"><b>Into the Outer Darkness</b></a><br />
+<a href="#The_Story_of_Tommy_Dodd_and_The_Rooster"><b>The Story of Tommy Dodd and "The Rooster"</b></a><br />
+<a href="#Quod_Erat_Demonstrandum"><b>Quod Erat Demonstrandum</b></a><br />
+<a href="#Cupid_and_Psyche"><b>Cupid and Psyche</b></a><br />
+<a href="#Misplaced_Affections"><b>Misplaced Affections</b></a><br />
+<a href="#In_Great_Waters"><b>In Great Waters</b></a><br />
+<a href="#Mr_Aristocrat"><b>Mr. Aristocrat</b></a><br />
+<a href="#This_Man_and_This_Woman"><b>This Man and This Woman</b></a><br /><br />
+<a href="#OTHER_PUBLICATIONS"><b>OTHER PUBLICATIONS</b></a><br />
+</p>
+<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. -->
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>List of Illustrations</h2>
+
+<p><a href="#illus1">"<span class="smcap">Dropped him again with a cry that echoed in my helmet.</span>"</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#illus2">"<span class="smcap">I sprang to my feet on hearing this. 'Not the first!' I cried.</span>"</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#illus3">"<span class="smcap">A native fruit-hawker came round the corner.</span>"</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#illus4">"<span class="smcap">Then, just as her nose grounded, my eyes caught sight of a big
+creeper-covered mass.</span>"</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#illus5">"<span class="smcap">One moonlight night ... somebody stepped up beside him.</span>"</a></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="A_Crime_of_the_Under-Seas" id="A_Crime_of_the_Under-Seas"></a>A Crime of the Under-Seas</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+
+<p>There is an old saying that "one half of the world does not know how the
+other half lives," but how true this is very few of us really
+understand. In the East, indeed, it amounts almost to the marvellous.
+There are men engaged in trades there, some of them highly lucrative, of
+which the world in general has never heard, and which the ordinary
+stay-at-home Englishman would in all probability refuse to believe, even
+if the most trustworthy evidence were placed before him. For instance,
+on the evening from which I date the story I am now about to tell you,
+three of us were seated chatting together in the verandah of the Grand
+Oriental Hotel at Colombo. We were all old friends, and we had each of
+us arrived but recently in Ceylon. McDougall, the big red-haired
+Scotchman, who was sitting on my right, had put in an appearance from
+Tuticorin by a British India boat only that morning, and was due to
+leave again for Burmah the following night. As far as I could gather he
+earned his living mainly by smuggling dutiable articles into other
+countries, where the penalty, if one is caught, is a fine of at least
+one thousand pounds, or the chance of receiving upwards of five years'
+imprisonment. The man in the big chair next to him was Callingway, a
+Londoner, who had hailed the day before from South America, travelling
+in a P. and O. steamer from Australia. He was tracking an absconding
+Argentine Bank Manager, and, as it afterwards transpired, was, when we
+came in contact with him, on the point of getting possession of the
+money with which the other had left the country. Needless to say he was
+not a Government servant, nor were the Banking Company in question aware
+of his endeavours. Lastly there was myself, Christopher Collon, aged
+thirty-six, whose walk in life was even stranger, if such a thing were
+possible, than those of the two men I have just described. One thing at
+any rate is certain, and that is that if I had been called upon to give
+an accurate description of myself and my profession at that time, I
+should have found it extremely difficult to do so. Had I been the
+possessor of a smart London office, a private secretary, and half a
+dozen corresponding clerks, I should probably have called myself a
+private detective on a large scale, or, as they put it in the
+advertisement columns of our daily papers, a Private Enquiry Agent. Yet
+that description would scarcely have suited me; I was that and something
+more. At any rate it was a pretty hard life, and by the same token a
+fairly hazardous one. This will be the better understood when I say that
+one day I might receive a commission by cablegram from some London firm,
+who, we will suppose, had advanced goods to an Indian Rajah, and were
+unable to obtain payment for them. It was my business to make my way to
+his headquarters as soon as possible, and to get the money out of him by
+the best means in my power, eating nothing but what was cooked for me by
+my own servant meanwhile. As soon as I had done with him I might be sent
+on very much the same sort of errand to a Chinese Mandarin in Hankow or
+Canton, or possibly to worry a gold mining concession, or something of
+the sort, out of one of the innumerable Sultans of the protected Malayan
+States, those charming places where the head of the State asks you to
+dinner at six and you are found at midnight with six inches of cold
+<i>krise</i> in your abdomen. On one occasion I remember being sent from
+Singapore to Kimberley at three hours' notice to meet and escort a
+Parsee diamond merchant from that town to Calcutta. And what was funnier
+still, though we travelled to Cape Town together, and even shared the
+same cabin on board the steamer afterwards, he never for an instant
+suspected that I was spying upon him. Oftentimes I used to wonder what
+he would have thought, had he only guessed that I knew he was carrying
+upwards of a million pounds worth of diamonds in the simple leather belt
+he wore next to his skin, and that every night I used, when he was
+asleep, to convince myself that everything was right and that the stones
+were still there. His was a precious life that voyage, at least so his
+friends in Calcutta thought, and if I could only tell you all that
+happened during our intercourse, you would not wonder that I was glad
+when we reached India, and I had handed him over to the chief partners
+of his firm. But there, if I were to go on telling you my adventures, I
+should be talking from now to Christmas. Rather let me get to the matter
+in hand, beside which everything I had ever attempted hitherto ranks as
+nothing. When I have done I think you will admit that the familiar
+saying, embodied in my first sentence, should be altered from "one half
+the world does not know how the other half lives" to "one half the world
+does not know how the other half <i>gets its living</i>." There is a
+distinction with a good deal of difference.</p>
+
+<p>I have often thought that there is no pleasanter spot in this strange
+old world of ours than the Grand Oriental Hotel, Colombo. Certainly
+there is not a more interesting place. There the student of character
+will have sufficient examples before him to keep him continually at
+work. Day and night vessels of all sorts and descriptions are entering
+the harbour, hailing from at least three of the four known quarters of
+the globe. At all hours men and women from Europe, from India, from
+Malaysia, from the further East, from Australia, and also from the
+Southern Seas and America <i>viā</i> Australia, troop in and out of that
+hospitable caravanserai.</p>
+
+<p>On this particular occasion, having talked of many things and half a
+hundred times as many places, we had come back to the consideration of
+our lives and the lack of home comforts they contained.</p>
+
+<p>"If I could only see my way clear I'd throw it up, marry, and settle
+down," said Callingway; "not in England, or Scotland, or America, for
+that matter; but, to my thinking, in the loveliest island in the world."</p>
+
+<p>"And where may that be?" I inquired, for I had my own ideas on the
+subject.</p>
+
+<p>"Tasmania," he answered promptly. "The land of the red-faced apple. I
+know a little place on the Derwent that would suit me down to the
+ground."</p>
+
+<p>"I'd na gae ye a pinch of snuff for it," said McDougall, with
+conviction. "What's life worth to a man in them hole-and-corner places?
+When I've done wi' roamin' it's in my mind that I'll set myself down at
+a little place I ken the name of, fifty miles north of the Clyde, where
+there's a bit of fishing, and shootin', and, if ye want it, well, just a
+drappie of the finest whuskey that was ever brewed in old Scotie. It's
+ma thinkin' I've ruined ma digestion wi' all these outlandish liquors
+that I've been swallowin' these twenty years gone. Don't talk o' your
+Tasmanias to me. I'm nae fond o' them. What have you to say, Mr.
+Collon?"</p>
+
+<p>"You needn't be afraid. I'll not settle down as long as I can get
+about," I answered. "If you fellows are tired of your lives I'm not, and
+I'm certain of this much, Callingway, by the time you've been installed
+in your Tasmanian home twelve months, and you, McDougall, have been on
+your Scotch estate the same length of time, you'll both be heartily sick
+of them and wishing yourselves back once more in the old life out here."</p>
+
+<p>"Try me, that's all," replied Callingway fervently. "Think what our
+present life is. We are here to-day and gone to-morrow. We've not a foot
+of earth in the whole wide world that we can call our own. The only home
+we know is a numbered room in a hotel or a cabin aboard a ship. We never
+know when we get up in the morning whether by nightfall we shall not be
+lying stark and cold shot through the heart, or with six inches of cold
+steel through our lungs. Our nerves from year's end to year's end are
+strained to breaking pitch, and there's not a single decent woman to be
+found amongst the whole circle of our acquaintances. After all, a
+wife's&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"The lasses, the lasses, I agree with ye," interrupted McDougall without
+ceremony. "After all 'tis the lasses who make the joy o' livin'. Hear
+what Robbie says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"'Health to the sex! ilk guid chiel says,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Wi' merry dance in winter days,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">An' we to share in common:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The gust o' joy, the balm o' woe,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The soul o' life, the Heav'n below,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Is rapture-giving woman.'"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"If you're going to get on that strain you're hopeless," I said. "When
+Callingway begins to think it is time for him to settle down, and you,
+McDougall, start quoting Burns, then I come to the conclusion that I'd
+better bid you good-night."</p>
+
+<p>As I spoke a "ricksha" drew up at the steps, and, when the coolie had
+set down his shafts, an elderly gentleman alighted. Having paid the man
+his fare he entered the verandah, and so made his way into the house. I
+had got so accustomed to new arrivals by this time that, beyond thinking
+what a good picture of the substantial old English merchant this one
+would have made, I did not pay much attention to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Callingway, after the few minutes' pause which followed up
+my last remark, "I think I will ask you gentlemen to drink another
+whiskey and soda to my success, and then I will leave you and retire to
+my virtuous couch. My confounded boat sails at six o'clock to-morrow
+morning, and if I don't sail in her I shall lose the society of a most
+estimable gentleman whom I am accompanying as far as Hong Kong. As it
+looks like being a profitable transaction I've no desire he should give
+me the slip."</p>
+
+<p>He touched the bell on the table at his side, and when the boy arrived
+to answer it, ordered the refreshment in question. We drank to his
+success in the business he was about to undertake, and then both he and
+McDougall bade me good-night and retired, leaving me alone in the
+verandah. It was a lovely evening, and as I was not at all in the humour
+for sleep I lit another cheroot and remained on where I was, watching
+the glimmering lights in the harbour beyond, and listening to the
+jabbering of the "ricksha" boys on the stand across the road.</p>
+
+<p>As I sat there I could not help thinking of the curious life I was
+leading, of the many strange adventures I had had, and also of my
+miraculous escapes from what had seemed at the time to be almost certain
+death. Only that very day I had received an offer by telegram from a
+well-known and highly respected firm in Bombay inviting me to undertake
+a somewhat delicate piece of business in the Philippine Islands. The
+price offered me was, in every sense of the word, a good one; but I
+detested Spanish countries so much that if anything better turned up I
+was prepared to let the other fall through without a second thought. But
+one has to live, even in the East, and for this reason I did not feel
+justified in throwing dirty water away before I had got clean.</p>
+
+<p>As these thoughts were passing through my mind I distinctly heard some
+one step into the verandah from the door on my right, and a moment
+later, to my surprise, the stout old gentleman who, half an hour or so
+before, I had thought so typical of an English merchant, came round the
+chairs towards me. Having reached the place where I was sitting he
+stopped, and, taking a cheroot from his pocket, proceeded to light it.
+During the operation I noticed that he took careful stock of me, and,
+when he had finished, said quietly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Collon, I believe?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is my name," I answered, looking up at him through the cloud of
+smoke. "Pray how do you come to be acquainted with it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard of you repeatedly," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed," I said. "And pray is there any way in which I can be of
+service to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think so," he replied, with a smile. "As a matter of fact, I have
+just arrived from Madras, where, hearing in an indirect way that you
+were supposed to be in Ceylon, I undertook this journey on purpose to
+see you."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed!" I answered, with considerable surprise. "And pray what is it
+you desire me to do for you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I want you to take charge of what I think promises to be one of the
+most extraordinary and complicated cases even in your extensive
+repertoire," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"If it is as you say, it must indeed be a singular one," I answered.
+"Perhaps it would not give you too much trouble to furnish me with the
+details."</p>
+
+<p>"I will do so with the greatest pleasure," he replied. "If you will
+permit me to take my seat beside you, you shall hear the story from
+beginning to end. I think, then, that you will agree with me that,
+provided you undertake it, it will, as I insinuated just now, in all
+probability prove the most sensational, as well as the most lucrative,
+case in which even you have hitherto been engaged."</p>
+
+<p>Thereupon he seated himself beside me, and told the following remarkable
+story.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+
+<p>"In the first place, Mr. Collon," said the old gentleman, who had shown
+himself so anxious to obtain my services, "I must introduce myself to
+you. My name is Leversidge, John Leversidge, and I am the junior partner
+of the firm of Wilson, Burke &amp; Leversidge, of Hatton Garden, Paris,
+Calcutta, and Melbourne. We are, as you will have gathered from our
+first address, diamond and precious stone merchants, and we do a very
+large business in the East generally; also among the Pacific Islands and
+in Australia. With the two last named our trade is confined principally
+to pearls and gold, neither of them having very much in the way of gems
+to offer. Still their connection is worth so much to us as to warrant us
+in keeping two buyers almost continuously employed; a fact, I think,
+which speaks for itself. Now it so turned out that some six months or so
+ago we received a cablegram in London announcing the fact that an
+enormous black pearl, in all probability the finest yet brought to
+light, had been discovered near one of the islands to the southward of
+New Guinea. It had been conveyed first to Thursday Island, which, as
+perhaps you are aware, is the head and centre of this particular
+industry in Australian waters, and later on, with a considerable amount
+of secrecy, to Sydney, where our agent, a man in whom we had the
+greatest trust, made it his business to see it on our behalf. The result
+was a cypher cablegram to our firm in London, to say that the jewel was,
+as far as his knowledge went, absolutely unique, and that in his opinion
+it behoved us to purchase it, even at the exorbitant price asked for it
+by the rascally individual into whose hands it had now fallen. This was
+a person by the name of Bollinson, a half-bred Swede I should say by the
+description we received of him; though, for my part, from the way he
+treated us, I should think Jew would be somewhat nearer the mark.
+Whatever his nationality may have been, however, the fact remains that
+he knew his business so well, that when we obtained possession of the
+pearl, which we were determined to have at any price, we had paid a sum
+for it nearly double what we had originally intended to give. But that
+mattered little to us, for we had the <i>most perfect confidence in our
+servant</i>, who had had to do with pearls all his life, and who since he
+had been in our employ had been fortunate enough to secure several
+splendid bargains for us. So, to make a long story short, when he cabled
+the price&mdash;though I must confess we whistled a little at the figure&mdash;we
+wired back: 'Buy, and bring it home yourself by next boat,' feeling
+convinced that we had done the right thing and should not regret it.
+Now, as you know, there is to be an Imperial wedding in Europe in six
+months' time, and as we had received instructions to submit for his
+inspection anything we might have worthy of the honour, we felt morally
+certain that the sovereign in question would take the jewel off our
+hands, and thus enable us to get our money back and a fair percentage of
+interest, besides repaying us for our outlay and our trouble. Sure
+enough next day a message came in to us to say that our agent had
+completed the sale and was leaving for England that day, not <i>viā</i>
+Melbourne and Adelaide, as we had supposed, or <i>viā</i> Vancouver, which
+would have been the next best route; but by way of Queensland, the
+Barrier Reef, and the Arifura Sea, which was longer, and, as we very
+well knew, by no means so safe. Then he added the very significant
+information that since he had had the pearl in his keeping no less than
+<i>three separate and distinct attempts</i> had been made by other people to
+obtain possession of it. All that, you must understand, happened eight
+weeks ago. I was in London at the time, and can therefore give you the
+information first hand."</p>
+
+<p>"Eight weeks exactly?" I asked, for I always like to be certain of my
+dates. Many a good case that I have taken in hand has collapsed for the
+simple reason that the parties instructing me had been a little slipshod
+in the matter of their dates.</p>
+
+<p>"Eight weeks to-morrow," he answered. "Or rather, since it is now past
+midnight, I think I might say eight weeks to-day. However, in this
+particular instance the date does not happen to be of much importance."</p>
+
+<p>"In that case I must beg your pardon for interrupting you," I said. "You
+were saying, I think, that your agent reported that, before he left
+Sydney, no less than three attempts were made by certain parties to
+obtain possession of the pearl in question."</p>
+
+<p>"That was so. But it is evident that he managed to elude them, otherwise
+he would have cabled again to us on the subject."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you then receive no further message from him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only one from Brisbane to say that he had joined the mail-boat,
+<i>Monarch of Macedonia</i>, at that port, and would sail for England in her
+that day."</p>
+
+<p>On hearing the name of the vessel I gave a start of surprise, and I
+might almost say of horror. "Good heavens!" I cried; "do you mean to say
+he was on board the <i>Monarch of Macedonia</i>? Why, as all the world knows
+by this time, she struck a rock somewhere off the New Guinea Coast and
+went to the bottom with all hands but two."</p>
+
+<p>The old gentleman nodded his head. "Your information is quite correct,
+my dear sir," he said. "In a fog one night between eleven and twelve
+o'clock, she got in closer to the New Guinea Coast than she ought to
+have done, and struck on what was evidently an uncharted rock, and sank
+in between fifteen and twenty fathoms of water. Of her ship's company
+only two were saved, a foremast hand and a first saloon passenger, the
+Rev. W. Colway-Brown, a clergyman from Sydney. These two managed, by
+some extraordinary means, to secure a boat, and in her they made their
+way to the shore, which was between thirty and forty miles distant. Here
+they dwelt for a few days in peril of their lives from the natives, and
+were ultimately picked up by a trading schooner called <i>The Kissing
+Cup</i>, whose skipper carried them on to Thursday Island, where they were
+taken in and most kindly cared for."</p>
+
+<p>"And your agent? Did you learn anything of his fate?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing that was likely to be of any comfort to us," said the old
+fellow sadly. "We telegraphed as soon as we heard the news, of course,
+first to the agents in Brisbane, who, to prove that he sailed on board
+the vessel, wired us the number of his cabin, and then to the Rev.
+Colway-Brown, who was still in Thursday Island. The latter replied
+immediately to the effect that he remembered quite well seeing the
+gentleman in question on deck earlier in the evening, but that he saw
+nothing of him after the vessel struck, and could only suppose he must
+have been in bed when the accident happened. It was a most unhappy
+affair altogether, and, as you may suppose, we were not a little cut up
+at the loss of our old servant and trusted friend."</p>
+
+<p>"I can quite believe that," I answered. "And now what is it you want me
+to do to help you?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Leversidge was silent for a few seconds, and thinking he might be
+wondering how he should put the matter to me I did not interrupt him.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Mr. Collon," he said, after a few moments' thought, "what we want
+you to do for us, is to proceed with me to the scene of the wreck as
+soon as possible, and to endeavour to obtain from her the pearl which
+our agent was bringing home to us. Your reputation as a diver is well
+known to us, and I might tell you that directly the news of the wreck
+reached us we said to each other, 'That pearl must be recovered at any
+cost, and Christopher Collon is the man for the work.' We will, of
+course, pay all expenses connected with the expedition. Will you
+therefore be good enough to tell me if you will undertake the work, and
+if so, what your charge will be?"</p>
+
+<p>Many and strange as my adventures had hitherto been, and curious (for
+that is the most charitable term, I think) as were some of the
+applications I had had made to me in my time, I don't think I had ever
+been made such an extraordinary offer as that brought under my notice by
+the old gentleman who had so unexpectedly come in search of me. He had
+not been far from the mark when he had said that this was likely to be
+one of the strangest cases that had ever come under my observation. Of
+one thing I was firmly convinced, and that was that I was not going to
+give him a decided answer at once. I did not know how my ground lay, and
+nothing was to be gained by giving my promise and being compelled to
+withdraw it afterwards. Besides, before I pledged myself, I wanted to
+find out how I stood with the law in the matter of the ship herself. I
+had no sort of desire to board her and bring off the jewel, and then
+find it advertised in all the papers of the world and myself called into
+court on a charge of wrecking or piracy, or whatever the particular term
+might be that covers that sort of crime.</p>
+
+<p>"You must give me time to think it over," I said, turning to the old
+gentleman beside me. "I want to discover my position. For all I know to
+the contrary I may be lending myself to a felony, and that would never
+do at all. Everybody is aware that the more adventures a jewel goes
+through the more valuable it becomes. On the other hand the arm of the
+law reaches a long way, and I am not going to be the cat that pulls your
+chestnuts out of the fire and burns her paws in so doing. That would
+scarcely suit Christopher Collon, however nice it might be for other
+people."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear sir," replied Mr. Leversidge, "you need have no fear at all on
+that score. We have no desire to incriminate you or to hurt your
+interests in any possible way. I shall take charge of the affair myself,
+and that should be sufficient guarantee that we are not going to run any
+undue risk. I have both my public and my private reputation at stake,
+and for my own sake you may be sure I shall take very good care that we
+do not come into collision with the law. The good name of my firm is
+also in the balance, and that should count for something. No, my dear
+sir, the most rigid and absolute secrecy will be maintained, and the
+arrangements will be as follows: If you are agreeable, and we can come
+to terms, we shall charter a vessel, if possible, in Batavia, fit her
+out with the necessary appliances, and sail in her with all speed to the
+spot where the catastrophe happened. Then you will descend to the
+vessel, discover our agent's luggage, which is certain to be in his
+cabin, we shall draw it up to the surface, examine it, obtain the pearl,
+and having done so sail again for Batavia, where the amount upon which
+we shall have agreed will be paid to you. After that we must separate;
+you will go your way, I shall go mine, and not a living soul will be the
+wiser."</p>
+
+<p>"That's all very well, but what about the officers and crew of the
+vessel we charter? Do you think they will not suspect; and how do you
+propose to square them?"</p>
+
+<p>"We will do that, never fear. They will be certain to believe, from the
+confident way in which we act, that we have the right to visit the
+vessel. Besides, when we have once parted from them, we shall never see
+them again. No, I do not think you need be afraid of them. Come, what do
+you say?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what to say," I answered. "I'm not sure whether it would
+be worth my while to touch it. The risk is so great, and I've got
+another offer on hand just now that looks as if it might turn out well.
+All these things have to be considered before I can give you an answer."</p>
+
+<p>"Naturally," he replied. "But still I trust you will see your way to
+helping us. Your skill as a diver is well known, and I pay you the
+compliment of believing that you have one of the rarest of all gifts,
+the knowledge of how to hold your tongue when it is necessary. Just
+think it over and acquaint me with your decision in the morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good," I answered. "I will do so. You shall have my answer after
+breakfast, without fail."</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad to hear it, and I thank you. Now, good-night."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-night," I answered, and after that we separated to go to our
+respective rooms.</p>
+
+<p>By five o'clock next morning, after a troubled night, I had made up my
+mind. If the old gentleman would give the terms I wanted, I would do
+what he asked. Half of the amount was to be paid before we left Colombo,
+and the balance on our return to Batavia, or on the completion of our
+work, provided it did not last more than six months. All expenses were
+to be defrayed by his firm, and a document was to be given me,
+exonerating me from all blame should the law think fit to come down upon
+us for what we were doing. All this I embodied in a letter which I
+copied and sent to Mr. Leversidge's room while he was dressing.</p>
+
+<p>After breakfast he found me in the verandah.</p>
+
+<p>"Many thanks for your note," he said promptly. "I shall be most happy to
+agree to your terms. We will settle them at once, if you have no
+objection."</p>
+
+<p>"That is very kind of you," I answered; "but why this great hurry?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because we must leave in the mail-boat this afternoon for Batavia,
+<i>viā</i> Singapore," he replied. "As you will see for yourself, there is no
+time to be lost."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+
+<p>In every life there are certain to be incidents, often of the most
+trivial nature possible, which, little as we may think so at the time,
+are destined to remain with us, indelibly stamped upon our memories,
+until we shuffle off this mortal coil. As far as my own existence is
+concerned, I shall always remember the first view we obtained of Tanjong
+Priok, as the seaport of Batavia is called, on the day we arrived there
+from Singapore, engaged on the most extraordinary quest in which I had
+ever taken part. It was towards evening, and the sky, not merely the
+western, but indeed the whole length and breadth of the heavens, was
+suffused with the glorious tints of sunset. Such another I do not
+remember ever to have seen. In these later days, whenever I look back on
+that strange adventure, the first thing I see pictured in my mind's eye
+is that Dutch harbour with its shiny green wharves on one hand, its
+desolate, wind-tossed cocoa-nut trees upon the shore on the other, and
+that marvellously beautiful sky enveloping all like a blood-red mantle.</p>
+
+<p>The voyage from Ceylon to Singapore, and thence to Java, calls for no
+special comment, save that it was accomplished at the maximum of speed
+and the minimum of convenience. So great, however, was Mr. Leversidge's
+desire to get to the scene of the disaster, that he could scarcely wait
+even for the most necessary preparations to be made. The whole way from
+Colombo to Singapore he grumbled at the speed of the vessel, and when we
+broke down later on off the coast of Sumatra, I really thought he would
+have had a fit. However, as I have said before, we reached it at last,
+and despite the catastrophe, in fairly good time. Having done so, we
+went ashore, and, acting on my advice, installed ourselves at the Hotel
+de Nederlander. There are few more beautiful places in the world than
+Java, and few where I would less care to spend my life. It was
+Leversidge's first visit to the island, however, and, as is usual in
+such cases, its beauty exercised a powerful effect upon him. Java is
+like itself and nothing else in the whole scope of the Immemorial East.</p>
+
+<p>Once we were settled we began to think about our preparations for
+accomplishing the last part of our singular journey, namely, our voyage
+to the wreck. It was a delicate bit of business, and one that had to be
+undertaken in a careful manner in order that no suspicions might be
+aroused. The Dutch Government is as suspicious as a rat, and a great
+deal more watchful than most people give it the credit of being. If
+space permitted, which it does not, I could furnish you with tangible
+evidence on this head.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you intend doing first?" I had inquired of Mr. Leversidge, on
+the evening of our landing, when we sat together after dinner in the
+verandah outside our bedrooms.</p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow morning I shall commence my inquiries for a vessel to carry
+us on," he answered. "I do not, of course, in accordance with the
+promise I gave you, desire to compromise you in any way, but if you
+would give me a few hints as to the way in which I should proceed, I
+should be very grateful to you. This is the first time I have been in
+Java, and naturally I am not familiar with the ropes."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll do all I can for you, with great pleasure," I replied; "on the
+understanding, of course, that I take none of the responsibility. In the
+first place, you will want a smart little vessel that will get us down
+to the spot as quickly as possible. Then you will have to hire your
+diving gear, pumps, dress, etc., and these, as my life and the entire
+success of the business will depend upon them, must be of the very first
+quality. Having secured your boat, you must find a trustworthy skipper
+and crew. She must be provisioned, and when all that has been done, you
+must arrange to get away from Tanjong Priok without a soul here being
+the wiser as to what occasions your hurry. I take it that that is a fair
+summary of the case?"</p>
+
+<p>"You have hit it exactly," he answered; "but I'm afraid it's rather more
+difficult than you suppose. In the first place, I want to be certain of
+my man before I go to him. I don't want to make a false step and find
+myself confronted with a person who will not only refuse to entertain my
+request point-blank, but will inform the Government as soon as my back
+is turned of my intentions. That would ruin everything."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if you want a man from whom you can make inquiries," I answered,
+"and at the same time feel safe in so doing, I think I can put you on
+the track of one. I've got his card in my bag now, and to-morrow morning
+I'll give it to you. One thing is very certain: if there is any one on
+this island who can help you, he is that man. But don't let him get an
+inkling that you're after pearls, whatever you do, or he'll want to
+stand in with you, as sure as you're born, or sell you to the Government
+if you don't let him have his own way. I know for a fact that he owns a
+fleet of schooners, all built for speed, though I expect when you ask
+him he will deny knowing anything at all about them. They're fitted up
+with the latest appliances in the way of pumps and gear, but I know
+nothing of the crews they carry. You must look after them yourself, only
+be very careful and keep your eyes open. Remember that every man about
+here is a sailor, or pretends to be. Oftener, however, he is as big a
+rascal as can be found in the East, and would not only play you false as
+soon as look at you, but would slit your throat on the first convenient
+opportunity, if for no other reward than to see how pretty you look
+while he is doing it. I've had to do with them for more years than I
+like to count, and I speak from experience. Now, with your permission,
+I'll be off to bed. I'll give you the fellow's address to-morrow
+morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Many thanks," he said. "I am sincerely grateful to you for the help you
+have rendered me."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't mention it. I only hope it may prove of real service to you.
+Good-night."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-night, my dear sir," he answered. "Good-night. I trust that we
+have now definitely started on our work, and that we are on the
+threshold of great events."</p>
+
+<p>Early next morning, that is to say after the early breakfast, which is
+served either in the bedrooms or in the verandahs, as visitors may
+prefer, I handed the old gentleman the card of the individual to whom I
+had referred on the previous evening, and he immediately set off in
+search of him. While he was gone I thought I would take a stroll down
+town and find out what was doing, so, donning my solar topee, I lit a
+cigar and set off. I had an old friend, who could tell me all I wanted
+to know&mdash;a man I had often found useful&mdash;and, what was better still, one
+whom I had impressed some time since with the belief that it would be by
+no means advisable to attempt to play fast and loose with me. He was a
+curious old fellow, of the name of Maalthaas, and claimed to be a
+Dutchman. But I happened to be aware that this was not his name; he was
+a native of Southern Germany, and had originally run away to escape
+military service. He dwelt at the top of a curious building in the main
+thoroughfare of the native town, the lower portion of which was
+inhabited by Chinamen, and it was his boast that he knew more of what
+was going on in the further East than even Li Chung Tang himself.</p>
+
+<p>I found him in the act of getting out of bed, and he looked as if he
+were suffering a recovery from a heavy opium bout, to which little
+excesses he was very partial. When I opened the door, he greeted me
+without showing the least surprise. A funnier little dried-up
+skin-and-bone creature no one could have desired to see.</p>
+
+<p>"Mynheer Collon?" he said, or rather gasped, for he was always
+asthmatical. "I somehow expected I should see you this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Then your expectation is realized," I answered. "I happened to be in
+Batavia, so I thought I would look you up. It is months since I last set
+eyes on you."</p>
+
+<p>"But why did you leave Colombo so suddenly, Mynheer?" he asked
+inquisitively, disregarding the latter portion of my speech. "And how
+does it come about that you did not accept that offer to squeeze the
+dollars out of that tobacco firm in the Philippines?"</p>
+
+<p>"How the deuce do you know anything about that?" I asked in surprise,
+for it must be borne in mind that that business had been negotiated in
+the strictest secrecy, and I had no idea that any one else, save the
+parties mostly concerned, had any inkling of it, much less this
+withered-up old mummy in Java, who sat on his bed screwing his
+nutcracker face up into what he thought was a pleasant smile.</p>
+
+<p>"I am old, and deaf, and blind as a bat," he answered; "but I am young
+enough to have my wits about me. My ears are always open for a bit of
+gossip, and blind as I am I can see as far into the world as my
+neighbours."</p>
+
+<p>"You've got wonderfully sharp eyes, Daddy," I replied. "Everybody knows
+that. And what's more, you never make a mistake, do you? If I were as
+clever as you are I'd start opium smuggling in Formosa to-morrow, and
+make a fortune out of it."</p>
+
+<p>Now it so happened that this very industry was the only real failure the
+old man had had in his life, or, to be more exact, it was the only
+failure which had ever come to light. In consequence he was the more
+sensitive about it.</p>
+
+<p>"You think yourself very clever, don't you?" he asked, "but you're not
+quite as clever as old Maalthaas yet. For all he's so old he still has
+his wits about him. Supposing he could tell you your errand here, and
+why that white-haired old English merchant, Leversidge, is with you,
+eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you know about Leversidge, you old wizard?" I cried; not,
+however, without a little feeling of nervousness, as I thought of what
+the consequences might be if this old rascal became aware of the game we
+were playing and of the necessity that existed for secrecy.</p>
+
+<p>"A good deal more than you think," he answered, with a sly chuckle.
+"When Hatton Garden takes Christopher Collon in tow, their little game
+is worth watching, it seems to me. At any rate, it's worth seeing if you
+can discover the reason of it all."</p>
+
+<p>"It is just possible it might gratify your curiosity," I said, "but for
+my own part I don't see exactly where the benefit would come in. They
+pay me fairly well; still&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Still not the full value of the pearl?" he cried. "That's what you were
+going to say, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>The start I could not prevent myself from giving must have shown him
+that he had scored a bull's-eye. But I recovered myself almost
+instantly, and by that time had made up my mind as to the course I
+should pursue. "No, I don't suppose it is the full value of the pearl,"
+I answered. "It's hardly likely it would be. Still, we must live, and,
+as perhaps you know, business has not been very brisk of late. How have
+you been doing yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing at all," he answered; and then added significantly, "I'm
+looking out for something now. 'Make hay while the sun shines,' is my
+motto, and I've always found it a good one."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry, then, that I can't help you to anything," I said. "If I
+could you know I'd go out of my way to do so, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>Once more he glanced at me and chuckled. From what I knew of his ways, I
+could see that there was some mischief still to come.</p>
+
+<p>"You were always grateful for a little help, my boy, weren't you? We've
+had many a good bit of business together at one time or another, if my
+poor old memory serves me. It is just possible now that I can do you a
+good turn, but I'm a poor man, and I want something for my trouble."</p>
+
+<p>"What can you do for me?" I asked, as I searched his crafty old face
+with my eyes, in the hopes of getting some inkling of what he had in his
+mind.</p>
+
+<p>"I can give you a warning about this present bit of work of yours," he
+said. "It may save you a lot of trouble, and not only trouble but a bit
+of danger, too, if what I hear is correct."</p>
+
+<p>"The deuce you can!" I said; "and pray, what may that warning be?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not too fast, my friend," he answered. "Before I tell you I want my
+return. Give me the information I ask, and you shall know all I've got
+to tell. It's worth hearing, I give you my word."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what is it you want to know? I've trusted you before, and I don't
+mind doing so again. Ask your question and I'll answer it. But if you
+get up to any larks, or play me false, why just you look out for
+yourself, that's all."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not going to play you false," he answered, with another contortion
+of his face. "What I want to know is, when you induced the Sultan of
+Pela-Pelu to hand you over that Portugee chap, for whom the
+Tsungli-Yamen in Pekin offered that reward, what was the threat you
+used? I've got a little game to play there, and I want to be able to
+pinch him so as to make him squeal in case he refuses me. Tell me how
+you managed it, and I'll give you the information you need."</p>
+
+<p>Before I answered him I took a minute or so to consider my position. I
+did not want to betray my secret unless I was absolutely compelled to do
+so, and yet I had good reason for believing that the old fellow would
+not have hinted that there was something I ought to know, unless his
+news were worth the telling. However, at last I made up my mind, took
+out my pocket-book and turned up a certain entry.</p>
+
+<p>"There it is," I said, as I handed it to him to read. "I got that
+information first hand, so I know it can be relied upon. I threatened
+him with exposure, and though he was very high up the tree before, he
+soon climbed down."</p>
+
+<p>Maalthaas read what was written on the page twice over, and then
+scribbled a few notes on a piece of paper, which he took from under his
+pillow. Having done so, he handed me back the book, which I pocketed.</p>
+
+<p>"Now what have you got to tell me?" I inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"First answer me one question," he said. "You're off to the wreck of the
+<i>Monarch of Macedonia</i>, are you not?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not going to say whether we are, or are not," I answered; "but
+suppose, for the sake of argument, we are. What then?"</p>
+
+<p>He leaned a little closer towards me, and his crafty old eyes twinkled
+in his head like two brilliant stars.</p>
+
+<p>"In that case," he said, "my advice is, make haste, for you may be sure
+of one thing, and that is that <i>you're not the first</i>."</p>
+
+<p>I sprang to my feet on hearing this. "Not the first!" I cried. "What the
+deuce do you mean? Why are we not the first?"</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="illus2" id="illus2"></a>
+<img src="images/illus2.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<h3>"I sprang to my feet on hearing this. 'Not the first!' I cried."</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+<p>"Because a schooner started yesterday for the wreck, with a full diving
+plant aboard. Jim Peach is running the show, <i>and he has Yokohama Joe
+with him</i>."</p>
+
+<p>I did not wait to hear any more, but picking up my hat made for the
+door, and before you could have counted fifty was flying up the street
+at my best speed. Jim Peach had beaten me once before, he was not going
+to do so again if I could help it.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+
+<p>As I reached the hotel again after my interview with that crafty old
+rascal, Maalthaas, I saw Mr. Leversidge entering it by another gate. I
+hurried after him and just managed to catch him as he was crossing the
+verandah to pass into his own sitting-room. He turned sharply round on
+hearing my step behind him, and one glance at my face must have told him
+that there was something the matter. His face turned pale, and I noticed
+that his mouth twitched nervously.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?" he asked breathlessly. "What is it you have to tell me? I
+can see there is something wrong by your face."</p>
+
+<p>"There is indeed something wrong," I answered. "Come inside and let me
+tell you. I hurried back on purpose to let you know at once."</p>
+
+<p>"I am obliged to you," he said. "Now come inside. Your face frightens
+me. I fear bad news."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not good news I have to tell you, I'm afraid," I replied. "But
+still, if we're sharp, we may be able to remedy the mischief before it's
+too late. First and foremost you must understand that this morning I
+called upon an old friend who lives here, one of the sharpest men in the
+East, if not the very sharpest. He's a man who knows everything; who
+would in all probability be able to tell you why that Russian cruiser,
+which was due in Hong Kong last Friday, at the last moment put back to
+Vladivostock, though she did not require coal, and had nothing whatever
+the matter with her. Or he will tell you, as he did me, the reasons
+which induced a certain English jewel merchant to hasten to Colombo from
+Madras, and then come on to Java in company with a man named Christopher
+Collon."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean to say that our business here is known to people?" he cried
+in alarm. "In that case we are ruined."</p>
+
+<p>"Not quite, I think," I answered; and then with a little boastfulness
+which I could not help displaying, I added, "In the first place it is
+not known to <i>people</i>. Only to one person. In the second, Maalthaas may
+play fast and loose with a good many folk, but he dares not do so with
+me. I carry too many guns for him, and we are too useful to each other
+to endeavour in any way to spoil each other's games. But for him I
+should never have known what has happened now until it would have been
+too late to remedy it."</p>
+
+<p>"But you have not yet told me what <i>has</i> happened," said Mr. Leversidge
+in an aggrieved tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, the fact of the matter is," I said, "while we have been
+congratulating ourselves on our sharpness, we have very nearly been
+forestalled in what we intended doing. In other words, we are not so
+early in the field as we thought we were."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean? Not so early in the field. Do you mean to tell me
+there is some one else trying to do what we are going to do? That some
+one else is setting off for the wreck?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do," I answered, with a nod of the head. "You have just hit it. A
+schooner left Tanjong Priok yesterday with a diver aboard, and as far as
+I can gather&mdash;and there seems to be no doubt about the matter&mdash;she was
+bound for the wreck."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean a Government vessel? Surely she must have been sent by the
+authorities?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't mean anything of the sort," I said. "The only authority she is
+sent by is Jim Peach, one of the sharpest men in these waters. And when
+I tell you that he is aboard her, and that he has Yokohama Joe, the
+diver, with him, I guess you'll see there's real cause for alarm. At any
+rate, Mr. Leversidge, it's my opinion that if we're not there first we
+may as well give up all thought of the pearls, for they'll get them as
+sure as you're born&mdash;don't you make any mistake about that. I've never
+known Jimmy Peach fail in what he undertook but once. He's a bad 'un to
+beat is Jimmy. He knows these waters as well as you know Oxford Street,
+and if, as I expect, it's his own schooner he's gone in, then we shall
+have all our time taken up trying to catch her."</p>
+
+<p>As I said this the old gentleman's face was a study. Expressions of
+bewilderment, anxiety, greed, and vindictiveness seemed to struggle in
+it for the mastery. It was evident that, brought up as he had been with
+a profound respect for the sacred rights of property, it was impossible
+for him to believe that the man could live who would have the audacity
+to behave towards him, John Leversidge, of Hatton Garden, as Peach and
+his gang were now said to be doing. He clenched his fists as he realized
+that the success of the enterprise depended entirely upon our being able
+to beat the others at their own game, and from the gleam I saw in his
+eye I guessed that there was not much the old boy would not do and dare
+to get possession of what had been bought and paid for by his firm, and
+what he therefore considered to be his own lawful property.</p>
+
+<p>"If it is as you say, Mr. Collon," he said, at length, "there can be no
+possible doubt as to what sort of action we should take. Come what may
+we must be on the spot first. I believe I am doing as my firm would wish
+when I say that those other rascals must be outwitted at all costs. If
+this man you speak of, this Peach, is a bad one to beat, let me tell you
+so am I. We'll make a match of it and see who comes out best. I can
+assure you I have no fear for the result."</p>
+
+<p>"Bravely spoken," I said. "I like your spirit, Mr. Leversidge, and I'm
+with you hand and glove. I've beaten Jimmy before, and on this occasion
+I'll do so again."</p>
+
+<p>"I only hope and trust you may," he answered. "And now what do you
+advise? What steps should we take first? Give me your assistance, I beg,
+for you must of necessity be better versed in these sort of matters than
+I. It seems to me, however, that one thing is very certain: if these men
+sailed yesterday in their schooner, and they have a day's start of us,
+we shall find it difficult to catch them. We might do so, of course; but
+it would be safer to act as if we think we might not. For my own part I
+do not feel inclined to run the risk. I want to make it certain that we
+<i>do</i> get there before them."</p>
+
+<p>"The only way to do that is, of course, to charter a steamer," I
+replied, "and that will run into a lot of money. But it will make it
+<i>certain</i> that we get the better of them."</p>
+
+<p>"In such a case money is no object. We must keep our word to the
+Emperor, and to do that my firm would spend twice the sum this is likely
+to cost. But the question is, where are we to find the steamer we want?
+I found it difficult, nay, almost impossible, to get even a schooner
+this morning. And for the only one I could hear of the owner asked such
+a preposterous price that I did not feel disposed to give in to his
+demands until I had consulted you upon the subject, and made certain
+that we could not find another. What do you recommend?"</p>
+
+<p>I considered the matter for a moment. I had had experience of Java
+shipowners before, and I knew something of their pleasant little ways.
+Then an idea occurred to me.</p>
+
+<p>"I think if you will let me negotiate the matter, Mr. Leversidge," I
+said, "I may be able to obtain what you want. The man of whom I spoke to
+you just now, the same who gave me the information regarding Peach and
+his party, is the person to apply to. For a consideration I have no
+doubt he would find us a vessel, and though we may have to pay him for
+his trouble, he will take very good care that we are not swindled by any
+other party. There is one more suggestion I should like to make, and
+that is that you should let me telegraph to a person of my acquaintance
+in Thursday Island to send a schooner down to a certain part of the New
+Guinea coast, in charge of men he can trust. We could then on arrival
+tranship to her, and send the steamer back without letting those on
+board know anything of our errand. What do you think of that
+arrangement? In my opinion it would be the best course to pursue."</p>
+
+<p>"And I agree with you," he answered. "It is an admirable idea, and I am
+obliged to you for it. We will put it into execution without loss of
+time. As soon as you have seen this man Maalthaas we will send the
+message you speak of to Thursday Island."</p>
+
+<p>"I will see him at once," I replied. "There is no time to be lost. While
+we are talking here that schooner is making her way to the scene of the
+catastrophe as fast as she can go."</p>
+
+<p>I accordingly departed, and in something less than a quarter of an hour
+was once more seated in the venerable Maalthaas' room. It did not take
+long to let him know the favour we wanted of him, nor did it take long
+for him to let me understand upon what terms he was prepared to grant
+it. "You won't come down in your price at all, I suppose?" I said, when
+he had finished. "What you ask is a trifle stiff for such a simple
+service."</p>
+
+<p>"Not a guelder," he answered briefly.</p>
+
+<p>"Provided we agree, when can we sail?"</p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow morning at daylight, if you like. There will be no difficulty
+about that."</p>
+
+<p>"And you guarantee that the men you send with her can be trusted?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody in this world is to be trusted," he answered grimly. "I've never
+yet met the man who could not be bought at a price. And what's more if I
+did meet him I would be the last to trust him. What I will say is that
+the men who work the boat are as nearly trustworthy as I can get them.
+That's all."</p>
+
+<p>"All right. That will do. I will go back to my principal now and let him
+know what you say. If I don't return here within an hour you can reckon
+we agree to your terms, and you can go ahead."</p>
+
+<p>"No, thank you, Mynheer," said Maalthaas; "that won't do at all. If I
+receive the money within an hour, I shall take it that you agree, not
+otherwise. Half the money down and the remainder to be paid to the
+captain when you reach your destination. If you want him to wait for you
+and bring you back, you must pay half the return fare when you get
+aboard, and the balance when you return here. Do you understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perfectly. I will let you have an answer within an hour."</p>
+
+<p>Fifteen hours later the money had been paid, the cablegram to Thursday
+Island despatched, and we were standing on the deck of the Dutch steamer
+<i>König Ludwig</i>, making our way along the Java coast at the rate of a
+good fifteen knots an hour.</p>
+
+<p>"If Master Peach doesn't take care we shall be in a position to throw
+him a towline by this time on Saturday morning," I said to Mr.
+Leversidge, who was standing beside me.</p>
+
+<p>"I devoutly hope so," he answered. "At any rate, you may be sure we'll
+make a good race of it. What shall we call the stakes?"</p>
+
+<p>"The Race for a Dead Man's Pearls," said I. "How would that do?"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+
+<p>To my surprise before we had been twenty-four hours at sea every one on
+board the <i>König Ludwig</i> seemed to have imbibed a measure of our
+eagerness, and to be aware that we were not in reality engaged in a
+pleasure trip, as had been given out, but in a race against a schooner
+which had sailed from the same port nearly forty-eight hours before. As
+a matter of fact it was Mr. Leversidge who was responsible for thus
+letting the cat out of the bag. Imperative as it was that the strictest
+reticence should be observed regarding our errand, his excitement was so
+great that he could not help confiding his hopes and fears, under the
+pledge of secrecy, of course, to half the ship's company. Fortunately,
+however, he had the presence of mind not to reveal the object of our
+voyage, though I fear many of them must have suspected it.</p>
+
+<p>It was on the seventh day after leaving Batavia that we reached that
+portion of the New Guinea coast where it had been arranged that the
+schooner, for which I had telegraphed to Thursday Island, should meet
+us. So far we had seen nothing of Peach's boat, and in our own hearts we
+felt justified in believing that we had beaten her. Now, if we could
+only change vessels, and get to the scene of action without loss of
+time, it looked as if we should stand an excellent chance of completing
+our business and getting away again before she could put in an
+appearance. After careful consideration we had agreed to allow the
+steamer to return without us to Java, and when we had done our work to
+continue our journey on board the schooner to Thursday Island. Here we
+would separate, Leversidge returning with his treasure to England <i>viā</i>
+Brisbane and Sydney, and I making my way by the next China boat to
+Hong-Kong, where I intended to lay by for a while on the strength of the
+money I was to receive from him. But, as you will shortly see, we were
+bargaining without our hosts. Events were destined to turn out in a very
+different way from what we expected.</p>
+
+<p>It was early morning&mdash;indeed, it still wanted an hour to sunrise&mdash;when
+the captain knocked at our respective cabins and informed us that we had
+reached the place to which it had been arranged in the contract he
+should carry us. We accordingly dressed with all possible speed, and
+having done so made our way on deck. When we reached it we found an
+unusually still morning, a heavy mist lying upon the face of the sea.
+The latter, as far as we could judge by the water alongside, was as
+smooth and pulseless as a millpond. Not a sound could be heard save the
+steady dripping of the moisture from the awning on the deck. Owing to
+the fog it was impossible to tell whether or not the schooner from
+Thursday Island had arrived at the rendezvous. She might have been near
+us, or she might be fifty miles away for all we could tell to the
+contrary.</p>
+
+<p>Once we thought we heard the sound of a block creaking a short distance
+away to port, but though we hailed at least a dozen times, and blew our
+whistles for some minutes, we were not rewarded with an answer.</p>
+
+<p>"This delay is really very annoying," said Mr. Leversidge testily, after
+we had tramped the deck together for upwards of an hour. "Every minute
+is of the utmost importance to us, for every hour we waste in inaction
+here is bringing the other schooner closer. As soon as this fog lifts we
+shall have to make up for lost time with a vengeance."</p>
+
+<p>How we got through the remainder of that morning I have only a very
+confused recollection. For my own part I believe I put in most of it
+with a book lying on the chartroom locker. Mr. Leversidge, on the other
+hand, was scarcely still for a minute at a time, but spent most of the
+morning running from place to place about the vessel, peering over the
+side to see if the fog were lifting, and consulting his watch and
+groaning audibly every time he returned it to his pocket. I don't know
+that I ever remember seeing a man more impatient.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as lunch was finished we returned to the deck, only to find the
+fog as thick as ever. The quiet that was over everything was most
+uncanny, and when one of us spoke his voice seemed to travel for miles.
+Still, however, we could hear nothing, much less see anything, of the
+schooner which was to have taken us on to our destination.</p>
+
+<p>"If this fog doesn't lift soon I believe I shall go mad," said
+Leversidge at last, bringing his hand down as he spoke with a smack upon
+the bulwarks. "For all we know to the contrary it may be fine where the
+wreck is, and all the time we are lying here inactive that rascal
+Peach's schooner, the <i>Nautch Girl</i>, is coming along hand over fist to
+spoil our work for us. I never knew anything so aggravating in my life."</p>
+
+<p>As if nature were regretting having given him so much anxiety, the words
+had scarcely left his mouth before there was a break in the fog away to
+port, and then with a quickness that seemed almost magical, seeing how
+thick it had been a moment before, the great curtain drew off the face
+of the deep, enabling us to see the low outline of the cape ten miles or
+so away to starboard, and, as if the better to please us, a small vessel
+heading towards us from the south-eastward. As soon as I brought the
+glass to bear upon her I knew her for the schooner I had cabled to
+Thursday Island about. An hour later she was hove-to within a cable's
+length of us, and we were moving our traps aboard as expeditiously as
+possible. Then sail was got on her once more, the <i>König Ludwig</i>
+whistled us a shrill farewell, and presently we were bowling across the
+blue seas toward our destination at as fine a rate of speed as any man
+could wish to see.</p>
+
+<p>For the remainder of that day we sailed on, making such good running of
+it that at sunrise on the morning following we found ourselves at the
+place for which we had been travelling&mdash;namely, the scene of the wreck
+of the unfortunate steamship <i>Monarch of Macedonia</i>. We were all on deck
+when we reached it, and never shall I forget the look of astonishment
+that came into Leversidge's face when the skipper sang out some orders,
+hove her to, and joined us at the taffrail, saying abruptly as he did
+so, "Gentlemen, here we are; I reckon this is the place to which you
+told me to bring you."</p>
+
+<p>"This the place!" he cried, as he looked round him at the smooth and
+smiling sea. "You surely don't mean to tell me that it was just here
+that the <i>Monarch of Macedonia</i> met her cruel fate? I cannot believe
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"It's true, all the same," answered the skipper. "That's to say, as near
+as I can reckon it by observations. Just take a look at the chart and
+see for yourself."</p>
+
+<p>So saying he spread the roll of paper he carried in his hand upon the
+deck, and we all knelt down to examine it. In order to prove his
+position the skipper ran a dirty thumb-nail along his course, and made a
+mark with it about the approximate spot where he had hove the schooner
+to.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean to say that the unfortunate vessel lies beneath us now?"
+asked Mr. Leversidge, with a certain amount of awe in his voice.</p>
+
+<p>"As near as I can reckon it she ought to be somewhere about here,"
+returned the skipper, waving his hand casually around the neighbourhood.
+And then, taking a slip of paper from the pocket of his coat, he
+continued: "Here are the Admiralty Survey vessel's bearings of the rock
+upon which she struck, so we can't be very far out."</p>
+
+<p>Following Mr. Leversidge's example we went to the port side and looked
+over.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems a ghastly thing to think that down there lies that great
+vessel, the outcome of so much human thought and ingenuity, with the
+bodies of the men and women who perished in her still on board. I don't
+know that I envy you in your task of visiting her, Collon. By the way,
+what are the Government soundings?"</p>
+
+<p>"Seventeen fathoms," answered the skipper.</p>
+
+<p>"And you think she is lying some distance out from the rock on which she
+struck?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do. The survivors say that as soon as she struck, the officer of the
+watch reversed his engines and pulled her off, but before he could get
+more than a cable's length astern she sank like a stone."</p>
+
+<p>"I understand. And now, Mr. Collon, your part of the business commences.
+When do you propose to get to work? We must not delay any more than we
+can help, for the other schooner may be here at any moment."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall commence getting my things together immediately," I answered,
+"and, if all goes well, the first thing to-morrow morning I shall make
+my descent. It would not be worth while doing so this afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, as soon as our mid-day meal was finished, I had the pumps
+and diving gear brought on deck and spent the afternoon testing them and
+getting them ready for the work that lay before me on the morrow. By
+nightfall I was fully prepared to descend in search of the pearl.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us hope that by this time to-morrow we shall be on our way to
+Thursday Island with our work completed," said Leversidge to me as we
+leant against the taffrail later in the evening. "I don't know that I
+altogether care about thinking that all those poor dead folk are lying
+only a hundred feet or so beneath our keel. As soon as we have got what
+we want out of her we'll lose no time in packing up and being off."</p>
+
+<p>I was about to answer him, when something caused me to look across the
+sea to the westward. As I did so I gave a little cry of astonishment,
+for not more than five miles distant I could see the lights of a vessel
+coming towards us.</p>
+
+<p>"Look!" I cried, "what boat can that be?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Leversidge followed the direction of my hand. "If I'm not mistaken,"
+the skipper said, "that is the <i>Nautch Girl</i>&mdash;Peach's schooner."</p>
+
+<p>"Then there's trouble ahead. What on earth is to be done?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have no notion. We cannot compel him to turn back, and if he finds us
+diving here he will be certain to suspect our motive and to give
+information against us."</p>
+
+<p>We both turned and looked in the direction we had last seen the vessel,
+but to our amazement she was no longer there.</p>
+
+<p>"What does it mean?" cried Leversidge. "What can have become of her?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think I can tell you," said the skipper, "We're in for another fog."</p>
+
+<p>"A fog again," replied the old gentleman. "If that is so we're done
+for."</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary," I said, "I think we're saved. Given a decent
+opportunity and I fancy I can see my way out of this scrape."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+
+<p>Of all the thousand and one strange phenomena of the mighty deep, to my
+thinking there is none more extraordinary than the fogs which so
+suddenly spring up in Eastern waters. At one moment the entire expanse
+of sea lies plain and open before the eye; then a tiny cloud makes its
+appearance, like a little flaw in the perfect blue, far down on the
+horizon. It comes closer, and as it does so, spreads itself out in
+curling wreaths of vapour. Finally, the mariner finds himself cut off
+from everything, standing alone in a little world of his own, so tiny
+that it is even impossible for him to see a boat's length before his
+face. At night the effect is even more strange, for then it is
+impossible to see anything at all.</p>
+
+<p>On this particular occasion the fog came up quicker than I ever remember
+to have seen one do. We had hardly caught sight of the lights of the
+schooner, which we were convinced was none other than the <i>Nautch Girl</i>,
+than they disappeared again. But, as I had told Mr. Leversidge, that
+circumstance, instead of injuring us, was likely to prove our salvation.
+Had she come upon us in broad daylight while we were engaged upon our
+work on the wreck below, it would have been a case of diamond cut
+diamond, and the strongest would have won. Now, however, if she would
+only walk into the trap I was about to set for her, I felt confident in
+my own mind that we should come out of the scrape with flying colours.</p>
+
+<p>"We must not attempt to conceal our position," I said, turning to the
+skipper, whom I could now barely see. "If I were you I should keep that
+bell of yours ringing, it will serve to let Peach know that there is
+somebody already on the spot, and it will help to prepare his mind for
+what is to come."</p>
+
+<p>The skipper groped his way forward to give the necessary order, and
+presently the bell commenced to sound its note of warning. Thereupon we
+sat ourselves down on the skylight to await the arrival of the schooner
+with what composure we could command. Our patience, however, was
+destined to be sorely tried, for upwards of two hours elapsed before any
+sound reached us to inform us that she was in our neighbourhood. Then
+with an abruptness which was almost startling, a voice came to us across
+the silent sea.</p>
+
+<p>"If I have to visit you niggers in that boat," the speaker was saying,
+"I'll give you as good a booting as ever you had in your lives. Bend
+your backs to it and pull or I'll be amongst you before you can look
+round and put some ginger into you."</p>
+
+<p>There was no occasion to tell me whose voice it was. "That's Jimmy
+Peach," I said, turning to Mr. Leversidge, who was standing beside me at
+the bulwarks. "I know his pleasant way of talking to his crew. He's a
+sweet skipper is Jimmy, and the man he has with him, Yokohama Joe, is
+his equal in every respect."</p>
+
+<p>"But how have they managed to get here?" asked the old gentleman.
+"Theirs is not a steam vessel, and besides being pitch dark in this fog
+there's not a breath of wind."</p>
+
+<p>"They've got a boat out towing her," I answered. "If you listen for a
+moment you'll hear the creaking of the oars in the rowlocks. That's just
+what I reckoned they would do. Now I am going to give Master Jimmy one
+of the prettiest scares he has ever had in his life, and one that I
+think he will remember to his dying day. If he ever finds it out, and we
+meet ashore, I reckon things will hum a bit."</p>
+
+<p>So saying, I funnelled my mouth with my hands and shouted in the
+direction whence the voice had proceeded a few minutes before. "Ship
+ahoy! Is that the <i>Nautch Girl</i>, of Cooktown?"</p>
+
+<p>There was complete silence while a man could have counted a hundred.
+Then a voice hailed me in reply: "What vessel are you?"</p>
+
+<p>I was prepared for this question. "Her Majesty's gunboat <i>Panther</i>,
+anchored above the wreck of the <i>Monarch of Macedonia</i>," I answered.
+"Are you the <i>Nautch Girl</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>There was another long pause, then a different voice answered, "<i>Nautch
+Girl</i> be hanged! We're the <i>bźche-de-mer</i> schooner <i>Caroline Smithers</i>,
+of Cairns, from Macassar to Port Moresby."</p>
+
+<p>Once more I funnelled my hands and answered them. "All right," I
+replied, "just heave to a minute and I'll send a boat to make certain.
+I'm looking for the <i>Nautch Girl</i>, and, as she left Batavia ten days or
+so ago, she's just about due here now."</p>
+
+<p>Turning to Mr. Leversidge, who was standing beside me, I whispered, "If
+I'm not mistaken he'll clear out now as quickly as he knows how."</p>
+
+<p>"But why should he do so?" he inquired. "As long as he doesn't interfere
+with the wreck he has a perfect right to be here."</p>
+
+<p>"As you say, he <i>has</i> a perfect right," I answered; "but you may bet
+your bottom dollar he'll be off as soon as possible. There is what the
+lawyers call a combination of circumstances against him. In the first
+place, I happen to know that he has been wanted very badly for some
+considerable time by the skipper of the <i>Panther</i> for a little bit of
+business down in the Kingsmill Group. They have been trying to nab him
+everywhere, but so far he has been too smart for them. In addition, he
+is certain to think his mission to the wreck has been wired to Thursday
+Island, and between the two I fancy he will come to the conclusion that
+discretion is the better part of valour and will run for it. Hark! there
+he goes."</p>
+
+<p>We both listened, and a moment later could plainly distinguish the
+regular "cheep-cheep" of the oars as they towed the schooner away from
+us.</p>
+
+<p>"He has got out two boats now," I said, "and that shows he means to be
+off as fast as he can go. Somehow I don't think we shall be troubled by
+Master Peach again for a day or two. But won't he just be mad if he ever
+finds out how we've fooled him. The world won't be big enough to hold
+the pair of us. Now all we want is the fog to hold up till he's out of
+sight. I don't feel any wind."</p>
+
+<p>I wetted my finger and held it up above my head, but could feel nothing.
+The night was as still as it was foggy. Seeing, therefore, that it was
+no use our waiting about in the hope of the weather improving, I bade
+them good night, and, having been congratulated on my ruse for getting
+rid of Peach, and the success which had attended it, went below to my
+berth.</p>
+
+<p>Sure enough when we came on deck next morning the fog had disappeared,
+and with it the schooner <i>Nautch Girl</i>. A brisk breeze was blowing.
+Overhead the sky was sapphire blue, brilliant sunshine streamed upon our
+decks, while the sea around us was as green and transparent as an
+emerald. Little waves splashed alongside, and the schooner danced gaily
+at her anchor. After the fog of the previous night, it was like a new
+world, and when we had satisfied ourselves that our enemy was really out
+of sight it was a merry party that sat down to breakfast.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the meal was finished we returned to the deck. The same
+glorious morning continued, with the difference, however, that by this
+time the sea had moderated somewhat. The crew were already at work
+preparing the diving apparatus for my descent. After the anxiety of the
+<i>Nautch Girl's</i> arrival, the trick we had played upon her captain, and
+the excitement consequent upon it, it came upon me almost as a shock to
+see the main, or to be more exact, the only, object of my voyage brought
+so unmistakably and callously before me. I glanced over the side at the
+smiling sea, and as I did so thought of the visit I was about to pay to
+the unfortunate vessel which was lying so still and quiet beneath those
+treacherous waves. And for what? For a jewel that would ultimately
+decorate a mere earthly sovereign's person. It seemed like an act of the
+grossest sacrilege to disturb that domain of Death for such a vulgar
+purpose.</p>
+
+<p>"I see you are commencing your preparations," said Mr. Leversidge, who
+had come on deck while I was giving my instructions to the man in charge
+of the diving gear. "Before you do so had we not better study the cabin
+plan of the vessel herself, in order that you may have a good idea as to
+where the berth you are about to visit is situated?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps it would be as well," I answered. "Where is the plan?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have it in my portmanteau," replied the old gentleman, and a moment
+later, bidding me remain where I was, he dived below in search of the
+article in question. Presently he returned, bringing with him a sheet of
+paper, which, when he spread it out upon the deck, I recognised as one
+of those printed forms supplied by steamship companies to intending
+passengers at the time of booking.</p>
+
+<p>"There," he said, as he smoothed it out and placed his finger on a tiny
+red cross, "that is the cabin our agent occupied. You enter by the
+companion on the promenade deck, and, having descended to the saloon,
+turn sharp to your left hand and pass down the port side till you reach
+the alleyway alongside the steward's pantry. Nineteen is the number, and
+our agent's berth was number one hundred and sixty-three, which, as you
+will observe from this plan, is the higher one on your left as you
+enter. The next cabin was that occupied by the Reverend Colway-Brown,
+who, as you are aware, was one of the persons who escaped. I think we
+may consider ourselves fortunate that he was a parson, otherwise we
+don't know what might have happened."</p>
+
+<p>Taking up the plan he had brought and examining it carefully, I tried to
+impress it upon my memory as far as possible. "Now," I said, "I think I
+know my ground; so let us get to work. The sooner the business is
+finished and the pearl is in your keeping the better I shall be
+pleased."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall have no objection to be done with it either, I can assure you,"
+he answered. "It has been a most tiresome and unpleasant affair for
+everybody concerned."</p>
+
+<p>I then strolled forward to the main hatch, beside which my dress had
+been placed. Everything was in readiness, and I thereupon commenced my
+toilet. To draw on the costume itself was the matter of only a few
+seconds. My feet were then placed in the great boots with their enormous
+leaden soles; the helmet, without the glass, was slipped over my head
+and rivetted to the collar plate around my neck, the leaden weights,
+each of twenty-eight pounds, were fastened to my chest and back, the
+life-line was tied round my waist, and the other end made fast to the
+bulwark beside which my tender would take his place during such time as
+I should remain below.</p>
+
+<p>"Now give me the lamp and the axe," I said, as I fumbled my way to the
+gangway where the ladder had been placed, and took up my position upon
+it. "After that you can screw in the glass and begin to pump as soon as
+you like. It won't be very long now, Mr. Leversidge, before you know
+your fate."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you luck," he answered, and then my tender, who had been careful
+to dip the front glass in the water, screwed it in, and almost
+simultaneously the hands at the machine commenced to pump. I was in
+their world and yet standing in a world of my own, a sort of amphibious
+creature, half of land and half of sea.</p>
+
+<p>According to custom, I gave a last glance round to see that all was
+working properly, and then with a final wave of my hand to those upon
+the deck began to descend the ladder into the green water, little
+dreaming of the terrible surprise that was awaiting me at the bottom of
+the ocean.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+
+<p>The novice when making his first descent beneath the waves in a diving
+dress is apt to find himself confronted with numerous surprises. In the
+first place he discovers that the dress itself, which, when he stood
+upon the deck, had appeared such a cumbersome and altogether unwieldy
+affair, becomes as light as any feather as soon as he is below the
+surface. To his amazement he is able to move about with as much freedom
+as he was accustomed to do on land. And despite the fact that his supply
+of air is being transmitted to him through many yards of piping from a
+pump on the deck above, and in consequence smells a little of
+india-rubber, he is relieved to find, when he has overcome his first
+nervousness, that he can breathe as comfortably and easily as when
+seated in the cabin of the vessel he has so lately quitted.</p>
+
+<p>As stated in the previous chapter, as soon as the glass had been screwed
+into the front of my helmet I waved a farewell to my friends on the
+schooner's deck and began to descend the ladder on my adventurous
+journey. Men may take from me what they please, but they can never
+destroy my reputation as a diver. And, indeed, the task I was about to
+attempt was one that any man might be proud of accomplishing
+successfully.</p>
+
+<p>The bottom on which I had landed was of white sand, covered here and
+there with short weeds and lumps of coral, the latter being of every
+conceivable shape and colour. Looking up I could distinguish through the
+green water the hull of the schooner, and could trace her cable running
+down to the anchor, which had dropped fifty feet or so from the spot
+where I now stood. Before me the bottom ascended almost precipitously,
+and, remembering what I had been told, I gathered that on the top of
+this was the rock upon which the unfortunate vessel had come to grief.
+Having noted these things, I turned myself about until I could see the
+boat herself. It was a strange and forlorn picture she presented. Her
+masts had gone by the board, and as I made my way towards her I could
+plainly distinguish the gaping rent in her bows which had wrought her
+ruin.</p>
+
+<p>Clambering over the mass of coral upon which she was lying, I walked
+round her examining her carefully, and, when I had done so, began to
+cast about me for a means of getting on board. This, however, proved a
+rather more difficult task than one would have at first imagined, for
+she had not heeled over as might have been supposed, but had settled
+down in her natural position in a sort of coral gully, and in
+consequence her sides were almost as steep as the walls of a house.
+However, I was not going to be beaten, so, taking my life-line in my
+hand, I signalled to my tender above, by a code I had previously
+arranged with him, to lower me the short iron ladder which had been
+brought in case its services should be required. Having obtained this I
+placed it against the vessel's side, but not before I had taken the
+precaution to attach one end of a line to it and the other to my waist,
+so that we should not part company and I be left without a means of
+getting out of the vessel again when once I was inside. Mounting by it,
+I clambered over the broken bulwarks and was soon at the entrance to the
+saloon companion ladder on the promenade deck. Already a terrible and
+significant change was to be noticed in her appearance: a thick green
+weed was growing on the once snow-white planks, and the brilliant
+brasses, which had been the pride and delight of her officers in bygone
+days, were now black and discoloured almost beyond recognition.
+Remembering what she had once been, the money she had cost, the grandeur
+of her launch and christening, and the pride with which she had once
+navigated the oceans of the world, it was enough to bring the tears into
+one's eyes now to see her lying so dead and helpless below the waves of
+which she had once been so bright an ornament. I thought of the men and
+women, the fathers and mothers, the handsome youths and pretty girls who
+had once walked those decks so confidently; of the friendships which had
+been begun upon them, and the farewells which had there been said, and
+then of that last dread scene at midnight when she had crashed into the
+unknown danger, and a few moments later had sunk down and down until she
+lay an inert and helpless mass upon the rocky bed where I now found her.</p>
+
+<p>Feeling that, if I wished to get my work done expeditiously, I had
+better not waste my time looking about me, I attempted to open the door
+of the saloon companion ladder, but the wood had swollen, and, in spite
+of my efforts, defied me. However, a few blows from my axe smashed it in
+and enabled me to enter. Inside the hatch it was too dark for me to see
+very clearly, but with the assistance of my electric lamp this
+difficulty was soon overcome, and, holding the latter above my head, I
+continued my descent.</p>
+
+<p>On the landing, half-way down, jammed into a corner, I encountered the
+first bodies, those of a man and woman. My movement through the water
+caused them to drop me a mocking curtsey as I passed, and I noticed that
+the man held the woman in his arms very tight, as though he were
+resolved that they should not be parted, even by King Death himself.</p>
+
+<p>Reaching the bottom of the ladder, I passed into the saloon, not without
+a shudder, however, as I thought of the work that lay before me. God
+help the poor dead folk I saw there! They were scattered about
+everywhere in the most grotesque attitudes. Some were floating against
+the roof, and some were entangled in the cleated chairs. I have entered
+many wrecks in my time, and have seen many curious and terrible sights,
+but what I saw in this ill-fated vessel surpassed anything I have ever
+met with in my experience. Any attempt to give a true description of it
+would be impossible. I must get on with my story and leave that to your
+imagination.</p>
+
+<p>By the time I had made my way so far I had had about enough of it for
+the time being, and stood in need of a rest. Accordingly I retraced my
+steps to the deck and signalled to my tender that I was about to return
+to the surface. The change, when I did so, from the semi-obscurity of
+that horrible world below the seas to the brilliant sunshine I found
+existing above, was almost startling in its abruptness. But it was good
+after what I had seen below to find myself once more in the company of
+living people. Leversidge's surprise at seeing me reappear so soon was
+almost pathetic. He could scarcely contain his eagerness to question me,
+and as soon as the front glass of my helmet had been removed he
+accordingly set to work.</p>
+
+<p>"What has brought you up from below so soon?" he inquired. "You have
+only been gone a quarter of an hour. Have you found the pearl?"</p>
+
+<p>I shook my head. "I have not even been able to discover the man's cabin
+yet," I answered. "I came up because I needed a rest. I'm working at a
+big depth, you must remember. And, besides, there are those who are far
+from being the best of company down below."</p>
+
+<p>"But tell me about the vessel herself," the old gentleman continued.
+"What is she like, and did you experience any difficulty in getting
+aboard her?"</p>
+
+<p>I answered his questions to the best of my ability, and after a few
+minutes' rest ordered the glass to be screwed into the helmet again, and
+then once more descended to the bottom of the ocean.</p>
+
+<p>Being familiar by this time with the best means of getting on board the
+wreck, it was not very long before I was making my way down the
+companion ladder into the saloon. Then, without wasting further time
+looking about me, I pushed on in search of the cabin I wanted, which, as
+I have already said, was on the port side, third door from the steward's
+pantry. It was not long before I found it, and had broken open the door.
+Having done so, I held my lamp aloft and entered. Never shall I forget
+the sight I saw there. Well prepared as I was for something gruesome,
+the horrible sight that now met my eyes almost overcame me. The body of
+Mr. Leversidge's unfortunate agent was lying on his chest, half in and
+half out of his bunk, for all the world as if he were looking for
+something under his pillow. His coat and waistcoat were off, otherwise
+he was fully dressed. Withdrawing my eyes from him, not without some
+difficulty, I looked about the cabin for his luggage, and for some
+moments could see no sign of it. Then I caught sight of a trunk and a
+Gladstone bag beneath one bunk, and another trunk beneath that opposite.
+All were as rotten as sodden brown paper, by reason of their long
+immersion in the salt water. By dint of some man&oelig;uvring, however, I
+managed to get them out of the cabin into the alleyway without
+disturbing the body in the bunk, and then by degrees carried them up the
+companion ladder to the deck above. Having done this, I signalled to my
+friends to lower their lines, and, as soon as I had made them fast, had
+the satisfaction of seeing them drawn up to the schooner above. This
+having been accomplished, I returned once more to that awful cabin in
+order to search the body and to make quite sure that I had left nothing
+behind me that I might afterwards wish I had brought away.</p>
+
+<p>Reaching the cabin again, I&mdash;but there, how can I tell you the rest?
+Suffice it that I pulled the remains of what had once been Mr.
+Leversidge's agent out of his bunk, glanced at him, and then dropped him
+again with a cry that echoed in my helmet until I thought it would have
+burst the drums of both my ears. The shock of the discovery I had made
+was almost too much for me, and for upwards of a minute I leant against
+the bulkhead, staring at the poor corpse before me in stupefied
+amazement. Then I roused myself, and kneeling upon the floor began my
+search for something which, when I had found it, I placed carefully in
+the canvas bag I carried round my waist. Then I set off as fast as I
+could go to reach the surface once more. God knows I had made an
+astounding enough discovery in all conscience, and as I climbed the
+ladder I wondered what Mr. Leversidge would have to say to it.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+
+<p>So overpowered was I by the importance of the discovery I had made in
+the bowels of that sunken ship, that when I reached the top of the
+ladder and found myself standing once more among my fellow-men in the
+decent and clean world above the waves, it seemed as if I must begin my
+story to old Leversidge before the front glass of my helmet was removed;
+and, if such a thing were possible, his impatience was even greater than
+my own. There we stood, scarcely three feet apart, in the same world,
+breathing the same air, looking upon the same things, and yet to all
+intents and purposes for the time being as widely separate as the poles.</p>
+
+<p>As soon, however, as the glass was removed I accepted my tender's
+assistance, and clambering aboard seated myself on the combing of the
+main hatch. Beside me on the deck lay the sodden baggage, just as I had
+sent it up from the vessel below, as yet untouched. On seeing it I bade
+my tender, as soon as my helmet was removed, commence unpacking it.
+While he was thus employed Leversidge stood opposite me, his lips
+trembling and his fingers itching to draw me away in order that he might
+question me as to the result of my search. When, therefore, I was
+attired in civilized dress, he could no longer contain himself, but
+putting his arm through mine, and picking up the baggage from the seat,
+drew me away towards the cabin aft, where, having made certain that we
+were alone, he seated himself at the table and once more eagerly scanned
+my face.</p>
+
+<p>"What have you to tell me?" he inquired, in a voice so changed that it
+almost startled me. "You have discovered something which has surprised
+you. I can see that much in your face. What is it? Have you got the
+pearl?"</p>
+
+<p>"One thing at a time, if you please," I answered. "I must take your
+questions in their proper order. To begin with, let me confess that I
+have <i>not</i> got the pearl. It is just possible that it may be in that
+luggage I sent up from below, though I must say for my own part I don't
+think it probable. At any rate, if it is not there, I can only hazard a
+guess as to where it can be. Certainly it is not on the person of the
+drowned man, for I searched him thoroughly before I came up."</p>
+
+<p>Almost before I had finished speaking he had seated himself on the floor
+beside the bag he had brought with him to the cabin. It must have been a
+cheap concern when new, for to wrench it open now was a matter of very
+small difficulty. The material of which it was composed was certainly
+not leather, but some sort of composition, which tore away from its
+fastenings like so much brown paper. I sat still, smoking my pipe and
+composedly watching him while he pitched on to the floor the various
+articles it contained. It was evident from the expression on his face
+that he was not repaid for his search. At any rate, signs of a pearl
+there were none, nor were there any indications to show that it had ever
+been kept in there at all. The old man turned the heap of clothes over
+and over, and afterwards examined the bag most carefully, but no amount
+of looking could show him the article for which he was so ardently
+searching. Having at length convinced himself that it was not there he
+turned to me again.</p>
+
+<p>"It is quite certain," he said, looking up at me sharply, "that it is
+not in this bag. Are you sure there was no other luggage in the cabin?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite sure," I answered. "But, before we go any further, perhaps you
+had better let me tell you all that I discovered when I was down below.
+Heaven knows it throws a new enough light upon the subject."</p>
+
+<p>"Go on," he said, pushing the things he had taken out of the bag away
+from him as he spoke. "Tell me everything. You know how impatient I am.
+What is it you have discovered?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will tell you," I answered. "As I said just now, when I entered the
+cabin I saw the body of your agent lying half in and half out of his
+bunk. From the state of his toilet it was plain that he had not retired
+for the night when the vessel struck, as you remember the Reverend
+Colway-Brown stated. It struck me as strange, therefore, that he had not
+been able to get out of his cabin during the brief time allowed the
+unfortunate passengers for escape. However, that is neither here nor
+there. There is one point which dwarfs all the others. Having discovered
+this luggage, which you have now examined, and sent it up to you, I
+determined to search the person of the man himself for the pearl. I did
+so only to make one terrible discovery."</p>
+
+<p>"What was that?" cried Mr. Leversidge, in an agony of impatience. "For
+Heaven's sake, man, get on quicker with your story. Why don't you come
+to the point? Can't you see that you are driving me distracted with your
+shilly-shallying? What was the matter with our man that he caused such a
+shock to your feelings?"</p>
+
+<p>I paused for a moment, fixed my eyes hard upon him, and then said
+impressively, "<i>He has been murdered. His throat was cut from ear to
+ear.</i>"</p>
+
+<p>If the matter had not been so terribly serious I should have felt
+inclined to laugh at the expression upon the old gentleman's face. He
+was as white as a sheet, his eyes started half out of his head, and his
+mouth opened and shut like a fish fresh taken from his native element.
+It was nearly half a minute before he could find sufficient voice to
+answer me.</p>
+
+<p>"Murdered!" he cried. "My God, what do you mean, Collon? You must be mad
+to say such a thing. How could he have been murdered? And who could have
+done it?"</p>
+
+<p>"That he was murdered admits of no doubt," I answered. "There was the
+proof before me. What is more, for the reason that the victim was
+preparing to retire to rest, it is plain it must have been done just
+before the vessel struck."</p>
+
+<p>"But who did it, think you? Did you discover any clue that could tell us
+that? Not that it matters much, seeing that both murderer and victim are
+now dead."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be too sure of that. We know the victim is dead, but of the man
+who killed him I am not so sure."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>In answer I took from the locker beside me the small canvas bag I had
+worn strapped round my waist when I visited the vessel. I plunged my
+hand into it and drew out something that I pushed across the table to my
+friend. He picked it up with a cry of astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"A razor!" he cried. "But doesn't this look as if the man did away with
+himself?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think not," I answered. "Just look at the white handle and tell me if
+you know the name upon it."</p>
+
+<p>He took out his glasses, and, having placed them upon his nose,
+carefully examined the bone handle of the deadly weapon I had given him.
+This time he was even more astonished than before, and, if the truth
+must be told, more shocked.</p>
+
+<p>"Colway-Brown," he said to himself; "why, bless my soul, that's the name
+of one of the sole survivors from the wreck, the person to whom we
+telegraphed from Batavia, the clergyman who gave us the last news of the
+dead man. What does this terrible thing mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you ask what I think," I said very slowly and deliberately, "I think
+it looks like a put-up job. If you will remember, when you gave me the
+outline of the case, you told me that attempts had been made to obtain
+the pearl before your agent left Australia. It is plain, therefore, that
+it was known to be in his possession. An individual accordingly ships as
+a parson, calls himself Colway-Brown, books a berth in the next cabin to
+that occupied by your unfortunate friend. There is only one thing,
+however, which beats me, and that, I must confess, is a stumper."</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't understand what induced him to murder the man on that
+particular night of all others. It was such a stupid place to choose. He
+might have done it in Thursday Island and have got safely ashore, or he
+might have waited until they got to Batavia. To do it between two ports
+of call, and at such a time of night, seems to me like the work of a
+madman, and I can't make head or tail of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps when the vessel struck the scoundrel determined to obtain the
+pearl or perish in the attempt."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid that won't do either, for by his own confession we know the
+Rev. Colway-Brown was on deck at the time she struck. He could not,
+therefore, have made his way down the companion ladder, crossed the
+saloon, and passed along the alleyway to the cabin, have entered, cut
+your agent's throat, found and possessed himself of the pearl, have
+returned to the deck and saved his own life in the few seconds that
+elapsed between the moment of the vessel's striking and her foundering."</p>
+
+<p>"But if he did not do it then how do you account for it?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't account for it at all," I answered. "One thing, however, is
+self-evident. The suspicion is strongest against Colway-Brown, and, as
+your pearl is not among the dead man's effects or upon his body, it is
+only natural to suppose that it is in the custody of that reverend
+gentleman, who was so fortunate as to get ashore, not only with his
+life, but as he thought without being detected in his crime."</p>
+
+<p>"The rascal, the double-dyed rascal. But he needn't think he has beaten
+us. I'll run him to earth and he shall swing for this, or my name is not
+Leversidge."</p>
+
+<p>"But you have got to catch him first," I said, "and from the sample he
+has already given us of his prowess I incline to the belief that he's as
+slippery a customer as ever wore shoe-leather."</p>
+
+<p>"Nevertheless he shall hang, or I'll know the reason why."</p>
+
+<p>"I think I can tell you the reason why," I said quietly. "He won't hang,
+because when everything is said and done it would be about the most
+inadvisable step you could take, in your own interests and those of your
+firm, to bring him before a court of Justice. You're not particularly
+anxious, I suppose, that the Government should become aware of your
+visit to this wreck?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very naturally," he replied. "I have already told you that, I think."</p>
+
+<p>"In that case how do you propose to show that you became aware of the
+fact that your man <i>was</i> murdered? and if you will excuse my saying so,
+I cannot help thinking that you will find it an extremely difficult, if
+not quite impossible, task to prove that our friend Colway-Brown was the
+man who committed this terrible crime."</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all," he answered. "What about the razor? We know that it is his
+property, and if it was not with it that the murder was committed, how
+do you account for it being in his cabin?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am not attempting to account for it at all," I answered. "I am simply
+endeavouring to show you how futile it would be in all probability to
+try to bring the crime home to the man whom we suspect."</p>
+
+<p>"Then what do you propose doing?"</p>
+
+<p>I thought for a few moments before I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, as far as I can see, the best plan would be," I said, "to follow
+our reverend friend up, and when we have got him in a close corner, just
+to tax him with his crime and threaten to hand him over to Justice if he
+does not return to you the property he stole. If this is judiciously
+managed there should not be much difficulty in obtaining from him what
+you want."</p>
+
+<p>"But supposing he has parted with the pearl in the meantime, what then?
+A nice position we should find ourselves in."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think he is likely to dispose of it just yet," I answered. "You
+see he would not have an opportunity. He would be afraid to try it on in
+Thursday Island, where the pearl was known, or, for the matter of that,
+in Australia at all. What is more, he'll not be likely to hurry, having
+no notion that there is anybody on his track. He knows he is the only
+soul who escaped from the wreck, and he is certain to think his victim
+will remain undiscovered for all time. With a little luck you should be
+able to catch him before he can get away."</p>
+
+<p>"But you speak of <i>my</i> catching him. Surely you do not intend to let me
+go on alone? Remember I set such store by your assistance."</p>
+
+<p>"If you wish it I will, of course, go through the business with you," I
+answered. "But it looks like being a bigger affair than I at first
+contemplated, and my time is valuable."</p>
+
+<p>"It shall be made worth your while; you need have no fear on that score.
+And now, I suppose, it is no use our remaining here; what shall we do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Up anchor and be off to Thursday Island as fast as we can go," I said
+promptly.</p>
+
+<p>"And when we get there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Seize the Reverend Colway-Brown as soon as possible, if he's there, and
+frighten him into handing over the jewel he has so wrongfully taken
+possession of, by the best methods in our power."</p>
+
+<p>"And if he has left the island?"</p>
+
+<p>"Then we'll follow him like bloodhounds until we catch him, even if we
+have to go half round the world to do it."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"Then shake hands on it."</p>
+
+<p>We shook hands, and in less than a quarter of an hour the schooner was
+bowling along under a merry breeze towards Thursday Island, and its most
+important inhabitant, as far as we were concerned, the Reverend
+Colway-Brown.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+
+<p>The sun was in the act of disappearing behind the fringe of jungle which
+clothes the western hilltops of Thursday Island, when our schooner
+passed through Prince of Wales' Straits and dropped her anchor off the
+small township of Port Kennedy. Every one on board was on deck at the
+moment, and I can vouch for the fact that in two minds at least, those
+of Mr. Leversidge and myself, there was a feeling of intense excitement.
+Ever since we had sat together in the schooner's cabin, and I had told
+him of the terrible discovery I had made in his agent's berth on board
+the <i>Monarch of Macedonia</i>, we had been longing for the moment to arrive
+when we should reach the island, and either find ourselves face to face
+with the Reverend Colway-Brown or learn something which would eventually
+lead us to him. That he would be foolish enough, after what had
+happened, to remain any longer in the island than he could help, I did
+not for a moment suppose. He would naturally be anxious to put as many
+miles as possible between himself and the wreck, and also to reach some
+place where he could dispose of the jewel. There were half a hundred
+reasons why he should not attempt to do so in Thursday Island. In the
+first place, there was no one there who could give him the price he
+would be likely to ask, and in the second it must be remembered that it
+was in this very locality it had first made its appearance and attracted
+so much attention. To have shown it there, or to have allowed any one to
+have suspected its presence, would have been an act of the wildest
+folly, and it was plain that the Reverend Colway-Brown was no fool. For
+these reasons I felt convinced in my own mind that when we went ashore
+to make inquiries we should find our bird flown.</p>
+
+<p>Prior to sighting the island we had held a conference with the skipper
+in the deck-house, when Mr. Leversidge had discharged the amount due for
+the hire of the vessel, and at the same time had supplemented it with a
+handsome present to her officers and crew. As far as they were concerned
+I was sure the secret of our visit to the wreck would be in safe hands.</p>
+
+<p>This business matter having been settled to every one's satisfaction, as
+soon as the anchor was down we collected our baggage and descended into
+the boat which was waiting for us alongside. As we did so a steamer
+rounded the point and approached the anchorage. I recognised her and
+made a note of the fact in my own mind for future use, in case it should
+be necessary.</p>
+
+<p>It was not the first time I had been in Thursday Island by many a score,
+and I was well acquainted with the customs and peculiarities of the
+place and its inhabitants. I did not, therefore, waste my time making
+inquiries in any of the grog shanties beside the beach, but passed along
+the front until I reached the most gorgeous caravanserai of all, the
+Hotel of All Nations. It was here, I felt certain, if anywhere, that we
+should hear some tidings of the man we were after. Accordingly, I walked
+through the verandah, and, with Mr. Leversidge at my heels, entered the
+bar. The real business hour had not yet arrived, and for this reason,
+save for a Kanaka asleep in a corner, and a gorgeously upholstered youth
+polishing glasses behind the counter, the bar was deserted. It was plain
+that the latter had never seen me before, or, if he had, that he had
+forgotten both my name and the circumstances under which we had last
+met. I accordingly bade him call his employer to me.</p>
+
+<p>"Good gracious, can it be you, Mr. Collon?" exclaimed the latter as he
+entered the room and saw me standing before him; "I thought you were in
+China. Leastways, Bill Smith, of the <i>Coral Queen</i>, was only saying
+yesterday that the mate of the <i>Chang Tung</i> saw you at Foochow the last
+time he was up there, which was about five months ago."</p>
+
+<p>"Five months is a long time," I said, with a laugh. "It is possible for
+a good deal to happen in that time. Five months ago, if you had told any
+of the people who went down in the <i>Monarch of Macedonia</i> what was
+before them, they would not have believed you."</p>
+
+<p>"That was a bad thing, wasn't it?" he replied, shaking his head. "I
+suppose you know that the only persons who escaped were brought on here.
+As a matter of fact, I took them in."</p>
+
+<p>"I guessed as much," I answered. "I said to my friend here, as we came
+along, that I felt certain they would come to the Hotel of All Nations."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I took them in. The foremast hand, however, went up in the China
+boat the following day; but the Rev. Colway-Brown stayed longer."</p>
+
+<p>"The deuce he did!" As I said this I glanced at the bar-tender, who was
+listening with both his ears. I had no desire that he should hear what
+we had to say, so I drew his employer a little on one side, saying, "By
+the way, Birch, can we have five minutes with you alone in your own
+private room?"</p>
+
+<p>"And why not?" he replied. "Surely, if there's one man in this world
+who's we'come, it's you, Dick Collon. Come along with me, gentlemen, and
+let us have our talk together."</p>
+
+<p>A few moments later we were installed in the hospitable landlord's
+private office, from the windows of which a magnificent view could be
+obtained of the harbour, the islands beyond, and, on a very clear day,
+of Cape York, the most northerly coast line of Australia, peeping up
+miles away to the southward. Many and strange would be the stories that
+the room could tell were it possible for it to speak. In it men had sold
+their birthrights to all intents and purposes for a mess of pottage; in
+it others, who had hitherto been considered nobodies, had learnt the
+news that the tide of fortune had turned for them, and that for the
+future they were to take their places among the high-born of the earth.
+In that room men flying from justice in the South, who had believed
+themselves beyond the reach of pursuit and had come ashore while the
+mail-boat coaled, had been arrested. For me alone that room had at least
+a hundred different memories and associations. I had been familiar with
+it for many years, but this much I can safely say, never had I entered
+it on such a strange errand as that which was now engrossing all my
+attention.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what can I do for you?" asked Birch, when he had invited us to be
+seated and had closed the door behind him.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to ask a particular favour of you," I said. "I want you to tell
+me all you know about the Reverend Colway-Brown."</p>
+
+<p>"The man we were speaking of just now?" Birch asked, with an expression
+of surprise; "the only survivor from the wreck?"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly," I answered. "My friend here is very much interested in him,
+and is most anxious to find him."</p>
+
+<p>"In that case I am afraid you have come too late," Birch replied. "He
+left for Brisbane last week in the <i>Oodnadatta</i>. He wanted to get back
+to Sydney, he said, as soon as possible. We took up a collection for
+him, and the steamship company granted him a free passage South. I
+reckon the poor chap wanted it, for he'd lost everything he possessed in
+the world, and came out of that wreck just as near stone broke as a man
+could well be."</p>
+
+<p>"Feeling pretty miserable, too, I don't doubt," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"Miserable is no word for it," he answered; "you never saw such a
+doleful chap, nor I'll be bound one half so frightened, in your life.
+All the time he was in this house he was just ready to jump away from
+his own shadow at a moment's notice. As nervous and timid as a baby.
+Couldn't bear to be left by himself, and yet as unsociable as could be
+when you were with him. Small wonder, say I, when you come to think of
+what he had been through. It's a mystery to me how he came out of it
+alive."</p>
+
+<p>"Did he tell you much about it while he was here?" inquired Leversidge.
+"I suppose he gave you his experiences in detail?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's just the funny part of it," Birch replied. "Do what you would
+you could not get that poor chap to talk about 'that terrible night,' as
+he called it. On any other subject he could be interesting enough when
+he liked, but directly you began to question him about the wreck or
+anything connected with the vessel, he would put his hands up to his
+eyes and shudder as if he saw the whole thing happening over again. For
+my own part I don't think he'll ever be able to forget it. It will be a
+nightmare to him as long as he lives."</p>
+
+<p>"So I should imagine," said Leversidge, with such unusual emphasis that
+our host, who was in the act of pouring us out some refreshment, paused
+and looked at him in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>I hastened to continue the conversation. "Poor chap!" I said; "from all
+accounts he must have stood pretty close to death that night. Now what
+we are trying to do is to find him. You say he went South last week in
+the <i>Oodnadatta</i>, intending to bring up in Sydney. You don't happen to
+know what his address is there, do you? It is of the utmost importance
+to us that we should find him with as little delay as possible."</p>
+
+<p>Birch thought for a few moments, and then shook his head. "I'm afraid I
+can tell you nothing that would help you," he said. "All the fellow
+wanted from morning till night was to get South as fast as possible. His
+wife was in Sydney, he said, and he was afraid she would be anxious
+until she saw him in the flesh again. That was his one cry&mdash;get
+South&mdash;get South."</p>
+
+<p>"And he never told you whether he lived in Sydney or out in the Bush?"</p>
+
+<p>"He never told us where he lived at all. On that point he was as silent
+as an oyster."</p>
+
+<p>"But if he's a parson, it should not be a very difficult matter to find
+out where his charge is," said Mr. Leversidge; "particularly now that
+there's been all this light thrown on his name. Of course you know of
+what persuasion he was a minister?"</p>
+
+<p>Here to our amazement Birch smacked his knee and burst into a roar of
+laughter. This was more than I could stand. "Confound you," I said,
+"what on earth are you laughing at?"</p>
+
+<p>"At the idea of your asking me what persuasion he was a minister of.
+It's as good as a play."</p>
+
+<p>"How so? I don't see anything funny in it."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you? Well, then, I do," returned Birch. "In the first place, my
+old friend Collon, and you, Mr. Leversidge, it gives you both away
+pretty thoroughly. You told me just now that you knew the man and wanted
+to help him. All I can say is, that if you do you know precious little
+about him. Why, gentlemen, I tell you that that parson was as tough a
+bird as any I've met. He may or may not be a labourer in the vineyard,
+but all I <i>can</i> say is that, if he <i>is</i>, he's got the finest command of
+bad language for a minister that ever I've heard, and I can do a bit
+that way myself. The day after he landed here, one of my Kanaka boys
+spilt some hot soup on his hand at table, and he rounded on him and gave
+him the most infernal cursing ever I heard in all my born days. I tell
+you it made the whole table sit up like one man. If he talks to his
+congregation like that, it's no wonder they sent him home for a sea
+voyage."</p>
+
+<p>Leversidge and I looked at each other, you may be sure, on hearing this.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if you can tell us nothing more, I'm afraid it's no use our
+waiting on in the island. There's a mail-boat at anchor now. I think the
+best thing we can do, Mr. Leversidge, would be to board her and set off
+for Brisbane, <i>en route</i> to Sydney, as quickly as we can go."</p>
+
+<p>"I agree with you," answered my companion. "Good-day, Mr. Birch, and
+thank you for your courtesy."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't mention that, I beg, sir," returned the affable Birch. "I only
+wish I could do more to help you in your search for your friend."</p>
+
+<p>I shook hands with him in my turn, and was following Leversidge towards
+the verandah steps, when Birch called me back. Sinking his voice he
+said, "What is it, Dick, my lad? What's your little game? Why do you
+want this swearing parson so badly?"</p>
+
+<p>"A matter of business," I answered; "a mere matter of business."</p>
+
+<p>Birch smiled knowingly, and winked at me. "A Hatton Garden bit of
+business, I suppose," he said. "You surely don't think I failed to
+recognise your friend, did you? Now, shall I do you a good turn?"</p>
+
+<p>"By all means," I replied. "I'd do you one if I could."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, take this on board with you, and think it over at your
+leisure. The day the parson left us he came to me alone in my room
+yonder and offered me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Offered you what?" I said, forgetting that I might be overheard.</p>
+
+<p>"One of the finest black pearls I ever saw or heard of," he answered.
+"He wanted me to buy it, but I refused, so he had to take it away with
+him to his poor wife in Sydney. There, what do you think of that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, John," I said, warmly shaking him by the hand. "You've told
+me just what I wanted to know. Good-bye."</p>
+
+<p>On the way down the hill I informed Leversidge of what I had been told.
+He stopped in the dust and looked at me. "Good," he said, wagging his
+head sagaciously. "That removes all doubt as to whether he was the man
+who stole the pearls."</p>
+
+<p>"And it also proves without a shadow of a doubt that he was the demon
+who cut your agent's throat. My Reverend Colway-Brown, there is a day of
+retribution saving up for you, or I'm very much mistaken."</p>
+
+<p>"But what do you think of it all?"</p>
+
+<p>"What do I think? Why, I think his reverence must have been a little off
+his head when he offered Birch that pearl. It's by slips like that that
+they give themselves away. Now here's the boat; let's board her and
+continue the chase."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+
+<p>Within an hour and a half of our setting foot ashore in Thursday Island
+from the schooner, we were on board the mail-boat <i>en route</i> for
+Brisbane and the South. It was a glorious evening, and the beauty of the
+scenery as one approaches and enters the famous Albany Pass is, I am
+prepared to say, second to none in the maritime world. I am afraid,
+however, on this particular occasion our thoughts were too much occupied
+with the chase we were engaged in, and the news we had so lately
+received, for us to be able to give very much attention to anything
+else. Our quarry had had a good week's start of us, and it was just
+possible in that time he might have found an opportunity of giving us
+the slip altogether. But he was not going to do so if I could help it.
+For some reason or another, apart from the crime he had committed, I had
+conceived a violent hatred of the man, and I was fully determined not to
+let him slip through my fingers and escape to enjoy the fruits of his
+villainy if it could be prevented.</p>
+
+<p>On reaching Cooktown, our first port of call, and a starting-point of
+much of the island trade, I informed Mr. Leversidge that it was my
+intention to go ashore in order to make quite certain that he had not
+left his vessel there. The old gentleman was not feeling very well that
+day, and it was with the utmost reluctance that he confessed his
+inability to accompany me.</p>
+
+<p>"But my absence is of no consequence," he was kind enough to say. "I
+have the most implicit confidence in you, and I am sure you will make
+all the necessary inquiries quite as well without me. I have only one
+request to make, however, and that is, that you come on board again as
+soon as possible, in order to let me know if you have discovered
+anything that is likely to be of use to us. You can imagine how
+impatient I shall be to hear your news."</p>
+
+<p>"I won't be an instant longer than I can help," I answered. "As soon as
+I have made the necessary inquiries, I'll return."</p>
+
+<p>Then bidding him good-bye, I made my way ashore and up the one long and
+dusty street which constitutes the business portion of Cooktown. The
+first thing to be done was to visit the office of the steamship
+company's agent to endeavour to find out whether they could tell me
+anything concerning the Reverend Colway-Brown. This, it appeared, the
+agent was quite unable to do. He had seen the gentleman in question on
+board the vessel, he told me, but beyond having congratulated him on his
+marvellous escape, he had no further conversation with him. Somewhat
+disappointed at the meagreness of his information, I left him, and went
+on up the street, intending to make inquiries at an hotel kept by an old
+diving acquaintance, who, I felt sure, would have made it his business
+to see the man in question had he come ashore.</p>
+
+<p>Reaching the house, I entered it, to find my old mate sitting behind the
+bar, reading a sporting article from the <i>Australasian</i> to a man who was
+lounging on a bench near the door smoking a cigar.</p>
+
+<p>On seeing me, he sprang to his feet, and, seizing my hand, shook it
+until I began to think he was never going to let it go again.</p>
+
+<p>"Dick Collon, by all that's glorious!" he cried. "Well, who'd have
+thought of seeing you down here again! I was told you had given up these
+waters altogether. What brings you to Cooktown?"</p>
+
+<p>"Can't you see?" I answered. "Don't I look as if I needed a change of
+air?"</p>
+
+<p>"Change of air be hanged!" he replied, with a laugh. "You never needed
+such a thing in your life. Is there any one with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only an old chap from England," I said; "I am showing him the beauties
+of Australia."</p>
+
+<p>"What's his name?"</p>
+
+<p>"Leversidge," I replied. "He's a little under the weather to-day, or I'd
+have brought him along with me. He's out here looking for a man&mdash;the
+chap, in fact, who escaped from the <i>Monarch of Macedonia</i>, the Reverend
+Colway-Brown."</p>
+
+<p>"The deuce he is! And can't he find him?"</p>
+
+<p>"He hasn't done so yet. It was to discover if you could tell us whether
+he came ashore here that brought me up to see you."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry I can't help you, old man; but what does he want to see him
+about? That's, of course, if it isn't private business."</p>
+
+<p>"He wants to find out what the parson can tell him about a friend who
+went down in the boat from which he was so lucky as to escape&mdash;that's
+all."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'm only sorry I can't help you," he said, but with a little
+hesitation that I did not fail to notice. "And now tell me more about
+yourself. Remember, it's ages since last we met."</p>
+
+<p>We chatted for a while together about old days. Then the man who had
+been smoking near the door joined us in a drink, and after a little more
+talk about horse-racing and things in general I said I must be getting
+back to my boat. On hearing that I intended walking towards the harbour,
+the bookmaker-looking party, who had thrust himself upon us, decided to
+accompany me, and while we were upon the way was so good as to offer to
+show me, for a consideration, a number of excellent means of making a
+fortune upon the Australian turf. To his mortification, however, we
+parted, without my deciding to avail myself of his assistance.</p>
+
+<p>Upon my informing Mr. Leversidge, when I reached his cabin, of the
+success I had met with, we unitedly came to the conclusion that our man
+had not left the boat in Cooktown, as we had thought possible, but must
+have continued his voyage in her towards a more southern port. On
+hearing, however, that our departure would be delayed for at least a
+couple of hours, I determined to go ashore again for another stroll.
+Eventually I found myself once more in my old mate's house. He received
+me with great hilarity, and it soon became evident that during my
+absence he had been sampling his own wares to considerable purpose. The
+bar was crowded, and when I entered it was plain that he had been
+retailing some good jest, for the laughter that followed was long and
+uproarious.</p>
+
+<p>"Come in, old lad," he cried on seeing me. "You're the very man we want,
+for we were just talking of you. The boys here want to shake you by the
+hand."</p>
+
+<p>Wondering what the joke could be, and thinking it behoved me to find
+out, I complied with his request.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know when I've laughed so much," began my friend, as he poured
+me out some whisky. "And I'll bet all I'm worth, you never as much as
+suspected, did you now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never suspected what?" I asked, rather sharply, finding my temper
+rising at the grins I saw upon the faces round me. "Out with it, old
+man; let me know what the joke is."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it's a good one, you may be sure of that," he answered. "There
+you were hob-nobbing together as thick as thieves. 'Ptarmigan's the
+horse,' says he. 'I'm not so sure,' say you. 'I'll back him against your
+choice for a fiver,' says he. But you weren't on. And all the time you
+never suspected for an instant that he was neither more nor less than
+the very man you were inquiring about this afternoon, the chap who
+escaped from the <i>Monarch of Macedonia</i> a few weeks back."</p>
+
+<p>"What?" I cried, scarcely able to believe that I heard aright. "Do you
+mean to tell me that that seedy old beggar who talked so much about
+horse-racing and walked with me to the harbour side was the Reverend
+Colway-Brown, the man I asked you about?"</p>
+
+<p>"The very man," he answered, and as he did so he brought his hand down
+with a smack upon my shoulder. "I can tell you, Dick, I nearly burst my
+sides with laughing when I saw you two jabbering away together."</p>
+
+<p>Seeing how I had been taken in, the crowd in the bar thought fit to
+laugh. But when I ran my eye over them they changed their minds and
+looked another way. I was so angry, I could have thrashed Donovan for
+the trick he had played me. It didn't take him long, however, to see I
+was annoyed.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, come, Dick, old man," he said, "you mustn't be angry with me. I
+couldn't do anything else. He spent a week in my house here, you see,
+and was uncommon free with his money. What's more, when he came to me,
+he told me he didn't want it to be known that he was the man who
+escaped, as everybody stared at him so. For this reason he changed his
+name, and I promised I'd not give him away to anybody, so I couldn't,
+even to you."</p>
+
+<p>"It's plain I've been had, and badly too," I said angrily. "You've
+spoiled a rare good bit of business for me, and I don't take it kindly
+of you, Jim. Where is the fellow now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Aboard the schooner <i>Friendship</i>," he answered, "lying alongside your
+own boat. He's left my house now, so I don't mind telling you that. But
+you will have to look sharp if you want to catch him; he sails
+to-night."</p>
+
+<p>Without another word I left the place and ran down the street as hard as
+I could go. I remembered having seen the schooner alongside us when I
+had left the mail-boat, but when I got there now she was gone. "Where's
+the schooner that was lying here?" I inquired of some loafers I
+discovered hanging about the wharf.</p>
+
+<p>"The <i>Friendship</i>, do you mean?" asked one of the men. "Why, there she
+is, out yonder!"</p>
+
+<p>He pointed to a white sail that was just disappearing round the opposite
+headland. On seeing that, I clenched my fist with rage, and bestowed the
+reverse of a blessing upon Jim Donovan. But for his putting me off the
+scent I might by this time have brought the chase to a successful issue.
+However, the man was safely out of my clutches now, and no amount of
+wishing would bring him back again. I dreaded, however, the task of
+telling old Leversidge how easily I had been taken in.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know where the schooner is bound for?" I inquired of the man
+beside me, who had all this time been watching my face.</p>
+
+<p>"For the Gilberts first, and then on to Honolulu," he answered.</p>
+
+<p>I thanked him and then made my way back to the steamer to acquaint my
+employer with my failure. He heard my tale out to the end, and though I
+could see he was bitterly disappointed, did not once upbraid me for my
+stupidity.</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense, my dear fellow!" he said, in answer to my expression of
+regret. "You could not help it. You had never seen this Colway-Brown
+before, so how could you be expected to recognise him, particularly when
+he took such pains to deceive you? But what do you think is the best
+thing for us to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"We must get down to Sydney with all speed, and catch a steamer there
+for Honolulu. With decent luck we should arrive at the island first. In
+the meantime I'm going to hunt up the owners of the <i>Friendship</i>, and
+get permission to board their schooner when she arrives. They know me,
+and I think will grant it."</p>
+
+<p>This I did, and when I had explained my reason, in confidence, to the
+head of the firm, my request was immediately granted. Armed with a
+letter to their captain, I returned to the mail-boat, and in less than
+half an hour we were continuing our voyage to the South. Arriving at
+Brisbane, we caught the mail train to Sydney, and within five hours of
+our arrival in the capital of New South Wales were on board the steamer
+<i>Pride of the Pacific</i>, bound for Honolulu <i>viā</i> Fiji. It was, indeed, a
+race against time, and the Reverend Colway-Brown, murderer and thief,
+was the prize.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+
+<p>Who that has ever seen it will forget daybreak on a fine morning in
+Honolulu Harbour? Surely no one. The background of tree-clad island, so
+dark yet so suggestive of tropical luxuriance; the sky overhead so full
+of rainbow hues, and the sea so calm and yet possessed of all the
+colours of the inside of a pearl shell. When one sees it one is forced
+to the conclusion that there could never be another like it. It is
+beautiful beyond conception.</p>
+
+<p>The sun had not yet made his appearance above the horizon when Mr.
+Leversidge and I left the hotel at which we had been residing since our
+arrival in the island, and made our way down to the small steamer we had
+chartered, and which had been ordered to be ready to put to sea with us
+at a moment's notice. Information had been brought to us late the night
+before that the schooner, whose coming we had been so eagerly awaiting,
+had been sighted further down the coast, and, in consequence, we were
+anxious to put off to her as soon as might be.</p>
+
+<p>"The chase is growing exciting," said Mr. Leversidge, as we crossed the
+gangway and bade the skipper "Good-morning!" "It is to be hoped the
+reverend gentleman has not left his vessel in the Gilberts and made off
+in another direction. In that case we shall in all probability have lost
+sight of him for good and all."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not afraid of that," I answered. "In the first place he would not
+be able to get enough for his booty there to make it worth his while to
+sell, and in the second I have a sort of conviction that he is making
+for America. Such a pearl as he has with him would command a much better
+figure in San Francisco than it would be likely to do either here or in
+the Gilberts, and from what I have seen of the man I should say he was
+quite smart enough to be aware of that fact."</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad to hear you say so," returned Mr. Leversidge. "Nevertheless,
+I shall not feel easy in my mind until I have it in my possession once
+more. I shall not forget the chase this man has given us as long as I
+live."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't suppose you will," I said. "It has been exciting enough in all
+conscience. I only hope the finish may be satisfactory."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope it may," he answered quietly. And just then I heard the skipper
+whistle the engine-room, and presently we cast off our moorings and got
+under weigh. Throwing a trail of black smoke behind us we left the
+harbour and passed out to sea, the mate at the wheel, the skipper pacing
+the bridge, and Leversidge and I straining our eyes in search of the
+vessel for which we were so anxiously waiting. It was upwards of an
+hour, however, before we saw her white sails rising above the sea line
+ahead of us. Half an hour later only five miles or so separated us, and
+every moment was bringing us closer to each other. When we had come so
+near that we could even distinguish the people standing on her decks, I
+approached our commander.</p>
+
+<p>"Now then, captain," I said, "the sooner you lay us on board that boat
+the better we shall be pleased. I've a letter to deliver to the skipper
+from his owners, and it must be in his possession with as little delay
+as possible."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll do my best," he answered, and immediately put his helm over.</p>
+
+<p>The schooner's captain, seeing that we wished to speak him, hove his
+vessel to, when our skipper sang out that he would send a boat. One was
+soon alongside, and into her, when her crew had taken their places at
+the oars, Mr. Leversidge and I bundled. Ten minutes later we had been
+hauled aboard the schooner, and I was presenting the captain with the
+letter I had received from his owners.</p>
+
+<p>He read it carefully, and having done so turned to me: "This is a pretty
+serious matter, Mr.&mdash;&mdash;,"&mdash;here he paused and consulted the letter
+again&mdash;"Mr. Collon. But I don't see how I'm to gainsay you. My owners
+say I'm to permit you to act as you think best with regard to my
+passenger, so I suppose you must have your way. Still, I don't feel easy
+in my mind."</p>
+
+<p>"You need not worry yourself, captain," I said. "Whatever happens, you
+may be sure your owners will not hold you responsible. Is the man we
+want on deck, or must we look for him below?"</p>
+
+<p>"He's not out of his bunk yet, I believe," replied the skipper; "but if
+you will follow me below I'll soon ascertain."</p>
+
+<p>We accompanied him, as directed, along the deck and down the companion
+ladder. Entering the small cuddy he informed Mr. McGuire that two
+gentlemen desired to speak to him, and then shrugged his shoulders, and
+made his way up on deck again. He could barely have reached it before a
+man, clad in a suit of filthy pyjamas, and with his hair standing nearly
+on end, and his eyes almost out of his head, emerged from the cabin
+opposite which we were sitting and confronted us. I saw him start back
+against the bulwarks and throw up his hands as if to shut out the memory
+of our faces, and almost at the same moment I heard my companion utter a
+little cry, followed by the words, "My God, what's this?" Then McGuire,
+or Colway-Brown, by which name we knew him better, clutched at the
+panelling, missed it, and gradually slid down until he fell in a heap
+upon the deck. The recognition had been too much for him, and he had
+fainted.</p>
+
+<p>When he recovered his senses, we lifted him up and placed him on a
+locker beside the table. A more miserable figure could scarcely have
+been found in all the Southern Seas. Again and again he looked at
+Leversidge, and every time he looked he groaned. I was more puzzled than
+I could express. The old gentleman's face alone was worth walking a long
+way to see. At last he got his breath, and was able to use his voice.</p>
+
+<p>"You miserable, cheating hound!" he cried, springing to his feet and
+speaking with a vehemence that astonished me quite as much as the scene
+which occasioned it. "Do you mean to tell me that it is you who have
+been playing this trick upon us? Am I to understand that you are the dog
+who has led us this dance? By heavens, you shall pay for it as severely
+as ever man paid yet!"</p>
+
+<p>Here he paused for breath, and I seized the opportunity to ask for an
+explanation.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you understand?" he cried, wheeling round to me, his eyes
+flaming, and his usually florid countenance now white with rage. "This
+miserable wretch is no more the Reverend Colway-Brown than I am."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed!" I said, with my mouth wide open with surprise. "Then who is
+he?"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>My own agent&mdash;the man we trusted. The man who was to have brought the
+pearl to England!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"This is really very pretty," I said, as soon as I had recovered from my
+astonishment. "And, what's more, it explains a good many things that I
+could not understand. No wonder he took fright when I mentioned your
+name at Donovan's Hotel in Cooktown. Had it not been for that bilious
+attack of yours you would have been with me, and, in that case, you
+would have recognised him, and we should have been spared this voyage
+across the Pacific. But still there is one matter that requires
+consideration." Here I turned to the wretched fellow before us. "If the
+Reverend Colway-Brown did not murder the agent, it is plain that the
+agent must have murdered the Reverend Colway-Brown. We gave the parson
+the credit of that business. It appears, however, that we were
+mistaken."</p>
+
+<p>By this time the wretched man's agony was almost painful to witness. Try
+how he would he could not recover his self-possession. Prior to that
+moment he had imagined himself accused of mere stealing, while the
+secret of the more serious charge he believed to be still safely locked
+up in the mail-boat cabin at the bottom of the sea. It came upon him,
+therefore, as a greater shock to find his crime discovered, and by the
+very man of all others of whom he had the greatest reason to be afraid.
+Small wonder that he felt ill at ease. In my own heart I'm afraid I
+pitied him, but not when I thought of the sinking mail-boat and the wild
+struggle in cabin 33.</p>
+
+<p>"What have you to say for yourself?" asked Leversidge, turning to the
+other again. "Are you aware that we have only to convey you ashore in
+order to give you into custody as the murderer of Colway-Brown?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am aware of that," cried the wretched man; "but you do not know
+everything. You do not know what I had to put up with. You can have no
+idea of the temptations that were placed in my way. He was one of the
+gang that dogged my steps first from Melbourne to Sydney, and then on to
+Brisbane. I was surrounded, morning, noon, and night, by thieves and
+murderers. I scarcely dared close my eyes for fear I should never open
+them again, or if I did that I should find my precious charge gone. This
+man you call Colway-Brown was the head of the gang, but it was not until
+we had reached Thursday Island that I found him out. Then he began to
+hang round me on deck and in my cabin, talking always of pearls and
+precious stones, and trying to induce me to be friendly with him. On the
+night of the wreck he came into my berth, just as I was thinking of
+retiring to rest. One glance showed me that he was under the influence
+of liquor, and I also noticed that he carried one hand in his pocket in
+a suspicious sort of fashion. Presently he came up alongside me as I
+stood beside my washstand basin, and before I knew what he was about had
+whipped a razor from his pocket and was trying for my throat. I was too
+startled by the suddenness of it all to cry out, but not sufficiently so
+as to be unable to defend myself. I wrestled with him with the strength
+of despair, and at last was fortunate enough to get the mastery and to
+throw him upon the deck. Then the devil, who arranges all these things
+for his own benefit, you may be sure, got hold of me, and for a few
+moments I was not conscious of what I did. I remember looking down at
+him as he lay below me on the deck, and I also remember seizing the
+razor, which had fallen from his hand, and giving myself a nasty cut in
+so doing. After that I am not sure of my actions; but one thing is very
+certain, when I rose to my feet his throat was cut from ear to ear. You,
+Mr. Leversidge, who are so angry with me now, may not believe me when I
+say so, but I tell you that I fell back against my berth trying to find
+the pluck to kill myself when I thought of what I had done. But I could
+not do it. I leaned against my bunk and hid my face in my blood-stained
+hands, sobbing as if my heart would break. Then I looked down at the
+man, and seeing that he was quite dead, wondered how I could best manage
+to save my neck from the fatal noose.</p>
+
+<p>"While I was trying to collect my thoughts, and wondering what I should
+do, the vessel quivered from stem to stern; then I heard a noise on
+deck, a shouting and trampling of feet. I immediately left my cabin and
+ran up the companion ladder as fast as I could go, only to find the
+great ship sinking. What happened during the next few minutes I cannot
+say; indeed, I do not remember anything of what happened until I found
+myself floating on the surface of the water, wondering how long I should
+remain alive. The rest you know. I was saved, with one other man, and,
+what was more, I had the pearl with me. It is my belief it is accursed.
+It was not until I was out of the water, and found that there were only
+two of us saved, that the idea occurred to me to impersonate the dead
+man, and thus keep the jewel for myself. I fought with it, God knows how
+hard, but it was too strong for me, and at last I gave in. The chances,
+I argued, were all in my favour. So far as I knew, with the exception of
+the foremast hand, who did not know one passenger from another, I was
+the only survivor. Your agent was supposed to be drowned. If, therefore,
+I called myself Colway-Brown, I might escape detection.</p>
+
+<p>"When I reached Thursday Island, intending to strike for America, where
+I thought I should have a better opportunity of selling my stolen
+property without being detected, I called myself by the name of the dead
+man. Then came your telegram asking for information concerning your
+agent. I answered it as I thought the spurious parson would have done,
+and told myself I should be troubled by you no more. The week following
+I left for the South, but every one was so curious to see me that I
+abandoned that idea and left the vessel at Cooktown, intending to change
+into this boat, and so make my way <i>viā</i> Honolulu to the States. But it
+was not to be. You, sir, found me at Jim Donovan's Hotel, and it was
+only by a stroke of good fortune that I managed to give you the slip.
+Now you, Mr. Leversidge, have caught me, and it remains for you to say
+what you will do."</p>
+
+<p>I looked at Leversidge, who looked at me. The position was an awkward
+one. There could be no doubt that the man's story was a true one; and if
+so, for a part of it, at least, he deserved our pity.</p>
+
+<p>It was Mr. Leversidge who solved the difficulty by inquiring what had
+become of the pearl. In answer the man fumbled in the breast-pocket of
+his coat, and presently drew out a small flat box, which he passed
+across the table.</p>
+
+<p>"It is there, the cursed thing!" he said bitterly. "Would to God I had
+never seen it! It has wrought my ruin, body and soul."</p>
+
+<p>With feverish earnestness Mr. Leversidge opened the box, and took from
+the cotton wool, with which it was filled, the finest black pearl I had
+ever set eyes on in the whole course of my experience. Seeing it, I
+could easily understand the temptation it had given rise to in the
+other's heart. Mr. Leversidge, however, replaced it in its nest, and
+stowed the box away in his pocket. Then he turned to the wretched man
+before us.</p>
+
+<p>"You know in your own heart," he said, "whether the story you have told
+us regarding that man's death be true or not. In either case you may be
+sure of one thing, and that is, that your wretched secret is in safe
+keeping. May God forgive you, and permit you to work out your own
+salvation; we shall not punish you further. The rest is a matter for
+your own conscience."</p>
+
+<p>Ten minutes later we were back on our own steamer, returning to Honolulu
+as fast as she could carry us, little dreaming what awaited us there.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+
+<p>It was well-nigh mid-day before we reached our hotel; but as soon as we
+did so Mr. Leversidge placed the small box containing the pearl in a
+safe place. Having had such difficulty in finding it, he had no desire
+to run the risk of losing it again. This done, we devoted half an hour
+to business, and after that I went down to the agent's office to make
+inquiries about the mail-boat for Japan, which was due to arrive from
+San Francisco the following day. The remainder of the afternoon was
+occupied with calls upon old friends, and it was not until well after
+nightfall that I returned to our hotel. On arriving there, to my
+surprise, I found Mr. Leversidge in my bedroom in a state of wildest
+excitement. He was standing in the middle of the room holding the small
+wooden box containing the pearl in his hand. I inquired what was the
+matter.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank Heaven you have returned," he cried. "Collon, I have made a
+terrible discovery. You will scarcely believe, but we've been swindled
+again, and in the most barefaced manner possible, by that seemingly
+repentant hound on board the steamer."</p>
+
+<p>"What on earth do you mean?" I inquired, scarcely able to credit what he
+said. "How have we been swindled?"</p>
+
+<p>In answer to my question he lifted the lid of the box and tipped its
+contents into the palm of his hand, which he held towards me in a
+theatrical fashion.</p>
+
+<p>"We've been horribly taken in," he said. "This is not the pearl my firm
+purchased. It is a dummy&mdash;a fake, a make-believe. That clever rascal
+must have manufactured it himself for this express purpose, and all his
+protestations were as false as the pearl itself."</p>
+
+<p>"What?" I cried. "I can't believe it. Let me look at the thing."</p>
+
+<p>Taking it from him I examined it carefully. What he said was true. It
+was not genuine. At the same time, however, I am prepared to assert that
+it was the finest forgery of its kind I have ever come across in a
+fairly extensive experience. Until that moment, in my own heart, I had
+been despising the spurious Colway-Brown for a mere chicken-hearted cur,
+who, as soon as he was collared, wept and whined, and declared himself
+over-tempted and deeply repentant. Now, however, I was beginning to have
+a greater respect for him than I had yet felt, and for the simple and
+sufficient reason that in a trial of skill he had proved one too many
+for us.</p>
+
+<p>"What can we do?" asked Mr. Leversidge. "By this time he may have
+changed to another boat, and have left the Island. In that case we shall
+have to commence our chase over again."</p>
+
+<p>I was about to reply, when one of the native servants of the hotel
+entered the room and handed Mr. Leversidge a note, which he opened.
+Having read it he passed it on to me.</p>
+
+<p>"Good heavens! I can scarcely believe it," I heard him say softly to
+himself. "Read that, Mr. Collon."</p>
+
+<p>The note was from the captain of the schooner <i>Friendship</i>, and ran as
+follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"To J. Leversidge, Esq.,</p>
+
+<p>"Pacific Hotel, Honolulu.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Sir,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I regret exceedingly having to inform you that the man whom
+you visited on board my vessel this morning was, half an hour
+ago, shot by a person who had evidently been awaiting his
+arrival in this port. The murderer is in safe custody. As I
+understand from him that you were, or had been until lately,
+his employer, I thought it my duty to at once communicate with
+you.</p>
+
+<p>"I am, Sir,</p>
+
+<p>"Yours very obediently,</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">J. Bolsover</span>."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>"This is retribution with a vengeance," I said. "But who can the
+murderer be?"</p>
+
+<p>"One of the gang who was after the pearl in Australia, I'll be bound,"
+returned Mr. Leversidge. Then the expression on his face suddenly
+changed, and he seized me by the arm. "For hundreds of reasons he would
+be certain to carry the pearl about his person. Can the murderer have
+stolen it, think you?"</p>
+
+<p>"We will very soon ascertain," I answered, springing from the chair into
+which I had just thrown myself. "Come, Mr. Leversidge, we'll be off to
+the boat at once. This is no time for half measures."</p>
+
+<p>So saying, we seized our hats and left the hotel in search of the
+schooner <i>Friendship</i>. When we got on board we found an unusual
+stillness reigning. The skipper greeted us at the entrance of the
+companion ladder and shook us by the hand. "This is a bad business,
+gentlemen," he said, "and I regret that it should have happened aboard
+my boat."</p>
+
+<p>"A very bad business, as you say," Mr. Leversidge replied. "How long ago
+did it happen?"</p>
+
+<p>"About an hour and a half," replied the other. "It was getting dark,
+when a man came aboard and asked to see your friend. He was standing
+just where we are now, and after they had said a few words they walked
+aft together. They must have started quarrelling at once, for as I went
+down the ladder to the cuddy I heard some high words pass between them,
+then a shot was fired, and your friend fell upon the deck. I rushed on
+deck and got there just in time to seize the murderer as he was going
+over the side. We clapped him in irons straight away, and as soon as we
+had done so, set ashore for the police."</p>
+
+<p>"And the murdered man?"</p>
+
+<p>"We carried him below, but he expired before we got him there. He lies
+now in his cabin. The police are coming to take him off in an hour's
+time. Perhaps you would like to see him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," said Mr. Leversidge, and the captain led the way to the
+berth below, where he left us alone with the dead man.</p>
+
+<p>"It's now, or never," I said. "If we want the pearl, we've got to find
+it before the police come off to take possession of the body, otherwise
+how are you going to establish your rights to it."</p>
+
+<p>"But where do you intend looking for it?" Mr. Leversidge inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going to begin by searching the body," I answered, "and then if we
+are permitted sufficient time, I shall take a look at his luggage. You
+had better guard the door."</p>
+
+<p>As I spoke I took from my pocket a small, but exceedingly sharp pair of
+folding scissors, which I make a point of always carrying about with me.
+Then drawing back the blanket with which the body was covered, I ran my
+practised fingers over it. It is wonderful what a number of
+hiding-places the human frame contains. But it is the business of my
+life to know them all, and on this particular occasion it was not long
+before I discovered that high up under his right arm his coat had been
+carefully padded. To cut the lining was the work of a few seconds, and
+the results justified my expectations. "Here is your pearl, Mr.
+Leversidge," I said, holding it up, and a moment later I handed him the
+jewel in question. "Now let us get on deck as soon as possible. You had
+better leave your address, however, with the captain, in order that the
+police may know where to find you should your presence be required at
+the inquest."</p>
+
+<p>He followed my advice, and then we descended to our boat alongside. Next
+morning, to obviate any chance of future inconvenience, we made it our
+business to attend at the police office, where we stated what we knew of
+the murdered man. Three hours later I bade Mr. Leversidge farewell on
+the hurricane deck of the American mail-boat.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye, Mr. Collon," he said. "It seems strange to be parting like
+this after all we have gone through together. I thank you from the
+bottom of my heart for your co-operation. There is only one question I
+wish to ask you before you go."</p>
+
+<p>"And what is that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Was I right, or was I wrong, when I told you in Ceylon that I thought
+this case would prove to be one of the most extraordinary even in your
+varied repertoire?"</p>
+
+<p>"You were quite right," I answered. "I have never known another like it.
+Good-bye."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye, and may you always be equally successful."</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Three months later, when I was just bringing to a conclusion a delicate
+bit of business in Cochin China, the incoming mail-boat brought me a
+small packet, which, when I had opened it, I discovered contained a
+valuable diamond ring, with a card bearing this inscription:&mdash;"To
+Christopher Collon, in recognition of a signal service rendered to
+Wilson, Burke &amp; Leversidge, of Hatton Garden."</p>
+
+<p>The great black pearl which was the cause of all that has been told in
+this story is now amongst the most valued jewels of an Empress. How
+little, when it lies black as night upon her snow-white bosom, does she
+think what it cost in human life, or of the part it played in the drama
+to which I now invariably refer as "A CRIME OF THE UNDER-SEAS."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="The_Phantom_Stockman" id="The_Phantom_Stockman"></a>The Phantom Stockman</h2>
+
+
+<p>"A remarkably charming situation, and as pretty a homestead as any I
+have seen in the Bush," I said. "You have certainly worked wonders
+during the short time you have been in possession."</p>
+
+<p>It was a moonlight night, and Jim Spicer and I were sitting in the
+verandah of Warradoona Station in Western New South Wales. Ten o'clock
+had struck nearly half an hour before, and, at a quarter past, Mrs.
+Spicer had bidden us "Good-night" and had gone off to bed. On hearing
+that I did not feel tired, her husband had invited me to bring my pipe
+and grog into the verandah, where we could chat about old times without
+disturbing anybody. I had only arrived that afternoon from Melbourne,
+and, as we had not met for more than three years, it may be easily
+imagined that we had much to say to each other. Years before we had been
+on a station together in Queensland, had done two overlanding trips in
+the same party, and had more than once tried our luck upon the
+gold-fields in partnership. Then he had taken a billet as manager of a
+big station in the Far West, and I had gone south to Melbourne to give
+up the Bush and settle down to the humdrum business I had inherited from
+my father. My surprise may therefore be understood when one morning I
+received a letter from my old comrade, informing me that he was married
+and had taken a property on Warradoona Creek. He brought his letter to a
+conclusion by telling me that if I stood in need of a holiday, and would
+care to undertake the long journey out to his place, he would not only
+give me a hearty welcome, but would be very thankful for my assistance
+in unravelling a mystery which up to the time of writing had baffled him
+completely. What the mystery was he did not say.</p>
+
+<p>Now, as all the Bush world knows, Warradoona, despite the fact that it
+is on the direct overlanding route to Western Queensland, is one of the
+most unget-at-able places on the face of our great Island Continent. To
+begin with, you have a four hundred mile railway journey, then a coach
+ride of upwards of two hundred more, which will bring you to the
+township of Yarrapanya, a settlement of four houses at the junction of
+Warradoona Creek with the Salt Bush River. In the township horses can be
+obtained, and with their assistance the remainder of the journey,
+upwards of a hundred miles, may be accomplished. At the best of times it
+is a tedious undertaking, but when the floods are out, or, on the other
+hand, in the summer season when there is no water at all, it becomes a
+peculiarly dangerous one. To compensate for these drawbacks, however,
+when you <i>do</i> reach the station you will receive as hearty a welcome as
+any to be obtained in the Bush. The property itself is a large one, and
+certainly the best in that district. The homestead is a neat Bush
+building constructed of wood, roofed with shingles, and boasting on
+every side a broad verandah. It is built on the side of a hill and
+overlooks the plain that separates the higher land from the river. Away
+to the north where the Ranges trend in towards the Creek, there is a
+narrow pass through which come all the overlanding parties bringing
+cattle from Queensland to the south. To the southward a dense Mulga
+Scrub commences, and clothes the whole face of the hills as far as the
+eye can reach. Across the river and lying some thirty miles due west is
+Yarka Station, where, at the time of which I write, resided Jim's
+nearest neighbour, the Honourable Marmaduke Chudfield, a young
+Englishman, who, after he had given his family repeated opportunities of
+studying the more frivolous side of his character, had been shipped to
+Australia, where it was confidently hoped hard work and a limited supply
+of money would turn him into a staid and respectable colonist.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Spicer, as he walked to the rail of the verandah, and looked
+down upon the moonlit plain, "it is, as you say, by no means a bad sort
+of place. As I shall show you to-morrow, the station buildings are above
+the average in point of completeness, the run is well sheltered and
+grassed, the supply of water is abundant, and, as you are aware, we are
+on the direct cattle route to the south. Moreover, I have got the place
+for a considerable period on exceptional terms."</p>
+
+<p>"I congratulate you most heartily. Now tell me the disadvantages; for I
+suppose there <i>are</i> some."</p>
+
+<p>"So far as I have seen there is only one. At the same time, however, I
+must confess that that one is quite big enough to outweigh all the
+advantages put together. In point of fact, it was that very disadvantage
+that made me write to you last week and endeavour to induce you to pay
+us a visit."</p>
+
+<p>"Now I come to think of it, I remember in your letter you <i>did</i> speak of
+some mystery that you wanted cleared up. What is it? In these prosaic
+days mysteries, save in mining matters, are few and far between. I am
+all impatience to hear what shape yours assumes."</p>
+
+<p>While I had been speaking Spicer had been leaning on the verandah rail
+looking down the hillside towards the river. Now he turned, and, placing
+his back against one of the posts that supported the roof, regarded me
+steadily for some seconds.</p>
+
+<p>"First and foremost, old man," he said, "try to bear it in mind that I
+don't want to be laughed at. I've got so much at stake that I'm as
+touchy on the subject as an old man with the gout. The trouble I have to
+contend with is that this place is supposed to be haunted. I know it's a
+silly sort of thing for a matter-of-fact fellow like myself to say; but
+still the fact remains, and a remarkably unpleasant fact it is."</p>
+
+<p>"The deuce it is," I replied. "And pray what is the place supposed to be
+haunted by?"</p>
+
+<p>"By a man on a white horse who rides about on a plain down yonder."</p>
+
+<p>"Is this only hearsay, or have you seen the apparition yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have seen him on three occasions," replied Spicer solemnly. "The
+first time was the week after I arrived on the place, the second was
+three months ago, and the last was the very Saturday upon which I wrote
+to you. But as if that were not enough, we have been worried ever since
+our arrival by the most dismal noises in the house itself."</p>
+
+<p>"What sort of noises do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"By all sorts, confound them! Sometimes by a shriek about midnight that
+fetches you up in bed with the perspiration rolling off your face;
+sometimes by moans and groans; and sometimes, but not so often, by a
+peculiar noise that is for all the world like a human voice, muffled by
+a blanket, trying to say, 'Save me, save me,' and not succeeding very
+well. As you know, I am a fairly plucky man, and for that reason I think
+I might manage to stand it myself; but then I've got some one else to
+consider. I have to think of my wife. Under ordinary circumstances she
+is as plucky a little woman as ever made her home in the Bush, but no
+woman's nerves would stand the continual strain that is put upon them
+here. You see, my work often takes me out on the run for days at a time,
+and I have to leave her alone. Female servants we have none, not so much
+even as a solitary black gin. When we came up we brought a woman with us
+from Melbourne, but she only stayed a week and then went off with the
+first bullock team that passed this way. However, we managed, by
+offering big wages, to get another. She stayed a month, and then said
+she would prefer to go off to the township alone rather than stay
+another night upon the place. We have been here five months and a week,
+and during that time I have had four men cooks, three chief stockmen,
+eight inferior ditto, and ten horse boys. As for a strange black, I've
+not seen one near the place since I first set foot upon it. The last
+time I was staying the night at Chudfield's place across the river, I
+tried to persuade one he wanted to get rid of to come over and keep my
+own two boys company. His answer was significant. 'Baal (no) come up
+this fella,' he said. 'Too much debbil debbil alonga Warradoona.' The
+long and the short of the matter is, old friend, unless I can manage to
+put a stop to this phantom business I shall be a ruined man. All my
+savings are locked up in this place, and if I don't make it pay, well, I
+must sell up and go back to Queensland and be a servant again instead of
+a master."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a nasty position," I said. "I don't wonder you want to get it
+settled. By the way, how long has the place possessed this sinister
+reputation?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only for the last three years," he answered.</p>
+
+<p>"Is there any sort of story to account for it?"</p>
+
+<p>Spicer was silent for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, there you have me on a tender spot," he replied. "Though I don't
+like to own it, I must confess there <i>is</i> a story."</p>
+
+<p>"Can you tell it to me?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you think it will help you to a solution of the problem I shall be
+glad to do so. You must understand that about three years ago a mob of
+cattle camped, according to custom, upon the plain down yonder. They
+were on their way from Queensland to Adelaide, in charge of an old
+drover named Burke, a worthy old fellow who'd been on the road all his
+life. During the evening a quarrel arose between him and his second in
+command. From high words they came to blows, and in the encounter the
+subordinate got the worst of it. He professed to be satisfied and turned
+into his blankets apparently sorry for what he had done. An hour later
+the third white man of the party mounted his horse and went out to watch
+the cattle, leaving the other two, as he thought, asleep. When he
+returned two hours later he found Burke stabbed to the heart and the
+other man missing. Do you remember, when you crossed the river to-day,
+noticing a grave enclosed by a white railing?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perfectly. I wondered at the time whose it could be."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that's where Burke is buried."</p>
+
+<p>"The phantom, then, is supposed to be the ghost of the murdered man?
+What form does it take?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is that of an old man with a long grey beard; he is dressed all in
+white and is mounted upon a white horse, who carries his head rather
+high. He holds a stock-whip in his hand and wears a white felt hat
+pulled far down over his eyes."</p>
+
+<p>"Has anybody else seen him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dozens of people. It drove away Jamison, the first owner of the place,
+and the original builder of this house. Williams, from Mindana, came
+next; he built the men's hut away to the left there, and cleared out bag
+and baggage exactly three months to a day after he had paid his purchase
+money. He said he would rather lose five thousand pounds than stop
+another night on the place. Macpherson, a long-headed Scotchman, as hard
+as a tenpenny nail, and about as emotional as a brickbat, came next. He
+paid his money and was not going to lose it just because he heard funny
+noises and saw queer sights. But at the end of six months he had changed
+his tune. Money was no object to him, he said; he was content to lose
+every penny he possessed in the world provided he saw no more of
+Warradoona. Benson followed Macpherson. He got the place dirt cheap,
+cattle thrown in, and, from what the folk in the township told me,
+seemed to think he'd done a mighty smart stroke of business."</p>
+
+<p>"What became of Benson?"</p>
+
+<p>"He returned to the south without even unpacking his bullock wagons. He
+has bought a place in New Zealand now, I believe. It was from him that I
+purchased the property."</p>
+
+<p>"And the price you paid for it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Would be less than a quarter of its value but for the Phantom Stockman.
+As it is, I am upset on an average three nights a week; my wife is
+frightened nearly out of her wits every time she goes to bed; and with
+the exception of my head stockman, Ruford, and two black boys, I can
+keep no servants upon the place, and in consequence have to work my
+stock short-handed, which is an impossibility. To put it plainly, either
+the Phantom Stockman or I must go. I thought all this out last week and
+the upshot of my cogitations was my letter to you. I know from
+experience that you've got a cool head, and I have had repeated evidence
+of your pluck. Young Chudfield, my next-door neighbour, the man who, for
+the sake of my company, has done his level best to persuade me to give
+the place a further trial, has promised to come over and give us a hand,
+and if we three can't settle the mystery between us, well, I think we
+ought to be ashamed of ourselves, that's all."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll certainly have a good try," I answered. "I'm not a believer in
+ghosts myself, and it will go hard with us if we can't manage to
+discover of what sort of material our troublesome friend is composed.
+One further question. Does he put in an appearance at regular intervals,
+or is he indiscriminate in his favours?"</p>
+
+<p>"As far as <i>he</i> is personally concerned he is fairly regular. It is
+about the full of the moon that he appears to be most active, but the
+noises in the house go on at all hours, sometimes two or three nights in
+succession. Then perhaps there will be a week's silence, after which we
+will be worried night after night, till we are nearly driven
+distracted."</p>
+
+<p>"It seems a most mysterious affair," I said. "And I can quite understand
+that you are worried by it."</p>
+
+<p>"You would say so if you had to live here," he answered. "It gets on
+your nerves till you feel inclined to jump away from your own shadow.
+Now I expect you're tired, and would like to be off to roost. Help
+yourself to a night-cap, and then we'll have a look at your room
+together."</p>
+
+<p>I had leant forward to the table and taken up the demijohn containing
+the spirit&mdash;in point of fact, I was in the act of pouring some of its
+contents into my glass&mdash;when from the dark house behind us there came a
+long, low moan, followed by a shriek that cut the still night air like
+the sharp tearing of a sheet of calico. After that there was complete
+silence, which to my thinking was worse even than the scream. I sprang
+to my feet.</p>
+
+<p>"My God," I cried, "what's that?"</p>
+
+<p>But Spicer only laughed in a curious way.</p>
+
+<p>"You are being introduced to our supernatural friend," he replied. "Now
+you know the sort of thing we are being continually called upon to put
+up with."</p>
+
+<p>"But it sounded so intensely human," I said. "And yet, now I come to
+think of it, there was a peculiar muffled note about it that rather
+upsets my theory. One thing, however, is quite certain: it came from the
+house, and I should say from the centre passage."</p>
+
+<p>"You are quite right. That's where we always hear it. But if you think
+there is anybody hiding there you're mistaken. Come and look for
+yourself."</p>
+
+<p>So saying he led the way into the house. I followed him. As he had said,
+there was nobody to be seen. The passage in question was about twenty
+feet long by four wide. There was a door at each end, and two on either
+side. It was well lighted by an oil lamp supported on an iron bracket
+screwed into the woodwork. The walls were composed of weather boards,
+while the floor was covered by a strip of oilcloth, which stretched from
+end to end. Spicer lifted the lamp from its socket, and, opening one of
+the doors on the left, led me into the sitting-room. We explored it
+carefully, but there was nothing there that could in any way account for
+the noise we had heard. Having satisfied ourselves on this point, we
+crossed to the room on the opposite side of the passage. This was my
+bedroom, and in it, as in the other apartment, our search was
+unrewarded. The room next to it was Spicer's office, and, save a safe, a
+desk, a small cupboard, a chair, and a row of account books, contained
+nothing to excite our suspicion. We passed into the passage again.</p>
+
+<p>"This room," he said, pointing to the door opposite the office, "is our
+bedroom."</p>
+
+<p>He tapped on the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Minnie," he cried, "are you awake?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," was the answer, "and very frightened. How long will you be before
+you come to bed?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am coming now," he replied. Then, turning to me, he held out his
+hand. "Good-night," he said, "and pleasant dreams to you. It seems a
+shame to have brought you up here only to worry you with our troubles."</p>
+
+<p>"I am very glad, indeed, that I came," I replied. "And if I can help you
+to some solution of your difficulty I shall be still more glad."</p>
+
+<p>A quarter of an hour later I was in bed and asleep. If there was any
+further noise that night I did not hear it. I was tired after my long
+journey, and slept on until long after the sun had risen next morning.</p>
+
+<p>When I did turn out I went into the verandah, where I discovered my
+hostess.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-morning," she said, as she offered me her hand. "Jim has just gone
+across to the stockyard, but he will be back to breakfast in a moment."</p>
+
+<p>Many people might have been discovered in Australia who would have
+thanked their stars that they were not the proprietors of Warradoona
+Station, but there would have been few who would not have envied Spicer
+his partner in life. She was a pretty brunette, with wonderful brown
+eyes, and a sympathetic, motherly way about her that made every one feel
+at home in her company, even if they had never seen her until five
+minutes before.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot tell you how very kind I think you are," she said, "to come to
+our assistance. You can imagine what a depressing effect this place has
+had upon Jim and myself. We have tried everything we can think of to
+solve the mystery, but without success. Now it remains to be seen
+whether you will fare any better than we have done."</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to do my best," I answered, and as I said so, Jim came up
+the steps.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-morning," he said as he reached the verandah. "I hope you slept
+well and that you were not disturbed by any more noises."</p>
+
+<p>"If there were any to hear they didn't wake me," I answered. "I suppose
+you have not discovered anything that throws any sort of light upon that
+scream we heard last night?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing at all," he replied, shaking his head. "But, to add to the
+discomfort we are already enduring, our cook has just informed me that
+he saw the White Horseman on the plain last night, and in consequence
+has given me notice that it is his intention to leave at mid-day. He
+says he would rather forfeit all his wages than remain another night."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Jim, I am sorry to hear that," said his wife. "We shall have great
+difficulty in getting another. We <i>do</i> indeed seem doomed to
+misfortune."</p>
+
+<p>Jim said nothing, but I saw his mouth harden as we went in to breakfast.
+His patience was well-nigh exhausted, and I suspected that if the
+mystery were not solved before many days were over he would follow the
+example of his predecessors, forfeit all the money he had put into it,
+and sever his connection with Warradoona.</p>
+
+<p>During the morning I gave him a hand with some branding in the
+stockyard, and in the afternoon we went for a ride across the river,
+hoping to meet the mob of cattle his men were out collecting. We were
+unsuccessful, however, and it was dusk when we reached home again. By
+the time we had turned our horses loose, and placed our saddles on the
+racks, the full moon was rising above the Ranges behind the house. On
+reaching the verandah we heard voices in the sitting-room.</p>
+
+<p>"That's Marmaduke Chudfield, I'll wager a sovereign," said Jim. "I'm
+glad he's come over, for though he's rather a namby-pamby sort of
+individual, he's not bad company."</p>
+
+<p>A moment later we had entered the room, and I was being introduced to a
+tall, slim youth of perhaps eight-and-twenty years of age. His height
+could not have been much under six feet two, his face was devoid of
+beard or moustache, and boasted a somewhat vacuous expression, which a
+single eye-glass he wore continually only served to intensify. He spoke
+with a lisp and a drawl, and if one could judge by his own confessions,
+seemed to have no knowledge of any one thing in the whole system of the
+universe. In less than five minutes' conversation I had struck the bed
+rock of his intelligence, to use a mining phrase, and, while I had small
+doubt of his good nature, was not at all impressed by his sagacity. His
+station, Yarka, was, so Jim informed me later, a grand property, and
+carried a large number of cattle. This success, however, was in no sense
+due to Chudfield's exertions. To quote his own words, he "left
+everything to his overseer, a German, named Mulhauser, don't-cher-know,
+and didn't muddle things up by shoving his spoke in when it was no sort
+of jolly assistance, don't-cher-know. Cattle farming was not exactly his
+line, and if he had to pay a chap to work, well, he'd make him work,
+while he himself sat tight and had a jolly good time with continual
+trips to town and friends up to stay, and all that sort of thing,
+don't-cher-know."</p>
+
+<p>After dinner we sat in the verandah and smoked our pipes until close
+upon ten o'clock, when Mrs. Spicer bade us "Good-night" and retired to
+her own room, as on the previous evening. After she had left us, there
+was a lull in the conversation. The night was perfectly still, as only
+nights in the Bush can be; the moon was well above the roof, and in
+consequence the plain below us was well-nigh as bright as day. The only
+sound to be heard was the ticking of the clock in the sitting-room
+behind us, and the faint sighing of the night-breeze through the scrub
+timber on the hills behind the house. And here I must make a digression.
+I don't think I have so far explained that in front of the house there
+was an unkempt garden about fifty yards long by thirty wide, enclosed by
+a rough Bush fence. In an idle sort of way I sat smoking and watching
+the rails at the bottom. The beauty of the night seemed to exercise a
+soothing influence upon the three of us. Jim, however, was just about to
+speak when Chudfield sprang from his chair, and, pointing towards the
+fence, at which only a moment before I had been looking, cried, "What's
+that?"</p>
+
+<p>We followed the direction of his hand with our eyes, and as we did so
+leapt to our feet. Being but a sorry scene-painter I don't know exactly
+what words I should employ to make you see what we saw then. Scarcely
+fifty yards from us, seated upon a white horse, was a tall man, with a
+long grey beard, dressed altogether in white, even to his hat and boots.
+In his hand he carried a white stock-whip, which he balanced upon his
+hip. How he had managed to come so close without making a sound to warn
+us of his approach was more than I could understand; but this much was
+certain, come he did. The time, from our first seeing him to the moment
+of his wheeling his horse and riding silently away again, could not have
+been more than a minute, but all the same we were able to take perfect
+stock of him.</p>
+
+<p>"Follow me," shouted Jim, as he rushed down the steps and ran towards
+the gate at the bottom of the garden. We followed close at his heels,
+but by the time we reached the fence the Phantom Stockman had entirely
+disappeared. We stared across the moonlit plain until our eyes ached,
+but not a sign of the apparition we had seen rewarded us.</p>
+
+<p>"That is the third time he has been up here since I have had the place,"
+said our host, "and each time he has vanished before I could get close
+enough to have a good look at him."</p>
+
+<p>"What beats me was the fact that his horse made no sound," remarked the
+Honourable Marmaduke, "and yet the ground is hard enough hereabouts."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait here till I get a lantern," cried Spicer. "Don't go outside the
+fence, and then you won't obliterate any tracks he may have made."</p>
+
+<p>So saying he hastened back to the house, to return in about five minutes
+carrying in his hand a large lantern. With its assistance we carefully
+explored the ground on the other side of the fence, but to no purpose.
+There was not a sign of a horse's hoof to be seen.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, this beats cock fighting," said the Honourable, as Jim blew out
+the light and we turned to walk back to the house. "This is Hamlet's
+father's ghost with a vengeance, don't-cher-know. I shall be glad
+whenever he takes it into his head to pay me a visit at Yarka. I'm
+afraid in that case my respected parent would see me in England sooner
+than would be quite convenient to him."</p>
+
+<p>To this speech Jim replied never a word, nor did I think his remark
+worth an answer. Once in the verandah we separated, bidding each other
+good-night, Jim to go to his own room, the Honourable to take possession
+of the sofa in the sitting-room, upon which a bed had been made up for
+him, and I to my own dormitory. I saw Jim turn down the lamp in the
+passage and heard him blow it out as I shut my door. Then I undressed
+and jumped into bed.</p>
+
+<p>How long I had been asleep I do not know, but I have the most vivid
+remembrance of suddenly finding myself sitting up in bed with the sweat
+pouring off my face, and the echo of surely the most awful shriek mortal
+man ever heard ringing in my ears. Before I could recover my
+self-possession it rang out again, followed this time by a strange
+moaning sound that must have continued while I could have counted
+twenty. Thinking this had gone about far enough I jumped out of bed,
+opened the door, and ran into the passage, only to be seized by a pair
+of arms. Lifting my right hand I took my assailant by the throat, and
+just as I did so, Jim's door opened and he came out, holding a candle in
+his hand. Then it was that I made the discovery that it was not the
+ghost's throat I was clutching between my finger and thumb, but that of
+the Honourable.</p>
+
+<p>"Confound you two," said Jim angrily. "What on earth are you up to?"</p>
+
+<p>"Up to?" gasped Chudfield. "Why, I heard the most villainous scream just
+now that I ever heard in my life, and came running out of my room to see
+what was the matter, only to be collared by the throat by this chap."
+Then turning to me he continued, in his usual drawling way, "I believe
+you've half broken my neck, don't-cher-know."</p>
+
+<p>"Bother your neck," I cried shortly, for my dander was up and somebody
+had got to suffer for the fright I had received. "Jim, did you hear that
+scream?"</p>
+
+<p>"Worse luck," answered poor Jim. "I wish I could say I hadn't. What the
+deuce does it mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"It means," I replied sternly, "that if there's a ghost in this place
+I've got to see him before I'll be satisfied. And if it's a trick, well,
+I've got to find the chap that's playing it or know the reason why. When
+I do, I'll do what Chudfield here accuses me of half doing. I'll break
+his neck."</p>
+
+<p>With that I walked first to the door at one end of the passage and
+examined it, then to the other; after that I tried the door leading into
+the office. All three were securely locked on our side.</p>
+
+<p>"As far as I can remember, the sound seemed to come from about here," I
+said, pointing to the centre of the floor. "What is underneath these
+boards, Jim?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only solid Mother Earth," he replied. "I had some of the planks up when
+I came into the place and put new ones down."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'm going to sit up and await further developments," I said. "Do
+either of you feel inclined to share my vigil?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will do so with pleasure," said Jim.</p>
+
+<p>"And I too, if it's necessary," said the Honourable, with peculiar
+eagerness. "I'm not going to risk being wakened out of my sleep by
+another shriek like that."</p>
+
+<p>Jim went into his bedroom and said something to his wife. After that we
+dressed and made ourselves as comfortable as possible in the
+sitting-room. But though we remained there till daylight we heard
+nothing further. As day dawned we returned to our beds to sleep soundly
+until we were roused by Mrs. Spicer at eight o'clock.</p>
+
+<p>That afternoon, in spite of our jeers, the Honourable left us to return
+to his own abode. He had had enough and to spare of Warradoona, he said,
+and as he had not proved himself a very good plucked one, we did not
+exert ourselves very much to make him change his mind.</p>
+
+<p>"I never thought he'd prove to be such a coward," said Jim, as we
+watched the youth disappear behind the river timber. "Still, he's a man
+extra about the place, and if those wretched cattle are coming in
+to-night we shall want all the hands we can raise to look after them on
+the plain."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think they will be here to-night?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's more than likely. They ought to have been in this morning, and as
+they can't halt in the scrub they'll be driven by force of circumstances
+into camping on the plain. In that case it will be a pound to a sixpence
+that our friend the Stockman will give us some trouble. He generally
+puts in an appearance when there's a mob passing through."</p>
+
+<p>"If he does we must tackle him, and decide once and for all the question
+of his&mdash;well, of his spirituality, shall I say? You can find a couple of
+revolvers, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"Half a dozen if need be, and what's more, cartridges to fit them."</p>
+
+<p>We then walked back to the house together. It was tea time, and as soon
+as we had made ourselves tidy we sat down to it. Half way through the
+meal there was a heavy step in the verandah, and a moment later Ruford,
+Jim's one remaining stockman, entered the room.</p>
+
+<p>"So you've turned up at last," said Jim, as he became aware of the
+other's identity. "Where are the cattle?"</p>
+
+<p>"Camped on the plain," was the reply. "Bad luck to 'em. It was as much
+as I could do to get the two black boys to remain with them. Are you
+coming down?"</p>
+
+<p>"We'll be down in half an hour," said Jim. "This gentleman and myself
+will camp with you to-night and give you a hand. Now be off and get your
+tea."</p>
+
+<p>He disappeared without another word.</p>
+
+<p>"But if you two are going to help with the cattle, what is to become of
+me?" asked Mrs. Spicer. "I cannot be left here alone."</p>
+
+<p>"That's perfectly true," said Jim. "I never thought of it. Confound that
+miserable coward Chudfield. I'll tell you what I'll do, Minnie. I'll
+send Ruford up to take care of you. He won't be sorry for an evening's
+comfort, and it is most imperative that we should go down, you see, in
+case the Stockman should turn up to-night. If he does we hope to bring
+matters to a crisis."</p>
+
+<p>Faithful to our promise, as soon as the meal was over, we saddled our
+horses and rode down towards the camp fire that we could see burning
+brightly on the plain below.</p>
+
+<p>By the time we reached it the appearance of the night had changed,
+clouds had covered the sky, and a soft drizzle was falling. Ruford had
+taken the cattle down to the river, and when they had drunk their fill
+had tailed them slowly on to camp, where the two black boys were
+watching them. It was not a cheerful night, for the wind had risen, and
+was moaning among the she-oak trees like a million lost spirits. A more
+lonesome spot I never was in than that plain.</p>
+
+<p>As we approached the fire Ruford said snappishly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you think it's funny to hang round a camp, whispering and
+moaning, in order to frighten a man out of his wits."</p>
+
+<p>"Who has been hanging about the camp whispering and moaning?" asked
+Spicer. "Why, you duffer, we've only just come down from the Homestead.
+You must be either drunk or dreaming."</p>
+
+<p>"Dreaming be hanged!" he said. "I tell you that there's been some one
+moaning like old &mdash;&mdash; round this 'ere camp ever since dusk!"</p>
+
+<p>"Moaning like your grandmother," said Spicer, descending from his saddle
+and tying his horse up to a tree near by. "I want you to go up to the
+house and camp there. Mrs. Spicer is all alone, and I think she may be
+frightened. We'll look after the cattle."</p>
+
+<p>When he had gone we stretched ourselves beside the fire on the blankets
+we found there and fell to yarning.</p>
+
+<p>I can see the whole scene now. Owing to the heavy clouds mentioned
+above, it was as dark as the inside of your hat, with not a gleam of
+light in the whole length and breadth of the sky. Ruford had stirred up
+the fire before he left us, and the flames were roaring upwards, when
+suddenly there came a long, peculiar moan from the scrub behind us that
+brought us up into a sitting posture like one man. We looked in the
+direction whence it seemed to come, and saw there, standing in the full
+light of the fire, a tall, thin man, of about fifty years of age. He had
+white hair and a long grey beard. He was dressed, even to his riding
+boots, in some white material, and he carried a stock-whip in his hand.
+His face was as pale as death and infinitely sad, and he seemed to be
+looking from one to the other of us as if he did not know which to
+address.</p>
+
+<p>We were both struck dumb with astonishment, until Spicer, raising
+himself on his elbow, shouted,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Hullo, my man! Where do <i>you</i> hail from?"</p>
+
+<p>Then the figure faded away into the darkness as quietly as it had come,
+and you can just imagine how we stared.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, this beats all the other manifestations into a cocked hat," cried
+Spicer, and seizing a burning stick and bidding me follow with another,
+he dashed into the scrub in the direction we supposed the stranger to
+have taken.</p>
+
+<p>For upwards of twenty minutes we searched high and low, in every
+possible hiding-place within fifty yards of the camp, but without
+success. Not a single trace of our mysterious visitor could we discover.
+Then we returned to the fire and lay down again.</p>
+
+<p>Spicer's watch was from nine to eleven, and as it was almost eight then,
+he resolved to try and snatch an hour's sleep before it would be
+necessary for him to get into the saddle once more. He soon gave up the
+attempt, however.</p>
+
+<p>Though we did not see any more of the stranger just then, I can assure
+you we were far from being easy in our minds. The cattle had suddenly
+become very restless, and from their lowing and snorting we could tell
+that they were uneasy. While we listened, the same peculiar moaning
+noise came from the scrub away to our left. It sounded for all the world
+like the crying of a woman in dreadful trouble, but though we peered
+repeatedly into the night, and twice crept away from the fire in that
+direction, we could discover nothing to account for it.</p>
+
+<p>At nine o'clock Spicer went on watch, and the black boys came into camp
+reporting the cattle as very restless.</p>
+
+<p>For some time after he had gone I lay on my blankets looking up at the
+sky. Clouds still covered the heavens, and it looked as if a wet night
+were pending. Sometime about ten o'clock Spicer called to me to join
+him, as something was radically wrong with the mob; so saddling my horse
+I rode out.</p>
+
+<p>As I went the clouds parted, and for a moment the moon shone brilliantly
+forth. It was a curious sight that I then beheld. The cattle&mdash;there were
+about five hundred of them&mdash;were all up, moving to and fro and bellowing
+continuously. What made us the more uneasy was the fact that, now and
+again, the old bull in command would separate himself from the mob and
+sniff the wind, after which he would let out a bellow that fairly shook
+the earth. Whenever he sees the leader do that, a cattleman knows that
+it behoves him to stand by and keep his eyes open for trouble.</p>
+
+<p>Coming up with Spicer, I asked him what he thought was the matter, but
+for some moments he did not answer.</p>
+
+<p>Then he said very mysteriously,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Did you meet him as you came out?"</p>
+
+<p>"Meet whom?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, our friend, the Phantom Stockman?"</p>
+
+<p>"The devil! And has he turned up again?"</p>
+
+<p>After looking cautiously round, Jim edged his horse up alongside mine
+and said quietly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"He's been hovering round these cattle for the past half-hour. They can
+see him, and that's what's making them so confoundedly restless. You
+take my word for it, we shall have serious trouble directly!"</p>
+
+<p>"Confound it all," I said. "That will mean double watches all night, and
+in this drizzle too."</p>
+
+<p>"It can't be helped. But you had better tell the boys to be ready in
+case they are wanted. Look! Look! Here he comes again!"</p>
+
+<p>I looked in the direction he indicated, and, true enough, out of the
+thick mist which now hid the trees along the river bank, and into the
+half moonlight where we stood, rode the phantom whom we had seen two
+hours before by our camp fire. But there was a difference now; this time
+he was mounted on his white horse, and seemed to be like us on watch. At
+first I fancied my brain was creating a phantom for me out of the
+whirling mist; but the snorting and terror of the cattle, as they became
+aware of his presence, soon convinced me of his reality.</p>
+
+<p>Little by little the fellow edged round the scrub, and then disappeared
+into the fog again, to reappear a minute or two later on our left. Then
+he began to come slowly towards us. I can tell you the situation was
+uncanny enough to creep the flesh of a mummy. He was sitting loosely in
+his saddle, with his stock-whip balanced on his hip; indeed, to show how
+details impress themselves on one's mind, I can remember that he had one
+of his sleeves rolled up and that he carried his reins slung over his
+left arm.</p>
+
+<p>When he was within eight or ten paces of where we stood, my horse, which
+had been watching him as if turned to stone, suddenly gave a snort, and
+wheeling sharp round bolted across the plain as if the devil were behind
+him. Before I had gone fifty yards I heard Spicer come thundering after
+me, and we must have had a good two miles gallop before we could pull
+the terrified beasts up. Then we heard the cattle rushing a mile or so
+on our right.</p>
+
+<p>"I knew they'd go," wailed Spicer; "they're well-nigh mad with fright.
+Now, what the deuce is to be done?"</p>
+
+<p>"Try and head them, I suppose."</p>
+
+<p>"Come on, then, for all you're worth. It's neck or nothing with us now!"</p>
+
+<p>We set off down the angle of the plain as fast as our horses could lay
+their legs to the ground. It was a near thing, for, hard as we went, we
+were only just in time to prevent the leaders from plunging into the
+river. If you know anything of overlanding, you'll understand the work
+we had. As it was, I don't believe we could have managed it at all if it
+had not been for the extraneous&mdash;or, as I might perhaps say,
+<i>spiritual</i>&mdash;aid we received.</p>
+
+<p>While Spicer took the river side, I worked inland, along the bottom of
+the cliff, and as the two black boys had bolted for the Homestead long
+before the cattle broke, we had no one between us to bring up the tail.
+Suddenly, Heaven alone knows how, the Phantom Stockman came to our
+assistance; and a more perfect drover could scarcely have been found. He
+wheeled his cattle and brought up his stragglers, boxed 'em, and headed
+'em off, like the oldest hand. But however clever a bushman he may have
+been, it was plainly his own personality that effected the greatest
+good; for directly the mob saw him, they turned tail and stampeded back
+on to the plain like beasts possessed.</p>
+
+<p>At last, however, we got them rounded up together, and then Spicer rode
+over to where I stood and said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Give an eye to 'em, will you, while I slip back to the camp? I want to
+get something."</p>
+
+<p>I had not time to protest, for next minute he was gone, and I was left
+alone with that awful stranger whom I could still see dodging about in
+the mist. When he got back, Jim reined up alongside me and said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"This is getting a little too monotonous to my thinking."</p>
+
+<p>"What are you going to do?" I gasped, my teeth chattering in my head
+like a pair of castanets.</p>
+
+<p>"Try the effect of this on him," he answered, and as he spoke he pulled
+a revolver from his pocket. "I don't care if it sends every beast across
+the river."</p>
+
+<p>At that moment, on his constant round, the phantom came into view again.
+On either side of him the cattle were sniffing and snorting at him,
+plainly showing that they were still wild with terror. This behaviour
+puzzled us completely, for we both knew that a mob would never treat an
+ordinary flesh-and-blood stockman in that way. When he got within twenty
+paces of us Spicer cried,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Bail up, matey&mdash;or, by jingo, I'll put daylight into you!"</p>
+
+<p>Obedient to the order the figure instantly pulled up.</p>
+
+<p>The moon was bright enough now for us to see his face. And, though, as
+I've said before, I'm not a coward as a general rule, I can tell you
+that it made me feel fairly sick, so white and creepy-looking was it.
+Then he held up his hand as if in protest and started towards us.</p>
+
+<p>This didn't suit Spicer, however, for he yelled,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Stand off! or by the living God I swear I'll fire. Stand off!"</p>
+
+<p>But the figure continued to come towards us. Then <i>Crack! Crack! Crack!</i>
+went the revolver, and next moment there was a frightful scream and the
+sound of galloping hoofs. I saw no more, for, as Jim fired, my horse
+reared and fell back, crushing me beneath him.</p>
+
+<p>I suppose I must have been stunned by the fall, for when I recovered my
+senses Spicer was leaning over me.</p>
+
+<p>"Is he gone?" I asked as soon as I could speak.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes! Gone like mad across the plain and the cattle with him. I must
+either have missed him, or the bullet must have passed clean through
+him."</p>
+
+<p>As there was now no further reason why we should remain where we were,
+we returned to the Homestead and told our tale. Then when it was light
+enough, we had our breakfast and mounted our horses and went out into
+the scrub to look for the cattle we had lost. By the time dusk fell we
+had collected three hundred and fifty out of the five hundred head
+Ruford had brought on to the plain. The poor beasts were quite knocked
+up; and as it was useless thinking of pushing them on in that condition,
+we were consequently compelled to camp them for one more night on that
+awful plain. But to our delight we saw no more of the Phantom Stockman.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning while we were at breakfast, Billy, the black boy, who had
+been out after the horses, came dashing up to the Homestead, almost
+beside himself with excitement.</p>
+
+<p>"Me been find him," he cried. "Me been find him, all same fellow what
+been make debbil-debbil longa here."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?" asked Spicer, putting down his cup of tea. "Where
+have you found the man?"</p>
+
+<p>"Me been find him longa billabong. My word he most like dead, mine think
+it."</p>
+
+<p>Spicer made a sign to me, and without another word we jumped up and ran
+in the direction of the stockyard. Mounting our horses we followed our
+guide through the scrub for a distance of perhaps a mile and a half
+until we came to a small billabong or backwater of the main river.</p>
+
+<p>Away at the further end we could see a curious white heap, and towards
+it we galloped, making our horses put their best feet foremost, you may
+be sure.</p>
+
+<p>On reaching it, we found a man lying huddled up upon the ground beneath
+a low-growing tree. He was dressed in a complete suit of white flannel,
+his boots were painted the same colour, and even his hat was fixed up to
+match, white. Still looped over his ears was a long grey beard and
+moustache of false hair.</p>
+
+<p>Spicer dismounted and knelt beside him. After feeling his heart he
+plucked the beard away and almost shouted his astonishment aloud.</p>
+
+<p>"Good heavens!" he cried; "do you recognise this man?"</p>
+
+<p>I stooped and looked. <i>I don't know whether you will believe it, but the
+Phantom Stockman, the person who had performed such prodigies two nights
+before, was none other than our friend Chudfield, the young English
+owner of Yarka Station, across the river, the man who had appeared to be
+so frightened by the ghost, and who had made it his boast that he knew
+nothing at all about Bush-work.</i> For some moments we stood and stared at
+him in stupefied amazement. I was the first to speak.</p>
+
+<p>"Is he dead, do you think?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Quite," said Spicer. "Look at this mark under his chin. Galloping
+through the scrub in the dark the other night to get away from us, he
+must have been caught by that bough up there and have been dashed from
+his saddle. Death must have been almost instantaneous."</p>
+
+<p>Round his waist was a long thin cord which ran away some twenty yards or
+so into the bush. We followed it up and discovered a large piece of raw
+hide tied to the end of it.</p>
+
+<p>Spicer examined the latter carefully.</p>
+
+<p>"The beast that owned this skin was only killed two days ago," he said.
+"Now I know why our cattle were so restless. They smelt the blood, and,
+as you are aware, that invariably terrifies them. Cunning beggar! he
+pretended to know nothing, and yet he knew enough for this."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I said; "but what about the other night when the phantom appeared
+at the garden fence, and this man was sitting in the verandah with us?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, he probably wanted to disarm suspicion, and so sent his overseer,
+who must be in the secret, to play the part."</p>
+
+<p>"But what was his object in frightening you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Can't you guess? Well, just let me find out where our friend's
+stockyard is situated in the Ranges up yonder, and I think I'll be able
+to tell you. I remember now that when I came here his cattle were all
+over Warradoona, and that he used the place just as if it were his own,
+to say nothing of having his choice of all the unbranded and other
+cattle that former tenants had left upon it."</p>
+
+<p>Leaving the body where we had found it, to be picked up on our homeward
+journey, we crossed the river and plunged into the scrub beyond.</p>
+
+<p>An hour later we discovered, cunningly hidden in a lonely gulley, a big
+stockyard <i>in which our lost cattle were still penned up</i>. There was no
+one in sight and nothing to prove how the animals had got there, but a
+clearer case of duffing could scarcely have been found. Moreover, there
+were branding irons in the shed adjoining, and they were those of Yarka
+Station.</p>
+
+<p>"I think we know quite enough now," said Spicer solemnly, as we mounted
+our horses to return.</p>
+
+<p>"Enough to lay the Ghost of the Stockman of Warradoona at any rate," I
+replied.</p>
+
+<p>Three hours later we were at home once more, and Chudfield's body was
+lying in a hut, waiting for the police from Yarrapanya who would hold
+the inquest. A black boy had meanwhile been sent across to Yarka Station
+to inform the manager of the catastrophe.</p>
+
+<p>Our lunch that day was a mixture of happiness and sadness. Happiness,
+because the mystery of the Phantom Stockman had been cleared up for good
+and all; and sadness, because of the pain that was inseparable from the
+discovery of a friend's duplicity.</p>
+
+<p>When the meal was at an end we passed into the verandah. After a little
+conversation there, Spicer disappeared, to return in a few moments with
+a pick-axe and a basket of tools.</p>
+
+<p>"What are you going to do?" I inquired, as he set them down in the
+passage and took off his coat.</p>
+
+<p>"I want, if possible, to discover how those screams were worked," he
+replied. "It looks like being a long job; so if you will give me your
+assistance in ripping up these boards, I shall be very grateful."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, I'll help," I said, and thereupon we set to work.</p>
+
+<p>But though we laboured for the best part of the afternoon, the result
+was disappointing in the extreme. Nothing but dry earth and
+wood-shavings confronted us.</p>
+
+<p>"That being so, we'll take down the posts that support the walls on
+either side," said Jim, and as he spoke he attacked that upon which the
+lamp was fixed. "If we can't find anything there we'll continue to pull
+the house to pieces until we do."</p>
+
+<p>But we were spared that trouble. On loosening the post in question we
+made an important discovery. It was hollow from end to end, and in the
+cavity reposed a lead pipe, about an inch in diameter. We consulted
+together for a moment, and then took the pick-axe into my bedroom and
+ripped up a plank in the floor. By this means we were able to see that
+the pipe crossed the room and passed under the further wall. Outside we
+picked it up once more and traced it past the well, the kitchen, and the
+stockyard, into the scrub, where it entered an enormous blasted gum tree
+standing fifty yards or so from the house.</p>
+
+<p>"I see the whole thing as clear as daylight," cried Spicer joyfully, as
+he mounted the tree and prepared to lower himself into the hollow. "I
+believe we've solved the mystery of the shrieks at night, and now the
+whole thing is as simple as A B C. Go back to the house and listen."</p>
+
+<p>I did as he wished, and when I had been in the passage about a minute,
+was rewarded by hearing a scream re-echo through the house, followed by
+a muffled cry, "Oh, save me! save me!"</p>
+
+<p>As the sound died away, Mrs. Spicer came running into the house from the
+kitchen with a scared face. A moment later we were joined by her
+husband.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you hear that scream, Jim?" she inquired anxiously. "I thought you
+said we should not be worried by it again?"</p>
+
+<p>He put his arm round her waist and drew her towards him.</p>
+
+<p>"Nor shall we, little woman," he said. "That scream was to let us know
+that the phantom is laid at last, and that after to-day this place is
+going to be as sweet and homely as any a man could wish to live in. That
+poor beggar in the hut there tried to keep it empty as long as he could
+for his own purposes, but I beat him in the end. Now I've got it for a
+quarter its value, and whatever else he may have done we must not forget
+that we owe that, at least, to our old enemy the Phantom Stockman of
+Warradoona."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="The_Treasure_of_Sacramento_Nick" id="The_Treasure_of_Sacramento_Nick"></a>The Treasure of Sacramento Nick</h2>
+
+
+<p>Away on the northernmost coast of Australia lies a little world all by
+itself and unlike anything else to be found in the whole immemorial
+East. Its chief centre is in Torres Straits, where the majority of the
+inhabitants employ themselves in pearl-fishing, gathering <i>bźche-de-mer</i>
+and tortoise-shell, and generally in accumulating those gigantic
+fortunes of which one hears so much and sees so little.</p>
+
+<p>Walking the streets of Thursday Island, the smallest of the group, yet
+the centre of commerce and the seat of such government as the Colony of
+Queensland can afford it, you will be struck with the number of
+nationalities represented. Dwelling together, if not in unity, certainly
+in unison, are Caucasians and Mongolians, Ethiopians and Malayans, John
+Chinaman living cheek by jowl with the barbarian Englishman, Cingalee
+with Portuguese, Frenchman with Kanaka&mdash;all prejudices alike forgotten
+in the one absorbing struggle for the unchanging British sovereign. On
+the verandahs of the hotels sit continually men who talk with the
+familiarity of old friends about the uttermost parts of the earth, and
+whose lives are mainly spent in places to which the average man never
+goes nor dreams of going. If you are a good listener they will tell you
+many things worth knowing; and towards midnight you will feel stealing
+over you a hazy conviction that the nineteenth century is as yet unborn,
+and that you are listening to the personal narrative of Sinbad the
+Sailor in an unexpurgated form.</p>
+
+<p>One afternoon as I was sitting in my verandah watching the China
+mail-boat steam to her anchorage, and wondering if I had energy enough
+to light a third cheroot, I felt my arm touched. Turning, I discovered a
+little Solomon boy, about ten years old, attired in an ancient pair of
+hunting breeches, and grinning from ear to ear. Having succeeded in
+attracting my attention, he handed me a letter. It was from my friend,
+McBain, the manager of a pearling station on an adjacent island, and set
+forth the welcome fact that he would be pleased to see me on a matter of
+some importance, if I could spare the time to dine with him that
+evening. There was nothing I could spare more easily or more willingly.</p>
+
+<p>Once comfortably seated in the verandah, McBain explained his reason for
+sending to me. "You'll think me mad, but I've got a curiosity here that
+I want to examine before any one else gets hold of him."</p>
+
+<p>"Black or white?" I asked, with but little interest, for we lived in a
+land of human curiosities.</p>
+
+<p>"White."</p>
+
+<p>"Nationality?"</p>
+
+<p>"Cosmopolitan, I should fancy."</p>
+
+<p>"Profession?"</p>
+
+<p>"Adventurer, with a marvellous big A."</p>
+
+<p>"And hailing from&mdash;&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, he doesn't seem to know himself. One of my luggers took him out
+of an open boat about two degrees west of the Ladrones."</p>
+
+<p>"But he surely knows how he got into the boat? Men don't go pleasure
+trips across oceans without knowing whence they started. Hasn't he
+anything to say for himself?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's just what I want you to hear. Either the man's a superhuman
+liar, or else he's got a secret of the biggest thing on earth. We'll
+have him up to-night, and you shall judge for yourself."</p>
+
+<p>When dinner was over we took ourselves and our cigars into the cool
+verandah, and for half an hour or so sat smoking and talking of many
+things. Then a footstep crunched upon the path, and a tall, thin man
+stood before us.</p>
+
+<p>McBain rose and wished him "Good-evening," as he did so pushing a chair
+into such a position that I could see his face. "I beg your pardon, but
+I don't think you told me your name last night."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir, my name is Nicodemus B. Patten, of Sacramento City, State of
+California, U.S.A.&mdash;most times called Sacramento Nick."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Mr. Patten, let me introduce you to a friend who is anxious to
+hear the curious story you told me last night. Will you smoke?"</p>
+
+<p>Gravely bowing to me, he selected a cheroot, lit it, and blew the smoke
+luxuriously through his nose. The lamp light fell full and fair upon his
+face, and instinctively I began to study it. It was a remarkable
+countenance, and, in spite of its irregularity of feature, contained a
+dignity of expression which rather disconcerted me. There were evident
+traces of bodily and mental suffering in the near past, but it was
+neither the one nor the other which had stamped the lines that so much
+puzzled me. After satisfying myself on certain other points, I begged
+him to begin.</p>
+
+<p>He did so without hesitation or previous thought.</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen, before I commence my story, let me tell you that when first
+the things I am going to tell you of came about, there were three of us:
+Esdras W. Dyson, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.A.; James Dance, of
+London, England; and Nicodemus B. Patten, of Sacramento City, now before
+you. I reckon most folks would have called us adventurers, for we'd
+ferreted into nearly every corner of the globe. Snakes alive! but I've
+seen things in my time that would fairly stagger even you, and I guess
+my story of to-night ain't the least curious of 'em.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you don't remember the junk that fell foul of the <i>Bedford
+Castle</i> nigh upon three years ago, when she was four days out from
+Singapore?"</p>
+
+<p>I remembered the circumstance perfectly. It was an act of flagrant
+piracy which had made some noise at the time; and I had also a faint
+recollection of having been told that white men were suspected of being
+mixed up in it. On being asked if he knew anything of the matter, he
+said: "Well, I don't <i>say</i> we did, mind you; but I had a suspicion we
+were in China waters at the time. But bless you, in those days there
+were few places and few things that <i>we</i> hadn't a finger in. Understand,
+I am telling you this because I don't want to sail under false colours,
+and also because such work is all over now; the firm's smashed up, and
+we'll never go on the Long Trail again.</p>
+
+<p>"Two years ago, for certain reasons not necessary to mention, we wanted
+to lay by for a while, so bringing up at Batavia fixed right on to the
+Nederlander. Java's a one-horse place for business purposes, but if you
+know the ropes&mdash;well, there's not a better place in the world to hide
+in.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, gentlemen both, you may take it from me that there never was such
+a chap for browsing about among niggers, finding out what was doing, and
+if there was anything to be made, as Esdras W. Dyson, of Milwaukee,
+U.S.A.</p>
+
+<p>"In the first place, he could patter any lingo from Chinese to Malay
+with a tongue that'd talk round the devil himself; and when he
+suspicioned a nigger had anything worth knowing&mdash;well, he'd just freeze
+to that charcoal sketch till he fairly got it out of him. Rigged out in
+native dress and properly coloured, he could pass in anywhere. It was he
+who found out the thing that ruined us, brought me here, and left Jim
+and himself feeding the fishes a thousand fathoms deep. Directly we
+arrived in Batavia he began hanging round the Native Quarter, making
+himself mighty agreeable for some particular information he wanted. He
+was away for two or three days; then one night as Dance and me were
+smoking on the piazza he came striding up the path in the devil's own
+hurry. 'Boys!' says he in a whisper, 'I'm on it, up to the hilt, the
+biggest and the all-firedest stroke of good fortune we've hit yet. I'm
+going <i>fantee</i> to-night, so keep your weather eyes lifted, and when I
+say come, come right away!' With that he went to his room, and we could
+hear him rummaging about in his trunks.</p>
+
+<p>"A bit later a native fruit-hawker came round the corner, bowing and
+scraping towards us. We told him to clear out, but he commenced a
+pitiful yarn, all the time pushing his baskets closer to us. 'Fine
+Duriens and the sweetest of Mangosteens, if the Presence will only buy!'
+But the big night-watchman had caught sight of him, and came trundling
+down the piazza. You can reckon our astonishment, when the hawker said:
+'How is it, boys? Do you think they'll <i>savee</i>? Keep your kits packed
+and be prepared to <i>trek</i> directly you get the word from me.' Here the
+watchman came up. 'On the word of a poor man, the Duriens are freshly
+plucked and the Mangosteens hung upon the trees this morning.' We
+refused to buy, and he went away crying his fruit towards the Native
+Quarter.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="illus3" id="illus3"></a>
+<img src="images/illus3.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<h3>"A native fruit-hawker came round the corner."</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+<p>"For two or three days not a shadow of a sign came from him. Then one of
+those Chinese hawkers came into the square with two coolies carrying his
+goods, and as soon as we set eyes on the second nigger we recognised
+Milwaukee, and stood by to take his message in whatever form it might
+come. Pulling up at our chairs, the Chinkey told his men to set down
+their loads, himself coming across to us with a tray of fans, scents,
+and what not; but seeing Milwaukee had a packet of slippers in his
+hands, we only wanted slippers. The merchant sings out, and he brings
+'em over, handing one pair to Dance and another to me. We stepped inside
+to try them on, and, as we expected, in one of the shoes was a letter
+neatly stowed away. I forget now how it went, but it was to the effect
+that he had found out all he wanted to know, and that we were to meet
+him at eight on the Singapore Wharf at Tanjong Priok, bringing no kit
+save our revolvers.</p>
+
+<p>"After squaring things at the hotel, and destroying what was dangerous
+in our baggage, we <i>trekked</i> for the Priok just as dusk was falling.
+Sharp at eight we were waiting on the wharf where the Messagerie boats
+lie, and wondering what the deuce was going to happen. Inside of ten
+minutes a native boat came pulling up the river, and as it passed us the
+rower sneezed twice, very sharp and sudden. It was an old signal, and
+Dance gave the return. The boatman hitches right on to the steps and
+comes ashore.</p>
+
+<p>"'Good boys,' says he, very quiet and careful; 'up to time, that's
+right. Now to business! D'ye see that schooner lying outside the
+breakwater? Well, she sails at daylight. I put the skipper and mate
+ashore not ten minutes ago, and they're to return in an hour. There's
+only three chaps aboard, and it's our business to cut her out before the
+others come back. D'ye understand?'</p>
+
+<p>"'But what d'ye reckon to do then, Milwaukee?' I asked, for it seemed a
+risky game, just for the sake of a mangy Dutch trader.</p>
+
+<p>"'Never you mind now; when I do tell you, you'll say it's worth the
+candle. Come, jump in here, and I'll pull you aboard!'</p>
+
+<p>"The harbour was as quiet as the sea out yonder; a Dutch man-of-war lay
+under the wing of the breakwater, and a Sourabaya mail-boat to the left
+of her. We passed between them, down towards the lighthouse, and out
+into the open. Outside there was a bit of a sea running, but Milwaukee
+was always hard to beat, and at last we managed to get alongside.
+Somebody, most likely the anchor-watch, caught our painter, and took a
+turn in it, saying in Dutch, 'You're back early, Mynheer.' By the time
+he twigged his mistake we were aboard, and Dance had clapped a stopper
+on his mouth. The others were below, and I reckon you'd have laughed if
+you could have seen the look on their faces when, after Milwaukee's
+thumping on the fo'c'stle, they turned out to find their craft in other
+hands. However, they soon saw what was up, and reckoned it was no use
+making fools of themselves. Then Milwaukee went to the wheel, singing
+out to get sail on her, and stand by to slip the cable. We knew our
+business, and in less than twenty minutes were humming down the coast a
+good ten knots an hour.</p>
+
+<p>"As soon as the course was set and everything going smooth, Milwaukee
+made right aft to where Dance was steering. 'I guess it's time,' says
+he, 'to let you into the secret. You know me and I know you, which is
+enough said between pards. We've been in many good things together, but
+this is going to be the biggest we've sighted yet. It doesn't mean
+hundreds of pounds, but thousands, millions maybe; anyhow, enough to set
+us three up as princes all the world over!'</p>
+
+<p>"'Sounds well; but how did you come to know of it?' we asked, a bit
+doubtful like.</p>
+
+<p>"Before answering, he took a squint at the card and then aloft. 'Keep
+her as she goes, Jim. How did I come to hear of it? How does a man hear
+anything? Why, by going to the places and among the folk who talk. I got
+wind of it months ago, but never came across anything straight out till
+I went <i>fantee</i> among the niggers. Losh, boys, if you want yarns to
+raise your scalp, go down town and smoke among the darkies; I've done
+it, and you bet I know. There was one old chap who used to drop in every
+night, and smoke and chew and spit and lie till you couldn't rest. From
+his talk he'd once done a bit in our line, and his great sweat was about
+an island he'd been to fifty years ago, where there's an old Portugee
+treasure-ship aground, chock full of gold, diamonds, rubies, and pearls,
+all waitin' for the man as'll go to get 'em. At first I reckoned he
+lied, for how he got there he didn't rightly remember; but he swore he
+found the ship, and was in the act of broaching her cargo, when the
+natives came and sent him back to sea again. What he did get, except a
+bloomin' old dagger, was stolen from him in Saigon. Directly I sighted
+that instrument, I began to guess there might be something in his yarn
+after all; for, wherever he got it, it was a genuine Portugees weapon of
+a couple of hundred years back. Well, as any lubber knows, the Portugee
+sailed these seas two hundred years ago; why shouldn't one of 'em have
+been wrecked with all her cargo and never been heard of since? Answer me
+that! Anyhow, you bet I froze to that nigger.</p>
+
+<p>"'At first he played cunning and seemed to suspicion I was after
+something. So one night I got him alone and&mdash;d'ye remember Hottentot Joe
+in the Kimberley?&mdash;well, p'raps I played the same game on this old cove,
+and when he was sound off I began to pump him all I knew. The old chap
+had been sailing pretty near to the truth, but still he'd kept a bit up
+his sleeve; however, I got that bit, and here's his chart as near as I
+can fix it.'</p>
+
+<p>"So saying, he drew out a paper and held it to the binnacle. Then
+putting his finger on a coloured mark, he went on: 'It's a bit hazy
+steering after we get here, inasmuch as, being a nigger, he couldn't
+keep proper reckoning. But once among these islands, I guess we can't be
+far off the right one, and to find it&mdash;by God, we'll search every
+mud-bank in the Pacific! Accordin' to his fixin' it has a big mountain
+climbing from its centre, with a monster white rock half-way up, shaped
+like a man's fist. In a bee-line with the rock there's a creek running
+inland, big enough to float a seventy-four; follow that creek up a mile
+or so and you come to a lake, and on the other side of that lake's where
+the old barge ought to be. Now, what do you think?'</p>
+
+<p>"'What do I think? Why, I think, Milwaukee, you are a fool to have
+brought us on such a rotten chase, and we're bigger fools to have
+followed you. The island, I guess, never existed, and we'll get
+stretched for this boat by the first warship that sights us. But now we
+are here, we'd better make the best of it. What do you say, Jim?'</p>
+
+<p>"'I stand with you,' said Dance, and that settled it.</p>
+
+<p>"To make a long story short, we sailed that hooker right on end for nigh
+upon three weeks. The wind was mostly favourable, the boat had a
+slippery pair of heels, and the stores, considering they were laid in by
+Dutchmen, were none too bad. Only one thing was wrong to my thinking,
+and that was the supply of grog aboard. If I had my way there'd have
+been a gimlet through the lot; but Milwaukee was skipper, and wouldn't
+hear of it.</p>
+
+<p>"Tuesday, the thirteenth of January, saw the tether of the old darkie's
+chart, so we held a bit of a palaver, and settled to go on cruising
+about the islands which we were picking up and dropping every day.</p>
+
+<p>"You folk who live inside this rot-gut reef don't know what islands are.
+Out there, you see them on all sides, pushing their green heads up to
+watch the ships go by, with the air so warm, the sea so green, and the
+sky so blue that it's like living in a new world. Birds of every colour
+fly across your bows all day, and in the hush of night, lying out on
+deck, you can hear the waterfalls trickling ashore, and now and again
+the crash of a big tree falling in the jungle.</p>
+
+<p>"One forenoon while I was at the wheel, Milwaukee and Jim Dance fell to
+quarrelling. It started over nothing, and would have come to nothing but
+for that tarnation liquor. I sung out to them to stop; but it was no
+use, so leaving the hooker to look after herself, I went forrard. Before
+I could reach him, the skipper had drawn a revolver, and I heard Jim
+cry, 'For Gawd's sake don't shoot!' Then there was a report, and sure
+enough Dance fell dead.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you picture it? Overhead, the blue sky, a few white clouds, and the
+canvas just drawing; on the deck, poor Jim lying as if asleep, and
+Milwaukee leaning against the foremast staring at him. Seein' there was
+no use in keepin' the body aboard, I called one of the Dutchmen aft and
+told him to fix it up in a bit of canvas. Then together we hove it
+overboard; it sank with a dull plunge, and so we lost the first of our
+mess.</p>
+
+<p>"Milwaukee being too drunk to take his trick at the wheel, I stood it
+for him. A bit before sundown he comes on deck looking terrible fierce
+and haggard. Rolling aft, he says with a voice solemn as a judge:
+'Sacramento Nick, you're a good man and true. On your Bible oath, may
+God strike you dead if you lie, did I shoot James Dance, mariner?'</p>
+
+<p>"Seeing what was passing in his mind, I said simply, 'You did.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Was I drunk, being in charge of this vessel at the time?'</p>
+
+<p>"'You were!'</p>
+
+<p>"'That is your word and deed, so help you God?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Ay, ay!'</p>
+
+<p>"'Well, that being so, no more need be said. It's the sentence of the
+court. Shipmate, your hand.'</p>
+
+<p>"We shook hands, and he turned to the taffrail. Before I knew what he
+was about, he had leaped upon it and plunged into the sea. He only rose
+once; then the white belly of a shark showed uppermost, and never again
+did I see Esdras W. Dyson, of Milwaukee City, Wisconsin.</p>
+
+<p>"Three days later, when I was too dog-tired to keep watch, those
+cut-throat Dutchmen mutinied and sent me adrift in the long-boat with
+one week's provisions and a small beaker of water.</p>
+
+<p>"Strangers, have you ever been cast adrift? I can see you haven't; well,
+hope that your luck don't run that way. Fortunately it was fair weather,
+and I was able to rig a bit of a sail; but how long I was cruising among
+those islands, drat me if I know. Being ignorant, so to speak, of my
+position, one way was as another, and when short of provisions I'd just
+go ashore, pick fruit, fill my beaker, and then set sail again. One warm
+afternoon I found myself abreast of the largest island I'd seen yet.
+From its centre rose a high mountain, and, strike me dead if I lie,
+half-way up that last was <i>a big white rock, shaped like a man's fist</i>!
+When I saw it I was clean staggered; I stood up and stared till I could
+stare no longer. It was just as if I'd stumbled by mistake on the very
+island we'd set out to seek. By tacking I managed to get right under its
+lee, and there, sure enough, between two high banks was the entrance to
+a fairish river. Furling the sail, I took to my oars and pulled inside.
+The sun was close on down by this time, and I was dog-tired; so as
+nothing could be gained by bursting the boilers, when, as far as I knew,
+all the future was afore me, I anchored where I was, and stayed in my
+boat till morning.</p>
+
+<p>"You bet as soon as it was light I pushed on again, bringing out on a
+slap-up lake perhaps a mile long by half a mile across. The water was as
+clear as crystal and as smooth as glass. Making for a plain of dazzling
+white sand at the furthest end, I beached my boat and prepared to start
+explorations. Then, just as her nose grounded, my eyes caught sight of a
+big creeper-covered mass lying all alone in the centre of the plain. May
+I never know a shieve-hole from a harness-cask again, if it wasn't an
+old galleon of the identical pattern to be seen in the Columbus'
+picter-books. Trembling like a palsied monkey, I jumped out and ran for
+it.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="illus4" id="illus4"></a>
+<img src="images/illus4.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<h3>"Then, just as her nose grounded, my eyes caught sight of a big creeper-covered mass."</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+<p>"She may have been close on a hundred tons burden, but it was impossible
+to calculate her size exactly for the heap of stuff that covered her.
+How she ever got on to that plain, and why she hadn't rotted clean away
+during the two hundred years or more she must have lain there, are
+things I can't explain. Anyhow, I didn't stay to puzzle 'em out then,
+but set to work hunting for a way to get inside her. From the main-deck
+seemed to be the best course, and to reach that I started hacking at the
+blooming creepers. It was harder work than you'd think, for they'd
+spliced and twisted 'emselves into cables, and a jack-knife was about as
+much use on 'em as a tooth-pick. When night came I'd done a big day's
+work, and had only just got a footing on her deck.</p>
+
+<p>"Next morning I went at it again, and by mid-day had the satisfaction of
+standing before the cuddy entrance. Again I felt the same dod-dratted
+funk creeping over me; but when I remembered the treasure, I said
+good-bye to that, and placed my shoulder against the door. It crumbled
+away and fell in a heap upon the deck, and when the dust had passed I
+found myself at the entrance of a small alleyway leading into the
+saloon. I entered it, stepping gingerly; but had only gone a few steps
+before the deck suddenly gave way, and I found myself disappearing with
+a crash into the lower regions. The fall was a darned sight bigger than
+I liked; but it served a purpose, for my weight on landing started a
+plank and brought a glimmer of light into the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>"Finding I was not hurt, I fell to groping for a way out again; then I
+noticed the rottenness of the timbers, and determined to enlarge the
+light I had just made. The two kicks and a shove brought a flood of
+sunshine pouring in, and a horrible sight met my eyes. I was standing
+beside an old-fashioned bed-place on which lay (you may believe me or
+not) the mummified body of a man stretched full out and hanging on to
+the stanchions like grim death. He was not alone, for in the centre of
+the cabin, clutching at a heavy table, was another chap, also perfectly
+preserved, half standing, with his feet braced against the thick
+cross-bars and his shrivelled parchment face, with its staring eyes
+turned towards me, grinning like a poisoned cat. My scalp seemed to lift
+and my innards to turn to water. Letting out one yell, I clambered for
+the open air.</p>
+
+<p>"Outside all was sunshine, blue sky, and bright colour, and, as if to
+set off what I had just left, a big butterfly came hovering towards me.
+In a few minutes my presence of mind returned, and I began to laugh at
+the idea of Sacramento Nick being afeared of dead men; so back I went in
+search of further mysteries. Again I entered the cuddy, and lowered
+myself into the under-cabin; but this time I was prepared for anything.
+The treasure-guard stared, but said nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"While I was wondering how I'd best set about my search, a smart breeze
+came whistling in, caught the figure at the table, disengaged his hold,
+and brought his old carcase with a dry rattle to the floor. With his
+fall a small piece of metal rolled to my feet, and picking it up I found
+it to be a key of real curious shape and workmanship. Fired with my
+discoveries, I slipped across to try it on the first of the chests I saw
+ranged round the cabin, when to my astonishment I found it open.
+Somebody had been there before me; perhaps I was too late! All of a
+sweat I looked in, but 'twas too dark; I tried to pull the whole chest
+towards the light, but it was a main sight too heavy. Then I plunged my
+hand in and&mdash;great Jehoshaphat, how I yelled! Clutching what I could
+hold, I dashed across the cabin, up into the light, and throwing myself
+upon the ground, spread what I had brought before me. It took less than
+a second to see that they were diamonds, and, by all the stars and
+stripes, diamonds of the first water! There they lay winking and
+blinking at me and the sun, and for the first time I began to <i>savee</i> my
+amazing wealth. For the minute I was clean stark staring mad. I closed
+my eyes, and wondered if when I opened them again I should find it all a
+dream; but no, the beauties were there, looking brighter and even larger
+than before.</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen, it's strange how the habits and precautions of civilization
+linger with a man even in the queerest places. For while not twenty
+yards from where I stood was greater wealth than I or fifty men could
+ever spend, I found myself fearful of losing one, picking each gem up
+with scrupulous care, and securing it inside my jumper. The next box was
+locked, so I tried the key. In spite of age and rust the wards shot back
+and the cover lifted. Again I felt the touch of stones, and again
+seizing a handful, I went back into the light. This time they were
+rubies; Burmese rubies, my experience told me, and not a tarnation flaw
+in one of 'em. For a second time I carefully picked them up and was
+hiding 'em as before, when I happened to look round. Dash my buttons, if
+I was alone! On all sides were niggers regarding me with considerable
+attention. I sprang to my feet and felt for my revolver. Fool that I
+was, I had left it in the boat! Seeing that I was aware of their
+presence, they closed in on me, and as they did so I took stock of 'em.
+They were unlike other South Sea natives, being of better build and but
+little darker than myself. True, they were rigged out in a short
+loin-cloth not unlike <i>tappa</i>, but they carried neither spear nor
+shield. When I saw this I was for showing fight, but soon gave that idea
+up; they were too many for me.</p>
+
+<p>"After a few minutes' inspection they began to march me through the
+forest in a westerly direction, all the time talking a lingo that seemed
+curiously familiar. Just upon sunset we entered a large clearing on
+which stood a fair-sized native village, and I thought as I looked at it
+that, if ever I got out of this mess and turned to blackbirding, I'd
+know where to come for niggers. It contained perhaps fifty huts, all
+built of wood and with conical-shaped grass roofs. A trim garden ran
+down the centre, at the furthest end of which stood the largest and the
+most slap-up building of the lot. As soon as we hove in sight, a crowd
+came out to meet us, and in the middle of hundreds of yelling darkies I
+was marched up to the big house. The old chief, who had been bossing
+affairs with the swagger of a New York policeman, told me to wait while
+he carried his carcass up some steps and disappeared. After a little
+while he returned, and signified that I should follow him.</p>
+
+<p>"When I got inside I had plenty of time to look about me, for it must
+have been full half an hour before any one came. Then some grass
+curtains were drawn aside, and what looked like a man entered. I say
+<i>looked like</i>, because I ain't really clear in my mind as to <i>what</i> he
+was; anyway, I shouldn't be far from the mark in sayin' he was quite a
+hundred years old, and just about as deformed as he well could be. He
+was as white as myself, and from the antics of the chief who had fetched
+me to his presence I could see that he had a great hold over the
+niggers. Throwing himself upon the ground, that old fool of a chief
+feebly wagged his toes till told to rise. Then he started explaining
+where he had found me and what I was doing.</p>
+
+<p>"During his yarn, old grandfer', whose name I afterwards found was Don
+Silvio, riddled me into augurholes with his evil little eyes; then,
+having ordered the chief out, he started to examine me himself. He spoke
+the same lingo as the niggers, a sort of bastard Portugee, and still
+looking me through and through, asked, 'Stranger, how came you to this
+island?'</p>
+
+<p>"I reckoned it best to keep the real truth from him, so said, 'I am a
+shipwrecked mariner, Seńor, and fetched here in an open boat.'</p>
+
+<p>"His eyes blazed, and his long, lean fingers twitched round his jewelled
+stick. 'And had you no thought of what treasure you might find?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Seńor,' said I, looking him square in the face, 'let me put it to you.
+Is it likely that a shipwrecked mariner would think of treasure?'</p>
+
+<p>"A storm was brewing in his eyes, and I guessed it would break on me.
+Suddenly he yelled: 'You lie&mdash;you dog, you thief&mdash;you lie! You came for
+what you could steal, but nothing shall you take away, nothing&mdash;not one
+stone. The Fates that consumed those who came aforetime shall consume
+you also. Shipwreck or no shipwreck, you shall die!'</p>
+
+<p>"He fell to beating a gong with his stick, and a dozen or so natives
+came tumbling in. They seemed to know their business, and before I had
+time to get in a word I was being dragged away down the street, to a
+small and securely guarded hut, where I was pushed in and the door
+closed. Disliking the look of things, as soon as I recovered my breath I
+started hunting about for a way of escape, but that was no good. Added
+to my other troubles, I was just famishing, and was beginning to fix it
+that my end was to be starvation, when footsteps approached, the door
+opened, and a native girl appeared, bearing on her head two wooden
+dishes which she set down before me. Being a favourite with the sex, I
+tried to draw her into conversation, but either she didn't understand my
+talk or fear had taken away her tongue; anyway, not a word would she
+utter. After she had left me I set to work on the food, and never before
+or since have I enjoyed a meal so much. Then stretching myself on some
+dry reeds in a corner I soon fell asleep.</p>
+
+<p>"I was awakened in the chill grey of dawn by the entrance of the same
+beauty, who put down my breakfast, saying as she did so, 'White man, eat
+well, for at sunrise you die!' For a moment the shock cleared me out of
+speech; I could only sit and stare at her. She seemed to see what was
+going on in my mind, and as if in comfort added, 'Stranger, why do you
+fear death? It can only come once!'</p>
+
+<p>"Her reasoning, though logical enough, wasn't of the kind calculated to
+meet my trouble, and when she had left me I started wondering if anybody
+in Sacramento City would ever hear of my fate, and bitterly cursing the
+day I set out in search of this villainous island. As I sat with my head
+upon my hands, the jewels I had stuck in my jumper fell to the floor and
+lay there taunting me with their sparkling splendour. Howsomever, it was
+no use crying over spilled milk; I had brought the situation on myself,
+and, whatever happened, must go through with it. Suddenly my ear caught
+the pat of naked feet outside the cell. Then the door was unbarred and
+the chief entered. 'Come, white man,' he said, 'all is made ready, and
+the axe waits for the bare flesh!' How would you have felt in such a
+situation? As for myself, I put a good face on it, and resolved, since I
+could no longer live a free and independent American citizen, to die as
+such. Pity, I thought, there wasn't a band. I was led up the village to
+the open plot before Don Silvio's house. It might have been the fourth
+of July for the crowd that was assembled. In the centre, for my special
+benefit, was an object which held an awful fascination for me; a
+curiously carved block of wood, dull brown in colour, and on two sides
+much stained and worn. It didn't take me a year to understand what it
+meant; and you may think it strange, seeing the nature of my position,
+but, true as gospel, I fell to wondering how my long neck would figure
+stretched across it.</p>
+
+<p>"When I was halted, I took it for granted that the work of dispatching
+me would commence at once, but I was mistaken. The execution could not
+take place until the arrival of Don Silvio, and the sun was a good hour
+up before there was a stir in the crowd, and the withered monkey-faced
+little devil came stumping towards me. If he had appeared a hundred
+years old in the half-dark of his house, he now looked double that age,
+but the fire in his eyes was as bright as ever. Hobbling to within a
+dozen paces of where I stood, he took thorough stock of me. Then,
+tapping the block with his stick, he said: 'Seńor, you are about to hunt
+treasure in a golden country, where I trust your efforts may meet with
+better success. I wish you farewell.' After relieving himself of this,
+he went to his seat; two natives raised a great grass umbrella above his
+head, and, all being comfortable, he gave orders for the performance to
+begin. A nigger stepped from the crowd and approached me, carrying in
+his hand an axe. Reaching the block he signed me to kneel. I took a last
+look round&mdash;first at the thick jungle, then at the great mountain
+pushing itself up into the blue sky. After that my eyes returned to the
+block, and, gentlemen both, a wonderful circumstance happened.
+Understand me clearly! Standing on either side of it were two thin
+columns of palest blue smoke, maybe six feet in height. As I stared at
+'em they gradually took the shapes of men, till I could make out the
+features of old Milwaukee and poor Jim Dance, of London Town. They
+seemed to be gently beckoning me and telling me not to fear. P'raps I
+kind of understood, for I stretched my long neck across the block
+without a sign of funk. I heard the cackling laugh of Don Silvio, I saw
+the headsman draw a step closer, his arms go up, and then I shut my
+eyes, and remember no more.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>"When I came to my senses I was lying on the bed of rushes in my old
+quarters, and the native girl before mentioned was seated beside me. On
+putting my hand to my head to sort of fix matters, she laughed merrily,
+and said: 'Stranger, it is still there, but to-morrow it will certainly
+be gone!' Why they hadn't killed me I couldn't understand, unless it was
+to put me to the torture of waiting another day; anyhow, the following
+morning I was prepared for the guard when they came to lead me out.</p>
+
+<p>"Once more the crowd was there, once more that villainous old Don kept
+me waiting, and once more the axe went up but failed to strike. I was
+respited for another day. Well, this sort of thing happened every
+blessed morning, till I nearly went mad with the strain of it. On the
+eighth day, instead of being kept in the square, I was marched straight
+to the Don's house. The old pirate was waiting for me, and as soon as I
+arrived fell to questioning me about the outer world, seeming to take an
+all-fired interest in such parts of my own life as I thought fit to tell
+him. When he had found out all he wanted, he said: 'Go now, for the
+present you are free; but remember, if you but approach that ship by so
+much as half a mile, that same moment you die!' I stumbled out of his
+presence and down the street like a man dazed. That he had some reason
+for sparing my life was certain; but what it was, for the life of me I
+couldn't then determine. Arriving at my hut, I threw myself upon the
+rushes and tried to think it out.</p>
+
+<p>"That evening, a little after sundown, while walking outside the village
+and racking my brain for a chance of escape, an event happened which
+changed all my thoughts and plans. I was passing through a bit of
+jungle, where the fireflies were beginning to play to and fro, when I
+came face to face with the most beautiful girl I had ever seen,
+and&mdash;well, I'm a free-born American citizen, and as such the equal of
+any man living; but I reckon that young woman took the conceit out of
+me. She couldn't have been more than eighteen years of age: her skin was
+as white as milk, her hair and eyes of the deepest black; and when she
+walked it was like the sound of falling rose-leaves. Seeing me, she
+started with surprise, and was half-inclined to run; but something
+seemed to tell her I wasn't particular harmful, so overcoming her fear
+she said, 'Seńor, I am glad my grandfather has given you your freedom!'
+Her grandfather! Not being able to make it out, I said, 'Surely, miss,
+Don Silvio ain't your grandfather?' 'No, Seńor, he was my father's
+grandfather, but I call him so because the other is so tedious.' Perhaps
+my manner, as I say, didn't appear very dangerous; anyway, after this
+her bashfulness seemed to vanish, and we walked back to the village as
+comfortable as you please. She told me that it was she who had induced
+the old rascal to spare my life, and I reckon the look I gave her for
+that had something to do with the flush as spread across her face. She
+also let me into the risk I had run by breaking into the old galleon,
+which, accordin' to her tellin', was a sacred thing upon the island. She
+did not know how long it had lain there, but suspicioned her
+great-grandfather had commanded it as a young man, and that all the rest
+who came with him were dead,&mdash;a fact which, you bet, I could quite
+believe.</p>
+
+<p>"The moon was full up before we sighted the village, and when she left
+me I went back to my hut in a flumux of enchantment, as much in love as
+the veriest schoolboy. Somehow after this I never thought of escape, but
+set to work improving my quarters and laying out a garden. Every day Don
+Silvio came to question me, and you'd better guess I did my best to
+corral the old chap's confidence. How I got on you'll hear shortly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, each evening as soon as the sun was down, I visited the grove
+beyond the village, where, sure enough, I always met the Don's
+great-granddaughter. Her beauty and amazin' innocence so held me that I
+was nearly mad to make her my wife; and when I found that she reckoned
+to have the same liking for me, I could bear it no longer, so went right
+off to ask the old man for her hand. Not having the least hope of being
+successful, you can judge of my surprise when he promised her to me
+straight away, and, what's more, fixed it that the wedding should take
+place next day. He kept his word, and on the following morning, in the
+presence of all the village, she became my wife.</p>
+
+<p>"The year that followed topped everything I ever knew of happiness. It
+slipped by in a rosy mist, and when our boy was born my cup was full. I
+proclaimed him American, according to the constitution of the United
+States, and the old Don announced a great feast in his honour. It was
+spread in the square, and all the village sat down to it. I can see the
+sight now: the shadowy outline of the mountain beyond the great flaring
+torches of sweet-smelling wood, the long rows of tables, the shouts and
+laughter of the niggers, and at the head, between my wife and her
+great-grandfather, the boy in his cradle. When the feast was right at
+its height, the old Don rose and handed me a silver mug filled with some
+sweet liquor. He told me to drink to my son's health, and suspecting no
+treachery, I did so. Next moment a change stole over me; I made a try to
+get on to my feet, but it was no use; everything seemed to be slipping
+away. I could just see my wife start towards me and the old Don pull her
+back, when my head sank on the table, and my senses left me.</p>
+
+<p>"The next thing I remember is finding myself lying precious sick and
+weak at the bottom of my own boat, with nothing but the big green seas
+rolling around me. The island had vanished, and with it my wife and
+child. At first I reckoned I must have been asleep and dreamed the last
+year; but no, the food with which the boat was stocked was clear enough
+evidence of its truth. For an eternity I sailed those cursed seas this
+way and that, seeking for the land I had lost; but I must have drifted
+into different waters, for I saw no more islands. My food ran out, and I
+had given up all hope of being saved, when one of your luggers hove in
+sight and picked me up.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, gentlemen, you've heard my story. Whether you believe it or not,
+of course I don't know; but I take my affidavy that all I have told you
+is true; and what's more, if you'll fit out a vessel to search for that
+island and its treasure, I'll take command of her. Should we find it, I
+reckon I can make you the two richest men on earth; and when I get my
+wife and child I shall be the happiest. In proof that the treasure's
+there, and as my contribution towards the expenses, I hand you this."
+From an inner pocket he produced a leather pouch, from which he took
+what at first appeared to be a small piece of crystal; on inspection it
+turned out to be a diamond, worth at least a hundred pounds. "That
+stone," said he, holding it at the angle which would best show its fire,
+"came from the coffers of the treasure-ship, and is the only one left
+out of all I saw and took. I will leave it with you for the present.
+Remember, there's thousands more aboard the old galleon, bigger and
+better nor that. Say, gentlemen, will you adventure for such
+merchandise?"</p>
+
+<p>It was too late to go into the question that night, so we bade him come
+up for a further talk in the morning. Rising, he gravely bowed to us,
+and without another word withdrew. Next day he was not to be found, nor
+has he ever made his appearance since. Whether he lost himself and fell
+into the sea, or whether he was an impostor and feared detection, I
+haven't the remotest idea. I only know that I have a valuable diamond in
+my possession, which I am waiting to restore to its uncommonly curious
+owner.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Into_the_Outer_Darkness" id="Into_the_Outer_Darkness"></a>Into the Outer Darkness</h2>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"I am not wrath, my own lost love, although<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">My heart is breaking&mdash;wrath I am not, no!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For all thou dost in diamonds blaze, no ray<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of light into thy heart's night finds its way.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I saw thee in a dream. Oh, piteous sight!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I saw thy heart all empty, all in night;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I saw the serpent gnawing at thy heart;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I saw how wretched, oh, my love, thou art!"<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&mdash;<span class="smcap">Heine.</span><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p>You will, perhaps, remember how the soul of Tom Guilfoy was saved by his
+wife, how Godfrey Halkett was killed by his sweetheart, and how the
+plans of the Kangaroo Girl were shattered at one blow by a certain
+grandee aide-de-camp. All those things are matters of history. This is a
+story of a similar nature, but with a somewhat different ending.</p>
+
+<p>I am not going to tell you how I acquired my information, nor shall I
+say in which Australian colony the events occurred. If you have ever
+originated a scandal yourself, you will understand why and sympathise
+with me. Remember, however, personally, I don't blame them. Situated as
+they were, they couldn't have done otherwise. But I <i>do</i> contend that it
+refutes the charge globe-trotters bring against us when they say <i>there
+is nothing underneath the surface of Australian society</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Officially, and for the purposes of trade, the man was named Cyril
+George Paton Haywood; his friends, however, called him Lancelot. The
+woman's maiden name was Alice Mary Whittaker, otherwise Guinevere; and
+as Lancelot and Guinevere, they are as famous through three colonies as
+a certain governor's mislaid particular despatch.</p>
+
+<p>Lancelot was in the Civil Service, Deputy-Assistant-Registrar-General of
+Lands, Titles, or something brilliant of that description.
+Departmentally, he ranked high, was entitled to wear a uniform on
+occasion, and boasted the right of private <i>entrée</i> at vice-regal
+levees; financially, however, he was too low altogether. The greyheads
+lost no opportunity of affirming that he was too young, and even cadets
+know that it is impossible for a man to be accounted brilliant until age
+has removed the opportunity of showing it. That is why, according to the
+peculiarity of our legislation, we venerate and retain fossils to the
+detriment of younger and abler men.</p>
+
+<p>Among other things Lancelot was consumptive, and, apart from his salary,
+penniless. So he naturally loved Guinevere, with a love that was
+dog-like in its faithfulness, and she returned his passion with equal
+fervour. For three seasons, to my certain knowledge, they drove
+together, sat out dances together, and met on every conceivable
+opportunity. She was desperately thorough in everything she undertook.
+Any man who has ever danced with her will confirm this statement.</p>
+
+<p>Then King Arthur appeared on the scene, and languid society&mdash;we were in
+the hills for the hot months&mdash;sat down to watch results.</p>
+
+<p>Arthur was not an ideal knight in any way. His past was a sealed book,
+therefore it was adjudged disreputable; his present was a golden age, so
+he had evidently turned over a new leaf. He was worth a quarter of a
+million, men said; but even that couldn't prevent him from being a podgy
+little red man with a double chin, always horribly clean, and given to
+the display of many diamonds. He told Mrs. Whittaker, in confidence, at
+the Bellakers' ball, that he was anxious to marry and settle down if he
+could only meet the right sort of girl; and, being a good mother, she
+informed her husband, in the brougham on the way home, that she could
+put her hand on just the very identical maid.</p>
+
+<p>Whittaker said nothing, for he was fighting a financial crisis at the
+time; and, besides, he had every confidence in his wife.</p>
+
+<p>About a month later Arthur purchased a gorgeous summer palace half-way
+up the mountain-road, furnished it magnificently, and set himself to
+entertain on his own lines. He had for neighbours a dignified judge and
+a popular widow. The judge lent him tone, the widow gave him female
+society. Indirectly, he paid through the nose for both.</p>
+
+<p>Needless to say, every one was disposed to be cordial, for he gave
+delightful impromptu dances on cool summer evenings, and his iced
+champagne-cup was undeniable. He threw his tennis-courts open to society
+generally, and his billiard-room was the rendezvous for youths of
+sporting tastes for miles round. He also organized lovely moonlight
+riding picnics; and after a day in the sweltering heat of the plains, it
+was vastly refreshing to dodge through the cool gullies in congenial
+company.</p>
+
+<p>Early in the summer Lancelot took rooms in the township down the
+hillside, and in the evenings he would stroll quietly along the mountain
+roads with Guinevere. Of course every one else was strolling too, but
+that only gave zest to the affair; and as most of them were also playing
+at love, their presence hardly mattered.</p>
+
+<p>In the autumn, when people were beginning to think of returning to the
+city, Whittaker died, leaving his family almost unprovided for.</p>
+
+<p>King Arthur was among the first to tender his sympathies, and, I'm told,
+after five minutes' preamble, asked point-blank for Guinevere's hand in
+marriage.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of her grief, Mrs. Whittaker was able to grasp the majesty of
+his offer, and took care that night to show her daughter how necessary
+it was, for all their sakes, that she should marry well. Guinevere,
+however, could not see it in the same light. If it had been Lancelot,
+she would have been only too happy, she said; but even for her family's
+sake she was not going to marry anybody else. The mother postponed the
+matter for a week, then she argued, pleaded, threatened, and finally
+wept; but her daughter remained obstinate.</p>
+
+<p>Knowing all this, you can imagine our surprise when, two months later,
+the engagement of King Arthur to beautiful Guinevere was publicly
+announced. But what amazed us still more was the fact that Lancelot did
+not seem to be affected thereby in the very smallest degree. His heart
+complaint was rapidly developing itself, and perhaps his valve demanded
+his complete attention.</p>
+
+<p>If, however, we had seen a certain little letter, smeared with
+tear-stains and innumerable blotches, we might have understood matters;
+but as we did not, we had, like a certain lady of scriptural fame, to
+argue on what might be called insufficient premises.</p>
+
+<p>Towards the end of June, Arthur and Guinevere were married in the
+Anglican Cathedral, the Lord Bishop officiating.</p>
+
+<p>It was in all respects a brilliant wedding, and the bridegroom's present
+to the bride was a thing to see and marvel over. Guinevere walked
+through the ceremony as if she had been doing nothing else from
+childhood. (As I have said, she was desperately thorough in all she
+undertook.) Lancelot was not present; his health would not permit of it,
+he said.</p>
+
+<p>The happy couple left the same day in the steamer <i>Chang-Sha</i>, to spend
+their honeymoon in Japan.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>One morning, on arrival at the office, Lancelot found a letter on his
+table. It was from an eminent firm of English solicitors, and informed
+him of the death of an unknown relative, who, in consideration perhaps
+of their never having met, had left him the sum of thirty thousand
+pounds snugly invested.</p>
+
+<p>He was barely interested, and asked what earthly manner of use it was to
+him now? Any one could see that he was growing daily worse, and I
+believe it was that very week that his doctor first insisted that he
+should resign his appointments and settle down in some quiet place,
+where he could not be excited in any shape or form. He was only
+thirty-three, but a very old man.</p>
+
+<p>Early in December the happy couple returned to the south. The hot
+weather had commenced, again everybody was resident in the hills. Arthur
+and his wife went straight to the palace on the mountain-road, and on
+her first "afternoon," Guinevere's large drawing-room was filled with
+callers. Two things were painfully evident to the least observant: she
+was only a walking skeleton, while her husband was cleaner and more
+distressfully polite than ever. At first, we didn't know how to account
+for it; but men who saw his brandy-pegs understood what they meant, and
+told their women-folk, who, as usual, spread the report abroad.</p>
+
+<p>Lancelot called on the Monday following their return, and Arthur
+welcomed him, if anything, a little too effusively. Guinevere crossed
+the room to shake hands, and the afternoon light enabled them to take
+stock of each other properly. They were a pair of ghosts, and each was
+shocked almost beyond the bounds of decency at the change in the other.
+He followed her to the Japanese afternoon tea-table, and took a cup of
+tea from her hands. The tremor of the cup and saucer told their own
+tale. Arthur watched them from the fireplace with the blandest of smiles
+upon his face. It pleased him to see the tears gather in his wife's
+eyes, as she recognised the change in her old lover. From that day
+forward, Lancelot was made free of the house, and Arthur insisted that
+he should be asked to every function, however great or small.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever his own thoughts might have been, Lancelot could not fail to
+see the pleasure his society gave Guinevere, so he settled it in his own
+mind that the invitations emanated from her. His health was too feeble
+to admit of his riding or playing tennis; but driving along the
+mountain-roads, strolling in the gardens, or idling in the music-room,
+he was her constant companion. Naturally, folk talked, though Arthur
+assured them that he was only too glad to see his wife happy with her
+old friends. But it was not true, the long brandy pawnee glasses in his
+study said so most emphatically.</p>
+
+<p>This sort of thing went on all through the summer months, until the
+roses began to bloom again in Guinevere's cheeks. Her husband noticed
+the change, but did not comment on it; he was going to have his day of
+reckoning by-and-by.</p>
+
+<p>One day Lancelot called upon a certain famous specialist (I'll tell you
+a pretty piece of scandal about his wife some day), and after a brief
+wait was shown into the consulting-room. He sniffed the professional
+smell of the place for five minutes, and while listening to the ticking
+of the clock upon the mantelpiece, made up his mind on a certain
+subject.</p>
+
+<p>After the specialist had completed a searching examination, Lancelot
+said,&mdash;"As you see, I am growing thinner every day; it nearly kills me
+to walk fifty yards, and my appetite has forsaken me completely. It's
+not the first time you've told men their fate: tell me mine. What is the
+length of my tether?"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear sir, my very dear sir!" that worthy man replied, as he put his
+paraphernalia back into their respective cases, "we must not despair!
+While there is life there is hope; with proper care you may yet&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But I shall take no care. How long have I to live?"</p>
+
+<p>"As I have said, with scrupulous attention to detail and proper advice,
+say twelve months, possibly more."</p>
+
+<p>"And without that care?"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot tell you&mdash;perhaps five minutes, perhaps five months; it
+depends upon yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad to hear that. Good-day!"</p>
+
+<p>As he stepped into his buggy a letter crinkled in his breast-pocket. He
+laid himself back on the seat, murmuring Heine's</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Lay your dear little hand on my heart, my fair!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ah! you hear how it knocks on its chamber there?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In there dwells a carpenter grim and vile,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And he's shaping a coffin for me the while.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"There is knocking and hammering night and day;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Long since they have frightened my sleep away.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh, carpenter, show that you know your trade,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That so to sleep I may soon be laid!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Half-way up the mountain-road, Arthur overtook the buggy and cantered
+alongside.</p>
+
+<p>"You're looking pretty cheap, old man," he said; "better come to dinner
+to-night, and see if we can't cheer you up&mdash;7.30 as usual!"</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks! I think I will," answered Lancelot. "I don't feel particularly
+bright!"</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Immediately after dessert Guinevere retired, leaving her husband and
+their guest together.</p>
+
+<p>As Lancelot drew his handkerchief from his pocket, a letter came with it
+and fell unnoticed to the floor.</p>
+
+<p>On rising Arthur saw it and picked it up. He read it without apology,
+and as he did so his face set. Then he politely handed it to his guest,
+saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I must beg your pardon, this is evidently your property!"</p>
+
+<p>Lancelot did not speak, but sank back in his chair while the other
+continued,&mdash;"This is really a most unfortunate affair; and so my wife is
+about to dishonour my name, in order to devote herself more exclusively
+to the care of your health?"</p>
+
+<p>"The fault is mine," stammered Lancelot, "only mine!"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear fellow, not at all. Judging from that letter, she is in love
+with you&mdash;possibly she is right. We won't argue that matter. She seems
+fond of playing the <i>rōle</i> of St. Mary Magdala."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Turn her out of my house to-night, or settle the matter with you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Settle with me; but for God's sake spare her!"</p>
+
+<p>"Very well! Let us discuss the question quietly. As you know, I do not
+believe in what is called sentiment, and fortunately I am able to say,
+with a clear conscience, that I am not in love with my wife. Probably if
+I were, I should act otherwise. Now, what I propose is, that chance
+shall decide for us whether my wife leaves Australia, as she suggests,
+with you, or whether you go alone concealing your destination and
+promising never to communicate in any way with her again. Both are
+unpleasant alternatives, but my gain is, that in either case I shall be
+rid of you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Good God, man, what an unholy arrangement! Supposing I refuse?"</p>
+
+<p>"For her sake you cannot. I assure you I should turn her out of my house
+to-night!"</p>
+
+<p>"But will you treat her kindly if I agree?"</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't that rather a curious question from you to me? You must see that
+it depends entirely on her. Do you agree to my proposal?"</p>
+
+<p>"God help me, I have no alternative!"</p>
+
+<p>There was a long pause, during which Guinevere's music came faintly from
+the drawing-room.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well; in that case, we had better decide at once. What is my wife
+playing?"</p>
+
+<p>"An Andante and Scherzo of Beethoven's."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thoroughly."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you have that much in your favour. See, here, it is just three and
+a half minutes to nine by that clock. If she stops before the first
+stroke of the hour, I win, and she stays with me, and <i>vice versā</i>. Do
+you agree?"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot do otherwise. God help her; it is all my fault!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all, I assure you. Let us make ourselves comfortable. Will you
+try that port? No? You are foolish; it is an excellent vintage. Ah! one
+minute gone! What a lovely melody it is; and she plays it charmingly.
+The laughter of the Scherzo is delicious! May I trouble you for that
+decanter? Thank you! Two minutes gone. It appears as if my luck is going
+to fail me at last. Well, it can't be helped. I don't know which of us
+will be the gainer by the change. By the way, let me recommend you to go
+to Europe, and you might winter in Algiers; the climate you will find
+most ben&mdash;&mdash;Ah! she has stopped. Well, I am afraid, Mr. Haywood, Fate
+has decided <i>against</i> you. Shall I order your carriage?"</p>
+
+<p>Lancelot did not answer save by a little convulsive gasp. Then a little
+trickle of blood ran from his lips down his chin. The excitement had
+been too much for him; the frail cord that bound him to life had
+snapped, and he was dead.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="The_Story_of_Tommy_Dodd_and_The_Rooster" id="The_Story_of_Tommy_Dodd_and_The_Rooster"></a>The Story of Tommy Dodd and "The Rooster"</h2>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Keep back, in the yellow! Come up, on Othello!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hold hard, on the chestnut! Turn round, on The Drag:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Keep back there, on Spartan! Back, you, sir, in tartan!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">So! steady there! easy! and down went the flag."<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&mdash;<span class="smcap">Adam Lindsay Gordon</span>.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p>Men in all ranks of society, from cabinet ministers to hotel clerks, are
+apt to underestimate the true importance of Little Things. Women never
+do, because it is their business in life to overestimate everything.
+Though these statements may seem paradoxical, when you've studied the
+sad history of Tommy Dodd and "The Rooster," my meaning will be as clear
+as noonday.</p>
+
+<p>Jack Medway's Love Affair was a case in point; for if he had paid proper
+attention to small matters, he would not have cuffed "The Rooster" in
+Bourke Street, nor emphasized the insult by calling him a "dirty brat";
+then most assuredly he would have married the girl of his heart, instead
+of a certain vivacious widow who now bullies his life away. Of course
+people bursting with common sense will deem it impossible that a rebuke
+given to a street-arab in Melbourne could affect the destinies of four
+people three years afterwards in North Queensland; nevertheless, without
+a shadow of doubt, such was the case. Just let me explain a little
+before you watch the course of events for yourself.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place, Tommy Dodd was a racehorse, and one who had earned
+fame for himself on every course in Victoria from Mosquito Creek to Cape
+Howe. That he was not originally intended for the turf was evident from
+the fact that he made his first appearance in Government employ; and it
+was not until he had nearly killed four telegraph messengers and two
+important citizens that he was deemed unfit for the public service. Then
+he was put up to auction, and Lazarus Levi secured him for a quarter of
+his real value. He was a most accommodating quadruped, and with not more
+than nine-stone-six on his back was able, when his owner so desired, to
+make even crack performers look ridiculous. He had one fault, however,
+and that was&mdash;&mdash;But I'll tell you about that directly.</p>
+
+<p>"The Rooster" was another curiosity. His body was the body of a child,
+his face was the face of a lad; but his knowledge of the world, and the
+racing world in particular, could only have been gained in generations
+of experience. A great love for Tommy Dodd, and an intense hatred for
+the before-mentioned Mr. John Medway, of Barcoola Station, were among
+other of his peculiarities.</p>
+
+<p>Now it so happened that after Jack Medway was appointed manager of
+Barcoola, he fell in love. I don't push this forward as anything
+extraordinary; but, as the statement of the fact is necessary to the
+proper narration of this story, I am bound to repeat, Jack Medway was in
+love, and Gerty Morris was the object of his affection. He also
+<i>respected</i> a dashing widow, named Leversidge.</p>
+
+<p>The trouble dates from the issue of the first advertisements in
+connection with the Barcoola Races. At this yearly festival every owner,
+manager, jackeroo and rouseabout, within a hundred miles of the course,
+makes it a point of honour to be present. Then, for the space of a week,
+life is one whirl of shows, picnics, dances, and meetings. But above all
+the races reigned supreme.</p>
+
+<p>One Sunday afternoon in Dr. Morris's verandah The Ladies' Bracelet was
+discussed, and Gerty Morris half hinted that Medway should enter a horse
+for it in her name. Naturally he jumped at the chance, and after summing
+up the strength of the most likely entries, cast about him for a nag.</p>
+
+<p>(At this point the curtain should fall upon Act I., with rosy limelight
+effects, suggestive of Dawning Love and High Ideas.)</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>When an owner runs a horse to suit his book he should not grumble if his
+method is discovered; for stewards do <i>sometimes</i> see crooked running,
+and when they do they are apt to make things troublesome for that owner.
+Perhaps the proprietor of Tommy Dodd had met with some misfortune of
+this sort, for that sagacious animal suddenly disappeared from the
+southern racing world, and was seen therein no more.</p>
+
+<p>A month later a mob of horses came up to Queensland, and at the sale a
+long, lolloping chestnut gelding, name unknown, was knocked down to
+Medway for twenty pounds. Though he was not aware of the fact, he was
+now the owner of the famous Tommy Dodd.</p>
+
+<p>After the sale, driving home from the township, Beverley, of Kimona,
+nearly annihilated a drunken atom lying on the track. He picked him up
+and drove on. Next day, ascertaining that he possessed racing
+experience, he put him on to exercise The Gift. The Gift was his entry
+for The Bracelet, under the nomination of an <i>unknown</i> Alice Brown, in
+whom everybody, of course, recognised the before-mentioned Miss Gertrude
+Morris. That atom was "The Rooster," who had followed Tommy Dodd from
+the south. And here again Fate played up against Jack Medway.</p>
+
+<p>(Curtain on Act II.: subdued lights and music suggestive of much
+Mystery.)</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>A week later the entries of the Barcoola Jockey Club's Autumn Meeting
+were announced, and Mr. J. Medway's Young Romeo, and Mr. R. Beverley's
+The Gift, were in the list of competitors.</p>
+
+<p>The training of both animals was proceeding satisfactorily, and the
+owner of Young Romeo, <i>alias</i> Tommy Dodd, informed Miss Morris that the
+bracelet she so much coveted must certainly become her property.
+Beverley had written to her that morning to the same effect.</p>
+
+<p>"The Rooster" ferreted about until he discovered his equine friend's
+abode, and at the same time learnt all he cared to know about the owner.</p>
+
+<p>Then, remembering the insult of three years before, he saw a chance of
+revenge. He was quick-witted enough to notice the rivalry between
+Beverley and Medway, and he quite understood that both men had staked
+their life's happiness upon the issue of the race. He knew more about
+Tommy Dodd than any man living, so he took Beverley into his confidence,
+and revealed the animal's one peculiarity. That gentleman gave him a
+sovereign to hold his tongue, and as Young Romeo was the only horse he
+feared, he now saw his way clear to victory.</p>
+
+<p>(Here Act III. terminates, with much red fire and music suggestive of
+conspiracy.)</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>It is all nonsense to say that a good day's sport cannot be enjoyed
+without grand-stands, electric scratching-boards, and telegraphs. The
+Barcoola Jockey Club possessed none of these advantages, and yet their
+races were always wonderfully successful. The fact is, in North
+Queensland the horse is <i>the</i> consideration; but the farther you go
+south, the nearer you get to directors' meetings and bank
+overdrafts&mdash;consequently, the more iniquitous and black-guardly the
+sport becomes.</p>
+
+<p>Jack Medway drove his party on to the course in great style, and pretty
+Gerty Morris sat beside him, looking the picture of health and
+happiness. Beverley watched the waggonette draw up in a good position,
+and smiled sardonically. (The Gift was as fit as hands could make him:
+Young Romeo was his only enemy; and armed with "The Rooster's"
+knowledge, he knew he held <i>him</i> safe.)</p>
+
+<p>Now, the secret was very simple after all. Years before, when Tommy Dodd
+was in Government employ, he had been put to a good deal of torture by
+one small telegraph boy, whose peculiar pleasure it was to flay him
+daily with a green hide whip. When this amiable young gentleman had
+succeeded in rawing the horse's sides to his own satisfaction, he still
+further goaded the poor brute by raising the hide as if to strike, yet
+never letting it descend. The result of this was that, even in his
+racing days, Tommy Dodd could never be persuaded to pass a lifted whip.
+This was "The Rooster's" secret, and the sequel you shall know directly.</p>
+
+<p>The races opened splendidly. A Bush Handicap of 30 sovs., half a mile,
+was won after a determined struggle by Mr. Exton's Headstrong, 7 st. 2
+lb., totalisator dividend, £3 10s. The District Plate went to Mr.
+Goodwyn's Endymion, 6 st. 10 lb., totalisator dividend, £5 6s. After
+that, hampers were opened, and every one went to luncheon. Dick Beverley
+lunched with the Barcoola party, and made himself vastly agreeable to
+all concerned&mdash;his rival included. The Bracelet Stakes was the first
+event after luncheon, and the two men went away to dress.</p>
+
+<p>Young Romeo had been excellently prepared, and for old association's
+sake took to the process very kindly. "The Rooster" kept The Gift out of
+the way till he was wanted, on the plea that he was "a mighty nervous
+'oss to 'andle."</p>
+
+<p>After weighing in, Jack Medway offered Beverley a level fifty against
+his mount. "I'll take you," said Beverley, and strolled away to saddle.</p>
+
+<p>Every one was pleased with the appearance of Young Romeo. He carried
+himself prettily, and swept over the ground with that easy gliding
+motion characteristic of a thoroughbred. His rider looked and behaved
+well in the saddle, so the ladies were unanimous in their praise. The
+Gift was not a handsome horse, but he had a wear-and-tear appearance
+that was better than mere beauty, and more than one who could judge of
+horse-flesh slipped away to put "just a saver" on him. The remainder of
+the field were a very so-so lot indeed.</p>
+
+<p>As the rivals passed the Barcoola party in their preliminary canter,
+Gerty Morris scanned both men carefully, but could not make up her mind
+which she preferred. However, Medway had openly promised her the
+bracelet, so he had that in his favour. His colours were white jacket,
+red sleeves and cap; and she had worked a tiny sprig of ivy on the
+collar, of which he was inordinately proud.</p>
+
+<p>After a little delay at the post, the flag dropped to a good start.
+Warrigal was the first away, with Endymion and The Gift in close
+attendance; Young Romeo was unfortunate, and brought up the rear with
+The Jackeroo and Blush Rose. As they passed the windmill, Endymion
+changed places with Warrigal, and Young Romeo came up to fourth place.
+Then The Gift forged to the front and led by a length. On entering the
+dip, Medway pushed Young Romeo to second place, and remained there
+watching events until they came into the straight. The crowd, thinking
+all was over, commenced shouting, "The Gift wins," "The Gift in a
+canter," "The Gift," etc., etc., etc., until Jack Medway thought it time
+to make play, so he set sail in pursuit. Young Romeo was full of running
+and overhauled his rival foot by foot; when fifty yards from the post
+they were locked neck and neck. Both were doing all they knew. Then "The
+Rooster's" secret flashed through Beverley's mind, and instantly he
+raised his whip, <i>but did not strike</i>. Next moment he was past the post
+with a couple of lengths to spare. To every one's surprise, Young Romeo,
+on his right, had shut up like a concertina just as he had it all his
+own way. <i>The bracelet was the property of Miss Brown.</i></p>
+
+<p>Next day we were informed that Gerty Morris had accepted Beverley, of
+Kimona, with her parents' full consent, and, strange to say, at the
+dinner given to celebrate that wonderful event she wore the bracelet of
+the famous race. Medway was among those invited, but he declined the
+invitation on the plea that business demanded his presence elsewhere.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>"I often think that if he knew everything he would be the first to
+regret having hurt 'The Rooster's' feelings that night in Bourke Street.
+They say he is not having a very happy time of it with his wife&mdash;once
+the Widow Leversidge."</p>
+
+<p>Now don't you think I'm right about the importance of Little Things?</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Quod_Erat_Demonstrandum" id="Quod_Erat_Demonstrandum"></a>Quod Erat Demonstrandum</h2>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"That this is doctrine, simple, ancient, true;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Such is life's trial, as old Earth smiles and knows.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">If you loved only what were worth your love,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Love were clear gain, and wholly well for you;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Make the low nature better by your throes!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Give earth yourself, go up for gain above!"<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&mdash;<span class="smcap">R. Browning.</span><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p>Any afternoon, between three and five, you will probably find in the
+Club Library, somewhere near the S T E and T R A Bookcase, a thin,
+restless-eyed man of perhaps five-and-fifty years of age. He will answer
+to the name of Pennethorne&mdash;Cornelius Pennethorne&mdash;and he can
+<i>sometimes</i> be trusted to converse in a fairly rational manner.
+Generally, however, he is chock-full of nonsensical ideas, founded on
+what he calls "Inferences from Established Principles," and these make
+it almost impossible for him to do anything, from tying his bootlace to
+reducing his Overdraft, except on theories of his own determining.</p>
+
+<p>He sold out of the Army because he had proved to the War Office that the
+science of modern warfare was founded on an entirely wrong basis, and
+the greyheads refused his aid to set it right. So, washing his hands of
+the whole affair, he came to Australia. This was in '69, or perhaps '70.</p>
+
+<p>Knowing nothing about station work, he gave sixty thousand pounds for a
+property on the Diamantina, in order to demonstrate his own theories on
+cattle-breeding. And when they proved unworkable, he spent a small
+fortune inventing a gold-crushing plant&mdash;another failure. In similar
+manner all his pet projects faded away, one after another, like
+cats'-paws on a big lagoon.</p>
+
+<p>But he learnt nothing from these rebuffs, and there was no <i>kudos</i> to be
+gained by showing him what an utter ass he really was. You <i>can</i> reason
+with some men, but not with Pennethorne: he came from obstinate Cornish
+stock; and as soon as he saw the theory of the moment a failure, he
+threw it away and dived deeper still into something else.</p>
+
+<p>When he had exhausted cattle-breeding, horse-breaking, irrigation and
+gold-mining, he hunted about for some other channel in which to sink his
+money; but for the moment nothing came to hand.</p>
+
+<p>Then some one sent him a pamphlet entitled "The Folklore of our
+Aboriginal Predecessors," or something of an equally idiotic nature; and
+in this he saw a fresh opening. His district was infested with blacks,
+so he plunged holus-bolus into their private affairs. He argued that the
+theory of their treatment was altogether wrong, and for three months he
+choked the Colonial Press with lengthy screeds denouncing every one
+concerned in their government. Beginning with the Protector of
+Aboriginals and his staff, he took in the Commissioner of Police, and
+clergy of all denominations. Then, working through the Legislative and
+Executive Councils, he finished with a great blare at the Governor
+himself. It never, for an instant, struck him that he was making an
+egregious ass of himself. That, probably, would be some one else's
+theory.</p>
+
+<p>Now of all this absurd man's absurd ideas, his fondest, and consequently
+his most absurd, was that, fundamentally, the nature of both blacks and
+whites is the same. He contended that education and opportunity are
+alone responsible for the difference. He said he would prove it.</p>
+
+<p>Taking from the nearest tribe a little half-caste girl, perhaps eight
+years of age, he sent her south to school, and, cutting off all
+communication with her people, sat himself down to watch results.</p>
+
+<p>After the child had been enjoying the advantages of every luxury for ten
+years, he went down to ascertain what progress she had made, and was
+astounded at the result. In place of the half-wild urchin he remembered,
+he found a well-mannered, accomplished girl, able to hold her own
+anywhere. She received him with an air of <i>abandon</i> that staggered him,
+and he was pleased beyond measure. He said he would go down to the Club
+and show the scoffers there that one theory, at least, had proved
+successful.</p>
+
+<p>On reaching it he discovered a strange generation, and was not a little
+chagrined to find himself and his theories almost forgotten. The younger
+men watched him meandering about the rooms, and said to each other, "Who
+is this old bore Pennethorne, and what forgotten part of the interior
+does he come from?"</p>
+
+<p>So delighted was he with the success of his scheme that he sent the girl
+to Europe for a year, he himself returning to the Back-blocks. It must
+be remembered here that her colour was not pure black, but a sort of
+dirty brown, that she was by no means ill-looking, and that she had been
+perfectly educated.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the situation he should have foreseen, "When her education was
+completed, what was to be done with her?" In the loneliness of his
+station he thought and thought, but could come to no conclusion. She
+would know enough to make a perfect governess; but then, perhaps, no one
+would care to give her employment. It was impossible that she should go
+back to the tribe, and it was equally unlikely that any suitable man
+would ask her hand in marriage. He began to realize what a white
+elephant he had raised up for himself.</p>
+
+<p>One cold winter's night, when the rain was beating down and the wind
+whistling round the station-house, it flashed through his mind that it
+would be by no means unpleasant to exchange his grumpy old housekeeper
+for a younger woman&mdash;one who could make the evenings pleasant with music
+and intellectual conversation. But it would have this drawback&mdash;it would
+mean matrimony.</p>
+
+<p>All this time his <i>protégée</i> was writing him charming letters from Rome
+and Naples, commenting shrewdly on all the wonders she was seeing.
+Sometimes on the run he would read these letters, and think out certain
+schemes all by himself.</p>
+
+<p>On her return he went down to Sydney for the special purpose of meeting
+her. He found a pretty little woman in a neat dark blue travelling dress
+awaiting him. Her white cuffs and collar contrasted charmingly with her
+dark complexion. She received him very nicely, and he noticed that she
+had picked up the little mannerisms of the better-class Englishwomen she
+had met. They drove to the Australian, and a week later were married by
+special licence.</p>
+
+<p>Most men who remembered him said he was a very big fool; the rest said
+that they would give <i>their</i> opinions when they saw how events turned
+out.</p>
+
+<p>Directly they were married they posted straight off to the station. And
+herein Pennethorne acted very unwisely. He should have toured Tasmania
+and New Zealand, or visited Japan in the orthodox way. But he was unlike
+other men, and it was a moral impossibility for him to act like a
+rational being&mdash;his theories got in the way and tripped him up.</p>
+
+<p>For the first year or so everything progressed beautifully, and he wrote
+glowing accounts of his new life to the few men whose friendship he had
+thought worth retaining. Then the correspondence ceased abruptly, and
+his friends marvelled.</p>
+
+<p>Now, of all those who had scoffed at Pennethorne's theories, the most
+persistent was William Pevis Farrington, afterwards His Honour Mr.
+Justice Farrington. In the middle of his happiness, Pennethorne had
+invited the judge, if ever he should be travelling that way, etc.&mdash;you
+know the usual sort of thing&mdash;to put in a day or two with him, and see
+for himself how things stood. About a year later Farrington did happen
+to be somewhere in the district and called as requested.</p>
+
+<p>Meeting his host near the homestead, they rode up together, and
+Farrington noticed that Pennethorne decidedly looked his age. When they
+reached the house the latter, leaving his guest in the dining-room, went
+in search of his wife, to return about ten minutes later saying she was
+unwell. They dined alone. All through the meal Pennethorne seemed
+disturbed and uncomfortable, and when it was over led the way into the
+garden, where he said abruptly, "Farrington, you think me a madman,
+don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>The judge mumbled the only thing he could think of at the moment, and
+endeavoured to push the conversation off to a side track by an inquiry
+after Mrs. Pennethorne's health. It had precisely the contrary effect to
+what he intended.</p>
+
+<p>His friend had twelve years' arrears to work off before he could be
+considered, conversationally, a decent companion. So, setting to work,
+he poured into the unfortunate judge's ears his granary of theories,
+facts, and arguments. He marshalled his arguments, backed them up with
+his theories, and clinched all with his facts, his voice rising from its
+usual placid level to a higher note of almost childish entreaty.
+Unconsciously he was endeavouring to convince himself, through the
+medium of a second person, of the wisdom contained in his marriage
+experiment.</p>
+
+<p>Farrington listened attentively. His trained mind distinguished between
+what the other believed and what he was endeavouring to prove against
+his own convictions. However, he could see that the keynote of the whole
+harangue was Failure, but as every one admitted that the last experiment
+had proved entirely successful, in what direction did such failure lie?
+He was more than a little mixed, and by delicate cross-examination
+elicited certain facts that puzzled him still more.</p>
+
+<p>One thing was plainly evident: Pennethorne was very much in love with
+his wife. In the first place he was given to understand that no man
+could desire a more amiable wife than Mrs. Pennethorne had proved
+herself to be. This heading included virtues too numerous to
+mention&mdash;but she was not well. Nor could any man desire a more
+<i>accomplished</i> wife than Mrs. Pennethorne, who was fit to be the
+helpmate of an Oxford Don&mdash;but she was not well. His assertions always
+had the same refrain&mdash;"She was not well!"</p>
+
+<p>Because he could not understand, Farrington became deeply interested.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Just before daylight the judge was wakened by his host. He saw in an
+instant that something terrible had happened.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Pennethorne had disappeared in the night, her husband knew not
+whither!</i></p>
+
+<p>Even with his teeth chattering in his head, and his palsied old hand
+rattling the candlestick, he was compelled to state <i>his theory</i> of her
+absence.</p>
+
+<p>Farrington, seeing he was not responsible for his actions, acted for
+him. He routed out all the station hands and scoured the country. They
+spent all day searching the scrub, dragging the dams and waterholes, and
+at nightfall had to give it up as hopeless.</p>
+
+<p>Farrington and Pennethorne rode home together. Passing through a rocky
+gully, they noticed the smoke of a camp fire floating up into the still
+night air, and rode up to make inquiries. The blacks were at their
+evening meal. One filthy girl raised her head and looked up at them from
+her frowsy blankets. <i>It was Mrs. Pennethorne!</i></p>
+
+<p>After thirteen years of civilization the race instinct had proved too
+strong: the reek of the camp fires, the call of the Bush, and the
+fascination of the old savage life had come back upon her with double
+intensity, and so the last theory had to be written down a failure.
+<i>Q.E.D.</i></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Cupid_and_Psyche" id="Cupid_and_Psyche"></a>Cupid and Psyche</h2>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Handsome, amiable, and clever,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">With a fortune and a wife;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">So I make my start whenever<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">I would build the fancy life.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">After all the bright ideal,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">What a gulf there is between<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Things that are, alas! too real<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And the things that might have been!"<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&mdash;<span class="smcap">Henry S. Leigh</span>.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p>His name upon the ship's books was Edward Braithwaite Colchester, but
+between Tilbury and Sydney Harbour he was better known as Cupid. His
+mother was a widow with four more olive branches, absolutely dependent
+on her own and Teddy's exertions.</p>
+
+<p>At the best of times Kindergartens for the children of respectable
+tradespeople are not particularly remunerative, and the semi-detached
+villa in Sydenham was often sorely tried for petty cash. But when Teddy
+was appointed fourth officer of the X.Y.Z. Company's steamship <i>Cambrian
+Prince</i>, endless possibilities were opened up.</p>
+
+<p>If you will remember that everything in this world is ordained to a
+certain end, you will see that Teddy's future entirely depended on his
+falling in love&mdash;first love, of course, and not the matter-of-fact
+business-like affair that follows later.</p>
+
+<p>After his second voyage he obtained a fortnight's leave and hastened
+home. Being fond of tennis and such-like amusements, he was naturally
+brought into contact with many charming girls, who, because he was a
+strange man and a sailor, were effusively polite. Then he fell
+hopelessly in love with a horribly impossible girl, and in the
+excitement of the latest waltz proposed, and was accepted, on the
+strength of a fourth officer's pay, an incipient moustache, and a dozen
+or so brass buttons.</p>
+
+<p>During the next voyage his behaviour towards unmarried women was marked
+by that circumspection which should always characterize an engaged man.
+He never allowed himself to forget this for an instant, and his cabin
+had for its chief ornament a plush-framed likeness of a young lady
+gazing, with a wistful expression, over a palpably photographic sea.</p>
+
+<p>Now, it was necessary for his ultimate happiness that Teddy Colchester
+should learn that, like his own brass buttons, without constant
+burnishing, a young lady's affection is apt to lose much of its pristine
+brightness, and that too much sea air is good for neither. He ticked off
+the days of absence, and, as his calendar lessened, his affection
+increased.</p>
+
+<p>At Plymouth a letter met him&mdash;a jerky, inky, schoolgirl epistle,
+evidently written by a writer very cold and miserable; and the first
+reading stunned him. Had he seen a little more of the real world, he
+would have been able to read between the lines something to this effect:
+"You're Teddy, three months away, and I'm madly in love with a soldier."
+Then he would have noted that the writer was staying in Salisbury, after
+which he would have hunted up his home papers and discovered that the
+Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry Cavalry were encamped at Humington Down. But as
+he had only seen life through a telescope, he could not do this,
+consequently his pain was a trifle acute.</p>
+
+<p>His mother wrote him four pages of sympathy. But though she wondered at
+any girl jilting her boy, she could not help a feeling of satisfaction
+at its being still in her power to transmute three-quarters of his pay
+into food and raiment for her brood.</p>
+
+<p>Next voyage the <i>Cambrian Prince</i> had her full complement of passengers,
+and the "Kangaroo Girl," whom perhaps you may remember, was of the
+number. At Plymouth a little reserved girl joined, and as she is
+considerably mixed up in this story, you must know that she rejoiced in
+the unpretentious name of Hinks.</p>
+
+<p>For the first week or so Teddy held very much aloof from the passengers,
+engaging himself entirely with recollections of the girl for whose sake
+he was going to live "only in a memory."</p>
+
+<p>Being an honest, straightforward young fellow, he of course followed the
+prescribed programme of all blighted love affairs. He began by pitying
+himself for the sorrow he was undergoing, then went on to picture the
+future that might have been theirs had she married him; but before they
+were clear of the Bay he had arrived at the invariable conclusion, and
+was pitying himself for pitying the girl who was foolish enough to jilt
+such an entirely estimable young man as Edward Braithwaite Colchester.</p>
+
+<p>One moonlight night, after leaving "Gib," he was leaning over the rails
+of the promenade deck, feeling sympathetically inclined to the world in
+general, when somebody stepped up beside him. It was Miss Hinks. She
+prefaced her conversation with two or three questions about the sea, and
+he made the astounding discovery that her voice possessed just the note
+of sympathy he required for his complaint. He had felt sorry for her
+because other people snubbed her, and she for him because she had been
+told exaggerated stories about his love affair. Together they made
+rather a curious couple.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="illus5" id="illus5"></a>
+<img src="images/illus5.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<h3>"One moonlight night ... somebody stepped up beside him."</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+<p>When, under the supervision of the "Kangaroo Girl," the shore parties
+for Naples were being organized, Miss Hinks was tacitly left out.
+Somehow the impression got about that she was poor, and no one cared
+about paying her expenses. But eventually she did go, and it was in the
+charge of the fourth officer. When she thanked him for his kindness, he
+forgot for the moment his pledge "to live henceforth only in a memory."</p>
+
+<p>The "Kangaroo Girl," on discovering that Miss Hinks <i>had</i> been on shore,
+under the escort of that "dear little pink officer," was vastly amused,
+and christened them Cupid and Psyche.</p>
+
+<p>Now, the end of it all was, that Teddy began to find himself caring less
+and less for the thumb-stained photograph in his locker, and more and
+more for the privilege of pumping his sorrows into a certain sympathetic
+ear. Shipboard allows so many opportunities of meeting; and, strange as
+it may appear, a broken heart is quickest mended when subjected to a
+second rending. This cure is based on the hom&oelig;opathic principle of
+like curing like.</p>
+
+<p>By the time they reached Aden he had convinced himself that his first
+love affair had been the result of a too generous nature, and that this
+second was the one and only <i>real</i> passion of his life.</p>
+
+<p>At Colombo Miss Hinks went ashore with the doctor's party&mdash;tiffined at
+Mount Lavinia, dined at the Grand Oriental, and started back for the
+ship about nine o'clock.</p>
+
+<p>Teddy, begrimed with coal-dust, watched each boat load arrive, and as he
+did so his love increased.</p>
+
+<p>On account of the coal barges it was impossible for boats to come
+alongside, consequently their freight had to clamber from hulk to hulk.
+Miss Hinks was the last of her party to venture; and just as the doctor,
+holding out his hand, told her to jump, the hulk swayed out and she fell
+with a scream into the void. Then, before any one could realize what had
+happened, the barge rolled back into its place. Miss Hinks had
+disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>Teddy, from half-way up the gangway, tore off his coat, leapt into the
+water, and, at the risk of having his brains knocked out, dived and
+plunged between the boats, but without success. Then he saw something
+white astern, and swam towards it.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>The half-drowned couple must have come to an understanding in the
+rescuing-boat, for next day their engagement was announced.</p>
+
+<p>The "Kangaroo Girl" gave evidence of her wit when she said, "It was
+fortunate they were Cupid and Psyche, otherwise they would find love
+rather insufficient capital to begin housekeeping upon!"</p>
+
+<p>Teddy wrote to his mother from Adelaide, and she, poor woman, was not
+best pleased to hear the news. But a surprise was in store for us all.</p>
+
+<p>On the <i>Cambrian Prince's</i> arrival in Sydney, Miss Hinks was met by an
+intensely respectable old gentleman, who, it appeared, was her
+solicitor. On being informed of the engagement, he examined Teddy with
+peculiar interest, and asked if he were aware of his good fortune. Miss
+Hinks smiled.</p>
+
+<p>Half an hour later we learnt that the girl whom we'd all been pitying
+for her poverty was none other than Miss Hinks-Gratton, <i>the
+millionairess and owner of innumerable station and town properties</i>!</p>
+
+<p>The Teddy of to-day is a director of half a dozen shipping companies,
+and he quite agrees with me "that everything in this world is ordained
+to a certain end."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Misplaced_Affections" id="Misplaced_Affections"></a>Misplaced Affections</h2>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Old Time is still a-flying:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And this same flower that smiles to-day,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To-morrow will be dying.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Then be not coy, but use your time;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And while ye may, go marry:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For having lost but once your prime,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">You may for ever tarry."<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&mdash;<span class="smcap">R. Herrick.</span><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p>The point I wish to illustrate is, that it is not safe, at any time, to
+play with such an inflammable passion as Love, even though it be to
+oblige one's nearest and dearest friend. Once upon a time pretty Mrs.
+Belverton used to laugh at me for warning her, but she is compelled to
+admit the truth of my argument now.</p>
+
+<p>It was Mrs. Belverton, you will remember, who originated the famous
+Under Fifty Riding Club, whose initials, <i>U.F.R.C.</i>, over two crossed
+hunting-crops and a double snaffle, were construed, by irreverent folk,
+to mean <i>Unlimited Flirtation Religiously Conserved</i>. The Club is now
+defunct, but its influence will be traceable in several families for
+many years to come.</p>
+
+<p>The following events, you must know, occurred the summer before William
+Belverton received the honour of knighthood, and while he was renting
+Acacia Lodge at the corner of the Mountain Road, the house below Tom
+Guilfoy's, and nearly opposite the residence of the Kangaroo Girl of
+blessed memory.</p>
+
+<p>It was by extending her sympathies as guide, philosopher, and friend to
+all unhappy love affairs that Mrs. Belverton made herself famous in our
+Australian world; and many and extraordinary were the scrapes this
+little amusement dragged her into. Could her drawing-room curtains have
+spoken, they would have been able to throw light upon many matters of
+vital interest, but matters of such a delicate nature as to absolutely
+prohibit their publication here.</p>
+
+<p>The Otway-Belton couple, for instance, owe their present happiness to
+her assistance at a critical juncture in their family history; while the
+Lovelaces, man and wife, would to-day be separated by the whole length
+and breadth of our earth, but for her tact during a certain desperate
+five minutes in the Greenaways' verandah. So on, in numberless cases, to
+the end of the chapter.</p>
+
+<p>You must know that for three months during the particular year of which
+I am writing, we had with us a young globe-trotter, who rejoiced in the
+name of Poltwhistle. I can't tell you any more about him, save that he
+was a big Cornishman, rawboned, and vulgarly rich. His people should
+have been more considerate; they should have kept him quietly at home
+counting his money-bags, instead of allowing him to prowl about God's
+earth upsetting other people's carefully thought-out arrangements.</p>
+
+<p>The trouble all commenced with his meeting pretty little dimpled Jessie
+Halroyd at a Government House tennis-party and convincing himself, after
+less than half an hour's disjointed conversation, that she was quite the
+nicest girl he had ever encountered. He met her again next day at the
+Chief Justice's dinner-party. Then by dint of thinking continually in
+the same strain, he fell to imagining himself in love. But as she had
+long since given her affections to Lawrence Collivar, of the Treasury,
+and had not experience enough to conduct two affairs at one and the same
+time, his behaviour struck us all as entirely ridiculous.</p>
+
+<p>Having called on Mrs. Halroyd the Monday following, where he was fed and
+made much of, he set to work thenceforward to pester the daughter with
+his attentions. It was another example of the Lancaster trouble, of
+which I've told you elsewhere, only with the positions turned wrong-side
+uppermost.</p>
+
+<p>For nearly a month this persecution was steadily and systematically
+carried on, until people, who had nothing at all to do with it, began to
+talk, and the girl herself was at her wits' end to find a loophole of
+escape. I must tell you at this point, that, even before the
+Cornishman's coming, her own selection had been barely tolerated by the
+Home Authorities; now, in the glare of Poltwhistle's thousands, it was
+discountenanced altogether. But Jessie thought she loved Collivar, and
+she used to grind her pretty little teeth with rage when Poltwhistle
+came into the room, and say she was not going to give up Lawrence,
+whatever happened. Then she suddenly remembered Mrs. Belverton, and with
+desperate courage went down, told her all, and implored her aid.</p>
+
+<p>Now it so happened that Mrs. Belverton had nothing to do just then, and
+stood in need of excitement. Moreover, Collivar was her own special and
+particular <i>protégé</i>. In fact, it was neither more nor less than <i>her</i>
+influence that had given him his rapid advancement in the Public
+Service, and through this influence his love for little Jessie Halroyd.
+She was educating him, she said, to make an ideal husband, and she was
+certainly not going to allow a rawboned New Arrival to upset her plans.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of the interview, taking the girl's hand in hers, she said
+comfortingly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Go home, my dear, and try to enjoy yourself; snub Mr. Poltwhistle
+whenever you see him, and leave the rest to me!"</p>
+
+<p>When she was alone, this excellent woman settled herself down in her
+cushions, and devoted half an hour to careful contemplation.</p>
+
+<p>She understood that with a man whose skull went up to nothing at the
+back of his head, like Poltwhistle's, ordinary measures would be worse
+than useless, so she decided upon a scheme that embodied an honour which
+even kings and princes might have envied.</p>
+
+<p>That same night she was booked to dine with Arthur and Guinevere, of
+whom I have also told you, on the Mountain Road, and Providence (which
+is more mixed up in these little matters than most people imagine)
+placed on her left hand none other than the Cornishman himself.</p>
+
+<p>Having heard a great deal of the famous Mrs. Belverton and her sharp
+sayings, he was prepared to be more than a little afraid of her. She
+observed this and utilised it to the best advantages.</p>
+
+<p>Neglecting every one else, even her own lawful partner, who, I may tell
+you, was a globe-trotter of no small importance, she made herself
+infinitely charming to the angular gawk beside her, and to such good
+purpose that, before Belverton began, according to custom, to brag about
+his port, he was in a whirlwind of enchantment, and had forgotten his
+original admiration for good and all.</p>
+
+<p>Next day as he was riding down to tennis at the Halroyds', he met Mrs.
+Belverton outside the library. Looking at him through the lace of a
+pretty red parasol, and with the most innocent of faces, she asked his
+advice as to the sort of literature she should peruse. Of course that
+necessitated sending home his horse and overhauling the
+bookshelves&mdash;with any woman a dangerous proceeding, but with Mrs.
+Belverton an act of more than suicidal folly. A child might have
+foreseen the result. Before they had reached shelf B he had completely
+lost his head, and when they left the library, he disregarded his tennis
+appointment and begged to be allowed to carry home her books for her.</p>
+
+<p>She kept him with her until all chance of tennis was over, then having
+filled him with pound cake, tea, and improving conversation, sent him
+away, vowing that he had at last met perfection in womankind.</p>
+
+<p>Her scheme was succeeding admirably, for Poltwhistle from that hour
+forsook his former flame altogether. Mrs. Halroyd wondered; but her
+daughter professed delight, and seeing this, Collivar prosecuted his
+wooing with renewed ardour.</p>
+
+<p>But Mrs. Belverton, with all her cleverness, had made one
+miscalculation, and the effect was more than usually disastrous. She had
+forgotten the fact that Jessie Halroyd was, in spite of her heart
+trouble, little more than a child. And the upshot of this was that when
+that young lady saw Poltwhistle no longer worshipped at her shrine, but
+was inclining towards another woman, prettier and more accomplished than
+herself, she allowed her school-girl's vanity to be hurt.</p>
+
+<p>Within a week of her visit to Acacia Lodge, she had developed an idea
+that, all things considered, Poltwhistle was by no means bad looking,
+and certainly everybody knew that he was rich. Within a fortnight,
+Collivar having offended her, she was sure that she liked him quite as
+much as most men; and in less than three weeks (so strangely perverse is
+woman) she had snubbed Collivar, and was hating Mrs. Belverton with all
+her heart and soul for enticing the Cornishman's attentions away from
+herself.</p>
+
+<p>Then it became Collivar's turn to seek assistance; and at this juncture,
+as the situation looked like getting beyond even her, Mrs. Belverton
+lost her temper and said some very bitter things about everybody
+concerned, herself included.</p>
+
+<p>However, to sit down and allow herself to be beaten formed no part of
+that lady's nature; so carefully reviewing the case, she realized that
+the only possible way out of the difficulty was a reversal of her former
+tactics. To this end she dropped Poltwhistle and took up Collivar,
+hoping thereby to turn the jealous girl's thoughts back into their
+original channel.</p>
+
+<p>The Hillites stared and said to each other:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Dear, dear! What a shocking flirt that Mrs. Belverton is, to be sure!
+First it was that nice Mr. Poltwhistle, and now it's young Collivar, of
+the Treasury. Her conduct is really too outrageous!"</p>
+
+<p>One muggy Saturday afternoon, towards the end of the hot weather, the
+Under Fifty Riding Club met opposite the library to ride to The Summit
+for tea and strawberries. There was a good attendance of members, and
+Mrs. Belverton, Miss Halroyd, Poltwhistle, and Collivar were among the
+number.</p>
+
+<p>Every one paired off in the orthodox fashion, and as Collivar annexed
+Mrs. Belverton, Poltwhistle was obliged to content himself with Miss
+Halroyd. He was not too polite in consequence.</p>
+
+<p>Before they reached the summit of the mount, thick clouds had gathered
+in the sky, and heavy thunder was rumbling along the hills. The Club
+members ate their strawberries, flirted about the grounds, and started
+for home just as dusk was falling.</p>
+
+<p>The same pairing was adopted on the return journey, and Poltwhistle,
+from his place in the rear, watched the other couple with jealous,
+hungry eyes.</p>
+
+<p>It was a tempestuous evening. Heavy thunder rolled continuously, and
+when, nearly half-way home, the clouds burst and the rain poured down,
+there was a general rush for shelter. Mrs. Belverton, to her dismay,
+found herself, in the half darkness, sitting on her horse, beneath a big
+gum-tree, with both Collivar and Poltwhistle for her companions.</p>
+
+<p>The latter, whose manners were about on a par with his modesty, had left
+Miss Halroyd on the road to seek shelter for herself.</p>
+
+<p>With a hurricane of rage in her heart, the poor girl, now, according to
+her lights, thoroughly in love, saw the reason of his conduct and
+followed him, reaching the other side of the tree unperceived. It was so
+dark you could hardly distinguish your hand before your face, and the
+rain was simply pouring down.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes, when she is in a communicative mood, Mrs. Belverton can be
+persuaded to tell the story of that half-hour under the gum-tree, and
+she catalogues it as the funniest thirty minutes she has ever
+experienced. But though she laughs about it now, I fancy she did not
+enjoy it so much at the time.</p>
+
+<p>From each hinting that the other should retire, both men fell to
+justifying their presence there, and finished by whispering into the
+lady's ears, between the thunder-claps, protestations of their undying
+love and devotion.</p>
+
+<p>Then, while the thunder was crashing, the lightning flashing, the rain
+soaking them through and through, and Mrs. Belverton was wondering how
+it was all to end, Jessie Halroyd rode round the tree.</p>
+
+<p>They all stared, you may be sure, and because Mrs. Belverton had
+adventured the whole miserable business for her sake, she naturally
+hissed,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"False friend, false friend, I hate you! Oh, Mrs. Belverton, how I hate
+you&mdash;I could kill you!"</p>
+
+<p>A flash of lightning showed her face. It was all white and quivering,
+like a badly made <i>blanc-mange</i> pudding. There was a pause till somebody
+said very innocently, and I am told it was the funniest part of the
+whole affair,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"My dear child, you're getting wet through; do bring your horse into
+shelter!"</p>
+
+<p>But before the sentence was finished the girl had turned her horse's
+head and was galloping down the streaming road at break-neck speed.</p>
+
+<p>Then Mrs. Belverton gathered her wits together and set to work to
+undeceive her two admirers. All things considered, the operation must
+have been a curious one. When it was accomplished she rode home alone,
+meditating, I presume, on the futilities of this mundane existence.</p>
+
+<p>The sad conclusion we, the Hillites, have come to, is that both
+Poltwhistle and Collivar hate their would-be benefactress most cordially
+for endeavouring to promote their happiness, and abominate each other
+still more for interfering and spoiling sport. While Miss Halroyd, who
+goes home next mail-day, hates all three with an undying hatred, and of
+course cannot be made to understand that her own folly alone is
+responsible for everything that happened. Personally, I should be more
+interested to know what easy-going William Belverton thinks about it
+all.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="In_Great_Waters" id="In_Great_Waters"></a>In Great Waters</h2>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Short shrift! sharp fate! dark doom to dree!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hard struggle, though quickly ending!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">At home or abroad, by land or sea,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In peace or war, sore trials must be,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And worse may happen to you or to me,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For none are secure and none can flee<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">From a destiny impending."<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&mdash;<span class="smcap">Adam Lindsay Gordon.</span><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p>"Don't thank me; I'm sure I'm equally obliged to you. I haven't seen a
+strange face these three months; and though I am that despised animal, a
+broken-down gentleman, I've never quite been able to overcome a foolish
+hankering after some dealing with my old caste again. Pardon the implied
+compliment!</p>
+
+<p>"You'd better hobble your horses and turn them loose towards the creek.
+I'll run them up in the morning with my own.</p>
+
+<p>"Having done that, if you're hungry, you'll find tea in the billy, and
+damper and meat in those ration bags. It's Queensland boundary rider's
+fare, but the best I can offer you.</p>
+
+<p>"Monotonous country? By Heavens, yes! The children in exile knew no
+worse. On all sides, sand, mulga, and desolation&mdash;desolation, mulga, and
+sand, and unceasing regret, the portion of every man who has his lot in
+it!</p>
+
+<p>"Have you quite finished? Then light your pipe. No, no! not with a vesta
+like a new chum, but with a fire-stick&mdash;so! When you've been in the Bush
+as long as I have, you will see in a match something more than a
+pipe-light. But by that time you will be on the high road to a still
+more peculiar wisdom, which will never be of service to you.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, draw your blankets to the fire and cease thinking of your horses.
+They're on good feed, so let them eat their fill. If what I hear of the
+country out back is true, they'll get no more this side of the Barcoo.</p>
+
+<p>"What do I say? How do I know that you are new to the country? Simply
+enough! By the light in your eyes, the palms of your hands, and the
+freshness of your voice. Besides, when a man has been long in the West,
+does he stand up for want of a chair? Forgive my rudeness, but you'll
+learn it all soon enough.</p>
+
+<p>"Talking of classes! Consider the class I represent. In this country it
+is a numerous one, and the Bush is both our refuge and our cemetery. As
+we wish to know nobody, so we desire that nobody shall ever know us; and
+being beyond the reach of pride or shame, we live entirely in memories
+of the past, through which we enjoy a keener torture than any creed or
+sect can promise us hereafter. If you have the understanding, you might
+write the book of our misery, and, believe me, you'd have an
+inexhaustible reservoir upon which to draw.</p>
+
+<p>"Before you came out you had a different notion of Australia? Exactly!
+Folk who live sixteen thousand miles away, and own bank-books and fat
+stomachs, have one idea of it; while we, who exist like Esau, in the Red
+Sand itself, if you approached us properly, would give quite another.
+Now, I knew of a case once&mdash;but I beg your pardon!</p>
+
+<p>"That old hut at the Creek Bend you passed at mid-day? Three black posts
+and a wreck of charred timber, yellow boulders against an umber cliff,
+and two dingoe pups rioting on the threshold&mdash;isn't that the picture?</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if you think it dreary and lonesome to-day, try and imagine it
+when it was the furthest boundary west, with only the Great Unknown
+between the ranges at our back and the Timor Sea.</p>
+
+<p>"For reasons which could not interest you, I was the first to live
+there. Curiously enough, my hut-keeper was also of our caste. By
+nationality he was a Hungarian, and in addition to other things, he was
+a studious disciple of Goethe, and the finest zither player I have ever
+heard. It's about his connection with that hut that I wish to tell you.</p>
+
+<p>"As men seldom quarrel when ambition has gone out of their lives, for a
+year we came as near a certain sort of happiness as a remorseless Heaven
+would permit. Then everything suddenly changed.</p>
+
+<p>"One day, after a long stretch of dry weather that looked almost like
+settling in for a drought, welcome storm-clouds gathered in the west,
+and night closed in with a vigorous downpour. The creek, which for
+months past had been merely a chain of half-dry waterholes, began to
+trickle briskly round its bends, and in the morning had risen to the
+size of a respectable torrent. Next day, Thursday, it was a banker, and
+still the rain continued. By Friday evening the flood was upon us. And
+such a flood as you never in your life saw or dreamed of!</p>
+
+<p>"To give you some idea of its size, you must imagine this plain, from
+the mountains behind you to the scrub yonder, one vast sheet of foaming,
+roaring, rushing, eddying water.</p>
+
+<p>"Opposite the old hut we are talking of it was many miles in width, and
+for more than a week we were hemmed in upon a tiny island (the hut
+stands on a slight elevation, as you perhaps have observed), with the
+waters drawing a line of yeast-like foam daily closer and closer to our
+door. There was no escape, and I doubt if either of us would have taken
+advantage of it if there had been.</p>
+
+<p>"Morning, noon, and night, the flood went roaring and rushing by,
+carrying on its bosom forest trees, and hopeless beasts of all sorts,
+sizes, and descriptions. And each moment saw us waiting for the lip-lap
+upon the threshold which should signal the destruction of the hut and
+our immediate departure for Eternity!</p>
+
+<p>"Now you must remember that in life there is no such thing as chance.
+Every existence has its allotted span, and to avoid the pre-ordained
+termination is impossible for any man. You may smile, but I am convinced
+that what I say is correct, and this is a case in point.</p>
+
+<p>"On the ninth night of our imprisonment we were sitting in our one room,
+trying to keep warm, and listening to the storm outside. The wind,
+moaning through the logs, played with the firelight and threw a thousand
+fantastic shadows on the rough-hewn walls.</p>
+
+<p>"When life carries no future for a man, you will readily understand that
+he becomes callous, even as to the means of his death; so, even with
+destruction hovering over him, Yadeski sought company in his music.
+Drawing his zither from its case, he laid it on the table and allowed
+his fingers to stray across the strings. The sweet, sad melody that
+followed lent an air of almost reverence to the bare walls and homeless
+aspect of the room.</p>
+
+<p>"The storm outside yelled and muttered by turns; but, heedless of it, he
+played on, wandering from the folk-songs of the old grey Magyar villages
+to the pęans of victorious hunters, from mighty trampling war-chants to
+tender, crooning cradle-songs.</p>
+
+<p>"Suddenly a shout rang out clear and distinct above the storm. It was
+the cry of a man who, feeling the hand of Death clutching at his
+weasand, knows that unless help comes quickly that grip will tighten and
+his life go from him. Before he could call again, we had rushed into the
+storm.</p>
+
+<p>"The wind blew a hurricane, the waters snarled at the tiny hill and
+rolled in black waves, that might almost have been taken for the sea, to
+our feet. Battling in the direction whence the sound proceeded, Yadeski
+called with all the strength of his lungs. His voice, however, was lost
+in the general turmoil. But at the same instant, as if in answer, a
+white face rose through the foam not a dozen paces from our feet.
+Yadeski instantly plunged in, the face vanished, and for a moment I lost
+sight of both. Then they rose within an arm's length of where I stood,
+and I went in and dragged them out&mdash;the working of Fate, mind you!</p>
+
+<p>"Between us we carried the stranger to our hut and laid him before the
+fire.</p>
+
+<p>"For more than an hour, despite our exertions, he remained unconscious;
+then his eyes slowly opened, and in a few moments his power of speech
+returned to him. Two words escaped his lips, and when he heard them my
+hut-keeper fell back against the wall with ashen face.</p>
+
+<p>"A soft sleep followed the return to consciousness, and I turned into my
+bunk. Yadeski, however, sat gazing into the fire with an expression on
+his face I could not, for the life of me, understand. All night he must
+have kept the same position; but when the sun rose he shook himself
+together and set about his preparation of the morning meal.</p>
+
+<p>"By the light of day I saw that the stranger was a young man of
+prepossessing appearance. He explained that he was a Hungarian, and had
+only been in Australia a month. From what I could gather he was
+travelling to some new country that had lately been taken up further to
+the north-west. When crossing the river, which, by reason of the floods,
+was very much congested, the waters had separated him from his party and
+had washed his horse from under him. He was carried mile after mile
+battling for life, spent half a day in a tree, which was eventually
+washed from under him, was borne out into the main stream, and, but for
+our timely assistance, would soon have been a dead man.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope I am not wearying you?</p>
+
+<p>"Well, day after day the flood continued, and for more than a week our
+chance guest was compelled to remain with us. Then the waters fell as
+quickly as they had risen, and when the safety of the track was once
+more assured, he decided to resume his journey.</p>
+
+<p>"The night before he left us we were sitting round the fire listening to
+Yadeski's music. As was his custom, he wandered from air to air,
+seemingly unconscious of our presence.</p>
+
+<p>"The stranger listened with his eyes full of an insatiable hunger.</p>
+
+<p>"From gentlest pianissimo the music rose to a wild, fierce note of
+despair. An unearthly pathos seized the instrument&mdash;an inexplicable, yet
+intense longing, a vague desire for something unattainable, took
+possession of us. Then the music ceased abruptly, the spell was broken,
+and the younger man, springing to his feet, cried, in a voice tremulous
+with excitement,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"'Oh, where, tell me where you learned that dreadful air?'</p>
+
+<p>"The musician did not answer, but sat gazing into the fire. Shaking him
+by the shoulder, the younger man repeated his question till, as one in a
+dream, Yadeski muttered,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"'Many years ago, far from here. What does it matter?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Matter! Why, man, it was that air that brought me out here; it was
+that cursed air that killed my&mdash;&mdash;' But he stopped, and leaned against
+the wall.</p>
+
+<p>"'Let me tell you why I asked you that question,' he said at length,
+when he had recovered his calmness. 'We spoke to-night of Buda. I was
+born within ten miles of it, the eldest of a family of eight. Our farm
+was as good land as any in the district, and we had held it under the
+Counts Romanyi for centuries. My father, I must tell you, died when I
+was only nine years old, and so my mother, who was famous through the
+district for her beauty and her zither-playing, was left alone to look
+after us.</p>
+
+<p>"'One evening while she sat playing, as was her custom, at our cottage
+door, the Count passed, and, hearing her music, stopped to buy a glass
+of milk. He was an accomplished musician himself, and at his request she
+played to him. Then, after saying many pretty things, and distributing a
+handful of coins from his pocket among us children, he rode away.</p>
+
+<p>"'Next day he came again, and the next, and so on, day by day, till we
+children, who had hitherto feared his name more than God's, grew so bold
+that we could quite look upon him as one of ourselves.</p>
+
+<p>"'Ah, how well I remember the night he played that hellish air for the
+first time! I can see the drift-smoke lying low upon the land, and smell
+the smell of the pines floating down the mountain-side. I can see my
+mother sitting, watching, and listening like one spellbound. It must
+have been the music of the devil, for it ate into her heart, and the
+same day a week later, a neighbour came to tell us that our mother would
+not come back to us again.</p>
+
+<p>"'Six years after, when I was almost a man, she returned. I can remember
+that homecoming as if it were but yesterday.</p>
+
+<p>"'It was a night late in winter, and the young moon was shining faintly
+above the snow. A knocking came to the door, and I opened it upon a heap
+of rags&mdash;my mother!</p>
+
+<p>"'She died with the dawn, but not before she had told me everything. I
+want now to meet the Count. I have sworn that the hour I come face to
+face with him shall be his last! Wouldn't you do the same?'</p>
+
+<p>"Yadeski's head had sunk on his outstretched arms, and, but for a
+certain tremulous movement of his shoulders, he might well have been
+asleep. I lay in the shadow of my bunk, wondering what it all might
+mean.</p>
+
+<p>"'I commenced my search in Vienna, where he had a house; but it seems he
+was in serious trouble with the Government, and had fled from Austria. I
+followed him to Italy, to England, and to America, but in vain. I have
+continued it all over the world; but I do not despair, for I am certain
+that, sooner or later, God will lead me to his side.'</p>
+
+<p>"Controlling his voice with an effort, Yadeski asked,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"'And what then?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Ah! what then? But I fear I have wearied you with my story. I am
+sorry. Good-night!'</p>
+
+<p>"He dropped on to his blankets, curled himself up, and spoke no more.
+Only the crackling of the burning logs disturbed the silence.</p>
+
+<p>"Just before dawn I was awakened by the sound of gentlest music&mdash;the
+same weird melody we had heard earlier in the evening. It began, but was
+never finished.</p>
+
+<p>"Unseen by us, a thick glaze was creeping over the player's eyes, and
+his supple fingers were stiffening in the grasp of Death. The music grew
+fainter, and still more faint, until finally it merged itself into a
+thick, monotonous drip&mdash;drip&mdash;drip, which caught the first red signs of
+day as they stole into us under the old hut door.</p>
+
+<p>"Then there was a curiously heavy sob, and a half-turn of the musician's
+figure. After which a long, keen-bladed knife fell from the table, and
+the clatter roused us both to action.</p>
+
+<p>"But Yadeski was beyond the reach of human vengeance. He had severed a
+vein in his arm, and so bled peacefully to death. <i>Quo cunque nomine de
+mortuis nil nisi bonum loqua.</i></p>
+
+<p>"See, here comes the moon, and the wind with her. You'd better take this
+extra blanket. It will be cold before dawn.</p>
+
+<p>"Hark! The horses have crossed the creek and are making towards the hut
+we've just been talking of. They will be miles away in the morning.
+Never mind! Good-night!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Mr_Aristocrat" id="Mr_Aristocrat"></a>Mr. Aristocrat</h2>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"'Shepherd, what's love? I pray thee tell.'<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">'It is that fountain and that well<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where pleasure and repentance dwell;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It is perhaps that sauncing bell<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That tolls us all to heaven or hell,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And this is love as I heard tell.'"<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&mdash;<span class="smcap">Sir Walter Raleigh</span>.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p>The Australian Bush is pre-eminently a charnel-house of human lives, and
+therefore of the affections. Innumerable histories, neatly folded up and
+hidden away in the by-places of the great island continent, labelled
+<i>Not wanted till the Judgment Day</i>, will prove this indisputably. When
+Gabriel's trump shall call the sleepers from their resting-places in the
+shadows of the frowning mountains, in the long, grey gullies, and from
+the deserts and hopeless open plains, Australia's Bush contingent will
+be among the saddest and most miserable to face the Judgment Throne.
+"Mr. Aristocrat" will be there, and his case alone will be worth
+hearing.</p>
+
+<p>At the time I'm going to tell you about we were pushing out to new
+country at the head of the Flinders River, in Northern Queensland, and
+when three camps this side of our destination, horses and men knocked
+up, things began to look the very reverse of cheering. Night was coming
+on; the cold wind murmured among the rocks, and the high cane-grass
+bowed its head before it, whispering, "Weep, weep, weep." Then the full
+moon soared over the gaunt shoulders of the hills that peaked up into
+the lonely sky, and as she rose, we saw in front of us the lights of
+Mintabera Head Station.</p>
+
+<p>To come across a dwelling in such a wilderness was a stroke of good
+fortune we did not expect. We rode up, made ourselves and our errand
+known, and were hospitably received. The manager, who came out to greet
+us, was a middle-aged man, very tall and broad-shouldered. He was also
+very quiet and reserved, which may or may not have been because he had
+been cut off from the doubtful advantages of civilization for so many
+years. He took me into the house and set his best before me. After
+dinner we lit our pipes, and sat talking in the verandah until about
+nine o'clock, when I craved permission to retire. My host accompanied me
+to my room, and before saying "good-night," surprised me by inquiring if
+I was to be easily frightened. Asking "By what?" he replied, "By
+anything; by noises you might hear, or things you might see."</p>
+
+<p>On my assuring him that I thought my nerves were equal to a considerable
+strain, he left me to puzzle it out alone.</p>
+
+<p>I was more mystified than I cared to own, and to tell the honest truth,
+I crawled into bed, half wishing that, after all, we had camped in the
+gully, as had been at first proposed. But, as nothing out of the common
+occurred for fully half an hour, I rolled over, and was soon in the land
+of dreams.</p>
+
+<p>It must have been about midnight when I was suddenly awakened and
+brought up to a sitting posture by a scream, so terrible, so unearthly,
+that I could compare it to nothing I had ever heard before. Three times
+it rang out shrill and distinct upon the still night-air, and at each
+repetition my heart thumped with a new violence against my ribs, and the
+perspiration rolled in streams down my face. Then came the words (it was
+certainly a woman's voice), "They're coming! they're coming! Will nobody
+save me?" Leaping out of bed, I huddled on my clothes, seized a
+revolver, and rushed across the verandah in the direction whence I
+thought the sound proceeded.</p>
+
+<p>It was a glorious night, and the moon shone full and clear into the room
+where we had dined; but, before I could look in and satisfy my
+curiosity, my arm was seized from behind, and turning, I confronted the
+manager.</p>
+
+<p>"Hush, hush!" he whispered. "Not a word, for God's sake. Watch and
+listen!"</p>
+
+<p>He pointed into the room, and my eyes followed the direction of his
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>In the centre, looking straight before her, rigid as a marble statue,
+every muscle braced for action, stood the most beautiful and majestic
+woman I have ever seen in my life. To the stateliness of a Greek goddess
+she united the beauty of a Cleopatra. Her eyes rivetted my attention;
+they seemed to blaze from their sockets; her expression was that of a
+tigress wounded and waiting for the death-stroke. But her hair was the
+most weird part of her appearance, for it hung in glorious profusion
+down to her waist, and was white as the driven snow.</p>
+
+<p>When we looked she had paused for a moment, as if listening, and then
+came that awful blood-curdling cry again:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"They're coming! they're coming! Will nobody save me?"</p>
+
+<p>It was so horrible that my blood felt as if it were freezing into solid
+ice. However, before I could pull myself together, her whole demeanour
+had changed, and she was kneeling on the floor kissing and caressing
+something she believed to be beneath her. Then, gradually, her voice
+died away in heart-rending sobs, and at this juncture my host went in
+and lifted her up. She seemed to have lost all power of recognition, and
+allowed him to lead her in a dazed sort of way to her room.</p>
+
+<p>As he passed me the manager whispered, "Wait here!"</p>
+
+<p>On his return, he led me across the verandah and into the garden. When
+we were out of hearing of the house, and leaning on the slip-rails of
+the horse paddock he told me the following extraordinary story, and the
+glorious night and the long sighing night-breeze sweeping down from the
+mountains seemed a fitting accompaniment to his tale.</p>
+
+<p>"Fourteen years ago," he said, "by God's ordinance and with the blessing
+of the Church of England, I married that woman whom you saw just now in
+there.</p>
+
+<p>"All my family were against it from the beginning. They had no name and
+no story bad enough for her. One said she bore a most suspicious
+character; another, that she had a temper like a fiend; but the
+principal charge against her was that she had been a governess in a
+certain nobleman's household, and had been the cause of the eldest son's
+leaving home. However, I didn't care for anything they said; I was madly
+in love, and I believe I would have married her if she had been proved
+to have been the vilest wretch unhung.</p>
+
+<p>"After we'd been married a month or so she begged me to sell my bit of a
+farm in Somersetshire and take her to Australia.</p>
+
+<p>"Accordingly, I got rid of the place that had been in our family for
+centuries, and having packed up, set off, nearly breaking my old
+mother's heart by doing so.</p>
+
+<p>"Arriving in Sydney, I took a small house down Bondi way, and made
+myself comfortable; but I couldn't be idle long, so after properly
+providing for her happiness there, I said good-bye to her for a while,
+and came into the Bush. Every time I could get a holiday I'd run down to
+Sydney, and I believe, in a way, she was glad to see me, though her
+manner was never anything but cold.</p>
+
+<p>"By-and-by I drifted into Queensland, worked my way north, and then got
+the management of this place. You must remember that it was almost
+unknown country out here then, and what with blacks and wild dogs, want
+of water, and ignorance of the lay of the land, I had troubles enough to
+drive a man crazy. Before we had been here a year we were very hard
+pushed for men, and the owner sent me up a young Englishman, who, he
+said, was anxious to get as far out of the ken of the world as possible.
+I didn't ask any questions, but made him as welcome as I could. He was a
+decent enough young fellow, tall, graceful, and very self-contained.
+Somehow, the hands took to calling him 'Mr. Aristocrat,' and the name
+fitted him like a glove. He came up with pack-horses, and among other
+letters he brought me one from my wife.</p>
+
+<p>"'She had grown hopelessly tired of Sydney and the south,' she said,
+'and after mature consideration, was coming out to join me in the Bush.'</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't know what to do. We were too rough out here then for any
+decent woman. But as she had evidently started and couldn't be stopped,
+we had to make the best of it, and accordingly up she came with the next
+bullock-teams.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor idiot that I was, I thought it was the beginning of a new era in
+my life, and certainly for a week or two she seemed pleased to be with
+me again. But I was soon to be undeceived.</p>
+
+<p>"About a month after her arrival I had reason to go out on the run for a
+few days, and it was necessary for me to take all the available hands
+with me. While rolling my swag close to the corner of the verandah, to
+my astonishment I heard my wife's voice in the room within raised in
+tones of which I had never thought it capable. She was evidently beside
+herself with fury, and on stepping into the verandah, I could see that
+the object of her anger was none other than the young Englishman, 'Mr.
+Aristocrat.'</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you, sir, she was tongue-lashing that man as I never heard a
+woman do in my life before, and by the time I had stood there two
+minutes I had learnt enough to shatter all my hopes, to kill my
+happiness, and to convince me of her double-dyed treachery to myself.</p>
+
+<p>"She paused for breath, and then began again:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"'So, you cowardly, snivelling hound,' she hissed, with all the
+concentrated venom of a snake, 'you thought you could sneak out of
+England, so that I shouldn't know it, did you? But you couldn't. You
+thought you could crawl out of Sydney so quietly that I shouldn't follow
+you&mdash;did you? But you couldn't. You thought you could run away up here
+to hide without my discovering and following your tracks&mdash;did you? But
+you couldn't. No! No!! No!!! Go where you will, my lord, even down to
+hell itself, and I'll track you there, to mock you, and to proclaim it
+so that all the world shall hear, that this is a pitiful coward who
+ruined a woman's life, and hadn't manhood enough in him to stand up and
+make it good to her.'</p>
+
+<p>"The young fellow only covered his face with his hands, and said, 'O
+God! when will all this end?'</p>
+
+<p>"'When you've done what you&mdash;&mdash;' she was beginning again, but I could
+bear it no longer, so pushed my way into the room between them.</p>
+
+<p>"When she saw me the expression on her face changed at once, and she
+came smiling to greet me like the Jezebel she was. But I wanted to have
+nothing to say to her, so I put her on one side and closed with <i>him</i>.
+He looked at me in a dazed sort of way for a moment. But only for that
+space of time. Then a sort of Baresark madness came over him, and he
+sprang upon me like a fiend. All the time we fought she sat watching us
+with the same awful smile upon her face. When I had nearly killed him I
+ordered him off the station, and, without a word to her, fled the house.</p>
+
+<p>"That day we made a good stage on our journey, and by nightfall were
+camped alongside the Cliff Lagoon (you'll probably camp there to-morrow
+evening). I sought my blankets early, and, about an hour before
+daylight, being unable to sleep, went out into the scrub to find and run
+in the horses. On my return to the camp, I discovered one of the station
+black boys, alongside the fire, jabbering and gesticulating wildly to an
+excited audience. As I came up he was saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"'So, my word, I look; him <i>baal budgerie</i> black fellah along a'
+station. Bang&mdash;bang&mdash;bang! him plenty dead white fellah.'</p>
+
+<p>"There was no need for him to say more. I knew what it meant. And in
+less time than it takes to tell we were on the road back, galloping like
+madmen over rough or smooth country, regardless of everything but the
+need for haste. In less than two hours we dashed up to the yards, those
+you see down yonder, just in time to drive off the black brutes as they
+were rushing the house.</p>
+
+<p>"You will understand for yourself what a close shave it was when I tell
+you that when we arrived the roof of the homestead was half burnt
+through, while the hut and outhouse had long since been reduced to
+ashes. The bodies of the old cook, and a tame black boy, named Rocca,
+lay dead in the open&mdash;speared while running for the hut. It was a
+horrible sight, and enough to turn a man sick, but I hadn't time to
+think of <i>them</i>. I was looking for my wife; and until I heard a cry and
+recognised her voice I thought she must be dead. Then, as I pushed open
+the half-burnt door of the station-house (the brutes had thrown
+fire-sticks everywhere), she shrieked out as you heard her to-night.</p>
+
+<p>"'They're coming! they're coming! Will nobody save me?' When I entered
+the room she was kneeling in the centre, surrounded by broken furniture
+and portions of the smouldering roof, wringing her hands, and wailing
+over a body on the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"Though she was begrimed with dirt, smoke, and blood, she looked
+surpassingly beautiful; but&mdash;I don't know whether you will believe
+me&mdash;the terrors of that night had turned her hair snow-white, just as it
+is to-day. The overseer led her to a seat, and I knelt beside the body
+on the floor. It was 'Mr. Aristocrat.'</p>
+
+<p>"He was well-nigh dead; it needed no doctor's knowledge to see that. He
+lay in a large pool of blood, and breathed with difficulty; but after I
+had given him water he revived sufficiently to tell me what had
+happened.</p>
+
+<p>"It appeared he had left the station as I had ordered him; but, as he
+went, his suspicions were aroused by the number of smoke-signals going
+up from the surrounding hills. Knowing they meant mischief, he kept his
+eyes open, and when, before dark, he saw a tribe of blacks creeping up
+the valley, he remembered that, save the cook and a black boy, the woman
+was alone, and made back on his tracks as fast as he was able. But he
+was too late; they had already surrounded the building, and had killed
+the two men we found lying in the open. Then he heard the woman's
+shriek, and forgot everything but the fact that she must be saved.</p>
+
+<p>"Racing across the open, he made a dash for the house. She saw his
+sacrifice and opened the door, but not before two spears were sticking
+in his side. Plucking them out, he set to work to defend her.</p>
+
+<p>"Fortunately, I had left a rifle and plenty of ammunition behind me; so
+all through that sweltering, awful night he fought them inch by inch,
+with his wounds draining his life-blood out of him, to save the woman
+who had wrecked his life. By God, sir! whatever he may have been
+earlier, he was a brave man then, and I honour him for it! By his own
+telling he killed three of them. Then as day was breaking, a part of the
+roof fell in, and he received another spear through the broken door.
+This brought him to the ground; and at that moment we arrived, and drove
+the devils off.</p>
+
+<p>"With his last strength, he drew me down to him and whispered that on
+his dying word he had always acted honourably towards me; and that, in
+spite of her tempting, he had never yielded to her. By the God before
+whose throne he was just about to stand, he swore this; and upon my
+honour, sir, I believe he spoke the truth.</p>
+
+<p>"When he had finished speaking, she rose and mocked him, calling me fool
+and idiot for listening to his raving. Then, for the first and last time
+in my life, I threatened her, and she was silent.</p>
+
+<p>"As the sun rose and pierced the smouldering roof, 'Mr. Aristocrat'
+whispered, "I want you to do me a favour. I want you to tell them at
+home that I forgive them. They misjudged me, you see, and it will make
+things a bit easier for my mother."</p>
+
+<p>"Then, with that sacred name upon his lips, he passed quietly away from
+the scene of his sacrifice into the mysteries of the world beyond.</p>
+
+<p>"When he was dead, the woman that is my wife crawled from the place
+where she lay, and threw herself upon the body, moaning as if her heart
+would break. We took her away. But from that day forward her reason was
+gone.</p>
+
+<p>"Ever since that time, at the same hour, night after night, year after
+year, she has gone through that awful tragedy in the old room yonder;
+and with the loneliness of this life around me, I have to hear and bear
+it. The strangest part of it is that I haven't the heart to put her away
+from me.</p>
+
+<p>"Now you understand the meaning of the scene you witnessed to-night, and
+you can see in my case the fulfilment of the Church's order, 'Whom God
+hath joined, let no man put asunder!'"</p>
+
+<p>We walked back to the house together, and he left me at my bedroom door;
+but though I went back to my bed, had I been offered the gold of all the
+Indies I could not have slept a wink.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning our horses were run up, and after breakfast we set off on
+our way again. When we had travelled about a mile, the manager, who was
+riding a short distance with us for company's sake, led me off the track
+to a grassy knoll beside a creek bend. Here, under a fine coolabah, I
+discovered a neatly fenced-in grave.</p>
+
+<p>Beneath the tree, and at the head of the little mound, was a small white
+board, and on it were these two words,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Mr. Aristocrat.</i>"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="This_Man_and_This_Woman" id="This_Man_and_This_Woman"></a>This Man and This Woman</h2>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"What matters Life, what matters Death,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">What boots of vain remorse?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When days are dead, wherein we lived,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Our hearts should die&mdash;<i>of course</i>!"<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&mdash;<i>Song of the Vain Regret.</i><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p>First and foremost it must be understood that when men and women cross
+the Borderland of Discretion into that Never-never Country where
+wedding-rings are forgotten and family correspondence abruptly ceases,
+they do so, believing it to be unlikely that they will ever meet any one
+out of the old life again.</p>
+
+<p>This fallacy may be attributed to one of two things: either to an
+insufficient knowledge of their world, or to an exaggerated idea of
+their own exclusiveness. The first is the more common, but the one is as
+fatal as the other.</p>
+
+<p>It is quite possible, after such a lapse of time, that no one will
+remember the "Clitheroe, Gwynne-Harden" episode. Yet it made a great
+stir at the time. Clitheroe, I fancy, was in the army; while the woman
+was the wife of Gwynne-Harden, the banker. She came of good family, was
+intensely proud, and, among other things, of more or less account, had
+the reputation of being the acknowledged beauty of that season.</p>
+
+<p>Clitheroe and The Other Man's Wife were unwise to the borders of
+madness. For had they been content to worship each other according to
+society's certificated code&mdash;surely sufficiently elastic&mdash;no trouble
+would have ensued. But, for some reason or other, they were not
+satisfied to jog along in the ordinary way; but must needs meet in all
+sorts of hole-and-corner places, correspond in cipher, and send letters
+by hand, rather than by post. Naturally, people talked, and the scandal,
+by its obtrusiveness, became proverbial. All through the season they
+were in each other's pockets, and during Goodwood week, after a period
+of sentimental shilly-shallying, they disappeared for ever and a day.</p>
+
+<p>Gwynne-Harden, though it was said he loved his wife with an exceeding
+great love, was a philosopher in his own way. After the first shock he
+made no attempt to find her; on the other hand, he put the money the
+search would have cost him into Bolivian Rails, a doubtful, but still a
+better, investment, he said. Having done this, he placed all the
+belongings she had left behind her in an attic under lock and key,
+bought a new brand of cigars, and endeavoured to forget all about her.</p>
+
+<p>Four years later he went into the House, where he managed to interest
+himself in Colonial affairs. Moreover, he had the sense to stick to his
+work, and leave female society alone. He was a shrewd, cynical man, with
+taste for epigram, and said to himself, "I am matrimonial Mahomet, for
+the reason that, because I refuse to apply for a divorce, I hover
+between a possible heaven and an accomplished hell." Which was a bitter,
+but, under the circumstances, perhaps excusable speech.</p>
+
+<p>Now, here comes the part of the story I am anxious to dwell upon. Three
+years after the exodus just narrated, being desirous of extending his
+political information, Gwynne-Harden set out for Australia with a sheaf
+of introductions in his despatch-box. Downing Street busied herself on
+his behalf, and, in consequence, Her Majesty's representatives were
+politely instructed to yield him all the assistance in their power. It
+is well to be a Somebody in the land, and, as any globe-trotter will
+inform you, a Vice-Regal introduction is a lever by no means to be
+despised.</p>
+
+<p>When the Governor of a certain Colony had banqueted, fźted, and
+endeavoured to turn his guest inside out for his own purposes, he handed
+him over to the tender mercies of his Colonial Secretary, or whatever
+you call the leader of the gang then in power.</p>
+
+<p>This gentleman had his own opinions on the subject of globe-trotters,
+and argued that the majority were shown too much in order that they
+might absorb too little. Therefore, he said he would take Gwynne-Harden
+under his protection, and enact Gamaliel in his own way.</p>
+
+<p>To this end he lured his victim into a lengthy driving tour through the
+squatting districts, in order that he might see the backbone of the
+country for himself and form his own conclusions. The idea was ingenuous
+in the main, but because he had left all consideration of the past out
+of his calculations it failed entirely in its purpose. Even Colonial
+Secretaries are powerless against Fate.</p>
+
+<p>As they proceeded from station to station on their route, they were
+received with that hospitality for which the Australian Bush is so
+justly famous. And, like the proverbial owl, Gwynne-Harden said little,
+but thought the more.</p>
+
+<p>Between three and four o'clock one roasting afternoon, the travellers
+saw, on the rise before them, the charming homestead of Woodnooro
+Station. The Colonial Secretary looked forward to a pleasant visit, for
+he had stayed there before.</p>
+
+<p>They resigned their buggy to the care of a black boy in the
+horse-paddock, and as they approached the house, the Secretary explained
+to Gwynne-Harden all the good things he knew of the owner and his wife.
+He devoted considerable space to his description of the latter, and in
+answer the banker smiled grimly.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Leaving the small flower-garden behind them, they enter a cool stone
+verandah, where a lady rises from a long cane chair to greet them. The
+Colonial Secretary dashes forward to take her hand....</p>
+
+<p><i>Colonial Secretary</i> ... "Mr. Gwynne-Harden&mdash;Mrs. Chichester."</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Chichester</i> (as white as a ghost, vainly feeling for the wall
+behind her with her left hand, while she fumbles at her collar with her
+right): "Mr. Gwynne-Harden!" (Then slowly and with prodigious exertion):
+"I&mdash;I&mdash;I'm&mdash;I hope you are very well."</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Gwynne-Harden</i> (with a curious expression in his face, which the
+Colonial Secretary attributes to nervousness): "Extremely well, I thank
+you!"</p>
+
+<p><i>Colonial Secretary</i>: "I am looking forward to having the pleasure of
+introducing Mr. Gwynne-Harden to your husband, Mrs. Chichester."</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Chichester</i> (with a supreme effort): "I'm sorry to say my husband
+is camped on the run at present."</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Gwynne-Harden</i>: "Then I must await his return with proper patience.
+<i>I shall be delighted to meet him, I am sure.</i> Mrs. Chichester, is
+anything the matter?"</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Chichester</i> (still fumbling at her neck): "No, no&mdash;r&mdash;r&mdash;really
+nothing. I feel the heat very much, that is all. Won't you come inside?"
+(Rises and leads the way into the dining-room, where she unlocks a
+sideboard, and puts whisky on the table.) "I'm sure you must need some
+refreshment after your long and hot drive."</p>
+
+<p><i>Colonial Secretary</i> (enthusiastically, pointing to a creeper through
+the door).... "By Jove! look here, Harden; isn't this perfect? I
+challenge you to find its equal anywhere&mdash;the <i>Buginvillea Speciosa</i> in
+all its glory. Ah! I beg your pardon, Mrs. Chichester."</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Chichester</i> (passing him): "Thank you. If you will excuse me, I
+think I will go and see about your rooms." [<i>Exits across verandah.</i>]</p>
+
+<p>The Colonial Secretary solemnly takes to himself a whisky-peg, while
+Gwynne-Harden, turning his back, fixes his eye-glass and critically
+examines two photos on the mantelpiece.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colonial Secretary</i> (warmly, referring to their hostess): "Egad,
+Harden, what would many men give for a wife like that?"</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Gwynne-Harden</i> (dropping his eye-glass, and facing round): "What,
+indeed!"</p>
+
+<p>They adjourn to the verandah, where enter to them a small and very dirty
+child, presumably a boy, who scrutinizes both men carefully before
+venturing near.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Gwynne-Harden</i>: "Ah, my little man, and pray what may your name
+be?"</p>
+
+<p><i>Child</i>: "Jack 'Ister."</p>
+
+<p><i>Colonial Secretary</i>: "Anglisé&mdash;Jack Chichester. He is a fine boy, and
+typical of the country. Come here, Jack. How old are you?"</p>
+
+<p><i>Child</i>: "I'se free&mdash;Baby's one."</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Gwynne-Harden</i>: "So there's a baby, too, eh?"</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Chichester</i> (appearing at the end of the verandah): "Jack, it's
+your bed-time. Say good-night, and come along at once."</p>
+
+<p>Jack goes to Gwynne-Harden, and holds up his face to be kissed; but the
+honour is declined. The Colonial Secretary accepts it effusively. Then
+mother and child disappear together.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colonial Secretary</i> (laughingly): "You don't seem fond of kissing
+children!"</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Gwynne-Harden</i>: "Not other people's children, thank you!"</p>
+
+<p><i>Colonial Secretary</i> (who has never heard the scandal, to himself): "I
+wonder if there's a Mrs. Gwynne-Harden?"</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p><i>The quarter of an hour preceding dinner.</i> Gwynne-Harden is standing
+with his hands on the chimney-piece, looking into the empty fireplace.
+To him enter Mrs. Chichester.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Chichester</i> (advancing): "George! George&mdash;for myself I ask
+nothing; but for my children's sakes. Oh, George, be merciful!"</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Gwynne-Harden</i> (turning): "Mrs. Chichester, I beg your pardon ten
+thousand times for not seeing you enter. This light is so deceptive,
+perhaps you thought I was your husband!"</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Chichester</i>: "George, have you forgotten me?"</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Gwynne-Harden</i>: "My dear <i>Mrs. Chichester</i>, pray let me turn up the
+lamp, then you will see whom you are addressing. I am Mr. Gwynne-Harden,
+and if you will pardon my saying so, I don't remember ever having seen
+your face before. If I have, I have been rude enough to forget the
+circumstance. <i>Your husband's</i> acquaintance I shall&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Chichester</i>: "What of my husband?"</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Gwynne-Harden</i>: "Only that I shall hope to meet him face to face
+very soon."</p>
+
+<p>Enter the Colonial Secretary simultaneously with dinner.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p><i>10 p.m., the same evening. Scene&mdash;Gwynne-Harden's bedroom.</i> He divests
+himself of his coat and waistcoat, and having done so, discovers a note
+addressed to himself upon the table. He reads it, and then looks long
+and fixedly at his own reflection in the glass.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Gwynne-Harden</i> (tearing the note into a hundred pieces): "Humph!
+This is certainly the Nineteenth Century&mdash;well, I'll sleep on it."</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Next morning the Colonial Secretary and his companion, without any
+apparent reason, changed their plans and continued their journey. When
+the buggy was at the door and the latter came to bid his hostess
+farewell, he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I am very sorry that we are compelled to go, for I shall not have an
+opportunity now of meeting your husband, Mrs. Chichester. And as I leave
+for England in a month, <i>it is improbable that we shall ever meet</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>To this speech Mrs. Chichester, so the Colonial Secretary thought,
+rather illogically said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"God bless you!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="OTHER_PUBLICATIONS" id="OTHER_PUBLICATIONS"></a>OTHER PUBLICATIONS</h2>
+
+
+<h3>WORKS BY GUY BOOTHBY</h3>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">IN STRANGE COMPANY<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">THE MARRIAGE OF ESTHER<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A BID FOR FORTUNE<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">THE BEAUTIFUL WHITE DEVIL<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">DR. NIKOLA<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">THE FASCINATION OF THE KING<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">BUSHIGRAMS<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">THE LUST OF HATE<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">ACROSS THE WORLD FOR A WIFE<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">PHAROS, THE EGYPTIAN<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">LOVE MADE MANIFEST<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">THE RED RAT'S DAUGHTER<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A MAKER OF NATIONS<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A PRINCE OF SWINDLERS<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A SAILOR'S BRIDE<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">LONG LIVE THE KING<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">MY INDIAN QUEEN<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">SHEILAH McLEOD<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">FAREWELL, NIKOLA<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">MY STRANGEST CASE<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">THE KIDNAPPED PRESIDENT<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">CONNIE BURT<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A TWO-FOLD INHERITANCE<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A BID FOR FREEDOM<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<h3>WORKS BY E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM.</h3>
+
+<h4>All Illustrated.</h4>
+
+<h3>The Master Mummer.</h3>
+
+<p>A romance of quality. A Princess of the Kingdom of Bartena is kept out
+of the way so that her position may be filled by that of her cousin. Her
+temporary guardian is killed, and, knowing nothing of her parentage, and
+while without friends, she finds one in an English gentleman, who makes
+a place for her in his house. Then a thousand intrigues to get her out
+of his hands are set on foot. It is without doubt the most romantic and
+entertaining novel which Mr. Oppenheim has yet written.</p>
+
+
+<h3>The Betrayal.</h3>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Dundee Advertiser</span> says:&mdash;"Mr. Oppenheim's skill has never been
+displayed to better advantage than here.... He has excelled himself, and
+to assert this is to declare the novel superior to nine out of ten of
+its contemporaries."</p>
+
+
+<h3>Anna, The Adventuress.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Globe</span> says:&mdash;"The story is ingeniously imagined and cleverly wrought
+out. Mr. Oppenheim has the gift of invention and keeps his readers on
+the tenter-hooks of suspense."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Daily News</span> says:&mdash;"Mr. Oppenheim keeps his readers on the alert from
+cover to cover, and the story is a fascinating medley of romance and
+mystery."</p>
+
+<h3>The Yellow Crayon.</h3>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Daily Express</span> says:&mdash;"Mr. Oppenheim has a vivid imagination and much
+sympathy, fine powers of narrative, and can suggest a life history in a
+sentence. As a painter of the rough life of mining camps, of any strong
+and striking scenes where animal passions enter, he is as good as Henry
+Kingsley, with whom, indeed, in many respects, he has strong points of
+resemblance."</p>
+
+
+<h3>A Prince of Sinners.</h3>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Vanity Fair</span> says:&mdash;"A vivid and powerful story. Mr. Oppenheim knows the
+world and he can tell a tale, and the unusual nature of the setting in
+which his leading characters live and work out their love story gives
+this book distinction among the novels of the season."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The World</span> says:&mdash;"Excellent. A book to read, enjoy, and think over."</p>
+
+
+<h3>The Traitors.</h3>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Athenęum</span> says:&mdash;"Its interest begins on the first page and ends on
+the last. The plot is ingenious and well-managed, the movement of the
+story is admirably swift and smooth, and the characters are exceedingly
+vivacious. The reader's excitement is kept on the stretch to the very
+end."</p>
+
+
+<h3>A Millionaire of Yesterday.</h3>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Daily Telegraph</span> says:&mdash;"The story is admirably constructed, and
+developed simply and forcibly. It abounds in dramatic situations, and
+there is more than one note of pathos which at once captures our
+sympathies. We cannot but welcome with enthusiasm a really well-told
+story like 'A Millionaire of Yesterday.' At the same time there is no
+lack of character-study in this very satisfactory book."</p>
+
+
+<h3>The Survivor.</h3>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Nottingham Guardian</span> says:&mdash;"We must give a conspicuous place on its
+merits to this excellent story. It is only necessary to read a page or
+two in order to become deeply interested in the central figure of the
+story; while the opening scenes, on which not a word is wasted, impress
+by their originality and power, and give promise of something worth
+following up. A story marked by brilliant and terse narration, vivid
+touches of characterization, and a plot that is consistent and yet
+fruitful in surprises."</p>
+
+
+<h3>The Great Awakening.</h3>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Yorkshire Post</span> says:&mdash;"A weird and fascinating story, which, for
+real beauty and originality, ranks far above the ordinary novel."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Daily Telegraph</span> says:&mdash;"Possesses an absorbing interest; it has also
+an extraordinary fascination."</p>
+
+
+<h3>As a Man Lives.</h3>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Sketch</span> says:&mdash;"The interest of the book, always keen and absorbing,
+is due to some extent to a puzzle so admirably planned as to defy the
+penetration of the most experienced novel reader."</p>
+
+
+<h3>A Daughter of the Marionis.</h3>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Scotsman</span> says:&mdash;"Mr. Oppenheim's stories always display much
+melodramatic power and considerable originality and ingenuity of
+construction. These and other qualities of the successful writer of
+romance are manifest in 'A Daughter of the Marionis.' Full of passion,
+action, strongly contrasted scenery, motives, and situations."</p>
+
+
+<h3>Mr. Bernard Brown.</h3>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Daily Graphic</span> says:&mdash;"Mr. E. Phillips Oppenheim has a remarkable
+gift of making up an exciting story."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Aberdeen Daily Journal</span> says:&mdash;"The story is rich in sensational
+incident and dramatic situations. It is seldom, indeed, that we meet
+with a novel of such power and fascination."</p>
+
+
+<h3>The Man and His Kingdom.</h3>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Freeman's Journal</span> says:&mdash;"It is high praise to say that in this
+novel the author has surpassed his previous thrilling and delightful
+story, 'The Mysterious Mr. Sabin.' Yet that high praise is eminently
+deserved. The story is worthy of Merriman at his very best. It is a
+genuine treat for the ravenous and often disappointed novel reader."</p>
+
+
+<h3>The World's Great Snare.</h3>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The World</span> says:&mdash;"If engrossing interest, changing episode, deep insight
+into human character, and bright diction are the <i>sine qua non</i> of a
+successful novel, then this book cannot but bound at once into popular
+favour. It is so full withal of so many dramatic incidents, thoroughly
+exciting and realistic. There is not one dull page from beginning to
+end."</p>
+
+
+<h3>A Monk of Cruta.</h3>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Bookman</span> says:&mdash;"Intensely dramatic. The book is an achievement at
+which the author may well be gratified."</p>
+
+
+<h3>Mysterious Mr. Sabin.</h3>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Literary World</span> says:&mdash;"As a story of incident, with a deep-laid and
+exciting plot, this of the 'Mysterious Mr. Sabin' can hardly be
+surpassed."</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A Crime of the Under-seas, by Guy Boothby
+
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+</body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Crime of the Under-seas, by Guy Boothby
+
+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: A Crime of the Under-seas
+
+Author: Guy Boothby
+
+Illustrator: Stanley L. Wood
+
+Release Date: May 15, 2011 [EBook #36118]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CRIME OF THE UNDER-SEAS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                    A CRIME OF THE UNDER-SEAS
+
+                         By GUY BOOTHBY
+
+_Author of "A Bid for Fortune" "Doctor Nikola" "The Beautiful
+White Devil" "Pharos, the Egyptian" etc. etc._
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS BY STANLEY L. WOOD
+
+
+    LONDON
+
+    WARD LOCK & CO LIMITED
+    1905
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "Dropped him again with a cry that echoed in my helmet."]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+A CRIME OF THE UNDER-SEAS
+
+THE PHANTOM STOCKMAN
+
+THE TREASURE OF SACRAMENTO NICK
+
+INTO THE OUTER DARKNESS
+
+THE STORY OF TOMMY DODD AND "THE ROOSTER"
+
+QUOD ERAT DEMONSTRANDUM
+
+CUPID AND PSYCHE
+
+MISPLACED AFFECTIONS
+
+IN GREAT WATERS
+
+MR. ARISTOCRAT
+
+THIS MAN AND THIS WOMAN
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+"DROPPED HIM AGAIN WITH A CRY THAT ECHOED IN MY HELMET."
+
+"I SPRANG TO MY FEET ON HEARING THIS. 'NOT THE FIRST!' I CRIED."
+
+"A NATIVE FRUIT-HAWKER CAME ROUND THE CORNER."
+
+"THEN, JUST AS HER NOSE GROUNDED, MY EYES CAUGHT SIGHT OF A BIG
+CREEPER-COVERED MASS."
+
+"ONE MOONLIGHT NIGHT ... SOMEBODY STEPPED UP BESIDE HIM."
+
+
+
+
+A Crime of the Under-Seas
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+There is an old saying that "one half of the world does not know how the
+other half lives," but how true this is very few of us really
+understand. In the East, indeed, it amounts almost to the marvellous.
+There are men engaged in trades there, some of them highly lucrative, of
+which the world in general has never heard, and which the ordinary
+stay-at-home Englishman would in all probability refuse to believe, even
+if the most trustworthy evidence were placed before him. For instance,
+on the evening from which I date the story I am now about to tell you,
+three of us were seated chatting together in the verandah of the Grand
+Oriental Hotel at Colombo. We were all old friends, and we had each of
+us arrived but recently in Ceylon. McDougall, the big red-haired
+Scotchman, who was sitting on my right, had put in an appearance from
+Tuticorin by a British India boat only that morning, and was due to
+leave again for Burmah the following night. As far as I could gather he
+earned his living mainly by smuggling dutiable articles into other
+countries, where the penalty, if one is caught, is a fine of at least
+one thousand pounds, or the chance of receiving upwards of five years'
+imprisonment. The man in the big chair next to him was Callingway, a
+Londoner, who had hailed the day before from South America, travelling
+in a P. and O. steamer from Australia. He was tracking an absconding
+Argentine Bank Manager, and, as it afterwards transpired, was, when we
+came in contact with him, on the point of getting possession of the
+money with which the other had left the country. Needless to say he was
+not a Government servant, nor were the Banking Company in question aware
+of his endeavours. Lastly there was myself, Christopher Collon, aged
+thirty-six, whose walk in life was even stranger, if such a thing were
+possible, than those of the two men I have just described. One thing at
+any rate is certain, and that is that if I had been called upon to give
+an accurate description of myself and my profession at that time, I
+should have found it extremely difficult to do so. Had I been the
+possessor of a smart London office, a private secretary, and half a
+dozen corresponding clerks, I should probably have called myself a
+private detective on a large scale, or, as they put it in the
+advertisement columns of our daily papers, a Private Enquiry Agent. Yet
+that description would scarcely have suited me; I was that and something
+more. At any rate it was a pretty hard life, and by the same token a
+fairly hazardous one. This will be the better understood when I say that
+one day I might receive a commission by cablegram from some London firm,
+who, we will suppose, had advanced goods to an Indian Rajah, and were
+unable to obtain payment for them. It was my business to make my way to
+his headquarters as soon as possible, and to get the money out of him by
+the best means in my power, eating nothing but what was cooked for me by
+my own servant meanwhile. As soon as I had done with him I might be sent
+on very much the same sort of errand to a Chinese Mandarin in Hankow or
+Canton, or possibly to worry a gold mining concession, or something of
+the sort, out of one of the innumerable Sultans of the protected Malayan
+States, those charming places where the head of the State asks you to
+dinner at six and you are found at midnight with six inches of cold
+_krise_ in your abdomen. On one occasion I remember being sent from
+Singapore to Kimberley at three hours' notice to meet and escort a
+Parsee diamond merchant from that town to Calcutta. And what was funnier
+still, though we travelled to Cape Town together, and even shared the
+same cabin on board the steamer afterwards, he never for an instant
+suspected that I was spying upon him. Oftentimes I used to wonder what
+he would have thought, had he only guessed that I knew he was carrying
+upwards of a million pounds worth of diamonds in the simple leather belt
+he wore next to his skin, and that every night I used, when he was
+asleep, to convince myself that everything was right and that the stones
+were still there. His was a precious life that voyage, at least so his
+friends in Calcutta thought, and if I could only tell you all that
+happened during our intercourse, you would not wonder that I was glad
+when we reached India, and I had handed him over to the chief partners
+of his firm. But there, if I were to go on telling you my adventures, I
+should be talking from now to Christmas. Rather let me get to the matter
+in hand, beside which everything I had ever attempted hitherto ranks as
+nothing. When I have done I think you will admit that the familiar
+saying, embodied in my first sentence, should be altered from "one half
+the world does not know how the other half lives" to "one half the world
+does not know how the other half _gets its living_." There is a
+distinction with a good deal of difference.
+
+I have often thought that there is no pleasanter spot in this strange
+old world of ours than the Grand Oriental Hotel, Colombo. Certainly
+there is not a more interesting place. There the student of character
+will have sufficient examples before him to keep him continually at
+work. Day and night vessels of all sorts and descriptions are entering
+the harbour, hailing from at least three of the four known quarters of
+the globe. At all hours men and women from Europe, from India, from
+Malaysia, from the further East, from Australia, and also from the
+Southern Seas and America _via_ Australia, troop in and out of that
+hospitable caravanserai.
+
+On this particular occasion, having talked of many things and half a
+hundred times as many places, we had come back to the consideration of
+our lives and the lack of home comforts they contained.
+
+"If I could only see my way clear I'd throw it up, marry, and settle
+down," said Callingway; "not in England, or Scotland, or America, for
+that matter; but, to my thinking, in the loveliest island in the world."
+
+"And where may that be?" I inquired, for I had my own ideas on the
+subject.
+
+"Tasmania," he answered promptly. "The land of the red-faced apple. I
+know a little place on the Derwent that would suit me down to the
+ground."
+
+"I'd na gae ye a pinch of snuff for it," said McDougall, with
+conviction. "What's life worth to a man in them hole-and-corner places?
+When I've done wi' roamin' it's in my mind that I'll set myself down at
+a little place I ken the name of, fifty miles north of the Clyde, where
+there's a bit of fishing, and shootin', and, if ye want it, well, just a
+drappie of the finest whuskey that was ever brewed in old Scotie. It's
+ma thinkin' I've ruined ma digestion wi' all these outlandish liquors
+that I've been swallowin' these twenty years gone. Don't talk o' your
+Tasmanias to me. I'm nae fond o' them. What have you to say, Mr.
+Collon?"
+
+"You needn't be afraid. I'll not settle down as long as I can get
+about," I answered. "If you fellows are tired of your lives I'm not, and
+I'm certain of this much, Callingway, by the time you've been installed
+in your Tasmanian home twelve months, and you, McDougall, have been on
+your Scotch estate the same length of time, you'll both be heartily sick
+of them and wishing yourselves back once more in the old life out here."
+
+"Try me, that's all," replied Callingway fervently. "Think what our
+present life is. We are here to-day and gone to-morrow. We've not a foot
+of earth in the whole wide world that we can call our own. The only home
+we know is a numbered room in a hotel or a cabin aboard a ship. We never
+know when we get up in the morning whether by nightfall we shall not be
+lying stark and cold shot through the heart, or with six inches of cold
+steel through our lungs. Our nerves from year's end to year's end are
+strained to breaking pitch, and there's not a single decent woman to be
+found amongst the whole circle of our acquaintances. After all, a
+wife's----"
+
+"The lasses, the lasses, I agree with ye," interrupted McDougall without
+ceremony. "After all 'tis the lasses who make the joy o' livin'. Hear
+what Robbie says:--
+
+    "'Health to the sex! ilk guid chiel says,
+    Wi' merry dance in winter days,
+    An' we to share in common:
+    The gust o' joy, the balm o' woe,
+    The soul o' life, the Heav'n below,
+    Is rapture-giving woman.'"
+
+"If you're going to get on that strain you're hopeless," I said. "When
+Callingway begins to think it is time for him to settle down, and you,
+McDougall, start quoting Burns, then I come to the conclusion that I'd
+better bid you good-night."
+
+As I spoke a "ricksha" drew up at the steps, and, when the coolie had
+set down his shafts, an elderly gentleman alighted. Having paid the man
+his fare he entered the verandah, and so made his way into the house. I
+had got so accustomed to new arrivals by this time that, beyond thinking
+what a good picture of the substantial old English merchant this one
+would have made, I did not pay much attention to him.
+
+"Well," said Callingway, after the few minutes' pause which followed up
+my last remark, "I think I will ask you gentlemen to drink another
+whiskey and soda to my success, and then I will leave you and retire to
+my virtuous couch. My confounded boat sails at six o'clock to-morrow
+morning, and if I don't sail in her I shall lose the society of a most
+estimable gentleman whom I am accompanying as far as Hong Kong. As it
+looks like being a profitable transaction I've no desire he should give
+me the slip."
+
+He touched the bell on the table at his side, and when the boy arrived
+to answer it, ordered the refreshment in question. We drank to his
+success in the business he was about to undertake, and then both he and
+McDougall bade me good-night and retired, leaving me alone in the
+verandah. It was a lovely evening, and as I was not at all in the humour
+for sleep I lit another cheroot and remained on where I was, watching
+the glimmering lights in the harbour beyond, and listening to the
+jabbering of the "ricksha" boys on the stand across the road.
+
+As I sat there I could not help thinking of the curious life I was
+leading, of the many strange adventures I had had, and also of my
+miraculous escapes from what had seemed at the time to be almost certain
+death. Only that very day I had received an offer by telegram from a
+well-known and highly respected firm in Bombay inviting me to undertake
+a somewhat delicate piece of business in the Philippine Islands. The
+price offered me was, in every sense of the word, a good one; but I
+detested Spanish countries so much that if anything better turned up I
+was prepared to let the other fall through without a second thought. But
+one has to live, even in the East, and for this reason I did not feel
+justified in throwing dirty water away before I had got clean.
+
+As these thoughts were passing through my mind I distinctly heard some
+one step into the verandah from the door on my right, and a moment
+later, to my surprise, the stout old gentleman who, half an hour or so
+before, I had thought so typical of an English merchant, came round the
+chairs towards me. Having reached the place where I was sitting he
+stopped, and, taking a cheroot from his pocket, proceeded to light it.
+During the operation I noticed that he took careful stock of me, and,
+when he had finished, said quietly,--
+
+"Mr. Collon, I believe?"
+
+"That is my name," I answered, looking up at him through the cloud of
+smoke. "Pray how do you come to be acquainted with it?"
+
+"I have heard of you repeatedly," he replied.
+
+"Indeed," I said. "And pray is there any way in which I can be of
+service to you?"
+
+"I think so," he replied, with a smile. "As a matter of fact, I have
+just arrived from Madras, where, hearing in an indirect way that you
+were supposed to be in Ceylon, I undertook this journey on purpose to
+see you."
+
+"Indeed!" I answered, with considerable surprise. "And pray what is it
+you desire me to do for you?"
+
+"I want you to take charge of what I think promises to be one of the
+most extraordinary and complicated cases even in your extensive
+repertoire," he said.
+
+"If it is as you say, it must indeed be a singular one," I answered.
+"Perhaps it would not give you too much trouble to furnish me with the
+details."
+
+"I will do so with the greatest pleasure," he replied. "If you will
+permit me to take my seat beside you, you shall hear the story from
+beginning to end. I think, then, that you will agree with me that,
+provided you undertake it, it will, as I insinuated just now, in all
+probability prove the most sensational, as well as the most lucrative,
+case in which even you have hitherto been engaged."
+
+Thereupon he seated himself beside me, and told the following remarkable
+story.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+"In the first place, Mr. Collon," said the old gentleman, who had shown
+himself so anxious to obtain my services, "I must introduce myself to
+you. My name is Leversidge, John Leversidge, and I am the junior partner
+of the firm of Wilson, Burke & Leversidge, of Hatton Garden, Paris,
+Calcutta, and Melbourne. We are, as you will have gathered from our
+first address, diamond and precious stone merchants, and we do a very
+large business in the East generally; also among the Pacific Islands and
+in Australia. With the two last named our trade is confined principally
+to pearls and gold, neither of them having very much in the way of gems
+to offer. Still their connection is worth so much to us as to warrant us
+in keeping two buyers almost continuously employed; a fact, I think,
+which speaks for itself. Now it so turned out that some six months or so
+ago we received a cablegram in London announcing the fact that an
+enormous black pearl, in all probability the finest yet brought to
+light, had been discovered near one of the islands to the southward of
+New Guinea. It had been conveyed first to Thursday Island, which, as
+perhaps you are aware, is the head and centre of this particular
+industry in Australian waters, and later on, with a considerable amount
+of secrecy, to Sydney, where our agent, a man in whom we had the
+greatest trust, made it his business to see it on our behalf. The result
+was a cypher cablegram to our firm in London, to say that the jewel was,
+as far as his knowledge went, absolutely unique, and that in his opinion
+it behoved us to purchase it, even at the exorbitant price asked for it
+by the rascally individual into whose hands it had now fallen. This was
+a person by the name of Bollinson, a half-bred Swede I should say by the
+description we received of him; though, for my part, from the way he
+treated us, I should think Jew would be somewhat nearer the mark.
+Whatever his nationality may have been, however, the fact remains that
+he knew his business so well, that when we obtained possession of the
+pearl, which we were determined to have at any price, we had paid a sum
+for it nearly double what we had originally intended to give. But that
+mattered little to us, for we had the _most perfect confidence in our
+servant_, who had had to do with pearls all his life, and who since he
+had been in our employ had been fortunate enough to secure several
+splendid bargains for us. So, to make a long story short, when he cabled
+the price--though I must confess we whistled a little at the figure--we
+wired back: 'Buy, and bring it home yourself by next boat,' feeling
+convinced that we had done the right thing and should not regret it.
+Now, as you know, there is to be an Imperial wedding in Europe in six
+months' time, and as we had received instructions to submit for his
+inspection anything we might have worthy of the honour, we felt morally
+certain that the sovereign in question would take the jewel off our
+hands, and thus enable us to get our money back and a fair percentage of
+interest, besides repaying us for our outlay and our trouble. Sure
+enough next day a message came in to us to say that our agent had
+completed the sale and was leaving for England that day, not _via_
+Melbourne and Adelaide, as we had supposed, or _via_ Vancouver, which
+would have been the next best route; but by way of Queensland, the
+Barrier Reef, and the Arifura Sea, which was longer, and, as we very
+well knew, by no means so safe. Then he added the very significant
+information that since he had had the pearl in his keeping no less than
+_three separate and distinct attempts_ had been made by other people to
+obtain possession of it. All that, you must understand, happened eight
+weeks ago. I was in London at the time, and can therefore give you the
+information first hand."
+
+"Eight weeks exactly?" I asked, for I always like to be certain of my
+dates. Many a good case that I have taken in hand has collapsed for the
+simple reason that the parties instructing me had been a little slipshod
+in the matter of their dates.
+
+"Eight weeks to-morrow," he answered. "Or rather, since it is now past
+midnight, I think I might say eight weeks to-day. However, in this
+particular instance the date does not happen to be of much importance."
+
+"In that case I must beg your pardon for interrupting you," I said. "You
+were saying, I think, that your agent reported that, before he left
+Sydney, no less than three attempts were made by certain parties to
+obtain possession of the pearl in question."
+
+"That was so. But it is evident that he managed to elude them, otherwise
+he would have cabled again to us on the subject."
+
+"Did you then receive no further message from him?"
+
+"Only one from Brisbane to say that he had joined the mail-boat,
+_Monarch of Macedonia_, at that port, and would sail for England in her
+that day."
+
+On hearing the name of the vessel I gave a start of surprise, and I
+might almost say of horror. "Good heavens!" I cried; "do you mean to say
+he was on board the _Monarch of Macedonia_? Why, as all the world knows
+by this time, she struck a rock somewhere off the New Guinea Coast and
+went to the bottom with all hands but two."
+
+The old gentleman nodded his head. "Your information is quite correct,
+my dear sir," he said. "In a fog one night between eleven and twelve
+o'clock, she got in closer to the New Guinea Coast than she ought to
+have done, and struck on what was evidently an uncharted rock, and sank
+in between fifteen and twenty fathoms of water. Of her ship's company
+only two were saved, a foremast hand and a first saloon passenger, the
+Rev. W. Colway-Brown, a clergyman from Sydney. These two managed, by
+some extraordinary means, to secure a boat, and in her they made their
+way to the shore, which was between thirty and forty miles distant. Here
+they dwelt for a few days in peril of their lives from the natives, and
+were ultimately picked up by a trading schooner called _The Kissing
+Cup_, whose skipper carried them on to Thursday Island, where they were
+taken in and most kindly cared for."
+
+"And your agent? Did you learn anything of his fate?"
+
+"Nothing that was likely to be of any comfort to us," said the old
+fellow sadly. "We telegraphed as soon as we heard the news, of course,
+first to the agents in Brisbane, who, to prove that he sailed on board
+the vessel, wired us the number of his cabin, and then to the Rev.
+Colway-Brown, who was still in Thursday Island. The latter replied
+immediately to the effect that he remembered quite well seeing the
+gentleman in question on deck earlier in the evening, but that he saw
+nothing of him after the vessel struck, and could only suppose he must
+have been in bed when the accident happened. It was a most unhappy
+affair altogether, and, as you may suppose, we were not a little cut up
+at the loss of our old servant and trusted friend."
+
+"I can quite believe that," I answered. "And now what is it you want me
+to do to help you?"
+
+Mr. Leversidge was silent for a few seconds, and thinking he might be
+wondering how he should put the matter to me I did not interrupt him.
+
+"Well, Mr. Collon," he said, after a few moments' thought, "what we want
+you to do for us, is to proceed with me to the scene of the wreck as
+soon as possible, and to endeavour to obtain from her the pearl which
+our agent was bringing home to us. Your reputation as a diver is well
+known to us, and I might tell you that directly the news of the wreck
+reached us we said to each other, 'That pearl must be recovered at any
+cost, and Christopher Collon is the man for the work.' We will, of
+course, pay all expenses connected with the expedition. Will you
+therefore be good enough to tell me if you will undertake the work, and
+if so, what your charge will be?"
+
+Many and strange as my adventures had hitherto been, and curious (for
+that is the most charitable term, I think) as were some of the
+applications I had had made to me in my time, I don't think I had ever
+been made such an extraordinary offer as that brought under my notice by
+the old gentleman who had so unexpectedly come in search of me. He had
+not been far from the mark when he had said that this was likely to be
+one of the strangest cases that had ever come under my observation. Of
+one thing I was firmly convinced, and that was that I was not going to
+give him a decided answer at once. I did not know how my ground lay, and
+nothing was to be gained by giving my promise and being compelled to
+withdraw it afterwards. Besides, before I pledged myself, I wanted to
+find out how I stood with the law in the matter of the ship herself. I
+had no sort of desire to board her and bring off the jewel, and then
+find it advertised in all the papers of the world and myself called into
+court on a charge of wrecking or piracy, or whatever the particular term
+might be that covers that sort of crime.
+
+"You must give me time to think it over," I said, turning to the old
+gentleman beside me. "I want to discover my position. For all I know to
+the contrary I may be lending myself to a felony, and that would never
+do at all. Everybody is aware that the more adventures a jewel goes
+through the more valuable it becomes. On the other hand the arm of the
+law reaches a long way, and I am not going to be the cat that pulls your
+chestnuts out of the fire and burns her paws in so doing. That would
+scarcely suit Christopher Collon, however nice it might be for other
+people."
+
+"My dear sir," replied Mr. Leversidge, "you need have no fear at all on
+that score. We have no desire to incriminate you or to hurt your
+interests in any possible way. I shall take charge of the affair myself,
+and that should be sufficient guarantee that we are not going to run any
+undue risk. I have both my public and my private reputation at stake,
+and for my own sake you may be sure I shall take very good care that we
+do not come into collision with the law. The good name of my firm is
+also in the balance, and that should count for something. No, my dear
+sir, the most rigid and absolute secrecy will be maintained, and the
+arrangements will be as follows: If you are agreeable, and we can come
+to terms, we shall charter a vessel, if possible, in Batavia, fit her
+out with the necessary appliances, and sail in her with all speed to the
+spot where the catastrophe happened. Then you will descend to the
+vessel, discover our agent's luggage, which is certain to be in his
+cabin, we shall draw it up to the surface, examine it, obtain the pearl,
+and having done so sail again for Batavia, where the amount upon which
+we shall have agreed will be paid to you. After that we must separate;
+you will go your way, I shall go mine, and not a living soul will be the
+wiser."
+
+"That's all very well, but what about the officers and crew of the
+vessel we charter? Do you think they will not suspect; and how do you
+propose to square them?"
+
+"We will do that, never fear. They will be certain to believe, from the
+confident way in which we act, that we have the right to visit the
+vessel. Besides, when we have once parted from them, we shall never see
+them again. No, I do not think you need be afraid of them. Come, what do
+you say?"
+
+"I don't know what to say," I answered. "I'm not sure whether it would
+be worth my while to touch it. The risk is so great, and I've got
+another offer on hand just now that looks as if it might turn out well.
+All these things have to be considered before I can give you an answer."
+
+"Naturally," he replied. "But still I trust you will see your way to
+helping us. Your skill as a diver is well known, and I pay you the
+compliment of believing that you have one of the rarest of all gifts,
+the knowledge of how to hold your tongue when it is necessary. Just
+think it over and acquaint me with your decision in the morning."
+
+"Very good," I answered. "I will do so. You shall have my answer after
+breakfast, without fail."
+
+"I am glad to hear it, and I thank you. Now, good-night."
+
+"Good-night," I answered, and after that we separated to go to our
+respective rooms.
+
+By five o'clock next morning, after a troubled night, I had made up my
+mind. If the old gentleman would give the terms I wanted, I would do
+what he asked. Half of the amount was to be paid before we left Colombo,
+and the balance on our return to Batavia, or on the completion of our
+work, provided it did not last more than six months. All expenses were
+to be defrayed by his firm, and a document was to be given me,
+exonerating me from all blame should the law think fit to come down upon
+us for what we were doing. All this I embodied in a letter which I
+copied and sent to Mr. Leversidge's room while he was dressing.
+
+After breakfast he found me in the verandah.
+
+"Many thanks for your note," he said promptly. "I shall be most happy to
+agree to your terms. We will settle them at once, if you have no
+objection."
+
+"That is very kind of you," I answered; "but why this great hurry?"
+
+"Because we must leave in the mail-boat this afternoon for Batavia,
+_via_ Singapore," he replied. "As you will see for yourself, there is no
+time to be lost."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+In every life there are certain to be incidents, often of the most
+trivial nature possible, which, little as we may think so at the time,
+are destined to remain with us, indelibly stamped upon our memories,
+until we shuffle off this mortal coil. As far as my own existence is
+concerned, I shall always remember the first view we obtained of Tanjong
+Priok, as the seaport of Batavia is called, on the day we arrived there
+from Singapore, engaged on the most extraordinary quest in which I had
+ever taken part. It was towards evening, and the sky, not merely the
+western, but indeed the whole length and breadth of the heavens, was
+suffused with the glorious tints of sunset. Such another I do not
+remember ever to have seen. In these later days, whenever I look back on
+that strange adventure, the first thing I see pictured in my mind's eye
+is that Dutch harbour with its shiny green wharves on one hand, its
+desolate, wind-tossed cocoa-nut trees upon the shore on the other, and
+that marvellously beautiful sky enveloping all like a blood-red mantle.
+
+The voyage from Ceylon to Singapore, and thence to Java, calls for no
+special comment, save that it was accomplished at the maximum of speed
+and the minimum of convenience. So great, however, was Mr. Leversidge's
+desire to get to the scene of the disaster, that he could scarcely wait
+even for the most necessary preparations to be made. The whole way from
+Colombo to Singapore he grumbled at the speed of the vessel, and when we
+broke down later on off the coast of Sumatra, I really thought he would
+have had a fit. However, as I have said before, we reached it at last,
+and despite the catastrophe, in fairly good time. Having done so, we
+went ashore, and, acting on my advice, installed ourselves at the Hotel
+de Nederlander. There are few more beautiful places in the world than
+Java, and few where I would less care to spend my life. It was
+Leversidge's first visit to the island, however, and, as is usual in
+such cases, its beauty exercised a powerful effect upon him. Java is
+like itself and nothing else in the whole scope of the Immemorial East.
+
+Once we were settled we began to think about our preparations for
+accomplishing the last part of our singular journey, namely, our voyage
+to the wreck. It was a delicate bit of business, and one that had to be
+undertaken in a careful manner in order that no suspicions might be
+aroused. The Dutch Government is as suspicious as a rat, and a great
+deal more watchful than most people give it the credit of being. If
+space permitted, which it does not, I could furnish you with tangible
+evidence on this head.
+
+"What do you intend doing first?" I had inquired of Mr. Leversidge, on
+the evening of our landing, when we sat together after dinner in the
+verandah outside our bedrooms.
+
+"To-morrow morning I shall commence my inquiries for a vessel to carry
+us on," he answered. "I do not, of course, in accordance with the
+promise I gave you, desire to compromise you in any way, but if you
+would give me a few hints as to the way in which I should proceed, I
+should be very grateful to you. This is the first time I have been in
+Java, and naturally I am not familiar with the ropes."
+
+"I'll do all I can for you, with great pleasure," I replied; "on the
+understanding, of course, that I take none of the responsibility. In the
+first place, you will want a smart little vessel that will get us down
+to the spot as quickly as possible. Then you will have to hire your
+diving gear, pumps, dress, etc., and these, as my life and the entire
+success of the business will depend upon them, must be of the very first
+quality. Having secured your boat, you must find a trustworthy skipper
+and crew. She must be provisioned, and when all that has been done, you
+must arrange to get away from Tanjong Priok without a soul here being
+the wiser as to what occasions your hurry. I take it that that is a fair
+summary of the case?"
+
+"You have hit it exactly," he answered; "but I'm afraid it's rather more
+difficult than you suppose. In the first place, I want to be certain of
+my man before I go to him. I don't want to make a false step and find
+myself confronted with a person who will not only refuse to entertain my
+request point-blank, but will inform the Government as soon as my back
+is turned of my intentions. That would ruin everything."
+
+"Well, if you want a man from whom you can make inquiries," I answered,
+"and at the same time feel safe in so doing, I think I can put you on
+the track of one. I've got his card in my bag now, and to-morrow morning
+I'll give it to you. One thing is very certain: if there is any one on
+this island who can help you, he is that man. But don't let him get an
+inkling that you're after pearls, whatever you do, or he'll want to
+stand in with you, as sure as you're born, or sell you to the Government
+if you don't let him have his own way. I know for a fact that he owns a
+fleet of schooners, all built for speed, though I expect when you ask
+him he will deny knowing anything at all about them. They're fitted up
+with the latest appliances in the way of pumps and gear, but I know
+nothing of the crews they carry. You must look after them yourself, only
+be very careful and keep your eyes open. Remember that every man about
+here is a sailor, or pretends to be. Oftener, however, he is as big a
+rascal as can be found in the East, and would not only play you false as
+soon as look at you, but would slit your throat on the first convenient
+opportunity, if for no other reward than to see how pretty you look
+while he is doing it. I've had to do with them for more years than I
+like to count, and I speak from experience. Now, with your permission,
+I'll be off to bed. I'll give you the fellow's address to-morrow
+morning."
+
+"Many thanks," he said. "I am sincerely grateful to you for the help you
+have rendered me."
+
+"Don't mention it. I only hope it may prove of real service to you.
+Good-night."
+
+"Good-night, my dear sir," he answered. "Good-night. I trust that we
+have now definitely started on our work, and that we are on the
+threshold of great events."
+
+Early next morning, that is to say after the early breakfast, which is
+served either in the bedrooms or in the verandahs, as visitors may
+prefer, I handed the old gentleman the card of the individual to whom I
+had referred on the previous evening, and he immediately set off in
+search of him. While he was gone I thought I would take a stroll down
+town and find out what was doing, so, donning my solar topee, I lit a
+cigar and set off. I had an old friend, who could tell me all I wanted
+to know--a man I had often found useful--and, what was better still, one
+whom I had impressed some time since with the belief that it would be by
+no means advisable to attempt to play fast and loose with me. He was a
+curious old fellow, of the name of Maalthaas, and claimed to be a
+Dutchman. But I happened to be aware that this was not his name; he was
+a native of Southern Germany, and had originally run away to escape
+military service. He dwelt at the top of a curious building in the main
+thoroughfare of the native town, the lower portion of which was
+inhabited by Chinamen, and it was his boast that he knew more of what
+was going on in the further East than even Li Chung Tang himself.
+
+I found him in the act of getting out of bed, and he looked as if he
+were suffering a recovery from a heavy opium bout, to which little
+excesses he was very partial. When I opened the door, he greeted me
+without showing the least surprise. A funnier little dried-up
+skin-and-bone creature no one could have desired to see.
+
+"Mynheer Collon?" he said, or rather gasped, for he was always
+asthmatical. "I somehow expected I should see you this morning."
+
+"Then your expectation is realized," I answered. "I happened to be in
+Batavia, so I thought I would look you up. It is months since I last set
+eyes on you."
+
+"But why did you leave Colombo so suddenly, Mynheer?" he asked
+inquisitively, disregarding the latter portion of my speech. "And how
+does it come about that you did not accept that offer to squeeze the
+dollars out of that tobacco firm in the Philippines?"
+
+"How the deuce do you know anything about that?" I asked in surprise,
+for it must be borne in mind that that business had been negotiated in
+the strictest secrecy, and I had no idea that any one else, save the
+parties mostly concerned, had any inkling of it, much less this
+withered-up old mummy in Java, who sat on his bed screwing his
+nutcracker face up into what he thought was a pleasant smile.
+
+"I am old, and deaf, and blind as a bat," he answered; "but I am young
+enough to have my wits about me. My ears are always open for a bit of
+gossip, and blind as I am I can see as far into the world as my
+neighbours."
+
+"You've got wonderfully sharp eyes, Daddy," I replied. "Everybody knows
+that. And what's more, you never make a mistake, do you? If I were as
+clever as you are I'd start opium smuggling in Formosa to-morrow, and
+make a fortune out of it."
+
+Now it so happened that this very industry was the only real failure the
+old man had had in his life, or, to be more exact, it was the only
+failure which had ever come to light. In consequence he was the more
+sensitive about it.
+
+"You think yourself very clever, don't you?" he asked, "but you're not
+quite as clever as old Maalthaas yet. For all he's so old he still has
+his wits about him. Supposing he could tell you your errand here, and
+why that white-haired old English merchant, Leversidge, is with you,
+eh?"
+
+"What do you know about Leversidge, you old wizard?" I cried; not,
+however, without a little feeling of nervousness, as I thought of what
+the consequences might be if this old rascal became aware of the game we
+were playing and of the necessity that existed for secrecy.
+
+"A good deal more than you think," he answered, with a sly chuckle.
+"When Hatton Garden takes Christopher Collon in tow, their little game
+is worth watching, it seems to me. At any rate, it's worth seeing if you
+can discover the reason of it all."
+
+"It is just possible it might gratify your curiosity," I said, "but for
+my own part I don't see exactly where the benefit would come in. They
+pay me fairly well; still----"
+
+"Still not the full value of the pearl?" he cried. "That's what you were
+going to say, I suppose?"
+
+The start I could not prevent myself from giving must have shown him
+that he had scored a bull's-eye. But I recovered myself almost
+instantly, and by that time had made up my mind as to the course I
+should pursue. "No, I don't suppose it is the full value of the pearl,"
+I answered. "It's hardly likely it would be. Still, we must live, and,
+as perhaps you know, business has not been very brisk of late. How have
+you been doing yourself?"
+
+"Nothing at all," he answered; and then added significantly, "I'm
+looking out for something now. 'Make hay while the sun shines,' is my
+motto, and I've always found it a good one."
+
+"I'm sorry, then, that I can't help you to anything," I said. "If I
+could you know I'd go out of my way to do so, don't you?"
+
+Once more he glanced at me and chuckled. From what I knew of his ways, I
+could see that there was some mischief still to come.
+
+"You were always grateful for a little help, my boy, weren't you? We've
+had many a good bit of business together at one time or another, if my
+poor old memory serves me. It is just possible now that I can do you a
+good turn, but I'm a poor man, and I want something for my trouble."
+
+"What can you do for me?" I asked, as I searched his crafty old face
+with my eyes, in the hopes of getting some inkling of what he had in his
+mind.
+
+"I can give you a warning about this present bit of work of yours," he
+said. "It may save you a lot of trouble, and not only trouble but a bit
+of danger, too, if what I hear is correct."
+
+"The deuce you can!" I said; "and pray, what may that warning be?"
+
+"Not too fast, my friend," he answered. "Before I tell you I want my
+return. Give me the information I ask, and you shall know all I've got
+to tell. It's worth hearing, I give you my word."
+
+"Well, what is it you want to know? I've trusted you before, and I don't
+mind doing so again. Ask your question and I'll answer it. But if you
+get up to any larks, or play me false, why just you look out for
+yourself, that's all."
+
+"I'm not going to play you false," he answered, with another contortion
+of his face. "What I want to know is, when you induced the Sultan of
+Pela-Pelu to hand you over that Portugee chap, for whom the
+Tsungli-Yamen in Pekin offered that reward, what was the threat you
+used? I've got a little game to play there, and I want to be able to
+pinch him so as to make him squeal in case he refuses me. Tell me how
+you managed it, and I'll give you the information you need."
+
+Before I answered him I took a minute or so to consider my position. I
+did not want to betray my secret unless I was absolutely compelled to do
+so, and yet I had good reason for believing that the old fellow would
+not have hinted that there was something I ought to know, unless his
+news were worth the telling. However, at last I made up my mind, took
+out my pocket-book and turned up a certain entry.
+
+"There it is," I said, as I handed it to him to read. "I got that
+information first hand, so I know it can be relied upon. I threatened
+him with exposure, and though he was very high up the tree before, he
+soon climbed down."
+
+Maalthaas read what was written on the page twice over, and then
+scribbled a few notes on a piece of paper, which he took from under his
+pillow. Having done so, he handed me back the book, which I pocketed.
+
+"Now what have you got to tell me?" I inquired.
+
+"First answer me one question," he said. "You're off to the wreck of the
+_Monarch of Macedonia_, are you not?"
+
+"I'm not going to say whether we are, or are not," I answered; "but
+suppose, for the sake of argument, we are. What then?"
+
+He leaned a little closer towards me, and his crafty old eyes twinkled
+in his head like two brilliant stars.
+
+"In that case," he said, "my advice is, make haste, for you may be sure
+of one thing, and that is that _you're not the first_."
+
+I sprang to my feet on hearing this. "Not the first!" I cried. "What the
+deuce do you mean? Why are we not the first?"
+
+[Illustration: "I sprang to my feet on hearing this. 'Not the first!' I
+cried."]
+
+"Because a schooner started yesterday for the wreck, with a full diving
+plant aboard. Jim Peach is running the show, _and he has Yokohama Joe
+with him_."
+
+I did not wait to hear any more, but picking up my hat made for the
+door, and before you could have counted fifty was flying up the street
+at my best speed. Jim Peach had beaten me once before, he was not going
+to do so again if I could help it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+As I reached the hotel again after my interview with that crafty old
+rascal, Maalthaas, I saw Mr. Leversidge entering it by another gate. I
+hurried after him and just managed to catch him as he was crossing the
+verandah to pass into his own sitting-room. He turned sharply round on
+hearing my step behind him, and one glance at my face must have told him
+that there was something the matter. His face turned pale, and I noticed
+that his mouth twitched nervously.
+
+"What is it?" he asked breathlessly. "What is it you have to tell me? I
+can see there is something wrong by your face."
+
+"There is indeed something wrong," I answered. "Come inside and let me
+tell you. I hurried back on purpose to let you know at once."
+
+"I am obliged to you," he said. "Now come inside. Your face frightens
+me. I fear bad news."
+
+"It is not good news I have to tell you, I'm afraid," I replied. "But
+still, if we're sharp, we may be able to remedy the mischief before it's
+too late. First and foremost you must understand that this morning I
+called upon an old friend who lives here, one of the sharpest men in the
+East, if not the very sharpest. He's a man who knows everything; who
+would in all probability be able to tell you why that Russian cruiser,
+which was due in Hong Kong last Friday, at the last moment put back to
+Vladivostock, though she did not require coal, and had nothing whatever
+the matter with her. Or he will tell you, as he did me, the reasons
+which induced a certain English jewel merchant to hasten to Colombo from
+Madras, and then come on to Java in company with a man named Christopher
+Collon."
+
+"Do you mean to say that our business here is known to people?" he cried
+in alarm. "In that case we are ruined."
+
+"Not quite, I think," I answered; and then with a little boastfulness
+which I could not help displaying, I added, "In the first place it is
+not known to _people_. Only to one person. In the second, Maalthaas may
+play fast and loose with a good many folk, but he dares not do so with
+me. I carry too many guns for him, and we are too useful to each other
+to endeavour in any way to spoil each other's games. But for him I
+should never have known what has happened now until it would have been
+too late to remedy it."
+
+"But you have not yet told me what _has_ happened," said Mr. Leversidge
+in an aggrieved tone.
+
+"Well, the fact of the matter is," I said, "while we have been
+congratulating ourselves on our sharpness, we have very nearly been
+forestalled in what we intended doing. In other words, we are not so
+early in the field as we thought we were."
+
+"What do you mean? Not so early in the field. Do you mean to tell me
+there is some one else trying to do what we are going to do? That some
+one else is setting off for the wreck?"
+
+"I do," I answered, with a nod of the head. "You have just hit it. A
+schooner left Tanjong Priok yesterday with a diver aboard, and as far as
+I can gather--and there seems to be no doubt about the matter--she was
+bound for the wreck."
+
+"Do you mean a Government vessel? Surely she must have been sent by the
+authorities?"
+
+"I don't mean anything of the sort," I said. "The only authority she is
+sent by is Jim Peach, one of the sharpest men in these waters. And when
+I tell you that he is aboard her, and that he has Yokohama Joe, the
+diver, with him, I guess you'll see there's real cause for alarm. At any
+rate, Mr. Leversidge, it's my opinion that if we're not there first we
+may as well give up all thought of the pearls, for they'll get them as
+sure as you're born--don't you make any mistake about that. I've never
+known Jimmy Peach fail in what he undertook but once. He's a bad 'un to
+beat is Jimmy. He knows these waters as well as you know Oxford Street,
+and if, as I expect, it's his own schooner he's gone in, then we shall
+have all our time taken up trying to catch her."
+
+As I said this the old gentleman's face was a study. Expressions of
+bewilderment, anxiety, greed, and vindictiveness seemed to struggle in
+it for the mastery. It was evident that, brought up as he had been with
+a profound respect for the sacred rights of property, it was impossible
+for him to believe that the man could live who would have the audacity
+to behave towards him, John Leversidge, of Hatton Garden, as Peach and
+his gang were now said to be doing. He clenched his fists as he realized
+that the success of the enterprise depended entirely upon our being able
+to beat the others at their own game, and from the gleam I saw in his
+eye I guessed that there was not much the old boy would not do and dare
+to get possession of what had been bought and paid for by his firm, and
+what he therefore considered to be his own lawful property.
+
+"If it is as you say, Mr. Collon," he said, at length, "there can be no
+possible doubt as to what sort of action we should take. Come what may
+we must be on the spot first. I believe I am doing as my firm would wish
+when I say that those other rascals must be outwitted at all costs. If
+this man you speak of, this Peach, is a bad one to beat, let me tell you
+so am I. We'll make a match of it and see who comes out best. I can
+assure you I have no fear for the result."
+
+"Bravely spoken," I said. "I like your spirit, Mr. Leversidge, and I'm
+with you hand and glove. I've beaten Jimmy before, and on this occasion
+I'll do so again."
+
+"I only hope and trust you may," he answered. "And now what do you
+advise? What steps should we take first? Give me your assistance, I beg,
+for you must of necessity be better versed in these sort of matters than
+I. It seems to me, however, that one thing is very certain: if these men
+sailed yesterday in their schooner, and they have a day's start of us,
+we shall find it difficult to catch them. We might do so, of course; but
+it would be safer to act as if we think we might not. For my own part I
+do not feel inclined to run the risk. I want to make it certain that we
+_do_ get there before them."
+
+"The only way to do that is, of course, to charter a steamer," I
+replied, "and that will run into a lot of money. But it will make it
+_certain_ that we get the better of them."
+
+"In such a case money is no object. We must keep our word to the
+Emperor, and to do that my firm would spend twice the sum this is likely
+to cost. But the question is, where are we to find the steamer we want?
+I found it difficult, nay, almost impossible, to get even a schooner
+this morning. And for the only one I could hear of the owner asked such
+a preposterous price that I did not feel disposed to give in to his
+demands until I had consulted you upon the subject, and made certain
+that we could not find another. What do you recommend?"
+
+I considered the matter for a moment. I had had experience of Java
+shipowners before, and I knew something of their pleasant little ways.
+Then an idea occurred to me.
+
+"I think if you will let me negotiate the matter, Mr. Leversidge," I
+said, "I may be able to obtain what you want. The man of whom I spoke to
+you just now, the same who gave me the information regarding Peach and
+his party, is the person to apply to. For a consideration I have no
+doubt he would find us a vessel, and though we may have to pay him for
+his trouble, he will take very good care that we are not swindled by any
+other party. There is one more suggestion I should like to make, and
+that is that you should let me telegraph to a person of my acquaintance
+in Thursday Island to send a schooner down to a certain part of the New
+Guinea coast, in charge of men he can trust. We could then on arrival
+tranship to her, and send the steamer back without letting those on
+board know anything of our errand. What do you think of that
+arrangement? In my opinion it would be the best course to pursue."
+
+"And I agree with you," he answered. "It is an admirable idea, and I am
+obliged to you for it. We will put it into execution without loss of
+time. As soon as you have seen this man Maalthaas we will send the
+message you speak of to Thursday Island."
+
+"I will see him at once," I replied. "There is no time to be lost. While
+we are talking here that schooner is making her way to the scene of the
+catastrophe as fast as she can go."
+
+I accordingly departed, and in something less than a quarter of an hour
+was once more seated in the venerable Maalthaas' room. It did not take
+long to let him know the favour we wanted of him, nor did it take long
+for him to let me understand upon what terms he was prepared to grant
+it. "You won't come down in your price at all, I suppose?" I said, when
+he had finished. "What you ask is a trifle stiff for such a simple
+service."
+
+"Not a guelder," he answered briefly.
+
+"Provided we agree, when can we sail?"
+
+"To-morrow morning at daylight, if you like. There will be no difficulty
+about that."
+
+"And you guarantee that the men you send with her can be trusted?"
+
+"Nobody in this world is to be trusted," he answered grimly. "I've never
+yet met the man who could not be bought at a price. And what's more if I
+did meet him I would be the last to trust him. What I will say is that
+the men who work the boat are as nearly trustworthy as I can get them.
+That's all."
+
+"All right. That will do. I will go back to my principal now and let him
+know what you say. If I don't return here within an hour you can reckon
+we agree to your terms, and you can go ahead."
+
+"No, thank you, Mynheer," said Maalthaas; "that won't do at all. If I
+receive the money within an hour, I shall take it that you agree, not
+otherwise. Half the money down and the remainder to be paid to the
+captain when you reach your destination. If you want him to wait for you
+and bring you back, you must pay half the return fare when you get
+aboard, and the balance when you return here. Do you understand?"
+
+"Perfectly. I will let you have an answer within an hour."
+
+Fifteen hours later the money had been paid, the cablegram to Thursday
+Island despatched, and we were standing on the deck of the Dutch steamer
+_Koenig Ludwig_, making our way along the Java coast at the rate of a
+good fifteen knots an hour.
+
+"If Master Peach doesn't take care we shall be in a position to throw
+him a towline by this time on Saturday morning," I said to Mr.
+Leversidge, who was standing beside me.
+
+"I devoutly hope so," he answered. "At any rate, you may be sure we'll
+make a good race of it. What shall we call the stakes?"
+
+"The Race for a Dead Man's Pearls," said I. "How would that do?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+To my surprise before we had been twenty-four hours at sea every one on
+board the _Koenig Ludwig_ seemed to have imbibed a measure of our
+eagerness, and to be aware that we were not in reality engaged in a
+pleasure trip, as had been given out, but in a race against a schooner
+which had sailed from the same port nearly forty-eight hours before. As
+a matter of fact it was Mr. Leversidge who was responsible for thus
+letting the cat out of the bag. Imperative as it was that the strictest
+reticence should be observed regarding our errand, his excitement was so
+great that he could not help confiding his hopes and fears, under the
+pledge of secrecy, of course, to half the ship's company. Fortunately,
+however, he had the presence of mind not to reveal the object of our
+voyage, though I fear many of them must have suspected it.
+
+It was on the seventh day after leaving Batavia that we reached that
+portion of the New Guinea coast where it had been arranged that the
+schooner, for which I had telegraphed to Thursday Island, should meet
+us. So far we had seen nothing of Peach's boat, and in our own hearts we
+felt justified in believing that we had beaten her. Now, if we could
+only change vessels, and get to the scene of action without loss of
+time, it looked as if we should stand an excellent chance of completing
+our business and getting away again before she could put in an
+appearance. After careful consideration we had agreed to allow the
+steamer to return without us to Java, and when we had done our work to
+continue our journey on board the schooner to Thursday Island. Here we
+would separate, Leversidge returning with his treasure to England _via_
+Brisbane and Sydney, and I making my way by the next China boat to
+Hong-Kong, where I intended to lay by for a while on the strength of the
+money I was to receive from him. But, as you will shortly see, we were
+bargaining without our hosts. Events were destined to turn out in a very
+different way from what we expected.
+
+It was early morning--indeed, it still wanted an hour to sunrise--when
+the captain knocked at our respective cabins and informed us that we had
+reached the place to which it had been arranged in the contract he
+should carry us. We accordingly dressed with all possible speed, and
+having done so made our way on deck. When we reached it we found an
+unusually still morning, a heavy mist lying upon the face of the sea.
+The latter, as far as we could judge by the water alongside, was as
+smooth and pulseless as a millpond. Not a sound could be heard save the
+steady dripping of the moisture from the awning on the deck. Owing to
+the fog it was impossible to tell whether or not the schooner from
+Thursday Island had arrived at the rendezvous. She might have been near
+us, or she might be fifty miles away for all we could tell to the
+contrary.
+
+Once we thought we heard the sound of a block creaking a short distance
+away to port, but though we hailed at least a dozen times, and blew our
+whistles for some minutes, we were not rewarded with an answer.
+
+"This delay is really very annoying," said Mr. Leversidge testily, after
+we had tramped the deck together for upwards of an hour. "Every minute
+is of the utmost importance to us, for every hour we waste in inaction
+here is bringing the other schooner closer. As soon as this fog lifts we
+shall have to make up for lost time with a vengeance."
+
+How we got through the remainder of that morning I have only a very
+confused recollection. For my own part I believe I put in most of it
+with a book lying on the chartroom locker. Mr. Leversidge, on the other
+hand, was scarcely still for a minute at a time, but spent most of the
+morning running from place to place about the vessel, peering over the
+side to see if the fog were lifting, and consulting his watch and
+groaning audibly every time he returned it to his pocket. I don't know
+that I ever remember seeing a man more impatient.
+
+As soon as lunch was finished we returned to the deck, only to find the
+fog as thick as ever. The quiet that was over everything was most
+uncanny, and when one of us spoke his voice seemed to travel for miles.
+Still, however, we could hear nothing, much less see anything, of the
+schooner which was to have taken us on to our destination.
+
+"If this fog doesn't lift soon I believe I shall go mad," said
+Leversidge at last, bringing his hand down as he spoke with a smack upon
+the bulwarks. "For all we know to the contrary it may be fine where the
+wreck is, and all the time we are lying here inactive that rascal
+Peach's schooner, the _Nautch Girl_, is coming along hand over fist to
+spoil our work for us. I never knew anything so aggravating in my life."
+
+As if nature were regretting having given him so much anxiety, the words
+had scarcely left his mouth before there was a break in the fog away to
+port, and then with a quickness that seemed almost magical, seeing how
+thick it had been a moment before, the great curtain drew off the face
+of the deep, enabling us to see the low outline of the cape ten miles or
+so away to starboard, and, as if the better to please us, a small vessel
+heading towards us from the south-eastward. As soon as I brought the
+glass to bear upon her I knew her for the schooner I had cabled to
+Thursday Island about. An hour later she was hove-to within a cable's
+length of us, and we were moving our traps aboard as expeditiously as
+possible. Then sail was got on her once more, the _Koenig Ludwig_
+whistled us a shrill farewell, and presently we were bowling across the
+blue seas toward our destination at as fine a rate of speed as any man
+could wish to see.
+
+For the remainder of that day we sailed on, making such good running of
+it that at sunrise on the morning following we found ourselves at the
+place for which we had been travelling--namely, the scene of the wreck
+of the unfortunate steamship _Monarch of Macedonia_. We were all on deck
+when we reached it, and never shall I forget the look of astonishment
+that came into Leversidge's face when the skipper sang out some orders,
+hove her to, and joined us at the taffrail, saying abruptly as he did
+so, "Gentlemen, here we are; I reckon this is the place to which you
+told me to bring you."
+
+"This the place!" he cried, as he looked round him at the smooth and
+smiling sea. "You surely don't mean to tell me that it was just here
+that the _Monarch of Macedonia_ met her cruel fate? I cannot believe
+it."
+
+"It's true, all the same," answered the skipper. "That's to say, as near
+as I can reckon it by observations. Just take a look at the chart and
+see for yourself."
+
+So saying he spread the roll of paper he carried in his hand upon the
+deck, and we all knelt down to examine it. In order to prove his
+position the skipper ran a dirty thumb-nail along his course, and made a
+mark with it about the approximate spot where he had hove the schooner
+to.
+
+"Do you mean to say that the unfortunate vessel lies beneath us now?"
+asked Mr. Leversidge, with a certain amount of awe in his voice.
+
+"As near as I can reckon it she ought to be somewhere about here,"
+returned the skipper, waving his hand casually around the neighbourhood.
+And then, taking a slip of paper from the pocket of his coat, he
+continued: "Here are the Admiralty Survey vessel's bearings of the rock
+upon which she struck, so we can't be very far out."
+
+Following Mr. Leversidge's example we went to the port side and looked
+over.
+
+"It seems a ghastly thing to think that down there lies that great
+vessel, the outcome of so much human thought and ingenuity, with the
+bodies of the men and women who perished in her still on board. I don't
+know that I envy you in your task of visiting her, Collon. By the way,
+what are the Government soundings?"
+
+"Seventeen fathoms," answered the skipper.
+
+"And you think she is lying some distance out from the rock on which she
+struck?"
+
+"I do. The survivors say that as soon as she struck, the officer of the
+watch reversed his engines and pulled her off, but before he could get
+more than a cable's length astern she sank like a stone."
+
+"I understand. And now, Mr. Collon, your part of the business commences.
+When do you propose to get to work? We must not delay any more than we
+can help, for the other schooner may be here at any moment."
+
+"I shall commence getting my things together immediately," I answered,
+"and, if all goes well, the first thing to-morrow morning I shall make
+my descent. It would not be worth while doing so this afternoon."
+
+Accordingly, as soon as our mid-day meal was finished, I had the pumps
+and diving gear brought on deck and spent the afternoon testing them and
+getting them ready for the work that lay before me on the morrow. By
+nightfall I was fully prepared to descend in search of the pearl.
+
+"Let us hope that by this time to-morrow we shall be on our way to
+Thursday Island with our work completed," said Leversidge to me as we
+leant against the taffrail later in the evening. "I don't know that I
+altogether care about thinking that all those poor dead folk are lying
+only a hundred feet or so beneath our keel. As soon as we have got what
+we want out of her we'll lose no time in packing up and being off."
+
+I was about to answer him, when something caused me to look across the
+sea to the westward. As I did so I gave a little cry of astonishment,
+for not more than five miles distant I could see the lights of a vessel
+coming towards us.
+
+"Look!" I cried, "what boat can that be?"
+
+Mr. Leversidge followed the direction of my hand. "If I'm not mistaken,"
+the skipper said, "that is the _Nautch Girl_--Peach's schooner."
+
+"Then there's trouble ahead. What on earth is to be done?"
+
+"I have no notion. We cannot compel him to turn back, and if he finds us
+diving here he will be certain to suspect our motive and to give
+information against us."
+
+We both turned and looked in the direction we had last seen the vessel,
+but to our amazement she was no longer there.
+
+"What does it mean?" cried Leversidge. "What can have become of her?"
+
+"I think I can tell you," said the skipper, "We're in for another fog."
+
+"A fog again," replied the old gentleman. "If that is so we're done
+for."
+
+"On the contrary," I said, "I think we're saved. Given a decent
+opportunity and I fancy I can see my way out of this scrape."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+Of all the thousand and one strange phenomena of the mighty deep, to my
+thinking there is none more extraordinary than the fogs which so
+suddenly spring up in Eastern waters. At one moment the entire expanse
+of sea lies plain and open before the eye; then a tiny cloud makes its
+appearance, like a little flaw in the perfect blue, far down on the
+horizon. It comes closer, and as it does so, spreads itself out in
+curling wreaths of vapour. Finally, the mariner finds himself cut off
+from everything, standing alone in a little world of his own, so tiny
+that it is even impossible for him to see a boat's length before his
+face. At night the effect is even more strange, for then it is
+impossible to see anything at all.
+
+On this particular occasion the fog came up quicker than I ever remember
+to have seen one do. We had hardly caught sight of the lights of the
+schooner, which we were convinced was none other than the _Nautch Girl_,
+than they disappeared again. But, as I had told Mr. Leversidge, that
+circumstance, instead of injuring us, was likely to prove our salvation.
+Had she come upon us in broad daylight while we were engaged upon our
+work on the wreck below, it would have been a case of diamond cut
+diamond, and the strongest would have won. Now, however, if she would
+only walk into the trap I was about to set for her, I felt confident in
+my own mind that we should come out of the scrape with flying colours.
+
+"We must not attempt to conceal our position," I said, turning to the
+skipper, whom I could now barely see. "If I were you I should keep that
+bell of yours ringing, it will serve to let Peach know that there is
+somebody already on the spot, and it will help to prepare his mind for
+what is to come."
+
+The skipper groped his way forward to give the necessary order, and
+presently the bell commenced to sound its note of warning. Thereupon we
+sat ourselves down on the skylight to await the arrival of the schooner
+with what composure we could command. Our patience, however, was
+destined to be sorely tried, for upwards of two hours elapsed before any
+sound reached us to inform us that she was in our neighbourhood. Then
+with an abruptness which was almost startling, a voice came to us across
+the silent sea.
+
+"If I have to visit you niggers in that boat," the speaker was saying,
+"I'll give you as good a booting as ever you had in your lives. Bend
+your backs to it and pull or I'll be amongst you before you can look
+round and put some ginger into you."
+
+There was no occasion to tell me whose voice it was. "That's Jimmy
+Peach," I said, turning to Mr. Leversidge, who was standing beside me at
+the bulwarks. "I know his pleasant way of talking to his crew. He's a
+sweet skipper is Jimmy, and the man he has with him, Yokohama Joe, is
+his equal in every respect."
+
+"But how have they managed to get here?" asked the old gentleman.
+"Theirs is not a steam vessel, and besides being pitch dark in this fog
+there's not a breath of wind."
+
+"They've got a boat out towing her," I answered. "If you listen for a
+moment you'll hear the creaking of the oars in the rowlocks. That's just
+what I reckoned they would do. Now I am going to give Master Jimmy one
+of the prettiest scares he has ever had in his life, and one that I
+think he will remember to his dying day. If he ever finds it out, and we
+meet ashore, I reckon things will hum a bit."
+
+So saying, I funnelled my mouth with my hands and shouted in the
+direction whence the voice had proceeded a few minutes before. "Ship
+ahoy! Is that the _Nautch Girl_, of Cooktown?"
+
+There was complete silence while a man could have counted a hundred.
+Then a voice hailed me in reply: "What vessel are you?"
+
+I was prepared for this question. "Her Majesty's gunboat _Panther_,
+anchored above the wreck of the _Monarch of Macedonia_," I answered.
+"Are you the _Nautch Girl_?"
+
+There was another long pause, then a different voice answered, "_Nautch
+Girl_ be hanged! We're the _beche-de-mer_ schooner _Caroline Smithers_,
+of Cairns, from Macassar to Port Moresby."
+
+Once more I funnelled my hands and answered them. "All right," I
+replied, "just heave to a minute and I'll send a boat to make certain.
+I'm looking for the _Nautch Girl_, and, as she left Batavia ten days or
+so ago, she's just about due here now."
+
+Turning to Mr. Leversidge, who was standing beside me, I whispered, "If
+I'm not mistaken he'll clear out now as quickly as he knows how."
+
+"But why should he do so?" he inquired. "As long as he doesn't interfere
+with the wreck he has a perfect right to be here."
+
+"As you say, he _has_ a perfect right," I answered; "but you may bet
+your bottom dollar he'll be off as soon as possible. There is what the
+lawyers call a combination of circumstances against him. In the first
+place, I happen to know that he has been wanted very badly for some
+considerable time by the skipper of the _Panther_ for a little bit of
+business down in the Kingsmill Group. They have been trying to nab him
+everywhere, but so far he has been too smart for them. In addition, he
+is certain to think his mission to the wreck has been wired to Thursday
+Island, and between the two I fancy he will come to the conclusion that
+discretion is the better part of valour and will run for it. Hark! there
+he goes."
+
+We both listened, and a moment later could plainly distinguish the
+regular "cheep-cheep" of the oars as they towed the schooner away from
+us.
+
+"He has got out two boats now," I said, "and that shows he means to be
+off as fast as he can go. Somehow I don't think we shall be troubled by
+Master Peach again for a day or two. But won't he just be mad if he ever
+finds out how we've fooled him. The world won't be big enough to hold
+the pair of us. Now all we want is the fog to hold up till he's out of
+sight. I don't feel any wind."
+
+I wetted my finger and held it up above my head, but could feel nothing.
+The night was as still as it was foggy. Seeing, therefore, that it was
+no use our waiting about in the hope of the weather improving, I bade
+them good night, and, having been congratulated on my ruse for getting
+rid of Peach, and the success which had attended it, went below to my
+berth.
+
+Sure enough when we came on deck next morning the fog had disappeared,
+and with it the schooner _Nautch Girl_. A brisk breeze was blowing.
+Overhead the sky was sapphire blue, brilliant sunshine streamed upon our
+decks, while the sea around us was as green and transparent as an
+emerald. Little waves splashed alongside, and the schooner danced gaily
+at her anchor. After the fog of the previous night, it was like a new
+world, and when we had satisfied ourselves that our enemy was really out
+of sight it was a merry party that sat down to breakfast.
+
+As soon as the meal was finished we returned to the deck. The same
+glorious morning continued, with the difference, however, that by this
+time the sea had moderated somewhat. The crew were already at work
+preparing the diving apparatus for my descent. After the anxiety of the
+_Nautch Girl's_ arrival, the trick we had played upon her captain, and
+the excitement consequent upon it, it came upon me almost as a shock to
+see the main, or to be more exact, the only, object of my voyage brought
+so unmistakably and callously before me. I glanced over the side at the
+smiling sea, and as I did so thought of the visit I was about to pay to
+the unfortunate vessel which was lying so still and quiet beneath those
+treacherous waves. And for what? For a jewel that would ultimately
+decorate a mere earthly sovereign's person. It seemed like an act of the
+grossest sacrilege to disturb that domain of Death for such a vulgar
+purpose.
+
+"I see you are commencing your preparations," said Mr. Leversidge, who
+had come on deck while I was giving my instructions to the man in charge
+of the diving gear. "Before you do so had we not better study the cabin
+plan of the vessel herself, in order that you may have a good idea as to
+where the berth you are about to visit is situated?"
+
+"Perhaps it would be as well," I answered. "Where is the plan?"
+
+"I have it in my portmanteau," replied the old gentleman, and a moment
+later, bidding me remain where I was, he dived below in search of the
+article in question. Presently he returned, bringing with him a sheet of
+paper, which, when he spread it out upon the deck, I recognised as one
+of those printed forms supplied by steamship companies to intending
+passengers at the time of booking.
+
+"There," he said, as he smoothed it out and placed his finger on a tiny
+red cross, "that is the cabin our agent occupied. You enter by the
+companion on the promenade deck, and, having descended to the saloon,
+turn sharp to your left hand and pass down the port side till you reach
+the alleyway alongside the steward's pantry. Nineteen is the number, and
+our agent's berth was number one hundred and sixty-three, which, as you
+will observe from this plan, is the higher one on your left as you
+enter. The next cabin was that occupied by the Reverend Colway-Brown,
+who, as you are aware, was one of the persons who escaped. I think we
+may consider ourselves fortunate that he was a parson, otherwise we
+don't know what might have happened."
+
+Taking up the plan he had brought and examining it carefully, I tried to
+impress it upon my memory as far as possible. "Now," I said, "I think I
+know my ground; so let us get to work. The sooner the business is
+finished and the pearl is in your keeping the better I shall be
+pleased."
+
+"I shall have no objection to be done with it either, I can assure you,"
+he answered. "It has been a most tiresome and unpleasant affair for
+everybody concerned."
+
+I then strolled forward to the main hatch, beside which my dress had
+been placed. Everything was in readiness, and I thereupon commenced my
+toilet. To draw on the costume itself was the matter of only a few
+seconds. My feet were then placed in the great boots with their enormous
+leaden soles; the helmet, without the glass, was slipped over my head
+and rivetted to the collar plate around my neck, the leaden weights,
+each of twenty-eight pounds, were fastened to my chest and back, the
+life-line was tied round my waist, and the other end made fast to the
+bulwark beside which my tender would take his place during such time as
+I should remain below.
+
+"Now give me the lamp and the axe," I said, as I fumbled my way to the
+gangway where the ladder had been placed, and took up my position upon
+it. "After that you can screw in the glass and begin to pump as soon as
+you like. It won't be very long now, Mr. Leversidge, before you know
+your fate."
+
+"I wish you luck," he answered, and then my tender, who had been careful
+to dip the front glass in the water, screwed it in, and almost
+simultaneously the hands at the machine commenced to pump. I was in
+their world and yet standing in a world of my own, a sort of amphibious
+creature, half of land and half of sea.
+
+According to custom, I gave a last glance round to see that all was
+working properly, and then with a final wave of my hand to those upon
+the deck began to descend the ladder into the green water, little
+dreaming of the terrible surprise that was awaiting me at the bottom of
+the ocean.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+The novice when making his first descent beneath the waves in a diving
+dress is apt to find himself confronted with numerous surprises. In the
+first place he discovers that the dress itself, which, when he stood
+upon the deck, had appeared such a cumbersome and altogether unwieldy
+affair, becomes as light as any feather as soon as he is below the
+surface. To his amazement he is able to move about with as much freedom
+as he was accustomed to do on land. And despite the fact that his supply
+of air is being transmitted to him through many yards of piping from a
+pump on the deck above, and in consequence smells a little of
+india-rubber, he is relieved to find, when he has overcome his first
+nervousness, that he can breathe as comfortably and easily as when
+seated in the cabin of the vessel he has so lately quitted.
+
+As stated in the previous chapter, as soon as the glass had been screwed
+into the front of my helmet I waved a farewell to my friends on the
+schooner's deck and began to descend the ladder on my adventurous
+journey. Men may take from me what they please, but they can never
+destroy my reputation as a diver. And, indeed, the task I was about to
+attempt was one that any man might be proud of accomplishing
+successfully.
+
+The bottom on which I had landed was of white sand, covered here and
+there with short weeds and lumps of coral, the latter being of every
+conceivable shape and colour. Looking up I could distinguish through the
+green water the hull of the schooner, and could trace her cable running
+down to the anchor, which had dropped fifty feet or so from the spot
+where I now stood. Before me the bottom ascended almost precipitously,
+and, remembering what I had been told, I gathered that on the top of
+this was the rock upon which the unfortunate vessel had come to grief.
+Having noted these things, I turned myself about until I could see the
+boat herself. It was a strange and forlorn picture she presented. Her
+masts had gone by the board, and as I made my way towards her I could
+plainly distinguish the gaping rent in her bows which had wrought her
+ruin.
+
+Clambering over the mass of coral upon which she was lying, I walked
+round her examining her carefully, and, when I had done so, began to
+cast about me for a means of getting on board. This, however, proved a
+rather more difficult task than one would have at first imagined, for
+she had not heeled over as might have been supposed, but had settled
+down in her natural position in a sort of coral gully, and in
+consequence her sides were almost as steep as the walls of a house.
+However, I was not going to be beaten, so, taking my life-line in my
+hand, I signalled to my tender above, by a code I had previously
+arranged with him, to lower me the short iron ladder which had been
+brought in case its services should be required. Having obtained this I
+placed it against the vessel's side, but not before I had taken the
+precaution to attach one end of a line to it and the other to my waist,
+so that we should not part company and I be left without a means of
+getting out of the vessel again when once I was inside. Mounting by it,
+I clambered over the broken bulwarks and was soon at the entrance to the
+saloon companion ladder on the promenade deck. Already a terrible and
+significant change was to be noticed in her appearance: a thick green
+weed was growing on the once snow-white planks, and the brilliant
+brasses, which had been the pride and delight of her officers in bygone
+days, were now black and discoloured almost beyond recognition.
+Remembering what she had once been, the money she had cost, the grandeur
+of her launch and christening, and the pride with which she had once
+navigated the oceans of the world, it was enough to bring the tears into
+one's eyes now to see her lying so dead and helpless below the waves of
+which she had once been so bright an ornament. I thought of the men and
+women, the fathers and mothers, the handsome youths and pretty girls who
+had once walked those decks so confidently; of the friendships which had
+been begun upon them, and the farewells which had there been said, and
+then of that last dread scene at midnight when she had crashed into the
+unknown danger, and a few moments later had sunk down and down until she
+lay an inert and helpless mass upon the rocky bed where I now found her.
+
+Feeling that, if I wished to get my work done expeditiously, I had
+better not waste my time looking about me, I attempted to open the door
+of the saloon companion ladder, but the wood had swollen, and, in spite
+of my efforts, defied me. However, a few blows from my axe smashed it in
+and enabled me to enter. Inside the hatch it was too dark for me to see
+very clearly, but with the assistance of my electric lamp this
+difficulty was soon overcome, and, holding the latter above my head, I
+continued my descent.
+
+On the landing, half-way down, jammed into a corner, I encountered the
+first bodies, those of a man and woman. My movement through the water
+caused them to drop me a mocking curtsey as I passed, and I noticed that
+the man held the woman in his arms very tight, as though he were
+resolved that they should not be parted, even by King Death himself.
+
+Reaching the bottom of the ladder, I passed into the saloon, not without
+a shudder, however, as I thought of the work that lay before me. God
+help the poor dead folk I saw there! They were scattered about
+everywhere in the most grotesque attitudes. Some were floating against
+the roof, and some were entangled in the cleated chairs. I have entered
+many wrecks in my time, and have seen many curious and terrible sights,
+but what I saw in this ill-fated vessel surpassed anything I have ever
+met with in my experience. Any attempt to give a true description of it
+would be impossible. I must get on with my story and leave that to your
+imagination.
+
+By the time I had made my way so far I had had about enough of it for
+the time being, and stood in need of a rest. Accordingly I retraced my
+steps to the deck and signalled to my tender that I was about to return
+to the surface. The change, when I did so, from the semi-obscurity of
+that horrible world below the seas to the brilliant sunshine I found
+existing above, was almost startling in its abruptness. But it was good
+after what I had seen below to find myself once more in the company of
+living people. Leversidge's surprise at seeing me reappear so soon was
+almost pathetic. He could scarcely contain his eagerness to question me,
+and as soon as the front glass of my helmet had been removed he
+accordingly set to work.
+
+"What has brought you up from below so soon?" he inquired. "You have
+only been gone a quarter of an hour. Have you found the pearl?"
+
+I shook my head. "I have not even been able to discover the man's cabin
+yet," I answered. "I came up because I needed a rest. I'm working at a
+big depth, you must remember. And, besides, there are those who are far
+from being the best of company down below."
+
+"But tell me about the vessel herself," the old gentleman continued.
+"What is she like, and did you experience any difficulty in getting
+aboard her?"
+
+I answered his questions to the best of my ability, and after a few
+minutes' rest ordered the glass to be screwed into the helmet again, and
+then once more descended to the bottom of the ocean.
+
+Being familiar by this time with the best means of getting on board the
+wreck, it was not very long before I was making my way down the
+companion ladder into the saloon. Then, without wasting further time
+looking about me, I pushed on in search of the cabin I wanted, which, as
+I have already said, was on the port side, third door from the steward's
+pantry. It was not long before I found it, and had broken open the door.
+Having done so, I held my lamp aloft and entered. Never shall I forget
+the sight I saw there. Well prepared as I was for something gruesome,
+the horrible sight that now met my eyes almost overcame me. The body of
+Mr. Leversidge's unfortunate agent was lying on his chest, half in and
+half out of his bunk, for all the world as if he were looking for
+something under his pillow. His coat and waistcoat were off, otherwise
+he was fully dressed. Withdrawing my eyes from him, not without some
+difficulty, I looked about the cabin for his luggage, and for some
+moments could see no sign of it. Then I caught sight of a trunk and a
+Gladstone bag beneath one bunk, and another trunk beneath that opposite.
+All were as rotten as sodden brown paper, by reason of their long
+immersion in the salt water. By dint of some manoeuvring, however, I
+managed to get them out of the cabin into the alleyway without
+disturbing the body in the bunk, and then by degrees carried them up the
+companion ladder to the deck above. Having done this, I signalled to my
+friends to lower their lines, and, as soon as I had made them fast, had
+the satisfaction of seeing them drawn up to the schooner above. This
+having been accomplished, I returned once more to that awful cabin in
+order to search the body and to make quite sure that I had left nothing
+behind me that I might afterwards wish I had brought away.
+
+Reaching the cabin again, I--but there, how can I tell you the rest?
+Suffice it that I pulled the remains of what had once been Mr.
+Leversidge's agent out of his bunk, glanced at him, and then dropped him
+again with a cry that echoed in my helmet until I thought it would have
+burst the drums of both my ears. The shock of the discovery I had made
+was almost too much for me, and for upwards of a minute I leant against
+the bulkhead, staring at the poor corpse before me in stupefied
+amazement. Then I roused myself, and kneeling upon the floor began my
+search for something which, when I had found it, I placed carefully in
+the canvas bag I carried round my waist. Then I set off as fast as I
+could go to reach the surface once more. God knows I had made an
+astounding enough discovery in all conscience, and as I climbed the
+ladder I wondered what Mr. Leversidge would have to say to it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+So overpowered was I by the importance of the discovery I had made in
+the bowels of that sunken ship, that when I reached the top of the
+ladder and found myself standing once more among my fellow-men in the
+decent and clean world above the waves, it seemed as if I must begin my
+story to old Leversidge before the front glass of my helmet was removed;
+and, if such a thing were possible, his impatience was even greater than
+my own. There we stood, scarcely three feet apart, in the same world,
+breathing the same air, looking upon the same things, and yet to all
+intents and purposes for the time being as widely separate as the poles.
+
+As soon, however, as the glass was removed I accepted my tender's
+assistance, and clambering aboard seated myself on the combing of the
+main hatch. Beside me on the deck lay the sodden baggage, just as I had
+sent it up from the vessel below, as yet untouched. On seeing it I bade
+my tender, as soon as my helmet was removed, commence unpacking it.
+While he was thus employed Leversidge stood opposite me, his lips
+trembling and his fingers itching to draw me away in order that he might
+question me as to the result of my search. When, therefore, I was
+attired in civilized dress, he could no longer contain himself, but
+putting his arm through mine, and picking up the baggage from the seat,
+drew me away towards the cabin aft, where, having made certain that we
+were alone, he seated himself at the table and once more eagerly scanned
+my face.
+
+"What have you to tell me?" he inquired, in a voice so changed that it
+almost startled me. "You have discovered something which has surprised
+you. I can see that much in your face. What is it? Have you got the
+pearl?"
+
+"One thing at a time, if you please," I answered. "I must take your
+questions in their proper order. To begin with, let me confess that I
+have _not_ got the pearl. It is just possible that it may be in that
+luggage I sent up from below, though I must say for my own part I don't
+think it probable. At any rate, if it is not there, I can only hazard a
+guess as to where it can be. Certainly it is not on the person of the
+drowned man, for I searched him thoroughly before I came up."
+
+Almost before I had finished speaking he had seated himself on the floor
+beside the bag he had brought with him to the cabin. It must have been a
+cheap concern when new, for to wrench it open now was a matter of very
+small difficulty. The material of which it was composed was certainly
+not leather, but some sort of composition, which tore away from its
+fastenings like so much brown paper. I sat still, smoking my pipe and
+composedly watching him while he pitched on to the floor the various
+articles it contained. It was evident from the expression on his face
+that he was not repaid for his search. At any rate, signs of a pearl
+there were none, nor were there any indications to show that it had ever
+been kept in there at all. The old man turned the heap of clothes over
+and over, and afterwards examined the bag most carefully, but no amount
+of looking could show him the article for which he was so ardently
+searching. Having at length convinced himself that it was not there he
+turned to me again.
+
+"It is quite certain," he said, looking up at me sharply, "that it is
+not in this bag. Are you sure there was no other luggage in the cabin?"
+
+"Quite sure," I answered. "But, before we go any further, perhaps you
+had better let me tell you all that I discovered when I was down below.
+Heaven knows it throws a new enough light upon the subject."
+
+"Go on," he said, pushing the things he had taken out of the bag away
+from him as he spoke. "Tell me everything. You know how impatient I am.
+What is it you have discovered?"
+
+"I will tell you," I answered. "As I said just now, when I entered the
+cabin I saw the body of your agent lying half in and half out of his
+bunk. From the state of his toilet it was plain that he had not retired
+for the night when the vessel struck, as you remember the Reverend
+Colway-Brown stated. It struck me as strange, therefore, that he had not
+been able to get out of his cabin during the brief time allowed the
+unfortunate passengers for escape. However, that is neither here nor
+there. There is one point which dwarfs all the others. Having discovered
+this luggage, which you have now examined, and sent it up to you, I
+determined to search the person of the man himself for the pearl. I did
+so only to make one terrible discovery."
+
+"What was that?" cried Mr. Leversidge, in an agony of impatience. "For
+Heaven's sake, man, get on quicker with your story. Why don't you come
+to the point? Can't you see that you are driving me distracted with your
+shilly-shallying? What was the matter with our man that he caused such a
+shock to your feelings?"
+
+I paused for a moment, fixed my eyes hard upon him, and then said
+impressively, "_He has been murdered. His throat was cut from ear to
+ear._"
+
+If the matter had not been so terribly serious I should have felt
+inclined to laugh at the expression upon the old gentleman's face. He
+was as white as a sheet, his eyes started half out of his head, and his
+mouth opened and shut like a fish fresh taken from his native element.
+It was nearly half a minute before he could find sufficient voice to
+answer me.
+
+"Murdered!" he cried. "My God, what do you mean, Collon? You must be mad
+to say such a thing. How could he have been murdered? And who could have
+done it?"
+
+"That he was murdered admits of no doubt," I answered. "There was the
+proof before me. What is more, for the reason that the victim was
+preparing to retire to rest, it is plain it must have been done just
+before the vessel struck."
+
+"But who did it, think you? Did you discover any clue that could tell us
+that? Not that it matters much, seeing that both murderer and victim are
+now dead."
+
+"Don't be too sure of that. We know the victim is dead, but of the man
+who killed him I am not so sure."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+In answer I took from the locker beside me the small canvas bag I had
+worn strapped round my waist when I visited the vessel. I plunged my
+hand into it and drew out something that I pushed across the table to my
+friend. He picked it up with a cry of astonishment.
+
+"A razor!" he cried. "But doesn't this look as if the man did away with
+himself?"
+
+"I think not," I answered. "Just look at the white handle and tell me if
+you know the name upon it."
+
+He took out his glasses, and, having placed them upon his nose,
+carefully examined the bone handle of the deadly weapon I had given him.
+This time he was even more astonished than before, and, if the truth
+must be told, more shocked.
+
+"Colway-Brown," he said to himself; "why, bless my soul, that's the name
+of one of the sole survivors from the wreck, the person to whom we
+telegraphed from Batavia, the clergyman who gave us the last news of the
+dead man. What does this terrible thing mean?"
+
+"If you ask what I think," I said very slowly and deliberately, "I think
+it looks like a put-up job. If you will remember, when you gave me the
+outline of the case, you told me that attempts had been made to obtain
+the pearl before your agent left Australia. It is plain, therefore, that
+it was known to be in his possession. An individual accordingly ships as
+a parson, calls himself Colway-Brown, books a berth in the next cabin to
+that occupied by your unfortunate friend. There is only one thing,
+however, which beats me, and that, I must confess, is a stumper."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"I can't understand what induced him to murder the man on that
+particular night of all others. It was such a stupid place to choose. He
+might have done it in Thursday Island and have got safely ashore, or he
+might have waited until they got to Batavia. To do it between two ports
+of call, and at such a time of night, seems to me like the work of a
+madman, and I can't make head or tail of it."
+
+"Perhaps when the vessel struck the scoundrel determined to obtain the
+pearl or perish in the attempt."
+
+"I'm afraid that won't do either, for by his own confession we know the
+Rev. Colway-Brown was on deck at the time she struck. He could not,
+therefore, have made his way down the companion ladder, crossed the
+saloon, and passed along the alleyway to the cabin, have entered, cut
+your agent's throat, found and possessed himself of the pearl, have
+returned to the deck and saved his own life in the few seconds that
+elapsed between the moment of the vessel's striking and her foundering."
+
+"But if he did not do it then how do you account for it?" he asked.
+
+"I can't account for it at all," I answered. "One thing, however, is
+self-evident. The suspicion is strongest against Colway-Brown, and, as
+your pearl is not among the dead man's effects or upon his body, it is
+only natural to suppose that it is in the custody of that reverend
+gentleman, who was so fortunate as to get ashore, not only with his
+life, but as he thought without being detected in his crime."
+
+"The rascal, the double-dyed rascal. But he needn't think he has beaten
+us. I'll run him to earth and he shall swing for this, or my name is not
+Leversidge."
+
+"But you have got to catch him first," I said, "and from the sample he
+has already given us of his prowess I incline to the belief that he's as
+slippery a customer as ever wore shoe-leather."
+
+"Nevertheless he shall hang, or I'll know the reason why."
+
+"I think I can tell you the reason why," I said quietly. "He won't hang,
+because when everything is said and done it would be about the most
+inadvisable step you could take, in your own interests and those of your
+firm, to bring him before a court of Justice. You're not particularly
+anxious, I suppose, that the Government should become aware of your
+visit to this wreck?"
+
+"Very naturally," he replied. "I have already told you that, I think."
+
+"In that case how do you propose to show that you became aware of the
+fact that your man _was_ murdered? and if you will excuse my saying so,
+I cannot help thinking that you will find it an extremely difficult, if
+not quite impossible, task to prove that our friend Colway-Brown was the
+man who committed this terrible crime."
+
+"Not at all," he answered. "What about the razor? We know that it is his
+property, and if it was not with it that the murder was committed, how
+do you account for it being in his cabin?"
+
+"I am not attempting to account for it at all," I answered. "I am simply
+endeavouring to show you how futile it would be in all probability to
+try to bring the crime home to the man whom we suspect."
+
+"Then what do you propose doing?"
+
+I thought for a few moments before I answered.
+
+"Well, as far as I can see, the best plan would be," I said, "to follow
+our reverend friend up, and when we have got him in a close corner, just
+to tax him with his crime and threaten to hand him over to Justice if he
+does not return to you the property he stole. If this is judiciously
+managed there should not be much difficulty in obtaining from him what
+you want."
+
+"But supposing he has parted with the pearl in the meantime, what then?
+A nice position we should find ourselves in."
+
+"I don't think he is likely to dispose of it just yet," I answered. "You
+see he would not have an opportunity. He would be afraid to try it on in
+Thursday Island, where the pearl was known, or, for the matter of that,
+in Australia at all. What is more, he'll not be likely to hurry, having
+no notion that there is anybody on his track. He knows he is the only
+soul who escaped from the wreck, and he is certain to think his victim
+will remain undiscovered for all time. With a little luck you should be
+able to catch him before he can get away."
+
+"But you speak of _my_ catching him. Surely you do not intend to let me
+go on alone? Remember I set such store by your assistance."
+
+"If you wish it I will, of course, go through the business with you," I
+answered. "But it looks like being a bigger affair than I at first
+contemplated, and my time is valuable."
+
+"It shall be made worth your while; you need have no fear on that score.
+And now, I suppose, it is no use our remaining here; what shall we do?"
+
+"Up anchor and be off to Thursday Island as fast as we can go," I said
+promptly.
+
+"And when we get there?"
+
+"Seize the Reverend Colway-Brown as soon as possible, if he's there, and
+frighten him into handing over the jewel he has so wrongfully taken
+possession of, by the best methods in our power."
+
+"And if he has left the island?"
+
+"Then we'll follow him like bloodhounds until we catch him, even if we
+have to go half round the world to do it."
+
+"You mean it?"
+
+"I do," I answered.
+
+"Then shake hands on it."
+
+We shook hands, and in less than a quarter of an hour the schooner was
+bowling along under a merry breeze towards Thursday Island, and its most
+important inhabitant, as far as we were concerned, the Reverend
+Colway-Brown.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+The sun was in the act of disappearing behind the fringe of jungle which
+clothes the western hilltops of Thursday Island, when our schooner
+passed through Prince of Wales' Straits and dropped her anchor off the
+small township of Port Kennedy. Every one on board was on deck at the
+moment, and I can vouch for the fact that in two minds at least, those
+of Mr. Leversidge and myself, there was a feeling of intense excitement.
+Ever since we had sat together in the schooner's cabin, and I had told
+him of the terrible discovery I had made in his agent's berth on board
+the _Monarch of Macedonia_, we had been longing for the moment to arrive
+when we should reach the island, and either find ourselves face to face
+with the Reverend Colway-Brown or learn something which would eventually
+lead us to him. That he would be foolish enough, after what had
+happened, to remain any longer in the island than he could help, I did
+not for a moment suppose. He would naturally be anxious to put as many
+miles as possible between himself and the wreck, and also to reach some
+place where he could dispose of the jewel. There were half a hundred
+reasons why he should not attempt to do so in Thursday Island. In the
+first place, there was no one there who could give him the price he
+would be likely to ask, and in the second it must be remembered that it
+was in this very locality it had first made its appearance and attracted
+so much attention. To have shown it there, or to have allowed any one to
+have suspected its presence, would have been an act of the wildest
+folly, and it was plain that the Reverend Colway-Brown was no fool. For
+these reasons I felt convinced in my own mind that when we went ashore
+to make inquiries we should find our bird flown.
+
+Prior to sighting the island we had held a conference with the skipper
+in the deck-house, when Mr. Leversidge had discharged the amount due for
+the hire of the vessel, and at the same time had supplemented it with a
+handsome present to her officers and crew. As far as they were concerned
+I was sure the secret of our visit to the wreck would be in safe hands.
+
+This business matter having been settled to every one's satisfaction, as
+soon as the anchor was down we collected our baggage and descended into
+the boat which was waiting for us alongside. As we did so a steamer
+rounded the point and approached the anchorage. I recognised her and
+made a note of the fact in my own mind for future use, in case it should
+be necessary.
+
+It was not the first time I had been in Thursday Island by many a score,
+and I was well acquainted with the customs and peculiarities of the
+place and its inhabitants. I did not, therefore, waste my time making
+inquiries in any of the grog shanties beside the beach, but passed along
+the front until I reached the most gorgeous caravanserai of all, the
+Hotel of All Nations. It was here, I felt certain, if anywhere, that we
+should hear some tidings of the man we were after. Accordingly, I walked
+through the verandah, and, with Mr. Leversidge at my heels, entered the
+bar. The real business hour had not yet arrived, and for this reason,
+save for a Kanaka asleep in a corner, and a gorgeously upholstered youth
+polishing glasses behind the counter, the bar was deserted. It was plain
+that the latter had never seen me before, or, if he had, that he had
+forgotten both my name and the circumstances under which we had last
+met. I accordingly bade him call his employer to me.
+
+"Good gracious, can it be you, Mr. Collon?" exclaimed the latter as he
+entered the room and saw me standing before him; "I thought you were in
+China. Leastways, Bill Smith, of the _Coral Queen_, was only saying
+yesterday that the mate of the _Chang Tung_ saw you at Foochow the last
+time he was up there, which was about five months ago."
+
+"Five months is a long time," I said, with a laugh. "It is possible for
+a good deal to happen in that time. Five months ago, if you had told any
+of the people who went down in the _Monarch of Macedonia_ what was
+before them, they would not have believed you."
+
+"That was a bad thing, wasn't it?" he replied, shaking his head. "I
+suppose you know that the only persons who escaped were brought on here.
+As a matter of fact, I took them in."
+
+"I guessed as much," I answered. "I said to my friend here, as we came
+along, that I felt certain they would come to the Hotel of All Nations."
+
+"Yes; I took them in. The foremast hand, however, went up in the China
+boat the following day; but the Rev. Colway-Brown stayed longer."
+
+"The deuce he did!" As I said this I glanced at the bar-tender, who was
+listening with both his ears. I had no desire that he should hear what
+we had to say, so I drew his employer a little on one side, saying, "By
+the way, Birch, can we have five minutes with you alone in your own
+private room?"
+
+"And why not?" he replied. "Surely, if there's one man in this world
+who's we'come, it's you, Dick Collon. Come along with me, gentlemen, and
+let us have our talk together."
+
+A few moments later we were installed in the hospitable landlord's
+private office, from the windows of which a magnificent view could be
+obtained of the harbour, the islands beyond, and, on a very clear day,
+of Cape York, the most northerly coast line of Australia, peeping up
+miles away to the southward. Many and strange would be the stories that
+the room could tell were it possible for it to speak. In it men had sold
+their birthrights to all intents and purposes for a mess of pottage; in
+it others, who had hitherto been considered nobodies, had learnt the
+news that the tide of fortune had turned for them, and that for the
+future they were to take their places among the high-born of the earth.
+In that room men flying from justice in the South, who had believed
+themselves beyond the reach of pursuit and had come ashore while the
+mail-boat coaled, had been arrested. For me alone that room had at least
+a hundred different memories and associations. I had been familiar with
+it for many years, but this much I can safely say, never had I entered
+it on such a strange errand as that which was now engrossing all my
+attention.
+
+"Well, what can I do for you?" asked Birch, when he had invited us to be
+seated and had closed the door behind him.
+
+"I want to ask a particular favour of you," I said. "I want you to tell
+me all you know about the Reverend Colway-Brown."
+
+"The man we were speaking of just now?" Birch asked, with an expression
+of surprise; "the only survivor from the wreck?"
+
+"Exactly," I answered. "My friend here is very much interested in him,
+and is most anxious to find him."
+
+"In that case I am afraid you have come too late," Birch replied. "He
+left for Brisbane last week in the _Oodnadatta_. He wanted to get back
+to Sydney, he said, as soon as possible. We took up a collection for
+him, and the steamship company granted him a free passage South. I
+reckon the poor chap wanted it, for he'd lost everything he possessed in
+the world, and came out of that wreck just as near stone broke as a man
+could well be."
+
+"Feeling pretty miserable, too, I don't doubt," I said.
+
+"Miserable is no word for it," he answered; "you never saw such a
+doleful chap, nor I'll be bound one half so frightened, in your life.
+All the time he was in this house he was just ready to jump away from
+his own shadow at a moment's notice. As nervous and timid as a baby.
+Couldn't bear to be left by himself, and yet as unsociable as could be
+when you were with him. Small wonder, say I, when you come to think of
+what he had been through. It's a mystery to me how he came out of it
+alive."
+
+"Did he tell you much about it while he was here?" inquired Leversidge.
+"I suppose he gave you his experiences in detail?"
+
+"That's just the funny part of it," Birch replied. "Do what you would
+you could not get that poor chap to talk about 'that terrible night,' as
+he called it. On any other subject he could be interesting enough when
+he liked, but directly you began to question him about the wreck or
+anything connected with the vessel, he would put his hands up to his
+eyes and shudder as if he saw the whole thing happening over again. For
+my own part I don't think he'll ever be able to forget it. It will be a
+nightmare to him as long as he lives."
+
+"So I should imagine," said Leversidge, with such unusual emphasis that
+our host, who was in the act of pouring us out some refreshment, paused
+and looked at him in surprise.
+
+I hastened to continue the conversation. "Poor chap!" I said; "from all
+accounts he must have stood pretty close to death that night. Now what
+we are trying to do is to find him. You say he went South last week in
+the _Oodnadatta_, intending to bring up in Sydney. You don't happen to
+know what his address is there, do you? It is of the utmost importance
+to us that we should find him with as little delay as possible."
+
+Birch thought for a few moments, and then shook his head. "I'm afraid I
+can tell you nothing that would help you," he said. "All the fellow
+wanted from morning till night was to get South as fast as possible. His
+wife was in Sydney, he said, and he was afraid she would be anxious
+until she saw him in the flesh again. That was his one cry--get
+South--get South."
+
+"And he never told you whether he lived in Sydney or out in the Bush?"
+
+"He never told us where he lived at all. On that point he was as silent
+as an oyster."
+
+"But if he's a parson, it should not be a very difficult matter to find
+out where his charge is," said Mr. Leversidge; "particularly now that
+there's been all this light thrown on his name. Of course you know of
+what persuasion he was a minister?"
+
+Here to our amazement Birch smacked his knee and burst into a roar of
+laughter. This was more than I could stand. "Confound you," I said,
+"what on earth are you laughing at?"
+
+"At the idea of your asking me what persuasion he was a minister of.
+It's as good as a play."
+
+"How so? I don't see anything funny in it."
+
+"Don't you? Well, then, I do," returned Birch. "In the first place, my
+old friend Collon, and you, Mr. Leversidge, it gives you both away
+pretty thoroughly. You told me just now that you knew the man and wanted
+to help him. All I can say is, that if you do you know precious little
+about him. Why, gentlemen, I tell you that that parson was as tough a
+bird as any I've met. He may or may not be a labourer in the vineyard,
+but all I _can_ say is that, if he _is_, he's got the finest command of
+bad language for a minister that ever I've heard, and I can do a bit
+that way myself. The day after he landed here, one of my Kanaka boys
+spilt some hot soup on his hand at table, and he rounded on him and gave
+him the most infernal cursing ever I heard in all my born days. I tell
+you it made the whole table sit up like one man. If he talks to his
+congregation like that, it's no wonder they sent him home for a sea
+voyage."
+
+Leversidge and I looked at each other, you may be sure, on hearing this.
+
+"Well, if you can tell us nothing more, I'm afraid it's no use our
+waiting on in the island. There's a mail-boat at anchor now. I think the
+best thing we can do, Mr. Leversidge, would be to board her and set off
+for Brisbane, _en route_ to Sydney, as quickly as we can go."
+
+"I agree with you," answered my companion. "Good-day, Mr. Birch, and
+thank you for your courtesy."
+
+"Don't mention that, I beg, sir," returned the affable Birch. "I only
+wish I could do more to help you in your search for your friend."
+
+I shook hands with him in my turn, and was following Leversidge towards
+the verandah steps, when Birch called me back. Sinking his voice he
+said, "What is it, Dick, my lad? What's your little game? Why do you
+want this swearing parson so badly?"
+
+"A matter of business," I answered; "a mere matter of business."
+
+Birch smiled knowingly, and winked at me. "A Hatton Garden bit of
+business, I suppose," he said. "You surely don't think I failed to
+recognise your friend, did you? Now, shall I do you a good turn?"
+
+"By all means," I replied. "I'd do you one if I could."
+
+"Well, then, take this on board with you, and think it over at your
+leisure. The day the parson left us he came to me alone in my room
+yonder and offered me----"
+
+"Offered you what?" I said, forgetting that I might be overheard.
+
+"One of the finest black pearls I ever saw or heard of," he answered.
+"He wanted me to buy it, but I refused, so he had to take it away with
+him to his poor wife in Sydney. There, what do you think of that?"
+
+"Thank you, John," I said, warmly shaking him by the hand. "You've told
+me just what I wanted to know. Good-bye."
+
+On the way down the hill I informed Leversidge of what I had been told.
+He stopped in the dust and looked at me. "Good," he said, wagging his
+head sagaciously. "That removes all doubt as to whether he was the man
+who stole the pearls."
+
+"And it also proves without a shadow of a doubt that he was the demon
+who cut your agent's throat. My Reverend Colway-Brown, there is a day of
+retribution saving up for you, or I'm very much mistaken."
+
+"But what do you think of it all?"
+
+"What do I think? Why, I think his reverence must have been a little off
+his head when he offered Birch that pearl. It's by slips like that that
+they give themselves away. Now here's the boat; let's board her and
+continue the chase."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+Within an hour and a half of our setting foot ashore in Thursday Island
+from the schooner, we were on board the mail-boat _en route_ for
+Brisbane and the South. It was a glorious evening, and the beauty of the
+scenery as one approaches and enters the famous Albany Pass is, I am
+prepared to say, second to none in the maritime world. I am afraid,
+however, on this particular occasion our thoughts were too much occupied
+with the chase we were engaged in, and the news we had so lately
+received, for us to be able to give very much attention to anything
+else. Our quarry had had a good week's start of us, and it was just
+possible in that time he might have found an opportunity of giving us
+the slip altogether. But he was not going to do so if I could help it.
+For some reason or another, apart from the crime he had committed, I had
+conceived a violent hatred of the man, and I was fully determined not to
+let him slip through my fingers and escape to enjoy the fruits of his
+villainy if it could be prevented.
+
+On reaching Cooktown, our first port of call, and a starting-point of
+much of the island trade, I informed Mr. Leversidge that it was my
+intention to go ashore in order to make quite certain that he had not
+left his vessel there. The old gentleman was not feeling very well that
+day, and it was with the utmost reluctance that he confessed his
+inability to accompany me.
+
+"But my absence is of no consequence," he was kind enough to say. "I
+have the most implicit confidence in you, and I am sure you will make
+all the necessary inquiries quite as well without me. I have only one
+request to make, however, and that is, that you come on board again as
+soon as possible, in order to let me know if you have discovered
+anything that is likely to be of use to us. You can imagine how
+impatient I shall be to hear your news."
+
+"I won't be an instant longer than I can help," I answered. "As soon as
+I have made the necessary inquiries, I'll return."
+
+Then bidding him good-bye, I made my way ashore and up the one long and
+dusty street which constitutes the business portion of Cooktown. The
+first thing to be done was to visit the office of the steamship
+company's agent to endeavour to find out whether they could tell me
+anything concerning the Reverend Colway-Brown. This, it appeared, the
+agent was quite unable to do. He had seen the gentleman in question on
+board the vessel, he told me, but beyond having congratulated him on his
+marvellous escape, he had no further conversation with him. Somewhat
+disappointed at the meagreness of his information, I left him, and went
+on up the street, intending to make inquiries at an hotel kept by an old
+diving acquaintance, who, I felt sure, would have made it his business
+to see the man in question had he come ashore.
+
+Reaching the house, I entered it, to find my old mate sitting behind the
+bar, reading a sporting article from the _Australasian_ to a man who was
+lounging on a bench near the door smoking a cigar.
+
+On seeing me, he sprang to his feet, and, seizing my hand, shook it
+until I began to think he was never going to let it go again.
+
+"Dick Collon, by all that's glorious!" he cried. "Well, who'd have
+thought of seeing you down here again! I was told you had given up these
+waters altogether. What brings you to Cooktown?"
+
+"Can't you see?" I answered. "Don't I look as if I needed a change of
+air?"
+
+"Change of air be hanged!" he replied, with a laugh. "You never needed
+such a thing in your life. Is there any one with you?"
+
+"Only an old chap from England," I said; "I am showing him the beauties
+of Australia."
+
+"What's his name?"
+
+"Leversidge," I replied. "He's a little under the weather to-day, or I'd
+have brought him along with me. He's out here looking for a man--the
+chap, in fact, who escaped from the _Monarch of Macedonia_, the Reverend
+Colway-Brown."
+
+"The deuce he is! And can't he find him?"
+
+"He hasn't done so yet. It was to discover if you could tell us whether
+he came ashore here that brought me up to see you."
+
+"I'm sorry I can't help you, old man; but what does he want to see him
+about? That's, of course, if it isn't private business."
+
+"He wants to find out what the parson can tell him about a friend who
+went down in the boat from which he was so lucky as to escape--that's
+all."
+
+"Well, I'm only sorry I can't help you," he said, but with a little
+hesitation that I did not fail to notice. "And now tell me more about
+yourself. Remember, it's ages since last we met."
+
+We chatted for a while together about old days. Then the man who had
+been smoking near the door joined us in a drink, and after a little more
+talk about horse-racing and things in general I said I must be getting
+back to my boat. On hearing that I intended walking towards the harbour,
+the bookmaker-looking party, who had thrust himself upon us, decided to
+accompany me, and while we were upon the way was so good as to offer to
+show me, for a consideration, a number of excellent means of making a
+fortune upon the Australian turf. To his mortification, however, we
+parted, without my deciding to avail myself of his assistance.
+
+Upon my informing Mr. Leversidge, when I reached his cabin, of the
+success I had met with, we unitedly came to the conclusion that our man
+had not left the boat in Cooktown, as we had thought possible, but must
+have continued his voyage in her towards a more southern port. On
+hearing, however, that our departure would be delayed for at least a
+couple of hours, I determined to go ashore again for another stroll.
+Eventually I found myself once more in my old mate's house. He received
+me with great hilarity, and it soon became evident that during my
+absence he had been sampling his own wares to considerable purpose. The
+bar was crowded, and when I entered it was plain that he had been
+retailing some good jest, for the laughter that followed was long and
+uproarious.
+
+"Come in, old lad," he cried on seeing me. "You're the very man we want,
+for we were just talking of you. The boys here want to shake you by the
+hand."
+
+Wondering what the joke could be, and thinking it behoved me to find
+out, I complied with his request.
+
+"I don't know when I've laughed so much," began my friend, as he poured
+me out some whisky. "And I'll bet all I'm worth, you never as much as
+suspected, did you now?"
+
+"Never suspected what?" I asked, rather sharply, finding my temper
+rising at the grins I saw upon the faces round me. "Out with it, old
+man; let me know what the joke is."
+
+"Well, it's a good one, you may be sure of that," he answered. "There
+you were hob-nobbing together as thick as thieves. 'Ptarmigan's the
+horse,' says he. 'I'm not so sure,' say you. 'I'll back him against your
+choice for a fiver,' says he. But you weren't on. And all the time you
+never suspected for an instant that he was neither more nor less than
+the very man you were inquiring about this afternoon, the chap who
+escaped from the _Monarch of Macedonia_ a few weeks back."
+
+"What?" I cried, scarcely able to believe that I heard aright. "Do you
+mean to tell me that that seedy old beggar who talked so much about
+horse-racing and walked with me to the harbour side was the Reverend
+Colway-Brown, the man I asked you about?"
+
+"The very man," he answered, and as he did so he brought his hand down
+with a smack upon my shoulder. "I can tell you, Dick, I nearly burst my
+sides with laughing when I saw you two jabbering away together."
+
+Seeing how I had been taken in, the crowd in the bar thought fit to
+laugh. But when I ran my eye over them they changed their minds and
+looked another way. I was so angry, I could have thrashed Donovan for
+the trick he had played me. It didn't take him long, however, to see I
+was annoyed.
+
+"Come, come, Dick, old man," he said, "you mustn't be angry with me. I
+couldn't do anything else. He spent a week in my house here, you see,
+and was uncommon free with his money. What's more, when he came to me,
+he told me he didn't want it to be known that he was the man who
+escaped, as everybody stared at him so. For this reason he changed his
+name, and I promised I'd not give him away to anybody, so I couldn't,
+even to you."
+
+"It's plain I've been had, and badly too," I said angrily. "You've
+spoiled a rare good bit of business for me, and I don't take it kindly
+of you, Jim. Where is the fellow now?"
+
+"Aboard the schooner _Friendship_," he answered, "lying alongside your
+own boat. He's left my house now, so I don't mind telling you that. But
+you will have to look sharp if you want to catch him; he sails
+to-night."
+
+Without another word I left the place and ran down the street as hard as
+I could go. I remembered having seen the schooner alongside us when I
+had left the mail-boat, but when I got there now she was gone. "Where's
+the schooner that was lying here?" I inquired of some loafers I
+discovered hanging about the wharf.
+
+"The _Friendship_, do you mean?" asked one of the men. "Why, there she
+is, out yonder!"
+
+He pointed to a white sail that was just disappearing round the opposite
+headland. On seeing that, I clenched my fist with rage, and bestowed the
+reverse of a blessing upon Jim Donovan. But for his putting me off the
+scent I might by this time have brought the chase to a successful issue.
+However, the man was safely out of my clutches now, and no amount of
+wishing would bring him back again. I dreaded, however, the task of
+telling old Leversidge how easily I had been taken in.
+
+"Do you know where the schooner is bound for?" I inquired of the man
+beside me, who had all this time been watching my face.
+
+"For the Gilberts first, and then on to Honolulu," he answered.
+
+I thanked him and then made my way back to the steamer to acquaint my
+employer with my failure. He heard my tale out to the end, and though I
+could see he was bitterly disappointed, did not once upbraid me for my
+stupidity.
+
+"Nonsense, my dear fellow!" he said, in answer to my expression of
+regret. "You could not help it. You had never seen this Colway-Brown
+before, so how could you be expected to recognise him, particularly when
+he took such pains to deceive you? But what do you think is the best
+thing for us to do?"
+
+"We must get down to Sydney with all speed, and catch a steamer there
+for Honolulu. With decent luck we should arrive at the island first. In
+the meantime I'm going to hunt up the owners of the _Friendship_, and
+get permission to board their schooner when she arrives. They know me,
+and I think will grant it."
+
+This I did, and when I had explained my reason, in confidence, to the
+head of the firm, my request was immediately granted. Armed with a
+letter to their captain, I returned to the mail-boat, and in less than
+half an hour we were continuing our voyage to the South. Arriving at
+Brisbane, we caught the mail train to Sydney, and within five hours of
+our arrival in the capital of New South Wales were on board the steamer
+_Pride of the Pacific_, bound for Honolulu _via_ Fiji. It was, indeed, a
+race against time, and the Reverend Colway-Brown, murderer and thief,
+was the prize.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+Who that has ever seen it will forget daybreak on a fine morning in
+Honolulu Harbour? Surely no one. The background of tree-clad island, so
+dark yet so suggestive of tropical luxuriance; the sky overhead so full
+of rainbow hues, and the sea so calm and yet possessed of all the
+colours of the inside of a pearl shell. When one sees it one is forced
+to the conclusion that there could never be another like it. It is
+beautiful beyond conception.
+
+The sun had not yet made his appearance above the horizon when Mr.
+Leversidge and I left the hotel at which we had been residing since our
+arrival in the island, and made our way down to the small steamer we had
+chartered, and which had been ordered to be ready to put to sea with us
+at a moment's notice. Information had been brought to us late the night
+before that the schooner, whose coming we had been so eagerly awaiting,
+had been sighted further down the coast, and, in consequence, we were
+anxious to put off to her as soon as might be.
+
+"The chase is growing exciting," said Mr. Leversidge, as we crossed the
+gangway and bade the skipper "Good-morning!" "It is to be hoped the
+reverend gentleman has not left his vessel in the Gilberts and made off
+in another direction. In that case we shall in all probability have lost
+sight of him for good and all."
+
+"I'm not afraid of that," I answered. "In the first place he would not
+be able to get enough for his booty there to make it worth his while to
+sell, and in the second I have a sort of conviction that he is making
+for America. Such a pearl as he has with him would command a much better
+figure in San Francisco than it would be likely to do either here or in
+the Gilberts, and from what I have seen of the man I should say he was
+quite smart enough to be aware of that fact."
+
+"I am glad to hear you say so," returned Mr. Leversidge. "Nevertheless,
+I shall not feel easy in my mind until I have it in my possession once
+more. I shall not forget the chase this man has given us as long as I
+live."
+
+"I don't suppose you will," I said. "It has been exciting enough in all
+conscience. I only hope the finish may be satisfactory."
+
+"I hope it may," he answered quietly. And just then I heard the skipper
+whistle the engine-room, and presently we cast off our moorings and got
+under weigh. Throwing a trail of black smoke behind us we left the
+harbour and passed out to sea, the mate at the wheel, the skipper pacing
+the bridge, and Leversidge and I straining our eyes in search of the
+vessel for which we were so anxiously waiting. It was upwards of an
+hour, however, before we saw her white sails rising above the sea line
+ahead of us. Half an hour later only five miles or so separated us, and
+every moment was bringing us closer to each other. When we had come so
+near that we could even distinguish the people standing on her decks, I
+approached our commander.
+
+"Now then, captain," I said, "the sooner you lay us on board that boat
+the better we shall be pleased. I've a letter to deliver to the skipper
+from his owners, and it must be in his possession with as little delay
+as possible."
+
+"I'll do my best," he answered, and immediately put his helm over.
+
+The schooner's captain, seeing that we wished to speak him, hove his
+vessel to, when our skipper sang out that he would send a boat. One was
+soon alongside, and into her, when her crew had taken their places at
+the oars, Mr. Leversidge and I bundled. Ten minutes later we had been
+hauled aboard the schooner, and I was presenting the captain with the
+letter I had received from his owners.
+
+He read it carefully, and having done so turned to me: "This is a pretty
+serious matter, Mr.----,"--here he paused and consulted the letter
+again--"Mr. Collon. But I don't see how I'm to gainsay you. My owners
+say I'm to permit you to act as you think best with regard to my
+passenger, so I suppose you must have your way. Still, I don't feel easy
+in my mind."
+
+"You need not worry yourself, captain," I said. "Whatever happens, you
+may be sure your owners will not hold you responsible. Is the man we
+want on deck, or must we look for him below?"
+
+"He's not out of his bunk yet, I believe," replied the skipper; "but if
+you will follow me below I'll soon ascertain."
+
+We accompanied him, as directed, along the deck and down the companion
+ladder. Entering the small cuddy he informed Mr. McGuire that two
+gentlemen desired to speak to him, and then shrugged his shoulders, and
+made his way up on deck again. He could barely have reached it before a
+man, clad in a suit of filthy pyjamas, and with his hair standing nearly
+on end, and his eyes almost out of his head, emerged from the cabin
+opposite which we were sitting and confronted us. I saw him start back
+against the bulwarks and throw up his hands as if to shut out the memory
+of our faces, and almost at the same moment I heard my companion utter a
+little cry, followed by the words, "My God, what's this?" Then McGuire,
+or Colway-Brown, by which name we knew him better, clutched at the
+panelling, missed it, and gradually slid down until he fell in a heap
+upon the deck. The recognition had been too much for him, and he had
+fainted.
+
+When he recovered his senses, we lifted him up and placed him on a
+locker beside the table. A more miserable figure could scarcely have
+been found in all the Southern Seas. Again and again he looked at
+Leversidge, and every time he looked he groaned. I was more puzzled than
+I could express. The old gentleman's face alone was worth walking a long
+way to see. At last he got his breath, and was able to use his voice.
+
+"You miserable, cheating hound!" he cried, springing to his feet and
+speaking with a vehemence that astonished me quite as much as the scene
+which occasioned it. "Do you mean to tell me that it is you who have
+been playing this trick upon us? Am I to understand that you are the dog
+who has led us this dance? By heavens, you shall pay for it as severely
+as ever man paid yet!"
+
+Here he paused for breath, and I seized the opportunity to ask for an
+explanation.
+
+"Don't you understand?" he cried, wheeling round to me, his eyes
+flaming, and his usually florid countenance now white with rage. "This
+miserable wretch is no more the Reverend Colway-Brown than I am."
+
+"Indeed!" I said, with my mouth wide open with surprise. "Then who is
+he?"
+
+"_My own agent--the man we trusted. The man who was to have brought the
+pearl to England!_"
+
+"This is really very pretty," I said, as soon as I had recovered from my
+astonishment. "And, what's more, it explains a good many things that I
+could not understand. No wonder he took fright when I mentioned your
+name at Donovan's Hotel in Cooktown. Had it not been for that bilious
+attack of yours you would have been with me, and, in that case, you
+would have recognised him, and we should have been spared this voyage
+across the Pacific. But still there is one matter that requires
+consideration." Here I turned to the wretched fellow before us. "If the
+Reverend Colway-Brown did not murder the agent, it is plain that the
+agent must have murdered the Reverend Colway-Brown. We gave the parson
+the credit of that business. It appears, however, that we were
+mistaken."
+
+By this time the wretched man's agony was almost painful to witness. Try
+how he would he could not recover his self-possession. Prior to that
+moment he had imagined himself accused of mere stealing, while the
+secret of the more serious charge he believed to be still safely locked
+up in the mail-boat cabin at the bottom of the sea. It came upon him,
+therefore, as a greater shock to find his crime discovered, and by the
+very man of all others of whom he had the greatest reason to be afraid.
+Small wonder that he felt ill at ease. In my own heart I'm afraid I
+pitied him, but not when I thought of the sinking mail-boat and the wild
+struggle in cabin 33.
+
+"What have you to say for yourself?" asked Leversidge, turning to the
+other again. "Are you aware that we have only to convey you ashore in
+order to give you into custody as the murderer of Colway-Brown?"
+
+"I am aware of that," cried the wretched man; "but you do not know
+everything. You do not know what I had to put up with. You can have no
+idea of the temptations that were placed in my way. He was one of the
+gang that dogged my steps first from Melbourne to Sydney, and then on to
+Brisbane. I was surrounded, morning, noon, and night, by thieves and
+murderers. I scarcely dared close my eyes for fear I should never open
+them again, or if I did that I should find my precious charge gone. This
+man you call Colway-Brown was the head of the gang, but it was not until
+we had reached Thursday Island that I found him out. Then he began to
+hang round me on deck and in my cabin, talking always of pearls and
+precious stones, and trying to induce me to be friendly with him. On the
+night of the wreck he came into my berth, just as I was thinking of
+retiring to rest. One glance showed me that he was under the influence
+of liquor, and I also noticed that he carried one hand in his pocket in
+a suspicious sort of fashion. Presently he came up alongside me as I
+stood beside my washstand basin, and before I knew what he was about had
+whipped a razor from his pocket and was trying for my throat. I was too
+startled by the suddenness of it all to cry out, but not sufficiently so
+as to be unable to defend myself. I wrestled with him with the strength
+of despair, and at last was fortunate enough to get the mastery and to
+throw him upon the deck. Then the devil, who arranges all these things
+for his own benefit, you may be sure, got hold of me, and for a few
+moments I was not conscious of what I did. I remember looking down at
+him as he lay below me on the deck, and I also remember seizing the
+razor, which had fallen from his hand, and giving myself a nasty cut in
+so doing. After that I am not sure of my actions; but one thing is very
+certain, when I rose to my feet his throat was cut from ear to ear. You,
+Mr. Leversidge, who are so angry with me now, may not believe me when I
+say so, but I tell you that I fell back against my berth trying to find
+the pluck to kill myself when I thought of what I had done. But I could
+not do it. I leaned against my bunk and hid my face in my blood-stained
+hands, sobbing as if my heart would break. Then I looked down at the
+man, and seeing that he was quite dead, wondered how I could best manage
+to save my neck from the fatal noose.
+
+"While I was trying to collect my thoughts, and wondering what I should
+do, the vessel quivered from stem to stern; then I heard a noise on
+deck, a shouting and trampling of feet. I immediately left my cabin and
+ran up the companion ladder as fast as I could go, only to find the
+great ship sinking. What happened during the next few minutes I cannot
+say; indeed, I do not remember anything of what happened until I found
+myself floating on the surface of the water, wondering how long I should
+remain alive. The rest you know. I was saved, with one other man, and,
+what was more, I had the pearl with me. It is my belief it is accursed.
+It was not until I was out of the water, and found that there were only
+two of us saved, that the idea occurred to me to impersonate the dead
+man, and thus keep the jewel for myself. I fought with it, God knows how
+hard, but it was too strong for me, and at last I gave in. The chances,
+I argued, were all in my favour. So far as I knew, with the exception of
+the foremast hand, who did not know one passenger from another, I was
+the only survivor. Your agent was supposed to be drowned. If, therefore,
+I called myself Colway-Brown, I might escape detection.
+
+"When I reached Thursday Island, intending to strike for America, where
+I thought I should have a better opportunity of selling my stolen
+property without being detected, I called myself by the name of the dead
+man. Then came your telegram asking for information concerning your
+agent. I answered it as I thought the spurious parson would have done,
+and told myself I should be troubled by you no more. The week following
+I left for the South, but every one was so curious to see me that I
+abandoned that idea and left the vessel at Cooktown, intending to change
+into this boat, and so make my way _via_ Honolulu to the States. But it
+was not to be. You, sir, found me at Jim Donovan's Hotel, and it was
+only by a stroke of good fortune that I managed to give you the slip.
+Now you, Mr. Leversidge, have caught me, and it remains for you to say
+what you will do."
+
+I looked at Leversidge, who looked at me. The position was an awkward
+one. There could be no doubt that the man's story was a true one; and if
+so, for a part of it, at least, he deserved our pity.
+
+It was Mr. Leversidge who solved the difficulty by inquiring what had
+become of the pearl. In answer the man fumbled in the breast-pocket of
+his coat, and presently drew out a small flat box, which he passed
+across the table.
+
+"It is there, the cursed thing!" he said bitterly. "Would to God I had
+never seen it! It has wrought my ruin, body and soul."
+
+With feverish earnestness Mr. Leversidge opened the box, and took from
+the cotton wool, with which it was filled, the finest black pearl I had
+ever set eyes on in the whole course of my experience. Seeing it, I
+could easily understand the temptation it had given rise to in the
+other's heart. Mr. Leversidge, however, replaced it in its nest, and
+stowed the box away in his pocket. Then he turned to the wretched man
+before us.
+
+"You know in your own heart," he said, "whether the story you have told
+us regarding that man's death be true or not. In either case you may be
+sure of one thing, and that is, that your wretched secret is in safe
+keeping. May God forgive you, and permit you to work out your own
+salvation; we shall not punish you further. The rest is a matter for
+your own conscience."
+
+Ten minutes later we were back on our own steamer, returning to Honolulu
+as fast as she could carry us, little dreaming what awaited us there.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+It was well-nigh mid-day before we reached our hotel; but as soon as we
+did so Mr. Leversidge placed the small box containing the pearl in a
+safe place. Having had such difficulty in finding it, he had no desire
+to run the risk of losing it again. This done, we devoted half an hour
+to business, and after that I went down to the agent's office to make
+inquiries about the mail-boat for Japan, which was due to arrive from
+San Francisco the following day. The remainder of the afternoon was
+occupied with calls upon old friends, and it was not until well after
+nightfall that I returned to our hotel. On arriving there, to my
+surprise, I found Mr. Leversidge in my bedroom in a state of wildest
+excitement. He was standing in the middle of the room holding the small
+wooden box containing the pearl in his hand. I inquired what was the
+matter.
+
+"Thank Heaven you have returned," he cried. "Collon, I have made a
+terrible discovery. You will scarcely believe, but we've been swindled
+again, and in the most barefaced manner possible, by that seemingly
+repentant hound on board the steamer."
+
+"What on earth do you mean?" I inquired, scarcely able to credit what he
+said. "How have we been swindled?"
+
+In answer to my question he lifted the lid of the box and tipped its
+contents into the palm of his hand, which he held towards me in a
+theatrical fashion.
+
+"We've been horribly taken in," he said. "This is not the pearl my firm
+purchased. It is a dummy--a fake, a make-believe. That clever rascal
+must have manufactured it himself for this express purpose, and all his
+protestations were as false as the pearl itself."
+
+"What?" I cried. "I can't believe it. Let me look at the thing."
+
+Taking it from him I examined it carefully. What he said was true. It
+was not genuine. At the same time, however, I am prepared to assert that
+it was the finest forgery of its kind I have ever come across in a
+fairly extensive experience. Until that moment, in my own heart, I had
+been despising the spurious Colway-Brown for a mere chicken-hearted cur,
+who, as soon as he was collared, wept and whined, and declared himself
+over-tempted and deeply repentant. Now, however, I was beginning to have
+a greater respect for him than I had yet felt, and for the simple and
+sufficient reason that in a trial of skill he had proved one too many
+for us.
+
+"What can we do?" asked Mr. Leversidge. "By this time he may have
+changed to another boat, and have left the Island. In that case we shall
+have to commence our chase over again."
+
+I was about to reply, when one of the native servants of the hotel
+entered the room and handed Mr. Leversidge a note, which he opened.
+Having read it he passed it on to me.
+
+"Good heavens! I can scarcely believe it," I heard him say softly to
+himself. "Read that, Mr. Collon."
+
+The note was from the captain of the schooner _Friendship_, and ran as
+follows:--
+
+     "To J. Leversidge, Esq.,
+
+     "Pacific Hotel, Honolulu.
+
+     "Dear Sir,--
+
+     "I regret exceedingly having to inform you that the man whom
+     you visited on board my vessel this morning was, half an hour
+     ago, shot by a person who had evidently been awaiting his
+     arrival in this port. The murderer is in safe custody. As I
+     understand from him that you were, or had been until lately,
+     his employer, I thought it my duty to at once communicate with
+     you.
+
+     "I am, Sir,
+
+     "Yours very obediently,
+
+     "J. BOLSOVER."
+
+"This is retribution with a vengeance," I said. "But who can the
+murderer be?"
+
+"One of the gang who was after the pearl in Australia, I'll be bound,"
+returned Mr. Leversidge. Then the expression on his face suddenly
+changed, and he seized me by the arm. "For hundreds of reasons he would
+be certain to carry the pearl about his person. Can the murderer have
+stolen it, think you?"
+
+"We will very soon ascertain," I answered, springing from the chair into
+which I had just thrown myself. "Come, Mr. Leversidge, we'll be off to
+the boat at once. This is no time for half measures."
+
+So saying, we seized our hats and left the hotel in search of the
+schooner _Friendship_. When we got on board we found an unusual
+stillness reigning. The skipper greeted us at the entrance of the
+companion ladder and shook us by the hand. "This is a bad business,
+gentlemen," he said, "and I regret that it should have happened aboard
+my boat."
+
+"A very bad business, as you say," Mr. Leversidge replied. "How long ago
+did it happen?"
+
+"About an hour and a half," replied the other. "It was getting dark,
+when a man came aboard and asked to see your friend. He was standing
+just where we are now, and after they had said a few words they walked
+aft together. They must have started quarrelling at once, for as I went
+down the ladder to the cuddy I heard some high words pass between them,
+then a shot was fired, and your friend fell upon the deck. I rushed on
+deck and got there just in time to seize the murderer as he was going
+over the side. We clapped him in irons straight away, and as soon as we
+had done so, set ashore for the police."
+
+"And the murdered man?"
+
+"We carried him below, but he expired before we got him there. He lies
+now in his cabin. The police are coming to take him off in an hour's
+time. Perhaps you would like to see him?"
+
+"Thank you," said Mr. Leversidge, and the captain led the way to the
+berth below, where he left us alone with the dead man.
+
+"It's now, or never," I said. "If we want the pearl, we've got to find
+it before the police come off to take possession of the body, otherwise
+how are you going to establish your rights to it."
+
+"But where do you intend looking for it?" Mr. Leversidge inquired.
+
+"I'm going to begin by searching the body," I answered, "and then if we
+are permitted sufficient time, I shall take a look at his luggage. You
+had better guard the door."
+
+As I spoke I took from my pocket a small, but exceedingly sharp pair of
+folding scissors, which I make a point of always carrying about with me.
+Then drawing back the blanket with which the body was covered, I ran my
+practised fingers over it. It is wonderful what a number of
+hiding-places the human frame contains. But it is the business of my
+life to know them all, and on this particular occasion it was not long
+before I discovered that high up under his right arm his coat had been
+carefully padded. To cut the lining was the work of a few seconds, and
+the results justified my expectations. "Here is your pearl, Mr.
+Leversidge," I said, holding it up, and a moment later I handed him the
+jewel in question. "Now let us get on deck as soon as possible. You had
+better leave your address, however, with the captain, in order that the
+police may know where to find you should your presence be required at
+the inquest."
+
+He followed my advice, and then we descended to our boat alongside. Next
+morning, to obviate any chance of future inconvenience, we made it our
+business to attend at the police office, where we stated what we knew of
+the murdered man. Three hours later I bade Mr. Leversidge farewell on
+the hurricane deck of the American mail-boat.
+
+"Good-bye, Mr. Collon," he said. "It seems strange to be parting like
+this after all we have gone through together. I thank you from the
+bottom of my heart for your co-operation. There is only one question I
+wish to ask you before you go."
+
+"And what is that?"
+
+"Was I right, or was I wrong, when I told you in Ceylon that I thought
+this case would prove to be one of the most extraordinary even in your
+varied repertoire?"
+
+"You were quite right," I answered. "I have never known another like it.
+Good-bye."
+
+"Good-bye, and may you always be equally successful."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Three months later, when I was just bringing to a conclusion a delicate
+bit of business in Cochin China, the incoming mail-boat brought me a
+small packet, which, when I had opened it, I discovered contained a
+valuable diamond ring, with a card bearing this inscription:--"To
+Christopher Collon, in recognition of a signal service rendered to
+Wilson, Burke & Leversidge, of Hatton Garden."
+
+The great black pearl which was the cause of all that has been told in
+this story is now amongst the most valued jewels of an Empress. How
+little, when it lies black as night upon her snow-white bosom, does she
+think what it cost in human life, or of the part it played in the drama
+to which I now invariably refer as "A CRIME OF THE UNDER-SEAS."
+
+
+
+
+The Phantom Stockman
+
+
+"A remarkably charming situation, and as pretty a homestead as any I
+have seen in the Bush," I said. "You have certainly worked wonders
+during the short time you have been in possession."
+
+It was a moonlight night, and Jim Spicer and I were sitting in the
+verandah of Warradoona Station in Western New South Wales. Ten o'clock
+had struck nearly half an hour before, and, at a quarter past, Mrs.
+Spicer had bidden us "Good-night" and had gone off to bed. On hearing
+that I did not feel tired, her husband had invited me to bring my pipe
+and grog into the verandah, where we could chat about old times without
+disturbing anybody. I had only arrived that afternoon from Melbourne,
+and, as we had not met for more than three years, it may be easily
+imagined that we had much to say to each other. Years before we had been
+on a station together in Queensland, had done two overlanding trips in
+the same party, and had more than once tried our luck upon the
+gold-fields in partnership. Then he had taken a billet as manager of a
+big station in the Far West, and I had gone south to Melbourne to give
+up the Bush and settle down to the humdrum business I had inherited from
+my father. My surprise may therefore be understood when one morning I
+received a letter from my old comrade, informing me that he was married
+and had taken a property on Warradoona Creek. He brought his letter to a
+conclusion by telling me that if I stood in need of a holiday, and would
+care to undertake the long journey out to his place, he would not only
+give me a hearty welcome, but would be very thankful for my assistance
+in unravelling a mystery which up to the time of writing had baffled him
+completely. What the mystery was he did not say.
+
+Now, as all the Bush world knows, Warradoona, despite the fact that it
+is on the direct overlanding route to Western Queensland, is one of the
+most unget-at-able places on the face of our great Island Continent. To
+begin with, you have a four hundred mile railway journey, then a coach
+ride of upwards of two hundred more, which will bring you to the
+township of Yarrapanya, a settlement of four houses at the junction of
+Warradoona Creek with the Salt Bush River. In the township horses can be
+obtained, and with their assistance the remainder of the journey,
+upwards of a hundred miles, may be accomplished. At the best of times it
+is a tedious undertaking, but when the floods are out, or, on the other
+hand, in the summer season when there is no water at all, it becomes a
+peculiarly dangerous one. To compensate for these drawbacks, however,
+when you _do_ reach the station you will receive as hearty a welcome as
+any to be obtained in the Bush. The property itself is a large one, and
+certainly the best in that district. The homestead is a neat Bush
+building constructed of wood, roofed with shingles, and boasting on
+every side a broad verandah. It is built on the side of a hill and
+overlooks the plain that separates the higher land from the river. Away
+to the north where the Ranges trend in towards the Creek, there is a
+narrow pass through which come all the overlanding parties bringing
+cattle from Queensland to the south. To the southward a dense Mulga
+Scrub commences, and clothes the whole face of the hills as far as the
+eye can reach. Across the river and lying some thirty miles due west is
+Yarka Station, where, at the time of which I write, resided Jim's
+nearest neighbour, the Honourable Marmaduke Chudfield, a young
+Englishman, who, after he had given his family repeated opportunities of
+studying the more frivolous side of his character, had been shipped to
+Australia, where it was confidently hoped hard work and a limited supply
+of money would turn him into a staid and respectable colonist.
+
+"Yes," said Spicer, as he walked to the rail of the verandah, and looked
+down upon the moonlit plain, "it is, as you say, by no means a bad sort
+of place. As I shall show you to-morrow, the station buildings are above
+the average in point of completeness, the run is well sheltered and
+grassed, the supply of water is abundant, and, as you are aware, we are
+on the direct cattle route to the south. Moreover, I have got the place
+for a considerable period on exceptional terms."
+
+"I congratulate you most heartily. Now tell me the disadvantages; for I
+suppose there _are_ some."
+
+"So far as I have seen there is only one. At the same time, however, I
+must confess that that one is quite big enough to outweigh all the
+advantages put together. In point of fact, it was that very disadvantage
+that made me write to you last week and endeavour to induce you to pay
+us a visit."
+
+"Now I come to think of it, I remember in your letter you _did_ speak of
+some mystery that you wanted cleared up. What is it? In these prosaic
+days mysteries, save in mining matters, are few and far between. I am
+all impatience to hear what shape yours assumes."
+
+While I had been speaking Spicer had been leaning on the verandah rail
+looking down the hillside towards the river. Now he turned, and, placing
+his back against one of the posts that supported the roof, regarded me
+steadily for some seconds.
+
+"First and foremost, old man," he said, "try to bear it in mind that I
+don't want to be laughed at. I've got so much at stake that I'm as
+touchy on the subject as an old man with the gout. The trouble I have to
+contend with is that this place is supposed to be haunted. I know it's a
+silly sort of thing for a matter-of-fact fellow like myself to say; but
+still the fact remains, and a remarkably unpleasant fact it is."
+
+"The deuce it is," I replied. "And pray what is the place supposed to be
+haunted by?"
+
+"By a man on a white horse who rides about on a plain down yonder."
+
+"Is this only hearsay, or have you seen the apparition yourself?"
+
+"I have seen him on three occasions," replied Spicer solemnly. "The
+first time was the week after I arrived on the place, the second was
+three months ago, and the last was the very Saturday upon which I wrote
+to you. But as if that were not enough, we have been worried ever since
+our arrival by the most dismal noises in the house itself."
+
+"What sort of noises do you mean?"
+
+"By all sorts, confound them! Sometimes by a shriek about midnight that
+fetches you up in bed with the perspiration rolling off your face;
+sometimes by moans and groans; and sometimes, but not so often, by a
+peculiar noise that is for all the world like a human voice, muffled by
+a blanket, trying to say, 'Save me, save me,' and not succeeding very
+well. As you know, I am a fairly plucky man, and for that reason I think
+I might manage to stand it myself; but then I've got some one else to
+consider. I have to think of my wife. Under ordinary circumstances she
+is as plucky a little woman as ever made her home in the Bush, but no
+woman's nerves would stand the continual strain that is put upon them
+here. You see, my work often takes me out on the run for days at a time,
+and I have to leave her alone. Female servants we have none, not so much
+even as a solitary black gin. When we came up we brought a woman with us
+from Melbourne, but she only stayed a week and then went off with the
+first bullock team that passed this way. However, we managed, by
+offering big wages, to get another. She stayed a month, and then said
+she would prefer to go off to the township alone rather than stay
+another night upon the place. We have been here five months and a week,
+and during that time I have had four men cooks, three chief stockmen,
+eight inferior ditto, and ten horse boys. As for a strange black, I've
+not seen one near the place since I first set foot upon it. The last
+time I was staying the night at Chudfield's place across the river, I
+tried to persuade one he wanted to get rid of to come over and keep my
+own two boys company. His answer was significant. 'Baal (no) come up
+this fella,' he said. 'Too much debbil debbil alonga Warradoona.' The
+long and the short of the matter is, old friend, unless I can manage to
+put a stop to this phantom business I shall be a ruined man. All my
+savings are locked up in this place, and if I don't make it pay, well, I
+must sell up and go back to Queensland and be a servant again instead of
+a master."
+
+"It's a nasty position," I said. "I don't wonder you want to get it
+settled. By the way, how long has the place possessed this sinister
+reputation?"
+
+"Only for the last three years," he answered.
+
+"Is there any sort of story to account for it?"
+
+Spicer was silent for a moment.
+
+"Well, there you have me on a tender spot," he replied. "Though I don't
+like to own it, I must confess there _is_ a story."
+
+"Can you tell it to me?"
+
+"If you think it will help you to a solution of the problem I shall be
+glad to do so. You must understand that about three years ago a mob of
+cattle camped, according to custom, upon the plain down yonder. They
+were on their way from Queensland to Adelaide, in charge of an old
+drover named Burke, a worthy old fellow who'd been on the road all his
+life. During the evening a quarrel arose between him and his second in
+command. From high words they came to blows, and in the encounter the
+subordinate got the worst of it. He professed to be satisfied and turned
+into his blankets apparently sorry for what he had done. An hour later
+the third white man of the party mounted his horse and went out to watch
+the cattle, leaving the other two, as he thought, asleep. When he
+returned two hours later he found Burke stabbed to the heart and the
+other man missing. Do you remember, when you crossed the river to-day,
+noticing a grave enclosed by a white railing?"
+
+"Perfectly. I wondered at the time whose it could be."
+
+"Well, that's where Burke is buried."
+
+"The phantom, then, is supposed to be the ghost of the murdered man?
+What form does it take?"
+
+"It is that of an old man with a long grey beard; he is dressed all in
+white and is mounted upon a white horse, who carries his head rather
+high. He holds a stock-whip in his hand and wears a white felt hat
+pulled far down over his eyes."
+
+"Has anybody else seen him?"
+
+"Dozens of people. It drove away Jamison, the first owner of the place,
+and the original builder of this house. Williams, from Mindana, came
+next; he built the men's hut away to the left there, and cleared out bag
+and baggage exactly three months to a day after he had paid his purchase
+money. He said he would rather lose five thousand pounds than stop
+another night on the place. Macpherson, a long-headed Scotchman, as hard
+as a tenpenny nail, and about as emotional as a brickbat, came next. He
+paid his money and was not going to lose it just because he heard funny
+noises and saw queer sights. But at the end of six months he had changed
+his tune. Money was no object to him, he said; he was content to lose
+every penny he possessed in the world provided he saw no more of
+Warradoona. Benson followed Macpherson. He got the place dirt cheap,
+cattle thrown in, and, from what the folk in the township told me,
+seemed to think he'd done a mighty smart stroke of business."
+
+"What became of Benson?"
+
+"He returned to the south without even unpacking his bullock wagons. He
+has bought a place in New Zealand now, I believe. It was from him that I
+purchased the property."
+
+"And the price you paid for it?"
+
+"Would be less than a quarter of its value but for the Phantom Stockman.
+As it is, I am upset on an average three nights a week; my wife is
+frightened nearly out of her wits every time she goes to bed; and with
+the exception of my head stockman, Ruford, and two black boys, I can
+keep no servants upon the place, and in consequence have to work my
+stock short-handed, which is an impossibility. To put it plainly, either
+the Phantom Stockman or I must go. I thought all this out last week and
+the upshot of my cogitations was my letter to you. I know from
+experience that you've got a cool head, and I have had repeated evidence
+of your pluck. Young Chudfield, my next-door neighbour, the man who, for
+the sake of my company, has done his level best to persuade me to give
+the place a further trial, has promised to come over and give us a hand,
+and if we three can't settle the mystery between us, well, I think we
+ought to be ashamed of ourselves, that's all."
+
+"We'll certainly have a good try," I answered. "I'm not a believer in
+ghosts myself, and it will go hard with us if we can't manage to
+discover of what sort of material our troublesome friend is composed.
+One further question. Does he put in an appearance at regular intervals,
+or is he indiscriminate in his favours?"
+
+"As far as _he_ is personally concerned he is fairly regular. It is
+about the full of the moon that he appears to be most active, but the
+noises in the house go on at all hours, sometimes two or three nights in
+succession. Then perhaps there will be a week's silence, after which we
+will be worried night after night, till we are nearly driven
+distracted."
+
+"It seems a most mysterious affair," I said. "And I can quite understand
+that you are worried by it."
+
+"You would say so if you had to live here," he answered. "It gets on
+your nerves till you feel inclined to jump away from your own shadow.
+Now I expect you're tired, and would like to be off to roost. Help
+yourself to a night-cap, and then we'll have a look at your room
+together."
+
+I had leant forward to the table and taken up the demijohn containing
+the spirit--in point of fact, I was in the act of pouring some of its
+contents into my glass--when from the dark house behind us there came a
+long, low moan, followed by a shriek that cut the still night air like
+the sharp tearing of a sheet of calico. After that there was complete
+silence, which to my thinking was worse even than the scream. I sprang
+to my feet.
+
+"My God," I cried, "what's that?"
+
+But Spicer only laughed in a curious way.
+
+"You are being introduced to our supernatural friend," he replied. "Now
+you know the sort of thing we are being continually called upon to put
+up with."
+
+"But it sounded so intensely human," I said. "And yet, now I come to
+think of it, there was a peculiar muffled note about it that rather
+upsets my theory. One thing, however, is quite certain: it came from the
+house, and I should say from the centre passage."
+
+"You are quite right. That's where we always hear it. But if you think
+there is anybody hiding there you're mistaken. Come and look for
+yourself."
+
+So saying he led the way into the house. I followed him. As he had said,
+there was nobody to be seen. The passage in question was about twenty
+feet long by four wide. There was a door at each end, and two on either
+side. It was well lighted by an oil lamp supported on an iron bracket
+screwed into the woodwork. The walls were composed of weather boards,
+while the floor was covered by a strip of oilcloth, which stretched from
+end to end. Spicer lifted the lamp from its socket, and, opening one of
+the doors on the left, led me into the sitting-room. We explored it
+carefully, but there was nothing there that could in any way account for
+the noise we had heard. Having satisfied ourselves on this point, we
+crossed to the room on the opposite side of the passage. This was my
+bedroom, and in it, as in the other apartment, our search was
+unrewarded. The room next to it was Spicer's office, and, save a safe, a
+desk, a small cupboard, a chair, and a row of account books, contained
+nothing to excite our suspicion. We passed into the passage again.
+
+"This room," he said, pointing to the door opposite the office, "is our
+bedroom."
+
+He tapped on the door.
+
+"Minnie," he cried, "are you awake?"
+
+"Yes," was the answer, "and very frightened. How long will you be before
+you come to bed?"
+
+"I am coming now," he replied. Then, turning to me, he held out his
+hand. "Good-night," he said, "and pleasant dreams to you. It seems a
+shame to have brought you up here only to worry you with our troubles."
+
+"I am very glad, indeed, that I came," I replied. "And if I can help you
+to some solution of your difficulty I shall be still more glad."
+
+A quarter of an hour later I was in bed and asleep. If there was any
+further noise that night I did not hear it. I was tired after my long
+journey, and slept on until long after the sun had risen next morning.
+
+When I did turn out I went into the verandah, where I discovered my
+hostess.
+
+"Good-morning," she said, as she offered me her hand. "Jim has just gone
+across to the stockyard, but he will be back to breakfast in a moment."
+
+Many people might have been discovered in Australia who would have
+thanked their stars that they were not the proprietors of Warradoona
+Station, but there would have been few who would not have envied Spicer
+his partner in life. She was a pretty brunette, with wonderful brown
+eyes, and a sympathetic, motherly way about her that made every one feel
+at home in her company, even if they had never seen her until five
+minutes before.
+
+"I cannot tell you how very kind I think you are," she said, "to come to
+our assistance. You can imagine what a depressing effect this place has
+had upon Jim and myself. We have tried everything we can think of to
+solve the mystery, but without success. Now it remains to be seen
+whether you will fare any better than we have done."
+
+"I am going to do my best," I answered, and as I said so, Jim came up
+the steps.
+
+"Good-morning," he said as he reached the verandah. "I hope you slept
+well and that you were not disturbed by any more noises."
+
+"If there were any to hear they didn't wake me," I answered. "I suppose
+you have not discovered anything that throws any sort of light upon that
+scream we heard last night?"
+
+"Nothing at all," he replied, shaking his head. "But, to add to the
+discomfort we are already enduring, our cook has just informed me that
+he saw the White Horseman on the plain last night, and in consequence
+has given me notice that it is his intention to leave at mid-day. He
+says he would rather forfeit all his wages than remain another night."
+
+"Oh, Jim, I am sorry to hear that," said his wife. "We shall have great
+difficulty in getting another. We _do_ indeed seem doomed to
+misfortune."
+
+Jim said nothing, but I saw his mouth harden as we went in to breakfast.
+His patience was well-nigh exhausted, and I suspected that if the
+mystery were not solved before many days were over he would follow the
+example of his predecessors, forfeit all the money he had put into it,
+and sever his connection with Warradoona.
+
+During the morning I gave him a hand with some branding in the
+stockyard, and in the afternoon we went for a ride across the river,
+hoping to meet the mob of cattle his men were out collecting. We were
+unsuccessful, however, and it was dusk when we reached home again. By
+the time we had turned our horses loose, and placed our saddles on the
+racks, the full moon was rising above the Ranges behind the house. On
+reaching the verandah we heard voices in the sitting-room.
+
+"That's Marmaduke Chudfield, I'll wager a sovereign," said Jim. "I'm
+glad he's come over, for though he's rather a namby-pamby sort of
+individual, he's not bad company."
+
+A moment later we had entered the room, and I was being introduced to a
+tall, slim youth of perhaps eight-and-twenty years of age. His height
+could not have been much under six feet two, his face was devoid of
+beard or moustache, and boasted a somewhat vacuous expression, which a
+single eye-glass he wore continually only served to intensify. He spoke
+with a lisp and a drawl, and if one could judge by his own confessions,
+seemed to have no knowledge of any one thing in the whole system of the
+universe. In less than five minutes' conversation I had struck the bed
+rock of his intelligence, to use a mining phrase, and, while I had small
+doubt of his good nature, was not at all impressed by his sagacity. His
+station, Yarka, was, so Jim informed me later, a grand property, and
+carried a large number of cattle. This success, however, was in no sense
+due to Chudfield's exertions. To quote his own words, he "left
+everything to his overseer, a German, named Mulhauser, don't-cher-know,
+and didn't muddle things up by shoving his spoke in when it was no sort
+of jolly assistance, don't-cher-know. Cattle farming was not exactly his
+line, and if he had to pay a chap to work, well, he'd make him work,
+while he himself sat tight and had a jolly good time with continual
+trips to town and friends up to stay, and all that sort of thing,
+don't-cher-know."
+
+After dinner we sat in the verandah and smoked our pipes until close
+upon ten o'clock, when Mrs. Spicer bade us "Good-night" and retired to
+her own room, as on the previous evening. After she had left us, there
+was a lull in the conversation. The night was perfectly still, as only
+nights in the Bush can be; the moon was well above the roof, and in
+consequence the plain below us was well-nigh as bright as day. The only
+sound to be heard was the ticking of the clock in the sitting-room
+behind us, and the faint sighing of the night-breeze through the scrub
+timber on the hills behind the house. And here I must make a digression.
+I don't think I have so far explained that in front of the house there
+was an unkempt garden about fifty yards long by thirty wide, enclosed by
+a rough Bush fence. In an idle sort of way I sat smoking and watching
+the rails at the bottom. The beauty of the night seemed to exercise a
+soothing influence upon the three of us. Jim, however, was just about to
+speak when Chudfield sprang from his chair, and, pointing towards the
+fence, at which only a moment before I had been looking, cried, "What's
+that?"
+
+We followed the direction of his hand with our eyes, and as we did so
+leapt to our feet. Being but a sorry scene-painter I don't know exactly
+what words I should employ to make you see what we saw then. Scarcely
+fifty yards from us, seated upon a white horse, was a tall man, with a
+long grey beard, dressed altogether in white, even to his hat and boots.
+In his hand he carried a white stock-whip, which he balanced upon his
+hip. How he had managed to come so close without making a sound to warn
+us of his approach was more than I could understand; but this much was
+certain, come he did. The time, from our first seeing him to the moment
+of his wheeling his horse and riding silently away again, could not have
+been more than a minute, but all the same we were able to take perfect
+stock of him.
+
+"Follow me," shouted Jim, as he rushed down the steps and ran towards
+the gate at the bottom of the garden. We followed close at his heels,
+but by the time we reached the fence the Phantom Stockman had entirely
+disappeared. We stared across the moonlit plain until our eyes ached,
+but not a sign of the apparition we had seen rewarded us.
+
+"That is the third time he has been up here since I have had the place,"
+said our host, "and each time he has vanished before I could get close
+enough to have a good look at him."
+
+"What beats me was the fact that his horse made no sound," remarked the
+Honourable Marmaduke, "and yet the ground is hard enough hereabouts."
+
+"Wait here till I get a lantern," cried Spicer. "Don't go outside the
+fence, and then you won't obliterate any tracks he may have made."
+
+So saying he hastened back to the house, to return in about five minutes
+carrying in his hand a large lantern. With its assistance we carefully
+explored the ground on the other side of the fence, but to no purpose.
+There was not a sign of a horse's hoof to be seen.
+
+"Well, this beats cock fighting," said the Honourable, as Jim blew out
+the light and we turned to walk back to the house. "This is Hamlet's
+father's ghost with a vengeance, don't-cher-know. I shall be glad
+whenever he takes it into his head to pay me a visit at Yarka. I'm
+afraid in that case my respected parent would see me in England sooner
+than would be quite convenient to him."
+
+To this speech Jim replied never a word, nor did I think his remark
+worth an answer. Once in the verandah we separated, bidding each other
+good-night, Jim to go to his own room, the Honourable to take possession
+of the sofa in the sitting-room, upon which a bed had been made up for
+him, and I to my own dormitory. I saw Jim turn down the lamp in the
+passage and heard him blow it out as I shut my door. Then I undressed
+and jumped into bed.
+
+How long I had been asleep I do not know, but I have the most vivid
+remembrance of suddenly finding myself sitting up in bed with the sweat
+pouring off my face, and the echo of surely the most awful shriek mortal
+man ever heard ringing in my ears. Before I could recover my
+self-possession it rang out again, followed this time by a strange
+moaning sound that must have continued while I could have counted
+twenty. Thinking this had gone about far enough I jumped out of bed,
+opened the door, and ran into the passage, only to be seized by a pair
+of arms. Lifting my right hand I took my assailant by the throat, and
+just as I did so, Jim's door opened and he came out, holding a candle in
+his hand. Then it was that I made the discovery that it was not the
+ghost's throat I was clutching between my finger and thumb, but that of
+the Honourable.
+
+"Confound you two," said Jim angrily. "What on earth are you up to?"
+
+"Up to?" gasped Chudfield. "Why, I heard the most villainous scream just
+now that I ever heard in my life, and came running out of my room to see
+what was the matter, only to be collared by the throat by this chap."
+Then turning to me he continued, in his usual drawling way, "I believe
+you've half broken my neck, don't-cher-know."
+
+"Bother your neck," I cried shortly, for my dander was up and somebody
+had got to suffer for the fright I had received. "Jim, did you hear that
+scream?"
+
+"Worse luck," answered poor Jim. "I wish I could say I hadn't. What the
+deuce does it mean?"
+
+"It means," I replied sternly, "that if there's a ghost in this place
+I've got to see him before I'll be satisfied. And if it's a trick, well,
+I've got to find the chap that's playing it or know the reason why. When
+I do, I'll do what Chudfield here accuses me of half doing. I'll break
+his neck."
+
+With that I walked first to the door at one end of the passage and
+examined it, then to the other; after that I tried the door leading into
+the office. All three were securely locked on our side.
+
+"As far as I can remember, the sound seemed to come from about here," I
+said, pointing to the centre of the floor. "What is underneath these
+boards, Jim?"
+
+"Only solid Mother Earth," he replied. "I had some of the planks up when
+I came into the place and put new ones down."
+
+"Well, I'm going to sit up and await further developments," I said. "Do
+either of you feel inclined to share my vigil?"
+
+"I will do so with pleasure," said Jim.
+
+"And I too, if it's necessary," said the Honourable, with peculiar
+eagerness. "I'm not going to risk being wakened out of my sleep by
+another shriek like that."
+
+Jim went into his bedroom and said something to his wife. After that we
+dressed and made ourselves as comfortable as possible in the
+sitting-room. But though we remained there till daylight we heard
+nothing further. As day dawned we returned to our beds to sleep soundly
+until we were roused by Mrs. Spicer at eight o'clock.
+
+That afternoon, in spite of our jeers, the Honourable left us to return
+to his own abode. He had had enough and to spare of Warradoona, he said,
+and as he had not proved himself a very good plucked one, we did not
+exert ourselves very much to make him change his mind.
+
+"I never thought he'd prove to be such a coward," said Jim, as we
+watched the youth disappear behind the river timber. "Still, he's a man
+extra about the place, and if those wretched cattle are coming in
+to-night we shall want all the hands we can raise to look after them on
+the plain."
+
+"Do you think they will be here to-night?"
+
+"It's more than likely. They ought to have been in this morning, and as
+they can't halt in the scrub they'll be driven by force of circumstances
+into camping on the plain. In that case it will be a pound to a sixpence
+that our friend the Stockman will give us some trouble. He generally
+puts in an appearance when there's a mob passing through."
+
+"If he does we must tackle him, and decide once and for all the question
+of his--well, of his spirituality, shall I say? You can find a couple of
+revolvers, I suppose?"
+
+"Half a dozen if need be, and what's more, cartridges to fit them."
+
+We then walked back to the house together. It was tea time, and as soon
+as we had made ourselves tidy we sat down to it. Half way through the
+meal there was a heavy step in the verandah, and a moment later Ruford,
+Jim's one remaining stockman, entered the room.
+
+"So you've turned up at last," said Jim, as he became aware of the
+other's identity. "Where are the cattle?"
+
+"Camped on the plain," was the reply. "Bad luck to 'em. It was as much
+as I could do to get the two black boys to remain with them. Are you
+coming down?"
+
+"We'll be down in half an hour," said Jim. "This gentleman and myself
+will camp with you to-night and give you a hand. Now be off and get your
+tea."
+
+He disappeared without another word.
+
+"But if you two are going to help with the cattle, what is to become of
+me?" asked Mrs. Spicer. "I cannot be left here alone."
+
+"That's perfectly true," said Jim. "I never thought of it. Confound that
+miserable coward Chudfield. I'll tell you what I'll do, Minnie. I'll
+send Ruford up to take care of you. He won't be sorry for an evening's
+comfort, and it is most imperative that we should go down, you see, in
+case the Stockman should turn up to-night. If he does we hope to bring
+matters to a crisis."
+
+Faithful to our promise, as soon as the meal was over, we saddled our
+horses and rode down towards the camp fire that we could see burning
+brightly on the plain below.
+
+By the time we reached it the appearance of the night had changed,
+clouds had covered the sky, and a soft drizzle was falling. Ruford had
+taken the cattle down to the river, and when they had drunk their fill
+had tailed them slowly on to camp, where the two black boys were
+watching them. It was not a cheerful night, for the wind had risen, and
+was moaning among the she-oak trees like a million lost spirits. A more
+lonesome spot I never was in than that plain.
+
+As we approached the fire Ruford said snappishly,--
+
+"I suppose you think it's funny to hang round a camp, whispering and
+moaning, in order to frighten a man out of his wits."
+
+"Who has been hanging about the camp whispering and moaning?" asked
+Spicer. "Why, you duffer, we've only just come down from the Homestead.
+You must be either drunk or dreaming."
+
+"Dreaming be hanged!" he said. "I tell you that there's been some one
+moaning like old ---- round this 'ere camp ever since dusk!"
+
+"Moaning like your grandmother," said Spicer, descending from his saddle
+and tying his horse up to a tree near by. "I want you to go up to the
+house and camp there. Mrs. Spicer is all alone, and I think she may be
+frightened. We'll look after the cattle."
+
+When he had gone we stretched ourselves beside the fire on the blankets
+we found there and fell to yarning.
+
+I can see the whole scene now. Owing to the heavy clouds mentioned
+above, it was as dark as the inside of your hat, with not a gleam of
+light in the whole length and breadth of the sky. Ruford had stirred up
+the fire before he left us, and the flames were roaring upwards, when
+suddenly there came a long, peculiar moan from the scrub behind us that
+brought us up into a sitting posture like one man. We looked in the
+direction whence it seemed to come, and saw there, standing in the full
+light of the fire, a tall, thin man, of about fifty years of age. He had
+white hair and a long grey beard. He was dressed, even to his riding
+boots, in some white material, and he carried a stock-whip in his hand.
+His face was as pale as death and infinitely sad, and he seemed to be
+looking from one to the other of us as if he did not know which to
+address.
+
+We were both struck dumb with astonishment, until Spicer, raising
+himself on his elbow, shouted,--
+
+"Hullo, my man! Where do _you_ hail from?"
+
+Then the figure faded away into the darkness as quietly as it had come,
+and you can just imagine how we stared.
+
+"Well, this beats all the other manifestations into a cocked hat," cried
+Spicer, and seizing a burning stick and bidding me follow with another,
+he dashed into the scrub in the direction we supposed the stranger to
+have taken.
+
+For upwards of twenty minutes we searched high and low, in every
+possible hiding-place within fifty yards of the camp, but without
+success. Not a single trace of our mysterious visitor could we discover.
+Then we returned to the fire and lay down again.
+
+Spicer's watch was from nine to eleven, and as it was almost eight then,
+he resolved to try and snatch an hour's sleep before it would be
+necessary for him to get into the saddle once more. He soon gave up the
+attempt, however.
+
+Though we did not see any more of the stranger just then, I can assure
+you we were far from being easy in our minds. The cattle had suddenly
+become very restless, and from their lowing and snorting we could tell
+that they were uneasy. While we listened, the same peculiar moaning
+noise came from the scrub away to our left. It sounded for all the world
+like the crying of a woman in dreadful trouble, but though we peered
+repeatedly into the night, and twice crept away from the fire in that
+direction, we could discover nothing to account for it.
+
+At nine o'clock Spicer went on watch, and the black boys came into camp
+reporting the cattle as very restless.
+
+For some time after he had gone I lay on my blankets looking up at the
+sky. Clouds still covered the heavens, and it looked as if a wet night
+were pending. Sometime about ten o'clock Spicer called to me to join
+him, as something was radically wrong with the mob; so saddling my horse
+I rode out.
+
+As I went the clouds parted, and for a moment the moon shone brilliantly
+forth. It was a curious sight that I then beheld. The cattle--there were
+about five hundred of them--were all up, moving to and fro and bellowing
+continuously. What made us the more uneasy was the fact that, now and
+again, the old bull in command would separate himself from the mob and
+sniff the wind, after which he would let out a bellow that fairly shook
+the earth. Whenever he sees the leader do that, a cattleman knows that
+it behoves him to stand by and keep his eyes open for trouble.
+
+Coming up with Spicer, I asked him what he thought was the matter, but
+for some moments he did not answer.
+
+Then he said very mysteriously,--
+
+"Did you meet him as you came out?"
+
+"Meet whom?" I asked.
+
+"Why, our friend, the Phantom Stockman?"
+
+"The devil! And has he turned up again?"
+
+After looking cautiously round, Jim edged his horse up alongside mine
+and said quietly,--
+
+"He's been hovering round these cattle for the past half-hour. They can
+see him, and that's what's making them so confoundedly restless. You
+take my word for it, we shall have serious trouble directly!"
+
+"Confound it all," I said. "That will mean double watches all night, and
+in this drizzle too."
+
+"It can't be helped. But you had better tell the boys to be ready in
+case they are wanted. Look! Look! Here he comes again!"
+
+I looked in the direction he indicated, and, true enough, out of the
+thick mist which now hid the trees along the river bank, and into the
+half moonlight where we stood, rode the phantom whom we had seen two
+hours before by our camp fire. But there was a difference now; this time
+he was mounted on his white horse, and seemed to be like us on watch. At
+first I fancied my brain was creating a phantom for me out of the
+whirling mist; but the snorting and terror of the cattle, as they became
+aware of his presence, soon convinced me of his reality.
+
+Little by little the fellow edged round the scrub, and then disappeared
+into the fog again, to reappear a minute or two later on our left. Then
+he began to come slowly towards us. I can tell you the situation was
+uncanny enough to creep the flesh of a mummy. He was sitting loosely in
+his saddle, with his stock-whip balanced on his hip; indeed, to show how
+details impress themselves on one's mind, I can remember that he had one
+of his sleeves rolled up and that he carried his reins slung over his
+left arm.
+
+When he was within eight or ten paces of where we stood, my horse, which
+had been watching him as if turned to stone, suddenly gave a snort, and
+wheeling sharp round bolted across the plain as if the devil were behind
+him. Before I had gone fifty yards I heard Spicer come thundering after
+me, and we must have had a good two miles gallop before we could pull
+the terrified beasts up. Then we heard the cattle rushing a mile or so
+on our right.
+
+"I knew they'd go," wailed Spicer; "they're well-nigh mad with fright.
+Now, what the deuce is to be done?"
+
+"Try and head them, I suppose."
+
+"Come on, then, for all you're worth. It's neck or nothing with us now!"
+
+We set off down the angle of the plain as fast as our horses could lay
+their legs to the ground. It was a near thing, for, hard as we went, we
+were only just in time to prevent the leaders from plunging into the
+river. If you know anything of overlanding, you'll understand the work
+we had. As it was, I don't believe we could have managed it at all if it
+had not been for the extraneous--or, as I might perhaps say,
+_spiritual_--aid we received.
+
+While Spicer took the river side, I worked inland, along the bottom of
+the cliff, and as the two black boys had bolted for the Homestead long
+before the cattle broke, we had no one between us to bring up the tail.
+Suddenly, Heaven alone knows how, the Phantom Stockman came to our
+assistance; and a more perfect drover could scarcely have been found. He
+wheeled his cattle and brought up his stragglers, boxed 'em, and headed
+'em off, like the oldest hand. But however clever a bushman he may have
+been, it was plainly his own personality that effected the greatest
+good; for directly the mob saw him, they turned tail and stampeded back
+on to the plain like beasts possessed.
+
+At last, however, we got them rounded up together, and then Spicer rode
+over to where I stood and said,--
+
+"Give an eye to 'em, will you, while I slip back to the camp? I want to
+get something."
+
+I had not time to protest, for next minute he was gone, and I was left
+alone with that awful stranger whom I could still see dodging about in
+the mist. When he got back, Jim reined up alongside me and said,--
+
+"This is getting a little too monotonous to my thinking."
+
+"What are you going to do?" I gasped, my teeth chattering in my head
+like a pair of castanets.
+
+"Try the effect of this on him," he answered, and as he spoke he pulled
+a revolver from his pocket. "I don't care if it sends every beast across
+the river."
+
+At that moment, on his constant round, the phantom came into view again.
+On either side of him the cattle were sniffing and snorting at him,
+plainly showing that they were still wild with terror. This behaviour
+puzzled us completely, for we both knew that a mob would never treat an
+ordinary flesh-and-blood stockman in that way. When he got within twenty
+paces of us Spicer cried,--
+
+"Bail up, matey--or, by jingo, I'll put daylight into you!"
+
+Obedient to the order the figure instantly pulled up.
+
+The moon was bright enough now for us to see his face. And, though, as
+I've said before, I'm not a coward as a general rule, I can tell you
+that it made me feel fairly sick, so white and creepy-looking was it.
+Then he held up his hand as if in protest and started towards us.
+
+This didn't suit Spicer, however, for he yelled,--
+
+"Stand off! or by the living God I swear I'll fire. Stand off!"
+
+But the figure continued to come towards us. Then _Crack! Crack! Crack!_
+went the revolver, and next moment there was a frightful scream and the
+sound of galloping hoofs. I saw no more, for, as Jim fired, my horse
+reared and fell back, crushing me beneath him.
+
+I suppose I must have been stunned by the fall, for when I recovered my
+senses Spicer was leaning over me.
+
+"Is he gone?" I asked as soon as I could speak.
+
+"Yes! Gone like mad across the plain and the cattle with him. I must
+either have missed him, or the bullet must have passed clean through
+him."
+
+As there was now no further reason why we should remain where we were,
+we returned to the Homestead and told our tale. Then when it was light
+enough, we had our breakfast and mounted our horses and went out into
+the scrub to look for the cattle we had lost. By the time dusk fell we
+had collected three hundred and fifty out of the five hundred head
+Ruford had brought on to the plain. The poor beasts were quite knocked
+up; and as it was useless thinking of pushing them on in that condition,
+we were consequently compelled to camp them for one more night on that
+awful plain. But to our delight we saw no more of the Phantom Stockman.
+
+Next morning while we were at breakfast, Billy, the black boy, who had
+been out after the horses, came dashing up to the Homestead, almost
+beside himself with excitement.
+
+"Me been find him," he cried. "Me been find him, all same fellow what
+been make debbil-debbil longa here."
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Spicer, putting down his cup of tea. "Where
+have you found the man?"
+
+"Me been find him longa billabong. My word he most like dead, mine think
+it."
+
+Spicer made a sign to me, and without another word we jumped up and ran
+in the direction of the stockyard. Mounting our horses we followed our
+guide through the scrub for a distance of perhaps a mile and a half
+until we came to a small billabong or backwater of the main river.
+
+Away at the further end we could see a curious white heap, and towards
+it we galloped, making our horses put their best feet foremost, you may
+be sure.
+
+On reaching it, we found a man lying huddled up upon the ground beneath
+a low-growing tree. He was dressed in a complete suit of white flannel,
+his boots were painted the same colour, and even his hat was fixed up to
+match, white. Still looped over his ears was a long grey beard and
+moustache of false hair.
+
+Spicer dismounted and knelt beside him. After feeling his heart he
+plucked the beard away and almost shouted his astonishment aloud.
+
+"Good heavens!" he cried; "do you recognise this man?"
+
+I stooped and looked. _I don't know whether you will believe it, but the
+Phantom Stockman, the person who had performed such prodigies two nights
+before, was none other than our friend Chudfield, the young English
+owner of Yarka Station, across the river, the man who had appeared to be
+so frightened by the ghost, and who had made it his boast that he knew
+nothing at all about Bush-work._ For some moments we stood and stared at
+him in stupefied amazement. I was the first to speak.
+
+"Is he dead, do you think?" I asked.
+
+"Quite," said Spicer. "Look at this mark under his chin. Galloping
+through the scrub in the dark the other night to get away from us, he
+must have been caught by that bough up there and have been dashed from
+his saddle. Death must have been almost instantaneous."
+
+Round his waist was a long thin cord which ran away some twenty yards or
+so into the bush. We followed it up and discovered a large piece of raw
+hide tied to the end of it.
+
+Spicer examined the latter carefully.
+
+"The beast that owned this skin was only killed two days ago," he said.
+"Now I know why our cattle were so restless. They smelt the blood, and,
+as you are aware, that invariably terrifies them. Cunning beggar! he
+pretended to know nothing, and yet he knew enough for this."
+
+"Yes," I said; "but what about the other night when the phantom appeared
+at the garden fence, and this man was sitting in the verandah with us?"
+
+"Why, he probably wanted to disarm suspicion, and so sent his overseer,
+who must be in the secret, to play the part."
+
+"But what was his object in frightening you?"
+
+"Can't you guess? Well, just let me find out where our friend's
+stockyard is situated in the Ranges up yonder, and I think I'll be able
+to tell you. I remember now that when I came here his cattle were all
+over Warradoona, and that he used the place just as if it were his own,
+to say nothing of having his choice of all the unbranded and other
+cattle that former tenants had left upon it."
+
+Leaving the body where we had found it, to be picked up on our homeward
+journey, we crossed the river and plunged into the scrub beyond.
+
+An hour later we discovered, cunningly hidden in a lonely gulley, a big
+stockyard _in which our lost cattle were still penned up_. There was no
+one in sight and nothing to prove how the animals had got there, but a
+clearer case of duffing could scarcely have been found. Moreover, there
+were branding irons in the shed adjoining, and they were those of Yarka
+Station.
+
+"I think we know quite enough now," said Spicer solemnly, as we mounted
+our horses to return.
+
+"Enough to lay the Ghost of the Stockman of Warradoona at any rate," I
+replied.
+
+Three hours later we were at home once more, and Chudfield's body was
+lying in a hut, waiting for the police from Yarrapanya who would hold
+the inquest. A black boy had meanwhile been sent across to Yarka Station
+to inform the manager of the catastrophe.
+
+Our lunch that day was a mixture of happiness and sadness. Happiness,
+because the mystery of the Phantom Stockman had been cleared up for good
+and all; and sadness, because of the pain that was inseparable from the
+discovery of a friend's duplicity.
+
+When the meal was at an end we passed into the verandah. After a little
+conversation there, Spicer disappeared, to return in a few moments with
+a pick-axe and a basket of tools.
+
+"What are you going to do?" I inquired, as he set them down in the
+passage and took off his coat.
+
+"I want, if possible, to discover how those screams were worked," he
+replied. "It looks like being a long job; so if you will give me your
+assistance in ripping up these boards, I shall be very grateful."
+
+"Of course, I'll help," I said, and thereupon we set to work.
+
+But though we laboured for the best part of the afternoon, the result
+was disappointing in the extreme. Nothing but dry earth and
+wood-shavings confronted us.
+
+"That being so, we'll take down the posts that support the walls on
+either side," said Jim, and as he spoke he attacked that upon which the
+lamp was fixed. "If we can't find anything there we'll continue to pull
+the house to pieces until we do."
+
+But we were spared that trouble. On loosening the post in question we
+made an important discovery. It was hollow from end to end, and in the
+cavity reposed a lead pipe, about an inch in diameter. We consulted
+together for a moment, and then took the pick-axe into my bedroom and
+ripped up a plank in the floor. By this means we were able to see that
+the pipe crossed the room and passed under the further wall. Outside we
+picked it up once more and traced it past the well, the kitchen, and the
+stockyard, into the scrub, where it entered an enormous blasted gum tree
+standing fifty yards or so from the house.
+
+"I see the whole thing as clear as daylight," cried Spicer joyfully, as
+he mounted the tree and prepared to lower himself into the hollow. "I
+believe we've solved the mystery of the shrieks at night, and now the
+whole thing is as simple as A B C. Go back to the house and listen."
+
+I did as he wished, and when I had been in the passage about a minute,
+was rewarded by hearing a scream re-echo through the house, followed by
+a muffled cry, "Oh, save me! save me!"
+
+As the sound died away, Mrs. Spicer came running into the house from the
+kitchen with a scared face. A moment later we were joined by her
+husband.
+
+"Did you hear that scream, Jim?" she inquired anxiously. "I thought you
+said we should not be worried by it again?"
+
+He put his arm round her waist and drew her towards him.
+
+"Nor shall we, little woman," he said. "That scream was to let us know
+that the phantom is laid at last, and that after to-day this place is
+going to be as sweet and homely as any a man could wish to live in. That
+poor beggar in the hut there tried to keep it empty as long as he could
+for his own purposes, but I beat him in the end. Now I've got it for a
+quarter its value, and whatever else he may have done we must not forget
+that we owe that, at least, to our old enemy the Phantom Stockman of
+Warradoona."
+
+
+
+
+The Treasure of Sacramento Nick
+
+
+Away on the northernmost coast of Australia lies a little world all by
+itself and unlike anything else to be found in the whole immemorial
+East. Its chief centre is in Torres Straits, where the majority of the
+inhabitants employ themselves in pearl-fishing, gathering _beche-de-mer_
+and tortoise-shell, and generally in accumulating those gigantic
+fortunes of which one hears so much and sees so little.
+
+Walking the streets of Thursday Island, the smallest of the group, yet
+the centre of commerce and the seat of such government as the Colony of
+Queensland can afford it, you will be struck with the number of
+nationalities represented. Dwelling together, if not in unity, certainly
+in unison, are Caucasians and Mongolians, Ethiopians and Malayans, John
+Chinaman living cheek by jowl with the barbarian Englishman, Cingalee
+with Portuguese, Frenchman with Kanaka--all prejudices alike forgotten
+in the one absorbing struggle for the unchanging British sovereign. On
+the verandahs of the hotels sit continually men who talk with the
+familiarity of old friends about the uttermost parts of the earth, and
+whose lives are mainly spent in places to which the average man never
+goes nor dreams of going. If you are a good listener they will tell you
+many things worth knowing; and towards midnight you will feel stealing
+over you a hazy conviction that the nineteenth century is as yet unborn,
+and that you are listening to the personal narrative of Sinbad the
+Sailor in an unexpurgated form.
+
+One afternoon as I was sitting in my verandah watching the China
+mail-boat steam to her anchorage, and wondering if I had energy enough
+to light a third cheroot, I felt my arm touched. Turning, I discovered a
+little Solomon boy, about ten years old, attired in an ancient pair of
+hunting breeches, and grinning from ear to ear. Having succeeded in
+attracting my attention, he handed me a letter. It was from my friend,
+McBain, the manager of a pearling station on an adjacent island, and set
+forth the welcome fact that he would be pleased to see me on a matter of
+some importance, if I could spare the time to dine with him that
+evening. There was nothing I could spare more easily or more willingly.
+
+Once comfortably seated in the verandah, McBain explained his reason for
+sending to me. "You'll think me mad, but I've got a curiosity here that
+I want to examine before any one else gets hold of him."
+
+"Black or white?" I asked, with but little interest, for we lived in a
+land of human curiosities.
+
+"White."
+
+"Nationality?"
+
+"Cosmopolitan, I should fancy."
+
+"Profession?"
+
+"Adventurer, with a marvellous big A."
+
+"And hailing from----?"
+
+"Well, he doesn't seem to know himself. One of my luggers took him out
+of an open boat about two degrees west of the Ladrones."
+
+"But he surely knows how he got into the boat? Men don't go pleasure
+trips across oceans without knowing whence they started. Hasn't he
+anything to say for himself?"
+
+"That's just what I want you to hear. Either the man's a superhuman
+liar, or else he's got a secret of the biggest thing on earth. We'll
+have him up to-night, and you shall judge for yourself."
+
+When dinner was over we took ourselves and our cigars into the cool
+verandah, and for half an hour or so sat smoking and talking of many
+things. Then a footstep crunched upon the path, and a tall, thin man
+stood before us.
+
+McBain rose and wished him "Good-evening," as he did so pushing a chair
+into such a position that I could see his face. "I beg your pardon, but
+I don't think you told me your name last night."
+
+"Sir, my name is Nicodemus B. Patten, of Sacramento City, State of
+California, U.S.A.--most times called Sacramento Nick."
+
+"Well, Mr. Patten, let me introduce you to a friend who is anxious to
+hear the curious story you told me last night. Will you smoke?"
+
+Gravely bowing to me, he selected a cheroot, lit it, and blew the smoke
+luxuriously through his nose. The lamp light fell full and fair upon his
+face, and instinctively I began to study it. It was a remarkable
+countenance, and, in spite of its irregularity of feature, contained a
+dignity of expression which rather disconcerted me. There were evident
+traces of bodily and mental suffering in the near past, but it was
+neither the one nor the other which had stamped the lines that so much
+puzzled me. After satisfying myself on certain other points, I begged
+him to begin.
+
+He did so without hesitation or previous thought.
+
+"Gentlemen, before I commence my story, let me tell you that when first
+the things I am going to tell you of came about, there were three of us:
+Esdras W. Dyson, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.A.; James Dance, of
+London, England; and Nicodemus B. Patten, of Sacramento City, now before
+you. I reckon most folks would have called us adventurers, for we'd
+ferreted into nearly every corner of the globe. Snakes alive! but I've
+seen things in my time that would fairly stagger even you, and I guess
+my story of to-night ain't the least curious of 'em.
+
+"Perhaps you don't remember the junk that fell foul of the _Bedford
+Castle_ nigh upon three years ago, when she was four days out from
+Singapore?"
+
+I remembered the circumstance perfectly. It was an act of flagrant
+piracy which had made some noise at the time; and I had also a faint
+recollection of having been told that white men were suspected of being
+mixed up in it. On being asked if he knew anything of the matter, he
+said: "Well, I don't _say_ we did, mind you; but I had a suspicion we
+were in China waters at the time. But bless you, in those days there
+were few places and few things that _we_ hadn't a finger in. Understand,
+I am telling you this because I don't want to sail under false colours,
+and also because such work is all over now; the firm's smashed up, and
+we'll never go on the Long Trail again.
+
+"Two years ago, for certain reasons not necessary to mention, we wanted
+to lay by for a while, so bringing up at Batavia fixed right on to the
+Nederlander. Java's a one-horse place for business purposes, but if you
+know the ropes--well, there's not a better place in the world to hide
+in.
+
+"Now, gentlemen both, you may take it from me that there never was such
+a chap for browsing about among niggers, finding out what was doing, and
+if there was anything to be made, as Esdras W. Dyson, of Milwaukee,
+U.S.A.
+
+"In the first place, he could patter any lingo from Chinese to Malay
+with a tongue that'd talk round the devil himself; and when he
+suspicioned a nigger had anything worth knowing--well, he'd just freeze
+to that charcoal sketch till he fairly got it out of him. Rigged out in
+native dress and properly coloured, he could pass in anywhere. It was he
+who found out the thing that ruined us, brought me here, and left Jim
+and himself feeding the fishes a thousand fathoms deep. Directly we
+arrived in Batavia he began hanging round the Native Quarter, making
+himself mighty agreeable for some particular information he wanted. He
+was away for two or three days; then one night as Dance and me were
+smoking on the piazza he came striding up the path in the devil's own
+hurry. 'Boys!' says he in a whisper, 'I'm on it, up to the hilt, the
+biggest and the all-firedest stroke of good fortune we've hit yet. I'm
+going _fantee_ to-night, so keep your weather eyes lifted, and when I
+say come, come right away!' With that he went to his room, and we could
+hear him rummaging about in his trunks.
+
+"A bit later a native fruit-hawker came round the corner, bowing and
+scraping towards us. We told him to clear out, but he commenced a
+pitiful yarn, all the time pushing his baskets closer to us. 'Fine
+Duriens and the sweetest of Mangosteens, if the Presence will only buy!'
+But the big night-watchman had caught sight of him, and came trundling
+down the piazza. You can reckon our astonishment, when the hawker said:
+'How is it, boys? Do you think they'll _savee_? Keep your kits packed
+and be prepared to _trek_ directly you get the word from me.' Here the
+watchman came up. 'On the word of a poor man, the Duriens are freshly
+plucked and the Mangosteens hung upon the trees this morning.' We
+refused to buy, and he went away crying his fruit towards the Native
+Quarter.
+
+[Illustration: "A native fruit-hawker came round the corner."]
+
+"For two or three days not a shadow of a sign came from him. Then one of
+those Chinese hawkers came into the square with two coolies carrying his
+goods, and as soon as we set eyes on the second nigger we recognised
+Milwaukee, and stood by to take his message in whatever form it might
+come. Pulling up at our chairs, the Chinkey told his men to set down
+their loads, himself coming across to us with a tray of fans, scents,
+and what not; but seeing Milwaukee had a packet of slippers in his
+hands, we only wanted slippers. The merchant sings out, and he brings
+'em over, handing one pair to Dance and another to me. We stepped inside
+to try them on, and, as we expected, in one of the shoes was a letter
+neatly stowed away. I forget now how it went, but it was to the effect
+that he had found out all he wanted to know, and that we were to meet
+him at eight on the Singapore Wharf at Tanjong Priok, bringing no kit
+save our revolvers.
+
+"After squaring things at the hotel, and destroying what was dangerous
+in our baggage, we _trekked_ for the Priok just as dusk was falling.
+Sharp at eight we were waiting on the wharf where the Messagerie boats
+lie, and wondering what the deuce was going to happen. Inside of ten
+minutes a native boat came pulling up the river, and as it passed us the
+rower sneezed twice, very sharp and sudden. It was an old signal, and
+Dance gave the return. The boatman hitches right on to the steps and
+comes ashore.
+
+"'Good boys,' says he, very quiet and careful; 'up to time, that's
+right. Now to business! D'ye see that schooner lying outside the
+breakwater? Well, she sails at daylight. I put the skipper and mate
+ashore not ten minutes ago, and they're to return in an hour. There's
+only three chaps aboard, and it's our business to cut her out before the
+others come back. D'ye understand?'
+
+"'But what d'ye reckon to do then, Milwaukee?' I asked, for it seemed a
+risky game, just for the sake of a mangy Dutch trader.
+
+"'Never you mind now; when I do tell you, you'll say it's worth the
+candle. Come, jump in here, and I'll pull you aboard!'
+
+"The harbour was as quiet as the sea out yonder; a Dutch man-of-war lay
+under the wing of the breakwater, and a Sourabaya mail-boat to the left
+of her. We passed between them, down towards the lighthouse, and out
+into the open. Outside there was a bit of a sea running, but Milwaukee
+was always hard to beat, and at last we managed to get alongside.
+Somebody, most likely the anchor-watch, caught our painter, and took a
+turn in it, saying in Dutch, 'You're back early, Mynheer.' By the time
+he twigged his mistake we were aboard, and Dance had clapped a stopper
+on his mouth. The others were below, and I reckon you'd have laughed if
+you could have seen the look on their faces when, after Milwaukee's
+thumping on the fo'c'stle, they turned out to find their craft in other
+hands. However, they soon saw what was up, and reckoned it was no use
+making fools of themselves. Then Milwaukee went to the wheel, singing
+out to get sail on her, and stand by to slip the cable. We knew our
+business, and in less than twenty minutes were humming down the coast a
+good ten knots an hour.
+
+"As soon as the course was set and everything going smooth, Milwaukee
+made right aft to where Dance was steering. 'I guess it's time,' says
+he, 'to let you into the secret. You know me and I know you, which is
+enough said between pards. We've been in many good things together, but
+this is going to be the biggest we've sighted yet. It doesn't mean
+hundreds of pounds, but thousands, millions maybe; anyhow, enough to set
+us three up as princes all the world over!'
+
+"'Sounds well; but how did you come to know of it?' we asked, a bit
+doubtful like.
+
+"Before answering, he took a squint at the card and then aloft. 'Keep
+her as she goes, Jim. How did I come to hear of it? How does a man hear
+anything? Why, by going to the places and among the folk who talk. I got
+wind of it months ago, but never came across anything straight out till
+I went _fantee_ among the niggers. Losh, boys, if you want yarns to
+raise your scalp, go down town and smoke among the darkies; I've done
+it, and you bet I know. There was one old chap who used to drop in every
+night, and smoke and chew and spit and lie till you couldn't rest. From
+his talk he'd once done a bit in our line, and his great sweat was about
+an island he'd been to fifty years ago, where there's an old Portugee
+treasure-ship aground, chock full of gold, diamonds, rubies, and pearls,
+all waitin' for the man as'll go to get 'em. At first I reckoned he
+lied, for how he got there he didn't rightly remember; but he swore he
+found the ship, and was in the act of broaching her cargo, when the
+natives came and sent him back to sea again. What he did get, except a
+bloomin' old dagger, was stolen from him in Saigon. Directly I sighted
+that instrument, I began to guess there might be something in his yarn
+after all; for, wherever he got it, it was a genuine Portugees weapon of
+a couple of hundred years back. Well, as any lubber knows, the Portugee
+sailed these seas two hundred years ago; why shouldn't one of 'em have
+been wrecked with all her cargo and never been heard of since? Answer me
+that! Anyhow, you bet I froze to that nigger.
+
+"'At first he played cunning and seemed to suspicion I was after
+something. So one night I got him alone and--d'ye remember Hottentot Joe
+in the Kimberley?--well, p'raps I played the same game on this old cove,
+and when he was sound off I began to pump him all I knew. The old chap
+had been sailing pretty near to the truth, but still he'd kept a bit up
+his sleeve; however, I got that bit, and here's his chart as near as I
+can fix it.'
+
+"So saying, he drew out a paper and held it to the binnacle. Then
+putting his finger on a coloured mark, he went on: 'It's a bit hazy
+steering after we get here, inasmuch as, being a nigger, he couldn't
+keep proper reckoning. But once among these islands, I guess we can't be
+far off the right one, and to find it--by God, we'll search every
+mud-bank in the Pacific! Accordin' to his fixin' it has a big mountain
+climbing from its centre, with a monster white rock half-way up, shaped
+like a man's fist. In a bee-line with the rock there's a creek running
+inland, big enough to float a seventy-four; follow that creek up a mile
+or so and you come to a lake, and on the other side of that lake's where
+the old barge ought to be. Now, what do you think?'
+
+"'What do I think? Why, I think, Milwaukee, you are a fool to have
+brought us on such a rotten chase, and we're bigger fools to have
+followed you. The island, I guess, never existed, and we'll get
+stretched for this boat by the first warship that sights us. But now we
+are here, we'd better make the best of it. What do you say, Jim?'
+
+"'I stand with you,' said Dance, and that settled it.
+
+"To make a long story short, we sailed that hooker right on end for nigh
+upon three weeks. The wind was mostly favourable, the boat had a
+slippery pair of heels, and the stores, considering they were laid in by
+Dutchmen, were none too bad. Only one thing was wrong to my thinking,
+and that was the supply of grog aboard. If I had my way there'd have
+been a gimlet through the lot; but Milwaukee was skipper, and wouldn't
+hear of it.
+
+"Tuesday, the thirteenth of January, saw the tether of the old darkie's
+chart, so we held a bit of a palaver, and settled to go on cruising
+about the islands which we were picking up and dropping every day.
+
+"You folk who live inside this rot-gut reef don't know what islands are.
+Out there, you see them on all sides, pushing their green heads up to
+watch the ships go by, with the air so warm, the sea so green, and the
+sky so blue that it's like living in a new world. Birds of every colour
+fly across your bows all day, and in the hush of night, lying out on
+deck, you can hear the waterfalls trickling ashore, and now and again
+the crash of a big tree falling in the jungle.
+
+"One forenoon while I was at the wheel, Milwaukee and Jim Dance fell to
+quarrelling. It started over nothing, and would have come to nothing but
+for that tarnation liquor. I sung out to them to stop; but it was no
+use, so leaving the hooker to look after herself, I went forrard. Before
+I could reach him, the skipper had drawn a revolver, and I heard Jim
+cry, 'For Gawd's sake don't shoot!' Then there was a report, and sure
+enough Dance fell dead.
+
+"Can you picture it? Overhead, the blue sky, a few white clouds, and the
+canvas just drawing; on the deck, poor Jim lying as if asleep, and
+Milwaukee leaning against the foremast staring at him. Seein' there was
+no use in keepin' the body aboard, I called one of the Dutchmen aft and
+told him to fix it up in a bit of canvas. Then together we hove it
+overboard; it sank with a dull plunge, and so we lost the first of our
+mess.
+
+"Milwaukee being too drunk to take his trick at the wheel, I stood it
+for him. A bit before sundown he comes on deck looking terrible fierce
+and haggard. Rolling aft, he says with a voice solemn as a judge:
+'Sacramento Nick, you're a good man and true. On your Bible oath, may
+God strike you dead if you lie, did I shoot James Dance, mariner?'
+
+"Seeing what was passing in his mind, I said simply, 'You did.'
+
+"'Was I drunk, being in charge of this vessel at the time?'
+
+"'You were!'
+
+"'That is your word and deed, so help you God?'
+
+"'Ay, ay!'
+
+"'Well, that being so, no more need be said. It's the sentence of the
+court. Shipmate, your hand.'
+
+"We shook hands, and he turned to the taffrail. Before I knew what he
+was about, he had leaped upon it and plunged into the sea. He only rose
+once; then the white belly of a shark showed uppermost, and never again
+did I see Esdras W. Dyson, of Milwaukee City, Wisconsin.
+
+"Three days later, when I was too dog-tired to keep watch, those
+cut-throat Dutchmen mutinied and sent me adrift in the long-boat with
+one week's provisions and a small beaker of water.
+
+"Strangers, have you ever been cast adrift? I can see you haven't; well,
+hope that your luck don't run that way. Fortunately it was fair weather,
+and I was able to rig a bit of a sail; but how long I was cruising among
+those islands, drat me if I know. Being ignorant, so to speak, of my
+position, one way was as another, and when short of provisions I'd just
+go ashore, pick fruit, fill my beaker, and then set sail again. One warm
+afternoon I found myself abreast of the largest island I'd seen yet.
+From its centre rose a high mountain, and, strike me dead if I lie,
+half-way up that last was _a big white rock, shaped like a man's fist_!
+When I saw it I was clean staggered; I stood up and stared till I could
+stare no longer. It was just as if I'd stumbled by mistake on the very
+island we'd set out to seek. By tacking I managed to get right under its
+lee, and there, sure enough, between two high banks was the entrance to
+a fairish river. Furling the sail, I took to my oars and pulled inside.
+The sun was close on down by this time, and I was dog-tired; so as
+nothing could be gained by bursting the boilers, when, as far as I knew,
+all the future was afore me, I anchored where I was, and stayed in my
+boat till morning.
+
+"You bet as soon as it was light I pushed on again, bringing out on a
+slap-up lake perhaps a mile long by half a mile across. The water was as
+clear as crystal and as smooth as glass. Making for a plain of dazzling
+white sand at the furthest end, I beached my boat and prepared to start
+explorations. Then, just as her nose grounded, my eyes caught sight of a
+big creeper-covered mass lying all alone in the centre of the plain. May
+I never know a shieve-hole from a harness-cask again, if it wasn't an
+old galleon of the identical pattern to be seen in the Columbus'
+picter-books. Trembling like a palsied monkey, I jumped out and ran for
+it.
+
+[Illustration: "Then, just as her nose grounded, my eyes caught sight of
+a big creeper-covered mass."]
+
+"She may have been close on a hundred tons burden, but it was impossible
+to calculate her size exactly for the heap of stuff that covered her.
+How she ever got on to that plain, and why she hadn't rotted clean away
+during the two hundred years or more she must have lain there, are
+things I can't explain. Anyhow, I didn't stay to puzzle 'em out then,
+but set to work hunting for a way to get inside her. From the main-deck
+seemed to be the best course, and to reach that I started hacking at the
+blooming creepers. It was harder work than you'd think, for they'd
+spliced and twisted 'emselves into cables, and a jack-knife was about as
+much use on 'em as a tooth-pick. When night came I'd done a big day's
+work, and had only just got a footing on her deck.
+
+"Next morning I went at it again, and by mid-day had the satisfaction of
+standing before the cuddy entrance. Again I felt the same dod-dratted
+funk creeping over me; but when I remembered the treasure, I said
+good-bye to that, and placed my shoulder against the door. It crumbled
+away and fell in a heap upon the deck, and when the dust had passed I
+found myself at the entrance of a small alleyway leading into the
+saloon. I entered it, stepping gingerly; but had only gone a few steps
+before the deck suddenly gave way, and I found myself disappearing with
+a crash into the lower regions. The fall was a darned sight bigger than
+I liked; but it served a purpose, for my weight on landing started a
+plank and brought a glimmer of light into the darkness.
+
+"Finding I was not hurt, I fell to groping for a way out again; then I
+noticed the rottenness of the timbers, and determined to enlarge the
+light I had just made. The two kicks and a shove brought a flood of
+sunshine pouring in, and a horrible sight met my eyes. I was standing
+beside an old-fashioned bed-place on which lay (you may believe me or
+not) the mummified body of a man stretched full out and hanging on to
+the stanchions like grim death. He was not alone, for in the centre of
+the cabin, clutching at a heavy table, was another chap, also perfectly
+preserved, half standing, with his feet braced against the thick
+cross-bars and his shrivelled parchment face, with its staring eyes
+turned towards me, grinning like a poisoned cat. My scalp seemed to lift
+and my innards to turn to water. Letting out one yell, I clambered for
+the open air.
+
+"Outside all was sunshine, blue sky, and bright colour, and, as if to
+set off what I had just left, a big butterfly came hovering towards me.
+In a few minutes my presence of mind returned, and I began to laugh at
+the idea of Sacramento Nick being afeared of dead men; so back I went in
+search of further mysteries. Again I entered the cuddy, and lowered
+myself into the under-cabin; but this time I was prepared for anything.
+The treasure-guard stared, but said nothing.
+
+"While I was wondering how I'd best set about my search, a smart breeze
+came whistling in, caught the figure at the table, disengaged his hold,
+and brought his old carcase with a dry rattle to the floor. With his
+fall a small piece of metal rolled to my feet, and picking it up I found
+it to be a key of real curious shape and workmanship. Fired with my
+discoveries, I slipped across to try it on the first of the chests I saw
+ranged round the cabin, when to my astonishment I found it open.
+Somebody had been there before me; perhaps I was too late! All of a
+sweat I looked in, but 'twas too dark; I tried to pull the whole chest
+towards the light, but it was a main sight too heavy. Then I plunged my
+hand in and--great Jehoshaphat, how I yelled! Clutching what I could
+hold, I dashed across the cabin, up into the light, and throwing myself
+upon the ground, spread what I had brought before me. It took less than
+a second to see that they were diamonds, and, by all the stars and
+stripes, diamonds of the first water! There they lay winking and
+blinking at me and the sun, and for the first time I began to _savee_ my
+amazing wealth. For the minute I was clean stark staring mad. I closed
+my eyes, and wondered if when I opened them again I should find it all a
+dream; but no, the beauties were there, looking brighter and even larger
+than before.
+
+"Gentlemen, it's strange how the habits and precautions of civilization
+linger with a man even in the queerest places. For while not twenty
+yards from where I stood was greater wealth than I or fifty men could
+ever spend, I found myself fearful of losing one, picking each gem up
+with scrupulous care, and securing it inside my jumper. The next box was
+locked, so I tried the key. In spite of age and rust the wards shot back
+and the cover lifted. Again I felt the touch of stones, and again
+seizing a handful, I went back into the light. This time they were
+rubies; Burmese rubies, my experience told me, and not a tarnation flaw
+in one of 'em. For a second time I carefully picked them up and was
+hiding 'em as before, when I happened to look round. Dash my buttons, if
+I was alone! On all sides were niggers regarding me with considerable
+attention. I sprang to my feet and felt for my revolver. Fool that I
+was, I had left it in the boat! Seeing that I was aware of their
+presence, they closed in on me, and as they did so I took stock of 'em.
+They were unlike other South Sea natives, being of better build and but
+little darker than myself. True, they were rigged out in a short
+loin-cloth not unlike _tappa_, but they carried neither spear nor
+shield. When I saw this I was for showing fight, but soon gave that idea
+up; they were too many for me.
+
+"After a few minutes' inspection they began to march me through the
+forest in a westerly direction, all the time talking a lingo that seemed
+curiously familiar. Just upon sunset we entered a large clearing on
+which stood a fair-sized native village, and I thought as I looked at it
+that, if ever I got out of this mess and turned to blackbirding, I'd
+know where to come for niggers. It contained perhaps fifty huts, all
+built of wood and with conical-shaped grass roofs. A trim garden ran
+down the centre, at the furthest end of which stood the largest and the
+most slap-up building of the lot. As soon as we hove in sight, a crowd
+came out to meet us, and in the middle of hundreds of yelling darkies I
+was marched up to the big house. The old chief, who had been bossing
+affairs with the swagger of a New York policeman, told me to wait while
+he carried his carcass up some steps and disappeared. After a little
+while he returned, and signified that I should follow him.
+
+"When I got inside I had plenty of time to look about me, for it must
+have been full half an hour before any one came. Then some grass
+curtains were drawn aside, and what looked like a man entered. I say
+_looked like_, because I ain't really clear in my mind as to _what_ he
+was; anyway, I shouldn't be far from the mark in sayin' he was quite a
+hundred years old, and just about as deformed as he well could be. He
+was as white as myself, and from the antics of the chief who had fetched
+me to his presence I could see that he had a great hold over the
+niggers. Throwing himself upon the ground, that old fool of a chief
+feebly wagged his toes till told to rise. Then he started explaining
+where he had found me and what I was doing.
+
+"During his yarn, old grandfer', whose name I afterwards found was Don
+Silvio, riddled me into augurholes with his evil little eyes; then,
+having ordered the chief out, he started to examine me himself. He spoke
+the same lingo as the niggers, a sort of bastard Portugee, and still
+looking me through and through, asked, 'Stranger, how came you to this
+island?'
+
+"I reckoned it best to keep the real truth from him, so said, 'I am a
+shipwrecked mariner, Senor, and fetched here in an open boat.'
+
+"His eyes blazed, and his long, lean fingers twitched round his jewelled
+stick. 'And had you no thought of what treasure you might find?'
+
+"'Senor,' said I, looking him square in the face, 'let me put it to you.
+Is it likely that a shipwrecked mariner would think of treasure?'
+
+"A storm was brewing in his eyes, and I guessed it would break on me.
+Suddenly he yelled: 'You lie--you dog, you thief--you lie! You came for
+what you could steal, but nothing shall you take away, nothing--not one
+stone. The Fates that consumed those who came aforetime shall consume
+you also. Shipwreck or no shipwreck, you shall die!'
+
+"He fell to beating a gong with his stick, and a dozen or so natives
+came tumbling in. They seemed to know their business, and before I had
+time to get in a word I was being dragged away down the street, to a
+small and securely guarded hut, where I was pushed in and the door
+closed. Disliking the look of things, as soon as I recovered my breath I
+started hunting about for a way of escape, but that was no good. Added
+to my other troubles, I was just famishing, and was beginning to fix it
+that my end was to be starvation, when footsteps approached, the door
+opened, and a native girl appeared, bearing on her head two wooden
+dishes which she set down before me. Being a favourite with the sex, I
+tried to draw her into conversation, but either she didn't understand my
+talk or fear had taken away her tongue; anyway, not a word would she
+utter. After she had left me I set to work on the food, and never before
+or since have I enjoyed a meal so much. Then stretching myself on some
+dry reeds in a corner I soon fell asleep.
+
+"I was awakened in the chill grey of dawn by the entrance of the same
+beauty, who put down my breakfast, saying as she did so, 'White man, eat
+well, for at sunrise you die!' For a moment the shock cleared me out of
+speech; I could only sit and stare at her. She seemed to see what was
+going on in my mind, and as if in comfort added, 'Stranger, why do you
+fear death? It can only come once!'
+
+"Her reasoning, though logical enough, wasn't of the kind calculated to
+meet my trouble, and when she had left me I started wondering if anybody
+in Sacramento City would ever hear of my fate, and bitterly cursing the
+day I set out in search of this villainous island. As I sat with my head
+upon my hands, the jewels I had stuck in my jumper fell to the floor and
+lay there taunting me with their sparkling splendour. Howsomever, it was
+no use crying over spilled milk; I had brought the situation on myself,
+and, whatever happened, must go through with it. Suddenly my ear caught
+the pat of naked feet outside the cell. Then the door was unbarred and
+the chief entered. 'Come, white man,' he said, 'all is made ready, and
+the axe waits for the bare flesh!' How would you have felt in such a
+situation? As for myself, I put a good face on it, and resolved, since I
+could no longer live a free and independent American citizen, to die as
+such. Pity, I thought, there wasn't a band. I was led up the village to
+the open plot before Don Silvio's house. It might have been the fourth
+of July for the crowd that was assembled. In the centre, for my special
+benefit, was an object which held an awful fascination for me; a
+curiously carved block of wood, dull brown in colour, and on two sides
+much stained and worn. It didn't take me a year to understand what it
+meant; and you may think it strange, seeing the nature of my position,
+but, true as gospel, I fell to wondering how my long neck would figure
+stretched across it.
+
+"When I was halted, I took it for granted that the work of dispatching
+me would commence at once, but I was mistaken. The execution could not
+take place until the arrival of Don Silvio, and the sun was a good hour
+up before there was a stir in the crowd, and the withered monkey-faced
+little devil came stumping towards me. If he had appeared a hundred
+years old in the half-dark of his house, he now looked double that age,
+but the fire in his eyes was as bright as ever. Hobbling to within a
+dozen paces of where I stood, he took thorough stock of me. Then,
+tapping the block with his stick, he said: 'Senor, you are about to hunt
+treasure in a golden country, where I trust your efforts may meet with
+better success. I wish you farewell.' After relieving himself of this,
+he went to his seat; two natives raised a great grass umbrella above his
+head, and, all being comfortable, he gave orders for the performance to
+begin. A nigger stepped from the crowd and approached me, carrying in
+his hand an axe. Reaching the block he signed me to kneel. I took a last
+look round--first at the thick jungle, then at the great mountain
+pushing itself up into the blue sky. After that my eyes returned to the
+block, and, gentlemen both, a wonderful circumstance happened.
+Understand me clearly! Standing on either side of it were two thin
+columns of palest blue smoke, maybe six feet in height. As I stared at
+'em they gradually took the shapes of men, till I could make out the
+features of old Milwaukee and poor Jim Dance, of London Town. They
+seemed to be gently beckoning me and telling me not to fear. P'raps I
+kind of understood, for I stretched my long neck across the block
+without a sign of funk. I heard the cackling laugh of Don Silvio, I saw
+the headsman draw a step closer, his arms go up, and then I shut my
+eyes, and remember no more.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"When I came to my senses I was lying on the bed of rushes in my old
+quarters, and the native girl before mentioned was seated beside me. On
+putting my hand to my head to sort of fix matters, she laughed merrily,
+and said: 'Stranger, it is still there, but to-morrow it will certainly
+be gone!' Why they hadn't killed me I couldn't understand, unless it was
+to put me to the torture of waiting another day; anyhow, the following
+morning I was prepared for the guard when they came to lead me out.
+
+"Once more the crowd was there, once more that villainous old Don kept
+me waiting, and once more the axe went up but failed to strike. I was
+respited for another day. Well, this sort of thing happened every
+blessed morning, till I nearly went mad with the strain of it. On the
+eighth day, instead of being kept in the square, I was marched straight
+to the Don's house. The old pirate was waiting for me, and as soon as I
+arrived fell to questioning me about the outer world, seeming to take an
+all-fired interest in such parts of my own life as I thought fit to tell
+him. When he had found out all he wanted, he said: 'Go now, for the
+present you are free; but remember, if you but approach that ship by so
+much as half a mile, that same moment you die!' I stumbled out of his
+presence and down the street like a man dazed. That he had some reason
+for sparing my life was certain; but what it was, for the life of me I
+couldn't then determine. Arriving at my hut, I threw myself upon the
+rushes and tried to think it out.
+
+"That evening, a little after sundown, while walking outside the village
+and racking my brain for a chance of escape, an event happened which
+changed all my thoughts and plans. I was passing through a bit of
+jungle, where the fireflies were beginning to play to and fro, when I
+came face to face with the most beautiful girl I had ever seen,
+and--well, I'm a free-born American citizen, and as such the equal of
+any man living; but I reckon that young woman took the conceit out of
+me. She couldn't have been more than eighteen years of age: her skin was
+as white as milk, her hair and eyes of the deepest black; and when she
+walked it was like the sound of falling rose-leaves. Seeing me, she
+started with surprise, and was half-inclined to run; but something
+seemed to tell her I wasn't particular harmful, so overcoming her fear
+she said, 'Senor, I am glad my grandfather has given you your freedom!'
+Her grandfather! Not being able to make it out, I said, 'Surely, miss,
+Don Silvio ain't your grandfather?' 'No, Senor, he was my father's
+grandfather, but I call him so because the other is so tedious.' Perhaps
+my manner, as I say, didn't appear very dangerous; anyway, after this
+her bashfulness seemed to vanish, and we walked back to the village as
+comfortable as you please. She told me that it was she who had induced
+the old rascal to spare my life, and I reckon the look I gave her for
+that had something to do with the flush as spread across her face. She
+also let me into the risk I had run by breaking into the old galleon,
+which, accordin' to her tellin', was a sacred thing upon the island. She
+did not know how long it had lain there, but suspicioned her
+great-grandfather had commanded it as a young man, and that all the rest
+who came with him were dead,--a fact which, you bet, I could quite
+believe.
+
+"The moon was full up before we sighted the village, and when she left
+me I went back to my hut in a flumux of enchantment, as much in love as
+the veriest schoolboy. Somehow after this I never thought of escape, but
+set to work improving my quarters and laying out a garden. Every day Don
+Silvio came to question me, and you'd better guess I did my best to
+corral the old chap's confidence. How I got on you'll hear shortly.
+
+"Well, each evening as soon as the sun was down, I visited the grove
+beyond the village, where, sure enough, I always met the Don's
+great-granddaughter. Her beauty and amazin' innocence so held me that I
+was nearly mad to make her my wife; and when I found that she reckoned
+to have the same liking for me, I could bear it no longer, so went right
+off to ask the old man for her hand. Not having the least hope of being
+successful, you can judge of my surprise when he promised her to me
+straight away, and, what's more, fixed it that the wedding should take
+place next day. He kept his word, and on the following morning, in the
+presence of all the village, she became my wife.
+
+"The year that followed topped everything I ever knew of happiness. It
+slipped by in a rosy mist, and when our boy was born my cup was full. I
+proclaimed him American, according to the constitution of the United
+States, and the old Don announced a great feast in his honour. It was
+spread in the square, and all the village sat down to it. I can see the
+sight now: the shadowy outline of the mountain beyond the great flaring
+torches of sweet-smelling wood, the long rows of tables, the shouts and
+laughter of the niggers, and at the head, between my wife and her
+great-grandfather, the boy in his cradle. When the feast was right at
+its height, the old Don rose and handed me a silver mug filled with some
+sweet liquor. He told me to drink to my son's health, and suspecting no
+treachery, I did so. Next moment a change stole over me; I made a try to
+get on to my feet, but it was no use; everything seemed to be slipping
+away. I could just see my wife start towards me and the old Don pull her
+back, when my head sank on the table, and my senses left me.
+
+"The next thing I remember is finding myself lying precious sick and
+weak at the bottom of my own boat, with nothing but the big green seas
+rolling around me. The island had vanished, and with it my wife and
+child. At first I reckoned I must have been asleep and dreamed the last
+year; but no, the food with which the boat was stocked was clear enough
+evidence of its truth. For an eternity I sailed those cursed seas this
+way and that, seeking for the land I had lost; but I must have drifted
+into different waters, for I saw no more islands. My food ran out, and I
+had given up all hope of being saved, when one of your luggers hove in
+sight and picked me up.
+
+"Now, gentlemen, you've heard my story. Whether you believe it or not,
+of course I don't know; but I take my affidavy that all I have told you
+is true; and what's more, if you'll fit out a vessel to search for that
+island and its treasure, I'll take command of her. Should we find it, I
+reckon I can make you the two richest men on earth; and when I get my
+wife and child I shall be the happiest. In proof that the treasure's
+there, and as my contribution towards the expenses, I hand you this."
+From an inner pocket he produced a leather pouch, from which he took
+what at first appeared to be a small piece of crystal; on inspection it
+turned out to be a diamond, worth at least a hundred pounds. "That
+stone," said he, holding it at the angle which would best show its fire,
+"came from the coffers of the treasure-ship, and is the only one left
+out of all I saw and took. I will leave it with you for the present.
+Remember, there's thousands more aboard the old galleon, bigger and
+better nor that. Say, gentlemen, will you adventure for such
+merchandise?"
+
+It was too late to go into the question that night, so we bade him come
+up for a further talk in the morning. Rising, he gravely bowed to us,
+and without another word withdrew. Next day he was not to be found, nor
+has he ever made his appearance since. Whether he lost himself and fell
+into the sea, or whether he was an impostor and feared detection, I
+haven't the remotest idea. I only know that I have a valuable diamond in
+my possession, which I am waiting to restore to its uncommonly curious
+owner.
+
+
+
+
+Into the Outer Darkness
+
+
+    "I am not wrath, my own lost love, although
+    My heart is breaking--wrath I am not, no!
+    For all thou dost in diamonds blaze, no ray
+    Of light into thy heart's night finds its way.
+    I saw thee in a dream. Oh, piteous sight!
+    I saw thy heart all empty, all in night;
+    I saw the serpent gnawing at thy heart;
+    I saw how wretched, oh, my love, thou art!"
+
+    --Heine.
+
+
+You will, perhaps, remember how the soul of Tom Guilfoy was saved by his
+wife, how Godfrey Halkett was killed by his sweetheart, and how the
+plans of the Kangaroo Girl were shattered at one blow by a certain
+grandee aide-de-camp. All those things are matters of history. This is a
+story of a similar nature, but with a somewhat different ending.
+
+I am not going to tell you how I acquired my information, nor shall I
+say in which Australian colony the events occurred. If you have ever
+originated a scandal yourself, you will understand why and sympathise
+with me. Remember, however, personally, I don't blame them. Situated as
+they were, they couldn't have done otherwise. But I _do_ contend that it
+refutes the charge globe-trotters bring against us when they say _there
+is nothing underneath the surface of Australian society_.
+
+Officially, and for the purposes of trade, the man was named Cyril
+George Paton Haywood; his friends, however, called him Lancelot. The
+woman's maiden name was Alice Mary Whittaker, otherwise Guinevere; and
+as Lancelot and Guinevere, they are as famous through three colonies as
+a certain governor's mislaid particular despatch.
+
+Lancelot was in the Civil Service, Deputy-Assistant-Registrar-General of
+Lands, Titles, or something brilliant of that description.
+Departmentally, he ranked high, was entitled to wear a uniform on
+occasion, and boasted the right of private _entree_ at vice-regal
+levees; financially, however, he was too low altogether. The greyheads
+lost no opportunity of affirming that he was too young, and even cadets
+know that it is impossible for a man to be accounted brilliant until age
+has removed the opportunity of showing it. That is why, according to the
+peculiarity of our legislation, we venerate and retain fossils to the
+detriment of younger and abler men.
+
+Among other things Lancelot was consumptive, and, apart from his salary,
+penniless. So he naturally loved Guinevere, with a love that was
+dog-like in its faithfulness, and she returned his passion with equal
+fervour. For three seasons, to my certain knowledge, they drove
+together, sat out dances together, and met on every conceivable
+opportunity. She was desperately thorough in everything she undertook.
+Any man who has ever danced with her will confirm this statement.
+
+Then King Arthur appeared on the scene, and languid society--we were in
+the hills for the hot months--sat down to watch results.
+
+Arthur was not an ideal knight in any way. His past was a sealed book,
+therefore it was adjudged disreputable; his present was a golden age, so
+he had evidently turned over a new leaf. He was worth a quarter of a
+million, men said; but even that couldn't prevent him from being a podgy
+little red man with a double chin, always horribly clean, and given to
+the display of many diamonds. He told Mrs. Whittaker, in confidence, at
+the Bellakers' ball, that he was anxious to marry and settle down if he
+could only meet the right sort of girl; and, being a good mother, she
+informed her husband, in the brougham on the way home, that she could
+put her hand on just the very identical maid.
+
+Whittaker said nothing, for he was fighting a financial crisis at the
+time; and, besides, he had every confidence in his wife.
+
+About a month later Arthur purchased a gorgeous summer palace half-way
+up the mountain-road, furnished it magnificently, and set himself to
+entertain on his own lines. He had for neighbours a dignified judge and
+a popular widow. The judge lent him tone, the widow gave him female
+society. Indirectly, he paid through the nose for both.
+
+Needless to say, every one was disposed to be cordial, for he gave
+delightful impromptu dances on cool summer evenings, and his iced
+champagne-cup was undeniable. He threw his tennis-courts open to society
+generally, and his billiard-room was the rendezvous for youths of
+sporting tastes for miles round. He also organized lovely moonlight
+riding picnics; and after a day in the sweltering heat of the plains, it
+was vastly refreshing to dodge through the cool gullies in congenial
+company.
+
+Early in the summer Lancelot took rooms in the township down the
+hillside, and in the evenings he would stroll quietly along the mountain
+roads with Guinevere. Of course every one else was strolling too, but
+that only gave zest to the affair; and as most of them were also playing
+at love, their presence hardly mattered.
+
+In the autumn, when people were beginning to think of returning to the
+city, Whittaker died, leaving his family almost unprovided for.
+
+King Arthur was among the first to tender his sympathies, and, I'm told,
+after five minutes' preamble, asked point-blank for Guinevere's hand in
+marriage.
+
+In spite of her grief, Mrs. Whittaker was able to grasp the majesty of
+his offer, and took care that night to show her daughter how necessary
+it was, for all their sakes, that she should marry well. Guinevere,
+however, could not see it in the same light. If it had been Lancelot,
+she would have been only too happy, she said; but even for her family's
+sake she was not going to marry anybody else. The mother postponed the
+matter for a week, then she argued, pleaded, threatened, and finally
+wept; but her daughter remained obstinate.
+
+Knowing all this, you can imagine our surprise when, two months later,
+the engagement of King Arthur to beautiful Guinevere was publicly
+announced. But what amazed us still more was the fact that Lancelot did
+not seem to be affected thereby in the very smallest degree. His heart
+complaint was rapidly developing itself, and perhaps his valve demanded
+his complete attention.
+
+If, however, we had seen a certain little letter, smeared with
+tear-stains and innumerable blotches, we might have understood matters;
+but as we did not, we had, like a certain lady of scriptural fame, to
+argue on what might be called insufficient premises.
+
+Towards the end of June, Arthur and Guinevere were married in the
+Anglican Cathedral, the Lord Bishop officiating.
+
+It was in all respects a brilliant wedding, and the bridegroom's present
+to the bride was a thing to see and marvel over. Guinevere walked
+through the ceremony as if she had been doing nothing else from
+childhood. (As I have said, she was desperately thorough in all she
+undertook.) Lancelot was not present; his health would not permit of it,
+he said.
+
+The happy couple left the same day in the steamer _Chang-Sha_, to spend
+their honeymoon in Japan.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One morning, on arrival at the office, Lancelot found a letter on his
+table. It was from an eminent firm of English solicitors, and informed
+him of the death of an unknown relative, who, in consideration perhaps
+of their never having met, had left him the sum of thirty thousand
+pounds snugly invested.
+
+He was barely interested, and asked what earthly manner of use it was to
+him now? Any one could see that he was growing daily worse, and I
+believe it was that very week that his doctor first insisted that he
+should resign his appointments and settle down in some quiet place,
+where he could not be excited in any shape or form. He was only
+thirty-three, but a very old man.
+
+Early in December the happy couple returned to the south. The hot
+weather had commenced, again everybody was resident in the hills. Arthur
+and his wife went straight to the palace on the mountain-road, and on
+her first "afternoon," Guinevere's large drawing-room was filled with
+callers. Two things were painfully evident to the least observant: she
+was only a walking skeleton, while her husband was cleaner and more
+distressfully polite than ever. At first, we didn't know how to account
+for it; but men who saw his brandy-pegs understood what they meant, and
+told their women-folk, who, as usual, spread the report abroad.
+
+Lancelot called on the Monday following their return, and Arthur
+welcomed him, if anything, a little too effusively. Guinevere crossed
+the room to shake hands, and the afternoon light enabled them to take
+stock of each other properly. They were a pair of ghosts, and each was
+shocked almost beyond the bounds of decency at the change in the other.
+He followed her to the Japanese afternoon tea-table, and took a cup of
+tea from her hands. The tremor of the cup and saucer told their own
+tale. Arthur watched them from the fireplace with the blandest of smiles
+upon his face. It pleased him to see the tears gather in his wife's
+eyes, as she recognised the change in her old lover. From that day
+forward, Lancelot was made free of the house, and Arthur insisted that
+he should be asked to every function, however great or small.
+
+Whatever his own thoughts might have been, Lancelot could not fail to
+see the pleasure his society gave Guinevere, so he settled it in his own
+mind that the invitations emanated from her. His health was too feeble
+to admit of his riding or playing tennis; but driving along the
+mountain-roads, strolling in the gardens, or idling in the music-room,
+he was her constant companion. Naturally, folk talked, though Arthur
+assured them that he was only too glad to see his wife happy with her
+old friends. But it was not true, the long brandy pawnee glasses in his
+study said so most emphatically.
+
+This sort of thing went on all through the summer months, until the
+roses began to bloom again in Guinevere's cheeks. Her husband noticed
+the change, but did not comment on it; he was going to have his day of
+reckoning by-and-by.
+
+One day Lancelot called upon a certain famous specialist (I'll tell you
+a pretty piece of scandal about his wife some day), and after a brief
+wait was shown into the consulting-room. He sniffed the professional
+smell of the place for five minutes, and while listening to the ticking
+of the clock upon the mantelpiece, made up his mind on a certain
+subject.
+
+After the specialist had completed a searching examination, Lancelot
+said,--"As you see, I am growing thinner every day; it nearly kills me
+to walk fifty yards, and my appetite has forsaken me completely. It's
+not the first time you've told men their fate: tell me mine. What is the
+length of my tether?"
+
+"My dear sir, my very dear sir!" that worthy man replied, as he put his
+paraphernalia back into their respective cases, "we must not despair!
+While there is life there is hope; with proper care you may yet----"
+
+"But I shall take no care. How long have I to live?"
+
+"As I have said, with scrupulous attention to detail and proper advice,
+say twelve months, possibly more."
+
+"And without that care?"
+
+"I cannot tell you--perhaps five minutes, perhaps five months; it
+depends upon yourself."
+
+"I am glad to hear that. Good-day!"
+
+As he stepped into his buggy a letter crinkled in his breast-pocket. He
+laid himself back on the seat, murmuring Heine's
+
+    "Lay your dear little hand on my heart, my fair!
+    Ah! you hear how it knocks on its chamber there?
+    In there dwells a carpenter grim and vile,
+    And he's shaping a coffin for me the while.
+
+    "There is knocking and hammering night and day;
+    Long since they have frightened my sleep away.
+    Oh, carpenter, show that you know your trade,
+    That so to sleep I may soon be laid!"
+
+Half-way up the mountain-road, Arthur overtook the buggy and cantered
+alongside.
+
+"You're looking pretty cheap, old man," he said; "better come to dinner
+to-night, and see if we can't cheer you up--7.30 as usual!"
+
+"Thanks! I think I will," answered Lancelot. "I don't feel particularly
+bright!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Immediately after dessert Guinevere retired, leaving her husband and
+their guest together.
+
+As Lancelot drew his handkerchief from his pocket, a letter came with it
+and fell unnoticed to the floor.
+
+On rising Arthur saw it and picked it up. He read it without apology,
+and as he did so his face set. Then he politely handed it to his guest,
+saying,--
+
+"I must beg your pardon, this is evidently your property!"
+
+Lancelot did not speak, but sank back in his chair while the other
+continued,--"This is really a most unfortunate affair; and so my wife is
+about to dishonour my name, in order to devote herself more exclusively
+to the care of your health?"
+
+"The fault is mine," stammered Lancelot, "only mine!"
+
+"My dear fellow, not at all. Judging from that letter, she is in love
+with you--possibly she is right. We won't argue that matter. She seems
+fond of playing the _role_ of St. Mary Magdala."
+
+"What do you mean to do?"
+
+"Turn her out of my house to-night, or settle the matter with you!"
+
+"Settle with me; but for God's sake spare her!"
+
+"Very well! Let us discuss the question quietly. As you know, I do not
+believe in what is called sentiment, and fortunately I am able to say,
+with a clear conscience, that I am not in love with my wife. Probably if
+I were, I should act otherwise. Now, what I propose is, that chance
+shall decide for us whether my wife leaves Australia, as she suggests,
+with you, or whether you go alone concealing your destination and
+promising never to communicate in any way with her again. Both are
+unpleasant alternatives, but my gain is, that in either case I shall be
+rid of you!"
+
+"Good God, man, what an unholy arrangement! Supposing I refuse?"
+
+"For her sake you cannot. I assure you I should turn her out of my house
+to-night!"
+
+"But will you treat her kindly if I agree?"
+
+"Isn't that rather a curious question from you to me? You must see that
+it depends entirely on her. Do you agree to my proposal?"
+
+"God help me, I have no alternative!"
+
+There was a long pause, during which Guinevere's music came faintly from
+the drawing-room.
+
+"Very well; in that case, we had better decide at once. What is my wife
+playing?"
+
+"An Andante and Scherzo of Beethoven's."
+
+"Do you know it?"
+
+"Thoroughly."
+
+"Then you have that much in your favour. See, here, it is just three and
+a half minutes to nine by that clock. If she stops before the first
+stroke of the hour, I win, and she stays with me, and _vice versa_. Do
+you agree?"
+
+"I cannot do otherwise. God help her; it is all my fault!"
+
+"Not at all, I assure you. Let us make ourselves comfortable. Will you
+try that port? No? You are foolish; it is an excellent vintage. Ah! one
+minute gone! What a lovely melody it is; and she plays it charmingly.
+The laughter of the Scherzo is delicious! May I trouble you for that
+decanter? Thank you! Two minutes gone. It appears as if my luck is going
+to fail me at last. Well, it can't be helped. I don't know which of us
+will be the gainer by the change. By the way, let me recommend you to go
+to Europe, and you might winter in Algiers; the climate you will find
+most ben----Ah! she has stopped. Well, I am afraid, Mr. Haywood, Fate
+has decided _against_ you. Shall I order your carriage?"
+
+Lancelot did not answer save by a little convulsive gasp. Then a little
+trickle of blood ran from his lips down his chin. The excitement had
+been too much for him; the frail cord that bound him to life had
+snapped, and he was dead.
+
+
+
+
+The Story of Tommy Dodd and "The Rooster"
+
+
+    "Keep back, in the yellow! Come up, on Othello!
+    Hold hard, on the chestnut! Turn round, on The Drag:
+    Keep back there, on Spartan! Back, you, sir, in tartan!
+    So! steady there! easy! and down went the flag."
+
+    --Adam Lindsay Gordon.
+
+
+Men in all ranks of society, from cabinet ministers to hotel clerks, are
+apt to underestimate the true importance of Little Things. Women never
+do, because it is their business in life to overestimate everything.
+Though these statements may seem paradoxical, when you've studied the
+sad history of Tommy Dodd and "The Rooster," my meaning will be as clear
+as noonday.
+
+Jack Medway's Love Affair was a case in point; for if he had paid proper
+attention to small matters, he would not have cuffed "The Rooster" in
+Bourke Street, nor emphasized the insult by calling him a "dirty brat";
+then most assuredly he would have married the girl of his heart, instead
+of a certain vivacious widow who now bullies his life away. Of course
+people bursting with common sense will deem it impossible that a rebuke
+given to a street-arab in Melbourne could affect the destinies of four
+people three years afterwards in North Queensland; nevertheless, without
+a shadow of doubt, such was the case. Just let me explain a little
+before you watch the course of events for yourself.
+
+In the first place, Tommy Dodd was a racehorse, and one who had earned
+fame for himself on every course in Victoria from Mosquito Creek to Cape
+Howe. That he was not originally intended for the turf was evident from
+the fact that he made his first appearance in Government employ; and it
+was not until he had nearly killed four telegraph messengers and two
+important citizens that he was deemed unfit for the public service. Then
+he was put up to auction, and Lazarus Levi secured him for a quarter of
+his real value. He was a most accommodating quadruped, and with not more
+than nine-stone-six on his back was able, when his owner so desired, to
+make even crack performers look ridiculous. He had one fault, however,
+and that was----But I'll tell you about that directly.
+
+"The Rooster" was another curiosity. His body was the body of a child,
+his face was the face of a lad; but his knowledge of the world, and the
+racing world in particular, could only have been gained in generations
+of experience. A great love for Tommy Dodd, and an intense hatred for
+the before-mentioned Mr. John Medway, of Barcoola Station, were among
+other of his peculiarities.
+
+Now it so happened that after Jack Medway was appointed manager of
+Barcoola, he fell in love. I don't push this forward as anything
+extraordinary; but, as the statement of the fact is necessary to the
+proper narration of this story, I am bound to repeat, Jack Medway was in
+love, and Gerty Morris was the object of his affection. He also
+_respected_ a dashing widow, named Leversidge.
+
+The trouble dates from the issue of the first advertisements in
+connection with the Barcoola Races. At this yearly festival every owner,
+manager, jackeroo and rouseabout, within a hundred miles of the course,
+makes it a point of honour to be present. Then, for the space of a week,
+life is one whirl of shows, picnics, dances, and meetings. But above all
+the races reigned supreme.
+
+One Sunday afternoon in Dr. Morris's verandah The Ladies' Bracelet was
+discussed, and Gerty Morris half hinted that Medway should enter a horse
+for it in her name. Naturally he jumped at the chance, and after summing
+up the strength of the most likely entries, cast about him for a nag.
+
+(At this point the curtain should fall upon Act I., with rosy limelight
+effects, suggestive of Dawning Love and High Ideas.)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When an owner runs a horse to suit his book he should not grumble if his
+method is discovered; for stewards do _sometimes_ see crooked running,
+and when they do they are apt to make things troublesome for that owner.
+Perhaps the proprietor of Tommy Dodd had met with some misfortune of
+this sort, for that sagacious animal suddenly disappeared from the
+southern racing world, and was seen therein no more.
+
+A month later a mob of horses came up to Queensland, and at the sale a
+long, lolloping chestnut gelding, name unknown, was knocked down to
+Medway for twenty pounds. Though he was not aware of the fact, he was
+now the owner of the famous Tommy Dodd.
+
+After the sale, driving home from the township, Beverley, of Kimona,
+nearly annihilated a drunken atom lying on the track. He picked him up
+and drove on. Next day, ascertaining that he possessed racing
+experience, he put him on to exercise The Gift. The Gift was his entry
+for The Bracelet, under the nomination of an _unknown_ Alice Brown, in
+whom everybody, of course, recognised the before-mentioned Miss Gertrude
+Morris. That atom was "The Rooster," who had followed Tommy Dodd from
+the south. And here again Fate played up against Jack Medway.
+
+(Curtain on Act II.: subdued lights and music suggestive of much
+Mystery.)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A week later the entries of the Barcoola Jockey Club's Autumn Meeting
+were announced, and Mr. J. Medway's Young Romeo, and Mr. R. Beverley's
+The Gift, were in the list of competitors.
+
+The training of both animals was proceeding satisfactorily, and the
+owner of Young Romeo, _alias_ Tommy Dodd, informed Miss Morris that the
+bracelet she so much coveted must certainly become her property.
+Beverley had written to her that morning to the same effect.
+
+"The Rooster" ferreted about until he discovered his equine friend's
+abode, and at the same time learnt all he cared to know about the owner.
+
+Then, remembering the insult of three years before, he saw a chance of
+revenge. He was quick-witted enough to notice the rivalry between
+Beverley and Medway, and he quite understood that both men had staked
+their life's happiness upon the issue of the race. He knew more about
+Tommy Dodd than any man living, so he took Beverley into his confidence,
+and revealed the animal's one peculiarity. That gentleman gave him a
+sovereign to hold his tongue, and as Young Romeo was the only horse he
+feared, he now saw his way clear to victory.
+
+(Here Act III. terminates, with much red fire and music suggestive of
+conspiracy.)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It is all nonsense to say that a good day's sport cannot be enjoyed
+without grand-stands, electric scratching-boards, and telegraphs. The
+Barcoola Jockey Club possessed none of these advantages, and yet their
+races were always wonderfully successful. The fact is, in North
+Queensland the horse is _the_ consideration; but the farther you go
+south, the nearer you get to directors' meetings and bank
+overdrafts--consequently, the more iniquitous and black-guardly the
+sport becomes.
+
+Jack Medway drove his party on to the course in great style, and pretty
+Gerty Morris sat beside him, looking the picture of health and
+happiness. Beverley watched the waggonette draw up in a good position,
+and smiled sardonically. (The Gift was as fit as hands could make him:
+Young Romeo was his only enemy; and armed with "The Rooster's"
+knowledge, he knew he held _him_ safe.)
+
+Now, the secret was very simple after all. Years before, when Tommy Dodd
+was in Government employ, he had been put to a good deal of torture by
+one small telegraph boy, whose peculiar pleasure it was to flay him
+daily with a green hide whip. When this amiable young gentleman had
+succeeded in rawing the horse's sides to his own satisfaction, he still
+further goaded the poor brute by raising the hide as if to strike, yet
+never letting it descend. The result of this was that, even in his
+racing days, Tommy Dodd could never be persuaded to pass a lifted whip.
+This was "The Rooster's" secret, and the sequel you shall know directly.
+
+The races opened splendidly. A Bush Handicap of 30 sovs., half a mile,
+was won after a determined struggle by Mr. Exton's Headstrong, 7 st. 2
+lb., totalisator dividend, L3 10s. The District Plate went to Mr.
+Goodwyn's Endymion, 6 st. 10 lb., totalisator dividend, L5 6s. After
+that, hampers were opened, and every one went to luncheon. Dick Beverley
+lunched with the Barcoola party, and made himself vastly agreeable to
+all concerned--his rival included. The Bracelet Stakes was the first
+event after luncheon, and the two men went away to dress.
+
+Young Romeo had been excellently prepared, and for old association's
+sake took to the process very kindly. "The Rooster" kept The Gift out of
+the way till he was wanted, on the plea that he was "a mighty nervous
+'oss to 'andle."
+
+After weighing in, Jack Medway offered Beverley a level fifty against
+his mount. "I'll take you," said Beverley, and strolled away to saddle.
+
+Every one was pleased with the appearance of Young Romeo. He carried
+himself prettily, and swept over the ground with that easy gliding
+motion characteristic of a thoroughbred. His rider looked and behaved
+well in the saddle, so the ladies were unanimous in their praise. The
+Gift was not a handsome horse, but he had a wear-and-tear appearance
+that was better than mere beauty, and more than one who could judge of
+horse-flesh slipped away to put "just a saver" on him. The remainder of
+the field were a very so-so lot indeed.
+
+As the rivals passed the Barcoola party in their preliminary canter,
+Gerty Morris scanned both men carefully, but could not make up her mind
+which she preferred. However, Medway had openly promised her the
+bracelet, so he had that in his favour. His colours were white jacket,
+red sleeves and cap; and she had worked a tiny sprig of ivy on the
+collar, of which he was inordinately proud.
+
+After a little delay at the post, the flag dropped to a good start.
+Warrigal was the first away, with Endymion and The Gift in close
+attendance; Young Romeo was unfortunate, and brought up the rear with
+The Jackeroo and Blush Rose. As they passed the windmill, Endymion
+changed places with Warrigal, and Young Romeo came up to fourth place.
+Then The Gift forged to the front and led by a length. On entering the
+dip, Medway pushed Young Romeo to second place, and remained there
+watching events until they came into the straight. The crowd, thinking
+all was over, commenced shouting, "The Gift wins," "The Gift in a
+canter," "The Gift," etc., etc., etc., until Jack Medway thought it time
+to make play, so he set sail in pursuit. Young Romeo was full of running
+and overhauled his rival foot by foot; when fifty yards from the post
+they were locked neck and neck. Both were doing all they knew. Then "The
+Rooster's" secret flashed through Beverley's mind, and instantly he
+raised his whip, _but did not strike_. Next moment he was past the post
+with a couple of lengths to spare. To every one's surprise, Young Romeo,
+on his right, had shut up like a concertina just as he had it all his
+own way. _The bracelet was the property of Miss Brown._
+
+Next day we were informed that Gerty Morris had accepted Beverley, of
+Kimona, with her parents' full consent, and, strange to say, at the
+dinner given to celebrate that wonderful event she wore the bracelet of
+the famous race. Medway was among those invited, but he declined the
+invitation on the plea that business demanded his presence elsewhere.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"I often think that if he knew everything he would be the first to
+regret having hurt 'The Rooster's' feelings that night in Bourke Street.
+They say he is not having a very happy time of it with his wife--once
+the Widow Leversidge."
+
+Now don't you think I'm right about the importance of Little Things?
+
+
+
+
+Quod Erat Demonstrandum
+
+
+    "That this is doctrine, simple, ancient, true;
+    Such is life's trial, as old Earth smiles and knows.
+    If you loved only what were worth your love,
+    Love were clear gain, and wholly well for you;
+    Make the low nature better by your throes!
+    Give earth yourself, go up for gain above!"
+
+    --R. Browning.
+
+
+Any afternoon, between three and five, you will probably find in the
+Club Library, somewhere near the S T E and T R A Bookcase, a thin,
+restless-eyed man of perhaps five-and-fifty years of age. He will answer
+to the name of Pennethorne--Cornelius Pennethorne--and he can
+_sometimes_ be trusted to converse in a fairly rational manner.
+Generally, however, he is chock-full of nonsensical ideas, founded on
+what he calls "Inferences from Established Principles," and these make
+it almost impossible for him to do anything, from tying his bootlace to
+reducing his Overdraft, except on theories of his own determining.
+
+He sold out of the Army because he had proved to the War Office that the
+science of modern warfare was founded on an entirely wrong basis, and
+the greyheads refused his aid to set it right. So, washing his hands of
+the whole affair, he came to Australia. This was in '69, or perhaps '70.
+
+Knowing nothing about station work, he gave sixty thousand pounds for a
+property on the Diamantina, in order to demonstrate his own theories on
+cattle-breeding. And when they proved unworkable, he spent a small
+fortune inventing a gold-crushing plant--another failure. In similar
+manner all his pet projects faded away, one after another, like
+cats'-paws on a big lagoon.
+
+But he learnt nothing from these rebuffs, and there was no _kudos_ to be
+gained by showing him what an utter ass he really was. You _can_ reason
+with some men, but not with Pennethorne: he came from obstinate Cornish
+stock; and as soon as he saw the theory of the moment a failure, he
+threw it away and dived deeper still into something else.
+
+When he had exhausted cattle-breeding, horse-breaking, irrigation and
+gold-mining, he hunted about for some other channel in which to sink his
+money; but for the moment nothing came to hand.
+
+Then some one sent him a pamphlet entitled "The Folklore of our
+Aboriginal Predecessors," or something of an equally idiotic nature; and
+in this he saw a fresh opening. His district was infested with blacks,
+so he plunged holus-bolus into their private affairs. He argued that the
+theory of their treatment was altogether wrong, and for three months he
+choked the Colonial Press with lengthy screeds denouncing every one
+concerned in their government. Beginning with the Protector of
+Aboriginals and his staff, he took in the Commissioner of Police, and
+clergy of all denominations. Then, working through the Legislative and
+Executive Councils, he finished with a great blare at the Governor
+himself. It never, for an instant, struck him that he was making an
+egregious ass of himself. That, probably, would be some one else's
+theory.
+
+Now of all this absurd man's absurd ideas, his fondest, and consequently
+his most absurd, was that, fundamentally, the nature of both blacks and
+whites is the same. He contended that education and opportunity are
+alone responsible for the difference. He said he would prove it.
+
+Taking from the nearest tribe a little half-caste girl, perhaps eight
+years of age, he sent her south to school, and, cutting off all
+communication with her people, sat himself down to watch results.
+
+After the child had been enjoying the advantages of every luxury for ten
+years, he went down to ascertain what progress she had made, and was
+astounded at the result. In place of the half-wild urchin he remembered,
+he found a well-mannered, accomplished girl, able to hold her own
+anywhere. She received him with an air of _abandon_ that staggered him,
+and he was pleased beyond measure. He said he would go down to the Club
+and show the scoffers there that one theory, at least, had proved
+successful.
+
+On reaching it he discovered a strange generation, and was not a little
+chagrined to find himself and his theories almost forgotten. The younger
+men watched him meandering about the rooms, and said to each other, "Who
+is this old bore Pennethorne, and what forgotten part of the interior
+does he come from?"
+
+So delighted was he with the success of his scheme that he sent the girl
+to Europe for a year, he himself returning to the Back-blocks. It must
+be remembered here that her colour was not pure black, but a sort of
+dirty brown, that she was by no means ill-looking, and that she had been
+perfectly educated.
+
+Then came the situation he should have foreseen, "When her education was
+completed, what was to be done with her?" In the loneliness of his
+station he thought and thought, but could come to no conclusion. She
+would know enough to make a perfect governess; but then, perhaps, no one
+would care to give her employment. It was impossible that she should go
+back to the tribe, and it was equally unlikely that any suitable man
+would ask her hand in marriage. He began to realize what a white
+elephant he had raised up for himself.
+
+One cold winter's night, when the rain was beating down and the wind
+whistling round the station-house, it flashed through his mind that it
+would be by no means unpleasant to exchange his grumpy old housekeeper
+for a younger woman--one who could make the evenings pleasant with music
+and intellectual conversation. But it would have this drawback--it would
+mean matrimony.
+
+All this time his _protegee_ was writing him charming letters from Rome
+and Naples, commenting shrewdly on all the wonders she was seeing.
+Sometimes on the run he would read these letters, and think out certain
+schemes all by himself.
+
+On her return he went down to Sydney for the special purpose of meeting
+her. He found a pretty little woman in a neat dark blue travelling dress
+awaiting him. Her white cuffs and collar contrasted charmingly with her
+dark complexion. She received him very nicely, and he noticed that she
+had picked up the little mannerisms of the better-class Englishwomen she
+had met. They drove to the Australian, and a week later were married by
+special licence.
+
+Most men who remembered him said he was a very big fool; the rest said
+that they would give _their_ opinions when they saw how events turned
+out.
+
+Directly they were married they posted straight off to the station. And
+herein Pennethorne acted very unwisely. He should have toured Tasmania
+and New Zealand, or visited Japan in the orthodox way. But he was unlike
+other men, and it was a moral impossibility for him to act like a
+rational being--his theories got in the way and tripped him up.
+
+For the first year or so everything progressed beautifully, and he wrote
+glowing accounts of his new life to the few men whose friendship he had
+thought worth retaining. Then the correspondence ceased abruptly, and
+his friends marvelled.
+
+Now, of all those who had scoffed at Pennethorne's theories, the most
+persistent was William Pevis Farrington, afterwards His Honour Mr.
+Justice Farrington. In the middle of his happiness, Pennethorne had
+invited the judge, if ever he should be travelling that way, etc.--you
+know the usual sort of thing--to put in a day or two with him, and see
+for himself how things stood. About a year later Farrington did happen
+to be somewhere in the district and called as requested.
+
+Meeting his host near the homestead, they rode up together, and
+Farrington noticed that Pennethorne decidedly looked his age. When they
+reached the house the latter, leaving his guest in the dining-room, went
+in search of his wife, to return about ten minutes later saying she was
+unwell. They dined alone. All through the meal Pennethorne seemed
+disturbed and uncomfortable, and when it was over led the way into the
+garden, where he said abruptly, "Farrington, you think me a madman,
+don't you?"
+
+The judge mumbled the only thing he could think of at the moment, and
+endeavoured to push the conversation off to a side track by an inquiry
+after Mrs. Pennethorne's health. It had precisely the contrary effect to
+what he intended.
+
+His friend had twelve years' arrears to work off before he could be
+considered, conversationally, a decent companion. So, setting to work,
+he poured into the unfortunate judge's ears his granary of theories,
+facts, and arguments. He marshalled his arguments, backed them up with
+his theories, and clinched all with his facts, his voice rising from its
+usual placid level to a higher note of almost childish entreaty.
+Unconsciously he was endeavouring to convince himself, through the
+medium of a second person, of the wisdom contained in his marriage
+experiment.
+
+Farrington listened attentively. His trained mind distinguished between
+what the other believed and what he was endeavouring to prove against
+his own convictions. However, he could see that the keynote of the whole
+harangue was Failure, but as every one admitted that the last experiment
+had proved entirely successful, in what direction did such failure lie?
+He was more than a little mixed, and by delicate cross-examination
+elicited certain facts that puzzled him still more.
+
+One thing was plainly evident: Pennethorne was very much in love with
+his wife. In the first place he was given to understand that no man
+could desire a more amiable wife than Mrs. Pennethorne had proved
+herself to be. This heading included virtues too numerous to
+mention--but she was not well. Nor could any man desire a more
+_accomplished_ wife than Mrs. Pennethorne, who was fit to be the
+helpmate of an Oxford Don--but she was not well. His assertions always
+had the same refrain--"She was not well!"
+
+Because he could not understand, Farrington became deeply interested.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Just before daylight the judge was wakened by his host. He saw in an
+instant that something terrible had happened.
+
+_Mrs. Pennethorne had disappeared in the night, her husband knew not
+whither!_
+
+Even with his teeth chattering in his head, and his palsied old hand
+rattling the candlestick, he was compelled to state _his theory_ of her
+absence.
+
+Farrington, seeing he was not responsible for his actions, acted for
+him. He routed out all the station hands and scoured the country. They
+spent all day searching the scrub, dragging the dams and waterholes, and
+at nightfall had to give it up as hopeless.
+
+Farrington and Pennethorne rode home together. Passing through a rocky
+gully, they noticed the smoke of a camp fire floating up into the still
+night air, and rode up to make inquiries. The blacks were at their
+evening meal. One filthy girl raised her head and looked up at them from
+her frowsy blankets. _It was Mrs. Pennethorne!_
+
+After thirteen years of civilization the race instinct had proved too
+strong: the reek of the camp fires, the call of the Bush, and the
+fascination of the old savage life had come back upon her with double
+intensity, and so the last theory had to be written down a failure.
+_Q.E.D._
+
+
+
+
+Cupid and Psyche
+
+
+    "Handsome, amiable, and clever,
+      With a fortune and a wife;
+    So I make my start whenever
+      I would build the fancy life.
+    After all the bright ideal,
+      What a gulf there is between
+    Things that are, alas! too real
+      And the things that might have been!"
+
+    --Henry S. Leigh.
+
+
+His name upon the ship's books was Edward Braithwaite Colchester, but
+between Tilbury and Sydney Harbour he was better known as Cupid. His
+mother was a widow with four more olive branches, absolutely dependent
+on her own and Teddy's exertions.
+
+At the best of times Kindergartens for the children of respectable
+tradespeople are not particularly remunerative, and the semi-detached
+villa in Sydenham was often sorely tried for petty cash. But when Teddy
+was appointed fourth officer of the X.Y.Z. Company's steamship _Cambrian
+Prince_, endless possibilities were opened up.
+
+If you will remember that everything in this world is ordained to a
+certain end, you will see that Teddy's future entirely depended on his
+falling in love--first love, of course, and not the matter-of-fact
+business-like affair that follows later.
+
+After his second voyage he obtained a fortnight's leave and hastened
+home. Being fond of tennis and such-like amusements, he was naturally
+brought into contact with many charming girls, who, because he was a
+strange man and a sailor, were effusively polite. Then he fell
+hopelessly in love with a horribly impossible girl, and in the
+excitement of the latest waltz proposed, and was accepted, on the
+strength of a fourth officer's pay, an incipient moustache, and a dozen
+or so brass buttons.
+
+During the next voyage his behaviour towards unmarried women was marked
+by that circumspection which should always characterize an engaged man.
+He never allowed himself to forget this for an instant, and his cabin
+had for its chief ornament a plush-framed likeness of a young lady
+gazing, with a wistful expression, over a palpably photographic sea.
+
+Now, it was necessary for his ultimate happiness that Teddy Colchester
+should learn that, like his own brass buttons, without constant
+burnishing, a young lady's affection is apt to lose much of its pristine
+brightness, and that too much sea air is good for neither. He ticked off
+the days of absence, and, as his calendar lessened, his affection
+increased.
+
+At Plymouth a letter met him--a jerky, inky, schoolgirl epistle,
+evidently written by a writer very cold and miserable; and the first
+reading stunned him. Had he seen a little more of the real world, he
+would have been able to read between the lines something to this effect:
+"You're Teddy, three months away, and I'm madly in love with a soldier."
+Then he would have noted that the writer was staying in Salisbury, after
+which he would have hunted up his home papers and discovered that the
+Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry Cavalry were encamped at Humington Down. But as
+he had only seen life through a telescope, he could not do this,
+consequently his pain was a trifle acute.
+
+His mother wrote him four pages of sympathy. But though she wondered at
+any girl jilting her boy, she could not help a feeling of satisfaction
+at its being still in her power to transmute three-quarters of his pay
+into food and raiment for her brood.
+
+Next voyage the _Cambrian Prince_ had her full complement of passengers,
+and the "Kangaroo Girl," whom perhaps you may remember, was of the
+number. At Plymouth a little reserved girl joined, and as she is
+considerably mixed up in this story, you must know that she rejoiced in
+the unpretentious name of Hinks.
+
+For the first week or so Teddy held very much aloof from the passengers,
+engaging himself entirely with recollections of the girl for whose sake
+he was going to live "only in a memory."
+
+Being an honest, straightforward young fellow, he of course followed the
+prescribed programme of all blighted love affairs. He began by pitying
+himself for the sorrow he was undergoing, then went on to picture the
+future that might have been theirs had she married him; but before they
+were clear of the Bay he had arrived at the invariable conclusion, and
+was pitying himself for pitying the girl who was foolish enough to jilt
+such an entirely estimable young man as Edward Braithwaite Colchester.
+
+One moonlight night, after leaving "Gib," he was leaning over the rails
+of the promenade deck, feeling sympathetically inclined to the world in
+general, when somebody stepped up beside him. It was Miss Hinks. She
+prefaced her conversation with two or three questions about the sea, and
+he made the astounding discovery that her voice possessed just the note
+of sympathy he required for his complaint. He had felt sorry for her
+because other people snubbed her, and she for him because she had been
+told exaggerated stories about his love affair. Together they made
+rather a curious couple.
+
+[Illustration: "One moonlight night ... somebody stepped up beside
+him."]
+
+When, under the supervision of the "Kangaroo Girl," the shore parties
+for Naples were being organized, Miss Hinks was tacitly left out.
+Somehow the impression got about that she was poor, and no one cared
+about paying her expenses. But eventually she did go, and it was in the
+charge of the fourth officer. When she thanked him for his kindness, he
+forgot for the moment his pledge "to live henceforth only in a memory."
+
+The "Kangaroo Girl," on discovering that Miss Hinks _had_ been on shore,
+under the escort of that "dear little pink officer," was vastly amused,
+and christened them Cupid and Psyche.
+
+Now, the end of it all was, that Teddy began to find himself caring less
+and less for the thumb-stained photograph in his locker, and more and
+more for the privilege of pumping his sorrows into a certain sympathetic
+ear. Shipboard allows so many opportunities of meeting; and, strange as
+it may appear, a broken heart is quickest mended when subjected to a
+second rending. This cure is based on the homoeopathic principle of
+like curing like.
+
+By the time they reached Aden he had convinced himself that his first
+love affair had been the result of a too generous nature, and that this
+second was the one and only _real_ passion of his life.
+
+At Colombo Miss Hinks went ashore with the doctor's party--tiffined at
+Mount Lavinia, dined at the Grand Oriental, and started back for the
+ship about nine o'clock.
+
+Teddy, begrimed with coal-dust, watched each boat load arrive, and as he
+did so his love increased.
+
+On account of the coal barges it was impossible for boats to come
+alongside, consequently their freight had to clamber from hulk to hulk.
+Miss Hinks was the last of her party to venture; and just as the doctor,
+holding out his hand, told her to jump, the hulk swayed out and she fell
+with a scream into the void. Then, before any one could realize what had
+happened, the barge rolled back into its place. Miss Hinks had
+disappeared.
+
+Teddy, from half-way up the gangway, tore off his coat, leapt into the
+water, and, at the risk of having his brains knocked out, dived and
+plunged between the boats, but without success. Then he saw something
+white astern, and swam towards it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The half-drowned couple must have come to an understanding in the
+rescuing-boat, for next day their engagement was announced.
+
+The "Kangaroo Girl" gave evidence of her wit when she said, "It was
+fortunate they were Cupid and Psyche, otherwise they would find love
+rather insufficient capital to begin housekeeping upon!"
+
+Teddy wrote to his mother from Adelaide, and she, poor woman, was not
+best pleased to hear the news. But a surprise was in store for us all.
+
+On the _Cambrian Prince's_ arrival in Sydney, Miss Hinks was met by an
+intensely respectable old gentleman, who, it appeared, was her
+solicitor. On being informed of the engagement, he examined Teddy with
+peculiar interest, and asked if he were aware of his good fortune. Miss
+Hinks smiled.
+
+Half an hour later we learnt that the girl whom we'd all been pitying
+for her poverty was none other than Miss Hinks-Gratton, _the
+millionairess and owner of innumerable station and town properties_!
+
+The Teddy of to-day is a director of half a dozen shipping companies,
+and he quite agrees with me "that everything in this world is ordained
+to a certain end."
+
+
+
+
+Misplaced Affections
+
+
+    "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
+      Old Time is still a-flying:
+    And this same flower that smiles to-day,
+      To-morrow will be dying.
+
+    "Then be not coy, but use your time;
+      And while ye may, go marry:
+    For having lost but once your prime,
+      You may for ever tarry."
+
+    --R. Herrick.
+
+
+The point I wish to illustrate is, that it is not safe, at any time, to
+play with such an inflammable passion as Love, even though it be to
+oblige one's nearest and dearest friend. Once upon a time pretty Mrs.
+Belverton used to laugh at me for warning her, but she is compelled to
+admit the truth of my argument now.
+
+It was Mrs. Belverton, you will remember, who originated the famous
+Under Fifty Riding Club, whose initials, _U.F.R.C._, over two crossed
+hunting-crops and a double snaffle, were construed, by irreverent folk,
+to mean _Unlimited Flirtation Religiously Conserved_. The Club is now
+defunct, but its influence will be traceable in several families for
+many years to come.
+
+The following events, you must know, occurred the summer before William
+Belverton received the honour of knighthood, and while he was renting
+Acacia Lodge at the corner of the Mountain Road, the house below Tom
+Guilfoy's, and nearly opposite the residence of the Kangaroo Girl of
+blessed memory.
+
+It was by extending her sympathies as guide, philosopher, and friend to
+all unhappy love affairs that Mrs. Belverton made herself famous in our
+Australian world; and many and extraordinary were the scrapes this
+little amusement dragged her into. Could her drawing-room curtains have
+spoken, they would have been able to throw light upon many matters of
+vital interest, but matters of such a delicate nature as to absolutely
+prohibit their publication here.
+
+The Otway-Belton couple, for instance, owe their present happiness to
+her assistance at a critical juncture in their family history; while the
+Lovelaces, man and wife, would to-day be separated by the whole length
+and breadth of our earth, but for her tact during a certain desperate
+five minutes in the Greenaways' verandah. So on, in numberless cases, to
+the end of the chapter.
+
+You must know that for three months during the particular year of which
+I am writing, we had with us a young globe-trotter, who rejoiced in the
+name of Poltwhistle. I can't tell you any more about him, save that he
+was a big Cornishman, rawboned, and vulgarly rich. His people should
+have been more considerate; they should have kept him quietly at home
+counting his money-bags, instead of allowing him to prowl about God's
+earth upsetting other people's carefully thought-out arrangements.
+
+The trouble all commenced with his meeting pretty little dimpled Jessie
+Halroyd at a Government House tennis-party and convincing himself, after
+less than half an hour's disjointed conversation, that she was quite the
+nicest girl he had ever encountered. He met her again next day at the
+Chief Justice's dinner-party. Then by dint of thinking continually in
+the same strain, he fell to imagining himself in love. But as she had
+long since given her affections to Lawrence Collivar, of the Treasury,
+and had not experience enough to conduct two affairs at one and the same
+time, his behaviour struck us all as entirely ridiculous.
+
+Having called on Mrs. Halroyd the Monday following, where he was fed and
+made much of, he set to work thenceforward to pester the daughter with
+his attentions. It was another example of the Lancaster trouble, of
+which I've told you elsewhere, only with the positions turned wrong-side
+uppermost.
+
+For nearly a month this persecution was steadily and systematically
+carried on, until people, who had nothing at all to do with it, began to
+talk, and the girl herself was at her wits' end to find a loophole of
+escape. I must tell you at this point, that, even before the
+Cornishman's coming, her own selection had been barely tolerated by the
+Home Authorities; now, in the glare of Poltwhistle's thousands, it was
+discountenanced altogether. But Jessie thought she loved Collivar, and
+she used to grind her pretty little teeth with rage when Poltwhistle
+came into the room, and say she was not going to give up Lawrence,
+whatever happened. Then she suddenly remembered Mrs. Belverton, and with
+desperate courage went down, told her all, and implored her aid.
+
+Now it so happened that Mrs. Belverton had nothing to do just then, and
+stood in need of excitement. Moreover, Collivar was her own special and
+particular _protege_. In fact, it was neither more nor less than _her_
+influence that had given him his rapid advancement in the Public
+Service, and through this influence his love for little Jessie Halroyd.
+She was educating him, she said, to make an ideal husband, and she was
+certainly not going to allow a rawboned New Arrival to upset her plans.
+
+At the end of the interview, taking the girl's hand in hers, she said
+comfortingly,--
+
+"Go home, my dear, and try to enjoy yourself; snub Mr. Poltwhistle
+whenever you see him, and leave the rest to me!"
+
+When she was alone, this excellent woman settled herself down in her
+cushions, and devoted half an hour to careful contemplation.
+
+She understood that with a man whose skull went up to nothing at the
+back of his head, like Poltwhistle's, ordinary measures would be worse
+than useless, so she decided upon a scheme that embodied an honour which
+even kings and princes might have envied.
+
+That same night she was booked to dine with Arthur and Guinevere, of
+whom I have also told you, on the Mountain Road, and Providence (which
+is more mixed up in these little matters than most people imagine)
+placed on her left hand none other than the Cornishman himself.
+
+Having heard a great deal of the famous Mrs. Belverton and her sharp
+sayings, he was prepared to be more than a little afraid of her. She
+observed this and utilised it to the best advantages.
+
+Neglecting every one else, even her own lawful partner, who, I may tell
+you, was a globe-trotter of no small importance, she made herself
+infinitely charming to the angular gawk beside her, and to such good
+purpose that, before Belverton began, according to custom, to brag about
+his port, he was in a whirlwind of enchantment, and had forgotten his
+original admiration for good and all.
+
+Next day as he was riding down to tennis at the Halroyds', he met Mrs.
+Belverton outside the library. Looking at him through the lace of a
+pretty red parasol, and with the most innocent of faces, she asked his
+advice as to the sort of literature she should peruse. Of course that
+necessitated sending home his horse and overhauling the
+bookshelves--with any woman a dangerous proceeding, but with Mrs.
+Belverton an act of more than suicidal folly. A child might have
+foreseen the result. Before they had reached shelf B he had completely
+lost his head, and when they left the library, he disregarded his tennis
+appointment and begged to be allowed to carry home her books for her.
+
+She kept him with her until all chance of tennis was over, then having
+filled him with pound cake, tea, and improving conversation, sent him
+away, vowing that he had at last met perfection in womankind.
+
+Her scheme was succeeding admirably, for Poltwhistle from that hour
+forsook his former flame altogether. Mrs. Halroyd wondered; but her
+daughter professed delight, and seeing this, Collivar prosecuted his
+wooing with renewed ardour.
+
+But Mrs. Belverton, with all her cleverness, had made one
+miscalculation, and the effect was more than usually disastrous. She had
+forgotten the fact that Jessie Halroyd was, in spite of her heart
+trouble, little more than a child. And the upshot of this was that when
+that young lady saw Poltwhistle no longer worshipped at her shrine, but
+was inclining towards another woman, prettier and more accomplished than
+herself, she allowed her school-girl's vanity to be hurt.
+
+Within a week of her visit to Acacia Lodge, she had developed an idea
+that, all things considered, Poltwhistle was by no means bad looking,
+and certainly everybody knew that he was rich. Within a fortnight,
+Collivar having offended her, she was sure that she liked him quite as
+much as most men; and in less than three weeks (so strangely perverse is
+woman) she had snubbed Collivar, and was hating Mrs. Belverton with all
+her heart and soul for enticing the Cornishman's attentions away from
+herself.
+
+Then it became Collivar's turn to seek assistance; and at this juncture,
+as the situation looked like getting beyond even her, Mrs. Belverton
+lost her temper and said some very bitter things about everybody
+concerned, herself included.
+
+However, to sit down and allow herself to be beaten formed no part of
+that lady's nature; so carefully reviewing the case, she realized that
+the only possible way out of the difficulty was a reversal of her former
+tactics. To this end she dropped Poltwhistle and took up Collivar,
+hoping thereby to turn the jealous girl's thoughts back into their
+original channel.
+
+The Hillites stared and said to each other:--
+
+"Dear, dear! What a shocking flirt that Mrs. Belverton is, to be sure!
+First it was that nice Mr. Poltwhistle, and now it's young Collivar, of
+the Treasury. Her conduct is really too outrageous!"
+
+One muggy Saturday afternoon, towards the end of the hot weather, the
+Under Fifty Riding Club met opposite the library to ride to The Summit
+for tea and strawberries. There was a good attendance of members, and
+Mrs. Belverton, Miss Halroyd, Poltwhistle, and Collivar were among the
+number.
+
+Every one paired off in the orthodox fashion, and as Collivar annexed
+Mrs. Belverton, Poltwhistle was obliged to content himself with Miss
+Halroyd. He was not too polite in consequence.
+
+Before they reached the summit of the mount, thick clouds had gathered
+in the sky, and heavy thunder was rumbling along the hills. The Club
+members ate their strawberries, flirted about the grounds, and started
+for home just as dusk was falling.
+
+The same pairing was adopted on the return journey, and Poltwhistle,
+from his place in the rear, watched the other couple with jealous,
+hungry eyes.
+
+It was a tempestuous evening. Heavy thunder rolled continuously, and
+when, nearly half-way home, the clouds burst and the rain poured down,
+there was a general rush for shelter. Mrs. Belverton, to her dismay,
+found herself, in the half darkness, sitting on her horse, beneath a big
+gum-tree, with both Collivar and Poltwhistle for her companions.
+
+The latter, whose manners were about on a par with his modesty, had left
+Miss Halroyd on the road to seek shelter for herself.
+
+With a hurricane of rage in her heart, the poor girl, now, according to
+her lights, thoroughly in love, saw the reason of his conduct and
+followed him, reaching the other side of the tree unperceived. It was so
+dark you could hardly distinguish your hand before your face, and the
+rain was simply pouring down.
+
+Sometimes, when she is in a communicative mood, Mrs. Belverton can be
+persuaded to tell the story of that half-hour under the gum-tree, and
+she catalogues it as the funniest thirty minutes she has ever
+experienced. But though she laughs about it now, I fancy she did not
+enjoy it so much at the time.
+
+From each hinting that the other should retire, both men fell to
+justifying their presence there, and finished by whispering into the
+lady's ears, between the thunder-claps, protestations of their undying
+love and devotion.
+
+Then, while the thunder was crashing, the lightning flashing, the rain
+soaking them through and through, and Mrs. Belverton was wondering how
+it was all to end, Jessie Halroyd rode round the tree.
+
+They all stared, you may be sure, and because Mrs. Belverton had
+adventured the whole miserable business for her sake, she naturally
+hissed,--
+
+"False friend, false friend, I hate you! Oh, Mrs. Belverton, how I hate
+you--I could kill you!"
+
+A flash of lightning showed her face. It was all white and quivering,
+like a badly made _blanc-mange_ pudding. There was a pause till somebody
+said very innocently, and I am told it was the funniest part of the
+whole affair,--
+
+"My dear child, you're getting wet through; do bring your horse into
+shelter!"
+
+But before the sentence was finished the girl had turned her horse's
+head and was galloping down the streaming road at break-neck speed.
+
+Then Mrs. Belverton gathered her wits together and set to work to
+undeceive her two admirers. All things considered, the operation must
+have been a curious one. When it was accomplished she rode home alone,
+meditating, I presume, on the futilities of this mundane existence.
+
+The sad conclusion we, the Hillites, have come to, is that both
+Poltwhistle and Collivar hate their would-be benefactress most cordially
+for endeavouring to promote their happiness, and abominate each other
+still more for interfering and spoiling sport. While Miss Halroyd, who
+goes home next mail-day, hates all three with an undying hatred, and of
+course cannot be made to understand that her own folly alone is
+responsible for everything that happened. Personally, I should be more
+interested to know what easy-going William Belverton thinks about it
+all.
+
+
+
+
+In Great Waters
+
+
+    "Short shrift! sharp fate! dark doom to dree!
+    Hard struggle, though quickly ending!
+    At home or abroad, by land or sea,
+    In peace or war, sore trials must be,
+    And worse may happen to you or to me,
+    For none are secure and none can flee
+      From a destiny impending."
+
+    --Adam Lindsay Gordon.
+
+
+"Don't thank me; I'm sure I'm equally obliged to you. I haven't seen a
+strange face these three months; and though I am that despised animal, a
+broken-down gentleman, I've never quite been able to overcome a foolish
+hankering after some dealing with my old caste again. Pardon the implied
+compliment!
+
+"You'd better hobble your horses and turn them loose towards the creek.
+I'll run them up in the morning with my own.
+
+"Having done that, if you're hungry, you'll find tea in the billy, and
+damper and meat in those ration bags. It's Queensland boundary rider's
+fare, but the best I can offer you.
+
+"Monotonous country? By Heavens, yes! The children in exile knew no
+worse. On all sides, sand, mulga, and desolation--desolation, mulga, and
+sand, and unceasing regret, the portion of every man who has his lot in
+it!
+
+"Have you quite finished? Then light your pipe. No, no! not with a vesta
+like a new chum, but with a fire-stick--so! When you've been in the Bush
+as long as I have, you will see in a match something more than a
+pipe-light. But by that time you will be on the high road to a still
+more peculiar wisdom, which will never be of service to you.
+
+"Now, draw your blankets to the fire and cease thinking of your horses.
+They're on good feed, so let them eat their fill. If what I hear of the
+country out back is true, they'll get no more this side of the Barcoo.
+
+"What do I say? How do I know that you are new to the country? Simply
+enough! By the light in your eyes, the palms of your hands, and the
+freshness of your voice. Besides, when a man has been long in the West,
+does he stand up for want of a chair? Forgive my rudeness, but you'll
+learn it all soon enough.
+
+"Talking of classes! Consider the class I represent. In this country it
+is a numerous one, and the Bush is both our refuge and our cemetery. As
+we wish to know nobody, so we desire that nobody shall ever know us; and
+being beyond the reach of pride or shame, we live entirely in memories
+of the past, through which we enjoy a keener torture than any creed or
+sect can promise us hereafter. If you have the understanding, you might
+write the book of our misery, and, believe me, you'd have an
+inexhaustible reservoir upon which to draw.
+
+"Before you came out you had a different notion of Australia? Exactly!
+Folk who live sixteen thousand miles away, and own bank-books and fat
+stomachs, have one idea of it; while we, who exist like Esau, in the Red
+Sand itself, if you approached us properly, would give quite another.
+Now, I knew of a case once--but I beg your pardon!
+
+"That old hut at the Creek Bend you passed at mid-day? Three black posts
+and a wreck of charred timber, yellow boulders against an umber cliff,
+and two dingoe pups rioting on the threshold--isn't that the picture?
+
+"Well, if you think it dreary and lonesome to-day, try and imagine it
+when it was the furthest boundary west, with only the Great Unknown
+between the ranges at our back and the Timor Sea.
+
+"For reasons which could not interest you, I was the first to live
+there. Curiously enough, my hut-keeper was also of our caste. By
+nationality he was a Hungarian, and in addition to other things, he was
+a studious disciple of Goethe, and the finest zither player I have ever
+heard. It's about his connection with that hut that I wish to tell you.
+
+"As men seldom quarrel when ambition has gone out of their lives, for a
+year we came as near a certain sort of happiness as a remorseless Heaven
+would permit. Then everything suddenly changed.
+
+"One day, after a long stretch of dry weather that looked almost like
+settling in for a drought, welcome storm-clouds gathered in the west,
+and night closed in with a vigorous downpour. The creek, which for
+months past had been merely a chain of half-dry waterholes, began to
+trickle briskly round its bends, and in the morning had risen to the
+size of a respectable torrent. Next day, Thursday, it was a banker, and
+still the rain continued. By Friday evening the flood was upon us. And
+such a flood as you never in your life saw or dreamed of!
+
+"To give you some idea of its size, you must imagine this plain, from
+the mountains behind you to the scrub yonder, one vast sheet of foaming,
+roaring, rushing, eddying water.
+
+"Opposite the old hut we are talking of it was many miles in width, and
+for more than a week we were hemmed in upon a tiny island (the hut
+stands on a slight elevation, as you perhaps have observed), with the
+waters drawing a line of yeast-like foam daily closer and closer to our
+door. There was no escape, and I doubt if either of us would have taken
+advantage of it if there had been.
+
+"Morning, noon, and night, the flood went roaring and rushing by,
+carrying on its bosom forest trees, and hopeless beasts of all sorts,
+sizes, and descriptions. And each moment saw us waiting for the lip-lap
+upon the threshold which should signal the destruction of the hut and
+our immediate departure for Eternity!
+
+"Now you must remember that in life there is no such thing as chance.
+Every existence has its allotted span, and to avoid the pre-ordained
+termination is impossible for any man. You may smile, but I am convinced
+that what I say is correct, and this is a case in point.
+
+"On the ninth night of our imprisonment we were sitting in our one room,
+trying to keep warm, and listening to the storm outside. The wind,
+moaning through the logs, played with the firelight and threw a thousand
+fantastic shadows on the rough-hewn walls.
+
+"When life carries no future for a man, you will readily understand that
+he becomes callous, even as to the means of his death; so, even with
+destruction hovering over him, Yadeski sought company in his music.
+Drawing his zither from its case, he laid it on the table and allowed
+his fingers to stray across the strings. The sweet, sad melody that
+followed lent an air of almost reverence to the bare walls and homeless
+aspect of the room.
+
+"The storm outside yelled and muttered by turns; but, heedless of it, he
+played on, wandering from the folk-songs of the old grey Magyar villages
+to the paeans of victorious hunters, from mighty trampling war-chants to
+tender, crooning cradle-songs.
+
+"Suddenly a shout rang out clear and distinct above the storm. It was
+the cry of a man who, feeling the hand of Death clutching at his
+weasand, knows that unless help comes quickly that grip will tighten and
+his life go from him. Before he could call again, we had rushed into the
+storm.
+
+"The wind blew a hurricane, the waters snarled at the tiny hill and
+rolled in black waves, that might almost have been taken for the sea, to
+our feet. Battling in the direction whence the sound proceeded, Yadeski
+called with all the strength of his lungs. His voice, however, was lost
+in the general turmoil. But at the same instant, as if in answer, a
+white face rose through the foam not a dozen paces from our feet.
+Yadeski instantly plunged in, the face vanished, and for a moment I lost
+sight of both. Then they rose within an arm's length of where I stood,
+and I went in and dragged them out--the working of Fate, mind you!
+
+"Between us we carried the stranger to our hut and laid him before the
+fire.
+
+"For more than an hour, despite our exertions, he remained unconscious;
+then his eyes slowly opened, and in a few moments his power of speech
+returned to him. Two words escaped his lips, and when he heard them my
+hut-keeper fell back against the wall with ashen face.
+
+"A soft sleep followed the return to consciousness, and I turned into my
+bunk. Yadeski, however, sat gazing into the fire with an expression on
+his face I could not, for the life of me, understand. All night he must
+have kept the same position; but when the sun rose he shook himself
+together and set about his preparation of the morning meal.
+
+"By the light of day I saw that the stranger was a young man of
+prepossessing appearance. He explained that he was a Hungarian, and had
+only been in Australia a month. From what I could gather he was
+travelling to some new country that had lately been taken up further to
+the north-west. When crossing the river, which, by reason of the floods,
+was very much congested, the waters had separated him from his party and
+had washed his horse from under him. He was carried mile after mile
+battling for life, spent half a day in a tree, which was eventually
+washed from under him, was borne out into the main stream, and, but for
+our timely assistance, would soon have been a dead man.
+
+"I hope I am not wearying you?
+
+"Well, day after day the flood continued, and for more than a week our
+chance guest was compelled to remain with us. Then the waters fell as
+quickly as they had risen, and when the safety of the track was once
+more assured, he decided to resume his journey.
+
+"The night before he left us we were sitting round the fire listening to
+Yadeski's music. As was his custom, he wandered from air to air,
+seemingly unconscious of our presence.
+
+"The stranger listened with his eyes full of an insatiable hunger.
+
+"From gentlest pianissimo the music rose to a wild, fierce note of
+despair. An unearthly pathos seized the instrument--an inexplicable, yet
+intense longing, a vague desire for something unattainable, took
+possession of us. Then the music ceased abruptly, the spell was broken,
+and the younger man, springing to his feet, cried, in a voice tremulous
+with excitement,--
+
+"'Oh, where, tell me where you learned that dreadful air?'
+
+"The musician did not answer, but sat gazing into the fire. Shaking him
+by the shoulder, the younger man repeated his question till, as one in a
+dream, Yadeski muttered,--
+
+"'Many years ago, far from here. What does it matter?'
+
+"'Matter! Why, man, it was that air that brought me out here; it was
+that cursed air that killed my----' But he stopped, and leaned against
+the wall.
+
+"'Let me tell you why I asked you that question,' he said at length,
+when he had recovered his calmness. 'We spoke to-night of Buda. I was
+born within ten miles of it, the eldest of a family of eight. Our farm
+was as good land as any in the district, and we had held it under the
+Counts Romanyi for centuries. My father, I must tell you, died when I
+was only nine years old, and so my mother, who was famous through the
+district for her beauty and her zither-playing, was left alone to look
+after us.
+
+"'One evening while she sat playing, as was her custom, at our cottage
+door, the Count passed, and, hearing her music, stopped to buy a glass
+of milk. He was an accomplished musician himself, and at his request she
+played to him. Then, after saying many pretty things, and distributing a
+handful of coins from his pocket among us children, he rode away.
+
+"'Next day he came again, and the next, and so on, day by day, till we
+children, who had hitherto feared his name more than God's, grew so bold
+that we could quite look upon him as one of ourselves.
+
+"'Ah, how well I remember the night he played that hellish air for the
+first time! I can see the drift-smoke lying low upon the land, and smell
+the smell of the pines floating down the mountain-side. I can see my
+mother sitting, watching, and listening like one spellbound. It must
+have been the music of the devil, for it ate into her heart, and the
+same day a week later, a neighbour came to tell us that our mother would
+not come back to us again.
+
+"'Six years after, when I was almost a man, she returned. I can remember
+that homecoming as if it were but yesterday.
+
+"'It was a night late in winter, and the young moon was shining faintly
+above the snow. A knocking came to the door, and I opened it upon a heap
+of rags--my mother!
+
+"'She died with the dawn, but not before she had told me everything. I
+want now to meet the Count. I have sworn that the hour I come face to
+face with him shall be his last! Wouldn't you do the same?'
+
+"Yadeski's head had sunk on his outstretched arms, and, but for a
+certain tremulous movement of his shoulders, he might well have been
+asleep. I lay in the shadow of my bunk, wondering what it all might
+mean.
+
+"'I commenced my search in Vienna, where he had a house; but it seems he
+was in serious trouble with the Government, and had fled from Austria. I
+followed him to Italy, to England, and to America, but in vain. I have
+continued it all over the world; but I do not despair, for I am certain
+that, sooner or later, God will lead me to his side.'
+
+"Controlling his voice with an effort, Yadeski asked,--
+
+"'And what then?'
+
+"'Ah! what then? But I fear I have wearied you with my story. I am
+sorry. Good-night!'
+
+"He dropped on to his blankets, curled himself up, and spoke no more.
+Only the crackling of the burning logs disturbed the silence.
+
+"Just before dawn I was awakened by the sound of gentlest music--the
+same weird melody we had heard earlier in the evening. It began, but was
+never finished.
+
+"Unseen by us, a thick glaze was creeping over the player's eyes, and
+his supple fingers were stiffening in the grasp of Death. The music grew
+fainter, and still more faint, until finally it merged itself into a
+thick, monotonous drip--drip--drip, which caught the first red signs of
+day as they stole into us under the old hut door.
+
+"Then there was a curiously heavy sob, and a half-turn of the musician's
+figure. After which a long, keen-bladed knife fell from the table, and
+the clatter roused us both to action.
+
+"But Yadeski was beyond the reach of human vengeance. He had severed a
+vein in his arm, and so bled peacefully to death. _Quo cunque nomine de
+mortuis nil nisi bonum loqua._
+
+"See, here comes the moon, and the wind with her. You'd better take this
+extra blanket. It will be cold before dawn.
+
+"Hark! The horses have crossed the creek and are making towards the hut
+we've just been talking of. They will be miles away in the morning.
+Never mind! Good-night!"
+
+
+
+
+Mr. Aristocrat
+
+
+    "'Shepherd, what's love? I pray thee tell.'
+    'It is that fountain and that well
+    Where pleasure and repentance dwell;
+    It is perhaps that sauncing bell
+    That tolls us all to heaven or hell,
+    And this is love as I heard tell.'"
+
+    --Sir Walter Raleigh.
+
+
+The Australian Bush is pre-eminently a charnel-house of human lives, and
+therefore of the affections. Innumerable histories, neatly folded up and
+hidden away in the by-places of the great island continent, labelled
+_Not wanted till the Judgment Day_, will prove this indisputably. When
+Gabriel's trump shall call the sleepers from their resting-places in the
+shadows of the frowning mountains, in the long, grey gullies, and from
+the deserts and hopeless open plains, Australia's Bush contingent will
+be among the saddest and most miserable to face the Judgment Throne.
+"Mr. Aristocrat" will be there, and his case alone will be worth
+hearing.
+
+At the time I'm going to tell you about we were pushing out to new
+country at the head of the Flinders River, in Northern Queensland, and
+when three camps this side of our destination, horses and men knocked
+up, things began to look the very reverse of cheering. Night was coming
+on; the cold wind murmured among the rocks, and the high cane-grass
+bowed its head before it, whispering, "Weep, weep, weep." Then the full
+moon soared over the gaunt shoulders of the hills that peaked up into
+the lonely sky, and as she rose, we saw in front of us the lights of
+Mintabera Head Station.
+
+To come across a dwelling in such a wilderness was a stroke of good
+fortune we did not expect. We rode up, made ourselves and our errand
+known, and were hospitably received. The manager, who came out to greet
+us, was a middle-aged man, very tall and broad-shouldered. He was also
+very quiet and reserved, which may or may not have been because he had
+been cut off from the doubtful advantages of civilization for so many
+years. He took me into the house and set his best before me. After
+dinner we lit our pipes, and sat talking in the verandah until about
+nine o'clock, when I craved permission to retire. My host accompanied me
+to my room, and before saying "good-night," surprised me by inquiring if
+I was to be easily frightened. Asking "By what?" he replied, "By
+anything; by noises you might hear, or things you might see."
+
+On my assuring him that I thought my nerves were equal to a considerable
+strain, he left me to puzzle it out alone.
+
+I was more mystified than I cared to own, and to tell the honest truth,
+I crawled into bed, half wishing that, after all, we had camped in the
+gully, as had been at first proposed. But, as nothing out of the common
+occurred for fully half an hour, I rolled over, and was soon in the land
+of dreams.
+
+It must have been about midnight when I was suddenly awakened and
+brought up to a sitting posture by a scream, so terrible, so unearthly,
+that I could compare it to nothing I had ever heard before. Three times
+it rang out shrill and distinct upon the still night-air, and at each
+repetition my heart thumped with a new violence against my ribs, and the
+perspiration rolled in streams down my face. Then came the words (it was
+certainly a woman's voice), "They're coming! they're coming! Will nobody
+save me?" Leaping out of bed, I huddled on my clothes, seized a
+revolver, and rushed across the verandah in the direction whence I
+thought the sound proceeded.
+
+It was a glorious night, and the moon shone full and clear into the room
+where we had dined; but, before I could look in and satisfy my
+curiosity, my arm was seized from behind, and turning, I confronted the
+manager.
+
+"Hush, hush!" he whispered. "Not a word, for God's sake. Watch and
+listen!"
+
+He pointed into the room, and my eyes followed the direction of his
+hand.
+
+In the centre, looking straight before her, rigid as a marble statue,
+every muscle braced for action, stood the most beautiful and majestic
+woman I have ever seen in my life. To the stateliness of a Greek goddess
+she united the beauty of a Cleopatra. Her eyes rivetted my attention;
+they seemed to blaze from their sockets; her expression was that of a
+tigress wounded and waiting for the death-stroke. But her hair was the
+most weird part of her appearance, for it hung in glorious profusion
+down to her waist, and was white as the driven snow.
+
+When we looked she had paused for a moment, as if listening, and then
+came that awful blood-curdling cry again:--
+
+"They're coming! they're coming! Will nobody save me?"
+
+It was so horrible that my blood felt as if it were freezing into solid
+ice. However, before I could pull myself together, her whole demeanour
+had changed, and she was kneeling on the floor kissing and caressing
+something she believed to be beneath her. Then, gradually, her voice
+died away in heart-rending sobs, and at this juncture my host went in
+and lifted her up. She seemed to have lost all power of recognition, and
+allowed him to lead her in a dazed sort of way to her room.
+
+As he passed me the manager whispered, "Wait here!"
+
+On his return, he led me across the verandah and into the garden. When
+we were out of hearing of the house, and leaning on the slip-rails of
+the horse paddock he told me the following extraordinary story, and the
+glorious night and the long sighing night-breeze sweeping down from the
+mountains seemed a fitting accompaniment to his tale.
+
+"Fourteen years ago," he said, "by God's ordinance and with the blessing
+of the Church of England, I married that woman whom you saw just now in
+there.
+
+"All my family were against it from the beginning. They had no name and
+no story bad enough for her. One said she bore a most suspicious
+character; another, that she had a temper like a fiend; but the
+principal charge against her was that she had been a governess in a
+certain nobleman's household, and had been the cause of the eldest son's
+leaving home. However, I didn't care for anything they said; I was madly
+in love, and I believe I would have married her if she had been proved
+to have been the vilest wretch unhung.
+
+"After we'd been married a month or so she begged me to sell my bit of a
+farm in Somersetshire and take her to Australia.
+
+"Accordingly, I got rid of the place that had been in our family for
+centuries, and having packed up, set off, nearly breaking my old
+mother's heart by doing so.
+
+"Arriving in Sydney, I took a small house down Bondi way, and made
+myself comfortable; but I couldn't be idle long, so after properly
+providing for her happiness there, I said good-bye to her for a while,
+and came into the Bush. Every time I could get a holiday I'd run down to
+Sydney, and I believe, in a way, she was glad to see me, though her
+manner was never anything but cold.
+
+"By-and-by I drifted into Queensland, worked my way north, and then got
+the management of this place. You must remember that it was almost
+unknown country out here then, and what with blacks and wild dogs, want
+of water, and ignorance of the lay of the land, I had troubles enough to
+drive a man crazy. Before we had been here a year we were very hard
+pushed for men, and the owner sent me up a young Englishman, who, he
+said, was anxious to get as far out of the ken of the world as possible.
+I didn't ask any questions, but made him as welcome as I could. He was a
+decent enough young fellow, tall, graceful, and very self-contained.
+Somehow, the hands took to calling him 'Mr. Aristocrat,' and the name
+fitted him like a glove. He came up with pack-horses, and among other
+letters he brought me one from my wife.
+
+"'She had grown hopelessly tired of Sydney and the south,' she said,
+'and after mature consideration, was coming out to join me in the Bush.'
+
+"I didn't know what to do. We were too rough out here then for any
+decent woman. But as she had evidently started and couldn't be stopped,
+we had to make the best of it, and accordingly up she came with the next
+bullock-teams.
+
+"Poor idiot that I was, I thought it was the beginning of a new era in
+my life, and certainly for a week or two she seemed pleased to be with
+me again. But I was soon to be undeceived.
+
+"About a month after her arrival I had reason to go out on the run for a
+few days, and it was necessary for me to take all the available hands
+with me. While rolling my swag close to the corner of the verandah, to
+my astonishment I heard my wife's voice in the room within raised in
+tones of which I had never thought it capable. She was evidently beside
+herself with fury, and on stepping into the verandah, I could see that
+the object of her anger was none other than the young Englishman, 'Mr.
+Aristocrat.'
+
+"I tell you, sir, she was tongue-lashing that man as I never heard a
+woman do in my life before, and by the time I had stood there two
+minutes I had learnt enough to shatter all my hopes, to kill my
+happiness, and to convince me of her double-dyed treachery to myself.
+
+"She paused for breath, and then began again:--
+
+"'So, you cowardly, snivelling hound,' she hissed, with all the
+concentrated venom of a snake, 'you thought you could sneak out of
+England, so that I shouldn't know it, did you? But you couldn't. You
+thought you could crawl out of Sydney so quietly that I shouldn't follow
+you--did you? But you couldn't. You thought you could run away up here
+to hide without my discovering and following your tracks--did you? But
+you couldn't. No! No!! No!!! Go where you will, my lord, even down to
+hell itself, and I'll track you there, to mock you, and to proclaim it
+so that all the world shall hear, that this is a pitiful coward who
+ruined a woman's life, and hadn't manhood enough in him to stand up and
+make it good to her.'
+
+"The young fellow only covered his face with his hands, and said, 'O
+God! when will all this end?'
+
+"'When you've done what you----' she was beginning again, but I could
+bear it no longer, so pushed my way into the room between them.
+
+"When she saw me the expression on her face changed at once, and she
+came smiling to greet me like the Jezebel she was. But I wanted to have
+nothing to say to her, so I put her on one side and closed with _him_.
+He looked at me in a dazed sort of way for a moment. But only for that
+space of time. Then a sort of Baresark madness came over him, and he
+sprang upon me like a fiend. All the time we fought she sat watching us
+with the same awful smile upon her face. When I had nearly killed him I
+ordered him off the station, and, without a word to her, fled the house.
+
+"That day we made a good stage on our journey, and by nightfall were
+camped alongside the Cliff Lagoon (you'll probably camp there to-morrow
+evening). I sought my blankets early, and, about an hour before
+daylight, being unable to sleep, went out into the scrub to find and run
+in the horses. On my return to the camp, I discovered one of the station
+black boys, alongside the fire, jabbering and gesticulating wildly to an
+excited audience. As I came up he was saying,--
+
+"'So, my word, I look; him _baal budgerie_ black fellah along a'
+station. Bang--bang--bang! him plenty dead white fellah.'
+
+"There was no need for him to say more. I knew what it meant. And in
+less time than it takes to tell we were on the road back, galloping like
+madmen over rough or smooth country, regardless of everything but the
+need for haste. In less than two hours we dashed up to the yards, those
+you see down yonder, just in time to drive off the black brutes as they
+were rushing the house.
+
+"You will understand for yourself what a close shave it was when I tell
+you that when we arrived the roof of the homestead was half burnt
+through, while the hut and outhouse had long since been reduced to
+ashes. The bodies of the old cook, and a tame black boy, named Rocca,
+lay dead in the open--speared while running for the hut. It was a
+horrible sight, and enough to turn a man sick, but I hadn't time to
+think of _them_. I was looking for my wife; and until I heard a cry and
+recognised her voice I thought she must be dead. Then, as I pushed open
+the half-burnt door of the station-house (the brutes had thrown
+fire-sticks everywhere), she shrieked out as you heard her to-night.
+
+"'They're coming! they're coming! Will nobody save me?' When I entered
+the room she was kneeling in the centre, surrounded by broken furniture
+and portions of the smouldering roof, wringing her hands, and wailing
+over a body on the floor.
+
+"Though she was begrimed with dirt, smoke, and blood, she looked
+surpassingly beautiful; but--I don't know whether you will believe
+me--the terrors of that night had turned her hair snow-white, just as it
+is to-day. The overseer led her to a seat, and I knelt beside the body
+on the floor. It was 'Mr. Aristocrat.'
+
+"He was well-nigh dead; it needed no doctor's knowledge to see that. He
+lay in a large pool of blood, and breathed with difficulty; but after I
+had given him water he revived sufficiently to tell me what had
+happened.
+
+"It appeared he had left the station as I had ordered him; but, as he
+went, his suspicions were aroused by the number of smoke-signals going
+up from the surrounding hills. Knowing they meant mischief, he kept his
+eyes open, and when, before dark, he saw a tribe of blacks creeping up
+the valley, he remembered that, save the cook and a black boy, the woman
+was alone, and made back on his tracks as fast as he was able. But he
+was too late; they had already surrounded the building, and had killed
+the two men we found lying in the open. Then he heard the woman's
+shriek, and forgot everything but the fact that she must be saved.
+
+"Racing across the open, he made a dash for the house. She saw his
+sacrifice and opened the door, but not before two spears were sticking
+in his side. Plucking them out, he set to work to defend her.
+
+"Fortunately, I had left a rifle and plenty of ammunition behind me; so
+all through that sweltering, awful night he fought them inch by inch,
+with his wounds draining his life-blood out of him, to save the woman
+who had wrecked his life. By God, sir! whatever he may have been
+earlier, he was a brave man then, and I honour him for it! By his own
+telling he killed three of them. Then as day was breaking, a part of the
+roof fell in, and he received another spear through the broken door.
+This brought him to the ground; and at that moment we arrived, and drove
+the devils off.
+
+"With his last strength, he drew me down to him and whispered that on
+his dying word he had always acted honourably towards me; and that, in
+spite of her tempting, he had never yielded to her. By the God before
+whose throne he was just about to stand, he swore this; and upon my
+honour, sir, I believe he spoke the truth.
+
+"When he had finished speaking, she rose and mocked him, calling me fool
+and idiot for listening to his raving. Then, for the first and last time
+in my life, I threatened her, and she was silent.
+
+"As the sun rose and pierced the smouldering roof, 'Mr. Aristocrat'
+whispered, "I want you to do me a favour. I want you to tell them at
+home that I forgive them. They misjudged me, you see, and it will make
+things a bit easier for my mother."
+
+"Then, with that sacred name upon his lips, he passed quietly away from
+the scene of his sacrifice into the mysteries of the world beyond.
+
+"When he was dead, the woman that is my wife crawled from the place
+where she lay, and threw herself upon the body, moaning as if her heart
+would break. We took her away. But from that day forward her reason was
+gone.
+
+"Ever since that time, at the same hour, night after night, year after
+year, she has gone through that awful tragedy in the old room yonder;
+and with the loneliness of this life around me, I have to hear and bear
+it. The strangest part of it is that I haven't the heart to put her away
+from me.
+
+"Now you understand the meaning of the scene you witnessed to-night, and
+you can see in my case the fulfilment of the Church's order, 'Whom God
+hath joined, let no man put asunder!'"
+
+We walked back to the house together, and he left me at my bedroom door;
+but though I went back to my bed, had I been offered the gold of all the
+Indies I could not have slept a wink.
+
+Next morning our horses were run up, and after breakfast we set off on
+our way again. When we had travelled about a mile, the manager, who was
+riding a short distance with us for company's sake, led me off the track
+to a grassy knoll beside a creek bend. Here, under a fine coolabah, I
+discovered a neatly fenced-in grave.
+
+Beneath the tree, and at the head of the little mound, was a small white
+board, and on it were these two words,--
+
+"_Mr. Aristocrat._"
+
+
+
+
+This Man and This Woman
+
+
+    "What matters Life, what matters Death,
+      What boots of vain remorse?
+    When days are dead, wherein we lived,
+      Our hearts should die--_of course_!"
+
+    --_Song of the Vain Regret._
+
+
+First and foremost it must be understood that when men and women cross
+the Borderland of Discretion into that Never-never Country where
+wedding-rings are forgotten and family correspondence abruptly ceases,
+they do so, believing it to be unlikely that they will ever meet any one
+out of the old life again.
+
+This fallacy may be attributed to one of two things: either to an
+insufficient knowledge of their world, or to an exaggerated idea of
+their own exclusiveness. The first is the more common, but the one is as
+fatal as the other.
+
+It is quite possible, after such a lapse of time, that no one will
+remember the "Clitheroe, Gwynne-Harden" episode. Yet it made a great
+stir at the time. Clitheroe, I fancy, was in the army; while the woman
+was the wife of Gwynne-Harden, the banker. She came of good family, was
+intensely proud, and, among other things, of more or less account, had
+the reputation of being the acknowledged beauty of that season.
+
+Clitheroe and The Other Man's Wife were unwise to the borders of
+madness. For had they been content to worship each other according to
+society's certificated code--surely sufficiently elastic--no trouble
+would have ensued. But, for some reason or other, they were not
+satisfied to jog along in the ordinary way; but must needs meet in all
+sorts of hole-and-corner places, correspond in cipher, and send letters
+by hand, rather than by post. Naturally, people talked, and the scandal,
+by its obtrusiveness, became proverbial. All through the season they
+were in each other's pockets, and during Goodwood week, after a period
+of sentimental shilly-shallying, they disappeared for ever and a day.
+
+Gwynne-Harden, though it was said he loved his wife with an exceeding
+great love, was a philosopher in his own way. After the first shock he
+made no attempt to find her; on the other hand, he put the money the
+search would have cost him into Bolivian Rails, a doubtful, but still a
+better, investment, he said. Having done this, he placed all the
+belongings she had left behind her in an attic under lock and key,
+bought a new brand of cigars, and endeavoured to forget all about her.
+
+Four years later he went into the House, where he managed to interest
+himself in Colonial affairs. Moreover, he had the sense to stick to his
+work, and leave female society alone. He was a shrewd, cynical man, with
+taste for epigram, and said to himself, "I am matrimonial Mahomet, for
+the reason that, because I refuse to apply for a divorce, I hover
+between a possible heaven and an accomplished hell." Which was a bitter,
+but, under the circumstances, perhaps excusable speech.
+
+Now, here comes the part of the story I am anxious to dwell upon. Three
+years after the exodus just narrated, being desirous of extending his
+political information, Gwynne-Harden set out for Australia with a sheaf
+of introductions in his despatch-box. Downing Street busied herself on
+his behalf, and, in consequence, Her Majesty's representatives were
+politely instructed to yield him all the assistance in their power. It
+is well to be a Somebody in the land, and, as any globe-trotter will
+inform you, a Vice-Regal introduction is a lever by no means to be
+despised.
+
+When the Governor of a certain Colony had banqueted, feted, and
+endeavoured to turn his guest inside out for his own purposes, he handed
+him over to the tender mercies of his Colonial Secretary, or whatever
+you call the leader of the gang then in power.
+
+This gentleman had his own opinions on the subject of globe-trotters,
+and argued that the majority were shown too much in order that they
+might absorb too little. Therefore, he said he would take Gwynne-Harden
+under his protection, and enact Gamaliel in his own way.
+
+To this end he lured his victim into a lengthy driving tour through the
+squatting districts, in order that he might see the backbone of the
+country for himself and form his own conclusions. The idea was ingenuous
+in the main, but because he had left all consideration of the past out
+of his calculations it failed entirely in its purpose. Even Colonial
+Secretaries are powerless against Fate.
+
+As they proceeded from station to station on their route, they were
+received with that hospitality for which the Australian Bush is so
+justly famous. And, like the proverbial owl, Gwynne-Harden said little,
+but thought the more.
+
+Between three and four o'clock one roasting afternoon, the travellers
+saw, on the rise before them, the charming homestead of Woodnooro
+Station. The Colonial Secretary looked forward to a pleasant visit, for
+he had stayed there before.
+
+They resigned their buggy to the care of a black boy in the
+horse-paddock, and as they approached the house, the Secretary explained
+to Gwynne-Harden all the good things he knew of the owner and his wife.
+He devoted considerable space to his description of the latter, and in
+answer the banker smiled grimly.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Leaving the small flower-garden behind them, they enter a cool stone
+verandah, where a lady rises from a long cane chair to greet them. The
+Colonial Secretary dashes forward to take her hand....
+
+_Colonial Secretary_ ... "Mr. Gwynne-Harden--Mrs. Chichester."
+
+_Mrs. Chichester_ (as white as a ghost, vainly feeling for the wall
+behind her with her left hand, while she fumbles at her collar with her
+right): "Mr. Gwynne-Harden!" (Then slowly and with prodigious exertion):
+"I--I--I'm--I hope you are very well."
+
+_Mr. Gwynne-Harden_ (with a curious expression in his face, which the
+Colonial Secretary attributes to nervousness): "Extremely well, I thank
+you!"
+
+_Colonial Secretary_: "I am looking forward to having the pleasure of
+introducing Mr. Gwynne-Harden to your husband, Mrs. Chichester."
+
+_Mrs. Chichester_ (with a supreme effort): "I'm sorry to say my husband
+is camped on the run at present."
+
+_Mr. Gwynne-Harden_: "Then I must await his return with proper patience.
+_I shall be delighted to meet him, I am sure._ Mrs. Chichester, is
+anything the matter?"
+
+_Mrs. Chichester_ (still fumbling at her neck): "No, no--r--r--really
+nothing. I feel the heat very much, that is all. Won't you come inside?"
+(Rises and leads the way into the dining-room, where she unlocks a
+sideboard, and puts whisky on the table.) "I'm sure you must need some
+refreshment after your long and hot drive."
+
+_Colonial Secretary_ (enthusiastically, pointing to a creeper through
+the door).... "By Jove! look here, Harden; isn't this perfect? I
+challenge you to find its equal anywhere--the _Buginvillea Speciosa_ in
+all its glory. Ah! I beg your pardon, Mrs. Chichester."
+
+_Mrs. Chichester_ (passing him): "Thank you. If you will excuse me, I
+think I will go and see about your rooms." [_Exits across verandah._]
+
+The Colonial Secretary solemnly takes to himself a whisky-peg, while
+Gwynne-Harden, turning his back, fixes his eye-glass and critically
+examines two photos on the mantelpiece.
+
+_Colonial Secretary_ (warmly, referring to their hostess): "Egad,
+Harden, what would many men give for a wife like that?"
+
+_Mr. Gwynne-Harden_ (dropping his eye-glass, and facing round): "What,
+indeed!"
+
+They adjourn to the verandah, where enter to them a small and very dirty
+child, presumably a boy, who scrutinizes both men carefully before
+venturing near.
+
+_Mr. Gwynne-Harden_: "Ah, my little man, and pray what may your name
+be?"
+
+_Child_: "Jack 'Ister."
+
+_Colonial Secretary_: "Anglise--Jack Chichester. He is a fine boy, and
+typical of the country. Come here, Jack. How old are you?"
+
+_Child_: "I'se free--Baby's one."
+
+_Mr. Gwynne-Harden_: "So there's a baby, too, eh?"
+
+_Mrs. Chichester_ (appearing at the end of the verandah): "Jack, it's
+your bed-time. Say good-night, and come along at once."
+
+Jack goes to Gwynne-Harden, and holds up his face to be kissed; but the
+honour is declined. The Colonial Secretary accepts it effusively. Then
+mother and child disappear together.
+
+_Colonial Secretary_ (laughingly): "You don't seem fond of kissing
+children!"
+
+_Mr. Gwynne-Harden_: "Not other people's children, thank you!"
+
+_Colonial Secretary_ (who has never heard the scandal, to himself): "I
+wonder if there's a Mrs. Gwynne-Harden?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The quarter of an hour preceding dinner._ Gwynne-Harden is standing
+with his hands on the chimney-piece, looking into the empty fireplace.
+To him enter Mrs. Chichester.
+
+_Mrs. Chichester_ (advancing): "George! George--for myself I ask
+nothing; but for my children's sakes. Oh, George, be merciful!"
+
+_Mr. Gwynne-Harden_ (turning): "Mrs. Chichester, I beg your pardon ten
+thousand times for not seeing you enter. This light is so deceptive,
+perhaps you thought I was your husband!"
+
+_Mrs. Chichester_: "George, have you forgotten me?"
+
+_Mr. Gwynne-Harden_: "My dear _Mrs. Chichester_, pray let me turn up the
+lamp, then you will see whom you are addressing. I am Mr. Gwynne-Harden,
+and if you will pardon my saying so, I don't remember ever having seen
+your face before. If I have, I have been rude enough to forget the
+circumstance. _Your husband's_ acquaintance I shall----"
+
+_Mrs. Chichester_: "What of my husband?"
+
+_Mr. Gwynne-Harden_: "Only that I shall hope to meet him face to face
+very soon."
+
+Enter the Colonial Secretary simultaneously with dinner.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_10 p.m., the same evening. Scene--Gwynne-Harden's bedroom._ He divests
+himself of his coat and waistcoat, and having done so, discovers a note
+addressed to himself upon the table. He reads it, and then looks long
+and fixedly at his own reflection in the glass.
+
+_Mr. Gwynne-Harden_ (tearing the note into a hundred pieces): "Humph!
+This is certainly the Nineteenth Century--well, I'll sleep on it."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Next morning the Colonial Secretary and his companion, without any
+apparent reason, changed their plans and continued their journey. When
+the buggy was at the door and the latter came to bid his hostess
+farewell, he said,--
+
+"I am very sorry that we are compelled to go, for I shall not have an
+opportunity now of meeting your husband, Mrs. Chichester. And as I leave
+for England in a month, _it is improbable that we shall ever meet_!"
+
+To this speech Mrs. Chichester, so the Colonial Secretary thought,
+rather illogically said,--
+
+"God bless you!"
+
+
+
+
+OTHER PUBLICATIONS
+
+
+WORKS BY GUY BOOTHBY
+
+
+    IN STRANGE COMPANY
+    THE MARRIAGE OF ESTHER
+    A BID FOR FORTUNE
+    THE BEAUTIFUL WHITE DEVIL
+    DR. NIKOLA
+    THE FASCINATION OF THE KING
+    BUSHIGRAMS
+    THE LUST OF HATE
+    ACROSS THE WORLD FOR A WIFE
+    PHAROS, THE EGYPTIAN
+    LOVE MADE MANIFEST
+    THE RED RAT'S DAUGHTER
+    A MAKER OF NATIONS
+    A PRINCE OF SWINDLERS
+    A SAILOR'S BRIDE
+    LONG LIVE THE KING
+    MY INDIAN QUEEN
+    SHEILAH McLEOD
+    FAREWELL, NIKOLA
+    MY STRANGEST CASE
+    THE KIDNAPPED PRESIDENT
+    CONNIE BURT
+    A TWO-FOLD INHERITANCE
+    A BID FOR FREEDOM
+
+
+WORKS BY E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM.
+
+All Illustrated.
+
+The Master Mummer.
+
+A romance of quality. A Princess of the Kingdom of Bartena is kept out
+of the way so that her position may be filled by that of her cousin. Her
+temporary guardian is killed, and, knowing nothing of her parentage, and
+while without friends, she finds one in an English gentleman, who makes
+a place for her in his house. Then a thousand intrigues to get her out
+of his hands are set on foot. It is without doubt the most romantic and
+entertaining novel which Mr. Oppenheim has yet written.
+
+
+The Betrayal.
+
+The Dundee Advertiser says:--"Mr. Oppenheim's skill has never been
+displayed to better advantage than here.... He has excelled himself, and
+to assert this is to declare the novel superior to nine out of ten of
+its contemporaries."
+
+
+Anna, The Adventuress.
+
+
+The Globe says:--"The story is ingeniously imagined and cleverly wrought
+out. Mr. Oppenheim has the gift of invention and keeps his readers on
+the tenter-hooks of suspense."
+
+The Daily News says:--"Mr. Oppenheim keeps his readers on the alert from
+cover to cover, and the story is a fascinating medley of romance and
+mystery."
+
+The Yellow Crayon.
+
+The Daily Express says:--"Mr. Oppenheim has a vivid imagination and much
+sympathy, fine powers of narrative, and can suggest a life history in a
+sentence. As a painter of the rough life of mining camps, of any strong
+and striking scenes where animal passions enter, he is as good as Henry
+Kingsley, with whom, indeed, in many respects, he has strong points of
+resemblance."
+
+
+A Prince of Sinners.
+
+Vanity Fair says:--"A vivid and powerful story. Mr. Oppenheim knows the
+world and he can tell a tale, and the unusual nature of the setting in
+which his leading characters live and work out their love story gives
+this book distinction among the novels of the season."
+
+The World says:--"Excellent. A book to read, enjoy, and think over."
+
+
+The Traitors.
+
+The Athenaeum says:--"Its interest begins on the first page and ends on
+the last. The plot is ingenious and well-managed, the movement of the
+story is admirably swift and smooth, and the characters are exceedingly
+vivacious. The reader's excitement is kept on the stretch to the very
+end."
+
+
+A Millionaire of Yesterday.
+
+The Daily Telegraph says:--"The story is admirably constructed, and
+developed simply and forcibly. It abounds in dramatic situations, and
+there is more than one note of pathos which at once captures our
+sympathies. We cannot but welcome with enthusiasm a really well-told
+story like 'A Millionaire of Yesterday.' At the same time there is no
+lack of character-study in this very satisfactory book."
+
+
+The Survivor.
+
+The Nottingham Guardian says:--"We must give a conspicuous place on its
+merits to this excellent story. It is only necessary to read a page or
+two in order to become deeply interested in the central figure of the
+story; while the opening scenes, on which not a word is wasted, impress
+by their originality and power, and give promise of something worth
+following up. A story marked by brilliant and terse narration, vivid
+touches of characterization, and a plot that is consistent and yet
+fruitful in surprises."
+
+
+The Great Awakening.
+
+The Yorkshire Post says:--"A weird and fascinating story, which, for
+real beauty and originality, ranks far above the ordinary novel."
+
+The Daily Telegraph says:--"Possesses an absorbing interest; it has also
+an extraordinary fascination."
+
+
+As a Man Lives.
+
+The Sketch says:--"The interest of the book, always keen and absorbing,
+is due to some extent to a puzzle so admirably planned as to defy the
+penetration of the most experienced novel reader."
+
+
+A Daughter of the Marionis.
+
+The Scotsman says:--"Mr. Oppenheim's stories always display much
+melodramatic power and considerable originality and ingenuity of
+construction. These and other qualities of the successful writer of
+romance are manifest in 'A Daughter of the Marionis.' Full of passion,
+action, strongly contrasted scenery, motives, and situations."
+
+
+Mr. Bernard Brown.
+
+The Daily Graphic says:--"Mr. E. Phillips Oppenheim has a remarkable
+gift of making up an exciting story."
+
+The Aberdeen Daily Journal says:--"The story is rich in sensational
+incident and dramatic situations. It is seldom, indeed, that we meet
+with a novel of such power and fascination."
+
+
+The Man and His Kingdom.
+
+The Freeman's Journal says:--"It is high praise to say that in this
+novel the author has surpassed his previous thrilling and delightful
+story, 'The Mysterious Mr. Sabin.' Yet that high praise is eminently
+deserved. The story is worthy of Merriman at his very best. It is a
+genuine treat for the ravenous and often disappointed novel reader."
+
+
+The World's Great Snare.
+
+The World says:--"If engrossing interest, changing episode, deep insight
+into human character, and bright diction are the _sine qua non_ of a
+successful novel, then this book cannot but bound at once into popular
+favour. It is so full withal of so many dramatic incidents, thoroughly
+exciting and realistic. There is not one dull page from beginning to
+end."
+
+
+A Monk of Cruta.
+
+The Bookman says:--"Intensely dramatic. The book is an achievement at
+which the author may well be gratified."
+
+
+Mysterious Mr. Sabin.
+
+The Literary World says:--"As a story of incident, with a deep-laid and
+exciting plot, this of the 'Mysterious Mr. Sabin' can hardly be
+surpassed."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A Crime of the Under-seas, by Guy Boothby
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CRIME OF THE UNDER-SEAS ***
+
+***** This file should be named 36118.txt or 36118.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/1/1/36118/
+
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+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
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