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+**The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Captain of the Polestar***
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+The Captain of the Polestar
+
+by Arthur Conan Doyle
+
+July, 1995  [Etext #294]
+
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+
+THE
+CAPTAIN OF THE POLESTAR
+AND OTHER TALES.
+
+SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
+
+
+TO
+MY FRIEND
+MAJOR-GENERAL A. W. DRAYSON
+AS A SLIGHT TOKEN
+OF
+MY ADMIRATION FOR HIS GREAT
+AND AS YET UNRECOGNISED SERVICES TO ASTRONOMY
+This little Volume
+IS
+DEDICATED
+
+
+PREFACE
+For the use of some of the following Tales I am
+indebted to the courtesy of the Proprietors of
+"Cornhill," "Temple Bar," "Belgravia," "London
+Society," "Cassell's," and "The Boy's Own Paper."
+A. CONAN DOYLE, M.D.
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+THE CAPTAIN OF THE POLE-STAR
+J. HABAKUK JEPHSON'S STATEMENT
+THE GREAT KEINPLATZ EXPERIMENT
+THE MAN FROM ARCHANGEL
+THAT LITTLE SQUARE BOX
+JOHN HUXFORD'S HIATUS
+A LITERARY MOSAIC
+JOHN BARRINGTON COWLES
+THE PARSON OF JACKMAN'S GULCH
+THE RING OF THOTH
+
+
+
+THE CAPTAIN OF THE "POLE-STAR."
+[Being an extract from the singular journal of JOHN M`ALISTER RAY,
+student of medicine.]
+
+
+September 11th.--Lat. 81 degrees 40' N.; long.  2 degrees E.  Still
+lying-to amid enormous ice fields.  The one which stretches away to
+the north of us, and to which our ice-anchor is attached, cannot be
+smaller than an English county.  To the right and left unbroken
+sheets extend to the horizon.  This morning the mate reported that
+there were signs of pack ice to the southward.  Should this form of
+sufficient thickness to bar our return, we shall be in a position
+of danger, as the food, I hear, is already running somewhat short. 
+It is late in the season, and the nights are beginning to reappear.
+
+This morning I saw a star twinkling just over the fore-yard, the
+first since the beginning of May.  There is considerable discontent
+among the crew, many of whom are anxious to get back home to be in
+time for the herring season, when labour always commands a high
+price upon the Scotch coast.  As yet their displeasure is only
+signified by sullen countenances and black looks, but I heard from
+the second mate this afternoon that they contemplated sending a
+deputation to the Captain to explain their grievance.  I much doubt
+how he will receive it, as he is a man of fierce temper, and very
+sensitive about anything approaching to an infringement of his
+rights.  I shall venture after dinner to say a few words to him
+upon the subject.  I have always found that he will tolerate from
+me what he would resent from any other member of the crew. 
+Amsterdam Island, at the north-west corner of Spitzbergen, is
+visible upon our starboard quarter--a rugged line of volcanic
+rocks, intersected by white seams, which represent glaciers.  It is
+curious to think that at the present moment there is probably no
+human being nearer to us than the Danish settlements in the south
+of Greenland--a good nine hundred miles as the crow flies.  A
+captain takes a great responsibility upon himself when he risks his
+vessel under such circumstances.  No whaler has ever remained in
+these latitudes till so advanced a period of the year.
+
+9 P.M,--I have spoken to Captain Craigie, and though the result has
+been hardly satisfactory, I am bound to say that he listened to
+what I had to say very quietly and even deferentially.  When I had
+finished he put on that air of iron determination which I have
+frequently observed upon his face, and paced rapidly backwards and
+forwards across the narrow cabin for some minutes.  At first I
+feared that I had seriously offended him, but he dispelled the idea
+by sitting down again, and putting his hand upon my arm with a
+gesture which almost amounted to a caress.  There was a depth of
+tenderness too in his wild dark eyes which surprised me
+considerably.  "Look here, Doctor," he said, "I'm sorry I ever took
+you--I am indeed--and I would give fifty pounds this minute to see
+you standing safe upon the Dundee quay.  It's hit or miss with me
+this time.  There are fish to the north of us.  How dare you shake
+your head, sir, when I tell you I saw them blowing from the
+masthead?"--this in a sudden burst of fury, though I was not
+conscious of having shown any signs of doubt.  "Two-and-twenty fish
+in as many minutes as I am a living man, and not one under ten
+foot.[1]  Now, Doctor, do you think I can leave the country when
+there is only one infernal strip of ice between me and my fortune? 
+If it came on to blow from the north to-morrow we could fill the
+ship and be away before the frost could catch us.  If it came on to
+blow from the south--well, I suppose the men are paid for risking
+their lives, and as for myself it matters but little to me, for I
+have more to bind me to the other world than to this one.  I
+confess that I am sorry for you, though.  I wish I had old Angus
+Tait who was with me last voyage, for he was a man that would never
+be missed, and you--you said once that you were engaged, did you
+not?"
+
+
+[1] A whale is measured among whalers not by the length of its
+body, but by the length of its whalebone.
+
+
+"Yes," I answered, snapping the spring of the locket which hung
+from my watch-chain, and holding up the little vignette of Flora.
+
+"Curse you!" he yelled, springing out of his seat, with his very
+beard bristling with passion.  "What is your happiness to me?  What
+have I to do with her that you must dangle her photograph before my
+eyes?"  I almost thought that he was about to strike me in the
+frenzy of his rage, but with another imprecation he dashed open the
+door of the cabin and rushed out upon deck, leaving me considerably
+astonished at his extraordinary violence.  It is the first time
+that he has ever shown me anything but courtesy and kindness.  I
+can hear him pacing excitedly up and down overhead as I write these
+lines.
+
+I should like to give a sketch of the character of this man, but it
+seems presumptuous to attempt such a thing upon paper, when the
+idea in my own mind is at best a vague and uncertain one.  Several
+times I have thought that I grasped the clue which might explain
+it, but only to be disappointed by his presenting himself in some
+new light which would upset all my conclusions.  It may be that no
+human eye but my own shall ever rest upon these lines, yet as a
+psychological study I shall attempt to leave some record of Captain
+Nicholas Craigie.
+
+A man's outer case generally gives some indication of the soul
+within.  The Captain is tall and well-formed, with dark, handsome
+face, and a curious way of twitching his limbs, which may arise
+from nervousness, or be simply an outcome of his excessive energy. 
+His jaw and whole cast of countenance is manly and resolute, but
+the eyes are the distinctive feature of his face.  They are of the
+very darkest hazel, bright and eager, with a singular mixture of
+recklessness in their expression, and of something else which I
+have sometimes thought was more allied with horror than any other
+emotion.  Generally the former predominated, but on occasions, and
+more particularly when he was thoughtfully inclined, the look of
+fear would spread and deepen until it imparted a new character to
+his whole countenance.  It is at these times that he is most
+subject to tempestuous fits of anger, and he seems to be aware of
+it, for I have known him lock himself up so that no one might
+approach him until his dark hour was passed.  He sleeps badly, and
+I have heard him shouting during the night, but his cabin is some
+little distance from mine, and I could never distinguish the words
+which he said.
+
+This is one phase of his character, and the most disagreeable one. 
+It is only through my close association with him, thrown together
+as we are day after day, that I have observed it.  Otherwise he is
+an agreeable companion, well-read and entertaining, and as gallant
+a seaman as ever trod a deck.  I shall not easily forget the way in
+which he handled the ship when we were caught by a gale among the
+loose ice at the beginning of April.  I have never seen him so
+cheerful, and even hilarious, as he was that night, as he paced
+backwards and forwards upon the bridge amid the flashing of the
+lightning and the howling of the wind.  He has told me several
+times that the thought of death was a pleasant one to him, which is
+a sad thing for a young man to say; he cannot be much more than
+thirty, though his hair and moustache are already slightly
+grizzled.  Some great sorrow must have overtaken him and blighted
+his whole life.  Perhaps I should be the same if I lost my Flora--
+God knows!  I think if it were not for her that I should care very
+little whether the wind blew from the north or the south to-morrow.
+
+There, I hear him come down the companion, and he has locked
+himself up in his room, which shows that he is still in an
+unamiable mood.  And so to bed, as old Pepys would say, for the
+candle is burning down (we have to use them now since the nights
+are closing in), and the steward has turned in, so there are no
+hopes of another one.
+
+September 12th.--Calm, clear day, and still lying in the same
+position.  What wind there is comes from the south-east, but it is
+very slight.  Captain is in a better humour, and apologised to me
+at breakfast for his rudeness.  He still looks somewhat distrait,
+however, and retains that wild look in his eyes which in a
+Highlander would mean that he was "fey"--at least so our chief
+engineer remarked to me, and he has some reputation among the
+Celtic portion of our crew as a seer and expounder of omens.
+
+It is strange that superstition should have obtained such mastery
+over this hard-headed and practical race.  I could not have
+believed to what an extent it is carried had I not observed it for
+myself.  We have had a perfect epidemic of it this voyage, until I
+have felt inclined to serve out rations of sedatives and nerve-
+tonics with the Saturday allowance of grog.  The first symptom
+of it was that shortly after leaving Shetland the men at the wheel
+used to complain that they heard plaintive cries and screams in the
+wake of the ship, as if something were following it and were unable
+to overtake it.  This fiction has been kept up during the whole
+voyage, and on dark nights at the beginning of the seal-fishing it
+was only with great difficulty that men could be induced to do
+their spell.  No doubt what they heard was either the creaking of
+the rudder-chains, or the cry of some passing sea-bird.  I have
+been fetched out of bed several times to listen to it, but I need
+hardly say that I was never able to distinguish anything unnatural.
+
+The men, however, are so absurdly positive upon the subject that it
+is hopeless to argue with them.  I mentioned the matter to the
+Captain once, but to my surprise he took it very gravely, and
+indeed appeared to be considerably disturbed by what I told him. 
+I should have thought that he at least would have been above such
+vulgar delusions.
+
+All this disquisition upon superstition leads me up to the fact
+that Mr. Manson, our second mate, saw a ghost last night--or, at
+least, says that he did, which of course is the same thing.  It is
+quite refreshing to have some new topic of conversation after the
+eternal routine of bears and whales which has served us for so many
+months.  Manson swears the ship is haunted, and that he would not
+stay in her a day if he had any other place to go to.  Indeed the
+fellow is honestly frightened, and I had to give him some
+chloral and bromide of potassium this morning to steady him
+down.  He seemed quite indignant when I suggested that he had been
+having an extra glass the night before, and I was obliged to pacify
+him by keeping as grave a countenance as possible during his story,
+which he certainly narrated in a very straight-forward and matter-
+of-fact way.
+
+"I was on the bridge," he said, "about four bells in the middle
+watch, just when the night was at its darkest.  There was a bit of
+a moon, but the clouds were blowing across it so that you couldn't
+see far from the ship.  John M`Leod, the harpooner, came aft from
+the foc'sle-head and reported a strange noise on the starboard bow.
+
+I went forrard and we both heard it, sometimes like a bairn crying
+and sometimes like a wench in pain.  I've been seventeen years to
+the country and I never heard seal, old or young, make a sound like
+that.  As we were standing there on the foc'sle-head the moon came
+out from behind a cloud, and we both saw a sort of white figure
+moving across the ice field in the same direction that we had heard
+the cries.  We lost sight of it for a while, but it came back on
+the port bow, and we could just make it out like a shadow on the
+ice.  I sent a hand aft for the rifles, and M`Leod and I went down
+on to the pack, thinking that maybe it might be a bear.  When we
+got on the ice I lost sight of M`Leod, but I pushed on in the
+direction where I could still hear the cries.  I followed them for
+a mile or maybe more, and then running round a hummock I came right
+on to the top of it standing and waiting for me seemingly.  I
+don't know what it was.  It wasn't a bear any way.  It was tall and
+white and straight, and if it wasn't a man nor a woman, I'll stake
+my davy it was something worse.  I made for the ship as hard as I
+could run, and precious glad I was to find myself aboard.  I signed
+articles to do my duty by the ship, and on the ship I'll stay, but
+you don't catch me on the ice again after sundown."
+
+That is his story, given as far as I can in his own words.  I fancy
+what he saw must, in spite of his denial, have been a young bear
+erect upon its hind legs, an attitude which they often assume when
+alarmed.  In the uncertain light this would bear a resemblance to
+a human figure, especially to a man whose nerves were already
+somewhat shaken.  Whatever it may have been, the occurrence is
+unfortunate, for it has produced a most unpleasant effect upon the
+crew.  Their looks are more sullen than before, and their
+discontent more open.  The double grievance of being debarred from
+the herring fishing and of being detained in what they choose to
+call a haunted vessel, may lead them to do something rash.  Even
+the harpooners, who are the oldest and steadiest among them, are
+joining in the general agitation.
+
+Apart from this absurd outbreak of superstition, things are looking
+rather more cheerful.  The pack which was forming to the south of
+us has partly cleared away, and the water is so warm as to lead me
+to believe that we are lying in one of those branches of the gulf-
+stream which run up between Greenland and Spitzbergen.  There
+are numerous small Medusse and sealemons about the ship, with
+abundance of shrimps, so that there is every possibility of "fish"
+being sighted.  Indeed one was seen blowing about dinner-time, but
+in such a position that it was impossible for the boats to follow
+it.
+
+September 13th.--Had an interesting conversation with the chief
+mate, Mr. Milne, upon the bridge.  It seems that our Captain is as
+great an enigma to the seamen, and even to the owners of the
+vessel, as he has been to me.  Mr. Milne tells me that when the
+ship is paid off, upon returning from a voyage, Captain Craigie
+disappears, and is not seen again until the approach of another
+season, when he walks quietly into the office of the company, and
+asks whether his services will be required.  He has no friend in
+Dundee, nor does any one pretend to be acquainted with his early
+history.  His position depends entirely upon his skill as a seaman,
+and the name for courage and coolness which he had earned in the
+capacity of mate, before being entrusted with a separate command. 
+The unanimous opinion seems to be that he is not a Scotchman, and
+that his name is an assumed one.  Mr. Milne thinks that he has
+devoted himself to whaling simply for the reason that it is the
+most dangerous occupation which he could select, and that he courts
+death in every possible manner.  He mentioned several instances of
+this, one of which is rather curious, if true.  It seems that on
+one occasion he did not put in an appearance at the office, and
+a substitute had to be selected in his place.  That was at the time
+of the last Russian and Turkish war.  When he turned up again next
+spring he had a puckered wound in the side of his neck which he
+used to endeavour to conceal with his cravat.  Whether the mate's
+inference that he had been engaged in the war is true or not I
+cannot say.  It was certainly a strange coincidence.
+
+The wind is veering round in an easterly direction, but is still
+very slight.  I think the ice is lying closer than it did
+yesterday.  As far as the eye can reach on every side there is one
+wide expanse of spotless white, only broken by an occasional rift
+or the dark shadow of a hummock.  To the south there is the narrow
+lane of blue water which is our sole means of escape, and which is
+closing up every day.  The Captain is taking a heavy responsibility
+upon himself.  I hear that the tank of potatoes has been finished,
+and even the biscuits are running short, but he preserves the same
+impassible countenance, and spends the greater part of the day at
+the crow's nest, sweeping the horizon with his glass.  His manner
+is very variable, and he seems to avoid my society, but there has
+been no repetition of the violence which he showed the other night.
+
+7.30 P.M.--My deliberate opinion is that we are commanded by a
+madman.  Nothing else can account for the extraordinary vagaries of
+Captain Craigie.  It is fortunate that I have kept this journal of
+our voyage, as it will serve to justify us in case we have to put
+him under any sort of restraint, a step which I should only
+consent to as a last resource.  Curiously enough it was he himself
+who suggested lunacy and not mere eccentricity as the secret of his
+strange conduct.  He was standing upon the bridge about an hour
+ago, peering as usual through his glass, while I was walking up and
+down the quarterdeck.  The majority of the men were below at their
+tea, for the watches have not been regularly kept of late.  Tired
+of walking, I leaned against the bulwarks, and admired the mellow
+glow cast by the sinking sun upon the great ice fields which
+surround us.  I was suddenly aroused from the reverie into which I
+had fallen by a hoarse voice at my elbow, and starting round I
+found that the Captain had descended and was standing by my side. 
+He was staring out over the ice with an expression in which horror,
+surprise, and something approaching to joy were contending for the
+mastery.  In spite of the cold, great drops of perspiration were
+coursing down his forehead, and he was evidently fearfully excited.
+
+His limbs twitched like those of a man upon the verge of an
+epileptic fit, and the lines about his mouth were drawn and hard.
+
+"Look!" he gasped, seizing me by the wrist, but still keeping his
+eyes upon the distant ice, and moving his head slowly in a
+horizontal direction, as if following some object which was moving
+across the field of vision.  "Look!  There, man, there!  Between
+the hummocks!  Now coming out from behind the far one!  You see
+her--you MUST see her!  There still!  Flying from me, by
+God, flying from me--and gone!"
+
+He uttered the last two words in a whisper of concentrated agony
+which shall never fade from my remembrance.  Clinging to the
+ratlines he endeavoured to climb up upon the top of the bulwarks as
+if in the hope of obtaining a last glance at the departing object. 
+His strength was not equal to the attempt, however, and he
+staggered back against the saloon skylights, where he leaned
+panting and exhausted.  His face was so livid that I expected him
+to become unconscious, so lost no time in leading him down the
+companion, and stretching him upon one of the sofas in the cabin. 
+I then poured him out some brandy, which I held to his lips, and
+which had a wonderful effect upon him, bringing the blood back into
+his white face and steadying his poor shaking limbs.  He raised
+himself up upon his elbow, and looking round to see that we were
+alone, he beckoned to me to come and sit beside him.
+
+"You saw it, didn't you?" he asked, still in the same subdued
+awesome tone so foreign to the nature of the man.
+
+"No, I saw nothing."
+
+His head sank back again upon the cushions.  "No, he wouldn't
+without the glass," he murmured.  "He couldn't.  It was the glass
+that showed her to me, and then the eyes of love--the eyes of love.
+
+I say, Doc, don't let the steward in!  He'll think I'm mad.  Just
+bolt the door, will you!"
+
+I rose and did what he had commanded.
+
+He lay quiet for a while, lost in thought apparently, and then
+raised himself up upon his elbow again, and asked for some more
+brandy.
+
+"You don't think I am, do you, Doc?" he asked, as I was putting the
+bottle back into the after-locker.  "Tell me now, as man to man, do
+you think that I am mad?"
+
+"I think you have something on your mind," I answered, "which is
+exciting you and doing you a good deal of harm."
+
+"Right there, lad!" he cried, his eyes sparkling from the effects
+of the brandy.  "Plenty on my mind--plenty!  But I can work out the
+latitude and the longitude, and I can handle my sextant and manage
+my logarithms.  You couldn't prove me mad in a court of law, could
+you, now?"  It was curious to hear the man lying back and coolly
+arguing out the question of his own sanity.
+
+"Perhaps not," I said; "but still I think you would be wise to get
+home as soon as you can, and settle down to a quiet life for a
+while."
+
+"Get home, eh?" he muttered, with a sneer upon his face.  "One word
+for me and two for yourself, lad.  Settle down with Flora--pretty
+little Flora.  Are bad dreams signs of madness?"
+
+"Sometimes," I answered.
+
+"What else?  What would be the first symptoms?"
+
+"Pains in the head, noises in the ears flashes before the eyes,
+delusions"----
+
+"Ah! what about them?" he interrupted.  "What would you call a
+delusion?"
+
+"Seeing a thing which is not there is a delusion."
+
+"But she WAS there!" he groaned to himself.  "She WAS there!"
+and rising, he unbolted the door and walked with slow and uncertain
+steps to his own cabin, where I have no doubt that he will remain
+until to-morrow morning.  His system seems to have received a
+terrible shock, whatever it may have been that he imagined himself
+to have seen.  The man becomes a greater mystery every day, though
+I fear that the solution which he has himself suggested is the
+correct one, and that his reason is affected.  I do not think that
+a guilty conscience has anything to do with his behaviour.  The
+idea is a popular one among the officers, and, I believe, the crew;
+but I have seen nothing to support it.  He has not the air of a
+guilty man, but of one who has had terrible usage at the hands of
+fortune, and who should be regarded as a martyr rather than a
+criminal.
+
+The wind is veering round to the south to-night.  God help us if it
+blocks that narrow pass which is our only road to safety!  Situated
+as we are on the edge of the main Arctic pack, or the "barrier" as
+it is called by the whalers, any wind from the north has the effect
+of shredding out the ice around us and allowing our escape, while
+a wind from the south blows up all the loose ice behind us and hems
+us in between two packs.  God help us, I say again!
+
+September 14th.--Sunday, and a day of rest.  My fears have
+been confirmed, and the thin strip of blue water has disappeared
+from the southward.  Nothing but the great motionless ice fields
+around us, with their weird hummocks and fantastic pinnacles. 
+There is a deathly silence over their wide expanse which is
+horrible.  No lapping of the waves now, no cries of seagulls or
+straining of sails, but one deep universal silence in which the
+murmurs of the seamen, and the creak of their boots upon the white
+shining deck, seem discordant and out of place.  Our only visitor
+was an Arctic fox, a rare animal upon the pack, though common
+enough upon the land.  He did not come near the ship, however, but
+after surveying us from a distance fled rapidly across the ice. 
+This was curious conduct, as they generally know nothing of man,
+and being of an inquisitive nature, become so familiar that they
+are easily captured.  Incredible as it may seem, even this little
+incident produced a bad effect upon the crew.  "Yon puir beastie
+kens mair, ay, an' sees mair nor you nor me!" was the comment of
+one of the leading harpooners, and the others nodded their
+acquiescence.  It is vain to attempt to argue against such puerile
+superstition.  They have made up their minds that there is a curse
+upon the ship, and nothing will ever persuade them to the contrary.
+
+The Captain remained in seclusion all day except for about half an
+hour in the afternoon, when he came out upon the quarterdeck.  I
+observed that he kept his eye fixed upon the spot where the vision
+of yesterday had appeared, and was quite prepared for another
+outburst, but none such came.  He did not seem to see me
+although I was standing close beside him.  Divine service was read
+as usual by the chief engineer.  It is a curious thing that in
+whaling vessels the Church of England Prayer-book is always
+employed, although there is never a member of that Church among
+either officers or crew.  Our men are all Roman Catholics or
+Presbyterians, the former predominating.  Since a ritual is used
+which is foreign to both, neither can complain that the other is
+preferred to them, and they listen with all attention and devotion,
+so that the system has something to recommend it.
+
+A glorious sunset, which made the great fields of ice look like a
+lake of blood.  I have never seen a finer and at the same time more
+weird effect.  Wind is veering round.  If it will blow twenty-four
+hours from the north all will yet be well.
+
+September 15th.--To-day is Flora's birthday.  Dear lass! it is
+well that she cannot see her boy, as she used to call me, shut up
+among the ice fields with a crazy captain and a few weeks'
+provisions.  No doubt she scans the shipping list in the Scotsman
+every morning to see if we are reported from Shetland.  I have to
+set an example to the men and look cheery and unconcerned; but God
+knows, my heart is very heavy at times.
+
+The thermometer is at nineteen Fahrenheit to-day.  There is but
+little wind, and what there is comes from an unfavourable quarter. 
+Captain is in an excellent humour; I think he imagines he has seen
+some other omen or vision, poor fellow, during the night, for he
+came into my room early in the morning, and stooping down over
+my bunk, whispered, "It wasn't a delusion, Doc; it's all right!" 
+After breakfast he asked me to find out how much food was left,
+which the second mate and I proceeded to do.  It is even less than
+we had expected.  Forward they have half a tank full of biscuits,
+three barrels of salt meat, and a very limited supply of coffee
+beans and sugar.  In the after-hold and lockers there are a good
+many luxuries, such as tinned salmon, soups, haricot mutton, &c.,
+but they will go a very short way among a crew of fifty men.  There
+are two barrels of flour in the store-room, and an unlimited supply
+of tobacco.  Altogether there is about enough to keep the men on
+half rations for eighteen or twenty days--certainly not more.  When
+we reported the state of things to the Captain, he ordered all
+hands to be piped, and addressed them from the quarterdeck.  I
+never saw him to better advantage.  With his tall, well-knit
+figure, and dark animated face, he seemed a man born to command,
+and he discussed the situation in a cool sailor-like way which
+showed that while appreciating the danger he had an eye for every
+loophole of escape.
+
+"My lads," he said, "no doubt you think I brought you into this
+fix, if it is a fix, and maybe some of you feel bitter against me
+on account of it.  But you must remember that for many a season no
+ship that comes to the country has brought in as much oil-money as
+the old Pole-Star, and every one of you has had his share of it. 
+You can leave your wives behind you in comfort while other poor
+fellows come back to find their lasses on the parish.  If you have
+to thank me for the one you have to thank me for the other, and we
+may call it quits.  We've tried a bold venture before this and
+succeeded, so now that we've tried one and failed we've no cause to
+cry out about it.  If the worst comes to the worst, we can make the
+land across the ice, and lay in a stock of seals which will keep us
+alive until the spring.  It won't come to that, though, for you'll
+see the Scotch coast again before three weeks are out.  At present
+every man must go on half rations, share and share alike, and no
+favour to any.  Keep up your hearts and you'll pull through this as
+you've pulled through many a danger before."  These few simple
+words of his had a wonderful effect upon the crew.  His former
+unpopularity was forgotten, and the old harpooner whom I have
+already mentioned for his superstition, led off three cheers, which
+were heartily joined in by all hands.
+
+September 16th.--The wind has veered round to the north during
+the night, and the ice shows some symptoms of opening out.  The men
+are in a good humour in spite of the short allowance upon which
+they have been placed.  Steam is kept up in the engine-room, that
+there may be no delay should an opportunity for escape present
+itself.  The Captain is in exuberant spirits, though he still
+retains that wild "fey" expression which I have already remarked
+upon.  This burst of cheerfulness puzzles me more than his former
+gloom.  I cannot understand it.  I think I mentioned in an
+early part of this journal that one of his oddities is that he
+never permits any person to enter his cabin, but insists upon
+making his own bed, such as it is, and performing every other
+office for himself.  To my surprise he handed me the key to-day and
+requested me to go down there and take the time by his chronometer
+while he measured the altitude of the sun at noon.  It is a bare
+little room, containing a washing-stand and a few books, but little
+else in the way of luxury, except some pictures upon the walls. 
+The majority of these are small cheap oleographs, but there was one
+water-colour sketch of the head of a young lady which arrested my
+attention.  It was evidently a portrait, and not one of those fancy
+types of female beauty which sailors particularly affect.  No
+artist could have evolved from his own mind such a curious mixture
+of character and weakness.  The languid, dreamy eyes, with their
+drooping lashes, and the broad, low brow, unruffled by thought or
+care, were in strong contrast with the clean-cut, prominent jaw,
+and the resolute set of the lower lip.  Underneath it in one of the
+corners was written, "M. B., aet.  19."  That any one in the short
+space of nineteen years of existence could develop such strength of
+will as was stamped upon her face seemed to me at the time to be
+well-nigh incredible.  She must have been an extraordinary woman. 
+Her features have thrown such a glamour over me that, though I had
+but a fleeting glance at them, I could, were I a draughtsman,
+reproduce them line for line upon this page of the journal.  I
+wonder what part she has played in our Captain's life.  He has
+hung her picture at the end of his berth, so that his eyes
+continually rest upon it.  Were he a less reserved man I should
+make some remark upon the subject.  Of the other things in his
+cabin there was nothing worthy of mention--uniform coats, a camp-
+stool, small looking-glass, tobacco-box, and numerous pipes,
+including an oriental hookah--which, by-the-bye, gives some colour
+to Mr. Milne's story about his participation in the war, though the
+connection may seem rather a distant one.
+
+11.20 P.M.--Captain just gone to bed after a long and interesting
+conversation on general topics.  When he chooses he can be a most
+fascinating companion, being remarkably well-read, and having the
+power of expressing his opinion forcibly without appearing to be
+dogmatic.  I hate to have my intellectual toes trod upon.  He spoke
+about the nature of the soul, and sketched out the views of
+Aristotle and Plato upon the subject in a masterly manner.  He
+seems to have a leaning for metempsychosis and the doctrines of
+Pythagoras.  In discussing them we touched upon modern
+spiritualism, and I made some joking allusion to the impostures of
+Slade, upon which, to my surprise, he warned me most impressively
+against confusing the innocent with the guilty, and argued that it
+would be as logical to brand Christianity as an error because
+Judas, who professed that religion, was a villain.  He shortly
+afterwards bade me good-night and retired to his room.
+
+The wind is freshening up, and blows steadily from the north.  The
+nights are as dark now as they are in England.  I hope to-morrow
+may set us free from our frozen fetters.
+
+September 17th.--The Bogie again.  Thank Heaven that I have
+strong nerves!  The superstition of these poor fellows, and the
+circumstantial accounts which they give, with the utmost
+earnestness and self-conviction, would horrify any man not
+accustomed to their ways.  There are many versions of the matter,
+but the sum-total of them all is that something uncanny has been
+flitting round the ship all night, and that Sandie M`Donald of
+Peterhead and "lang" Peter Williamson of Shetland saw it, as also
+did Mr. Milne on the bridge--so, having three witnesses, they can
+make a better case of it than the second mate did.  I spoke to
+Milne after breakfast, and told him that he should be above such
+nonsense, and that as an officer he ought to set the men a better
+example.  He shook his weatherbeaten head ominously, but answered
+with characteristic caution, "Mebbe aye, mebbe na, Doctor," he
+said; "I didna ca' it a ghaist.  I canna' say I preen my faith in
+sea-bogles an' the like, though there's a mony as claims to ha'
+seen a' that and waur.  I'm no easy feared, but maybe your ain
+bluid would run a bit cauld, mun, if instead o' speerin' aboot it
+in daylicht ye were wi' me last night, an' seed an awfu' like
+shape, white an' gruesome, whiles here, whiles there, an' it
+greetin' and ca'ing in the darkness like a bit lambie that hae lost
+its mither.  Ye would na' be sae ready to put it a' doon to
+auld wives' clavers then, I'm thinkin'."  I saw it was hopeless to
+reason with him, so contented myself with begging him as a personal
+favour to call me up the next time the spectre appeared--a request
+to which he acceded with many ejaculations expressive of his hopes
+that such an opportunity might never arise.
+
+As I had hoped, the white desert behind us has become broken by
+many thin streaks of water which intersect it in all directions. 
+Our latitude to-day was 80 degrees 52' N., which shows that there
+is a strong southerly drift upon the pack.  Should the wind
+continue favourable it will break up as rapidly as it formed.  At
+present we can do nothing but smoke and wait and hope for the best. 
+I am rapidly becoming a fatalist.  When dealing with such uncertain
+factors as wind and ice a man can be nothing else.  Perhaps it was
+the wind and sand of the Arabian deserts which gave the minds of
+the original followers of Mahomet their tendency to bow to kismet.
+
+These spectral alarms have a very bad effect upon the Captain.  I
+feared that it might excite his sensitive mind, and endeavoured to
+conceal the absurd story from him, but unfortunately he overheard
+one of the men making an allusion to it, and insisted upon being
+informed about it.  As I had expected, it brought out all his
+latent lunacy in an exaggerated form.  I can hardly believe that
+this is the same man who discoursed philosophy last night with the
+most critical acumen and coolest judgment.  He is pacing backwards
+and forwards upon the quarterdeck like a caged tiger, stopping
+now and again to throw out his hands with a yearning gesture, and
+stare impatiently out over the ice.  He keeps up a continual mutter
+to himself, and once he called out, "But a little time, love--but
+a little time!"  Poor fellow, it is sad to see a gallant seaman and
+accomplished gentleman reduced to such a pass, and to think that
+imagination and delusion can cow a mind to which real danger was
+but the salt of life.  Was ever a man in such a position as I,
+between a demented captain and a ghost-seeing mate?  I sometimes
+think I am the only really sane man aboard the vessel--except
+perhaps the second engineer, who is a kind of ruminant, and would
+care nothing for all the fiends in the Red Sea so long as they
+would leave him alone and not disarrange his tools.
+
+The ice is still opening rapidly, and there is every probability of
+our being able to make a start to-morrow morning.  They will think
+I am inventing when I tell them at home all the strange things that
+have befallen me.
+
+12 P.M.--I have been a good deal startled, though I feel steadier
+now, thanks to a stiff glass of brandy.  I am hardly myself yet,
+however, as this handwriting will testify.  The fact is, that I
+have gone through a very strange experience, and am beginning to
+doubt whether I was justified in branding every one on board as
+madmen because they professed to have seen things which did not
+seem reasonable to my understanding.  Pshaw!  I am a fool to let
+such a trifle unnerve me; and yet, coming as it does after all
+these alarms, it has an additional significance, for I cannot doubt
+either Mr. Manson's story or that of the mate, now that I have
+experienced that which I used formerly to scoff at.
+
+After all it was nothing very alarming--a mere sound, and that was
+all.  I cannot expect that any one reading this, if any one ever
+should read it, will sympathise with my feelings, or realise the
+effect which it produced upon me at the time.  Supper was over, and
+I had gone on deck to have a quiet pipe before turning in.  The
+night was very dark--so dark that, standing under the quarter-boat,
+I was unable to see the officer upon the bridge.  I think I have
+already mentioned the extraordinary silence which prevails in these
+frozen seas.  In other parts of the world, be they ever so barren,
+there is some slight vibration of the air--some faint hum, be it
+from the distant haunts of men, or from the leaves of the trees, or
+the wings of the birds, or even the faint rustle of the grass that
+covers the ground.  One may not actively perceive the sound, and
+yet if it were withdrawn it would be missed.  It is only here in
+these Arctic seas that stark, unfathomable stillness obtrudes
+itself upon you in all its gruesome reality.  You find your
+tympanum straining to catch some little murmur, and dwelling
+eagerly upon every accidental sound within the vessel.  In this
+state I was leaning against the bulwarks when there arose from the
+ice almost directly underneath me a cry, sharp and shrill, upon the
+silent air of the night, beginning, as it seemed to me, at a note
+such as prima donna never reached, and mounting from that ever
+higher and higher until it culminated in a long wail of agony,
+which might have been the last cry of a lost soul.  The ghastly
+scream is still ringing in my ears.  Grief, unutterable grief,
+seemed to be expressed in it, and a great longing, and yet through
+it all there was an occasional wild note of exultation.  It
+shrilled out from close beside me, and yet as I glared into the
+darkness I could discern nothing.  I waited some little time, but
+without hearing any repetition of the sound, so I came below, more
+shaken than I have ever been in my life before.  As I came down the
+companion I met Mr. Milne coming up to relieve the watch.  "Weel,
+Doctor," he said, "maybe that's auld wives' clavers tae?  Did ye no
+hear it skirling?  Maybe that's a supersteetion?  What d'ye think
+o't noo?"  I was obliged to apologise to the honest fellow, and
+acknowledge that I was as puzzled by it as he was.  Perhaps to-
+morrow things may look different.  At present I dare hardly write
+all that I think.  Reading it again in days to come, when I have
+shaken off all these associations, I should despise myself for
+having been so weak.
+
+September 18th.--Passed a restless and uneasy night, still
+haunted by that strange sound.  The Captain does not look as if he
+had had much repose either, for his face is haggard and his eyes
+bloodshot.  I have not told him of my adventure of last night, nor
+shall I.  He is already restless and excited, standing up, sitting
+down, and apparently utterly unable to keep still.
+
+A fine lead appeared in the pack this morning, as I had
+expected, and we were able to cast off our ice-anchor, and steam
+about twelve miles in a west-sou'-westerly direction.  We were then
+brought to a halt by a great floe as massive as any which we have
+left behind us.  It bars our progress completely, so we can do
+nothing but anchor again and wait until it breaks up, which it will
+probably do within twenty-four hours, if the wind holds.  Several
+bladder-nosed seals were seen swimming in the water, and one was
+shot, an immense creature more than eleven feet long.  They are
+fierce, pugnacious animals, and are said to be more than a match
+for a bear.  Fortunately they are slow and clumsy in their
+movements, so that there is little danger in attacking them upon
+the ice.
+
+The Captain evidently does not think we have seen the last of our
+troubles, though why he should take a gloomy view of the situation
+is more than I can fathom, since every one else on board considers
+that we have had a miraculous escape, and are sure now to reach the
+open sea.
+
+"I suppose you think it's all right now, Doctor?" he said, as we
+sat together after dinner.
+
+"I hope so," I answered.
+
+"We mustn't be too sure--and yet no doubt you are right.  We'll all
+be in the arms of our own true loves before long, lad, won't we? 
+But we mustn't be too sure--we mustn't be too sure."
+
+He sat silent a little, swinging his leg thoughtfully backwards and
+forwards.  "Look here," he continued; "it's a dangerous place this,
+even at its best--a treacherous, dangerous place.  I have known
+men cut off very suddenly in a land like this.  A slip would do it
+sometimes--a single slip, and down you go through a crack, and only
+a bubble on the green water to show where it was that you sank. 
+It's a queer thing," he continued with a nervous laugh, "but all
+the years I've been in this country I never once thought of making
+a will--not that I have anything to leave in particular, but still
+when a man is exposed to danger he should have everything arranged
+and ready--don't you think so?"
+
+"Certainly," I answered, wondering what on earth he was driving at.
+
+"He feels better for knowing it's all settled," he went on.  "Now
+if anything should ever befall me, I hope that you will look after
+things for me.  There is very little in the cabin, but such as it
+is I should like it to be sold, and the money divided in the same
+proportion as the oil-money among the crew.  The chronometer I wish
+you to keep yourself as some slight remembrance of our voyage.  Of
+course all this is a mere precaution, but I thought I would take
+the opportunity of speaking to you about it.  I suppose I might
+rely upon you if there were any necessity?"
+
+"Most assuredly," I answered; "and since you are taking this step,
+I may as well"----
+
+"You! you!" he interrupted.  "YOU'RE all right.  What the devil
+is the matter with YOU?  There, I didn't mean to be peppery, but
+I don't like to hear a young fellow, that has hardly began life,
+speculating about death.  Go up on deck and get some fresh air
+into your lungs instead of talking nonsense in the cabin, and
+encouraging me to do the same."
+
+The more I think of this conversation of ours the less do I like
+it.  Why should the man be settling his affairs at the very time
+when we seem to be emerging from all danger?  There must be some
+method in his madness.  Can it be that he contemplates suicide?  I
+remember that upon one occasion he spoke in a deeply reverent
+manner of the heinousness of the crime of self-destruction.  I
+shall keep my eye upon him, however, and though I cannot obtrude
+upon the privacy of his cabin, I shall at least make a point of
+remaining on deck as long as he stays up.
+
+Mr. Milne pooh-poohs my fears, and says it is only the "skipper's
+little way."  He himself takes a very rosy view of the situation. 
+According to him we shall be out of the ice by the day after to-
+morrow, pass Jan Meyen two days after that, and sight Shetland in
+little more than a week.  I hope he may not be too sanguine.  His
+opinion may be fairly balanced against the gloomy precautions of
+the Captain, for he is an old and experienced seaman, and weighs
+his words well before uttering them.
+
+                      .     .     .     .     .     .
+
+
+The long-impending catastrophe has come at last.  I hardly know
+what to write about it.  The Captain is gone.  He may come back to
+us again alive, but I fear me--I fear me.  It is now seven o'clock
+of the morning of the 19th of September.  I have spent the
+whole night traversing the great ice-floe in front of us with
+a party of seamen in the hope of coming upon some trace of him, but
+in vain.  I shall try to give some account of the circumstances
+which attended upon his disappearance.  Should any one ever chance
+to read the words which I put down, I trust they will remember that
+I do not write from conjecture or from hearsay, but that I, a sane
+and educated man, am describing accurately what actually occurred
+before my very eyes.  My inferences are my own, but I shall be
+answerable for the facts.
+
+The Captain remained in excellent spirits after the conversation
+which I have recorded.  He appeared to be nervous and impatient,
+however, frequently changing his position, and moving his limbs in
+an aimless choreic way which is characteristic of him at times.  In
+a quarter of an hour he went upon deck seven times, only to descend
+after a few hurried paces.  I followed him each time, for there was
+something about his face which confirmed my resolution of not
+letting him out of my sight.  He seemed to observe the effect which
+his movements had produced, for he endeavoured by an over-done
+hilarity, laughing boisterously at the very smallest of jokes, to
+quiet my apprehensions.
+
+After supper he went on to the poop once more, and I with him.  The
+night was dark and very still, save for the melancholy soughing of
+the wind among the spars.  A thick cloud was coming up from the
+northwest, and the ragged tentacles which it threw out in front of
+it were drifting across the face of the moon, which only shone
+now and again through a rift in the wrack.  The Captain paced
+rapidly backwards and forwards, and then seeing me still dogging
+him, he came across and hinted that he thought I should be better
+below--which, I need hardly say, had the effect of strengthening my
+resolution to remain on deck.
+
+I think he forgot about my presence after this, for he stood
+silently leaning over the taffrail, and peering out across the
+great desert of snow, part of which lay in shadow, while part
+glittered mistily in the moonlight.  Several times I could see by
+his movements that he was referring to his watch, and once he
+muttered a short sentence, of which I could only catch the one word
+"ready."  I confess to having felt an eerie feeling creeping over
+me as I watched the loom of his tall figure through the darkness,
+and noted how completely he fulfilled the idea of a man who is
+keeping a tryst.  A tryst with whom?  Some vague perception began
+to dawn upon me as I pieced one fact with another, but I was
+utterly unprepared for the sequel.
+
+By the sudden intensity of his attitude I felt that he saw
+something.  I crept up behind him.  He was staring with an eager
+questioning gaze at what seemed to be a wreath of mist, blown
+swiftly in a line with the ship.  It was a dim, nebulous body,
+devoid of shape, sometimes more, sometimes less apparent, as the
+light fell on it.  The moon was dimmed in its brilliancy at the
+moment by a canopy of thinnest cloud, like the coating of an
+anemone.
+
+"Coming, lass, coming," cried the skipper, in a voice of
+unfathomable tenderness and compassion, like one who soothes a
+beloved one by some favour long looked for, and as pleasant to
+bestow as to receive.
+
+What followed happened in an instant.  I had no power to interfere.
+
+He gave one spring to the top of the bulwarks, and another which
+took him on to the ice, almost to the feet of the pale misty
+figure.  He held out his hands as if to clasp it, and so ran into
+the darkness with outstretched arms and loving words.  I still
+stood rigid and motionless, straining my eyes after his retreating
+form, until his voice died away in the distance.  I never thought
+to see him again, but at that moment the moon shone out brilliantly
+through a chink in the cloudy heaven, and illuminated the great
+field of ice.  Then I saw his dark figure already a very long way
+off, running with prodigious speed across the frozen plain.  That
+was the last glimpse which we caught of him--perhaps the last we
+ever shall.  A party was organised to follow him, and I accompanied
+them, but the men's hearts were not in the work, and nothing was
+found.  Another will be formed within a few hours.  I can hardly
+believe I have not been dreaming, or suffering from some hideous
+nightmare, as I write these things down.
+
+7.30 P.M.--Just returned dead beat and utterly tired out from a
+second unsuccessful search for the Captain.  The floe is of
+enormous extent, for though we have traversed at least twenty miles
+of its surface, there has been no sign of its coming to an end. 
+The frost has been so severe of late that the overlying snow is
+frozen as hard as granite, otherwise we might have had the
+footsteps to guide us.  The crew are anxious that we should cast
+off and steam round the floe and so to the southward, for the ice
+has opened up during the night, and the sea is visible upon the
+horizon.  They argue that Captain Craigie is certainly dead, and
+that we are all risking our lives to no purpose by remaining when
+we have an opportunity of escape.  Mr. Milne and I have had the
+greatest difficulty in persuading them to wait until to-morrow
+night, and have been compelled to promise that we will not under
+any circumstances delay our departure longer than that.  We propose
+therefore to take a few hours' sleep, and then to start upon a
+final search.
+
+September 20th, evening.--I crossed the ice this morning with
+a party of men exploring the southern part of the floe, while Mr.
+Milne went off in a northerly direction.  We pushed on for ten or
+twelve miles without seeing a trace of any living thing except a
+single bird, which fluttered a great way over our heads, and which
+by its flight I should judge to have been a falcon.  The southern
+extremity of the ice field tapered away into a long narrow spit
+which projected out into the sea.  When we came to the base of this
+promontory, the men halted, but I begged them to continue to the
+extreme end of it, that we might have the satisfaction of knowing
+that no possible chance had been neglected.
+
+We had hardly gone a hundred yards before M`Donald of Peterhead
+cried out that he saw something in front of us, and began to
+run.  We all got a glimpse of it and ran too.  At first it was only
+a vague darkness against the white ice, but as we raced along
+together it took the shape of a man, and eventually of the man of
+whom we were in search.  He was lying face downwards upon a frozen
+bank.  Many little crystals of ice and feathers of snow had drifted
+on to him as he lay, and sparkled upon his dark seaman's jacket. 
+As we came up some wandering puff of wind caught these tiny flakes
+in its vortex, and they whirled up into the air, partially
+descended again, and then, caught once more in the current, sped
+rapidly away in the direction of the sea.  To my eyes it seemed but
+a snow-drift, but many of my companions averred that it started up
+in the shape of a woman, stooped over the corpse and kissed it, and
+then hurried away across the floe.  I have learned never to
+ridicule any man's opinion, however strange it may seem.  Sure it
+is that Captain Nicholas Craigie had met with no painful end, for
+there was a bright smile upon his blue pinched features, and his
+hands were still outstretched as though grasping at the strange
+visitor which had summoned him away into the dim world that lies
+beyond the grave.
+
+We buried him the same afternoon with the ship's ensign around him,
+and a thirty-two pound shot at his feet.  I read the burial
+service, while the rough sailors wept like children, for there were
+many who owed much to his kind heart, and who showed now the
+affection which his strange ways had repelled during his
+lifetime.  He went off the grating with a dull, sullen splash, and
+as I looked into the green water I saw him go down, down, down
+until he was but a little flickering patch of white hanging upon
+the outskirts of eternal darkness.  Then even that faded away, and
+he was gone.  There he shall lie, with his secret and his sorrows
+and his mystery all still buried in his breast, until that great
+day when the sea shall give up its dead, and Nicholas Craigie come
+out from among the ice with the smile upon his face, and his
+stiffened arms outstretched in greeting.  I pray that his lot may
+be a happier one in that life than it has been in this.
+
+I shall not continue my journal.  Our road to home lies plain and
+clear before us, and the great ice field will soon be but a
+remembrance of the past.  It will be some time before I get over
+the shock produced by recent events.  When I began this record of
+our voyage I little thought of how I should be compelled to finish
+it.  I am writing these final words in the lonely cabin, still
+starting at times and fancying I hear the quick nervous step of the
+dead man upon the deck above me.  I entered his cabin to-night, as
+was my duty, to make a list of his effects in order that they might
+be entered in the official log.  All was as it had been upon my
+previous visit, save that the picture which I have described as
+having hung at the end of his bed had been cut out of its frame, as
+with a knife, and was gone.  With this last link in a strange chain
+of evidence I close my diary of the voyage of the Pole-Star.
+
+
+[NOTE by Dr. John M'Alister Ray, senior.--I have read over the
+strange events connected with the death of the Captain of the
+Pole-Star, as narrated in the journal of my son.  That everything
+occurred exactly as he describes it I have the fullest confidence,
+and, indeed, the most positive certainty, for I know him to be a
+strong-nerved and unimaginative man, with the strictest regard for
+veracity.  Still, the story is, on the face of it, so vague and so
+improbable, that I was long opposed to its publication.  Within the
+last few days, however, I have had independent testimony upon the
+subject which throws a new light upon it.  I had run down to
+Edinburgh to attend a meeting of the British Medical Association,
+when I chanced to come across Dr. P----, an old college chum of
+mine, now practising at Saltash, in Devonshire.  Upon my telling
+him of this experience of my son's, he declared to me that he was
+familiar with the man, and proceeded, to my no small surprise, to
+give me a description of him, which tallied remarkably well with
+that given in the journal, except that he depicted him as a younger
+man.  According to his account, he had been engaged to a young lady
+of singular beauty residing upon the Cornish coast.  During his
+absence at sea his betrothed had died under circumstances of
+peculiar horror.]
+
+
+
+F. HABAKUK JEPHSON'S STATEMENT.
+
+In the month of December in the year 1873, the British ship Dei
+Gratia steered into Gibraltar, having in tow the derelict
+brigantine Marie Celeste, which had been picked up in latitude
+38 degrees 40', longitude 17 degrees 15' W.  There were several
+circumstances in connection with the condition and appearance of
+this abandoned vessel which excited considerable comment at the
+time, and aroused a curiosity which has never been satisfied.  What
+these circumstances were was summed up in an able article which
+appeared in the Gibraltar Gazette.  The curious can find it in the
+issue for January 4, 1874, unless my memory deceives me.  For the
+benefit of those, however, who may be unable to refer to the paper
+in question, I shall subjoin a few extracts which touch upon the
+leading features of the case.
+
+"We have ourselves," says the anonymous writer in the Gazette,
+"been over the derelict Marie Celeste, and have closel
+questioned the officers of the Dei Gratia on every point which
+might throw light on the affair.  They are of opinion that she had
+been abandoned several days, or perhaps weeks, before being picked
+up.  The official log, which was found in the cabin, states that
+the vessel sailed from Boston to Lisbon, starting upon
+October 16.  It is, however, most imperfectly kept, and affords
+little information.  There is no reference to rough weather, and,
+indeed, the state of the vessel's paint and rigging excludes the
+idea that she was abandoned for any such reason.  She is perfectly
+watertight.  No signs of a struggle or of violence are to be
+detected, and there is absolutely nothing to account for the
+disappearance of the crew.  There are several indications that a
+lady was present on board, a sewing-machine being found in the
+cabin and some articles of female attire.  These probably belonged
+to the captain's wife, who is mentioned in the log as having
+accompanied her husband.  As an instance of the mildness of the
+weather, it may be remarked that a bobbin of silk was found
+standing upon the sewing-machine, though the least roll of the
+vessel would have precipitated it to the floor.  The boats were
+intact and slung upon the davits; and the cargo, consisting of
+tallow and American clocks, was untouched.  An old-fashioned sword
+of curious workmanship was discovered among some lumber in the
+forecastle, and this weapon is said to exhibit a longitudinal
+striation on the steel, as if it had been recently wiped.  It has
+been placed in the hands of the police, and submitted to Dr.
+Monaghan, the analyst, for inspection.  The result of his
+examination has not yet been published.  We may remark, in
+conclusion, that Captain Dalton, of the Dei Gratia, an able and
+intelligent seaman, is of opinion that the Marie Celeste may have
+been abandoned a considerable distance from the spot at which
+she was picked up, since a powerful current runs up in that
+latitude from the African coast.  He confesses his inability,
+however, to advance any hypothesis which can reconcile all the
+facts of the case.  In the utter absence of a clue or grain of
+evidence, it is to be feared that the fate of the crew of the
+Marie Celeste will be added to those numerous mysteries of the
+deep which will never be solved until the great day when the sea
+shall give up its dead.  If crime has been committed, as is much to
+be suspected, there is little hope of bringing the perpetrators to
+justice."
+
+I shall supplement this extract from the Gibraltar Gazette by
+quoting a telegram from Boston, which went the round of the English
+papers, and represented the total amount of information which had
+been collected about the Marie Celeste.  "She was," it said, "a
+brigantine of 170 tons burden, and belonged to White, Russell &
+White, wine importers, of this city.  Captain J. W. Tibbs was an
+old servant of the firm, and was a man of known ability and tried
+probity.  He was accompanied by his wife, aged thirty-one, and
+their youngest child, five years old.  The crew consisted of seven
+hands, including two coloured seamen, and a boy.  There were three
+passengers, one of whom was the well-known Brooklyn specialist on
+consumption, Dr. Habakuk Jephson, who was a distinguished advocate
+for Abolition in the early days of the movement, and whose
+pamphlet, entitled "Where is thy Brother?" exercised a strong
+influence on public opinion before the war.  The other passengers
+were Mr. J. Harton, a writer in the employ of the firm, and Mr.
+Septimius Goring, a half-caste gentleman, from New Orleans.  All
+investigations have failed to throw any light upon the fate of
+these fourteen human beings.  The loss of Dr. Jephson will be felt
+both in political and scientific circles."
+
+I have here epitomised, for the benefit of the public, all that has
+been hitherto known concerning the Marie Celeste and her crew,
+for the past ten years have not in any way helped to elucidate the
+mystery.  I have now taken up my pen with the intention of telling
+all that I know of the ill-fated voyage.  I consider that it is a
+duty which I owe to society, for symptoms which I am familiar with
+in others lead me to believe that before many months my tongue and
+hand may be alike incapable of conveying information.  Let me
+remark, as a preface to my narrative, that I am Joseph Habakuk
+Jephson, Doctor of Medicine of the University of Harvard, and ex-
+Consulting Physician of the Samaritan Hospital of Brooklyn.
+
+Many will doubtless wonder why I have not proclaimed myself before,
+and why I have suffered so many conjectures and surmises to pass
+unchallenged.  Could the ends of justice have been served in any
+way by my revealing the facts in my possession I should
+unhesitatingly have done so.  It seemed to me, however, that there
+was no possibility of such a result; and when I attempted, after
+the occurrence, to state my case to an English official, I was met
+with such offensive incredulity that I determined never again to
+expose myself to the chance of such an indignity.  I can excuse
+the discourtesy of the Liverpool magistrate, however, when I
+reflect upon the treatment which I received at the hands of my own
+relatives, who, though they knew my unimpeachable character,
+listened to my statement with an indulgent smile as if humouring
+the delusion of a monomaniac.  This slur upon my veracity led to a
+quarrel between myself and John Vanburger, the brother of my wife,
+and confirmed me in my resolution to let the matter sink into
+oblivion--a determination which I have only altered through my
+son's solicitations.  In order to make my narrative intelligible,
+I must run lightly over one or two incidents in my former life
+which throw light upon subsequent events.
+
+My father, William K. Jephson, was a preacher of the sect called
+Plymouth Brethren, and was one of the most respected citizens of
+Lowell.  Like most of the other Puritans of New England, he was a
+determined opponent to slavery, and it was from his lips that I
+received those lessons which tinged every action of my life.  While
+I was studying medicine at Harvard University, I had already made
+a mark as an advanced Abolitionist; and when, after taking my
+degree, I bought a third share of the practice of Dr. Willis, of
+Brooklyn, I managed, in spite of my professional duties, to devote
+a considerable time to the cause which I had at heart, my pamphlet,
+"Where is thy Brother?" (Swarburgh, Lister & Co., 1859) attracting
+considerable attention.
+
+When the war broke out I left Brooklyn and accompanied the 113th
+New York Regiment through the campaign.  I was present at the
+second battle of Bull's Run and at the battle of Gettysburg. 
+Finally, I was severely wounded at Antietam, and would probably
+have perished on the field had it not been for the kindness of a
+gentleman named Murray, who had me carried to his house and
+provided me with every comfort.  Thanks to his charity, and to the
+nursing which I received from his black domestics, I was soon able
+to get about the plantation with the help of a stick.  It was
+during this period of convalescence that an incident occurred which
+is closely connected with my story.
+
+Among the most assiduous of the negresses who had watched my couch
+during my illness there was one old crone who appeared to exert
+considerable authority over the others.  She was exceedingly
+attentive to me, and I gathered from the few words that passed
+between us that she had heard of me, and that she was grateful to
+me for championing her oppressed race.
+
+One day as I was sitting alone in the verandah, basking in the sun,
+and debating whether I should rejoin Grant's army, I was surprised
+to see this old creature hobbling towards me.  After looking
+cautiously around to see that we were alone, she fumbled in the
+front of her dress and produced a small chamois leather bag which
+was hung round her neck by a white cord.
+
+"Massa," she said, bending down and croaking the words into my ear,
+"me die soon.  Me very old woman.  Not stay long on Massa
+Murray's plantation."
+
+"You may live a long time yet, Martha," I answered.  "You know I am
+a doctor.  If you feel ill let me know about it, and I will try to
+cure you."
+
+"No wish to live--wish to die.  I'm gwine to join the heavenly
+host."  Here she relapsed into one of those half-heathenish
+rhapsodies in which negroes indulge.  "But, massa, me have one
+thing must leave behind me when I go.  No able to take it with me
+across the Jordan.  That one thing very precious, more precious and
+more holy than all thing else in the world.  Me, a poor old black
+woman, have this because my people, very great people, 'spose they
+was back in the old country.  But you cannot understand this same
+as black folk could.  My fader give it me, and his fader give it
+him, but now who shall I give it to?  Poor Martha hab no child, no
+relation, nobody.  All round I see black man very bad man.  Black
+woman very stupid woman.  Nobody worthy of the stone.  And so I
+say, Here is Massa Jephson who write books and fight for coloured
+folk--he must be good man, and he shall have it though he is white
+man, and nebber can know what it mean or where it came from."  Here
+the old woman fumbled in the chamois leather bag and pulled out a
+flattish black stone with a hole through the middle of it.  "Here,
+take it," she said, pressing it into my hand; "take it.  No harm
+nebber come from anything good.  Keep it safe--nebber lose it!" and
+with a warning gesture the old crone hobbled away in the same
+cautious way as she had come, looking from side to side to see if
+we had been observed.
+
+I was more amused than impressed by the old woman's earnestness,
+and was only prevented from laughing during her oration by the fear
+of hurting her feelings.  When she was gone I took a good look at
+the stone which she had given me.  It was intensely black, of
+extreme hardness, and oval in shape--just such a flat stone as one
+would pick up on the seashore if one wished to throw a long way. 
+It was about three inches long, and an inch and a half broad at the
+middle, but rounded off at the extremities.  The most curious part
+about it were several well-marked ridges which ran in semicircles
+over its surface, and gave it exactly the appearance of a human
+ear.  Altogether I was rather interested in my new possession, and
+determined to submit it, as a geological specimen, to my friend
+Professor Shroeder of the New York Institute, upon the earliest
+opportunity.  In the meantime I thrust it into my pocket, and
+rising from my chair started off for a short stroll in the
+shrubbery, dismissing the incident from my mind.
+
+As my wound had nearly healed by this time, I took my leave of Mr.
+Murray shortly afterwards.  The Union armies were everywhere
+victorious and converging on Richmond, so that my assistance seemed
+unnecessary, and I returned to Brooklyn.  There I resumed my
+practice, and married the second daughter of Josiah Vanburger, the
+well-known wood engraver.  In the course of a few years I built up
+a good connection and acquired considerable reputation in the
+treatment of pulmonary complaints.  I still kept the old black
+stone in my pocket, and frequently told the story of the dramatic
+way in which I had become possessed of it.  I also kept my
+resolution of showing it to Professor Shroeder, who was much
+interested both by the anecdote and the specimen.  He pronounced it
+to be a piece of meteoric stone, and drew my attention to the fact
+that its resemblance to an ear was not accidental, but that it was
+most carefully worked into that shape.  A dozen little anatomical
+points showed that the worker had been as accurate as he was
+skilful.  "I should not wonder," said the Professor, "if it were
+broken off from some larger statue, though how such hard material
+could be so perfectly worked is more than I can understand.  If
+there is a statue to correspond I should like to see it!"  So I
+thought at the time, but I have changed my opinion since.
+
+The next seven or eight years of my life were quiet and uneventful.
+
+Summer followed spring, and spring followed winter, without any
+variation in my duties.  As the practice increased I admitted J. S.
+Jackson as partner, he to have one-fourth of the profits.  The
+continued strain had told upon my constitution, however, and I
+became at last so unwell that my wife insisted upon my consulting
+Dr. Kavanagh Smith, who was my colleague at the Samaritan Hospital.
+
+That gentleman examined me, and pronounced the apex of my left lung
+to be in a state of consolidation, recommending me at the same time
+to go through a course of medical treatment and to take a long
+sea-voyage.
+
+My own disposition, which is naturally restless, predisposed me
+strongly in favour of the latter piece of advice, and the matter
+was clinched by my meeting young Russell, of the firm of White,
+Russell & White, who offered me a passage in one of his father's
+ships, the Marie Celeste, which was just starting from Boston. 
+"She is a snug little ship," he said, "and Tibbs, the captain, is
+an excellent fellow.  There is nothing like a sailing ship for an
+invalid."  I was very much of the same opinion myself, so I closed
+with the offer on the spot.
+
+My original plan was that my wife should accompany me on my
+travels.  She has always been a very poor sailor, however, and
+there were strong family reasons against her exposing herself to
+any risk at the time, so we determined that she should remain at
+home.  I am not a religious or an effusive man; but oh, thank God
+for that!  As to leaving my practice, I was easily reconciled to
+it, as Jackson, my partner, was a reliable and hard-working man.
+
+I arrived in Boston on October 12, 1873, and proceeded immediately
+to the office of the firm in order to thank them for their
+courtesy.  As I was sitting in the counting-house waiting until
+they should be at liberty to see me, the words Marie Celeste
+suddenly attracted my attention.  I looked round and saw a very
+tall, gaunt man, who was leaning across the polished mahogany
+counter asking some questions of the clerk at the other side. 
+His face was turned half towards me, and I could see that he had a
+strong dash of negro blood in him, being probably a quadroon or
+even nearer akin to the black.  His curved aquiline nose and
+straight lank hair showed the white strain; but the dark restless
+eye, sensuous mouth, and gleaming teeth all told of his African
+origin.  His complexion was of a sickly, unhealthy yellow, and as
+his face was deeply pitted with small-pox, the general impression
+was so unfavourable as to be almost revolting.  When he spoke,
+however, it was in a soft, melodious voice, and in well-chosen
+words, and he was evidently a man of some education.
+
+"I wished to ask a few questions about the Marie Celeste," he
+repeated, leaning across to the clerk.  "She sails the day after
+to-morrow, does she not?"
+
+"Yes, sir," said the young clerk, awed into unusual politeness by
+the glimmer of a large diamond in the stranger's shirt front.
+
+"Where is she bound for?"
+
+"Lisbon."
+
+"How many of a crew?"
+
+"Seven, sir."
+
+"Passengers?"
+
+"Yes, two.  One of our young gentlemen, and a doctor from New
+York."
+
+"No gentleman from the South?" asked the stranger eagerly.
+
+"No, none, sir."
+
+"Is there room for another passenger?"
+
+"Accommodation for three more," answered the clerk.
+
+"I'll go," said the quadroon decisively; "I'll go, I'll engage my
+passage at once.  Put it down, will you--Mr. Septimius Goring, of
+New Orleans."
+
+The clerk filled up a form and handed it over to the stranger,
+pointing to a blank space at the bottom.  As Mr. Goring stooped
+over to sign it I was horrified to observe that the fingers of his
+right hand had been lopped off, and that he was holding the pen
+between his thumb and the palm.  I have seen thousands slain in
+battle, and assisted at every conceivable surgical operation, but
+I cannot recall any sight which gave me such a thrill of disgust as
+that great brown sponge-like hand with the single member protruding
+from it.  He used it skilfully enough, however, for, dashing off
+his signature, he nodded to the clerk and strolled out of the
+office just as Mr. White sent out word that he was ready to receive
+me.
+
+I went down to the Marie Celeste that evening, and looked over my
+berth, which was extremely comfortable considering the small size
+of the vessel.  Mr. Goring, whom I had seen in the morning, was to
+have the one next mine.  Opposite was the captain's cabin and a
+small berth for Mr. John Harton, a gentleman who was going out in
+the interests of the firm.  These little rooms were arranged on
+each side of the passage which led from the main-deck to the
+saloon.  The latter was a comfortable room, the panelling
+tastefully done in oak and mahogany, with a rich Brussels carpet
+and luxurious settees.  I was very much pleased with the
+accommodation, and also with Tibbs the captain, a bluff, sailor-
+like fellow, with a loud voice and hearty manner, who welcomed me
+to the ship with effusion, and insisted upon our splitting a bottle
+of wine in his cabin.  He told me that he intended to take his wife
+and youngest child with him on the voyage, and that he hoped with
+good luck to make Lisbon in three weeks.  We had a pleasant chat
+and parted the best of friends, he warning me to make the last of
+my preparations next morning, as he intended to make a start by the
+midday tide, having now shipped all his cargo.  I went back to my
+hotel, where I found a letter from my wife awaiting me, and, after
+a refreshing night's sleep, returned to the boat in the morning. 
+From this point I am able to quote from the journal which I kept in
+order to vary the monotony of the long sea-voyage.  If it is
+somewhat bald in places I can at least rely upon its accuracy in
+details, as it was written conscientiously from day to day.
+
+October 16.--Cast off our warps at half-past two and were towed
+out into the bay, where the tug left us, and with all sail set we
+bowled along at about nine knots an hour.  I stood upon the poop
+watching the low land of America sinking gradually upon the horizon
+until the evening haze hid it from my sight.  A single red light,
+however, continued to blaze balefully behind us, throwing a long
+track like a trail of blood upon the water, and it is still visible
+as I write, though reduced to a mere speck.  The Captain is in a
+bad humour, for two of his hands disappointed him at the last
+moment, and he was compelled to ship a couple of negroes who
+happened to be on the quay.  The missing men were steady, reliable
+fellows, who had been with him several voyages, and their non-
+appearance puzzled as well as irritated him.  Where a crew of seven
+men have to work a fair-sized ship the loss of two experienced
+seamen is a serious one, for though the negroes may take a spell at
+the wheel or swab the decks, they are of little or no use in rough
+weather.  Our cook is also a black man, and Mr. Septimius Goring
+has a little darkie servant, so that we are rather a piebald
+community.  The accountant, John Harton, promises to be an
+acquisition, for he is a cheery, amusing young fellow.  Strange how
+little wealth has to do with happiness!  He has all the world
+before him and is seeking his fortune in a far land, yet he is as
+transparently happy as a man can be.  Goring is rich, if I am not
+mistaken, and so am I; but I know that I have a lung, and Goring
+has some deeper trouble still, to judge by his features.  How
+poorly do we both contrast with the careless, penniless clerk!
+
+October 17.--Mrs. Tibbs appeared upon deck for the first time
+this morning--a cheerful, energetic woman, with a dear little child
+just able to walk and prattle.  Young Harton pounced on it at once,
+and carried it away to his cabin, where no doubt he will lay the
+seeds of future dyspepsia in the child's stomach.  Thus medicine
+doth make cynics of us all!  The weather is still all that could be
+desired, with a fine fresh breeze from the west-sou'-west.  The
+vessel goes so steadily that you would hardly know that she was
+moving were it not for the creaking of the cordage, the bellying of
+the sails, and the long white furrow in our wake.  Walked the
+quarter-deck all morning with the Captain, and I think the keen
+fresh air has already done my breathing good, for the exercise did
+not fatigue me in any way.  Tibbs is a remarkably intelligent man,
+and we had an interesting argument about Maury's observations on
+ocean currents, which we terminated by going down into his cabin to
+consult the original work.  There we found Goring, rather to the
+Captain's surprise, as it is not usual for passengers to enter that
+sanctum unless specially invited.  He apologised for his intrusion,
+however, pleading his ignorance of the usages of ship life; and the
+good-natured sailor simply laughed at the incident, begging him to
+remain and favour us with his company.  Goring pointed to the
+chronometers, the case of which he had opened, and remarked that he
+had been admiring them.  He has evidently some practical knowledge
+of mathematical instruments, as he told at a glance which was the
+most trustworthy of the three, and also named their price within a
+few dollars.  He had a discussion with the Captain too upon the
+variation of the compass, and when we came back to the ocean
+currents he showed a thorough grasp of the subject.  Altogether he
+rather improves upon acquaintance, and is a man of decided culture
+and refinement.  His voice harmonises with his conversation, and
+both are the very antithesis of his face and figure.
+
+The noonday observation shows that we have run two hundred and
+twenty miles.  Towards evening the breeze freshened up, and the
+first mate ordered reefs to be taken in the topsails and top-
+gallant sails in expectation of a windy night.  I observe that the
+barometer has fallen to twenty-nine.  I trust our voyage will not
+be a rough one, as I am a poor sailor, and my health would probably
+derive more harm than good from a stormy trip, though I have the
+greatest confidence in the Captain's seamanship and in the
+soundness of the vessel.  Played cribbage with Mrs. Tibbs after
+supper, and Harton gave us a couple of tunes on the violin.
+
+October 18.--The gloomy prognostications of last night were not
+fulfilled, as the wind died away again, and we are lying now in a
+long greasy swell, ruffled here and there by a fleeting catspaw
+which is insufficient to fill the sails.  The air is colder than it
+was yesterday, and I have put on one of the thick woollen jerseys
+which my wife knitted for me.  Harton came into my cabin in the
+morning, and we had a cigar together.  He says that he remembers
+having seen Goring in Cleveland, Ohio, in '69.  He was, it appears,
+a mystery then as now, wandering about without any visible
+employment, and extremely reticent on his own affairs.  The man
+interests me as a psychological study.  At breakfast this morning
+I suddenly had that vague feeling of uneasiness which comes over
+some people when closely stared at, and, looking quickly up, I met
+his eyes bent upon me with an intensity which amounted to ferocity,
+though their expression instantly softened as he made some
+conventional remark upon the weather.  Curiously enough, Harton
+says that he had a very similar experience yesterday upon deck.  I
+observe that Goring frequently talks to the coloured seamen as he
+strolls about--a trait which I rather admire, as it is common to
+find half-breeds ignore their dark strain and treat their black
+kinsfolk with greater intolerance than a white man would do.  His
+little page is devoted to him, apparently, which speaks well for
+his treatment of him.  Altogether, the man is a curious mixture of
+incongruous qualities, and unless I am deceived in him will give me
+food for observation during the voyage.
+
+The Captain is grumbling about his chronometers, which do not
+register exactly the same time.  He says it is the first time that
+they have ever disagreed.  We were unable to get a noonday
+observation on account of the haze.  By dead reckoning, we have
+done about a hundred and seventy miles in the twenty-four hours. 
+The dark seamen have proved, as the skipper prophesied, to be very
+inferior hands, but as they can both manage the wheel well they are
+kept steering, and so leave the more experienced men to work the
+ship.  These details are trivial enough, but a small thing serves
+as food for gossip aboard ship.  The appearance of a whale in the
+evening caused quite a flutter among us.  From its sharp back and
+forked tail, I should pronounce it to have been a rorqual, or
+"finner," as they are called by the fishermen.
+
+October 19.--Wind was cold, so I prudently remained in my
+cabin all day, only creeping out for dinner.  Lying in my bunk I
+can, without moving, reach my books, pipes, or anything else I may
+want, which is one advantage of a small apartment.  My old wound
+began to ache a little to-day, probably from the cold.  Read
+"Montaigne's Essays" and nursed myself.  Harton came in in the
+afternoon with Doddy, the Captain's child, and the skipper himself
+followed, so that I held quite a reception.
+
+October 20 and 21.--Still cold, with a continual drizzle of
+rain, and I have not been able to leave the cabin.  This
+confinement makes me feel weak and depressed.  Goring came in to
+see me, but his company did not tend to cheer me up much, as he
+hardly uttered a word, but contented himself with staring at me in
+a peculiar and rather irritating manner.  He then got up and stole
+out of the cabin without saying anything.  I am beginning to
+suspect that the man is a lunatic.  I think I mentioned that his
+cabin is next to mine.  The two are simply divided by a thin wooden
+partition which is cracked in many places, some of the cracks being
+so large that I can hardly avoid, as I lie in my bunk, observing
+his motions in the adjoining room.  Without any wish to play the
+spy, I see him continually stooping over what appears to be a chart
+and working with a pencil and compasses.  I have remarked the
+interest he displays in matters connected with navigation, but I am
+surprised that he should take the trouble to work out the course of
+the ship.  However, it is a harmless amusement enough, and no
+doubt he verifies his results by those of the Captain.
+
+I wish the man did not run in my thoughts so much.  I had a
+nightmare on the night of the 20th, in which I thought my bunk was
+a coffin, that I was laid out in it, and that Goring was
+endeavouring to nail up the lid, which I was frantically pushing
+away.  Even when I woke up, I could hardly persuade myself that I
+was not in a coffin.  As a medical man, I know that a nightmare is
+simply a vascular derangement of the cerebral hemispheres, and yet
+in my weak state I cannot shake off the morbid impression which it
+produces.
+
+October 22.--A fine day, with hardly a cloud in the sky, and a
+fresh breeze from the sou'-west which wafts us gaily on our way. 
+There has evidently been some heavy weather near us, as there is a
+tremendous swell on, and the ship lurches until the end of the
+fore-yard nearly touches the water.  Had a refreshing walk up and
+down the quarter-deck, though I have hardly found my sea-legs yet. 
+Several small birds--chaffinches, I think--perched in the rigging.
+
+4.40 P.M.--While I was on deck this morning I heard a sudden
+explosion from the direction of my cabin, and, hurrying down, found
+that I had very nearly met with a serious accident.  Goring was
+cleaning a revolver, it seems, in his cabin, when one of the
+barrels which he thought was unloaded went off.  The ball passed
+through the side partition and imbedded itself in the bulwarks in
+the exact place where my head usually rests.  I have been under
+fire too often to magnify trifles, but there is no doubt that
+if I had been in the bunk it must have killed me.  Goring, poor
+fellow, did not know that I had gone on deck that day, and must
+therefore have felt terribly frightened.  I never saw such emotion
+in a man's face as when, on rushing out of his cabin with the
+smoking pistol in his hand, he met me face to face as I came down
+from deck.  Of course, he was profuse in his apologies, though I
+simply laughed at the incident.
+
+11 P.M.--A misfortune has occurred so unexpected and so horrible
+that my little escape of the morning dwindles into insignificance. 
+Mrs. Tibbs and her child have disappeared--utterly and entirely
+disappeared.  I can hardly compose myself to write the sad details.
+
+About half-past eight Tibbs rushed into my cabin with a very white
+face and asked me if I had seen his wife.  I answered that I had
+not.  He then ran wildly into the saloon and began groping about
+for any trace of her, while I followed him, endeavouring vainly to
+persuade him that his fears were ridiculous.  We hunted over the
+ship for an hour and a half without coming on any sign of the
+missing woman or child.  Poor Tibbs lost his voice completely from
+calling her name.  Even the sailors, who are generally stolid
+enough, were deeply affected by the sight of him as he roamed
+bareheaded and dishevelled about the deck, searching with feverish
+anxiety the most impossible places, and returning to them again and
+again with a piteous pertinacity.  The last time she was seen was
+about seven o'clock, when she took Doddy on to the poop to give him
+a breath of fresh air before putting him to bed.  There was no
+one there at the time except the black seaman at the wheel, who
+denies having seen her at all.  The whole affair is wrapped in
+mystery.  My own theory is that while Mrs. Tibbs was holding the
+child and standing near the bulwarks it gave a spring and fell
+overboard, and that in her convulsive attempt to catch or save it,
+she followed it.  I cannot account for the double disappearance in
+any other way.  It is quite feasible that such a tragedy should be
+enacted without the knowledge of the man at the wheel, since it was
+dark at the time, and the peaked skylights of the saloon screen the
+greater part of the quarter-deck.  Whatever the truth may be it is
+a terrible catastrophe, and has cast the darkest gloom upon our
+voyage.  The mate has put the ship about, but of course there is
+not the slightest hope of picking them up.  The Captain is lying in
+a state of stupor in his cabin.  I gave him a powerful dose of
+opium in his coffee that for a few hours at least his anguish may
+be deadened.
+
+October 23.--Woke with a vague feeling of heaviness and
+misfortune, but it was not until a few moments' reflection that I
+was able to recall our loss of the night before.  When I came on
+deck I saw the poor skipper standing gazing back at the waste of
+waters behind us which contains everything dear to him upon earth. 
+I attempted to speak to him, but he turned brusquely away, and
+began pacing the deck with his head sunk upon his breast.  Even
+now, when the truth is so clear, he cannot pass a boat or an unbent
+sail without peering under it.  He looks ten years older than
+he did yesterday morning.  Harton is terribly cut up, for he was
+fond of little Doddy, and Goring seems sorry too.  At least he has
+shut himself up in his cabin all day, and when I got a casual
+glance at him his head was resting on his two hands as if in a
+melancholy reverie.  I fear we are about as dismal a crew as ever
+sailed.  How shocked my wife will be to hear of our disaster!  The
+swell has gone down now, and we are doing about eight knots with
+all sail set and a nice little breeze.  Hyson is practically in
+command of the ship, as Tibbs, though he does his best to bear up
+and keep a brave front, is incapable of applying himself to serious
+work.
+
+October 24.--Is the ship accursed?  Was there ever a voyage which
+began so fairly and which changed so disastrously?  Tibbs shot
+himself through the head during the night.  I was awakened about
+three o'clock in the morning by an explosion, and immediately
+sprang out of bed and rushed into the Captain's cabin to find out
+the cause, though with a terrible presentiment in my heart. 
+Quickly as I went, Goring went more quickly still, for he was
+already in the cabin stooping over the dead body of the Captain. 
+It was a hideous sight, for the whole front of his face was blown
+in, and the little room was swimming in blood.  The pistol was
+lying beside him on the floor, just as it had dropped from his
+hand.  He had evidently put it to his mouth before pulling the
+trigger.  Goring and I picked him reverently up and laid him on his
+bed.  The crew had all clustered into his cabin, and the six
+white men were deeply grieved, for they were old hands who had
+sailed with him many years.  There were dark looks and murmurs
+among them too, and one of them openly declared that the ship was
+haunted.  Harton helped to lay the poor skipper out, and we did him
+up in canvas between us.  At twelve o'clock the foreyard was hauled
+aback, and we committed his body to the deep, Goring reading the
+Church of England burial service.  The breeze has freshened up, and
+we have done ten knots all day and sometimes twelve.  The sooner we
+reach Lisbon and get away from this accursed ship the better
+pleased shall I be.  I feel as though we were in a floating coffin.
+
+Little wonder that the poor sailors are superstitious when I, an
+educated man, feel it so strongly.
+
+October 25.--Made a good run all day.  Feel listless and
+depressed.
+
+October 26.--Goring, Harton, and I had a chat together on deck in
+the morning.  Harton tried to draw Goring out as to his profession,
+and his object in going to Europe, but the quadroon parried all his
+questions and gave us no information.  Indeed, he seemed to be
+slightly offended by Harton's pertinacity, and went down into his
+cabin.  I wonder why we should both take such an interest in this
+man!  I suppose it is his striking appearance, coupled with his
+apparent wealth, which piques our curiosity.  Harton has a theory
+that he is really a detective, that he is after some criminal who
+has got away to Portugal, and that he chooses this peculiar way of
+travelling that he may arrive unnoticed and pounce upon his
+quarry unawares.  I think the supposition is rather a far-fetched
+one, but Harton bases it upon a book which Goring left on deck, and
+which he picked up and glanced over.  It was a sort of scrap-book
+it seems, and contained a large number of newspaper cuttings.  All
+these cuttings related to murders which had been committed at
+various times in the States during the last twenty years or so. 
+The curious thing which Harton observed about them, however, was
+that they were invariably murders the authors of which had never
+been brought to justice.  They varied in every detail, he says, as
+to the manner of execution and the social status of the victim, but
+they uniformly wound up with the same formula that the murderer was
+still at large, though, of course, the police had every reason to
+expect his speedy capture.  Certainly the incident seems to support
+Harton's theory, though it may be a mere whim of Gorings, or, as I
+suggested to Harton, he may be collecting materials for a book
+which shall outvie De Quincey.  In any case it is no business of
+ours.
+
+October 27, 28.--Wind still fair, and we are making good
+progress.  Strange how easily a human unit may drop out of its
+place and be forgotten!  Tibbs is hardly ever mentioned now; Hyson
+has taken possession of his cabin, and all goes on as before.  Were
+it not for Mrs. Tibbs's sewing-machine upon a side-table we might
+forget that the unfortunate family had ever existed.  Another
+accident occurred on board to-day, though fortunately not a very
+serious one.  One of our white hands had gone down the
+afterhold to fetch up a spare coil of rope, when one of the hatches
+which he had removed came crashing down on the top of him.  He
+saved his life by springing out of the way, but one of his feet was
+terribly crushed, and he will be of little use for the remainder of
+the voyage.  He attributes the accident to the carelessness of his
+negro companion, who had helped him to shift the hatches.  The
+latter, however, puts it down to the roll of the ship.  Whatever be
+the cause, it reduces our shorthanded crew still further.  This run
+of ill-luck seems to be depressing Harton, for he has lost his
+usual good spirits and joviality.  Goring is the only one who
+preserves his cheerfulness.  I see him still working at his chart
+in his own cabin.  His nautical knowledge would be useful should
+anything happen to Hyson--which God forbid!
+
+October 29, 30.--Still bowling along with a fresh breeze.  All
+quiet and nothing of note to chronicle.
+
+October 31.--My weak lungs, combined with the exciting episodes
+of the voyage, have shaken my nervous system so much that the most
+trivial incident affects me.  I can hardly believe that I am the
+same man who tied the external iliac artery, an operation requiring
+the nicest precision, under a heavy rifle fire at Antietam.  I am
+as nervous as a child.  I was lying half dozing last night about
+four bells in the middle watch trying in vain to drop into a
+refreshing sleep.  There was no light inside my cabin, but a single
+ray of moonlight streamed in through the port hole, throwing a
+silvery flickering circle upon the door.  As I lay I kept my drowsy
+eyes upon this circle, and was conscious that it was gradually
+becoming less well-defined as my senses left me, when I was
+suddenly recalled to full wakefulness by the appearance of a small
+dark object in the very centre of the luminous disc.  I lay quietly
+and breathlessly watching it.  Gradually it grew larger and
+plainer, and then I perceived that it was a human hand which had
+been cautiously inserted through the chink of the half-closed
+door--a hand which, as I observed with a thrill of horror, was not
+provided with fingers.  The door swung cautiously backwards, and
+Goring's head followed his hand.  It appeared in the centre of the
+moonlight, and was framed as it were in a ghastly uncertain halo,
+against which his features showed out plainly.  It seemed to me
+that I had never seen such an utterly fiendish and merciless
+expression upon a human face.  His eyes were dilated and glaring,
+his lips drawn back so as to show his white fangs, and his straight
+black hair appeared to bristle over his low forehead like the hood
+of a cobra.  The sudden and noiseless apparition had such an effect
+upon me that I sprang up in bed trembling in every limb, and held
+out my hand towards my revolver.  I was heartily ashamed of my
+hastiness when he explained the object of his intrusion, as he
+immediately did in the most courteous language.  He had been
+suffering from toothache, poor fellow! and had come in to beg some
+laudanum, knowing that I possessed a medicine chest.  As to a
+sinister expression he is never a beauty, and what with my state of
+nervous tension and the effect of the shifting moonlight it was
+easy to conjure up something horrible.  I gave him twenty drops,
+and he went off again with many expressions of gratitude.  I can
+hardly say how much this trivial incident affected me.  I have felt
+unstrung all day.
+
+A week's record of our voyage is here omitted, as nothing eventful
+occurred during the time, and my log consists merely of a few pages
+of unimportant gossip.
+
+November 7.--Harton and I sat on the poop all the morning, for
+the weather is becoming very warm as we come into southern
+latitudes.  We reckon that we have done two-thirds of our voyage. 
+How glad we shall be to see the green banks of the Tagus, and leave
+this unlucky ship for ever!  I was endeavouring to amuse Harton to-
+day and to while away the time by telling him some of the
+experiences of my past life.  Among others I related to him how I
+came into the possession of my black stone, and as a finale I
+rummaged in the side pocket of my old shooting coat and produced
+the identical object in question.  He and I were bending over it
+together, I pointing out to him the curious ridges upon its
+surface, when we were conscious of a shadow falling between us and
+the sun, and looking round saw Goring standing behind us glaring
+over our shoulders at the stone.  For some reason or other he
+appeared to be powerfully excited, though he was evidently trying
+to control himself and to conceal his emotion.  He pointed once or
+twice at my relic with his stubby thumb before he could recover
+himself sufficiently to ask what it was and how I obtained it--a
+question put in such a brusque manner that I should have been
+offended had I not known the man to be an eccentric.  I told him
+the story very much as I had told it to Harton.  He listened with
+the deepest interest, and then asked me if I had any idea what the
+stone was.  I said I had not, beyond that it was meteoric.  He
+asked me if I had ever tried its effect upon a negro.  I said I had
+not.  "Come," said he, "we'll see what our black friend at the
+wheel thinks of it."  He took the stone in his hand and went across
+to the sailor, and the two examined it carefully.  I could see the
+man gesticulating and nodding his head excitedly as if making some
+assertion, while his face betrayed the utmost astonishment, mixed
+I think with some reverence.  Goring came across the deck to us
+presently, still holding the stone in his hand.  "He says it is a
+worthless, useless thing," he said, "and fit only to be chucked
+overboard," with which he raised his hand and would most certainly
+have made an end of my relic, had the black sailor behind him not
+rushed forward and seized him by the wrist.  Finding himself
+secured Goring dropped the stone and turned away with a very bad
+grace to avoid my angry remonstrances at his breach of faith.  The
+black picked up the stone and handed it to me with a low bow and
+every sign of profound respect.  The whole affair is inexplicable. 
+I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that Goring is a maniac or
+something very near one.  When I compare the effect produced by
+the stone upon the sailor, however, with the respect shown to
+Martha on the plantation, and the surprise of Goring on its first
+production, I cannot but come to the conclusion that I have really
+got hold of some powerful talisman which appeals to the whole dark
+race.  I must not trust it in Goring's hands again.
+
+November 8, 9.--What splendid weather we are having!  Beyond one
+little blow, we have had nothing but fresh breezes the whole
+voyage.  These two days we have made better runs than any hitherto.
+
+It is a pretty thing to watch the spray fly up from our prow as it
+cuts through the waves.  The sun shines through it and breaks it up
+into a number of miniature rainbows--"sun-dogs," the sailors call
+them.  I stood on the fo'csle-head for several hours to-day
+watching the effect, and surrounded by a halo of prismatic colours.
+
+The steersman has evidently told the other blacks about my
+wonderful stone, for I am treated by them all with the greatest
+respect.  Talking about optical phenomena, we had a curious one
+yesterday evening which was pointed out to me by Hyson.  This was
+the appearance of a triangular well-defined object high up in the
+heavens to the north of us.  He explained that it was exactly like
+the Peak of Teneriffe as seen from a great distance--the peak was,
+however, at that moment at least five hundred miles to the south. 
+It may have been a cloud, or it may have been one of those strange
+reflections of which one reads.  The weather is very warm.  The
+mate says that he never knew it so warm in these latitudes. 
+Played chess with Harton in the evening.
+
+November 10.--It is getting warmer and warmer.  Some land birds
+came and perched in the rigging today, though we are still a
+considerable way from our destination.  The heat is so great that
+we are too lazy to do anything but lounge about the decks and
+smoke.  Goring came over to me to-day and asked me some more
+questions about my stone; but I answered him rather shortly, for I
+have not quite forgiven him yet for the cool way in which he
+attempted to deprive me of it.
+
+November 11, 12.--Still making good progress.  I had no idea
+Portugal was ever as hot as this, but no doubt it is cooler on
+land.  Hyson himself seemed surprised at it, and so do the men.
+
+November 13.--A most extraordinary event has happened, so
+extraordinary as to be almost inexplicable.  Either Hyson has
+blundered wonderfully, or some magnetic influence has disturbed our
+instruments.  Just about daybreak the watch on the fo'csle-head
+shouted out that he heard the sound of surf ahead, and Hyson
+thought he saw the loom of land.  The ship was put about, and,
+though no lights were seen, none of us doubted that we had struck
+the Portuguese coast a little sooner than we had expected.  What
+was our surprise to see the scene which was revealed to us at break
+of day!  As far as we could look on either side was one long line
+of surf, great, green billows rolling in and breaking into a cloud
+of foam.  But behind the surf what was there!  Not the green
+banks nor the high cliffs of the shores of Portugal, but a great
+sandy waste which stretched away and away until it blended with the
+skyline.  To right and left, look where you would, there was
+nothing but yellow sand, heaped in some places into fantastic
+mounds, some of them several hundred feet high, while in other
+parts were long stretches as level apparently as a billiard board. 
+Harton and I, who had come on deck together, looked at each other
+in astonishment, and Harton burst out laughing.  Hyson is
+exceedingly mortified at the occurrence, and protests that the
+instruments have been tampered with.  There is no doubt that this
+is the mainland of Africa, and that it was really the Peak of
+Teneriffe which we saw some days ago upon the northern horizon.  At
+the time when we saw the land birds we must have been passing some
+of the Canary Islands.  If we continued on the same course, we are
+now to the north of Cape Blanco, near the unexplored country which
+skirts the great Sahara.  All we can do is to rectify our
+instruments as far as possible and start afresh for our
+destination.
+
+8.30 P.M.--Have been lying in a calm all day.  The coast is now
+about a mile and a half from us.  Hyson has examined the
+instruments, but cannot find any reason for their extraordinary
+deviation.
+
+This is the end of my private journal, and I must make the
+remainder of my statement from memory.  There is little chance of
+my being mistaken about facts which have seared themselves into my
+recollection.  That very night the storm which had been brewing
+so long burst over us, and I came to learn whither all those little
+incidents were tending which I had recorded so aimlessly.  Blind
+fool that I was not to have seen it sooner!  I shall tell what
+occurred as precisely as I can.
+
+I had gone into my cabin about half-past eleven, and was preparing
+to go to bed, when a tap came at my door.  On opening it I saw
+Goring's little black page, who told me that his master would like
+to have a word with me on deck.  I was rather surprised that he
+should want me at such a late hour, but I went up without
+hesitation.  I had hardly put my foot on the quarter-deck before I
+was seized from behind, dragged down upon my back, and a
+handkerchief slipped round my mouth.  I struggled as hard as I
+could, but a coil of rope was rapidly and firmly wound round me,
+and I found myself lashed to the davit of one of the boats, utterly
+powerless to do or say anything, while the point of a knife pressed
+to my throat warned me to cease my struggles.  The night was so
+dark that I had been unable hitherto to recognise my assailants,
+but as my eyes became accustomed to the gloom, and the moon broke
+out through the clouds that obscured it, I made out that I was
+surrounded by the two negro sailors, the black cook, and my fellow-
+passenger Goring.  Another man was crouching on the deck at my
+feet, but he was in the shadow and I could not recognise him.
+
+All this occurred so rapidly that a minute could hardly have
+elapsed from the time I mounted the companion until I found
+myself gagged and powerless.  It was so sudden that I could scarce
+bring myself to realise it, or to comprehend what it all meant.  I
+heard the gang round me speaking in short, fierce whispers to each
+other, and some instinct told me that my life was the question at
+issue.  Goring spoke authoritatively and angrily--the others
+doggedly and all together, as if disputing his commands.  Then they
+moved away in a body to the opposite side of the deck, where I
+could still hear them whispering, though they were concealed from
+my view by the saloon skylights.
+
+All this time the voices of the watch on deck chatting and laughing
+at the other end of the ship were distinctly audible, and I could
+see them gathered in a group, little dreaming of the dark doings
+which were going on within thirty yards of them.  Oh! that I could
+have given them one word of warning, even though I had lost my life
+in doing it I but it was impossible.  The moon was shining fitfully
+through the scattered clouds, and I could see the silvery gleam of
+the surge, and beyond it the vast weird desert with its fantastic
+sand-hills.  Glancing down, I saw that the man who had been
+crouching on the deck was still lying there, and as I gazed at him,
+a flickering ray of moonlight fell full upon his upturned face. 
+Great Heaven! even now, when more than twelve years have elapsed,
+my hand trembles as I write that, in spite of distorted features
+and projecting eyes, I recognised the face of Harton, the cheery
+young clerk who had been my companion during the voyage.  It needed
+no medical eye to see that he was quite dead, while the twisted
+handkerchief round the neck, and the gag in his mouth, showed the
+silent way in which the hell-hounds had done their work.  The clue
+which explained every event of our voyage came upon me like a flash
+of light as I gazed on poor Harton's corpse.  Much was dark and
+unexplained, but I felt a great dim perception of the truth.
+
+I heard the striking of a match at the other side of the skylights,
+and then I saw the tall, gaunt figure of Goring standing up on the
+bulwarks and holding in his hands what appeared to be a dark
+lantern.  He lowered this for a moment over the side of the ship,
+and, to my inexpressible astonishment, I saw it answered
+instantaneously by a flash among the sand-hills on shore, which
+came and went so rapidly, that unless I had been following the
+direction of Goring's gaze, I should never have detected it.  Again
+he lowered the lantern, and again it was answered from the shore. 
+He then stepped down from the bulwarks, and in doing so slipped,
+making such a noise, that for a moment my heart bounded with the
+thought that the attention of the watch would be directed to his
+proceedings.  It was a vain hope.  The night was calm and the ship
+motionless, so that no idea of duty kept them vigilant.  Hyson, who
+after the death of Tibbs was in command of both watches, had gone
+below to snatch a few hours' sleep, and the boatswain who was left
+in charge was standing with the other two men at the foot of the
+foremast.  Powerless, speechless, with the cords cutting into
+my flesh and the murdered man at my feet, I awaited the next act in
+the tragedy.
+
+The four ruffians were standing up now at the other side of the
+deck.  The cook was armed with some sort of a cleaver, the others
+had knives, and Goring had a revolver.  They were all leaning
+against the rail and looking out over the water as if watching for
+something.  I saw one of them grasp another's arm and point as if
+at some object, and following the direction I made out the loom of
+a large moving mass making towards the ship.  As it emerged from
+the gloom I saw that it was a great canoe crammed with men and
+propelled by at least a score of paddles.  As it shot under our
+stern the watch caught sight of it also, and raising a cry hurried
+aft.  They were too late, however.  A swarm of gigantic negroes
+clambered over the quarter, and led by Goring swept down the deck
+in an irresistible torrent.  All opposition was overpowered in a
+moment, the unarmed watch were knocked over and bound, and the
+sleepers dragged out of their bunks and secured in the same manner.
+
+Hyson made an attempt to defend the narrow passage leading to his
+cabin, and I heard a scuffle, and his voice shouting for
+assistance.  There was none to assist, however, and he was brought
+on to the poop with the blood streaming from a deep cut in his
+forehead.  He was gagged like the others, and a council was held
+upon our fate by the negroes.  I saw our black seamen pointing
+towards me and making some statement, which was received with
+murmurs of astonishment and incredulity by the savages.  One of
+them then came over to me, and plunging his hand into my pocket
+took out my black stone and held it up.  He then handed it to a man
+who appeared to be a chief, who examined it as minutely as the
+light would permit, and muttering a few words passed it on to the
+warrior beside him, who also scrutinised it and passed it on until
+it had gone from hand to hand round the whole circle.  The chief
+then said a few words to Goring in the native tongue, on which the
+quadroon addressed me in English.  At this moment I seem to see the
+scene.  The tall masts of the ship with the moonlight streaming
+down, silvering the yards and bringing the network of cordage into
+hard relief; the group of dusky warriors leaning on their spears;
+the dead man at my feet; the line of white-faced prisoners, and in
+front of me the loathsome half-breed, looking in his white linen
+and elegant clothes a strange contrast to his associates.
+
+"You will bear me witness," he said in his softest accents, "that
+I am no party to sparing your life.  If it rested with me you would
+die as these other men are about to do.  I have no personal grudge
+against either you or them, but I have devoted my life to the
+destruction of the white race, and you are the first that has ever
+been in my power and has escaped me.  You may thank that stone of
+yours for your life.  These poor fellows reverence it, and indeed
+if it really be what they think it is they have cause.  Should it
+prove when we get ashore that they are mistaken, and that its shape
+and material is a mere chance, nothing can save your life.  In
+the meantime we wish to treat you well, so if there are any of your
+possessions which you would like to take with you, you are at
+liberty to get them."  As he finished he gave a sign, and a couple
+of the negroes unbound me, though without removing the gag.  I was
+led down into the cabin, where I put a few valuables into my
+pockets, together with a pocket-compass and my journal of the
+voyage.  They then pushed me over the side into a small canoe,
+which was lying beside the large one, and my guards followed me,
+and shoving off began paddling for the shore.  We had got about a
+hundred yards or so from the ship when our steersman held up his
+hand, and the paddlers paused for a moment and listened.  Then on
+the silence of the night I heard a sort of dull, moaning sound,
+followed by a succession of splashes in the water.  That is all I
+know of the fate of my poor shipmates.  Almost immediately
+afterwards the large canoe followed us, and the deserted ship was
+left drifting about--a dreary, spectre-like hulk.  Nothing was
+taken from her by the savages.  The whole fiendish transaction was
+carried through as decorously and temperately as though it were a
+religious rite.
+
+The first grey of daylight was visible in the east as we passed
+through the surge and reached the shore.  Leaving half-a-dozen men
+with the canoes, the rest of the negroes set off through the sand-
+hills, leading me with them, but treating me very gently and
+respectfully.  It was difficult walking, as we sank over our ankles
+into the loose, shifting sand at every step, and I was nearly
+dead beat by the time we reached the native village, or town
+rather, for it was a place of considerable dimensions.  The houses
+were conical structures not unlike bee-hives, and were made of
+compressed seaweed cemented over with a rude form of mortar, there
+being neither stick nor stone upon the coast nor anywhere within
+many hundreds of miles.  As we entered the town an enormous crowd
+of both sexes came swarming out to meet us, beating tom-toms and
+howling and screaming.  On seeing me they redoubled their yells and
+assumed a threatening attitude, which was instantly quelled by a
+few words shouted by my escort.  A buzz of wonder succeeded the
+war-cries and yells of the moment before, and the whole dense mass
+proceeded down the broad central street of the town, having my
+escort and myself in the centre.
+
+My statement hitherto may seem so strange as to excite doubt in the
+minds of those who do not know me, but it was the fact which I am
+now about to relate which caused my own brother-in-law to insult me
+by disbelief.  I can but relate the occurrence in the simplest
+words, and trust to chance and time to prove their truth.  In the
+centre of this main street there was a large building, formed in
+the same primitive way as the others, but towering high above them;
+a stockade of beautifully polished ebony rails was planted all
+round it, the framework of the door was formed by two magnificent
+elephant's tusks sunk in the ground on each side and meeting at the
+top, and the aperture was closed by a screen of native cloth
+richly embroidered with gold.  We made our way to this imposing-
+looking structure, but, on reaching the opening in the stockade,
+the multitude stopped and squatted down upon their hams, while I
+was led through into the enclosure by a few of the chiefs and
+elders of the tribe, Goring accompanying us, and in fact directing
+the proceedings.  On reaching the screen which closed the temple--
+for such it evidently was--my hat and my shoes were removed, and I
+was then led in, a venerable old negro leading the way carrying in
+his hand my stone, which had been taken from my pocket.  The
+building was only lit up by a few long slits in the roof, through
+which the tropical sun poured, throwing broad golden bars upon the
+clay floor, alternating with intervals of darkness.
+
+The interior was even larger than one would have imagined from the
+outside appearance.  The walls were hung with native mats, shells,
+and other ornaments, but the remainder of the great space was quite
+empty, with the exception of a single object in the centre.  This
+was the figure of a colossal negro, which I at first thought to be
+some real king or high priest of titanic size, but as I approached
+it I saw by the way in which the light was reflected from it that
+it was a statue admirably cut in jet-black stone.  I was led up to
+this idol, for such it seemed to be, and looking at it closer I saw
+that though it was perfect in every other respect, one of its ears
+had been broken short off.  The grey-haired negro who held my relic
+mounted upon a small stool, and stretching up his arm fitted
+Martha's black stone on to the jagged surface on the side of the
+statue's head.  There could not be a doubt that the one had been
+broken off from the other.  The parts dovetailed together so
+accurately that when the old man removed his hand the ear stuck in
+its place for a few seconds before dropping into his open palm. 
+The group round me prostrated themselves upon the ground at the
+sight with a cry of reverence, while the crowd outside, to whom the
+result was communicated, set up a wild whooping and cheering.
+
+In a moment I found myself converted from a prisoner into a demi-
+god.  I was escorted back through the town in triumph, the people
+pressing forward to touch my clothing and to gather up the dust on
+which my foot had trod.  One of the largest huts was put at my
+disposal, and a banquet of every native delicacy was served me.  I
+still felt, however, that I was not a free man, as several spearmen
+were placed as a guard at the entrance of my hut.  All day my mind
+was occupied with plans of escape, but none seemed in any way
+feasible.  On the one side was the great arid desert stretching
+away to Timbuctoo, on the other was a sea untraversed by vessels. 
+The more I pondered over the problem the more hopeless did it seem.
+
+I little dreamed how near I was to its solution.
+
+Night had fallen, and the clamour of the negroes had died gradually
+away.  I was stretched on the couch of skins which had been
+provided for me, and was still meditating over my future, when
+Goring walked stealthily into the hut.  My first idea was that
+he had come to complete his murderous holocaust by making away with
+me, the last survivor, and I sprang up upon my feet, determined to
+defend myself to the last.  He smiled when he saw the action, and
+motioned me down again while he seated himself upon the other end
+of the couch.
+
+"What do you think of me?" was the astonishing question with which
+he commenced our conversation.
+
+"Think of you!" I almost yelled.  "I think you the vilest, most
+unnatural renegade that ever polluted the earth.  If we were away
+from these black devils of yours I would strangle you with my
+hands!"
+
+"Don't speak so loud," he said, without the slightest appearance of
+irritation.  "I don't want our chat to be cut short.  So you would
+strangle me, would you!" he went on, with an amused smile.  "I
+suppose I am returning good for evil, for I have come to help you
+to escape."
+
+"You!" I gasped incredulously.
+
+"Yes, I," he continued.
+
+"Oh, there is no credit to me in the matter.  I am quite
+consistent.  There is no reason why I should not be perfectly
+candid with you.  I wish to be king over these fellows--not a very
+high ambition, certainly, but you know what Caesar said about being
+first in a village in Gaul.  Well, this unlucky stone of yours has
+not only saved your life, but has turned all their heads so that
+they think you are come down from heaven, and my influence will be
+gone until you are out of the way.  That is why I am going to help
+you to escape, since I cannot kill you"--this in the most
+natural and dulcet voice, as if the desire to do so were a matter
+of course.
+
+"You would give the world to ask me a few questions," he went on,
+after a pause; "but you are too proud to do it.  Never mind, I'll
+tell you one or two things, because I want your fellow white men to
+know them when you go back--if you are lucky enough to get back. 
+About that cursed stone of yours, for instance.  These negroes, or
+at least so the legend goes, were Mahometans originally.  While
+Mahomet himself was still alive, there was a schism among his
+followers, and the smaller party moved away from Arabia, and
+eventually crossed Africa.  They took away with them, in their
+exile, a valuable relic of their old faith in the shape of a large
+piece of the black stone of Mecca.  The stone was a meteoric one,
+as you may have heard, and in its fall upon the earth it broke into
+two pieces.  One of these pieces is still at Mecca.  The larger
+piece was carried away to Barbary, where a skilful worker modelled
+it into the fashion which you saw to-day.  These men are the
+descendants of the original seceders from Mahomet, and they have
+brought their relic safely through all their wanderings until they
+settled in this strange place, where the desert protects them from
+their enemies."
+
+"And the ear?" I asked, almost involuntarily.
+
+"Oh, that was the same story over again.  Some of the tribe
+wandered away to the south a few hundred years ago, and one of
+them, wishing to have good luck for the enterprise, got into the
+temple at night and carried off one of the ears.  There has
+been a tradition among the negroes ever since that the ear would
+come back some day.  The fellow who carried it was caught by some
+slaver, no doubt, and that was how it got into America, and so into
+your hands--and you have had the honour of fulfilling the
+prophecy."
+
+He paused for a few minutes, resting his head upon his hands,
+waiting apparently for me to speak.  When he looked up again, the
+whole expression of his face had changed.  His features were firm
+and set, and he changed the air of half levity with which he had
+spoken before for one of sternness and almost ferocity.
+
+"I wish you to carry a message back," he said, "to the white race,
+the great dominating race whom I hate and defy.  Tell them that I
+have battened on their blood for twenty years, that I have slain
+them until even I became tired of what had once been a joy, that I
+did this unnoticed and unsuspected in the face of every precaution
+which their civilisation could suggest.  There is no satisfaction
+in revenge when your enemy does not know who has struck him.  I am
+not sorry, therefore, to have you as a messenger.  There is no need
+why I should tell you how this great hate became born in me.  See
+this," and he held up his mutilated hand; "that was done by a white
+man's knife.  My father was white, my mother was a slave.  When he
+died she was sold again, and I, a child then, saw her lashed to
+death to break her of some of the little airs and graces which her
+late master had encouraged in her.  My young wife, too, oh, my
+young wife!" a shudder ran through his whole frame.  "No
+matter!  I swore my oath, and I kept it.  From Maine to Florida,
+and from Boston to San Francisco, you could track my steps by
+sudden deaths which baffled the police.  I warred against the whole
+white race as they for centuries had warred against the black one. 
+At last, as I tell you, I sickened of blood.  Still, the sight of
+a white face was abhorrent to me, and I determined to find some
+bold free black people and to throw in my lot with them, to
+cultivate their latent powers, and to form a nucleus for a great
+coloured nation.  This idea possessed me, and I travelled over the
+world for two years seeking for what I desired.  At last I almost
+despaired of finding it.  There was no hope of regeneration in the
+slave-dealing Soudanese, the debased Fantee, or the Americanised
+negroes of Liberia.  I was returning from my quest when chance
+brought me in contact with this magnificent tribe of dwellers in
+the desert, and I threw in my lot with them.  Before doing so,
+however, my old instinct of revenge prompted me to make one last
+visit to the United States, and I returned from it in the Marie
+Celeste.
+
+"As to the voyage itself, your intelligence will have told you by
+this time that, thanks to my manipulation, both compasses and
+chronometers were entirely untrustworthy.  I alone worked out the
+course with correct instruments of my own, while the steering was
+done by my black friends under my guidance.  I pushed Tibbs's wife
+overboard.  What!  You look surprised and shrink away.  Surely you
+had guessed that by this time.  I would have shot you that day
+through the partition, but unfortunately you were not there.  I
+tried again afterwards, but you were awake.  I shot Tibbs.  I think
+the idea of suicide was carried out rather neatly.  Of course when
+once we got on the coast the rest was simple.  I had bargained that
+all on board should die; but that stone of yours upset my plans. 
+I also bargained that there should be no plunder.  No one can say
+we are pirates.  We have acted from principle, not from any sordid
+motive."
+
+I listened in amazement to the summary of his crimes which this
+strange man gave me, all in the quietest and most composed of
+voices, as though detailing incidents of every-day occurrence.  I
+still seem to see him sitting like a hideous nightmare at the end
+of my couch, with the single rude lamp flickering over his
+cadaverous features.
+
+"And now," he continued, "there is no difficulty about your escape.
+
+These stupid adopted children of mine will say that you have gone
+back to heaven from whence you came.  The wind blows off the land. 
+I have a boat all ready for you, well stored with provisions and
+water.  I am anxious to be rid of you, so you may rely that nothing
+is neglected.  Rise up and follow me."
+
+I did what he commanded, and he led me through the door of the hut.
+
+The guards had either been withdrawn, or Goring had arranged
+matters with them.  We passed unchallenged through the town and
+across the sandy plain.  Once more I heard the roar of the sea,
+and saw the long white line of the surge.  Two figures were
+standing upon the shore arranging the gear of a small boat.  They
+were the two sailors who had been with us on the voyage.
+
+"See him safely through the surf," said Goring.  The two men sprang
+in and pushed off, pulling me in after them.  With mainsail and jib
+we ran out from the land and passed safely over the bar.  Then my
+two companions without a word of farewell sprang overboard, and I
+saw their heads like black dots on the white foam as they made
+their way back to the shore, while I scudded away into the
+blackness of the night.  Looking back I caught my last glimpse of
+Goring.  He was standing upon the summit of a sand-hill, and the
+rising moon behind him threw his gaunt angular figure into hard
+relief.  He was waving his arms frantically to and fro; it may have
+been to encourage me on my way, but the gestures seemed to me at
+the time to be threatening ones, and I have often thought that it
+was more likely that his old savage instinct had returned when he
+realised that I was out of his power.  Be that as it may, it was
+the last that I ever saw or ever shall see of Septimius Goring.
+
+There is no need for me to dwell upon my solitary voyage.  I
+steered as well as I could for the Canaries, but was picked up upon
+the fifth day by the British and African Steam Navigation Company's
+boat Monrovia.  Let me take this opportunity of tendering my
+sincerest thanks to Captain Stornoway and his officers for the
+great kindness which they showed me from that time till they
+landed me in Liverpool, where I was enabled to take one of the
+Guion boats to New York.
+
+From the day on which I found myself once more in the bosom of my
+family I have said little of what I have undergone.  The subject is
+still an intensely painful one to me, and the little which I have
+dropped has been discredited.  I now put the facts before the
+public as they occurred, careless how far they may be believed, and
+simply writing them down because my lung is growing weaker, and I
+feel the responsibility of holding my peace longer.  I make no
+vague statement.  Turn to your map of Africa.  There above Cape
+Blanco, where the land trends away north and south from the
+westernmost point of the continent, there it is that Septimius
+Goring still reigns over his dark subjects, unless retribution has
+overtaken him; and there, where the long green ridges run swiftly
+in to roar and hiss upon the hot yellow sand, it is there that
+Harton lies with Hyson and the other poor fellows who were done to
+death in the Marie Celeste.
+
+
+
+
+THE GREAT KEINPLATZ EXPERIMENT.
+
+Of all the sciences which have puzzled the sons of men, none had
+such an attraction for the learned Professor von Baumgarten as
+those which relate to psychology and the ill-defined relations
+between mind and matter.  A celebrated anatomist, a profound
+chemist, and one of the first physiologists in Europe, it was a
+relief for him to turn from these subjects and to bring his varied
+knowledge to bear upon the study of the soul and the mysterious
+relationship of spirits.  At first, when as a young man he began to
+dip into the secrets of mesmerism, his mind seemed to be wandering
+in a strange land where all was chaos and darkness, save that here
+and there some great unexplainable and disconnected fact loomed out
+in front of him.  As the years passed, however, and as the worthy
+Professor's stock of knowledge increased, for knowledge begets
+knowledge as money bears interest, much which had seemed strange
+and unaccountable began to take another shape in his eyes.  New
+trains of reasoning became familiar to him, and he perceived
+connecting links where all had been incomprehensible and startling.
+
+By experiments which extended over twenty years, he obtained a
+basis of facts upon which it was his ambition to build up a new
+exact science which should embrace mesmerism, spiritualism,
+and all cognate subjects.  In this he was much helped by his
+intimate knowledge of the more intricate parts of animal physiology
+which treat of nerve currents and the working of the brain; for
+Alexis von Baumgarten was Regius Professor of Physiology at the
+University of Keinplatz, and had all the resources of the
+laboratory to aid him in his profound researches.
+
+Professor von Baumgarten was tall and thin, with a hatchet face and
+steel-grey eyes, which were singularly bright and penetrating. 
+Much thought had furrowed his forehead and contracted his heavy
+eyebrows, so that he appeared to wear a perpetual frown, which
+often misled people as to his character, for though austere he was
+tender-hearted.  He was popular among the students, who would
+gather round him after his lectures and listen eagerly to his
+strange theories.  Often he would call for volunteers from amongst
+them in order to conduct some experiment, so that eventually there
+was hardly a lad in the class who had not, at one time or another,
+been thrown into a mesmeric trance by his Professor.
+
+Of all these young devotees of science there was none who equalled
+in enthusiasm Fritz von Hartmann.  It had often seemed strange to
+his fellow-students that wild, reckless Fritz, as dashing a young
+fellow as ever hailed from the Rhinelands, should devote the time
+and trouble which he did in reading up abstruse works and in
+assisting the Professor in his strange experiments.  The fact was,
+however, that Fritz was a knowing and long-headed fellow. 
+Months before he had lost his heart to young Elise, the blue-eyed,
+yellow-haired daughter of the lecturer.  Although he had succeeded
+in learning from her lips that she was not indifferent to his suit,
+he had never dared to announce himself to her family as a formal
+suitor.  Hence he would have found it a difficult matter to see his
+young lady had he not adopted the expedient of making himself
+useful to the Professor.  By this means he frequently was asked to
+the old man's house, where he willingly submitted to be
+experimented upon in any way as long as there was a chance of his
+receiving one bright glance from the eyes of Elise or one touch of
+her little hand.
+
+Young Fritz von Hartmann was a handsome lad enough.  There were
+broad acres, too, which would descend to him when his father died. 
+To many he would have seemed an eligible suitor; but Madame frowned
+upon his presence in the house, and lectured the Professor at times
+on his allowing such a wolf to prowl around their lamb.  To tell
+the truth, Fritz had an evil name in Keinplatz.  Never was there a
+riot or a duel, or any other mischief afoot, but the young
+Rhinelander figured as a ringleader in it.  No one used more free
+and violent language, no one drank more, no one played cards more
+habitually, no one was more idle, save in the one solitary subject.
+
+No wonder, then, that the good Frau Professorin gathered her
+Fraulein under her wing, and resented the attentions of such a
+mauvais sujet.  As to the worthy lecturer, he was too much
+engrossed by his strange studies to form an opinion upon the
+subject one way or the other.
+
+For many years there was one question which had continually
+obtruded itself upon his thoughts.  All his experiments and his
+theories turned upon a single point.  A hundred times a day the
+Professor asked himself whether it was possible for the human
+spirit to exist apart from the body for a time and then to return
+to it once again.  When the possibility first suggested itself to
+him his scientific mind had revolted from it.  It clashed too
+violently with preconceived ideas and the prejudices of his early
+training.  Gradually, however, as he proceeded farther and farther
+along the pathway of original research, his mind shook off its old
+fetters and became ready to face any conclusion which could
+reconcile the facts.  There were many things which made him believe
+that it was possible for mind to exist apart from matter.  At last
+it occurred to him that by a daring and original experiment the
+question might be definitely decided.
+
+"It is evident," he remarked in his celebrated article upon
+invisible entities, which appeared in the Keinplatz wochenliche
+Medicalschrift about this time, and which surprised the whole
+scientific world--"it is evident that under certain conditions the
+soul or mind does separate itself from the body.  In the case of a
+mesmerised person, the body lies in a cataleptic condition, but the
+spirit has left it.  Perhaps you reply that the soul is there, but
+in a dormant condition.  I answer that this is not so,
+otherwise how can one account for the condition of clairvoyance,
+which has fallen into disrepute through the knavery of certain
+scoundrels, but which can easily be shown to be an undoubted fact. 
+I have been able myself, with a sensitive subject, to obtain an
+accurate description of what was going on in another room or
+another house.  How can such knowledge be accounted for on any
+hypothesis save that the soul of the subject has left the body and
+is wandering through space?  For a moment it is recalled by the
+voice of the operator and says what it has seen, and then wings its
+way once more through the air.  Since the spirit is by its very
+nature invisible, we cannot see these comings and goings, but we
+see their effect in the body of the subject, now rigid and inert,
+now struggling to narrate impressions which could never have come
+to it by natural means.  There is only one way which I can see by
+which the fact can be demonstrated.  Although we in the flesh are
+unable to see these spirits, yet our own spirits, could we separate
+them from the body, would be conscious of the presence of others. 
+It is my intention, therefore, shortly to mesmerise one of my
+pupils.  I shall then mesmerise myself in a manner which has become
+easy to me.  After that, if my theory holds good, my spirit will
+have no difficulty in meeting and communing with the spirit of my
+pupil, both being separated from the body.  I hope to be able to
+communicate the result of this interesting experiment in an early
+number of the Keinplatz wochenliche Medicalschrilt."
+
+When the good Professor finally fulfilled his promise, and
+published an account of what occurred, the narrative was so
+extraordinary that it was received with general incredulity.  The
+tone of some of the papers was so offensive in their comments upon
+the matter that the angry savant declared that he would never open
+his mouth again or refer to the subject in any way--a promise which
+he has faithfully kept.  This narrative has been compiled, however,
+from the most authentic sources, and the events cited in it may be
+relied upon as substantially correct.
+
+It happened, then, that shortly after the time when Professor von
+Baumgarten conceived the idea of the above-mentioned experiment, he
+was walking thoughtfully homewards after a long day in the
+laboratory, when he met a crowd of roystering students who had just
+streamed out from a beer-house.  At the head of them, half-
+intoxicated and very noisy, was young Fritz von Hartmann.  The
+Professor would have passed them, but his pupil ran across and
+intercepted him.
+
+"Heh! my worthy master," he said, taking the old man by the sleeve,
+and leading him down the road with him.  "There is something that
+I have to say to you, and it is easier for me to say it now, when
+the good beer is humming in my head, than at another time."
+
+"What is it, then, Fritz?" the physiologist asked, looking at him
+in mild surprise.
+
+"I hear, mein herr, that you are about to do some wondrous
+experiment in which you hope to take a man's soul out of his
+body, and then to put it back again.  Is it not so?"
+
+"It is true, Fritz."
+
+"And have you considered, my dear sir, that you may have some
+difficulty in finding some one on whom to try this?  Potztausend! 
+Suppose that the soul went out and would not come back.  That would
+be a bad business.  Who is to take the risk?"
+
+"But, Fritz," the Professor cried, very much startled by this view
+of the matter, "I had relied upon your assistance in the attempt. 
+Surely you will not desert me.  Consider the honour and glory."
+
+"Consider the fiddlesticks!" the student cried angrily.  "Am I to
+be paid always thus?  Did I not stand two hours upon a glass
+insulator while you poured electricity into my body?  Have you not
+stimulated my phrenic nerves, besides ruining my digestion with a
+galvanic current round my stomach?  Four-and-thirty times you have
+mesmerised me, and what have I got from all this?  Nothing.  And
+now you wish to take my soul out, as you would take the works from
+a watch.  It is more than flesh and blood can stand."
+
+"Dear, dear!" the Professor cried in great distress.  "That is very
+true, Fritz.  I never thought of it before.  If you can but suggest
+how I can compensate you, you will find me ready and willing."
+
+"Then listen," said Fritz solemnly.  "If you will pledge your word
+that after this experiment I may have the hand of your daughter,
+then I am willing to assist you; but if not, I shall have
+nothing to do with it.  These are my only terms."
+
+"And what would my daughter say to this?" the Professor exclaimed,
+after a pause of astonishment.
+
+"Elise would welcome it," the young man replied.  "We have loved
+each other long."
+
+"Then she shall be yours," the physiologist said with decision,
+"for you are a good-hearted young man, and one of the best neurotic
+subjects that I have ever known--that is when you are not under the
+influence of alcohol.  My experiment is to be performed upon the
+fourth of next month.  You will attend at the physiological
+laboratory at twelve o'clock.  It will be a great occasion, Fritz. 
+Von Gruben is coming from Jena, and Hinterstein from Basle.  The
+chief men of science of all South Germany will be there.
+
+"I shall be punctual," the student said briefly; and so the two
+parted.  The Professor plodded homeward, thinking of the great
+coming event, while the young man staggered along after his noisy
+companions, with his mind full of the blue-eyed Elise, and of the
+bargain which he had concluded with her father.
+
+The Professor did not exaggerate when he spoke of the widespread
+interest excited by his novel psychophysiological experiment.  Long
+before the hour had arrived the room was filled by a galaxy of
+talent.  Besides the celebrities whom he had mentioned, there had
+come from London the great Professor Lurcher, who had just
+established his reputation by a remarkable treatise upon cerebral
+centres.  Several great lights of the Spiritualistic body had
+also come a long distance to be present, as had a Swedenborgian
+minister, who considered that the proceedings might throw some
+light upon the doctrines of the Rosy Cross.
+
+There was considerable applause from this eminent assembly upon the
+appearance of Professor von Baumgarten and his subject upon the
+platform.  The lecturer, in a few well-chosen words, explained what
+his views were, and how he proposed to test them.  "I hold," he
+said, "that when a person is under the influence of mesmerism, his
+spirit is for the time released from his body, and I challenge any
+one to put forward any other hypothesis which will account for the
+fact of clairvoyance.  I therefore hope that upon mesmerising my
+young friend here, and then putting myself into a trance, our
+spirits may be able to commune together, though our bodies lie
+still and inert.  After a time nature will resume her sway, our
+spirits will return into our respective bodies, and all will be as
+before.  With your kind permission, we shall now proceed to attempt
+the experiment."
+
+The applause was renewed at this speech, and the audience settled
+down in expectant silence.  With a few rapid passes the Professor
+mesmerised the young man, who sank back in his chair, pale and
+rigid.  He then took a bright globe of glass from his pocket, and
+by concentrating his gaze upon it and making a strong mental
+effort, he succeeded in throwing himself into the same condition. 
+It was a strange and impressive sight to see the old man and the
+young sitting together in the same cataleptic condition. 
+Whither, then, had their souls fled?  That was the question which
+presented itself to each and every one of the spectators.
+
+Five minutes passed, and then ten, and then fifteen, and then
+fifteen more, while the Professor and his pupil sat stiff and stark
+upon the platform.  During that time not a sound was heard from the
+assembled savants, but every eye was bent upon the two pale faces,
+in search of the first signs of returning consciousness.  Nearly an
+hour had elapsed before the patient watchers were rewarded.  A
+faint flush came back to the cheeks of Professor von Baumgarten. 
+The soul was coming back once more to its earthly tenement. 
+Suddenly he stretched out his long thin arms, as one awaking from
+sleep, and rubbing his eyes, stood up from his chair and gazed
+about him as though he hardly realised where he was.  "Tausend
+Teufel!" he exclaimed, rapping out a tremendous South German oath,
+to the great astonishment of his audience and to the disgust of the
+Swedenborgian.  "Where the Henker am I then, and what in thunder
+has occurred?  Oh yes, I remember now.  One of these nonsensical
+mesmeric experiments.  There is no result this time, for I remember
+nothing at all since I became unconscious; so you have had all your
+long journeys for nothing, my learned friends, and a very good joke
+too; "at which the Regius Professor of Physiology burst into a roar
+of laughter and slapped his thigh in a highly indecorous fashion. 
+The audience were so enraged at this unseemly behaviour on the part
+of their host, that there might have been a considerable
+disturbance, had it not been for the judicious interference of
+young Fritz von Hartmann, who had now recovered from his lethargy. 
+Stepping to the front of the platform, the young man apologised for
+the conduct of his companion.  "I am sorry to say," he said, "that
+he is a harum-scarum sort of fellow, although he appeared so grave
+at the commencement of this experiment.  He is still suffering from
+mesmeric reaction, and is hardly accountable for his words.  As to
+the experiment itself, I do not consider it to be a failure.  It is
+very possible that our spirits may have been communing in space
+during this hour; but, unfortunately, our gross bodily memory is
+distinct from our spirit, and we cannot recall what has occurred. 
+My energies shall now be devoted to devising some means by which
+spirits may be able to recollect what occurs to them in their free
+state, and I trust that when I have worked this out, I may have the
+pleasure of meeting you all once again in this hall, and
+demonstrating to you the result."  This address, coming from so
+young a student, caused considerable astonishment among the
+audience, and some were inclined to be offended, thinking that he
+assumed rather too much importance.  The majority, however, looked
+upon him as a young man of great promise, and many comparisons were
+made as they left the hall between his dignified conduct and the
+levity of his professor, who during the above remarks was laughing
+heartily in a corner, by no means abashed at the failure of the
+experiment.
+
+Now although all these learned men were filing out of the
+lecture-room under the impression that they had seen nothing of
+note, as a matter of fact one of the most wonderful things in the
+whole history of the world had just occurred before their very eyes
+Professor von Baumgarten had been so far correct in his theory that
+both his spirit and that of his pupil had been for a time absent
+from his body.  But here a strange and unforeseen complication had
+occurred.  In their return the spirit of Fritz von Hartmann had
+entered into the body of Alexis von Baumgarten, and that of Alexis
+von Baumgarten had taken up its abode in the frame of Fritz von
+Hartmann.  Hence the slang and scurrility which issued from the
+lips of the serious Professor, and hence also the weighty words and
+grave statements which fell from the careless student.  It was an
+unprecedented event, yet no one knew of it, least of all those whom
+it concerned.
+
+The body of the Professor, feeling conscious suddenly of a great
+dryness about the back of the throat, sallied out into the street,
+still chuckling to himself over the result of the experiment, for
+the soul of Fritz within was reckless at the thought of the bride
+whom he had won so easily.  His first impulse was to go up to the
+house and see her, but on second thoughts he came to the conclusion
+that it would be best to stay away until Madame Baumgarten should
+be informed by her husband of the agreement which had been made. 
+He therefore made his way down to the Graner Mann, which was one of
+the favourite trysting-places of the wilder students, and ran,
+boisterously waving his cane in the air, into the little
+parlour, where sat Spiegler and Muller and half a dozen other boon
+companions.
+
+"Ha, ha! my boys," he shouted.  "I knew I should find you here. 
+Drink up, every one of you, and call for what you like, for I'm
+going to stand treat to-day."
+
+Had the green man who is depicted upon the signpost of that well-
+known inn suddenly marched into the room and called for a bottle of
+wine, the students could not have been more amazed than they were
+by this unexpected entry of their revered professor.  They were so
+astonished that for a minute or two they glared at him in utter
+bewilderment without being able to make any reply to his hearty
+invitation.
+
+"Donner und Blitzen!" shouted the Professor angrily.  "What the
+deuce is the matter with you, then?  You sit there like a set of
+stuck pigs staring at me.  What is it, then?"
+
+"It is the unexpected honour," stammered Spiegel, who was in the
+chair.
+
+"Honour--rubbish!" said the Professor testily.  "Do you think that
+just because I happen to have been exhibiting mesmerism to a parcel
+of old fossils, I am therefore too proud to associate with dear old
+friends like you?  Come out of that chair, Spiegel my boy, for I
+shall preside now.  Beer, or wine, or shnapps, my lads--call for
+what you like, and put it all down to me."
+
+Never was there such an afternoon in the Gruner Mann.  The foaming
+flagons of lager and the green-necked bottles of Rhenish circulated
+merrily.  By degrees the students lost their shyness in the
+presence of their Professor.  As for him, he shouted, he sang, he
+roared, he balanced a long tobacco-pipe upon his nose, and offered
+to run a hundred yards against any member of the company.  The
+Kellner and the barmaid whispered to each other outside the door
+their astonishment at such proceedings on the part of a Regius
+Professor of the ancient university of Kleinplatz.  They had still
+more to whisper about afterwards, for the learned man cracked the
+Kellner's crown, and kissed the barmaid behind the kitchen door.
+
+"Gentlemen," said the Professor, standing up, albeit somewhat
+totteringly, at the end of the table, and balancing his high old-
+fashioned wine glass in his bony hand, "I must now explain to you
+what is the cause of this festivity."
+
+"Hear! hear! " roared the students, hammering their beer glasses
+against the table; "a speech, a speech!--silence for a speech!"
+
+"The fact is, my friends," said the Professor, beaming through his
+spectacles, "I hope very soon to be married."
+
+"Married!" cried a student, bolder than the others "Is Madame dead,
+then?"
+
+"Madame who?"
+
+"Why, Madame von Baumgarten, of course."
+
+"Ha, ha!" laughed the Professor; "I can see, then, that you know
+all about my former difficulties.  No, she is not dead, but I have
+reason to believe that she will not oppose my marriage."
+
+"That is very accommodating of her," remarked one of the company.
+
+"In fact," said the Professor, "I hope that she will now be induced
+to aid me in getting a wife.  She and I never took to each other
+very much; but now I hope all that may be ended, and when I marry
+she will come and stay with me."
+
+"What a happy family!" exclaimed some wag.
+
+"Yes, indeed; and I hope you will come to my wedding, all of you. 
+I won't mention names, but here is to my little bride!" and the
+Professor waved his glass in the air.
+
+"Here's to his little bride!" roared the roysterers, with shouts of
+laughter.  "Here's her health.  Sie soll leben--Hoch!" And so the
+fun waxed still more fast and furious, while each young fellow
+followed the Professor's example, and drank a toast to the girl of
+his heart.
+
+While all this festivity had been going on at the Graner Mann, a
+very different scene had been enacted elsewhere.  Young Fritz von
+Hartmann, with a solemn face and a reserved manner, had, after the
+experiment, consulted and adjusted some mathematical instruments;
+after which, with a few peremptory words to the janitors, he had
+walked out into the street and wended his way slowly in the
+direction of the house of the Professor.  As he walked he saw Von
+Althaus, the professor of anatomy, in front of him, and quickening
+his pace he overtook him.
+
+"I say, Von Althaus," he exclaimed, tapping him on the sleeve, "you
+were asking me for some information the other day concerning
+the middle coat of the cerebral arteries.  Now I find----"
+
+"Donnerwetter!" shouted Von Althaus, who was a peppery old fellow. 
+"What the deuce do you mean by your impertinence!  I'll have you up
+before the Academical Senate for this, sir; "with which threat he
+turned on his heel and hurried away.  Von Hartmann was much
+surprised at this reception.  "It's on account of this failure of
+my experiment," he said to himself, and continued moodily on his
+way.
+
+Fresh surprises were in store for him, however.  He was hurrying
+along when he was overtaken by two students.  These youths, instead
+of raising their caps or showing any other sign of respect, gave a
+wild whoop of deligilt the instant that they saw him, and rushing
+at him, seized him by each arm and commenced dragging him along
+with them.
+
+"Gott in himmel!" roared Von Hartmann.  "What is the meaning of
+this unparalleled insult?  Where are you taking me?"
+
+"To crack a bottle of wine with us," said the two students.  "Come
+along!  That is an invitation which you have never refused."
+
+"I never heard of such insolence in my life!" cried Von Hartmann. 
+"Let go my arms! I shall certainly have you rusticated for this. 
+Let me go, I say!" and he kicked furiously at his captors.
+
+"Oh, if you choose to turn ill-tempered, you may go where you
+like," the students said, releasing him.  "We can do very well
+without you."
+
+"I know you.  I'll pay you out," said Von Hartmann furiously, and
+continued in the direction which he imagined to be his own home,
+much incensed at the two episodes which had occurred to him on the
+way.
+
+Now, Madame von Baumgarten, who was looking out of the window and
+wondering why her husband was late for dinner, was considerably
+astonished to see the young student come stalking down the road. 
+As already remarked, she had a great antipathy to him, and if ever
+he ventured into the house it was on sufferance, and under the
+protection of the Professor.  Still more astonished was she,
+therefore, when she beheld him undo the wicket-gate and stride up
+the garden path with the air of one who is master of the situation.
+
+She could hardly believe her eyes, and hastened to the door with
+all her maternal instincts up in arms.  From the upper windows the
+fair Elise had also observed this daring move upon the part of her
+lover, and her heart beat quick with mingled pride and
+consternation.
+
+"Good day, sir," Madame Baumgarten remarked to the intruder, as she
+stood in gloomy majesty in the open doorway.
+
+"A very fine day indeed, Martha," returned the other.  "Now, don't
+stand there like a statue of Juno, but bustle about and get the
+dinner ready, for I am well-nigh starved."
+
+"Martha! Dinner!" ejaculated the lady, falling back in
+astonishment.
+
+"Yes, dinner, Martha, dinner!" howled Von Hartmann, who was
+becoming irritable.  "Is there anything wonderful in that request
+when a man has been out all day?  I'll wait in the dining-room. 
+Anything will do.  Schinken, and sausage, and prunes--any little
+thing that happens to be about.  There you are, standing staring
+again.  Woman, will you or will you not stir your legs?"
+
+This last address, delivered with a perfect shriek of rage, had the
+effect of sending good Madame Baumgarten flying along the passage
+and through the kitchen, where she locked herself up in the
+scullery and went into violent hysterics.  In the meantime Von
+Hartmann strode into the room and threw himself down upon the sofa
+in the worst of tempers.
+
+"Elise!" he shouted.  "Confound the girl!  Elise!"
+
+Thus roughly summoned, the young lady came timidly downstairs and
+into the presence of her lover.  "Dearest!" she cried, throwing her
+arms round him, "I know this is all done for my sake!  It is a
+RUSE in order to see me."
+
+Von Hartmann's indignation at this fresh attack upon him was so
+great that he became speechless for a minute from rage, and could
+only glare and shake his fists, while he struggled in her embrace. 
+When he at last regained his utterance, he indulged in such a
+bellow of passion that the young lady dropped back, petrified with
+fear, into an armchair.
+
+"Never have I passed such a day in my life," Von Hartmann cried,
+stamping upon the floor.  "My experiment has failed.  Von Althaus
+has insulted me.  Two students have dragged me along the
+public road.  My wife nearly faints when I ask her for dinner, and
+my daughter flies at me and hugs me like a grizzly bear."
+
+"You are ill, dear," the young lady cried.  "Your mind is
+wandering.  You have not even kissed me once."
+
+"No, and I don't intend to either," Von Hartmann said with
+decision.  "You ought to be ashamed of yourself.  Why don't you go
+and fetch my slippers, and help your mother to dish the dinner?"
+
+"And is it for this," Elise cried, burying her face in her
+handkerchief--"is it for this that I have loved you passionately
+for upwards of ten months?  Is it for this that I have braved my
+mother's wrath?  Oh, you have broken my heart; I am sure you have!"
+and she sobbed hysterically.
+
+"I can't stand much more of this," roared Von Hartmann furiously. 
+"What the deuce does the girl mean?  What did I do ten months ago
+which inspired you with such a particular affection for me?  If you
+are really so very fond, you would do better to run away down and
+find the schinken and some bread, instead of talking all this
+nonsense"
+
+"Oh, my darling!" cried the unhappy maiden, throwing herself into
+the arms of what she imagined to be her lover, "you do but joke in
+order to frighten your little Elise."
+
+Now it chanced that at the moment of this unexpected embrace Von
+Hartmann was still leaning back against the end of the sofa, which,
+like much German furniture, was in a somewhat rickety
+condition.  It also chanced that beneath this end of the sofa there
+stood a tank full of water in which the physiologist was conducting
+certain experiments upon the ova of fish, and which he kept in his
+drawing-room in order to insure an equable temperature.  The
+additional weight of the maiden, combined with the impetus with
+which she hurled herself upon him, caused the precarious piece of
+furniture to give way, and the body of the unfortunate student was
+hurled backwards into the tank, in which his head and shoulders
+were firmly wedged, while his lower extremities flapped helplessly
+about in the air.  This was the last straw.  Extricating himself
+with some difficulty from his unpleasant position, Von Hartmann
+gave an inarticulate yell of fury, and dashing out of the room, in
+spite of the entreaties of Elise, he seized his hat and rushed off
+into the town, all dripping and dishevelled, with the intention of
+seeking in some inn the food and comfort which he could not find at
+home.
+
+As the spirit of Von Baumgarten encased in the body of Von Hartmann
+strode down the winding pathway which led down to the little town,
+brooding angrily over his many wrongs, he became aware that an
+elderly man was approaching him who appeared to be in an advanced
+state of intoxication.  Von Hartmann waited by the side of the road
+and watched this individual, who came stumbling along, reeling from
+one side of the road to the other, and singing a student song in a
+very husky and drunken voice.  At first his interest was
+merely excited by the fact of seeing a man of so venerable an
+appearance in such a disgraceful condition, but as he approached
+nearer, he became convinced that he knew the other well, though he
+could not recall when or where he had met him.  This impression
+became so strong with him, that when the stranger came abreast of
+him he stepped in front of him and took a good look at his
+features.
+
+"Well, sonny," said the drunken man, surveying Von Hartmann and
+swaying about in front of him, "where the Henker have I seen you
+before?  I know you as well as I know myself.  Who the deuce are
+you?"
+
+"I am Professor von Baumgarten," said the student.  "May I ask who
+you are?  I am strangely familiar with your features."
+
+"You should never tell lies, young man," said the other.  "You're
+certainly not the Professor, for he is an ugly snuffy old chap, and
+you are a big broad-shouldered young fellow.  As to myself, I am
+Fritz von Hartmann at your service."
+
+"That you certainly are not," exclaimed the body of Von Hartmann. 
+"You might very well be his father.  But hullo, sir, are you aware
+that you are wearing my studs and my watch-chain?"
+
+"Donnerwetter!" hiccoughed the other.  " If those are not the
+trousers for which my tailor is about to sue me, may I never taste
+beer again."
+
+Now as Von Hartmann, overwhelmed by the many strange things which
+had occurred to him that day, passed his hand over his
+forehead and cast his eyes downwards, he chanced to catch the
+reflection of his own face in a pool which the rain had left upon
+the road.  To his utter astonishment he perceived that his face was
+that of a youth, that his dress was that of a fashionable young
+student, and that in every way he was the antithesis of the grave
+and scholarly figure in which his mind was wont to dwell.  In an
+instant his active brain ran over the series of events which had
+occurred and sprang to the conclusion.  He fairly reeled under the
+blow.
+
+"Himmel!" he cried, "I see it all.  Our souls are in the wrong
+bodies.  I am you and you are I.  My theory is proved--but at what
+an expense!  Is the most scholarly mind in Europe to go about with
+this frivolous exterior?  Oh the labours of a lifetime are ruined!"
+and he smote his breast in his despair.
+
+"I say," remarked the real Von Hartmann from the body of the
+Professor, "I quite see the force of your remarks, but don't go
+knocking my body about like that.  You received it in excellent
+condition, but I perceive that you have wet it and bruised it, and
+spilled snuff over my ruffled shirt-front."
+
+"It matters little," the other said moodily.  "Such as we are so
+must we stay.  My theory is triumphantly proved, but the cost is
+terrible."
+
+"If I thought so," said the spirit of the student, "it would be
+hard indeed.  What could I do with these stiff old limbs, and how
+could I woo Elise and persuade her that I was not her father?  No,
+thank Heaven, in spite of the beer which has upset me more
+than ever it could upset my real self, I can see a way out of it."
+
+"How?" gasped the Professor.
+
+"Why, by repeating the experiment.  Liberate our souls once more,
+and the chances are that they will find their way back into their
+respective bodies."
+
+No drowning man could clutch more eagerly at a straw than did Von
+Baumgarten's spirit at this suggestion.  In feverish haste he
+dragged his own frame to the side of the road and threw it into a
+mesmeric trance; he then extracted the crystal ball from the
+pocket, and managed to bring himself into the same condition.
+
+Some students and peasants who chanced to pass during the next hour
+were much astonished to see the worthy Professor of Physiology and
+his favourite student both sitting upon a very muddy bank and both
+completely insensible.  Before the hour was up quite a crowd had
+assembled, and they were discussing the advisability of sending for
+an ambulance to convey the pair to hospital, when the learned
+savant opened his eyes and gazed vacantly around him.  For an
+instant he seemed to forget how he had come there, but next moment
+he astonished his audience by waving his skinny arms above his head
+and crying out in a voice of rapture, "Gott sei gedanket!  I am
+myself again.  I feel I am!"  Nor was the amazement lessened when
+the student, springing to his feet, burst into the same cry, and
+the two performed a sort of pas de joie in the middle of the
+road.
+
+For some time after that people had some suspicion of the sanity of
+both the actors in this strange episode.  When the Professor
+published his experiences in the Medicalschrift as he had promised,
+he was met by an intimation, even from his colleagues, that he
+would do well to have his mind cared for, and that another such
+publication would certainly consign him to a madhouse.  The student
+also found by experience that it was wisest to be silent about the
+matter.
+
+When the worthy lecturer returned home that night he did not
+receive the cordial welcome which he might have looked for after
+his strange adventures.  On the contrary, he was roundly upbraided
+by both his female relatives for smelling of drink and tobacco, and
+also for being absent while a young scapegrace invaded the house
+and insulted its occupants.  It was long before the domestic
+atmosphere of the lecturer's house resumed its normal quiet, and
+longer still before the genial face of Von Hartmann was seen
+beneath its roof.  Perseverance, however, conquers every obstacle,
+and the student eventually succeeded in pacifying the enraged
+ladies and in establishing himself upon the old footing.  He has
+now no longer any cause to fear the enmity of Madame, for he is
+Hauptmann von Hartmann of the Emperor's own Uhlans, and his loving
+wife Elise has already presented him with two little Uhlans as a
+visible sign and token of her affection.
+
+
+
+THE MAN FROM ARCHANGEL.
+
+
+On the fourth day of March, in the year 1867, being at that time in
+my five-and-twentieth year, I wrote down the following words in my
+note-book--the result of much mental perturbation and conflict:--
+
+"The solar system, amidst a countless number of other systems as
+large as itself, rolls ever silently through space in the direction
+of the constellation of Hercules.  The great spheres of which it is
+composed spin and spin through the eternal void ceaselessly and
+noiselessly.  Of these one of the smallest and most insignificant
+is that conglomeration of solid and of liquid particles which we
+have named the earth.  It whirls onwards now as it has done before
+my birth, and will do after my death--a revolving mystery, coming
+none know whence, and going none know whither.  Upon the outer
+crust of this moving mass crawl many mites, of whom I, John
+M`Vittie, am one, helpless, impotent, being dragged aimlessly
+through space.  Yet such is the state of things amongst us that the
+little energy and glimmering of reason which I possess is entirely
+taken up with the labours which are necessary in order to procure
+certain metallic disks, wherewith I may purchase the
+chemical elements necessary to build up my ever-wasting tissues,
+and keep a roof over me to shelter me from the inclemency of the
+weather.  I thus have no thought to expend upon the vital questions
+which surround me on every side.  Yet, miserable entity as I am, I
+can still at times feel some degree of happiness, and am even--save
+the mark!--puffed up occasionally with a sense of my own
+importance."
+
+These words, as I have said, I wrote down in my note-book, and they
+reflected accurately the thoughts which I found rooted far down in
+my soul, ever present and unaffected by the passing emotions of the
+hour.  At last, however, came a time when my uncle, M`Vittie of
+Glencairn, died--the same who was at one time chairman of
+committees of the House of Commons.  He divided his great wealth
+among his many nephews, and I found myself with sufficient to
+provide amply for my wants during the remainder of my life, and
+became at the same time owner of a bleak tract of land upon the
+coast of Caithness, which I think the old man must have bestowed
+upon me in derision, for it was sandy and valueless, and he had
+ever a grim sense of humour.  Up to this time I had been an
+attorney in a midland town in England.  Now I saw that I could put
+my thoughts into effect, and, leaving all petty and sordid aims,
+could elevate my mind by the study of the secrets of nature.  My
+departure from my English home was somewhat accelerated by the fact
+that I had nearly slain a man in a quarrel, for my temper was
+fiery, and I was apt to forget my own strength when enraged. 
+There was no legal action taken in the matter, but the papers
+yelped at me, and folk looked askance when I met them.  It ended by
+my cursing them and their vile, smoke-polluted town, and hurrying
+to my northern possession, where I might at last find peace and an
+opportunity for solitary study and contemplation.  I borrowed from
+my capital before I went, and so was able to take with me a choice
+collection of the most modern philosophical instruments and books,
+together with chemicals and such other things as I might need in my
+retirement.
+
+The land which I had inherited was a narrow strip, consisting
+mostly of sand, and extending for rather over two miles round the
+coast of Mansie Bay, in Caithness.  Upon this strip there had been
+a rambling, grey-stone building--when erected or wherefore none
+could tell me--and this I had repaired, so that it made a dwelling
+quite good enough for one of my simple tastes.  One room was my
+laboratory, another my sitting-room, and in a third, just under the
+sloping roof, I slung the hammock in which I always slept.  There
+were three other rooms, but I left them vacant, except one which
+was given over to the old crone who kept house for me.  Save the
+Youngs and the M`Leods, who were fisher-folk living round at the
+other side of Fergus Ness, there were no other people for many
+miles in each direction.  In front of the house was the great bay,
+behind it were two long barren hills, capped by other loftier ones
+beyond.  There was a glen between the hills, and when the wind
+was from the land it used to sweep down this with a melancholy
+sough and whisper among the branches of the fir-trees beneath my
+attic window.
+
+I dislike my fellow-mortals.  Justice compels me to add that they
+appear for the most part to dislike me.  I hate their little
+crawling ways, their conventionalities, their deceits, their narrow
+rights and wrongs.  They take offence at my brusque outspokenness,
+my disregard for their social laws, my impatience of all
+constraint.  Among my books and my drugs in my lonely den at Mansie
+I could let the great drove of the human race pass onwards with
+their politics and inventions and tittle-tattle, and I remained
+behind stagnant and happy.  Not stagnant either, for I was working
+in my own little groove, and making progress.  I have reason to
+believe that Dalton's atomic theory is founded upon error, and I
+know that mercury is not an element.
+
+During the day I was busy with my distillations and analyses. 
+Often I forgot my meals, and when old Madge summoned me to my tea
+I found my dinner lying untouched upon the table.  At night I read
+Bacon, Descartes, Spinoza, Kant--all those who have pried into what
+is unknowable.  They are all fruitless and empty, barren of result,
+but prodigal of polysyllables, reminding me of men who, while
+digging for gold, have turned up many worms, and then exhibit them
+exultantly as being what they sought.  At times a restless spirit
+would come upon me, and I would walk thirty and forty miles without
+rest or breaking fast.  On these occasions, when I used to
+stalk through the country villages, gaunt, unshaven, and
+dishevelled, the mothers would rush into the road and drag their
+children indoors, and the rustics would swarm out of their pot-
+houses to gaze at me.  I believe that I was known far and wide as
+the "mad laird o' Mansie."  It was rarely, however, that I made
+these raids into the country, for I usually took my exercise upon
+my own beach, where I soothed my spirit with strong black tobacco,
+and made the ocean my friend and my confidant.
+
+What companion is there like the great restless, throbbing sea? 
+What human mood is there which it does not match and sympathise
+with?  There are none so gay but that they may feel gayer when they
+listen to its merry turmoil, and see the long green surges racing
+in, with the glint of the sunbeams in their sparkling crests.  But
+when the grey waves toss their heads in anger, and the wind screams
+above them, goading them on to madder and more tumultuous efforts,
+then the darkest-minded of men feels that there is a melancholy
+principle in Nature which is as gloomy as his own thoughts.  When
+it was calm in the Bay of Mansie the surface would be as clear and
+bright as a sheet of silver, broken only at one spot some little
+way from the shore, where a long black line projected out of the
+water looking like the jagged back of some sleeping monster.  This
+was the top of the dangerous ridge of rocks known to the fishermen
+as the "ragged reef o' Mansie."  When the wind blew from the east
+the waves would break upon it like thunder, and the spray
+would be tossed far over my house and up to the hills behind.  The
+bay itself was a bold and noble one, but too much exposed to the
+northern and eastern gales, and too much dreaded for its reef, to
+be much used by mariners.  There was something of romance about
+this lonely spot.  I have lain in my boat upon a calm day, and
+peering over the edge I have seen far down the flickering, ghostly
+forms of great fish--fish, as it seemed to me, such as naturalist
+never knew, and which my imagination transformed into the genii of
+that desolate bay.  Once, as I stood by the brink of the waters
+upon a quiet night, a great cry, as of a woman in hopeless grief,
+rose from the bosom of the deep, and swelled out upon the still
+air, now sinking and now rising, for a space of thirty seconds. 
+This I heard with my own ears.
+
+In this strange spot, with the eternal hills behind me and the
+eternal sea in front, I worked and brooded for more than two years
+unpestered by my fellow men.  By degrees I had trained my old
+servant into habits of silence, so that she now rarely opened her
+lips, though I doubt not that when twice a year she visited her
+relations in Wick, her tongue during those few days made up for its
+enforced rest.  I had come almost to forget that I was a member of
+the human family, and to live entirely with the dead whose books I
+pored over, when a sudden incident occurred which threw all my
+thoughts into a new channel.
+
+Three rough days in June had been succeeded by one calm and
+peaceful one.  There was not a breath of air that evening.  The sun
+sank down in the west behind a line of purple clouds, and the
+smooth surface of the bay was gashed with scarlet streaks.  Along
+the beach the pools left by the tide showed up like gouts of blood
+against the yellow sand, as if some wounded giant had toilfully
+passed that way, and had left these red traces of his grievous hurt
+behind him.  As the darkness closed in, certain ragged clouds which
+had lain low on the eastern horizon coalesced and formed a great
+irregular cumulus.  The glass was still low, and I knew that there
+was mischief brewing.  About nine o'clock a dull moaning sound came
+up from the sea, as from a creature who, much harassed, learns that
+the hour of suffering has come round again.  At ten a sharp breeze
+sprang up from the eastward.  At eleven it had increased to a gale,
+and by midnight the most furious storm was raging which I ever
+remember upon that weather-beaten coast.
+
+As I went to bed the shingle and seaweed were pattering up against
+my attic window, and the wind was screaming as though every gust
+were a lost soul.  By that time the sounds of the tempest had
+become a lullaby to me.  I knew that the grey walls of the old
+house would buffet it out, and for what occurred in the world
+outside I had small concern.  Old Madge was usually as callous to
+such things as I was myself.  It was a surprise to me when, about
+three in the morning, I was awoke by the sound of a great knocking
+at my door and excited cries in the wheezy voice of my house-
+keeper.  I sprang out of my hammock, and roughly demanded of
+her what was the matter.
+
+"Eh, maister, maister!" she screamed in her hateful dialect.  "Come
+doun, mun; come doun!  There's a muckle ship gaun ashore on the
+reef, and the puir folks are a' yammerin' and ca'in' for help--and
+I doobt they'll a' be drooned.  Oh, Maister M`Vittie, come doun!"
+
+"Hold your tongue, you hag!" I shouted back in a passion.  "What is
+it to you whether they are drowned or not?  Get back to your bed
+and leave me alone."  I turned in again and drew the blankets over
+me.  "Those men out there," I said to myself, "have already gone
+through half the horrors of death.  If they be saved they will but
+have to go through the same once more in the space of a few brief
+years.  It is best therefore that they should pass away now, since
+they have suffered that anticipation which is more than the pain of
+dissolution."  With this thought in my mind I endeavoured to
+compose myself to sleep once more, for that philosophy which had
+taught me to consider death as a small and trivial incident in
+man's eternal and everchanging career, had also broken me of much
+curiosity concerning worldly matters.  On this occasion I found,
+however, that the old leaven still fermented strongly in my soul. 
+I tossed from side to side for some minutes endeavouring to beat
+down the impulses of the moment by the rules of conduct which I had
+framed during months of thought.  Then I heard a dull roar amid the
+wild shriek of the gale, and I knew that it was the sound of
+a signal-gun.  Driven by an uncontrollable impulse, I rose,
+dressed, and having lit my pipe, walked out on to the beach.
+
+It was pitch dark when I came outside, and the wind blew with such
+violence that I had to put my shoulder against it and push my way
+along the shingle.  My face pringled and smarted with the sting of
+the gravel which was blown against it, and the red ashes of my pipe
+streamed away behind me, dancing fantastically through the
+darkness.  I went down to where the great waves were thundering in,
+and shading my eyes with my hands to keep off the salt spray, I
+peered out to sea.  I could distinguish nothing, and yet it seemed
+to me that shouts and great inarticulate cries were borne to me by
+the blasts.  Suddenly as I gazed I made out the glint of a light,
+and then the whole bay and the beach were lit up in a moment by a
+vivid blue glare.  They were burning a coloured signal-light on
+board of the vessel.  There she lay on her beam ends right in the
+centre of the jagged reef, hurled over to such an angle that I
+could see all the planking of her deck.  She was a large two-masted
+schooner, of foreign rig, and lay perhaps a hundred and eighty or
+two hundred yards from the shore.  Every spar and rope and writhing
+piece of cordage showed up hard and clear under the livid light
+which sputtered and flickered from the highest portion of the
+forecastle.  Beyond the doomed ship out of the great darkness came
+the long rolling lines of black waves, never ending, never tiring,
+with a petulant tuft of foam here and there upon their crests. 
+Each as it reached the broad circle of unnatural light appeared to
+gather strength and volume, and to hurry on more impetuously until,
+with a roar and a jarring crash, it sprang upon its victim. 
+Clinging to the weather shrouds I could distinctly see some ten or
+twelve frightened seamen, who, when their light revealed my
+presence, turned their white faces towards me and waved their hands
+imploringly.  I felt my gorge rise against these poor cowering
+worms.  Why should they presume to shirk the narrow pathway along
+which all that is great and noble among mankind has travelled? 
+There was one there who interested me more than they.  He was a
+tall man, who stood apart from the others, balancing himself upon
+the swaying wreck as though he disdained to cling to rope or
+bulwark.  His hands were clasped behind his back and his head was
+sunk upon his breast, but even in that despondent attitude there
+was a litheness and decision in his pose and in every motion which
+marked him as a man little likely to yield to despair.  Indeed, I
+could see by his occasional rapid glances up and down and all
+around him that he was weighing every chance of safety, but though
+he often gazed across the raging surf to where he could see my dark
+figure upon the beach, his self-respect or some other reason
+forbade him from imploring my help in any way.  He stood, dark,
+silent, and inscrutable, looking down on the black sea, and waiting
+for whatever fortune Fate might send him.
+
+It seemed to me that that problem would very soon be settled.  As
+I looked, an enormous billow, topping all the others, and
+coming after them, like a driver following a flock, swept over the
+vessel.  Her foremast snapped short off, and the men who clung to
+the shrouds were brushed away like a swarm of flies.  With a
+rending, riving sound the ship began to split in two, where the
+sharp back of the Mansie reef was sawing into her keel.  The
+solitary man upon the forecastle ran rapidly across the deck and
+seized hold of a white bundle which I had already observed but
+failed to make out.  As he lifted it up the light fell upon it, and
+I saw that the object was a woman, with a spar lashed across her
+body and under her arms in such a way that her head should always
+rise above water.  He bore her tenderly to the side and seemed to
+speak for a minute or so to her, as though explaining the
+impossibility of remaining upon the ship.  Her answer was a
+singular one.  I saw her deliberately raise her hand and strike him
+across the face with it.  He appeared to be silenced for a moment
+or so by this, but he addressed her again, directing her, as far as
+I could gather from his motions, how she should behave when in the
+water.  She shrank away from him, but he caught her in his arms. 
+He stooped over her for a moment and seemed to press his lips
+against her forehead.  Then a great wave came welling up against
+the side of the breaking vessel, and leaning over he placed her
+upon the summit of it as gently as a child might be committed to
+its cradle.  I saw her white dress flickering among the foam on the
+crest of the dark billow, and then the light sank gradually lower,
+and the riven ship and its lonely occupant were hidden from my
+eyes.
+
+As I watched those things my manhood overcame my philosophy, and I
+felt a frantic impulse to be up and doing.  I threw my cynicism to
+one side as a garment which I might don again at leisure, and I
+rushed wildly to my boat and my sculls.  She was a leaky tub, but
+what then?  Was I, who had cast many a wistful, doubtful glance at
+my opium bottle, to begin now to weigh chances and to cavil at
+danger.  I dragged her down to the sea with the strength of a
+maniac and sprang in.  For a moment or two it was a question
+whether she could live among the boiling surge, but a dozen frantic
+strokes took me through it, half full of water but still afloat. 
+I was out on the unbroken waves now, at one time climbing, climbing
+up the broad black breast of one, then sinking down, down on the
+other side, until looking up I could see the gleam of the foam all
+around me against the dark heavens.  Far behind me I could hear the
+wild wailings of old Madge, who, seeing me start, thought no doubt
+that my madness had come to a climax.  As I rowed I peered over my
+shoulder, until at last on the belly of a great wave which was
+sweeping towards me I distinguished the vague white outline of the
+woman.  Stooping over, I seized her as she swept by me, and with an
+effort lifted her, all sodden with water, into the boat.  There was
+no need to row back, for the next billow carried us in and threw us
+upon the beach.  I dragged the boat out of danger, and then lifting
+up the woman I carried her to the house, followed by my
+housekeeper, loud with congratulation and praise.
+
+Now that I had done this thing a reaction set in upon me.  I felt
+that my burden lived, for I heard the faint beat of her heart as I
+pressed my ear against her side in carrying her.  Knowing this, I
+threw her down beside the fire which Madge had lit, with as little
+sympathy as though she had been a bundle of fagots.  I never
+glanced at her to see if she were fair or no.  For many years I had
+cared little for the face of a woman.  As I lay in my hammock
+upstairs, however, I heard the old woman as she chafed the warmth
+back into her, crooning a chorus of, "Eh, the puir lassie!  Eh, the
+bonnie lassie!" from which I gathered that this piece of jetsam was
+both young and comely.
+
+
+The morning after the gale was peaceful and sunny.  As I walked
+along the long sweep of sand I could hear the panting of the sea. 
+It was heaving and swirling about the reef, but along the shore it
+rippled in gently enough.  There was no sign of the schooner, nor
+was there any wreckage upon the beach, which did not surprise me,
+as I knew there was a great undertow in those waters.  A couple of
+broad-winged gulls were hovering and skimming over the scene of the
+shipwreck, as though many strange things were visible to them
+beneath the waves.  At times I could hear their raucous voices as
+they spoke to one another of what they saw.
+
+When I came back from my walk the woman was waiting at the
+door for me.  I began to wish when I saw her that I had never saved
+her, for here was an end of my privacy.  She was very young--at the
+most nineteen, with a pale somewhat refined face, yellow hair,
+merry blue eyes, and shining teeth.  Her beauty was of an ethereal
+type.  She looked so white and light and fragile that she might
+have been the spirit of that storm-foam from out of which I plucked
+her.  She had wreathed some of Madge's garments round her in a way
+which was quaint and not unbecoming.  As I strode heavily up the
+pathway, she put out her hands with a pretty child-like gesture,
+and ran down towards me, meaning, as I surmise, to thank me for
+having saved her, but I put her aside with a wave of my hand and
+passed her.  At this she seemed somewhat hurt, and the tears sprang
+into her eyes, but she followed me into the sitting-room and
+watched me wistfully.  "What country do you come from?" I asked her
+suddenly.
+
+She smiled when I spoke, but shook her head.
+
+"Francais?" I asked.  "Deutsch?"  "Espagnol?"--each time she shook
+her head, and then she rippled off into a long statement in some
+tongue of which I could not understand one word.
+
+After breakfast was over, however, I got a clue to her nationality.
+
+Passing along the beach once more, I saw that in a cleft of the
+ridge a piece of wood had been jammed.  I rowed out to it in my
+boat, and brought it ashore.  It was part of the sternpost of a
+boat, and on it, or rather on the piece of wood attached to
+it, was the word "Archangel," painted in strange, quaint lettering.
+
+"So," I thought, as I paddled slowly back, "this pale damsel is a
+Russian.  A fit subject for the White Czar and a proper dweller on
+the shores of the White Sea!"  It seemed to me strange that one of
+her apparent refinement should perform so long a journey in so
+frail a craft.  When I came back into the house, I pronounced the
+word "Archangel" several times in different intonations, but she
+did not appear to recognise it.
+
+I shut myself up in the laboratory all the morning, continuing a
+research which I was making upon the nature of the allotropic forms
+of carbon and of sulphur.  When I came out at mid-day for some food
+she was sitting by the table with a needle and thread, mending some
+rents in her clothes, which were now dry.  I resented her continued
+presence, but I could not turn her out on the beach to shift for
+herself.  Presently she presented a new phase of her character. 
+Pointing to herself and then to the scene of the shipwreck, she
+held up one finger, by which I understood her to be asking whether
+she was the only one saved.  I nodded my head to indicate that she
+was.  On this she sprang out of the chair with a cry of great joy,
+and holding the garment which she was mending over her head, and
+swaying it from side to side with the motion of her body, she
+danced as lightly as a feather all round the room, and then out
+through the open door into the sunshine.  As she whirled round she
+sang in a plaintive shrill voice some uncouth barbarous chant,
+expressive of exultation.  I called out to her, "Come in, you
+young fiend, come in and be silent!" but she went on with her
+dance.  Then she suddenly ran towards me, and catching my hand
+before I could pluck it away, she kissed it.  While we were at
+dinner she spied one of my pencils, and taking it up she wrote the
+two words "Sophie Ramusine" upon a piece of paper, and then pointed
+to herself as a sign that that was her name.  She handed the pencil
+to me, evidently expecting that I would be equally communicative,
+but I put it in my pocket as a sign that I wished to hold no
+intercourse with her.
+
+Every moment of my life now I regretted the unguarded precipitancy
+with which I had saved this woman.  What was it to me whether she
+had lived or died?  I was no young, hot-headed youth to do such
+things.  It was bad enough to be compelled to have Madge in the
+house, but she was old and ugly, and could be ignored.  This one
+was young and lively, and so fashioned as to divert attention from
+graver things.  Where could I send her, and what could I do with
+her?  If I sent information to Wick it would mean that officials
+and others would come to me and pry, and peep, and chatter--a
+hateful thought.  It was better to endure her presence than that.
+
+I soon found that there were fresh troubles in store for me.  There
+is no place safe from the swarming, restless race of which I am a
+member.  In the evening, when the sun was dipping down behind the
+hills, casting them into dark shadow, but gilding the sands and
+casting a great glory over the sea, I went, as is my custom,
+for a stroll along the beach.  Sometimes on these occasions I took
+my book with me.  I did so on this night, and stretching myself
+upon a sand-dune I composed myself to read.  As I lay there I
+suddenly became aware of a shadow which interposed itself between
+the sun and myself.  Looking round, I saw to my great surprise a
+very tall, powerful man, who was standing a few yards off, and who,
+instead of looking at me, was ignoring my existence completely, and
+was gazing over my head with a stern set face at the bay and the
+black line of the Mansie reef.  His complexion was dark, with black
+hair, and short, curling beard, a hawk-like nose, and golden
+earrings in his ears--the general effect being wild and somewhat
+noble.  He wore a faded velveteen jacket, a red-flannel shirt, and
+high sea boots, coming half-way up his thighs.  I recognised him at
+a glance as being the same man who had been left on the wreck the
+night before.
+
+"Hullo!" I said, in an aggrieved voice.  "You got ashore all right,
+then?"
+
+"Yes," he answered, in good English.  "It was no doing of mine. 
+The waves threw me up.  I wish to God I had been allowed to drown!"
+
+There was a slight foreign lisp in his accent which was rather
+pleasing.  "Two good fishermen, who live round yonder point, pulled
+me out and cared for me; yet I could not honestly thank them for
+it."
+
+"Ho! ho!" thought I, "here is a man of my own kidney.  Why do you
+wish to be drowned?" I asked.
+
+"Because," he cried, throwing out his long arms with a passionate,
+despairing gesture, "there--there in that blue smiling bay, lies my
+soul, my treasure--everything that I loved and lived for."
+
+"Well, well," I said.  "People are ruined every day, but there's no
+use making a fuss about it.  Let me inform you that this ground on
+which you walk is my ground, and that the sooner you take yourself
+off it the better pleased I shall be.  One of you is quite trouble
+enough."
+
+"One of us?" he gasped.
+
+"Yes--if you could take her off with you I should be still more
+grateful."
+
+He gazed at me for a moment as if hardly able to realise what I
+said, and then with a wild cry he ran away from me with prodigious
+speed and raced along the sands towards my house.  Never before or
+since have I seen a human being run so fast.  I followed as rapidly
+as I could, furious at this threatened invasion, but long before I
+reached the house he had disappeared through the open door.  I
+heard a great scream from the inside, and as I came nearer the
+sound of a man's bass voice speaking rapidly and loudly.  When I
+looked in the girl, Sophie Ramusine, was crouching in a corner,
+cowering away, with fear and loathing expressed on her averted face
+and in every line of her shrinking form.  The other, with his dark
+eyes flashing, and his outstretched hands quivering with emotion,
+was pouring forth a torrent of passionate pleading words.  He made
+a step forward to her as I entered, but she writhed still
+further away, and uttered a sharp cry like that of a rabbit when
+the weasel has him by the throat.
+
+"Here!" I said, pulling him back from her.  "This is a pretty to-
+do!  What do you mean?  Do you think this is a wayside inn or place
+of public accommodation?"
+
+"Oh, sir," he said, "excuse me.  This woman is my wife, and I
+feared that she was drowned.  You have brought me back to life."
+
+"Who are you?" I asked roughly.
+
+"I am a man from Archangel," he said simply; "a Russian man."
+
+"What is your name?"
+
+"Ourganeff."
+
+"Ourganeff!--and hers is Sophie Ramusine.  She is no wife of yours.
+
+She has no ring."
+
+"We are man and wife in the sight of Heaven," he said solemnly,
+looking upwards.  "We are bound by higher laws than those of
+earth."  As he spoke the girl slipped behind me and caught me by
+the other hand, pressing it as though beseeching my protection. 
+"Give me up my wife, sir," he went on.  "Let me take her away from
+here."
+
+"Look here, you--whatever your name is," I said sternly; "I don't
+want this wench here.  I wish I had never seen her.  If she died it
+would be no grief to me.  But as to handing her over to you, when
+it is clear she fears and hates you, I won't do it.  So now just
+clear your great body out of this, and leave me to my books. 
+I hope I may never look upon your face again."
+
+"You won't give her up to me?" he said hoarsely.
+
+"I'll see you damned first!" I answered.
+
+"Suppose I take her," he cried, his dark face growing darker.
+
+All my tigerish blood flushed up in a moment.  I picked up a billet
+of wood from beside the fireplace.  "Go," I said, in a low voice;
+"go quick, or I may do you an injury."  He looked at me
+irresolutely for a moment, and then he left the house.  He came
+back again in a moment, however, and stood in the doorway looking
+in at us.
+
+"Have a heed what you do," he said.  "The woman is mine, and I
+shall have her.  When it comes to blows, a Russian is as good a man
+as a Scotchman."
+
+"We shall see that," I cried, springing forward, but he was already
+gone, and I could see his tall form moving away through the
+gathering darkness.
+
+For a month or more after this things went smoothly with us.  I
+never spoke to the Russian girl, nor did she ever address me. 
+Sometimes when I was at work in my laboratory she would slip inside
+the door and sit silently there watching me with her great eyes. 
+At first this intrusion annoyed me, but by degrees, finding that
+she made no attempt to distract my attention, I suffered her to
+remain.  Encouraged by this concession, she gradually came to move
+the stool on which she sat nearer and nearer to my table, until
+after gaining a little every day during some weeks, she at last
+worked her way right up to me, and used to perch herself
+beside me whenever I worked.  In this position she used, still
+without ever obtruding her presence in any way, to make herself
+very useful by holding my pens, test-tubes, or bottles, and handing
+me whatever I wanted, with never-failing sagacity.  By ignoring the
+fact of her being a human being, and looking upon her as a useful
+automatic machine, I accustomed myself to her presence so far as to
+miss her on the few occasions when she was not at her post.  I have
+a habit of talking aloud to myself at times when I work, so as to
+fix my results better in my mind.  The girl must have had a
+surprising memory for sounds, for she could always repeat the words
+which I let fall in this way, without, of course, understanding in
+the least what they meant.  I have often been amused at hearing her
+discharge a volley of chemical equations and algebraic symbols at
+old Madge, and then burst into a ringing laugh when the crone would
+shake her head, under the impression, no doubt, that she was being
+addressed in Russian.
+
+She never went more than a few yards from the house, and indeed
+never put her foot over the threshold without looking carefully out
+of each window in order to be sure that there was nobody about.  By
+this I knew that she suspected that her fellow-countryman was still
+in the neighbourhood, and feared that he might attempt to carry her
+off.  She did something else which was significant.  I had an old
+revolver with some cartridges, which had been thrown away
+among the rubbish.  She found this one day, and at once
+proceeded to clean it and oil it.  She hung it up near the door,
+with the cartridges in a little bag beside it, and whenever I went
+for a walk, she would take it down and insist upon my carrying it
+with me.  In my absence she would always bolt the door.  Apart from
+her apprehensions she seemed fairly happy, busying herself in
+helping Madge when she was not attending upon me.  She was
+wonderfully nimble-fingered and natty in all domestic duties.
+
+It was not long before I discovered that her suspicions were well
+founded, and that this man from Archangel was still lurking in the
+vicinity.  Being restless one night I rose and peered out of the
+window.  The weather was somewhat cloudy, and I could barely make
+out the line of the sea, and the loom of my boat upon the beach. 
+As I gazed, however, and my eyes became accustomed to the
+obscurity, I became aware that there was some other dark blur upon
+the sands, and that in front of my very door, where certainly there
+had been nothing of the sort the preceding night.  As I stood at my
+diamond-paned lattice still peering and peeping to make out what
+this might be, a great bank of clouds rolled slowly away from the
+face of the moon, and a flood of cold, clear light was poured down
+upon the silent bay and the long sweep of its desolate shores. 
+Then I saw what this was which haunted my doorstep.  It was he, the
+Russian.  He squatted there like a gigantic toad, with his legs
+doubled under him in strange Mongolian fashion, and his eyes fixed
+apparently upon the window of the room in which the young girl
+and the housekeeper slept.  The light fell upon his upturned face,
+and I saw once more the hawk-like grace of his countenance, with
+the single deeply-indented line of care upon his brow, and the
+protruding beard which marks the passionate nature.  My first
+impulse was to shoot him as a trespasser, but, as I gazed, my
+resentment changed into pity and contempt.  "Poor fool," I said to
+myself, "is it then possible that you, whom I have seen looking
+open-eyed at present death, should have your whole thoughts and
+ambition centred upon this wretched slip of a girl--a girl, too,
+who flies from you and hates you.  Most women would love you--were
+it but for that dark face and great handsome body of yours--and yet
+you must needs hanker after the one in a thousand who will have no
+traffic with you."  As I returned to my bed I chuckled much to
+myself over this thought.  I knew that my bars were strong and my
+bolts thick.  It mattered little to me whether this strange man
+spent his night at my door or a hundred leagues off, so long as he
+was gone by the morning.  As I expected, when I rose and went out
+there was no sign of him, nor had he left any trace of his midnight
+vigil.
+
+It was not long, however, before I saw him again.  I had been out
+for a row one morning, for my head was aching, partly from
+prolonged stooping, and partly from the effects of a noxious drug
+which I had inhaled the night before.  I pulled along the coast
+some miles, and then, feeling thirsty, I landed at a place where I
+knew that a fresh water stream trickled down into the sea. 
+This rivulet passed through my land, but the mouth of it, where I
+found myself that day, was beyond my boundary line.  I felt
+somewhat taken aback when rising from the stream at which I had
+slaked my thirst I found myself face to face with the Russian.  I
+was as much a trespasser now as he was, and I could see at a glance
+that he knew it.
+
+"I wish to speak a few words to you," he said gravely.
+
+"Hurry up, then!" I answered, glancing at my watch.  "I have no
+time to listen to chatter."
+
+"Chatter!" he repeated angrily.  "Ah, but there.  You Scotch people
+are strange men.  Your face is hard and your words rough, but so
+are those of the good fishermen with whom I stay, yet I find that
+beneath it all there lie kind honest natures.  No doubt you are
+kind and good, too, in spite of your roughness."
+
+"In the name of the devil," I said, "say your say, and go your way.
+
+I am weary of the sight of you."
+
+"Can I not soften you in any way?" he cried.  " Ah, see--see
+here"--he produced a small Grecian cross from inside his velvet
+jacket.  "Look at this.  Our religions may differ in form, but at
+least we have some common thoughts and feelings when we see this
+emblem."
+
+"I am not so sure of that," I answered.
+
+He looked at me thoughtfully.
+
+"You are a very strange man," he said at last.  "I cannot
+understand you.  You still stand between me and Sophie.  It is
+a dangerous position to take, sir.  Oh, believe me, before it is
+too late.  If you did but know what I have done to gain that
+woman--how I have risked my body, how I have lost my soul!  You are
+a small obstacle to some which I have surmounted--you, whom a rip
+with a knife, or a blow from a stone, would put out of my way for
+ever.  But God preserve me from that," he cried wildly.  "I am
+deep--too deep--already.  Anything rather than that."
+
+"You would do better to go back to your country," I said, "than to
+skulk about these sand-hills and disturb my leisure.  When I have
+proof that you have gone away I shall hand this woman over to the
+protection of the Russian Consul at Edinburgh.  Until then, I shall
+guard her myself, and not you, nor any Muscovite that ever
+breathed, shall take her from me."
+
+"And what is your object in keeping me from Sophie?" he asked.  "Do
+you imagine that I would injure her?  Why, man, I would give my
+life freely to save her from the slightest harm.  Why do you do
+this thing?"
+
+"I do it because it is my good pleasure to act so," I answered.  "I
+give no man reasons for my conduct."
+
+"Look here!" he cried, suddenly blazing into fury, and advancing
+towards me with his shaggy mane bristling and his brown hands
+clenched.  "If I thought you had one dishonest thought towards this
+girl--if for a moment I had reason to believe that you had any base
+motive for detaining her--as sure as there is a God in Heaven I
+should drag the heart out of your bosom with my hands."  The
+very idea seemed to have put the man in a frenzy, for his face was
+all distorted and his hands opened and shut convulsively.  I
+thought that he was about to spring at my throat.
+
+"Stand off," I said, putting my hand on my pistol.  "If you lay a
+finger on me I shall kill you."
+
+He put his hand into his pocket, and for a moment I thought he was
+about to produce a weapon too, but instead of that he whipped out
+a cigarette and lit it, breathing the smoke rapidly into his lungs.
+
+No doubt he had found by experience that this was the most
+effectual way of curbing his passions.
+
+"I told you," he said in a quieter voice, "that my name is
+Ourganeff--Alexis Ourganeff.  I am a Finn by birth, but I have
+spent my life in every part of the world.  I was one who could
+never be still, nor settle down to a quiet existence.  After I came
+to own my own ship there is hardly a port from Archangel to
+Australia which I have not entered.  I was rough and wild and free,
+but there was one at home, sir, who was prim and white-handed and
+soft-tongued, skilful in little fancies and conceits which women
+love.  This youth by his wiles and tricks stole from me the love of
+the girl whom I had ever marked as my own, and who up to that time
+had seemed in some sort inclined to return my passion.  I had been
+on a voyage to Hammerfest for ivory, and coming back unexpectedly
+I learned that my pride and treasure was to be married to this
+soft-skinned boy, and that the party had actually gone to the
+church.  In such moments, sir, something gives way in my head,
+and I hardly know what I do.  I landed with a boat's crew--all men
+who had sailed with me for years, and who were as true as steel. 
+We went up to the church.  They were standing, she and he, before
+the priest, but the thing had not been done.  I dashed between them
+and caught her round the waist.  My men beat back the frightened
+bridegroom and the lookers on.  We bore her down to the boat and
+aboard our vessel, and then getting up anchor we sailed away across
+the White Sea until the spires of Archangel sank down behind the
+horizon.  She had my cabin, my room, every comfort.  I slept among
+the men in the forecastle.  I hoped that in time her aversion to me
+would wear away, and that she would consent to marry me in England
+or in France.  For days and days we sailed.  We saw the North Cape
+die away behind us, and we skirted the grey Norwegian coast, but
+still, in spite of every attention, she would not forgive me for
+tearing her from that pale-faced lover of hers.  Then came this
+cursed storm which shattered both my ship and my hopes, and has
+deprived me even of the sight of the woman for whom I have risked
+so much.  Perhaps she may learn to love me yet.  You, sir," he said
+wistfully, "look like one who has seen much of the world.  Do you
+not think that she may come to forget this man and to love me?"
+
+"I am tired of your story," I said, turning away.  "For my part, I
+think you are a great fool.  If you imagine that this love of yours
+will pass away you had best amuse yourself as best you can until it
+does.  If, on the other hand, it is a fixed thing, you cannot
+do better than cut your throat, for that is the shortest way out of
+it.  I have no more time to waste on the matter."  With this I
+hurried away and walked down to the boat.  I never looked round,
+but I heard the dull sound of his feet upon the sands as he
+followed me.
+
+"I have told you the beginning of my story," he said, "and you
+shall know the end some day.  You would do well to let the girl
+go."
+
+I never answered him, but pushed the boat off.  When I had rowed
+some distance out I looked back and saw his tall figure upon the
+yellow sand as he stood gazing thoughtfully after me.  When I
+looked again some minutes later he had disappeared.
+
+For a long time after this my life was as regular and as monotonous
+as it had been before the shipwreck.  At times I hoped that the man
+from Archangel had gone away altogether, but certain footsteps
+which I saw upon the sand, and more particularly a little pile of
+cigarette ash which I found one day behind a hillock from which a
+view of the house might be obtained, warned me that, though
+invisible, he was still in the vicinity.  My relations with the
+Russian girl remained the same as before.  Old Madge had been
+somewhat jealous of her presence at first, and seemed to fear that
+what little authority she had would be taken away from her.  By
+degrees, however, as she came to realise my utter indifference, she
+became reconciled to the situation, and, as I have said before,
+profited by it, as our visitor performed much of the domestic work.
+
+And now I am coming near the end of this narrative of mine, which
+I have written a great deal more for my own amusement than for that
+of any one else.  The termination of the strange episode in which
+these two Russians had played a part was as wild and as sudden as
+the commencement.  The events of one single night freed me from all
+my troubles, and left me once more alone with my books and my
+studies, as I had been before their intrusion.  Let me endeavour to
+describe how this came about.
+
+I had had a long day of heavy and wearying work, so that in the
+evening I determined upon taking a long walk.  When I emerged from
+the house my attention was attracted by the appearance of the sea. 
+It lay like a sheet of glass, so that never a ripple disturbed its
+surface.  Yet the air was filled with that indescribable moaning
+sound which I have alluded to before--a sound as though the spirits
+of all those who lay beneath those treacherous waters were sending
+a sad warning of coming troubles to their brethren in the flesh. 
+The fishermen's wives along that coast know the eerie sound, and
+look anxiously across the waters for the brown sails making for the
+land.  When I heard it I stepped back into the house and looked at
+the glass.  It was down below 29 degrees.  Then I knew that a wild
+night was coming upon us.
+
+Underneath the hills where I walked that evening it was dull and
+chill, but their summits were rosy-red, and the sea was brightened
+by the sinking sun.  There were no clouds of importance in the sky,
+yet the dull groaning of the sea grew louder and stronger.  I
+saw, far to the eastward, a brig beating up for Wick, with a reef
+in her topsails.  It was evident that her captain had read the
+signs of nature as I had done.  Behind her a long, lurid haze lay
+low upon the water, concealing the horizon.  "I had better push
+on," I thought to myself, "or the wind may rise before I can get
+back."
+
+I suppose I must have been at least half a mile from the house when
+I suddenly stopped and listened breathlessly.  My ears were so
+accustomed to the noises of nature, the sighing of the breeze and
+the sob of the waves, that any other sound made itself heard at a
+great distance.  I waited, listening with all my ears.  Yes, there
+it was again--a long-drawn, shrill cry of despair, ringing over the
+sands and echoed back from the hills behind me--a piteous appeal
+for aid.  It came from the direction of my house.  I turned and ran
+back homewards at the top of my speed, ploughing through the sand,
+racing over the shingle.  In my mind there was a great dim
+perception of what had occurred.
+
+About a quarter of a mile from the house there is a high sand-hill,
+from which the whole country round is visible.  When I reached the
+top of this I paused for a moment.  There was the old grey
+building--there the boat.  Everything seemed to be as I had left
+it.  Even as I gazed, however, the shrill scream was repeated,
+louder than before, and the next moment a tall figure emerged from
+my door, the figure of the Russian sailor.  Over his shoulder
+was the white form of the young girl, and even in his haste he
+seemed to bear her tenderly and with gentle reverence.  I could
+hear her wild cries and see her desperate struggles to break away
+from him.  Behind the couple came my old housekeeper, staunch and
+true, as the aged dog, who can no longer bite, still snarls with
+toothless gums at the intruder.  She staggered feebly along at the
+heels of the ravisher, waving her long, thin arms, and hurling, no
+doubt, volleys of Scotch curses and imprecations at his head.  I
+saw at a glance that he was making for the boat.  A sudden hope
+sprang up in my soul that I might be in time to intercept him.  I
+ran for the beach at the top of my speed.  As I ran I slipped a
+cartridge into my revolver.  This I determined should be the last
+of these invasions.
+
+I was too late.  By the time I reached the water's edge he was a
+hundred yards away, making the boat spring with every stroke of his
+powerful arms.  I uttered a wild cry of impotent anger, and stamped
+up and down the sands like a maniac.  He turned and saw me.  Rising
+from his seat he made me a graceful bow, and waved his hand to me. 
+It was not a triumphant or a derisive gesture.  Even my furious and
+distempered mind recognised it as being a solemn and courteous
+leave-taking.  Then he settled down to his oars once more, and the
+little skiff shot away out over the bay.  The sun had gone down
+now, leaving a single dull, red streak upon the water, which
+stretched away until it blended with the purple haze on the
+horizon.  Gradually the skiff grew smaller and smaller as it
+sped across this lurid band, until the shades of night gathered
+round it and it became a mere blur upon the lonely sea.  Then this
+vague loom died away also and darkness settled over it--a darkness
+which should never more be raised.
+
+And why did I pace the solitary shore, hot and wrathful as a wolf
+whose whelp has been torn from it?  Was it that I loved this
+Muscovite girl?  No--a thousand times no.  I am not one who, for
+the sake of a white skin or a blue eye, would belie my own life,
+and change the whole tenor of my thoughts and existence.  My heart
+was untouched.  But my pride--ah, there I had been cruelly wounded.
+
+To think that I had been unable to afford protection to the
+helpless one who craved it of me, and who relied on me!  It was
+that which made my heart sick and sent the blood buzzing through my
+ears.
+
+That night a great wind rose up from the sea, and the wild waves
+shrieked upon the shore as though they would tear it back with them
+into the ocean.  The turmoil and the uproar were congenial to my
+vexed spirit.  All night I wandered up and down, wet with spray and
+rain, watching the gleam of the white breakers and listening to the
+outcry of the storm.  My heart was bitter against the Russian.  I
+joined my feeble pipe to the screaming of the gale.  "If he would
+but come back again!" I cried with clenched hands; "if he would but
+come back!"
+
+He came back.  When the grey light of morning spread over the
+eastern sky, and lit up the great waste of yellow, tossing waters,
+with the brown clouds drifting swiftly over them, then I saw him
+once again.  A few hundred yards off along the sand there lay a
+long dark object, cast up by the fury of the waves.  It was my
+boat, much shattered and splintered.  A little further on, a vague,
+shapeless something was washing to and fro in the shallow water,
+all mixed with shingle and with seaweed.  I saw at a glance that it
+was the Russian, face downwards and dead.  I rushed into the water
+and dragged him up on to the beach.  It was only when I turned him
+over that I discovered that she was beneath him, his dead arms
+encircling her, his mangled body still intervening between her and
+the fury of the storm.  It seemed that the fierce German Sea might
+beat the life from him, but with all its strength it was unable to
+tear this one-idea'd man from the woman whom he loved.  There were
+signs which led me to believe that during that awful night the
+woman's fickle mind had come at last to learn the worth of the true
+heart and strong arm which struggled for her and guarded her so
+tenderly.  Why else should her little head be nestling so lovingly
+on his broad breast, while her yellow hair entwined itself with his
+flowing beard?  Why too should there be that bright smile of
+ineffable happiness and triumph, which death itself had not had
+power to banish from his dusky face?  I fancy that death had been
+brighter to him than life had ever been.
+
+Madge and I buried them there on the shores of the desolate
+northern sea.  They lie in one grave deep down beneath the yellow
+sand.  Strange things may happen in the world around them.  Empires
+may rise and may fall, dynasties may perish, great wars may come
+and go, but, heedless of it all, those two shall embrace each other
+for ever and aye, in their lonely shrine by the side of the
+sounding ocean.  I sometimes have thought that their spirits flit
+like shadowy sea-mews over the wild waters of the bay.  No cross or
+symbol marks their resting-place, but old Madge puts wild flowers
+upon it at times, and when I pass on my daily walk and see the
+fresh blossoms scattered over the sand, I think of the strange
+couple who came from afar, and broke for a little space the dull
+tenor of my sombre life.
+
+
+
+THAT LITTLE SQUARE BOX.
+
+All aboard?" said the captain.
+
+"All aboard, sir!" said the mate.
+
+"Then stand by to let her go."
+
+It was nine o'clock on a Wednesday morning.  The good ship
+Spartan was lying off Boston Quay with her cargo under hatches,
+her passengers shipped, and everything prepared for a start.  The
+warning whistle had been sounded twice; the final bell had been
+rung.  Her bowsprit was turned towards England, and the hiss of
+escaping steam showed that all was ready for her run of three
+thousand miles.  She strained at the warps that held her like a
+greyhound at its leash,
+
+I have the misfortune to be a very nervous man.  A sedentary
+literary life has helped to increase the morbid love of solitude
+which, even in my boyhood, was one of my distinguishing
+characteristics.  As I stood upon the quarter-deck of the
+Transatlantic steamer, I bitterly cursed the necessity which drove
+me back to the land of my forefathers.  The shouts of the sailors,
+the rattle of the cordage, the farewells of my fellow-passengers,
+and the cheers of the mob, each and all jarred upon my sensitive
+nature.  I felt sad too.  An indescribable feeling, as of some
+impending calamity, seemed to haunt me.  The sea was
+calm, and the breeze light.  There was nothing to disturb the
+equanimity of the most confirmed of landsmen, yet I felt as if I
+stood upon the verge of a great though indefinable danger.  I have
+noticed that such presentiments occur often in men of my peculiar
+temperament, and that they are not uncommonly fulfilled.  There is
+a theory that it arises from a species of second-sight, a subtle
+spiritual communication with the future.  I well remember that Herr
+Raumer, the eminent spiritualist, remarked on one occasion that I
+was the most sensitive subject as regards supernatural phenomena
+that he had ever encountered in the whole of his wide experience. 
+Be that as it may, I certainly felt far from happy as I threaded my
+way among the weeping, cheering groups which dotted the white decks
+of the good ship Spartan.  Had I known the experience which
+awaited me in the course of the next twelve hours I should even
+then at the last moment have sprung upon the shore, and made my
+escape from the accursed vessel.
+
+"Time's up!" said the captain, closing his chronometer with a snap,
+and replacing it in his pocket.  "Time's up!" said the mate.  There
+was a last wail from the whistle, a rush of friends and relatives
+upon the land.  One warp was loosened, the gangway was being pushed
+away, when there was a shout from the bridge, and two men appeared,
+running rapidly down the quay.  They were waving their hands and
+making frantic gestures, apparently with the intention of stopping
+the ship.  "Look sharp!" shouted the crowd.
+
+"Hold hard!" cried the captain.  "Ease her! stop her!  Up with the
+gangway!" and the two men sprang aboard just as the second warp
+parted, and a convulsive throb of the engine shot us clear of the
+shore.  There was a cheer from the deck, another from the quay, a
+mighty fluttering of handkerchiefs, and the great vessel ploughed
+its way out of the harbour, and steamed grandly away across the
+placid bay.
+
+We were fairly started upon our fortnight's voyage.  There was a
+general dive among the passengers in quest of berths and luggage,
+while a popping of corks in the saloon proved that more than one
+bereaved traveller was adopting artificial means for drowning the
+pangs of separation.  I glanced round the deck and took a running
+inventory of my compagnons de voyage.  They presented the usual
+types met with upon these occasions.  There was no striking face
+among them.  I speak as a connoisseur, for faces are a specialty of
+mine.  I pounce upon a characteristic feature as a botanist does on
+a flower, and bear it away with me to analyse at my leisure, and
+classify and label it in my little anthropological museum.  There
+was nothing worthy of me here.  Twenty types of young America going
+to "Yurrup," a few respectable middle-aged couples as an antidote,
+a sprinkling of clergymen and professional men, young ladies,
+bagmen, British exclusives, and all the olla podrida of an ocean-
+going steamer.  I turned away from them and gazed back at the
+receding shores of America, and, as a cloud of remembrances rose
+before me, my heart warmed towards the land of my adoption. 
+A pile of portmanteaus and luggage chanced to be lying on one side
+of the deck, awaiting their turn to be taken below.  With my usual
+love for solitude I walked behind these, and sitting on a coil of
+rope between them and the vessel's side, I indulged in a melancholy
+reverie.
+
+I was aroused from this by a whisper behind me.  "Here's a quiet
+place," said the voice.  "Sit down, and we can talk it over in
+safety."
+
+Glancing through a chink between two colossal chests, I saw that
+the passengers who had joined us at the last moment were standing
+at the other side of the pile.  They had evidently failed to see me
+as I crouched in the shadow of the boxes.  The one who had spoken
+was a tall and very thin man with a blue-black beard and a
+colourless face.  His manner was nervous and excited.  His
+companion was a short plethoric little fellow, with a brisk and
+resolute air.  He had a cigar in his mouth, and a large ulster
+slung over his left arm.  They both glanced round uneasily, as if
+to ascertain whether they were alone.  "This is just the place," I
+heard the other say.  They sat down on a bale of goods with their
+backs turned towards me, and I found myself, much against my will,
+playing the unpleasant part of eavesdropper to their conversation.
+
+"Well, Muller," said the taller of the two, "we've got it aboard
+right enough."
+
+"Yes," assented the man whom he had addressed as Muller, "it's safe
+aboard."
+
+"It was rather a near go."
+
+"It was that, Flannigan."
+
+"It wouldn't have done to have missed the ship."
+
+"No, it would have put our plans out."
+
+"Ruined them entirely," said the little man, and puffed furiously
+at his cigar for some minutes.
+
+"I've got it here," he said at last.
+
+"Let me see it."
+
+"Is no one looking?"
+
+"No, they are nearly all below."
+
+"We can't be too careful where so much is at stake," said Muller,
+as he uncoiled the ulster which hung over his arm, and disclosed a
+dark object which he laid upon the deck.  One glance at it was
+enough to cause me to spring to my feet with an exclamation of
+horror.  Luckily they were so engrossed in the matter on hand that
+neither of them observed me.  Had they turned their heads they
+would infallibly have seen my pale face glaring at them over the
+pile of boxes.
+
+From the first moment of their conversation a horrible misgiving
+had come over me.  It seemed more than confirmed as I gazed at what
+lay before me.  It was a little square box made of some dark wood,
+and ribbed with brass.  I suppose it was about the size of a cubic
+foot.  It reminded me of a pistol-case, only it was decidedly
+higher.  There was an appendage to it, however, on which my eyes
+were riveted, and which suggested the pistol itself rather than its
+receptacle.  This was a trigger-like arrangement upon the lid, to
+which a coil of string was attached.  Beside this trigger there was
+a small square aperture through the wood.  The tall man,
+Flannigan, as his companion called him, applied his eye to this,
+and peered in for several minutes with an expression of intense
+anxiety upon his face.
+
+"It seems right enough," he said at last.
+
+"I tried not to shake it," said his companion.
+
+"Such delicate things need delicate treatment.  Put in some of the
+needful, Muller."
+
+The shorter man fumbled in his pocket for some time, and then
+produced a small paper packet.  He opened this, and took out of it
+half a handful of whitish granules, which he poured down through
+the hole.  A curious clicking noise followed from the inside of the
+box, and both the men smiled in a satisfied way.
+
+"Nothing much wrong there," said Flannigan.
+
+"Right as a trivet," answered his companion.
+
+"Look out! here's some one coming.  Take it down to our berth.  It
+wouldn't do to have any one suspecting what our game is, or, worse
+still, have them fumbling with it, and letting it off by mistake."
+
+"Well, it would come to the same, whoever let it off," said Muller.
+
+"They'd be rather astonished if they pulled the trigger," said the
+taller, with a sinister laugh.  "Ha, ha! fancy their faces!  It's
+not a bad bit of workmanship, I flatter myself."
+
+"No," said Muller.  "I hear it is your own design, every bit of it,
+isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, the spring and the sliding shutter are my own."
+
+"We should take out a patent."
+
+And the two men laughed again with a cold harsh laugh, as they took
+up the little brass-bound package, and concealed it in Muller's
+voluminous overcoat.
+
+"Come down, and we'll stow it in our berth," said Flannigan.  "We
+won't need it until to-night, and it will be safe there."
+
+His companion assented, and the two went arm-in-arm along the deck
+and disappeared down the hatchway, bearing the mysterious little
+box away with them.  The last words I heard were a muttered
+injunction from Flannigan to carry it carefully, and avoid knocking
+it against the bulwarks.
+
+How long I remained sitting on that coil of rope I shall never
+know.  The horror of the conversation I had just overheard was
+aggravated by the first sinking qualms of sea-sickness.  The long
+roll of the Atlantic was beginning to assert itself over both ship
+and passengers.  I felt prostrated in mind and in body, and fell
+into a state of collapse, from which I was finally aroused by the
+hearty voice of our worthy quartermaster.
+
+"Do you mind moving out of that, sir?" he said.  "We want to get
+this lumber cleared off the deck."
+
+His bluff manner and ruddy healthy face seemed to be a positive
+insult to me in my present condition.  Had I been a courageous or
+a muscular man I could have struck him.  As it was, I treated the
+honest sailor to a melodramatic scowl which seemed to cause him no
+small astonishment, and strode past him to the other side of
+the deck.  Solitude was what I wanted--solitude in which I could
+brood over the frightful crime which was being hatched before my
+very eyes.  One of the quarter-boats was hanging rather low down
+upon the davits.  An idea struck me, and climbing on the bulwarks,
+I stepped into the empty boat and lay down in the bottom of it. 
+Stretched on my back, with nothing but the blue sky above me, and
+an occasional view of the mizen as the vessel rolled, I was at
+least alone with my sickness and my thoughts.
+
+I tried to recall the words which had been spoken in the terrible
+dialogue I had overheard.  Would they admit of any construction but
+the one which stared me in the face?  My reason forced me to
+confess that they would not.  I endeavoured to array the various
+facts which formed the chain of circumstantial evidence, and to
+find a flaw in it; but no, not a link was missing.  There was the
+strange way in which our passengers had come aboard, enabling them
+to evade any examination of their luggage.  The very name of
+"Flannigan" smacked of Fenianism, while "Muller" suggested nothing
+but socialism and murder.  Then their mysterious manner; their
+remark that their plans would have been ruined had they missed the
+ship; their fear of being observed; last, but not least, the
+clenching evidence in the production of the little square box with
+the trigger, and their grim joke about the face of the man who
+should let it off by mistake--could these facts lead to any
+conclusion other than that they were the desperate emissaries of
+some body, political or otherwise, who intended to sacrifice
+themselves, their fellow-passengers, and the ship, in one great
+holocaust?  The whitish granules which I had seen one of them pour
+into the box formed no doubt a fuse or train for exploding it.  I
+had myself heard a sound come from it which might have emanated
+from some delicate piece of machinery.  But what did they mean by
+their allusion to to-night?  Could it be that they contemplated
+putting their horrible design into execution on the very first
+evening of our voyage?  The mere thought of it sent a cold shudder
+over me, and made me for a moment superior even to the agonies of
+sea-sickness.
+
+I have remarked that I am a physical coward.  I am a moral one
+also.  It is seldom that the two defects are united to such a
+degree in the one character.  I have known many men who were most
+sensitive to bodily danger, and yet were distinguished for the
+independence and strength of their minds.  In my own case, however,
+I regret to say that my quiet and retiring habits had fostered a
+nervous dread of doing anything remarkable or making myself
+conspicuous, which exceeded, if possible, my fear of personal
+peril.  An ordinary mortal placed under the circumstances in which
+I now found myself would have gone at once to the Captain,
+confessed his fears, and put the matter into his hands.  To me,
+however, constituted as I am, the idea was most repugnant.  The
+thought of becoming the observed of all observers, cross-questioned
+by a stranger, and confronted with two desperate conspirators in
+the character of a denouncer, was hateful to me.  Might it not
+by some remote possibility prove that I was mistaken?  What would
+be my feelings if there should turn out to be no grounds for my
+accusation?  No, I would procrastinate; I would keep my eye on the
+two desperadoes and dog them at every turn.  Anything was better
+than the possibility of being wrong.
+
+Then it struck me that even at that moment some new phase of the
+conspiracy might be developing itself.  The nervous excitement
+seemed to have driven away my incipient attack of sickness, for I
+was able to stand up and lower myself from the boat without
+experiencing any return of it.  I staggered along the deck with the
+intention of descending into the cabin and finding how my
+acquaintances of the morning were occupying themselves.  Just as I
+had my hand on the companion-rail, I was astonished by receiving a
+hearty slap on the back, which nearly shot me down the steps with
+more haste than dignity.
+
+"Is that you, Hammond?" said a voice which I seemed to recognise.
+
+"God bless me," I said, as I turned round, "it can't be Dick
+Merton!  Why, how are you, old man?"
+
+This was an unexpected piece of luck in the midst of my
+perplexities.  Dick was just the man I wanted; kindly and shrewd in
+his nature, and prompt in his actions, I should have no difficulty
+in telling him my suspicions, and could rely upon his sound sense
+to point out the best course to pursue.  Since I was a little lad
+in the second form at Harrow, Dick had been my adviser and
+protector.  He saw at a glance that something had gone wrong with
+me.
+
+"Hullo!" he said, in his kindly way, "what's put you about,
+Hammond?  You look as white as a sheet.  Mal de mer, eh?"
+
+"No, not that altogether," said I.  "Walk up and down with me,
+Dick; I want to speak to you.  Give me your arm."
+
+Supporting myself on Dick's stalwart frame, I tottered along by his
+side; but it was some time before I could muster resolution to
+speak.
+
+"Have a cigar," said he, breaking the silence.
+
+"No, thanks," said I.  "Dick, we shall be all corpses to-night."
+
+"That's no reason against your having a cigar now," said Dick, in
+his cool way, but looking hard at me from under his shaggy eyebrows
+as he spoke.  He evidently thought that my intellect was a little
+gone.
+
+"No," I continued, "it's no laughing matter; and I speak in sober
+earnest, I assure you.  I have discovered an infamous conspiracy,
+Dick, to destroy this ship and every soul that is in her; "and I
+then proceeded systematically, and in order, to lay before him the
+chain of evidence which I had collected.  "There, Dick," I said, as
+I concluded, "what do you think of that? and, above all, what am I
+to do?"
+
+To my astonishment he burst into a hearty fit of laughter.
+
+"I'd be frightened," he said, "if any fellow but you had told me as
+much.  You always had a way, Hammond, of discovering mares'
+nests.  I like to see the old traits breaking out again.  Do you
+remember at school how you swore there was a ghost in the long
+room, and how it turned out to be your own reflection in the
+mirror.  Why, man," he continued, "what object would any one have
+in destroying this ship?  We have no great political guns aboard. 
+On the contrary, the majority of the passengers are Americans. 
+Besides, in this sober nineteenth century, the most wholesale
+murderers stop at including themselves among their victims.  Depend
+upon it, you have misunderstood them, and have mistaken a
+photographic camera, or something equally innocent, for an infernal
+machine."
+
+"Nothing of the sort, sir," said I, rather touchily "You will learn
+to your cost, I fear, that I have neither exaggerated nor
+misinterpreted a word.  As to the box, I have certainly never
+before seen one like it.  It contained delicate machinery; of that
+I am convinced, from the way in which the men handled it and spoke
+of it."
+
+"You'd make out every packet of perishable goods to be a torpedo,"
+said Dick, "if that is to be your only test."
+
+"The man's name was Flannigan," I continued.
+
+"I don't think that would go very far in a court of law," said
+Dick; "but come, I have finished my cigar.  Suppose we go down
+together and split a bottle of claret.  You can point out these two
+Orsinis to me if they are still in the cabin."
+
+"All right," I answered; "I am determined not to lose sight of
+them all day.  Don't look hard at them, though, for I don't want
+them to think that they are being watched."
+
+"Trust me," said Dick; "I'll look as unconscious and guileless as
+a lamb;" and with that we passed down the companion and into the
+saloon.
+
+A good many passengers were scattered about the great central
+table, some wrestling with refractory carpet bags and rug-straps,
+some having their luncheon, and a few reading and otherwise amusing
+themselves.  The objects of our quest were not there.  We passed
+down the room and peered into every berth, but there was no sign of
+them.  "Heavens!" thought I, "perhaps at this very moment they are
+beneath our feet, in the hold or engine-room, preparing their
+diabolical contrivance!"  It was better to know the worst than to
+remain in such suspense.
+
+"Steward," said Dick, "are there any other gentlemen about?"
+
+"There's two in the smoking-room, sir," answered the steward.
+
+The smoking-room was a little snuggery, luxuriously fitted up, and
+adjoining the pantry.  We pushed the door open and entered.  A sigh
+of relief escaped from my bosom.  The very first object on which my
+eye rested was the cadaverous face of Flannigan, with its hard-set
+mouth and unwinking eye.  His companion sat opposite to him.  They
+were both drinking, and a pile of cards lay upon the table.  They
+were engaged in playing as we entered.  I nudged Dick to show him
+that we had found our quarry, and we sat down beside them with
+as unconcerned an air as possible.  The two conspirators seemed to
+take little notice of our presence.  I watched them both narrowly. 
+The game at which they were playing was "Napoleon."  Both were
+adepts at it, and I could not help admiring the consummate nerve of
+men who, with such a secret at their hearts, could devote their
+minds to the manipulating of a long suit or the finessing of a
+queen.  Money changed hands rapidly; but the run of luck seemed to
+be all against the taller of the two players.  At last he threw
+down his cards on the table with an oath, and refused to go on.
+
+"No, I'm hanged if I do," he said; "I haven't had more than two of
+a suit for five hands."
+
+"Never mind," said his comrade, as he gathered up his winnings; "a
+few dollars one way or the other won't go very far after to-night's
+work."
+
+I was astonished at the rascal's audacity, but took care to keep my
+eyes fixed abstractedly upon the ceiling, and drank my wine in as
+unconscious a manner as possible.  I felt that Flannigan was
+looking towards me with his wolfish eyes to see if I had noticed
+the allusion.  He whispered something to his companion which I
+failed to catch.  It was a caution, I suppose, for the other
+answered rather angrily--
+
+"Nonsense!  Why shouldn't I say what I like?  Over-caution is just
+what would ruin us."
+
+"I believe you want it not to come off," said Flannigan.
+
+"You believe nothing of the sort," said the other, speaking rapidly
+and loudly.  "You know as well as I do that when I play for a stake
+I like to win it.  But I won't have my words criticised and cut
+short by you or any other man.  I have as much interest in our
+success as you have--more, I hope."
+
+He was quite hot about it, and puffed furiously at his cigar for
+some minutes.  The eyes of the other ruffian wandered alternately
+from Dick Merton to myself.  I knew that I was in the presence of
+a desperate man, that a quiver of my lip might be the signal for
+him to plunge a weapon into my heart, but I betrayed more self-
+command than I should have given myself credit for under such
+trying circumstances.  As to Dick, he was as immovable and
+apparently as unconscious as the Egyptian Sphinx.
+
+There was silence for some time in the smoking-room, broken only by
+the crisp rattle of the cards, as the man Muller shuffled them up
+before replacing them in his pocket.  He still seemed to be
+somewhat flushed and irritable.  Throwing the end of his cigar into
+the spittoon, he glanced defiantly at his companion and turned
+towards me.
+
+"Can you tell me, sir," he said, "when this ship will be heard of
+again?"
+
+They were both looking at me; but though my face may have turned a
+trifle paler, my voice was as steady as ever as I answered--
+
+"I presume, sir, that it will be heard of first when it enters
+Queenstown Harbour."
+
+"Ha, ha!" laughed the angry little man, "I knew you would say that.
+Don't you kick me under the table, Flannigan, I won't stand it.  I
+know what I am doing.  You are wrong, sir," he continued, turning
+to me, "utterly wrong."
+
+"Some passing ship, perhaps," suggested Dick.
+
+"No, nor that either."
+
+"The weather is fine," I said; "why should we not be heard of at
+our destination."
+
+"I didn't say we shouldn't be heard of at our destination. 
+Possibly we may not, and in any case that is not where we shall be
+heard of first."
+
+"Where then?" asked Dick.
+
+"That you shall never know.  Suffice it that a rapid and mysterious
+agency will signal our whereabouts, and that before the day is out.
+Ha, ha!" and he chuckled once again.
+
+"Come on deck!" growled his comrade; "you have drunk too much of
+that confounded brandy-and-water.  It has loosened your tongue. 
+Come away!" and taking him by the arm he half led him, half forced
+him out of the smoking-room, and we heard them stumbling up the
+companion together, and on to the deck.
+
+"Well, what do you think now?" I gasped, as I turned towards Dick. 
+He was as imperturbable as ever.
+
+"Think!" he said; "why, I think what his companion thinks, that we
+have been listening to the ravings of a half-drunken man.  The
+fellow stunk of brandy."
+
+"Nonsense, Dick I you saw how the other tried to stop his tongue."
+
+"Of course he did.  He didn't want his friend to make a fool of
+himself before strangers.  Maybe the short one is a lunatic, and
+the other his private keeper.  It's quite possible."
+
+"O Dick, Dick," I cried, "how can you be so blind!  Don't you see
+that every word confirmed our previous suspicion?"
+
+"Humbug, man!" said Dick; "you're working yourself into a state of
+nervous excitement.  Why, what the devil do you make of all that
+nonsense about a mysterious agent which would signal our
+whereabouts?"
+
+"I'll tell you what he meant, Dick," I said, bending forward and
+grasping my friend's arm.  "He meant a sudden glare and a flash
+seen far out at sea by some lonely fisherman off the American
+coast.  That's what he meant."
+
+"I didn't think you were such a fool, Hammond," said Dick Merton
+testily.  "If you try to fix a literal meaning on the twaddle that
+every drunken man talks, you will come to some queer conclusions. 
+Let us follow their example, and go on deck.  You need fresh air,
+I think.  Depend upon it, your liver is out of order.  A sea-voyage
+will do you a world of good."
+
+"If ever I see the end of this one," I groaned, "I'll promise never
+to venture on another.  They are laying the cloth, so it's hardly
+worth while my going up.  I'll stay below and unpack my things."
+
+"I hope dinner will find you in a more pleasant state of mind,"
+said Dick; and he went out, leaving me to my thoughts until the
+clang of the great gong summoned us to the saloon.
+
+My appetite, I need hardly say, had not been improved by the
+incidents which had occurred during the day.  I sat down, however,
+mechanically at the table, and listened to the talk which was going
+on around me.  There were nearly a hundred first-class passengers,
+and as the wine began to circulate, their voices combined with the
+clash of the dishes to form a perfect Babel.  I found myself seated
+between a very stout and nervous old lady and a prim little
+clergyman; and as neither made any advances I retired into my
+shell, and spent my time in observing the appearance of my fellow-
+voyagers.  I could see Dick in the dim distance dividing his
+attentions between a jointless fowl in front of him and a self-
+possessed young lady at his side.  Captain Dowie was doing the
+honours at my end, while the surgeon of the vessel was seated at
+the other.  I was glad to notice that Flannigan was placed almost
+opposite to me.  As long as I had him before my eyes I knew that,
+for the time at least, we were safe.  He was sitting with what was
+meant to be a sociable smile on his grim face.  It did not escape
+me that he drank largely of wine--so largely that even before the
+dessert appeared his voice had become decidedly husky.  His friend
+Muller was seated a few places lower down.  He ate little, and
+appeared to be nervous and restless.
+
+"Now, ladies," said our genial Captain, "I trust that you will
+consider yourselves at home aboard my vessel.  I have no fears for
+the gentlemen.  A bottle of champagne, steward.  Here's to a fresh
+breeze and a quick passage!  I trust our friends in America will
+hear of our safe arrival in eight days, or in nine at the very
+latest."
+
+I looked up.  Quick as was the glance which passed between
+Flannigan and his confederate, I was able to intercept it.  There
+was an evil smile upon the former's thin lips.
+
+The conversation rippled on.  Politics, the sea, amusements,
+religion, each was in turn discussed.  I remained a silent though
+an interested listener.  It struck me that no harm could be done by
+introducing the subject which was ever in my mind.  It could be
+managed in an off-hand way, and would at least have the effect of
+turning the Captain's thoughts in that direction.  I could watch,
+too, what effect it would have upon the faces of the conspirators.
+
+There was a sudden lull in the conversation.  The ordinary subjects
+of interest appeared to be exhausted.  The opportunity was a
+favourable one.
+
+"May I ask, Captain," I said, bending forward and speaking very
+distinctly, "what you think of Fenian manifestoes?"
+
+The Captain's ruddy face became a shade darker from honest
+indignation.
+
+"They are poor cowardly things," he said, "as silly as they are
+wicked."
+
+"The impotent threats of a set of anonymous scoundrels," said
+a pompous-looking old gentleman beside him.
+
+"O Captain!" said the fat lady at my side, "you don't really think
+they would blow up a ship?"
+
+"I have no doubt they would if they could.  But I am very sure they
+shall never blow up mine."
+
+"May I ask what precautions are taken against them?" asked an
+elderly man at the end of the table.
+
+"All goods sent aboard the ship are strictly examined," said
+Captain Dowie.
+
+"But suppose a man brought explosives aboard with him?" I
+suggested.
+
+"They are too cowardly to risk their own lives in that way."
+
+During this conversation Flannigan had not betrayed the slightest
+interest in what was going on.  He raised his head now and looked
+at the Captain.
+
+"Don't you think you are rather underrating them?" he said.  "Every
+secret society has produced desperate men--why shouldn't the
+Fenians have them too?  Many men think it a privilege to die in the
+service of a cause which seems right in their eyes, though others
+may think it wrong"
+
+"Indiscriminate murder cannot be right in anybody's eyes," said the
+little clergyman.
+
+"The bombardment of Paris was nothing else," said Flannigan; "yet
+the whole civilised world agreed to look on with folded arms, and
+change the ugly word `murder' into the more euphonious one of
+`war.'  It seemed right enough to German eyes; why shouldn't
+dynamite seem so to the Fenian?"
+
+"At any rate their empty vapourings have led to nothing as yet,"
+said the Captain.
+
+"Excuse me," returned Flannigan, "but is there not some room for
+doubt yet as to the fate of the Dotterel?  I have met men in
+America who asserted from their own personal knowledge that there
+was a coal torpedo aboard that vessel."
+
+"Then they lied," said the Captain.  "It was proved conclusively at
+the court-martial to have arisen from an explosion of coal-gas--but
+we had better change the subject, or we may cause the ladies to
+have a restless night;" and the conversation once more drifted back
+into its original channel.
+
+During this little discussion Flannigan had argued his point with
+a gentlemanly deference and a quiet power for which I had not given
+him credit.  I could not help admiring a man who, on the eve of a
+desperate enterprise, could courteously argue upon a point which
+must touch him so nearly.  He had, as I have already mentioned,
+partaken of a considerable quantity of wine; but though there was
+a slight flush upon his pale cheek, his manner was as reserved as
+ever.  He did not join in the conversation again, but seemed to be
+lost in thought.
+
+A whirl of conflicting ideas was battling in my own mind.  What was
+I to do?  Should I stand up now and denounce them before both
+passengers and Captain?  Should I demand a few minutes'
+conversation with the latter in his own cabin, and reveal it
+all?  For an instant I was half resolved to do it, but then the old
+constitutional timidity came back with redoubled force.  After all
+there might be some mistake.  Dick had heard the evidence and had
+refused to believe in it.  I determined to let things go on their
+course.  A strange reckless feeling came over me.  Why should I
+help men who were blind to their own danger?  Surely it was the
+duty of the officers to protect us, not ours to give warning to
+them.  I drank off a couple of glasses of wine, and staggered upon
+deck with the determination of keeping my secret locked in my own
+bosom.
+
+It was a glorious evening.  Even in my excited state of mind I
+could not help leaning against the bulwarks and enjoying the
+refreshing breeze.  Away to the westward a solitary sail stood out
+as a dark speck against the great sheet of flame left by the
+setting sun.  I shuddered as I looked at it.  It was grand but
+appalling.  A single star was twinkling faintly above our mainmast,
+but a thousand seemed to gleam in the water below with every stroke
+of our propeller.  The only blot in the fair scene was the great
+trail of smoke which stretched away behind us like a black slash
+upon a crimson curtain.  It was hard to believe that the great
+peace which hung over all Nature could be marred by a poor
+miserable mortal.
+
+"After all," I thought, as I gazed into the blue depths beneath me,
+"if the worst comes to the worst, it is better to die here than to
+linger in agony upon a sick-bed on land."  A man's life seems a
+very paltry thing amid the great forces of Nature.  All my
+philosophy could not prevent my shuddering, however, when I turned
+my head and saw two shadowy figures at the other side of the deck,
+which I had no difficulty in recognising.  They seemed to be
+conversing earnestly, but I had no opportunity of overhearing what
+was said; so I contented myself with pacing up and down, and
+keeping a vigilant watch upon their movements.
+
+It was a relief to me when Dick came on deck.  Even an incredulous
+confidant is better than none at all.
+
+"Well, old man," he said, giving me a facetious dig in the ribs,
+"we've not been blown up yet."
+
+"No, not yet," said I; "but that's no proof that we are not going
+to be."
+
+"Nonsense, man!" said Dick; "I can't conceive what has put this
+extraordinary idea into your head.  I have been talking to one of
+your supposed assassins, and he seems a pleasant fellow enough;
+quite a sporting character, I should think, from the way he
+speaks."
+
+"Dick," I said, "I am as certain that those men have an infernal
+machine, and that we are on the verge of eternity, as if I saw them
+putting the match to the fuse."
+
+"Well, if you really think so," said Dick, half awed for the moment
+by the earnestness of my manner, "it is your duty to let the
+Captain know of your suspicions."
+
+"You are right," I said; "I will.  My absurd timidity has prevented
+my doing so sooner.  I believe our lives can only be saved by
+laying the whole matter before him."
+
+"Well, go and do it now," said Dick; "but for goodness' sake don't
+mix me up in the matter."
+
+"I'll speak to him when he comes off the bridge," I answered; "and
+in the meantime I don't mean to lose sight of them."
+
+"Let me know of the result," said my companion; and with a nod he
+strolled away in search, I fancy, of his partner at the dinner-
+table.
+
+Left to myself, I bethought me of my retreat of the morning, and
+climbing on the bulwark I mounted into the quarter-boat, and lay
+down there.  In it I could reconsider my course of action, and by
+raising my head I was able at any time to get a view of my
+disagreeable neighbours.
+
+An hour passed, and the Captain was still on the bridge.  He was
+talking to one of the passengers, a retired naval officer, and the
+two were deep in debate concerning some abstruse point in
+navigation.  I could see the red tips of their cigars from where I
+lay.  It was dark now, so dark that I could hardly make out the
+figures of Flannigan and his accomplice.  They were still standing
+in the position which they had taken up after dinner.  A few of the
+passengers were scattered about the deck, but many had gone below. 
+A strange stillness seemed to pervade the air.  The voices of
+the watch and the rattle of the wheel were the only sounds which
+broke the silence.
+
+Another half-hour passed.  The Captain was still upon the bridge. 
+It seemed as if he would never come down.  My nerves were in a
+state of unnatural tension, so much so that the sound of two steps
+upon the deck made me start up in a quiver of excitement.  I peered
+over the edge of the boat, and saw that our suspicious passengers
+had crossed from the other side, and were standing almost directly
+beneath me.  The light of a binnacle fell full upon the ghastly
+face of the ruffian Flannigan.  Even in that short glance I saw
+that Muller had the ulster, whose use I knew so well, slung loosely
+over his arm.  I sank back with a groan.  It seemed that my fatal
+procrastination had sacrificed two hundred innocent lives.
+
+I had read of the fiendish vengeance which awaited a spy.  I knew
+that men with their lives in their hands would stick at nothing. 
+All I could do was to cower at the bottom of the boat and listen
+silently to their whispered talk below.
+
+"This place will do," said a voice.
+
+"Yes, the leeward side is best."
+
+"I wonder if the trigger will act?"
+
+"I am sure it will."
+
+"We were to let it off at ten, were we not?"
+
+"Yes, at ten sharp.  We have eight minutes yet."  There was a
+pause.  Then the voice began again--
+
+"They'll hear the drop of the trigger, won't they?"
+
+"It doesn't matter.  It will be too late for any one to prevent its
+going off."
+
+"That's true.  There will be some excitement among those we have
+left behind, won't there?"
+
+"Rather.  How long do you reckon it will be before they hear of
+us?"
+
+"The first news will get in at about midnight at earliest."
+
+"That will be my doing."
+
+"No, mine."
+
+"Ha, ha! we'll settle that."
+
+There was a pause here.  Then I heard Muller's voice in a ghastly
+whisper, "There's only five minutes more."
+
+How slowly the moments seemed to pass!  I could count them by the
+throbbing of my heart.
+
+"It'll make a sensation on land," said a voice.
+
+"Yes, it will make a noise in the newspapers."
+
+I raised my head and peered over the side of the boat.  There
+seemed no hope, no help.  Death stared me in the face, whether I
+did or did not give the alarm.  The Captain had at last left the
+bridge.  The deck was deserted, save for those two dark figures
+crouching in the shadow of the boat.
+
+Flannigan had a watch lying open in his hand.
+
+"Three minutes more," he said.  "Put it down upon the deck."
+
+"No, put it here on the bulwarks."
+
+It was the little square box.  I knew by the sound that they had
+placed it near the davit, and almost exactly under my head.
+
+I looked over again.  Flannigan was pouring something out of a
+paper into his hand.  It was white and granular--the same that I
+had seen him use in the morning.  It was meant as a fuse, no doubt,
+for he shovelled it into the little box, and I heard the strange
+noise which had previously arrested my attention.
+
+"A minute and a half more," he said.  "Shall you or I pull the
+string?"
+
+"I will pull it," said Muller.
+
+He was kneeling down and holding the end in his hand.  Flannigan
+stood behind with his arms folded, and an air of grim resolution
+upon his face.
+
+I could stand it no longer.  My nervous system seemed to give way
+in a moment.
+
+"Stop!" I screamed, springing to my feet.  "Stop misguided and
+unprincipled men!"
+
+They both staggered backwards.  I fancy they thought I was a
+spirit, with the moonlight streaming down upon my pale face.
+
+I was brave enough now.  I had gone too far to retreat.
+
+"Cain was damned," I cried, "and he slew but one; would you have
+the blood of two hundred upon your souis?"
+
+"He's mad!" said Flannigan.  "Time's up.  Let it off, Muller."
+I sprang down upon the deck.
+
+"You shan't do it!" I said.
+
+"By what right do you prevent us?"
+
+"By every right, human and divine."
+
+
+"It's no business of yours.  Clear out of this."
+
+"Never!" said I.
+
+"Confound the fellow!  There's too much at stake to stand on
+ceremony.  I'll hold him, Muller, while you pull the trigger."
+
+Next moment I was struggling in the herculean grasp of the
+Irishman.  Resistance was useless; I was a child in his hands.
+
+He pinned me up against the side of the vessel, and held me there.
+
+"Now," he said, "look sharp.  He can't prevent us."
+
+I felt that I was standing on the verge of eternity.  Half-
+strangled in the arms of the taller ruffian, I saw the other
+approach the fatal box.  He stooped over it and seized the string. 
+I breathed one prayer when I saw his grasp tighten upon it.  Then
+came a sharp snap, a strange rasping noise.  The trigger had
+fallen, the side of the box flew out, and let off--TWO GREY
+CARRIER PIGEONS!
+
+Little more need be said.  It is not a subject on which I care to
+dwell.  The whole thing is too utterly disgusting and absurd. 
+Perhaps the best thing I can do is to retire gracefully from the
+scene, and let the sporting correspondent of the New York Herald
+fill my unworthy place.  Here is an extract clipped from its
+columns shortly after our departure from America:--
+
+"Pigeon-flying Extraordinary.--A novel match has been brought off
+last week between the birds of John H. Flannigan, of Boston, and
+Jeremiah Muller, a well-known citizen of Lowell.  Both men
+have devoted much time and attention to an improved breed of bird,
+and the challenge is an old-standing one.  The pigeons were backed
+to a large amount, and there was considerable local interest in the
+result.  The start was from the deck of the Transatlantic steamship
+Spartan, at ten o'clock on the evening of the day of starting,
+the vessel being then reckoned to be about a hundred miles from the
+land.  The bird which reached home first was to be declared the
+winner.  Considerable caution had, we believe, to be observed, as
+some captains have a prejudice against the bringing off of sporting
+events aboard their vessels.  In spite of some little difficulty at
+the last moment, the trap was sprung almost exactly at ten o'clock.
+
+Muller's bird arrived in Lowell in an extreme state of exhaustion
+on the following morning, while Flannigan's has not been heard of. 
+The backers of the latter have the satisfaction of knowing,
+however, that the whole affair has been characterised by extreme
+fairness.  The pigeons were confined in a specially invented trap,
+which could only be opened by the spring.  It was thus possible to
+feed them through an aperture in the top, but any tampering with
+their wings was quite out of the question.  A few such matches
+would go far towards popularising pigeon-flying in America, and
+form an agreeable variety to the morbid exhibitions of human
+endurance which have assumed such proportions during the last few
+years."
+
+
+
+JOHN HUXFORD'S HIATUS.
+
+Strange it is and wonderful to mark how upon this planet of ours
+the smallest and most insignificant of events set a train of
+consequences in motion which act and react until their final
+results are portentous and incalculable.  Set a force rolling,
+however small; and who can say where it shall end, or what it may
+lead to!  Trifles develop into tragedies, and the bagatelle of one
+day ripens into the catastrophe of the next.  An oyster throws out
+a secretion to surround a grain of sand, and so a pearl comes into
+being; a pearl diver fishes it up, a merchant buys it and sells it
+to a jeweller, who disposes of it to a customer.  The customer is
+robbed of it by two scoundrels who quarrel over the booty.  One
+slays the other, and perishes himself upon the scaffold.  Here is
+a direct chain of events with a sick mollusc for its first link,
+and a gallows for its last one.  Had that grain of sand not chanced
+to wash in between the shells of the bivalve, two living breathing
+beings with all their potentialities for good and for evil would
+not have been blotted out from among their fellows.  Who shall
+undertake to judge what is really small and what is great?
+
+Thus when in the year 1821 Don Diego Salvador bethought
+him that if it paid the heretics in England to import the bark of
+his cork oaks, it would pay him also to found a factory by which
+the corks might be cut and sent out ready made, surely at first
+sight no very vital human interests would appear to be affected. 
+Yet there were poor folk who would suffer, and suffer acutely--
+women who would weep, and men who would become sallow and hungry-
+looking and dangerous in places of which the Don had never heard,
+and all on account of that one idea which had flashed across him as
+he strutted, cigarettiferous, beneath the grateful shadow of his
+limes.  So crowded is this old globe of ours, and so interlaced our
+interests, that one cannot think a new thought without some poor
+devil being the better or the worse for it.
+
+Don Diego Salvador was a capitalist, and the abstract thought soon
+took the concrete form of a great square plastered building wherein
+a couple of hundred of his swarthy countrymen worked with deft
+nimble fingers at a rate of pay which no English artisan could have
+accepted.  Within a few months the result of this new competition
+was an abrupt fall of prices in the trade, which was serious for
+the largest firms and disastrous for the smaller ones.  A few old-
+established houses held on as they were, others reduced their
+establishments and cut down their expenses, while one or two put up
+their shutters and confessed themselves beaten.  In this last
+unfortunate category was the ancient and respected firm of
+Fairbairn Brothers of Brisport.
+
+Several causes had led up to this disaster, though Don Diego's
+debut as a corkcutter had brought matters to a head.  When a
+couple of generations back the original Fairbairn had founded the
+business, Brisport was a little fishing town with no outlet or
+occupation for her superfluous population.  Men were glad to have
+safe and continuous work upon any terms.  All this was altered now,
+for the town was expanding into the centre of a large district in
+the west, and the demand for labour and its remuneration had
+proportionately increased.  Again, in the old days, when carriage
+was ruinous and communication slow, the vintners of Exeter and of
+Barnstaple were glad to buy their corks from their neighbour of
+Brisport; but now the large London houses sent down their
+travellers, who competed with each other to gain the local custom,
+until profits were cut down to the vanishing point.  For a long
+time the firm had been in a precarious position, but this further
+drop in prices settled the matter, and compelled Mr. Charles
+Fairbairn, the acting manager, to close his establishment.
+
+It was a murky, foggy Saturday afternoon in November when the hands
+were paid for the last time, and the old building was to be finally
+abandoned.  Mr. Fairbairn, an anxious-faced, sorrow-worn man, stood
+on a raised dais by the cashier while he handed the little pile of
+hardly-earned shillings and coppers to each successive workman as
+the long procession filed past his table.  It was usual with the
+employes to clatter away the instant that they had been paid, like
+so many children let out of school; but to-day they waited,
+forming little groups over the great dreary room, and discussing in
+subdued voices the misfortune which had come upon their employers,
+and the future which awaited themselves.  When the last pile of
+coins had been handed across the table, and the last name checked
+by the cashier, the whole throng faced silently round to the man
+who had been their master, and waited expectantly for any words
+which he might have to say to them.
+
+Mr. Charles Fairbairn had not expected this, and it embarrassed
+him.  He had waited as a matter of routine duty until the wages
+were paid, but he was a taciturn, slow-witted man, and he had not
+foreseen this sudden call upon his oratorical powers.  He stroked
+his thin cheek nervously with his long white fingers, and looked
+down with weak watery eyes at the mosaic of upturned serious faces.
+
+"I am sorry that we have to part, my men," he said at last in a
+crackling voice.  "It's a bad day for all of us, and for Brisport
+too.  For three years we have been losing money over the works.  We
+held on in the hope of a change coming, but matters are going from
+bad to worse.  There's nothing for it but to give it up before the
+balance of our fortune is swallowed up.  I hope you may all be able
+to get work of some sort before very long.  Good-bye, and God bless
+you!"
+
+"God bless you, sir!  God bless you!" cried a chorus of rough
+voices.  "Three cheers for Mr. Charles Fairbairn!" shouted a
+bright-eyed, smart young fellow, springing up upon a bench and
+waving his peaked cap in the air.  The crowd responded to the call,
+but their huzzas wanted the true ring which only a joyous heart can
+give.  Then they began to flock out into the sunlight, looking back
+as they went at the long deal tables and the cork-strewn floor--
+above all at the sad-faced, solitary man, whose cheeks were flecked
+with colour at the rough cordiality of their farewell.
+
+"Huxford," said the cashier, touching on the shoulder the young
+fellow who had led the cheering; "the governor wants to speak to
+you."
+
+The workman turned back and stood swinging his cap awkwardly in
+front of his ex-employer, while the crowd pushed on until the
+doorway was clear, and the heavy fog-wreaths rolled unchecked into
+the deserted tactory.
+
+"Ah, John!" said Mr. Fairbairn, coming suddenly out of his reverie
+and taking up a letter from the table.  "You have been in my
+service since you were a boy, and you have shown that you merited
+the trust which I have placed in you.  From what I have heard I
+think I am right in saying that this sudden want of work will
+affect your plans more than it will many of my other hands."
+
+"I was to be married at Shrovetide," the man answered, tracing a
+pattern upon the table with his horny forefinger.  "I'll have to
+find work first."
+
+"And work, my poor fellow, is by no means easy to find.  You see
+you have been in this groove all your life, and are unfit for
+anything else.  It's true you've been my foreman, but even
+that won't help you, for the factories all over England are
+discharging hands, and there's not a vacancy to be had.  It's a bad
+outlook for you and such as you."
+
+"What would you advise, then, sir?" asked John Huxford.
+
+"That's what I was coming to.  I have a letter here from Sheridan
+and Moore, of Montreal, asking for a good hand to take charge of a
+workroom.  If you think it will suit you, you can go out by the
+next boat.  The wages are far in excess of anything which I have
+been able to give you."
+
+"Why, sir, this is real kind of you," the young workman said
+earnestly.  "She--my girl--Mary, will be as grateful to you as I
+am.  I know what you say is right, and that if I had to look for
+work I should be likely to spend the little that I have laid by
+towards housekeeping before I found it.  But, sir, with your leave
+I'd like to speak to her about it before I made up my mind.  Could
+you leave it open for a few hours?"
+
+"The mail goes out to-morrow," Mr. Fairbairn answered.  "If you
+decide to accept you can write tonight.  Here is their letter,
+which will give you their address."
+
+John Huxford took the precious paper with a grateful heart.  An
+hour ago his future had been all black, but now this rift of light
+had broken in the west, giving promise of better things.  He would
+have liked to have said something expressive of his feelings to his
+employer, but the English nature is not effusive, and he could
+not get beyond a few choking awkward words which were as awkwardly
+received by his benefactor.  With a scrape and a bow, he turned on
+his heel, and plunged out into the foggy street.
+
+So thick was the vapour that the houses over the way were only a
+vague loom, but the foreman hurried on with springy steps through
+side streets and winding lanes, past walls where the fishermen's
+nets were drying, and over cobble-stoned alleys redolent of
+herring, until he reached a modest line of whitewashed cottages
+fronting the sea.  At the door of one of these the young man
+tapped, and then without waiting for a response, pressed down the
+latch and walked in.
+
+An old silvery-haired woman and a young girl hardly out of her
+teens were sitting on either side of the fire, and the latter
+sprang to her feet as he entered.
+
+"You've got some good news, John," she cried, putting her hands
+upon his shoulders, and looking into his eyes.  "I can tell it from
+your step.  Mr. Fairbairn is going to carry on after all."
+
+"No, dear, not so good as that," John Huxford answered, smoothing
+back her rich brown hair; "but I have an offer of a place in
+Canada, with good money, and if you think as I do, I shall go out
+to it, and you can follow with the granny whenever I have made all
+straight for you at the other side.  What say you to that, my
+lass?"
+
+"Why, surely, John, what you think is right must be for the
+best," said the girl quietly, with trust and confidence in her pale
+plain face and loving hazel eyes.  "But poor granny, how is she to
+cross the seas?"
+
+"Oh, never mind about me," the old woman broke in cheerfully. 
+"I'll be no drag on you.  If you want granny, granny's not too old
+to travel; and if you don't want her, why she can look after the
+cottage, and have an English home ready for you whenever you turn
+back to the old country."
+
+"Of course we shall need you, granny," John Huxford said, with a
+cheery laugh.  "Fancy leaving granny behind!  That would never do! 
+Mary!  But if you both come out, and if we are married all snug and
+proper at Montreal, we'll look through the whole city until we find
+a house something like this one, and we'll have creepers on the
+outside just the same, and when the doors are shut and we sit round
+the fire on the winter's nights, I'm hanged if we'll be able to
+tell that we're not at home.  Besides, Mary, it's the same speech
+out there, and the same king and the same flag; it's not like a
+foreign country."
+
+"No, of course not," Mary answered with conviction.  She was an
+orphan with no living relation save her old grandmother, and no
+thought in life but to make a helpful and worthy wife to the man
+she loved.  Where these two were she could not fail to find
+happiness.  If John went to Canada, then Canada became home to her,
+for what had Brisport to offer when he was gone?
+
+"I'm to write to-night then and accept?" the young man asked. 
+"I knew you would both be of the same mind as myself, but of course
+I couldn't close with the offer until we had talked it over.  I can
+get started in a week or two, and then in a couple of months I'll
+have all ready for you on the other side."
+
+"It will be a weary, weary time until we hear from you, dear John,"
+said Mary, clasping his hand; "but it's God's will, and we must be
+patient.  Here's pen and ink.  You can sit at the table and write
+the letter which is to take the three of us across the Atlantic." 
+Strange how Don Diego's thoughts were moulding human lives in the
+little Devon village.
+
+The acceptance was duly despatched, and John Huxford began
+immediately to prepare for his departure, for the Montreal firm had
+intimated that the vacancy was a certainty, and that the chosen man
+might come out without delay to take over his duties.  In a very
+few days his scanty outfit was completed, and he started off in a
+coasting vessel for Liverpool, where he was to catch the passenger
+ship for Quebec.
+
+"Remember, John," Mary whispered, as he pressed her to his heart
+upon the Brisport quay, "the cottage is our own, and come what may,
+we have always that to fall back upon.  If things should chance to
+turn out badly over there, we have always a roof to cover us.
+There you will find me until you send word to us to come."
+
+"And that will be very soon, my lass," he answered cheerfully, with
+a last embrace.  "Good-bye, granny, good-bye."  The ship was a mile
+and more from the land before he lost sight of the figures of
+the straight slim girl and her old companion, who stood watching
+and waving to him from the end of the grey stone quay.  It was with
+a sinking heart and a vague feeling of impending disaster that he
+saw them at last as minute specks in the distance, walking townward
+and disappearing amid the crowd who lined the beach.
+
+From Liverpool the old woman and her granddaughter received a
+letter from John announcing that he was just starting in the barque
+St. Lawrence, and six weeks afterwards a second longer epistle
+informed them of his safe arrival at Quebec, and gave them his
+first impressions of the country.  After that a long unbroken
+silence set in.  Week after week and month after month passed by,
+and never a word came from across the seas.  A year went over their
+heads, and yet another, but no news of the absentee.  Sheridan and
+Moore were written to, and replied that though John Huxford's
+letter had reached them, he had never presented himself, and they
+had been forced to fill up the vacancy as best they could.  Still
+Mary and her grandmother hoped against hope, and looked out for the
+letter-carrier every morning with such eagerness, that the kind-
+hearted man would often make a detour rather than pass the two pale
+anxious faces which peered at him from the cottage window.  At
+last, three years after the young foreman's disappearance, old
+granny died, and Mary was left alone, a broken sorrowful woman,
+living as best she might on a small annuity which had descended to
+her, and eating her heart out as she brooded over the mystery
+which hung over the fate of her lover.
+
+Among the shrewd west-country neighbours there had long, however,
+ceased to be any mystery in the matter.  Huxford arrived safely in
+Canada--so much was proved by his letter.  Had he met with his end
+in any sudden way during the journey between Quebec and Montreal,
+there must have been some official inquiry, and his luggage would
+have sufficed to have established his identity.  Yet the Canadian
+police had been communicated with, and had returned a positive
+answer that no inquest had been held, or any body found, which
+could by any possibility be that of the young Englishman.  The only
+alternative appeared to be that he had taken the first opportunity
+to break all the old ties, and had slipped away to the backwoods or
+to the States to commence life anew under an altered name.  Why he
+should do this no one professed to know, but that he had done it
+appeared only too probable from the facts.  Hence many a deep growl
+of righteous anger rose from the brawny smacksmen when Mary with
+her pale face and sorrow-sunken head passed along the quays on her
+way to her daily marketing; and it is more than likely that if the
+missing man had turned up in Brisport he might have met with some
+rough words or rougher usage, unless he could give some very good
+reason for his strange conduct.  This popular view of the case
+never, however, occurred to the simple trusting heart of the lonely
+girl, and as the years rolled by her grief and her suspense were
+never for an instant tinged with a doubt as to the good faith
+of the missing man.  From youth she grew into middle age, and from
+that into the autumn of her life, patient, long-suffering, and
+faithful, doing good as far as lay in her power, and waiting humbly
+until fate should restore either in this world or the next that
+which it had so mysteriously deprived her of.
+
+In the meantime neither the opinion held by the minority that John
+Huxford was dead, nor that of the majority, which pronounced him to
+be faithless, represented the true state of the case.  Still alive,
+and of stainless honour, he had yet been singled out by fortune as
+her victim in one of those strange freaks which are of such rare
+occurrence, and so beyond the general experience, that they might
+be put by as incredible, had we not the most trustworthy evidence
+of their occasional possibility.
+
+Landing at Quebec, with his heart full of hope and courage, John
+selected a dingy room in a back street, where the terms were less
+exorbitant than elsewhere, and conveyed thither the two boxes which
+contained his worldly goods.  After taking up his quarters there he
+had half a mind to change again, for the landlady and the fellow-
+lodgers were by no means to his taste; but the Montreal coach
+started within a day or two, and he consoled himself by the thought
+that the discomfort would only last for that short time.  Having
+written home to Mary to announce his safe arrival, he employed
+himself in seeing as much of the town as was possible, walking
+about all day, and only returning to his room at night.
+
+It happened, however, that the house on which the unfortunate youth
+had pitched was one which was notorious for the character of its
+inmates.  He had been directed to it by a pimp, who found regular
+employment in hanging about the docks and decoying new-comers to
+this den.  The fellow's specious manner and proffered civility had
+led the simple-hearted west-countryman into the toils, and though
+his instinct told him that he was in unsafe company, he refrained,
+unfortunately, from at once making his escape.  He contented
+himself with staying out all day, and associating as little as
+possible with the other inmates.  From the few words which he did
+let drop, however, the landlady gathered that he was a stranger
+without a single friend in the country to inquire after him should
+misfortune overtake him.
+
+The house had an evil reputation for the hocussing of sailors,
+which was done not only for the purpose of plundering them, but
+also to supply outgoing ships with crews, the men being carried on
+board insensible, and not coming to until the ship was well down
+the St. Lawrence.  This trade caused the wretches who followed it
+to be experts in the use of stupefying drugs, and they determined
+to practise their arts upon their friendless lodger, so as to have
+an opportunity of ransacking his effects, and of seeing what it
+might be worth their while to purloin.  During the day he
+invariably locked his door and carried off the key in his
+pocket, but if they could render him insensible for the night they
+could examine his boxes at their leisure, and deny afterwards that
+he had ever brought with him the articles which he missed.  It
+happened, therefore, upon the eve of Huxford's departure from
+Quebec, that he found, upon returning to his lodgings, that his
+landlady and her two ill-favoured sons, who assisted her in her
+trade, were waiting up for him over a bowl of punch, which they
+cordially invited him to share.  It was a bitterly cold night, and
+the fragrant steam overpowered any suspicions which the young
+Englishman may have entertained, so he drained off a bumper, and
+then, retiring to his bedroom, threw himself upon his bed without
+undressing, and fell straight into a dreamless slumber, in which he
+still lay when the three conspirators crept into his chamber, and,
+having opened his boxes, began to investigate his effects.
+
+It may have been that the speedy action of the drug caused its
+effect to be evanescent, or, perhaps, that the strong constitution
+of the victim threw it off with unusual rapidity.  Whatever the
+cause, it is certain that John Huxford suddenly came to himself,
+and found the foul trio squatted round their booty, which they were
+dividing into the two categories of what was of value and should be
+taken, and what was valueless and might therefore be left.  With a
+bound he sprang out of bed, and seizing the fellow nearest him by
+the collar, he slung him through the open doorway.  His brother
+rushed at him, but the young Devonshire man met him with such a
+facer that he dropped in a heap upon the ground. 
+Unfortunately, the violence of the blow caused him to overbalance
+himself, and, tripping over his prostrate antagonist, he came down
+heavily upon his face.  Before he could rise, the old hag sprang
+upon his back and clung to him, shrieking to her son to bring the
+poker.  John managed to shake himself clear of them both, but
+before he could stand on his guard he was felled from behind by a
+crashing blow from an iron bar, which stretched him senseless upon
+the floor.
+
+"You've hit too hard, Joe," said the old woman, looking down at the
+prostrate figure.  "I heard the bone go."
+
+"If I hadn't fetched him down he'd ha' been too many for us," said
+the young villain sulkily.
+
+"Still, you might ha' done it without killing him, clumsy," said
+his mother.  She had had a large experience of such scenes, and
+knew the difference between a stunning blow and a fatal one.
+
+"He's still breathing," the other said, examining him; "the back o'
+his head's like a bag o' dice though.  The skull's all splintered. 
+He can't last.  What are we to do?"
+
+"He'll never come to himself again," the other brother remarked. 
+"Sarve him right.  Look at my face!  Let's see, mother; who's in
+the house?"
+
+"Only four drunk sailors."
+
+"They wouldn't turn out for any noise.  It's all quiet in the
+street.  Let's carry him down a bit, Joe, and leave him there.  He
+can die there, and no one think the worse of us."
+
+"Take all the papers out of his pocket, then," the mother
+suggested; "they might help the police to trace him.  His watch,
+too, and his money--L3 odd; better than nothing.  Now carry him
+softly and don't slip."
+
+Kicking off their shoes, the two brothers carried the dying man
+down stairs and along the deserted street for a couple of hundred
+yards.  There they laid him among the snow, where he was found by
+the night patrol, who carried him on a shutter to the hospital.  He
+was duly examined by the resident surgeon, who bound up the wounded
+head, but gave it as his opinion that the man could not possibly
+live for more than twelve hours.
+
+Twelve hours passed, however, and yet another twelve, but John
+Huxford still struggled hard for his life.  When at the end of
+three days he was found to be still breathing, the interest of the
+doctors became aroused at his extraordinary vitality, and they bled
+him, as the fashion was in those days, and surrounded his shattered
+head with icebags.  It may have been on account of these measures,
+or it may have been in spite of them, but at the end of a week's
+deep trance the nurse in charge was astonished to hear a gabbling
+noise, and to find the stranger sitting up upon the couch and
+staring about him with wistful, wondering eyes.  The surgeons were
+summoned to behold the phenomenon, and warmly congratulated each
+other upon the success of their treatment.
+
+"You have been on the brink of the grave, my man," said one of
+them, pressing the bandaged head back on to the pillow; "you must
+not excite yourself.  What is your name?"
+
+No answer, save a wild stare.
+
+"Where do you come from?"
+
+Again no answer.
+
+"He is mad," one suggested.  "Or a foreigner," said another. 
+"There were no papers on him when he came in.  His linen is marked
+`J. H.'  Let us try him in French and German."
+
+They tested him with as many tongues as they could muster among
+them, but were compelled at last to give the matter over and to
+leave their silent patient, still staring up wild-eyed at the
+whitewashed hospital ceiling.
+
+For many weeks John lay in the hospital, and for many weeks efforts
+were made to gain some clue as to his antecedents, but in vain.  He
+showed, as the time rolled by, not only by his demeanour, but also
+by the intelligence with which he began to pick up fragments of
+sentences, like a clever child learning to talk, that his mind was
+strong enough in the present, though it was a complete blank as to
+the past.  The man's memory of his whole life before the fatal blow
+was entirely and absolutely erased.  He neither knew his name, his
+language, his home, his business, nor anything else.  The doctors
+held learned consultations upon him, and discoursed upon the centre
+of memory and depressed tables, deranged nerve-cells and cerebral
+congestions, but all their polysyllables began and ended at the
+fact that the man's memory was gone, and that it was beyond
+the power of science to restore it.  During the weary months of his
+convalescence he picked up reading and writing, but with the return
+of his strength came no return of his former life.  England,
+Devonshire, Brisport, Mary, Granny--the words brought no
+recollection to his mind.  All was absolute darkness.  At last he
+was discharged, a friendless, tradeless, penniless man, without a
+past, and with very little to look to in the future.  His very name
+was altered, for it had been necessary to invent one.  John Huxford
+had passed away, and John Hardy took his place among mankind.  Here
+was a strange outcome of a Spanish gentleman's tobacco-inspired
+meditations.
+
+John's case had aroused some discussion and curiosity in Quebec, so
+that he was not suffered to drift into utter helplessness upon
+emerging from the hospital.  A Scotch manufacturer named M`Kinlay
+found him a post as porter in his establishment, and for a long
+time he worked at seven dollars a week at the loading and unloading
+of vans.  In the course of years it was noticed, however, that his
+memory, however defective as to the past, was extremely reliable
+and accurate when concerned with anything which had occurred since
+his accident.  From the factory he was promoted into the counting-
+house, and the year 1835 found him a junior clerk at a salary of
+L120 a year.  Steadily and surely John Hardy fought his way upward
+from post to post, with his whole heart and mind devoted to the
+business.  In 1840 he was third clerk, in 1845 he was second, and
+in 1852 he became manager of the whole vast establishment, and
+second only to Mr. M`Kinlay himself.
+
+There were few who grudged John this rapid advancement, for it was
+obviously due to neither chance nor favouritism, but entirely to
+his marvellous powers of application and industry.  From early
+morning until late in the night he laboured hard in the service of
+his employer, checking, overlooking, superintending, setting an
+example to all of cheerful devotion to duty.  As he rose from one
+post to another his salary increased, but it caused no alteration
+in his mode of living, save that it enabled him to be more open-
+handed to the poor.  He signalised his promotion to the managership
+by a donation of L1000 to the hospital in which he had been
+treated a quarter of a century before.  The remainder of his
+earnings he allowed to accumulate in the business, drawing a small
+sum quarterly for his sustenance, and still residing in the humble
+dwelling which he had occupied when he was a warehouse porter.  In
+spite of his success he was a sad, silent, morose man, solitary in
+his habits, and possessed always of a vague undefined yearning, a
+dull feeling of dissatisfaction and of craving which never
+abandoned him.  Often he would strive with his poor crippled brain
+to pierce the curtain which divided him from the past, and to solve
+the enigma of his youthful existence, but though he sat many a time
+by the fire until his head throbbed with his efforts, John Hardy
+could never recall the least glimpse of John Huxford's history.
+
+On one occasion he had, in the interests of the firm, to journey to
+Quebec, and to visit the very cork factory which had tempted him to
+leave England.  Strolling through the workroom with the foreman,
+John automatically, and without knowing what he was doing, picked
+up a square piece of the bark, and fashioned it with two or three
+deft cuts of his penknife into a smooth tapering cork.  His
+companion picked it out of his hand and examined it with the eye of
+an expert.  "This is not the first cork which you have cut by many
+a hundred, Mr. Hardy," he remarked.  "Indeed you are wrong," John
+answered, smiling; "I never cut one before in my life." 
+"Impossible!" cried the foreman.  "Here's another bit of cork.  Try
+again."  John did his best to repeat the performance, but the
+brains of the manager interfered with the trained muscles of the
+corkcutter.  The latter had not forgotten their cunning, but they
+needed to be left to themselves, and not directed by a mind which
+knew nothing of the matter.  Instead of the smooth graceful shape,
+he could produce nothing but rough-hewn clumsy cylinders.  "It must
+have been chance," said the foreman, "but I could have sworn that
+it was the work of an old hand!"
+
+As the years passed John's smooth English skin had warped and
+crinkled until he was as brown and as seamed as a walnut.  His
+hair, too, after many years of iron-grey, had finally become as
+white as the winters of his adopted country.  Yet he was a hale and
+upright old man, and when he at last retired from the manager-
+ship of the firm with which he had been so long connected, he
+bore the weight of his seventy years lightly and bravely.  He was
+in the peculiar position himself of not knowing his own age, as it
+was impossible for him to do more than guess at how old he was at
+the time of his accident.
+
+The Franco-German War came round, and while the two great rivals
+were destroying each other, their more peaceful neighbours were
+quietly ousting them out of their markets and their commerce.  Many
+English ports benefited by this condition of things, but none more
+than Brisport.  It had long ceased to be a fishing village, but was
+now a large and prosperous town, with a great breakwater in place
+of the quay on which Mary had stood, and a frontage of terraces and
+grand hotels where all the grandees of the west country came when
+they were in need of a change.  All these extensions had made
+Brisport the centre of a busy trade, and her ships found their way
+into every harbour in the world.  Hence it was no wonder,
+especially in that very busy year of 1870, that several Brisport
+vessels were lying in the river and alongside the wharves of
+Quebec.
+
+One day John Hardy, who found time hang a little on his hands since
+his retirement from business, strolled along by the water's edge
+listening to the clanking of the steam winches, and watching the
+great barrels and cases as they were swung ashore and piled upon
+the wharf.  He had observed the coming in of a great ocean steamer,
+and having waited until she was safely moored, he was turning
+away, when a few words fell upon his ear uttered by some one on
+board a little weather-beaten barque close by him.  It was only
+some commonplace order that was bawled out, but the sound fell upon
+the old man's ears with a strange mixture of disuse and
+familiarity.  He stood by the vessel and heard the seamen at their
+work, all speaking with the same broad, pleasant jingling accent. 
+Why did it send such a thrill through his nerves to listen to it? 
+He sat down upon a coil of rope and pressed his hands to his
+temples, drinking in the long-forgotten dialect, and trying to
+piece together in his mind the thousand half-formed nebulous
+recollections which were surging up in it.  Then he rose, and
+walking along to the stern he read the name of the ship, The
+Sunlight, Brisport.  Brisport!  Again that flush and tingle
+through every nerve.  Why was that word and the men's speech so
+familiar to him?  He walked moodily home, and all night he lay
+tossing and sleepless, pursuing a shadowy something which was ever
+within his reach, and yet which ever evaded him.
+
+Early next morning he was up and down on the wharf listening to the
+talk of the west-country sailors.  Every word they spoke seemed to
+him to revive his memory and bring him nearer to the light.  From
+time to time they paused in their work, and seeing the white-haired
+stranger sitting so silently and attentively, they laughed at him
+and broke little jests upon him.  And even these jests had a
+familiar sound to the exile, as they very well might, seeing that
+they were the same which he had heard in his youth, for no one
+ever makes a new joke in England.  So he sat through the long day,
+bathing himself in the west-country speech, and waiting for the
+light to break.
+
+And it happened that when the sailors broke off for their mid-day
+meal, one of them, either out of curiosity or good nature, came
+over to the old watcher and greeted him.  So John asked him to be
+seated on a log by his side, and began to put many questions to him
+about the country from which he came, and the town.  All which the
+man answered glibly enough, for there is nothing in the world that
+a sailor loves to talk of so much as of his native place, for it
+pleases him to show that he is no mere wanderer, but that he has a
+home to receive him whenever he shall choose to settle down to a
+quiet life.  So the seaman prattled away about the Town Hall and
+the Martello Tower, and the Esplanade, and Pitt Street and the High
+Street, until his companion suddenly shot out a long eager arm and
+caught him by the wrist.  "Look here, man," he said, in a low quick
+whisper.  "Answer me truly as you hope for mercy.  Are not the
+streets that run out of the High Street, Fox Street, Caroline
+Street, and George Street, in the order named?"  "They are," the
+sailor answered, shrinking away from the wild flashing eyes.  And
+at that moment John's memory came back to him, and he saw clear and
+distinct his life as it had been and as it should have been, with
+every minutest detail traced as in letters of fire.  Too stricken
+to cry out, too stricken to weep, he could only hurry away
+homewards wildly and aimlessly; hurry as fast as his aged limbs
+would carry him, as if, poor soul! there were some chance yet of
+catching up the fifty years which had gone by.  Staggering and
+tremulous he hastened on until a film seemed to gather over his
+eyes, and throwing his arms into the air with a great cry, "Oh,
+Mary, Mary!  Oh, my lost, lost life!" he fell senseless upon the
+pavement.
+
+The storm of emotion which had passed through him, and the mental
+shock which he had undergone, would have sent many a man into a
+raging fever, but John was too strong-willed and too practical to
+allow his strength to be wasted at the very time when he needed it
+most.  Within a few days he realised a portion of his property, and
+starting for New York, caught the first mail steamer to England. 
+Day and night, night and day, he trod the quarter-deck, until the
+hardy sailors watched the old man with astonishment, and marvelled
+how any human being could do so much upon so little sleep.  It was
+only by this unceasing exercise, by wearing down his vitality until
+fatigue brought lethargy, that he could prevent himself from
+falling into a very frenzy of despair.  He hardly dared ask himself
+what was the object of this wild journey?  What did he expect? 
+Would Mary be still alive?  She must be a very old woman.  If he
+could but see her and mingle his tears with hers he would be
+content.  Let her only know that it had been no fault of his, and
+that they had both been victims to the same cruel fate.  The
+cottage was her own, and she had said that she would wait for
+him there until she heard from him.  Poor lass, she had never
+reckoned on such a wait as this.
+
+At last the Irish lights were sighted and passed, Land's End lay
+like a blue fog upon the water, and the great steamer ploughed its
+way along the bold Cornish coast until it dropped its anchor in
+Plymouth Bay.  John hurried to the railway station, and within a
+few hours he found himself back once more in his native town, which
+he had quitted a poor corkcutter, half a century before.
+
+But was it the same town?  Were it not for the name engraved all
+over the station and on the hotels, John might have found a
+difficulty in believing it.  The broad, well-paved streets, with
+the tram lines laid down the centre, were very different from the
+narrow winding lanes which he could remember.  The spot upon which
+the station had been built was now the very centre of the town, but
+in the old days it would have been far out in the fields.  In every
+direction, lines of luxurious villas branched away in streets and
+crescents bearing names which were new to the exile.  Great
+warehouses, and long rows of shops with glittering fronts, showed
+him how enormously Brisport had increased in wealth as well as in
+dimensions.  It was only when he came upon the old High Street that
+John began to feel at home.  It was much altered, but still it was
+recognisable, and some few of the buildings were just as he had
+left them.  There was the place where Fairbairn's cork works had
+been.  It was now occupied by a great brand-new hotel.  And
+there was the old grey Town Hall.  The wanderer turned down beside
+it, and made his way with eager steps but a sinking heart in the
+direction of the line of cottages which he used to know so well.
+
+It was not difficult for him to find where they had been.  The sea
+at least was as of old, and from it he could tell where the
+cottages had stood.  But alas, where were they now!  In their place
+an imposing crescent of high stone houses reared their tall front
+to the beach.  John walked wearily down past their palatial
+entrances, feeling heart-sore and despairing, when suddenly a
+thrill shot through him, followed by a warm glow of excitement and
+of hope, for, standing a little back from the line, and looking as
+much out of place as a bumpkin in a ballroom, was an old
+whitewashed cottage, with wooden porch and walls bright with
+creeping plants.  He rubbed his eyes and stared again, but there it
+stood with its diamond-paned windows and white muslin curtains, the
+very same down to the smallest details, as it had been on the day
+when he last saw it.  Brown hair had become white, and fishing
+hamlets had changed into cities, but busy hands and a faithful
+heart had kept granny's cottage unchanged and ready for the
+wanderer.
+
+And now, when he had reached his very haven of rest, John Huxford's
+mind became more filled with apprehension than ever, and he came
+over so deadly sick, that he had to sit down upon one of the beach
+benches which faced the cottage.  An old fisherman was perched
+at one end of it, smoking his black clay pipe, and he remarked
+upon the wan face and sad eyes of the stranger.
+
+"You have overtired yourself," he said.  "It doesn't do for old
+chaps like you and me to forget our years."
+
+"I'm better now, thank you," John answered.  "Can you tell me,
+friend, how that one cottage came among all those fine houses?"
+
+"Why," said the old fellow, thumping his crutch energetically upon
+the ground, "that cottage belongs to the most obstinate woman in
+all England.  That woman, if you'll believe me, has been offered
+the price of the cottage ten times over, and yet she won't part
+with it.  They have even promised to remove it stone by stone, and
+put it up on some more convenient place, and pay her a good round
+sum into the bargain, but, God bless you! she wouldn't so much as
+hear of it."
+
+"And why was that?" asked John.
+
+"Well, that's just the funny part of it.  It's all on account of a
+mistake.  You see her spark went away when I was a youngster, and
+she's got it into her head that he may come back some day, and that
+he won't know where to go unless the cottage is there.  Why, if the
+fellow were alive he would be as old as you, but I've no doubt he's
+dead long ago.  She's well quit of him, for he must have been a
+scamp to abandon her as he did."
+
+"Oh, he abandoned her, did he?"
+
+"Yes--went off to the States, and never so much as sent a word to
+bid her good-bye.  It was a cruel shame, it was, for the girl
+has been a-waiting and a-pining for him ever since.  It's my belief
+that it's fifty years' weeping that blinded her."
+
+"She is blind!" cried John, half rising to his feet.
+
+"Worse than that," said the fisherman.  "She's mortal ill, and not
+expected to live.  Why, look ye, there's the doctor's carriage a-
+waiting at her door."
+
+At this evil tidings old John sprang up and hurried over to the
+cottage, where he met the physician returning to his brougham.
+
+"How is your patient, doctor?" he asked in a trembling voice.
+
+"Very bad, very bad," said the man of medicine pompously.  "If she
+continues to sink she will be in great danger; but if, on the other
+hand, she takes a turn, it is possible that she may recover," with
+which oracular answer he drove away in a cloud of dust.
+
+John Huxford was still hesitating at the doorway, not knowing how
+to announce himself, or how far a shock might be dangerous to the
+sufferer, when a gentleman in black came bustling up.
+
+"Can you tell me, my man, if this is where the sick woman is?" he
+asked.
+
+John nodded, and the clergyman passed in, leaving the door half
+open.  The wanderer waited until he had gone into the inner room,
+and then slipped into the front parlour, where he had spent so many
+happy hours.  All was the same as ever, down to the smallest
+ornaments, for Mary had been in the habit whenever anything was
+broken of replacing it with a duplicate, so that there might
+be no change in the room.  He stood irresolute, looking about him,
+until he heard a woman's voice from the inner chamber, and stealing
+to the door he peeped in.
+
+The invalid was reclining upon a couch, propped up with pillows,
+and her face was turned full towards John as he looked round the
+door.  He could have cried out as his eyes rested upon it, for
+there were Mary's pale, plain, sweet homely features as smooth and
+as unchanged as though she were still the half child, half woman,
+whom he had pressed to his heart on the Brisport quay.  Her calm,
+eventless, unselfish life had left none of those rude traces upon
+her countenance which are the outward emblems of internal conflict
+and an unquiet soul.  A chaste melancholy had refined and softened
+her expression, and her loss of sight had been compensated for by
+that placidity which comes upon the faces of the blind.  With her
+silvery hair peeping out beneath her snow-white cap, and a bright
+smile upon her sympathetic face, she was the old Mary improved and
+developed, with something ethereal and angelic superadded.
+
+"You will keep a tenant in the cottage," she was saying to the
+clergyman, who sat with his back turned to the observer.  "Choose
+some poor deserving folk in the parish who will be glad of a home
+free.  And when he comes you will tell him that I have waited for
+him until I have been forced to go on, but that he will find me on
+the other side still faithful and true.  There's a little money
+too--only a few pounds--but I should like him to have it when
+he comes, for he may need it, and then you will tell the folk you
+put in to be kind to him, for he will be grieved, poor lad, and to
+tell him that I was cheerful and happy up to the end.  Don't let
+him know that I ever fretted, or he may fret too."
+
+Now John listened quietly to all this from behind the door, and
+more than once he had to put his hand to his throat, but when she
+had finished, and when he thought of her long, blameless, innocent
+life, and saw the dear face looking straight at him, and yet unable
+to see him, it became too much for his manhood, and he burst out
+into an irrepressible choking sob which shook his very frame.  And
+then occurred a strange thing, for though he had spoken no word,
+the old woman stretched out her arms to him, and cried, "Oh,
+Johnny, Johnny!  Oh dear, dear Johnny, you have come back to me
+again," and before the parson could at all understand what had
+happened, those two faithful lovers were in each other's arms,
+weeping over each other, and patting each other's silvery heads,
+with their hearts so full of joy that it almost compensated for all
+that weary fifty years of waiting.
+
+It is hard to say how long they rejoiced together.  It seemed a
+very short time to them and a very long one to the reverend
+gentleman, who was thinking at last of stealing away, when Mary
+recollected his presence and the courtesy which was due to him. 
+"My heart is full of joy, sir," she said; "it is God's will that I
+should not see my Johnny, but I can call his image up as clear as
+if I had my eyes.  Now stand up, John, and I will let the
+gentleman see how well I remember you.  He is as tall, sir, as the
+second shelf, as straight as an arrow, his face brown, and his eyes
+bright and clear.  His hair is well-nigh black, and his moustache
+the same--I shouldn't wonder if he had whiskers as well by this
+time.  Now, sir, don't you think I can do without my sight?"  The
+clergyman listened to her description, and looking at the battered,
+white-haired man before him, he hardly knew whether to laugh or to
+cry.
+
+But it all proved to be a laughing matter in the end, for, whether
+it was that her illness had taken some natural turn, or that John's
+return had startled it away, it is certain that from that day Mary
+steadily improved until she was as well as ever.  "No special
+license for me," John had said sturdily.  "It looks as if we were
+ashamed of what we are doing, as though we hadn't the best right to
+be married of any two folk in the parish."  So the banns were put
+up accordingly, and three times it was announced that John Huxford,
+bachelor, was going to be united to Mary Howden, spinster, after
+which, no one objecting, they were duly married accordingly.  "We
+may not have very long in this world," said old John, "but at least
+we shall start fair and square in the next."
+
+John's share in the Quebec business was sold out, and gave rise to
+a very interesting legal question as to whether, knowing that his
+name was Huxford, he could still sign that of Hardy, as was
+necessary for the completion of the business.  It was decided,
+however, that on his producing two trustworthy witnesses to
+his identity all would be right, so the property was duly realised
+and produced a very handsome fortune.  Part of this John devoted to
+building a pretty villa just outside Brisport, and the heart of the
+proprietor of Beach Terrace leaped within him when he learned that
+the cottage was at last to be abandoned, and that it would no
+longer break the symmetry and impair the effect of his row of
+aristocratic mansions.
+
+And there in their snug new home, sitting out on the lawn in the
+summer-time, and on either side of the fire in the winter, that
+worthy old couple continued for many years to live as innocently
+and as happily as two children.  Those who knew them well say that
+there was never a shadow between them, and that the love which
+burned in their aged hearts was as high and as holy as that of any
+young couple who ever went to the altar.  And through all the
+country round, if ever man or woman were in distress and fighting
+against hard times, they had only to go up to the villa to receive
+help, and that sympathy which is more precious than help.  So when
+at last John and Mary fell asleep in their ripe old age, within a
+few hours of each other, they had all the poor and the needy and
+the friendless of the parish among their mourners, and in talking
+over the troubles which these two had faced so bravely, they
+learned that their own miseries also were but passing things, and
+that faith and truth can never miscarry, either in this existence
+or the next.
+
+
+
+CYPRIAN OVERBECK WELLS.
+
+A LITERARY MOSAIC.
+
+From my boyhood I have had an intense and overwhelming conviction
+that my real vocation lay in the direction of literature.  I have,
+however, had a most unaccountable difficulty in getting any
+responsible person to share my views.  It is true that private
+friends have sometimes, after listening to my effusions, gone the
+length of remarking, "Really, Smith, that's not half bad!" or, "You
+take my advice, old boy, and send that to some magazine!" but I
+have never on these occasions had the moral courage to inform my
+adviser that the article in question had been sent to well-nigh
+every publisher in London, and had come back again with a rapidity
+and precision which spoke well for the efficiency of our postal
+arrangements.
+
+Had my manuscripts been paper boomerangs they could not have
+returned with greater accuracy to their unhappy dispatcher.  Oh,
+the vileness and utter degradation of the moment when the stale
+little cylinder of closely written pages, which seemed so fresh and
+full of promise a few days ago, is handed in by a remorseless
+postman!  And what moral depravity shines through the
+editor's ridiculous plea of "want of space!"  But the subject is a
+painful one, and a digression from the plain statement of facts
+which I originally contemplated.
+
+From the age of seventeen to that of three-and-twenty I was a
+literary volcano in a constant state of eruption.  Poems and tales,
+articles and reviews, nothing came amiss to my pen.  From the great
+sea-serpent to the nebular hypothesis, I was ready to write on
+anything or everything, and I can safely say that I seldom handled
+a subject without throwing new lights upon it.  Poetry and romance,
+however, had always the greatest attractions for me.  How I have
+wept over the pathos of my heroines, and laughed at the
+comicalities of my buffoons!  Alas!  I could find no one to join me
+in my appreciation, and solitary admiration for one's self, however
+genuine, becomes satiating after a time.  My father remonstrated
+with me too on the score of expense and loss of time, so that I was
+finally compelled to relinquish my dreams of literary independence
+and to become a clerk in a wholesale mercantile firm connected with
+the West African trade.
+
+Even when condemned to the prosaic duties which fell to my lot in
+the office, I continued faithful to my first love.  I have
+introduced pieces of word-painting into the most commonplace
+business letters which have, I am told, considerably astonished the
+recipients.  My refined sarcasm has made defaulting creditors
+writhe and wince.  Occasionally, like the great Silas Wegg, I would
+drop into poetry, and so raise the whole tone of the
+correspondence.  Thus what could be more elegant than my rendering
+of the firm's instructions to the captain of one of their vessels. 
+It ran in this way :--
+
+            "From England, Captain, you must steer a
+            Course directly to Madeira,
+            Land the casks of salted beef,
+            Then away to Teneriffe.
+            Pray be careful, cool, and wary
+            With the merchants of Canary.
+            When you leave them make the most
+            Of the trade winds to the coast.
+            Down it you shall sail as far
+            As the land of Calabar,
+            And from there you'll onward go
+            To Bonny and Fernando Po"----
+
+
+and so on for four pages.  The captain, instead of treasuring up
+this little gem, called at the office next day, and demanded with
+quite unnecessary warmth what the thing meant, and I was compelled
+to translate it all back into prose.  On this, as on other similar
+occasions, my employer took me severely to task--for he was, you
+see, a man entirely devoid of all pretensions to literary taste!
+
+All this, however, is a mere preamble, and leads up to the fact
+that after ten years or so of drudgery I inherited a legacy which,
+though small, was sufficient to satisfy my simple wants.  Finding
+myself independent, I rented a quiet house removed from the uproar
+and bustle of London, and there I settled down with the
+intention of producing some great work which should single me
+out from the family of the Smiths, and render my name immortal.  To
+this end I laid in several quires of foolscap, a box of quill pens,
+and a sixpenny bottle of ink, and having given my housekeeper
+injunctions to deny me to all visitors, I proceeded to look round
+for a suitable subject.
+
+I was looking round for some weeks.  At the end of that time I
+found that I had by constant nibbling devoured a large number of
+the quills, and had spread the ink out to such advantage, what with
+blots, spills, and abortive commencements, that there appeared to
+be some everywhere except in the bottle.  As to the story itself,
+however, the facility of my youth had deserted me completely, and
+my mind remained a complete blank; nor could I, do what I would,
+excite my sterile imagination to conjure up a single incident or
+character.
+
+In this strait I determined to devote my leisure to running rapidly
+through the works of the leading English novelists, from Daniel
+Defoe to the present day, in the hope of stimulating my latent
+ideas and of getting a good grasp of the general tendency of
+literature.  For some time past I had avoided opening any work of
+fiction because one of the greatest faults of my youth had been
+that I invariably and unconsciously mimicked the style of the last
+author whom I had happened to read.  Now, however, I made up my
+mind to seek safety in a multitude, and by consulting ALL the
+English classics to avoid?? the danger of imitating any one too
+closely.  I had just accomplished the task of reading through
+the majority of the standard novels at the time when my narrative
+commences.
+
+It was, then, about twenty minutes to ten on the night of the
+fourth of June, eighteen hundred and eighty-six, that, after
+disposing of a pint of beer and a Welsh rarebit for my supper, I
+seated myself in my arm-chair, cocked my feet upon a stool, and lit
+my pipe, as was my custom.  Both my pulse and my temperature were,
+as far as I know, normal at the time.  I would give the state of
+the barometer, but that unlucky instrument had experienced an
+unprecedented fall of forty-two inches--from a nail to the ground--
+and was not in a reliable condition.  We live in a scientific age,
+and I flatter myself that I move with the times.
+
+Whilst in that comfortable lethargic condition which accompanies
+both digestion and poisoning by nicotine, I suddenly became aware
+of the extraordinary fact that my little drawing-room had elongated
+into a great salon, and that my humble table had increased in
+proportion.  Round this colossal mahogany were seated a great
+number of people who were talking earnestly together, and the
+surface in front of them was strewn with books and pamphlets.  I
+could not help observing that these persons were dressed in a most
+extraordinary mixture of costumes, for those at the end nearest to
+me wore peruke wigs, swords, and all the fashions of two centuries
+back; those about the centre had tight knee-breeches, high cravats,
+and heavy bunches of seals; while among those at the far side
+the majority were dressed in the most modern style, and among
+them I saw, to my surprise, several eminent men of letters whom I
+had the honour of knowing.  There were two or three women in the
+company.  I should have risen to my feet to greet these unexpected
+guests, but all power of motion appeared to have deserted me, and
+I could only lie still and listen to their conversation, which I
+soon perceived to be all about myself.
+
+"Egad!" exclaimed a rough, weather-beaten man, who was smoking a
+long churchwarden pipe at my end of the table, "my heart softens
+for him.  Why, gossips, we've been in the same straits ourselves. 
+Gadzooks, never did mother feel more concern for her eldest born
+than I when Rory Random went out to make his own way in the world."
+
+"Right, Tobias, right!" cried another man, seated at my very elbow.
+
+"By my troth, I lost more flesh over poor Robin on his island, than
+had I the sweating sickness twice told.  The tale was well-nigh
+done when in swaggers my Lord of Rochester--a merry gallant, and
+one whose word in matters literary might make or mar.  `How now,
+Defoe,' quoth he, `hast a tale on hand?'  `Even so, your lordship,'
+I returned.  `A right merry one, I trust,' quoth he.  `Discourse
+unto me concerning thy heroine, a comely lass, Dan, or I mistake.' 
+`Nay,' I replied, `there is no heroine in the matter.'  `Split not
+your phrases,' quoth he; `thou weighest every word like a scald
+attorney.  Speak to me of thy principal female character, be she
+heroine or no.'  `My lord,' I answered, `there is no female
+character.'  `Then out upon thyself and thy book too!' he cried. 
+`Thou hadst best burn it!'--and so out in great dudgeon, whilst I
+fell to mourning over my poor romance, which was thus, as it were,
+sentenced to death before its birth.  Yet there are a thousand now
+who have read of Robin and his man Friday, to one who has heard of
+my Lord of Rochester."
+
+"Very true, Defoe," said a genial-looking man in a red waistcoat,
+who was sitting at the modern end of the table.  "But all this
+won't help our good friend Smith in making a start at his story,
+which, I believe, was the reason why we assembled."
+
+"The Dickens it is!" stammered a little man beside him, and
+everybody laughed, especially the genial man, who cried out,
+"Charley Lamb, Charley Lamb, you'll never alter.  You would make a
+pun if you were hanged for it."
+
+"That would be a case of haltering," returned the other, on which
+everybody laughed again.
+
+By this time I had begun to dimly realise in my confused brain the
+enormous honour which had been done me.  The greatest masters of
+fiction in every age of English letters had apparently made a
+rendezvous beneath my roof, in order to assist me in my
+difficulties.  There were many faces at the table whom I was unable
+to identify; but when I looked hard at others I often found them to
+be very familiar to me, whether from paintings or from mere
+description.  Thus between the first two speakers, who had betrayed
+themselves as Defoe and Smollett, there sat a dark, saturnine
+corpulent old man, with harsh prominent features, who I was sure
+could be none other than the famous author of Gulliver.  There were
+several others of whom I was not so sure, sitting at the other side
+of the table, but I conjecture that both Fielding and Richardson
+were among them, and I could swear to the lantern-jaws and
+cadaverous visage of Lawrence Sterne.  Higher up I could see among
+the crowd the high forehead of Sir Walter Scott, the masculine
+features of George Eliott, and the flattened nose of Thackeray;
+while amongst the living I recognised James Payn, Walter Besant,
+the lady known as "Ouida," Robert Louis Stevenson, and several of
+lesser note.  Never before, probably, had such an assemblage of
+choice spirits gathered under one roof.
+
+"Well," said Sir Walter Scott, speaking with a pronounced accent,
+"ye ken the auld proverb, sirs, `Ower mony cooks,' or as the Border
+minstrel sang--
+
+        `Black Johnstone wi' his troopers ten
+            Might mak' the heart turn cauld,
+        But Johnstone when he's a' alane
+            Is waur ten thoosand fauld.'
+
+The Johnstones were one of the Redesdale families, second cousins
+of the Armstrongs, and connected by marriage to----"
+
+"Perhaps, Sir Walter," interrupted Thackeray, "you would take the
+responsibility off our hands by yourself dictating the commencement
+of a story to this young literary aspirant."
+
+"Na, na!" cried Sir Walter; "I'll do my share, but there's Chairlie
+over there as full o' wut as a Radical's full o' treason.  He's the
+laddie to give a cheery opening to it."
+
+Dickens was shaking his head, and apparently about to refuse the
+honour, when a voice from among the moderns--I could not see who it
+was for the crowd--said:
+
+"Suppose we begin at the end of the table and work round, any one
+contributing a little as the fancy seizes him?"
+
+"Agreed! agreed!" cried the whole company; and every eye was turned
+on Defoe, who seemed very uneasy, and filled his pipe from a great
+tobacco-box in front of him.
+
+"Nay, gossips," he said, "there are others more worthy----"  But he
+was interrupted by loud cries of "No! no!" from the whole table;
+and Smollett shouted out, "Stand to it, Dan--stand to it!  You and
+I and the Dean here will make three short tacks just to fetch her
+out of harbour, and then she may drift where she pleases."  Thus
+encouraged, Defoe cleared his throat, and began in this way,
+talking between the puffs of his pipe:--
+
+"My father was a well-to-do yeoman of Cheshire, named Cyprian
+Overbeck, but, marrying about the year 1617, he assumed the name of
+his wife's family, which was Wells; and thus I, their eldest son,
+was named Cyprian Overbeck Wells.  The farm was a very fertile one,
+and contained some of the best grazing land in those parts, so
+that my father was enabled to lay by money to the extent of a
+thousand crowns, which he laid out in an adventure to the Indies
+with such surprising success that in less than three years it had
+increased fourfold.  Thus encouraged, he bought a part share of the
+trader, and, fitting her out once more with such commodities as
+were most in demand (viz., old muskets, hangers and axes, besides
+glasses, needles, and the like), he placed me on board as
+supercargo to look after his interests, and despatched us upon our
+voyage.
+
+"We had a fair wind as far as Cape de Verde, and there, getting
+into the north-west trade-winds, made good progress down the
+African coast.  Beyond sighting a Barbary rover once, whereat our
+mariners were in sad distress, counting themselves already as
+little better than slaves, we had good luck until we had come
+within a hundred leagues of the Cape of Good Hope, when the wind
+veered round to the southward and blew exceeding hard, while the
+sea rose to such a height that the end of the mainyard dipped into
+the water, and I heard the master say that though he had been at
+sea for five-and-thirty years he had never seen the like of it, and
+that he had little expectation of riding through it.  On this I
+fell to wringing my hands and bewailing myself, until the mast
+going by the board with a crash, I thought that the ship had
+struck, and swooned with terror, falling into the scuppers and
+lying like one dead, which was the saving of me, as will appear in
+the sequel.  For the mariners, giving up all hope of saving the
+ship, and being in momentary expectation that she would
+founder, pushed off in the long-boat, whereby I fear that they met
+the fate which they hoped to avoid, since I have never from that
+day heard anything of them.  For my own part, on recovering from
+the swoon into which I had fallen, I found that, by the mercy of
+Providence, the sea had gone down, and that I was alone in the
+vessel.  At which last discovery I was so terror-struck that I
+could but stand wringing my hands and bewailing my sad fate, until
+at last taking heart, I fell to comparing my lot with that of my
+unhappy camerados, on which I became more cheerful, and descending
+to the cabin, made a meal off such dainties as were in the
+captain's locker."
+
+Having got so far, Defoe remarked that he thought he had given them
+a fair start, and handed over the story to Dean Swift, who, after
+premising that he feared he would find himself as much at sea as
+Master Cyprian Overbeck Wells, continued in this way:--
+
+"For two days I drifted about in great distress, fearing that there
+should be a return of the gale, and keeping an eager look-out for
+my late companions.  Upon the third day, towards evening, I
+observed to my extreme surprise that the ship was under the
+influence of a very powerful current, which ran to the north-east
+with such violence that she was carried, now bows on, now stern on,
+and occasionally drifting sideways like a crab, at a rate which I
+cannot compute at less than twelve or fifteen knots an hour.  For
+several weeks I was borne away in this manner, until one morning,
+to my inexpressible joy, I sighted an island upon the
+starboard quarter.  The current would, however, have carried me
+past it had I not made shift, though single-handed, to set the
+flying-jib so as to turn her bows, and then clapping on the sprit-
+sail, studding-sail, and fore-sail, I clewed up the halliards upon
+the port side, and put the wheel down hard a-starboard, the wind
+being at the time north-east-half-east."
+
+At the description of this nautical manoeuvre I observed that
+Smollett grinned, and a gentleman who was sitting higher up the
+table in the uniform of the Royal Navy, and who I guessed to be
+Captain Marryat, became very uneasy and fidgeted in his seat.
+
+"By this means I got clear of the current and was able to steer
+within a quarter of a mile of the beach, which indeed I might have
+approached still nearer by making another tack, but being an
+excellent swimmer, I deemed it best to leave the vessel, which was
+almost waterlogged, and to make the best of my way to the
+shore.
+
+"I had had my doubts hitherto as to whether this new-found country
+was inhabited or no, but as I approached nearer to it, being on the
+summit of a great wave, I perceived a number of figures on the
+beach, engaged apparently in watching me and my vessel.  My joy,
+however, was considerably lessened when on reaching the land I
+found that the figures consisted of a vast concourse of animals of
+various sorts who were standing about in groups, and who hurried
+down to the water's edge to meet me.  I had scarce put my foot upon
+the sand before I was surrounded by an eager crowd of deer,
+dogs, wild boars, buffaloes, and other creatures, none of whom
+showed the least fear either of me or of each other, but, on the
+contrary, were animated by a common feeling of curiosity, as well
+as, it would appear, by some degree of disgust."
+
+"A second edition," whispered Lawrence Sterne to his neighbour;
+"Gulliver served up cold."
+
+"Did you speak, sir?" asked the Dean very sternly, having evidently
+overheard the remark.
+
+"My words were not addressed to you, sir," answered Sterne, looking
+rather frightened.
+
+"They were none the less insolent," roared the Dean.  "Your
+reverence would fain make a Sentimental Journey of the narrative,
+I doubt not, and find pathos in a dead donkey--though faith, no man
+can blame thee for mourning over thy own kith and kin."
+
+"Better that than to wallow in all the filth of Yahoo-land,"
+returned Sterne warmly, and a quarrel would certainly have ensued
+but for the interposition of the remainder of the company.  As it
+was, the Dean refused indignantly to have any further hand in the
+story, and Sterne also stood out of it, remarking with a sneer that
+he was loth to fit a good blade on to a poor handle.  Under these
+circumstances some further unpleasantness might have occurred had
+not Smollett rapidly taken up the narrative, continuing it in the
+third person instead of the first:--
+
+"Our hero, being considerably alarmed at this strange reception,
+lost little time in plunging into the sea again and regaining
+his vessel, being convinced that the worst which might befall him
+from the elements would be as nothing compared to the dangers of
+this mysterious island.  It was as well that he took this course,
+for before nightfall his ship was overhauled and he himself picked
+up by a British man-of-war, the Lightning, then returning
+from the West Indies, where it had formed part of the fleet under
+the command of Admiral Benbow.  Young Wells, being a likely lad
+enough, well-spoken and high-spirited, was at once entered on the
+books as officer's servant, in which capacity he both gained great
+popularity on account of the freedom of his manners, and found an
+opportunity for indulging in those practical pleasantries for which
+he had all his life been famous.
+
+"Among the quartermasters of the Lightning there was one named
+Jedediah Anchorstock, whose appearance was so remarkable that it
+quickly attracted the attention of our hero.  He was a man of about
+fifty, dark with exposure to the weather, and so tall that as he
+came along the 'tween decks he had to bend himself nearly double. 
+The most striking peculiarity of this individual was, however, that
+in his boyhood some evil-minded person had tattooed eyes all over
+his countenance with such marvellous skill that it was difficult at
+a short distance to pick out his real ones among so many
+counterfeits.  On this strange personage Master Cyprian determined
+to exercise his talents for mischief, the more so as he learned
+that he was extremely superstitious, and also that he had left
+behind him in Portsmouth a strong-minded spouse of whom he
+stood in mortal terror.  With this object he secured one of the
+sheep which were kept on board for the officers' table, and pouring
+a can of rumbo down its throat, reduced it to a state of utter
+intoxication.  He then conveyed it to Anchorstock's berth, and with
+the assistance of some other imps, as mischievous as himself,
+dressed it up in a high nightcap and gown, and covered it over with
+the bedclothes.
+
+"When the quartermaster came down from his watch our hero met him
+at the door of his berth with an agitated face.  `Mr. Anchorstock,'
+said he, `can it be that your wife is on board?'  `Wife!' roared
+the astonished sailor.  `Ye white-faced swab, what d'ye mean?'  `If
+she's not here in the ship it must be her ghost,' said Cyprian,
+shaking his head gloomily.  `In the ship!  How in thunder could she
+get into the ship?  Why, master, I believe as how you're weak in
+the upper works, d'ye see? to as much as think o' such a thing.  My
+Poll is moored head and starn, behind the point at Portsmouth,
+more'n two thousand mile away.'  `Upon my word,' said our hero,
+very earnestly, `I saw a female look out of your cabin not five
+minutes ago.'  `Ay, ay, Mr. Anchorstock,' joined in several of the
+conspirators.  `We all saw her--a spanking-looking craft with a
+dead-light mounted on one side.'  `Sure enough,' said Anchorstock,
+staggered by this accumulation of evidence, `my Polly's starboard
+eye was doused for ever by long Sue Williams of the Hard.  But if
+so be as she be there I must see her, be she ghost or quick;'
+with which the honest sailor, in much perturbation and trembling in
+every limb, began to shuffle forward into the cabin, holding the
+light well in front of him.  It chanced, however, that the unhappy
+sheep, which was quietly engaged in sleeping off the effects of its
+unusual potations, was awakened by the noise of this approach, and
+finding herself in such an unusual position, sprang out of the bed
+and rushed furiously for the door, bleating wildly, and rolling
+about like a brig in a tornado, partly from intoxication and partly
+from the night-dress which impeded her movements.  As Anchorstock
+saw this extraordinary apparition bearing down upon him, he uttered
+a yell and fell flat upon his face, convinced that he had to do
+with a supernatural visitor, the more so as the confederates
+heightened the effect by a chorus of most ghastly groans and cries.
+
+The joke had nearly gone beyond what was originally intended, for
+the quartermaster lay as one dead, and it was only with the
+greatest difficulty that he could be brought to his senses.  To the
+end of the voyage he stoutly asserted that he had seen the distant
+Mrs. Anchorstock, remarking with many oaths that though he was too
+woundily scared to take much note of the features, there was no
+mistaking the strong smell of rum which was characteristic of his
+better half.
+
+"It chanced shortly after this to be the king's birthday, an event
+which was signalised aboard the Lightening by the death of the
+commander under singular circumstances.  This officer, who was a
+real fair-weather Jack, hardly knowing the ship's keel from
+her ensign, had obtained his position through parliamentary
+interest, and used it with such tyranny and cruelty that he was
+universally execrated.  So unpopular was he that when a plot was
+entered into by the whole crew to punish his misdeeds with death,
+he had not a single friend among six hundred souls to warn him of
+his danger.  It was the custom on board the king's ships that upon
+his birthday the entire ship's company should be drawn up upon
+deck, and that at a signal they should discharge their muskets into
+the air in honour of his Majesty.  On this occasion word had been
+secretly passed round for every man to slip a slug into his
+firelock, instead of the blank cartridge provided.  On the
+boatswain blowing his whistle the men mustered upon deck and formed
+line, whilst the captain, standing well in front of them, delivered
+a few words to them.  `When I give the word,' he concluded, `you
+shall discharge your pieces, and by thunder, if any man is a second
+before or a second after his fellows I shall trice him up to the
+weather rigging!'  With these words he roared `Fire!' on which
+every man levelled his musket straight at his head and pulled the
+trigger.  So accurate was the aim and so short the distance, that
+more than five hundred bullets struck him simultaneously, blowing
+away his head and a large portion of his body.  There were so many
+concerned in this matter, and it was so hopeless to trace it to any
+individual, that the officers were unable to punish any one for the
+affair--the more readily as the captain's haughty ways and
+heartless conduct had made him quite as hateful to them as to the
+men whom they commanded.
+
+"By his pleasantries and the natural charm of his manners our hero
+so far won the good wishes of the ship's company that they parted
+with infinite regret upon their arrival in England.  Filial duty,
+however, urged him to return home and report himself to his father,
+with which object he posted from Portsmouth to London, intending to
+proceed thence to Shropshire.  As it chanced, however, one of the
+horses sprained his off foreleg while passing through Chichester,
+and as no change could be obtained, Cyprian found himself compelled
+to put up at the Crown and Bull for the night.
+
+"Ods bodikins!" continued Smollett, laughing, "I never could pass
+a comfortable hostel without stopping, and so, with your
+permission, I'll e'en stop here, and whoever wills may lead friend
+Cyprian to his further adventures.  Do you, Sir Walter, give us a
+touch of the Wizard of the North."
+
+With these words Smollett produced a pipe, and filling it at
+Defoe's tobacco-pot, waited patiently for the continuation of the
+story.
+
+"If I must, I must," remarked the illustrious Scotchman, taking a
+pinch of snuff; "but I must beg leave to put Mr. Wells back a few
+hundred years, for of all things I love the true mediaeval smack. 
+To proceed then:--
+
+"Our hero, being anxious to continue his journey, and learning that
+it would be some time before any conveyance would be ready,
+determined to push on alone mounted on his gallant grey steed. 
+Travelling was particularly dangerous at that time, for besides the
+usual perils which beset wayfarers, the southern parts of England
+were in a lawless and disturbed state which bordered on
+insurrection.  The young man, however, having loosened his sword in
+his sheath, so as to be ready for every eventuality, galloped
+cheerily upon his way, guiding himself to the best of his ability
+by the light of the rising moon.
+
+"He had not gone far before he realised that the cautions which had
+been impressed upon him by the landlord, and which he had been
+inclined to look upon as self-interested advice, were only too well
+justified.  At a spot where the road was particularly rough, and
+ran across some marsh land, he perceived a short distance from him
+a dark shadow, which his practised eye detected at once as a body
+of crouching men.  Reining up his horse within a few yards of the
+ambuscade, he wrapped his cloak round his bridle-arm and summoned
+the party to stand forth.
+
+"`What ho, my masters!' he cried.  `Are beds so scarce, then, that
+ye must hamper the high road of the king with your bodies?  Now, by
+St. Ursula of Alpuxerra, there be those who might think that birds
+who fly o' nights were after higher game than the moorhen or the
+woodcock!'
+
+"`Blades and targets, comrades!' exclaimed a tall powerful man,
+springing into the centre of the road with several companions, and
+standing in front of the frightened horse.  `Who is this
+swashbuckler who summons his Majesty's lieges from their repose? 
+A very soldado, o' truth.  Hark ye, sir, or my lord, or thy grace,
+or whatsoever title your honour's honour may be pleased to approve,
+thou must curb thy tongue play, or by the seven witches of
+Gambleside thou may find thyself in but a sorry plight.'
+
+"`I prythee, then, that thou wilt expound to me who and what ye
+are,' quoth our hero, `and whether your purpose be such as an
+honest man may approve of.  As to your threats, they turn from my
+mind as your caitiffly weapons would shiver upon my hauberk from
+Milan.'
+
+"`Nay, Allen,' interrupted one of the party, addressing him who
+seemed to be their leader; `this is a lad of mettle, and such a one
+as our honest Jack longs for.  But we lure not hawks with empty
+hands.  Look ye, sir, there is game afoot which it may need such
+bold hunters as thyself to follow.  Come with us and take a firkin
+of canary, and we will find better work for that glaive of thine
+than getting its owner into broil and bloodshed; for, by my troth! 
+Milan or no Milan, if my curtel axe do but ring against that morion
+of thine it will be an ill day for thy father's son.'
+
+"For a moment our hero hesitated as to whether it would best become
+his knightly traditions to hurl himself against his enemies, or
+whether it might not be better to obey their requests.  Prudence,
+mingled with a large share of curiosity, eventually carried the
+day, and dismounting from his horse, he intimated that he was ready
+to follow his captors.
+
+"`Spoken like a man!' cried he whom they addressed as Allen.  `Jack
+Cade will be right glad of such a recruit.  Blood and carrion! but
+thou hast the thews of a young ox; and I swear, by the haft of my
+sword, that it might have gone ill with some of us hadst thou not
+listened to reason!'
+
+"`Nay, not so, good Allen--not so,' squeaked a very small man, who
+had remained in the background while there was any prospect of a
+fray, but who now came pushing to the front.  `Hadst thou been
+alone it might indeed have been so, perchance, but an expert
+swordsman can disarm at pleasure such a one as this young knight. 
+Well I remember in the Palatinate how I clove to the chine even
+such another--the Baron von Slogstaff.  He struck at me, look ye,
+so; but I, with buckler and blade, did, as one might say, deflect
+it; and then, countering in carte, I returned in tierce, and so--
+St. Agnes save us! who comes here?'
+
+"The apparition which frightened the loquacious little man was
+sufficiently strange to cause a qualm even in the bosom of the
+knight.  Through the darkness there loomed a figure which appeared
+to be of gigantic size, and a hoarse voice, issuing apparently some
+distance above the heads of the party, broke roughly on the silence
+of the night.
+
+"`Now out upon thee, Thomas Allen, and foul be thy fate if thou
+hast abandoned thy post without good and sufficient cause.  By St.
+Anselm of the Holy Grove, thou hadst best have never been born than
+rouse my spleen this night.  Wherefore is it that you <224>and your
+men are trailing over the moor like a flock of geese when
+Michaelmas is near?'
+
+"`Good captain,' said Allen, doffing his bonnet, an example
+followed by others of the band, `we have captured a goodly youth
+who was pricking it along the London road.  Methought that some
+word of thanks were meet reward for such service, rather than taunt
+or threat.'
+
+"`Nay, take it not to heart, bold Allen,' exclaimed their leader,
+who was none other than the great Jack Cade himself.  `Thou knowest
+of old that my temper is somewhat choleric, and my tongue not
+greased with that unguent which oils the mouths of the lip-serving
+lords of the land.  And you,' he continued, turning suddenly upon
+our hero, `are you ready to join the great cause which will make
+England what it was when the learned Alfred reigned in the land? 
+Zounds, man, speak out, and pick not your phrases.'
+
+"`I am ready to do aught which may become a knight and a
+gentleman,' said the soldier stoutly.
+
+"`Taxes shall be swept away!' cried Cade excitedly--`the impost and
+the anpost--the tithe and the hundred-tax.  The poor man's salt-box
+and flour-bin shall be as free as the nobleman's cellar.  Ha! what
+sayest thou?'
+
+"`It is but just,' said our hero.
+
+"`Ay, but they give us such justice as the falcon gives the
+leveret!' roared the orator.  `Down with them, I say--down with
+every man of them!  Noble and judge, priest and king, down with
+them all!'
+
+"`Nay,' said Sir Overbeck Wells, drawing himself up to his full
+height, and laying his hand upon the hilt of his sword, `there I
+cannot follow thee, but must rather defy thee as traitor and
+faineant, seeing that thou art no true man, but one who would usurp
+the rights of our master the king, whom may the Virgin protect!'
+
+"At these bold words, and the defiance which they conveyed, the
+rebels seemed for a moment utterly bewildered; but, encouraged by
+the hoarse shout of their leader, they brandished their weapons and
+prepared to fall upon the knight, who placed himself in a posture
+for defence and awaited their attack.
+
+"There now!" cried Sir Walter, rubbing his hands and chuckling,
+"I've put the chiel in a pretty warm corner, and we'll see which of
+you moderns can take him oot o't.  Ne'er a word more will ye get
+frae me to help him one way or the other."
+
+"You try your hand, James," cried several voices, and the author in
+question had got so far as to make an allusion to a solitary
+horseman who was approaching, when he was interrupted by a tall
+gentleman a little farther down with a slight stutter and a very
+nervous manner.
+
+"Excuse me," he said, "but I fancy that I may be able to do
+something here.  Some of my humble productions have been said to
+excel Sir Walter at his best, and I was undoubtedly stronger all
+round.  I could picture modern society as well as ancient; and as
+to my plays, why Shakespeare never came near `The <226>Lady of
+Lyons' for popularity.  There is this little thing----" (Here he
+rummaged among a great pile of papers in front of him).  "Ah!
+that's a report of mine, when I was in India!  Here it is.  No,
+this is one of my speeches in the House, and this is my criticism
+on Tennyson.  Didn't I warm him up?  I can't find what I wanted,
+but of course you have read them all--`Rienzi,' and `Harold,' and
+`The Last of the Barons.'  Every schoolboy knows them by heart, as
+poor Macaulay would have said.  Allow me to give you a sample:--
+
+"In spite of the gallant knight's valiant resistance the combat was
+too unequal to be sustained.  His sword was broken by a slash from
+a brown bill, and he was borne to the ground.  He expected
+immediate death, but such did not seem to be the intention of the
+ruffians who had captured him.  He was placed upon the back of his
+own charger and borne, bound hand and foot, over the trackless
+moor, in the fastnesses of which the rebels secreted themselves.
+
+"In the depths of these wilds there stood a stone building which
+had once been a farm-house, but having been for some reason
+abandoned had fallen into ruin, and had now become the headquarters
+of Cade and his men.  A large cowhouse near the farm had been
+utilised as sleeping quarters, and some rough attempts had been
+made to shield the principal room of the main building from the
+weather by stopping up the gaping apertures in the walls.  In this
+apartment was spread out a rough meal for the returning rebels, and
+our hero was thrown, still bound, into an empty outhouse,
+there to await his fate."
+
+Sir Walter had been listening with the greatest impatience to
+Bulwer Lytton's narrative, but when it had reached this point he
+broke in impatiently.
+
+"We want a touch of your own style, man," he said.  "The animal-
+magnetico-electro-hysterical-biological-mysterious sort of story is
+all your own, but at present you are just a poor copy of myself,
+and nothing more."
+
+There was a murmur of assent from the company, and Defoe remarked,
+"Truly, Master Lytton, there is a plaguey resemblance in the style,
+which may indeed be but a chance, and yet methinks it is
+sufficiently marked to warrant such words as our friend hath used."
+
+"Perhaps you will think that this is an imitation also," said
+Lytton bitterly, and leaning back in his chair with a morose
+countenance, he continued the narrative in this way:--
+
+"Our unfortunate hero had hardly stretched himself upon the straw
+with which his dungeon was littered, when a secret door opened in
+the wall and a venerable old man swept majestically into the
+apartment.  The prisoner gazed upon him with astonishment not
+unmixed with awe, for on his broad brow was printed the seal of
+much knowledge--such knowledge as it is not granted to the son of
+man to know.  He was clad in a long white robe, crossed and
+chequered with mystic devices in the Arabic character, while a high
+scarlet tiara marked with the square and circle enhanced his
+venerable appearance.  `My son,' he said, turning his piercing
+and yet dreamy gaze upon Sir Overbeck, `all things lead to nothing,
+and nothing is the foundation of all things.  Cosmos is
+impenetrable.  Why then should we exist?'
+
+"Astounded at this weighty query, and at the philosophic demeanour
+of his visitor, our hero made shift to bid him welcome and to
+demand his name and quality.  As the old man answered him his voice
+rose and fell in musical cadences, like the sighing of the east
+wind, while an ethereal and aromatic vapour pervaded the apartment.
+
+"`I am the eternal non-ego,' he answered.  "I am the concentrated
+negative--the everlasting essence of nothing.  You see in me that
+which existed before the beginning of matter many years before the
+commencement of time.  I am the algebraic _x_ which represents the
+infinite divisibility of a finite particle.'
+
+"Sir Overbeck felt a shudder as though an ice-cold hand had been
+placed upon his brow.  `What is your message?' he whispered,
+falling prostrate before his mysterious visitor.
+
+"`To tell you that the eternities beget chaos, and that the
+immensities are at the mercy of the divine ananke.  Infinitude
+crouches before a personality.  The mercurial essence is the prime
+mover in spirituality, and the thinker is powerless before the
+pulsating inanity.  The cosmical procession is terminated only by
+the unknowable and unpronounceable'----
+
+"May I ask, Mr. Smollett, what you find to laugh at?"
+
+"Gad zooks, master," cried Smollett, who had been sniggering for
+some time back.  "It seems to me that there is little danger of any
+one venturing to dispute that style with you."
+
+"It's all your own," murmured Sir Walter.
+
+"And very pretty, too," quoth Lawrence Sterne, with a malignant
+grin.  "Pray sir, what language do you call it?"
+
+Lytton was so enraged at these remarks, and at the favour with
+which they appeared to be received, that he endeavoured to stutter
+out some reply, and then, losing control of himself completely,
+picked up all his loose papers and strode out of the room, dropping
+pamphlets and speeches at every step.  This incident amused the
+company so much that they laughed for several minutes without
+cessation.  Gradually the sound of their laughter sounded more and
+more harshly in my ears, the lights on the table grew dim and the
+company more misty, until they and their symposium vanished away
+altogether.  I was sitting before the embers of what had been a
+roaring fire, but was now little more than a heap of grey ashes,
+and the merry laughter of the august company had changed to the
+recriminations of my wife, who was shaking me violently by the
+shoulder and exhorting me to choose some more seasonable spot for
+my slumbers.  So ended the wondrous adventures of Master Cyprian
+Overbeck Wells, but I still live in the hopes that in some future
+dream the great masters may themselves finish that which they have
+begun.
+
+
+
+JOHN BARRINGTON COWLES.
+
+It might seem rash of me to say that I ascribe the death of my poor
+friend, John Barrington Cowles, to any preternatural agency.  I am
+aware that in the present state of public feeling a chain of
+evidence would require to be strong indeed before the possibility
+of such a conclusion could be admitted.
+
+I shall therefore merely state the circumstances which led up to
+this sad event as concisely and as plainly as I can, and leave
+every reader to draw his own deductions.  Perhaps there may be some
+one who can throw light upon what is dark to me.
+
+I first met Barrington Cowles when I went up to Edinburgh
+University to take out medical classes there.  My landlady in
+Northumberland Street had a large house, and, being a widow without
+children, she gained a livelihood by providing accommodation for
+several students.
+
+Barrington Cowles happened to have taken a bedroom upon the same
+floor as mine, and when we came to know each other better we shared
+a small sitting-room, in which we took our meals.  In this manner
+we originated a friendship which was unmarred by the slightest
+disagreement up to the day of his death.
+
+Cowles' father was the colonel of a Sikh regiment and had remained
+in India for many years.  He allowed his son a handsome income, but
+seldom gave any other sign of parental affection--writing
+irregularly and briefly.
+
+My friend, who had himself been born in India, and whose whole
+disposition was an ardent tropical one, was much hurt by this
+neglect.  His mother was dead, and he had no other relation in the
+world to supply the blank.
+
+Thus he came in time to concentrate all his affection upon me, and
+to confide in me in a manner which is rare among men.  Even when a
+stronger and deeper passion came upon him, it never infringed upon
+the old tenderness between us.
+
+Cowles was a tall, slim young fellow, with an olive, Velasquez-like
+face, and dark, tender eyes.  I have seldom seen a man who was more
+likely to excite a woman's interest, or to captivate her
+imagination.  His expression was, as a rule, dreamy, and even
+languid; but if in conversation a subject arose which interested
+him he would be all animation in a moment.  On such occasions his
+colour would heighten, his eyes gleam, and he could speak with an
+eloquence which would carry his audience with him.
+
+In spite of these natural advantages he led a solitary life,
+avoiding female society, and reading with great diligence.  He was
+one of the foremost men of his year, taking the senior medal for
+anatomy, and the Neil Arnott prize for physics.
+
+How well I can recollect the first time we met her!  Often and
+often I have recalled the circumstances, and tried to remember what
+the exact impression was which she produced on my mind at the time.
+
+After we came to know her my judgment was warped, so that I am
+curious to recollect what my unbiassed{sic} instincts were.  It is
+hard, however, to eliminate the feelings which reason or prejudice
+afterwards raised in me.
+
+It was at the opening of the Royal Scottish Academy in the spring
+of 1879.  My poor friend was passionately attached to art in every
+form, and a pleasing chord in music or a delicate effect upon
+canvas would give exquisite pleasure to his highly-strung nature. 
+We had gone together to see the pictures, and were standing in the
+grand central salon, when I noticed an extremely beautiful woman
+standing at the other side of the room.  In my whole life I have
+never seen such a classically perfect countenance.  It was the real
+Greek type--the forehead broad, very low, and as white as marble,
+with a cloudlet of delicate locks wreathing round it, the nose
+straight and clean cut, the lips inclined to thinness, the chin and
+lower jaw beautifully rounded off, and yet sufficiently developed
+to promise unusual strength of character.
+
+But those eyes--those wonderful eyes!  If I could but give some
+faint idea of their varying moods, their steely hardness, their
+feminine softness, their power of command, their penetrating
+intensity suddenly melting away into an expression of womanly
+weakness--but I am speaking now of future impressions!
+
+There was a tall, yellow-haired young man with this lady, whom I at
+once recognised as a law student with whom I had a slight
+acquaintance.
+
+Archibald Reeves--for that was his name--was a dashing, handsome
+young fellow, and had at one time been a ringleader in every
+university escapade; but of late I had seen little of him, and the
+report was that he was engaged to be married.  His companion was,
+then, I presumed, his fiancee.  I seated myself upon the velvet
+settee in the centre of the room, and furtively watched the couple
+from behind my catalogue.
+
+The more I looked at her the more her beauty grew upon me.  She was
+somewhat short in stature, it is true; but her figure was
+perfection, and she bore herself in such a fashion that it was only
+by actual comparison that one would have known her to be under the
+medium height.
+
+As I kept my eyes upon them, Reeves was called away for some
+reason, and the young lady was left alone.  Turning her back to the
+pictures, she passed the time until the return of her escort in
+taking a deliberate survey of the company, without paying the least
+heed to the fact that a dozen pair of eyes, attracted by her
+elegance and beauty, were bent curiously upon her.  With one of her
+hands holding the red silk cord which railed off the pictures, she
+stood languidly moving her eyes from face to face with as
+little self-consciousness as if she were looking at the canvas
+creatures behind her.  Suddenly, as I watched her, I saw her gaze
+become fixed, and, as it were, intense.  I followed the direction
+of her looks, wondering what could have attracted her so strongly.
+
+John Barrington Cowles was standing before a picture--one, I think,
+by Noel Paton--I know that the subject was a noble and ethereal
+one.  His profile was turned towards us, and never have I seen him
+to such advantage.  I have said that he was a strikingly handsome
+man, but at that moment he looked absolutely magnificent.  It was
+evident that he had momentarily forgotten his surroundings, and
+that his whole soul was in sympathy with the picture before him. 
+His eyes sparkled, and a dusky pink shone through his clear olive
+cheeks.  She continued to watch him fixedly, with a look of
+interest upon her face, until he came out of his reverie with a
+start, and turned abruptly round, so that his gaze met hers.  She
+glanced away at once, but his eyes remained fixed upon her for some
+moments.  The picture was forgotten already, and his soul had come
+down to earth once more.
+
+We caught sight of her once or twice before we left, and each time
+I noticed my friend look after her.  He made no remark, however,
+until we got out into the open air, and were walking arm-in-arm
+along Princes Street.
+
+"Did you notice that beautiful woman, in the dark dress, with the
+white fur?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, I saw her," I answered.
+
+"Do you know her?" he asked eagerly.  "Have you any idea who she
+is?"
+
+"I don't know her personally," I replied.  "But I have no doubt I
+could find out all about her, for I believe she is engaged to young
+Archie Reeves, and he and I have a lot of mutual friends."
+
+"Engaged!" ejaculated Cowles.
+
+"Why, my dear boy," I said, laughing, "you don't mean to say you
+are so susceptible that the fact that a girl to whom you never
+spoke in your life is engaged is enough to upset you?"
+
+"Well, not exactly to upset me," he answered, forcing a laugh. 
+"But I don't mind telling you, Armitage, that I never was so taken
+by any one in my life.  It wasn't the mere beauty of the face--
+though that was perfect enough--but it was the character and the
+intellect upon it.  I hope, if she is engaged, that it is to some
+man who will be worthy of her."
+
+"Why," I remarked, "you speak quite feelingly.  It is a clear case
+of love at first sight, Jack.  However, to put your perturbed
+spirit at rest, I'll make a point of finding out all about her
+whenever I meet any fellow who is likely to know."
+
+Barrington Cowles thanked me, and the conversation drifted off into
+other channels.  For several days neither of us made any allusion
+to the subject, though my companion was perhaps a little more
+dreamy and distraught than usual.  The incident had almost vanished
+from my remembrance, when one day young Brodie, who is a
+second cousin of mine, came up to me on the university steps with
+the face of a bearer of tidings.
+
+"I say," he began, "you know Reeves, don't you?"
+
+"Yes.  What of him?"
+
+"His engagement is off."
+
+"Off!" I cried.  "Why, I only learned the other day that it was
+on."
+
+"Oh, yes--it's all off.  His brother told me so.  Deucedly mean of
+Reeves, you know, if he has backed out of it, for she was an
+uncommonly nice girl."
+
+"I've seen her," I said; "but I don't know her name."
+
+"She is a Miss Northcott, and lives with an old aunt of hers in
+Abercrombie Place.  Nobody knows anything about her people, or
+where she comes from.  Anyhow, she is about the most unlucky girl
+in the world, poor soul!"
+
+"Why unlucky?"
+
+"Well, you know, this was her second engagement," said young
+Brodie, who had a marvellous knack of knowing everything about
+everybody.  "She was engaged to Prescott--William Prescott, who
+died.  That was a very sad affair.  The wedding day was fixed, and
+the whole thing looked as straight as a die when the smash came."
+
+"What smash?" I asked, with some dim recollection of the
+circumstances.
+
+"Why, Prescott's death.  He came to Abercrombie Place one night,
+and stayed very late.  No one knows exactly when he left, but
+about one in the morning a fellow who knew him met him walking
+rapidly in the direction of the Queen's Park.  He bade him good
+night, but Prescott hurried on without heeding him, and that was
+the last time he was ever seen alive.  Three days afterwards his
+body was found floating in St. Margaret's Loch, under St. Anthony's
+Chapel.  No one could ever understand it, but of course the verdict
+brought it in as temporary insanity."
+
+"It was very strange," I remarked.
+
+"Yes, and deucedly rough on the poor girl," said Brodie.  "Now that
+this other blow has come it will quite crush her.  So gentle and
+ladylike she is too!"
+
+"You know her personally, then!" I asked.
+
+"Oh, yes, I know her.  I have met her several times.  I could
+easily manage that you should be introduced to her."
+
+"Well," I answered, "it's not so much for my own sake as for a
+friend of mine.  However, I don't suppose she will go out much for
+some little time after this.  When she does I will take advantage
+of your offer."
+
+We shook hands on this, and I thought no more of the matter for
+some time.
+
+The next incident which I have to relate as bearing at all upon the
+question of Miss Northcott is an unpleasant one.  Yet I must detail
+it as accurately as possible, since it may throw some light upon
+the sequel.  One cold night, several months after the conversation
+with my second cousin which I have quoted above, I was walking down
+one of the lowest streets in the city on my way back from a
+case which I had been attending.  It was very late, and I was
+picking my way among the dirty loungers who were clustering round
+the doors of a great gin-palace, when a man staggered out from
+among them, and held out his hand to me with a drunken leer.  The
+gaslight fell full upon his face, and, to my intense astonishment,
+I recognised in the degraded creature before me my former
+acquaintance, young Archibald Reeves, who had once been famous as
+one of the most dressy and particular men in the whole college.  I
+was so utterly surprised that for a moment I almost doubted the
+evidence of my own senses; but there was no mistaking those
+features, which, though bloated with drink, still retained
+something of their former comeliness.  I was determined to rescue
+him, for one night at least, from the company into which he had
+fallen.
+
+"Holloa, Reeves!" I said.  "Come along with me.  I'm going in your
+direction."
+
+He muttered some incoherent apology for his condition, and took my
+arm.  As I supported him towards his lodgings I could see that he
+was not only suffering from the effects of a recent debauch, but
+that a long course of intemperance had affected his nerves and his
+brain.  His hand when I touched it was dry and feverish, and he
+started from every shadow which fell upon the pavement.  He rambled
+in his speech, too, in a manner which suggested the delirium of
+disease rather than the talk of a drunkard.
+
+
+When I got him to his lodgings I partially undressed him and laid
+him upon his bed.  His pulse at this time was very high, and he was
+evidently extremely feverish.  He seemed to have sunk into a doze;
+and I was about to steal out of the room to warn his landlady of
+his condition, when he started up and caught me by the sleeve of my
+coat.
+
+"Don't go!" he cried.  "I feel better when you are here.  I am safe
+from her then."
+
+"From her!" I said.  "From whom?"
+
+"Her! her!" he answered peevishly.  "Ah! you don't know her.  She
+is the devil!  Beautiful--beautiful; but the devil!"
+
+"You are feverish and excited," I said.  "Try and get a little
+sleep.  You will wake better."
+
+"Sleep!" he groaned.  "How am I to sleep when I see her sitting
+down yonder at the foot of the bed with her great eyes watching and
+watching hour after hour?  I tell you it saps all the strength and
+manhood out of me.  That's what makes me drink.  God help me--I'm
+half drunk now!"
+
+"You are very ill," I said, putting some vinegar to his temples;
+"and you are delirious.  You don't know what you say."
+
+"Yes, I do," he interrupted sharply, looking up at me.  "I know
+very well what I say.  I brought it upon myself.  It is my own
+choice.  But I couldn't--no, by heaven, I couldn't--accept the
+alternative.  I couldn't keep my faith to her.  It was more than
+man could do."
+
+I sat by the side of the bed, holding one of his burning hands in
+mine, and wondering over his strange words.  He lay still for some
+time, and then, raising his eyes to me, said in a most plaintive
+voice--
+
+"Why did she not give me warning sooner?  Why did she wait until I
+had learned to love her so?"
+
+He repeated this question several times, rolling his feverish head
+from side to side, and then he dropped into a troubled sleep.  I
+crept out of the room, and, having seen that he would be properly
+cared for, left the house.  His words, however, rang in my ears for
+days afterwards, and assumed a deeper significance when taken with
+what was to come.
+
+My friend, Barrington Cowles, had been away for his summer
+holidays, and I had heard nothing of him for several months.  When
+the winter session came on, however, I received a telegram from
+him, asking me to secure the old rooms in Northumberland Street for
+him, and telling me the train by which he would arrive.  I went
+down to meet him, and was delighted to find him looking wonderfully
+hearty and well.
+
+"By the way," he said suddenly, that night, as we sat in our chairs
+by the fire, talking over the events of the holidays, "you have
+never congratulated me yet!"
+
+"On what, my boy?" I asked.
+
+"What!  Do you mean to say you have not heard of my engagement?"
+
+"Engagement! No!" I answered.  "However, I am delighted to
+hear it, and congratulate you with all my heart."
+
+"I wonder it didn't come to your ears," he said.  "It was the
+queerest thing.  You remember that girl whom we both admired so
+much at the Academy?"
+
+"What!" I cried, with a vague feeling of apprehension at my heart. 
+"You don't mean to say that you are engaged to her?"
+
+"I thought you would be surprised," he answered.  "When I was
+staying with an old aunt of mine in Peterhead, in Aberdeenshire,
+the Northcotts happened to come there on a visit, and as we had
+mutual friends we soon met.  I found out that it was a false alarm
+about her being engaged, and then--well, you know what it is when
+you are thrown into the society of such a girl in a place like
+Peterhead.  Not, mind you," he added, "that I consider I did a
+foolish or hasty thing.  I have never regretted it for a moment. 
+The more I know Kate the more I admire her and love her.  However,
+you must be introduced to her, and then you will form your own
+opinion."
+
+I expressed my pleasure at the prospect, and endeavoured to speak
+as lightly as I could to Cowles upon the subject, but I felt
+depressed and anxious at heart.  The words of Reeves and the
+unhappy fate of young Prescott recurred to my recollection, and
+though I could assign no tangible reason for it, a vague, dim fear
+and distrust of the woman took possession of me.  It may be that
+this was foolish prejudice and superstition upon my part, and that
+I involuntarily contorted her future doings and sayings to fit
+into some half-formed wild theory of my own.  This has been
+suggested to me by others as an explanation of my narrative.  They
+are welcome to their opinion if they can reconcile it with the
+facts which I have to tell.
+
+I went round with my friend a few days afterwards to call upon Miss
+Northcott.  I remember that, as we went down Abercrombie Place, our
+attention was attracted by the shrill yelping of a dog--which noise
+proved eventually to come from the house to which we were bound. 
+We were shown upstairs, where I was introduced to old Mrs. Merton,
+Miss Northcott's aunt, and to the young lady herself.  She looked
+as beautiful as ever, and I could not wonder at my friend's
+infatuation.  Her face was a little more flushed than usual, and
+she held in her hand a heavy dog-whip, with which she had been
+chastising a small Scotch terrier, whose cries we had heard in the
+street.  The poor brute was cringing up against the wall, whining
+piteously, and evidently completely cowed.
+
+"So Kate," said my friend, after we had taken our seats, "you have
+been falling out with Carlo again."
+
+"Only a very little quarrel this time," she said, smiling
+charmingly.  "He is a dear, good old fellow, but he needs
+correction now and then."  Then, turning to me, "We all do that,
+Mr. Armitage, don't we?  What a capital thing if, instead of
+receiving a collective punishment at the end of our lives, we were
+to have one at once, as the dogs do, when we did anything wicked. 
+It would make us more careful, wouldn't it?"
+
+I acknowledged that it would.
+
+"Supposing that every time a man misbehaved himself a gigantic hand
+were to seize him, and he were lashed with a whip until he
+fainted"--she clenched her white fingers as she spoke, and cut out
+viciously with the dog-whip--"it would do more to keep him good
+than any number of high-minded theories of morality."
+
+"Why, Kate," said my friend, "you are quite savage to-day."
+
+"No, Jack," she laughed.  "I'm only propounding a theory for Mr.
+Armitage's consideration."
+
+The two began to chat together about some Aberdeenshire
+reminiscence, and I had time to observe Mrs. Merton, who had
+remained silent during our short conversation.  She was a very
+strange-looking old lady.  What attracted attention most in her
+appearance was the utter want of colour which she exhibited.  Her
+hair was snow-white, and her face extremely pale.  Her lips were
+bloodless, and even her eyes were of such a light tinge of blue
+that they hardly relieved the general pallor.  Her dress was a grey
+silk, which harmonised with her general appearance.  She had a
+peculiar expression of countenance, which I was unable at the
+moment to refer to its proper cause.
+
+She was working at some old-fashioned piece of ornamental
+needlework, and as she moved her arms her dress gave forth a dry,
+melancholy rustling, like the sound of leaves in the autumn.  There
+was something mournful and depressing in the sight of her.  I
+moved my chair a little nearer, and asked her how she liked
+Edinburgh, and whether she had been there long.
+
+When I spoke to her she started and looked up at me with a scared
+look on her face.  Then I saw in a moment what the expression was
+which I had observed there.  It was one of fear--intense and
+overpowering fear.  It was so marked that I could have staked my
+life on the woman before me having at some period of her life been
+subjected to some terrible experience or dreadful misfortune.
+
+"Oh, yes, I like it," she said, in a soft, timid voice; "and we
+have been here long--that is, not very long.  We move about a great
+deal."  She spoke with hesitation, as if afraid of committing
+herself.
+
+"You are a native of Scotland, I presume?" I said.
+
+"No--that is, not entirely.  We are not natives of any place.  We
+are cosmopolitan, you know."  She glanced round in the direction of
+Miss Northcott as she spoke, but the two were still chatting
+together near the window.  Then she suddenly bent forward to me,
+with a look of intense earnestness upon her face, and said--
+
+"Don't talk to me any more, please.  She does not like it, and I
+shall suffer for it afterwards.  Please, don't do it."
+
+I was about to ask her the reason for this strange request, but
+when she saw I was going to address her, she rose and walked slowly
+out of the room.  As she did so I perceived that the lovers had
+ceased to talk and that Miss Northcott was looking at me with
+her keen, grey eyes.
+
+"You must excuse my aunt, Mr. Armitage," she said; "she is odd, and
+easily fatigued.  Come over and look at my album."
+
+We spent some time examining the portraits.  Miss Northcott's
+father and mother were apparently ordinary mortals enough, and I
+could not detect in either of them any traces of the character
+which showed itself in their daughter's face.  There was one old
+daguerreotype, however, which arrested my attention.  It
+represented a man of about the age of forty, and strikingly
+handsome.  He was clean shaven, and extraordinary power was
+expressed upon his prominent lower jaw and firm, straight mouth. 
+His eyes were somewhat deeply set in his head, however, and there
+was a snake-like flattening at the upper part of his forehead,
+which detracted from his appearance.  I almost involuntarily, when
+I saw the head, pointed to it, and exclaimed--
+
+"There is your prototype in your family, Miss Northcott."
+
+"Do you think so?" she said.  "I am afraid you are paying me a very
+bad compliment.  Uncle Anthony was always considered the black
+sheep of the family."
+
+"Indeed," I answered; "my remark was an unfortunate one, then."
+
+"Oh, don't mind that," she said; "I always thought myself that he
+was worth all of them put together.  He was an officer in the
+Forty-first Regiment, and he was killed in action during the
+Persian War--so he died nobly, at any rate."
+
+"That's the sort of death I should like to die," said Cowles, his
+dark eyes flashing, as they would when he was excited; "I often
+wish I had taken to my father's profession instead of this vile
+pill-compounding drudgery."
+
+"Come, Jack, you are not going to die any sort of death yet," she
+said, tenderly taking his hand in hers.
+
+I could not understand the woman.  There was such an extraordinary
+mixture of masculine decision and womanly tenderness about her,
+with the consciousness of something all her own in the background,
+that she fairly puzzled me.  I hardly knew, therefore, how to
+answer Cowles when, as we walked down the street together, he asked
+the comprehensive question--
+
+"Well, what do you think of her?"
+
+"I think she is wonderfully beautiful," I answered guardedly.
+
+"That, of course," he replied irritably.  "You knew that before you
+came!"
+
+"I think she is very clever too," I remarked.
+
+Barrington Cowles walked on for some time, and then he suddenly
+turned on me with the strange question--
+
+"Do you think she is cruel?  Do you think she is the sort of girl
+who would take a pleasure in inflicting pain?"
+
+"Well, really," I answered, "I have hardly had time to form an
+opinion."
+
+We then walked on for some time in silence.
+
+"She is an old fool," at length muttered Cowles.  "She is mad."
+
+"Who is?" I asked.
+
+"Why, that old woman--that aunt of Kate's--Mrs. Merton, or whatever
+her name is."
+
+Then I knew that my poor colourless friend had been speaking to
+Cowles, but he never said anything more as to the nature of her
+communication.
+
+My companion went to bed early that night, and I sat up a long time
+by the fire, thinking over all that I had seen and heard.  I felt
+that there was some mystery about the girl--some dark fatality so
+strange as to defy conjecture.  I thought of Prescott's interview
+with her before their marriage, and the fatal termination of it. 
+I coupled it with poor drunken Reeves' plaintive cry, "Why did she
+not tell me sooner?" and with the other words he had spoken.  Then
+my mind ran over Mrs. Merton's warning to me, Cowles' reference to
+her, and even the episode of the whip and the cringing dog.
+
+The whole effect of my recollections was unpleasant to a degree,
+and yet there was no tangible charge which I could bring against
+the woman.  It would be worse than useless to attempt to warn my
+friend until I had definitely made up my mind what I was to warn
+him against.  He would treat any charge against her with scorn. 
+What could I do?  How could I get at some tangible conclusion as to
+her character and antecedents?  No one in Edinburgh knew them
+except as recent acquaintances.  She was an orphan, and as far as
+I knew she had never disclosed where her former home had been. 
+Suddenly an idea struck me.  Among my father's friends there was a
+Colonel Joyce, who had served a long time in India upon the staff,
+and who would be likely to know most of the officers who had been
+out there since the Mutiny.  I sat down at once, and, having
+trimmed the lamp, proceeded to write a letter to the Colonel.  I
+told him that I was very curious to gain some particulars about a
+certain Captain Northcott, who had served in the Forty-first Foot,
+and who had fallen in the Persian War.  I described the man as well
+as I could from my recollection of the daguerreotype, and then,
+having directed the letter, posted it that very night, after which,
+feeling that I had done all that could be done, I retired to bed,
+with a mind too anxious to allow me to sleep.
+
+
+
+PART II.
+
+I got an answer from Leicester, where the Colonel resided, within
+two days.  I have it before me as I write, and copy it verbatim.
+
+
+"DEAR BOB," it said, "I remember the man well.  I was with him at
+Calcutta, and afterwards at Hyderabad.  He was a curious, solitary
+sort of mortal; but a gallant soldier enough, for he distinguished
+himself at Sobraon, and was wounded, if I remember right.  He
+was not popular in his corps--they said he was a pitiless,
+cold-blooded fellow, with no geniality in him.  There was a rumour,
+too, that he was a devil-worshipper, or something of that sort, and
+also that he had the evil eye, which, of course, was all nonsense. 
+He had some strange theories, I remember, about the power of the
+human will and the effects of mind upon matter.
+
+"How are you getting on with your medical studies?  Never forget,
+my boy, that your father's son has every claim upon me, and that if
+I can serve you in any way I am always at your command.--Ever
+affectionately yours,
+                                        EDWARD JOYCE.
+
+
+"P.S.--By the way, Northcott did not fall in action.  He was
+killed after peace was declared in a crazy attempt to get some of
+the eternal fire from the sun-worshippers' temple.  There was
+considerable mystery about his death."
+
+
+I read this epistle over several times--at first with a feeling of
+satisfaction, and then with one of disappointment.  I had come on
+some curious information, and yet hardly what I wanted.  He was an
+eccentric man, a devil-worshipper, and rumoured to have the power
+of the evil eye.  I could believe the young lady's eyes, when
+endowed with that cold, grey shimmer which I had noticed in them
+once or twice, to be capable of any evil which human eye ever
+wrought; but still the superstition was an effete one.  Was there
+not more meaning in that sentence which followed--"He had
+theories of the power of the human will and of the effect of mind
+upon matter"?  I remember having once read a quaint treatise, which
+I had imagined to be mere charlatanism at the time, of the power of
+certain human minds, and of effects produced by them at a distance.
+
+Was Miss Northcott endowed with some exceptional power of the sort?
+
+The idea grew upon me, and very shortly I had evidence which
+convinced me of the truth of the supposition.
+
+It happened that at the very time when my mind was dwelling upon
+this subject, I saw a notice in the paper that our town was to be
+visited by Dr. Messinger, the well-known medium and mesmerist. 
+Messinger was a man whose performance, such as it was, had been
+again and again pronounced to be genuine by competent judges.  He
+was far above trickery, and had the reputation of being the
+soundest living authority upon the strange pseudo-sciences of
+animal magnetism and electro-biology.  Determined, therefore, to
+see what the human will could do, even against all the
+disadvantages of glaring footlights and a public platform, I took
+a ticket for the first night of the performance, and went with
+several student friends.
+
+We had secured one of the side boxes, and did not arrive until
+after the performance had begun.  I had hardly taken my seat before
+I recognised Barrington Cowles, with his fiancee and old Mrs.
+Merton, sitting in the third or fourth row of the stalls.  They
+caught sight of me at almost the same moment, and we bowed to
+each other.  The first portion of the lecture was somewhat
+commonplace, the lecturer giving tricks of pure legerdemain, with
+one or two manifestations of mesmerism, performed upon a subject
+whom he had brought with him.  He gave us an exhibition of
+clairvoyance too, throwing his subject into a trance, and then
+demanding particulars as to the movements of absent friends, and
+the whereabouts of hidden objects all of which appeared to be
+answered satisfactorily.  I had seen all this before, however. 
+What I wanted to see now was the effect of the lecturer's will when
+exerted upon some independent member of the audience.
+
+He came round to that as the concluding exhibition in his
+performance.  "I have shown you," he said, "that a mesmerised
+subject is entirely dominated by the will of the mesmeriser.  He
+loses all power of volition, and his very thoughts are such as are
+suggested to him by the master-mind.  The same end may be attained
+without any preliminary process.  A strong will can, simply by
+virtue of its strength, take possession of a weaker one, even at a
+distance, and can regulate the impulses and the actions of the
+owner of it.  If there was one man in the world who had a very much
+more highly-developed will than any of the rest of the human
+family, there is no reason why he should not be able to rule over
+them all, and to reduce his fellow-creatures to the condition of
+automatons.  Happily there is such a dead level of mental power, or
+rather of mental weakness, among us that such a catastrophe is not
+likely to occur; but still within our small compass there are
+variations which produce surprising effects.  I shall now single
+out one of the audience, and endeavour `by the mere power of will'
+to compel him to come upon the platform, and do and say what I
+wish.  Let me assure you that there is no collusion, and that the
+subject whom I may select is at perfect liberty to resent to the
+uttermost any impulse which I may communicate to him."
+
+With these words the lecturer came to the front of the platform,
+and glanced over the first few rows of the stalls.  No doubt
+Cowles' dark skin and bright eyes marked him out as a man of a
+highly nervous temperament, for the mesmerist picked him out in a
+moment, and fixed his eyes upon him.  I saw my friend give a start
+of surprise, and then settle down in his chair, as if to express
+his determination not to yield to the influence of the operator. 
+Messinger was not a man whose head denoted any great brain-power,
+but his gaze was singularly intense and penetrating.  Under the
+influence of it Cowles made one or two spasmodic motions of his
+hands, as if to grasp the sides of his seat, and then half rose,
+but only to sink down again, though with an evident effort.  I was
+watching the scene with intense interest, when I happened to catch
+a glimpse of Miss Northcott's face.  She was sitting with her eyes
+fixed intently upon the mesmerist, and with such an expression of
+concentrated power upon her features as I have never seen on any
+other human countenance.  Her jaw was firmly set, her lips
+compressed, and her face as hard as if it were a beautiful
+sculpture cut out of the whitest marble.  Her eyebrows were
+drawn down, however, and from beneath them her grey eyes seemed to
+sparkle and gleam with a cold light.
+
+I looked at Cowles again, expecting every moment to see him rise
+and obey the mesmerist's wishes, when there came from the platform
+a short, gasping cry as of a man utterly worn out and prostrated by
+a prolonged struggle.  Messinger was leaning against the table, his
+hand to his forehead, and the perspiration pouring down his face. 
+"I won't go on," he cried, addressing the audience.  "There is a
+stronger will than mine acting against me.  You must excuse me for
+to-night."  The man was evidently ill, and utterly unable to
+proceed, so the curtain was lowered, and the audience dispersed,
+with many comments upon the lecturer's sudden indisposition.
+
+I waited outside the hall until my friend and the ladies came out. 
+Cowles was laughing over his recent experience.
+
+"He didn't succeed with me, Bob," he cried triumphantly, as he
+shook my hand.  "I think he caught a Tartar that time."
+
+"Yes," said Miss Northcott, "I think that Jack ought to be very
+proud of his strength of mind; don't you! Mr. Armitage?"
+
+"It took me all my time, though," my friend said seriously.  "You
+can't conceive what a strange feeling I had once or twice.  All the
+strength seemed to have gone out of me--especially just before he
+collapsed himself."
+
+I walked round with Cowles in order to see the ladies home.  He
+walked in front with Mrs. Merton, and I found myself behind with
+the young lady.  For a minute or so I walked beside her without
+making any remark, and then I suddenly blurted out, in a manner
+which must have seemed somewhat brusque to her--
+
+"You did that, Miss Northcott."
+
+"Did what?" she asked sharply.
+
+"Why, mesmerised the mesmeriser--I suppose that is the best way of
+describing the transaction."
+
+"What a strange idea!" she said, laughing.  "You give me credit for
+a strong will then?"
+
+"Yes," I said.  "For a dangerously strong one."
+
+"Why dangerous?" she asked, in a tone of surprise.
+
+"I think," I answered, "that any will which can exercise such power
+is dangerous--for there is always a chance of its being turned to
+bad uses."
+
+"You would make me out a very dreadful individual, Mr. Armitage,"
+she said; and then looking up suddenly in my face--"You have never
+liked me.  You are suspicious of me and distrust me, though I have
+never given you cause."
+
+The accusation was so sudden and so true that I was unable to find
+any reply to it.  She paused for a moment, and then said in a voice
+which was hard and cold--
+
+"Don't let your prejudice lead you to interfere with me, however,
+or say anything to your friend, Mr. Cowles, which might lead
+to a difference between us.  You would find that to be very bad
+policy."
+
+There was something in the way she spoke which gave an
+indescribable air of a threat to these few words.
+
+"I have no power," I said, "to interfere with your plans for the
+future.  I cannot help, however, from what I have seen and heard,
+having fears for my friend."
+
+"Fears!" she repeated scornfully.  "Pray what have you seen and
+heard.  Something from Mr. Reeves, perhaps--I believe he is another
+of your friends?"
+
+"He never mentioned your name to me," I answered, truthfully
+enough.  "You will be sorry to hear that he is dying."  As I said
+it we passed by a lighted window, and I glanced down to see what
+effect my words had upon her.  She was laughing--there was no doubt
+of it; she was laughing quietly to herself.  I could see merriment
+in every feature of her face.  I feared and mistrusted the woman
+from that moment more than ever.
+
+We said little more that night.  When we parted she gave me a
+quick, warning glance, as if to remind me of what she had said
+about the danger of interference.  Her cautions would have made
+little difference to me could I have seen my way to benefiting
+Barrington Cowles by anything which I might say.  But what could I
+say?  I might say that her former suitors had been unfortunate.  I
+might say that I believed her to be a cruel-hearted woman.  I
+might say that I considered her to possess wonderful, and almost
+preternatural powers.  What impression would any of these
+accusations make upon an ardent lover--a man with my friend's
+enthusiastic temperament?  I felt that it would be useless to
+advance them, so I was silent.
+
+And now I come to the beginning of the end.  Hitherto much has been
+surmise and inference and hearsay.  It is my painful task to relate
+now, as dispassionately and as accurately as I can, what actually
+occurred under my own notice, and to reduce to writing the events
+which preceded the death of my friend.
+
+Towards the end of the winter Cowles remarked to me that he
+intended to marry Miss Northcott as soon as possible--probably some
+time in the spring.  He was, as I have already remarked, fairly
+well off, and the young lady had some money of her own, so that
+there was no pecuniary reason for a long engagement.  "We are going
+to take a little house out at Corstorphine," he said, "and we hope
+to see your face at our table, Bob, as often as you can possibly
+come."  I thanked him, and tried to shake off my apprehensions, and
+persuade myself that all would yet be well.
+
+It was about three weeks before the time fixed for the marriage,
+that Cowles remarked to me one evening that he feared he would be
+late that night.  "I have had a note from Kate," he said, "asking
+me to call about eleven o'clock to-night, which seems rather a late
+hour, but perhaps she wants to talk over something quietly after
+old Mrs. Merton retires."
+
+It was not until after my friend's departure that I suddenly
+recollected the mysterious interview which I had been told of as
+preceding the suicide of young Prescott.  Then I thought of the
+ravings of poor Reeves, rendered more tragic by the fact that I had
+heard that very day of his death.  What was the meaning of it all? 
+Had this woman some baleful secret to disclose which must be known
+before her marriage?  Was it some reason which forbade her to
+marry?  Or was it some reason which forbade others to marry her? 
+I felt so uneasy that I would have followed Cowles, even at the
+risk of offending him, and endeavoured to dissuade him from keeping
+his appointment, but a glance at the clock showed me that I was too
+late.
+
+I was determined to wait up for his return, so I piled some coals
+upon the fire and took down a novel from the shelf.  My thoughts
+proved more interesting than the book, however, and I threw it on
+one side.  An indefinable feeling of anxiety and depression weighed
+upon me.  Twelve o'clock came, and then half-past, without any sign
+of my friend.  It was nearly one when I heard a step in the street
+outside, and then a knocking at the door.  I was surprised, as I
+knew that my friend always carried a key--however, I hurried down
+and undid the latch.  As the door flew open I knew in a moment that
+my worst apprehensions had been fulfilled.  Barrington Cowles was
+leaning against the railings outside with his face sunk upon his
+breast, and his whole attitude expressive of the most intense
+despondency.  As he passed in he gave a stagger, and would
+have fallen had I not thrown my left arm around him.  Supporting
+him with this, and holding the lamp in my other hand, I led him
+slowly upstairs into our sitting-room.  He sank down upon the sofa
+without a word.  Now that I could get a good view of him, I was
+horrified to see the change which had come over him.  His face was
+deadly pale, and his very lips were bloodless.  His cheeks and
+forehead were clammy, his eyes glazed, and his whole expression
+altered.  He looked like a man who had gone through some terrible
+ordeal, and was thoroughly unnerved.
+
+"My dear fellow, what is the matter?" I asked, breaking the
+silence.  "Nothing amiss, I trust?  Are you unwell?"
+
+"Brandy!" he gasped.  "Give me some brandy!"
+
+I took out the decanter, and was about to help him, when he
+snatched it from me with a trembling hand, and poured out nearly
+half a tumbler of the spirit.  He was usually a most abstemious
+man, but he took this off at a gulp without adding any water to it.
+
+It seemed to do him good, for the colour began to come back to his
+face, and he leaned upon his elbow.
+
+"My engagement is off, Bob," he said, trying to speak calmly, but
+with a tremor in his voice which he could not conceal.  "It is all
+over."
+
+"Cheer up!" I answered, trying to encourage him.
+
+Don't get down on your luck.  How was it?  What was it all about?"
+
+"About?" he groaned, covering his face with his hands.  "If I did
+tell you, Bob, you would not believe it.  It is too dreadful--
+too horrible--unutterably awful and incredible!  O Kate, Kate!" and
+he rocked himself to and fro in his grief; "I pictured you an angel
+and I find you a----"
+
+"A what?" I asked, for he had paused.
+
+He looked at me with a vacant stare, and then suddenly burst out,
+waving his arms:  "A fiend!" he cried.  "A ghoul from the pit!  A
+vampire soul behind a lovely face!  Now, God forgive me!" he went
+on in a lower tone, turning his face to the wall; "I have said more
+than I should.  I have loved her too much to speak of her as she
+is.  I love her too much now."
+
+He lay still for some time, and I had hoped that the brandy had had
+the effect of sending him to sleep, when he suddenly turned his
+face towards me.
+
+"Did you ever read of wehr-wolves?" he asked.
+
+I answered that I had.
+
+"There is a story," he said thoughtfully, "in one of Marryat's
+books, about a beautiful woman who took the form of a wolf at night
+and devoured her own children.  I wonder what put that idea into
+Marryat's head?"
+
+He pondered for some minutes, and then he cried out for some more
+brandy.  There was a small bottle of laudanum upon the table, and
+I managed, by insisting upon helping him myself, to mix about half
+a drachm with the spirits.  He drank it off, and sank his head once
+more upon the pillow.  "Anything better than that," he groaned. 
+"Death is better than that.  Crime and cruelty; cruelty and crime. 
+Anything is better than that," and so on, with the monotonous
+refrain, until at last the words became indistinct, his
+eyelids closed over his weary eyes, and he sank into a profound
+slumber.  I carried him into his bedroom without arousing him; and
+making a couch for myself out of the chairs, I remained by his side
+all night.
+
+In the morning Barrington Cowles was in a high fever.  For weeks he
+lingered between life and death.  The highest medical skill of
+Edinburgh was called in, and his vigorous constitution slowly got
+the better of his disease.  I nursed him during this anxious time;
+but through all his wild delirium and ravings he never let a word
+escape him which explained the mystery connected with Miss
+Northcott.  Sometimes he spoke of her in the tenderest words and
+most loving voice.  At others he screamed out that she was a fiend,
+and stretched out his arms, as if to keep her off.  Several times
+he cried that he would not sell his soul for a beautiful face, and
+then he would moan in a most piteous voice, "But I love her--I love
+her for all that; I shall never cease to love her."
+
+When he came to himself he was an altered man.  His severe illness
+had emaciated him greatly, but his dark eyes had lost none of their
+brightness.  They shone out with startling brilliancy from under
+his dark, overhanging brows.  His manner was eccentric and
+variable--sometimes irritable, sometimes recklessly mirthful, but
+never natural.  He would glance about him in a strange, suspicious
+manner, like one who feared something, and yet hardly knew what it
+was he dreaded.  He never mentioned Miss Northcott's name--
+never until that fatal evening of which I have now to speak.
+
+In an endeavour to break the current of his thoughts by frequent
+change of scene, I travelled with him through the highlands of
+Scotland, and afterwards down the east coast.  In one of these
+peregrinations of ours we visited the Isle of May, an island near
+the mouth of the Firth of Forth, which, except in the tourist
+season, is singularly barren and desolate.  Beyond the keeper of
+the lighthouse there are only one or two families of poor fisher-
+folk, who sustain a precarious existence by their nets, and by the
+capture of cormorants and solan geese.  This grim spot seemed to
+have such a fascination for Cowles that we engaged a room in one of
+the fishermen's huts, with the intention of passing a week or two
+there.  I found it very dull, but the loneliness appeared to be a
+relief to my friend's mind.  He lost the look of apprehension which
+had become habitual to him, and became something like his old self.
+
+He would wander round the island all day, looking down from the
+summit of the great cliffs which gird it round, and watching the
+long green waves as they came booming in and burst in a shower of
+spray over the rocks beneath.
+
+One night--I think it was our third or fourth on the island--
+Barrington Cowles and I went outside the cottage before retiring to
+rest, to enjoy a little fresh air, for our room was small, and the
+rough lamp caused an unpleasant odour.  How well I remember every
+little circumstance in connection with that night!  It
+promised to be tempestuous, for the clouds were piling up in the
+north-west, and the dark wrack was drifting across the face of the
+moon, throwing alternate belts of light and shade upon the rugged
+surface of the island and the restless sea beyond.
+
+We were standing talking close by the door of the cottage, and I
+was thinking to myself that my friend was more cheerful than he had
+been since his illness, when he gave a sudden, sharp cry, and
+looking round at him I saw, by the light of the moon, an expression
+of unutterable horror come over his features.  His eyes became
+fixed and staring, as if riveted upon some approaching object, and
+he extended his long thin forefinger, which quivered as he pointed.
+
+"Look there!" he cried.  "It is she!  It is she!  You see her there
+coming down the side of the brae."  He gripped me convulsively by
+the wrist as he spoke.  "There she is, coming towards us!"
+
+"Who?" I cried, straining my eyes into the darkness.
+
+"She--Kate--Kate Northcott!" he screamed.  "She has come for me. 
+Hold me fast, old friend.  Don't let me go!"
+
+"Hold up, old man," I said, clapping him on the shoulder.  "Pull
+yourself together; you are dreaming; there is nothing to fear."
+
+"She is gone!" he cried, with a gasp of relief.  "No, by heaven!
+there she is again, and nearer--coming nearer.  She told me she
+would come for me, and she keeps her word."
+
+"Come into the house," I said.  His hand, as I grasped it, was as
+cold as ice.
+
+"Ah, I knew it!" he shouted.  "There she is, waving her arms.  She
+is beckoning to me.  It is the signal.  I must go.  I am coming,
+Kate; I am coming!"
+
+I threw my arms around him, but he burst from me with superhuman
+strength, and dashed into the darkness of the night.  I followed
+him, calling to him to stop, but he ran the more swiftly.  When the
+moon shone out between the clouds I could catch a glimpse of his
+dark figure, running rapidly in a straight line, as if to reach
+some definite goal.  It may have been imagination, but it seemed to
+me that in the flickering light I could distinguish a vague
+something in front of him--a shimmering form which eluded his grasp
+and led him onwards.  I saw his outlines stand out hard against the
+sky behind him as he surmounted the brow of a little hill, then he
+disappeared, and that was the last ever seen by mortal eye of
+Barrington Cowles.
+
+The fishermen and I walked round the island all that night with
+lanterns, and examined every nook and corner without seeing a trace
+of my poor lost friend.  The direction in which he had been running
+terminated in a rugged line of jagged cliffs overhanging the sea. 
+At one place here the edge was somewhat crumbled, and there
+appeared marks upon the turf which might have been left by human
+feet.  We lay upon our faces at this spot, and peered with our
+lanterns over the edge, looking down on the boiling surge two
+hundred feet below.  As we lay there, suddenly, above the
+beating of the waves and the howling of the wind, there rose a
+strange wild screech from the abyss below.  The fishermen--a
+naturally superstitious race--averred that it was the sound of a
+woman's laughter, and I could hardly persuade them to continue the
+search.  For my own part I think it may have been the cry of some
+sea-fowl startled from its nest by the flash of the lantern. 
+However that may be, I never wish to hear such a sound again.
+
+And now I have come to the end of the painful duty which I have
+undertaken.  I have told as plainly and as accurately as I could
+the story of the death of John Barrington Cowles, and the train of
+events which preceded it.  I am aware that to others the sad
+episode seemed commonplace enough.  Here is the prosaic account
+which appeared in the Scotsman a couple of days afterwards:--
+
+
+"Sad Occurrence on the Isle of May.--The Isle of May has been the
+scene of a sad disaster.  Mr. John Barrington Cowles, a gentleman
+well known in University circles as a most distinguished student,
+and the present holder of the Neil Arnott prize for physics, has
+been recruiting his health in this quiet retreat.  The night before
+last he suddenly left his friend, Mr. Robert Armitage, and he has
+not since been heard of.  It is almost certain that he has met his
+death by falling over the cliffs which surround the island.  Mr.
+Cowles' health has been failing for some time, partly from over
+study and partly from worry connected with family affairs.  By
+his death the University loses one of her most promising alumni."
+
+
+I have nothing more to add to my statement.  I have unburdened my
+mind of all that I know.  I can well conceive that many, after
+weighing all that I have said, will see no ground for an accusation
+against Miss Northcott.  They will say that, because a man of a
+naturally excitable disposition says and does wild things, and even
+eventually commits self-murder after a sudden and heavy
+disappointment, there is no reason why vague charges should be
+advanced against a young lady.  To this, I answer that they are
+welcome to their opinion.  For my own part, I ascribe the death of
+William Prescott, of Archibald Reeves, and of John Barrington
+Cowles to this woman with as much confidence as if I had seen her
+drive a dagger into their hearts.
+
+You ask me, no doubt, what my own theory is which will explain all
+these strange facts.  I have none, or, at best, a dim and vague
+one.  That Miss Northcott possessed extraordinary powers over the
+minds, and through the minds over the bodies, of others, I am
+convinced, as well as that her instincts were to use this power for
+base and cruel purposes.  That some even more fiendish and terrible
+phase of character lay behind this--some horrible trait which it
+was necessary for her to reveal before marriage--is to be inferred
+from the experience of her three lovers, while the dreadful
+nature of the mystery thus revealed can only be surmised from the
+fact that the very mention of it drove from her those who had loved
+her so passionately.  Their subsequent fate was, in my opinion, the
+result of her vindictive remembrance of their desertion of her, and
+that they were forewarned of it at the time was shown by the words
+of both Reeves and Cowles.  Above this, I can say nothing.  I lay
+the facts soberly before the public as they came under my notice. 
+I have never seen Miss Northcott since, nor do I wish to do so.  If
+by the words I have written I can save any one human being from the
+snare of those bright eyes and that beautiful face, then I can lay
+down my pen with the assurance that my poor friend has not died
+altogether in vain.
+
+
+
+ELIAS B. HOPKINS,
+
+THE PARSON OF JACKMAN'S GULCH.
+
+He was known in the Gulch as the Reverend Elias B. Hopkins, but it
+was generally understood that the title was an honorary one,
+extorted by his many eminent qualities, and not borne out by any
+legal claim which he could adduce.  "The Parson" was another of his
+sobriquets, which was sufficiently distinctive in a land where the
+flock was scattered and the shepherds few.  To do him justice, he
+never pretended to have received any preliminary training for the
+ministry, or any orthodox qualification to practise it.  "We're all
+working in the claim of the Lord," he remarked one day, "and it
+don't matter a cent whether we're hired for the job or whether we
+waltzes in on our own account," a piece of rough imagery which
+appealed directly to the instincts of Jackman's Gulch.  It is quite
+certain that during the first few months his presence had a marked
+effect in diminishing the excessive use both of strong drinks and
+of stronger adjectives which had been characteristic of the little
+mining settlement.  Under his tuition, men began to understand that
+the resources of their native language were less limited than they
+had supposed, and that it was possible to convey their
+impressions with accuracy without the aid of a gaudy halo of
+profanity.
+
+We were certainly in need of a regenerator at Jackman's Gulch about
+the beginning of '53.  Times were flush then over the whole colony,
+but nowhere flusher than there.  Our material prosperity had had a
+bad effect upon our morals.  The camp was a small one, lying rather
+better than a hundred and twenty miles to the north of Ballarat, at
+a spot where a mountain torrent finds its way down a rugged ravine
+on its way to join the Arrowsmith River.  History does not relate
+who the original Jackman may have been, but at the time I speak of
+the camp it contained a hundred or so adults, many of whom were men
+who had sought an asylum there after making more civilised mining
+centres too hot to hold them.  They were a rough, murderous crew,
+hardly leavened by the few respectable members of society who were
+scattered among them.
+
+Communication between Jackman's Gulch and the outside world was
+difficult and uncertain.  A portion of the bush between it and
+Ballarat was infested by a redoubtable outlaw named Conky Jim, who,
+with a small band as desperate as himself, made travelling a
+dangerous matter.  It was customary, therefore, at the Gulch, to
+store up the dust and nuggets obtained from the mines in a special
+store, each man's share being placed in a separate bag on which his
+name was marked.  A trusty man, named Woburn, was deputed to watch
+over this primitive bank.  When the amount deposited became
+considerable, a waggon was hired, and the whole treasure was
+conveyed to Ballarat, guarded by the police and by a certain number
+of miners, who took it in turn to perform the office.  Once in
+Ballarat, it was forwarded on to Melbourne by the regular gold
+waggons.  By this plan the gold was often kept for months in the
+Gulch before being despatched, but Conky Jim was effectually
+checkmated, as the escort party were far too strong for him and his
+gang.  He appeared, at the time of which I write, to have forsaken
+his haunts in disgust, and the road could be traversed by small
+parties with impunity.
+
+Comparative order used to reign during the daytime at Jackman's
+Gulch, for the majority of the inhabitants were out with crowbar
+and pick among the quartz ledges, or washing clay and sand in their
+cradles by the banks of the little stream.  As the sun sank down,
+however, the claims were gradually deserted, and their unkempt
+owners, clay-bespattered and shaggy, came lounging into camp, ripe
+for any form of mischief.  Their first visit was to Woburn's gold
+store, where their clean-up of the day was duly deposited, the
+amount being entered in the storekeeper's book, and each miner
+retaining enough to cover his evening's expenses.  After that, all
+restraint was at an end, and each set to work to get rid of his
+surplus dust with the greatest rapidity possible.  The focus of
+dissipation was the rough bar, formed by a couple of hogsheads
+spanned by planks, which was dignified by the name of the
+"Britannia Drinking Saloon."  Here Nat Adams, the burly bar-
+keeper, dispensed bad whisky at the rate of two shillings a noggin,
+or a guinea a bottle, while his brother Ben acted as croupier in a
+rude wooden shanty behind, which had been converted into a gambling
+hell, and was crowded every night.  There had been a third brother,
+but an unfortunate misunderstanding with a customer had shortened
+his existence.  "He was too soft to live long," his brother
+Nathaniel feelingly observed, on the occasion of his funeral. 
+"Many's the time I've said to him, `If you're arguin' a pint with
+a stranger, you should always draw first, then argue, and then
+shoot, if you judge that he's on the shoot.'  Bill was too purlite.
+
+He must needs argue first and draw after, when he might just as
+well have kivered his man before talkin' it over with him."  This
+amiable weakness of the deceased Bill was a blow to the firm of
+Adams, which became so short-handed that the concern could hardly
+be worked without the admission of a partner, which would mean a
+considerable decrease in the profits.
+
+Nat Adams had had a roadside shanty in the Gulch before the
+discovery of gold, and might, therefore, claim to be the oldest
+inhabitant.  These keepers of shanties were a peculiar race, and at
+the cost of a digression it may he interesting to explain how they
+managed to amass considerable sums of money in a land where
+travellers were few and far between.  It was the custom of the
+"bushmen," i.e., bullock-drivers, sheep tenders, and the other
+white hands who worked on the sheep-runs up country, to sign
+articles by which they agreed to serve their master for one,
+two, or three years at so much per year and certain daily rations. 
+Liquor was never included in this agreement, and the men remained,
+per force, total abstainers during the whole time.  The money was
+paid in a lump sum at the end of the engagement.  When that day
+came round, Jimmy, the stockman, would come slouching into his
+master's office, cabbage-tree hat in hand.
+
+"Morning, master!" Jimmy would say.  "My time's up.  I guess I'll
+draw my cheque and ride down to town."
+
+"You'll come back, Jimmy?"
+
+"Yes, I'll come back.  Maybe I'll be away three weeks, maybe a
+month.  I want some clothes, master, and my bloomin' boots are
+well-nigh off my feet."
+
+"How much, Jimmy?" asks his master, taking up his pen.
+
+"There's sixty pound screw," Jimmy answers thoughtfully; "and you
+mind, master, last March, when the brindled bull broke out o' the
+paddock.  Two pound you promised me then.  And a pound at the
+dipping.  And a pound when Millar's sheep got mixed with ourn;" and
+so he goes on, for bushmen can seldom write, but they have memories
+which nothing escapes.
+
+His master writes the cheque and hands it across the table.  "Don't
+get on the drink, Jimmy," he says.
+
+"No fear of that, master," and the stockman slips the cheque into
+his leather pouch, and within an hour he is ambling off upon
+his long-limbed horse on his hundred-mile journey to town.
+
+Now Jimmy has to pass some six or eight of the above-mentioned
+roadside shanties in his day's ride, and experience has taught him
+that if he once breaks his accustomed total abstinence, the
+unwonted stimulant has an overpowering effect upon his brain. 
+Jimmy shakes his head warily as he determines that no earthly
+consideration will induce him to partake of any liquor until his
+business is over.  His only chance is to avoid temptation; so,
+knowing that there is the first of these houses some half-mile
+ahead, he plunges into a byepath through the bush which will lead
+him out at the other side.
+
+Jimmy is riding resolutely along this narrow path, congratulating
+himself upon a danger escaped, when he becomes aware of a
+sunburned, black-bearded man who is leaning unconcernedly against
+a tree beside the track.  This is none other than the shanty-
+keeper, who, having observed Jimmy's manoeuvre in the distance, has
+taken a short cut through the bush in order to intercept him.
+
+"Morning, Jimmy!" he cries, as the horseman comes up to him.
+
+"Morning, mate; morning!"
+
+"Where are ye off to to-day then?"
+
+"Off to town," says Jimmy sturdily.
+
+"No, now--are you though?  You'll have bully times down there for
+a bit.  Come round and have a drink at my place.  Just by way of
+luck."
+
+"No," says Jimmy, "I don't want a drink."
+
+"Just a little damp."
+
+"I tell ye I don't want one," says the stockman angrily.
+
+"Well, ye needn't be so darned short about it.  It's nothin' to me
+whether you drinks or not.  Good mornin'."
+
+"Good mornin'," says Jimmy, and has ridden on about twenty yards
+when he hears the other calling on him to stop.
+
+"See here, Jimmy!" he says, overtaking him again.  "If you'll do me
+a kindness when you're up in town I'd be obliged."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"It's a letter, Jim, as I wants posted.  It's an important one too,
+an' I wouldn't trust it with every one; but I knows you, and if
+you'll take charge on it it'll be a powerful weight off my mind."
+
+"Give it here," Jimmy says laconically.
+
+"I hain't got it here.  It's round in my caboose.  Come round for
+it with me.  It ain't more'n quarter of a mile."
+
+Jimmy consents reluctantly.  When they reach the tumble-down hut
+the keeper asks him cheerily to dismount and to come in.
+
+"Give me the letter," says Jimmy.
+
+"It ain't altogether wrote yet, but you sit down here for a minute
+and it'll be right," and so the stockman is beguiled into the
+shanty.
+
+At last the letter is ready and handed over.  "Now, Jimmy," says
+the keeper, "one drink at my expense before you go."
+
+"Not a taste," says Jimmy.
+
+"Oh, that's it, is it?" the other says in an aggrieved tone. 
+"You're too damned proud to drink with a poor cove like me.  Here--
+give us back that letter.  I'm cursed if I'll accept a favour from
+a man whose too almighty big to have a drink with me."
+
+"Well, well, mate, don't turn rusty," says Jim.  "Give us one drink
+an' I'm off."
+
+The keeper pours out about half a pannikin of raw rum and hands it
+to the bushman.  The moment he smells the old familiar smell his
+longing for it returns, and he swigs it off at a gulp.  His eyes
+shine more brightly and his face becomes flushed.  The keeper
+watches him narrowly.  "You can go now, Jim," he says.
+
+"Steady, mate, steady," says the bushman.  "I'm as good a man as
+you.  If you stand a drink I can stand one too, I suppose."  So the
+pannikin is replenished, and Jimmy's eyes shine brighter still.
+
+"Now, Jimmy, one last drink for the good of the house," says the
+keeper, "and then it's time you were off."  The stockman has a
+third gulp from the pannikin, and with it all his scruples and good
+resolutions vanish for ever.
+
+"Look here," he says somewhat huskily, taking his cheque out of his
+pouch.  "You take this, mate.  Whoever comes along this road, ask
+'em what they'll have, and tell them it's my shout.  Let me know
+when the money's done."
+
+So Jimmy abandons the idea of ever getting to town, and for
+three weeks or a month he lies about the shanty in a state of
+extreme drunkenness, and reduces every wayfarer upon the road to
+the same condition.  At last one fine morning the keeper comes to
+him.  "The coin's done, Jimmy," he says; "it's about time you made
+some more."  So Jimmy has a good wash to sober him, straps his
+blanket and his billy to his back, and rides off through the bush
+to the sheeprun, where he has another year of sobriety, terminating
+in another month of intoxication.
+
+All this, though typical of the happy-go-lucky manners of the
+inhabitants, has no direct bearing upon Jackman's Gulch, so we must
+return to that Arcadian settlement.  Additions to the population
+there were not numerous, and such as came about the time of which
+I speak were even rougher and fiercer than the original
+inhabitants.  In particular, there came a brace of ruffians named
+Phillips and Maule, who rode into camp one day, and started a claim
+upon the other side of the stream.  They outgulched the Gulch in
+the virulence and fluency of their blasphemy, in the truculence of
+their speech and manner, and in their reckless disregard of all
+social laws.  They claimed to have come from Bendigo, and there
+were some amongst us who wished that the redoubted Conky Jim was on
+the track once more, as long as he would close it to such visitors
+as these.  After their arrival the nightly proceedings at the
+Britannia bar and at the gambling hell behind it became more
+riotous than ever.  Violent quarrels, frequently ending in
+bloodshed, were of constant occurrence.  The more peaceable
+frequenters of the bar began to talk seriously of lynching the two
+strangers who were the principal promoters of disorder.  Things
+were in this unsatisfactory condition when our evangelist, Elias B.
+Hopkins, came limping into the camp, travel-stained and footsore,
+with his spade strapped across his back, and his Bible in the
+pocket of his moleskin jacket.
+
+His presence was hardly noticed at first, so insignificant was the
+man.  His manner was quiet and unobtrusive, his face pale, and his
+figure fragile.  On better acquaintance, however, there was a
+squareness and firmness about his clean-shaven lower jaw, and an
+intelligence in his widely-opened blue eyes, which marked him as a
+man of character.  He erected a small hut for himself, and started
+a claim close to that occupied by the two strangers who had
+preceded him.  This claim was chosen with a ludicrous disregard for
+all practical laws of mining, and at once stamped the newcomer as
+being a green hand at his work.  It was piteous to observe him
+every morning as we passed to our work, digging and delving with
+the greatest industry, but, as we knew well, without the smallest
+possibility of any result.  He would pause for a moment as we went
+by, wipe his pale face with his bandanna handkerchief, and shout
+out to us a cordial morning greeting, and then fall to again with
+redoubled energy.  By degrees we got into the way of making a half-
+pitying, half-contemptuous inquiry as to how he got on.  "I hain't
+struck it yet, boys," he would answer cheerily, leaning on his
+spade, "but the bedrock lies deep just hereabouts, and I reckon
+we'll get among the pay gravel to-day."  Day after day he returned
+the same reply with unvarying confidence and cheerfulness.
+
+It was not long before he began to show us the stuff that was in
+him.  One night the proceedings were unusually violent at the
+drinking saloon.  A rich pocket had been struck during the day, and
+the striker was standing treat in a lavish and promiscuous fashion
+which had reduced three parts of the settlement to a state of wild
+intoxication.  A crowd of drunken idlers stood or lay about the
+bar, cursing, swearing, shouting, dancing, and here and there
+firing their pistols into the air out of pure wantonness.  From the
+interior of the shanty behind there came a similar chorus.  Maule,
+Phillips, and the roughs who followed them were in the ascendant,
+and all order and decency was swept away.
+
+Suddenly, amid this tumult of oaths and drunken cries, men became
+conscious of a quiet monotone which underlay all other sounds and
+obtruded itself at every pause in the uproar.  Gradually first one
+man and then another paused to listen, until there was a general
+cessation of the hubbub, and every eye was turned in the direction
+whence this quiet stream of words flowed.  There, mounted upon a
+barrel, was Elias B. Hopkins, the newest of the inhabitants of
+Jackman's Gulch, with a good-humoured smile upon his resolute face.
+
+He held an open Bible in his hand, and was reading aloud a passage
+taken at random--an extract from the Apocalypse, if I remember
+right.  The words were entirely irrelevant and without the smallest
+bearing upon the scene before him, but he plodded on with great
+unction, waving his left hand slowly to the cadence of his words.
+
+There was a general shout of laughter and applause at this
+apparition, and Jackman's Gulch gathered round the barrel
+approvingly, under the impression that this was some ornate joke,
+and that they were about to be treated to some mock sermon or
+parody of the chapter read.  When, however, the reader, having
+finished the chapter, placidly commenced another, and having
+finished that rippled on into another one, the revellers came to
+the conclusion that the joke was somewhat too long-winded.  The
+commencement of yet another chapter confirmed this opinion, and an
+angry chorus of shouts and cries, with suggestions as to gagging
+the reader or knocking him off the barrel, rose from every side. 
+In spite of roars and hoots, however, Elias B. Hopkins plodded away
+at the Apocalypse with the same serene countenance, looking as
+ineffably contented as though the babel around him were the most
+gratifying applause.  Before long an occasional boot pattered
+against the barrel or whistled past our parson's head; but here
+some of the more orderly of the inhabitants interfered in favour of
+peace and order, aided curiously enough by the afore-mentioned
+Maule and Phillips, who warmly espoused the cause of the little
+Scripture reader.  "The little cus has got grit in him," the latter
+explained, rearing his bulky red-shirted form between the
+crowd and the object of its anger.  "His ways ain't our ways, and
+we're all welcome to our opinions, and to sling them round from
+barrels or otherwise if so minded.  What I says and Bill says is,
+that when it comes to slingin' boots instead o' words it's too
+steep by half, an' if this man's wronged we'll chip in an' see him
+righted."  This oratorical effort had the effect of checking the
+more active signs of disapproval, and the party of disorder
+attempted to settle down once more to their carouse, and to ignore
+the shower of Scripture which was poured upon them.  The attempt
+was hopeless.  The drunken portion fell asleep under the drowsy
+refrain, and the others, with many a sullen glance at the
+imperturbable reader, slouched off to their huts, leaving him still
+perched upon the barrel.  Finding himself alone with the more
+orderly of the spectators, the little man rose, closed his book,
+after methodically marking with a lead pencil the exact spot at
+which he stopped, and descended from his perch.  "To-morrow night,
+boys," he remarked in his quiet voice, "the reading will commence
+at the 9th verse of the 15th chapter of the Apocalypse," with which
+piece of information, disregarding our congratulations, he walked
+away with the air of a man who has performed an obvious duty.
+
+We found that his parting words were no empty threat.  Hardly had
+the crowd begun to assemble next night before he appeared once more
+upon the barrel and began to read with the same monotonous vigour,
+tripping over words! muddling up sentences, but still boring
+along through chapter after chapter.  Laughter, threats, chaff--
+every weapon short of actual violence--was used to deter him, but
+all with the same want of success.  Soon it was found that there
+was a method in his proceedings.  When silence reigned, or when the
+conversation was of an innocent nature, the reading ceased.  A
+single word of blasphemy, however, set it going again, and it would
+ramble on for a quarter of an hour or so, when it stopped, only to
+be renewed upon similar provocation.  The reading was pretty
+continuous during that second night, for the language of the
+opposition was still considerably free.  At least it was an
+improvement upon the night before.
+
+For more than a month Elias B. Hopkins carried on this campaign. 
+There he would sit, night after night, with the open book upon his
+knee, and at the slightest provocation off he would go, like a
+musical box when the spring is touched.  The monotonous drawl
+became unendurable, but it could only be avoided by conforming to
+the parson's code.  A chronic swearer came to be looked upon with
+disfavour by the community, since the punishment of his
+transgression fell upon all.  At the end of a fortnight the reader
+was silent more than half the time, and at the end of the month his
+position was a sinecure.
+
+Never was a moral revolution brought about more rapidly and more
+completely.  Our parson carried his principle into private life. 
+I have seen him, on hearing an unguarded word from some worker in
+the gulches, rush across, Bible in hand, and perching himself upon
+the heap of red clay which surmounted the offender's claim,
+drawl through the genealogical tree at the commencement of the New
+Testament in a most earnest and impressive manner, as though it
+were especially appropriate to the occasion.  In time, an oath
+became a rare thing amongst us.  Drunkenness was on the wane too. 
+Casual travellers passing through the Gulch used to marvel at our
+state of grace, and rumours of it went as far as Ballarat, and
+excited much comment therein.
+
+There were points about our evangelist which made him especially
+fitted for the work which he had undertaken.  A man entirely
+without redeeming vices would have had no common basis on which to
+work, and no means of gaining the sympathy of his flock.  As we
+came to know Elias B. Hopkins better, we discovered that in spite
+of his piety there was a leaven of old Adam in him, and that he had
+certainly known unregenerate days.  He was no teetotaler.  On the
+contrary, he could choose his liquor with discrimination, and lower
+it in an able manner.  He played a masterly hand at poker, and
+there were few who could touch him at "cut-throat euchre."  He and
+the two ex-ruffians, Phillips and Maule, used to play for hours in
+perfect harmony, except when the fall of the cards elicited an oath
+from one of his companions.  At the first of these offences the
+parson would put on a pained smile, and gaze reproachfully at the
+culprit.  At the second he would reach for his Bible, and the game
+was over for the evening.  He showed us he was a good revolver
+shot too, for when we were practising at an empty brandy bottle
+outside Adams' bar, he took up a friend's pistol and hit it plumb
+in the centre at twenty-four paces.  There were few things he took
+up that he could not make a show at apparently, except gold-
+digging, and at that he was the veriest duffer alive.  It was
+pitiful to see the little canvas bag, with his name printed across
+it, lying placid and empty upon the shelf at Woburn's store, while
+all the other bags were increasing daily, and some had assumed
+quite a portly rotundity of form, for the weeks were slipping by,
+and it was almost time for the gold-train to start off for
+Ballarat.  We reckoned that the amount which we had stored at the
+time represented the greatest sum which had ever been taken by a
+single convoy out of Jackman's Gulch.
+
+Although Elias B. Hopkins appeared to derive a certain quiet
+satisfaction from the wonderful change which he had effected in the
+camp, his joy was not yet rounded and complete.  There was one
+thing for which he still yearned.  He opened his heart to us about
+it one evening.
+
+"We'd have a blessing on the camp, boys," he said, "if we only had
+a service o' some sort on the Lord's day.  It's a temptin' o'
+Providence to go on in this way without takin' any notice of it,
+except that maybe there's more whisky drunk and more card playin'
+than on any other day."
+
+"We hain't got no parson," objected one of the crowd.
+
+
+"Ye fool!" growled another, "hain't we got a man as is worth any
+three parsons, and can splash texts around like clay out o' a
+cradle.  What more d'ye want?"
+
+"We hain't got no church!" urged the same dissentient.
+
+"Have it in the open air," one suggested.
+
+"Or in Woburn's store," said another.
+
+"Or in Adams' saloon."
+
+The last proposal was received with a buzz of approval, which
+showed that it was considered the most appropriate locality.
+
+Adams' saloon was a substantial wooden building in the rear of the
+bar, which was used partly for storing liquor and partly for a
+gambling saloon.  It was strongly built of rough-hewn logs, the
+proprietor rightly judging, in the unregenerate days of Jackman's
+Gulch, that hogsheads of brandy and rum were commodities which had
+best be secured under lock and key.  A strong door opened into each
+end of the saloon, and the interior was spacious enough, when the
+table and lumber were cleared away, to accommodate the whole
+population.  The spirit barrels were heaped together at one end by
+their owner, so as to make a very fair imitation of a pulpit.
+
+At first the Gulch took but a mild interest in the proceedings, but
+when it became known that Elias B. Hopkins intended, after reading
+the service, to address the audience, the settlement began to warm
+up to the occasion.  A real sermon was a novelty to all of them,
+and one coming from their own parson was additionally so. 
+Rumour announced that it would be interspersed with local hits, and
+that the moral would be pointed by pungent personalities.  Men
+began to fear that they would be unable to gain seats, and many
+applications were made to the brothers Adams.  It was only when
+conclusively shown that the saloon could contain them all with a
+margin that the camp settled down into calm expectancy.
+
+It was as well that the building was of such a size, for the
+assembly upon the Sunday morning was the largest which had ever
+occurred in the annals of Jackman's Gulch.  At first it was thought
+that the whole population was present, but a little reflection
+showed that this was not so.  Maule and Phillips had gone on a
+prospecting journey among the hills, and had not returned as yet,
+and Woburn, the gold-keeper, was unable to leave his store.  Having
+a very large quantity of the precious metal under his charge, he
+stuck to his post, feeling that the responsibility was too great to
+trifle with.  With these three exceptions the whole of the Gulch,
+with clean red shirts, and such other additions to their toilet as
+the occasion demanded, sauntered in a straggling line along the
+clayey pathway which led up to the saloon.
+
+The interior of the building had been provided with rough benches,
+and the parson, with his quiet good-humoured smile, was standing at
+the door to welcome them.  "Good morning, boys," he cried cheerily,
+as each group came lounging up.  "Pass in; pass in.  You'll find
+this is as good a morning's work as any you've done.  Leave
+your pistols in this barrel outside the door as you pass; you can
+pick them out as you come out again, but it isn't the thing to
+carry weapons into the house of peace."  His request was good-
+humouredly complied with, and before the last of the congregation
+filed in, there was a strange assortment of knives and firearms in
+this depository.  When all had assembled, the doors were shut, and
+the service began--the first and the last which was ever performed
+at Jackman's Gulch.
+
+The weather was sultry and the room close, yet the miners listened
+with exemplary patience.  There was a sense of novelty in the
+situation which had its attractions.  To some it was entirely new,
+others were wafted back by it to another land and other days. 
+Beyond a disposition which was exhibited by the uninitiated to
+applaud at the end of certain prayers, by way of showing that they
+sympathised with the sentiments expressed, no audience could have
+behaved better.  There was a murmur of interest, however, when
+Elias B. Hopkins, looking down on the congregation from his rostrum
+of casks, began his address.
+
+He had attired himself with care in honour of the occasion.  He
+wore a velveteen tunic, girt round the waist with a sash of china
+silk, a pair of moleskin trousers, and held his cabbage-tree hat in
+his left hand.  He began speaking in a low tone, and it was noticed
+at the time that he frequently glanced through the small aperture
+which served for a window which was placed above the heads of those
+who sat beneath him.
+
+"I've put you straight now," he said, in the course of his address;
+"I've got you in the right rut if you will but stick in it."  Here
+he looked very hard out of the window for some seconds.  "You've
+learned soberness and industry, and with those things you can
+always make up any loss you may sustain.  I guess there isn't one
+of ye that won't remember my visit to this camp."  He paused for a
+moment, and three revolver shots rang out upon the quiet summer
+air.  "Keep your seats, damn ye!" roared our preacher, as his
+audience rose in excitement.  "If a man of ye moves down he goes! 
+The door's locked on the outside, so ye can't get out anyhow.  Your
+seats, ye canting, chuckle-headed fools!  Down with ye, ye dogs, or
+I'll fire among ye!"
+
+Astonishment and fear brought us back into our seats, and we sat
+staring blankly at our pastor and each other.  Elias B. Hopkins,
+whose whole face and even figure appeared to have undergone an
+extraordinary alteration, looked fiercely down on us from his
+commanding position, with a contemptuous smile on his stern face.
+
+"I have your lives in my hands," he remarked; and we noticed as he
+spoke that he held a heavy revolver in his hand, and that the butt
+of another one protruded from his sash.  "I am armed and you are
+not.  If one of you moves or speaks he is a dead man.  If not, I
+shall not harm you.  You must wait here for an hour.  Why, you
+FOOLS" (this with a hiss of contempt which rang in our ears for
+many a long day), "do you know who it is that has stuck you
+up?  Do you know who it is that has been playing it upon you for
+months as a parson and a saint?  Conky Jim, the bushranger, ye
+apes.  And Phillips and Maule were my two right-hand men.  They're
+off into the hills with your gold----Ha! would ye?"  This to some
+restive member of the audience, who quieted down instantly before
+the fierce eye and the ready weapon of the bushranger.  "In an hour
+they will be clear of any pursuit, and I advise you to make the
+best of it, and not to follow, or you may lose more than your
+money.  My horse is tethered outside this door behind me.  When the
+time is up I shall pass through it, lock it on the outside, and be
+off.  Then you may break your way out as best you can.  I have no
+more to say to you, except that ye are the most cursed set of asses
+that ever trod in boot-leather."
+
+We had time to endorse mentally this outspoken opinion during the
+long sixty minutes which followed; we were powerless before the
+resolute desperado.  It is true that if we made a simultaneous rush
+we might bear him down at the cost of eight or ten of our number. 
+But how could such a rush be organised without speaking, and who
+would attempt it without a previous agreement that he would be
+supported?  There was nothing for it but submission.  It seemed
+three hours at the least before the ranger snapped up his watch,
+stepped down from the barrel, walked backwards, still covering us
+with his weapon, to the door behind him, and then passed rapidly
+through it.  We heard the creaking of the rusty lock, and the
+clatter of his horse's hoofs, as he galloped away.
+
+It has been remarked that an oath had, for the last few weeks, been
+a rare thing in the camp.  We made up for our temporary abstention
+during the next half-hour.  Never was heard such symmetrical and
+heartfelt blasphemy.  When at last we succeeded in getting the door
+off its hinges all sight of both rangers and treasure had
+disappeared, nor have we ever caught sight of either the one or the
+other since.  Poor Woburn, true to his trust, lay shot through the
+head across the threshold of his empty store.  The villains, Maule
+and Phillips, had descended upon the camp the instant that we had
+been enticed into the trap, murdered the keeper, loaded up a small
+cart with the booty, and got safe away to some wild fastness among
+the mountains, where they were joined by their wily leader.
+
+Jackman's Gulch recovered from this blow, and is now a flourishing
+township.  Social reformers are not in request there, however, and
+morality is at a discount.  It is said that an inquest has been
+held lately upon an unoffending stranger who chanced to remark that
+in so large a place it would be advisable to have some form of
+Sunday service.  The memory of their one and only pastor is still
+green among the inhabitants, and will be for many a long year to
+come.
+
+
+
+THE RING OF THOTH.
+
+Mr. John Vansittart Smith, F.R.S., of 147-A Gower Street, was a
+man whose energy of purpose and clearness of thought might have
+placed him in the very first rank of scientific observers.  He was
+the victim, however, of a universal ambition which prompted him to
+aim at distinction in many subjects rather than preeminence in one.
+
+In his early days he had shown an aptitude for zoology and for
+botany which caused his friends to look upon him as a second
+Darwin, but when a professorship was almost within his reach he had
+suddenly discontinued his studies and turned his whole attention to
+chemistry.  Here his researches upon the spectra of the metals had
+won him his fellowship in the Royal Society; but again he played
+the coquette with his subject, and after a year's absence from the
+laboratory he joined the Oriental Society, and delivered a paper on
+the Hieroglyphic and Demotic inscriptions of El Kab, thus giving a
+crowning example both of the versatility and of the inconstancy of
+his talents.
+
+The most fickle of wooers, however, is apt to be caught at last,
+and so it was with John Vansittart Smith.  The more he burrowed his
+way into Egyptology the more impressed he became by the vast field
+which it opened to the inquirer, and by the extreme importance
+of a subject which promised to throw a light upon the first germs
+of human civilisation and the origin of the greater part of our
+arts and sciences.  So struck was Mr. Smith that he straightway
+married an Egyptological young lady who had written upon the sixth
+dynasty, and having thus secured a sound base of operations he set
+himself to collect materials for a work which should unite the
+research of Lepsius and the ingenuity of Champollion.  The
+preparation of this magnum opus entailed many hurried visits to
+the magnificent Egyptian collections of the Louvre, upon the last
+of which, no longer ago than the middle of last October, he became
+involved in a most strange and noteworthy adventure.
+
+The trains had been slow and the Channel had been rough, so that
+the student arrived in Paris in a somewhat befogged and feverish
+condition.  On reaching the Hotel de France, in the Rue Laffitte,
+he had thrown himself upon a sofa for a couple of hours, but
+finding that he was unable to sleep, he determined, in spite of his
+fatigue, to make his way to the Louvre, settle the point which he
+had come to decide, and take the evening train back to Dieppe. 
+Having come to this conclusion, he donned his greatcoat, for it was
+a raw rainy day, and made his way across the Boulevard des Italiens
+and down the Avenue de l'Opera.  Once in the Louvre he was on
+familiar ground, and he speedily made his way to the collection of
+papyri which it was his intention to consult.
+
+The warmest admirers of John Vansittart Smith could hardly claim
+for him that he was a handsome man.  His high-beaked nose and
+prominent chin had something of the same acute and incisive
+character which distinguished his intellect.  He held his head in
+a birdlike fashion, and birdlike, too, was the pecking motion with
+which, in conversation, he threw out his objections and retorts. 
+As he stood, with the high collar of his greatcoat raised to his
+ears, he might have seen from the reflection in the glass-case
+before him that his appearance was a singular one.  Yet it came
+upon him as a sudden jar when an English voice behind him exclaimed
+in very audible tones, "What a queer-looking mortal!"
+
+The student had a large amount of petty vanity in his composition
+which manifested itself by an ostentatious and overdone disregard
+of all personal considerations.  He straightened his lips and
+looked rigidly at the roll of papyrus, while his heart filled with
+bitterness against the whole race of travelling Britons.
+
+"Yes," said another voice, "he really is an extraordinary fellow."
+
+"Do you know," said the first speaker, "one could almost believe
+that by the continual contemplation of mummies the chap has become
+half a mummy himself?"
+
+"He has certainly an Egyptian cast of countenance," said the other.
+
+John Vansittart Smith spun round upon his heel with the intention
+of shaming his countrymen by a corrosive remark or two.  To his
+surprise and relief, the two young fellows who had been
+conversing had their shoulders turned towards him, and were gazing
+at one of the Louvre attendants who was polishing some brass-work
+at the other side of the room.
+
+"Carter will be waiting for us at the Palais Royal," said one
+tourist to the other, glancing at his watch, and they clattered
+away, leaving the student to his labours.
+
+"I wonder what these chatterers call an Egyptian cast of
+countenance," thought John Vansittart Smith, and he moved his
+position slightly in order to catch a glimpse of the man's face. 
+He started as his eyes fell upon it.  It was indeed the very face
+with which his studies had made him familiar.  The regular
+statuesque features, broad brow, well-rounded chin, and dusky
+complexion were the exact counterpart of the innumerable statues,
+mummy-cases, and pictures which adorned the walls of the apartment.
+
+The thing was beyond all coincidence.  The man must be an Egyptian.
+
+The national angularity of the shoulders and narrowness of the hips
+were alone sufficient to identify him.
+
+John Vansittart Smith shuffled towards the attendant with some
+intention of addressing him.  He was not light of touch in
+conversation, and found it difficult to strike the happy mean
+between the brusqueness of the superior and the geniality of the
+equal.  As he came nearer, the man presented his side face to him,
+but kept his gaze still bent upon his work.  Vansittart Smith,
+fixing his eyes upon the fellow's skin, was conscious of a sudden
+impression that there was something inhuman and preternatural
+about its appearance.  Over the temple and cheek-bone it was as
+glazed and as shiny as varnished parchment.  There was no
+suggestion of pores.  One could not fancy a drop of moisture upon
+that arid surface.  From brow to chin, however, it was cross-
+hatched by a million delicate wrinkles, which shot and interlaced
+as though Nature in some Maori mood had tried how wild and
+intricate a pattern she could devise.
+
+"Ou est la collection de Memphis?" asked the student, with the
+awkward air of a man who is devising a question merely for the
+purpose of opening a conversation.
+
+"C'est la," replied the man brusquely, nodding his head at the
+other side of the room.
+
+"Vous etes un Egyptien, n'est-ce pas?" asked the Englishman.
+
+The attendant looked up and turned his strange dark eyes upon his
+questioner.  They were vitreous, with a misty dry shininess, such
+as Smith had never seen in a human head before.  As he gazed into
+them he saw some strong emotion gather in their depths, which rose
+and deepened until it broke into a look of something akin both to
+horror and to hatred.
+
+"Non, monsieur; je suis Fransais."  The man turned abruptly and
+bent low over his polishing.  The student gazed at him for a moment
+in astonishment, and then turning to a chair in a retired corner
+behind one of the doors he proceeded to make notes of his
+researches among the papyri.  His thoughts, however refused to
+return into their natural groove.  They would run upon the
+enigmatical attendant with the sphinx-like face and the parchment
+skin.
+
+"Where have I seen such eyes?" said Vansittart Smith to himself. 
+"There is something saurian about them, something reptilian. 
+There's the membrana nictitans of the snakes," he mused, bethinking
+himself of his zoological studies.  "It gives a shiny effect.  But
+there was something more here.  There was a sense of power, of
+wisdom--so I read them--and of weariness, utter weariness, and
+ineffable despair.  It may be all imagination, but I never had so
+strong an impression.  By Jove, I must have another look at them!" 
+He rose and paced round the Egyptian rooms, but the man who had
+excited his curiosity had disappeared.
+
+The student sat down again in his quiet corner, and continued to
+work at his notes.  He had gained the information which he required
+from the papyri, and it only remained to write it down while it was
+still fresh in his memory.  For a time his pencil travelled rapidiy
+over the paper, but soon the lines became less level, the words
+more blurred, and finally the pencil tinkled down upon the floor,
+and the head of the student dropped heavily forward upon his chest.
+
+Tired out by his journey, he slept so soundly in his lonely post
+behind the door that neither the clanking civil guard, nor the
+footsteps of sightseers, nor even the loud hoarse bell which gives
+the signal for closing, were sufficient to arouse him.
+
+Twilight deepened into darkness, the bustle from the Rue de Rivoli
+waxed and then waned, distant Notre Dame clanged out the hour of
+midnight, and still the dark and lonely figure sat silently in the
+shadow.  It was not until close upon one in the morning that, with
+a sudden gasp and an intaking of the breath, Vansittart Smith
+returned to consciousness.  For a moment it flashed upon him that
+he had dropped asleep in his study-chair at home.  The moon was
+shining fitfully through the unshuttered window, however, and, as
+his eye ran along the lines of mummies and the endless array of
+polished cases, he remembered clearly where he was and how he came
+there.  The student was not a nervous man.  He possessed that love
+of a novel situation which is peculiar to his race.  Stretching out
+his cramped limbs, he looked at his watch, and burst into a chuckle
+as he observed the hour.  The episode would make an admirable
+anecdote to be introduced into his next paper as a relief to the
+graver and heavier speculations.  He was a little cold, but wide
+awake and much refreshed.  It was no wonder that the guardians had
+overlooked him, for the door threw its heavy black shadow right
+across him.
+
+The complete silence was impressive.  Neither outside nor inside
+was there a creak or a murmur.  He was alone with the dead men of
+a dead civilisation.  What though the outer city reeked of the
+garish nineteenth century!  In all this chamber there was scarce an
+article, from the shrivelled ear of wheat to the pigment-box
+of the painter, which had not held its own against four thousand
+years.  Here was the flotsam and jetsam washed up by the great
+ocean of time from that far-off empire.  From stately Thebes, from
+lordly Luxor, from the great temples of Heliopolis, from a hundred
+rifled tombs, these relics had been brought.  The student glanced
+round at the long silent figures who flickered vaguely up through
+the gloom, at the busy toilers who were now so restful, and he fell
+into a reverent and thoughtful mood.  An unwonted sense of his own
+youth and insignificance came over him.  Leaning back in his chair,
+he gazed dreamily down the long vista of rooms, all silvery with
+the moonshine, which extend through the whole wing of the
+widespread building.  His eyes fell upon the yellow glare of a
+distant lamp.
+
+John Vansittart Smith sat up on his chair with his nerves all on
+edge.  The light was advancing slowly towards him, pausing from
+time to time, and then coming jerkily onwards.  The bearer moved
+noiselessly.  In the utter silence there was no suspicion of the
+pat of a footfall.  An idea of robbers entered the Englishman's
+head.  He snuggled up further into the corner.  The light was two
+rooms off.  Now it was in the next chamber, and still there was no
+sound.  With something approaching to a thrill of fear the student
+observed a face, floating in the air as it were, behind the flare
+of the lamp.  The figure was wrapped in shadow, but the light fell
+full upon the strange eager face.  There was no mistaking the
+metallic glistening eyes and the cadaverous skin.  It was the
+attendant with whom he had conversed.
+
+Vansittart Smith's first impulse was to come forward and address
+him.  A few words of explanation would set the matter clear, and
+lead doubtless to his being conducted to some side door from which
+he might make his way to his hotel.  As the man entered the
+chamber, however, there was something so stealthy in his movements,
+and so furtive in his expression, that the Englishman altered his
+intention.  This was clearly no ordinary official walking the
+rounds.  The fellow wore felt-soled slippers, stepped with a rising
+chest, and glanced quickly from left to right, while his hurried
+gasping breathing thrilled the flame of his lamp.  Vansittart Smith
+crouched silently back into the corner and watched him keenly,
+convinced that his errand was one of secret and probably sinister
+import.
+
+There was no hesitation in the other's movements.  He stepped
+lightly and swiftly across to one of the great cases, and, drawing
+a key from his pocket, he unlocked it.  From the upper shelf he
+pulled down a mummy, which he bore away with him, and laid it with
+much care and solicitude upon the ground.  By it he placed his
+lamp, and then squatting down beside it in Eastern fashion he began
+with long quivering fingers to undo the cerecloths and bandages
+which girt it round.  As the crackling rolls of linen peeled off
+one after the other, a strong aromatic odour filled the chamber,
+and fragments of scented wood and of spices pattered down upon the
+marble floor.
+
+It was clear to John Vansittart Smith that this mummy had never
+been unswathed before.  The operation interested him keenly.  He
+thrilled all over with curiosity, and his birdlike head protruded
+further and further from behind the door.  When, however, the last
+roll had been removed from the four-thousand-year-old head, it was
+all that he could do to stifle an outcry of amazement.  First, a
+cascade of long, black, glossy tresses poured over the workman's
+hands and arms.  A second turn of the bandage revealed a low, white
+forehead, with a pair of delicately arched eyebrows.  A third
+uncovered a pair of bright, deeply fringed eyes, and a straight,
+well-cut nose, while a fourth and last showed a sweet, full,
+sensitive mouth, and a beautifully curved chin.  The whole face was
+one of extraordinary loveliness, save for the one blemish that in
+the centre of the forehead there was a single irregular, coffee-
+coloured splotch.  It was a triumph of the embalmer's art. 
+Vansittart Smith's eyes grew larger and larger as he gazed upon it,
+and he chirruped in his throat with satisfaction.
+
+Its effect upon the Egyptologist was as nothing, however, compared
+with that which it produced upon the strange attendant.  He threw
+his hands up into the air, burst into a harsh clatter of words, and
+then, hurling himself down upon the ground beside the mummy, he
+threw his arms round her, and kissed her repeatedly upon the lips
+and brow.  "Ma petite!" he groaned in French.  "Ma pauvre petite!" 
+His voice broke with emotion, and his innumerable wrinkles
+quivered and writhed, but the student observed in the
+lamplight that his shining eyes were still as dry and tearless as
+two beads of steel.  For some minutes he lay, with a twitching
+face, crooning and moaning over the beautiful head.  Then he broke
+into a sudden smile, said some words in an unknown tongue, and
+sprang to his feet with the vigorous air of one who has braced
+himself for an effort.
+
+In the centre of the room there was a large circular case which
+contained, as the student had frequently remarked, a magnificent
+collection of early Egyptian rings and precious stones.  To this
+the attendant strode, and, unlocking it, he threw it open.  On the
+ledge at the side he placed his lamp, and beside it a small
+earthenware jar which he had drawn from his pocket.  He then took
+a handful of rings from the case, and with a most serious and
+anxious face he proceeded to smear each in turn with some liquid
+substance from the earthen pot, holding them to the light as he did
+so.  He was clearly disappointed with the first lot, for he threw
+them petulantly back into the case, and drew out some more.  One of
+these, a massive ring with a large crystal set in it, he seized and
+eagerly tested with the contents of the jar.  Instantly he uttered
+a cry of joy, and threw out his arms in a wild gesture which upset
+the pot and sent the liquid streaming across the floor to the very
+feet of the Englishman.  The attendant drew a red handkerchief from
+his bosom, and, mopping up the mess, he followed it into the
+corner, where in a moment he found himself face to face with his
+observer.
+
+"Excuse me," said John Vansittart Smith, with all imaginable
+politeness; "I have been unfortunate enough to fall asleep behind
+this door."
+
+"And you have been watching me?" the other asked in English, with
+a most venomous look on his corpse-like face.
+
+The student was a man of veracity.  "I confess," said he, "that I
+have noticed your movements, and that they have aroused my
+curiosity and interest in the highest degree."
+
+The man drew a long flamboyant-bladed knife from his bosom.  "You
+have had a very narrow escape," he said; "had I seen you ten
+minutes ago, I should have driven this through your heart.  As it
+is, if you touch me or interfere with me in any way you are a dead
+man."
+
+"I have no wish to interfere with you," the student answered.  "My
+presence here is entirely accidental.  All I ask is that you will
+have the extreme kindness to show me out through some side door." 
+He spoke with great suavity, for the man was still pressing the tip
+of his dagger against the palm of his left hand, as though to
+assure himself of its sharpness, while his face preserved its
+malignant expression.
+
+"If I thought----" said he.  "But no, perhaps it is as well.  What
+is your name?"
+
+The Englishman gave it.
+
+"Vansittart Smith," the other repeated.  "Are you the same
+Vansittart Smith who gave a paper in London upon El Kab?  I saw a
+report of it.  Your knowledge of the subject is contemptible."
+
+"Sir!" cried the Egyptologist.
+
+"Yet it is superior to that of many who make even greater
+pretensions.  The whole keystone of our old life in Egypt was not
+the inscriptions or monuments of which you make so much, but was
+our hermetic philosophy and mystic knowledge, of which you say
+little or nothing."
+
+"Our old life!" repeated the scholar, wide-eyed; and then suddenly,
+"Good God, look at the mummy's face!"
+
+The strange man turned and flashed his light upon the dead woman,
+uttering a long doleful cry as he did so.  The action of the air
+had already undone all the art of the embalmer.  The skin had
+fallen away, the eyes had sunk inwards, the discoloured lips had
+writhed away from the yellow teeth, and the brown mark upon the
+forehead alone showed that it was indeed the same face which had
+shown such youth and beauty a few short minutes before.
+
+The man flapped his hands together in grief and horror.  Then
+mastering himself by a strong effort he turned his hard eyes once
+more upon the Englishman.
+
+"It does not matter," he said, in a shaking voice.  "It does not
+really matter.  I came here to-night with the fixed determination
+to do something.  It is now done.  All else is as nothing.  I have
+found my quest.  The old curse is broken.  I can rejoin her. 
+What matter about her inanimate shell so long as her spirit is
+awaiting me at the other side of the veil!"
+
+"These are wild words," said Vansittart Smith.  He was becoming
+more and more convinced that he had to do with a madman.
+
+"Time presses, and I must go," continued the other.  "The moment is
+at hand for which I have waited this weary time.  But I must show
+you out first.  Come with me."
+
+Taking up the lamp, he turned from the disordered chamber, and led
+the student swiftly through the long series of the Egyptian,
+Assyrian, and Persian apartments.  At the end of the latter he
+pushed open a small door let into the wall and descended a winding
+stone stair.  The Englishman felt the cold fresh air of the night
+upon his brow.  There was a door opposite him which appeared to
+communicate with the street.  To the right of this another door
+stood ajar, throwing a spurt of yellow light across the passage. 
+"Come in here!" said the attendant shortly.
+
+Vansittart Smith hesitated.  He had hoped that he had come to the
+end of his adventure.  Yet his curiosity was strong within him.  He
+could not leave the matter unsolved, so he followed his strange
+companion into the lighted chamber.
+
+It was a small room, such as is devoted to a concierge.  A wood
+fire sparkled in the grate.  At one side stood a truckle bed, and
+at the other a coarse wooden chair, with a round table in the
+centre, which bore the remains of a meal.  As the visitor's
+eye glanced round he could not but remark with an ever-recurring
+thrill that all the small details of the room were of the most
+quaint design and antique workmanship.  The candlesticks, the vases
+upon the chimney-piece, the fire-irons, the ornaments upon the
+walls, were all such as he had been wont to associate with the
+remote past.  The gnarled heavy-eyed man sat himself down upon the
+edge of the bed, and motioned his guest into the chair.
+
+"There may be design in this," he said, still speaking excellent
+English.  "It may be decreed that I should leave some account
+behind as a warning to all rash mortals who would set their wits up
+against workings of Nature.  I leave it with you.  Make such use as
+you will of it.  I speak to you now with my feet upon the threshold
+of the other world.
+
+"I am, as you surmised, an Egyptian--not one of the down-trodden
+race of slaves who now inhabit the Delta of the Nile, but a
+survivor of that fiercer and harder people who tamed the Hebrew,
+drove the Ethiopian back into the southern deserts, and built those
+mighty works which have been the envy and the wonder of all after
+generations.  It was in the reign of Tuthmosis, sixteen hundred
+years before the birth of Christ, that I first saw the light.  You
+shrink away from me.  Wait, and you will see that I am more to be
+pitied than to be feared.
+
+"My name was Sosra.  My father had been the chief priest of Osiris
+in the great temple of Abaris, which stood in those days upon the
+Bubastic branch of the Nile.  I was brought up in the temple
+and was trained in all those mystic arts which are spoken of in
+your own Bible.  I was an apt pupil.  Before I was sixteen I had
+learned all which the wisest priest could teach me.  From that time
+on I studied Nature's secrets for myself, and shared my knowledge
+with no man.
+
+"Of all the questions which attracted me there were none over which
+I laboured so long as over those which concern themselves with the
+nature of life.  I probed deeply into the vital principle.  The aim
+of medicine had been to drive away disease when it appeared.  It
+seemed to me that a method might be devised which should so fortify
+the body as to prevent weakness or death from ever taking hold of
+it.  It is useless that I should recount my researches.  You would
+scarce comprehend them if I did.  They were carried out partly upon
+animals, partly upon slaves, and partly on myself.  Suffice it that
+their result was to furnish me with a substance which, when
+injected into the blood, would endow the body with strength to
+resist the effects of time, of violence, or of disease.  It would
+not indeed confer immortality, but its potency would endure for
+many thousands of years.  I used it upon a cat, and afterwards
+drugged the creature with the most deadly poisons.  That cat is
+alive in Lower Egypt at the present moment.  There was nothing of
+mystery or magic in the matter.  It was simply a chemical
+discovery, which may well be made again.
+
+"Love of life runs high in the young.  It seemed to me that I had
+broken away from all human care now that I had abolished pain
+and driven death to such a distance.  With a light heart I poured
+the accursed stuff into my veins.  Then I looked round for some one
+whom I could benefit.  There was a young priest of Thoth, Parmes by
+name, who had won my goodwill by his earnest nature and his
+devotion to his studies.  To him I whispered my secret, and at his
+request I injected him with my elixir.  I should now, I reflected,
+never be without a companion of the same age as myself.
+
+"After this grand discovery I relaxed my studies to some extent,
+but Parmes continued his with redoubled energy.  Every day I could
+see him working with his flasks and his distiller in the Temple of
+Thoth, but he said little to me as to the result of his labours. 
+For my own part, I used to walk through the city and look around me
+with exultation as I reflected that all this was destined to pass
+away, and that only I should remain.  The people would bow to me as
+they passed me, for the fame of my knowledge had gone abroad.
+
+"There was war at this time, and the Great King had sent down his
+soldiers to the eastern boundary to drive away the Hyksos.  A
+Governor, too, was sent to Abaris, that he might hold it for the
+King.  I had heard much of the beauty of the daughter of this
+Governor, but one day as I walked out with Parmes we met her, borne
+upon the shoulders of her slaves.  I was struck with love as with
+lightning.  My heart went out from me.  I could have thrown myself
+beneath the feet of her bearers.  This was my woman.  Life without
+her was impossible.  I swore by the head of Horus that she
+should be mine.  I swore it to the Priest of Thoth.  He turned away
+from me with a brow which was as black as midnight.
+
+"There is no need to tell you of our wooing.  She came to love me
+even as I loved her.  I learned that Parmes had seen her before I
+did, and had shown her that he too loved her, but I could smile at
+his passion, for I knew that her heart was mine.  The white plague
+had come upon the city and many were stricken, but I laid my hands
+upon the sick and nursed them without fear or scathe.  She
+marvelled at my daring.  Then I told her my secret, and begged her
+that she would let me use my art upon her.
+
+"`Your flower shall then be unwithered, Atma,' I said.  `Other
+things may pass away, but you and I, and our great love for each
+other, shall outlive the tomb of King Chefru.'
+
+"But she was full of timid, maidenly objections.  `Was it right?'
+she asked, `was it not a thwarting of the will of the gods?  If the
+great Osiris had wished that our years should be so long, would he
+not himself have brought it about?'
+
+"With fond and loving words I overcame her doubts, and yet she
+hesitated.  It was a great question, she said.  She would think it
+over for this one night.  In the morning I should know her
+resolution.  Surely one night was not too much to ask.  She wished
+to pray to Isis for help in her decision.
+
+"With a sinking heart and a sad foreboding of evil I left her with
+her tirewomen.  In the morning, when the early sacrifice was
+over, I hurried to her house.  A frightened slave met me upon the
+steps.  Her mistress was ill, she said, very ill.  In a frenzy I
+broke my way through the attendants, and rushed through hall and
+corridor to my Atma's chamber.  She lay upon her couch, her head
+high upon the pillow, with a pallid face and a glazed eye.  On her
+forehead there blazed a single angry purple patch.  I knew that
+hell-mark of old.  It was the scar of the white plague, the sign-
+manual of death.
+
+"Why should I speak of that terrible time?  For months I was mad,
+fevered, delirious, and yet I could not die.  Never did an Arab
+thirst after the sweet wells as I longed after death.  Could poison
+or steel have shortened the thread of my existence, I should soon
+have rejoined my love in the land with the narrow portal.  I tried,
+but it was of no avail.  The accursed influence was too strong upon
+me.  One night as I lay upon my couch, weak and weary, Parmes, the
+priest of Thoth, came to my chamber.  He stood in the circle of the
+lamplight, and he looked down upon me with eyes which were bright
+with a mad joy.
+
+"`Why did you let the maiden die?' he asked; `why did you not
+strengthen her as you strengthened me?'
+
+"`I was too late,' I answered.  `But I had forgot.  You also loved
+her.  You are my fellow in misfortune.  Is it not terrible to think
+of the centuries which must pass ere we look upon her again? 
+Fools, fools, that we were to take death to be our enemy!'
+
+"`You may say that,' he cried with a wild laugh; `the words come
+well from your lips.  For me they have no meaning.'
+
+"`What mean you?' I cried, raising myself upon my elbow.  `Surely,
+friend, this grief has turned your brain.'  His face was aflame
+with joy, and he writhed and shook like one who hath a devil.
+
+"`Do you know whither I go?' he asked.
+
+"`Nay,' I answered, `I cannot tell.'
+
+"`I go to her,' said he.  `She lies embalmed in the further tomb by
+the double palm-tree beyond the city wall.'
+
+"`Why do you go there?' I asked.
+
+"`To die!' he shrieked, `to die!  I am not bound by earthen
+fetters.'
+
+"`But the elixir is in your blood,' I cried.
+
+"`I can defy it,' said he; `I have found a stronger principle which
+will destroy it.  It is working in my veins at this moment, and in
+an hour I shall be a dead man.  I shall join her, and you shall
+remain behind.'
+
+"As I looked upon him I could see that he spoke words of truth. 
+The light in his eye told me that he was indeed beyond the power of
+the elixir.
+
+"`You will teach me!' I cried.
+
+"`Never!' he answered.
+
+"`I implore you, by the wisdom of Thoth, by the majesty of Anubis!'
+
+"`It is useless,' he said coldly.
+
+"`Then I will find it out,' I cried.
+
+"`You cannot,' he answered; `it came to me by chance.  There
+is one ingredient which you can never get.  Save that which is in
+the ring of Thoth, none will ever more be made.
+
+"`In the ring of Thoth!' I repeated; `where then is the ring of
+Thoth?'
+
+"`That also you shall never know,' he answered.  `You won her love.
+
+Who has won in the end?  I leave you to your sordid earth life.  My
+chains are broken.  I must go!'  He turned upon his heel and fled
+from the chamber.  In the morning came the news that the Priest of
+Thoth was dead.
+
+"My days after that were spent in study.  I must find this subtle
+poison which was strong enough to undo the elixir.  From early dawn
+to midnight I bent over the test-tube and the furnace.  Above all,
+I collected the papyri and the chemical flasks of the Priest of
+Thoth.  Alas! they taught me little.  Here and there some hint or
+stray expression would raise hope in my bosom, but no good ever
+came of it.  Still, month after month, I struggled on.  When my
+heart grew faint I would make my way to the tomb by the palm-trees.
+
+There, standing by the dead casket from which the jewel had been
+rifled, I would feel her sweet presence, and would whisper to her
+that I would rejoin her if mortal wit could solve the riddle.
+
+"Parmes had said that his discovery was connected with the ring of
+Thoth.  I had some remembrance of the trinket.  It was a large and
+weighty circlet, made, not of gold, but of a rarer and heavier
+metal brought from the mines of Mount Harbal.  Platinum, you call
+it.  The ring had, I remembered, a hollow crystal set in it,
+in which some few drops of liquid might be stored.  Now, the secret
+of Parmes could not have to do with the metal alone, for there were
+many rings of that metal in the Temple.  Was it not more likely
+that he had stored his precious poison within the cavity of the
+crystal?  I had scarce come to this conclusion before, in hunting
+through his papers, I came upon one which told me that it was
+indeed so, and that there was still some of the liquid unused.
+
+"But how to find the ring?  It was not upon him when he was
+stripped for the embalmer.  Of that I made sure.  Neither was it
+among his private effects.  In vain I searched every room that he
+had entered, every box, and vase, and chattel that he had owned. 
+I sifted the very sand of the desert in the places where he had
+been wont to walk; but, do what I would, I could come upon no
+traces of the ring of Thoth.  Yet it may be that my labours would
+have overcome all obstacles had it not been for a new and unlooked-
+for misfortune.
+
+"A great war had been waged against the Hyksos, and the Captains of
+the Great King had been cut off in the desert, with all their
+bowmen and horsemen.  The shepherd tribes were upon us like the
+locusts in a dry year.  From the wilderness of Shur to the great
+bitter lake there was blood by day and fire by night.  Abaris was
+the bulwark of Egypt, but we could not keep the savages back.  The
+city fell.  The Governor and the soldiers were put to the
+sword, and I, with many more, was led away into captivity.
+
+"For years and years I tended cattle in the great plains by the
+Euphrates.  My master died, and his son grew old, but I was still
+as far from death as ever.  At last I escaped upon a swift camel,
+and made my way back to Egypt.  The Hyksos had settled in the land
+which they had conquered, and their own King ruled over the country
+Abaris had been torn down, the city had been burned, and of the
+great Temple there was nothing left save an unsightly mound. 
+Everywhere the tombs had been rifled and the monuments destroyed. 
+Of my Atma's grave no sign was left.  It was buried in the sands of
+the desert, and the palm-trees which marked the spot had long
+disappeared.  The papers of Parmes and the remains of the Temple of
+Thoth were either destroyed or scattered far and wide over the
+deserts of Syria.  All search after them was vain.
+
+"From that time I gave up all hope of ever finding the ring or
+discovering the subtle drug.  I set myself to live as patiently as
+might be until the effect of the elixir should wear away.  How can
+you understand how terrible a thing time is, you who have
+experience only of the narrow course which lies between the cradle
+and the grave!  I know it to my cost, I who have floated down the
+whole stream of history.  I was old when Ilium fell.  I was very
+old when Herodotus came to Memphis.  I was bowed down with years
+when the new gospel came upon earth.  Yet you see me much as
+other men are, with the cursed elixir still sweetening my blood,
+and guarding me against that which I would court.  Now at last, at
+last I have come to the end of it!
+
+"I have travelled in all lands and I have dwelt with all nations. 
+Every tongue is the same to me.  I learned them all to help pass
+the weary time.  I need not tell you how slowly they drifted by,
+the long dawn of modern civilisation, the dreary middle years, the
+dark times of barbarism.  They are all behind me now, I have never
+looked with the eyes of love upon another woman.  Atma knows that
+I have been constant to her.
+
+"It was my custom to read all that the scholars had to say upon
+Ancient Egypt.  I have been in many positions, sometimes affluent,
+sometimes poor, but I have always found enough to enable me to buy
+the journals which deal with such matters.  Some nine months ago I
+was in San Francisco, when I read an account of some discoveries
+made in the neighbourhood of Abaris.  My heart leapt into my mouth
+as I read it.  It said that the excavator had busied himself in
+exploring some tombs recently unearthed.  In one there had been
+found an unopened mummy with an inscription upon the outer case
+setting forth that it contained the body of the daughter of the
+Governor of the city in the days of Tuthmosis.  It added that on
+removing the outer case there had been exposed a large platinum
+ring set with a crystal, which had been laid upon the breast of the
+embalmed woman.  This, then was where Parmes had hid the ring
+of Thoth.  He might well say that it was safe, for no Egyptian
+would ever stain his soul by moving even the outer case of a buried
+friend.
+
+"That very night I set off from San Francisco, and in a few weeks
+I found myself once more at Abaris, if a few sand-heaps and
+crumbling walls may retain the name of the great city.  I hurried
+to the Frenchmen who were digging there and asked them for the
+ring.  They replied that both the ring and the mummy had been sent
+to the Boulak Museum at Cairo.  To Boulak I went, but only to be
+told that Mariette Bey had claimed them and had shipped them to the
+Louvre.  I followed them, and there at last, in the Egyptian
+chamber, I came, after close upon four thousand years, upon the
+remains of my Atma, and upon the ring for which I had sought so
+long.
+
+"But how was I to lay hands upon them?  How was I to have them for
+my very own?  It chanced that the office of attendant was vacant. 
+I went to the Director.  I convinced him that I knew much about
+Egypt.  In my eagerness I said too much.  He remarked that a
+Professor's chair would suit me better than a seat in the
+Conciergerie.  I knew more, he said, than he did.  It was only by
+blundering, and letting him think that he had over-estimated my
+knowledge, that I prevailed upon him to let me move the few effects
+which I have retained into this chamber.  It is my first and my
+last night here.
+
+"Such is my story, Mr. Vansittart Smith.  I need not say more
+to a man of your perception.  By a strange chance you have this
+night looked upon the face of the woman whom I loved in those far-
+off days.  There were many rings with crystals in the case, and I
+had to test for the platinum to be sure of the one which I wanted. 
+A glance at the crystal has shown me that the liquid is indeed
+within it, and that I shall at last be able to shake off that
+accursed health which has been worse to me than the foulest
+disease.  I have nothing more to say to you.  I have unburdened
+myself.  You may tell my story or you may withhold it at your
+pleasure.  The choice rests with you.  I owe you some amends, for
+you have had a narrow escape of your life this night.  I was a
+desperate man, and not to be baulked in my purpose.  Had I seen you
+before the thing was done, I might have put it beyond your power to
+oppose me or to raise an alarm.  This is the door.  It leads into
+the Rue de Rivoli.  Good night!"
+
+The Englishman glanced back.  For a moment the lean figure of Sosra
+the Egyptian stood framed in the narrow doorway.  The next the door
+had slammed, and the heavy rasping of a bolt broke on the silent
+night.
+
+It was on the second day after his return to London that Mr. John
+Vansittart Smith saw the following concise narrative in the Paris
+correspondence of the Times:--
+
+"Curious Occurrence in the Louvre.--Yesterday morning a strange
+discovery was made in the principal Egyptian Chamber.  The
+ouvriers who are employed to clean out the rooms in the morning
+found one of the attendants lying dead upon the floor with his arms
+round one of the mummies.  So close was his embrace that it was
+only with the utmost difficulty that they were separated.  One of
+the cases containing valuable rings had been opened and rifled. 
+The authorities are of opinion that the man was bearing away the
+mummy with some idea of selling it to a private collector, but that
+he was struck down in the very act by long-standing disease of the
+heart.  It is said that he was a man of uncertain age and eccentric
+habits, without any living relations to mourn over his dramatic and
+untimely end."
+
+
+
+
+End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Captain of the Polestar
+