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diff --git a/30954.txt b/30954.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9424099 --- /dev/null +++ b/30954.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14933 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - +Swanston Edition Vol. 13 (of 25), by Robert Louis Stevenson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 13 (of 25) + +Author: Robert Louis Stevenson + +Release Date: January 13, 2010 [EBook #30954] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WORKS OF STEVENSON *** + + + + +Produced by Marius Masi, Jonathan Ingram and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + +Transcriber's notes: + + Fixed typographical error: In page 427 "that he returned somehow to + San Francisco and died in the hosiptal." was changed to "that he + returned somehow to San Francisco and died in the HOSPITAL." + + Text following a carat character (^) was superscript in the original + (example: a^2). + + + + + THE WORKS OF + + ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON + + SWANSTON EDITION + VOLUME XIII + + + _Of this SWANSTON EDITION in Twenty-five + Volumes of the Works of ROBERT LOUIS + STEVENSON Two Thousand and Sixty Copies + have been printed, of which only Two Thousand + Copies are for sale._ + + _This is No._ ........... + + +[Illustration: THE BACK VERANDAH AT VAILIMA] + + THE WORKS OF + + ROBERT LOUIS + STEVENSON + + + VOLUME THIRTEEN + + LONDON: PUBLISHED BY CHATTO AND + WINDUS: IN ASSOCIATION WITH CASSELL + AND COMPANY LIMITED: WILLIAM + HEINEMANN: AND LONGMANS GREEN + AND COMPANY MDCCCCXII + + + ALL RIGHTS RESERVED + + + + +CONTENTS + +THE WRECKER + + + PROLOGUE + + PAGE + IN THE MARQUESAS 5 + + + THE YARN + + CHAPTER + I. A SOUND COMMERCIAL EDUCATION 19 + + II. ROUSSILLON WINE 32 + + III. TO INTRODUCE MR. PINKERTON 43 + + IV. IN WHICH I EXPERIENCE EXTREMES OF FORTUNE 58 + + V. IN WHICH I AM DOWN ON MY LUCK IN PARIS 71 + + VI. IN WHICH I GO WEST 86 + + VII. IRONS IN THE FIRE: _Opes Strepitumque_ 102 + + VIII. FACES ON THE CITY FRONT 126 + + IX. THE WRECK OF THE _FLYING SCUD_ 139 + + X. IN WHICH THE CREW VANISH 154 + + XI. IN WHICH JIM AND I TAKE DIFFERENT WAYS 179 + + XII. THE _NORAH CREINA_ 194 + + XIII. THE ISLAND AND THE WRECK 210 + + XIV. THE CABIN OF THE _FLYING SCUD_ 222 + + XV. THE CARGO OF THE _FLYING SCUD_ 237 + + XVI. IN WHICH I TURN SMUGGLER, AND THE CAPTAIN CASUIST 251 + + XVII. LIGHT FROM THE MAN OF WAR 264 + + XVIII. CROSS-QUESTIONS AND CROOKED ANSWERS 278 + + XIX. TRAVELS WITH A SHYSTER 294 + + XX. STALLBRIDGE-LE-CARTHEW 317 + + XXI. FACE TO FACE 330 + + XXII. THE REMITTANCE MAN 338 + + XXIII. THE BUDGET OF THE _CURRENCY LASS_ 363 + + XXIV. A HARD BARGAIN 388 + + XXV. A BAD BARGAIN 402 + + + EPILOGUE + + TO WILL H. LOW 427 + + + + +THE WRECKER + +WRITTEN IN COLLABORATION WITH + +LLOYD OSBOURNE + + + + +PROLOGUE + +THE WRECKER + + + + +PROLOGUE + +IN THE MARQUESAS + + +It was about three o'clock of a winter's afternoon in Tai-o-hae, the +French capital and port of entry of the Marquesas Islands. The Trades +blew strong and squally; the surf roared loud on the shingle beach; and +the fifty-ton schooner of war, that carries the flag and influence of +France about the islands of the cannibal group, rolled at her moorings +under Prison Hill. The clouds hung low and black on the surrounding +amphitheatre of mountains; rain had fallen earlier in the day, real +tropic rain, a waterspout for violence; and the green and gloomy brow of +the mountain was still seamed with many silver threads of torrent. + +In these hot and healthy islands winter is but a name. The rain had not +refreshed, nor could the wind invigorate, the dwellers of Tai-o-hae: +away at one end, indeed, the commandant was directing some changes in +the residency garden beyond Prison Hill; and the gardeners, being all +convicts, had no choice but to continue to obey. All other folks +slumbered and took their rest: Vaekehu, the native Queen, in her trim +house under the rustling palms; the Tahitian commissary, in his +beflagged official residence; the merchants, in their deserted stores; +and even the club-servant in the club, his head fallen forward on the +bottle-counter, under the map of the world and the cards of navy +officers. In the whole length of the single shoreside street, with its +scattered board houses looking to the sea, its grateful shade of palms +and green jungle of puraos, no moving figure could be seen. Only, at the +end of the rickety pier, that once (in the prosperous days of the +American rebellion) was used to groan under the cotton of John Hart, +there might have been spied upon a pile of lumber the famous tattooed +white man, the living curiosity of Tai-o-hae. + +His eyes were open, staring down the bay. He saw the mountains droop, as +they approached the entrance, and break down in cliffs: the surf boil +white round the two sentinel islets; and between, on the narrow bight of +blue horizon, Ua-pu upraise the ghost of her pinnacled mountain-tops. +But his mind would take no account of these familiar features; as he +dodged in and out along the frontier line of sleep and waking, memory +would serve him with broken fragments of the past: brown faces and +white, of skipper and shipmate, king and chief, would arise before his +mind and vanish; he would recall old voyages, old landfalls in the hour +of dawn; he would hear again the drums beat for a man-eating festival; +perhaps he would summon up the form of that island princess for the love +of whom he had submitted his body to the cruel hands of the tattooer, +and now sat on the lumber, at the pier-end of Tai-o-hae, so strange a +figure of a European. Or perhaps, from yet further back, sounds and +scents of England and his childhood might assail him: the merry clamour +of cathedral bells, the broom upon the foreland, the song of the river +on the weir. + +It is bold water at the mouth of the bay; you can steer a ship about +either sentinel, close enough to toss a biscuit on the rocks. Thus it +chanced that, as the tattooed man sat dozing and dreaming, he was +startled into wakefulness and animation by the appearance of a flying +jib beyond the western islet. Two more headsails followed; and before +the tattooed man had scrambled to his feet, a topsail schooner of some +hundred tons had luffed about the sentinel, and was standing up the +bay, close-hauled. + +The sleeping city awakened by enchantment. Natives appeared upon all +sides, hailing each other with the magic cry "Ehippy"--ship; the Queen +stepped forth on her verandah, shading her eyes under a hand that was a +miracle of the fine art of tattooing; the commandant broke from his +domestic convicts and ran into the residency for his glass; the +harbour-master, who was also the gaoler, came speeding down the Prison +Hill; the seventeen brown Kanakas and the French boatswain's mate, that +make up the complement of the war-schooner, crowded on the forward deck; +and the various English, Americans, Germans, Poles, Corsicans and +Scots--the merchants and the clerks of Tai-o-hae--deserted their places +of business, and gathered, according to invariable custom, on the road +before the club. + +So quickly did these dozen whites collect, so short are the distances in +Tai-o-hae, that they were already exchanging guesses as to the +nationality and business of the strange vessel, before she had gone +about upon her second board towards the anchorage. A moment after, +English colours were broken out at the main truck. + +"I told you she was a Johnny Bull--knew it by her headsails," said an +evergreen old salt, still qualified (if he could anywhere have found an +owner unacquainted with his story) to adorn another quarter-deck and +lose another ship. + +"She has American lines, anyway," said the astute Scots engineer of the +gin-mill; "it's my belief she's a yacht." + +"That's it," said the old salt, "a yacht! look at her davits, and the +boat over the stern." + +"A yacht in your eye!" said a Glasgow voice. "Look at her red ensign! A +yacht! not much she isn't!" + +"You can close the store, anyway, Tom," observed a gentlemanly German. +"_Bon jour, mon Prince!_" he added, as a dark, intelligent native +cantered by on a neat chestnut. "_Vous allez boire un verre de biere?_" + +But Prince Stanila Moanatini, the only reasonably busy human creature on +the island, was riding hotspur to view this morning's landslip on the +mountain road; the sun already visibly declined; night was imminent; and +if he would avoid the perils of darkness and precipice, and the fear of +the dead, the haunters of the jungle, he must for once decline a +hospitable invitation. Even had he been minded to alight, it presently +appeared there would be difficulty as to the refreshment offered. + +"Beer!" cried the Glasgow voice. "No such a thing; I tell you there's +only eight bottles in the club! Here's the first time I've seen British +colours in this port! and the man that sails under them has got to drink +that beer." + +The proposal struck the public mind as fair, though far from cheering; +for some time back, indeed, the very name of beer had been a sound of +sorrow in the club, and the evenings had passed in dolorous computation. + +"Here is Havens," said one, as if welcoming a fresh topic.--"What do you +think of her, Havens?" + +"I don't think," replied Havens, a tall, bland, cool-looking, leisurely +Englishman, attired in spotless duck, and deliberately dealing with a +cigarette. "I may say I know. She's consigned to me from Auckland by +Donald and Edenborough. I am on my way aboard." + +"What ship is she?" asked the ancient mariner. + +"Haven't an idea," returned Havens. "Some tramp they have chartered." + +With that he placidly resumed his walk, and was soon seated in the +stern-sheets of a whaleboat manned by uproarious Kanakas, himself +daintily perched out of the way of the least maculation, giving his +commands in an unobtrusive, dinner-table tone of voice, and sweeping +neatly enough alongside the schooner. + +A weather-beaten captain received him at the gangway. + +"You are consigned to us, I think," said he. "I am Mr. Havens." + +"That is right, sir," replied the captain, shaking hands. "You will find +the owner, Mr. Dodd, below. Mind the fresh paint on the house." + +Havens stepped along the alley-way, and descended the ladder into the +main cabin. + +"Mr. Dodd, I believe," said he, addressing a smallish, bearded +gentleman, who sat writing at the table.--"Why," he cried, "it isn't +Loudon Dodd?" + +"Myself, my dear fellow," replied Mr. Dodd, springing to his feet with +companionable alacrity. "I had a half-hope it might be you, when I found +your name on the papers. Well, there's no change in you; still the same +placid, fresh-looking Britisher." + +"I can't return the compliment; for you seem to have become a Britisher +yourself," said Havens. + +"I promise you, I am quite unchanged," returned Dodd. "The red +tablecloth at the top of the stick is not my flag; it's my partner's. He +is not dead, but sleepeth. There he is," he added, pointing to a bust +which formed one of the numerous unexpected ornaments of that unusual +cabin. + +Havens politely studied it. "A fine bust," said he; "and a very +nice-looking fellow." + +"Yes; he's a good fellow," said Dodd. "He runs me now. It's all his +money." + +"He doesn't seem to be particularly short of it," added the other, +peering with growing wonder round the cabin. + +"His money, my taste," said Dodd. "The black walnut bookshelves are old +English; the books all mine--mostly Renaissance French. You should see +how the beach-combers wilt away when they go round them, looking for a +change of seaside library novels. The mirrors are genuine Venice; that's +a good piece in the corner. The daubs are mine--and his; the mudding +mine." + +"Mudding? What is that?" asked Havens. + +"These bronzes," replied Dodd. "I began life as a sculptor." + +"Yes; I remember something about that," said the other. "I think, too, +you said you were interested in Californian real estate." + +"Surely I never went so far as that," said Dodd. "Interested? I guess +not. Involved, perhaps. I was born an artist; I never took an interest +in anything but art. If I were to pile up this old schooner to-morrow," +he added, "I declare I believe I would try the thing again!" + +"Insured?" inquired Havens. + +"Yes," responded Dodd. "There's some fool in 'Frisco who insures us, and +comes down like a wolf on the fold on the profits; but we'll get even +with him some day." + +"Well, I suppose it's all right about the cargo," said Havens. + +"O, I suppose so!" replied Dodd. "Shall we go into the papers?" + +"We'll have all to-morrow, you know," said Havens; "and they'll be +rather expecting you at the club. _C'est l'heure de l'absinthe_. Of +course, Loudon, you'll dine with me later on?" + +Mr. Dodd signified his acquiescence; drew on his white coat, not without +a trifling difficulty, for he was a man of middle age, and well-to-do; +arranged his beard and moustaches at one of the Venetian mirrors; and, +taking a broad felt hat, led the way through the trade-room into the +ship's waist. + +The stern, boat was waiting alongside--a boat of an elegant model, with +cushions and polished hardwood fittings. + +"You steer," observed Loudon. "You know the best place to land." + +"I never like to steer another man's boat," replied Havens. + +"Call it my partner's, and cry quits," returned Loudon, getting +nonchalantly down the side. + +Havens followed and took the yoke lines without further protest. + +"I am sure I don't know how you make this pay," he said. "To begin with, +she is too big for the trade, to my taste; and then you carry so much +style." + +"I don't know that she does pay," returned Loudon. "I never pretend to +be a business man. My partner appears happy; and the money is all his, +as I told you--I only bring the want of business habits." + +"You rather like the berth, I suppose?" suggested Havens. + +"Yes," said Loudon; "it seems odd, but I rather do." + +While they were yet on board, the sun had dipped; the sunset gun (a +rifle) had cracked from the war-schooner, and the colours had been +handed down. Dusk was deepening as they came ashore; and the _Cercle +International_(as the club is officially and significantly named) began +to shine, from under its low verandahs, with the light of many lamps. +The good hours of the twenty-four drew on; the hateful, poisonous +day-fly of Nukahiva was beginning to desist from its activity; the +land-breeze came in refreshing draughts; and the club-men gathered +together for the hour of absinthe. To the commandant himself, to the man +whom he was then contending with at billiards--a trader from the next +island, honorary member of the club, and once carpenter's mate on board +a Yankee war-ship--to the doctor of the port, to the Brigadier of +Gendarmerie, to the opium-farmer, and to all the white men whom the tide +of commerce, or the chances of shipwreck and desertion, had stranded on +the beach of Tai-o-hae, Mr. Loudon Dodd was formally presented; by all +(since he was a man of pleasing exterior, smooth ways, and an +unexceptionable flow of talk, whether in French or English) he was +excellently well received; and presently, with one of the last eight +bottles of beer on a table at his elbow, found himself the rather silent +centrepiece of a voluble group on the verandah. + +Talk in the South Seas is all upon one pattern; it is a wide ocean, +indeed, but a narrow world: you shall never talk long and not hear the +name of Bully Hayes, a naval hero whose exploits and deserved extinction +left Europe cold; commerce will be touched on, copra, shell, perhaps +cotton or fungus; but in a far-away, dilettante fashion, as by men not +deeply interested; through all, the names of schooners and their +captains will keep coming and going, thick as may-flies; and news of the +last shipwreck will be placidly exchanged and debated. To a stranger, +this conversation will at first seem scarcely brilliant but he will soon +catch the tone; and by the time he shall have moved a year or so in the +island world, and come across a good number of the schooners, so that +every captain's name calls up a figure in pyjamas or white duck, and +becomes used to a certain laxity of moral tone which prevails (as in +memory of Mr. Hayes) on smuggling, ship-scuttling, barratry, piracy, the +labour trade, and other kindred fields of human activity, he will find +Polynesia no less amusing and no less instructive than Pall Mall or +Paris. + +Mr. Loudon Dodd, though he was new to the group of the Marquesas, was +already an old, salted trader; he knew the ships and the captains; he +had assisted, in other islands, at the first steps of some career of +which he now heard the culmination, or (_vice versa_) he had brought +with him from further south the end of some story which had begun in +Tai-o-hae. Among other matters of interest, like other arrivals in the +South Seas, he had a wreck to announce. The _John T. Richards_, it +appeared, had met the fate of other island schooners. + +"Dickinson piled her up on Palmerston Island," Dodd announced. + +"Who were the owners?" inquired one of the clubmen. + +"O, the usual parties!" returned Loudon, "Capsicum and Co." + +A smile and a glance of intelligence went round the group; and perhaps +Loudon gave voice to the general sentiment by remarking-- + +"Talk of good business! I know nothing better than a schooner, a +competent captain, and a sound reliable reef." + +"Good business! There's no such a thing!" said the Glasgow man. "Nobody +makes anything but the missionaries--dash it!" + +"I don't know," said another; "there's a good deal in opium." + +"It's a good job to strike a tabooed pearl-island--say, about the fourth +year," remarked a third, "skim the whole lagoon on the sly, and up stick +and away before the French get wind of you." + +"A pig nokket of cold is good," observed a German. + +"There's something in wrecks, too," said Havens. "Look at that man in +Honolulu, and the ship that went ashore on Waikiki Reef; it was blowing +a kona, hard; and she began to break up as soon as she touched. Lloyd's +agent had her sold inside an hour; and before dark, when she went to +pieces in earnest, the man that bought her had feathered his nest. Three +more hours of daylight, and he might have retired from business. As it +was, he built a house on Beretania Street, and called it after the +ship." + +"Yes, there's something in wrecks sometimes," said the Glasgow voice; +"but not often." + +"As a general rule, there's deuced little in anything," said Havens. + +"Well, I believe that's a Christian fact," cried the other. "What I want +is a secret, get hold of a rich man by the right place, and make him +squeal." + +"I suppose you know it's not thought to be the ticket," returned Havens. + +"I don't care for that; it's good enough for me," cried the man from +Glasgow, stoutly. "The only devil of it is, a fellow can never find a +secret in a place like the South Seas: only in London and Paris." + +"M'Gibbon's been reading some dime novel, I suppose," said one club-man. + +"He's been reading 'Aurora Floyd,'" remarked another. + +"And what if I have?" cried M'Gibbon. "It's all true. Look at the +newspapers! It's just your confounded ignorance that sets you +snickering. I tell you, it's as much a trade as underwriting, and a +dashed sight more honest." + +The sudden acrimony of these remarks called Loudon (who was a man of +peace) from his reserve. "It's rather singular," said he, "but I seem to +have practised about all these means of livelihood." + +"Tit you effer find a nokket?" inquired the inarticulate German, +eagerly. + +"No. I have been most kinds of fool in my time," returned Loudon, "but +not the gold-digging variety. Every man has a sane spot somewhere." + +"Well, then," suggested some one, "did you ever smuggle opium?" + +"Yes, I did," said Loudon. + +"Was there money in that?" + +"All the way," responded Loudon. + +"And perhaps you bought a wreck?" asked another. + +"Yes, sir," said Loudon. + +"How did that pan out?" pursued the questioner. + +"Well, mine was a peculiar kind of wreck," replied Loudon. "I don't +know, on the whole, that I can recommend that branch of industry." + +"Did she break up?" asked some one. + +"I guess it was rather I that broke down," says Loudon. "Head not big +enough." + +"Ever try the blackmail?" inquired Havens. + +"Simple as you see me sitting here!" responded Dodd. + +"Good business?" + +"Well, I'm not a lucky man, you see," returned the stranger. "It ought +to have been good." + +"You had a secret?" asked the Glasgow man. + +"As big as the State of Texas." + +"And the other man was rich?" + +"He wasn't exactly Jay Gould, but I guess he could buy these islands if +he wanted." + +"Why, what was wrong, then? Couldn't you get hands on him?" + +"It took time, but I had him cornered at last; and then----" + +"What then?" + +"The speculation turned bottom up. I became the man's bosom friend." + +"The deuce you did!" + +"He couldn't have been particular, you mean?" asked Dodd pleasantly. +"Well, no; he's a man of rather large sympathies." + +"If you're done talking nonsense, Loudon," said Havens, "let's be +getting to my place for dinner." + +Outside, the night was full of the roaring of the surf. Scattered lights +glowed in the green thicket. Native women came by twos and threes out of +the darkness, smiled and ogled the two whites, perhaps wooed them with a +strain of laughter, and went by again, bequeathing to the air a heady +perfume of palm-oil and frangipani blossom. From the club to Mr. +Havens's residence was but a step or two, and to any dweller in Europe +they must have seemed steps in fairyland. If such an one could but have +followed our two friends into the wide-verandahed house, sat down with +them in the cool trellised room, where the wine shone on the +lamp-lighted tablecloth; tasted of their exotic food--the raw fish, the +bread-fruit, the cooked bananas, the roast pig served with the +inimitable miti, and that king of delicacies, palm-tree salad; seen and +heard by fits and starts, now peering round the corner of the door, now +railing within against invisible assistants, a certain comely young +native lady in a sacque, who seemed too modest to be a member of the +family, and too imperious to be less; and then if such an one were +whisked again through space to Upper Tooting, or wherever else he +honoured the domestic gods, "I have had a dream," I think he would say, +as he sat up, rubbing his eyes, in the familiar chimney-corner chair, "I +have had a dream of a place, and I declare I believe it must be heaven." +But to Dodd and his entertainer, all this amenity of the tropic night, +and all these dainties of the island table, were grown things of custom; +and they fell to meat like men who were hungry, and drifted into idle +talk like men who were a trifle bored. + +The scene in the club was referred to. + +"I never heard you talk so much nonsense, Loudon," said the host. + +"Well, it seemed to me there was sulphur in the air, so I talked for +talking," returned the other. "But it was none of it nonsense." + +"Do you mean to say it was true?" cried Havens--"that about the opium +and the wreck, and the black-mailing, and the man who became your +friend?" + +"Every last word of it," said Loudon. + +"You seem to have been seeing life," returned the other. + +"Yes, it's a queer yarn," said his friend; "if you think you would like, +I'll tell it you." + +Here follows the yarn of Loudon Dodd, not as he told it to his friend, +but as he subsequently wrote it. + + + + +THE YARN + +CHAPTER I + +A SOUND COMMERCIAL EDUCATION + + +The beginning of this yarn is my poor father's character. There never +was a better man, nor a handsomer, nor (in my view) a more +unhappy--unhappy in his business, in his pleasures, in his place of +residence, and (I am sorry to say it) in his son. He had begun life as a +land-surveyor, soon became interested in real estate, branched off into +many other speculations, and had the name of one of the smartest men in +the State of Muskegon. "Dodd has a big head," people used to say; but I +was never so sure of his capacity. His luck, at least, was beyond doubt +for long; his assiduity, always. He fought in that daily battle of +money-grubbing, with a kind of sad-eyed loyalty like a martyr's; rose +early, ate fast, came home dispirited and over-weary, even from success; +grudged himself all pleasure, if his nature was capable of taking any, +which I sometimes wondered; and laid out, upon some deal in wheat or +corner in aluminium, the essence of which was little better than highway +robbery, treasures of conscientiousness and self-denial. + +Unluckily, I never cared a cent for anything but art, and never shall. +My idea of man's chief end was to enrich the world with things of +beauty, and have a fairly good time myself while doing so. I do not +think I mentioned that second part, which is the only one I have managed +to carry out; but my father must have suspected the suppression, for he +branded the whole affair as self-indulgence. + +"Well," I remember crying once, "and what is your life? You are only +trying to get money, and to get it from other people at that." + +He sighed bitterly (which was very much his habit), and shook his poor +head at me. + +"Ah, Loudon, Loudon!" said he, "you boys think yourselves very smart. +But, struggle as you please, a man has to work in this world. He must be +an honest man or a thief, Loudon." + +You can see for yourself how vain it was to argue with my father. The +despair that seized upon me after such an interview was, besides, +embittered by remorse; for I was at times petulant, but he invariably +gentle; and I was fighting, after all, for my own liberty and pleasure, +he singly for what he thought to be my good. And all the time he never +despaired. "There is good stuff in you, Loudon," he would say; "there is +the right stuff in you. Blood will tell, and you will come right in +time. I am not afraid my boy will ever disgrace me; I am only vexed he +should sometimes talk nonsense." And then he would pat my shoulder or my +hand with a kind of motherly way he had, very affecting in a man so +strong and beautiful. + +As soon as I had graduated from the high school, he packed me off to the +Muskegon Commercial Academy. You are a foreigner, and you will have a +difficulty in accepting the reality of this seat of education. I assure +you before I begin that I am wholly serious. The place really existed, +possibly exists to-day: we were proud of it in the State, as something +exceptionally nineteenth-century and civilised; and my father, when he +saw me to the cars, no doubt considered he was putting me in a straight +line for the Presidency and the New Jerusalem. + +"Loudon," said he, "I am now giving you a chance that Julius Caesar could +not have given to his son--a chance to see life as it is, before your +own turn comes to start in earnest. Avoid rash speculation, try to +behave like a gentleman; and if you will take my advice, confine +yourself to a safe, conservative business in railroads. Breadstuffs are +tempting, but very dangerous; I would not try breadstuffs at your time +of life; but you may feel your way a little in other commodities. Take a +pride to keep your books posted, and never throw good money after bad. +There, my dear boy, kiss me good-bye; and never forget that you are an +only chick, and that your dad watches your career with fond suspense." + +The commercial college was a fine, roomy establishment, pleasantly +situate among woods. The air was healthy, the food excellent, the +premium high. Electric wires connected it (to use the words of the +prospectus) with "the various world centres." The reading-room was well +supplied with "commercial organs." The talk was that of Wall Street; and +the pupils (from fifty to a hundred lads) were principally engaged in +rooking or trying to rook one another for nominal sums in what was +called "college paper." We had class hours, indeed, in the morning, when +we studied German, French, book-keeping, and the like goodly matters; +but the bulk of our day and the gist of the education centred in the +exchange, where we were taught to gamble in produce and securities. +Since not one of the participants possessed a bushel of wheat or a +dollar's worth of stock, legitimate business was of course impossible +from the beginning. It was cold-drawn gambling, without colour or +disguise. Just that which is the impediment and destruction of all +genuine commercial enterprise, just that we were taught with every +luxury of stage effect. Our simulacrum of a market was ruled by the real +markets outside, so that we might experience the course and vicissitude +of prices. We must keep books, and our ledgers were overhauled at the +month's end by the principal or his assistants. To add a spice of +verisimilitude, "college paper" (like poker chips) had an actual +marketable value. It was bought for each pupil by anxious parents and +guardians at the rate of one cent for the dollar. The same pupil, when +his education was complete, resold, at the same figure, so much as was +left him to the college; and even in the midst of his curriculum, a +successful operator would sometimes realise a proportion of his holding, +and stand a supper on the sly in the neighbouring hamlet. In short, if +there was ever a worse education it must have been in that academy where +Oliver met Charles Bates. + +When I was first guided into the exchange to have my desk pointed out by +one of the assistant teachers, I was overwhelmed by the clamour and +confusion. Certain blackboards at the other end of the building were +covered with figures continually replaced. As each new set appeared, the +pupils swayed to and fro, and roared out aloud with a formidable and to +me quite meaningless vociferation; leaping at the same time upon the +desks and benches, signalling with arms and heads, and scribbling +briskly in note-books. I thought I had never beheld a scene more +disagreeable; and when I considered that the whole traffic was illusory, +and all the money then upon the market would scarce have sufficed to buy +a pair of skates, I was at first astonished, although not for long. +Indeed, I had no sooner called to mind how grown-up men and women of +considerable estate will lose their temper about halfpenny points, than +(making an immediate allowance for my fellow-students) I transferred the +whole of my astonishment to the assistant teacher, who--poor +gentleman--had quite forgot to show me to my desk, and stood in the +midst of this hurly-burly, absorbed and seemingly transported. + +"Look, look," he shouted in my ear; "a falling market! The bears have +had it all their own way since yesterday." + +"It can't matter," I replied, making him hear with difficulty, for I was +unused to speak in such a babel, "since it is all fun." + +"True," said he; "and you must always bear in mind that the real profit +is in the book-keeping. I trust, Dodd, to be able to congratulate you +upon your books. You are to start in with ten thousand dollars of +college paper, a very liberal figure, which should see you through the +whole curriculum, if you keep to a safe, conservative business.... Why, +what's that?" he broke off, once more attracted by the changing figures +on the board. "Seven, four, three! Dodd, you are in luck: this is the +most spirited rally we have had this term. And to think that the same +scene is now transpiring in New York, Chicago, St. Louis, and rival +business centres! For two cents, I would try a flutter with the boys +myself," he cried, rubbing his hands; "only it's against the +regulations." + +"What would you do, sir?" I asked. + +"Do?" he cried, with glittering eyes. "Buy for all I was worth!" + +"Would that be a safe, conservative business?" I inquired, as innocent +as a lamb. + +He looked daggers at me. "See that sandy-haired man in glasses?" he +asked, as if to change the subject. "That's Billson, our most prominent +undergraduate. We build confidently on Billson's future. You could not +do better, Dodd, than follow Billson." + +Presently after, in the midst of a still growing tumult, the figures +coming and going more busily than ever on the board, and the hall +resounding like Pandemonium with the howls of operators, the assistant +teacher left me to my own resources at my desk. The next boy was posting +up his ledger, figuring his morning's loss, as I discovered later on; +and from this ungenial task he was readily diverted by the sight of a +new face. + +"Say, Freshman," he said, "what's your name? What? Son of Big Head Dodd? +What's your figure? Ten thousand! O, you're away up! What a soft-headed +clam you must be to touch your books!" + +I asked him what else I could do, since the books were to be examined +once a month. + +"Why, you galoot, you get a clerk!" cries he. "One of our dead +beats--that's all they're here for. If you're a successful operator, you +need never do a stroke of work in this old college." + +The noise had now become deafening; and my new friend, telling me that +some one had certainly "gone down," that he must know the news, and that +he would bring me a clerk when he returned, buttoned his coat and +plunged into the tossing throng. It proved that he was right: some one +had gone down; a prince had fallen in Israel; the corner in lard had +proved fatal to the mighty; and the clerk who was brought back to keep +my books, spare me all work, and get all my share of the education, at a +thousand dollars a month, college paper (ten dollars, United States +currency), was no other than the prominent Billson whom I could do no +better than follow. The poor lad was very unhappy. It's the only good +thing I have to say for Muskegon Commercial College, that we were all, +even the small fry, deeply mortified to be posted as defaulters; and the +collapse of a merchant prince like Billson, who had ridden pretty high +in his days of prosperity, was, of course, particularly hard to bear. +But the spirit of make-believe conquered even the bitterness of recent +shame; and my clerk took his orders, and fell to his new duties, with +decorum and civility. + +Such were my first impressions in this absurd place of education; and, +to be frank, they were far from disagreeable. As long as I was rich, my +evenings and afternoons would be my own; the clerk must keep my books, +the clerk could do the jostling and bawling in the exchange; and I could +turn my mind to landscape-painting and Balzac's novels, which were then +my two pre-occupations. To remain rich, then, became my problem; or, in +other words, to do a safe, conservative line of business. I am looking +for that line still; and I believe the nearest thing to it in this +imperfect world is the sort of speculation sometimes insidiously +proposed to childhood, in the formula, "Heads I win; tails you lose." +Mindful of my father's parting words, I turned my attention timidly to +railroads; and for a month or so maintained a position of inglorious +security, dealing for small amounts in the most inert stocks, and +bearing (as best I could) the scorn of my hired clerk. One day I +ventured a little further by way of experiment; and, in the sure +expectation they would continue to go down, sold several thousand +dollars of Pan-Handle Preference (I think it was). I had no sooner made +this venture than some fools in New York began to bull the market; +Pan-Handles rose like a balloon; and in the inside of half an hour I saw +my position compromised. Blood will tell, as my father said; and I stuck +to it gallantly: all afternoon I continued selling that infernal stock, +all afternoon it continued skying. I suppose I had come (a frail +cockle-shell) athwart the hawse of Jay Gould; and, indeed, I think I +remember that this vagary in the market proved subsequently to be the +first move in a considerable deal. That evening, at least, the name of +H. Loudon Dodd held the first rank in our collegiate gazette, and I and +Billson (once more thrown upon the world) were competing for the same +clerkship. The present object takes the present eye. My disaster, for +the moment, was the more conspicuous; and it was I that got the +situation. So, you see, even in Muskegon Commercial College there were +lessons to be learned. + +For my own part, I cared very little whether I lost or won at a game so +random, so complex, and so dull; but it was sorry news to write to my +poor father, and I employed all the resources of my eloquence. I told +him (what was the truth) that the successful boys had none of the +education; so that, if he wished me to learn, he should rejoice at my +misfortune. I went on (not very consistently) to beg him to set me up +again, when I would solemnly promise to do a safe business in reliable +railroads. Lastly (becoming somewhat carried away), I assured him I was +totally unfit for business, and implored him to take me away from this +abominable place, and let me go to Paris to study art. He answered +briefly, gently, and sadly, telling me the vacation was near at hand, +when we could talk things over. + +When the time came, he met me at the depot, and I was shocked to see him +looking older. He seemed to have no thought but to console me and +restore (what he supposed I had lost) my courage. I must not be +down-hearted; many of the best men had made a failure in the beginning. +I told him I had no head for business, and his kind face darkened. "You +must not say that, Loudon," he replied; "I will never believe my son to +be a coward." + +"But I don't like it," I pleaded. "It hasn't got any interest for me, +and art has. I know I could do more in art," and I reminded him that a +successful painter gains large sums; that a picture of Meissonier's +would sell for many thousand dollars. + +"And do you think, Loudon," he replied, "that a man who can paint a +thousand-dollar picture has not grit enough to keep his end up in the +stock market? No, sir; this Mason (of whom you speak) or our own +American Bierstadt--if you were to put them down in a wheat-pit +to-morrow, they would show their mettle. Come, Loudon, my dear; Heaven +knows I have no thought but your own good, and I will offer you a +bargain. I start you again next term with ten thousand dollars; show +yourself a man, and double it, and then (if you still wish to go to +Paris, which I know you won't) I'll let you go. But to let you run away +as if you were whipped, is what I am too proud to do." + +My heart leaped at this proposal, and then sank again. It seemed easier +to paint a Meissonier on the spot than to win ten thousand dollars on +that mimic stock exchange. Nor could I help reflecting on the +singularity of such a test for a man's capacity to be a painter. I +ventured even to comment on this. + +He sighed deeply. "You forget, my dear," said he, "I am a judge of the +one, and not of the other. You might have the genius of Bierstadt +himself, and I would be none the wiser." + +"And then," I continued, "it's scarcely fair. The other boys are helped +by their people, who telegraph and give them pointers. There's Jim +Costello, who never budges without a word from his father in New York. +And then, don't you see, if anybody is to win, somebody must lose?" + +"I'll keep you posted," cried my father, with unusual animation; "I did +not know it was allowed. I'll wire you in the office cipher, and we'll +make it a kind of partnership business, Loudon:--Dodd and Son, eh?" and +he patted my shoulder and repeated, "Dodd and Son, Dodd and Son," with +the kindliest amusement. + +If my father was to give me pointers, and the commercial college was to +be a stepping-stone to Paris, I could look my future in the face. The +old boy, too, was so pleased at the idea of our association in this +foolery, that he immediately plucked up spirit. Thus it befell that +those who had met at the depot like a pair of mutes, sat down to table +with holiday faces. + +And now I have to introduce a new character that never said a word nor +wagged a finger, and yet shaped my whole subsequent career. You have +crossed the States, so that in all likelihood you have seen the head of +it, parcel-gilt and curiously fluted, rising among trees from a wide +plain; for this new character was no other than the State capitol of +Muskegon, then first projected. My father had embraced the idea with a +mixture of patriotism and commercial greed, both perfectly genuine. He +was of all the committees, he had subscribed a great deal of money, and +he was making arrangements to have a finger in most of the contracts. +Competitive plans had been sent in; at the time of my return from +college my father was deep in their consideration; and as the idea +entirely occupied his mind, the first evening did not pass away before +he had called me into council. Here was a subject at last into which I +could throw myself with pleasurable zeal. Architecture was new to me, +indeed; but it was at least an art; and for all the arts I had a taste +naturally classical, and that capacity to take delighted pains which +some famous idiot has supposed to be synonymous with genius. I threw +myself headlong into my father's work, acquainted myself with all the +plans, their merits and defects, read besides in special books, made +myself a master of the theory of strains, studied the current prices of +materials, and (in one word) "devilled" the whole business so +thoroughly, that when the plans came up for consideration, Big Head Dodd +was supposed to have earned fresh laurels. His arguments carried the +day, his choice was approved by the committee, and I had the anonymous +satisfaction to know that arguments and choice were wholly mine. In the +re-casting of the plan which followed, my part was even larger; for I +designed and cast with my own hand a hot-air grating for the offices, +which had the luck or merit to be accepted. The energy and aptitude +which I displayed throughout delighted and surprised my father, and I +believe, although I say it, whose tongue should be tied, that they alone +prevented Muskegon capitol from being the eyesore of my native State. + +Altogether, I was in a cheery frame of mind when I returned to the +commercial college; and my earlier operations were crowned with a full +measure of success. My father wrote and wired to me continually. "You +are to exercise your own judgment, Loudon," he would say. "All that I do +is to give you the figures; but whatever operation you take up must be +upon your own responsibility, and whatever you earn will be entirely due +to your own dash and forethought." For all that, it was always clear +what he intended me to do, and I was always careful to do it. Inside of +a month I was at the head of seventeen or eighteen thousand dollars, +college paper. And here I fell a victim to one of the vices of the +system. The paper (I have already explained) had a real value of one per +cent.; and cost, and could be sold for, currency. Unsuccessful +speculators were thus always selling clothes, books, banjos, and +sleeve-links, in order to pay their differences; the successful, on the +other hand, were often tempted to realise, and enjoy some return upon +their profits. Now I wanted thirty dollars' worth of artist truck, for I +was always sketching in the woods; my allowance was for the time +exhausted; I had begun to regard the exchange (with my father's help) as +a place where money was to be got for stooping; and in an evil hour I +realised three thousand dollars of the college paper and bought my +easel. + +It was a Wednesday morning when the things arrived, and set me in the +seventh heaven of satisfaction. My father (for I can scarcely say +myself) was trying at this time a "straddle" in wheat between Chicago +and New York; the operation so called, is, as you know, one of the most +tempting and least safe upon the chess-board of finance. On the +Thursday, luck began to turn against my father's calculations; and by +the Friday evening I was posted on the boards as a defaulter for the +second time. Here was a rude blow: my father would have taken it ill +enough in any case; for however much a man may resent the incapacity of +an only son, he will feel his own more sensibly. But it chanced that, in +our bitter cup of failure, there was one ingredient that might truly be +called poisonous. He had been keeping the run of my position; he missed +the three thousand dollars, paper; and in his view, I had stolen thirty +dollars, currency. It was an extreme view perhaps; but in some senses, +it was just: and my father, although (to my judgment) quite reckless of +honesty in the essence of his operations, was the soul of honour as to +their details. I had one grieved letter from him, dignified and tender; +and during the rest of that wretched term, working as a clerk, selling +my clothes and sketches to make futile speculations, my dream of Paris +quite vanished. I was cheered by no word of kindness and helped by no +hint of counsel from my father. + +All the time he was no doubt thinking of little else but his son, and +what to do with him. I believe he had been really appalled by what he +regarded as my laxity of principle, and began to think it might be well +to preserve me from temptation; the architect of the capitol had, +besides, spoken obligingly of my design; and while he was thus hanging +between two minds, Fortune suddenly stepped in, and Muskegon State +capitol reversed my destiny. + +"Loudon," said my father, as he met me at the depot, with a smiling +countenance, "if you were to go to Paris, how long would it take you to +become an experienced sculptor?" + +"How do you mean, father," I cried--"experienced?" + +"A man that could be entrusted with the highest styles," he answered; +"the nude, for instance; and the patriotic and emblematical styles." + +"It might take three years," I replied. + +"You think Paris necessary?" he asked. "There are great advantages in +our own country; and that man Prodgers appears to be a very clever +sculptor, though I suppose he stands too high to go around giving +lessons." + +"Paris is the only place," I assured him. + +"Well, I think myself it will sound better," he admitted. "A Young Man, +a Native of this State, Son of a Leading Citizen, Studies Prosecuted +under the Most Experienced Masters in Paris," he added relishingly. + +"But, my dear dad, what is it all about?" I interrupted. "I never even +dreamed of being a sculptor." + +"Well, here it is," said he. "I took up the statuary contract on our new +capitol; I took it up at first as a deal; and then it occurred to me it +would be better to keep it in the family. It meets your idea; there's +considerable money in the thing; and it's patriotic. So, if you say the +word, you shall go to Paris, and come back in three years to decorate +the capitol of your native State. It's a big chance for you, Loudon; and +I'll tell you what--every dollar you earn, I'll put another alongside of +it. But the sooner you go, and the harder you work, the better; for if +the first half-dozen statues aren't in a line with public taste in +Muskegon, there will be trouble." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +ROUSSILLON WINE + + +My mother's family was Scottish, and it was judged fitting I should pay +a visit, on my way Paris-ward, to my uncle Adam Loudon, a wealthy +retired grocer of Edinburgh. He was very stiff and very ironical; he fed +me well, lodged me sumptuously, and seemed to take it out of me all the +time, cent. per cent., in secret entertainment which caused his +spectacles to glitter and his mouth to twitch. The ground of this +ill-suppressed mirth (as well as I could make out) was simply the fact +that I was an American. "Well," he would say, drawing out the word to +infinity, "and I suppose now in your country things will be so-and-so." +And the whole group of my cousins would titter joyously. Repeated +receptions of this sort must be at the root, I suppose, of what they +call the Great American Jest; and I know I was myself goaded into saying +that my friends went naked in the summer months, and that the Second +Methodist Episcopal Church in Muskegon was decorated with scalps. I +cannot say that these flights had any great success; they seemed to +awaken little more surprise than the fact that my father was a +Republican, or that I had been taught in school to spell _colour_ +without the _u_. If I had told them (what was, after all, the truth) +that my father had paid a considerable annual sum to have me brought up +in a gambling-hell, the tittering and grinning of this dreadful family +might perhaps have been excused. + +I cannot deny but I was sometimes tempted to knock my uncle Adam down; +and indeed I believe it must have come to a rupture at last, if they +had not given a dinner party at which I was the lion. On this occasion I +learned (to my surprise and relief) that the incivility to which I had +been subjected was a matter for the family circle, and might be regarded +almost in the light of an endearment. To strangers I was presented with +consideration; and the account given of "my American brother-in-law, +poor Janie's man, James K. Dodd, the well-known millionaire of +Muskegon," was calculated to enlarge the heart of a proud son. + +An aged assistant of my grandfather's, a pleasant, humble creature with +a taste for whisky, was at first deputed to be my guide about the city. +With this harmless but hardly aristocratic companion I went to Arthur's +Seat and the Calton Hill, heard the band play in Princes Street Gardens, +inspected the regalia and the blood of Rizzio, and fell in love with the +great castle on its cliff, the innumerable spires of churches, the +stately buildings, the broad prospects, and those narrow and crowded +lanes of the old town where my ancestors had lived and died in the days +before Columbus. + +But there was another curiosity that interested me more deeply--my +grandfather, Alexander Loudon. In his time the old gentleman had been a +working mason, and had risen from the ranks--more, I think, by +shrewdness than by merit. In his appearance, speech, and manners, he +bore broad marks of his origin, which were gall and wormwood to my uncle +Adam. His nails, in spite of anxious supervision, were often in +conspicuous mourning; his clothes hung about him in bags and wrinkles, +like a ploughman's Sunday coat; his accent was rude, broad, and +dragging. Take him at his best, and even when he could be induced to +hold his tongue, his mere presence in a corner of the drawing-room, with +his open-air wrinkles, his scanty hair, his battered hands, and the +cheerful craftiness of his expression, advertised the whole gang of us +for a self-made family. My aunt might mince and my cousins bridle, but +there was no getting over the solid, physical fact of the stonemason in +the chimney-corner. + +That is one advantage of being an American. It never occurred to me to +be ashamed of my grandfather, and the old gentleman was quick to mark +the difference. He held my mother in tender memory, perhaps because he +was in the habit of daily contrasting her with uncle Adam, whom he +detested to the point of frenzy; and he set down to inheritance from his +favourite my own becoming treatment of himself. On our walks abroad, +which soon became daily, he would sometimes (after duly warning me to +keep the matter dark from "Aadam") skulk into some old familiar +pot-house, and there (if he had the luck to encounter any of his veteran +cronies) he would present me to the company with manifest pride, casting +at the same time a covert slur on the rest of his descendants. "This is +my Jeannie's yin," he would say. "He's a fine fallow, him," The purpose +of our excursions was not to seek antiquities or to enjoy famous +prospects, but to visit one after another a series of doleful suburbs, +for which it was the old gentleman's chief claim to renown that he had +been the sole contractor, and too often the architect besides. I have +rarely seen a more shocking exhibition: the brick seemed to be blushing +in the walls, and the slates on the roof to have turned pale with shame; +but I was careful not to communicate these impressions to the aged +artificer at my side; and when he would direct my attention to some +fresh monstrosity--perhaps with the comment, "There's an idee of mine's; +it's cheap and tasty, and had a graand run; the idee was soon stole, and +there's whole deestricts near Glesgie with the goathic addeetion and +that plunth," I would civilly make haste to admire and (what I found +particularly delighted him) to inquire into the cost of each adornment. +It will be conceived that Muskegon capitol was a frequent and a welcome +ground of talk. I drew him all the plans from memory; and he, with the +aid of a narrow volume full of figures and tables, which answered (I +believe) to the name of Molesworth, and was his constant +pocket-companion, would draw up rough estimates and make imaginary +offers on the various contracts. Our Muskegon builders he pronounced a +pack of cormorants; and the congenial subject, together with my +knowledge of architectural terms, the theory of strains, and the prices +of materials in the States, formed a strong bond of union between what +might have been otherwise an ill-assorted pair, and led my grandfather +to pronounce me, with emphasis, "a real intalligent kind of a chield." +Thus a second time, as you will presently see, the capitol of my native +State had influentially affected the current of my life. + +I left Edinburgh, however, with not the least idea that I had done a +stroke of excellent business for myself, and singly delighted to escape +out of a somewhat dreary house and plunge instead into the rainbow city +of Paris. Every man has his own romance; mine clustered exclusively +about the practice of the arts, the life of Latin Quarter students, and +the world of Paris as depicted by that grimy wizard, the author of the +_Comedie Humaine_. I was not disappointed--I could not have been; for I +did not see the facts, I brought them with me ready-made. Z. Marcas +lived next door to me in my ungainly, ill-smelling hotel of the Rue +Racine; I dined at my villainous restaurant with Lousteau and with +Rastignac: if a curricle nearly ran me down at a street-crossing, Maxime +de Trailles would be the driver. I dined, I say, at a poor restaurant +and lived in a poor hotel; and this was not from need, but sentiment. My +father gave me a profuse allowance, and I might have lived (had I +chosen) in the Quartier de l'Etoile and driven to my studies daily. Had +I done so, the glamour must have fled: I should still have been but +Loudon Dodd; whereas now I was a Latin Quarter student, Murger's +successor, living in flesh and blood the life of one of those romances I +had loved to read, to re-read, and to dream over, among the woods of +Muskegon. + +At this time we were all a little Murger-mad in the Latin Quarter. The +play of the _Vie de Boheme_ (a dreary, snivelling piece) had been +produced at the Odeon, had run an unconscionable time--for Paris--and +revived the freshness of the legend. The same business, you may say, or +there and thereabout, was being privately enacted in consequence in +every garret of the neighbourhood, and a good third of the students were +consciously impersonating Rodolphe or Schaunard, to their own +incommunicable satisfaction. Some of us went far, and some farther. I +always looked with awful envy (for instance) on a certain countryman of +my own who had a studio in the Rue Monsieur le Prince, wore boots, and +long hair in a net, and could be seen tramping off, in this guise, to +the worst eating-house of the quarter, followed by a Corsican model, his +mistress, in the conspicuous costume of her race and calling. It takes +some greatness of soul to carry even folly to such heights as these; and +for my own part, I had to content myself by pretending very arduously to +be poor, by wearing a smoking-cap on the streets, and by pursuing, +through a series of misadventures, that extinct mammal the grisette. The +most grievous part was the eating and the drinking. I was born with a +dainty tooth and a palate for wine; and only a genuine devotion to +romance could have supported me under the cat-civets that I had to +swallow, and the red ink of Bercy I must wash them down withal. Every +now and again, after a hard day at the studio, where I was steadily and +far from unsuccessfully industrious, a wave of distaste would overbear +me; I would slink away from my haunts and companions, indemnify myself +for weeks of self-denial with fine wines and dainty dishes; seated +perhaps on a terrace, perhaps in an arbour in a garden, with a volume of +one of my favourite authors propped open in front of me, and now +consulted a while, and now forgotten: so remain, relishing my +situation, till night fell and the lights of the city kindled; and +thence stroll homeward by the riverside, under the moon or stars, in a +heaven of poetry and digestion. + +One such indulgence led me in the course of my second year into an +adventure which I must relate: indeed, it is the very point I have been +aiming for, since that was what brought me in acquaintance with Jim +Pinkerton. I sat down alone to dinner one October day when the rusty +leaves were falling and scuttling on the boulevard, and the minds of +impressionable men inclined in about an equal degree towards sadness and +conviviality. The restaurant was no great place, but boasted a +considerable cellar and a long printed list of vintages. This I was +perusing with the double zest of a man who is fond of wine and a lover +of beautiful names, when my eye fell (near the end of the card) on that +not very famous or familiar brand, Roussillon. I remembered it was a +wine I had never tasted, ordered a bottle, found it excellent, and when +I had discussed the contents, called (according to my habit) for a final +pint. It appears they did not keep Roussillon in half-bottles. "All +right," said I, "another bottle." The tables at this eating-house are +close together; and the next thing I can remember, I was in somewhat +loud conversation with my nearest neighbours. From these I must have +gradually extended my attentions; for I have a clear recollection of +gazing about a room in which every chair was half turned round and every +face turned smilingly to mine. I can even remember what I was saying at +the moment; but after twenty years the embers of shame are still alive, +and I prefer to give your imagination the cue by simply mentioning that +my muse was the patriotic. It had been my design to adjourn for coffee +in the company of some of these new friends; but I was no sooner on the +side-walk than I found myself unaccountably alone. The circumstance +scarce surprised me at the time, much less now; but I was somewhat +chagrined a little after to find I had walked into a kiosque. I began +to wonder if I were any the worse for my last bottle, and decided to +steady myself with coffee and brandy. In the Cafe de la Source, where I +went for this restorative, the fountain was playing, and (what greatly +surprised me) the mill and the various mechanical figures on the rockery +appeared to have been freshly repaired, and performed the most +enchanting antics. The cafe was extraordinarily hot and bright, with +every detail of a conspicuous clearness--from the faces of the guests, +to the type of the newspapers on the tables--and the whole apartment +swang to and fro like a hammock, with an exhilarating motion. For some +while I was so extremely pleased with these particulars that I thought I +could never be weary of beholding them: then dropped of a sudden into a +causeless sadness; and then, with the same swiftness and spontaneity, +arrived at the conclusion that I was drunk and had better get to bed. + +It was but a step or two to my hotel, where I got my lighted candle from +the porter, and mounted the four flights to my own room. Although I +could not deny that I was drunk, I was at the same time lucidly rational +and practical. I had but one pre-occupation--to be up in time on the +morrow for my work; and when I observed the clock on my chimney-piece to +have stopped, I decided to go downstairs again and give directions to +the porter. Leaving the candle burning and my door open, to be a guide +to me on my return, I set forth accordingly. The house was quite dark; +but as there were only the three doors on each landing, it was +impossible to wander, and I had nothing to do but descend the stairs +until I saw the glimmer of the porter's night-light. I counted four +flights: no porter. It was possible, of course, that I had reckoned +incorrectly; so I went down another and another, and another, still +counting as I went, until I had reached the preposterous figure of nine +flights. It was now quite clear that I had somehow passed the porter's +lodge without remarking it; indeed, I was, at the lowest figure, five +pairs of stairs below the street, and plunged in the very bowels of the +earth. That my hotel should thus be founded upon catacombs was a +discovery of considerable interest; and if I had not been in a frame of +mind entirely business-like, I might have continued to explore all night +this subterranean empire. But I was bound I must be up betimes on the +next morning, and for that end it was imperative that I should find the +porter. I faced about accordingly, and counting with painful care, +remounted towards the level of the street. Five, six, and seven flights +I climbed, and still there was no porter. I began to be weary of the +job, and reflecting that I was now close to my own room, decided I +should go to bed. Eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen flights I +mounted; and my open door seemed to be as wholly lost to me as the +porter and his floating dip. I remembered that the house stood but six +stories at its highest point, from which it appeared (on the most +moderate computation) I was now three stories higher than the roof. My +original sense of amusement was succeeded by a not unnatural irritation. +"My room has just _got_ to be here," said I, and I stepped towards the +door with outspread arms. There was no door and no wall; in place of +either there yawned before me a dark corridor, in which I continued to +advance for some time without encountering the smallest opposition. And +this in a house whose extreme area scantily contained three small rooms, +a narrow landing, and the stair! The thing was manifestly nonsense; and +you will scarcely be surprised to learn that I now began to lose my +temper. At this juncture I perceived a filtering of light along the +floor, stretched forth my hand, which encountered the knob of a +door-handle, and without further ceremony entered a room. A young lady +was within: she was going to bed, and her toilet was far advanced--or +the other way about, if you prefer. + +"I hope you will pardon this intrusion," said I; "but my room is No. +12, and something has gone wrong with this blamed house." + +She looked at me a moment; and then, "If you will step outside for a +moment, I will take you there," says she. + +Thus, with perfect composure on both sides, the matter was arranged. I +waited a while outside her door. Presently she rejoined me, in a +dressing-gown, took my hand, led me up another flight, which made the +fourth above the level of the roof, and shut me into my own room, where +(being quite weary after these contra-ordinary explorations) I turned in +and slumbered like a child. + +I tell you the thing calmly, as it appeared to me to pass; but the next +day, when I awoke and put memory in the witness-box, I could not conceal +from myself that the tale presented a good many improbable features. I +had no mind for the studio, after all, and went instead to the +Luxembourg gardens, there, among the sparrows and the statues and the +fallen leaves, to cool and clear my head. It is a garden I have always +loved. You sit there in a public place of history and fiction. Barras +and Fouche have looked from these windows. Lousteau and De Banville (one +as real as the other) have rhymed upon these benches. The city tramples +by without the railings to a lively measure; and within and about you, +trees rustle, children and sparrows utter their small cries, and the +statues look on for ever. Here, then, in a seat opposite the gallery +entrance, I set to work on the events of the last night, to disengage +(if it were possible) truth from fiction. + +The house, by daylight, had proved to be six stories high, the same as +ever. I could find, with all my architectural experience, no room in its +altitude for those interminable stairways, no width between its walls +for that long corridor, where I had tramped at night. And there was yet +a greater difficulty. I had read somewhere an aphorism that everything +may be false to itself save human nature. A house might elongate or +enlarge itself--or seem to do so to a gentleman who had been dining. The +ocean might dry up, the rocks melt in the sun, the stars fall from +heaven like autumn apples; and there was nothing in these incidents to +boggle the philosopher. But the case of the young lady stood upon a +different foundation. Girls were not good enough, or not good that way, +or else they were too good. I was ready to accept any of these views: +all pointed to the same conclusion, which I was thus already on the +point of reaching, when a fresh argument occurred, and instantly +confirmed it. I could remember the exact words we had each said; and I +had spoken, and she had replied, in English. Plainly, then, the whole +affair was an illusion: catacombs, and stairs, and charitable lady, all +were equally the stuff of dreams. + +I had just come to this determination, when there blew a flaw of wind +through the autumnal gardens; the dead leaves showered down, and a +flight of sparrows, thick as a snowfall, wheeled above my head with +sudden pipings. This agreeable bustle was the affair of a moment, but it +startled me from the abstraction into which I had fallen like a summons. +I sat briskly up, and as I did so my eyes rested on the figure of a lady +in a brown jacket and carrying a paint-box. By her side walked a fellow +some years older than myself, with an easel under his arm; and alike by +their course and cargo I might judge they were bound for the gallery, +where the lady was, doubtless, engaged upon some copying. You can +imagine my surprise when I recognised in her the heroine of my +adventure. To put the matter beyond question, our eyes met, and she, +seeing herself remembered, and recalling the trim in which I had last +beheld her, looked swiftly on the ground with just a shadow of +confusion. + +I could not tell you to-day if she were plain or pretty; but she had +behaved with so much good sense, and I had cut so poor a figure in her +presence, that I became instantly fired with the desire to display +myself in a more favourable light. The young man, besides, was possibly +her brother; brothers are apt to be hasty, theirs being a part in which +it is possible, at a comparatively early age, to assume the dignity of +manhood; and it occurred to me it might be wise to forestall all +possible complications by an apology. + +On this reasoning I drew near to the gallery door, and had hardly got in +position before the young man came out. Thus it was that I came face to +face with my third destiny, for my career has been entirely shaped by +these three elements--my father, the capitol of Muskegon, and my friend +Jim Pinkerton. As for the young lady, with whom my mind was at the +moment chiefly occupied, I was never to hear more of her from that day +forward--an excellent example of the Blind Man's Buff that we call life. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +TO INTRODUCE MR. PINKERTON + + +The stranger, I have said, was some years older than myself: a man of a +good stature, a very lively face, cordial, agitated manners, and a grey +eye as active as a fowl's. + +"May I have a word with you?" said I. + +"My dear sir," he replied, "I don't know what it can be about, but you +may have a hundred if you like." + +"You have just left the side of a young lady," I continued, "towards +whom I was led (very unintentionally) into the appearance of an offence. +To speak to herself would be only to renew her embarrassment, and I +seize the occasion of making my apology, and declaring my respect, to +one of my own sex who is her friend, and perhaps," I added, with a bow, +"her natural protector." + +"You are a countryman of mine; I know it!" he cried: "I am sure of it by +your delicacy to a lady. You do her no more than justice. I was +introduced to her the other night at tea, in the apartment of some +people, friends of mine; and meeting her again this morning, I could not +do less than carry her easel for her. My dear sir, what is your name?" + +I was disappointed to find he had so little bond with my young lady; and +but that it was I who had sought the acquaintance, might have been +tempted to retreat. At the same time something in the stranger's eye +engaged me. + +"My name," said I, "is Loudon Dodd; I am a student of sculpture here +from Muskegon." + +"Of sculpture?" he cried, as though that would have been his last +conjecture. "Mine is James Pinkerton; I am delighted to have the +pleasure of your acquaintance." + +"Pinkerton!" it was now my turn to exclaim. "Are you Broken-Stool +Pinkerton?" + +He admitted his identity with a laugh of boyish delight; and indeed any +young man in the quarter might have been proud to own a sobriquet thus +gallantly acquired. + +In order to explain the name, I must here digress into a chapter of the +history of manners in the nineteenth century, very well worth +commemoration for its own sake. In some of the studios at that date, the +hazing of new pupils was both barbarous and obscene. Two incidents, +following one on the heels of the other, tended to produce an advance in +civilisation by the means (as so commonly happens) of a passing appeal +to savage standards. The first was the arrival of a little gentleman +from Armenia. He had a fez upon his head and (what nobody counted on) a +dagger in his pocket. The hazing was set about in the customary style, +and, perhaps in virtue of the victim's head-gear, even more boisterously +than usual. He bore it at first with an inviting patience; but upon one +of the students proceeding to an unpardonable freedom, plucked out his +knife and suddenly plunged it in the belly of the jester. This +gentleman, I am pleased to say, passed months upon a bed of sickness +before he was in a position to resume his studies. The second incident +was that which had earned Pinkerton his reputation. In a crowded studio, +while some very filthy brutalities were being practised on a trembling +_debutant_, a tall pale fellow sprang from his stool and (without the +smallest preface or explanation) sang out, "All English and Americans to +clear the shop!" Our race is brutal, but not filthy; and the summons was +nobly responded to. Every Anglo-Saxon student seized his stool; in a +moment the studio was full of bloody coxcombs, the French fleeing in +disorder for the door, the victim liberated and amazed. In this feat of +arms, both English-speaking nations covered themselves with glory; but +I am proud to claim the author of the whole for an American, and a +patriotic American at that, being the same gentleman who had +subsequently to be held down in the bottom of a box during a performance +of _L'Oncle Sam_, sobbing at intervals, "My country! O my country!" +while yet another (my new acquaintance, Pinkerton) was supposed to have +made the most conspicuous figure in the actual battle. At one blow he +had broken his own stool, and sent the largest of his opponents back +foremost through what we used to call a "conscientious nude." It appears +that, in the continuation of his flight, this fallen warrior issued on +the boulevard still framed in the burst canvas. + +It will be understood how much talk the incident aroused in the +students' quarter, and that I was highly gratified to make the +acquaintance of my famous countryman. It chanced I was to see more of +the Quixotic side of his character before the morning was done; for, as +we continued to stroll together, I found myself near the studio of a +young Frenchman whose work I had promised to examine, and in the fashion +of the quarter carried up Pinkerton along with me. Some of my comrades +of this date were pretty obnoxious fellows. I could almost always admire +and respect the grown-up practitioners of art in Paris; but many of +those who were still in a state of pupilage were sorry specimens--so +much so that I used often to wonder where the painters came from, and +where the brutes of students went to. A similar mystery hangs over the +intermediate stages of the medical profession, and must have perplexed +the least observant. The ruffian, at least, whom I now carried Pinkerton +to visit, was one of the most crapulous in the quarter. He turned out +for our delectation a huge "crust" (as we used to call it) of St. +Stephen, wallowing in red upon his belly in an exhausted receiver, and a +crowd of Hebrews in blue, green, and yellow, pelting him--apparently +with buns; and while we gazed upon this contrivance, regaled us with a +piece of his own recent biography, of which his mind was still very +full, and which, he seemed to fancy, represented him in an heroic +posture. I was one of those cosmopolitan Americans who accept the world +(whether at home or abroad) as they find it, and whose favourite part is +that of the spectator; yet even I was listening with ill-suppressed +disgust, when I was aware of a violent plucking at my sleeve. + +"Is he saying he kicked her downstairs?" asked Pinkerton, white as St. +Stephen. + +"Yes," said I: "his discarded mistress; and then he pelted her with +stones. I suppose that's what gave him the idea for his picture. He has +just been alleging the pathetic excuse that she was old enough to be his +mother." + +Something like a sob broke from Pinkerton. "Tell him," he gasped--"I +can't speak this language, though I understand a little; I never had any +proper education--tell him I am going to punch his head." + +"For God's sake do nothing of the sort!" I cried; "they don't understand +that sort of thing here"; and I tried to bundle him out. + +"Tell him first what we think of him," he objected. "Let me tell him +what he looks in the eyes of a pure-minded American." + +"Leave that to me," said I, thrusting Pinkerton clear through the door. + +"_Qu'est-ce qu'il a_?"[1] inquired the student. + +"_Monsieur se sent mal au coeur d'avoir trop regarde votre croute_,"[2] +said I, and made my escape, scarce with dignity, at Pinkerton's heels. + +"What did you say to him?" he asked. + +"The only thing that he could feel," was my reply. + +After this scene, the freedom with which I had ejected my new +acquaintance, and the precipitation with which I had followed him, the +least I could do was to propose luncheon. I have forgot the name of the +place to which I led him, nothing loath; it was on the far side of the +Luxembourg at least, with a garden behind, where we were speedily set +face to face at table, and began to dig into each other's history and +character, like terriers after rabbits, according to the approved +fashion of youth. + +Pinkerton's parents were from the Old Country; there, too, I +incidentally gathered, he had himself been born, though it was a +circumstance he seemed prone to forget. Whether he had run away, or his +father had turned him out, I never fathomed; but about the age of twelve +he was thrown upon his own resources. A travelling tin-type photographer +picked him up, like a haw out of a hedgerow, on a wayside in New Jersey; +took a fancy to the urchin; carried him on with him in his wandering +life; taught him all he knew himself--to take tin-types (as well as I +can make out) and doubt the Scriptures; and died at last in Ohio at the +corner of a road. "He was a grand specimen," cried Pinkerton; "I wish +you could have seen him, Mr. Dodd. He had an appearance of magnanimity +that used to remind me of the patriarchs." On the death of this random +protector, the boy inherited the plant and continued the business. "It +was a life I could have chosen, Mr. Dodd!" he cried. "I have been in all +the finest scenes of that magnificent continent that we were born to be +the heirs of. I wish you could see my collection of tin-types; I wish I +had them here. They were taken for my own pleasure, and to be a memento: +and they show Nature in her grandest as well as her gentlest moments." +As he tramped the Western States and Territories, taking tin-types, the +boy was continually getting hold of books, good, bad, and indifferent, +popular and abstruse, from the novels of Sylvanus Cobb to Euclid's +Elements, both of which I found (to my almost equal wonder) he had +managed to peruse: he was taking stock by the way, of the people, the +products, and the country, with an eye unusually observant and a memory +unusually retentive; and he was collecting for himself a body of +magnanimous and semi-intellectual nonsense, which he supposed to be the +natural thoughts and to contain the whole duty of the born American. To +be pure-minded, to be patriotic, to get culture and money with both +hands and with the same irrational fervour--these appeared to be the +chief articles of his creed. In later days (not of course upon this +first occasion) I would sometimes ask him why; and he had his answer +pat. "To build up the type!" he would cry. "We're all committed to that; +we're all under bond to fulfil the American Type! Loudon, the hope of +the world is there. If we fail, like these old feudal monarchies, what +is left?" + +The trade of a tin-typer proved too narrow for the lad's ambition; it +was insusceptible of expansion, he explained; it was not truly modern; +and by a sudden conversion of front he became a railroad-scalper. The +principles of this trade I never clearly understood; but its essence +appears to be to cheat the railroads out of their due fare. "I threw my +whole soul into it; I grudged myself food and sleep while I was at it; +the most practised hands admitted I had caught on to the idea in a month +and revolutionised the practice inside of a year," he said. "And there's +interest in it, too. It's amusing to pick out some one going by, make up +your mind about his character and tastes, dash out of the office, and +hit him flying with an offer of the very place he wants to go to. I +don't think there was a scalper on the continent made fewer blunders. +But I took it only as a stage. I was saving every dollar; I was looking +ahead. I knew what I wanted--wealth, education, a refined home, and a +conscientious cultured lady for a wife; for, Mr. Dodd"--this with a +formidable outcry--"every man is bound to marry above him: if the +woman's not the man's superior, I brand it as mere sensuality. There was +my idea, at least. That was what I was saving for; and enough, too! But +it isn't every man, I know that--it's far from every man--could do what +I did: close up the livest agency in St. Jo, where he was coining +dollars by the pot, set out alone, without a friend or a word of French, +and settle down here to spend his capital learning art." + +"Was it an old taste?" I asked him, "or a sudden fancy?" + +"Neither, Mr. Dodd," he admitted. "Of course, I had learned in my +tin-typing excursions to glory and exult in the works of God. But it +wasn't that. I just said to myself, 'What is most wanted in my age and +country? More culture and more art,' I said; and I chose the best place, +saved my money, and came here to get them." + +The whole attitude of this young man warmed and shamed me. He had more +fire in his little toe than I had in my whole carcass; he was stuffed to +bursting with the manly virtues; thrift and courage glowed in him; and +even if his artistic vocation seemed (to one of my exclusive tenets) not +quite clear, who could predict what might be accomplished by a creature +so full-blooded and so inspired with animal and intellectual energy? So, +when he proposed that I should come and see his work (one of the regular +stages of a Latin Quarter friendship), I followed him with interest and +hope. + +He lodged parsimoniously at the top of a tall house near the +Observatory, in a bare room, principally furnished with his own trunks +and papered with his own despicable studies. No man has less taste for +disagreeable duties than myself; perhaps there is only one subject on +which I cannot flatter a man without a blush; but upon that, upon all +that touches art, my sincerity is Roman. Once and twice I made the +circuit of his walls in silence, spying in every corner for some spark +of merit; he meanwhile following close at my heels, reading the verdict +in my face with furtive glances, presenting some fresh study for my +inspection with undisguised anxiety, and (after it had been silently +weighed in the balances and found wanting) whisking it away with an +open gesture of despair. By the time the second round was completed, we +were both extremely depressed. + +"Oh!" he groaned, breaking the long silence, "it's quite unnecessary you +should speak!" + +"Do you want me to be frank with you? I think you are wasting time," +said I. + +"You don't see any promise?" he inquired, beguiled by some return of +hope, and turning upon me the embarrassing brightness of his eye. "Not +in this still-life here of the melon? One fellow thought it good." + +It was the least I could do to give the melon a more particular +examination; which, when I had done, I could but shake my head. "I am +truly sorry, Pinkerton," said I, "but I can't advise you to persevere." + +He seemed to recover his fortitude at the moment, rebounding from +disappointment like a man of india-rubber. "Well," said he stoutly, "I +don't know that I'm surprised. But I'll go on with the course; and throw +my whole soul into it too. You mustn't think the time is lost. It's all +culture; it will help me to extend my relations when I get back home; it +may fit me for a position on one of the illustrateds; and then I can +always turn dealer," he said, uttering the monstrous proposition, which +was enough to shake the Latin Quarter to the dust, with entire +simplicity. "It's all experience, besides," he continued; "and it seems +to me there's a tendency to underrate experience, both as net profit and +investment. Never mind. That's done with. But it took courage for you to +say what you did, and I'll never forget it. Here's my hand, Mr. Dodd. +I'm not your equal in culture or talent." + +"You know nothing about that," I interrupted. "I have seen your work, +but you haven't seen mine." + +"No more I have," he cried; "and let's go see it at once! But I know you +are away up; I can feel it here." + +To say truth, I was almost ashamed to introduce him to my studio--my +work, whether absolutely good or bad, being so vastly superior to his. +But his spirits were now quite restored; and he amazed me, on the way, +with his light-hearted talk and new projects. So that I began at last to +understand how matters lay: that this was not an artist who had been +deprived of the practice of his single art; but only a business man of +very extended interests, informed (perhaps something of the most +suddenly) that one investment out of twenty had gone wrong. + +As a matter of fact, besides (although I never suspected it), he was +already seeking consolation with another of the muses, and pleasing +himself with the notion that he would repay me for my sincerity, cement +our friendship, and (at one and the same blow) restore my estimation of +his talents. Several times already, when I had been speaking of myself, +he had pulled out a writing-pad and scribbled a brief note; and now, +when we entered the studio, I saw it in his hand again, and the pencil +go to his mouth, as he cast a comprehensive glance round the +uncomfortable building. + +"Are you going to make a sketch of it?" I could not help asking, as I +unveiled the Genius of Muskegon. + +"Ah, that's my secret," said he. "Never you mind. A mouse can help a +lion." + +He walked round my statue, and had the design explained to him. I had +represented Muskegon as a young, almost a stripling mother, with +something of an Indian type; the babe upon her knees was winged, to +indicate our soaring future; and her seat was a medley of sculptured +fragments, Greek, Roman, and Gothic, to remind us of the older worlds +from which we trace our generation. + +"Now, does this satisfy you, Mr. Dodd?" he inquired, as soon as I had +explained to him the main features of the design. + +"Well," I said, "the fellows seem to think it's not a bad _bonne femme_ +for a beginner. I don't think it's entirely bad myself. Here is the best +point; it builds up best from here. No, it seems to me it has a kind of +merit," I admitted; "but I mean to do better." + +"Ah, that's the word!" cried Pinkerton. "There's the word I love!" and +he scribbled in his pad. + +"What in creation ails you?" I inquired. "It's the most commonplace +expression in the English language." + +"Better and better!" chuckled Pinkerton. "The unconsciousness of genius. +Lord, but this is coming in beautiful!" and he scribbled again. + +"If you're going to be fulsome," said I, "I'll close the place of +entertainment"; and I threatened to replace the veil upon the Genius. + +"No, no," said he; "don't be in a hurry. Give me a point or two. Show me +what's particularly good." + +"I would rather you found that out for yourself," said I. + +"The trouble is," said he, "that I've never turned my attention to +sculpture--beyond, of course, admiring it, as everybody must who has a +soul. So do just be a good fellow, and explain to me what you like in +it, and what you tried for, and where the merit comes in. It'll be all +education for me." + +"Well, in sculpture, you see, the first thing you have to consider is +the masses. It's, after all, a kind of architecture," I began, and +delivered a lecture on that branch of art, with illustrations from my +own masterpiece there present--all of which, if you don't mind, or +whether you mind or not, I mean to conscientiously omit. Pinkerton +listened with a fiery interest, questioned me with a certain +uncultivated shrewdness, and continued to scratch down notes, and tear +fresh sheets from his pad. I found it inspiring to have my words thus +taken down like a professor's lecture; and having had no previous +experience of the press, I was unaware that they were all being taken +down wrong. For the same reason (incredible as it must appear in an +American) I never entertained the least suspicion that they were +destined to be dished up with a sauce of penny-a-lining gossip; and +myself, my person, and my works of art, butchered to make a holiday for +the readers of a Sunday paper. Night had fallen over the Genius of +Muskegon before the issue of my theoretic eloquence was stayed, nor did +I separate from my new friend without an appointment for the morrow. + +I was, indeed, greatly taken with this first view of my countryman, and +continued, on further acquaintance, to be interested, amused, and +attracted by him in about equal proportions. I must not say he had a +fault, not only because my mouth is sealed by gratitude, but because +those he had sprang merely from his education, and you could see he had +cultivated and improved them like virtues. For all that, I can never +deny he was a troublous friend to me, and the trouble began early. + +It may have been a fortnight later that I divined the secret of the +writing-pad. My wretch (it leaked out) wrote letters for a paper in the +West, and had filled a part of one of them with descriptions of myself. +I pointed out to him that he had no right to do so without asking my +permission. + +"Why, this is just what I hoped!" he exclaimed. "I thought you didn't +seem to catch on; only it seemed too good to be true." + +"But, my good fellow, you were bound to warn me," I objected. + +"I know it's generally considered etiquette," he admitted; "but between +friends, and when it was only with a view of serving you, I thought it +wouldn't matter. I wanted it (if possible) to come on you as a surprise; +I wanted you just to waken, like Lord Byron, and find the papers full of +you. You must admit it was a natural thought. And no man likes to boast +of a favour beforehand." + +"But, heavens and earth! how do you know I think it a favour?" I cried. + +He became immediately plunged in despair. "You think it a liberty," +said he; "I see that. I would rather have cut off my hand. I would stop +it now, only it's too late; it's published by now. And I wrote it with +so much pride and pleasure!" + +I could think of nothing but how to console him. "O, I daresay it's all +right," said I. "I know you meant it kindly, and you would be sure to do +it in good taste." + +"That you may swear to," he cried. "It's a pure, bright, A number 1 +paper; the St. Jo _Sunday Herald_. The idea of the series was quite my +own; I interviewed the editor, put it to him straight; the freshness of +the idea took him, and I walked out of that office with the contract in +my pocket, and did my first Paris letter that evening in St. Jo. The +editor did no more than glance his eye down the head-lines. 'You're the +man for us,' said he." + +I was certainly far from reassured by this sketch of the class of +literature in which I was to make my first appearance; but I said no +more, and possessed my soul in patience, until the day came when I +received a copy of a newspaper marked in the corner, "Compliments of +J.P." I opened it with sensible shrinkings; and there, wedged between an +account of a prize-fight and a skittish article upon chiropody--think of +chiropody treated with a leer!--I came upon a column and a half in which +myself and my poor statue were embalmed. Like the editor with the first +of the series, I did but glance my eye down the head-lines, and was more +than satisfied. + + ANOTHER OF PINKERTON'S SPICY CHATS. + + ART PRACTITIONERS IN PARIS. + + MUSKEGON'S COLUMNED CAPITOL. + + SON OF MILLIONAIRE DODD, + PATRIOT AND ARTIST. + + "HE MEANS TO DO BETTER." + +In the body of the text, besides, my eye caught, as it passed, some +deadly expressions: "Figure somewhat fleshy," "bright, intellectual +smile," "the unconsciousness of genius," "'Now, Mr. Dodd,' resumed the +reporter, 'what would be your idea of a distinctively American quality +in sculpture?'" It was true the question had been asked; it was true, +alas! that I had answered; and now here was my reply, or some strange +hash of it, gibbeted in the cold publicity of type. I thanked God that +my French fellow-students were ignorant of English; but when I thought +of the British--of Myner (for instance) or the Stennises--I think I +could have fallen on Pinkerton and beat him. + +To divert my thoughts (if it were possible) from this calamity, I turned +to a letter from my father which had arrived by the same post. The +envelope contained a strip of newspaper cutting; and my eye caught +again, "Son of Millionaire Dodd--Figure somewhat fleshy," and the rest +of the degrading nonsense. What would my father think of it? I wondered, +and opened his manuscript. "My dearest boy," it began, "I send you a +cutting which has pleased me very much, from a St. Joseph paper of high +standing. At last you seem to be coming fairly to the front; and I +cannot but reflect with delight and gratitude how very few youths of +your age occupy nearly two columns of press-matter all to themselves. I +only wish your dear mother had been here to read it over my shoulder; +but we will hope she shares my grateful emotion in a better place. Of +course I have sent a copy to your grandfather and uncle in Edinburgh; so +you can keep the one I enclose. This Jim Pinkerton seems a valuable +acquaintance; he has certainly great talent; and it is a good general +rule to keep in with pressmen." + +I hope it will be set down to the right side of my account, but I had no +sooner read these words, so touchingly silly, than my anger against +Pinkerton was swallowed up in gratitude. Of all the circumstances of my +career--my birth, perhaps, excepted--not one had given my poor father +so profound a pleasure as this article in the _Sunday Herald_. What a +fool, then, was I to be lamenting! when I had at last, and for once, and +at the cost of only a few blushes, paid back a fraction of my debt of +gratitude. So that, when I next met Pinkerton, I took things very +lightly; my father was pleased, and thought the letter very clever, I +told him; for my own part, I had no taste for publicity; thought the +public had no concern with the artist, only with his art; and though I +owned he had handled it with great consideration, I should take it as a +favour if he never did it again. + +"There it is," he said despondingly. "I've hurt you. You can't deceive +me, Loudon. It's the want of tact, and it's incurable." He sat down, and +leaned his head upon his hand. "I had no advantages when I was young, +you see," he added. + +"Not in the least, my dear fellow," said I. "Only the next time you wish +to do me a service, just speak about my work; leave my wretched person +out, and my still more wretched conversation; and above all," I added, +with an irrepressible shudder, "don't tell them how I said it! There's +that phrase, now: 'With a proud, glad smile.' Who cares whether I smiled +or not?" + +"Oh, there now, Loudon, you're entirely wrong," he broke in. "That's +what the public likes; that's the merit of the thing, the literary +value. It's to call up the scene before them; it's to enable the +humblest citizen to enjoy that afternoon the same as I did. Think what +it would have been to me when I was tramping around with my tin-types to +find a column and a half of real, cultured conversation--an artist, in +his studio abroad, talking of his art,--and to know how he looked as he +did it, and what the room was like, and what he had for breakfast; and +to tell myself, eating tinned beans beside a creek, that if all went +well, the same sort of thing would, sooner or later, happen to myself; +why, Loudon, it would have been like a peep-hole into heaven!" + +"Well, if it gives so much pleasure," I admitted, "the sufferers +shouldn't complain. Only give the other fellows a turn." + +The end of the matter was to bring myself and the journalist in a more +close relation. If I know anything at all of human nature--and the _if_ +is no mere figure of speech, but stands for honest doubt--no series of +benefits conferred, or even dangers shared, would have so rapidly +confirmed our friendship as this quarrel avoided, this fundamental +difference of taste and training accepted and condoned. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] "What's the matter with him?" + + [2] "The gentleman is sick at his stomach from having looked too long + at your daub." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +IN WHICH I EXPERIENCE EXTREMES OF FORTUNE + + +Whether it came from my training and repeated bankruptcy at the +commercial college, or by direct inheritance from old Loudon, the +Edinburgh mason, there can be no doubt about the fact that I was +thrifty. Looking myself impartially over, I believe that is my only +manly virtue. During my first two years in Paris I not only made it a +point to keep well inside of my allowance, but accumulated considerable +savings in the bank. You will say, with my masquerade of living as a +penniless student, it must have been easy to do so; I should have had no +difficulty, however, in doing the reverse. Indeed, it is wonderful I did +not; and early in the third year, or soon after I had known Pinkerton, a +singular incident proved it to have been equally wise. Quarter-day came, +and brought no allowance. A letter of remonstrance was despatched, and, +for the first time in my experience, remained unanswered. A cablegram +was more effectual; for it brought me at least a promise of attention. +"Will write at once," my father telegraphed; but I waited long for his +letter. I was puzzled, angry, and alarmed; but, thanks to my previous +thrift, I cannot say that I was ever practically embarrassed. The +embarrassment, the distress, the agony, were all for my unhappy father +at home in Muskegon, struggling for life and fortune against untoward +chances, returning at night, from a day of ill-starred shifts and +ventures, to read and perhaps to weep over that last harsh letter from +his only child, to which he lacked the courage to reply. + +Nearly three months after time, and when my economies were beginning to +run low, I received at last a letter with the customary bills of +exchange. + +"My dearest boy," it ran, "I believe, in the press of anxious business, +your letters, and even your allowance, have been somewhile neglected. +You must try to forgive your poor old dad, for he has had a trying time; +and now when it is over, the doctor wants me to take my shot-gun and go +to the Adirondacks for a change. You must not fancy I am sick, only +over-driven and under the weather. Many of our foremost operators have +gone down: John T. M'Brady skipped to Canada with a trunkful of boodle; +Billy Sandwith, Charlie Downs, Joe Kaiser, and many others of our +leading men in this city bit the dust. But Big Head Dodd has again +weathered the blizzard, and I think I have fixed things so that we may +be richer than ever before autumn. + +"Now I will tell you, my dear, what I propose. You say you are well +advanced with your first statue; start in manfully and finish it, and if +your teacher--I can never remember how to spell his name--will send me a +certificate that it is up to market standard, you shall have ten +thousand dollars to do what you like with, either at home or in Paris. I +suggest, since you say the facilities for work are so much greater in +that city, you would do well to buy or build a little home; and the +first thing you know, your dad will be dropping in for a luncheon. +Indeed, I would come now--for I am beginning to grow old, and I long to +see my dear boy,--but there are still some operations that want watching +and nursing. Tell your friend Mr. Pinkerton that I read his letters +every week; and though I have looked in vain lately for my Loudon's +name, still I learn something of the life he is leading in that strange +Old World depicted by an able pen." + +Here was a letter that no young man could possibly digest in solitude. +It marked one of those junctures when the confidant is necessary; and +the confidant selected was none other than Jim Pinkerton. My father's +message may have had an influence in this decision; but I scarce suppose +so, for the intimacy was already far advanced. I had a genuine and +lively taste for my compatriot; I laughed at, I scolded, and I loved +him. He, upon his side, paid me a kind of dog-like service of +admiration, gazing at me from afar off, as at one who had liberally +enjoyed those "advantages" which he envied for himself. He followed at +heel; his laugh was ready chorus; our friends gave him the nickname of +"The Henchman." It was in this insidious form that servitude approached +me. + +Pinkerton and I read and re-read the famous news: he, I can swear, with +an enjoyment as unalloyed and far more vocal than my own. The statue was +nearly done: a few days' work sufficed to prepare it for exhibition; the +master was approached; he gave his consent; and one cloudless morning of +May beheld us gathered in my studio for the hour of trial. The master +wore his many-hued rosette; he came attended by two of my French +fellow-pupils--friends of mine, and both considerable sculptors in Paris +at this hour. "Corporal John" (as we used to call him), breaking for +once those habits of study and reserve which have since carried him so +high in the opinion of the world, had left his easel of a morning to +countenance a fellow-countryman in some suspense. My dear old Romney was +there by particular request; for who that knew him would think a +pleasure quite complete unless he shared it, or not support a +mortification more easily if he were present to console? The party was +completed by John Myner, the Englishman; by the brothers +Stennis--Stennis-_aine_, and Stennis-_frere_, as they used to figure on +their accounts at Barbizon--a pair of hare-brained Scots; and by the +inevitable Jim, as white as a sheet and bedewed with the sweat of +anxiety. + +I suppose I was little better myself when I unveiled the Genius of +Muskegon. The master walked about it seriously; then he smiled. + +"It is already not so bad," said he, in that funny English of which he +was so proud; "no, already not so bad." + +We all drew a deep breath of relief; and Corporal John (as the most +considerable junior present) explained to him it was intended for a +public building, a kind of prefecture. + +"_He! quoi?_" cried he, relapsing into French. "_Qu'est-ce que vous me +chantez la?_ O, in America," he added, on further information being +hastily furnished. "That is anozer sing. O, very good--very good." + +The idea of the required certificate had to be introduced to his mind in +the light of a pleasantry--the fancy of a nabob little more advanced +than the Red Indians of "Fennimore Cooperr"; and it took all our talents +combined to conceive a form of words that would be acceptable on both +sides. One was found, however: Corporal John engrossed it in his +undecipherable hand, the master lent it the sanction of his name and +flourish, I slipped it into an envelope along with one of the two +letters I had already prepared in my pocket, and as the rest of us moved +off along the boulevard to breakfast, Pinkerton was detached in a cab +and duly committed it to the post. + +The breakfast was ordered at Lavenue's, where no one need be ashamed to +entertain even the master; the table was laid in the garden; I had +chosen the bill of fare myself; on the wine question we held a council +of war, with the most fortunate results; and the talk, as soon as the +master laid aside his painful English, became fast and furious. There +were a few interruptions, indeed, in the way of toasts. The master's +health had to be drunk, and he responded in a little well-turned speech, +full of neat allusions to my future and to the United States; my health +followed; and then my father's must not only be proposed and drunk, but +a full report must be despatched to him at once by cablegram--an +extravagance which was almost the means of the master's dissolution. +Choosing Corporal John to be his confidant (on the ground, I presume, +that he was already too good an artist to be any longer an American +except in name) he summed up his amazement in one oft-repeated +formula--"_C'est barbare!_" Apart from these genial formalities, we +talked, talked of art, and talked of it as only artists can. Here in the +South Seas we talk schooners most of the time; in the Quarter we talked +art with the like unflagging interest, and perhaps as much result. + +Before very long the master went away; Corporal John (who was already a +sort of young master) followed on his heels; and the rank and file were +naturally relieved by their departure. We were now among equals; the +bottle passed, the conversation sped. I think I can still hear the +Stennis brothers pour forth their copious tirades; Dijon, my portly +French fellow-student, drop witticisms, well-conditioned like himself; +and another (who was weak in foreign languages) dash hotly into the +current of talk with some "_Je trove que pore oon sontimong de delicacy, +Corot_...," or some "_Pour moi Corot est le plou_...," and then, his +little raft of French foundering at once, scramble silently to shore +again. He at least could understand; but to Pinkerton, I think the +noise, the wine, the sun, the shadows of the leaves, and the esoteric +glory of being seated at a foreign festival, made up the whole available +means of entertainment. + +We sat down about half-past eleven; I suppose it was two when, some +point arising and some particular picture being instanced, an +adjournment to the Louvre was proposed. I paid the score, and in a +moment we were trooping down the Rue de Renne. It was smoking hot; Paris +glittered with that superficial brilliancy which is so agreeable to the +man in high spirits, and in moods of dejection so depressing; the wine +sang in my ears, it danced and brightened in my eyes. The pictures that +we saw that afternoon, as we sped briskly and loquaciously through the +immortal galleries, appear to me, upon a retrospect, the loveliest of +all; the comments we exchanged to have touched the highest mark of +criticism, grave or gay. + +It was only when we issued again from the museum that a difference of +race broke up the party. Dijon proposed an adjournment to a cafe, there +to finish the afternoon on beer; the elder Stennis revolted at the +thought, moved for the country--a forest, if possible--and a long walk. +At once the English speakers rallied to the name of any exercise; even +to me, who have been often twitted with my sedentary habits, the thought +of country air and stillness proved invincibly attractive. It appeared, +upon investigation, we had just time to hail a cab and catch one of the +fast trains for Fontainebleau. Beyond the clothes we stood in all were +destitute of what is called, with dainty vagueness, personal effects; +and it was earnestly mooted, on the other side, whether we had not time +to call upon the way and pack a satchel? But the Stennis boys exclaimed +upon our effeminacy. They had come from London, it appeared, a week +before with nothing but great-coats and tooth-brushes. No baggage--there +was the secret of existence. It was expensive, to be sure, for every +time you had to comb your hair a barber must be paid, and every time you +changed your linen one shirt must be bought and another thrown away; but +anything was better, argued these young gentlemen, than to be the slaves +of haversacks. "A fellow has to get rid gradually of all material +attachments: that was manhood," said they; "and as long as you were +bound down to anything--house, umbrella, or portmanteau--you were still +tethered by the umbilical cord." Something engaging in this theory +carried the most of us away. The two Frenchmen, indeed, retired +scoffing to their bock, and Romney, being too poor to join the excursion +on his own resources, and too proud to borrow, melted unobtrusively +away. Meanwhile the remainder of the company crowded the benches of a +cab; the horse was urged, as horses have to be, by an appeal to the +pocket of the driver; the train caught by the inside of a minute; and in +less than an hour and a half we were breathing deep of the sweet air of +the forest, and stretching our legs up the hill from Fontainebleau +octroi, bound for Barbizon. That the leading members of our party +covered the distance in fifty-one minutes and a half is, I believe, one +of the historic landmarks of the colony; but you will scarce be +surprised to learn that I was somewhat in the rear. Myner, a +comparatively philosophic Briton, kept me company in my deliberate +advance; the glory of the sun's going down, the fall of the long +shadows, the inimitable scent, and the inspiration of the woods, attuned +me more and more to walk in a silence which progressively infected my +companion; and I remember that, when at last he spoke, I was startled +from a deep abstraction. + +"Your father seems to be a pretty good kind of a father," said he. "Why +don't he come to see you?" I was ready with some dozen of reasons, and +had more in stock; but Myner, with that shrewdness which made him feared +and admired, suddenly fixed me with his eyeglass and asked, "Ever press +him?" + +The blood came in my face. No, I had never pressed him; I had never even +encouraged him to come. I was proud of him, proud of his handsome looks, +of his kind, gentle ways, of that bright face he could show when others +were happy; proud, too--meanly proud, if you like--of his great wealth +and startling liberalities. And yet he would have been in the way of my +Paris life, of much of which he would have disapproved. I had feared to +expose to criticism his innocent remarks on art; I had told myself, I +had even partly believed, he did not want to come; I had been, and +still am, convinced that he was sure to be unhappy out of Muskegon; in +short, I had a thousand reasons, good and bad, not all of which could +alter one iota of the fact that I knew he only waited for my invitation. + +"Thank you, Myner," said I; "you're a much better fellow than ever I +supposed. I'll write to-night." + +"O, you're a pretty decent sort yourself," returned Myner, with more +than his usual flippancy of manner, but, as I was gratefully aware, not +a trace of his occasional irony of meaning. + +Well, these were brave days, on which I could dwell for ever. Brave, +too, were those that followed, when Pinkerton and I walked Paris and the +suburbs, viewing and pricing houses for my new establishment, or covered +ourselves with dust and returned laden with Chinese gods and brass +warming-pans from the dealers in antiquities. I found Pinkerton well up +in the situation of these establishments as well as in the current +prices, and with quite a smattering of critical judgment. It turned out +he was investing capital in pictures and curiosities for the States, and +the superficial thoroughness of the creature appeared in the fact that +although he would never be a connoisseur, he was already something of an +expert. The things themselves left him as near as may be cold, but he +had a joy of his own in understanding how to buy and sell them. + +In such engagements the time passed until I might very well expect an +answer from my father. Two mails followed each other, and brought +nothing. By the third I received a long and almost incoherent letter of +remorse, encouragement, consolation, and despair. From this pitiful +document, which (with a movement of piety) I burned as soon as I had +read it, I gathered that the bubble of my father's wealth was burst, +that he was now both penniless and sick; and that I, so far from +expecting ten thousand dollars to throw away in juvenile extravagance, +must look no longer for the quarterly remittances on which I lived. My +case was hard enough; but I had sense enough to perceive, and decency +enough to do, my duty. I sold my curiosities--or, rather, I sent +Pinkerton to sell them; and he had previously bought, and now disposed +of them, so wisely that the loss was trifling. This, with what remained +of my last allowance, left me at the head of no less than five thousand +francs. Five hundred I reserved for my own immediate necessities: the +rest I mailed inside of the week to my father at Muskegon, where they +came in time to pay his funeral expenses. + +The news of his death was scarcely a surprise and scarce a grief to me. +I could not conceive my father a poor man. He had led too long a life of +thoughtless and generous profusion to endure the change; and though I +grieved for myself, I was able to rejoice that my father had been taken +from the battle. I grieved, I say, for myself; and it is probable there +were at the same date many thousands of persons grieving with less +cause. I had lost my father; I had lost the allowance; my whole fortune +(including what had been returned from Muskegon) scarce amounted to a +thousand francs; and, to crown my sorrows, the statuary contract had +changed hands. The new contractor had a son of his own, or else a +nephew; and it was signified to me, with business-like plainness, that I +must find another market for my pigs. In the meanwhile I had given up my +room, and slept on a truckle-bed in the corner of the studio, where, as +I read myself to sleep at night, and when I awoke in the morning, that +now useless bulk, the Genius of Muskegon, was ever present to my eyes. +Poor stone lady! born to be enthroned under the gilded, echoing dome of +the new capitol, whither was she now to drift? for what base purposes be +ultimately broken up, like an unseaworthy ship? and what should befall +her ill-starred artificer, standing with his thousand francs on the +threshold of a life so hard as that of the unbefriended sculptor? + +It was a subject often and earnestly debated by myself and Pinkerton. In +his opinion I should instantly discard my profession. "Just drop it, +here and now," he would say. "Come back home with me, and let's throw +our whole soul into business. I have the capital; you bring the culture. +_Dodd and Pinkerton_--I never saw a better name for an advertisement; +and you can't think, Loudon, how much depends upon a name." On my side I +would admit that a sculptor should possess one of three things--capital, +influence, or an energy only to be qualified as hellish. The first two I +had now lost; to the third I never had the smallest claim; and yet I +wanted the cowardice (or, perhaps it was the courage) to turn my back on +my career without a fight. I told him, besides, that however poor my +chances were in sculpture, I was convinced they were yet worse in +business, for which I equally lacked taste and aptitude. But upon this +head he was my father over again; assured me that I spoke in ignorance; +that any intelligent and cultured person was bound to succeed; that I +must, besides, have inherited some of my father's fitness; and, at any +rate, that I had been regularly trained for that career in the +commercial college. + +"Pinkerton," I said, "can't you understand that, as long as I was there, +I never took the smallest interest in any stricken thing? The whole +affair was poison to me." + +"It's not possible," he would cry; "it can't be; you couldn't live in +the midst of it and not feel the charm; with all your poetry of soul you +couldn't help! Loudon," he would go on, "you drive me crazy. You expect +a man to be all broken up about the sunset, and not to care a dime for a +place where fortunes are fought for and made and lost all day; or for a +career that consists in studying up life till you have it at your +finger-ends, spying out every cranny where you can get your hand in and +a dollar out, and standing there in the midst--one foot on bankruptcy, +the other on a borrowed dollar, and the whole thing spinning round you +like a mill--raking in the stamps; in spite of fate and fortune." + +To this romance of dickering I would reply with the romance (which is +also the virtue) of art: reminding him of those examples of constancy +through many tribulations, with which the _role_ of Apollo is +illustrated--from the case of Millet, to those of many of our friends +and comrades, who had chosen this agreeable mountain path through life, +and were now bravely clambering among rocks and brambles, penniless and +hopeful. + +"You will never understand it, Pinkerton," I would say. "You look to the +result, you want to see some profit of your endeavours: that is why you +could never learn to paint, if you lived to be Methusalem. The result is +always a fizzle: the eyes of the artist are turned in; he lives for a +frame of mind. Look at Romney now. There is the nature of the artist. He +hasn't a cent; and if you offered him to-morrow the command of an army, +or the presidentship of the United States, he wouldn't take it, and you +know he wouldn't." + +"I suppose not," Pinkerton would cry, scouring his hair with both his +hands; "and I can't see why; I can't see what in fits he would be after, +not to; I don't seem to rise to these views. Of course it's the fault of +not having had advantages in early life; but, Loudon, I'm so miserably +low that it seems to me silly. The fact is," he might add, with a smile, +"I don't seem to have the least use for a frame of mind without square +meals; and you can't get it out of my head that it's a man's duty to die +rich, if he can." + +"What for?" I asked him once. + +"O, I don't know," he replied. "Why in snakes should anybody want to be +a sculptor, if you come to that? I would love to sculp myself. But what +I can't see is why you should want to do nothing else. It seems to argue +a poverty of nature." + +Whether or not he ever came to understand me--and I have been so tossed +about since then that I am not very sure I understand myself--he soon +perceived that I was perfectly in earnest; and after about ten days of +argument, suddenly dropped the subject, and announced that he was +wasting capital, and must go home at once. No doubt he should have gone +long before, and had already lingered over his intended time for the +sake of our companionship and my misfortune; but man is so unjustly +minded that the very fact, which ought to have disarmed, only embittered +my vexation. I resented his departure in the light of a desertion; I +would not say, but doubtless I betrayed it; and something hang-dog in +the man's face and bearing led me to believe he was himself remorseful. +It is certain at least that, during the time of his preparations, we +drew sensibly apart--a circumstance that I recall with shame. On the +last day he had me to dinner at a restaurant which he knew I had +formerly frequented, and had only forsworn of late from considerations +of economy. He seemed ill at ease; I was myself both sorry and sulky; +and the meal passed with little conversation. + +"Now, Loudon," said he, with a visible effort, after the coffee was come +and our pipes lighted, "you can never understand the gratitude and +loyalty I bear you. You don't know what a boon it is to be taken up by a +man that stands on the pinnacle of civilisation; you can't think how +it's refined and purified me, how it's appealed to my spiritual nature; +and I want to tell you that I would die at your door like a dog." + +I don't know what answer I tried to make, but he cut me short. + +"Let me say it out!" he cried. "I revere you for your whole-souled +devotion to art; I can't rise to it, but there's a strain of poetry in +my nature, Loudon, that responds to it. I want you to carry it out, and +I mean to help you." + +"Pinkerton, what nonsense is this?" I interrupted. + +"Now don't get mad, Loudon; this is a plain piece of business," said he; +"it's done every day; it's even typical. How are all those fellows over +here in Paris, Henderson, Sumner, Long?--it's all the same story: a +young man just plum full of artistic genius on the one side, a man of +business on the other who doesn't know what to do with his dollars----" + +"But, you fool, you're as poor as a rat," I cried. + +"You wait till I get my irons in the fire!" returned Pinkerton. "I'm +bound to be rich; and I tell you I mean to have some of the fun as I go +along. Here's your first allowance; take it at the hand of a friend; I'm +one that holds friendship sacred, as you do yourself. It's only a +hundred francs; you'll get the same every month, and as soon as my +business begins to expand we'll increase it to something fitting. And so +far from it's being a favour, just let me handle your statuary for the +American market, and I'll call it one of the smartest strokes of +business in my life." + +It took me a long time, and it had cost us both much grateful and +painful emotion, before I had finally managed to refuse his offer and +compounded for a bottle of particular wine. He dropped the subject at +last suddenly with a "Never mind; that's all done with"; nor did he +again refer to the subject, though we passed together the rest of the +afternoon, and I accompanied him, on his departure, to the doors of the +waiting-room at St. Lazare. I felt myself strangely alone; a voice told +me that I had rejected both the counsels of wisdom and the helping hand +of friendship; and as I passed through the great bright city on my +homeward way, I measured it for the first time with the eye of an +adversary. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +IN WHICH I AM DOWN ON MY LUCK IN PARIS + + +In no part of the world is starvation an agreeable business; but I +believe it is admitted there is no worse place to starve in than this +city of Paris. The appearances of life are there so especially gay, it +is so much a magnified beer-garden, the houses are so ornate, the +theatres so numerous, the very pace of the vehicles is so brisk, that a +man in any deep concern of mind or pain of body is constantly driven in +upon himself. In his own eyes, he seems the one serious creature moving +in a world of horrible unreality; voluble people issuing from a cafe, +the _queue_ at theatre-doors, Sunday cabfuls of second-rate +pleasure-seekers, the bedizened ladies of the pavement, the show in the +jewellers' windows--all the familiar sights contributing to flout his +own unhappiness, want, and isolation. At the same time, if he be at all +after my pattern, he is perhaps supported by a childish satisfaction. +"This is life at last," he may tell himself; "this is the real thing. +The bladders on which I was set swimming are now empty; my own weight +depends upon the ocean; by my own exertions I must perish or succeed; +and I am now enduring, in the vivid fact, what I so much delighted to +read of in the case of Lousteau or Lucien, Rodolphe or Schaunard." + +Of the steps of my misery I cannot tell at length. In ordinary times +what were politically called "loans" (although they were never meant to +be repaid) were matters of constant course among the students, and many +a man has partly lived on them for years. But my misfortune befell me +at an awkward juncture. Many of my friends were gone; others were +themselves in a precarious situation. Romney (for instance) was reduced +to tramping Paris in a pair of country sabots, his only suit of clothes +so imperfect (in spite of cunningly-adjusted pins) that the authorities +at the Luxembourg suggested his withdrawal from the gallery. Dijon, too, +was on a lee-shore, designing clocks and gas-brackets for a dealer; and +the most he could do was to offer me a corner of his studio where I +might work. My own studio (it will be gathered) I had by that time lost; +and in the course of my expulsion the Genius of Muskegon was finally +separated from her author. To continue to possess a full-sized statue, a +man must have a studio, a gallery, or at least the freedom of a +back-garden. He cannot carry it about with him, like a satchel, in the +bottom of a cab, nor can he cohabit in a garret ten by fifteen with so +momentous a companion. It was my first idea to leave her behind at my +departure. There, in her birthplace, she might lend an inspiration, +methought, to my successor. But the proprietor, with whom I had +unhappily quarrelled, seized the occasion to be disagreeable, and called +upon me to remove my property. For a man in such straits as I now found +myself, the hire of a lorry was a consideration; and yet even that I +could have faced, if I had had anywhere to drive to after it was hired. +Hysterical laughter seized upon me as I beheld (in imagination) myself, +the waggoner, and the Genius of Muskegon, standing in the public view of +Paris, without the shadow of a destination; perhaps driving at last to +the nearest rubbish-heap, and dumping there, among the ordures of a +city, the beloved child of my invention. From these extremities I was +relieved by a seasonable offer, and I parted from the Genius of Muskegon +for thirty francs. Where she now stands, under what name she is admired +or criticised, history does not inform us; but I like to think she may +adorn the shrubbery of some suburban tea-garden, where holiday +shop-girls hang their hats upon the mother, and their swains (by way of +an approach of gallantry) identify the winged infant with the god of +love. + +In a certain cabman's eating-house on the outer boulevard I got credit +for my midday meal. Supper I was supposed not to require, sitting down +nightly to the delicate table of some rich acquaintances. This +arrangement was extremely ill-considered. My fable, credible enough at +first, and so long as my clothes were in good order, must have seemed +worse than doubtful after my coat became frayed about the edges, and my +boots began to squelch and pipe along the restaurant floors. The +allowance of one meal a day, besides, though suitable enough to the +state of my finances, agreed poorly with my stomach. The restaurant was +a place I had often visited experimentally, to taste the life of +students then more unfortunate than myself; and I had never in those +days entered it without disgust, or left it without nausea. It was +strange to find myself sitting down with avidity, rising up with +satisfaction, and counting the hours that divided me from my return to +such a table. But hunger is a great magician; and so soon as I had spent +my ready cash, and could no longer fill up on bowls of chocolate or +hunks of bread, I must depend entirely on that cabman's eating-house, +and upon certain rare, long-expected, long-remembered windfalls. Dijon +(for instance) might get paid for some of his pot-boiling work, or else +an old friend would pass through Paris; and then I would be entertained +to a meal after my own soul, and contract a Latin Quarter loan, which +would keep me in tobacco and my morning coffee for a fortnight. It might +be thought the latter would appear the more important. It might be +supposed that a life, led so near the confines of actual famine, should +have dulled the nicety of my palate. On the contrary, the poorer a man's +diet, the more sharply is he set on dainties. The last of my ready cash, +about thirty francs, was deliberately squandered on a single dinner; +and a great part of my time when I was alone was passed upon the details +of imaginary feasts. + +One gleam of hope visited me--an order for a bust from a rich +Southerner. He was free-handed, jolly of speech, merry of countenance; +kept me in good humour through the sittings, and, when they were over, +carried me off with him to dinner and the sights of Paris. I ate well, I +laid on flesh; by all accounts I made a favourable likeness of the +being, and I confess I thought my future was assured. But when the bust +was done, and I had despatched it across the Atlantic, I could never so +much as learn of its arrival. The blow felled me; I should have lain +down and tried no stroke to right myself, had not the honour of my +country been involved. For Dijon improved the opportunity in the +European style, informing me (for the first time) of the manners of +America: how it was a den of banditti without the smallest rudiment of +law or order, and debts could be there only collected with a shot-gun. +"The whole world knows it," he would say; "you are alone, _mon petit_ +Loudon--you are alone, to be in ignorance of these facts. The judges of +the Supreme Court fought but the other day with stilettos on the bench +at Cincinnati. You should read the little book of one of my friends, 'Le +Touriste dans le Far-West'; you will see it all there in good French." +At last, incensed by days of such discussion, I undertook to prove to +him the contrary, and put the affair in the hands of my late father's +lawyer. From him I had the gratification of hearing, after a due +interval, that my debtor was dead of the yellow fever in Key West, and +had left his affairs in some confusion. I suppress his name; for though +he treated me with cruel nonchalance, it is probable he meant to deal +fairly in the end. + +Soon after this a shade of change in my reception at the cabman's +eating-house marked the beginning of a new phase in my distress. The +first day I told myself it was but fancy; the next, I made quite sure it +was a fact; the third, in mere panic I stayed away, and went for +forty-eight hours fasting. This was an act of great unreason; for the +debtor who stays away is but the more remarked, and the boarder who +misses a meal is sure to be accused of infidelity. On the fourth day, +therefore, I returned, inwardly quaking. The proprietor looked askance +upon my entrance; the waitresses (who were his daughters) neglected my +wants, and sniffed at the affected joviality of my salutations; last, +and most plain, when I called for a _suisse_(such as was being served to +all the other diners), I was bluntly told there were no more. It was +obvious I was near the end of my tether; one plank divided me from want, +and now I felt it tremble. I passed a sleepless night, and the first +thing in the morning took my way to Myner's studio. It was a step I had +long meditated and long refrained from; for I was scarce intimate with +the Englishman; and though I knew him to possess plenty of money, +neither his manner nor his reputation were the least encouraging to +beggars. + +I found him at work on a picture, which I was able conscientiously to +praise, dressed in his usual tweeds--plain, but pretty fresh, and +standing out in disagreeable contrast to my own withered and degraded +outfit. As we talked, he continued to shift his eyes watchfully between +his handiwork and the fat model, who sat at the far end of the studio in +a state of nature, with one arm gallantly arched above her head. My +errand would have been difficult enough under the best of circumstances: +placed between Myner, immersed in his art, and the white, fat, naked +female in a ridiculous attitude, I found it quite impossible. Again and +again I attempted to approach the point, again and again fell back on +commendations of the picture; and it was not until the model had enjoyed +an interval of repose, during which she took the conversation in her own +hands and regaled us (in a soft, weak voice) with details as to her +husband's prosperity, her sister's lamented decline from the paths of +virtue, and the consequent wrath of her father, a peasant of stern +principles, in the vicinity of Chalons on the Marne--it was not, I say, +until after this was over, and I had once more cleared my throat for the +attack, and once more dropped aside into some commonplace about the +picture, that Myner himself brought me suddenly and vigorously to the +point. + +"You didn't come here to talk this rot," said he. + +"No," I replied sullenly; "I came to borrow money." + +He painted a while in silence. + +"I don't think we were ever very intimate?" he asked. + +"Thank you," said I. "I can take my answer," and I made as if to go, +rage boiling in my heart. + +"Of course you can go if you like," said Myner, "but I advise you to +stay and have it out." + +"What more is there to say?" I cried. "You don't want to keep me here +for a needless humiliation?" + +"Look here, Dodd; you must try and command your temper," said he. "This +interview is of your own seeking, and not mine; if you suppose it's not +disagreeable to me, you're wrong; and if you think I will give you money +without knowing thoroughly about your prospects, you take me for a fool. +Besides," he added, "if you come to look at it, you've got over the +worst of it by now: you have done the asking, and you have every reason +to know I mean to refuse. I hold out no false hopes, but it may be worth +your while to let me judge." + +Thus--I was going to say--encouraged, I stumbled through my story; told +him I had credit at the cabman's eating-house, but began to think it was +drawing to a close; how Dijon lent me a corner of his studio, where I +tried to model ornaments, figures for clocks, Time with the scythe, Leda +and the swan, musketeers for candlesticks, and other kickshaws, which +had never (up to that day) been honoured with the least approval. + +"And your room?" asked Myner. + +"O, my room is all right, I think," said I. "She is a very good old +lady, and has never even mentioned her bill." + +"Because she is a very good old lady, I don't see why she should be +fined," observed Myner. + +"What do you mean by that?" I cried. + +"I mean this," said he. "The French give a great deal of credit amongst +themselves; they find it pays on the whole, or the system would hardly +be continued; but I can't see where _we_ come in; I can't see that it's +honest of us Anglo-Saxons to profit by their easy ways, and then skip +over the Channel or (as you Yankees do) across the Atlantic." + +"But I'm not proposing to skip," I objected. + +"Exactly," he replied. "And shouldn't you? There's the problem. You seem +to me to have a lack of sympathy for the proprietors of cabmen's +eating-houses. By your own account, you're not getting on; the longer +you stay, it'll only be the more out of the pocket of the dear old lady +at your lodgings. Now, I'll tell you what I'll do: if you consent to go, +I'll pay your passage to New York, and your railway fare and expenses to +Muskegon (if I have the name right), where your father lived, where he +must have left friends, and where, no doubt, you'll find an opening. I +don't seek any gratitude, for of course you'll think me a beast; but I +do ask you to pay it back when you are able. At any rate, that's all I +can do. It might be different if I thought you a genius, Dodd; but I +don't, and I advise you not to." + +"I think that was uncalled for, at least," said I. + +"I daresay it was," he returned, with the same steadiness. "It seemed to +me pertinent; and, besides, when you ask me for money upon no security, +you treat me with the liberty of a friend, and it's to be presumed that +I can do the like. But the point is, do you accept?" + +"No, thank you," said I; "I have another string to my bow." + +"All right," says Myner; "be sure it's honest." + +"Honest? honest?" I cried. "What do you mean by calling my honesty in +question?" + +"I won't, if you don't like it," he replied. "You seem to think honesty +as easy as Blind Man's Buff: I don't. It's some difference of +definition." + +I went straight from this irritating interview, during which Myner had +never discontinued painting, to the studio of my old master. Only one +card remained for me to play, and I was now resolved to play it: I must +drop the gentleman and the frock-coat, and approach art in the workman's +tunic. + +"_Tiens_, this little Dodd!" cried the master; and then, as his eye fell +on my dilapidated clothing, I thought I could perceive his countenance +to darken. + +I made my plea in English; for I knew, if he were vain of anything, it +was of his achievement of the island tongue. "Master," said I, "will you +take me in your studio again--but this time as a workman?" + +"I sought your fazer was immensely reech?" said he. + +I explained to him that I was now an orphan, and penniless. + +He shook his head. "I have betterr workmen waiting at my door," said he, +"far betterr workmen." + +"You used to think something of my work, sir," I pleaded. + +"Somesing, somesing--yes!" he cried; "enough for a son of a reech +man--not enough for an orphan. Besides, I sought you might learn to be +an artist; I did not sink you might learn to be a workman." + +On a certain bench on the outer boulevard, not far from the tomb of +Napoleon--a bench shaded at that date by a shabby tree, and commanding a +view of muddy roadway and blank wall--I sat down to wrestle with my +misery. The weather was cheerless and dark; in three days I had eaten +but once; I had no tobacco; my shoes were soaked, my trousers horrid +with mire; my humour and all the circumstances of the time and place +lugubriously attuned. Here were two men who had both spoken fairly of my +work while I was rich and wanted nothing; now that I was poor and lacked +all: "No genius," said the one; "not enough for an orphan," the other; +and the first offered me my passage like a pauper immigrant, and the +second refused me a day's wage as a hewer of stone--plain dealing for an +empty belly. They had not been insincere in the past; they were not +insincere to-day: change of circumstance had introduced a new criterion, +that was all. + +But if I acquitted my two Job's comforters of insincerity, I was yet far +from admitting them infallible. Artists had been contemned before, and +had lived to turn the laugh on their contemners. How old was Corot +before he struck the vein of his own precious metal? When had a young +man been more derided (or more justly so) than the god of my admiration, +Balzac? Or, if I required a bolder inspiration, what had I to do but +turn my head to where the gold dome of the Invalides glittered against +inky squalls, and recall the tale of him sleeping there: from the day +when a young artillery-sub could be giggled at and nicknamed +Puss-in-Boots by frisky misses, on to the days of so many crowns and so +many victories, and so many hundred mouths of cannon, and so many +thousand warhoofs trampling the roadways of astonished Europe eighty +miles in front of the grand army? To go back, to give up, to proclaim +myself a failure, an ambitious failure--first a rocket, then a stick! I, +Loudon Dodd, who had refused all other livelihoods with scorn, and been +advertised in the St. Joseph _Sunday Herald_ as a patriot and an artist, +to be returned upon my native Muskegon like damaged goods, and go the +circuit of my father's acquaintance, cap in hand, and begging to sweep +offices! No, by Napoleon! I would die at my chosen trade; and the two +who had that day flouted me should live to envy my success, or to weep +tears of unavailing penitence behind my pauper coffin. + +Meantime, if my courage was still undiminished, I was none the nearer to +a meal. At no great distance my cabman's eating-house stood, at the tail +of a muddy cab-rank, on the shores of a wide thoroughfare of mud, +offering (to fancy) a lace of ambiguous invitation. I might be received, +I might once more fill my belly there; on the other hand, it was perhaps +this day the bolt was destined to fall, and I might be expelled instead, +with vulgar hubbub. It was policy to make the attempt, and I knew it was +policy; but I had already, in the course of that one morning, endured +too many affronts, and I felt I could rather starve than face another. I +had courage and to spare for the future, none left for that day; courage +for the main campaign, but not a spark of it for that preliminary +skirmish of the cabman's restaurant. I continued accordingly to sit upon +my bench, not far from the ashes of Napoleon, now drowsy, now +light-headed, now in complete mental obstruction, or only conscious of +an animal pleasure in quiescence; and now thinking, planning, and +remembering with unexampled clearness, telling myself tales of sudden +wealth, and gustfully ordering and greedily consuming imaginary meals, +in the course of which I must have dropped to sleep. + +It was towards dark that I was suddenly recalled to famine by a cold +souse of rain, and sprang shivering to my feet. For a moment I stood +bewildered; the whole train of my reasoning and dreaming passed afresh +through my mind; I was again tempted, drawn as if with cords, by the +image of the cabman's eating-house, and again recoiled from the +possibility of insult. "_Qui dort dine_," thought I to myself; and took +my homeward way with wavering footsteps, through rainy streets in which +the lamps and the shop-windows now began to gleam, still marshalling +imaginary dinners as I went. + +"Ah, Monsieur Dodd," said the porter, "there has been a registered +letter for you. The facteur will bring it again to-morrow." + +A registered letter for me, who had been so long without one? Of what it +could possibly contain I had no vestige of a guess, nor did I delay +myself guessing; far less form any conscious plan of dishonesty: the +lies flowed from me like a natural secretion. + +"Oh," said I, "my remittance at last! What a bother I should have missed +it! Can you lend me a hundred francs until to-morrow?" + +I had never attempted to borrow from the porter till that moment; the +registered letter was, besides, my warranty; and he gave me what he +had--three napoleons and some francs in silver. I pocketed the money +carelessly, lingered a while chaffing, strolled leisurely to the door; +and then (fast as my trembling legs could carry me) round the corner to +the Cafe de Cluny. French waiters are deft and speedy; they were not +deft enough for me: and I had scarce decency to let the man set the wine +upon the table or put the butter alongside the bread, before my glass +and my mouth were filled. Exquisite bread of the Cafe Cluny, exquisite +first glass of old Pomard tingling to my wet feet, indescribable first +olive culled from the _hors d'oeuvre_--I suppose, when I come to lie +dying, and the lamp begins to grow dim, I shall still recall your +savour. Over the rest of that meal, and the rest of the evening, clouds +lie thick; clouds perhaps of Burgundy: perhaps, more properly, of famine +and repletion. + +I remember clearly, at least, the shame, the despair, of the next +morning, when I reviewed what I had done, and how I had swindled the +poor honest porter: and, as if that were not enough, fairly burnt my +ships, and brought bankruptcy home to that last refuge, my garret. The +porter would expect his money; I could not pay him; here was scandal in +the house; and I knew right well the cause of scandal would have to +pack. "What do you mean by calling my honesty in question?" I had cried +the day before, turning upon Myner. Ah, that day before! the day before +Waterloo, the day before the Flood; the day before I had sold the roof +over my head, my future, and my self-respect, for a dinner at the Cafe +Cluny! + +In the midst of these lamentations the famous registered letter came to +my door, with healing under its seal. It bore the postmark of San +Francisco, where Pinkerton was already struggling to the neck in +multifarious affairs; it renewed the offer of an allowance, which his +improved estate permitted him to announce at the figure of two hundred +francs a month; and in case I was in some immediate pinch, it enclosed +an introductory draft for forty dollars. There are a thousand excellent +reasons why a man, in this self-helpful epoch, should decline to be +dependent on another; but the most numerous and cogent considerations +all bow to a necessity as stern as mine; and the banks were scarce open +ere the draft was cashed. + +It was early in December that I thus sold myself into slavery, and for +six months I dragged a slowly lengthening chain of gratitude and +uneasiness. At the cost of some debt I managed to excel myself and +eclipse the Genius of Muskegon, in a small but highly patriotic +"Standard Bearer" for the Salon; whither it was duly admitted, where it +stood the proper length of days entirely unremarked, and whence it came +back to me as patriotic as before. I threw my whole soul (as Pinkerton +would have phrased it) into clocks and candlesticks; the devil a +candlestick-maker would have anything to say to my designs. Even when +Dijon, with his infinite good-humour and infinite scorn for all such +journey-work, consented to peddle them in indiscriminately with his own, +the dealers still detected and rejected mine. Home they returned to me, +true as the Standard Bearer, who now, at the head of quite a regiment of +lesser idols, began to grow an eyesore in the scanty studio of my +friend. Dijon and I have sat by the hour, and gazed upon that company of +images. The severe, the frisky, the classical, the Louis Quinze, were +there--from Joan of Arc in her soldierly cuirass, to Leda with the +swan; nay!--and God forgive me for a man that knew better!--the humorous +was represented also. We sat and gazed, I say; we criticised, we turned +them hither and thither; even upon the closest inspection they looked +quite like statuettes; and yet nobody would have a gift of them! + +Vanity dies hard; in some obstinate cases it outlives the man: but about +the sixth month, when I already owed near two hundred dollars to +Pinkerton, and half as much again in debts scattered about Paris, I +awoke one morning with a horrid sentiment of oppression, and found I was +alone: my vanity had breathed her last during the night. I dared not +plunge deeper in the bog; I saw no hope in my poor statuary; I owned +myself beaten at last; and sitting down in my night-shirt beside the +window, whence I had a glimpse of the tree-tops at the corner of the +boulevard, and where the music of its early traffic fell agreeably upon +my ear, I penned my farewell to Paris, to art, to my whole past life, +and my whole former self. "I give in," I wrote. "When the next allowance +arrives, I shall go straight out West, where you can do what you like +with me." + +It is to be understood that Pinkerton had been, in a sense, pressing me +to come from the beginning; depicting his isolation among new +acquaintances, "who have none of them your culture," he wrote; +expressing his friendship in terms so warm that it sometimes embarrassed +me to think how poorly I could echo them; dwelling upon his need for +assistance; and the next moment turning about to commend my resolution +and press me to remain in Paris. "Only remember, Loudon," he would +write, "if you ever _do_ tire of it, there's plenty of work here for +you--honest, hard, well-paid work, developing the resources of this +practically virgin State. And, of course, I needn't say what a pleasure +it would be to me if we were going at it _shoulder to shoulder_." I +marvel, looking back, that I could so long have resisted these appeals, +and continue to sink my friend's money in a manner that I knew him to +dislike. At least, when I did awake to any sense of my position, I awoke +to it entirely, and determined not only to follow his counsel for the +future, but, even as regards the past, to rectify his losses. For in +this juncture of affairs I called to mind that I was not without a +possible resource, and resolved, at whatever cost of mortification, to +beard the Loudon family in their historic city. + +In the excellent Scots phrase, I made a moonlight flitting, a thing +never dignified, but in my case unusually easy. As I had scarce a pair +of boots worth portage I deserted the whole of my effects without a +pang. Dijon fell heir to Joan of Arc, the Standard Bearer, and the +Musketeers. He was present when I bought and frugally stocked my new +portmanteau, and it was at the door of the trunk-shop that I took my +leave of him, for my last few hours in Paris must be spent alone. It was +alone, and at a far higher figure than my finances warranted, that I +discussed my dinner; alone that I took my ticket at St. Lazare; all +alone, though in a carriage full of people, that I watched the moon +shine on the Seine flood with its tufted isles, on Rouen with her +spires, and on the shipping in the harbour of Dieppe. When the first +light of the morning called me from troubled slumbers on the deck, I +beheld the dawn at first with pleasure; I watched with pleasure the +green shores of England rising out of rosy haze: I took the salt air +with delight into my nostrils; and then all came back to me--that I was +no longer an artist, no longer myself; that I was leaving all I cared +for, and returning to all that I detested, the slave of debt and +gratitude, a public and a branded failure. + +From this picture of my own disgrace and wretchedness it is not +wonderful if my mind turned with relief to the thought of Pinkerton +waiting for me, as I knew, with unwearied affection, and regarding me +with a respect that I had never deserved, and might therefore fairly +hope that I should never forfeit. The inequality of our relation struck +me rudely. I must have been stupid, indeed, if I could have considered +the history of that friendship without shame--I who had given so little, +who had accepted and profited by so much. I had the whole day before me +in London, and I determined, at least in words, to set the balance +somewhat straighter. Seated in the corner of a public place, and calling +for sheet after sheet of paper, I poured forth the expression of my +gratitude, my penitence for the past, my resolutions for the future. +Till now, I told him, my course had been mere selfishness. I had been +selfish to my father and to my friend, taking their help and denying +them (which was all they asked) the poor gratification of my company and +countenance. + +Wonderful are the consolations of literature! As soon as that letter was +written and posted the consciousness of virtue glowed in my veins like +some rare vintage. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +IN WHICH I GO WEST + + +I reached my uncle's door next morning in time to sit down with the +family to breakfast. More than three years had intervened--almost +without mutation in that stationary household--since I had sat there +first, a young American freshman, bewildered among unfamiliar dainties +(Finnan haddock, kippered salmon, baps, and mutton-ham), and had wearied +my mind in vain to guess what should be under the tea-cosy. If there +were any change at all, it seemed that I had risen in the family esteem. +My father's death once fittingly referred to with a ceremonial +lengthening of Scots upper lips and wagging of the female head, the +party launched at once (God help me!) into the more cheerful topic of my +own successes. They had been so pleased to hear such good accounts of +me; I was quite a great man now; where was that beautiful statue of the +Genius of Something or other? "You haven't it here? Not here? Really?" +asks the sprightliest of my cousins, shaking curls at me; as though it +were likely I had brought it in the cab, or kept it concealed about my +person like a birthday surprise. In the bosom of this family, +unaccustomed to the tropical nonsense of the West, it became plain the +_Sunday Herald_ and poor blethering Pinkerton had been accepted for +their face. It is not possible to invent a circumstance that could have +more depressed me; and I am conscious that I behaved all through that +breakfast like a whipped schoolboy. + +At length, the meal and family prayers being both happily over, I +requested the favour of an interview with Uncle Adam on "the state of my +affairs." At sound of this ominous expression the good man's face +conspicuously lengthened; and when my grandfather, having had the +proposition repeated to him (for he was hard of hearing), announced his +intention of being present at the interview, I could not but think that +Uncle Adam's sorrow kindled into momentary irritation. Nothing, however, +but the usual grim cordiality appeared upon the surface; and we all +three passed ceremoniously to the adjoining library, a gloomy theatre +for a depressing piece of business. My grandfather charged a clay pipe, +and sat tremulously smoking in a corner of the fireless chimney; behind +him, although the morning was both chill and dark, the window was partly +open and the blind partly down: I cannot depict what an air he had of +being out of place, like a man shipwrecked there. Uncle Adam had his +station at the business-table in the midst. Valuable rows of books +looked down upon the place of torture; and I could hear sparrows +chirping in the garden, and my sprightly cousin already banging the +piano and pouring forth an acid stream of song from the drawing-room +overhead. + +It was in these circumstances that, with all brevity of speech and a +certain boyish sullenness of manner, looking the while upon the floor, I +informed my relatives of my financial situation: the amount I owed +Pinkerton; the hopelessness of any maintenance from sculpture; the +career offered me in the States; and how, before becoming more beholden +to a stranger, I had judged it right to lay the case before my family. + +"I am only sorry you did not come to me at first," said Uncle Adam. "I +take the liberty to say it would have been more decent." + +"I think so too, Uncle Adam," I replied; "but you must bear in mind I +was ignorant in what light you might regard my application." + +"I hope I would never turn my back on my own flesh and blood," he +returned with emphasis; but, to my anxious ear, with more of temper than +affection. "I could never forget you were my sister's son. I regard this +as a manifest duty. I have no choice but to accept the entire +responsibility of the position you have made." + +I did not know what else to do but murmur "Thank you." + +"Yes," he pursued, "and there is something providential in the +circumstance that you come at the right time. In my old firm there is a +vacancy; they call themselves Italian Warehousemen now," he continued, +regarding me with a twinkle of humour; "so you may think yourself in +luck: we were only grocers in my day. I shall place you there +to-morrow." + +"Stop a moment, Uncle Adam," I broke in. "This is not at all what I am +asking. I ask you to pay Pinkerton, who is a poor man. I ask you to +clear my feet of debt, not to arrange my life or any part of it." + +"If I wished to be harsh, I might remind you that beggars cannot be +choosers," said my uncle; "and as to managing your life, you have tried +your own way already, and you see what you have made of it. You must now +accept the guidance of those older and (whatever you may think of it) +wiser than yourself. All these schemes of your friend (of whom I know +nothing, by the by) and talk of openings in the West, I simply +disregard. I have no idea whatever of your going troking across a +continent on a wild-goose chase. In this situation, which I am +fortunately able to place at your disposal, and which many a +well-conducted young man would be glad to jump at, you will receive, to +begin with, eighteen shillings a week." + +"Eighteen shillings a week!" I cried. "Why, my poor friend gave me more +than that for nothing!" + +"And I think it is this very friend you are now trying to repay?" +observed my uncle, with an air of one advancing a strong argument. + +"Aadam," said my grandfather. + +"I'm vexed you should be present at this business," quoth Uncle Adam, +swinging rather obsequiously towards the stonemason; "but I must remind +you it is of your own seeking." + +"Aadam!" repeated the old man. + +"Well, sir, I am listening," says my uncle. + +My grandfather took a puff or two in silence: and then, "Ye're makin' an +awfu' poor appearance, Aadam," said he. + +My uncle visibly reared at the affront. "I'm sorry you should think so," +said he, "and still more sorry you should say so before present +company." + +"A believe that; A ken that, Aadam," returned old Loudon drily; "and the +curiis thing is, I'm no very carin'.--See here, ma man," he continued, +addressing himself to me. "A'm your grandfaither, amn't I not? Never you +mind what Aadam says. A'll see justice dune ye. A'm rich." + +"Father," said Uncle Adam, "I would like one word with you in private." + +I rose to go. + +"Set down upon your hinderlands," cried my grandfather, almost savagely. +"If Aadam has anything to say, let him say it. It's me that has the +money here; and, by Gravy! I'm goin' to be obeyed." + +Upon this scurvy encouragement, it appeared that my uncle had no remark +to offer: twice challenged to "speak out and be done with it," he twice +sullenly declined; and I may mention that about this period of the +engagement I began to be sorry for him. + +"See here, then, Jeannie's yin!" resumed my grandfather. "A'm goin' to +give ye a set-off. Your mither was always my fav'rite, for A never could +agree with Aadam. A like ye fine yoursel'; there's nae noansense aboot +ye; ye've a fine nayteral idee of builder's work; ye've been to France, +where, they tell me, they're grand at the stuccy. A splendid thing for +ceilin's, the stuccy! and it's a vailyable disguise, too; A don't +believe there's a builder in Scotland has used more stuccy than me. But, +as A was sayin', if ye'll follie that trade, with the capital that A'm +goin' to give ye, ye may live yet to be as rich as mysel'. Ye see, ye +would have always had a share of it when A was gone; it appears ye're +needin' it now; well, ye'll get the less, as is only just and proper." + +Uncle Adam cleared his throat. "This is very handsome, father," said he; +"and I am sure Loudon feels it so. Very handsome, and, as you say, very +just; but will you allow me to say that it had better, perhaps, be put +in black and white?" + +The enmity always smouldering between the two men, at this ill-judged +interruption almost burst in flame. The stonemason turned upon his +offspring, his long upper lip pulled down for all the world like a +monkey's. He stared a while in virulent silence; and then "Get Gregg!" +said he. + +The effect of these words was very visible. "He will be gone to his +office," stammered my uncle. + +"Get Gregg!" repeated my grandfather. + +"I tell you, he will be gone to his office," reiterated Adam. + +"And I tell ye, he's takin' his smoke," retorted the old man. + +"Very well, then," cried my uncle, getting to his feet with some +alacrity, as upon a sudden change of thought, "I will get him myself." + +"Ye will not!" cried my grandfather. "Ye will sit there upon your +hinderland." + +"Then how the devil am I to get him?" my uncle broke forth, with not +unnatural petulance. + +My grandfather (having no possible answer) grinned at his son with the +malice of a schoolboy; then he rang the bell. + +"Take the garden key," said Uncle Adam to the servant; "go over to the +garden, and if Mr. Gregg the lawyer is there (he generally sits under +the red hawthorn), give him old Mr. Loudon's compliments, and will he +step in here for a moment?" + +"Mr. Gregg the lawyer!" At once I understood (what had been puzzling me) +the significance of my grandfather and the alarm of my poor uncle: the +stonemason's will, it was supposed, hung trembling in the balance. + +"Look here, grandfather," I said, "I didn't want any of this. All I +wanted was a loan of, say, two hundred pounds. I can take care of +myself; I have prospects and opportunities, good friends in the +States--" + +The old man waved me down. "It's me that speaks here," he said curtly; +and we waited the coming of the lawyer in a triple silence. He appeared +at last, the maid ushering him in--a spectacled, dry, but not +ungenial-looking man. + +"Here, Gregg," cried my grandfather, "just a question: What has Aadam +got to do with my will?" + +"I'm afraid I don't quite understand," said the lawyer, staring. + +"What has he got to do with it?" repeated the old man, smiting with his +fist upon the arm of his chair. "Is my money mine's, or is it Aadam's? +Can Aadam interfere?" + +"O, I see," said Mr. Gregg. "Certainly not. On the marriage of both of +your children a certain sum was paid down and accepted in full of +legitim. You have surely not forgotten the circumstance, Mr. Loudon?" + +"So that, if I like," concluded my grandfather, hammering out his words, +"I can leave every doit I die possessed of to the Great +Magunn?"--meaning probably the Great Mogul. + +"No doubt of it," replied Gregg, with a shadow of a smile. + +"Ye hear that, Aadam?" asked my grandfather. + +"I may be allowed to say I had no need to hear it," said my uncle. + +"Very well," says my grandfather. "You and Jeannie's yin can go for a +bit walk. Me and Gregg has business." + +When once I was in the hall alone with Uncle Adam, I turned to him sick +at heart. "Uncle Adam," I said, "you can understand, better than I can +say, how very painful all this is to me." + +"Yes, I am sorry you have seen your grandfather in so unamiable a +light," replied this extraordinary man. "You shouldn't allow it to +affect your mind, though. He has sterling qualities, quite an +extraordinary character; and I have no fear but he means to behave +handsomely to you." + +His composure was beyond my imitation: the house could not contain me, +nor could I even promise to return to it: in concession to which +weakness, it was agreed that I should call in about an hour at the +office of the lawyer, whom (as he left the library) Uncle Adam should +waylay and inform of the arrangement. I suppose there was never a more +topsy-turvy situation; you would have thought it was I who had suffered +some rebuff, and that iron-sided Adam was a generous conqueror who +scorned to take advantage. + +It was plain enough that I was to be endowed: to what extent and upon +what conditions I was now left for an hour to meditate in the wide and +solitary thoroughfares of the new town, taking counsel with +street-corner statues of George IV. and William Pitt, improving my mind +with the pictures in the window of a music-shop, and renewing my +acquaintance with Edinburgh east wind. By the end of the hour I made my +way to Mr. Gregg's office, where I was placed, with a few appropriate +words, in possession of a cheque for two thousand pounds and a small +parcel of architectural works. + +"Mr. Loudon bids me add," continued the lawyer, consulting a little +sheet of notes, "that although these volumes are very valuable to the +practical builder, you must be careful not to lose originality. He tells +you also not to be 'hadden doun'--his own expression--by the theory of +strains, and that Portland cement, properly sanded, will go a long way." + +I smiled, and remarked that I supposed it would. + +"I once lived in one of my excellent client's houses," observed the +lawyer; "and I was tempted, in that case, to think it had gone far +enough." + +"Under these circumstances, sir," said I, "you will be rather relieved +to hear that I have no intention of becoming a builder." + +At this he fairly laughed; and, the ice being broken, I was able to +consult him as to my conduct. He insisted I must return to the house--at +least, for luncheon, and one of my walks with Mr. Loudon. "For the +evening I will furnish you with an excuse, if you please," said he, "by +asking you to a bachelor dinner with myself. But the luncheon and the +walk are unavoidable. He is an old man, and, I believe, really fond of +you; he would naturally feel aggrieved if there were any appearance of +avoiding him; and as for Mr. Adam, do you know, I think your delicacy +out of place.... And now, Mr. Dodd, what are you to do with this money?" + +Ay, there was the question. With two thousand pounds--fifty thousand +francs--I might return to Paris and the arts, and be a prince and +millionaire in that thrifty Latin Quarter. I think I had the grace, with +one corner of my mind, to be glad that I had sent the London letter: I +know very well that, with the rest and worst of me, I repented bitterly +of that precipitate act. On one point, however, my whole multiplex +estate of man was unanimous: the letter being gone, there was no help +but I must follow. The money was accordingly divided in two unequal +shares: for the first, Mr. Gregg got me a bill in the name of Dijon to +meet my liabilities in Paris; for the second, as I had already cash in +hand for the expenses of, my journey, he supplied me with drafts on San +Francisco. + +The rest of my business in Edinburgh, not to dwell on a very agreeable +dinner with the lawyer or the horrors of the family luncheon, took the +form of an excursion with the stonemason, who led me this time to no +suburb or work of his old hands, but, with an impulse both natural and +pretty, to that more enduring home which he had chosen for his clay. It +was in a cemetery, by some strange chance immured within the bulwarks of +a prison; standing, besides, on the margin of a cliff, crowded with +elderly stone memorials, and green with turf and ivy. The east wind +(which I thought too harsh for the old man) continually shook the +boughs, and the thin sun of a Scottish summer drew their dancing +shadows. + +"I wanted ye to see the place," said he. "Yon's the stane. _Euphemia +Ross_: that was my goodwife, your grandmither--hoots! I'm wrong; that +was my first yin; I had no bairns by her;--yours is the second, _Mary +Murray, Born_ 1819, _Died_ 1850; that's her--a fine, plain, decent sort +of a creature, tak' her a'thegether. _Alexander Loudon, Born Seventeen +Ninety-Twa, Died_--and then a hole in the ballant: that's me. +Alexander's my name. They ca'd me Ecky when I was a boy. Eh, Ecky! ye're +an awfu' auld man!" + +I had a second and sadder experience of graveyards at my next +alighting-place, the city of Muskegon, now rendered conspicuous by the +dome of the new capitol encaged in scaffolding. It was late in the +afternoon when I arrived, and raining; and as I walked in great streets, +of the very name of which I was quite ignorant--double, treble, and +quadruple lines of horse-cars jingling by--hundred-fold wires of +telegraph and telephone matting heaven above my head--huge, staring +houses, garish and gloomy, flanking me from either hand--the thought of +the Rue Racine, ay, and of the cabman's eating-house, brought tears to +my eyes. The whole monotonous Babel had grown--or, I should rather say, +swelled--with such a leap since my departure that I must continually +inquire my way; and the very cemetery was brand-new. Death, however, had +been active; the graves were already numerous, and I must pick my way in +the rain among the tawdry sepulchres of millionaires, and past the plain +black crosses of Hungarian labourers, till chance or instinct led me to +the place that was my father's. The stone had been erected (I knew +already) "by admiring friends"; I could now judge their taste in +monuments. Their taste in literature, methought, I could imagine, and I +refrained from drawing near enough to read the terms of the inscription. +But the name was in larger letters and stared at me--_James K. Dodd_. +"What a singular thing is a name!" I thought; "how it clings to a man, +and continually misrepresents, and then survives him!" And it flashed +across my mind, with a mixture of regret and bitter mirth, that I had +never known, and now probably never should know, what the _K_ had +represented. King, Kilter, Kay, Kaiser, I went, running over names at +random, and then stumbled, with ludicrous misspelling, on Kornelius, and +had nearly laughed aloud. I have never been more childish; I suppose +(although the deeper voices of my nature seemed all dumb) because I have +never been more moved. And at this last incongruous antic of my nerves I +was seized with a panic of remorse, and fled the cemetery. + +Scarce less funereal was the rest of my experience in Muskegon, where, +nevertheless, I lingered, visiting my father's circle, for some days. It +was in piety to him I lingered; and I might have spared myself the pain. +His memory was already quite gone out. For his sake, indeed, I was made +welcome; and for mine the conversation rolled a while with laborious +effort on the virtues of the deceased. His former comrades dwelt, in my +company, upon his business talents or his generosity for public +purposes: when my back was turned, they remembered him no more. My +father had loved me; I had left him alone, to live and die among the +indifferent; now I returned to find him dead and buried and forgotten. +Unavailing penitence translated itself in my thoughts to fresh resolve. +There was another poor soul who loved me--Pinkerton. I must not be +guilty twice of the same error. + +A week perhaps had been thus wasted, nor had I prepared my friend for +the delay. Accordingly, when I had changed trains at Council Bluffs, I +was aware of a man appearing at the end of the car with a telegram in +his hand and inquiring whether there were any one aboard "of the name of +_London_ Dodd?" I thought the name near enough, claimed the despatch, +and found it was from Pinkerton: "What day do you arrive? Awfully +important." I sent him an answer, giving day and hour, and at Ogden +found a fresh despatch awaiting me: "That will do. Unspeakable relief. +Meet you at Sacramento." In Paris days I had a private name for +Pinkerton: "The Irrepressible" was what I had called him in hours of +bitterness, and the name rose once more on my lips. What mischief was he +up to now? What new bowl was my benignant monster brewing for his +Frankenstein? In what new imbroglio should I alight on the Pacific +coast? My trust in the man was entire, and my distrust perfect. I knew +he would never mean amiss; but I was convinced he would almost never (in +my sense) do aright. + +I suppose these vague anticipations added a shade of gloom to that +already gloomy place of travel: Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, scowled +in my face at least, and seemed to point me back again to that other +native land of mine, the Latin Quarter. But when the Sierras had been +climbed, and the train, after so long beating and panting, stretched +itself upon the downward track--when I beheld that vast extent of +prosperous country rolling seaward from the woods and the blue +mountains, that illimitable spread of rippling corn, the trees growing +and blowing in the merry weather, the country boys thronging aboard the +train with figs and peaches, and the conductors, and the very darky +stewards, visibly exulting in the change--up went my soul like a +balloon; Care fell from his perch upon my shoulders; and when I spied my +Pinkerton among the crowd at Sacramento, I thought of nothing but to +shout and wave for him, and grasp him by the hand, like what he was--my +dearest friend. + +"O, Loudon!" he cried; "man, how I've pined for you! And you haven't +come an hour too soon. You're known here and waited for; I've been +booming you already: you're billed for a lecture to-morrow night: +'Student Life in Paris, Grave and Gay': twelve hundred places booked at +the last stock! Tut, man, you're looking thin! Here, try a drop of +this." And he produced a case bottle, staringly labelled PINKERTON'S +THIRTEEN STAR GOLDEN STATE BRANDY, WARRANTED ENTIRE. + +"God bless me!" said I, gasping and winking after my first plunge into +this fiery fluid; "and what does 'Warranted Entire' mean?" + +"Why, Loudon, you ought to know that!" cried Pinkerton. "It's real, +copper-bottomed English; you see it on all the old-time wayside +hostelries over there." + +"But if I'm not mistaken, it means something Warranted Entirely +different," said I, "and applies to the public-house, and not the +beverages sold." + +"It's very possible," said Jim, quite unabashed. "It's effective, +anyway; and I can tell you, sir, it has boomed that spirit: it goes now +by the gross of cases. By the way, I hope you won't mind; I've got your +portrait all over San Francisco for the lecture, enlarged from that +carte de visite: 'H. Loudon Dodd, the Americo-Parisienne Sculptor.' +Here's a proof of the small handbills; the posters are the same, only in +red and blue, and the letters fourteen by one." + +I looked at the handbill, and my head turned. What was the use of words? +why seek to explain to Pinkerton the knotted horrors of +"Americo-Parisienne"? He took an early occasion to point it out as +"rather a good phrase; gives the two sides at a glance: I wanted the +lecture written up to that." Even after we had reached San Francisco, +and at the actual physical shock of my own effigy placarded on the +streets I had broken forth in petulant words, he never comprehended in +the least the ground of my aversion. + +"If I had only known you disliked red lettering!" was as high as he +could rise. "You are perfectly right: a clear-cut black is preferable, +and shows a great deal further. The only thing that pains me is the +portrait: I own I thought that a success. I'm dreadfully and truly +sorry, my dear fellow: I see now it's not what you had a right to +expect; but I did it, Loudon, for the best; and the press is all +delighted." + +At the moment, sweeping through green tule swamps, I fell direct on the +essential. "But Pinkerton," I cried, "this lecture is the maddest of +your madnesses. How can I prepare a lecture in thirty hours?" + +"All done, Loudon!" he exclaimed in triumph. "All ready. Trust me to +pull a piece of business through. You'll find it all type-written in my +desk at home. I put the best talent of San Francisco on the job: Harry +Miller, the brightest pressman in the city." + +And so he rattled on, beyond reach of my modest protestations, blurting +out his complicated interests, crying up his new acquaintances, and ever +and again hungering to introduce me to some "whole-souled, grand fellow, +as sharp as a needle," from whom, and the very thought of whom, my +spirit shrank instinctively. + +Well, I was in for it--in for Pinkerton, in for the portrait, in for the +type-written lecture. One promise I extorted--that I was never again to +be committed in ignorance. Even for that, when I saw how its extortion +puzzled and depressed the Irrepressible, my soul repented me, and in all +else I suffered myself to be led uncomplaining at his chariot-wheels. +The Irrepressible, did I say? The Irresistible were nigher truth. + +But the time to have seen me was when I sat down to Harry Miller's +lecture. He was a facetious dog, this Harry Miller. He had a gallant way +of skirting the indecent, which in my case produced physical nausea, and +he could be sentimental and even melodramatic about grisettes and +starving genius. I found he had enjoyed the benefit of my correspondence +with Pinkerton; adventures of my own were here and there horridly +misrepresented, sentiments of my own echoed and exaggerated till I +blushed to recognise them. I will do Harry Miller justice: he must have +had a kind of talent, almost of genius; all attempts to lower his tone +proving fruitless, and the Harry-Millerism ineradicable. Nay, the +monster had a certain key of style, or want of style, so that certain +milder passages, which I sought to introduce, discorded horribly and +impoverished, if that were possible, the general effect. + +By an early hour of the numbered evening I might have been observed at +the sign of the "Poodle Dog" dining with my agent--so Pinkerton +delighted to describe himself. Thence, like an ox to the slaughter, he +led me to the hall, where I stood presently alone, confronting assembled +San Francisco, with no better allies than a table, a glass of water, and +a mass of manuscript and typework, representing Harry Miller and myself. +I read the lecture: for I had lacked both time and will to get the trash +by heart--read it hurriedly, humbly, and with visible shame. Now and +then I would catch in the auditorium an eye of some intelligence, now +and then in the manuscript would stumble on a richer vein of Harry +Miller, and my heart would fail me, and I gabbled. The audience yawned, +it stirred uneasily, it muttered, grumbled, and broke forth at last in +articulate cries of "Speak up!" and "Nobody can hear!" I took to +skipping, and, being extremely ill-acquainted with the country, almost +invariably cut in again in the unintelligible midst of some new topic. +What struck me as extremely ominous, these misfortunes were allowed to +pass without a laugh. Indeed, I was beginning to fear the worst, and +even personal indignity, when all at once the humour of the thing broke +upon me strongly. I could have laughed aloud, and, being again summoned +to speak up, I faced my patrons for the first time with a smile. "Very +well," I said, "I will try, though I don't suppose anybody wants to +hear, and I can't see why anybody should." Audience and lecturer laughed +together till the tears ran down, vociferous and repeated applause +hailed my impromptu sally. Another hit which I made but a little after, +as I turned three pages of the copy--"You see, I am leaving out as much +as I possibly can"--increased the esteem with which my patrons had begun +to regard me; and when I left the stage at last, my departing form was +cheered with laughter, stamping, shouting, and the waving of hats. + +Pinkerton was in the waiting-room, feverishly jotting in his +pocket-book. As he saw me enter, he sprang up, and I declare the tears +were trickling on his cheeks. + +"My dear boy," he cried, "I can never forgive myself, and you can never +forgive me. Never mind, I did it for the best. And how nobly you clung +on! I dreaded we should have had to return the money at the doors." + +"It would have been more honest if we had," said I. + +The pressmen followed me, Harry Miller in the front ranks; and I was +amazed to find them, on the whole, a pleasant set of lads, probably more +sinned against than sinning, and even Harry Miller apparently a +gentleman. I had in oysters and champagne--for the receipts were +excellent--and, being in a high state of nervous tension, kept the table +in a roar. Indeed, I was never in my life so well inspired as when I +described my vigil over Harry Miller's literature or the series of my +emotions as I faced the audience. The lads vowed I was the soul of good +company and the prince of lecturers; and--so wonderful an institution +is the popular press--if you had seen the notices next day in all the +papers you must have supposed my evening's entertainment an unqualified +success. + +I was in excellent spirits when I returned home that night, but the +miserable Pinkerton sorrowed for us both. + +"O, Loudon," he said, "I shall never forgive myself. When I saw you +didn't catch on to the idea of the lecture, I should have given it +myself!" + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +IRONS IN THE FIRE + +_Opes Strepitumque_ + + +The food of the body differs not so greatly for the fool or the sage, +the elephant or the cock-sparrow; and similar chemical elements, +variously disguised, support all mortals. A brief study of Pinkerton in +his new setting convinced me of a kindred truth about that other and +mental digestion by which we extract what is called "fun for our money" +out of life. In the same spirit as a schoolboy deep in Mayne Reid +handles a dummy gun and crawls among imaginary forests, Pinkerton sped +through Kearney Street upon his daily business, representing to himself +a highly coloured part in life's performance, and happy for hours if he +should have chanced to brush against a millionaire. Reality was his +romance; he gloried to be thus engaged: he wallowed in his business. +Suppose a man to dig up a galleon on the Coromandel coast, his rakish +schooner keeping the while an offing under easy sail, and he, by the +blaze of a great fire of wreckwood, to measure ingots by the bucketful +on the uproarious beach; such an one might realise a greater material +spoil; he should have no more profit of romance than Pinkerton when he +cast up his weekly balance-sheet in a bald office. Every dollar gained +was like something brought ashore from a mysterious deep; every venture +made was like a diver's plunge; and as he thrust his bold hand into the +plexus of the money-market he was delightedly aware of how he shook the +pillars of existence, turned out men, as at a battle-cry, to labour in +far countries, and set the gold twitching in the drawers of +millionaires. + +I could never fathom the full extent of his speculations; but there were +five separate businesses which he avowed and carried like a banner. The +_Thirteen Star Golden State Brandy, Warranted Entire_ (a very flagrant +distillation) filled a great part of his thoughts, and was kept before +the public in an eloquent but misleading treatise, "Why Drink French +Brandy? A Word to the Wise." He kept an office for advertisers, +counselling, designing, acting as middleman with printers and +bill-stickers, for the inexperienced or the uninspired: the dull +haberdasher came to him for ideas, the smart theatrical agent for his +local knowledge, and one and all departed with a copy of his pamphlet, +"How, When, and Where; or, The Advertiser's Vade-Mecum." He had a tug +chartered every Saturday afternoon and night, carried people outside the +Heads, and provided them with lines and bait for six hours' fishing, at +the rate of five dollars a person. I am told that some of them +(doubtless adroit anglers) made a profit on the transaction. +Occasionally he bought wrecks and condemned vessels; these latter (I +cannot tell you how) found their way to sea again under aliases, and +continued to stem the waves triumphantly enough under the colours of +Bolivia or Nicaragua. Lastly, there was a certain agricultural engine, +glorying in a great deal of vermilion and blue paint, and filling (it +appeared) a "long-felt want," in which his interest was something like a +tenth. + +This for the face or front of his concerns. "On the outside," as he +phrased it, he was variously and mysteriously engaged. No dollar slept +in his possession; rather, he kept all simultaneously flying, like a +conjurer with oranges. My own earnings, when I began to have a share, he +would but show me for a moment, and disperse again, like those illusive +money gifts which are flashed in the eyes of childhood, only to be +entombed in the missionary-box. And he would come down radiant from a +weekly balance-sheet, clap me on the shoulder, declare himself a winner +by Gargantuan figures, and prove destitute of a quarter for a drink. + +"What on earth have you done with it?" I would ask. + +"Into the mill again; all re-invested!" he would cry, with infinite +delight. "Investment" was ever his word. He could not bear what he +called gambling. "Never touch stocks, Loudon," he would say; "nothing +but legitimate business." And yet, Heaven knows, many an indurated +gambler might have drawn back appalled at the first hint of some of +Pinkerton's investments! One which I succeeded in tracking home, an +instance for a specimen, was a seventh share in the charter of a certain +ill-starred schooner bound for Mexico--to smuggle weapons on the one +trip, and cigars upon the other. The latter end of this enterprise, +involving (as it did) shipwreck, confiscation, and a lawsuit with the +underwriters, was too painful to be dwelt upon at length. "It's proved a +disappointment," was as far as my friend would go with me in words; but +I knew, from observation, that the fabric of his fortunes tottered. For +the rest, it was only by accident I got wind of the transaction; for +Pinkerton, after a time, was shy of introducing me to his arcana: the +reason you are to hear presently. + +The office which was (or should have been) the point of rest for so many +evolving dollars stood in the heart of the city--a high and spacious +room, with many plate-glass windows. A glazed cabinet of polished +red-wood offered to the eye a regiment of some two hundred bottles +conspicuously labelled. These were all charged with Pinkerton's Thirteen +Star, although from across the room it would have required an expert to +distinguish them from the same number of bottles of Courvoisier. I used +to twit my friend with this resemblance, and propose a new edition of +the pamphlet, with the title thus improved, "Why Drink French Brandy, +When We give You the same Labels?" The doors of the cabinet revolved +all day upon their hinges; and if there entered any one who was a +stranger to the merits of the brand, he departed laden with a bottle. +When I used to protest at this extravagance, "My dear Loudon," Pinkerton +would cry, "you don't seem to catch on to business principles! The prime +cost of the spirit is literally nothing. I couldn't find a cheaper +advertisement if I tried." Against the side-post of the cabinet there +leaned a gaudy umbrella, preserved there as a relic. It appears that +when Pinkerton was about to place Thirteen Star upon the market, the +rainy season was at hand. He lay dark, almost in penury, awaiting the +first shower, at which, as upon a signal, the main thoroughfares became +dotted with his agents, vendors of advertisements; and the whole world +of San Francisco, from the business-man fleeing for the ferry-boat, to +the lady waiting at the corner for her car, sheltered itself under +umbrellas with this strange device: _Are you wet? Try Thirteen Star._ +"It was a mammoth boom," said Pinkerton, with a sigh of delighted +recollection. "There wasn't another umbrella to be seen. I stood at this +window, Loudon, feasting my eyes; and I declare, I felt like +Vanderbilt." And it was to this neat application of the local climate +that he owed, not only much of the sale of Thirteen Star, but the whole +business of his advertising agency. + +The large desk (to resume our survey of the office) stood about the +middle, knee-deep in stacks of handbills and posters of "Why Drink +French Brandy?" and "The Advertiser's Vade-Mecum." It was flanked upon +the one hand by two female type-writers, who rested not between the +hours of nine and four, and upon the other by a model of the +agricultural machine. The walls, where they were not broken by +telephone-boxes and a couple of photographs--one representing the wreck +of the _James L. Moody_ on a bold and broken coast, the other the +Saturday tug alive with amateur fishers--almost disappeared under +oil-paintings gaudily framed. Many of these were relics of the Latin +Quarter, and I must do Pinkerton the justice to say that none of them +were bad, and some had remarkable merit. They went off slowly, but for +handsome figures; and their places were progressively supplied with the +work of local artists. These last it was one of my first duties to +review and criticise. Some of them were villainous, yet all were +saleable. I said so; and the next moment saw myself, the figure of a +miserable renegade, bearing arms in the wrong camp. I was to look at +pictures thenceforward, not with the eye of the artist, but the dealer; +and I saw the stream widen that divided me from all I loved. + +"Now, Loudon," Pinkerton had said, the morning after the lecture,--"now, +Loudon, we can go at it shoulder to shoulder. This is what I have longed +for: I wanted two heads and four arms; and now I have 'em. You'll find +it's just the same as art--all observation and imagination only more +movement. Just wait till you begin to feel the charm!" + +I might have waited long. Perhaps I lack a sense; for our whole +existence seemed to me one dreary bustle, and the place we bustled in +fitly to be called the Place of Yawning. I slept in a little den behind +the office; Pinkerton, in the office itself, stretched on a patent sofa +which sometimes collapsed, his slumbers still further menaced by an +imminent clock with an alarm. Roused by this diabolical contrivance, we +rose early, went forth early to breakfast, and returned by nine to what +Pinkerton called work, and I distraction. Masses of letters must be +opened, read, and answered; some by me at a subsidiary desk which had +been introduced on the morning of my arrival; others by my bright-eyed +friend, pacing the room like a caged lion as he dictated to the tinkling +type-writers. Masses of wet proof had to be overhauled and scrawled upon +with a blue pencil--"rustic"; "six-inch caps"; "bold spacing here"; or +sometimes terms more fervid--as, for instance, this (which I remember +Pinkerton to have spirted on the margin of an advertisement of Soothing +Syrup), "Throw this all down. Have you never printed an advertisement? +I'll be round in half-an-hour." The ledger and sale-book, besides, we +had always with us. Such was the backbone of our occupation, and +tolerable enough; but the far greater proportion of our time was +consumed by visitors--whole-souled, grand fellows no doubt, and as sharp +as a needle, but to me unfortunately not diverting. Some were apparently +half-witted, and must be talked over by the hour before they could reach +the humblest decision, which they only left the office to return again +(ten minutes later) and rescind. Others came with a vast show of hurry +and despatch, but I observed it to be principally show. The agricultural +model, for instance, which was practicable, proved a kind of fly-paper +for these busybodies. I have seen them blankly turn the crank of it for +five minutes at a time, simulating (to nobody's deception) business +interest: "Good thing this, Pinkerton? Sell much of it? Ha! Couldn't use +it, I suppose, as a medium of advertisement for my article?"--which was +perhaps toilet soap. Others (a still worse variety) carried us to +neighbouring saloons to dice for cocktails and (after the cocktails were +paid) for dollars on a corner of the counter. The attraction of dice for +all these people was, indeed, extraordinary: at a certain club where I +once dined in the character of "my partner, Mr. Dodd," the dice-box came +on the table with the wine, an artless substitute for after-dinner wit. + +Of all our visitors, I believe I preferred Emperor Norton; the very +mention of whose name reminds me I am doing scanty justice to the folks +of San Francisco. In what other city would a harmless madman who +supposed himself emperor of the two Americas have been so fostered and +encouraged? Where else would even the people of the streets have +respected the poor soul's illusion? Where else would bankers and +merchants have received his visits, cashed his cheques, and submitted +to his small assessments? Where else would he have been suffered to +attend and address the exhibition days of schools and colleges? Where +else, in God's green earth, have taken his pick of restaurants, +ransacked the bill of fare, and departed scatheless? They tell me he was +even an exacting patron, threatening to withdraw his custom when +dissatisfied; and I can believe it, for his face wore an expression +distinctly gastronomical. Pinkerton had received from this monarch a +cabinet appointment; I have seen the brevet, wondering mainly at the +good-nature of the printer who had executed the forms, and I think my +friend was at the head either of foreign affairs or education: it +mattered, indeed, nothing, the prestation being in all offices +identical. It was at a comparatively early date that I saw Jim in the +exercise of his public functions. His Majesty entered the office--a +portly, rather flabby man, with the face of a gentleman, rendered +unspeakably pathetic and absurd by the great sabre at his side and the +peacock's feather in his hat. + +"I have called to remind you, Mr. Pinkerton, that you are somewhat in +arrear of taxes," he said, with old-fashioned, stately courtesy. + +"Well, your Majesty, what is the amount?" asked Jim; and, when the +figure was named (it was generally two or three dollars), paid upon the +nail and offered a bonus in the shape of Thirteen Star. + +"I am always delighted to patronise native industries," said Norton the +First. "San Francisco is public-spirited in what concerns its emperor; +and indeed, sir, of all my domains, it is my favourite city." + +"Come," said I, when he was gone, "I prefer that customer to the lot." + +"It's really rather a distinction," Jim admitted. "I think it must have +been the umbrella racket that attracted him." + +We were distinguished under the rose by the notice of other and greater +men. There were days when Jim wore an air of unusual capacity and +resolve, spoke with more brevity, like one pressed for time, and took +often on his tongue such phrases as "Longhurst told me so this morning," +or, "I had it straight from Longhurst himself." It was no wonder, I used +to think, that Pinkerton was called to council with such Titans; for the +creature's quickness and resource were beyond praise. In the early days +when he consulted me without reserve, pacing the room, projecting, +ciphering, extending hypothetical interests, trebling imaginary capital, +his "engine" (to renew an excellent old word) labouring full steam +ahead, I could never decide whether my sense of respect or entertainment +were the stronger. But these good hours were designed to curtailment. + +"Yes, it's smart enough," I once observed. "But, Pinkerton, do you think +it's honest?" + +"You don't think it's honest?" he wailed. "O dear me, that ever I should +have heard such an expression on your lips." + +At sight of his distress I plagiarised unblushingly from Myner. "You +seem to think honesty as simple as Blind Man's Buff," said I. "It's a +more delicate affair than that: delicate as any art." + +"O well, at that rate!" he exclaimed, with complete relief; "that's +casuistry." + +"I am perfectly certain of one thing; that what you propose is +dishonest," I returned. + +"Well, say no more about it; that's settled," he replied. + +Thus, almost at a word, my point was carried. But the trouble was that +such differences continued to recur, until we began to regard each other +with alarm. If there were one thing Pinkerton valued himself upon, it +was his honesty; if there were one thing he clung to, it was my good +opinion; and when both were involved, as was the case in these +commercial cruces, the man was on the rack. My own position, if you +consider how much I owed him, how hateful is the trade of fault-finder, +and that yet I lived and fattened on these questionable operations, was +perhaps equally distressing. If I had been more sterling or more +combative, things might have gone extremely far. But, in truth, I was +just base enough to profit by what was not forced on my attention, +rather than seek scenes; Pinkerton quite cunning enough to avail himself +of my weakness; and it was a relief to both when he began to involve his +proceedings in a decent mystery. + +Our last dispute, which had a most unlooked-for consequence, turned on +the refitting of condemned ships. He had bought a miserable hulk, and +came, rubbing his hands, to inform me she was already on the slip, under +a new name, to be repaired. When first I had heard of this industry I +suppose I scarcely comprehended; but much discussion had sharpened my +faculties, and now my brow became heavy. + +"I can be no party to that, Pinkerton," said I. + +He leaped like a man shot. "What next?" he cried. "What ails you anyway? +You seem to me to dislike everything that's profitable." + +"This ship has been condemned by Lloyd's agent," said I. + +"But I tell you it's a deal. The ship's in splendid condition; there's +next to nothing wrong with her but the garboard streak and the +sternpost. I tell you, Lloyd's is a ring, like everybody else; only it's +an English ring, and that's what deceives you. If it was American, you +would be crying it down all day. It's Anglomania--common Anglomania," he +cried, with growing irritation. + +"I will not make money by risking men's lives," was my ultimatum. + +"Great Caesar! isn't all speculation a risk? Isn't the fairest kind of +shipowning to risk men's lives? And mining--how's that for risk? And +look at the elevator business--there's danger if you like! Didn't I take +my risk when I bought her? She might have been too far gone; and where +would I have been? Loudon," he cried, "I tell you the truth: you're too +full of refinement for this world!" + +"I condemn you out of your own lips," I replied. "'The fairest kind of +shipowning,' says you. If you please, let us only do the fairest kind of +business." + +The shot told; the Irrepressible was silenced; and I profited by the +chance to pour in a broadside of another sort. He was all sunk in +money-getting, I pointed out; he never dreamed of anything but dollars. +Where were all his generous, progressive sentiments? Where was his +culture? I asked. And where was the American Type? + +"It's true, Loudon," he cried striding up and down the room, and wildly +scouring at his hair. "You're perfectly right. I'm becoming +materialised. O, what a thing to have to say, what a confession to make! +Materialised! Me! Loudon, this must go on no longer. You've been a loyal +friend to me once more; give me your hand--you've saved me again. I must +do something to rouse the spiritual side; something desperate; study +something, something dry and tough. What shall it be? Theology? Algebra? +What's algebra?" + +"It's dry and tough enough," said I; "_a^2 + 2ab + b^2._" + +"It's stimulating, though?" he inquired. + +I told him I believed so, and that it was considered fortifying to +Types. + +"Then that's the thing for me. I'll study algebra," he concluded. + +The next day, by application to one of his typewriting women, he got +word of a young lady, one Miss Mamie McBride, who was willing and able +to conduct him in these bloomless meadows; and, her circumstances being +lean, and terms consequently moderate, he and Mamie were soon in +agreement for two lessons in the week. He took fire with unexampled +rapidity; he seemed unable to tear himself away from the symbolic art; +an hour's lesson occupied the whole evening; and the original two was +soon increased to four, and then to five. I bade him beware of female +blandishments. "The first thing you know, you'll be falling in love with +the algebraist," said I. + +"Don't say it, even in jest," he cried. "She's a lady I revere. I could +no more lay a hand upon her than I could upon a spirit. Loudon, I don't +believe God ever made a purer-minded woman." + +Which appeared to me too fervent to be reassuring. + +Meanwhile I had been long expostulating with my friend upon a different +matter. "I'm the fifth wheel," I kept telling him. "For any use I am, I +might as well be in Senegambia. The letters you give me to attend to +might be answered by a sucking child. And I tell you what it is, +Pinkerton; either you've got to find me some employment, or I'll have to +start in and find it for myself." + +This I said with a corner of my eye in the usual quarter, towards the +arts, little dreaming what destiny was to provide. + +"I've got it, Loudon," Pinkerton at last replied. "Got the idea on the +Potrero cars. Found I hadn't a pencil, borrowed one from the conductor, +and figured on it roughly all the way in town. I saw it was the thing at +last; gives you a real show. All your talents and accomplishments come +in. Here's a sketch advertisement. Just run your eye over it. '_Sun, +Ozone and Music!_ PINKERTON'S HEBDOMADARY PICNICS!' (That's a good, +catching phrase, 'hebdomadary,' though it's hard to say. I made a note +of it when I was looking in the dictionary how to spell _hectagonal_. +'Well, you're a boss word,' I said. 'Before you're very much older, I'll +have you in type as long as yourself.' And here it is, you see.) '_Five +dollars a head, and ladies free_. MONSTER OLIO OF ATTRACTIONS.' (How +does that strike you?) '_Free luncheon under the greenwood tree. Dance +on the elastic sward. Home again in the Bright Evening Hours_. _Manager +and Honorary Steward, H. Loudon Dodd, Esq., the well-known +connoisseur._'" + +Singular how a man runs from Scylla to Charybdis! I was so intent on +securing the disappearance of a single epithet that I accepted the rest +of the advertisement and all that it involved without discussion. So it +befell that the words "well-known connoisseur" were deleted; but that H. +Loudon Dodd became manager and honorary steward of Pinkerton's +Hebdomadary Picnics, soon shortened by popular consent, to The +Dromedary. + +By eight o'clock, any Sunday morning, I was to be observed by an +admiring public on the wharf. The garb and attributes of sacrifice +consisted of a black frockcoat, rosetted, its pockets bulging with +sweetmeats and inferior cigars, trousers of light blue, a silk hat like +a reflector, and a varnished wand. A goodly steamer guarded my one +flank, panting and throbbing, flags fluttering fore and aft of her, +illustrative of the Dromedary and patriotism. My other flank was covered +by the ticket-office, strongly held by a trusty character of the Scots +persuasion, rosetted like his superior, and smoking a cigar to mark the +occasion festive. At half-past, having assured myself that all was well +with the free luncheons, I lit a cigar myself, and awaited the strains +of the "Pioneer Band." I had never to wait long--they were German and +punctual--and by a few minutes after the half-hour I would hear them +booming down street with a long military roll of drums, some score of +gratuitous asses prancing at the head in bearskin hats and buckskin +aprons, and conspicuous with resplendent axes. The band, of course, we +paid for; but so strong is the San Franciscan passion for public +masquerade, that the asses (as I say) were all gratuitous, pranced for +the love of it, and cost us nothing but their luncheon. + +The musicians formed up in the bows of my steamer, and struck into a +skittish polka; the asses mounted guard upon the gangway and the +ticket-office; and presently after, in family parties of father, +mother, and children, in the form of duplicate lovers or in that of +solitary youth, the public began to descend upon us by the carful at a +time: four to six hundred perhaps, with a strong German flavour, and all +merry as children. When these had been shepherded on board, and the +inevitable belated two or three had gained the deck amidst the cheering +of the public, the hawser was cast off, and we plunged into the bay. + +And now behold the honorary steward in the hour of duty and glory; see +me circulate amid the crowd, radiating affability and laughter, liberal +with my sweetmeats and cigars. I say unblushing things to hobble-dehoy +girls, tell shy young persons this is the married people's boat, +roguishly ask the abstracted if they are thinking of their sweethearts, +offer paterfamilias a cigar, am struck with the beauty and grow curious +about the age of mamma's youngest, who (I assure her gaily) will be a +man before his mother; or perhaps it may occur to me, from the sensible +expression of her face, that she is a person of good counsel, and I ask +her earnestly if she knows any particularly pleasant place on the +Saucelito or San Rafael coast--for the scene of our picnic is always +supposed to be uncertain. The next moment I am back at my giddy badinage +with the young ladies, wakening laughter as I go, and leaving in my wake +applausive comments of "Isn't Mr. Dodd a funny gentleman?" and "O, I +think he's just too nice!" + +An hour having passed in this airy manner, I start upon my rounds +afresh, with a bag full of coloured tickets all with pins attached, and +all with legible inscriptions: "Old Germany," "California," "True Love," +"Old Fogies," "La Belle France," "Green Erin," "The Land of Cakes," +"Washington," "Blue Jay," "Robin Red-Breast"--twenty of each +denomination; for when it comes to the luncheon we sit down by twenties. +These are distributed with anxious tact--for, indeed, this is the most +delicate part of my functions--but outwardly with reckless unconcern, +amidst the gayest flutter and confusion; and are immediately after +sported upon hats and bonnets, to the extreme diffusion of cordiality, +total strangers hailing each other by "the number of their mess"--so we +humorously name it--and the deck ringing with cries of, "Here, all Blue +Jays to the rescue!" or, "I say, am I alone in this blame' ship? Ain't +there no more Californians?" + +By this time we are drawing near to the appointed spot. I mount upon the +bridge, the observed of all observers. + +"Captain," I say, in clear, emphatic tones, heard far and wide, "the +majority of the company appear to be in favour of the little cove beyond +One-Tree Point." + +"All right, Mr. Dodd," responds the captain heartily; "all one to me. I +am not exactly sure of the place you mean; but just you stay here and +pilot me." + +I do, pointing with my wand. I do pilot him, to the inexpressible +entertainment of the picnic, for I am (why should I deny it?) the +popular man. We slow down off the mouth of a grassy valley, watered by a +brook and set in pines and redwoods. The anchor is let go, the boats are +lowered--two of them already packed with the materials of an impromptu +bar--and the Pioneer Band, accompanied by the resplendent asses, fill +the other, and move shoreward to the inviting strains of "Buffalo Gals, +won't you come out to-night?" It is a part of our programme that one of +the asses shall, from sheer clumsiness, in the course of this +embarkation, drop a dummy axe into the water, whereupon the mirth of the +picnic can hardly be assuaged. Upon one occasion the dummy axe floated, +and the laugh turned rather the wrong way. + +In from ten to twenty minutes the boats are alongside again, the messes +are marshalled separately on the deck, and the picnic goes ashore, to +find the band and the impromptu bar awaiting them. Then come the +hampers, which are piled up on the beach, and surrounded by a stern +guard of stalwart asses, axe on shoulder. It is here I take my place, +note-book in hand, under a banner bearing the legend, "Come here for +hampers." Each hamper contains a complete outfit for a separate +twenty--cold provender, plates, glasses, knives, forks, and spoons. An +agonised printed appeal from the fevered pen of Pinkerton, pasted on the +inside of the lid, beseeches that care be taken of the glass and silver. +Beer, wine, and lemonade are flowing already from the bar, and the +various clans of twenty file away into the woods, with bottles under +their arms and the hampers strung upon a stick. Till one they feast +there, in a very moderate seclusion, all being within earshot of the +band. From one till four dancing takes place upon the grass; the bar +does a roaring business; and the honorary steward, who has already +exhausted himself to bring life into the dullest of the messes, must now +indefatigably dance with the plainest of the women. At four a bugle-call +is sounded, and by half-past behold us on board again--Pioneers, +corrugated iron bar, empty bottles, and all; while the honorary steward, +free at last, subsides into the captain's cabin over a brandy and soda +and a book. Free at last, I say; yet there remains before him the +frantic leave-takings at the pier, and a sober journey up to Pinkerton's +office with two policemen and the day's takings in a bag. + +What I have here sketched was the routine. But we appealed to the taste +of San Francisco more distinctly in particular fetes. "Ye Olde Time +Pycke-Nycke," largely advertised in hand-bills beginning "Oyez, Oyez!" +and largely frequented by knights, monks, and cavaliers, was drowned out +by unseasonable rain, and returned to the city one of the saddest +spectacles I ever remember to have witnessed. In pleasing contrast, and +certainly our chief success, was "The Gathering of the Clans," or +Scottish picnic. So many milk-white knees were never before +simultaneously exhibited in public, and, to judge by the prevalence of +"Royal Stewart" and the number of eagles' feathers, we were a high-born +company. I threw forward the Scottish flank of my own ancestry, and +passed muster as a clansman with applause. There was, indeed, but one +small cloud on this red-letter day. I had laid in a large supply of the +national beverage in the shape of the "Rob Roy MacGregor O' Blend, +Warranted Old and Vatted"; and this must certainly have been a generous +spirit, for I had some anxious work between four and half-past, +conveying on board the inanimate forms of chieftains. + +To one of our ordinary festivities, where he was the life and soul of +his own mess, Pinkerton himself came incognito, bringing the algebraist +on his arm. Miss Mamie proved to be a well-enough-looking mouse, with a +large limpid eye, very good manners, and a flow of the most correct +expressions I have ever heard upon the human lip. As Pinkerton's +incognito was strict, I had little opportunity to cultivate the lady's +acquaintance, but I was informed afterwards that she considered me "the +wittiest gentleman she had ever met." "The Lord mend your taste in wit!" +thought I; but I cannot conceal that such was the general impression. +One of my pleasantries even went the round of San Francisco, and I have +heard it (myself all unknown) bandied in saloons. To be unknown began at +last to be a rare experience; a bustle woke upon my passage, above all, +in humble neighbourhoods. "Who's that?" one would ask, and the other +would cry, "That! why, Dromedary Dodd!" or, with withering scorn, "Not +know Mr. Dodd of the picnics? Well!" and, indeed, I think it marked a +rather barren destiny; for our picnics, if a trifle vulgar, were as gay +and innocent as the age of gold. I am sure no people divert themselves +so easily and so well, and even with the cares of my stewardship I was +often happy to be there. + +Indeed, there were but two drawbacks in the least considerable. The +first was my terror of the hobble-dehoy girls, to whom (from the +demands of my situation) I was obliged to lay myself so open. The other, +if less momentous, was more mortifying. In early days--at my mother's +knee, as a man may say--I had acquired the unenviable accomplishment +(which I have never since been able to lose) of singing "Just before the +Battle." I have what the French call a fillet of voice--my best notes +scarce audible about a dinner-table, and the upper register rather to be +regarded as a higher power of silence. Experts tell me, besides, that I +sing flat; nor, if I were the best singer in the world, does "Just +before the Battle" occur to my mature taste as the song that I would +choose to sing. In spite of all which considerations, at one picnic, +memorably dull, and after I had exhausted every other art of pleasing, I +gave, in desperation, my one song. From that hour my doom was gone +forth. Either we had a chronic passenger (though I could never detect +him), or the very wood and iron of the steamer must have retained the +tradition. At every successive picnic word went round that Mr. Dodd was +a singer; that Mr. Dodd sang "Just before the Battle"; and, finally, +that now was the time when Mr. Dodd sang "Just before the Battle." So +that the thing became a fixture, like the dropping of the dummy axe; and +you are to conceive me, Sunday after Sunday, piping up my lamentable +ditty, and covered, when it was done, with gratuitous applause. It is a +beautiful trait in human nature that I was invariably offered an encore. + +I was well paid, however, even to sing. Pinkerton and I, after an +average Sunday, had five hundred dollars to divide. Nay, and the picnics +were the means, although indirectly, of bringing me a singular windfall. +This was at the end of the season, after the "Grand Farewell Fancy Dress +Gala." Many of the hampers had suffered severely; and it was judged +wiser to save storage, dispose of them, and lay in a fresh stock when +the campaign reopened. Among my purchasers was a working man of the +name of Speedy, to whose house, after several unavailing letters, I must +proceed in person, wondering to find myself once again on the wrong +side, and playing the creditor to some one else's debtor. Speedy was in +the belligerent stage of fear. He could not pay. It appeared he had +already resold the hampers, and he defied me to do my worst. I did not +like to lose my own money; I hated to lose Pinkerton's; and the bearing +of my creditor incensed me. + +"Do you know, Mr. Speedy, that I can send you to the penitentiary?" said +I, willing to read him a lesson. + +The dire expression was overheard in the next room. A large, fresh, +motherly Irishwoman ran forth upon the instant, and fell to besiege me +with caresses and appeals. "Sure now, and ye couldn't have the heart to +ut, Mr. Dodd--you, that's so well known to be a pleasant gentleman; and +it's a pleasant face ye have, and the picture of me own brother that's +dead and gone. It's a truth that he's been drinking. Ye can smell it off +of him, more blame to him. But, indade, and there's nothing in the house +beyont the furnicher, and Thim Stock. It's the stock that ye'll be +taking, dear. A sore penny it has cost me, first and last, and, by all +tales, not worth an owld tobacco-pipe." Thus adjured, and somewhat +embarrassed by the stern attitude I had adopted, I suffered myself to be +invested with a considerable quantity of what is called "wild-cat +stock," in which this excellent if illogical female had been squandering +her hard-earned gold. It could scarce be said to better my position, but +the step quieted the woman; and, on the other hand, I could not think I +was taking much risk, for the shares in question (they were those of +what I will call the Catamount Silver Mine) had fallen some time before +to the bed-rock quotation, and now lay perfectly inert, or were only +kicked (like other waste-paper) about the kennel of the exchange by +bankrupt speculators. + +A month or two after, I perceived by the stock-list that Catamount had +taken a bound; before afternoon "thim stock" were worth a quite +considerable pot of money; and I learned, upon inquiry, that a bonanza +had been found in a condemned lead, and the mine was now expected to do +wonders. Remarkable to philosophers how bonanzas are found in condemned +leads, and how the stock is always at freezing-point immediately before! +By some stroke of chance the Speedys had held on to the right thing; +they had escaped the syndicate; yet a little more, if I had not come to +dun them, and Mrs. Speedy would have been buying a silk dress. I could +not bear, of course, to profit by the accident, and returned to offer +restitution. The house was in a bustle; the neighbours (all +stock-gamblers themselves) had crowded to condole; and Mrs. Speedy sat +with streaming tears, the centre of a sympathetic group. "For fifteen +year I've been at ut," she was lamenting as I entered, "and grudging the +babes the very milk--more shame to me!--to pay their dhirty assessments. +And now, my dears, I should be a lady, and driving in my coach, if all +had their rights; and a sorrow on that man Dodd! As soon as I set eyes +on him, I seen the divil was in the house." + +It was upon these words that I made my entrance, which was therefore +dramatic enough, though nothing to what followed. For when it appeared +that I was come to restore the lost fortune, and when Mrs. Speedy (after +copiously weeping on my bosom) had refused the restitution, and when Mr. +Speedy (summoned to that end from a camp of the Grand Army of the +Republic) had added his refusal, and when I had insisted, and they had +insisted, and the neighbours had applauded and supported each of us in +turn; and when at last it was agreed we were to hold the stock together, +and share the proceeds in three parts--one for me, one for Mr. Speedy, +and one for his spouse--I will leave you to conceive the enthusiasm that +reigned in that small, bare apartment, with the sewing-machine in the +one corner, and the babes asleep in the other, and pictures of Garfield +and the Battle of Gettysburg on the yellow walls. Port-wine was had in +by a sympathiser, and we drank it mingled with tears. + +"And I dhrink to your health, my dear," sobbed Mrs. Speedy, especially +affected by my gallantry in the matter of the third share; "and I'm sure +we all dhrink to his health--Mr. Dodd of the picnics, no gentleman +better known than him; and it's my prayer, dear, the good God may be +long spared to see ye in health and happiness!" + +In the end I was the chief gainer; for I sold my third while it was +worth five thousand dollars, but the Speedys more adventurously held on +until the syndicate reversed the process, when they were happy to escape +with perhaps a quarter of that sum. It was just as well; for the bulk of +the money was (in Pinkerton's phrase) reinvested; and when next I saw +Mrs. Speedy, she was still gorgeously dressed from the proceeds of the +late success, but was already moist with tears over the new catastrophe. +"We're froze out, me darlin'! All the money we had, dear, and the +sewing-machine, and Jim's uniform, was in the Golden West; and the +vipers has put on a new assessment." + +By the end of the year, therefore, this is how I stood. I had made + + By Catamount Silver Mine $5,000 + By the picnics 3,000 + By the lecture 600 + By profit and loss on capital in Pinkerton's + business 1,350 + ------ + $9,950 + +to which must be added + + What remained of my grandfather's donation 8,500 + ------ + $18,450 + +It appears, on the other hand, that + + I had spent 4,000 + ------ + Which thus left me to the good $14,450 + +a result on which I am not ashamed to say I looked with gratitude and +pride. Some eight thousand (being late conquest) was liquid and actually +tractile in the bank; the rest whirled beyond reach and even sight (save +in the mirror of a balance-sheet) under the compelling spell of wizard +Pinkerton. Dollars of mine were tacking off the shores of Mexico, in +peril of the deep and the guardacostas; they rang on saloon counters in +the city of Tombstone, Arizona; they shone in faro-tents among the +mountain diggings: the imagination flagged in following them, so wide +were they diffused, so briskly they span to the turning of the wizard's +crank. But here, there, or everywhere I could still tell myself it was +all mine, and--what was more convincing--draw substantial dividends. My +fortune, I called it; and it represented, when expressed in dollars or +even British pounds, an honest pot of money; when extended into francs, +a veritable fortune. Perhaps I have let the cat out of the bag; perhaps +you see already where my hopes were pointing, and begin to blame my +inconsistency. But I must first tell you my excuse, and the change that +had befallen Pinkerton. + +About a week after the picnic to which he escorted Mamie, Pinkerton +avowed the state of his affections. From what I had observed on board +the steamer--where, methought, Mamie waited on him with her limpid +eyes--I encouraged the bashful lover to proceed; and the very next +evening he was carrying me to call on his affianced. + +"You must befriend her, Loudon, as you have always befriended me," he +said pathetically. + +"By saying disagreeable things? I doubt if that be the way to a young +lady's favour," I replied; "and since this picnicking I begin to be a +man of some experience." + +"Yes, you do nobly there; I can't describe how I admire you," he cried. +"Not that she will ever need it; she has had every advantage. God knows +what I have done to deserve her. O man, what a responsibility this is +for a rough fellow and not always truthful!" + +"Brace up, old man--brace up!" said I. + +But when we reached Mamie's boarding-house, it was almost with tears +that he presented me. "Here is Loudon, Mamie," were his words. "I want +you to love him; he has a grand nature." + +"You are certainly no stranger to me, Mr. Dodd," was her gracious +expression. "James is never weary of descanting on your goodness." + +"My dear lady," said I, "when you know our friend a little better, you +will make a large allowance for his warm heart. My goodness has +consisted in allowing him to feed and clothe and toil for me when he +could ill afford it. If I am now alive, it is to him I owe it; no man +had a kinder friend. You must take good care of him," I added, laying my +hand on his shoulder, "and keep him in good order, for he needs it." + +Pinkerton was much affected by this speech, and so, I fear, was Mamie. I +admit it was a tactless performance. "When you know our friend a little +better," was not happily said; and even "keep him in good order, for he +needs it," might be construed into matter of offence. But I lay it +before you in all confidence of your acquittal: was the general tone of +it "patronising"? Even if such was the verdict of the lady, I cannot but +suppose the blame was neither wholly hers nor wholly mine; I cannot but +suppose that Pinkerton had already sickened the poor woman of my very +name; so that if I had come with the songs of Apollo, she must still +have been disgusted. + +Here, however, were two finger-posts to Paris--Jim was going to be +married, and so had the less need of my society; I had not pleased his +bride, and so was, perhaps, better absent. Late one evening I broached +the idea to my friend. It had been a great day for me; I had just banked +my five thousand Catamountain dollars; and as Jim had refused to lay a +finger on the stock, risk and profit were both wholly mine, and I was +celebrating the event with stout and crackers. I began by telling him +that if it caused him any pain or any anxiety about his affairs, he had +but to say the word, and he should hear no more of my proposal. He was +the truest and best friend I ever had, or was ever like to have; and it +would be a strange thing if I refused him any favour he was sure he +wanted. At the same time I wished him to be sure; for my life was +wasting in my hands. I was like one from home: all my true interests +summoned me away. I must remind him, besides, that he was now about to +marry and assume new interests, and that our extreme familiarity might +be even painful to his wife. "O no, Loudon; I feel you are wrong there," +he interjected warmly; "she _does_ appreciate your nature." "So much the +better, then," I continued; and went on to point out that our separation +need not be for long; that, in the way affairs were going, he might join +me in two years with a fortune--small, indeed, for the States, but in +France almost conspicuous; that we might unite our resources, and have +one house in Paris for the winter and a second near Fontainebleau for +summer, where we could be as happy as the day was long, and bring up +little Pinkertons as practical artistic workmen, far from the +money-hunger of the West. "Let me go, then," I concluded; "not as a +deserter, but as the vanguard, to lead the march of the Pinkerton men." + +So I argued and pleaded, not without emotion; my friend sitting +opposite, resting his chin upon his hand and (but for that single +interjection) silent. "I have been looking for this, Loudon," said he, +when I had done. "It does pain me, and that's the fact--I'm so miserably +selfish. And I believe it's a death-blow to the picnics; for it's idle +to deny that you were the heart and soul of them with your wand and your +gallant bearing, and wit and humour and chivalry, and throwing that kind +of society atmosphere about the thing. But, for all that, you're right, +and you ought to go. You may count on forty dollars a week; and if Depew +City--one of nature's centres for this State--pan out the least as I +expect, it may be double. But it's forty dollars anyway; and to think +that two years ago you were almost reduced to beggary!" + +"I _was_ reduced to it," said I. + +"Well, the brutes gave you nothing, and I'm glad of it now!" cried Jim. +"It's the triumphant return I glory in! Think of the master, and that +cold-blooded Myner too! Yes, just let the Depew City boom get on its +legs, and you shall go; and two years later, day for day, I'll shake +hands with you in Paris, with Mamie on my arm, God bless her!" + +We talked in this vein far into the night. I was myself so exultant in +my new found liberty, and Pinkerton so proud of my triumph, so happy in +my happiness, in so warm a glow about the gallant little woman of his +choice, and the very room so filled with castles in the air and cottages +at Fontainebleau, that it was little wonder if sleep fled our eyelids, +and three had followed two upon the office-clock before Pinkerton +unfolded the mechanism of his patent sofa. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +FACES ON THE CITY FRONT + + +It is very much the custom to view life as if it were exactly ruled in +two, like sleep and waking--the provinces of play and business standing +separate. The business side of my career in San Francisco has been now +disposed of; I approach the chapter of diversion; and it will be found +they had about an equal share in building up the story of the Wrecker--a +gentleman whose appearance may be presently expected. + +With all my occupations, some six afternoons and two or three odd +evenings remained at my disposal every week: a circumstance the more +agreeable as I was a stranger in a city singularly picturesque. From +what I had once called myself, "The Amateur Parisian," I grew (or +declined) into a water-side prowler, a lingerer on wharves, a frequenter +of shy neighbourhoods, a scraper of acquaintance with eccentric +characters. I visited Chinese and Mexican gambling-hells, German secret +societies, sailors' boarding-houses, and "dives" of every complexion of +the disreputable and dangerous. I have seen greasy Mexican hands pinned +to the table with a knife for cheating, seamen (when blood-money ran +high) knocked down upon the public street and carried insensible on +board short-handed ships, shots exchanged, and the smoke (and the +company) dispersing from the doors of the saloon. I have heard +cold-minded Polacks debate upon the readiest method of burning San +Francisco to the ground, hot-headed working men and women bawl and swear +in the tribune at the Sandlot, and Kearney himself open his +subscription for a gallows, name the manufacturers who were to grace it +with their dangling bodies, and read aloud to the delighted multitude a +telegram of adhesion from a member of the State legislature: all which +preparations of proletarian war were (in a moment) breathed upon and +abolished by the mere name and fame of Mr. Coleman. That lion of the +Vigilantes had but to rouse himself and shake his ears, and the whole +brawling mob was silenced. I could not but reflect what a strange manner +of man this was, to be living unremarked there as a private merchant, +and to be so feared by a whole city; and if I was disappointed, in my +character of looker-on, to have the matter end ingloriously without the +firing of a shot or the hanging of a single millionaire, philosophy +tried to tell me that this sight was truly the more picturesque. In a +thousand towns and different epochs I might have had occasion to behold +the cowardice and carnage of street-fighting; where else, but only there +and then, could I have enjoyed a view of Coleman (the intermittent +despot) walking meditatively up hill in a quiet part of town, with a +very rolling gait, and slapping gently his great thigh? + +_Minora canamus_. This historic figure stalks silently through a corner +of the San Francisco of my memory. The rest is bric-a-brac, the +reminiscences of a vagrant sketcher. My delight was much in slums. +"Little Italy," was a haunt of mine. There I would look in at the +windows of small eating-shops transported bodily from Genoa or Naples, +with their macaroni, and chianti flasks, and portraits of Garibaldi, and +coloured political caricatures; or (entering in) hold high debate with +some ear-ringed fisher of the bay as to the designs of "Mr. Owstria" and +"Mr. Rooshia." I was often to be observed (had there been any to observe +me) in that dis-peopled, hill-side solitude of "Little Mexico," with its +crazy wooden houses, endless crazy wooden stairs, and perilous +mountain-goat paths in the sand. China-town by a thousand +eccentricities drew and held me; I could never have enough of its +ambiguous, inter-racial atmosphere, as of a vitalised museum; never +wonder enough at its outlandish, necromantic-looking vegetables set +forth to sell in commonplace American shop-windows, its temple doors +open and the scent of the joss-stick streaming forth on the American +air, its kites of Oriental fashion hanging fouled in Western +telegraph-wires, its flights of paper prayers which the trade-wind hunts +and dissipates along Western gutters. I was a frequent wanderer on North +Beach, gazing at the straits, and the huge Cape Horners creeping out to +sea, and imminent Tamalpais. Thence, on my homeward way, I might visit +that strange and filthy shed, earth-paved and walled with the cages of +wild animals and birds, where at a ramshackle counter, amid the yells of +monkeys, and a poignant atmosphere of menagerie, forty-rod whisky was +administered by a proprietor as dirty as his beasts. Nor did I even +neglect Nob Hill, which is itself a kind of slum, being the habitat of +the mere millionaire. There they dwell upon the hill-top, high raised +above man's clamour, and the trade-wind blows between their palaces +about deserted streets. + +But San Francisco is not herself only. She is not only the most +interesting city in the Union, and the hugest smelting-pot of races and +the precious metals. She keeps, besides, the doors of the Pacific, and +is the port of entry to another world and an earlier epoch in man's +history. Nowhere else shall you observe (in the ancient phrase) so many +tall ships as here convene from round the Horn, from China, from Sydney, +and the Indies. But, scarce remarked amid that craft of deep-sea giants, +another class of craft, the Island schooner, circulates--low in the +water, with lofty spars and dainty lines, rigged and fashioned like a +yacht, manned with brown-skinned, soft-spoken, sweet-eyed native +sailors, and equipped with their great double-ender boats that tell a +tale of boisterous sea-beaches. These steal out and in again, unnoted by +the world or even the newspaper press, save for the line in the +clearing column, "Schooner So-and-so for Yap and South Sea +Islands"--steal out with nondescript cargoes of tinned salmon, gin, +bolts of gaudy cotton stuff, women's hats, and Waterbury watches, to +return, after a year, piled as high as to the eaves of the house with +copra, or wallowing deep with the shells of the tortoise or the pearl +oyster. To me, in my character of the Amateur Parisian, this island +traffic, and even the island world, were beyond the bounds of curiosity, +and how much more of knowledge. I stood there on the extreme shore of +the West and of to-day. Seventeen hundred years ago, and seven thousand +miles to the east, a legionary stood, perhaps, upon the wall of +Antoninus, and looked northward toward the mountains of the Picts. For +all the interval of time and space, I, when I looked from the +cliff-house on the broad Pacific, was that man's heir and analogue: each +of us standing on the verge of the Roman Empire (or, as we now call it, +Western civilisation), each of us gazing onwards into zones unromanised. +But I was dull. I looked rather backward, keeping a kind eye on Paris; +and it required a series of converging incidents to change my attitude +of nonchalance for one of interest, and even longing, which I little +dreamed that I should live to gratify. + +The first of these incidents brought me in acquaintance with a certain +San Francisco character, who had something of a name beyond the limits +of the city, and was known to many lovers of good English. I had +discovered a new slum, a place of precarious sandy cliffs, deep sandy +cuttings, solitary ancient houses, and the butt-ends of streets. It was +already environed. The ranks of the street lamps threaded it unbroken. +The city, upon all sides of it, was tightly packed, and growled with +traffic. To-day, I do not doubt the very landmarks are all swept away; +but it offered then, within narrow limits, a delightful peace, and (in +the morning, when I chiefly went there) a seclusion almost rural. On a +steep sand-hill in this neighbourhood toppled, on the most insecure +foundation, a certain row of houses, each with a bit of garden, and all +(I have to presume) inhabited. Thither I used to mount by a crumbling +footpath, and in front of the last of the houses would sit down to +sketch. + +The very first day I saw I was observed out of the ground-floor window +by a youngish, good-looking fellow, prematurely bald, and with an +expression both lively and engaging. The second, as we were still the +only figures in the landscape, it was no more than natural that we +should nod. The third he came out fairly from his entrenchments, praised +my sketch, and with the _impromptu_ cordiality of artists carried me +into his apartment; where I sat presently in the midst of a museum of +strange objects--paddles, and battle-clubs, and baskets, rough-hewn +stone images, ornaments of threaded shell, cocoa-nut bowls, snowy +cocoa-nut plumes--evidences and examples of another earth, another +climate, another race, and another (if a ruder) culture. Nor did these +objects lack a fitting commentary in the conversation of my new +acquaintance. Doubtless you have read his book. You know already how he +tramped and starved, and had so fine a profit of living in his days +among the islands; and meeting him as I did, one artist with another, +after months of offices and picnics, you can imagine with what charm he +would speak, and with what pleasure I would hear. It was in such talks, +which we were both eager to repeat, that I first heard the names--first +fell under the spell--of the islands; and it was from one of the first +of them that I returned (a happy man) with "Omoo" under one arm, and my +friend's own adventures under the other. + +The second incident was more dramatic, and had, besides, a bearing on my +future. I was standing one day near a boat-landing under Telegraph Hill. +A large barque, perhaps of eighteen hundred tons, was coming more than +usually close about the point to reach her moorings; and I was observing +her with languid inattention, when I observed two men to stride across +the bulwarks, drop into a shore boat, and, violently dispossessing the +boatman of his oars, pull toward the landing where I stood. In a +surprisingly short time they came tearing up the steps, and I could see +that both were too well dressed to be foremast hands--the first even +with research, and both, and especially the first, appeared under the +empire of some strong emotion. + +"Nearest police office!" cried the leader. + +"This way," said I, immediately falling in with their precipitate pace. +"What's wrong? What ship is that?" + +"That's the _Gleaner_," he replied. "I am chief officer, this +gentleman's third, and we've to get in our depositions before the crew. +You see, they might corral us with the captain, and that's no kind of +berth for me. I've sailed with some hard cases in my time, and seen pins +flying like sand on a squally day--but never a match to our old man. It +never let up from the Hook to the Farallones, and the last man was +dropped not sixteen hours ago. Packet rats our men were, and as tough a +crowd as ever sand-bagged a man's head in; but they looked sick enough +when the captain started in with his fancy shooting." + +"O, he's done up," observed the other. "He won't go to sea no more." + +"You make me tired," retorted his superior. "If he gets ashore in one +piece, and isn't lynched in the next ten minutes, he'll do yet. The +owners have a longer memory than the public, they'll stand by him; they +don't find as smart a captain every day in the year." + +"O, he's a son of a gun of a fine captain; there ain't no doubt of +that," concurred the other heartily. "Why, I don't suppose there's been +no wages paid aboard that _Gleaner_ for three trips." + +"No wages?" I exclaimed, for I was still a novice in maritime affairs. + +"Not to sailor-men before the mast," agreed the mate. "Men cleared out; +wasn't the soft job they maybe took it for. She isn't the first ship +that never paid wages." + +I could not but observe that our pace was progressively relaxing; and, +indeed, I have often wondered since whether the hurry of the start were +not intended for the gallery alone. Certain it is, at least, that when +we had reached the police office, and the mates had made their +deposition, and told their horrid tale of five men murdered--some with +savage passion, some with cold brutality--between Sandy Hook and San +Francisco, the police were despatched in time to be too late. Before we +arrived the ruffian had slipped out upon the dock, and mingled with the +crowd, and found a refuge in the house of an acquaintance; and the ship +was only tenanted by his late victims. Well for him that he had been +thus speedy; for when word began to go abroad among the shore-side +characters, when the last victim was carried by to the hospital, when +those who had escaped (as by miracle) from that floating shambles began +to circulate and show their wounds in the crowd, it was strange to +witness the agitation that seized and shook that portion of the city. +Men shed tears in public; bosses of lodging-houses, long inured to +brutality,--and above all, brutality to sailors--shook their fists at +heaven. If hands could have been laid on the captain of the _Gleaner_, +his shrift would have been short. That night (so gossip reports) he was +headed up in a barrel and smuggled across the bay. In two ships already +he had braved the penitentiary and the gallows; and yet, by last +accounts, he now commands another on the Western Ocean. + +As I have said, I was never quite certain whether Mr. Nares (the mate) +did not intend that his superior should escape. It would have been like +his preference of loyalty to law; it would have been like his +prejudice, which was all in favour of the after-guard. But it must +remain a matter of conjecture only. Well as I came to know him in the +sequel, he was never communicative on that point--nor, indeed, on any +that concerned the voyage of the _Gleaner_. Doubtless he had some reason +for his reticence. Even during our walk to the police office he debated +several times with Johnson, the third officer, whether he ought not to +give up himself, as well as to denounce the captain. He had decided in +the negative, arguing that "it would probably come to nothing; and even +if there was a stink, he had plenty good friends in San Francisco." And +to nothing it came; though it must have very nearly come to something, +for Mr. Nares disappeared immediately from view, and was scarce less +closely hidden than his captain. + +Johnson, on the other hand, I often met. I could never learn this man's +country; and though he himself claimed to be American, neither his +English nor his education warranted the claim. In all likelihood he was +of Scandinavian birth and blood, long pickled in the forecastles of +English and American ships. It is possible that, like so many of his +race in similar positions, he had already lost his native tongue. In +mind, at least, he was quite denationalised; thought only in English--to +call it so; and though by nature one of the mildest, kindest, and most +feebly playful of mankind, he had been so long accustomed to the cruelty +of sea discipline that his stories (told perhaps with a giggle) would +sometimes turn me chill. In appearance he was tall, light of weight, +bold and high-bred of feature, dusky-haired, and with a face of a clean +even brown--the ornament of outdoor men. Seated in a chair, you might +have passed him off for a baronet or a military officer; but let him +rise, and it was Fo'c's'le Jack that came rolling toward you, crab-like; +let him but open his lips, and it was Fo'c's'le Jack that piped and +drawled his ungrammatical gibberish. He had sailed (among other places) +much among the islands; and after a Cape Horn passage with its +snow-squalls and its frozen sheets, he announced his intention of +"taking a turn among them Kanakas." I thought I should have lost him +soon; but, according to the unwritten usage of mariners, he had first to +dissipate his wages. "Guess I'll have to paint this town red," was his +hyperbolical expression; for sure no man ever embarked upon a milder +course of dissipation, most of his days being passed in the little +parlour behind Black Tom's public-house, with a select corps of old +particular acquaintances, all from the South Seas, and all patrons of a +long yarn, a short pipe, and glasses round. + +Black Tom's, to the front, presented the appearance of a fourth-rate +saloon, devoted to Kanaka seamen, dirt, negrohead tobacco, bad cigars, +worse gin, and guitars and banjos in a state of decline. The proprietor, +a powerful coloured man, was at once a publican, a ward politician, +leader of some brigade of "lambs" or "smashers," at the wind of whose +clubs the party bosses and the mayor were supposed to tremble, and (what +hurt nothing) an active and reliable crimp. His front quarters, then, +were noisy, disreputable, and not even safe. I have seen +worse-frequented saloons where there were fewer scandals; for Tom was +often drunk himself: and there is no doubt the Lambs must have been a +useful body, or the place would have been closed. I remember one day, +not long before an election, seeing a blind man, very well dressed, led +up to the counter and remain a long while in consultation with the +negro. The pair looked so ill-assorted, and the awe with which the +drinkers fell back and left them in the midst of an _impromptu_ privacy +was so unusual in such a place, that I turned to my next neighbour with +a question. He told me the blind man was a distinguished party boss, +called by some the King of San Francisco, but perhaps better known by +his picturesque Chinese nickname of the Blind White Devil. "The Lambs +must be wanted pretty bad, I guess," my informant added. I have here a +sketch of the Blind White Devil leaning on the counter; on the next +page, and taken the same hour, a jotting of Black Tom threatening a +whole crowd of customers with a long Smith and Wesson--to such heights +and depths we rose and fell in the front parts of the saloon! + +Meanwhile, away in the back quarters, sat the small informal South Sea +Club, talking of another world, and surely of a different century. Old +schooner captains they were, old South Sea traders, cooks, and mates; +fine creatures, softened by residence among a softer race: full men +besides, though not by reading, but by strange experience; and for days +together I could hear their yarns with an unfading pleasure. All had, +indeed, some touch of the poetic; for the beach-comber, when not a mere +ruffian, is the poor relation of the artist. Even through Johnson's +inarticulate speech, his "O yes, there ain't no harm in them Kanakas," +or "O yes, that's a son of a gun of a fine island, mountainous right +down; I didn't never ought to have left that island," there pierced a +certain gusto of appreciation; and some of the rest were master-talkers. +From their long tales, their traits of character and unpremeditated +landscape, there began to piece itself together in my head some image of +the islands and the island life; precipitous shores, spired +mountain-tops, the deep shade of hanging forests, the unresting surf +upon the reef, and the unending peace of the lagoon; sun, moon, and +stars of an imperial brightness; man moving in these scenes scarce +fallen, and woman lovelier than Eve; the primal curse abrogated, the bed +made ready for the stranger, life set to perpetual music, and the guest +welcomed, the boat urged, and the long night beguiled with poetry and +choral song. A man must have been an unsuccessful artist; he must have +starved on the streets of Paris; he must have been yoked to a commercial +force like Pinkerton, before he can conceive the longings that at times +assailed me. The draughty, rowdy city of San Francisco, the bustling +office where my friend Jim paced like a caged lion daily between ten and +four, even (at times) the retrospect of Paris, faded in comparison. Many +a man less tempted would have thrown up all to realise his visions; but +I was by nature unadventurous and uninitiative; to divert me from all +former paths and send me cruising through the isles of paradise, some +force external to myself must be exerted; Destiny herself must use the +fitting wedge; and, little as I deemed it, that tool was already in her +hand of brass. + +I sat, one afternoon, in the corner of a great, glassy, silvered saloon, +a free lunch at my one elbow, at the other a "conscientious nude" from +the brush of local talent; when, with the tramp of feet and a sudden +buzz of voices, the swing-doors were flung broadly open, and the place +carried as by storm. The crowd which thus entered (mostly seafaring men, +and all prodigiously excited) contained a sort of kernel or general +centre of interest, which the rest merely surrounded and advertised, as +children in the Old World surround and escort the Punch-and-Judy man; +the word went round the bar like wildfire that these were Captain Trent +and the survivors of the British brig _Flying Scud_, picked up by a +British war-ship on Midway Island, arrived that morning in San Francisco +Bay, and now fresh from making the necessary declarations. Presently I +had a good sight of them; four brown, seamanlike fellows, standing by +the counter, glass in hand, the centre of a score of questioners. One +was a Kanaka--the cook, I was informed; one carried a cage with a +canary, which occasionally trilled into thin song; one had his left arm +in a sling, and looked gentlemanlike and somewhat sickly, as though the +injury had been severe and he was scarce recovered; and the captain +himself--a red-faced, blue-eyed, thick-set man of five-and-forty--wore a +bandage on his right hand. The incident struck me; I was struck +particularly to see captain, cook, and foremast hands walking the street +and visiting saloons in company; and, as when anything impressed me, I +got my sketch-book out, and began to steal a sketch of the four +castaways. The crowd, sympathising with my design, made a clear lane +across the room; and I was thus enabled, all unobserved myself, to +observe with a still growing closeness the face and the demeanour of +Captain Trent. + +Warmed by whisky and encouraged by the eagerness of the bystanders, that +gentleman was now rehearsing the history of his misfortune. It was but +scraps that reached me: how he "filled her on the starboard tack," and +how "it came up sudden out of the nor'-nor'-west," and "there she was, +high and dry." Sometimes he would appeal to one of the men--"That was +how it was, Jack?"--and the man would reply, "That was the way of it, +Captain Trent." Lastly, he started a fresh tide of popular sympathy by +enunciating the sentiment, "Damn all these Admiralty Charts, and that's +what I say!" From the nodding of heads and the murmurs of assent that +followed, I could see that Captain Trent had established himself in the +public mind as a gentleman and a thorough navigator: about which period, +my sketch of the four men and the canary-bird being finished, and all +(especially the canary-bird) excellent likenesses, I buckled up my book +and slipped from the saloon. + +Little did I suppose that I was leaving Act I, Scene I of the drama of +my life; and yet the scene--or, rather, the captain's face--lingered for +some time in my memory. I was no prophet, as I say; but I was something +else--I was an observer; and one thing I knew--I knew when a man was +terrified. Captain Trent, of the British brig Flying Scud, had been +glib; he had been ready; he had been loud; but in his blue eyes I could +detect the chill, and in the lines of his countenance spy the agitation, +of perpetual terror. Was he trembling for his certificate? In my +judgment it was some livelier kind of fear that thrilled in the man's +marrow as he turned to drink. Was it the result of recent shock, and had +he not yet recovered the disaster to his brig? I remembered how a friend +of mine had been in a railway accident, and shook and started for a +month; and although Captain Trent of the _Flying Scud_ had none of the +appearance of a nervous man, I told myself, with incomplete conviction, +that his must be a similar case. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE WRECK OF THE _FLYING SCUD_ + + +The next morning I found Pinkerton, who had risen before me, seated at +our usual table, and deep in the perusal of what I will call the _Daily +Occidental_. This was a paper (I know not if it be so still) that stood +out alone among its brethren in the West. The others, down to their +smallest item, were defaced with capitals, headlines, alliterations, +swaggering misquotations, and the shoddy picturesque and unpathetic +pathos of the Harry Millers: the _Occidental_ alone appeared to be +written by a dull, sane, Christian gentleman, singly desirous of +communicating knowledge. It had not only this merit--which endeared it +to me--but was admittedly the best informed on business matters, which +attracted Pinkerton. + +"Loudon," said he, looking up from the journal, "you sometimes think I +have too many irons in the fire. My notion, on the other hand, is, when +you see a dollar lying, pick it up! Well, here I've tumbled over a whole +pile of 'em on a reef in the middle of the Pacific." + +"Why, Jim, you miserable fellow!" I exclaimed; "haven't we Depew City, +one of God's green centres for this State? haven't we----" + +"Just listen to this," interrupted Jim. "It's miserable copy; these +_Occidental_ reporter fellows have no fire; but the facts are right +enough, I guess." And he began to read:-- + + WRECK OF THE BRITISH BRIG _FLYING SCUD_ + + H.B.M.S. _Tempest_, which arrived yesterday at this port, brings + Captain Trent and four men of the British brig _Flying Scud_, cast + away February 12th on Midway Island, and most providentially rescued + the next day. The _Flying Scud_ was of 200 tons burthen, owned in + London, and has been out nearly two years tramping. Captain Trent + left Hong Kong December 8th, bound for this port in rice and a small + mixed cargo of silks, teas, and China notions, the whole valued at + $10,000, fully covered by insurance. The log shows plenty of fine + weather, with light airs, calms, and squalls. In lat. 28 N., long. + 177 W., his water going rotten, and misled by Hoyt's "North Pacific + Directory," which informed him there was a coaling station on the + island, Captain Trent put in to Midway Island. He found it a literal + sandbank, surrounded by a coral reef, mostly submerged. Birds were + very plenty, there was good fish in the lagoon, but no firewood; and + the water, which could be obtained by digging, brackish. He found + good holding-ground off the north end of the larger bank in fifteen + fathoms water; bottom sandy, with coral patches. Here he was detained + seven days by a calm, the crew suffering severely from the water, + which was gone quite bad; and it was only on the evening of the 12th + that a little wind sprang up, coming puffy out of N.N.E. Late as it + was, Captain Trent immediately weighed anchor and attempted to get + out. While the vessel was beating up to the passage, the wind took a + sudden lull, and then veered squally into N., and even N.N.W., + driving the brig ashore on the sand at about twenty minutes before + six o'clock. John Wallen, a native of Finland, and Charles Holdorsen, + a native of Sweden, were drowned alongside, in attempting to lower a + boat, neither being able to swim, the squall very dark, and the noise + of the breakers drowning everything. At the same time John Brown, + another of the crew, had his arm broken by the falls. Captain Trent + further informed the _Occidental_ reporter that the brig struck + heavily at first bows on, he supposes upon coral; that she then drove + over the obstacle, and now lies in sand, much down by the head, and + with a list to starboard. In the first collision she must have + sustained some damage, as she was making water forward. The rice will + probably be all destroyed: but the more valuable part of the cargo is + fortunately in the afterhold. Captain Trent was preparing his + long-boat for sea, when the providential arrival of the _Tempest_, + pursuant to Admiralty orders to call at islands in her course for + castaways, saved the gallant captain from all further danger. It is + scarcely necessary to add that both the officers and men of the + unfortunate vessel speak in high terms of the kindness they received + on board the man-of-war. We print a list of the survivors: Jacob + Trent, master, of Hull, England; Elias Goddedaal, mate, native of + Christiansand, Sweden; Ah Wing, cook, native of Sana, China; John + Brown, native of Glasgow, Scotland; John Hardy, native of London, + England. The _Flying Scud_ is ten years old, and this morning will be + sold as she stands, by order of Lloyd's agent, at public auction, for + the benefit of the underwriters. The auction will take place in the + Merchants' Exchange at ten o'clock. + + _Further Particulars._--Later in the afternoon the _Occidental_ + reporter found Lieutenant Sebright, first officer of H.B.M.S. + _Tempest_ at the Palace Hotel. The gallant officer was somewhat + pressed for time, but confirmed the account given by Captain Trent in + all particulars. He added that the _Flying Scud_ is in an excellent + berth, and, except in the highly improbable event of a heavy N.W. + gale, might last until next winter. + +"You will never know anything of literature," said I, when Jim had +finished. "That is a good, honest, plain piece of work, and tells the +story clearly. I see only one mistake: the cook is not a Chinaman; he is +a Kanaka, and, I think, a Hawaiian." + +"Why, how do you know that?" asked Jim. + +"I saw the whole gang yesterday in a saloon," said I; "I even heard the +tale, or might have heard it, from Captain Trent himself, who struck me +as thirsty and nervous." + +"Well, that's neither here nor there," cried Pinkerton; "the point is, +how about these dollars lying on a reef?" + +"Will it pay?" I asked. + +"Pay like a sugar trust!" exclaimed Pinkerton. "Don't you see what this +British officer says about the safety? Don't you see the cargo's valued +at ten thousand? Schooners are begging just now; I can get my pick of +them at two hundred and fifty a month; and how does that foot up? It +looks like three hundred per cent. to me." + +"You forget," I objected, "the captain himself declares the rice is +damaged." + +"That's a point, I know," admitted Jim. "But the rice is the sluggish +article, anyway; it's little more account than ballast; it's the tea and +silks that I look to: all we have to find is the proportion, and one +look at the manifest will settle that. I've rung up Lloyd's on purpose; +the captain is to meet me there in an hour, and then I'll be as posted +on that brig as if I built her. Besides, you've no idea what pickings +there are about a wreck--copper, lead, rigging, anchors, chains, even +the crockery, Loudon." + +"You seem to me to forget one trifle," said I. "Before you pick that +wreck, you've got to buy her, and how much will she cost?" + +"One hundred dollars," replied Jim, with the promptitude of an +automaton. + +"How on earth do you guess that?" I cried. + +"I don't guess; I know it," answered the Commercial Force. "My dear boy, +I may be a galoot about literature, but you'll always be an outsider in +business. How do you suppose I bought the _James L. Moody_ for two +hundred and fifty, her boats alone worth four times the money? Because +my name stood first in the list. Well, it stands there again; I have the +naming of the figure, and I name a small one because of the distance: +but it wouldn't matter what I named; that would be the price." + +"It sounds mysterious enough," said I. "Is this public auction conducted +in a subterranean vault? Could a plain citizen--myself, for +instance--come and see?" + +"O, everything's open and above-board!" he cried indignantly. "Anybody +can come, only nobody bids against us; and if he did, he would get +frozen out. It's been tried before now, and once was enough. We hold the +plant; we've got the connection; we can afford to go higher than any +outsider: there's two million dollars in the ring; and we stick at +nothing. Or suppose anybody did buy over our head--I tell you, Loudon, +he would think this town gone crazy; he could no more get business +through on the city front than I can dance; schooners, divers, men--all +he wanted--the prices would fly right up and strike him." + +"But how did you get in?" I asked. "You were once an outsider like your +neighbours, I suppose?" + +"I took hold of that thing, Loudon, and just studied it up," he replied. +"It took my fancy; it was so romantic, and then I saw there was boodle +in the thing; and I figured on the business till no man alive could give +me points. Nobody knew I had an eye on wrecks till one fine morning I +dropped in upon Douglas B. Longhurst in his den, gave him all the facts +and figures, and put it to him straight: 'Do you want me in this ring? +or shall I start another?' He took half an hour, and when I came back, +'Pink,' says he, 'I've put your name on.' The first time I came to the +top it was that _Moody_ racket; now it's the _Flying Scud_." + +Whereupon Pinkerton, looking at his watch, uttered an exclamation, made +a hasty appointment with myself for the doors of the Merchants' +Exchange, and fled to examine manifests and interview the skipper. I +finished my cigarette with the deliberation of a man at the end of many +picnics; reflecting to myself that of all forms of the dollar-hunt, this +wrecking had by far the most address to my imagination. Even as I went +down town, in the brisk bustle and chill of the familiar San Francisco +thoroughfares, I was haunted by a vision of the wreck, baking so far +away in the strong sun, under a cloud of sea-birds; and even then, and +for no better reason, my heart inclined towards the adventure. If not +myself, something that was mine, some one at least in my employment, +should voyage to that ocean-bounded pin-point, and descend to that +deserted cabin. + +Pinkerton met me at the appointed moment, pinched of lip, and more than +usually erect of bearing, like one conscious of great resolves. + +"Well?" I asked. + +"Well," said he, "it might be better, and it might be worse. This +Captain Trent is a remarkably honest fellow--one out of a thousand. As +soon as he knew I was in the market, he owned up about the rice in so +many words. By his calculation, if there's thirty mats of it saved, it's +an outside figure. However, the manifest was cheerier. There's about +five thousand dollars of the whole value in silks and teas and nut-oils +and that, all in the lazarette, and as safe as if it was in Kearney +Street. The brig was new coppered a year ago. There's upwards of a +hundred and fifty fathom away-up chain. It's not a bonanza, but there's +boodle in it; and we'll try it on." + +It was by that time hard on ten o'clock, and we turned at once into the +place of sale. The _Flying Scud_, although so important to ourselves, +appeared to attract a very humble share of popular attention. The +auctioneer was surrounded by perhaps a score of lookers-on--big fellows +for the most part, of the true Western build, long in the leg, broad in +the shoulder, and adorned (to a plain man's taste) with needless finery. +A jaunty, ostentatious comradeship prevailed. Bets were flying, and +nicknames. "The boys" (as they would have called themselves) were very +boyish; and it was plain they were here in mirth, and not on business. +Behind, and certainly in strong contrast to these gentlemen, I could +detect the figure of my friend Captain Trent, come (as I could very well +imagine that a captain would) to hear the last of his old vessel. Since +yesterday he had rigged himself anew in ready-made black clothes, not +very aptly fitted; the upper left-hand pocket showing a corner of silk +handkerchief, the lower, on the other side, bulging with papers. +Pinkerton had just given this man a high character. Certainly he seemed +to have been very frank, and I looked at him again to trace (if +possible) that virtue in his face. It was red and broad and flustered +and (I thought) false. The whole man looked sick with some unknown +anxiety: and as he stood there, unconscious of my observation, he tore +at his nails, scowled on the floor, or glanced suddenly, sharply, and +fearfully at passers-by. I was still gazing at the man in a kind of +fascination, when the sale began. + +Some preliminaries were rattled through, to the irreverent, +uninterrupted gambolling of the boys; and then, amid a trifle more +attention, the auctioneer sounded for some two or three minutes the pipe +of the charmer. "Fine brig--new copper--valuable fittings--three fine +boats--remarkably choice cargo--what the auctioneer would call a +perfectly safe investment; nay, gentlemen, he would go further, he would +put a figure on it: he had no hesitation (had that bold auctioneer) in +putting it in figures; and in his view, what with this and that, and one +thing and another, the purchaser might expect to clear a sum equal to +the entire estimated value of the cargo; or, gentlemen, in other words, +a sum of ten thousand dollars." At this modest computation the roof +immediately above the speaker's head (I suppose, through the +intervention of a spectator of ventriloquial tastes) uttered a clear +"Cock-a-doodle-doo!"--whereat all laughed, the auctioneer himself +obligingly joining. + +"Now, gentlemen, what shall we say?" resumed that gentleman, plainly +ogling Pinkerton,--"what shall we say for this remarkable opportunity?" + +"One hundred dollars," said Pinkerton. + +"One hundred dollars from Mr. Pinkerton," went the auctioneer, "one +hundred dollars. No other gentleman inclined to make any advance? One +hundred dollars, only one hundred dollars----" + +The auctioneer was droning on to some such tune as this, and I, on my +part, was watching with something between sympathy and amazement the +undisguised emotion of Captain Trent, when we were all startled by the +interjection of a bid. + +"And fifty," said a sharp voice. + +Pinkerton, the auctioneer, and the boys, who were all equally in the +open secret of the ring, were now all equally and simultaneously taken +aback. + +"I beg your pardon," said the auctioneer; "anybody bid?" + +"And fifty," reiterated the voice, which I was now able to trace to its +origin, on the lips of a small unseemly rag of human-kind. The speaker's +skin was grey and blotched; he spoke in a kind of broken song, with much +variety of key; his gestures seemed (as in the disease called St. +Vitus's dance) to be imperfectly under control; he was badly dressed; he +carried himself with an air of shrinking assumption, as though he were +proud to be where he was and to do what he was doing, and yet half +expected to be called in question and kicked out. I think I never saw a +man more of a piece; and the type was new to me: I had never before set +eyes upon his parallel, and I thought instinctively of Balzac and the +lower regions of the _Comedie Humaine_. + +Pinkerton stared a moment on the intruder with no friendly eye, tore a +leaf from his note-book, and scribbled a line in pencil, turned, +beckoned a messenger boy, and whispered, "To Longhurst." Next moment the +boy had sped upon his errand, and Pinkerton was again facing the +auctioneer. + +"Two hundred dollars," said Jim. + +"And fifty," said the enemy. + +"This looks lively," whispered I to Pinkerton. + +"Yes; the little beast means cold-drawn biz," returned my friend. "Well, +he'll have to have a lesson. Wait till I see Longhurst.--Three hundred," +he added aloud. + +"And fifty," came the echo. + +It was about this moment when my eye fell again on Captain Trent. A +deeper shade had mounted to his crimson face; the new coat was +unbuttoned and all flying open, the new silk handkerchief in busy +requisition; and the man's eye, of a clear sailor blue, shone glassy +with excitement. He was anxious still, but now (if I could read a face) +there was hope in his anxiety. + +"Jim," I whispered, "look at Trent. Bet you what you please he was +expecting this." + +"Yes," was the reply, "there's some blame' thing going on here"; and he +renewed his bid. + +The figure had run up into the neighbourhood of a thousand when I was +aware of a sensation in the faces opposite, and, looking over my +shoulder, saw a very large, bland, handsome man come strolling forth +and make a little signal to the auctioneer. + +"One word, Mr. Borden," said he; and then to Jim, "Well, Pink, where are +we up to now?" + +Pinkerton gave him the figure. "I ran up to that on my own +responsibility, Mr. Longhurst," he added, with a flush. "I thought it +the square thing." + +"And so it was," said Mr. Longhurst, patting him kindly on the shoulder, +like a gratified uncle. "Well, you can drop out now; we take hold +ourselves. You can run it up to five thousand; and if he likes to go +beyond that, he's welcome to the bargain." + +"By-the-bye, who is he?" asked Pinkerton. "He looks away down." + +"I've sent Billy to find out"; and at the very moment Mr. Longhurst +received from the hands of one of the expensive young gentlemen a folded +paper. It was passed round from one to another till it came to me, and I +read: "Harry D. Bellairs, Attorney-at-Law; defended Clara Varden: twice +nearly disbarred." + +"Well, that gets me!" observed Mr. Longhurst. "Who can have put up a +shyster[3] like that? Nobody with money, that's a sure thing. Suppose +you tried a big bluff? I think I would, Pink. Well, ta-ta! Your partner, +Mr. Dodd? Happy to have the pleasure of your acquaintance, sir"; and the +great man withdrew. + +"Well, what do you think of Douglas B.?" whispered Pinkerton, looking +reverently after him as he departed. "Six foot of perfect gentleman and +culture to his boots." + +During this interview the auctioneer had stood transparently +arrested--the auctioneer, the spectators, and even Bellairs, all well +aware that Mr. Longhurst was the principal, and Jim but a +speaking-trumpet. But now that the Olympian Jupiter was gone, Mr. Borden +thought proper to affect severity. + +"Come, come, Mr. Pinkerton; any advance?" he snapped. + +And Pinkerton, resolved on the big bluff, replied, "Two thousand +dollars." + +Bellairs preserved his composure. "And fifty," said he. But there was a +stir among the onlookers, and--what was of more importance--Captain +Trent had turned pale and visibly gulped. + +"Pitch it in again, Jim," said I. "Trent is weakening." + +"Three thousand," said Jim. + +"And fifty," said Bellairs. + +And then the bidding returned to its original movement by hundreds and +fifties; but I had been able in the meanwhile to draw two conclusions. +In the first place, Bellairs had made his last advance with a smile of +gratified vanity, and I could see the creature was glorying in the +_kudos_ of an unusual position and secure of ultimate success. In the +second, Trent had once more changed colour at the thousand leap, and his +relief when he heard the answering fifty was manifest and unaffected. +Here, then, was a problem: both were presumably in the same interest, +yet the one was not in the confidence of the other. Nor was this all. A +few bids later it chanced that my eye encountered that of Captain Trent, +and his, which glittered with excitement, was instantly, and I thought +guiltily, withdrawn. He wished, then, to conceal his interest? As Jim +had said, there was some blamed thing going on. And for certain here +were these two men, so strangely united, so strangely divided, both +sharp-set to keep the wreck from us, and that at an exorbitant figure. + +Was the wreck worth more than we supposed? A sudden heat was kindled in +my brain; the bids were nearing Longhurst's limit of five thousand; +another minute and all would be too late. Tearing a leaf from my +sketch-book, and inspired (I suppose) by vanity in my own powers of +inference and observation, I took the one mad decision of my life. "If +you care to go ahead," I wrote, "I'm in for all I'm worth." + +Jim read and looked round at me like one bewildered; then his eyes +lightened, and turning again to the auctioneer he bid, "Five thousand +one hundred dollars." + +"And fifty," said monotonous Bellairs. + +Presently Pinkerton scribbled, "What can it be?" and I answered, still +on paper: "I can't imagine, but there's something. Watch Bellairs; he'll +go up to the ten thousand, see if he don't." + +And he did, and we followed. Long before this word had gone abroad that +there was battle royal. We were surrounded by a crowd that looked on +wondering, and when Pinkerton had offered ten thousand dollars (the +outside value of the cargo, even were it safe in San Francisco Bay) and +Bellairs, smirking from ear to ear to be the centre of so much +attention, had jerked out his answering "And fifty," wonder deepened to +excitement. + +"Ten thousand one hundred," said Jim; and even as he spoke he made a +sudden gesture with his hand, his face changed, and I could see that he +had guessed, or thought that he had guessed, the mystery. As he scrawled +another memorandum in his note-book, his hand shook like a telegraph +operator's. + +"Chinese ship," ran the legend; and then in big, tremulous half-text, +and with a flourish that overran the margin, "Opium!" + +"To be sure," thought I, "this must be the secret." I knew that scarce a +ship came in from any Chinese port but she carried somewhere, behind a +bulkhead or in some cunning hollow of the beams, a nest of the valuable +poison. Doubtless there was some such treasure on the _Flying Scud_. How +much was it worth? We knew not; we were gambling in the dark. But Trent +knew, and Bellairs; and we could only watch and judge. + +By this time neither Pinkerton nor I were of sound mind. Pinkerton was +beside himself, his eyes like lamps; I shook in every member. To any +stranger entering, say, in the course of the fifteenth thousand, we +should probably have cut a poorer figure than Bellairs himself. But we +did not pause; and the crowd watched us--now in silence, now with a buzz +of whispers. + +Seventeen thousand had been reached, when Douglas B. Longhurst, forcing +his way into the opposite row of faces, conspicuously and repeatedly +shook his head at Jim, Jim's answer was a note of two words: "My +racket!" which, when the great man had perused, he shook his finger +warningly and departed--I thought, with a sorrowful countenance. + +Although Mr. Longhurst knew nothing of Bellairs, the shady lawyer knew +all about the Wrecker Boss. He had seen him enter the ring with manifest +expectation; he saw him depart, and the bids continue, with manifest +surprise and disappointment. "Hallo," he plainly thought, "this is not +the ring I'm fighting, then?" And he determined to put on a spurt. + +"Eighteen thousand," said he. + +"And fifty," said Jim, taking a leaf out of his adversary's book. + +"Twenty thousand," from Bellairs. + +"And fifty," from Jim, with a little nervous titter. + +And with one consent they returned to the old pace--only now it was +Bellairs who took the hundreds, and Jim who did the fifty business. But +by this time our idea had gone abroad. I could hear the word "opium" +passed from mouth to mouth, and by the looks directed at us I could see +we were supposed to have some private information. And here an incident +occurred highly typical of San Francisco. Close at my back there had +stood for some time a stout middle-aged gentleman, with pleasant eyes, +hair pleasantly grizzled, and a ruddy, pleasing face. All of a sudden he +appeared as a third competitor, skied the _Flying Scud_ with four fat +bids of a thousand dollars each, and then as suddenly fled the field, +remaining thenceforth (as before) a silent, interested spectator. + +Ever since Mr. Longhurst's useless intervention Bellairs had seemed +uneasy, and at this new attack he began (in his turn) to scribble a note +between the bids. I imagined, naturally enough, that it would go to +Captain Trent; but when it was done and the writer turned and looked +behind him in the crowd, to my unspeakable amazement, he did not seem to +remark the captain's presence. + +"Messenger boy, messenger boy!" I heard him say. "Somebody call me a +messenger boy." + +At last somebody did, but it was not the captain. + +"_He's sending for instructions_," I wrote to Pinkerton. + +"_For money,_" he wrote back. "_Shall I strike out? I think this is the +time_." + +I nodded. + +"Thirty thousand," said Pinkerton, making a leap of close upon three +thousand dollars. + +I could see doubt in Bellairs's eye; then, sudden resolution. +"Thirty-five thousand," said he. + +"Forty thousand," said Pinkerton. + +There was a long pause, during which Bellairs's countenance was as a +book, and then, not much too soon for the impending hammer, "Forty +thousand and five dollars," said he. + +Pinkerton and I exchanged eloquent glances. We were of one mind. +Bellairs had tried a bluff; now he perceived his mistake, and was +bidding against time; he was trying to spin out the sale until the +messenger boy returned. + +"Forty-five thousand dollars," said Pinkerton: his voice was like a +ghost's and tottered with emotion. + +"Forty-five thousand and five dollars," said Bellairs. + +"Fifty thousand," said Pinkerton. + +"I beg your pardon, Mr. Pinkerton. Did I hear you make an advance, sir?" +asked the auctioneer. + +"I--I have a difficulty in speaking," gasped Jim. "It's fifty thousand, +Mr. Borden." + +Bellairs was on his feet in a moment. "Auctioneer," he said, "I have to +beg the favour of three moments at the telephone. In this matter I am +acting on behalf of a certain party to whom I have just written----" + +"I have nothing to do with any of this," said the auctioneer brutally. +"I am here to sell this wreck. Do you make any advance on fifty +thousand?" + +"I have the honour to explain to you, sir," returned Bellairs, with a +miserable assumption of dignity, "fifty thousand was the figure named by +my principal; but if you will give me the small favour of two moments at +the telephone----" + +"O, nonsense!" said the auctioneer. "If you make no advance I'll knock +it down to Mr. Pinkerton." + +"I warn you," cried the attorney, with sudden shrillness. "Have a care +what you're about. You are here to sell for the underwriters, let me +tell you--not to act for Mr. Douglas Longhurst. This sale has been +already disgracefully interrupted to allow that person to hold a +consultation with his minions; it has been much commented on." + +"There was no complaint at the time," said the auctioneer, manifestly +discountenanced. "You should have complained at the time." + +"I am not here to conduct this sale," replied Bellairs; "I am not paid +for that." + +"Well, I am, you see," retorted the auctioneer, his impudence quite +restored; and he resumed his sing-song. "Any advance on fifty thousand +dollars? No advance on fifty thousand? No advance, gentlemen? Going at +fifty thousand, the wreck of the brig _Flying Scud_ going--going--gone!" + +"My God, Jim, can we pay the money?" I cried, as the stroke of the +hammer seemed to recall me from a dream. + +"It's got to be raised," said he, white as a sheet. "It'll be a hell of +a strain, Loudon. The credit's good for it, I think; but I shall have to +get around. Write me a cheque for your stuff. Meet me at the Occidental +in an hour." + +I wrote my cheque at a desk, and I declare I could never have recognised +my signature. Jim was gone in a moment; Trent had vanished even earlier; +only Bellairs remained, exchanging insults with the auctioneer; and, +behold! as I pushed my way out of the exchange, who should run full tilt +into my arms but the messenger boy! + +It was by so near a margin that we became the owners of the _Flying +Scud_. + + +FOOTNOTE: + + [3] A low lawyer. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +IN WHICH THE CREW VANISH + + +At the door of the exchange I found myself alongside of the short +middle-aged gentleman who had made an appearance, so vigorous and so +brief, in the great battle. + +"Congratulate you, Mr. Dodd," he said. "You and your friend stuck to +your guns nobly." + +"No thanks to you, sir," I replied, "running us up a thousand at a time, +and tempting all the speculators in San Francisco to come and have a +try." + +"O, that was temporary insanity," said he; "and I thank the higher +powers I am still a free man. Walking this way, Mr. Dodd? I'll walk +along with you. It's pleasant for an old fogey like myself to see the +young bloods in the ring; I've done some pretty wild gambles in my time +in this very city, when it was a smaller place and I was a younger man. +Yes, I know you, Mr. Dodd. By sight, I may say I know you extremely +well, you and your followers, the fellows in the kilts, eh? Pardon me. +But I have the misfortune to own a little box on the Saucelito shore. +I'll be glad to see you there any Sunday--without the fellows in kilts, +you know; and I can give you a bottle of wine, and show you the best +collection of Arctic voyages in the States. Morgan is my name--Judge +Morgan--a Welshman and a forty-niner." + +"O, if you're a pioneer," cried I, "come to me, and I'll provide you +with an axe." + +"You'll want your axes for yourself, I fancy," he returned, with one of +his quick looks. "Unless you have private knowledge, there will be a +good deal of rather violent wrecking to do before you find that--opium, +do you call it?" + +"Well, it's either opium, or we are stark staring mad," I replied. "But +I assure you we have no private information. We went in (as I suppose +you did yourself) on observation." + +"An observer, sir?" inquired the judge. + +"I may say it is my trade--or, rather, was," said I. + +"Well now, and what did you think of Bellairs?" he asked. + +"Very little indeed," said I. + +"I may tell you," continued the judge, "that to me the employment of a +fellow like that appears inexplicable. I knew him: he knows me, too; he +has often heard from me in court; and I assure you the man is utterly +blown upon; it is not safe to trust him with a dollar, and here we find +him dealing up to fifty thousand. I can't think who can have so trusted +him, but I am very sure it was a stranger in San Francisco." + +"Some one for the owners, I suppose," said I. + +"Surely not!" exclaimed the judge. "Owners in London can have nothing to +say to opium smuggled between Hong Kong and San Francisco. I should +rather fancy they would be the last to hear of it--until the ship was +seized. No; I was thinking of the captain. But where would he get the +money--above all, after having laid out so much to buy the stuff in +China?--unless, indeed, he were acting for some one in 'Frisco; and in +that case--here we go round again in the vicious circle--Bellairs would +not have been employed." + +"I think I can assure you it was not the captain," said I, "for he and +Bellairs are not acquainted." + +"Wasn't that the captain with the red face and coloured handkerchief? He +seemed to me to follow Bellairs's game with the most thrilling +interest," objected Mr. Morgan. + +"Perfectly true," said I. "Trent is deeply interested; he very likely +knew Bellairs, and he certainly knew what he was there for; but I can +put my hand in the fire that Bellairs didn't know Trent." + +"Another singularity," observed the judge. "Well, we have had a capital +forenoon. But you take an old lawyer's advice, and get to Midway Island +as fast as you can. There's a pot of money on the table, and Bellairs +and Co. are not the men to stick at trifles." + +With this parting counsel Judge Morgan shook hands and made off along +Montgomery Street, while I entered the Occidental Hotel, on the steps of +which we had finished our conversation. I was well known to the clerks, +and as soon as it was understood that I was there to wait for Pinkerton +and lunch, I was invited to a seat inside the counter. Here, then, in a +retired corner, I was beginning to come a little to myself after these +so violent experiences, when who should come hurrying in, and (after a +moment with a clerk) fly to one of the telephone-boxes but Mr. Henry D. +Bellairs in person! Call it what you will, but the impulse was +irresistible, and I rose and took a place immediately at the man's back. +It may be some excuse that I had often practised this very innocent form +of eavesdropping upon strangers and for fun. Indeed, I scarce know +anything that gives a lower view of man's intelligence than to overhear +(as you thus do) one side of a communication. + +"Central," said the attorney, "2241 and 584 B" (or some such +numbers)--"Who's that?--All right--Mr. Bellairs--Occidental; the wires +are fouled in the other place--Yes, about three minutes--Yes--Yes--Your +figure, I am sorry to say--No--I had no authority--Neither more nor +less--I have every reason to suppose so--O, Pinkerton, Montana +Block--Yes--Yes--Very good, sir--As you will, sir--Disconnect 584 B." + +Bellairs turned to leave; at sight of me behind him, up flew his hands, +and he winced and cringed, as though in fear of bodily attack. "O, it's +you!" he cried; and then, somewhat recovered, "Mr. Pinkerton's partner, +I believe? I am pleased to see you, sir--to congratulate you on your +late success"; and with that he was gone, obsequiously bowing as he +passed. + +And now a madcap humour came upon me. It was plain Bellairs had been +communicating with his principal; I knew the number, if not the name. +Should I ring up at once? It was more than likely he would return in +person to the telephone. "Why should not I dash (vocally) into the +presence of this mysterious person, and have some fun for my money?" I +pressed the bell. + +"Central," said I, "connect again 2241 and 584 B." + +A phantom central repeated the numbers; there was a pause, and then "Two +two four one" came in a tiny voice into my ear--a voice with the English +sing-song--the voice plainly of a gentleman. "Is that you again, Mr. +Bellairs?" it trilled. "I tell you it's no use. Is that you, Mr. +Bellairs? Who is that?" + +"I only want to put a single question," said I, civilly. "Why do you +want to buy the _Flying Scud_?" + +No answer came. The telephone vibrated and hummed in miniature with all +the numerous talk of a great city: but the voice of 2241 was silent. +Once and twice I put my question; but the tiny sing-song English voice I +heard no more. The man, then, had fled--fled from an impertinent +question. It scarce seemed natural to me--unless on the principle that +the wicked fleeth when no man pursueth. I took the telephone list and +turned the number up: "2241, Mrs. Keane, res. 942 Mission Street." And +that, short of driving to the house and renewing my impertinence in +person, was all that I could do. + +Yet, as I resumed my seat in the corner of the office, I was conscious +of a new element of the uncertain, the underhand, perhaps even the +dangerous, in our adventure; and there was now a new picture in my +mental gallery, to hang beside that of the wreck under its canopy of +sea-birds and of Captain Trent mopping his red brow--the picture of a +man with a telephone dice-box to his ear, and at the small voice of a +single question struck suddenly as white as ashes. + +From these considerations I was awakened by the striking of the clock. +An hour and nearly twenty minutes had elapsed since Pinkerton departed +for the money: he was twenty minutes behind time; and to me, who knew so +well his gluttonous despatch of business, and had so frequently admired +his iron punctuality, the fact spoke volumes. The twenty minutes slowly +stretched into an hour; the hour had nearly extended to a second; and I +still sat in my corner of the office, or paced the marble pavement of +the hall, a prey to the most wretched anxiety and penitence. The hour +for lunch was nearly over before I remembered that I had not eaten. +Heaven knows I had no appetite; but there might still be much to do--it +was needful I should keep myself in proper trim, if it were only to +digest the now too probable bad news; and leaving word at the office for +Pinkerton, I sat down to table and called for soup, oysters, and a pint +of champagne. + +I was not long set before my friend returned. He looked pale and rather +old, refused to hear of food, and called for tea. + +"I suppose all's up?" said I, with an incredible sinking. + +"No," he replied; "I've pulled it through, Loudon--just pulled it +through. I couldn't have raised another cent in all 'Frisco. People +don't like it; Longhurst even went back on me; said he wasn't a +three-card-monte man." + +"Well, what's the odds?" said I. "That's all we wanted, isn't it?" + +"Loudon, I tell you I've had to pay blood for that money," cried my +friend, with almost savage energy and gloom. "It's all on ninety days, +too; I couldn't get another day--not another day. If we go ahead with +this affair, Loudon, you'll have to go yourself and make the fur fly. +I'll stay, of course--I've got to stay and face the trouble in this +city; though, I tell you, I just long to go. I would show these fat +brutes of sailors what work was; I would be all through that wreck and +out at the other end, before they had boosted themselves upon the deck! +But you'll do your level best, Loudon; I depend on you for that. You +must be all fire and grit and dash from the word 'go.' That schooner, +and the boodle on board of her, are bound to be here before three +months, or it's B U S T--bust." + +"I'll swear I'll do my best, Jim; I'll work double tides," said I. "It +is my fault that you are in this thing, and I'll get you out again, or +kill myself. But what is that you say? 'If we go ahead?' Have we any +choice, then?" + +"I'm coming to that," said Jim. "It isn't that I doubt the investment. +Don't blame yourself for that; you showed a fine sound business +instinct: I always knew it was in you, but then it ripped right out. I +guess that little beast of an attorney knew what he was doing; and he +wanted nothing better than to go beyond. No, there's profit in the deal; +it's not that; it's these ninety-day bills, and the strain I've given +the credit--for I've been up and down borrowing, and begging and bribing +to borrow. I don't believe there's another man but me in 'Frisco," he +cried, with a sudden fervour of self-admiration, "who could have raised +that last ten thousand! Then there's another thing. I had hoped you +might have peddled that opium through the islands, which is safer and +more profitable. But with this three-month limit, you must make tracks +for Honolulu straight, and communicate by steamer. I'll try to put up +something for you there; I'll have a man spoken to who's posted on that +line of biz. Keep a bright look-out for him as soon's you make the +islands; for it's on the cards he might pick you up at sea in a +whale-boat or a steam-launch, and bring the dollars right on board." + +It shows how much I had suffered morally during my sojourn in San +Francisco that even now, when our fortunes trembled in the balance, I +should have consented to become a smuggler--and (of all things) a +smuggler of opium. Yet I did, and that in silence; without a protest, +not without a twinge. + +"And suppose," said I, "suppose the opium is so securely hidden that I +can't get hands on it?" + +"Then you will stay there till that brig is kindling-wood, and stay and +split that kindling-wood with your penknife," cried Pinkerton. "The +stuff is there; we know that; and it must be found. But all this is only +the one string to our bow--though I tell you I've gone into it +head-first, as if it was our bottom dollar. Why, the first thing I did +before I'd raised a cent, and with this other notion in my head +already--the first thing I did was to secure the schooner. The _Norah +Creina_ she is, sixty-four tons--quite big enough for our purpose since +the rice is spoiled, and the fastest thing of her tonnage out of San +Francisco. For a bonus of two hundred, and a monthly charter of three, I +have her for my own time; wages and provisions, say four hundred more: a +drop in the bucket. They began firing the cargo out of her (she was part +loaded) near two hours ago; and about the same time John Smith got the +order for the stores. That's what I call business." + +"No doubt of that," said I; "but the other notion?" + +"Well, here it is," said Jim. "You agree with me that Bellairs was ready +to go higher?" + +I saw where he was coming. "Yes--and why shouldn't he?" said I. "Is that +the line?" + +"That's the line, Loudon Dodd," assented Jim. "If Bellairs and his +principal have any desire to go me better, I'm their man." + +A sudden thought, a sudden fear, shot into my mind. What if I had been +right? What if my childish pleasantry had frightened the principal away, +and thus destroyed our chance? Shame closed my mouth; I began +instinctively a long course of reticence; and it was without a word of +my meeting with Bellairs, or my discovery of the address in Mission +Street, that I continued the discussion. + +"Doubtless fifty thousand was originally mentioned as a round sum," said +I, "or, at least, so Bellairs supposed. But at the same time it may be +an outside sum; and to cover the expenses we have already incurred for +the money and the schooner--I am far from blaming you; I see how needful +it was to be ready for either event--but to cover them we shall want a +rather large advance." + +"Bellairs will go to sixty thousand; it's my belief, if he were properly +handled, he would take the hundred," replied Pinkerton. "Look back on +the way the sale ran at the end." + +"That is my own impression as regards Bellairs," I admitted; "the point +I am trying to make is that Bellairs himself may be mistaken; that what +he supposed to be a round sum was really an outside figure." + +"Well, Loudon, if that is so," said Jim, with extraordinary gravity of +face and voice, "if that is so, let him take the _Flying Scud_ at fifty +thousand, and joy go with her! I prefer the loss." + +"Is that so, Jim? Are we dipped as bad as that?" I cried. + +"We've put our hand farther out than we can pull it in again, Loudon," +he replied. "Why, man, that fifty thousand dollars, before we get clear +again, will cost us nearer seventy. Yes, it figures up overhead to more +than ten per cent, a month; and I could do no better, and there isn't +the man breathing could have done as well. It was a miracle, Loudon. I +couldn't but admire myself. O, if we had just the four months! And you +know, Loudon, it may still be done. With your energy and charm, if the +worst comes to the worst, you can run that schooner as you ran one of +your picnics; and we may have luck. And O man! if we do pull it through, +what a dashing operation it will be! What an advertisement! what a thing +to talk of and remember all our lives! However," he broke off suddenly, +"we must try the safe thing first. Here's for the shyster!" + +There was another struggle in my mind, whether I should even now admit +my knowledge of the Mission Street address. But I had let the favourable +moment slip. I had now, which made it the more awkward, not merely the +original discovery, but my late suppression to confess. I could not help +reasoning, besides, that the more natural course was to approach the +principal by the road of his agent's office; and there weighed upon my +spirits a conviction that we were already too late, and that the man was +gone two hours ago. Once more, then, I held my peace; and after an +exchange of words at the telephone to assure ourselves he was at home, +we set out for the attorney's office. + +The endless streets of any American city pass, from one end to another, +through strange degrees and vicissitudes of splendour and distress, +running under the same name between monumental warehouses, the dens and +taverns of thieves, and the sward and shrubbery of villas. In San +Francisco the sharp inequalities of the ground, and the sea bordering on +so many sides, greatly exaggerate these contrasts. The street for which +we were now bound took its rise among blowing sands, somewhere in view +of the Lone Mountain Cemetery; ran for a term across that rather windy +Olympus of Nob Hill, or perhaps just skirted its frontier; passed almost +immediately after through a stage of little houses, rather impudently +painted, and offering to the eye of the observer this diagnostic +peculiarity, that the huge brass plates upon the small and highly +coloured doors bore only the first names of ladies--Norah or Lily or +Florence; traversed China Town, where it was doubtless undermined with +opium cellars, and its blocks pierced, after the similitude of +rabbit-warrens, with a hundred doors and passages and galleries; enjoyed +a glimpse of high publicity at the corner of Kearney; and proceeded, +among dives and warehouses, towards the City Front and the region of the +water-rats. In this last stage of its career, where it was both grimy +and solitary, and alternately quiet and roaring to the wheels of drays, +we found a certain house of some pretension to neatness, and furnished +with a rustic outside stair. On the pillar of the stair a black plate +bore in gilded lettering this device: "Harry D. Bellairs, +Attorney-at-law. Consultations, 9 to 6." On ascending the stairs a door +was found to stand open on the balcony, with this further inscription, +"Mr. Bellairs In." + +"I wonder what we do next," said I. + +"Guess we sail right in," returned Jim, and suited the action to the +word. + +The room in which we found ourselves was clean, but extremely bare. A +rather old-fashioned secretaire stood by the wall, with a chair drawn to +the desk; in one corner was a shelf with half-a-dozen law-books; and I +can remember literally not another stick of furniture. One inference +imposed itself: Mr. Bellairs was in the habit of sitting down himself +and suffering his clients to stand. At the far end, and veiled by a +curtain of red baize, a second door communicated with the interior of +the house. Hence, after some coughing and stamping, we elicited the +shyster, who came timorously forth, for all the world like a man in fear +of bodily assault, and then, recognising his guests, suffered from what +I can only call a nervous paroxysm of courtesy. + +"Mr. Pinkerton and partner!" said he. "I will go and fetch you seats." + +"Not the least," said Jim. "No time. Much rather stand. This is +business, Mr. Bellairs. This morning, as you know, I bought the wreck +_Flying Scud_." + +The lawyer nodded. + +"And bought her," pursued my friend, "at a figure out of all proportion +to the cargo and the circumstances, as they appeared." + +"And now you think better of it, and would like to be off with your +bargain? I have been figuring upon this," returned the lawyer. "My +client, I will not hide from you, was displeased with me for putting her +so high. I think we were both too heated, Mr. Pinkerton: rivalry--the +spirit of competition. But I will be quite frank--I know when I am +dealing with gentlemen--and I am almost certain, if you leave the matter +in my hands, my client would relieve you of the bargain, so as you would +lose--" he consulted our faces with gimlet-eyed calculation--"nothing," +he added shrilly. + +And here Pinkerton amazed me. + +"That's a little too thin," said he. "I have the wreck. I know there's +boodle in her, and I mean to keep her. What I want is some points which +may save me needless expense, and which I'm prepared to pay for, money +down. The thing for you to consider is just this, Am I to deal with you +or direct with your principal? If you are prepared to give me the facts +right off, why, name your figure. Only one thing," added Jim, holding a +finger up, "when I say 'money down,' I mean bills payable when the ship +returns, and if the information proves reliable. I don't buy pigs in +pokes." + +I had seen the lawyer's face light up for a moment, and then, at the +sound of Jim's proviso, miserably fade. "I guess you know more about +this wreck than I do, Mr. Pinkerton," said he. "I only know that I was +told to buy the thing, and tried, and couldn't." + +"What I like about you, Mr. Bellairs, is that you waste no time," said +Jim. "Now then, your client's name and address." + +"On consideration," replied the lawyer, with indescribable furtivity, "I +cannot see that I am entitled to communicate my client's name. I will +sound him for you with pleasure, if you care to instruct me, but I +cannot see that I can give you his address." + +"Very well," said Jim, and put his hat on. "Rather a strong step, isn't +it?" (Between every sentence was a clear pause.) "Not think better of +it? Well, come, call it a dollar?" + +"Mr. Pinkerton, sir!" exclaimed the offended attorney and, indeed, I +myself was almost afraid that Jim had mistaken his man and gone too far. + +"No present use for a dollar?" says Jim. "Well, look here, Mr. +Bellairs--we're both busy men, and I'll go to my outside figure with you +right away--" + +"Stop this, Pinkerton," I broke in; "I know the address: 924 Mission +Street." + +I do not know whether Pinkerton or Bellairs was the more taken aback. + +"Why in snakes didn't you say so, Loudon?" cried my friend. + +"You didn't ask for it before," said I, colouring to my temples under +his troubled eyes. + +It was Bellairs who broke silence, kindly supplying me with all that I +had yet to learn. "Since you know Mr. Dickson's address," said he, +plainly burning to be rid of us, "I suppose I need detain you no +longer." + +I do not know how Pinkerton felt, but I had death in my soul as we came +down the outside stair from the den of this blotched spider. My whole +being was strung, waiting for Jim's first question, and prepared to +blurt out--I believe, almost with tears--a full avowal. But my friend +asked nothing. + +"We must hack it," said he, tearing off in the direction of the nearest +stand. "No time to be lost. You saw how I changed ground. No use in +paying the shyster's commission." + +Again I expected a reference to my suppression; again I was +disappointed. It was plain Jim feared the subject, and I felt I almost +hated him for that fear. At last, when we were already in the hack and +driving towards Mission Street, I could bear my suspense no longer. + +"You do not ask me about that address," said I. + +"No," said he, quickly and timidly, "what was it? I would like to know." + +The note of timidity offended me like a buffet; my temper rose as hot as +mustard. "I must request you do not ask me," said I; "it is a matter I +cannot explain." + +The moment the foolish words were said, that moment I would have given +worlds to recall them; how much more when Pinkerton, patting my hand, +replied, "All right, dear boy, not another word; that's all done; I'm +convinced it's perfectly right!" To return upon the subject was beyond +my courage; but I vowed inwardly that I should do my utmost in the +future for this mad speculation, and that I would cut myself in pieces +before Jim should lose one dollar. + +We had no sooner arrived at the address than I had other things to think +of. + +"Mr. Dickson? He's gone," said the landlady. + +Where had he gone? + +"I'm sure I can't tell you," she answered. "He was quite a stranger to +me." + +"Did he express his baggage, ma'am?" asked Pinkerton. + +"Hadn't any," was the reply. "He came last night, and left again to-day +with a satchel." + +"When did he leave?" I inquired. + +"It was about noon," replied the landlady. "Some-one rang up the +telephone, and asked for him; and I reckon he got some news, for he left +right away, although his rooms were taken by the week. He seemed +considerable put out: I reckon it was a death." + +My heart sank; perhaps my idiotic jest had indeed driven him away; and +again I asked myself, "Why?" and whirled for a moment in a vortex of +untenable hypotheses. + +"What was he like, ma'am?" Pinkerton was asking, when I returned to +consciousness of my surroundings. + +"A clean-shaved man," said the woman, and could be led or driven into no +more significant description. + +"Pull up at the nearest drug-store," said Pinkerton to the driver; and +when there, the telephone was put in operation, and the message sped to +the Pacific Mail Steamship Company's office--this was in the days before +Spreckels had arisen--"When does the next China steamer touch at +Honolulu?" + +"The _City of Pekin_; she cast off the dock to-day, at half-past one," +came the reply. + +"It's a clear case of bolt," said Jim. "He's skipped, or my name's not +Pinkerton. He's gone to head us off at Midway Island." + +Somehow I was not so sure; there were elements in the case not known to +Pinkerton--the fears of the captain, for example--that inclined me +otherwise; and the idea that I had terrified Mr. Dickson into flight, +though resting on so slender a foundation, clung obstinately in my mind. + +"Shouldn't we see the list of passengers?" I asked. + +"Dickson is such a blamed common name," returned Jim; "and then, as like +as not, he would change it." + +At this I had another intuition. A negative of a street scene, taken +unconsciously when I was absorbed in other thought, rose in my memory +with not a feature blurred: a view, from Bellairs's door as we were +coming down, of muddy roadway, passing drays, matted telegraph wires, a +China-boy with a basket on his head, and (almost opposite) a corner +grocery with the name of Dickson in great gilt letters. + +"Yes," said I, "you are right; he would change it. And anyway, I don't +believe it was his name at all; I believe he took it from a corner +grocery beside Bellairs's." + +"As like as not," said Jim, still standing on the side-walk with +contracted brows. + +"Well, what shall we do next?" I asked. + +"The natural thing would be to rush the schooner," he replied. "But I +don't know. I telephoned the captain to go at it head down and heels in +air; he answered like a little man; and I guess he's getting around. I +believe, Loudon, we'll give Trent a chance. Trent was in it; he was in +it up to the neck; even if he couldn't buy, he could give us the +straight tip." + +"I think so, too," said I. "Where shall we find him?" + +"British consulate, of course," said Jim. "And that's another reason for +taking him first. We can hustle that schooner up all evening; but when +the consulate's shut, it's shut." + +At the consulate we learned that Captain Trent had alighted (such is, I +believe, the classic phrase) at the What Cheer House. To that large and +unaristocratic hostelry we drove, and addressed ourselves to a large +clerk, who was chewing a toothpick and looking straight before him. + +"Captain Jacob Trent?" + +"Gone," said the clerk. + +"Where has he gone?" asked Pinkerton. + +"Cain't say," said the clerk. + +"When did he go?" I asked. + +"Don't know," said the clerk, and with the simplicity of a monarch +offered us the spectacle of his broad back. + +What might have happened next I dread to picture, for Pinkerton's +excitement had been growing steadily, and now burned dangerously high; +but we were spared extremities by the intervention of a second clerk. + +"Why, Mr. Dodd!" he exclaimed, running forward to the counter. "Glad to +see you, sir! Can I do anything in your way?" + +How virtuous actions blossom! Here was a young man to whose pleased ears +I had rehearsed "Just before the Battle, Mother," at some weekly picnic; +and now, in that tense moment of my life, he came (from the machine) to +be my helper. + +"Captain Trent of the wreck? O yes, Mr. Dodd, he left about twelve; he +and another of the men. The Kanaka went earlier, by the _City of Pekin_; +I know that; I remember expressing his chest. Captain Trent? I'll +inquire, Mr. Dodd. Yes, they were all here. Here are the names on the +register; perhaps you would care to look at them while I go and see +about the baggage?" + +I drew the book toward me, and stood looking at the four names, all +written in the same hand--rather a big, and rather a bad one: Trent, +Brown, Hardy, and (instead of Ah Wing) Jos. Amalu. + +"Pinkerton," said I suddenly, "have you that _Occidental_ in your +pocket?" + +"Never left me," said Pinkerton, producing the paper. + +I turned to the account of the wreck. + +"Here," said I, "here's the name. 'Elias Goddedaal, mate.' Why do we +never come across Elias Goddedaal?" + +"That's so," said Jim. "Was he with the rest in that saloon when you saw +them?" + +"I don't believe it," said I. "They were only four, and there was none +that behaved like a mate." + +At this moment the clerk returned with his report. + +"The captain," it appeared, "came with some kind of an express wagon, +and he and the man took off three chests and a big satchel. Our porter +helped to put them on, but they drove the cart themselves. The porter +thinks they went down town. It was about one." + +"Still in time for the _City of Pekin_," observed Jim. + +"How many of them were here?" I inquired. + +"Three, sir, and the Kanaka," replied the clerk. "I can't somehow find +out about the third, but he's gone too." + +"Mr. Goddedaal, the mate, wasn't here then?" I asked. + +"No, Mr. Dodd, none but what you see," says the clerk. + +"Nor you never heard where he was?" + +"No. Any particular reason for finding these men, Mr. Dodd?" inquired +the clerk. + +"This gentleman and I have bought the wreck," I explained; "we wish to +get some information, and it is very annoying to find the men all gone." + +A certain group had gradually formed about us, for the wreck was still a +matter of interest; and at this, one of the bystanders, a rough +seafaring man, spoke suddenly. + +"I guess the mate won't be gone," said he. "He's main sick; never left +the sick-bay aboard the _Tempest_; so they tell _me_." + +Jim shook me by the sleeve. "Back to the consulate," said he. + +But even at the consulate nothing was known of Mr. Goddedaal. The doctor +of the _Tempest_ had certified him very sick; he had sent his papers in, +but never appeared in person before the authorities. + +"Have you a telephone laid on to the _Tempest_?" asked Pinkerton. + +"Laid on yesterday," said the clerk. + +"Do you mind asking, or letting me ask? We are very anxious to get hold +of Mr. Goddedaal." + +"All right," said the clerk, and turned to the telephone. "I'm sorry," +he said presently, "Mr. Goddedaal has left the ship, and no one knows +where he is." + +"Do you pay the men's passage home?" I inquired, a sudden thought +striking me. + +"If they want it," said the clerk; "sometimes they don't. But we paid +the Kanaka's passage to Honolulu this morning; and by what Captain Trent +was saying, I understand the rest are going home together." + +"Then you haven't paid them?" said I. + +"Not yet," said the clerk. + +"And you would be a good deal surprised if I were to tell you they were +gone already?" I asked. + +"O, I should think you were mistaken," said he. + +"Such is the fact, however," said I. + +"I am sure you must be mistaken," he repeated. + +"May I use your telephone one moment?" asked Pinkerton; and as soon as +permission had been granted, I heard him ring up the printing-office +where our advertisements were usually handled. More I did not hear, for, +suddenly recalling the big bad hand in the register of the What Cheer +House, I asked the consulate clerk if he had a specimen of Captain +Trent's writing. Whereupon I learned that the captain could not write, +having cut his hand open a little before the loss of the brig; that the +latter part of the log even had been written up by Mr. Goddedaal; and +that Trent had always signed with his left hand. By the time I had +gleaned this information Pinkerton was ready. + +"That's all that we can do. Now for the schooner," said he; "and by +to-morrow evening I lay hands on Goddedaal, or my name's not Pinkerton." + +"How have you managed?" I inquired. + +"You'll see before you get to bed," said Pinkerton. "And now, after all +this backwarding and forwarding, and that hotel clerk, and that bug +Bellairs, it'll be a change and a kind of consolation to see the +schooner. I guess things are humming there." + +But on the wharf, when we reached it, there was no sign of bustle, and, +but for the galley smoke, no mark of life on the _Norah Creina_. +Pinkerton's face grew pale and his mouth straightened as he leaped on +board. + +"Where's the captain of this----?" and he left the phrase unfinished, +finding no epithet sufficiently energetic for his thoughts. + +It did not appear whom or what he was addressing; but a head, presumably +the cook's, appeared in answer at the galley door. + +"In the cabin, at dinner," said the cook deliberately, chewing as he +spoke. + +"Is that cargo out?" + +"No, sir." + +"None of it?" + +"O, there's some of it out. We'll get at the rest of it livelier +to-morrow, I guess." + +"I guess there'll be something broken first," said Pinkerton, and strode +to the cabin. + +Here we found a man, fat, dark, and quiet, seated gravely at what seemed +a liberal meal. He looked up upon our entrance; and seeing Pinkerton +continue to stand facing him in silence, hat on head, arms folded, and +lips compressed, an expression of mingled wonder and annoyance began to +dawn upon his placid face. + +"Well!" said Jim; "and so this is what you call rushing around?" + +"Who are you?" cries the captain. + +"Me! I'm Pinkerton!" retorted Jim, as though the name had been a +talisman. + +"You're not very civil, whoever you are," was the reply. But still a +certain effect had been produced, for he scrambled to his feet, and +added hastily, "A man must have a bit of dinner, you know, Mr. +Pinkerton." + +"Where's your mate?" snapped Jim. + +"He's up town," returned the other. + +"Up town!" sneered Pinkerton. "Now, I'll tell you what you are--you're a +Fraud; and if I wasn't afraid of dirtying my boot, I would kick you and +your dinner into that dock." + +"I'll tell you something, too," retorted the captain, duskily flushing. +"I wouldn't sail this ship for the man you are, if you went upon your +knees. I've dealt with gentlemen up to now." + +"I can tell you the names of a number of gentlemen you'll never deal +with any more, and that's the whole of Longhurst's gang," said Jim. +"I'll put your pipe out in that quarter, my friend. Here, rout out your +traps as quick as look at it, and take your vermin along with you. I'll +have a captain in, this very night, that's a sailor, and some sailors to +work for him." + +"I'll go when I please, and that's to-morrow morning," cried the captain +after us, as we departed for the shore. + +"There's something gone wrong with the world to-day; it must have come +bottom up!" wailed Pinkerton. "Bellairs, and then the hotel clerk, and +now this Fraud! And what am I to do for a captain, Loudon, with +Longhurst gone home an hour ago and the boys all scattered?" + +"I know," said I; "jump in!" And then to the driver: "Do you know Black +Tom's?" + +Thither then we rattled, passed through the bar, and found (as I had +hoped) Johnson in the enjoyment of club life. The table had been thrust +upon one side; a South Sea merchant was discoursing music from a +mouth-organ in one corner; and in the middle of the floor Johnson and a +fellow-seaman, their arms clasped about each other's bodies, somewhat +heavily danced. The room was both cold and close; a jet of gas, which +continually menaced the heads of the performers, shed a coarse +illumination; the mouth-organ sounded shrill and dismal; and the faces +of all concerned were church-like in their gravity. It were, of course, +indelicate to interrupt these solemn frolics; so we edged ourselves to +chairs, for all the world like belated comers in a concert-room, and +patiently waited for the end. At length the organist, having exhausted +his supply of breath, ceased abruptly in the middle of a bar. With the +cessation of the strain the dancers likewise came to a full stop, swayed +a moment, still embracing, and then separated, and looked about the +circle for applause. + +"Very well danced!" said one; but it appears the compliment was not +strong enough for the performers, who (forgetful of the proverb) took up +the tale in person. + +"Well," said Johnson, "I mayn't be no sailor, but I can dance!" + +And his late partner, with an almost pathetic conviction, added, "My +foot is as light as a feather." + +Seeing how the wind set, you may be sure I added a few words of praise +before I carried Johnson alone into the passage: to whom, thus +mollified, I told so much as I judged needful of our situation, and +begged him, if he would not take the job himself, to find me a smart +man. + +"Me!" he cried; "I couldn't no more do it than I could try to go to +hell!" + +"I thought you were a mate?" said I. + +"So I am a mate," giggled Johnson, "and you don't catch me shipping +noways else. But I'll tell you what: I believe I can get you Arty Nares. +You seen Arty; first-rate navigator, and a son of a gun for style." And +he proceeded to explain to me that Mr. Nares, who had the promise of a +fine barque in six months, after things had quieted down, was in the +meantime living very private, and would be pleased to have a change of +air. + +I called out Pinkerton and told him. "Nares!" he cried, as soon as I had +come to the name, "I would jump at the chance of a man that had had +Nares's trousers on! Why, Loudon, he's the smartest deep-water mate out +of San Francisco, and draws his dividends regular in service and out." +This hearty indorsation clinched the proposal; Johnson agreed to produce +Nares before six the following morning; and Black Tom, being called into +the consultation, promised us four smart hands for the same hour, and +even (what appeared to all of us excessive) promised them sober. + +The streets were fully lighted when we left Black Tom's: street after +street sparkling with gas or electricity, line after line of distant +luminaries climbing the steep sides of hills towards the over-vaulting +darkness; and on the other hand, where the waters of the bay invisibly +trembled, a hundred riding lanterns marked the position of a hundred +ships. The sea-fog flew high in heaven; and at the level of man's life +and business it was clear and chill. By silent consent we paid the hack +off, and proceeded arm-in-arm towards the "Poodle Dog" for dinner. + +At one of the first hoardings I was aware of a bill-sticker at work: it +was a late hour for this employment, and I checked Pinkerton until the +sheet should be unfolded. This is what I read:-- + + +--------------------------------------------------+ + | TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS REWARD. | + | | + | OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE | + | | + | WRECKED BRIG "FLYING SCUD" | + | | + | APPLYING, | + | PERSONALLY OR BY LETTER | + | AT THE OFFICE OF JAMES PINKERTON, MONTANA BLOCK, | + | | + | BEFORE NOON TO-MORROW, TUESDAY, 12TH, | + | | + | WILL RECEIVE | + | | + | TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS REWARD. | + +--------------------------------------------------+ + +"This is your idea, Pinkerton!" I cried. + +"Yes. They've lost no time; I'll say that for them--not like the Fraud," +said he. "But mind you, Loudon, that's not half of it. The cream of the +idea's here: we know our man's sick; well, a copy of that has been +mailed to every hospital, every doctor, and every drug-store in San +Francisco." + +Of course, from the nature of our business, Pinkerton could do a thing +of that kind at a figure extremely reduced; for all that, I was +appalled at the extravagance, and said so. + +"What matter a few dollars now?" he replied sadly; "it's in three months +that the pull comes, Loudon." + +We walked on again in silence, not without a shiver. Even at the "Poodle +Dog" we took our food with small appetite and less speech; and it was +not until he was warmed with a third glass of champagne that Pinkerton +cleared his throat and looked upon me with a deprecating eye. + +"Loudon," said he, "there was a subject you didn't wish to be referred +to. I only want to do so indirectly. It wasn't"--he faltered--"it wasn't +because you were dissatisfied with me?" he concluded, with a quaver. + +"Pinkerton!" cried I. + +"No, no, not a word just now," he hastened to proceed "let me speak +first. I appreciate, though I can't intimate, the delicacy of your +nature; and I can well understand you would rather die than speak of it, +and yet might feel disappointed. I did think I could have done better +myself. But when I found how tight money was in this city, and a man +like Douglas B. Longhurst--a forty-niner, the man that stood at bay in a +corn patch for five hours against the San Diablo squatters--weakening on +the operation, I tell you, Loudon, I began to despair; and--I may have +made mistakes, no doubt there are thousands who could have done +better--but I give you a loyal hand on it, I did my best." + +"My poor Jim," said I, "as if I ever doubted you! as if I didn't know +you had done wonders! All day I've been admiring your energy and +resource. And as for that affair----" + +"No, Loudon, no more--not a word more! I don't want to hear," cried Jim. + +"Well, to tell you the truth, I don't want to tell you," said I; "for +it's a thing I'm ashamed of." + +"Ashamed, Loudon? O, don't say that; don't use such an expression, even +in jest!" protested Pinkerton. + +"Do you never do anything you're ashamed of?" I inquired. + +"No," says he, rolling his eyes; "why? I'm sometimes sorry afterwards, +when it pans out different from what I figured. But I can't see what I +would want to be ashamed for." + +I sat a while considering with admiration the simplicity of my friend's +character. Then I sighed. "Do you know, Jim, what I'm sorriest for?" +said I. "At this rate I can't be best man at your marriage." + +"My marriage!" he repeated, echoing the sigh. "No marriage for me now. +I'm going right down to-night to break it to her. I think that's what's +shaken me all day. I feel as if I had had no right (after I was engaged) +to operate so widely." + +"Well, you know, Jim, it was my doing, and you must lay the blame on +me," said I. + +"Not a cent of it!" he cried. "I was as eager as yourself, only not so +bright at the beginning. No; I've myself to thank for it; but it's a +wrench." + +While Jim departed on his dolorous mission, I returned alone to the +office, lit the gas, and sat down to reflect on the events of that +momentous day: on the strange features of the tale that had been so far +unfolded, the disappearances, the terrors, the great sums of money; and +on the dangerous and ungrateful task that awaited me in the immediate +future. + +It is difficult, in the retrospect of such affairs, to avoid attributing +to ourselves in the past a measure of the knowledge we possess to-day. +But I may say, and yet be well within the mark, that I was consumed that +night with a fever of suspicion and curiosity; exhausted my fancy in +solutions, which I still dismissed as incommensurable with the facts; +and in the mystery by which I saw myself surrounded, found a precious +stimulus for my courage and a convenient soothing draught for +conscience. Even had all been plain sailing, I do not hint that I should +have drawn back. Smuggling is one of the meanest of crimes, for by that +we rob a whole country _pro rata_, and are therefore certain to +impoverish the poor: to smuggle opium is an offence particularly dark, +since it stands related--not so much to murder, as to massacre. Upon all +these points I was quite clear; my sympathy was all in arms against my +interest; and had not Jim been involved, I could have dwelt almost with +satisfaction on the idea of my failure. But Jim, his whole fortune, and +his marriage depended upon my success; and I preferred the interests of +my friend before those of all the islanders in the South Seas. This is a +poor, private morality, if you like; but it is mine, and the best I +have; and I am not half so much ashamed of having embarked at all on +this adventure, as I am proud that (while I was in it, and for the sake +of my friend) I was up early and down late, set my own hand to +everything, took dangers as they came, and for once in my life played +the man throughout. At the same time I could have desired another field +of energy; and I was the more grateful for the redeeming element of +mystery. Without that, though I might have gone ahead and done as well, +it would scarce have been with ardour; and what inspired me that night +with an impatient greed of the sea, the island, and the wreck, was the +hope that I might stumble there upon the answer to a hundred questions, +and learn why Captain Trent fanned his red face in the exchange, and why +Mr. Dickson fled from the telephone in the Mission Street lodging-house. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +IN WHICH JIM AND I TAKE DIFFERENT WAYS + + +I was unhappy when I closed my eyes; and it was to unhappiness that I +opened them again next morning, to a confused sense of some calamity +still inarticulate, and to the consciousness of jaded limbs and of a +swimming head. I must have lain for some time inert and stupidly +miserable before I became aware of a reiterated knocking at the door; +with which discovery all my wits flowed back in their accustomed +channels, and I remembered the sale and the wreck, and Goddedaal and +Nares, and Johnson and Black Tom, and the troubles of yesterday and the +manifold engagements of the day that was to come. The thought thrilled +me like a trumpet in the hour of battle. In a moment I had leaped from +bed, crossed the office where Pinkerton lay in a deep trance of sleep on +the convertible sofa, and stood in the doorway, in my night gear, to +receive our visitors. + +Johnson was first, by way of usher, smiling. From a little behind, with +his Sunday hat tilted forward over his brow and a cigar glowing between +his lips, Captain Nares acknowledged our previous acquaintance with a +succinct nod. Behind him again, in the top of the stairway, a knot of +sailors, the new crew of the _Norah Creina_, stood polishing the wall +with back and elbow. These I left without to their reflections. But our +two officers I carried at once into the office, where (taking Jim by the +shoulder) I shook him slowly into consciousness. He sat up, all abroad +for the moment, and stared on the new captain. + +"Jim," said I, "this is Captain Nares. Captain, Mr. Pinkerton." + +Nares repeated his curt nod, still without speech; and I thought he held +us both under a watchful scrutiny. + +"O!" says Jim, "this is Captain Nares, is it? Good-morning, Captain +Nares. Happy to have the pleasure of your acquaintance, sir. I know you +well by reputation." + +Perhaps, under the circumstances of the moment, this was scarce a +welcome speech. At least, Nares received it with a grunt. + +"Well, captain," Jim continued, "you know about the size of the +business? You're to take the _Norah Creina_ to Midway Island, break up a +wreck, call at Honolulu, and back to this port? I suppose that's +understood?" + +"Well," returned Nares, with the same unamiable reserve, "for a reason, +which I guess you know, the cruise may suit me: but there's a point or +two to settle. We shall have to talk, Mr. Pinkerton. But whether I go or +not, somebody will. There's no sense in losing time; and you might give +Mr. Johnson a note, let him take the hands right down, and set to to +overhaul the rigging. The beasts look sober," he added, with an air of +great disgust, "and need putting to work to keep them so." + +This being agreed upon, Nares watched his subordinate depart, and drew a +visible breath. + +"And now we're alone and can talk," said he. "What's this thing about? +It's been advertised like Barnum's museum; that poster of yours has set +the Front talking. That's an objection in itself, for I'm laying a +little dark just now; and, anyway, before I take the ship, I require to +know what I'm going after." + +Thereupon Pinkerton gave him the whole tale, beginning with a +business-like precision, and working himself up, as he went on, to the +boiling-point of narrative enthusiasm. Nares sat and smoked, hat still +on head, and acknowledged each fresh feature of the story with a +frowning nod. But his pale blue eyes betrayed him, and lighted visibly. + +"Now you see for yourself," Pinkerton concluded; "there's every last +chance that Trent has skipped to Honolulu, and it won't take much of +that fifty thousand dollars to charter a small schooner down to Midway. +Here's where I want a man!" cried Jim, with contagious energy. "That +wreck's mine; I've paid for it, money down; and if it's got to be fought +for, I want to see it fought for lively. If you're not back in ninety +days, I tell you plainly I'll make one of the biggest busts ever seen +upon this coast. It's life or death for Mr. Dodd and me. As like as not +it'll come to grapples on the island; and when I heard your name last +night--and a blame' sight more this morning when I saw the eye you've +got in your head--I said, 'Nares is good enough for me!'" + +"I guess," observed Nares, studying the ash of his cigar, "the sooner I +get that schooner outside the Farallones the better you'll be pleased." + +"You're the man I dreamed of!" cried Jim, bouncing on the bed. "There's +not five per cent. of fraud in all your carcass." + +"Just hold on," said Nares. "There's another point. I heard some talk +about a supercargo." + +"That's Mr. Dodd here, my partner," said Jim. + +"I don't see it," returned the captain drily. "One captain's enough for +any ship that ever I was aboard." + +"Now, don't you start disappointing me," said Pinkerton, "for you're +talking without thought. I'm not going to give you the run of the books +of this firm, am I? I guess not. Well, this is not only a cruise, it's a +business operation, and that's in the hands of my partner. You sail that +ship, you see to breaking up that wreck and keeping the men upon the +jump, and you'll find your hands about full. Only, no mistake about one +thing; it has to be done to Mr. Dodd's satisfaction, for it's Mr. Dodd +that's paying." + +"I'm accustomed to give satisfaction," said Mr. Nares, with a dark +flush. + +"And so you will here!" cried Pinkerton. "I understand you. You're +prickly to handle, but you're straight all through." + +"The position's got to be understood, though," returned Nares, perhaps a +trifle mollified. "My position, I mean. I'm not going to ship +sailing-master; it's enough out of my way already, to set a foot on this +mosquito schooner." + +"Well, I'll tell you," retorted Jim, with an indescribable twinkle: "you +just meet me on the ballast, and we'll make it a barquantine." + +Nares laughed a little; tactless Pinkerton had once more gained a +victory in tact. "Then there's another point," resumed the captain, +tacitly relinquishing the last. "How about the owners?" + +"O, you leave that to me; I'm one of Longhurst's crowd, you know," said +Jim, with sudden bristling vanity. "Any man that's good enough for me, +is good enough for them." + +"Who are they?" asked Nares. + +"M'Intyre and Spittal," said Jim. + +"O well, give me a card of yours," said the captain; "you needn't bother +to write; I keep M'Intyre and Spittal in my vest-pocket." + +Boast for boast; it was always thus with Nares and Pinkerton--the two +vainest men of my acquaintance. And having thus reinstated himself in +his own opinion, the captain rose, and, with a couple of his stiff nods, +departed. + +"Jim," I cried, as the door closed behind him, "I don't like that man." + +"You've just got to, Loudon," returned Jim. "He's a typical American +seaman--brave as a lion, full of resource, and stands high with his +owners. He's a man with a record." + +"For brutality at sea," said I. + +"Say what you like," exclaimed Pinkerton, "it was a good hour we got him +in: I'd trust Mamie's life to him to-morrow." + +"Well, and talking of Mamie?" says I. + +Jim paused with his trousers half on. "She's the gallantest little soul +God ever made!" he cried. "Loudon, I'd meant to knock you up last night, +and I hope you won't take it unfriendly that I didn't. I went in and +looked at you asleep; and I saw you were all broken up, and let you be. +The news would keep, anyway; and even you, Loudon, couldn't feel it the +same way as I did." + +"What news?" I asked. + +"It's this way," says Jim. "I told her how we stood, and that I backed +down from marrying. 'Are you tired of me?' says she: God bless her! +Well, I explained the whole thing over again, the chance of smash, your +absence unavoidable, the point I made of having you for the best man, +and that. 'If you're not tired of me, I think I see one way to manage,' +says she. 'Let's get married to-morrow, and Mr. Loudon can be best man +before he goes to sea.' That's how she said it, crisp and bright, like +one of Dickens's characters. It was no good for me to talk about the +smash. 'You'll want me all the more,' she said. Loudon, I only pray I +can make it up to her; I prayed for it last night beside your bed, while +you lay sleeping--for you, and Mamie and myself; and--I don't know if +you quite believe in prayer, I'm a bit Ingersollian myself--but a kind +of sweetness came over me, and I couldn't help but think it was an +answer. Never was a man so lucky! You and me and Mamie; it's a triple +cord, Loudon. If either of you were to die! And she likes you so much, +and thinks you so accomplished and distingue-looking, and was just as +set as I was to have you for best man. 'Mr. Loudon,' she calls you; +seems to me so friendly! And she sat up till three in the morning +fixing up a costume for the marriage; it did me good to see her, +Loudon, and to see that needle going, going, and to say 'All this hurry, +Jim, is just to marry you!' I couldn't believe it; it was so like some +blame' fairy story. To think of those old tin-type times about turned my +head; I was so unrefined then, and so illiterate, and so lonesome; and +here I am in clover, and I'm blamed if I can see what I've done to +deserve it." + +So he poured forth with innocent volubility the fulness of his heart; +and I, from these irregular communications, must pick out, here a little +and there a little, the particulars of his new plan. They were to be +married, sure enough, that day; the wedding breakfast was to be at +Frank's; the evening to be passed in a visit of God-speed abroad the +_Norah Creina_; and then we were to part, Jim and I--he to his married +life, I on my sea-enterprise. If ever I cherished an ill-feeling for +Miss Mamie, I forgave her now; so brave and kind, so pretty and +venturesome, was her decision. The weather frowned overhead with a +leaden sky, and San Francisco had never (in all my experience) looked so +bleak and gaunt, and shoddy and crazy, like a city prematurely old; but +through all my wanderings and errands to and fro, by the dockside or in +the jostling street, among rude sounds and ugly sights, there ran in my +mind, like a tiny strain of music, the thought of my friend's happiness. + +For that was indeed a day of many and incongruous occupations. Breakfast +was scarce swallowed before Jim must run to the City Hall and Frank's +about the cares of marriage, and I hurry to John Smith's upon the +account of stores, and thence, on a visit of certification, to the +_Norah Creina_. Methought she looked smaller than ever, sundry great +ships overspiring her from close without. She was already a nightmare of +disorder; and the wharf alongside was piled with a world of casks and +cases and tins, and tools and coils of rope, and miniature barrels of +giant powder, such as it seemed no human ingenuity could stuff on board +of her. Johnson was in the waist, in a red shirt and dungaree trousers, +his eye kindled with activity. With him I exchanged a word or two; +thence stepped aft along the narrow alleyway between the house and the +rail, and down the companion to the main cabin, where the captain sat +with the commissioner at wine. + +I gazed with disaffection at the little box which for many a day I was +to call home. On the starboard was a stateroom for the captain; on the +port a pair of frowsy berths, one over the other, and abutting astern +upon the side of an unsavoury cupboard. The walls were yellow and damp, +the floor black and greasy; there was a prodigious litter of straw, old +newspapers, and broken packing-cases; and by way of ornament, only a +glass-rack, a thermometer presented "with compliments" of some +advertising whisky-dealer, and a swinging lamp. It was hard to foresee +that, before a week was up, I should regard that cabin as cheerful, +lightsome, airy, and even spacious. + +I was presented to the commissioner, and to a young friend of his whom +he had brought with him for the purpose (apparently) of smoking cigars; +and after we had pledged one another in a glass of California port, a +trifle sweet and sticky for a morning beverage, the functionary spread +his papers on the table, and the hands were summoned. Down they trooped, +accordingly, into the cabin; and stood eyeing the ceiling or the floor, +the picture of sheepish embarrassment, and with a common air of wanting +to expectorate and not quite daring. In admirable contrast stood the +Chinese cook, easy, dignified, set apart by spotless raiment, the +hidalgo of the seas. + +I dare say you never had occasion to assist at the farce which followed. +Our shipping laws in the United States (thanks to the inimitable Dana) +are conceived in a spirit of paternal stringency, and proceed throughout +on the hypothesis that poor Jack is an imbecile, and the other parties +to the contract rogues and ruffians. A long and wordy paper of +precautions, a fo'c'sle bill of rights, must be read separately to each +man. I had now the benefit of hearing it five times in brisk succession; +and you would suppose I was acquainted with its contents. But the +commissioner (worthy man) spends his days in doing little else; and when +we bear in mind the parallel case of the irreverent curate, we need not +be surprised that he took the passage _tempo prestissimo_, in one +roulade of gabble--that I, with the trained attention of an educated +man, could gather but a fraction of its import--and the sailors nothing. +No profanity in giving orders, no sheath-knives, Midway Island and any +other port the master may direct, not to exceed six calendar months, and +to this port to be paid off: so it seemed to run, with surprising +verbiage; so ended. And with the end the commissioner, in each case, +fetched a deep breath, resumed his natural voice, and proceeded to +business. "Now, my man," he would say, "you ship A. B. at so many +dollars, American gold coin. Sign your name here, if you have one, and +can write." Whereupon, and the name (with infinite hard breathing) being +signed, the commissioner would proceed to fill in the man's appearance, +height, etc., on the official form. In this task of literary portraiture +he seemed to rely wholly upon temperament; for I could not perceive him +to cast one glance on any of his models. He was assisted, however, by a +running commentary from the captain: "Hair blue and eyes red, nose five +foot seven, and stature broken"--jests as old, presumably, as the +American marine; and, like the similar pleasantries of the billiard +board, perennially relished. The highest note of humour was reached in +the case of the Chinese cook, who was shipped under the name of "One +Lung," to the sound of his own protests and the self-approving chuckles +of the functionary. + +"Now, captain," said the latter, when the men were gone, and he had +bundled up his papers, "the law requires you to carry a slop-chest and a +chest of medicines." + +"I guess I know that," said Nares. + +"I guess you do," returned the commissioner, and helped himself to port. + +But when he was gone, I appealed to Nares on the same subject, for I was +well aware we carried none of these provisions. + +"Well," drawled Nares, "there's sixty pounds of niggerhead on the quay, +isn't there? and twenty pounds of salts; and I never travel without some +pain-killer in my gripsack." + +As a matter of fact, we were richer. The captain had the usual sailor's +provision of quack medicines, with which, in the usual sailor fashion, +he would daily drug himself, displaying an extreme inconstancy, and +flitting from Kennedy's Red Discovery to Kennedy's White, and from +Hood's Sarsaparilla to Mother Seigel's Syrup. And there were, besides, +some mildewed and half-empty bottles, the labels obliterated, over which +Nares would sometimes sniff and speculate. "Seems to smell like +diarrhoea stuff," he would remark. "I wish't I knew, and I would try +it." But the slop-chest was indeed represented by the plugs of +niggerhead and nothing else. Thus paternal laws are made, thus they are +evaded; and the schooner put to sea, like plenty of her neighbours, +liable to a fine of six hundred dollars. + +This characteristic scene, which has delayed me over-long, was but a +moment in that day of exercise and agitation. To fit out a schooner for +sea and improvise a marriage, between dawn and dusk, involves heroic +effort. All day Jim and I ran and tramped, and laughed and came near +crying, and fell in sudden anxious consultations, and were sped (with a +prepared sarcasm on our lips) to some fallacious milliner, and made +dashes to the schooner and John Smith's, and at every second corner were +reminded (by our own huge posters) of our desperate estate. +Between-whiles I had found the time to hover at some half a dozen +jewellers' windows; and my present, thus intemperately chosen, was +graciously accepted. I believe, indeed, that was the last (though not +the least) of my concerns, before the old minister, shabby and benign, +was routed from his house and led to the office like a performing +poodle; and there, in the growing dusk, under the cold glitter of +Thirteen Star, two hundred strong, and beside the garish glories of the +agricultural engine, Mamie and Jim were made one. The scene was +incongruous, but the business pretty, whimsical, and affecting; the +typewriters with such kindly faces and fine posies, Madame so demure, +and Jim--how shall I describe that poor, transfigured Jim? He began by +taking the minister aside to the far end of the office. I knew not what +he said, but I have reason to believe he was protesting his unfitness, +for he wept as he said it; and the old minister, himself genuinely +moved, was heard to console and encourage him, and at one time to use +this expression: "I assure you, Mr. Pinkerton, that there are not many +who can say so much"--from which I gathered that my friend had tempered +his self-accusations with at least one legitimate boast. From this +ghostly counselling, Jim turned to me; and though he never got beyond +the explosive utterance of my name and one fierce handgrip, communicated +some of his own emotion, like a charge of electricity, to his best man. +We stood up to the ceremony at last, in a general and kindly +discomposure. Jim was all abroad; and the divine himself betrayed his +sympathy in voice and demeanour, and concluded with a fatherly +allocution, in which he congratulated Mamie (calling her "my dear") upon +the fortune of an excellent husband, and protested he had rarely married +a more interesting couple. At this stage, like a glory descending, there +was handed in, _ex machina,_ the card of Douglas B. Longhurst, with +congratulations and four dozen Perrier-Jouet. A bottle was opened, and +the minister pledged the bride, and the bridesmaids simpered and +tasted, and I made a speech with airy bacchanalianism, glass in hand, +But poor Jim must leave the wine untasted. "Don't touch it," I had found +the opportunity to whisper; "in your state it will make you as drunk as +a fiddler." And Jim had wrung my hand with a "God bless you, +Loudon!--saved me again!" + +Hard following upon this, the supper passed off at Frank's with somewhat +tremulous gaiety; and thence, with one-half of the Perrier-Jouet--I +would accept no more--we voyaged in a hack to the _Norah Creina_. + +"What a dear little ship!" cried Mamie, as our miniature craft was +pointed out to her; and then, on second thought, she turned to the best +man. "And how brave you must be, Mr. Dodd," she cried, "to go in that +tiny thing so far upon the ocean!" And I perceived I had risen in the +lady's estimation. + +The "dear little ship" presented a horrid picture of confusion, and its +occupants of weariness and ill-humour. From the cabin the cook was +storing tins into the lazarette, and the four hands, sweaty and sullen, +were passing them from one to another from the waist. Johnson was three +parts asleep over the table; and in his bunk, in his own cabin, the +captain sourly chewed and puffed at a cigar. + +"See here," he said, rising; "you'll be sorry you came. We can't stop +work if we're to get away to-morrow. A ship getting ready for sea is no +place for people, anyway. You'll only interrupt my men." + +I was on the point of answering something tart; but Jim, who was +acquainted with the breed, as he was with most things that had a bearing +on affairs, made haste to pour in oil. + +"Captain," he said, "I know we're a nuisance here, and that you've had a +rough time. But all we want is that you should drink one glass of wine +with us, Perrier-Jouet, from Longhurst, on the occasion of my marriage, +and Loudon's--Mr. Dodd's--departure." + +"Well, it's your look-out," said Nares. "I don't mind half an hour. +Spell, O!" he added to the men; "go and kick your heels for half an +hour, and then you can turn to again a trifle livelier. Johnson, see if +you can't wipe off a chair for the lady." + +His tone was no more gracious than his language; but when Mamie had +turned upon him the soft fire of her eyes, and informed him that he was +the first sea-captain she had ever met, "except captains of steamers, of +course"--she so qualified the statement--and had expressed a lively +sense of his courage, and perhaps implied (for I suppose the arts of +ladies are the same as those of men) a modest consciousness of his good +looks, our bear began insensibly to soften; and it was already part as +an apology, though still with unaffected heat of temper, that he +volunteered some sketch of his annoyances. + +"A pretty mess we've had," said he. "Half the stores were wrong; I'll +wring John Smith's neck for him some of these days. Then two newspaper +beasts came down, and tried to raise copy out of me, till I threatened +them with the first thing handy; and then some kind of missionary bug, +wanting to work his passage to Raiatea or somewhere. I told him I would +take him off the wharf with the butt end of my boot, and he went away +cursing. This vessel's been depreciated by the look of him." + +While the captain spoke, with his strange, humorous, arrogant +abruptness, I observed Jim to be sizing him up, like a thing at once +quaint and familiar, and with a scrutiny that was both curious and +knowing. + +"One word, dear boy," he said, turning suddenly to me. And when he had +drawn me on deck--"That man," says he, "will carry sail till your hair +grows white; but never you let on--never breathe a word. I know his +line: he'll die before he'll take advice; and if you get his back up, +he'll run you right under. I don't often jam in my advice, Loudon; and +when I do, it means I'm thoroughly posted." + +The little party in the cabin, so disastrously begun, finished, under +the mellowing influence of wine and woman, in excellent feeling and with +some hilarity. Mamie, in a plush Gainsborough hat and a gown of +wine-coloured silk, sat, an apparent queen, among her rude surroundings +and companions. The dusky litter of the cabin set off her radiant +trimness: tarry Johnson was a foil to her fair beauty; she glowed in +that poor place, fair as a star; until even I, who was not usually of +her admirers, caught a spark of admiration; and even the captain, who +was in no courtly humour, proposed that the scene should be commemorated +by my pencil. It was the last act of the evening. Hurriedly as I went +about my task, the half-hour had lengthened out to more than three +before it was completed: Mamie in full value, the rest of the party +figuring in outline only, and the artist himself introduced in a back +view, which was pronounced a likeness. But it was to Mamie that I +devoted the best of my attention, and it was with her I made my chief +success. + +"O!" she cried, "am I really like that? No wonder Jim..." She paused. +"Why, it's just as lovely as he's good!" she cried: an epigram which was +appreciated, and repeated as we made our salutations, and called out +after the retreating couple as they passed away under the lamplight on +the wharf. + +Thus it was that our farewells were smuggled through under an ambuscade +of laughter, and the parting over ere I knew it was begun. The figures +vanished, the steps died away along the silent city front; on board, the +men had returned to their labours, the captain to his solitary cigar; +and after that long and complex day of business and emotion, I was at +last alone and free. It was, perhaps, chiefly fatigue that made my heart +so heavy. I leaned, at least, upon the house, and stared at the foggy +heaven, or over the rail at the wavering reflection of the lamps, like a +man that was quite done with hope and would have welcomed the asylum of +the grave. And all at once, as I thus stood, the _City of Pekin_ flashed +into my mind, racing her thirteen knots for Honolulu, with the hated +Trent--perhaps with the mysterious Goddedaal--on board; and with the +thought the blood leaped and careered through all my body. It seemed no +chase at all; it seemed we had no chance, as we laid there bound to iron +pillars, and fooling away the precious moments over tins of beans. "Let +them get there first!" I thought. "Let them! We can't be long behind." +And from that moment I date myself a man of a rounded experience: +nothing had lacked but this--that I should entertain and welcome the +grim thought of bloodshed. + +It was long before the toil remitted in the cabin, and it was worth my +while to get to bed; long after that before sleep favoured me; and +scarce a moment later (or so it seemed) when I was recalled to +consciousness by bawling men and the jar of straining hawsers. + +The schooner was cast off before I got on deck. In the misty obscurity +of the first dawn I saw the tug heading us with glowing fires and +blowing smoke, and heard her beat the roughened waters of the bay. +Beside us, on her flock of hills, the lighted city towered up and stood +swollen in the raw fog. It was strange to see her burn on thus +wastefully, with half-quenched luminaries, when the dawn was already +grown strong enough to show me, and to suffer me to recognise, a +solitary figure standing by the piles. + +Or was it really the eye, and not rather the heart, that identified the +shadow in the dusk, among the shoreside lamps? I know not. It was Jim, +at least; Jim, come for a last look; and we had but time to wave a +valedictory gesture and exchange a wordless cry. This was our second +parting, and our capacities were now reversed. It was mine to play the +Argonaut, to speed affairs, to plan and to accomplish--if need were, at +the price of life; it was his to sit at home, to study the calendar, and +to wait. I knew, besides, another thing that gave me joy. I knew that +my friend had succeeded in my education; that the romance of business, +if our fantastic purchase merited the name, had at last stirred my +dilettante nature; and as we swept under cloudy Tamalpais and through +the roaring narrows of the bay, the Yankee blood sang in my veins with +suspense and exultation. + +Outside the heads, as if to meet my desire, we found it blowing fresh +from the north-east. No time had been lost. The sun was not yet up +before the tug cast off the hawser, gave us a salute of three whistles, +and turned homeward toward the coast, which now began to gleam along its +margin with the earliest rays of day. There was no other ship in view +when the _Norah Creina_, lying over under all plain sail, began her long +and lonely voyage to the wreck. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE _NORAH CREINA_ + + +I love to recall the glad monotony of a Pacific voyage, when the trades +are not stinted, and the ship, day after day, goes free. The mountain +scenery of trade-wind clouds, watched (and in my case painted) under +every vicissitude of light--blotting stars, withering in the moon's +glory, barring the scarlet eve, lying across the dawn collapsed into the +unfeatured morning bank, or at noon raising their snowy summits between +the blue roof of heaven and the blue floor of sea; the small, busy, and +deliberate world of the schooner, with its unfamiliar scenes, the +spearing of dolphin from the bowsprit end, the holy war on sharks, the +cook making bread on the main hatch; reefing down before a violent +squall, with the men hanging out on the foot-ropes; the squall itself, +the catch at the heart, the opened sluices of the sky; and the relief, +the renewed loveliness of life, when all is over, the sun forth again, +and our out-fought enemy only a blot upon the leeward sea. I love to +recall, and would that I could reproduce that life, the unforgettable, +the unrememberable. The memory, which shows so wise a backwardness in +registering pain, is besides an imperfect recorder of extended +pleasures; and a long-continued well-being escapes (as it were, by its +mass) our petty methods of commemoration. On a part of our life's map +there lies a roseate, undecipherable haze, and that is all. + +Of one thing, if I am at all to trust my own annals, I was delightedly +conscious. Day after day, in the sun-gilded cabin, the whisky-dealer's +thermometer stood at 84 deg.. Day after day the air had the same +indescribable liveliness and sweetness, soft and nimble, and cool as the +cheek of health. Day after day the sun flamed; night after night the +moon beaconed, or the stars paraded their lustrous regiment. I was aware +of a spiritual change, or, perhaps, rather a molecular reconstitution. +My bones were sweeter to me. I had come home to my own climate, and +looked back with pity on those damp and wintry zones, miscalled the +temperate. + +"Two years of this, and comfortable quarters to live in, kind of shake +the grit out of a man," the captain remarked; "can't make out to be +happy anywhere else. A townie of mine was lost down this way, in a +coalship that took fire at sea. He struck the beach somewhere in the +Navigators; and he wrote to me that when he left the place it would be +feet first. He's well off, too, and his father owns some coasting craft +Down East; but Billy prefers the beach, and hot rolls off the +bread-fruit trees." + +A voice told me I was on the same track as Billy. But when was this? Our +outward track in the _Norah Creina_ lay well to the northward; and +perhaps it is but the impression of a few pet days which I have +unconsciously spread longer, or perhaps the feeling grew upon me later, +in the run to Honolulu. One thing I am sure: it was before I had ever +seen an island worthy of the name that I must date my loyalty to the +South Seas. The blank sea itself grew desirable under such skies; and +wherever the trade-wind blows I know no better country than a schooner's +deck. + +But for the tugging anxiety as to the journey's end, the journey itself +must thus have counted for the best of holidays. My physical wellbeing +was over-proof; effects of sea and sky kept me for ever busy with my +pencil; and I had no lack of intellectual exercise of a different order +in the study of my inconsistent friend, the captain. I call him friend, +here on the threshold; but that is to look well ahead. At first I was +too much horrified by what I considered his barbarities, too much +puzzled by his shifting humours, and too frequently annoyed by his small +vanities, to regard him otherwise than as the cross of my existence. It +was only by degrees, in his rare hours of pleasantness, when he forgot +(and made me forget) the weaknesses to which he was so prone, that he +won me to a kind of unconsenting fondness. Lastly, the faults were all +embraced in a more generous view; I saw them in their place, like +discords in a musical progression; and accepted them and found them +picturesque, as we accept and admire, in the habitable face of nature, +the smoky head of the volcano or the pernicious thicket of the swamp. + +He was come of good people Down East, and had the beginnings of a +thorough education. His temper had been ungovernable from the first; and +it is likely the defect was inherited, and the blame of the rupture not +entirely his. He ran away at least to sea; suffered horrible +maltreatment, which seemed to have rather hardened than enlightened him; +ran away again to shore in a South American port; proved his capacity +and made money, although still a child; fell among thieves and was +robbed; worked back a passage to the States, and knocked one morning at +the door of an old lady whose orchard he had often robbed. The +introduction appears insufficient; but Nares knew what he was doing. The +sight of her old neighbourly depredator shivering at the door in +tatters, the very oddity of his appeal, touched a soft spot in the +spinster's heart. "I always had a fancy for the old lady," Nares said, +"even when she used to stampede me out of the orchard, and shake her +thimble and her old curls at me out of the window as I was going by; I +always thought she was a kind of pleasant old girl. Well, when she came +to the door that morning, I told her so, and that I was stone-broke; and +she took me right in, and fetched out the pie." She clothed him, taught +him, and had him to sea again in better shape, welcomed him to her +hearth on his return from every cruise, and when she died bequeathed him +her possessions. "She was a good old girl," he would say; "I tell you, +Mr. Dodd, it was a queer thing to see me and the old lady talking a +_pasear_ in the garden, and the old man scowling at us over the pickets. +She lived right next door to the old man, and I guess that's just what +took me there. I wanted him to know that I was badly beat, you see, and +would rather go to the devil than to him. What made the dig harder, he +had quarrelled with the old lady about me and the orchard: I guess that +made him rage. Yes, I was a beast when I was young; but I was always +pretty good to the old lady." Since then he had prospered, not +uneventfully, in his profession; the old lady's money had fallen in +during the voyage of the _Gleaner_, and he was now, as soon as the smoke +of that engagement cleared away, secure of his ship. I suppose he was +about thirty: a powerful, active man, with a blue eye, a thick head of +hair, about the colour of oakum and growing low over the brow; +clean-shaved and lean about the jaw; a good singer; a good performer on +that sea-instrument, the accordion; a quick observer, a close reasoner; +when he pleased, of a really elegant address; and when he chose, the +greatest brute upon the seas. + +His usage of the men, his hazing, his bullying, his perpetual +fault-finding for no cause, his perpetual and brutal sarcasm, might have +raised a mutiny in a slave-galley. Suppose the steersman's eye to have +wandered; "You ----, ----, little, mutton-faced Dutchman," Nares would +bawl, "you want a booting to keep you on your course! I know a little +city-front slush when I see one. Just you glue your eye to that compass, +or I'll show you round the vessel at the butt-end of my boot." Or +suppose a hand to linger aft, whither he had perhaps been summoned not a +minute before. "Mr. Daniells, will you oblige me by stepping clear of +that main-sheet?" the captain might begin, with truculent courtesy. +"Thank you. And perhaps you'll be so kind as to tell me what the hell +you're doing on my quarter-deck? I want no dirt of your sort here. Is +there nothing for you to do? Where's the mate? Don't you set _me_ to +find work for you, or I'll find you some that will keep you on your back +a fortnight." Such allocutions, conceived with a perfect knowledge of +his audience, so that every insult carried home, were delivered with a +mien so menacing, and an eye so fiercely cruel, that his unhappy +subordinates shrank and quailed. Too often violence followed; too often +I have heard and seen and boiled at the cowardly aggression; and the +victim, his hands bound by law, has risen again from deck and crawled +forward stupefied--I know not what passion of revenge in his wronged +heart. + +It seems strange I should have grown to like this tyrant. It may even +seem strange that I should have stood by and suffered his excesses to +proceed. But I was not quite such a chicken as to interfere in public, +for I would rather have a man or two mishandled than one half of us +butchered in a mutiny and the rest suffer on the gallows. And in private +I was unceasing in my protests. + +"Captain," I once said to him, appealing to his patriotism, which was of +a hardy quality, "this is no way to treat American seamen. You don't +call it American to treat men like dogs?" + +"Americans?" he said grimly. "Do you call these Dutchmen and +Scattermouches[4] Americans? I've been fourteen years to sea, all but +one trip under American colours, and I've never laid eye on an American +foremast hand. There used to be such things in the old days, when +thirty-five dollars were the wages out of Boston; and then you could +see ships handled and run the way they want to be. But that's all past +and gone, and nowadays the only thing that flies in an American ship is +a belaying-pin. You don't know, you haven't a guess. How would you like +to go on deck for your middle watch, fourteen months on end, with all +your duty to do, and every one's life depending on you, and expect to +get a knife ripped into you as you come out of your state-room, or be +sand-bagged as you pass the boat, or get tripped into the hold if the +hatches are off in fine weather? That kind of shakes the starch out of +the brotherly love and New Jerusalem business. You go through the mill, +and you'll have a bigger grudge against every old shellback that dirties +his plate in the three oceans than the Bank of California could settle +up. No; it has an ugly look to it, but the only way to run a ship is to +make yourself a terror." + +"Come, captain," said I, "there are degrees in everything. You know +American ships have a bad name, you know perfectly well if it wasn't for +the high wage and the good food, there's not a man would ship in one if +he could help; and even as it is, some prefer a British ship, beastly +food and all." + +"O, the lime-juicers?" said he. "There's plenty booting in lime-juicers, +I guess; though I don't deny but what some of them are soft." And with +that he smiled, like a man recalling something. "Look here, that brings +a yarn in my head," he resumed, "and for the sake of the joke I'll give +myself away. It was in 1874 I shipped mate in the British ship _Maria_, +from 'Frisco for Melbourne. She was the queerest craft in some ways that +ever I was aboard of. The food was a caution; there was nothing fit to +put your lips to but the lime-juice, which was from the end bin no +doubt; it used to make me sick to see the men's dinners, and sorry to +see my own. The old man was good enough, I guess. Green was his name--a +mild, fatherly old galoot. But the hands were the lowest gang I ever +handled, and whenever I tried to knock a little spirit into them the old +man took their part. It was Gilbert and Sullivan on the high seas; but +you bet I wouldn't let any man dictate to me. 'You give me your orders, +Captain Green,' I said, 'and you'll find I'll carry them out; that's all +you've got to say. You'll find I do my duty,' I said; 'how I do it is my +look-out, and there's no man born that's going to give me lessons.' +Well, there was plenty dirt on board that _Maria_ first and last. Of +course the old man put my back up, and of course he put up the crew's, +and I had to regular fight my way through every watch. The men got to +hate me, so's I would hear them grit their teeth when I came up. At last +one day I saw a big hulking beast of a Dutchman booting the ship's boy. +I made one shoot of it off the house and laid that Dutchman out. Up he +came, and I laid him out again. 'Now,' I said, 'if there's a kick left +in you, just mention it, and I'll stamp your ribs in like a +packing-case.' He thought better of it, and never let on; lay there as +mild as a deacon at a funeral, and they took him below to reflect on his +native Dutchland. One night we got caught in rather a dirty thing about +25 south. I guess we were all asleep, for the first thing I knew there +was the fore-royal gone. I ran forward, bawling blue hell; and just as I +came by the foremast something struck me right through the fore-arm and +stuck there. I put my other hand up, and, by George, it was the grain; +the beasts had speared me like a porpoise. 'Cap'n!' I cried. 'What's +wrong?' says he. 'They've grained me,' says I. 'Grained you?' says he. +'Well, I've been looking for that.' 'And by God,' I cried, 'I want to +have some of these beasts murdered for it!' 'Now, Mr. Nares,' says he, +'you better go below. If I had been one of the men, you'd have got more +than this. And I want no more of your language on deck. You've cost me +my fore-royal already,' says he; 'and if you carry on, you'll have the +three sticks out of her.' That was old man Green's idea of supporting +officers. But you wait a bit; the cream's coming. We made Melbourne +right enough, and the old man said: 'Mr. Nares, you and me don't draw +together. You're a first-rate seaman, no mistake of that; but you're the +most disagreeable man I ever sailed with, and your language and your +conduct to the crew I cannot stomach. I guess we'll separate.' I didn't +care about the berth, you may be sure; but I felt kind of mean, and if +he made one kind of stink I thought I could make another. So I said I +would go ashore and see how things stood; went, found I was all right, +and came aboard again on the top rail. 'Are you getting your traps +together, Mr. Nares?' says the old man. 'No,' says I, 'I don't know as +we'll separate much before 'Frisco--at least,' I said, 'it's a point for +your consideration. I'm very willing to say good-bye to the _Maria_, but +I don't know whether you'll care to start me out with three months' +wages.' He got his money-box right away. 'My son,' says he, 'I think it +cheap at the money.' He had me there." + +It was a singular tale for a man to tell of himself; above all, in the +midst of our discussion; but it was quite in character for Nares. I +never made a good hit in our disputes, I never justly resented any act +or speech of his, but what I found it long after carefully posted in his +day-book and reckoned (here was the man's oddity) to my credit. It was +the same with his father, whom he had hated; he would give a sketch of +the old fellow, frank and credible, and yet so honestly touched that it +was charming. I have never met a man so strangely constituted: to +possess a reason of the most equal justice, to have his nerves at the +same time quivering with petty spite, and to act upon the nerves and not +the reason. + +A kindred wonder in my eyes was the nature of his courage. There was +never a braver man: he went out to welcome danger; an emergency (came it +never so sudden) strung him like a tonic. And yet, upon the other hand, +I have known none so nervous, so oppressed with possibilities, looking +upon the world at large, and the life of a sailor in particular, with so +constant and haggard a consideration of the ugly chances. All his +courage was in blood, not merely cold, but icy with reasoned +apprehension. He would lay our little craft rail under, and "hang on" in +a squall, until I gave myself up for lost, and the men were rushing to +their stations of their own accord. "There," he would say, "I guess +there's not a man on board would have hung on as long as I did that +time: they'll have to give up thinking me no schooner sailor. I guess I +can shave just as near capsizing as any other captain of this vessel, +drunk or sober." And then he would fall to repining and wishing himself +well out of the enterprise, and dilate on the peril of the seas, the +particular dangers of the schooner rig, which he abhorred, the various +ways in which we might go to the bottom, and the prodigious fleet of +ships that have sailed out in the course of history, dwindled from the +eyes of watchers, and returned no more. "Well," he would wind up, "I +guess it don't much matter. I can't see what any one wants to live for, +anyway. If I could get into some one else's apple-tree, and be about +twelve years old, and just stick the way I was, eating stolen apples, I +won't say. But there's no sense in this grown-up business--sailorising, +politics, the piety mill, and all the rest of it. Good clean drowning is +good enough for me." It is hard to imagine any more depressing talk for +a poor landsman on a dirty night; it is hard to imagine anything less +sailor-like (as sailors are supposed to be, and generally are) than this +persistent harping on the minor. + +But I was to see more of the man's gloomy constancy ere the cruise was +at an end. + +On the morning of the seventeenth day I came on deck, to find the +schooner under double reefs, and flying rather wild before a heavy run +of sea. Snoring trades and humming sails had been our portion hitherto. +We were already nearing the island. My restrained excitement had begun +again to overmaster me; and for some time my only book had been the +patent log that trailed over the taffrail, and my chief interest the +daily observation and our caterpillar progress across the chart. My +first glance, which was at the compass, and my second, which was at the +log, were all that I could wish. We lay our course; we had been doing +over eight since nine the night before, and I drew a heavy breath of +satisfaction. And then I know not what odd and wintry appearance of the +sea and sky knocked suddenly at my heart. I observed the schooner to +look more than usually small, the men silent and studious of the +weather. Nares, in one of his rusty humours, afforded me no shadow of a +morning salutation. He, too, seemed to observe the behaviour of the ship +with an intent and anxious scrutiny. What I liked still less, Johnson +himself was at the wheel, which he span busily, often with a visible +effort; and as the seas ranged up behind us, black and imminent, he kept +casting behind him eyes of animal swiftness, and drawing in his neck +between his shoulders, like a man dodging a blow. From these signs I +gathered that all was not exactly for the best; and I would have given a +good handful of dollars for a plain answer to the questions which I +dared not put. Had I dared, with the present danger-signal in the +captain's face, I should only have been reminded of my position as +supercargo--an office never touched upon in kindness--and advised, in a +very indigestible manner, to go below. There was nothing for it, +therefore, but to entertain my vague apprehensions as best I should be +able, until it pleased the captain to enlighten me of his own accord. +This he did sooner than I had expected--as soon, indeed, as the Chinaman +had summoned us to breakfast, and we sat face to face across the narrow +board. + +"See here, Mr. Dodd," he began, looking at me rather queerly, "here is a +business point arisen. This sea's been running up for the last two +days, and now it's too high for comfort. The glass is falling, the wind +is breezing up, and I won't say but what there's dirt in it. If I lay +her to, we may have to ride out a gale of wind, and drift God knows +where--on these French Frigate Shoals, for instance. If I keep her as +she goes, we'll make that island to-morrow afternoon, and have the lee +of it to lie under, if we can't make out to run in. The point you have +to figure on, is whether you'll take the big chances of that Captain +Trent making the place before you, or take the risk of something +happening. I'm to run this ship to your satisfaction," he added, with an +ugly sneer. "Well, here's a point for the supercargo." + +"Captain," I returned, with my heart in my mouth, "risk is better than +certain failure." + +"Life is all risk, Mr. Dodd," he remarked. "But there's one thing: it's +now or never; in half an hour Archdeacon Gabriel couldn't lay her to, if +he came downstairs on purpose." + +"All right," said I; "let's run." + +"Run goes," said he; and with that he fell to breakfast, and passed half +an hour in stowing away pie, and devoutly wishing himself back in San +Francisco. + +When we came on deck again, he took the wheel from Johnson--it appears +they could trust none among the hands--and I stood close beside him, +feeling safe in this proximity, and tasting a fearful joy from our +surroundings and the consciousness of my decision. The breeze had +already risen, and as it tore over our heads, it uttered at times a long +hooting note that sent my heart into my boots. The sea pursued us +without remission, leaping to the assault of the low rail. The +quarter-deck was all awash, and we must close the companion doors. + +"And all this, if you please, for Mr. Pinkerton's dollars!" the captain +suddenly exclaimed. "There's many a fine fellow gone under, Mr. Dodd, +because of drivers like your friend. What do they care for a ship or +two? Insured, I guess. What do they care for sailors' lives alongside +of a few thousand dollars? What they want is speed between ports, and a +damned fool of a captain that'll drive a ship under as I'm doing this +one. You can put in the morning, asking why I do it." + +I sheered off to another part of the vessel as fast as civility +permitted. This was not at all the talk that I desired, nor was the +train of reflection which it started anyway welcome. Here I was, running +some hazard of my life, and perilling the lives of seven others; exactly +for what end, I was now at liberty to ask myself. For a very large +amount of a very deadly poison, was the obvious answer; and I thought if +all tales were true, and I were soon to be subjected to +cross-examination at the bar of Eternal Justice, it was one which would +not increase my popularity with the court. "Well, never mind, Jim," +thought I; "I'm doing it for you." + +Before eleven a third reef was taken in the mainsail, and Johnson filled +the cabin with a storm-sail of No. 1 duck, and sat cross-legged on the +streaming floor, vigorously putting it to rights with a couple of the +hands. By dinner I had fled the deck, and sat in the bench corner, +giddy, dumb, and stupefied with terror. The frightened leaps of the poor +_Norah Creina_, spanking like a stag for bare existence, bruised me +between the table and the berths. Overhead, the wild huntsman of the +storm passed continuously in one blare of mingled noises; screaming +wind, straining timber, lashing rope's-end, pounding block and bursting +sea contributed; and I could have thought there was at times another, a +more piercing, a more human note, that dominated all, like the wailing +of an angel; I could have thought I knew the angel's name, and that his +wings were black. It seemed incredible that any creature of man's art +could long endure the barbarous mishandling of the seas, kicked as the +schooner was from mountain-side to mountain-side, beaten and blown upon +and wrenched in every joint and sinew, like a child upon the rack. +There was not a plank of her that did not cry aloud for mercy; and as +she continued to hold together, I became conscious of a growing sympathy +with her endeavours, a growing admiration for her gallant staunchness, +that amused and at times obliterated my terrors for myself. God bless +every man that swung a mallet on that tiny and strong hull! It was not +for wages only that he laboured, but to save men's lives. + +All the rest of the day, and all the following night, I sat in the +corner or lay wakeful in my bunk; and it was only with the return of +morning that a new phase of my alarms drove me once more on deck. A +gloomier interval I never passed. Johnson and Nares steadily relieved +each other at the wheel and came below. The first glance of each was at +the glass, which he repeatedly knuckled and frowned upon; for it was +sagging lower all the time. Then, if Johnson were the visitor, he would +pick a snack out of the cupboard, and stand, braced against the table, +eating it, and perhaps obliging me with a word or two of his hee-haw +conversation: how it was "a son of a gun of a cold night on deck, Mr. +Dodd" (with a grin); how "it wasn't no night for pan-jammers, he could +tell me"; having transacted all which, he would throw himself down in +his bunk and sleep his two hours with compunction. But the captain +neither ate nor slept. "You there, Mr. Dodd?" he would say, after the +obligatory visit to the glass. "Well, my son, we're one hundred and four +miles" (or whatever it was) "off the island, and scudding for all we're +worth. We'll make it to-morrow about four, or not, as the case may be. +That's the news. And now, Mr. Dodd, I've stretched a point for you; you +can see I'm dead tired; so just you stretch away back to your bunk +again." And with this attempt at geniality, his teeth would settle hard +down on his cigar, and he would pass his spell below staring and +blinking at the cabin lamp through a cloud of tobacco-smoke. He has told +me since that he was happy, which I should never have divined. "You +see," he said, "the wind we had was never anything out of the way; but +the sea was really nasty, the schooner wanted a lot of humouring, and it +was clear from the glass that we were close to some dirt. We might be +running out of it, or we might be running right crack into it. Well, +there's always something sublime about a big deal like that; and it kind +of raises a man in his own liking. We're a queer kind of beasts, Mr. +Dodd." + +The morning broke with sinister brightness; the air alarmingly +transparent, the sky pure, the rim of the horizon clear and strong +against the heavens. The wind and the wild seas, now vastly swollen, +indefatigably hunted us. I stood on deck, choking with fear; I seemed to +lose all power upon my limbs; my knees were as paper when she plunged +into the murderous valleys; my heart collapsed when some black mountain +fell in avalanche beside her counter, and the water, that was more than +spray, swept round my ankles like a torrent. I was conscious of but one +strong desire--to bear myself decently in my terrors, and, whatever +should happen to my life, preserve my character: as the captain said, we +are a queer kind of beasts. Breakfast-time came, and I made shift to +swallow some hot tea. Then I must stagger below to take the time, +reading the chronometer with dizzy eyes, and marvelling the while what +value there could be in observations taken in a ship launched (as ours +then was) like a missile among flying seas. The forenoon dragged on in a +grinding monotony of peril; every spoke of the wheel a rash but an +obliged experiment--rash as a forlorn hope, needful as the leap that +lands a fireman from a burning staircase. Noon was made; the captain +dined on his day's work, and I on watching him; and our place was +entered on the chart with a meticulous precision which seemed to me half +pitiful and half absurd, since the next eye to behold that sheet of +paper might be the eye of an exploring fish. One o'clock came, then two; +the captain gloomed and chafed, as he held to the coaming of the house, +and if ever I saw dormant murder in man's eye, it was in his. God help +the man that should have disobeyed him. + +Of a sudden he turned towards the mate, who was doing his trick at the +wheel. + +"Two points on the port bow," I heard him say; and he took the wheel +himself. + +Johnson nodded, wiped his eyes with the back of his wet hand, watched a +chance as the vessel lunged up hill, and got to the main rigging, where +he swarmed aloft. Up and up I watched him go, hanging on at every ugly +plunge, gaining with every lull of the schooner's movement, until, +clambering into the cross-trees and clinging with one arm around the +masts, I could see him take one comprehensive sweep of the +south-westerly horizon. The next moment he had slid down the backstay +and stood on deck, with a grin, a nod, and a gesture of the finger that +said "yes"; the next again, and he was back sweating and squirming at +the wheel, his tired face streaming and smiling, and his hair and the +rags and corners of his clothes lashing round him in the wind. + +Nares went below, fetched up his binocular, and fell into a silent +perusal of the sea-line: I also, with my unaided eyesight. Little by +little, in that white waste of water, I began to make out a quarter +where the whiteness appeared more condensed: the sky above was whitish +likewise, and misty like a squall; and little by little there thrilled +upon my ears a note deeper and more terrible than the yelling of the +gale--the long thundering roll of breakers. Nares wiped his night-glass +on his sleeve and passed it to me, motioning, as he did so, with his +hand. An endless wilderness of raging billows came and went and danced +in the circle of the glass; now and then a pale corner of sky, or the +strong line of the horizon rugged with the heads of waves; and then of a +sudden--come and gone ere I could fix it, with a swallow's +swiftness--one glimpse of what we had come so far and paid so dear to +see; the masts and rigging of a brig pencilled on heaven, with an +ensign streaming at the main, and the ragged ribbons of a top-sail +thrashing from the yard. Again and again, with toilful searching, I +recalled that apparition. There was no sign of any land; the wreck stood +between sea and sky, a thing the most isolated I had ever viewed; but as +we drew nearer, I perceived her to be defended by a line of breakers +which drew off on either hand, and marked, indeed, the nearest segment +of the reef. Heavy spray hung over them like a smoke, some hundred feet +into the air; and the sound of their consecutive explosions rolled like +a cannonade. + +In half an hour we were close in; for perhaps as long again we skirted +that formidable barrier toward its farther side; and presently the sea +began insensibly to moderate and the ship to go more sweetly. We had +gained the lee of the island, as (for form's sake) I may call that ring +of foam and haze and thunder; and shaking out a reef, wore ship and +headed for the passage. + + +FOOTNOTE: + + [4] In sea-lingo (Pacific) _Dutchman_ includes all Teutons and folk + from the basin of the Baltic; _Scattermouch_, all Latins and + Levantines. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE ISLAND AND THE WRECK + + +All hands were filled with joy. It was betrayed in their alacrity and +easy faces: Johnson smiling broadly at the wheel, Nares studying the +sketch chart of the island with an eye at peace, and the hands clustered +forward, eagerly talking and pointing: so manifest was our escape, so +wonderful the attraction of a single foot of earth after so many suns +had set and risen on an empty sea! To add to the relief, besides, by one +of those malicious coincidences which suggest for Fate the image of an +underbred and grinning schoolboy, we had no sooner worn ship than the +wind began to abate. + +For myself, however, I did but exchange anxieties. I was no sooner out +of one fear than I fell upon another; no sooner secure that I should +myself make the intended haven, than I began to be convinced that Trent +was there before me. I climbed into the rigging, stood on the board, and +eagerly scanned that ring of coral reef and bursting breaker, and the +blue lagoon which they enclosed. The two islets within began to show +plainly--Middle Brooks and Lower Brooks Island, the Directory named +them: two low, bush-covered, rolling strips of sand, each with +glittering beaches, each perhaps a mile or a mile and a half in length, +running east and west, and divided by a narrow channel. Over these, +innumerable as maggots, there hovered, chattered, and screamed millions +of twinkling sea-birds; white and black; the black by far the largest. +With singular scintillations, this vortex of winged life swayed to and +fro in the strong sunshine, whirled continually through itself, and +would now and again burst asunder and scatter as wide as the lagoon: so +that I was irresistibly reminded of what I had read of nebular +convulsions. A thin cloud overspread the area of the reef and the +adjacent sea--the dust, as I could not but fancy, of earlier explosions. +And, a little apart, there was yet another focus of centrifugal and +centripetal flight, where, hard by the deafening line of breakers, her +sails (all but the tattered topsail) snugly furled down, and the red rag +that marks Old England on the seas beating, union down, at the main--the +_Flying Scud_, the fruit of so many toilers, a recollection of so many +lives of men, whose tall spars had been mirrored in the remotest corners +of the sea--lay stationary at last and for ever, in the first stage of +naval dissolution. Towards her the taut _Norah Creina_, vulture-wise, +wriggled to windward: come from so far to pick her bones. And, look as I +pleased, there was no other presence of man or of man's handiwork; no +Honolulu schooner lay there crowded with armed rivals, no smoke rose +from the fire at which I fancied Trent cooking a meal of sea-birds. It +seemed, after all, we were in time, and I drew a mighty breath. + +I had not arrived at this reviving certainty before the breakers were +already close aboard, the leadsman at his station, and the captain +posted in the fore cross-trees to con us through the coral lumps of the +lagoon. All circumstances were in our favour, the light behind, the sun +low, the wind still fresh and steady, and the tide about the turn. A +moment later we shot at racing speed betwixt two pier heads of broken +water; the lead began to be cast, the captain to bawl down his anxious +directions, the schooner to tack and dodge among the scattered dangers +of the lagoon; and at one bell in the first dog-watch we had come to our +anchor off the north-east end of Middle Brooks Island, in five fathoms +water. The sails were gasketed and covered, the boats emptied of the +miscellaneous stores and odds and ends of sea-furniture, that +accumulate in the course of a voyage, the kedge sent ashore, and the +decks tidied down: a good three-quarters of an hour's work, during which +I raged about the deck like a man with a strong toothache. The +transition from the wild sea to the comparative immobility of the lagoon +had wrought strange distress among my nerves: I could not hold still +whether in hand or foot; the slowness of the men, tired as dogs after +our rough experience outside, irritated me like something personal; and +the irrational screaming of the seabirds saddened me like a dirge. It +was a relief when, with Nares, and a couple of hands, I might drop into +the boat and move off at last for the _Flying Scud_. + +"She looks kind of pitiful, don't she?" observed the captain, nodding +towards the wreck, from which we were separated by some half a mile. +"Looks as if she didn't like her berth, and Captain Trent had used her +badly.--Give her ginger, boys," he added to the hands, "and you can all +have shore liberty to-night to see the birds and paint the town red." + +We all laughed at the pleasantry, and the boat skimmed the faster over +the rippling face of the lagoon. The _Flying Scud_ would have seemed +small enough beside the wharves of San Francisco, but she was some +thrice the size of the _Norah Creina_, which had been so long our +continent; and as we craned up at her wall-sides, she impressed us with +a mountain magnitude. She lay head to the reef, where the huge blue wall +of the rollers was for ever ranging up and crumbling down; and to gain +her starboard side, we must pass below the stern. The rudder was hard +aport, and we could read the legend-- + + FLYING SCUD + + HULL + +On the other side, about the break of the poop, some half a fathom of +rope-ladder trailed over the rail, and by this we made our entrance. + +She was a roomy ship inside, with a raised poop standing some three feet +higher than the deck, and a small forward house, for the men's bunks and +the galley, just abaft the foremast. There was one boat on the house, +and another and larger one, in beds on deck, on either hand of it. She +had been painted white, with tropical economy, outside and in; and we +found, later on, that the stanchions of the rail, hoops of the +scuttle-butt, etc., were picked out with green. At that time, however, +when we first stepped aboard, all was hidden under the droppings of +innumerable sea-birds. + +The birds themselves gyrated and screamed meanwhile among the rigging; +and when we looked into the galley, their outrush drove us back. +Savage-looking fowl they were, savagely beaked, and some of the black +ones great as eagles. Half-buried in the slush, we were aware of a +litter of kegs in the waist; and these, on being somewhat cleaned, +proved to be water-beakers and quarter-casks of mess beef with some +colonial brand, doubtless collected there before the _Tempest_ hove in +sight, and while Trent and his men had no better expectation than to +strike for Honolulu in the boats. Nothing else was notable on deck, save +where the loose topsail had played some havoc with the rigging, and +there hung, and swayed, and sang in the declining wind, a raffle of +intorted cordage. + +With a shyness that was almost awe, Nares and I descended the companion. +The stair turned upon itself and landed us just forward of a thwart-ship +bulkhead that cut the poop in two. The fore part formed a kind of +miscellaneous store-room, with a double-bunked division for the cook (as +Nares supposed) and second mate. The after part contained, in the midst, +the main cabin, running in a kind of bow into the curvature of the stern; +on the port side, a pantry opening forward and a stateroom for the mate; +and on the starboard, the captain's berth and water-closet. Into these we +did but glance, the main cabin holding us. It was dark, for the +sea-birds had obscured the skylight with their droppings; it smelt rank +and fusty: and it was beset with a loud swarm of flies that beat +continually in our faces. Supposing them close attendants upon man and +his broken meat, I marvelled how they had found their way to Midway Reef; +it was sure at least some vessel must have brought them, and that long +ago, for they had multiplied exceedingly. Part of the floor was strewn +with a confusion of clothes, books, nautical instruments, odds and ends +of finery, and such trash as might be expected from the turning out of +several seamen's chests, upon a sudden emergency and after a long cruise. +It was strange in that dim cabin, quivering with the near thunder of the +breakers and pierced with the screaming of the fowls, to turn over so +many things that other men had coveted, and prized, and worn on their +warm bodies--frayed old underclothing, pyjamas of strange design, duck +suits in every stage of rustiness, oil-skins, pilot coats, embroidered +shirts, jackets of Ponjee silk--clothes for the night watch at sea or the +day ashore in the hotel verandah: and mingled among these, books, cigars, +bottles of scent, fancy pipes, quantities of tobacco, many keys, a rusty +pistol, and a sprinkling of cheap curiosities--Benares brass, Chinese +jars and pictures, and bottles of odd shells in cotton, each designed, no +doubt, for somebody at home--perhaps in Hull, of which Trent had been a +native and his ship a citizen. + +Thence we turned our attention to the table, which stood spread, as if +for a meal, with stout ship's crockery and the remains of food--a pot of +marmalade, dregs of coffee in the mugs, unrecognisable remains of food, +bread, some toast, and a tin of condensed milk. The table-cloth, +originally of a red colour, was stained a dark brown at the captain's +end, apparently with coffee; at the other end it had been folded back, +and a pen and ink-pot stood on the bare table. Stools were here and +there about the table, irregularly placed, as though the meal had been +finished and the men smoking and chatting; and one of the stools lay on +the floor, broken. + +"See! they were writing up the log," said Nares, pointing to the +ink-bottle. "Caught napping, as usual. I wonder if there ever was a +captain yet that lost a ship with his log-book up to date? He generally +has about a month to fill up on a clean break, like Charles Dickens and +his serial novels.--What a regular lime-juicer spread!" he added +contemptuously. "Marmalade--and toast for the old man! Nasty, slovenly +pigs!" + +There was something in this criticism of the absent that jarred upon my +feelings. I had no love indeed for Captain Trent or any of his vanished +gang; but the desertion and decay of this once habitable cabin struck me +hard. The death of man's handiwork is melancholy, like the death of man +himself; and I was impressed with an involuntary and irrational sense of +tragedy in my surroundings. + +"This sickens me," I said; "let's go on deck and breathe." + +The captain nodded. "It is kind of lonely, isn't it?" he said; "but I +can't go up till I get the code signals. I want to run up 'Got Left' or +something, just to brighten up this island home. Captain Trent hasn't +been here yet, but he'll drop in before long; and it'll cheer him up to +see a signal on the brig." + +"Isn't there some official expression we could use?" I asked, vastly +taken by the fancy. "'Sold for the benefit of the underwriters: for +further particulars apply to J. Pinkerton, Montana Block, S.F.'" + +"Well," returned Nares, "I won't say but what an old navy quartermaster +might telegraph all that, if you gave him a day to do it in and a pound +of tobacco for himself. But it's above my register. I must try something +short and sweet: KB, urgent signal, 'Heave all aback'; or LM, urgent, +'The berth you're now in is not safe'; or what do you say to PQH?--'Tell +my owners the ship answers remarkably well.'" + +"It's premature," I replied; "but it seems calculated to give pain to +Trent. PQH for me." + +The flags were found in Trent's cabin, neatly stored behind a lettered +grating; Nares chose what he required, and (I following) returned on +deck, where the sun had already dipped, and the dusk was coming. + +"Here! don't touch that, you fool!" shouted the captain to one of the +hands, who was drinking from the scuttle-butt. "That water's rotten!" + +"Beg pardon, sir," replied the man. "Tastes quite sweet." + +"Let me see," returned Nares, and he took the dipper and held it to his +lips. "Yes, it's all right," he said. "Must have rotted and come sweet +again.--Queer, isn't it, Mr. Dodd? Though I've known the same on a Cape +Horner." + +There was something in his intonation that made me look him in the face; +he stood a little on tiptoe to look right and left about the ship, like +a man filled with curiosity, and his whole expression and bearing +testified to some suppressed excitement. + +"You don't believe what you're saying!" I broke out. + +"O, I don't know but what I do!" he replied, laying a hand upon me +soothingly. "The thing's very possible. Only, I'm bothered about +something else." + +And with that he called a hand, gave him the code flags, and stepped +himself to the main signal halliards, which vibrated under the weight of +the ensign overhead. A minute later, the American colours, which we had +brought in the boat, replaced the English red, and PQH was fluttering at +the fore. + +"Now, then," said Nares, who had watched the breaking out of his signal +with the old-maidish particularity of an American sailor, "out with +those handspikes, and let's see what water there is in the lagoon." + +The bars were shoved home; the barbarous cacophony of the clanking pump +rose in the waist; and streams of ill-smelling water gushed on deck and +made valleys in the slab guano. Nares leaned on the rail, watching the +steady stream of bilge as though he found some interest in it. + +"What is it that bothers you?" I asked. + +"Well, I'll tell you one thing shortly," he replied. "But here's +another. Do you see those boats there, one on the house and two on the +beds? Well, where is the boat Trent lowered when he lost the hands?" + +"Got it aboard again, I suppose," said I. + +"Well, if you'll tell me why!" returned the captain. + +"Then it must have been another," I suggested. + +"She might have carried another on the main hatch, I won't deny," +admitted Nares, "but I can't see what she wanted with it, unless it was +for the old man to go out and play the accordion in on moonlight +nights." + +"It can't much matter, anyway," I reflected. + +"O, I don't suppose it does," said he, glancing over his shoulders at +the spouting of the scuppers. + +"And how long are we to keep up this racket?" I asked. "We're simply +pumping up the lagoon. Captain Trent himself said she had settled down +and was full forward." + +"Did he?" said Nares, with a significant dryness. And almost as he spoke +the pumps sucked, and sucked again, and the men threw down their bars. +"There, what do you make of that?" he asked. "Now, I'll tell, Mr. Dodd," +he went on, lowering his voice, but not shifting from his easy attitude +against the rail, "this ship is as sound as the _Norah Creina_. I had a +guess of it before we came aboard, and now I know." + +"It's not possible!" I cried. "What do you make of Trent?" + +"I don't make anything of Trent; I don't know whether he's a liar or +only an old wife; I simply tell you what's the fact," said Nares. "And +I'll tell you something more," he added: "I've taken the ground myself +in deep-water vessels; I know what I'm saying; and I say that, when she +first struck and before she bedded down, seven or eight hours' work +would have got this hooker off, and there's no man that ever went two +years to sea but must have known it." + +I could only utter an exclamation. + +Nares raised his finger warningly. "Don't let _them_ get hold of it," +said he. "Think what you like, but say nothing." + +I glanced round; the dusk was melting into early night; the twinkle of a +lantern marked the schooner's position in the distance; and our men, +free from further labour, stood grouped together in the waist, their +faces illuminated by their glowing pipes. + +"Why didn't Trent get her off?" inquired the captain. "Why did he want +to buy her back in 'Frisco for these fabulous sums, when he might have +sailed her into the bay himself?" + +"Perhaps he never knew her value until then," I suggested. + +"I wish we knew her value now," exclaimed Nares. "However, I don't want +to depress you; I'm sorry for you, Mr. Dodd; I know how bothering it +must be to you, and the best I can say's this: I haven't taken much time +getting down, and now I'm here I mean to work this thing in proper +style. I just want to put your mind at rest; you shall have no trouble +with me." + +There was something trusty and friendly in his voice; and I found myself +gripping hands with him, in that hard, short shake that means so much +with English-speaking people. + +"We'll do, old fellow," said he. "We've shaken down into pretty good +friends, you and me; and you won't find me working the business any the +less hard for that. And now let's scoot for supper." + +After supper, with the idle curiosity of the seafarer, we pulled ashore +in a fine moonlight, and landed on Middle Brooks Island. A flat beach +surrounded it upon all sides; and the midst was occupied by a thicket of +bushes, the highest of them scarcely five feet high, in which the +sea-fowl lived. Through this we tried at first to strike; but it were +easier to cross Trafalgar Square on a day of demonstration than to +invade these haunts of sleeping sea-birds. The nests sank, and the eggs +burst under footing; wings beat in our faces, beaks menaced our eyes, +our minds were confounded with the screeching, and the coil spread over +the island and mounted high into the air. + +"I guess we'll saunter round the beach," said Nares, when we had made +good our retreat. + +The hands were all busy after sea-birds' eggs, so there were none to +follow us. Our way lay on the crisp sand by the margin of the water; on +one side, the thicket from which we had been dislodged; on the other, +the face of the lagoon, barred with a broad path of moonlight, and +beyond that the line, alternately dark and shining, alternately hove +high and fallen prone, of the external breakers. The beach was strewn +with bits of wreck and drift; some redwood and spruce logs, no less than +two lower masts of junks, and the stern-post of a European ship--all of +which we looked on with a shade of serious concern, speaking of the +dangers of the sea and the hard case of castaways. In this sober vein we +made the greater part of the circuit of the island; had a near view of +its neighbour from the southern end; walked the whole length of the +westerly side in the shadow of the thicket; and came forth again into +the moonlight at the opposite extremity. + +On our right, at the distance of about half a mile, the schooner lay +faintly heaving at her anchors. About half a mile down the beach, at a +spot still hidden from us by the thicket, an upboiling of the birds +showed where the men were still (with sailor-like insatiability) +collecting eggs. And right before us, in a small indentation of the +sand, we were aware of a boat lying high and dry, and right side up. + +Nares crouched back into the shadow of the bushes. + +"What the devil's this?" he whispered. + +"Trent," I suggested, with a beating heart. + +"We were damned fools to come ashore unarmed," said he. "But I've got to +know where I stand." In the shadow, his face looked conspicuously white, +and his voice betrayed a strong excitement. He took his boat's whistle +from his pocket. "In case I might want to play a tune," said he grimly, +and thrusting it between his teeth, advanced into the moonlit open, +which we crossed with rapid steps, looking guiltily about us as we went. +Not a leaf stirred; and the boat, when we came up to it, offered +convincing proof of long desertion. She was an eighteen-foot whaleboat +of the ordinary type, equipped with oars and thole-pins. Two or three +quarter-casks lay on the bilge amidships, one of which must have been +broached, and now stank horribly; and these, upon examination, proved to +bear the same New Zealand brand as the beef on board the wreck. + +"Well, here's the boat," said I; "here's one of your difficulties +cleared away." + +"H'm," said he. There was a little water in the bilge, and here he +stooped and tasted it. + +"Fresh," he said. "Only rain-water." + +"You don't object to that?" I asked. + +"No," said he. + +"Well, then, what ails you?" I cried. + +"In plain United States, Mr. Dodd," he returned, "a whaleboat, five ash +sweeps, and a barrel of stinking pork." + +"Or, in other words, the whole thing?" I commented. + +"Well, it's this way," he condescended to explain. "I've no use for a +fourth boat at all; but a boat of this model tops the business. I don't +say the type's not common in these waters; it's as common as dirt; the +traders carry them for surf-boats. But the _Flying Scud?_ a deep-water +tramp, who was lime-juicing around between big ports, Calcutta and +Rangoon and 'Frisco and the Canton River. No, I don't see it." + +We were leaning over the gunwale of the boat as we spoke. The captain +stood nearest the bow, and he was idly playing with the trailing +painter, when a thought arrested him. He hauled the line in hand over +hand, and stared, and remained staring, at the end. + +"Anything wrong with it?" I asked. + +"Do you know, Mr. Dodd," said he, in a queer voice, "this painter's been +cut? A sailor always seizes a rope's end, but this is sliced short off +with the cold steel. This won't do at all for the men," he added. "Just +stand by till I fix it up more natural." + +"Any guess what it all means?" I asked. + +"Well, it means one thing," said he. "It means Trent was a liar. I guess +the story of the _Flying Scud_ was a sight more picturesque than he gave +out." + +Half an hour later the whaleboat was lying astern of the _Norah Creina_; +and Nares and I sought our bunks, silent and half-bewildered by our late +discoveries. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE CABIN OF THE _FLYING SCUD_ + + +The sun of the morrow had not cleared the morning bank: the lake of the +lagoon, the islets, and the wall of breakers now beginning to subside, +still lay clearly pictured in the flushed obscurity of early day, when +we stepped again upon the deck of the _Flying Scud_: Nares, myself, the +mate, two of the hands, and one dozen bright, virgin axes, in war +against that massive structure. I think we all drew pleasurable breath; +so profound in man is the instinct of destruction, so engaging is the +interest of the chase. For we were now about to taste, in a supreme +degree, the double joys of demolishing a toy and playing "Hide the +handkerchief"--sports from which we had all perhaps desisted since the +days of infancy. And the toy we were to burst in pieces was a deep-sea +ship; and the hidden good for which we were to hunt was a prodigious +fortune. + +The decks were washed down, the main hatch removed, and a gun-tackle +purchase rigged before the boat arrived with breakfast. I had grown so +suspicious of the wreck, that it was a positive relief to me to look +down into the hold, and see it full, or nearly full, of undeniable rice +packed in the Chinese fashion in boluses of matting. Breakfast over, +Johnson and the hands turned to upon the cargo; while Nares and I, +having smashed open the skylight and rigged up a windsail on deck, began +the work of rummaging the cabins. + +I must not be expected to describe our first day's work, or (for that +matter) any of the rest, in order and detail as it occurred. Such +particularity might have been possible for several officers and a draft +of men from a ship of war, accompanied by an experienced secretary with +a knowledge of shorthand. For two plain human beings, unaccustomed to +the use of the broad-axe and consumed with an impatient greed of the +result, the whole business melts, in the retrospect, into a nightmare of +exertion, heat, hurry, and bewilderment; sweat pouring from the face +like rain, the scurry of rats, the choking exhalations of the bilge, and +the throbs and splinterings of the toiling axes. I shall content myself +with giving the cream of our discoveries in a logical rather than a +temporal order; though the two indeed practically coincided, and we had +finished our exploration of the cabin, before we could be certain of the +nature of the cargo. + +Nares and I began operations by tossing up pell-mell through the +companion, and piling in a squalid heap about the wheel, all clothes, +personal effects, the crockery, the carpet, stale victuals, tins of +meat, and, in a word, all movables from the main cabin. Thence we +transferred our attention to the captain's quarters on the starboard +side. Using the blankets for a basket, we sent up the books, +instruments, and clothes to swell our growing midden on the deck; and +then Nares, going on hands and knees, began to forage underneath the +bed. Box after box of Manilla cigars rewarded his search. I took +occasion to smash some of these boxes open, and even to guillotine the +bundles of cigars; but quite in vain--no secret _cache_ of opium +encouraged me to continue. + +"I guess I've got hold of the dicky now!" exclaimed Nares, and turning +round from my perquisitions I found he had drawn forth a heavy iron box, +secured to the bulkhead by chain and padlock. On this he was now gazing, +not with the triumph that instantly inflamed my own bosom, but with a +somewhat foolish appearance of surprise. + +"By George, we have it now!" I cried, and would have shaken hands with +my companion; but he did not see, or would not accept, the salutation. + +"Let's see what's in it first," he remarked dryly. And he adjusted the +box upon its side, and with some blows of an axe burst the lock open. I +threw myself beside him, as he replaced the box on its bottom and +removed the lid. I cannot tell what I expected; a million's worth of +diamonds might perhaps have pleased me; my cheeks burned, my heart +throbbed to bursting; and lo! there was disclosed but a trayful of +papers, neatly taped, and a cheque-book of the customary pattern. I made +a snatch at the tray to see what was beneath, but the captain's hand +fell on mine, heavy and hard. + +"Now, boss!" he cried, not unkindly, "is this to be run shipshape? or is +it a Dutch grab-racket?" + +And he proceeded to untie and run over the contents of the papers, with +a serious face and what seemed an ostentation of delay. Me and my +impatience it would appear he had forgotten; for when he was quite done, +he sat a while thinking, whistled a bar or two, refolded the papers, +tied them up again; and then, and not before, deliberately raised the +tray. + +I saw a cigar-box, tied with a piece of fishing-line, and four fat +canvas bags. Nares whipped out his knife, cut the line, and opened the +box. It was about half-full of sovereigns. + +"And the bags?" I whispered. + +The captain ripped them open one by one, and a flood of mixed silver +coin burst forth and rattled in the rusty bottom of the box. Without a +word, he set to work to count the gold. + +"What is this?" I asked. + +"It's the ship's money," he returned, doggedly continuing his work. + +"The ship's money?" I repeated. "That's the money Trent tramped and +traded with? And there's his cheque-book to draw upon his owners? And +he has left it?" + +"I guess he has," said Nares austerely, jotting down a note of the gold; +and I was abashed into silence till his task should be completed. + +It came, I think, to three hundred and seventy-eight pounds sterling; +some nineteen pounds of it in silver: all of which we turned again into +the chest. + +"And what do you think of that?" I asked. + +"Mr. Dodd," he replied, "you see something of the rumness of this job, +but not the whole. The specie bothers you, but what gets me is the +papers. Are you aware that the master of a ship has charge of all the +cash in hand, pays the men advances, receives freight and passage-money, +and runs up bills in every port? All this he does as the owner's +confidential agent, and his integrity is proved by his receipted bills. +I tell you, the captain of a ship is more likely to forget his pants +than these bills which guarantee his character. I've known men drown to +save them--bad men, too; but this is the shipmaster's honour. And here +this Captain Trent--not hurried, not threatened with anything but a free +passage in a British man-of-war--has left them all behind. I don't want +to express myself too strongly, because the facts appear against me, but +the thing is impossible." + +Dinner came to us not long after, and we ate it on deck, in a grim +silence, each privately racking his brain for some solution of the +mysteries. I was, indeed, so swallowed up in these considerations that +the wreck, the lagoon, the islets, and the strident sea-fowl, the strong +sun then beating on my head, and even the gloomy countenance of the +captain at my elbow, all vanished from the field of consciousness. My +mind was a blackboard on which I scrawled and blotted out hypotheses, +comparing each with the pictorial records in my memory--ciphering with +pictures. In the course of this tense mental exercise I recalled and +studied the faces of one memorial masterpiece, the scene of the saloon; +and here I found myself, on a sudden, looking in the eyes of the Kanaka. + +"There's one thing I can put beyond doubt, at all events," I cried, +relinquishing my dinner and getting briskly afoot. "There was that +Kanaka I saw in the bar with Captain Trent, the fellow the newspapers +and ship's articles made out to be a Chinaman. I mean to rout his +quarters out and settle that." + +"All right," said Nares. "I'll lazy off a bit longer, Mr. Dodd; I feel +pretty rocky and mean." + +We had thoroughly cleared out the three after-compartments of the ship; +all the stuff from the main cabin and the mate's and captain's quarters +lay piled about the wheel; but in the forward state-room with the two +bunks, where Nares had said the mate and cook most likely berthed, we +had as yet done nothing. Thither I went. It was very bare; a few +photographs were tacked on the bulkhead, one of them indecent; a single +chest stood open, and, like all we had yet found, it had been partly +rifled. An armful of two-shilling novels proved to me beyond a doubt it +was a European's; no Chinaman would have possessed any, and the most +literate Kanaka conceivable in a ship's galley was not likely to have +gone beyond one. It was plain, then, that the cook had not berthed aft, +and I must look elsewhere. + +The men had stamped down the nests and driven the birds from the galley, +so that I could now enter without contest. One door had been already +blocked with rice; the place was in part darkness, full of a foul stale +smell, and a cloud of nasty flies; it had been left, besides, in some +disorder, or else the birds, during their time of tenancy, had knocked +the things about; and the floor, like the deck before we washed it, was +spread with pasty filth. Against the wall, in the far corner, I found a +handsome chest of camphor-wood bound with brass, such as Chinamen and +sailors love, and indeed all of mankind that plies in the Pacific. From +its outside view I could thus make no deduction; and, strange to say, +the interior was concealed. All the other chests, as I have said +already, we had found gaping open, and their contents scattered abroad; +the same remark we found to apply afterwards in the quarters of the +seamen; only this camphor-wood chest, a singular exception, was both +closed and locked. + +I took an axe to it, readily forced the paltry Chinese fastening, and, +like a Custom House officer, plunged my hands among the contents. For +some while I groped among linen and cotton. Then my teeth were set on +edge with silk, of which I drew forth several strips covered with +mysterious characters. And these settled the business, for I recognised +them as a kind of bed-hanging, popular with the commoner class of the +Chinese. Nor were further evidences wanting, such as night-clothes of an +extraordinary design, a three-stringed Chinese fiddle, a silk +handkerchief full of roots and herbs, and a neat apparatus for smoking +opium, with a liberal provision of the drug. Plainly, then, the cook had +been a Chinaman; and, if so, who was Jos. Amalu? Or had Jos. stolen the +chest before he proceeded to ship under a false name and domicile? It +was possible, as anything was possible in such a welter; but, regarded +as a solution, it only led and left me deeper in the bog. For why should +this chest have been deserted and neglected, when the others were +rummaged or removed? and where had Jos. come by that second chest, with +which (according to the clerk at the What Cheer) he had started for +Honolulu? + +"And how have _you_ fared?" inquired the captain, whom I found +luxuriously reclining in our mound of litter. And the accent on the +pronoun, the heightened colour of the speaker's face, and the contained +excitement in his tones, advertised me at once that I had not been alone +to make discoveries. + +"I have found a Chinaman's chest in the galley," said I, "and John (if +there was any John) was not so much as at the pains to take his opium." + +Nares seemed to take it mighty quietly. "That so?" said he. "Now, cast +your eyes on that and own you're beaten!" and with a formidable clap of +his open hand, he flattened out before me, on the deck, a pair of +newspapers. + +I gazed upon them dully, being in no mood for fresh discoveries. + +"Look at them, Mr. Dodd," cried the captain sharply. "Can't you look at +them?" And he ran a dirty thumb along the title. "'_Sydney Morning +Herald_, November 26th,' can't you make that out?" he cried, with rising +energy. "And don't you know, sir, that not thirteen days after this +paper appeared in New South Wales, this ship we're standing in heaved +her blessed anchors out of China? How did the _Sydney Morning Herald_ +get to Hong Kong in thirteen days? Trent made no land, he spoke no ship, +till he got here. Then he either got it here or in Hong Kong. I give you +your choice, my son!" he cried and fell back among the clothes like a +man weary of life. + +"Where did you find them?" I asked. "In that black bag?" + +"Guess so," he said. "You needn't fool with it. There's nothing else but +a lead-pencil and a kind of worked-out knife." + +I looked in the bag, however, and was well rewarded. + +"Every man to his trade, captain," said I. "You're a sailor, and you've +given me plenty of points; but I am an artist, and allow me to inform +you this is quite as strange as all the rest. The knife is a +palette-knife; the pencil a Winsor and Newton, and a B B B at that. A +palette-knife and a B B B on a tramp brig! It's against the laws of +Nature." + +"It would sicken a dog, wouldn't it?" said Nares. + +"Yes," I continued; "it's been used by an artist, too: see how it's +sharpened--not for writing--no man could write with that. An artist, and +straight from Sydney? How can he come in?" + +"O, that's natural enough," sneered Nares. "They cabled him to come up +and illustrate this dime novel." + +We fell a while silent. + +"Captain," I said at last, "there is something deuced underhand about +this brig. You tell me you've been to sea a good part of your life. You +must have seen shady things done on ships, and heard of more. Well, what +is this? is it insurance? is it piracy? what is it _about_? what can it +be _for_?" + +"Mr. Dodd," returned Nares, "you're right about me having been to sea +the bigger part of my life. And you're right again when you think I know +a good many ways in which a dishonest captain mayn't be on the square, +nor do exactly the right thing by his owners, and altogether be just a +little too smart by ninety-nine and three-quarters. There's a good many +ways, but not so many as you'd think; and not one that has any mortal +thing to do with Trent. Trent and his whole racket has got to do with +nothing--that's the bed-rock fact; there's no sense to it, and no use in +it, and no story to it--it's a beastly dream. And don't you run away +with that notion that landsmen take about ships. A society actress don't +go around more publicly than what a ship does, nor is more interviewed, +nor more humbugged, nor more run after by all sorts of little +fussinesses in brass buttons. And more than an actress, a ship has a +deal to lose; she's capital, and the actress only character--if she's +that. The ports of the world are thick with people ready to kick a +captain into the penitentiary if he's not as bright as a dollar and as +honest as the morning star; and what with Lloyd keeping watch and watch +in every corner of the three oceans, and the insurance leeches, and the +consuls, and the Customs bugs, and the medicos, you can only get the +idea by thinking of a landsman watched by a hundred and fifty +detectives, or a stranger in a village Down East." + +"Well, but at sea?" I said. + +"You make me tired," retorted the captain. "What's the use--at sea? +Everything's got to come to bearings at some port, hasn't it? You can't +stop at sea for ever, can you?--No; the _Flying Scud_ is rubbish; if it +meant anything, it would have to mean something so almighty intricate +that James G. Blaine hasn't got the brains to engineer it; and I vote +for more axeing, pioneering, and opening up the resources of this +phenomenal brig, and less general fuss," he added, arising. "The +dime-museum symptoms will drop in of themselves, I guess, to keep us +cheery." + +But it appeared we were at the end of discoveries for the day; and we +left the brig about sundown, without being further puzzled or further +enlightened. The best of the cabin spoils--books, instruments, papers, +silks, and curiosities--we carried along with us in a blanket, however, +to divert the evening hours; and when supper was over, and the table +cleared, and Johnson set down to a dreary game of cribbage between his +right hand and his left, the captain and I turned out our blanket on the +floor, and sat side by side to examine and appraise the spoils. + +The books were the first to engage our notice. These were rather +numerous (as Nares contemptuously put it) "for a lime-juicer." Scorn of +the British mercantile marine glows in the breast of every Yankee +merchant captain; as the scorn is not reciprocated, I can only suppose +it justified in fact; and certainly the Old Country mariner appears of a +less studious disposition. The more credit to the officers of the +_Flying Scud_, who had quite a library, both literary and professional. +There were Findlay's five directories of the world--all broken-backed, +as is usual with Findlay, and all marked and scribbled over with +corrections and additions--several books of navigations, a signal-code, +and an Admiralty book of a sort of orange hue, called "Islands of the +Eastern Pacific Ocean," vol. iii., which appeared from its imprint to be +the latest authority, and showed marks of frequent consultation in the +passages about the French Frigate Shoals, the Harman, Cure, Pearl, and +Hermes Reefs, Lisiansky Island, Ocean Island, and the place where we +then lay--Brooks or Midway. A volume of Macaulay's "Essays" and a +shilling Shakespeare led the van of the _belles lettres_; the rest were +novels. Several Miss Braddon's--of course, "Aurora Floyd," which has +penetrated to every island of the Pacific, a good many cheap detective +books, "Rob Roy," Auerbach's "Auf der Hoehe," in the German, and a prize +temperance story, pillaged (to judge by the stamp) from an Anglo-Indian +circulating library. + +"The Admiralty man gives a fine picture of our island," remarked Nares, +who had turned up Midway Island. "He draws the dreariness rather mild, +but you can make out he knows the place." + +"Captain," I cried, "you've struck another point in this mad business. +See here," I went on eagerly, drawing from my pocket a crumpled fragment +of the _Daily Occidental_ which I had inherited from Jim: "Misled by +Hoyt's 'Pacific Directory'? Where's Hoyt?" + +"Let's look into that," said Nares. "I got that book on purpose for this +cruise." Therewith he fetched it from the shelf in his berth, turned to +Midway Island, and read the account aloud. It stated with precision that +the Pacific Mail Company were about to form a depot there, in preference +to Honolulu, and that they had already a station on the island. + +"I wonder who gives these directory men their information," Nares +reflected. "Nobody can blame Trent after that. I never got in company +with squarer lying; it reminds a man of a presidential campaign." + +"All very well," said I; "that's your Hoyt, and a fine, tall copy. But +what I want to know is, where is Trent's Hoyt?" + +"Took it with him," chuckled Nares; "he had left everything else, bills +and money and all the rest: he was bound to take something, or it would +have aroused attention on the _Tempest_. 'Happy thought,' says he, +'let's take Hoyt.'" + +"And has it not occurred to you," I went on, "that all the Hoyts in +creation couldn't have misled Trent, since he had in his hand that red +Admiralty book, an official publication, later in date, and particularly +full on Midway Island?" + +"That's a fact!" cried Nares; "and I bet the first Hoyt he ever saw was +out of the mercantile library of San Francisco. Looks as if he had +brought her here on purpose, don't it? But then that's inconsistent with +the steam-crusher of the sale. That's the trouble with this brig racket; +any one can make half a dozen theories for sixty or seventy per cent. of +it; but when they're made, there's always a fathom or two of slack +hanging out of the other end." + +I believe our attention fell next on the papers, of which we had +altogether a considerable bulk. I had hoped to find among these matter +for a full-length character of Captain Trent; but here I was doomed, on +the whole, to disappointment. We could make out he was an orderly man, +for all his bills were docketed and preserved. That he was convivial, +and inclined to be frugal even in conviviality, several documents +proclaimed. Such letters as we found were, with one exception, arid +notes from tradesmen. The exception, signed Hannah Trent, was a somewhat +fervid appeal for a loan. "You know what misfortunes I have had to +bear," wrote Hannah, "and how much I am disappointed in George. The +landlady appeared a true friend when I first came here, and I thought +her a perfect lady. But she has come out since then in her _true +colours_; and if you will not be softened by this last appeal, I can't +think what is to become of your affectionate----" and then the +signature. This document was without place or date, and a voice told me +that it had gone likewise without answer. On the whole, there were few +letters anywhere in the ship; but we found one before we were finished, +in a seaman's chest, of which I must transcribe some sentences. It was +dated from some place on the Clyde. "My dearist son," it ran, "this is +to tell you your dearist father passed away, Jan twelft, in the peace of +the Lord. He had your photo and dear David's lade upon his bed, made me +sit by him. Let's be a' thegither, he said, and gave you all his +blessing. O my dear laddie, why were nae you and Davie here? He would +have had a happier passage. He spok of both of ye all night most +beautiful, and how ye used to stravaig on the Saturday afternoons, and +of _auld Kelvinside_. Sooth the tune to me, he said, though it was the +Sabbath, and I had to sooth him 'Kelvin Grove,' and he looked at his +fiddle, the dear man. I cannae bear the sight of it, he'll never play it +mair. O my lamb, come home to me, I'm all by my lane now." The rest was +in a religious vein, and quite conventional. I have never seen any one +more put out than Nares, when I handed him this letter. He had read but +a few words, before he cast it down; it was perhaps a minute ere he +picked it up again, and the performance was repeated the third time +before he reached the end. + +"It's touching, isn't it?" said I. + +For all answer, Nares exploded in a brutal oath; and it was some half an +hour later that he vouchsafed an explanation. "I'll tell you what broke +me up about that letter," said he. "My old man played the fiddle, played +it all out of tune: one of the things he played was 'Martyrdom,' I +remember--it was all martyrdom to me. He was a pig of a father, and I +was a pig of a son; but it sort of came over me I would like to hear +that fiddle squeak again. Natural," he added; "I guess we're all +beasts." + +"All sons are, I guess," said I. "I have the same trouble on my +conscience: we can shake hands on that," Which (oddly enough, perhaps) +we did. + +Amongst the papers we found a considerable sprinkling of photographs; +for the most part either of very debonair-looking young ladies or old +women of the lodging-house persuasion. But one among them was the means +of our crowning discovery. + +"They're not pretty, are they, Mr. Dodd?" said Nares, as he passed it +over. + +"Who?" I asked, mechanically taking the card (it was a quarter-plate) in +hand, and smothering a yawn; for the hour was late, the day had been +laborious, and I was wearying for bed. + +"Trent and Company," said he. "That's a historic picture of the gang." + +I held it to the light, my curiosity at a low ebb: I had seen Captain +Trent once, and had no delight in viewing him again. It was a photograph +of the deck of the brig, taken from forward: all in apple-pie order; the +hands gathered in the waist, the officers on the poop. At the foot of +the card was written, "Brig _Flying Scud_, Rangoon," and a date; and +above or below each individual figure the name had been carefully noted. + +As I continued to gaze, a shock went through me; the dimness of sleep +and fatigue lifted from my eyes, as fog lifts in the Channel; and I +beheld with startled clearness the photographic presentment of a crowd +of strangers. "J. Trent, Master" at the top of the card directed me to a +smallish, wizened man, with bushy eyebrows and full white beard, dressed +in a frock-coat and white trousers; a flower stuck in his button-hole, +his bearded chin set forward, his mouth clenched with habitual +determination. There was not much of the sailor in his looks, but plenty +of the martinet; a dry, precise man, who might pass for a preacher in +some rigid sect; and, whatever he was, not the Captain Trent of San +Francisco. The men, too, were all new to me: the cook, an unmistakable +Chinaman, in his characteristic dress, standing apart on the poop +steps. But perhaps I turned on the whole with the greatest curiosity to +the figure labelled "E. Goddedaal, 1st off." He whom I had never seen, +he might be the identical; he might be the clue and spring of all this +mystery; and I scanned his features with the eye of a detective. He was +of great stature, seemingly blonde as a Viking, his hair clustering +round his head in frowsy curls, and two enormous whiskers, like the +tusks of some strange animal, jutting from his cheeks. With these virile +appendages and the defiant attitude in which he stood, the expression of +his face only imperfectly harmonised. It was wild, heroic, and +womanish-looking; and I felt I was prepared to hear he was a +sentimentalist, and to see him weep. + +For some while I digested my discovery in private, reflecting how best, +and how with most of drama, I might share it with the captain. Then my +sketch-book came in my head, and I fished it out from where it lay, with +other miscellaneous possessions, at the foot of my bunk, and turned to +my sketch of Captain Trent and the survivors of the British brig _Flying +Scud_ in the San Francisco bar-room. + +"Nares," said I, "I've told you how I first saw Captain Trent in that +saloon in 'Frisco? how he came with his men, one of them a Kanaka with a +canary-bird in a cage? and how I saw him afterwards at the auction, +frightened to death, and as much surprised at how the figures skipped up +as anybody there. Well," said I, "there's the man I saw"--and I laid the +sketch before him--"there's Trent of 'Frisco and there are his three +hands. Find one of them in the photograph, and I'll be obliged." + +Nares compared the two in silence. "Well," he said at last, "I call this +rather a relief: seems to clear the horizon. We might have guessed at +something of the kind from the double ration of chests that figured." + +"Does it explain anything?" I asked. + +"It would explain everything," Nares replied, "but for the +steam-crusher. It'll all tally as neat as a patent puzzle, if you leave +out the way these people bid the wreck up. And there we come to a stone +wall. But whatever it is, Mr. Dodd, it's on the crook." + +"And looks like piracy," I added. + +"Looks like blind hookey!" cried the captain. "No, don't you deceive +yourself; neither your head nor mine is big enough to put a name on this +business." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE CARGO OF THE _FLYING SCUD_ + + +In my early days I was a man, the most wedded to his idols of my +generation. I was a dweller under roofs; the gull of that which we call +civilisation; a superstitious votary of the plastic arts; a cit, and a +prop of restaurants. I had a comrade in those days, somewhat of an +outsider, though he moved in the company of artists, and a man famous in +our small world for gallantry, knee-breeches, and dry and pregnant +sayings. He, looking on the long meals and waxing bellies of the French, +whom I confess I somewhat imitated, branded me as "a cultivator of +restaurant fat." And I believe he had his finger on the dangerous spot; +I believe, if things had gone smooth with me, I should be now swollen +like a prize-ox in body, and fallen in mind to a thing perhaps as low as +many types of _bourgeois_--the implicit or exclusive artist. That was a +home word of Pinkerton's, deserving to be writ in letters of gold on the +portico of every school of art: "What I can't see is why you should want +to do nothing else." The dull man is made, not by the nature, but by the +degree of his immersion in a single business. And all the more if that +be sedentary, uneventful, and ingloriously safe. More than one half of +him will then remain unexercised and undeveloped; the rest will be +distended and deformed by over-nutrition, over-cerebration, and the heat +of rooms. And I have often marvelled at the impudence of gentlemen who +describe and pass judgment on the life of man, in almost perfect +ignorance of all its necessary elements and natural careers. Those who +dwell in clubs and studios may paint excellent pictures or write +enchanting novels. There is one thing that they should not do: they +should pass no judgment on man's destiny, for it is a thing with which +they are unacquainted. Their own life is an excrescence of the moment, +doomed, in the vicissitude of history, to pass and disappear. The +eternal life of man, spent under sun and rain and in rude physical +effort, lies upon one side, scarce changed since the beginning. + +I would I could have carried along with me to Midway Island all the +writers and the prating artists of my time. Day after day of hope +deferred, of heat, of unremitting toil; night after night of aching +limbs, bruised hands, and a mind obscured with the grateful vacancy of +physical fatigue. The scene, the nature of my employment, the rugged +speech and faces of my fellow-toilers, the glare of the day on deck, the +stinking twilight in the bilge, the shrill myriads of the ocean-fowl; +above all, the sense of our immitigable isolation from the world and +from the current epoch--keeping another time, some eras old; the new day +heralded by no daily paper, only by the rising sun; and the State, the +churches, the peopled empires, war, and the rumours of war, and the +voices of the arts, all gone silent as in the days ere they were yet +invented. Such were the conditions of my new experience in life, of +which (if I had been able) I would have had all my confreres and +contemporaries to partake, forgetting, for that while, the orthodoxies +of the moment, and devoted to a single and material purpose under the +eye of heaven. + +Of the nature of our task I must continue to give some summary idea. The +forecastle was lumbered with ship's chandlery, the hold nigh full of +rice, the lazarette crowded with the teas and silks. These must all be +dug out; and that made but a fraction of our task. The hold was ceiled +throughout; a part, where perhaps some delicate cargo was once stored, +had been lined, in addition, with inch boards; and between every beam +there was a movable panel into the bilge. Any of these, the bulkheads +of the cabins, the very timbers of the hull itself, might be the place +of hiding. It was therefore necessary to demolish, as we proceeded, a +great part of the ship's inner skin and fittings, and to auscultate what +remained, like a doctor sounding for a lung disease. Upon the return, +from any beam or bulkhead, of a doubtful sound, we must up axe and hew +into the timber: a violent and--from the amount of dry rot in the +wreck--a mortifying exercise. Every night saw a deeper inroad into the +bones of the _Flying Scud_--more beams tapped and hewn in splinters, +more planking peeled away and tossed aside--and every night saw us as +far as ever from the end and object of our arduous devastation. In this +perpetual disappointment, my courage did not fail me, but my spirits +dwindled; and Nares himself grew silent and morose. At night, when +supper was done, we passed an hour in the cabin, mostly without speech: +I, sometimes dozing over a book; Nares, sullenly but busily drilling +sea-shells with the instrument called a Yankee fiddle. A stranger might +have supposed we were estranged; as a matter of fact, in this silent +comradeship of labour, our intimacy grew. + +I had been struck, at the first beginning of our enterprise upon the +wreck, to find the men so ready at the captain's lightest word. I dare +not say they liked, but I can never deny that they admired him +thoroughly. A mild word from his mouth was more valued than flattery, +and half a dollar from myself; if he relaxed at all from his habitual +attitude of censure, smiling alacrity surrounded him; and I was led to +believe his theory of captainship, even if pushed to excess, reposed +upon some ground of reason. But even terror and admiration of the +captain failed us before the end. The men wearied of the hopeless, +unremunerative quest and the long strain of labour. They began to shirk +and grumble. Retribution fell on them at once, and retribution +multiplied the grumblings. With every day it took harder driving to +keep them to the daily drudge; and we, in our narrow boundaries, were +kept conscious every moment of the ill-will of our assistants. + +In spite of the best care, the object of our search was perfectly well +known to all on board; and there had leaked out, besides, some knowledge +of those inconsistencies that had so greatly amazed the captain and +myself. I could overhear the men debate the character of Captain Trent, +and set forth competing theories of where the opium was stowed; and, as +they seemed to have been eavesdropping on ourselves, I thought little +shame to prick up my ears when I had the return chance of spying upon +them. In this way I could diagnose their temper and judge how far they +were informed upon the mystery of the _Flying Scud_. It was after having +thus overheard some almost mutinous speeches that a fortunate idea +crossed my mind. At night I matured it in my bed, and the first thing +the next morning broached it to the captain. + +"Suppose I spirit up the hands a bit," I asked, "by the offer of a +reward?" + +"If you think you're getting your month's wages out of them the way it +is, I don't," was his reply. "However, they are all the men you've got, +and you're the supercargo." + +This, from a person of the captain's character, might be regarded as +complete adhesion; and the crew were accordingly called aft. Never had +the captain worn a front more menacing. It was supposed by all that some +misdeed had been discovered, and some surprising punishment was to be +announced. + +"See here, you!" he threw at them over his shoulder as he walked the +deck. "Mr. Dodd here is going to offer a reward to the first man who +strikes the opium in that wreck. There's two ways of making a donkey +go--both good, I guess: the one's kicks and the other's carrots. Mr. +Dodd's going to try the carrots. Well, my sons"--and here he faced the +men for the first time with his hands behind him--"if that opium's not +found in five days you can come to me for the kicks." + +He nodded to the present narrator, who took up the tale. "Here is what I +propose, men," said I: "I put up one hundred and fifty dollars. If any +man can lay hands on the stuff right away, and off his own club, he +shall have the hundred and fifty down. If any one can put us on the +scent of where to look, he shall have a hundred and twenty-five, and the +balance shall be for the lucky one who actually picks it up. We'll call +it the Pinkerton Stakes, captain," I added, with a smile. + +"Call it the Grand Combination Sweep, then," cries he. "For I go you +better.--Look here, men, I make up this jack-pot to two hundred and +fifty dollars, American gold coin." + +"Thank you, Captain Nares," said I; "that was handsomely done." + +"It was kindly meant," he returned. + +The offer was not made in vain; the hands had scarce yet realised the +magnitude of the reward, they had scarce begun to buzz aloud in the +extremity of hope and wonder, ere the Chinese cook stepped forward with +gracious gestures and explanatory smiles. + +"Captain," he began, "I serv-um two year Melican navy; serv-um six year +mail-boat steward. Savvy plenty." + +"Oho!" cried Nares, "you savvy plenty, do you? (Beggar's seen this trick +in the mail-boat, I guess.) Well, why you no savvy a little sooner, +sonny?" + +"I think bimeby make-um reward," replied the cook, with smiling dignity. + +"Well, you can't say fairer than that," the captain admitted; "and now +the reward's offered you'll talk? Speak up then. Suppose you speak true +you get reward. See?" + +"I think long time," replied the Chinaman. "See plenty litty mat lice; +too muchy plenty litty mat lice; sixty ton litty mat lice. I think +all-e-time perhaps plenty opium plenty litty mat lice." + +"Well, Mr. Dodd, how does that strike you?" asked the captain. "He may +be right, he may be wrong. He's likely to be right, for if he isn't +where can the stuff be? On the other hand, if he's wrong we destroy a +hundred and fifty tons of good rice for nothing. It's a point to be +considered." + +"I don't hesitate," said I. "Let's get to the bottom of the thing. The +rice is nothing; the rice will neither make nor break us." + +"That's how I expected you to see it," returned Nares. And we called the +boat away and set forth on our new quest. + +The hold was now almost entirely emptied; the mats (of which there went +forty to the short ton) had been stacked on deck, and now crowded the +ship's waist and forecastle. It was our task to disembowel and explore +six thousand individual mats, and incidentally to destroy a hundred and +fifty tons of valuable food. Nor were the circumstances of the day's +business less strange than its essential nature. Each man of us, armed +with a great knife, attacked the pile from his own quarter, slashed into +the nearest mat, burrowed in it with his hands, and shed forth the rice +upon the deck, where it heaped up, overflowed, and was trodden down, +poured at last into the scuppers, and occasionally spouted from the +vents. About the wreck thus transformed into an overflowing granary, the +sea-fowl swarmed in myriads and with surprising insolence. The sight of +so much food confounded them; they deafened us with their shrill +tongues, swooped in our midst, dashed in our faces, and snatched the +grain from between our fingers. The men--their hands bleeding from these +assaults--turned savagely on the offensive, drove their knives into the +birds, drew them out crimsoned, and turned again to dig among the rice, +unmindful of the gawking creatures that struggled and died among their +feet. We made a singular picture--the hovering and diving birds; the +bodies of the dead discolouring the rice with blood; the scuppers +vomiting breadstuff; the men, frenzied by the gold hunt, toiling, +slaying, and shouting aloud; over all the lofty intricacy of rigging and +the radiant heaven of the Pacific. Every man there toiled in the +immediate hope of fifty dollars, and I of fifty thousand. Small wonder +if we waded callously in blood and food. + +It was perhaps about ten in the forenoon when the scene was interrupted. +Nares, who had just ripped open a fresh mat, drew forth and slung at his +feet, among the rice, a papered tin box. + +"How's that?" he shouted. + +A cry broke from all hands. The next moment, forgetting their own +disappointment in that contagious sentiment of success, they gave three +cheers that scared the sea-birds; and the next they had crowded round +the captain, and were jostling together and groping with emulous hands +in the new-opened mat. Box after box rewarded them, six in all; wrapped, +as I have said, in a paper envelope, and the paper printed on in Chinese +characters. + +Nares turned to me and shook my hand. "I began to think we should never +see this day," said he. "I congratulate you, Mr. Dodd, on having pulled +it through." + +The captain's tones affected me profoundly; and when Johnson and the men +pressed round me in turn with congratulations, the tears came in my +eyes. + +"These are five-tael boxes, more than two pounds," said Nares, weighing +one in his hand. "Say two hundred and fifty dollars to the mat. Lay into +it, boys! We'll make Mr. Dodd a millionaire before dark." + +It was strange to see with what a fury we fell to. The men had now +nothing to expect; the mere idea of great sums inspired them with +disinterested ardour. Mats were slashed and disembowelled, the rice +flowed to our knees in the ship's waist, the sweat ran in our eyes and +blinded us, our arms ached to agony; and yet our fire abated not. Dinner +came; we were too weary to eat, too hoarse for conversation; and yet +dinner was scarce done, before we were afoot again and delving in the +rice. Before nightfall not a mat was unexplored, and we were face to +face with the astonishing result. + +For of all the inexplicable things in the story of the _Flying Scud_, +here was the most inexplicable. Out of the six thousand mats, only +twenty were found to have been sugared; in each we found the same +amount, about twelve pounds of drug; making a grand total of two hundred +and forty pounds. By the last San Francisco quotation, opium was selling +for a fraction over twenty dollars a pound; but it had been known not +long before to bring as much as forty in Honolulu, where it was +contraband. + +Taking, then, this high Honolulu figure, the value of the opium on board +the _Flying Scud_ fell considerably short of ten thousand dollars, while +at the San Francisco rate it lacked a trifle of five thousand. And fifty +thousand was the price that Jim and I had paid for it. And Bellairs had +been eager to go higher! There is no language to express the stupor with +which I contemplated this result. + +It may be argued we were not yet sure: there might be yet another +_cache_; and you may be certain in that hour of my distress the argument +was not forgotten. There was never a ship more ardently perquested; no +stone was left unturned, and no expedient untried; day after day of +growing despair, we punched and dug in the brig's vitals, exciting the +men with promises and presents; evening after evening Nares and I sat +face to face in the narrow cabin, racking our minds for some neglected +possibility of search. I could stake my salvation on the certainty of +the result: in all that ship there was nothing left of value but the +timber and the copper nails. So that our case was lamentably plain; we +had paid fifty thousand dollars, borne the charges of the schooner, and +paid fancy interest on money; and if things went well with us, we might +realise fifteen per cent, of the first outlay. We were not merely +bankrupt, we were comic bankrupts--a fair butt for jeering in the +streets. I hope I bore the blow with a good countenance; indeed, my mind +had long been quite made up, and since the day we found the opium I had +known the result. But the thought of Jim and Mamie ached in me like a +physical pain, and I shrank from speech and companionship. + +I was in this frame of mind when the captain proposed that we should +land upon the island. I saw he had something to say, and only feared it +might be consolation, for I could just bear my grief, not bungling +sympathy; and yet I had no choice but to accede to his proposal. + +We walked a while along the beach in silence. The sun overhead +reverberated rays of heat; the staring sand, the glaring lagoon, +tortured our eyes; and the birds and the boom of the far-away breakers +made a savage symphony. + +"I don't require to tell you the game's up?" Nares asked. + +"No," said I. + +"I was thinking of getting to sea to-morrow," he pursued. + +"The best thing you can do," said I. + +"Shall we say Honolulu?" he inquired. + +"O, yes; let's stick to the programme," I cried. "Honolulu be it!" + +There was another silence, and then Nares cleared his throat. + +"We've been pretty good friends, you and me, Mr. Dodd," he resumed. +"We've been going through the kind of thing that tries a man. We've had +the hardest kind of work, we've been badly backed, and now we're badly +beaten. And we've fetched through without a word of disagreement. I +don't say this to praise myself: it's my trade; it's what I'm paid for, +and trained for, and brought up to. But it was another thing for you; it +was all new to you; and it did me good to see you stand right up to it +and swing right into it--day in, day out. And then see how you've taken +this disappointment, when everybody knows you must have been tautened up +to shying-point! I wish you'd let me tell you, Mr. Dodd, that you've +stood out mighty manly and handsomely in all this business, and made +every one like you and admire you. And I wish you'd let me tell you, +besides, that I've taken this wreck business as much to heart as you +have; something kind of rises in my throat when I think we're beaten; +and if I thought waiting would do it, I would stick on this reef until +we starved." + +I tried in vain to thank him for these generous words, but he was +beforehand with me in a moment. + +"I didn't bring you ashore to sound my praises," he interrupted. "We +understand one another now, that's all; and I guess you can trust me. +What I wished to speak about is more important, and it's got to be +faced. What are we to do about the _Flying Scud_ and the dime novel?" + +"I really have thought nothing about that," I replied; "but I expect I +mean to get at the bottom of it, and if the bogus Captain Trent is to be +found on the earth's surface, I guess I mean to find him." + +"All you've got to do is talk," said Nares; "you can make the biggest +kind of boom; it isn't often the reporters have a chance at such a yarn +as this; and I can tell you how it will go. It will go by telegraph, Mr. +Dodd; it'll be telegraphed by the column, and headlined, and frothed up, +and denied by authority, and it'll hit bogus Captain Trent in a Mexican +bar-room, and knock over bogus Goddedaal in a slum somewhere up the +Baltic, and bowl down Hardy and Brown in sailors' music-halls round +Greenock. O, there's no doubt you can have a regular domestic Judgment +Day. The only point is whether you deliberately want to." + +"Well," said I, "I deliberately don't want one thing: I deliberately +don't want to make a public exhibition of myself and Pinkerton: so +moral--smuggling opium; such damned fools--paying fifty thousand for a +'dead horse'!" + +"No doubt it might damage you in a business sense," the captain agreed; +"and I'm pleased you take that view, for I've turned kind of soft upon +the job. There's been some crookedness about, no doubt of it; but, law +bless you! if we dropped upon the troupe, all the premier artists would +slip right out with the boodle in their grip-sacks, and you'd only +collar a lot of old mutton-headed shell-backs that didn't know the back +of the business from the front. I don't take much stock in mercantile +Jack, you know that, but, poor devil, he's got to go where he's told; +and if you make trouble, ten to one it'll make you sick to see the +innocents who have to stand the racket. It would be different if we +understood the operation; but we don't, you see: there's a lot of queer +corners in life, and my vote is to let the blame' thing lie." + +"You speak as if we had that in our power," I objected. + +"And so we have," said he. + +"What about the men?" I asked. "They know too much by half, and you +can't keep them from talking." + +"Can't I?" returned Nares. "I bet a boarding-master can! They can be all +half-seas-over when they get ashore, blind drunk by dark, and cruising +out of the Golden Gate in different deep-sea ships by the next morning. +Can't keep them from talking, can't I? Well, I can make 'em talk +separate, leastways. If a whole crew came talking, parties would listen; +but if it's only one lone old shell-back, it's the usual yarn. And at +least, they needn't talk before six months, or--if we have luck, and +there's a whaler handy--three years. And by that time, Mr. Dodd, it's +ancient history." + +"That's what they call Shanghaiing, isn't it?" I asked. "I thought it +belonged to the dime novel." + +"O, dime novels are right enough," returned the captain. "Nothing wrong +with the dime novel, only that things happen thicker than they do in +life, and the practical seamanship is off colour." + +"So we can keep the business to ourselves," I mused. + +"There's one other person that might blab," said the captain. "Though I +don't believe she has anything left to tell." + +"And who is _she_?" I asked. + +"The old girl there," he answered, pointing to the wreck; "I know +there's nothing in her; but somehow I'm afraid of some one else--it's +the last thing you'd expect, so it's just the first that'll happen--some +one dropping into this God-forgotten island where nobody drops in, +waltzing into that wreck that we've grown old with searching, stooping +straight down, and picking right up the very thing that tells the story. +What's that to me? you may ask, and why am I gone Soft Tommy on this +Museum of Crooks? They've smashed up you and Mr. Pinkerton; they've +turned my hair grey with conundrums they've been up to larks, no doubt; +and that's all I know of them--you say. Well, and that's just where it +is. I don't know enough; I don't know what's uppermost it's just such a +lot of miscellaneous eventualities as I don't care to go stirring up; +and I ask you to let me deal with the old girl after a patent of my +own." + +"Certainly--what you please," said I, scarce with attention, for a new +thought now occupied my brain. "Captain," I broke out, "you are wrong: +we cannot hush this up. There is one thing you have forgotten." + +"What is that?" he asked. + +"A bogus Captain Trent, a bogus Goddedaal, a whole bogus crew, have all +started home," said I. "If we are right, not one of them will reach his +journey's end. And do you mean to say that such a circumstance as that +can pass without remark?" + +"Sailors," said the captain, "only sailors! If they were all bound for +one place in a body, I don't say so; but they're all going separate--to +Hull, to Sweden, to the Clyde, to the Thames. Well, at each place, what +is it? Nothing new. Only one sailor-man missing: got drunk, or got +drowned, or got left--the proper sailor's end." + +Something bitter in the thought and in the speaker's tones struck me +hard. "Here is one that has got left!" I cried, getting sharply to my +feet, for we had been some time seated. "I wish it were the other. I +don't--don't relish going home to Jim with this!" + +"See here," said Nares, with ready tact, "I must be getting aboard. +Johnson's in the brig annexing chandlery and canvas, and there's some +things in the _Norah_ that want fixing against we go to sea. Would you +like to be left here in the chicken-ranch? I'll send for you to supper." + +I embraced the proposal with delight. Solitude, in my frame of mind, was +not too dearly purchased at the risk of sunstroke or sand-blindness; and +soon I was alone on the ill-omened islet. I should find it hard to tell +of what I thought--of Jim, of Mamie, of our lost fortune, of my lost +hopes, of the doom before me: to turn to some mechanical occupation in +some subaltern rank, and to toil there, unremarked and unamused, until +the hour of the last deliverance. I was, at least, so sunk in sadness +that I scarce remarked where I was going; and chance (or some finer +sense that lives in us, and only guides us when the mind is in abeyance) +conducted my steps into a quarter of the island where the birds were +few. By some devious route, which I was unable to retrace for my return, +I was thus able to mount, without interruption, to the highest point of +land. And here I was recalled to consciousness by a last discovery. + +The spot on which I stood was level, and commanded a wide view of the +lagoon, the bounding reef, the round horizon. Nearer hand I saw the +sister islet, the wreck, the _Norah Creina_, and the _Norah's_ boat +already moving shoreward. For the sun was now low, flaming on the sea's +verge; and the galley chimney smoked on board the schooner. + +It thus befell that though my discovery was both affecting and +suggestive, I had no leisure to examine further. What I saw was the +blackened embers of fire of wreck. By all the signs, it must have blazed +to a good height and burned for days; from the scantling of a spar that +lay upon the margin only half consumed, it must have been the work of +more than one; and I received at once the image of a forlorn troop of +castaways, houseless in that lost corner of the earth, and feeding there +their fire of signal. The next moment a hail reached me from the boat; +and bursting through the bushes and the rising sea-fowl, I said farewell +(I trust for ever) to that desert isle. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +IN WHICH I TURN SMUGGLER, AND THE CAPTAIN CASUIST + + +The last night at Midway I had little sleep; the next morning, after the +sun was risen, and the clatter of departure had begun to reign on deck, +I lay a long while dozing; and when at last I stepped from the +companion, the schooner was already leaping through the pass into the +open sea. Close on her board, the huge scroll of a breaker unfurled +itself along the reef with a prodigious clamour; and behind I saw the +wreck vomiting into the morning air a coil of smoke. The wreaths already +blew out far to leeward, flames already glittered in the cabin skylight, +and the sea-fowl were scattered in surprise as wide as the lagoon. As we +drew farther off, the conflagration of the _Flying Scud_ flamed higher; +and long after we had dropped all signs of Midway Island, the smoke +still hung in the horizon like that of a distant steamer. With the +fading out of that last vestige, the _Norah Creina_ passed again into +the empty world of cloud and water by which she had approached; and the +next features that appeared, eleven days later, to break the line of +sky, were the arid mountains of Oahu. + +It has often since been a comfortable thought to me that we had thus +destroyed the tell-tale remnants of the _Flying Scud_; and often a +strange one that my last sight and reminiscence of that fatal ship +should be a pillar of smoke on the horizon. To so many others besides +myself the same appearance had played a part in the various stages of +that business; luring some to what they little imagined, filling some +with unimaginable terrors. But ours was the last smoke raised in the +story; and with its dying away the secret of the _Flying Scud_ became a +private property. + +It was by the first light of dawn that we saw, close on board, the +metropolitan island of Hawaii. We held along the coast, as near as we +could venture, with a fresh breeze and under an unclouded heaven; +beholding, as we went, the arid mountain sides and scrubby cocoa-palms +of that somewhat melancholy archipelago. About four of the afternoon we +turned Waimanolo Point, the westerly headland of the great bight of +Honolulu; showed ourselves for twenty minutes in full view, and then +fell again to leeward, and put in the rest of daylight, plying under +shortened sail under the lee of Waimanolo. + +A little after dark we beat once more about the point, and crept +cautiously toward the mouth of the Pearl Lochs, where Jim and I had +arranged I was to meet the smugglers. The night was happily obscure, the +water smooth. We showed, according to instructions, no light on deck; +only a red lantern dropped from either cathead to within a couple of +feet of the water. A look-out was stationed on the bowsprit end, another +in the cross-trees; and the whole ship's company crowded forward, +scouting for enemies or friends. It was now the crucial moment of our +enterprise; we were now risking liberty and credit, and that for a sum +so small to a man in my bankrupt situation, that I could have laughed +aloud in bitterness. But the piece had been arranged, and we must play +it to the finish. + +For some while we saw nothing but the dark mountain outline of the +island, the torches of native fishermen glittering here and there along +the foreshore, and right in the midst, that cluster of brave lights with +which the town of Honolulu advertises itself to the seaward. Presently a +ruddy star appeared inshore of us, and seemed to draw near unsteadily. +This was the anticipated signal; and we made haste to show the +countersign, lowering a white light from the quarter, extinguishing the +two others, and laying the schooner incontinently to. The star +approached slowly; the sounds of oars and of men's speech came to us +across the water; and then a voice hailed us-- + +"Is that Mr. Dodd?" + +"Yes," I returned. "Is Jim Pinkerton there?" + +"No, sir," replied the voice. "But there's one of his crowd here, name +of Speedy." + +"I'm here, Mr. Dodd," added Speedy himself. "I have letters for you." + +"All right," I replied. "Come aboard, gentlemen, and let me see my +mail." + +A whaleboat accordingly ranged alongside, and three men boarded us: my +old San Francisco friend, the stock-gambler Speedy, a little wizened +person of the name of Sharpe, and a big, flourishing, dissipated-looking +man called Fowler. The two last (I learned afterward) were frequent +partners; Sharpe supplied the capital, and Fowler, who was quite a +character in the islands, and occupied a considerable station, brought +activity, daring, and a private influence, highly necessary in the case. +Both seemed to approach the business with a keen sense of romance; and I +believe this was the chief attraction, at least with Fowler--for whom I +early conceived a sentiment of liking. But in that first moment I had +something else to think of than to judge my new acquaintances and before +Speedy had fished out the letters, the full extent of our misfortune was +revealed. + +"We've rather bad news for you, Mr. Dodd," said Fowler. "Your firm's +gone up." + +"Already?" I exclaimed. + +"Well, it was thought rather a wonder Pinkerton held on as long as he +did," was the reply. "The wreck deal was too big for your credit; you +were doing a big business, no doubt, but you were doing it on precious +little capital, and when the strain came, you were bound to go. +Pinkerton's through all right: seven cents dividend, some remarks made, +but nothing to hurt; the press let you down easy--I guess Jim had +relations there. The only trouble is, that all this _Flying Scud_ affair +got in the papers with the rest; everybody's wide awake in Honolulu, and +the sooner we get the stuff in and the dollars out, the better for all +concerned." + +"Gentlemen," said I, "you must excuse me. My friend, the captain here, +will drink a glass of champagne with you to give you patience; but as +for myself, I am unfit even for ordinary conversation till I have read +these letters." + +They demurred a little, and indeed the danger of delay seemed obvious; +but the sight of my distress, which I was unable entirely to control, +appealed strongly to their good-nature, and I was suffered at last to +get by myself on deck, where, by the light of a lantern smuggled under +shelter of the low rail, I read the following wretched correspondence:-- + + "MY DEAR LOUDON," ran the first, "this will be handed you by your + friend Speedy of the _Catamount_. His sterling character and loyal + devotion to yourself pointed him out as the best man for our purposes + in Honolulu--the parties on the spot being difficult to manipulate. A + man called Billy Fowler (you must have heard of Billy) is the boss; + he is in politics some, and squares the officers. I have hard times + before me in the city, but I feel as bright as a dollar and as strong + as John L. Sullivan. What with Mamie here, and my partner speeding + over the seas, and the bonanza in the wreck, I feel like I could + juggle with the Pyramids of Egypt, same as conjurers do with + aluminium balls. My earnest prayers follow you, Loudon, that you may + feel the way I do--just inspired! My feet don't touch the ground; I + kind of swim. Mamie is like Moses and Aaron that held up the other + individual's arms. She carries me along like a horse and buggy. I am + beating the record. + + "Your true partner, + + "J. PINKERTON." + +Number two was in a different style:-- + + "MY DEAREST LOUDON,--How am I to prepare you for this dire + intelligence? O, dear me, it will strike you to the earth. The flat + has gone forth; our firm went bust at a quarter before twelve. It + was a bill of Bradley's (for two hundred dollars) that brought these + vast operations to a close, and evolved liabilities of upwards of two + hundred and fifty thousand. O, the shame and pity of it, and you but + three weeks gone! Loudon, don't blame your partner; if human hands + and brains could have sufficed I would have held the thing together. + But it just slowly crumbled; Bradley was the last kick, but the + blamed business just _melted_. I give the liabilities--it's supposed + they're all in--for the cowards were waiting, and the claims were + filed like taking tickets to hear Patti. I don't quite have the hang + of the assets yet, our interests were so extended; but I am at it day + and night, and I guess will make a creditable dividend. If the wreck + pans out only half the way it ought we'll turn the laugh still. I am + as full of grit and work as ever, and just tower above our troubles. + Mamie is a host in herself. Somehow I feel like it was only me that + had gone bust, and you and she soared clear of it. Hurry up. That's + all you have to do. + + "Yours ever, + + "J. PINKERTON." + +The third was yet more altered:-- + + "MY POOR LOUDON," it began, "I labour far into the night getting our + affairs in order; you could not believe their vastness and + complexity. Douglas B. Longhurst said humorously that the receiver's + work would be cut out for him. I cannot deny that some of them have a + speculative look. God forbid a sensitive, refined spirit like yours + should ever come face to face with a Commissioner in Bankruptcy; + these men get all the sweetness knocked right out of them. But I + could bear up better if it weren't for press comments. Often and + often, Loudon, I recall to mind your most legitimate critiques of the + press system. They published an interview with me, not the least like + what I said, and with _jeering_ comments; it would make your blood + boil, it was literally _inhumane_; wouldn't have written it about a + yellow dog that was in trouble like what I am. Mamie just winced, the + first time she has turned a hair right through the whole catastrophe. + How wonderfully true was what you said long ago in Paris about + touching on people's personal appearance! The fellow said ----" [And + then these words had been scored through and my distressed friend + turned to another subject.] "I cannot bear to dwell upon our assets. + They simply don't show up. Even _Thirteen Star_, as sound a line as + can be produced upon this coast, goes begging. The wreck has thrown a + blight on all we ever touched. And where's the use? God never made a + wreck big enough to fill our deficit I am haunted by the thought that + you may blame me; I know how I despised your remonstrances. O, + Loudon, don't be hard on your miserable partner. The funny dog + business is what kills. I fear your stern rectitude of mind like the + eye of God. I cannot think but what some of my books seem mixed up; + otherwise, I don't seem to see my way as plain as I could wish to. Or + else my brain is gone soft. Loudon, if there should be any + unpleasantness you can trust me to do the right thing and keep you + clear. I've been telling them already how you had no business grip + and never saw the books. O, I trust I have done right in this I I + knew it was a liberty; I know you may justly complain, but it was + some things that were said. And mind you, all legitimate business! + Not even your shrinking sensitiveness could find fault with the first + look of one of them if they had panned out right. And you know the + _Flying Scud_ was the biggest gamble of the crowd, and that was your + own idea. Mamie says she never could bear to look you in the face if + that idea had been mine, she is so conscientious! + + "Your broken-hearted + + "JIM." + +The last began without formality:-- + + "This is the end of me commercially. I give up; my nerve has gone. I + suppose I ought to be glad, for we're through the court. I don't know + as ever I knew how, and I'm sure I don't remember. If it pans + out--the wreck, I mean--we'll go to Europe and live on the interest + of our money. No more work for me. I shake when people speak to me. I + have gone on, hoping and hoping and working and working, and the lead + has pinched right out. I want to lie on my back in a garden and read + Shakespeare and E.P. Roe. Don't suppose it's cowardice, Loudon. I'm a + sick man. Rest is what I must have. I've worked hard all my life; I + never spared myself, every dollar I ever made I've coined my brains + for it. I've never done a mean thing; I've lived respectable, and + given to the poor. Who has a better right to a holiday than I have? + And I mean to have a year of it straight out, and if I don't I shall + lie right down here in my tracks, and die of worry and brain trouble. + Don't mistake, that's so. If there are any pickings at all, _trust + Speedy_; don't let the creditors get wind of what there is. I helped + you when you were down, help me now. Don't deceive yourself; you've + got to help me right now or never. I am clerking, and _not fit to + cipher_. Mamie's typewriting at the Phoenix Guano Exchange, down + town. The light is right out of my life. I know you'll not like to do + what I propose. Think only of this, that it's life or death for + + "JIM PINKERTON." + + "_P.S._--Our figure was seven per cent. O, what a fall was there! + Well, well, it's past mending; I don't want to whine. But, Loudon, I + don't want to live. No more ambition; all I ask is life. I have so + much to make it sweet to me. I am clerking, and _useless at that_. I + know I would have fired such a clerk inside of forty minutes in _my_ + time. But _my_ time's over. I can only cling on to you. Don't fail + + "JIM PINKERTON." + +There was yet one more postscript, yet one more outburst of self-pity +and pathetic adjuration; and a doctor's opinion, unpromising enough, +was besides enclosed. I pass them both in silence. I think shame to have +shown at so great length the half-baked virtues of my friend dissolving +in the crucible of sickness and distress; and the effect upon my spirits +can be judged already. I got to my feet when I had done, drew a deep +breath, and stared hard at Honolulu. One moment the world seemed at an +end, the next I was conscious of a rush of independent energy. On Jim I +could rely no longer; I must now take hold myself. I must decide and act +on my own better thoughts. + +The word was easy to say; the thing, at the first blush, was +undiscoverable. I was overwhelmed with miserable, womanish pity for my +broken friend; his outcries grieved my spirit; I saw him then and +now--then, so invincible; now, brought so low--and knew neither how to +refuse nor how to consent to his proposal. The remembrance of my father, +who had fallen in the same field unstained, the image of his monument +incongruously raising a fear of the law, a chill air that seemed to blow +upon my fancy from the doors of prisons, and the imaginary clank of +fetters, recalled me to a different resolve. And then, again, the wails +of my sick partner intervened. So I stood hesitating, and yet with a +strong sense of capacity behind, sure, if I could but choose my path, +that I should walk in it with resolution. + +Then I remembered that I had a friend on board, and stepped to the +companion. + +"Gentlemen," said I, "only a few moments more: but these, I regret to +say, I must make more tedious still by removing your companion. It is +indispensable that I should have a word or two with Captain Nares." + +Both the smugglers were afoot at once, protesting. The business, they +declared, must be despatched at once; they had run risk enough, with a +conscience, and they must either finish now, or go. + +"The choice is yours, gentlemen," said I, "and, I believe, the +eagerness. I am not yet sure that I have anything in your way; even if I +have, there are a hundred things to be considered; and I assure yow it +is not at all my habit to do business with a pistol to my head." + +"That is all very proper, Mr. Dodd; there is no wish to coerce you, +believe me," said Fowler; "only, please consider our position. It is +really dangerous; we were not the only people to see your schooner off +Waimanolo." + +"Mr. Fowler," I replied, "I was not born yesterday. Will you allow me to +express an opinion, in which I may be quite wrong, but to which I am +entirely wedded? If the Custom House officers had been coming, they +would have been here now. In other words, somebody is working the +oracle, and (for a good guess) his name is Fowler." + +Both men laughed loud and long; and being supplied with another bottle +of Longhurst's champagne, suffered the captain and myself to leave them +without further word. + +I gave Nares the correspondence, and he skimmed it through. + +"Now, captain," said I, "I want a fresh mind on this. What does it +mean?" + +"It's large enough text," replied the captain. "It means you're to stake +your pile on Speedy, hand him over all you can, and hold your tongue. I +almost wish you hadn't shown it me," he added wearily. "What with the +specie from the wreck and the opium-money, it comes to a biggish deal." + +"That's supposing that I do it?" said I. + +"Exactly," said he, "supposing you do it." + +"And there are pros and cons to that," I observed. + +"There's San Quentin, to start in with," said the captain; "and suppose +you clear the penitentiary, there's the nasty taste in the mouth. The +figure's big enough to make bad trouble, but it's not big enough to be +picturesque and I should guess a man always feels kind of small who has +sold himself under six ciphers. That would be my way at least; there's +an excitement about a million that might carry me on; but the other way, +I should feel kind of lonely when I woke in bed. Then there's Speedy. Do +you know him well?" + +"No, I do not," said I. + +"Well, of course he can vamoose with the entire speculation, if he +chooses," pursued the captain, "and if he don't I can't see but what +you've got to support and bed and board with him to the end of time. I +guess it would weary me. Then there's Mr. Pinkerton, of course. He's +been a good friend to you, hasn't he? Stood by you, and all that? and +pulled you through for all he was worth?" + +"That he has," I cried; "I could never begin telling you my debt to +him!" + +"Well, and that's a consideration," said the captain. "As a matter of +principle, I wouldn't look at this business at the money. 'Not good +enough,' would be my word. But even principle goes under when it comes +to friends--the right sort, I mean. This Pinkerton is frightened, and he +seems sick; the medico don't seem to care a cent about his state of +health; and you've got to figure how you would like it if he came to +die. Remember, the risk of this little swindle is all yours; it's no +sort of risk to Mr. Pinkerton. Well, you've got to put it that way +plainly, and see how you like the sound of it: my friend Pinkerton is in +danger of the New Jerusalem, I am in danger of San Quentin; which risk +do I propose to run?" + +"That's an ugly way to put it," I objected, "and perhaps hardly fair. +There's right and wrong to be considered." + +"Don't know the parties," replied Nares; "and I'm coming to them, +anyway. For it strikes me, when it came to smuggling opium, you walked +right up?" + +"So I did," I said. "Sick I am to have to say it." + +"All the same," continued Nares, "you went into the opium-smuggling +with your head down; and a good deal of fussing I've listened to, that +you hadn't more of it to smuggle. Now, maybe your partner's not quite +fixed the same as you are; maybe he sees precious little difference +between the one thing and the other." + +"You could not say truer: he sees none, I do believe," cried I; "and +though I see one, I could never tell you how." + +"We never can," said the oracular Nares; "taste is all a matter of +opinion. But the point is, how will your friend take it? You refuse a +favour, and you take the high horse at the same time; you disappoint +him, and you rap him over the knuckles. It won't do, Mr. Dodd; no +friendship can stand that. You must be as good as your friend, or as bad +as your friend, or start on a fresh deal without him." + +"I don't see it!" said I. "You don't know Jim." + +"Well, you _will_ see," said Nares. "And now, here's another point. This +bit of money looks mighty big to Mr. Pinkerton; it may spell life or +health to him; but among all your creditors, I don't see that it amounts +to a hill of beans--I don't believe it'll pay their car-fares all round. +And don't you think you'll ever get thanked. You were known to pay a +long price for the chance of rummaging that wreck; you do the rummaging, +you come home, and you hand over ten thousand--or twenty, if you like--a +part of which you'll have to own up you made by smuggling; and, mind I +you'll never get Billy Fowler to stick his name to a receipt. Now just +glance at the transaction from the outside, and see what a clear case it +makes. Your ten thousand is a sop; and people will only wonder you were +so damned impudent as to offer such a small one! Whichever way you take +it, Mr. Dodd, the bottom's out of your character; so there's one thing +less to be considered." + +"I dare say you'll scarce believe me," said I, "but I feel that a +positive relief." + +"You must be made some way different from me, then," returned Nares. +"And, talking about me, I might just mention how I stand. You'll have no +trouble from me--you've trouble enough of your own; and I'm friend +enough, when a friend's in need, to shut my eyes and go right where he +tells me. All the same, I'm rather queerly fixed. My owners'll have to +rank with the rest on their charter-party. Here am I, their +representative! and I have to look over the ship's side while the +bankrupt walks his assets ashore in Mr. Speedy's hat-box. It's a thing I +wouldn't do for James G. Elaine; but I'll do it for you, Mr. Dodd, and +only sorry I can't do more." + +"Thank you, captain; my mind is made up," said I. "I'll go straight, +_ruat coelum_! I never understood that old tag before to-night." + +"I hope it isn't my business that decides you?" asked the captain. + +"I'll never deny it was an element," said I. "I hope, I hope I'm not +cowardly; I hope I could steal for Jim myself; but when it comes to +dragging in you and Speedy, and this one and the other, why, Jim has got +to die, and there's an end. I'll try and work for him when I get to +'Frisco, I suppose; and I suppose I'll fail, and look on at his death, +and kick myself: it can't be helped--I'll fight it on this line." + +"I don't say as you're wrong," replied Nares, "and I'll be hanged if I +know if you're right. It suits me, anyway. And look here--hadn't you +better just show our friends over the side?" he added; "no good of being +at the risk and worry of smuggling for the benefit of creditors." + +"I don't think of the creditors," said I. "But I've kept this pair so +long I haven't got the brass to fire them now." + +Indeed, I believe that was my only reason for entering upon a +transaction which was now outside my interest, but which (as it chanced) +repaid me fifty-fold in entertainment. Fowler and Sharpe were both +preternaturally sharp; they did me the honour in the beginning to +attribute to myself their proper vices, and before we were done had +grown to regard me with an esteem akin to worship. This proud position I +attained by no more recondite arts than telling the mere truth and +unaffectedly displaying my indifference to the result. I have doubtless +stated the essentials of all good diplomacy, which may be rather +regarded, therefore, as a grace of state than the effect of management. +For to tell the truth is not in itself diplomatic, and to have no care +for the result a thing involuntary. When I mentioned, for instance, that +I had but two hundred and forty pounds of drug, my smugglers exchanged +meaning glances, as who should say, "Here is a foeman worthy of our +steel!" But when I carelessly proposed thirty-five dollars a pound, as +an amendment to their offered twenty, and wound up with the remark: "The +whole thing is a matter of moonshine to me, gentlemen. Take it or want +it, and fill your glasses"--I had the indescribable gratification to see +Sharpe nudge Fowler warningly, and Fowler choke down the jovial +acceptance that stood ready on his lips, and lamely substitute a "No--no +more wine, please, Mr. Dodd!" Nor was this all: for when the affair was +settled at thirty dollars a pound--a shrewd stroke of business for my +creditors--and our friends had got on board their whaleboat and shoved +off, it appeared they were imperfectly acquainted with the conveyance of +sound upon still water, and I had the joy to overhear the following +testimonial: + +"Deep man that Dodd," said Sharpe. + +And the bass-toned Fowler echoed, "Damned if I understand his game." + +Thus we were left once more alone upon the _Norah Creina_; and the news +of the night, and the lamentations of Pinkerton, and the thought of my +own harsh decision, returned and besieged me in the dark. According to +all the rubbish I had read, I should have been sustained by the warm +consciousness of virtue. Alas, I had but the one feeling: that I had +sacrificed my sick friend to the fear of prison-cells and stupid +starers. And no moralist has yet advanced so far as to number cowardice +amongst the things that are their own reward. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +LIGHT FROM THE MAN OF WAR + + +In the early sunlight of the next day we tossed close off the buoy, and +saw the city sparkle in its groves about the foot of the Punch Bowl and +the masts clustering thick in the small harbour. A good breeze, which +had risen with the sea, carried us triumphantly through the intricacies +of the passage; and we had soon brought up not far from the +landing-stairs. I remember to have remarked an ugly-horned reptile of a +modern warship in the usual moorings across the port, but my mind was so +profoundly plunged in melancholy that I paid no heed. + +Indeed, I had little time at my disposal. Messieurs Sharpe and Fowler +had left the night before in the persuasion that I was a liar of the +first magnitude; the genial belief brought them aboard again with the +earliest opportunity, proffering help to one who had proved how little +he required it, and hospitality to so respectable a character. I had +business to mind, I had some need both of assistance and diversion; I +liked Fowler--I don't know why; and in short, I let them do with me as +they desired. No creditor intervening, I spent the first half of the day +inquiring into the conditions of the tea and silk market under the +auspices of Sharpe; lunched with him in a private apartment at the +Hawaiian Hotel--for Sharpe was a teetotaler in public; and about four in +the afternoon was delivered into the hands of Fowler. This gentleman +owned a bungalow on the Waikiki beach; and there, in company with +certain young bloods of Honolulu, I was entertained to a sea-bathe, +indiscriminate cocktails, a dinner, a _hula-hula_, and (to round off +the night) poker and assorted liquors. To lose money in the small hours +to pale intoxicated youth has always appeared to me a pleasure +overrated. In my then frame of mind, I confess I found it even +delightful; put up my money (or rather my creditors') and put down +Fowler's champagne with equal avidity and success; and awoke the next +morning to a mild headache and the rather agreeable lees of the last +night's excitement. The young bloods, many of whom were still far from +sober, had taken the kitchen into their own hands, _vice_ the Chinaman +deposed; and since each was engaged upon a dish of his own, and none had +the least scruple in demolishing his neighbour's handiwork, I became +early convinced that many eggs would be broken and few omelets made. The +discovery of a jug of milk and a crust of bread enabled me to stay my +appetite; and since it was Sunday, when no business could be done, and +the festivities were to be renewed that night in the abode of Fowler, it +occurred to me to slip silently away and enjoy some air and solitude. + +I turned seaward under the dead crater known as Diamond Head. My way was +for some time under the shade of certain thickets of green thorny trees, +dotted with houses. Here I enjoyed some pictures of the native life: +wide-eyed, naked children, mingled with pigs; a youth asleep under a +tree; an old gentleman spelling through glasses his Hawaiian Bible; the +somewhat embarrassing spectacle of a lady at her bath in a spring; and +the glimpse of gaudy-coloured gowns in the deep shade of the houses. +Thence I found a road along the beach itself, wading in sand, opposed +and buffeted by the whole weight of the Trade: on one hand, the +glittering and sounding surf, and the bay lively with many sails; on the +other, precipitous, arid gullies and sheer cliffs, mounting towards the +crater and the blue sky. For all the companionship of skimming vessels, +the place struck me with a sense of solitude. There came in my head +what I had been told the day before at dinner, of a cavern above in the +bowels of the volcano, a place only to be visited with the light of +torches, a treasure-house of the bones of priests and warriors, and +clamorous with the voice of an unseen river pouring seaward through the +crannies of the mountain. At the thought, it was revealed to me suddenly +how the bungalows, and the Fowlers, and the bright, busy town and +crowding ships, were all children of yesterday; and for centuries +before, the obscure life of the natives, with its glories and ambitions, +its joys and crimes and agonies, had rolled unseen, like the mountain +river, in that sea-girt place. Not Chaldea appeared more ancient, nor +the Pyramids of Egypt more abstruse; and I heard time measured by "the +drums and tramplings" of immemorial conquests, and saw myself the +creature of an hour. Over the bankruptcy of Pinkerton and Dodd, of +Montana Block, S.F., and the conscientious troubles of the junior +partner, the spirit of eternity was seen to smile. + +To this mood of philosophic sadness my excesses of the night before no +doubt contributed, for more things than virtue are at times their own +reward, but I was greatly healed at least of my distresses. And while I +was yet enjoying my abstracted humour, a turn of the beach brought me in +view of the signal-station, with its watch-house and flag-staff, perched +on the immediate margin of a cliff. The house was new and clean and +bald, and stood naked to the Trades. The wind beat about it in loud +squalls; the seaward windows rattled without mercy; the breach of the +surf below contributed its increment of noise; and the fall of my foot +in the narrow verandah passed unheard by those within. + +There were two on whom I thus entered unexpectedly: the look-out man, +with grizzled beard, keen seaman's eyes, and that brand on his +countenance that comes of solitary living; and a visitor, an oldish, +oratorical fellow, in the smart tropical array of the British +man-o'-war's man, perched on a table, and smoking a cigar. I was made +pleasantly welcome, and was soon listening with amusement to the +sea-lawyer. + +"No, if I hadn't have been born an Englishman," was one of his +sentiments, "damn me! I'd rather 'a' been born a Frenchy! I'd like to +see another nation fit to black their boots." Presently after, he +developed his views on home politics with similar trenchancy. "I'd +rather be a brute beast than what I'd be a Liberal," he said; "carrying +banners and that! a pig's got more sense. Why, look at our chief +engineer--they do say he carried a banner with his own 'ands: 'Hooroar +for Gladstone!' I suppose, or 'Down with the Aristocracy!' What 'arm +does the aristocracy do? Show me a country any good without one! Not the +States; why, it's the 'ome of corruption! I knew a man--he was a good +man, 'ome-born--who was signal-quartermaster in the _Wyandotte_. He told +me he could never have got there if he hadn't have 'run with the +boys'--told it me as I'm telling you. Now, we're all British subjects +here----" he was going on. + +"I am afraid I am an American," I said apologetically. + +He seemed the least bit taken aback, but recovered himself; and, with +the ready tact of his betters, paid me the usual British compliment on +the riposte. "You don't say so!" he exclaimed; "well, I give you my word +of honour I'd never have guessed it. Nobody could tell it on you," said +he, as though it were some form of liquor. + +I thanked him, as I always do, at this particular stage, with his +compatriots; not so much, perhaps, for the compliment to myself and my +poor country, as for the revelation (which is ever fresh to me) of +Britannic self-sufficiency and taste. And he was so far softened by my +gratitude as to add a word of praise on the American method of lacing +sails. "You're ahead of us in lacing sails," he said; "you can say that +with a clear conscience." + +"Thank you," I replied; "I shall certainly do so." + +At this rate we got along swimmingly; and when I rose to retrace my +steps to the Fowlery, he at once started to his feet and offered me the +welcome solace of his company for the return. I believe I discovered +much alacrity at the idea, for the creature (who seemed to be unique, or +to represent a type like that of the dodo) entertained me hugely. But +when he had produced his hat, I found I was in the way of more than +entertainment, for on the ribbon I could read the legend, "H.M.S. +Tempest." + +"I say," I began, when our adieus were paid, and we were scrambling down +the path from the look-out, "it was your ship that picked up the men on +board the _Flying Scud_, wasn't it?" + +"You may say so," said he. "And a blessed good job for the Flying-Scuds. +It's a God-forsaken spot that Midway Island." + +"I've just come from there," said I; "it was I who bought the wreck." + +"Beg your pardon, sir," cried the sailor: "gen'lem'n in the white +schooner?" + +"The same," said I. + +My friend saluted, as though we were now for the first time formally +introduced. + +"Of course," I continued, "I am rather taken up with the whole story; +and I wish you would tell me what you can of how the men were saved." + +"It was like this," said he. "We had orders to call at Midway after +castaways, and had our distance pretty nigh run down the day before. We +steamed half-speed all night, looking to make it about noon, for old +Tootles--beg your pardon, sir, the captain--was precious scared of the +place at night. Well, there's nasty filthy currents round that Midway; +_you_ know, as has been there; and one on 'em must have set us down. +Leastways, about six bells, when we had ought to been miles away, some +one sees a sail, and lo and be'old, there was the spars of a full-rigged +brig! We raised her pretty fast, and the island after her; and made out +she was hard aground, canted on her bilge, and had her ens'n flying, +union down. It was breaking 'igh on the reef, and we laid well out, and +sent a couple of boats. I didn't go in neither; only stood and looked +on: but it seems they was all badly scared and muddled, and didn't know +which end was uppermost. One on 'em kep' snivelling and wringing of his +'ands; he come on board, all of a sop like a monthly nurse. That Trent, +he come first, with his 'and in a bloody rag. I was near 'em as I am to +you; and I could make out he was all to bits--'eard his breath rattle in +his blooming lungs as he come down the ladder. Yes, they was a scared +lot, small blame to 'em, _I_ say! The next after Trent come him as was +mate." + +"Goddedaal!" I exclaimed. + +"And a good name for him too," chuckled the man-o'-war's man, who +probably confounded the word with a familiar oath. "A good name too; +only it weren't his. He was a gen'lem'n born, sir, as had gone +maskewerading. One of our officers knowed him at 'ome, reckonises him, +steps up, 'olds out his 'and right off, and says he, ''Ullo, Norrie, old +chappie!' he says. The other was coming up, as bold as look at it; +didn't seem put out--that's where blood tells, sir! Well, no sooner does +he 'ear his born name given him than he turns as white as the Day of +Judgment, stares at Mr. Sebright like he was looking at a ghost, and +then (I give you my word of honour) turned to, and doubled up in a dead +faint. 'Take him down to my berth,' says Mr. Sebright. ''Tis poor old +Norrie Carthew,' he says." + +"And what--what sort of a gentleman was this Mr. Carthew?" I gasped. + +"The ward-room steward told me he was come of the best blood in +England," was my friend's reply: "Eton and 'Arrow bred; and might have +been a bar'net!" + +"No, but to look at?" I corrected him. + +"The same as you or me," was the uncompromising answer: "not much to +look at. _I_ didn't know he was a gen'lem'n; but then, I never see him +cleaned up." + +"How was that?" I cried. "O yes, I remember: he was sick all the way to +'Frisco, was he not?" + +"Sick, or sorry, or something," returned my informant. "My belief, he +didn't hanker after showing up. He kep' close; the ward-room steward, +what took his meals in, told me he ate nex' to nothing; and he was +fetched ashore at 'Frisco on the quiet. Here was how it was. It seems +his brother had took and died, him as had the estate. This one had gone +in for his beer, by what I could make out; the old folks at 'ome had +turned rusty; no one knew where he had gone to. Here he was, slaving in +a merchant brig, shipwrecked on Midway, and packing up his duds for a +long voyage in a open boat. He comes on board our ship, and by God, here +he is a landed proprietor, and may be in Parliament to-morrow! It's no +less than natural he should keep dark: so would you and me in the same +box." + +"I daresay," said I. "But you saw more of the others?" + +"To be sure," says he: "no 'arm in them from what I see. There was one +'Ardy there: colonial born he was, and had been through a power of +money. There was no nonsense about 'Ardy; he had been up, and he had +come down, and took it so. His 'eart was in the right place; and he was +well-informed, and knew French; and Latin, I believe, like a native! I +liked that 'Ardy: he was a good-looking boy too." + +"Did they say much about the wreck?" I asked. + +"There wasn't much to say, I reckon," replied the man-o'-war's man. "It +was all in the papers. 'Ardy used to yarn most about the coins he had +gone through; he had lived with bookmakers, and jockeys, and pugs, and +actors, and all that--a precious low lot," added this judicious person. +"But it's about here my 'orse is moored, and by your leave I'll be +getting ahead." + +"One moment," said I. "Is Mr. Sebright on board?" + +"No, sir, he's ashore to-day," said the sailor. "I took up a bag for him +to the 'otel." + +With that we parted. Presently after my friend overtook and passed me on +a hired steed which seemed to scorn its cavalier; and I was left in the +dust of his passage, a prey to whirling thoughts. For I now stood, or +seemed to stand, on the immediate threshold of these mysteries. I knew +the name of the man Dickson--his name was Carthew; I knew where the +money came from that opposed us at the sale--it was part of Carthew's +inheritance; and in my gallery of illustrations to the history of the +wreck, one more picture hung, perhaps the most dramatic of the series. +It showed me the deck of a warship in that distant part of the great +ocean, the officers and seamen looking curiously on: and a man of birth +and education, who had been sailing under an alias on a trading brig, +and was now rescued from desperate peril, felled like an ox by the bare +sound of his own name. I could not fail to be reminded of my own +experience at the Occidental telephone. The hero of three styles, +Dickson, Goddedaal, or Carthew, must be the owner of a lively--or a +loaded--conscience, and the reflection recalled to me the photograph +found on board the _Flying Scud_; just such a man, I reasoned, would be +capable of just such starts and crises, and I inclined to think that +Goddedaal (of Carthew) was the mainspring of the mystery. + +One thing was plain: as long as the _Tempest_ was in reach, I must make +the acquaintance of both Sebright and the doctor. To this end, I excused +myself with Mr. Fowler, returned to Honolulu, and passed the remainder +of the day hanging vainly round the cool verandahs of the hotel. It was +near nine o'clock at night before I was rewarded. + +"That is the gentleman you were asking for," said the clerk. + +I beheld a man in tweeds, of an incomparable languor of demeanour, and +carrying a cane with genteel effort. From the name, I had looked to find +a sort of Viking and young ruler of the battle and the tempest; and I +was the more disappointed, and not a little alarmed, to come face to +face with this impracticable type. + +"I believe I have the pleasure of addressing Lieutenant Sebright," said +I, stepping forward. + +"Aw, yes," replied the hero; "but, aw! I dawn't knaw you, do I!" (He +spoke for all the world like Lord Foppington in the old play--a proof of +the perennial nature of man's affectations. But his limping dialect I +scorn to continue to reproduce.) + +"It was with the intention of making myself known that I have taken this +step," said I, entirely unabashed (for impudence begets in me its +like--perhaps my only martial attribute). "We have a common subject of +interest, to me very lively; and I believe I may be in a position to be +of some service to a friend of yours--to give him, at least, some very +welcome information." + +The last clause was a sop to my conscience; I could not pretend, even to +myself, either the power or the will to serve Mr. Carthew; but I felt +sure he would like to hear the _Flying Scud_ was burned. + +"I don't know--I--I don't understand you," stammered my victim. "I don't +have any friends in Honolulu, don't you know?" + +"The friend to whom I refer is English," I replied. "It is Mr. Carthew, +whom you picked up at Midway. My firm has bought the wreck; I am just +returned from breaking her up; and--to make my business quite clear to +you--I have a communication it is necessary I should make; and have to +trouble you for Mr. Carthew's address." + +It will be seen how rapidly I had dropped all hope of interesting the +frigid British bear. He, on his side, was plainly on thorns at my +insistence; I judged he was suffering torments of alarm lest I should +prove an undesirable acquaintance; diagnosed him for a shy, dull, vain, +unamiable animal, without adequate defence--a sort of dishoused snail; +and concluded, rightly enough, that he would consent to anything to +bring our interview to a conclusion. A moment later he had fled, leaving +me with a sheet of paper thus inscribed:-- + + _Norris Carthew, + Stallbridge-le-Carthew, + Dorset._ + +I might have cried victory, the field of battle and some of the enemy's +baggage remaining in my occupation. As a matter of fact, my moral +sufferings during the engagement had rivalled those of Mr. Sebright. I +was left incapable of fresh hostilities; I owned that the navy of old +England was (for me) invincible as of yore; and giving up all thought of +the doctor, inclined to salute her veteran flag, in the future, from a +prudent distance. Such was my inclination when I retired to rest; and my +first experience the next morning strengthened it to certainty. For I +had the pleasure of encountering my fair antagonist on his way on board; +and he honoured me with a recognition so disgustingly dry, that my +impatience overflowed, and (recalling the tactics of Nelson) I neglected +to perceive or to return it. + +Judge of my astonishment, some half-hour later, to receive a note of +invitation from the _Tempest_. + +"Dear Sir," it began, "we are all naturally very much interested in the +wreck of the _Flying Scud_, and as soon as I mentioned that I had the +pleasure of making your acquaintance, a very general wish was expressed +that you would come and dine on board. It will give us all the greatest +pleasure to see you to-night, or in case you should be otherwise +engaged, to luncheon either to-morrow or to-day." A note of the hours +followed, and the document wound up with the name of "J. Lascelles +Sebright," under an undeniable statement that he was sincerely mine. + +"No, Mr. Lascelles Sebright," I reflected, "you are not, but I begin to +suspect that (like the lady in the song) you are another's. You have +mentioned your adventure, my friend; you have been blown up; you have +got your orders; this note has been dictated; and I am asked on board +(in spite of your melancholy protests) not to meet the men, and not to +talk about the _Flying Scud_, but to undergo the scrutiny of some one +interested in Carthew--the doctor, for a wager. And for a second wager, +all this springs from your facility in giving the address." I lost no +time in answering the billet, electing for the earliest occasion; and at +the appointed hour a somewhat blackguard-looking boat's crew from the +_Norah Creina_ conveyed me under the guns of the _Tempest_. + +The ward-room appeared pleased to see me; Sebright's brother officers, +in contrast to himself, took a boyish interest in my cruise; and much +was talked of the _Flying Scud_; of how she had been lost, of how I had +found her, and of the weather, the anchorage, and the currents about +Midway Island. Carthew was referred to more than once without +embarrassment; the parallel case of a late Earl of Aberdeen, who died +mate on board a Yankee schooner, was adduced. If they told me little of +the man, it was because they had not much to tell, and only felt an +interest in his recognition and pity for his prolonged ill-health. I +could never think the subject was avoided; and it was clear that the +officers, far from practising concealment, had nothing to conceal. + +So far, then, all seemed natural, and yet the doctor troubled me. This +was a tall, rugged, plain man, on the wrong side of fifty, already grey, +and with a restless mouth and bushy eyebrows: he spoke seldom, but then +with gaiety; and his great, quaking, silent laughter was infectious. I +could make out that he was at once the quiz of the ward-room and +perfectly respected; and I made sure that he observed me covertly. It is +certain I returned the compliment. If Carthew had feigned sickness--and +all seemed to point in that direction--here was the man who knew all--or +certainly knew much. His strong, sterling face progressively and +silently persuaded of his full knowledge. That was not the mouth, these +were not the eyes, of one who would act in ignorance, or could be led at +random. Nor again was it the face of a man squeamish in the case of +malefactors; there was even a touch of Brutus there, and something of +the hanging judge. In short, he seemed the last character for the part +assigned him in my theories; and wonder and curiosity contended in my +mind. + +Luncheon was over, and an adjournment to the smoking-room proposed, when +(upon a sudden impulse) I burned my ships, and, pleading indisposition, +requested to consult the doctor. + +"There is nothing the matter with my body, Dr. Urquart," said I, as soon +as we were alone. + +He hummed, his mouth worked, he regarded me steadily with his grey eyes, +but resolutely held his peace. + +"I want to talk to you about the _Flying Scud_ and Mr. Carthew," I +resumed. "Come, you must have expected this. I am sure you know all; you +are shrewd, and must have a guess that I know much. How are we to stand +to one another? and how am I to stand to Mr. Carthew?" + +"I do not fully understand you," he replied, after a pause; and then, +after another: "It is the spirit I refer to, Mr. Dodd." + +"The spirit of my inquiries?" I asked. + +He nodded. + +"I think we are at cross-purposes," said I. "The spirit is precisely +what I came in quest of. I bought the _Flying Scud_ at a ruinous figure, +run up by Mr. Carthew through an agent; and I am, in consequence, a +bankrupt. But if I have found no fortune in the wreck, I have found +unmistakable evidences of foul play. Conceive my position: I am ruined +through this man, whom I never saw; I might very well desire revenge or +compensation; and I think you will admit I have the means to extort +either." + +He made no sign in answer to this challenge. + +"Can you not understand, then," I resumed, "the spirit in which I come +to one who is surely in the secret, and ask him, honestly and plainly, +how do I stand to Mr. Carthew?" + +"I must ask you to be more explicit," said he. + +"You do not help me much," I retorted. "But see if you can understand: +my conscience is not very fine-spun; still, I have one. Now, there are +degrees of foul play, to some of which I have no particular objection. I +am sure with Mr. Carthew, I am not at all the person to forego an +advantage, and I have much curiosity. But, on the other hand, I have no +taste for persecution; and I ask you to believe that I am not the man to +make bad worse, or heap trouble on the unfortunate." + +"Yes; I think I understand," said he. "Suppose I pass you my word that, +whatever may have occurred, there were excuses--great excuses--I may +say, very great?" + +"It would have weight with me, doctor," I replied. + +"I may go further," he pursued. "Suppose I had been there, or you had +been there. After a certain event had taken place, it's a grave question +what we might have done--it's even a question what we could have +done--ourselves. Or take me. I will be plain with you, and own that I am +in possession of the facts. You have a shrewd guess how I have acted in +that knowledge. May I ask you to judge from the character of my action +something of the nature of that knowledge, which I have no call, nor yet +no title, to share with you?" + +I cannot convey a sense of the rugged conviction and judicial emphasis +of Dr. Urquart's speech. To those who did not hear him, it may appear as +if he fed me on enigmas; to myself, who heard, I seemed to have received +a lesson and a compliment. + +"I thank you," I said; "I feel you have said as much as possible, and +more than I had any right to ask. I take that as a mark of confidence, +which I will try to deserve. I hope, sir, you will let me regard you as +a friend." + +He evaded my proffered friendship with a blunt proposal to rejoin the +mess; and yet a moment later contrived to alleviate the snub. For, as we +entered the smoking-room, he laid his hand on my shoulder with a kind +familiarity-- + +"I have just prescribed for Mr. Dodd," says he, "a glass of our +Madeira." + +I have never again met Dr. Urquart; but he wrote himself so clear upon +my memory that I think I see him still. And indeed I had cause to +remember the man for the sake of his communication. It was hard enough +to make a theory fit the circumstances of the _Flying Scud_; but one in +which the chief actor should stand the least excused, and might retain +the esteem or at least the pity of a man like Dr. Urquart, failed me +utterly. Here at least was the end of my discoveries. I learned no more, +till I learned all; and my reader has the evidence complete. Is he more +astute than I was? or, like me, does he give it up? + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +CROSS-QUESTIONS AND CROOKED ANSWERS + + +I have said hard words of San Francisco; they must scarce be literally +understood (one cannot suppose the Israelites did justice to the land of +Pharaoh); and the city took a fine revenge of me on my return. She had +never worn a more becoming guise; the sun shone, the air was lively, the +people had flowers in their button-holes and smiles upon their faces; +and as I made my way towards Jim's place of employment, with some very +black anxieties at heart, I seemed to myself a blot on the surrounding +gaiety. + +My destination was in a by-street in a mean, rickety building. "The +Franklin H. Dodge Steam Printing Company" appeared upon its front, and, +in characters of greater freshness, so as to suggest recent conversion, +the watch-cry, "White Labour Only." In the office in a dusty pen Jim sat +alone before a table. A wretched change had overtaken him in clothes, +body, and bearing; he looked sick and shabby. He who had once rejoiced +in his day's employment, like a horse among pastures, now sat staring on +a column of accounts, idly chewing a pen, at times heavily sighing, the +picture of inefficiency and inattention. He was sunk deep in a painful +reverie; he neither saw nor heard me, and I stood and watched him +unobserved. I had a sudden vain relenting. Repentance bludgeoned me. As +I had predicted to Nares, I stood and kicked myself. Here was I come +home again, my honour saved; there was my friend in want of rest, +nursing, and a generous diet; and I asked myself, with Falstaff, "What +is in that word honour? what is that honour?" and, like Falstaff, I told +myself that it was air. + +"Jim!" said I. + +"Loudon!" he gasped, and jumped from his chair and stood shaking. + +The next moment I was over the barrier, and we were hand in hand. + +"My poor old man!" I cried. + +"Thank God, you're home at last!" he gulped, and kept patting my +shoulder with his hand. + +"I've no good news for you, Jim," said I. + +"You've come--that's the good news that I want," he replied. "O how I +have longed for you, Loudon!" + +"I couldn't do what you wrote me," I said, lowering my voice. "The +creditors have it all. I couldn't do it." + +"S-s-h!" returned Jim. "I was crazy when I wrote. I could never have +looked Mamie in the face if we had done it. O, Loudon, what a gift that +woman is! You think you know something of life; you just don't know +anything. It's the _goodness_ of the woman, it's a revelation!" + +"That's all right," said I. "That's how I hoped to hear you, Jim." + +"And so the _Flying Scud_ was a fraud," he resumed. "I didn't quite +understand your letter, but I made out that." + +"Fraud is a mild term for it," said I. "The creditors will never believe +what fools we were.--And that reminds me," I continued, rejoicing in the +transition, "how about the bankruptcy?" + +"You were lucky to be out of that," answered Jim, shaking his head; "you +were lucky not to see the papers. The _Occidental_ called me a +fifth-rate kerb-stone broker with water on the brain; another said I was +a tree-frog that had got into the same meadow with Longhurst, and had +blown myself out till I went pop. It was rough on a man in his +honeymoon; so was what they said about my looks, and what I had on, and +the way I perspired. But I braced myself up with the _Flying Scud_.--How +did it exactly figure out, anyway? I don't seem to catch on to that +story, Loudon." + +"The devil you don't!" thinks I to myself; and then aloud, "You see, we +had neither one of us good luck. I didn't do much more than cover +current expenses, and you got floored immediately. How did we come to go +so soon?" + +"Well, we'll have to have a talk over all this," said Jim, with a sudden +start. "I should be getting to my books, and I guess you had better go +up right away to Mamie. She's at Speedy's. She expects you with +impatience. She regards you in the light of a favourite brother, +Loudon." + +Any scheme was welcome which allowed me to postpone the hour of +explanation, and avoid (were it only for a breathing space) the topic of +the _Flying Scud_. I hastened accordingly to Bush Street. Mrs. Speedy, +already rejoicing in the return of a spouse, hailed me with acclamation. +"And it's beautiful you're looking, Mr. Dodd, my dear," she was kind +enough to say. "And a muracle they naygur waheenies let ye lave the +oilands. I have my suspicions of Shpeedy," she added roguishly. "Did ye +see him after the naygresses now?" + +I gave Speedy an unblemished character. + +"The one of ye will never bethray the other," said the playful dame, and +ushered me into a bare room, where Mamie sat working a type-writer. + +I was touched by the cordiality of her greeting. With the prettiest +gesture in the world she gave me both her hands, wheeled forth a chair, +and produced from a cupboard a tin of my favourite tobacco, and a book +of my exclusive cigarette-papers. + +"There!" she cried; "you see, Mr. Loudon, we were all prepared for you: +the things were bought the very day you sailed." + +I imagined she had always intended me a pleasant welcome; but the +certain fervour of sincerity, which I could not help remarking, flowed +from an unexpected source. Captain Nares, with a kindness for which I +can never be sufficiently grateful, had stolen a moment from his +occupations, driven to call on Mamie, and drawn her a generous picture +of my prowess at the wreck. She was careful not to breathe a word of +this interview, till she had led me on to tell my adventures for myself. + +"Ah! Captain Nares was better," she cried, when I had done. "From your +account, I have only learned one new thing, that you are modest as well +as brave." + +I cannot tell with what sort of disclamation I sought to reply. + +"It is of no use," said Mamie. "I know a hero. And when I heard of you +working all day like a common labourer, with your hands bleeding and +your nails broken--and how you told the captain to 'crack on' (I think +he said) in the storm, when he was terrified himself--and the danger of +that horrid mutiny"--(Nares had been obligingly dipping his brush in +earthquake and eclipse)--"and how it was all done, in part at least, for +Jim and me--I felt we could never say how we admired and thanked you." + +"Mamie," I cried, "don't talk of thanks; it is not a word to be used +between friends. Jim and I have been prosperous together; now we shall +be poor together. We've done our best, and that's all that need be said. +The next thing is for me to find a situation, and send you and Jim up +country for a long holiday in the redwoods--for a holiday Jim has got to +have." + +"Jim can't take your money, Mr. Loudon," said Mamie. + +"Jim?" cried I. "He's got to. Didn't I take his?" + +Presently after, Jim himself arrived, and before he had yet done mopping +his brow, he was at me with the accursed subject. "Now, Loudon," said +he, "here we are, all together, the day's work done and the evening +before us; just start in with the whole story." + +"One word on business first," said I, speaking from the lips outward, +and meanwhile (in the private apartments of my brain) trying for the +thousandth time to find some plausible arrangement of my story. "I want +to have a notion how we stand about the bankruptcy." + +"O, that's ancient history," cried Jim. "We paid seven cents, and a +wonder we did as well. The receiver----" (methought a spasm seized him +at the name of this official, and he broke off). "But it's all past and +done with, anyway; and what I want to get at is the facts about the +wreck. I don't seem to understand it; appears to me like as there was +something underneath." + +"There was nothing _in_ it, anyway," I said, with a forced laugh. + +"That's what I want to judge of," returned Jim. + +"How the mischief is it I can never keep you to that bankruptcy? It +looks as if you avoided it," said I--for a man in my situation, with +unpardonable folly. + +"Don't it look a little as if you were trying to avoid the wreck?" asked +Jim. + +It was my own doing; there was no retreat. "My dear fellow, if you make +a point of it, here goes!" said I, and launched with spurious gaiety +into the current of my tale. I told it with point and spirit; described +the island and the wreck, mimicked Anderson and the Chinese, maintained +the suspense.... My pen has stumbled on the fatal word. I maintained the +suspense so well that it was never relieved; and when I stopped--I dare +not say concluded, where there was no conclusion--I found Jim and Mamie +regarding me with surprise. + +"Well?" said Jim. + +"Well, that's all," said I. + +"But how do you explain it?" he asked. + +"I can't explain it," said I. + +Mamie wagged her head ominously. + +"But, Great Caesar's ghost, the money was offered!" cried Jim. "It won't +do, Loudon; it's nonsense on the face of it! I don't say but what you +and Nares did your best; I'm sure, of course, you did; but I do say you +got fooled. I say the stuff is in that ship to-day, and I say I mean to +get it." + +"There is nothing in the ship, I tell you, but old wood and iron!" said +I. + +"You'll see," said Jim. "Next time I go myself. I'll take Mamie for the +trip: Longhurst won't refuse me the expense of a schooner. You wait till +I get the searching of her." + +"But you can't search her!" cried I. "She's burned!" + +"Burned!" cried Mamie, starting a little from the attitude of quiescent +capacity in which she had hitherto sat to hear me, her hands folded in +her lap. + +There was an appreciable pause. + +"I beg your pardon, Loudon," began Jim at last, "but why in snakes did +you burn her?" + +"It was an idea of Nares's," said I. + +"This is certainly the strangest circumstance of all," observed Mamie. + +"I must say, Loudon, it does seem kind of unexpected," added Jim. "It +seems kind of crazy even. What did you--what did Nares expect to gain by +burning her?" + +"I don't know; it didn't seem to matter; we had got all there was to +get," said I. + +"That's the very point," cried Jim. "It was quite plain you hadn't." + +"What made you so sure?" asked Mamie. + +"How can I tell you?" I cried. "We had been all through her. We _were_ +sure; that's all that I can say." + +"I begin to think you were," she returned, with a significant emphasis. + +Jim hurriedly intervened. "What I don't quite make out, Loudon, is, that +you don't seem to appreciate the peculiarities of the thing," said he. +"It doesn't seem to have struck you same as it does me." + +"Pshaw! why go on with this?" cried Mamie, suddenly rising. "Mr. Dodd is +not telling us either what he thinks or what he knows." + +"Mamie!" cried Jim. + +"You need not be concerned for his feelings, James; he is not concerned +for yours," returned the lady. "He dare not deny it, besides. And this +is not the first time he has practised reticence. Have you forgotten +that he knew the address, and did not tell it you until that man had +escaped?" + +Jim turned to me pleadingly--we were all on our feet. "Loudon," he said, +"you see Mamie has some fancy, and I must say there's just a sort of a +shadow of an excuse; for it _is_ bewildering--even to me, Loudon, with +my trained business intelligence. For God's sake clear it up." + +"This serves me right," said I. "I should not have tried to keep you in +the dark; I should have told you at first that I was pledged to secrecy; +I should have asked you to trust me in the beginning. It is all I can do +now. There is more of the story, but it concerns none of us. My tongue +is tied. I have given my word of honour. You must trust me, and try to +forgive me." + +"I daresay I am very stupid, Mr. Dodd," began Mamie, with an alarming +sweetness, "but I thought you went upon this trip as my husband's +representative and with my husband's money? You tell us now that you are +pledged, but I should have thought you were pledged first of all to +James. You say it does not concern us; we are poor people, and my +husband is sick, and it concerns us a great deal to understand how we +come to have lost our money, and why our representative comes back to +us with nothing. You ask that we should trust you; you do not seem to +understand--the question we are asking ourselves is whether we have not +trusted you too much." + +"I do not ask you to trust me," I replied. "I ask Jim. He knows me." + +"You think you can do what you please with James; you trust to his +affection, do you not? And me, I suppose, you do not consider," said +Mamie. "But it was perhaps an unfortunate day for you when we were +married, for I at least am not blind. The crew run away, the ship is +sold for a great deal of money, you know that man's address and you +conceal it; you do not find what you were sent to look for, and yet you +burn the ship; and now, when we ask explanations, you are pledged to +secrecy! But I am pledged to no such thing; I will not stand by in +silence and see my sick and ruined husband betrayed by his condescending +friend. I will give you the truth for once. Mr. Dodd, you have been +bought and sold." + +"Mamie," cried Jim, "no more of this! It's me you're striking; it's only +me you hurt. You don't know, you cannot understand these things. Why, +to-day, if it hadn't been for Loudon, I couldn't have looked you in the +face. He saved my honesty." + +"I have heard plenty of this talk before," she replied. "You are a +sweet-hearted fool, and I love you for it. But I am a clear-headed +woman; my eyes are open, and I understand this man's hypocrisy. Did he +not come here to-day and pretend he would take a situation--pretend he +would share his hard-earned wages with us until you were well? Pretend! +It makes me furious! His wages! a share of his wages! That would have +been your pittance, that would have been your share of the _Flying +Scud_--you who worked and toiled for him when he was a beggar in the +streets of Paris. But we do not want your charity; thank God, I can work +for my own husband! See what it is to have obliged a gentleman! He +would let you pick him up when he was begging; he would stand and look +on and let you black his shoes, and sneer at you. For you were always +sneering at my James; you always looked down upon him in your heart, you +know it!" She turned back to Jim. "And now when he is rich," she began, +and then swooped again on me. "For you are rich, I dare you to deny it; +I defy you to look me in the face and try to deny that you are +rich--rich with our money--my husband's money----" + +Heaven knows to what a height she might have risen, being, by this time, +bodily whirled away in her own hurricane of words. Heart-sickness, a +black depression, a treacherous sympathy with my assailant, pity +unutterable for poor Jim, already filled, divided, and abashed my +spirit. Flight seemed the only remedy; and making a private sign to Jim, +as if to ask permission, I slunk from the unequal field. + +I was but a little way down the street, when I was arrested by the sound +of some one running, and Jim's voice calling me by name. He had followed +me with a letter which had been long awaiting my return. + +I took it in a dream. "This has been a devil of a business," said I. + +"Don't think hard of Mamie," he pleaded. "It's the way she's made; it's +her high-toned loyalty. And of course I know it's all right. I know your +sterling character; but you didn't, somehow, make out to give us the +thing straight, Loudon. Anybody might have--I mean it--I mean----" + +"Never mind what you mean, my poor Jim," said I. "She's a gallant little +woman and a loyal wife: and I thought her splendid. My story was as +fishy as the devil. I'll never think the less of either her or you." + +"It'll blow over; it must blow over," said he. + +"It never can," I returned, sighing: "and don't you try to make it! +Don't name me, unless it's with an oath. And get home to her right +away. Good-bye, my best of friends. Good-bye, and God bless you. We +shall never meet again." + +"O, Loudon, that we should live to say such words!" he cried. + +I had no views on life, beyond an occasional impulse to commit suicide, +or to get drunk, and drifted down the street, semi-conscious, walking +apparently on air in the light-headedness of grief. I had money in my +pocket, whether mine or my creditors' I had no means of guessing; and, +the "Poodle Dog" lying in my path, I went mechanically in and took a +table. A waiter attended me, and I suppose I gave my orders; for +presently I found myself, with a sudden return of consciousness, +beginning dinner. On the white cloth at my elbow lay the letter, +addressed in a clerk's hand, and bearing an English stamp and the +Edinburgh postmark. A bowl of bouillon and a glass of wine awakened in +one corner of my brain (where all the rest was in mourning, the blinds +down as for a funeral) a faint stir of curiosity; and while I waited the +next course, wondering the while what I had ordered, I opened and began +to read the epoch-making document: + + "DEAR SIR,--I am charged with the melancholy duty of announcing to + you the death of your excellent grandfather, Mr. Alexander Loudon, on + the 17th ult. On Sunday, the 13th, he went to church as usual in the + forenoon, and stopped on his way home, at the corner of Princes + Street, in one of our seasonable east winds, to talk with an old + friend. The same evening acute bronchitis declared itself; from the + first, Dr. M'Combie anticipated a fatal result, and the old gentleman + appeared to have no illusion as to his own state. He repeatedly + assured me it was 'by' with him now; 'and high time too,' he once + added with characteristic asperity. He was not in the least changed + on the approach of death: only (what I am sure must be very grateful + to your feelings) he seemed to think and speak even more kindly than + usual of yourself, referring to you as 'Jeannie's yin,' with strong + expressions of regard. 'He was the only one I ever liket of the hale + jing-bang,' was one of his expressions; and you will be glad to know + that he dwelt particularly on the dutiful respect you had always + displayed in your relations. The small codicil, by which he bequeaths + you his Molesworth, and other professional works, was added (you will + observe) on the day before his death; so that you were in his + thoughts until the end. I should say that, though rather a trying + patient, he was most tenderly nursed by your uncle, and your cousin, + Miss Euphemia. I enclose a copy of the testament, by which you will + see that you share equally with Mr. Adam, and that I hold at your + disposal a sum nearly approaching seventeen thousand pounds. I beg to + congratulate you on this considerable acquisition, and expect your + orders, to which I shall hasten to give my best attention. Thinking + that you might desire to return at once to this country, and not + knowing how you may be placed, I enclose a credit for six hundred + pounds. Please sign the accompanying slip, and let me have it at your + earliest convenience. + + "I am, dear sir, yours truly, + + "W. RUTHERFORD GREGG." + +"God bless the old gentleman!" I thought; "and for that matter God bless +Uncle Adam! and my cousin Euphemia! and Mr. Gregg!" I had a vision of +that grey old life now brought to an end--"and high time too"--a vision +of those Sabbath streets alternately vacant and filled with silent +people; of the babel of the bells, the long-drawn psalmody, the shrewd +sting of the east wind, the hollow, echoing, dreary house to which +"Ecky" had returned with the hand of death already on his shoulder; a +vision, too, of the long, rough country lad, perhaps a serious courtier +of the lasses in the hawthorn den, perhaps a rustic dancer on the green, +who had first earned and answered to that harsh diminutive. And I asked +myself if, on the whole, poor Ecky had succeeded in life; if the last +state of that man were not on the whole worse than the first; and the +house in Randolph Crescent a less admirable dwelling than the hamlet +where he saw the day and grew to manhood. Here was a consolatory thought +for one who was himself a failure. + +Yes, I declare the word came in my mind; and all the while, in another +partition of the brain, I was glowing and singing for my new-found +opulence. The pile of gold--four thousand two hundred and fifty double +eagles, seventeen thousand ugly sovereigns, twenty-one thousand two +hundred and fifty Napoleons--danced, and rang and ran molten, and lit up +life with their effulgence, in the eye of fancy. Here were all things +made plain to me: Paradise--Paris, I mean--regained, Carthew protected, +Jim restored, the creditors ... + +"The creditors!" I repeated, and sank back benumbed. It was all theirs +to the last farthing: my grandfather had died too soon to save me. + +I must have somewhere a rare vein of decision. In that revolutionary +moment I found myself prepared for all extremes except the one: ready to +do anything, or to go anywhere, so long as I might save my money. At the +worst, there was flight, flight to some of those blest countries where +the serpent extradition has not yet entered in. + + On no condition is extradition + Allowed in Callao! + +--the old lawless words haunted me; and I saw myself hugging my gold in +the company of such men as had once made and sung them, in the rude and +bloody wharf-side drinking-shops of Chili and Peru. The run of my +ill-luck, the breach of my old friendship, this bubble fortune flaunted +for a moment in my eyes and snatched again, had made me desperate and +(in the expressive vulgarism) ugly. To drink vile spirits among vile +companions by the flare of a pine-torch; to go burthened with my furtive +treasure in a belt; to fight for it knife in hand, rolling on a clay +floor; to flee perpetually in fresh ships and to be chased through the +sea from isle to isle, seemed, in my then frame of mind, a welcome +series of events. + +That was for the worst; but it began to dawn slowly on my mind that +there was yet a possible better. Once escaped, once safe in Callao, I +might approach my creditors with a good grace; and, properly handled by +a cunning agent, it was just possible they might accept some easy +composition. The hope recalled me to the bankruptcy. It was strange, I +reflected; often as I had questioned Jim, he had never obliged me with +an answer. In his haste for news about the wreck, my own no less +legitimate curiosity had gone disappointed. Hateful as the thought was +to me, I must return at once and find out where I stood. + +I left my dinner still unfinished, paying for the whole, of course, and +tossing the waiter a gold piece. I was reckless; I knew not what was +mine, and cared not: I must take what I could get and give as I was +able; to rob and to squander seemed the complementary parts of my new +destiny. I walked up Bush Street, whistling, brazening myself to +confront Mamie in the first place, and the world at large and a certain +visionary judge upon a bench in the second. Just outside, I stopped and +lighted a cigar to give me greater countenance; and puffing this and +wearing what (I am sure) was a wretched assumption of braggadocio, I +reappeared on the scene of my disgrace. + +My friend and his wife were finishing a poor meal--rags of old mutton, +the remainder cakes from breakfast eaten cold, and a starveling pot of +coffee. + +"I beg your pardon, Mrs. Pinkerton," said I. "Sorry to inflict my +presence where it cannot be desired; but there is a piece of business +necessary to be discussed." + +"Pray do not consider me," said Mamie, rising, and she sailed into the +adjoining bedroom. + +Jim watched her go and shook his head; he looked miserably old and ill. + +"What is it now?" he asked. + +"Perhaps you remember you answered none of my questions," said I. + +"Your questions?" faltered Jim. + +"Even so, Jim; my questions," I repeated. "I put questions as well as +yourself; and however little I may have satisfied Mamie with my answers, +I beg to remind you that you gave me none at all." + +"You mean about the bankruptcy?" asked Jim. + +I nodded. + +He writhed in his chair. "The straight truth is, I was ashamed," he +said. "I was trying to dodge you. I've been playing fast and loose with +you, Loudon; I've deceived you from the first, I blush to own it. And +here you came home and put the very question I was fearing. Why did we +bust so soon? Your keen business eye had not deceived you. That's the +point, that's my shame; that's what killed me this afternoon when Mamie +was treating you so, and my conscience was telling me all the time, +'Thou art the man.'" + +"What was it, Jim?" I asked. + +"What I had been at all the time, Loudon," he wailed; "and I don't know +how I'm to look you in the face and say it, after my duplicity. It was +stocks," he added in a whisper. + +"And you were afraid to tell me that!" I cried. "You poor, old, +cheerless dreamer! what would it matter what you did or didn't? Can't +you see we're doomed? And anyway, that's not my point. It's how I stand +that I want to know. There is a particular reason. Am I clear? Have I a +certificate, or what have I to do to get one? And when will it be dated? +You can't think what hangs by it!" + +"That's the worst of all," said Jim, like a man in a dream; "I can't see +how to tell him!" + +"What do you mean?" I cried, a small pang of terror at my heart. + +"I'm afraid I sacrificed you, Loudon," he said, looking at me pitifully. + +"Sacrificed me?" I repeated. "How? What do you mean by sacrifice?" + +"I know it'll shock your delicate self-respect," he said; "but what was +I to do? Things looked so bad. The receiver--" (as usual, the name stuck +in his throat, and he began afresh). "There was a lot of talk, the +reporters were after me already; there was the trouble, and all about +the Mexican business; and I got scared right out, and I guess I lost my +head. You weren't there, you see, and that was my temptation." + +I did not know how long he might thus beat about the bush with dreadful +hintings, and I was already beside myself with terror. What had he done? +I saw he had been tempted; I knew from his letters that he was in no +condition to resist. How had he sacrificed the absent? + +"Jim," I said, "you must speak right out. I've got all that I can +carry." + +"Well," he said--"I know it was a liberty--I made it out you were no +business man, only a stone-broke painter; that half the time you didn't +know anything, anyway, particularly money and accounts. I said you never +could be got to understand whose was whose. I had to say that because of +some entries in the books----" + +"For God's sake," I cried, "put me out of this agony! What did you +accuse me of?" + +"Accuse you of?" repeated Jim. "Of what I'm telling you. And there being +no deed of partnership, I made out you were only a kind of clerk that I +called a partner just to give you taffy; and so I got you ranked a +creditor on the estate for your wages and the money you had lent. +And----" + +I believe I reeled. "A creditor!" I roared; "a creditor! I'm not in the +bankruptcy at all?" + +"No," said Jim. "I know it was a liberty----" + +"O, damn your liberty! read that," I cried, dashing the letter before +him on the table, "and call in your wife, and be done with eating this +truck"--as I spoke I slung the cold mutton in the empty grate--"and +let's all go and have a champagne supper. I've dined--I'm sure I don't +remember what I had; I'd dine again ten scores of times upon a night +like this. Read it, you blazing ass! I'm not insane.--Here, Mamie," I +continued, opening the bedroom door, "come out and make it up with me, +and go and kiss your husband; and I'll tell you what, after the supper, +let's go to some place where there's a band, and I'll waltz with you +till sunrise." + +"What does it all mean?" cried Jim. + +"It means we have a champagne supper to-night, and all go to Vapor +Valley or to Monterey to-morrow," said I.--"Mamie, go and get your +things on; and you, Jim, sit down right where you are, take a sheet of +paper, and tell Franklin Dodge to go to Texas.--Mamie, you were right, +my dear; I was rich all the time, and didn't know it." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +TRAVELS WITH A SHYSTER + + +The absorbing and disastrous adventure of the _Flying Scud_ was now +quite ended; we had dashed into these deep waters and we had escaped +again to starve; we had been ruined and were saved, had quarrelled and +made up; there remained nothing but to sing _Te Deum_, draw a line, and +begin on a fresh page of my unwritten diary. I do not pretend that I +recovered all I had lost with Mamie, it would have been more than I had +merited; and I had certainly been more uncommunicative than became +either the partner or the friend. But she accepted the position +handsomely; and during the week that I now passed with them, both she +and Jim had the grace to spare me questions. It was to Calistoga that we +went; there was some rumour of a Napa land-boom at the moment, the +possibility of stir attracted Jim, and he informed me he would find a +certain joy in looking on, much as Napoleon on St. Helena took a +pleasure to read military works. The field of his ambition was quite +closed; he was done with action, and looked forward to a ranch in a +mountain dingle, a patch of corn, a pair of kine, a leisurely and +contemplative age in the green shade of forests. "Just let me get down +on my back in a hayfield," said he, "and you'll find there's no more +snap to me than that much putty." + +And for two days the perfervid being actually rested. The third, he was +observed in consultation with the local editor, and owned he was in two +minds about purchasing the press and paper. "It's a kind of a hold for +an idle man," he said pleadingly; "and if the section was to open up +the way it ought to, there might be dollars in the thing." On the fourth +day he was gone till dinner-time alone; on the fifth we made a long +picnic drive to the fresh field of enterprise; and the sixth was passed +entirely in the preparation of prospectuses. The pioneer of M'Bride City +was already upright and self-reliant, as of yore; the fire rekindled in +his eye, the ring restored to his voice; a charger sniffing battle and +saying "ha-ha" among the spears. On the seventh morning we signed a deed +of partnership, for Jim would not accept a dollar of my money otherwise; +and having once more engaged myself--or that mortal part of me, my +purse--among the wheels of his machinery, I returned alone to San +Francisco and took quarters in the Palace Hotel. + +The same night I had Nares to dinner. His sunburnt face, his queer and +personal strain of talk, recalled days that were scarce over and that +seemed already distant. Through the music of the band outside, and the +chink and clatter of the dining-room, it seemed to me as if I heard the +foaming of the surf and the voices of the seabirds about Midway Island. +The bruises on our hands were not yet healed; and there we sat, waited +on by elaborate darkies, eating pompino and drinking iced champagne. + +"Think of our dinners on the _Norah_, captain, and then oblige me by +looking round the room for contrast." + +He took the scene in slowly. "Yes, it is like a dream," he said: "like +as if the darkies were really about as big as dimes; and a great big +scuttle might open up there, and Johnson stick in a great big head and +shoulders, and cry, 'Eight bells!'--and the whole thing vanish." + +"Well, it's the other thing that has done that," I replied. "It's all +bygone now, all dead and buried. Amen! say I." + +"I don't know that, Mr. Dodd; and to tell you the fact, I don't believe +it," said Nares. "There's more _Flying Scud_ in the oven; and the +baker's name, I take it, is Bellairs. He tackled me the day we came in: +sort of a razee of poor old humanity--jury clothes--full new suit of +pimples: knew him at once from your description. I let him pump me till +I saw his game. He knows a good deal that we don't know, a good deal +that we do, and suspects the balance. There's trouble brewing for +somebody." + +I was surprised I had not thought of this before. Bellairs had been +behind the scenes; he had known Dickson; he knew the flight of the crew; +it was hardly possible but what he should suspect; it was certain if he +suspected that he would seek to trade on the suspicion. And sure enough, +I was not yet dressed the next morning ere the lawyer was knocking at my +door. I let him in, for I was curious; and he, after some ambiguous +prolegomena, roundly proposed I should go shares with him. + +"Shares in what?" I inquired. + +"If you will allow me to clothe my idea in a somewhat vulgar form," said +he, "I might ask you, did you go to Midway for your health?" + +"I don't know that I did," I replied. + +"Similarly, Mr. Dodd, you may be sure I would never have taken the +present step without influential grounds," pursued the lawyer. +"Intrusion is foreign to my character. But you and I, sir, are engaged +on the same ends. If we can continue to work the thing in company, I +place at your disposal my knowledge of the law and a considerable +practice in delicate negotiations similar to this. Should you refuse to +consent, you might find in me a formidable and"--he hesitated--"and to +my own regret, perhaps a dangerous competitor." + +"Did you get this by heart?" I asked genially. + +"I advise _you_ to!" he said, with a sudden sparkle of temper and +menace, instantly gone, instantly succeeded by fresh cringing. "I assure +you, sir, I arrive in the character of a friend, and I believe you +underestimate my information. If I may instance an example, I am +acquainted to the last dime with what you made (or rather lost), and I +know you have since cashed a considerable draft on London." + +"What do you infer?" I asked. + +"I know where that draft came from," he cried, wincing back like one who +has greatly dared, and instantly regrets the venture. + +"So?" said I. + +"You forget I was Mr. Dickson's confidential agent," he explained. "You +had his address, Mr. Dodd. We were the only two that he communicated +with in San Francisco. You see my deductions are quite obvious; you see +how open and frank I deal with you, as I should wish to do with any +gentleman with whom I was conjoined in business. You see how much I +know; and it can scarcely escape your strong common-sense how much +better it would be if I knew all. You cannot hope to get rid of me at +this time of day; I have my place in the affair, I cannot be shaken off; +I am, if you will excuse a rather technical pleasantry, an encumbrance +on the estate. The actual harm I can do I leave you to valuate for +yourself. But without going so far, Mr. Dodd, and without in any way +inconveniencing myself, I could make things very uncomfortable. For +instance, Mr. Pinkerton's liquidation. You and I know, sir--and you +better than I--on what a large fund you draw. Is Mr. Pinkerton in the +thing at all? It was you only who knew the address, and you were +concealing it. Suppose I should communicate with Mr. Pinkerton----" + +"Look here!" I interrupted, "communicate with him (if you will permit me +to clothe my idea in a vulgar shape) till you are blue in the face. +There is only one person with whom I refuse to allow you to communicate +further, and that is myself. Good-morning." + +He could not conceal his rage, disappointment, and surprise; and in the +passage (I have no doubt) was shaken by St. Vitus. + +I was disgusted by this interview; it struck me hard to be suspected on +all hands, and to hear again from this trafficker what I had heard +already from Jim's wife; and yet my strongest impression was different, +and might rather be described as an impersonal fear. There was something +against nature in the man's craven impudence; it was as though a lamb +had butted me; such daring at the hands of such a dastard implied +unchangeable resolve, a great pressure of necessity, and powerful means. +I thought of the unknown Carthew, and it sickened me to see this ferret +on his trail. + +Upon inquiry I found the lawyer was but just disbarred for some +malpractice, and the discovery added excessively to my disquiet. Here +was a rascal without money or the means of making it, thrust out of the +doors of his own trade, publicly shamed, and doubtless in a deuce of a +bad temper with the universe. Here, on the other hand, was a man with a +secret--rich, terrified, practically in hiding--who had been willing to +pay ten thousand pounds for the bones of the _Flying Scud_. I slipped +insensibly into a mental alliance with the victim. The business weighed +on me all day long; I was wondering how much the lawyer knew, how much +he guessed, and when he would open his attack. + +Some of these problems are unsolved to this day; others were soon made +clear. Where he got Carthew's name is still a mystery; perhaps some +sailor on the _Tempest_, perhaps my own sea-lawyer served him for a +tool; but I was actually at his elbow when he learned the address. It +fell so. One evening when I had an engagement, and was killing time +until the hour, I chanced to walk in the court of the hotel while the +band played. The place was bright as day with the electric light, and I +recognised, at some distance among the loiterers, the person of Bellairs +in talk with a gentleman whose face appeared familiar. It was certainly +some one I had seen, and seen recently; but who or where I knew not. A +porter standing hard by gave me the necessary hint. The stranger was an +English navy man invalided home from Honolulu, where he had left his +ship; indeed, it was only from the change of clothes and the effects of +sickness that I had not immediately recognised my friend and +correspondent, Lieutenant Sebright. + +The conjunction of these planets seeming ominous, I drew near; but it +seemed Bellairs had done his business; he vanished in the crowd, and I +found my officer alone. + +"Do you know whom you have been talking to, Mr. Sebright?" I began. + +"No," said he; "I don't know him from Adam. Anything wrong?" + +"He is a disreputable lawyer, recently disbarred," said I. "I wish I had +seen you in time. I trust you told him nothing about Carthew?" + +He flushed to his ears. "I'm awfully sorry," he said. "He seemed civil, +and I wanted to get rid of him. It was only the address he asked." + +"And you gave it?" I cried. + +"I'm really awfully sorry," said Sebright. "I'm afraid I did." + +"God forgive you!" was my only comment, and I turned my back upon the +blunderer. + +The fat was in the fire now: Bellairs had the address, and I was the +more deceived or Carthew would have news of him. So strong was this +impression, and so painful, that the next morning I had the curiosity to +pay the lawyer's den a visit. An old woman was scrubbing the stair, and +the board was down. + +"Lawyer Bellairs?" said the old woman; "gone East this morning. There's +Lawyer Dean next block up." + +I did not trouble Lawyer Dean, but walked slowly back to my hotel, +ruminating as I went. The image of the old woman washing that desecrated +stair had struck my fancy; it seemed that all the water-supply of the +city and all the soap in the State would scarce suffice to cleanse it, +it had been so long a clearing-house of dingy secrets and a factory of +sordid fraud. And now the corner was untenanted; some judge, like a +careful housewife, had knocked down the web; and the bloated spider was +scuttling elsewhere after new victims. I had of late (as I have said) +insensibly taken sides with Carthew; now when his enemy was at his +heels, my interest grew more warm; and I began to wonder if I could not +help. The drama of the _Flying Scud_ was entering on a new phase. It had +been singular from the first: it promised an extraordinary conclusion; +and I, who had paid so much to learn the beginning, might pay a little +more and see the end. I lingered in San Francisco, indemnifying myself +after the hardships of the cruise, spending money, regretting it, +continually promising departure for the morrow. Why not go indeed, and +keep a watch upon Bellairs? If I missed him, there was no harm done, I +was the nearer Paris. If I found and kept his trail, it was hard if I +could not put some stick in his machinery, and at the worst I could +promise myself interesting scenes and revelations. + +In such a mixed humour, I made up what it pleases me to call my mind, +and once more involved myself in the story of Carthew and the _Flying +Scud_. The same night I wrote a letter of farewell to Jim, and one of +anxious warning to Dr. Urquart, begging him to set Carthew on his guard; +the morrow saw me in the ferry-boat; and ten days later, I was walking +the hurricane-deck on the _City of Denver_. By that time my mind was +pretty much made down again, its natural condition: I told myself that I +was bound for Paris or Fontainebleau to resume the study of the arts; +and I thought no more of Carthew or Bellairs, or only to smile at my own +fondness. The one I could not serve, even if I wanted; the other I had +no means of finding, even if I could have at all influenced him after he +was found. + +And for all that, I was close on the heels of an absurd adventure. My +neighbour at table that evening was a 'Frisco man whom I knew slightly. +I found he had crossed the plains two days in front of me, and this was +the first steamer that had left New York for Europe since his arrival. +Two days before me meant a day before Bellairs; and dinner was scarce +done before I was closeted with the purser. + +"Bellairs?" he repeated. "Not in the saloon, I am sure. He may be in the +second class. The lists are not made out, but--Hullo! 'Harry D. +Bellairs?' That's the name? He's there right enough." + +And the next morning I saw him on the forward deck, sitting in a chair, +a book in his hand, a shabby puma skin rug about his knees: the picture +of respectable decay. Off and on, I kept him in my eye. He read a good +deal, he stood and looked upon the sea, he talked occasionally with his +neighbours, and once when a child fell he picked it up and soothed it. I +damned him in my heart; the book, which I was sure he did not read--the +sea, to which I was ready to take oath he was indifferent--the child, +whom I was certain he would as leave have tossed overboard--all seemed +to me elements in a theatrical performance; and I made no doubt he was +already nosing after the secrets of his fellow-passengers. I took no +pains to conceal myself, my scorn for the creature being as strong as my +disgust. But he never looked my way, and it was night before I learned +he had observed me. + +I was smoking by the engine-room door, for the air was a little sharp, +when a voice rose close beside me in the darkness. + +"I beg your pardon, Mr. Dodd," it said. + +"That you, Bellairs?" I replied. + +"A single word, sir. Your presence on this ship has no connection with +our interview?" he asked. "You have no idea, Mr. Dodd, of returning upon +your determination?" + +"None," said I; and then, seeing he still lingered, I was polite enough +to add "Good-evening"; at which he sighed and went away. + +The next day he was there again with the chair and the puma skin; read +his book and looked at the sea with the same constancy; and though there +was no child to be picked up, I observed him to attend repeatedly on a +sick woman. Nothing fosters suspicion like the act of watching; a man +spied upon can hardly blow his nose but we accuse him of designs; and I +took an early opportunity to go forward and see the woman for myself. +She was poor, elderly, and painfully plain; I stood abashed at the +sight, felt I owed Bellairs amends for the injustice of my thoughts, +and, seeing him standing by the rail in his usual attitude of +contemplation, walked up and addressed him by name. + +"You seem very fond of the sea," said I. + +"I may really call it a passion, Mr. Dodd," he replied. "'_And the tall +cataract haunted me like a passion_,'" he quoted. "I never weary of the +sea, sir. This is my first ocean voyage. I find it a glorious +experience." And once more my disbarred lawyer dropped into poetry: +"_Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll!_'" + +Though I had learned the piece in my reading-book at school, I came into +the world a little too late on the one hand--and I daresay a little too +early on the other--to think much of Byron; and the sonorous verse, +prodigiously well delivered, struck me with surprise. + +"You are fond of poetry too?" I asked. + +"I am a great reader," he replied. "At one time I had begun to amass +quite a small but well-selected library; and when that was scattered, I +still managed to preserve a few volumes--chiefly of pieces designed for +recitation--which have been my travelling companions." + +"Is that one of them?" I asked, pointing to the volume in his hand. + +"No, sir," he replied, showing me a translation of the "Sorrows of +Werther"; "that is a novel I picked up some time ago. It has afforded me +great pleasure, though immoral." + +"O, immoral!" cried I, indignant as usual at any complication of art and +ethics. + +"Surely you cannot deny that, sir, if you know the book," he said. "The +passion is illicit, although certainly drawn with a good deal of pathos. +It is not a work one could possibly put into the hands of a lady; which +is to be regretted on all accounts, for I do not know how it may strike +you; but it seems to me--as a depiction, if I make myself clear--to rise +high above its compeers--even famous compeers. Even in Scott, Dickens, +Thackeray, or Hawthorne, the sentiment of love appears to me to be +frequently done less justice to." + +"You are expressing a very general opinion," said I. + +"Is that so, indeed, sir?" he exclaimed, with unmistakable excitement. +"Is the book well known? and who was _Go-eath_? I am interested in that, +because upon the title-page the usual initials are omitted, and it runs +simply 'by _Go-eath_.' Was he an author of distinction? Has he written +other works?" + +Such was our first interview, the first of many; and in all he showed +the same attractive qualities and defects. His taste for literature was +native and unaffected; his sentimentality, although extreme and a +thought ridiculous, was plainly genuine. I wondered at my own innocent +wonder. I knew that Homer nodded, that Caesar had compiled a jest-book, +that Turner lived by preference the life of Puggy Booth, that Shelley +made paper boats, and Wordsworth wore green spectacles! and with all +this mass of evidence before me, I had expected Bellairs to be entirely +of one piece, subdued to what he worked in, a spy all through. As I +abominated the man's trade, so I had expected to detest the man himself; +and behold, I liked him. Poor devil! he was essentially a man on wires, +all sensibility and tremor, brimful of a cheap poetry, not without +parts, quite without courage. His boldness was despair; the gulf behind +him thrust him on; he was one of those who might commit a murder rather +than confess the theft of a postage-stamp. I was sure that his coming +interview with Carthew rode his imagination like a nightmare; when the +thought crossed his mind, I used to think I knew of it, and that the +qualm appeared in his face visibly. Yet he would never flinch--necessity +stalking at his back, famine (his old pursuer) talking in his ear; and I +used to wonder whether I more admired or more despised this quivering +heroism for evil. The image that occurred to me after his visit was +just; I had been butted by a lamb, and the phase of life that I was now +studying might be called the Revolt of a Sheep. + +It could be said of him that he had learned in sorrow what he taught in +song--or wrong; and his life was that of one of his victims. He was born +in the back parts of the State of New York; his father a farmer, who +became subsequently bankrupt and went West. The lawyer and money-lender +who had ruined this poor family seems to have conceived in the end a +feeling of remorse; he turned the father out indeed, but he offered, in +compensation, to charge himself with one of the sons: and Harry, the +fifth child, and already sickly, was chosen to be left behind. He made +himself useful in the office: picked up the scattered rudiments of an +education; read right and left; attended and debated at the Young Men's +Christian Association and in all his early years was the model for a +good story-book. His landlady's daughter was his bane. He showed me her +photograph; she was a big, handsome, dashing, dressy, vulgar hussy, +without character, without tenderness, without mind, and (as the result +proved) without virtue. The sickly and timid boy was in the house; he +was handy; when she was otherwise unoccupied, she used and played with +him--Romeo and Cressida; till in that dreary life of a poor boy in a +country town, she grew to be the light of his days and the subject of +his dreams. He worked hard, like Jacob, for a wife; he surpassed his +patron in sharp practice; he was made head clerk; and the same night, +encouraged by a hundred freedoms, depressed by the sense of his youth +and his infirmities, he offered marriage and was received with laughter. +Not a year had passed, before his master, conscious of growing +infirmities, took him for a partner. He proposed again; he was accepted; +led two years of troubled married life; and awoke one morning to find +his wife had run away with a dashing drummer, and had left him heavily +in debt. The debt, and not the drummer, was supposed to be the cause of +this hegira; she had concealed her liabilities, they were on the point +of bursting forth, she was weary of Bellairs; and she took the drummer +as she might have taken a cab. The blow disabled her husband, his +partner was dead; he was now alone in the business, for which he was no +longer fit; the debts hampered him; bankruptcy followed; and he fled +from city to city, falling daily into lower practice. It is to be +considered that he had been taught, and had learned as a delightful +duty, a kind of business whose highest merit is to escape the +commentaries of the bench: that of the usurious lawyer in a county town. +With this training, he was now shot, a penniless stranger, into the +deeper gulfs of cities; and the result is scarce a thing to be surprised +at. + +"Have you heard of your wife again?" I asked. + +He displayed a pitiful agitation. "I am afraid you will think ill of +me," he said. + +"Have you taken her back?" I asked. + +"No, sir. I trust I have too much self-respect," he answered, "and, at +least, I was never tempted. She won't come, she dislikes, she seems to +have conceived a positive distaste for me, and yet I was considered an +indulgent husband." + +"You are still in relations, then?" I asked. + +"I place myself in your hands, Mr. Dodd," he replied. "The world is +very hard; I have found it bitter hard myself--bitter hard to live. How +much worse for a woman, and one who has placed herself (by her own +misconduct, I am far from denying that) in so unfortunate a position!" + +"In short, you support her?" I suggested. + +"I cannot deny it. I practically do," he admitted. "It has been a +millstone round my neck. But I think she is grateful. You can see for +yourself." + +He handed me a letter in a sprawling, ignorant hand, but written with +violet ink on fine, pink paper, with a monogram. It was very foolishly +expressed, and I thought (except for a few obvious cajoleries) very +heartless and greedy in meaning. The writer said she had been sick, +which I disbelieved; declared the last remittance was all gone in +doctor's bills, for which I took the liberty of substituting dress, +drink, and monograms; and prayed for an increase, which I could only +hope had been denied her. + +"I think she is really grateful?" he asked, with some eagerness, as I +returned it. + +"I daresay," said I. "Has she any claim on you?" + +"O no, sir. I divorced her," he replied. "I have a very strong sense of +self-respect in such matters, and I divorced her immediately." + +"What sort of life is she leading now?" I asked. + +"I will not deceive you, Mr. Dodd. I do not know, I make a point of not +knowing; it appears more dignified. I have been very harshly +criticised," he added, sighing. + +It will be seen that I had fallen into an ignominious intimacy with the +man I had gone out to thwart. My pity for the creature, his admiration +for myself, his pleasure in my society, which was clearly unassumed, +were the bonds with which I was fettered; perhaps I should add, in +honesty, my own ill-regulated interest in the phases of life and human +character. The fact is (at least) that we spent hours together daily, +and that I was nearly as much on the forward deck as in the saloon. Yet +all the while I could never forget he was a shabby trickster, embarked +that very moment in a dirty enterprise. I used to tell myself at first +that our acquaintance was a stroke of art, and that I was somehow +fortifying Carthew. I told myself, I say; but I was no such fool as to +believe it, even then. In these circumstances I displayed the two chief +qualities of my character on the largest scale--my helplessness and my +instinctive love of procrastination--and fell upon a course of action so +ridiculous that I blush when I recall it. + +We reached Liverpool one forenoon, the rain falling thickly and +insidiously on the filthy town. I had no plans, beyond a sensible +unwillingness to let my rascal escape; and I ended by going to the same +inn with him, dining with him, walking with him in the wet streets, and +hearing with him in a penny gaff that venerable piece, _The +Ticket-of-Leave Man_. It was one of his first visits to a theatre, +against which places of entertainment he had a strong prejudice; and his +innocent, pompous talk, innocent old quotations, and innocent reverence +for the character of Hawkshaw delighted me beyond relief. In charity to +myself, I dwell upon and perhaps exaggerate my pleasures. I have need of +all conceivable excuses, when I confess that I went to bed without one +word upon the matter of Carthew, but not without having covenanted with +my rascal for a visit to Chester the next day. At Chester we did the +Cathedral, walked on the walls, discussed Shakespeare and the musical +glasses--and made a fresh engagement for the morrow. I do not know, and +I am glad to have forgotten, how long these travels were continued. We +visited at least, by singular zig-zags, Stratford, Warwick, Coventry, +Gloucester, Bristol, Bath, and Wells. At each stage we spoke dutifully +of the scene and its associations; I sketched, the Shyster spouted +poetry and copied epitaphs. Who could doubt we were the usual Americans, +travelling with a design of self-improvement? Who was to guess that one +was a black-mailer, trembling to approach the scene of action--the other +a helpless, amateur detective, waiting on events? + +It is unnecessary to remark that none occurred, or none the least +suitable with my design of protecting Carthew. Two trifles, indeed, +completed though they scarcely changed my conception of the Shyster. The +first was observed in Gloucester, where we spent Sunday, and I proposed +we should hear service in the Cathedral. To my surprise, the creature +had an _ism_ of his own, to which he was loyal; and he left me to go +alone to the Cathedral--or perhaps not to go at all--and stole off down +a deserted alley to some Bethel or Ebenezer of the proper shade. When we +met again at lunch, I rallied him, and he grew restive. + +"You need employ no circumlocutions with me, Mr. Dodd," he said +suddenly. "You regard my behaviour from an unfavourable point of view: +you regard me, I much fear, as hypocritical." + +I was somewhat confused by the attack. "You know what I think of your +trade," I replied lamely and coarsely. + +"Excuse me, if I seem to press the subject," he continued; "but if you +think my life erroneous, would you have me neglect the means of grace? +Because you consider me in the wrong on one point, would you have me +place myself in the wrong in all? Surely, sir, the church is for the +sinner." + +"Did you ask a blessing on your present enterprise?" I sneered. + +He had a bad attack of St. Vitus, his face was changed, and his eyes +flashed. "I will tell you what I did," he cried. "I prayed for an +unfortunate man and a wretched woman whom he tries to support." + +I cannot pretend that I found any repartee. + +The second incident was at Bristol, where I lost sight of my gentleman +some hours. From this eclipse he returned to me with thick speech, +wandering footsteps, and a back all whitened with plaster. I had half +expected, yet I could have wept to see it. All disabilities were piled +on that weak back--domestic misfortune, nervous disease, a displeasing +exterior, empty pockets, and the slavery of vice. + +I will never deny that our prolonged conjunction was the result of +double cowardice. Each was afraid to leave the other, each was afraid to +speak, or knew not what to say. Save for my ill-judged allusion at +Gloucester, the subject uppermost in both our minds was buried. Carthew, +Stallbridge-le-Carthew, Stallbridge-Minster--which we had long since +(and severally) identified to be the nearest station--even the name of +Dorsetshire was studiously avoided. And yet we were making progress all +the time, tacking across broad England like an unweatherly vessel on a +wind; approaching our destination, not openly, but by a sort of flying +sap. And at length, I can scarce tell how, we were set down by a +dilatory butt-end of local train on the untenanted platform of +Stallbridge-Minster. + +The town was ancient and compact--a domino of tiled houses and walled +gardens, dwarfed by the disproportionate bigness of the church. From the +midst of the thoroughfare which divided it in half, fields and trees were +visible at either end; and through the sally-port of every street there +flowed in from the country a silent invasion of green grass. Bees and +birds appeared to make the majority of the inhabitants; every garden had +its row of hives, the eaves of every house were plastered with the nests +of swallows, and the pinnacles of the church were flickered about all day +long by a multitude of wings. The town was of Roman foundation; and as I +looked out that afternoon from the low windows of the inn, I should +scarce have been surprised to see a centurion coming up the street with a +fatigue draft of legionaries. In short, Stallbridge-Minster was one of +those towns which appear to be maintained by England for the instruction +and delight of the American rambler; to which he seems guided by an +instinct not less surprising than the setter's; and which he visits and +quits with equal enthusiasm. + +I was not at all in the humour of the tourist. I had wasted weeks of +time and accomplished nothing; we were on the eve of the engagement, and +I had neither plans nor allies. I had thrust myself into the trade of +private providence, and amateur detective; I was spending money and I +was reaping disgrace. All the time I kept telling myself that I must at +least speak; that this ignominious silence should have been broken long +ago, and must be broken now. I should have broken it when he first +proposed to come to Stallbridge-Minster; I should have broken it in the +train; I should break it there and then, on the inn doorstep, as the +omnibus rolled off. I turned toward him at the thought; he seemed to +wince, the words died on my lips, and I proposed instead that we should +visit the Minster. + +While we were engaged upon this duty, it came on to rain in a manner +worthy of the tropics. The vault reverberated; every gargoyle instantly +poured its full discharge; we waded back to the inn, ankle-deep in +_impromptu_ brooks; and the rest of the afternoon sat weatherbound, +hearkening to the sonorous deluge. For two hours I talked of indifferent +matters, laboriously feeding the conversation; for two hours my mind was +quite made up to do my duty instantly--and at each particular instant I +postponed it till the next. To screw up my faltering courage, I called +at dinner for some sparkling wine. It proved, when it came, to be +detestable; I could not put it to my lips; and Bellairs, who had as much +palate as a weevil, was left to finish it himself. Doubtless the wine +flushed him; doubtless he may have observed my embarrassment of the +afternoon; doubtless he was conscious that we were approaching a crisis, +and that that evening, if I did not join with him, I must declare myself +an open enemy. At least he fled. Dinner was done; this was the time +when I had bound myself to break my silence; no more delays were to be +allowed, no more excuses received. I went upstairs after some tobacco, +which I felt to be a mere necessity in the circumstances and when I +returned, the man was gone. The waiter told me he had left the house. + +The rain still plumped, like a vast shower-bath, over the deserted town. +The night was dark and windless: the street lit glimmeringly from end to +end, lamps, house-windows, and the reflections in the rain-pools all +contributing. From a public-house on the other side of the way, I heard +a harp twang and a doleful voice upraised in the "Larboard Watch," "The +Anchor's Weighed," and other naval ditties. Where had my shyster +wandered? In all likelihood to that lyrical tavern; there was no choice +of diversion; in comparison with Stallbridge-Minster on a rainy night a +sheepfold would seem gay. + +Again I passed in review the points of my interview, on which I was +always constantly resolved so long as my adversary was absent from the +scene, and again they struck me as inadequate. From this dispiriting +exercise I turned to the native amusements of the inn coffee-room, and +studied for some time the mezzotints that frowned upon the wall. The +railway guide, after showing me how soon I could leave Stallbridge and +how quickly I could reach Paris, failed to hold my attention. An +illustrated advertisement-book of hotels brought me very low indeed; and +when it came to the local paper, I could have wept. At this point I +found a passing solace in a copy of Whitaker's Almanack, and obtained in +fifty minutes more information than I have yet been able to use. + +Then a fresh apprehension assailed me. Suppose Bellairs had given me the +slip? Suppose he was now rolling on the road to Stallbridge-le-Carthew? +or perhaps there already and laying before a very white-laced auditor +his threats and propositions? A hasty person might have instantly +pursued. Whatever I am, I am not hasty, and I was aware of three grave +objections. In the first place, I could not be certain that Bellairs was +gone. In the second, I had no taste whatever for a long drive at that +hour of the night and in so merciless a rain. In the third, I had no idea +how I was to get admitted if I went, and no idea what I should say if I +got admitted. "In short," I concluded, "the whole situation is the merest +farce. You have thrust yourself in where you had no business and have no +power. You would be quite as useful in San Francisco; far happier in +Paris; and being (by the wrath of God) at Stallbridge-Minster, the wisest +thing is to go quietly to bed." On the way to my room I saw (in a flash) +that which I ought to have done long ago, and which it was now too late +to think of--written to Carthew, I mean, detailing the facts and +describing Bellairs, letting him defend himself if he were able, and +giving him time to flee if he were not. It was the last blow to my +self-respect; and I flung myself into my bed with contumely. + +I have no guess what hour it was when I was wakened by the entrance of +Bellairs carrying a candle. He had been drunk, for he was bedaubed with +mire from head to foot; but he was now sober, and under the empire of +some violent emotion which he controlled with difficulty. He trembled +visibly; and more than once, during the interview which followed, tears +suddenly and silently overflowed his cheeks. + +"I have to ask your pardon, sir, for this untimely visit," he said. "I +make no defence, I have no excuse, I have disgraced myself, I am +properly punished; I appear before you to appeal to you in mercy for the +most trifling aid, or, God help me! I fear I may go mad." + +"What on earth is wrong?" I asked. + +"I have been robbed," he said. "I have no defence to offer; it was of my +own fault, I am properly punished." + +"But, gracious goodness me!" I cried, "who is there to rob you in a +place like this?" + +"I can form no opinion," he replied. "I have no idea. I was lying in a +ditch inanimate. This is a degrading confession, sir; I can only say in +self-defence that perhaps (in your good-nature) you have made yourself +partly responsible for my shame. I am not used to these rich wines." + +"In what form was your money? Perhaps it may be traced," I suggested. + +"It was in English sovereigns. I changed it in New York; I got very good +exchange," he said, and then, with a momentary outbreak, "God in heaven, +how I toiled for it!" he cried. + +"That doesn't sound encouraging," said I. "It may be worth while to +apply to the police, but it doesn't sound a hopeful case." + +"And I have no hope in that direction," said Bellairs. "My hopes, Mr. +Dodd, are all fixed upon yourself. I could easily convince you that a +small, a very small advance, would be in the nature of an excellent +investment; but I prefer to rely on your humanity. Our acquaintance +began on an unusual footing; but you have now known me for some time, we +have been some time--I was going to say we had been almost intimate. +Under the impulse of instinctive sympathy, I have bared my heart to you, +Mr. Dodd, as I have done to few--and I believe--I trust--I may say that +I feel sure--you heard me with a kindly sentiment. This is what brings +me to your side at this most inexcusable hour. But put yourself in my +place--how could I sleep--how could I dream of sleeping, in this +blackness of remorse and despair? There was a friend at hand--so I +ventured to think of you; it was instinctive: I fled to your side, as +the drowning man clutches at a straw. These expressions are not +exaggerated, they scarcely serve to express the agitation of my mind. +And think, sir, how easily you can restore me to hope and, I may say, +to reason. A small loan, which shall be faithfully repaid. Five hundred +dollars would be ample." He watched me with burning eyes. "Four hundred +would do. I believe, Mr. Dodd, that I could manage with economy on two." + +"And then you will repay me out of Carthew's pocket?" I said. "I am much +obliged. But I will tell you what I will do: I will see you on board a +steamer, pay your fare through to San Francisco, and place fifty dollars +in the purser's hands, to be given you in New York." + +He drank in my words; his face represented an ecstasy of cunning +thought. I could read there, plain as print, that he but thought to +overreach me. + +"And what am I to do in 'Frisco?" he asked. "I am disbarred, I have no +trade, I cannot dig, to beg----" he paused in the citation. "And you +know that I am not alone," he added, "others depend upon me." + +"I will write to Pinkerton," I returned. "I feel sure he can help you to +some employment, and in the meantime, and for three months after your +arrival, he shall pay to yourself personally, on the first and the +fifteenth, twenty-five dollars." + +"Mr. Dodd, I scarce believe you can be serious in this offer," he +replied. "Have you forgotten the circumstances of the case? Do you know +these people are the magnates of the section? They were spoken of +to-night in the saloon; their wealth must amount to many millions of +dollars in real estate alone; their house is one of the sights of the +locality, and you offer me a bribe of a few hundred!" + +"I offer you no bribe, Mr. Bellairs; I give you alms," I returned. "I +will do nothing to forward you in your hateful business; yet I would not +willingly have you starve." + +"Give me a hundred dollars then, and be done with it," he cried. + +"I will do what I have said, and neither more nor less," said I. + +"Take care," he cried. "You are playing a fool's game; you are making an +enemy for nothing; you will gain nothing by this, I warn you of it!" And +then with one of his changes, "Seventy dollars--only seventy--in mercy, +Mr. Dodd, in common charity. Don't dash the bowl from my lips! You have +a kindly heart. Think of my position, remember my unhappy wife." + +"You should have thought of her before," said I. "I have made my offer, +and I wish to sleep." + +"Is that your last word, sir? Pray consider; pray weigh both sides: my +misery, your own danger. I warn you--I beseech you; measure it well +before you answer," so he half pleaded, half threatened me, with clasped +hands. + +"My first word, and my last," said I. + +The change upon the man was shocking. In the storm of anger that now +shook him, the lees of his intoxication rose again to the surface; his +face was deformed, his words insane with fury; his pantomime, excessive +in itself, was distorted by an access of St. Vitus. + +"You will perhaps allow me to inform you of my cold opinion," he began, +apparently self-possessed, truly bursting with rage: "when I am a +glorified saint, I shall see you howling for a drop of water, and exult +to see you. That your last word! Take it in your face, you spy, you +false friend, you fat hypocrite! I defy, I defy and despise and spit +upon you! I'm on the trail, his trail or yours; I smell blood, I'll +follow it on my hands and knees, I'll starve to follow it! I'll hunt you +down, hunt you, hunt you down! If I were strong, I'd tear your vitals +out, here in this room--tear them out--I'd tear them out! Damn, damn, +damn! You think me weak? I can bite, bite to the blood, bite you, hurt +you, disgrace you ..." + +He was thus incoherently raging when the scene was interrupted by the +arrival of the landlord and inn servants in various degrees of +deshabille, and to them I gave my temporary lunatic in charge. + +"Take him to his room," I said, "he's only drunk." + +These were my words; but I knew better. After all my study of Mr. +Bellairs, one discovery had been reserved for the last moment--that of +his latent and essential madness. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +STALLBRIDGE-LE-CARTHEW + + +Long before I was awake the shyster had disappeared, leaving his bill +unpaid. I did not need to inquire where he was gone, I knew too well, I +knew there was nothing left me but to follow; and about ten in the +morning, set forth in a gig for Stallbridge-le-Carthew. + +The road, for the first quarter of the way, deserts the valley of the +river, and crosses the summit of a chalkdown, grazed over by flocks of +sheep and haunted by innumerable larks. It was a pleasant but a vacant +scene, arousing but not holding the attention; and my mind returned to +the violent passage of the night before. My thought of the man I was +pursuing had been greatly changed. I conceived of him, somewhere in +front of me, upon his dangerous errand, not to be turned aside, not to +be stopped, by either fear or reason. I had called him a ferret; I +conceived him now as a mad dog. Methought he would run, not walk; +methought, as he ran, that he would bark and froth at the lips; +methought, if the great wall of China were to rise across his path, he +would attack it with his nails. + +Presently the road left the down, returned by a precipitous descent into +the valley of the Stall, and ran thenceforward among enclosed fields and +under the continuous shade of trees. I was told we had now entered on +the Carthew property. By and by, a battlemented wall appeared on the +left hand, and a little after I had my first glimpse of the mansion. It +stood in a hollow of a bosky park, crowded, to a degree that surprised +and even displeased me, with huge timber and dense shrubberies of +laurel and rhododendron. Even from this low station and the thronging +neighbourhood of the trees, the pile rose conspicuous like a cathedral. +Behind, as we continued to skirt the park wall, I began to make out a +straggling town of offices which became conjoined to the rear with those +of the home farm. On the left was an ornamental water sailed in by many +swans. On the right extended a flower garden, laid in the old manner, +and at this season of the year as brilliant as stained glass. The front +of the house presented a facade of more than sixty windows, surmounted +by a formal pediment and raised upon a terrace. A wide avenue, part in +gravel, part in turf, and bordered by triple alleys, ran to the great +double gateways. It was impossible to look without surprise on a place +that had been prepared through so many generations, had cost so many +tons of minted gold, and was maintained in order by so great a company +of emulous servants. And yet of these there was no sign but the +perfection of their work. The whole domain was drawn to the line and +weeded like the front plot of some suburban amateur; and I looked in +vain for any belated gardener, and listened in vain for any sounds of +labour. Some lowing of cattle and much calling of birds alone disturbed +the stillness, and even the little hamlet, which clustered at the gates, +appeared to hold its breath in awe of its great neighbour, like a troop +of children who should have strayed into a king's anteroom. + +The "Carthew Arms," the small, but very comfortable inn, was a mere +appendage and outpost of the family whose name it bore. Engraved +portraits of bygone Carthews adorned the walls; Fielding Carthew, +Recorder of the City of London; Major-General John Carthew in uniform, +commanding some military operations; the Right Honourable Bailley +Carthew, Member of Parliament for Stallbridge, standing by a table and +brandishing a document; Singleton Carthew, Esquire, represented in the +foreground of a herd of cattle--doubtless at the desire of his tenantry, +who had made him a compliment of this work of art; and the Venerable +Archdeacon Carthew, D.D., LL.D., A.M., laying his hand on the head of a +little child in a manner highly frigid and ridiculous. So far as my +memory serves me, there were no other pictures in this exclusive +hostelry; and I was not surprised to learn that the landlord was an +ex-butler, the landlady an ex-lady's-maid, from the great house; and +that the bar-parlour was a sort of perquisite of former servants. + +To an American, the sense of the domination of this family over so +considerable a tract of earth was even oppressive; and as I considered +their simple annals, gathered from the legends of the engravings, +surprise began to mingle with my disgust. "Mr. Recorder" doubtless +occupies an honourable post; but I thought that, in the course of so +many generations, one Carthew might have clambered higher. The soldier +had stuck at Major-General; the churchman bloomed unremarked in an +archdeaconry; and though the Right Honourable Bailley seemed to have +sneaked into the Privy Council, I have still to learn what he did when +he had got there. Such vast means, so long a start, and such a modest +standard of achievement, struck in me a strong sense of the dulness of +that race. + +I found that to come to the hamlet and not visit the Hall would be +regarded as a slight. To feed the swans, to see the peacocks and the +Raphaels--for these commonplace people actually possessed two +Raphaels,--to risk life and limb among a famous breed of cattle called +the Carthew Chillinghams, and to do homage to the sire (still living) of +Donibristle, a renowned winner of the Oaks: these, it seemed, were the +inevitable stations of the pilgrimage. I was not so foolish as to +resist, for I might have need, before I was done, of general goodwill; +and two pieces of news fell in which changed my resignation to alacrity. +It appeared, in the first place, that Mr. Norris was from home +"travelling"; in the second, that a visitor had been before me, and +already made the tour of the Carthew curiosities. I thought I knew who +this must be; I was anxious to learn what he had done and seen, and +fortune so far favoured me that the under-gardener singled out to be my +guide had already performed the same function for my predecessor. + +"Yes, sir," he said, "an American gentleman right enough. At least, I +don't think he was quite a gentleman, but a very civil person." + +The person, it seems, had been civil enough to be delighted with the +Carthew Chillinghams, to perform the whole pilgrimage with rising +admiration, and to have almost prostrated himself before the shrine of +Donibristle's sire. + +"He told me, sir," continued the gratified under-gardener, "that he had +often read of the 'stately 'omes of England,' but ours was the first he +had the chance to see. When he came to the 'ead of the long alley, he +fetched his breath. 'This is indeed a lordly domain!' he cries. And it +was natural he should be interested in the place, for it seems Mr. +Carthew had been kind to him in the States. In fact, he seemed a +grateful kind of person, and wonderful taken up with flowers." + +I heard this story with amazement. The phrases quoted told their own +tale; they were plainly from the shyster's mint. A few hours back I had +seen him a mere bedlamite and fit for a strait-waistcoat; he was +penniless in a strange country; it was highly probable he had gone +without breakfast; the absence of Norris must have been a crushing blow; +the man (by all reason) should have been despairing. And now I heard of +him, clothed and in his right mind, deliberate, insinuating, admiring +vistas, smelling flowers, and talking like a book. The strength of +character implied amazed and daunted me. + +"This is curious," I said to the under-gardener; "I have had the +pleasure of some acquaintance with Mr. Carthew myself; and I believe +none of our western friends ever were in England. Who can this person +be? He couldn't--no, that's impossible, he could never have had the +impudence. His name was not Bellairs?" + +"I didn't 'ear the name, sir. Do you know anything against him?" cried +my guide. + +"Well," said I, "he is certainly not the person Carthew would like to +have here in his absence." + +"Good gracious me!" exclaimed the gardener. "He was so pleasant-spoken +too; I thought he was some form of a schoolmaster. Perhaps, sir, you +wouldn't mind going right up to Mr. Denman? I recommended him to Mr. +Denman, when he had done the grounds. Mr. Denman is our butler, sir," he +added. + +The proposal was welcome, particularly as affording me a graceful +retreat from the neighbourhood of the Carthew Chillinghams; and, giving +up our projected circuit, we took a short cut through the shrubbery and +across the bowling-green to the back quarters of the Hall. + +The bowling-green was surrounded by a great hedge of yew, and entered by +an archway in the quick. As we were issuing from this passage, my +conductor arrested me. + +"The Honourable Lady Ann Carthew," he said, in an august whisper. And +looking over his shoulder I was aware of an old lady with a stick, +hobbling somewhat briskly along the garden path. She must have been +extremely handsome in her youth; and even the limp with which she walked +could not deprive her of an unusual and almost menacing dignity of +bearing. Melancholy was impressed besides on every feature, and her +eyes, as she looked straight before her, seemed to contemplate +misfortune. + +"She seems sad," said I, when she had hobbled past and we had resumed +our walk. + +"She enjoy rather poor spirits, sir," responded the under-gardener. "Mr. +Carthew--the old gentleman, I mean--died less than a year ago; Lord +Tillibody, her ladyship's brother, two months after; and then there was +the sad business about the young gentleman. Killed in the 'unting-fleld, +sir; and her ladyship's favourite. The present Mr. Norris has never been +so equally." + +"So I have understood," said I persistently, and (I think) gracefully +pursuing my inquiries and fortifying my position as a family friend. +"Dear, dear, how sad! And has this change--poor Carthew's return, and +all--has this not mended matters?" + +"Well, no, sir, not a sign of it," was the reply. "Worse, we think, than +ever." + +"Dear, dear!" said I again. + +"When Mr. Norris arrived she _did_ seem glad to see him," he pursued, +"and we were all pleased, I'm sure; for no one knows the young gentleman +but what likes him. Ah, sir, it didn't last long! That very night they +had a talk, and fell out or something; her ladyship took on most +painful: it was like old days, but worse. And the next morning Mr. +Norris was off again upon his travels. 'Denman,' he said to Mr. Denman, +'Denman, I'll never come back,' he said, and shook him by the 'and. I +wouldn't be saying all this to a stranger, sir," added my informant, +overcome with a sudden fear lest he had gone too far. + +He had indeed told me much, and much that was unsuspected by himself. On +that stormy night of his return, Carthew had told his story; the old +lady had more upon her mind than mere bereavements; and among the mental +pictures on which she looked, as she walked staring down the path, was +one of Midway Island and the _Flying Scud_. + +Mr. Denman heard my inquiries with discomposure, but informed me the +shyster was already gone. + +"Gone?" cried I. "Then what can he have come for? One thing I can tell +you, it was not to see the house." + +"I don't see it could have been anything else," replied the butler. + +"You may depend upon it, it was," said I. "And whatever it was, he has +got it.--By the way, where is Mr. Carthew at present? I was sorry to +find he was from home." + +"He is engaged in travelling, sir," replied the butler drily. + +"Ah, bravo!" cried I. "I laid a trap for you there, Mr. Denman. Now I +need not ask you; I am sure you did not tell this prying stranger." + +"To be sure not, sir," said the butler. + +I went through the form of "shaking him by the 'and"--like Mr. +Norris--not, however, with genuine enthusiasm. For I had failed +ingloriously to get the address for myself; and I felt a sure conviction +that Bellairs had done better, or he had still been here and still +cultivating Mr. Denman. + +I had escaped the grounds and the cattle; I could not escape the house. +A lady with silver hair, a slender silver voice, and a stream of +insignificant information not to be diverted, led me through the picture +gallery, the music-room, the great dining-room, the long drawing-room, +the Indian room, the theatre, and every corner (as I thought) of that +interminable mansion. There was but one place reserved, the garden-room, +whither Lady Ann had now retired. I paused a moment on the outside of +the door, and smiled to myself. The situation was indeed strange, and +these thin boards divided the secret of the _Flying Scud_. + +All the while, as I went to and fro, I was considering the visit and +departure of Bellairs. That he had got the address, I was quite certain; +that he had not got it by direct questioning, I was convinced; some +ingenuity, some lucky accident, had served him. A similar chance, an +equal ingenuity, was required; or I was left helpless; the ferret must +run down his prey, the great oaks fall, the Raphaels be scattered, the +house let to some stockbroker suddenly made rich, and the name which now +filled the mouths of five or six parishes dwindle to a memory. Strange +that such great matters, so old a mansion, a family so ancient and so +dull, should come to depend for perpetuity upon the intelligence, the +discretion, and the cunning of a Latin-Quarter student! What Bellairs +had done, I must do likewise. Chance or ingenuity, ingenuity or +chance--so I continued to ring the changes as I walked down the avenue, +casting back occasional glances at the red brick facade and the +twinkling windows of the house. How was I to command chance? where was I +to find the ingenuity? + +These reflections brought me to the door of the inn. And here, pursuant +to my policy of keeping well with all men, I immediately smoothed my +brow, and accepted (being the only guest in the house) an invitation to +dine with the family in the bar-parlour. I sat down accordingly with Mr. +Higgs, the ex-butler, Mrs. Higgs, the ex-lady's-maid, and Miss Agnes +Higgs, their frowsy-headed little girl, the least promising and (as the +event showed) the most useful of the lot. The talk ran endlessly on the +great house and the great family; the roast beef, the Yorkshire pudding, +the jam-roll, and the cheddar cheese came and went, and still the stream +flowed on; near four generations of Carthews were touched upon without +eliciting one point of interest; and we had killed Mr. Henry in "the +'unting-field," with a vast elaboration of painful circumstance, and +buried him in the midst of a whole sorrowing county, before I could so +much as manage to bring upon the stage my intimate friend, Mr. Norris. +At the name the ex-butler grew diplomatic, and the ex-lady's-maid +tender. He was the only person of the whole featureless series who +seemed to have accomplished anything worth mention; and his +achievements, poor dog, seemed to have been confined to going to the +devil and leaving some regrets. He had been the image of the Right +Honourable Bailley, one of the lights of that dim house, and a career +of distinction had been predicted of him in consequence, almost from the +cradle. But before he was out of long clothes the cloven foot began to +show; he proved to be no Carthew, developed a taste for low pleasures +and bad company, went birdnesting with a stable-boy before he was +eleven, and when he was near twenty, and might have been expected to +display at least some rudiments of the family gravity, rambled the +country over with a knapsack, making sketches and keeping company in +wayside inns. He had no pride about him, I was told; he would sit down +with any man; and it was somewhat woundingly implied that I was indebted +to this peculiarity for my own acquaintance with the hero. Unhappily, +Mr. Norris was not only eccentric, he was fast. His debts were still +remembered at the University; still more, it appeared, the highly +humorous circumstances attending his expulsion. "He was always fond of +his jest," commented Mrs. Higgs. + +"That he were," observed her lord. + +But it was after he went into the diplomatic service that the real +trouble began. + +"It seems, sir, that he went the pace extraordinary," said the +ex-butler, with a solemn gusto. + +"His debts were somethink awful," said the lady's-maid. "And as nice a +young gentleman all the time as you would wish to see!" + +"When word came to Mr. Carthew's ears the turn-up was 'orrible," +continued Mr. Higgs. "I remember it as if it was yesterday. The bell was +rung after her la'ship was gone, which I answered it myself, supposing +it were the coffee. There was Mr. Carthew on his feet. ''Iggs,' he says, +pointing with his stick, for he had a turn of the gout, 'order the +dog-cart instantly for this son of mine which has disgraced hisself.' +Mr. Norris say nothink: he sit there with his 'ead down, making belief +to be looking at a walnut. You might have bowled me over with a straw," +said Mr. Higgs. + +"Had he done anything very bad?" I asked. + +"Not he, Mr. Dodsley!" cried the lady--it was so she had conceived my +name. "He never did anythink to call really wrong in his poor life. The +'ole affair was a disgrace. It was all rank favouritising." + +"Mrs. 'Iggs! Mrs. 'Iggs!" cried the butler warningly. + +"Well, what do I care?" retorted the lady, shaking her ringlets. "You +know it was, yourself, Mr. 'Iggs, and so did every member of the staff." + +While I was getting these facts and opinions, I by no means neglected +the child. She was not attractive; but fortunately she had reached the +corrupt age of seven, when half-a-crown appears about as large as a +saucer and is fully as rare as the dodo. For a shilling down, sixpence +in her money-box, and an American gold dollar which I happened to find +in my pocket, I bought the creature soul and body. She declared her +intention to accompany me to the ends of the earth; and had to be +chidden by her sire for drawing comparisons between myself and her Uncle +William, highly damaging to the latter. + +Dinner was scarce done, the cloth was not yet removed, when Miss Agnes +must needs climb into my lap with her stamp album, a relic of the +generosity of Uncle William. There are few things I despise more than +old stamps, unless perhaps it be crests; for cattle (from the Carthew +Chillinghams down to the old gate-keeper's milk-cow in the lane) +contempt is far from being my first sentiment. But it seemed I was +doomed to pass that day in viewing curiosities, and, smothering a yawn, +I devoted myself once more to tread the well-known round. I fancy Uncle +William must have begun the collection himself and tired of it, for the +book (to my surprise) was quite respectably filled. There were the +varying shades of the English penny, Russians with the coloured heart, +old undecipherable Thurn-und-Taxis, obsolete triangular Cape of Good +Hopes, Swan Rivers with the Swan, and Guianas with the sailing ship. +Upon all these I looked with the eyes of a fish and the spirit of a +sheep; I think, indeed, I was at times asleep; and it was probably in +one of these moments that I capsized the album, and there fell from the +end of it, on the floor, a considerable number of what I believe to be +called "exchanges." + +Here, against all probability, my chance had come to me; for as I +gallantly picked them up, I was struck with the disproportionate amount +of five-sous French stamps. Some one, I reasoned, must write very +regularly from France to the neighbourhood of Stallbridge-le-Carthew. +Could it be Norris? On one stamp I made out an initial C; upon a second +I got as far as CH; beyond which point the postmark used was in every +instance undecipherable. CH, when you consider that about a quarter of +the towns in France begin with "chateau," was an insufficient clue; and +I promptly annexed the plainest of the collection in order to consult +the post-office. + +The wretched infant took me in the fact. + +"Naughty man, to 'teal my 'tamp!" she cried; and when I would have +brazened it off with a denial, recovered and displayed the stolen +article. + +My position was now highly false; and I believe it was in mere pity that +Mrs. Higgs came to my rescue with a welcome proposition. If the +gentleman was really interested in stamps, she said, probably supposing +me a monomaniac on the point, he should see Mr. Denman's album. Mr. +Denman had been collecting forty years, and his collection was said to +be worth a mint of money. "Agnes," she went, on, "if you were a kind +little girl, you would run over to the 'All, tell Mr. Denman there's a +connaisseer in the 'ouse, and ask him if one of the young gentleman +might bring the album down." + +"I should like to see his exchanges too," I cried, rising to the +occasion. "I may have some of mine in my pocket-book, and we might +trade." + +Half an hour later Mr. Denman arrived himself with a most unconscionable +volume under his arm. + +"Ah, sir," he cried, "when I 'eard you was a collector I dropped all. +It's a saying of mine, Mr. Dodsley, that collecting stamps makes all +collectors kin. It's a bond, sir; it creates a bond." + +Upon the truth of this I cannot say; but there is no doubt that the +attempt to pass yourself off for a collector falsely creates a +precarious situation. + +"Ah, here's the second issue!" I would say, after consulting the legend +at the side. "The pink--no, I mean the mauve--yes, that's the beauty of +this lot. Though of course, as you say," I would hasten to add, "this +yellow on the thin paper is more rare." + +Indeed I must certainly have been detected, had I not plied Mr. Denman +in self-defence with his favourite liquor--a port so excellent that it +could never have ripened in the cellar of the Carthew Arms, but must +have been transported, under cloud of night, from the neighbouring +vaults of the great house. At each threat of exposure, and in particular +whenever I was directly challenged for an opinion, I made haste to fill +the butler's glass, and by the time we had got to the exchanges, he was +in a condition in which no stamp-collector need be seriously feared. God +forbid I should hint that he was drunk; he seemed incapable of the +necessary liveliness; but the man's eyes were set, and so long as he was +suffered to talk without interruption, he seemed careless of my heeding +him. + +In Mr. Denman's exchanges, as in those of little Agnes, the same +peculiarity was to be remarked,--an undue preponderance of that +despicably common stamp, the French twenty-five centimes. And here +joining them in stealthy review, I found the C and the CH; then +something of an A just following; and then a terminal Y. Here was almost +the whole name spelt out to me; it seemed familiar too; and yet for some +time I could not bridge the imperfection. Then I came upon another +stamp, in which an L was legible before the Y, and in a moment the word +leaped up complete. Chailly, that was the name: Chailly-en-Biere, the +post town of Barbizon--ah, there was the very place for any man to hide +himself--there was the very place for Mr. Norris, who had rambled over +England making sketches--the very place for Goddedaal, who had left a +palette-knife on board the _Flying Scud_. Singular, indeed, that while I +was drifting over England with the shyster, the man we were in quest of +awaited me at my own ultimate destination. + +Whether Mr. Denman had shown his album to Bellairs, whether, indeed, +Bellairs could have caught (as I did) this hint from an obliterated +postmark, I shall never know, and it mattered not. We were equal now; my +task at Stallbridge-le-Carthew was accomplished; my interest in +postage-stamps died shamelessly away; the astonished Denman was bowed +out; and, ordering the horse to be put in, I plunged into the study of +the time-table. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +FACE TO FACE + + +I fell from the skies on Barbizon about two o'clock of a September +afternoon. It is the dead hour of the day; all the workers have gone +painting, all the idlers strolling, in the forest or the plain; the +winding causewayed street is solitary, and the inn deserted. I was the +more pleased to find one of my old companions in the dining-room; his +town clothes marked him for a man in the act of departure; and indeed +his portmanteau lay beside him on the floor. + +"Why, Stennis," I cried, "you're the last man I expected to find here." + +"You won't find me here long," he replied. "'_King Pandion he is dead; +all his friends are lapped in lead._' For men of our antiquity, the poor +old shop is played out." + +"'_I have had playmates, I have had companions_,'" I quoted in return. +We were both moved, I think, to meet again in this scene of our old +pleasure parties so unexpectedly, after so long an interval, and both +already so much altered. + +"That is the sentiment," he replied. "'_All, all are gone, the old +familiar faces._' I have been here a week, and the only living creature +who seemed to recollect me was the Pharaon. Bar the Sirons, of course, +and the perennial Bodmer." + +"Is there no survivor?" I inquired. + +"Of our geological epoch? not one," he replied. "This is the city of +Petra in Edom." + +"And what sort of Bedouins encamp among the ruins?" I asked. + +"Youth, Dodd, youth; blooming, conscious youth," he returned. "Such a +gang, such reptiles! to think we were like that! I wonder Siron didn't +sweep us from his premises." + +"Perhaps we weren't so bad," I suggested. + +"Don't let me depress you," said he. "We were both Anglo-Saxons, anyway, +and the only redeeming feature to-day is another." + +The thought of my quest, a moment driven out by this rencounter, revived +in my mind. "Who is he?" I cried. "Tell me about him." + +"What, the Redeeming Feature?" said he. "Well, he's a very pleasing +creature, rather dim, and dull, and genteel, but really pleasing. He is +very British, though, the artless Briton! Perhaps you'll find him too +much so for the transatlantic nerves. Come to think of it, on the other +hand, you ought to get on famously, he is an admirer of your great +republic in one of its (excuse me) shoddiest features; he takes in and +sedulously reads a lot of American papers. I warned you he was artless." + +"What papers are they?" cried I. + +"San Francisco papers," said he. "He gets a bale of them about twice a +week, and studies them like the Bible. That's one of his weaknesses; +another is to be incalculably rich. He has taken Masson's old +studio--you remember?--at the corner of the road; he has furnished it +regardless of expense, and lives there surrounded with _vins fins_ and +works of art. When the youth of to-day goes up to the Caverne des +Brigands to make punch--they do all that we did, like some nauseous form +of ape (I never appreciated before what a creature of tradition mankind +is)--this Madden follows with a basket of champagne. I told him he was +wrong, and the punch tasted better; but he thought the boys liked the +style of the thing, and I suppose they do. He is a very good-natured +soul, and a very melancholy, and rather a helpless. O, and he has a +third weakness which I came near forgetting. He paints. He has never +been taught, and he's well on for thirty, and he paints." + +"How?" I asked. + +"Rather well, I think," was the reply. "That's the annoying part of it. +See for yourself. That panel is his." + +I stepped toward the window. It was the old familiar room, with the +tables set like a Greek [Pi], and the side-board, and the aphasic piano, +and the panels on the wall. There were Romeo and Juliet, Antwerp from +the river, Enfleld's ships among the ice, and the huge huntsman winding +a huge horn; mingled with them a few new ones, the thin crop of a +succeeding generation, not better and not worse. It was to one of these +I was directed: a thing coarsely and wittily handled, mostly with the +palette-knife; the colour in some parts excellent, the canvas in others +loaded with mere clay. But it was the scene and not the art or want of +it that riveted my notice. The foreground was of sand and scrub and +wreckwood; in the middle distance the many-hued and smooth expanse of a +lagoon, enclosed by a wall of breakers; beyond, a blue strip of ocean. +The sky was cloudless, and I could hear the surf break. For the place +was Midway Island; the point of view the very spot at which I had landed +with the captain for the first time, and from which I had re-embarked +the day before we sailed. I had already been gazing for some seconds +before my attention was arrested by a blur on the sea-line, and, +stooping to look, I recognised the smoke of a steamer. + +"Yes," said I, turning toward Stennis, "it has merit. What is it?" + +"A fancy piece," he returned. "That's what pleased me. So few of the +fellows in our time had the imagination of a garden-snail." + +"Madden, you say his name is?" I pursued. + +"Madden," he repeated. + +"Has he travelled much?" I inquired. + +"I haven't an idea. He is one of the least autobiographical of men. He +sits, and smokes, and giggles, and sometimes he makes small jests; but +his contributions to the art of pleasing are generally confined to +looking like a gentleman and being one. No," added Stennis, "he'll never +suit you, Dodd; you like more head on your liquor. You'll find him as +dull as ditchwater." + +"Has he big blonde side-whiskers like tusks?" I asked, mindful of the +photograph of Goddedaal. + +"Certainly not; why should he?" was the reply. + +"Does he write many letters?" I continued. + +"God knows," said Stennis.--"What is wrong with you? I never saw you +taken this way before." + +"The fact is, I think I know the man," said I. "I think I'm looking for +him. I rather think he is my long-lost brother." + +"Not twins, anyway," returned Stennis. + +And about the same time, a carriage driving up to the inn, he took his +departure. + +I walked till dinner-time in the plain, keeping to the fields; for I +instinctively shunned observation, and was racked by many incongruous +and impatient feelings. Here was a man whose voice I had once heard, +whose doings had filled so many days of my life with interest and +distress, whom I had lain awake to dream of like a lover, and now his +hand was on the door; now we were to meet; now I was to learn at last +the mystery of the substituted crew. The sun went down over the plain of +the Angelus, and as the hour approached my courage lessened. I let the +laggard peasants pass me on the homeward way. The lamps were lit, the +soup was served, the company were all at table, and the room sounded +already with multitudinous talk before I entered. I took my place and +found I was opposite to Madden. Over six feet high and well set up, the +hair dark and streaked with silver, the eyes dark and kindly, the mouth +very good-natured, the teeth admirable; linen and hands exquisite; +English clothes, an English voice, an English bearing--the man stood out +conspicuous from the company. Yet he had made himself at home, and +seemed to enjoy a certain quiet popularity among the noisy boys of the +table d'hote. He had an odd silver giggle of a laugh that sounded +nervous even when he was really amused, and accorded ill with his big +stature and manly, melancholy face. This laugh fell in continually all +through dinner like the note of the triangle in a piece of modern French +music; and he had at times a kind of pleasantry, rather of manner than +of words, with which he started or maintained the merriment. He took his +share in these diversions, not so much like a man in high spirits, but +like one of an approved good-nature, habitually self-forgetful, +accustomed to please and to follow others. I have remarked in old +soldiers much the same smiling sadness and sociable self-effacement. + +I feared to look at him, lest my glances should betray my deep +excitement, and chance served me so well that the soup was scarce +removed before we were naturally introduced. My first sip of Chateau +Siron, a vintage from which I had been long estranged, startled me into +speech. + +"O, this'll never do!" I cried, in English. + +"Dreadful stuff, isn't it?" said Madden, in the same language. "Do let +me ask you to share my bottle. They call it Chambertin, which it isn't; +but it's fairly palatable, and there's nothing in this house that a man +can drink at all." + +I accepted; anything would do that paved the way to better knowledge. + +"Your name is Madden, I think," said I. "My old friend Stennis told me +about you when I came." + +"Yes, I am sorry he went; I feel such a Grandfather William, alone among +all these lads," he replied. + +"My name is Dodd," I resumed. + +"Yes," said he, "so Madame Siron told me." + +"Dodd, of San Francisco," I continued. "Late of Pinkerton and Dodd." + +"Montana Block, I think?" said he. + +"The same," said I. + +Neither of us looked at each other; but I could see his hand +deliberately making bread pills. + +"That's a nice thing of yours," I pursued, "that panel. The foreground +is a little clayey, perhaps, but the lagoon is excellent." + +"You ought to know," said he. + +"Yes," returned I, "I'm rather a good judge of--that panel." + +There was a considerable pause. + +"You know a man by the name of Bellairs, don't you?" he resumed. + +"Ah!" cried I, "you have heard from Dr. Urquart?" + +"This very morning," he replied. + +"Well, there is no hurry about Bellairs," said I. "It's rather a long +story, and rather a silly one. But I think we have a good deal to tell +each other, and perhaps we had better wait till we are more alone." + +"I think so," said he. "Not that any of these fellows know English, but +we'll be more comfortable over at my place.--Your health, Dodd." + +And we took wine together across the table. + +Thus had this singular introduction passed unperceived in the midst of +more than thirty persons, art-students, ladies in dressing-gowns and +covered with rice powder, six foot of Siron whisking dishes over our +head, and his noisy sons clattering in and out with fresh relays. + +"One question more," said I: "did you recognise my voice?" + +"Your voice?" he repeated. "How should I? I had never heard it--we have +never met." + +"And yet we have been in conversation before now," said I, "and I asked +you a question which you never answered, and which I have since had +many thousand better reasons for putting to myself." + +He turned suddenly white. "Good God!" he cried, "are you the man in the +telephone?" + +I nodded. + +"Well, well!" said he. "It would take a good deal of magnanimity to +forgive you that. What nights I have passed! That little whisper has +whistled in my ear ever since, like the wind in a keyhole. Who could it +be? What could it mean? I suppose I have had more real, solid misery out +of that...." He paused, and looked troubled. "Though I had more to +bother me, or ought to have," he added, and slowly emptied his glass. + +"It seems we were born to drive each other crazy with conundrums," said +I. "I have often thought my head would split." + +Carthew burst into his foolish laugh. "And yet neither you nor I had the +worst of the puzzle," he cried. "There were others deeper in." + +"And who were they?" I asked. + +"The underwriters," said he. + +"Why, to be sure!" cried I. "I never thought of that. What could they +make of it?" + +"Nothing," replied Carthew. "It couldn't be explained. They were a crowd +of small dealers at Lloyd's who took it up in syndicate; one of them has +a carriage now; and people say he is a deuce of a deep fellow, and has +the makings of a great financier. Another furnished a small villa on the +profits. But they're all hopelessly muddled; and when they meet each +other they don't know where to look, like the Augurs." + +Dinner was no sooner at an end than he carried me across the road to +Masson's old studio. It was strangely changed. On the walls were +tapestry, a few good etchings, and some amazing pictures--a Rousseau, a +Corot, a really superb old Crome, a Whistler, and a piece which my host +claimed (and I believe) to be a Titian. The room was furnished with +comfortable English smoking-room chairs, some American rockers, and an +elaborate business table; spirits and soda-water (with the mark of +Schweppe, no less) stood ready on a butler's tray, and in one corner, +behind a half-drawn curtain, I spied a camp-bed and a capacious tub. +Such a room in Barbizon astonished the beholder, like the glories of the +cave of Monte Cristo. + +"Now," said he, "we are quiet. Sit down, if you don't mind, and tell me +your story all through." + +I did as he asked, beginning with the day when Jim showed me the passage +in the _Daily Occidental_, and winding up with the stamp album and the +Chailly post-mark. It was a long business; and Carthew made it longer, +for he was insatiable of details; and it had struck midnight on the old +eight-day clock in the corner before I had made an end. + +"And now," said he, "turn about: I must tell you my side, much as I hate +it. Mine is a beastly story. You'll wonder how I can sleep. I've told it +once before, Mr. Dodd." + +"To Lady Ann?" I asked. + +"As you suppose," he answered; "and, to say the truth, I had sworn never +to tell it again. Only, you seem somehow entitled to the thing; you have +paid dear enough, God knows; and God knows I hope you may like it, now +you've got it!" + +With that he began his yarn. A new day had dawned, the cocks crew in the +village and the early woodmen were afoot, when he concluded. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE REMITTANCE MAN + + +Singleton Carthew, the father of Norris, was heavily built and feebly +vitalised, sensitive as a musician, dull as a sheep, and conscientious +as a dog. He took his position with seriousness, even with pomp; the +long rooms, the silent servants, seemed in his eyes like the observances +of some religion of which he was the mortal god. He had the stupid man's +intolerance of stupidity in others; the vain man's exquisite alarm lest +it should be detected in himself. And on both sides Norris irritated and +offended him. He thought his son a fool, and he suspected that his son +returned the compliment with interest. The history of their relation was +simple; they met seldom, they quarrelled often. To his mother, a fiery, +pungent, practical woman, already disappointed in her husband and her +elder son, Norris was only a fresh disappointment. + +Yet the lad's faults were no great matter; he was diffident, placable, +passive, unambitious, unenterprising; life did not much attract him; he +watched it like a curious and dull exhibition, not much amused, and not +tempted in the least to take a part. He beheld his father ponderously +grinding sand, his mother fierily breaking butterflies, his brother +labouring at the pleasures of the Hawbuck with the ardour of a soldier +in a doubtful battle; and the vital sceptic looked on wondering. They +were careful and troubled about many things; for him there seemed not +even one thing needful. He was born disenchanted, the world's promises +awoke no echo in his bosom, the world's activities and the world's +distinctions seemed to him equally without a base in fact. He liked the +open air; he liked comradeship, it mattered not with whom, his comrades +were only a remedy for solitude. And he had a taste for painted art. An +array of fine pictures looked upon his childhood, and from these roods +of jewelled canvas he received an indelible impression. The gallery at +Stallbridge betokened generations of picture-lovers; Norris was perhaps +the first of his race to hold the pencil. The taste was genuine, it grew +and strengthened with his growth; and yet he suffered it to be +suppressed with scarce a struggle. Time came for him to go to Oxford, +and he resisted faintly. He was stupid, he said; it was no good to put +him through the mill; he wished to be a painter. The words fell on his +father like a thunderbolt, and Norris made haste to give way. "It didn't +really matter, don't you know?" said he. "And it seemed an awful shame +to vex the old boy." + +To Oxford he went obediently, hopelessly; and at Oxford became the hero +of a certain circle. He was active and adroit; when he was in the +humour, he excelled in many sports; and his singular melancholy +detachment gave him a place apart. He set a fashion in his clique. +Envious undergraduates sought to parody his unaffected lack of zeal and +fear; it was a kind of new Byronism more composed and dignified. +"Nothing really mattered"; among other things this formula embraced the +dons; and though he always meant to be civil, the effect on the college +authorities was one of startling rudeness. His indifference cut like +insolence; and in some outbreak of his constitutional levity (the +complement of his melancholy) he was "sent down" in the middle of the +second year. + +The event was new in the annals of the Carthews, and Singleton was +prepared to make the most of it. It had been long his practice to +prophesy for his second son a career of ruin and disgrace. There is an +advantage in this artless parental habit. Doubtless the father is +interested in his son; but doubtless also the prophet grows to be +interested in his prophecies. If the one goes wrong, the others come +true. Old Carthew drew from this source esoteric consolations; he dwelt +at length on his own foresight; he produced variations hitherto unheard +from the old theme "I told you so," coupled his son's name with the +gallows and the hulks, and spoke of his small handful of college debts +as though he must raise money on a mortgage to discharge them. + +"I don't think that is fair, sir," said Norris; "I lived at college +exactly as you told me. I am sorry I was sent down, and you have a +perfect right to blame me for that; but you have no right to pitch into +me about these debts." + +The effect upon a stupid man not unjustly incensed need scarcely be +described. For a while Singleton raved. + +"I'll tell you what, father," said Norris at last, "I don't think this +is going to do. I think you had better let me take to painting. It's the +only thing I take a spark of interest in. I shall never be steady as +long as I'm at anything else." + +"When you stand here, sir, to the neck in disgrace," said the father, "I +should have hoped you would have had more good taste than to repeat this +levity." + +The hint was taken; the levity was never more obtruded on the father's +notice, and Norris was inexorably launched upon a backward voyage. He +went abroad to study foreign languages, which he learned, at a very +expensive rate; and a fresh crop of debts fell soon to be paid, with +similar lamentations, which were in this case perfectly justified, and +to which Norris paid no regard. He had been unfairly treated over the +Oxford affair; and with a spice of malice very surprising in one so +placable, and an obstinacy remarkable in one so weak, refused from that +day forward to exercise the least captaincy on his expenses. He wasted +what he would; he allowed his servants to despoil him at their +pleasure; he sowed insolvency; and, when the crop was ripe, notified his +father with exasperating calm. His own capital was put in his hands, he +was planted in the diplomatic service, and told he must depend upon +himself. + +He did so till he was twenty-five, by which time he had spent his money, +laid in a handsome choice of debts and acquired (like so many other +melancholic and uninterested persons) a habit of gambling. An Austrian +colonel--the same who afterwards hanged himself at Monte Carlo--gave him +a lesson which lasted two-and-twenty hours, and left him wrecked and +helpless. Old Singleton once more repurchased the honour of his name, +this time at a fancy figure; and Norris was set afloat again on stern +conditions. An allowance of three hundred pounds in the year was to be +paid to him quarterly by a lawyer in Sydney, New South Wales. He was not +to write. Should he fail on any quarter-day to be in Sydney, he was to +be held for dead, and the allowance tacitly withdrawn. Should he return +to Europe, an advertisement publicly disowning him was to appear in +every paper of repute. + +It was one of his most annoying features as a son that he was always +polite, always just, and in whatever whirlwind of domestic anger always +calm. He expected trouble; when trouble came he was unmoved; he might +have said with Singleton, "_I told you so_": he was content with +thinking, "_Just as I expected_." On the fall of these last thunderbolts +he bore himself like a person only distantly interested in the event, +pocketed the money and the reproaches, obeyed orders punctually; took +ship and came to Sydney. Some men are still lads at twenty-five; and so +it was with Norris. Eighteen days after he landed his quarter's +allowance was all gone, and with the light-hearted hopefulness of +strangers in what is called a new country he began to besiege offices +and apply for all manner of incongruous situations. Everywhere, and last +of all from his lodgings, he was bowed out; and found himself reduced, +in a very elegant suit of summer tweeds, to herd and camp with the +degraded outcasts of the city. + +In this strait he had recourse to the lawyer who paid him his allowance. + +"Try to remember that my time is valuable, Mr. Carthew," said the +lawyer. "It is quite unnecessary you should enlarge on the peculiar +position in which you stand. _Remittance men_, as we call them here, are +not so rare in my experience; and in such cases I act upon a system. I +make you a present of a sovereign--here it is. Every day you choose to +call my clerk will advance you a shilling; on Saturday, since my office +is closed on Sunday, he will advance you half-a-crown. My conditions are +these. That you do not come to me, but to my clerk, that you do not come +here the worse of liquor; and you go away the moment you are paid and +have signed a receipt.--I wish you a good morning." + +"I have to thank you, I suppose," said Carthew. "My position is so +wretched that I cannot even refuse this starvation allowance." + +"Starvation!" said the lawyer, smiling. "No man will starve here on a +shilling a day. I had on my hands another young gentleman who remained +continuously intoxicated for six years on the same allowance." And he +once more busied himself with his papers. + +In the time that followed, the image of the smiling lawyer haunted +Carthew's memory. "That three minutes' talk was all the education I ever +had worth talking of," says he. "It was all life in a nutshell. Confound +it," I thought, "have I got to the point of envying that ancient +fossil?" + +Every morning for the next two or three weeks the stroke of ten found +Norris, unkempt and haggard, at the lawyer's door. The long day and +longer night he spent in the Domain, now on a bench, now on the grass +under a Norfolk Island pine, the companion of perhaps the lowest class +on earth, the Larrikins of Sydney. Morning after morning, the dawn behind +the lighthouse recalled him from slumber; and he would stand and gaze +upon the changing east, the fading lenses, the smokeless city, and the +many-armed and many-masted harbour growing slowly clear under his eyes. +His bed-fellows (so to call them) were less active; they lay sprawled +upon the grass and benches, the dingy men, the frowsy women, prolonging +their late repose; and Carthew wandered among the sleeping bodies alone, +and cursed the incurable stupidity of his behaviour. Day brought a new +society of nurserymaids and children, and fresh-dressed and (I am sorry +to say) tight-laced maidens, and gay people in rich traps; upon the +skirts of which Carthew and "the other black-guards"--his own bitter +phrase--skulked, and chewed grass, and looked on. Day passed, the light +died, the green and leafy precinct sparkled with lamps or lay in shadow, +and the round of the night began again--the loitering women, the lurking +men, the sudden outburst of screams, the sound of flying feet. "You +mayn't believe it," says Carthew, "but I got to that pitch that I didn't +care a hang. I have been wakened out of my sleep to hear a woman +screaming, and I have only turned upon my other side. Yes, it's a queer +place, where the dowagers and the kids walk all day, and at night you can +hear people bawling for help as if it was the Forest of Bondy, with the +lights of a great town all round, and parties spinning through in cabs +from Government House and dinner with my lord!" + +It was Norris's diversion, having none other, to scrape acquaintance, +where, how, and with whom he could. Many a long, dull talk he held upon +the benches or the grass; many a strange waif he came to know; many +strange things he heard, and saw some that were abominable. It was to +one of these last that he owed his deliverance from the Domain. For some +time the rain had been merciless; one night after another he had been +obliged to squander fourpence on a bed and reduce his board to the +remaining eightpence: and he sat one morning near the Macquarrie Street +entrance, hungry, for he had gone without breakfast, and wet, as he had +already been for several days, when the cries of an animal in distress +attracted his attention. Some fifty yards away, in the extreme angle of +the grass, a party of the chronically unemployed had got hold of a dog, +whom they were torturing in a manner not to be described. The heart of +Norris, which had grown indifferent to the cries of human anger or +distress, woke at the appeal of the dumb creature. He ran amongst the +Larrikins, scattered them, rescued the dog, and stood at bay. They were +six in number, shambling gallows-birds; but for once the proverb was +right, cruelty was coupled with cowardice, and the wretches cursed him +and made off. It chanced that this act of prowess had not passed +unwitnessed. On a bench near by there was seated a shopkeeper's +assistant out of employ, a diminutive, cheerful, red-headed creature by +the name of Hemstead. He was the last man to have interfered himself, +for his discretion more than equalled his valour: but he made haste to +congratulate Carthew, and to warn him that he might not always be so +fortunate. + +"They're a dyngerous lot of people about this park. My word! it doesn't +do to ply with them!" he observed, in that _rycy Austrylian_ English, +which (as it has received the imprimatur of Mr. Froude) we should all +make haste to imitate. + +"Why, I'm one of that lot myself," returned Carthew. + +Hemstead laughed, and remarked that he knew a gentleman when he saw one. + +"For all that, I am simply one of the unemployed," said Carthew, seating +himself beside his new acquaintance, as he had sat (since this +experience began) beside so many dozen others. + +"I'm out of a plyce myself," said Hemstead. + +"You beat me all the way and back," says Carthew. "My trouble is that I +have never been in one." + +"I suppose you've no tryde?" asked Hemstead. + +"I know how to spend money," replied Carthew, "and I really do know +something of horses and something of the sea. But the unions head me +off; if it weren't for them, I might have had a dozen berths." + +"My word!" cried the sympathetic listener. "Ever try the mounted +police?" he inquired. + +"I did, and was bowled out," was the reply; "couldn't pass the doctors." + +"Well, what do _you_ think of the ryleways, then?" asked Hemstead. + +"What do _you_ think of them, if you come to that?" asked Carthew. + +"O, _I_ don't think of them; I don't go in for manual labour," said the +little man proudly. "But if a man don't mind that, he's pretty sure of a +job there." + +"By George, you tell me where to go!" cried Carthew rising. + +The heavy rains continued, the country was already overrun with floods; +the railway system daily required more hands, daily the superintendent +advertised; but "the unemployed" preferred the resources of charity and +rapine, and a navvy, even an amateur navvy, commanded money in the +market. The same night, after a tedious journey, and a change of trains +to pass a landslip, Norris found himself in a muddy cutting behind South +Clifton, attacking his first shift of manual labour. + +For weeks the rain scarce relented. The whole front of the mountain +slipped seaward from above, avalanches of clay, rock, and uprooted +forest spewed over the cliffs and fell upon the beach or in the +breakers. Houses were carried bodily away and smashed like nuts; others +were menaced and deserted, the door locked, the chimney cold, the +dwellers fled elsewhere for safety. Night and day the fire blazed in the +encampment; night and day hot coffee was served to the overdriven +toilers in the shift; night and day the engineer of the section made his +rounds with words of encouragement, hearty and rough and well suited to +his men. Night and day, too, the telegraph clicked with disastrous news +and anxious inquiry. Along the terraced line of rail, rare trains came +creeping and signalling; and paused at the threatened corner, like +living things conscious of peril. The commandant of the post would +hastily review his labours, make (with a dry throat) the signal to +advance; and the whole squad line the way and look on in a choking +silence, or burst into a brief cheer as the train cleared the point of +danger and shot on, perhaps through the thin sunshine between squalls, +perhaps with blinking lamps into the gathering rainy twilight. + +One such scene Carthew will remember till he dies. It blew great guns +from the seaward; a huge surf bombarded, five hundred feet below him, +the steep mountain's foot; close in was a vessel in distress, firing +shots from a fowling-piece, if any help might come. So he saw and heard +her the moment before the train appeared and paused, throwing up a +Babylonian tower of smoke into the rain and oppressing men's hearts with +the scream of her whistle. The engineer was there himself; he paled as +he made the signal: the engine came at a foot's pace; but the whole bulk +of mountain shook and seemed to nod seaward, and the watching navvies +instinctively clutched at shrubs and trees: vain precautions, vain as +the shots from the poor sailors. Once again fear was disappointed; the +train passed unscathed; and Norris, drawing a long breath, remembered +the labouring ship, and glanced below. She was gone. + +So the days and the nights passed: Homeric labour in Homeric +circumstance. Carthew was sick with sleeplessness and coffee; his hands, +softened by the wet, were cut to ribbons; yet he enjoyed a peace of mind +and health of body hitherto unknown. Plenty of open air, plenty of +physical exertion, a continual instancy of toil--here was what had been +hitherto lacking in that misdirected life, and the true cure of vital +scepticism. To get the train through, there was the recurrent problem: +no time remained to ask if it were necessary. Carthew, the idler, the +spendthrift, the drifting dilettante, was soon remarked, praised, and +advanced. The engineer swore by him and pointed him out for an example. +"I've a new chum, up here," Norris heard him saying, "a young swell. +He's worth any two in the squad." The words fell on the ears of the +discarded son like music; and from that moment he not only found an +interest, he took a pride, in his plebeian tasks. + +The press of work was still at its highest when quarter-day approached. +Norris was now raised to a position of some trust; at his discretion, +trains were stopped or forwarded at the dangerous cornice near North +Clifton; and he found in this responsibility both terror and delight. +The thought of the seventy-five pounds that would soon await him at the +lawyer's, and of his own obligation to be present every quarter-day in +Sydney, filled him for a little with divided councils. Then he made up +his mind, walked in a slack moment to the inn at Clifton, ordered a +sheet of paper and a bottle of beer, and wrote, explaining that he held +a good appointment which he would lose if he came to Sydney, and asking +the lawyer to accept this letter as an evidence of his presence in the +colony, and retain the money till next quarter-day. The answer came in +course of post, and was not merely favourable but cordial. "Although +what you propose is contrary to the terms of my instructions," it ran, +"I willingly accept the responsibility of granting your request. I +should say I am agreeably disappointed in your behaviour. My experience +has not led me to found much expectations on gentlemen in your +position." + +The rains abated, and the temporary labour was discharged; not Norris, +to whom the engineer clung as to found money; not Norris, who found +himself a ganger on the line in the regular staff of navvies. His camp +was pitched in a grey wilderness of rock and forest, far from any house; +as he sat with his mates about the evening fire, the trains passing on +the track were their next, and indeed their only, neighbours, except the +wild things of the wood. Lovely weather, light and monotonous +employment, long hours of somnolent camp-fire talk, long sleepless +nights, when he reviewed his foolish and fruitless career as he rose and +walked in the moonlit forest, an occasional paper of which he would read +all, the advertisements with as much relish as the text; such was the +tenor of an existence which soon began to weary and harass him. He +lacked and regretted the fatigue, the furious hurry, the suspense, the +fires, the midnight coffee, the rude and mud-bespattered poetry of the +first toilful weeks. In the quietness of his new surroundings a voice +summoned him from this exorbital part of life, and about the middle of +October he threw up his situation and bade farewell to the camp of tents +and the shoulder of Bald Mountain. + +Clad in his rough clothes, with a bundle on his shoulder and his +accumulated wages in his pocket, he entered Sydney for the second time, +and walked with pleasure and some bewilderment in the cheerful streets, +like a man landed from a voyage. The sight of the people led him on. He +forgot his necessary errands, he forgot to eat. He wandered in moving +multitudes like a stick upon a river. Last he came to the Domain and +strolled there, and remembered his shame and sufferings, and looked with +poignant curiosity at his successors. Hemstead, not much shabbier and no +less cheerful than before, he recognised and addressed like an old +family friend. + +"That was a good turn you did me," said he. "That railway was the making +of me. I hope you've had luck yourself." + +"My word, no!" replied the little man. "I just sit here and read the +_Dead Bird_. It's the depression in tryde, you see. There's no positions +goin' that a man like me would care to look at." And he showed Norris +his certificates and written characters, one from a grocer in +Wooloomooloo, one from an ironmonger, and a third from a billiard +saloon. "Yes," he said, "I tried bein' a billiard-marker. It's no +account; these lyte hours are no use for a man's health. I won't be no +man's slyve," he added firmly. + +On the principle that he who is too proud to be a slave is usually not +too modest to become a pensioner, Carthew gave him half a sovereign and +departed, being suddenly struck with hunger, in the direction of the +Paris House. When he came to that quarter of the city, the barristers +were trotting in the streets in wig and gown, and he stood to observe +them with his bundle on his shoulder, and his mind full of curious +recollections of the past. + +"By George!" cried a voice, "it's Mr. Carthew!" + +And turning about he found himself face to face with a handsome sunburnt +youth, somewhat fatted, arrayed in the finest of fine raiment, and +sporting about a sovereign's worth of flowers in his button-hole. Norris +had met him during his first days in Sydney at a farewell supper; had +even escorted him on board a schooner full of cockroaches and black-boy +sailors, in which he was bound for six months among the islands; and had +kept him ever since in entertained remembrance. Tom Hadden (known to the +bulk of Sydney folk as _Tommy_) was heir to a considerable property, +which a prophetic father had placed in the hands of rigorous trustees. +The income supported Mr. Hadden in splendour for about three months out +of twelve; the rest of the year he passed in retreat among the islands. +He was now about a week returned from his eclipse, pervading Sydney in +hansom cabs and airing the first bloom of six new suits of clothes; and +yet the unaffected creature hailed Carthew in his working jeans and +with the damning bundle on his shoulder, as he might have claimed +acquaintance with a duke. + +"Come and have a drink?" was his cheerful cry. + +"I'm just going to have lunch at the Paris House," returned Carthew. +"It's a long time since I have had a decent meal." + +"Splendid scheme!" said Hadden. "I've only had breakfast half an hour +ago; but we'll have a private room, and I'll manage to pick something. +It'll brace me up. I was on an awful tear last night, and I've met no +end of fellows this morning." To meet a fellow, and to stand and share a +drink, were with Tom synonymous terms. + +They were soon at table in the corner room upstairs, and paying due +attention to the best fare in Sydney. The odd similarity of their +positions drew them together, and they began soon to exchange +confidences. Carthew related his privations in the Domain, and his toils +as a navvy; Hadden gave his experience as an amateur copra merchant in +the South Seas, and drew a humorous picture of life in a coral island. +Of the two plans of retirement, Carthew gathered that his own had been +vastly the more lucrative; but Hadden's trading outfit had consisted +largely of bottled stout and brown sherry for his own consumption. + +"I had champagne, too," said Hadden, "but I kept that in case of +sickness, until I didn't seem to be going to be sick, and then I opened +a pint every Sunday. Used to sleep all morning, then breakfast with my +pint of fizz, and lie in a hammock and read Hallam's 'Middle Ages.' Have +you read that? I always take something solid to the islands. There's no +doubt I did the thing in rather a fine style; but if it was gone about a +little cheaper, or there were two of us to bear the expense, it ought to +pay hand over fist. I've got the influence, you see. I'm a chief now, +and sit in the speak-house under my own strip of roof. I'd like to see +them taboo _me!_ They daren't try it; I've a strong party, I can tell +you. Why I've had upwards of thirty cowtops sitting in my front verandah +eating tins of salmon." + +"Cowtops?" asked Carthew, "what are they?" + +"That's what Hallam would call feudal retainers," explained Hadden, not +without vainglory. "They're My Followers. They belong to My Family. I +tell you, they come expensive, though; you can't fill up all these +retainers on tinned salmon for nothing; but whenever I could get it, I +would give 'em squid. Squid's good for natives, but I don't care for it, +do you?--or shark either. It's like the working classes at home. With +copra at the price it is, they ought to be willing to bear their share +of the loss; and so I've told them again and again. I think it's a man's +duty to open their minds, and I try to, but you can't get political +economy into them; it doesn't seem to reach their intelligence." + +There was an expression still sticking in Carthew's memory, and he +returned upon it with a smile. "Talking of political economy," said he, +"you said if there were two of us to bear the expense, the profits would +increase. How do you make out that?" + +"I'll show you! I'll figure it out for you!" cried Hadden, and with a +pencil on the back of the bill of fare proceeded to perform miracles. He +was a man, or let us rather say a lad, of unusual projective power. Give +him the faintest hint of any speculation, and the figures flowed from +him by the page. A lively imagination, and a ready, though inaccurate +memory, supplied his data; he delivered himself with an inimitable heat +that made him seem the picture of pugnacity; lavished contradiction had +a form of words, with or without significance, for every form of +criticism; and the looker-on alternately smiled at his simplicity and +fervour, or was amazed by his unexpected shrewdness. He was a kind of +Pinkerton in play. I have called Jim's the romance of business; this was +its Arabian tale. + +"Have you any idea what this would cost?" he asked, pausing at an item. + +"Not I," said Carthew. + +"Ten pounds ought to be ample," concluded the projector. + +"O, nonsense!" cried Carthew. "Fifty at the very least." + +"You told me yourself this moment you knew nothing about it!" cried +Tommy. "How can I make a calculation if you blow hot and cold? You don't +seem able to be serious!" + +But he consented to raise his estimate to twenty; and a little after, +the calculation coming out with a deficit, cut it down again to five +pounds ten, with the remark, "I told you it was nonsense. This sort of +thing has to be done strictly, or where's the use?" + +Some of these processes struck Carthew as unsound; and he was at times +altogether thrown out by the capricious starlings of the prophet's mind. +These plunges seemed to be gone into for exercise and by the way, like +the curvets of a willing horse. Gradually the thing took shape; the +glittering if baseless edifice arose; and the hare still ran on the +mountains, but the soup was already served in silver plate. Carthew in a +few days could command a hundred and fifty pounds; Hadden was ready with +five hundred; why should they not recruit a fellow or two more, charter +an old ship, and go cruising on their own account? Carthew was an +experienced yachtsman; Hadden professed himself able to "work an +approximate sight." Money was undoubtedly to be made, or why should so +many vessels cruise about the islands? they who worked their own ship, +were sure of a still higher profit. + +"And whatever else comes of it, you see," cried Hadden, "we get our keep +for nothing.--Come, buy some togs, that's the first thing you have to do +of course; and then we'll take a hansom and go to the 'Currency Lass.'" + + +"I'm going to stick to the togs I have," said Norris. + +"Are you?" cried Hadden. "Well, I must say I admire you. You're a +regular sage. It's what you call Pythagoreanism, isn't it? if I haven't +forgotten my philosophy." + +"Well, I call it economy," returned Carthew. "If we are going to try +this thing on, I shall want every sixpence." + +"You'll see if we're going to try it!" cried Tommy, rising radiant from +table. "Only, mark you, Carthew, it must be all in your name. I have +capital, you see; but you're all right. You can play _vacuus viator_ if +the thing goes wrong." + +"I thought we had just proved it was quite safe," said Carthew. + +"There's nothing safe in business, my boy," replied the sage; "not even +bookmaking." + +The public-house and tea-garden called the "Currency Lass" represented a +moderate fortune gained by its proprietor, Captain Bostock, during a +long, active, and occasionally historic career, among the islands. +Anywhere from Tonga to the Admiralty Isles, he knew the ropes and could +lie in the native dialect. He had seen the end of sandalwood, the end of +oil, and the beginning of copra; and he was himself a commercial +pioneer, the first that ever carried human teeth into the Gilberts. He +was tried for his life in Fiji in Sir Arthur Gordon's time; and if ever +he prayed at all, the name of Sir Arthur was certainly not forgotten. He +was speared in seven places in New Ireland--the same time his mate was +killed--the famous "outrage on the brig _Jolly Roger_"; but the +treacherous savages made little by their wickedness, and Bostock, in +spite of their teeth, got seventy-five head of volunteer labour on +board, of whom not more than a dozen died of injuries. He had a hand, +besides, in the amiable pleasantry which cost the life of Patteson; and +when the sham bishop landed, prayed, and gave his benediction to the +natives, Bostock, arrayed in a female chemise out of the trade-room, had +stood at his right hand and boomed amens. This, when he was sure he was +among good fellows, was his favourite yarn. "Two hundred head of labour +for a hatful of amens," he used to name the tale; and its sequel, the +death of the real bishop, struck him as a circumstance of extraordinary +humour. + +Many of these details were communicated in the hansom, to the surprise +of Carthew. + +"Why do we want to visit this old ruffian?" he asked. + +"You wait till you hear him," replied Tommy. "That man knows +everything." + +On descending from the hansom at the "Currency Lass," Hadden was struck +with the appearance of the cabman, a gross, salt-looking man, red-faced, +blue-eyed, short-handed and short-winded, perhaps nearing forty. + +"Surely I know you?" said he. "Have you driven me before?" + +"Many's the time, Mr. Hadden," returned the driver. "The last time you +was back from the islands it was me that drove you to the races, sir." + +"All right: jump down and have a drink then," said Tom, and he turned +and led the way into the garden. + +Captain Bostock met the party: he was a slow, sour old man, with fishy +eyes; greeted Tommy offhand, and (as was afterwards remembered) +exchanged winks with the driver. + +"A bottle of beer for the cabman there at that table," said Tom. +"Whatever you please from shandy-gaff to champagne at this one here; and +you sit down with us. Let me make you acquainted with my friend Mr. +Carthew. I've come on business, Billy; I want to consult you as a +friend; I'm going into the island trade upon my own account." + +Doubtless the captain was a mine of counsel, but opportunity was denied +him. He could not venture on a statement, he was scarce allowed to +finish a phrase, before Hadden swept him from the field with a volley of +protest and correction. That projector, his face blazing with +inspiration, first laid before him at inordinate length a question, and +as soon as he attempted to reply, leaped at his throat, called his facts +into question, derided his policy, and at times thundered on him from +the heights of moral indignation. + +"I beg your pardon," he said once. "I am a gentleman, Mr. Carthew here +is a gentleman, and we don't mean to do that class of business. Can't +you see who you are talking to? Can't you talk sense? Can't you give us +'a dead bird' for a good traderoom?" + +"No, I don't suppose I can," returned old Bostock; "not when I can't +hear my own voice for two seconds together. It was gin and guns I did it +with." + +"Take your gin and guns to Putney," cried Hadden. "It was the thing in +your times, that's right enough; but you're old now, and the game's up. +I'll tell you what's wanted nowadays, Bill Bostock," said he; and did, +and took ten minutes to it. + +Carthew could not refrain from smiling. He began to think less seriously +of the scheme, Hadden appearing too irresponsible a guide; but on the +other hand, he enjoyed himself amazingly. It was far from being the same +with Captain Bostock. + +"You know a sight, don't you?" remarked that gentleman bitterly, when +Tommy paused. + +"I know a sight more than you, if that's what you mean," retorted Tom. +"It stands to reason I do. You're not a man of any education; you've +been all your life at sea, or in the islands; you don't suppose you can +give points to a man like me." + +"Here's your health, Tommy," returned Bostock. "You'll make an A1 bake +in the New Hebrides." + +"That's what I call talking," cried Tom, not perhaps grasping the +spirit of this doubtful compliment. "Now you give me your attention. We +have the money and the enterprise, and I have the experience; what we +want is a cheap, smart boat, a good captain, and an introduction to some +house that will give us credit for the trade." + +"Well, I'll tell you," said Captain Bostock. "I have seen men like you +baked and eaten, and complained of afterwards. Some was tough, and some +hadn't no flaviour," he added grimly. + +"What do you mean by that?" cried Tom. + +"I mean I don't care," cried Bostock. "It ain't any of my interests. I +haven't underwrote your life. Only I'm blest if I'm not sorry for the +cannibal as tries to eat your head. And what I recommend is a cheap, +smart coffin and a good undertaker. See if you can find a house to give +you credit for a coffin! Look at your friend there: _he's_ got some +sense; he's laughing at you so as he can't stand." + +The exact degree of ill-feeling in Mr. Bostock's mind was difficult to +gauge; perhaps there was not much, perhaps he regarded his remarks as a +form of courtly badinage. But there is little doubt that Hadden resented +them. He had even risen from his place, and the conference was on the +point of breaking up when a new voice joined suddenly in the +conversation. + +The cabman sat with his back turned upon the party, smoking a meerschaum +pipe. Not a word of Tommy's eloquence had missed him, and he now faced +suddenly about with these amazing words-- + +"Excuse me, gentlemen; if you'll buy me the ship I want, I'll get you +the trade on credit." + +There was a pause. + +"Well, what do _you_ mean?" gasped Tommy. + +"Better tell 'em who I am, Billy," said the cabman. + +"Think it safe, Joe?" inquired Mr. Bostock. + +"I'll take my risk of it," returned the cabman. + +"Gentlemen," said Bostock, rising suddenly, "let me make you acquainted +with Captain Wicks of the _Grace Darling_." + +"Yes, gentlemen, that is what I am," said the cabman. "You know I've +been in trouble, and I don't deny but what I struck the blow, and where +was I to get evidence of my provocation? So I turned to and took a cab, +and I've driven one for three year now, and nobody the wiser." + +"I beg your pardon," said Carthew, joining almost for the first time, +"I'm a new chum. What was the charge?" + +"Murder," said Captain Wicks, "and I don't deny but what I struck the +blow. And there's no sense in my trying to deny I was afraid to go to +trial, or why would I be here? But it's a fact it was flat mutiny. Ask +Billy here. He knows how it was." + +Carthew breathed long; he had a strange, half-pleasurable sense of +wading deeper in the tide of life. "Well," said he, "you were going on +to say?" + +"I was going on to say this," said the captain sturdily. "I've overheard +what Mr. Hadden has been saying, and I think he talks good sense. I like +some of his ideas first chop. He's sound on traderooms; he's all there +on the traderoom, and I see that he and I would pull together. Then +you're both gentlemen, and I like that," observed Captain Wicks. "And +then I'll tell you I'm tired of this cabbing cruise, and I want to get +to work again. Now, here's my offer. I've a little money I can stake +up--all of a hundred, anyway. Then my old firm will give me trade, and +jump at the chance; they never lost by me; they know what I'm worth as +supercargo. And, last of all, you want a good captain to sail your ship +for you. Well, here I am. I've sailed schooners for ten years. Ask Billy +if I can handle a schooner." + +"No man better," said Billy. + +"And as for my character as a shipmate," concluded Wicks, "go and ask my +old firm." + +"But, look here!" cried Hadden, "how do you mean to manage? You can +whisk round in a hansom and no questions asked; but if you try to come +on a quarter-deck, my boy, you'll get nabbed." + +"I'll have to keep back till the last," replied Wicks, "and take another +name." + +"But how about clearing? What other name?" asked Tommy, a little +bewildered. + +"I don't know yet," returned the captain, with a grin. "I'll see what +the name is on my new certificate, and that'll be good enough for me. If +I can't get one to buy, though I never heard of such a thing, there's +old Kirkup, he's turned some sort of farmer down Bondi way; he'll hire +me his." + +"You seemed to speak as if you had a ship in view," said Carthew. + +"So I have too," said Captain Wicks, "and a beauty. Schooner yacht +_Dream_--got lines you never saw the beat of, and a witch to go. She +passed me once off Thursday Island, doing two knots to my one and lying +a point and a half better, and the _Grace Darling_ was a ship that I was +proud of. I took and tore my hair. The _Dream's_ been _my_ dream ever +since. That was in the old days, when she carried a blue ens'n. Grant +Sanderson was the party as owned her; he was rich and mad, and got a +fever at last somewhere about the Fly River and took and died. The +captain brought the body back to Sydney and paid off. Well, it turned +out Grant Sanderson had left any quantity of wills and any quantity of +widows, and no fellow could make out which was the genuine article. All +the widows brought lawsuits against all the rest, and every will had a +firm of lawyers on the quarter-deck as long as your arm. They tell me it +was one of the biggest turns-to that ever was seen, bar Tichborne; the +Lord Chamberlain himself was floored, and so was the Lord Chancellor, +and all that time the _Dream_ lay rotting up by Glebe Point. Well, it's +done now; they've picked out a widow and a will--tossed up for it, as +like as not--and the _Dream_'s for sale. She'll go cheap; she's had a +long turn-to at rotting." + +"What size is she?" + +"Well, big enough. We don't want her bigger. A hundred and ninety, going +two hundred," replied the captain. "She's fully big for us three; it +would be all the better if we had another hand, though it's a pity too, +when you can pick up natives for half nothing. Then we must have a cook. +I can fix raw sailor-men, but there's no going to sea with a new-chum +cook. I can lay hands on the man we want for that: a Highway boy, an old +shipmate of mine, of the name of Amalu. Cooks first-rate, and it's +always better to have a native; he ain't fly, you can turn him to as you +please, and he don't know enough to stand out for his rights." + +From the moment that Captain Wicks joined in the conversation, Carthew +recovered interest and confidence; the man (whatever he might have done) +was plainly good-natured, and plainly capable; if he thought well of the +enterprise, offered to contribute money, brought experience, and could +thus solve at a word the problem of the trade, Carthew was content to go +ahead. As for Hadden, his cup was full; he and Bostock forgave each +other in champagne; toast followed toast; it was proposed and carried +amid acclamation to change the name of the schooner (when she should be +bought) to the _Currency Lass_; and the "Currency Lass Island Trading +Company" was practically founded before dusk. + +Three days later, Carthew stood before the lawyer, still in his jean +suit, received his hundred and fifty pounds, and proceeded rather +timidly to ask for more indulgence. + +"I have a chance to get on in the world," he said. "By to-morrow evening +I expect to be part owner of a ship." + +"Dangerous property, Mr. Carthew," said the lawyer. + +"Not if the partners work her themselves, and stand to go down along +with her," was the reply. + +"I conceive it possible you might make something of it in that way," +returned the other. "But are you a seaman? I thought you had been in the +diplomatic service." + +"I am an old yachtsman," said Norris; "and I must do the best I can. A +fellow can't live in New South Wales upon diplomacy. But the point I +wish to prepare you for is this. It will be impossible I should present +myself here next quarter-day; we expect to make a six months' cruise of +it among the islands." + +"Sorry, Mr. Carthew: I can't hear of that," replied the lawyer. + +"I mean upon the same conditions as the last," said Carthew. + +"The conditions are exactly opposite," said the lawyer. "Last time I had +reason to know you were in the colony, and even then I stretched a +point. This time, by your own confession, you are contemplating a breach +of the agreement; and I give you warning if you carry it out, and I +receive proof of it (for I will agree to regard this conversation as +confidential), I shall have no choice but to do my duty. Be here on +quarter-day, or your allowance ceases." + +"This is very hard, and, I think, rather silly," returned Carthew. + +"It is not of my doing. I have my instructions," said the lawyer. + +"And you so read these instructions that I am to be prohibited from +making an honest livelihood?" asked Carthew. + +"Let us be frank," said the lawyer; "I find nothing in these +instructions about an honest livelihood. I have no reason to suppose my +clients care anything about that. I have reason to suppose only one +thing--that they mean you shall stay in this colony, and to guess +another, Mr. Carthew. And to guess another." + +"What do you mean by that?" asked Norris. + +"I mean that I imagine, on very strong grounds, that your family desire +to see no more of you," said the lawyer. "O, they may be very wrong; but +that is the impression conveyed, that is what I suppose I am paid to +bring about, and I have no choice but to try and earn my hire." + +"I would scorn to deceive you," said Norris, with a strong flush; "you +have guessed rightly. My family refuse to see me; but I am not going to +England, I am going to the islands. How does that affect the islands?" + +"Ah, but I don't know that you are going to the islands," said the +lawyer, looking down, and spearing the blotting-paper with a pencil. + +"I beg your pardon. I have the pleasure of informing you," said Norris. + +"I am afraid, Mr. Carthew, that I cannot regard that communication as +official," was the slow reply. + +"I am not accustomed to have my word doubted!" cried Norris. + +"Hush! I allow no one to raise his voice in my office," said the lawyer. +"And for that matter--you seem to be a young gentleman of +sense--consider what I know of you. You are a discarded son; your family +pays money to be shut of you. What have you done? I don't know. But do +you not see how foolish I should be, if I exposed my business reputation +on the safeguard of the honour of a gentleman of whom I know just so +much and no more? This interview is very disagreeable. Why prolong it? +Write home, get my instructions changed, and I will change my behaviour. +Not otherwise." + +"I am very fond of three hundred a year," said Norris, "but I cannot pay +the price required. I shall not have the pleasure of seeing you again." + +"You must please yourself," said the lawyer. "Fail to be here next +quarter-day, and the thing stops. But I warn you, and I mean the warning +in a friendly spirit. Three months later you will be here begging, and +I shall have no choice but to show you in the street." + +"I wish you a good-evening," said Norris. + +"The same to you, Mr. Carthew," retorted the lawyer, and rang for his +clerk. + +So it befell that Norris, during what remained to him of arduous days in +Sydney, saw not again the face of his legal adviser; and he was already +at sea, and land was out of sight, when Hadden brought him a Sydney +paper, over which he had been dozing in the shadow of the galley, and +showed him an advertisement: + +"Mr. Norris Carthew is earnestly entreated to call without delay at the +office of Mr. ----, where important intelligence awaits him." + +"It must manage to wait for me for six months," said Norris lightly +enough, but yet conscious of a pang of curiosity. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE BUDGET OF THE _CURRENCY LASS_ + + +Before noon, on the 26th November, there cleared from the port of Sydney +the schooner _Currency Lass_. The owner, Norris Carthew, was on board in +the somewhat unusual position of mate; the master's name purported to be +William Kirkup; the cook was a Hawaiian boy, Joseph Amalu; and there +were two hands before the mast, Thomas Hadden and Richard Hemstead, the +latter chosen partly because of his humble character, partly because he +had an odd-job-man's handiness with tools. The _Currency Lass_ was bound +for the South Sea Islands, and first of all for Butaritari in the +Gilberts, on a register; but it was understood about the harbour that +her cruise was more than half a pleasure trip. A friend of the late +Grant Sanderson (of Auchentroon and Kilclarty) might have recognised in +that tall-masted ship the transformed and rechristened _Dream_; and the +Lloyd's surveyor, had the services of such a one been called in +requisition, must have found abundant subject of remark. + +For time, during her three years' inaction, had eaten deep into the +_Dream_ and her fittings; she had sold in consequence a shade above her +value as old junk; and the three adventurers had scarce been able to +afford even the most vital repairs. The rigging, indeed, had been partly +renewed, and the rest set up; all Grant Sanderson's old canvas had been +patched together into one decently serviceable suit of sails; Grant +Sanderson's masts still stood, and might have wondered at themselves. "I +haven't the heart to tap them," Captain Wicks used to observe, as he +squinted up their height or patted their rotundity; and "as rotten as +our foremast" was an accepted metaphor in the ship's company. The sequel +rather suggests it may have been sounder than was thought; but no one +knew for certain, just as no one except the captain appreciated the +dangers of the cruise. The captain, indeed, saw with clear eyes and +spoke his mind aloud; and though a man of an astonishing hot-blooded +courage, following life and taking its dangers in the spirit of a hound +upon the slot, he had made a point of a big whaleboat. "Take your +choice," he had said; "either new masts and rigging or that boat. I +simply ain't going to sea without the one or the other. Chickencoops are +good enough, no doubt, and so is a dinghy; but they ain't for Joe." And +his partners had been forced to consent, and saw six-and-thirty pounds +of their small capital vanish in the turn of a hand. + +All four had toiled the best part of six weeks getting ready; and though +Captain Wicks was of course not seen or heard of, a fifth was there to +help them, a fellow in a bushy red beard, which he would sometimes lay +aside when he was below, and who strikingly resembled Captain Wicks in +voice and character. As for Captain Kirkup, he did not appear till the +last moment, when he proved to be a burly mariner, bearded like Abou Ben +Adhem. All the way down the harbour and through the Heads, his +milk-white whiskers blew in the wind and were conspicuous from shore; +but the _Currency Lass_ had no sooner turned her back upon the +lighthouse than he went below for the inside of five seconds and +reappeared clean shaven. So many doublings and devices were required to +get to sea with an unseaworthy ship and a captain that was "wanted." Nor +might even these have sufficed, but for the fact that Hadden was a +public character, and the whole cruise regarded with an eye of +indulgence as one of Tom's engaging eccentricities. The ship, besides, +had been a yacht before: and it came the more natural to allow her +still some of the dangerous liberties of her old employment. + +A strange ship they had made of it, her lofty spars disfigured with +patched canvas, her panelled cabin fitted for a traderoom with rude +shelves. And the life they led in that anomalous schooner was no less +curious than herself. Amalu alone berthed forward; the rest occupied +staterooms, camped upon the satin divans, and sat down in Grant +Sanderson's parquetry smoking-room to meals of junk and potatoes, bad of +their kind, and often scant in quantity. Hemstead grumbled; Tommy had +occasional moments of revolt, and increased the ordinary by a few +haphazard tins or a bottle of his own brown sherry. But Hemstead +grumbled from habit, Tommy revolted only for the moment, and there was +underneath a real and general acquiescence in these hardships. For +besides onions and potatoes, the _Currency Lass_ may be said to have +gone to sea without stores. She carried two thousand pounds' worth of +assorted trade, advanced on credit, their whole hope and fortune. It was +upon this that they subsisted--mice in their own granary. They dined +upon their future profits; and every scanty meal was so much in the +savings bank. + +Republican as were their manners, there was no practical, at least no +dangerous, lack of discipline. Wicks was the only sailor on board, there +was none to criticise; and besides, he was so easy-going, and so +merry-minded, that none could bear to disappoint him. Carthew did his +best, partly for the love of doing it, partly for love of the captain; +Amalu was a willing drudge, and even Hemstead and Hadden turned to upon +occasion with a will. Tommy's department was the trade and traderoom; he +would work down in the hold or over the shelves of the cabin, till the +Sydney dandy was unrecognisable; come up at last, draw a bucket of +sea-water, bathe, change, and lie down on deck over a big sheaf of +Sydney _Heralds_ and _Dead Birds_, or perhaps with a volume of Buckle's +"History of Civilisation," the standard work selected for that cruise. +In the latter case a smile went round the ship, for Buckle almost +invariably laid his student out, and when Tom woke again he was almost +always in the humour for brown sherry. The connection was so well +established that "a glass of Buckle" or "a bottle of civilisation" +became current pleasantries on board the _Currency Lass_. + +Hemstead's province was that of the repairs, and he had his hands full. +Nothing on board but was decayed in a proportion: the lamps leaked, so +did the decks; door-knobs came off in the hand, mouldings parted company +with the panels, the pump declined to suck, and the defective bathroom +came near to swamp the ship. Wicks insisted that all the nails were long +ago consumed, and that she was only glued together by the rust. "You +shouldn't make me laugh so much, Tommy," he would say. "I am afraid I'll +shake the sternpost out of her." And, as Hemstead went to and fro with +his tool-basket on an endless round of tinkering, Wicks lost no +opportunity of chaffing him upon his duties. "If you'd turn to at +sailoring or washing paint or something useful, now," he would say, "I +could see the fun of it. But to be mending things that haven't no +insides to them appears to me the height of foolishness." And doubtless +these continual pleasantries helped to reassure the landsmen, who went +to and fro unmoved, under circumstances that might have daunted Nelson. + +The weather was from the outset splendid, and the wind fair and steady. +The ship sailed like a witch. "This _Currency Lass_ is a powerful old +girl, and has more complaints than I would care to put a name on," the +captain would say, as he pricked the chart; "but she could show her +blooming heels to anything of her size in the Western Pacific." To wash +decks, relieve the wheel, do the day's work after dinner on the +smoking-room table, and take in kites at night--such was the easy +routine of their life. In the evening--above all, if Tommy had produced +some of his civilisation--yarns and music were the rule. Amalu had a +sweet Hawaiian voice; and Hemstead, a great hand upon the banjo, +accompanied his own quavering tenor with effect. There was a sense in +which the little man could sing. It was great to hear him deliver "My +Boy Tammie" in Austrylian; and the words (some of the worst of the +ruffian Macneill's) were hailed in his version with inextinguishable +mirth. + + "Where hye ye been a' dye?" + +he would ask, and answer himself:-- + + "I've been by burn and flowery brye, + Meadow green and mountain grye, + Courtin' o' this young thing, + Just come frye her mammie." + +It was the accepted jest for all hands to greet the conclusion of this +song with the simultaneous cry, "My word!" thus winging the arrow of +ridicule with a feather from the singer's wing. But he had his revenge +with "Home, Sweet Home," and "Where is my Wandering Boy +To-night?"--ditties into which he threw the most intolerable pathos. It +appeared he had no home, nor had ever had one, nor yet any vestige of a +family, except a truculent uncle, a baker in Newcastle, N.S.W. His +domestic sentiment was therefore wholly in the air, and expressed an +unrealised ideal. Or perhaps, of all his experiences, this of the +_Currency Lass_, with its kindly, playful, and tolerant society, +approached it the most nearly. + +It is perhaps because I know the sequel, but I can never think upon this +voyage without a profound sense of pity and mystery; of the ship (once +the whim of a rich blackguard) faring with her battered fineries and +upon her homely errand, across the plains of ocean, and past the +gorgeous scenery of dawn and sunset; and the ship's company, so +strangely assembled, so Britishly chuckle-headed, filling their days +with chaff in place of conversation; no human book on board with them +except Hadden's Buckle, and not a creature fit either to read or to +understand it; and the one mark of any civilised interest being when +Carthew filled in his spare hours with the pencil and the brush: the +whole unconscious crew of them posting in the meanwhile towards so +tragic a disaster. + +Twenty-eight days out of Sydney, on Christmas Eve, they fetched up to +the entrance of the lagoon, and plied all that night outside, keeping +their position by the lights of fishers on the reef, and the outlines of +the palms against the cloudy sky. With the break of day the schooner was +hove-to, and the signal for a pilot shown. But it was plain her lights +must have been observed in the darkness by the native fishermen, and +word carried to the settlement, for a boat was already under weigh. She +came towards them across the lagoon under a great press of sail, lying +dangerously down, so that at times, in the heavier puffs, they thought +she would turn turtle; covered the distance in fine style, luffed up +smartly alongside, and emitted a haggard-looking white man in pyjamas. + +"Good-mornin', cap'n," said he, when he had made good his entrance. "I +was taking you for a Fiji man-of-war, what with your flush decks and +them spars. Well, gen'lemen all, here's wishing you a merry Christmas +and a happy New Year," he added, and lurched against a stay. + +"Why, you're never the pilot?" exclaimed Wicks, studying him with a +profound disfavour. "You've never taken a ship in--don't tell me!" + +"Well, I should guess I have," returned the pilot. "I'm Captain Dobbs, I +am; and when I take charge, the captain of that ship can go below and +shave." + +"But, man alive! you're drunk, man!" cried the captain. + +"Drunk!" repeated Dobbs. "You can't have seen much life if you call me +drunk. I'm only just beginning. Come night, I won't say; I guess I'll be +properly full by then. But now I'm the soberest man in all Big Muggin." + +"It won't do," retorted Wicks. "Not for Joseph, sir. I can't have you +piling up my schooner." + +"All right," said Dobbs, "lay and rot where you are, or take and go in +and pile her up for yourself like the captain of the _Leslie_. That's +business, I guess; grudged me twenty dollars' pilotage, and lost twenty +thousand in trade and a brand-new schooner; ripped the keel right off of +her, and she went down in the inside of four minutes, and lies in twenty +fathom, trade and all." + +"What's all this?" cried Wicks. "Trade? What vessel was this _Leslie_, +anyhow?" + +"Consigned to Cohen and Co., from 'Frisco," returned the pilot, "and +badly wanted. There's a barque inside filling up for Hamburg--you see +her spars over there; and there's two more ships due, all the way from +Germany, one in two months, they say, and one in three; Cohen and Co.'s +agent (that's Mr. Topelius) has taken and lain down with the jaundice on +the strength of it. I guess most people would, in his shoes; no trade, +no copra, and twenty hundred ton of shipping due. If you've any copra on +board, cap'n, here's your chance. Topelius will buy, gold down, and give +three cents. It's all found money to him, the way it is, whatever he +pays for it. And that's what come of going back on the pilot." + +"Excuse me one moment, Captain Dobbs. I wish to speak with my mate," +said the captain, whose face had begun to shine and his eyes to sparkle. + +"Please yourself," replied the pilot.--"You couldn't think of offering a +man a nip, could you? just to brace him up. This kind of thing looks +damned inhospitable, and gives a schooner a bad name." + +"I'll talk about that after the anchor's down," returned Wicks, and he +drew Carthew forward.--"I say," he whispered, "here's a fortune." + +"How much do you call that?" asked Carthew. + +"I can't put a figure on it yet--I daren't!" said the captain. "We might +cruise twenty years and not find the match of it. And suppose another +ship came in to-night? Everything's possible! And the difficulty is this +Dobbs. He's as drunk as a marine. How can we trust him? We ain't +insured--worse luck!" + +"Suppose you took him aloft and got him to point out the channel?" +suggested Carthew. "If he tallied at all with the chart, and didn't fall +out of the rigging, perhaps we might risk it." + +"Well, all's risk here," returned the captain. "Take the wheel yourself, +and stand by. Mind, if there's two orders, follow mine, not his. Set the +cook for'ard with the heads'ls, and the two others at the main sheet, +and see they don't sit on it." With that he called the pilot; they +swarmed aloft in the fore rigging, and presently after there was bawled +down the welcome order to ease sheets and fill away. + +At a quarter before nine o'clock on Christmas morning the anchor was let +go. + +The first cruise of the _Currency Lass_ had thus ended in a stroke of +fortune almost beyond hope. She had brought two thousand pounds' worth +of trade, straight as a homing pigeon, to the place where it was most +required. And Captain Wicks (or, rather Captain Kirkup) showed himself +the man to make the best of his advantage. For hard upon two days he +walked a verandah with Topelius; for hard upon two days his partners +watched from the neighbouring public-house the field of battle; and the +lamps were not yet lighted on the evening of the second before the enemy +surrendered. Wicks came across to the "Sans Souci," as the saloon was +called, his face nigh black, his eyes almost closed and all bloodshot, +and yet bright as lighted matches. + +"Come out here, boys," he said; and when they were some way off among +the palms, "I hold twenty-four," he added in a voice scarcely +recognisable, and doubtless referring to the venerable game of cribbage. + +"What do you mean?" asked Tommy. + +"I've sold the trade," answered Wicks; "or, rather, I've sold only some +of it, for I've kept back all the mess beef, and half the flour and +biscuit, and, by God, we're still provisioned for four months! By God, +it's as good as stolen!" + +"My word!" cried Hemstead. + +"But what have you sold it for?" gasped Carthew, the captain's almost +insane excitement shaking his nerve. + +"Let me tell it my own way," cried Wicks, loosening his neck. "Let me +get at it gradual or I'll explode. I've not only sold it, boys, I've +wrung out a charter on my own terms to 'Frisco and back,--on my own +terms. I made a point of it. I fooled him first by making believe I +wanted copra, which, of course, I knew he wouldn't hear of--couldn't, in +fact; and whenever he showed fight I trotted out the copra, and that man +dived! I would take nothing but copra, you see; and so I've got the +blooming lot in specie--all but two short bills on 'Frisco. And the sum? +Well, this whole adventure, including two thousand pounds of credit, +cost us two thousand seven hundred and some odd. That's all paid back; +in thirty days' cruise we've paid for the schooner and the trade. Heard +ever any man the match of that? And it's not all! For besides that," +said the captain, hammering his words, "we've got thirteen blooming +hundred pounds of profit to divide. I bled him in four thou.!" he cried, +in a voice that broke like a schoolboy's. + +For a moment the partners looked upon their chief with stupefaction, +incredulous surprise their only feeling. Tommy was the first to grasp +the consequences. + +"Here," he said in a hard business tone, "come back to that saloon: I've +got to get drunk." + +"You must please excuse me, boys," said the captain earnestly. "I +daren't taste nothing. If I was to drink one glass of beer it's my +belief I'd have the apoplexy. The last scrimmage and the blooming +triumph pretty nigh-hand done me." + +"Well, then, three cheers for the captain," proposed Tommy. + +But Wicks held up a shaking hand. "Not that either, boys," he pleaded. +"Think of the other buffer, and let him down easy. If I'm like this, +just fancy what Topelius is. If he heard us singing out, he'd have the +staggers." + +As a matter of fact, Topelius accepted his defeat with a good grace; but +the crew of the wrecked _Leslie_, who were in the same employment, and +loyal to their firm, took the thing more bitterly. Rough words and ugly +looks were common. Once even they hooted Captain Wicks from the saloon +verandah; the Currency Lasses drew out on the other side; for some +minutes there had like to have been a battle in Butaritari; and though +the occasion passed off without blows, it left on either side an +increase of ill-feeling. + +No such small matter could affect the happiness of the successful +traders. Five days more the ship lay in the lagoon, with little +employment for any one but Tommy and the captain, for Topelius's natives +discharged cargo and brought ballast. The time passed like a pleasant +dream; the adventurers sat up half the night debating and praising their +good fortune, or stayed by day in the narrow isle gaping like Cockney +tourists, and on the first of the new year the _Currency Lass_ weighed +anchor for the second time and set sail for 'Frisco, attended by the +same fine weather and good luck. She crossed the doldrums with but small +delay; on a wind and in ballast of broken coral she outdid expectations; +and, what added to the happiness of the ship's company, the small amount +of work that fell on them to do was now lessened by the presence of +another hand. This was the boatswain of the _Leslie_. He had been on bad +terms with his own captain, had already spent his wages in the saloons +of Butaritari, had wearied of the place, and while all his shipmates +coldly refused to set foot on board the _Currency Lass_, he had offered +to work his passage to the coast. He was a north of Ireland man, between +Scotch and Irish, rough, loud, humorous, and emotional, not without +sterling qualities, and an expert and careful sailor. His frame of mind +was different indeed from that of his new shipmates. Instead of making +an unexpected fortune he had lost a berth, and he was besides disgusted +with the rations, and really appalled at the condition of the schooner. +A stateroom door had stuck the first day at sea, and Mac (as they called +him) laid his strength to it and plucked it from the hinges. + +"Glory!" said he, "this ship's rotten!" + +"I believe you, my boy," said Captain Wicks. + +The next day the sailor was observed with his nose aloft. + +"Don't you get looking at these sticks," the captain said, "or you'll +have a fit and fall overboard." + +Mac turned to the speaker with rather a wild eye. "Why, I see what looks +like a patch of dry rot up yonder, that I bet I could stick my fist +into," said he. + +"Looks as if a fellow could stick his head into it, don't it?" returned +Wicks. "But there's no good prying into things that can't be mended." + +"I think I was a Currency Ass to come on board of her!" reflected Mac. + +"Well, I never said she was seaworthy," replied the captain; "I only +said she could show her blooming heels to anything afloat. And besides, +I don't know that it's dry rot; I kind of sometimes hope it +isn't.--Here; turn to and heave the log; that'll cheer you up." + +"Well, there's no denying it, you're a holy captain," said Mac. + +And from that day on he made but the one reference to the ship's +condition; and that was whenever Tommy drew upon his cellar. "Here's to +the junk trade!" he would say, as he held out his can of sherry. + +"Why do you always say that?" asked Tommy. + +"I had an uncle in the business," replied Mac, and launched at once into +a yarn, in which an incredible number of the characters were "laid out +as nice as you would want to see," and the oaths made up about +two-fifths of every conversation. + +Only once he gave them a taste of his violence; he talked of it, indeed, +often; "I'm rather a voilent man," he would say, not without pride; but +this was the only specimen. Of a sudden he turned on Hemstead in the +ship's waist, knocked him against the foresail boom, then knocked him +under it, and had set him up and knocked him down once more, before any +one had drawn a breath. + +"Here! Belay that!" roared Wicks, leaping to his feet. "I won't have +none of this." + +Mac turned to the captain with ready civility. "I only want to learn him +manners," said he. "He took and called me Irishman." + +"Did he?" said Wicks. "O, that's a different story!--What made you do +it, you tomfool? You ain't big enough to call any man that." + +"I didn't call him it," spluttered Hemstead, through his blood and +tears. "I only mentioned-like he was." + +"Well, let's have no more of it," said Wicks. + +"But you _are_ Irish, ain't you?" Carthew asked of his new shipmate +shortly after. + +"I may be," replied Mac, "but I'll allow no Sydney duck to call me so. +No," he added, with a sudden heated countenance, "nor any Britisher that +walks! Why, look here," he went on, "you're a young swell, aren't you? +Suppose I called you that! 'I'll show you,' you would say, and turn to +and take it out of me straight." + +On the 28th of January, when in lat. 27 deg. 20' N., long. 177 deg. W., the wind +chopped suddenly into the west, not very strong, but puffy and with +flaws of rain. The captain, eager for easting, made a fair wind of it, +and guyed the booms out wing and wing. It was Tommy's trick at the +wheel, and as it was within half an hour of the relief (7.30 in the +morning), the captain judged it not worth while to change him. + +The puffs were heavy, but short; there was nothing to be called a +squall, no danger to the ship, and scarce more than usual to the +doubtful spars. All hands were on deck in their oilskins, expecting +breakfast; the galley smoked, the ship smelt of coffee, all were in good +humour to be speeding eastward a full nine; when the rotten foresail +tore suddenly between two cloths, and then split to either hand. It was +for all the world as though some archangel with a huge sword had slashed +it with the figure of a cross; all hands ran to secure the slatting +canvas; and in the sudden uproar and alert, Tommy Hadden lost his head. +Many of his days have been passed since then in explaining how the thing +happened; of these explanations it will be sufficient to say that they +were all different, and none satisfactory; and the gross fact remains +that the main boom gybed, carried away the tackle, broke the mainmast +some three feet above the deck and whipped it overboard. For near a +minute the suspected foremast gallantly resisted; then followed its +companion; and by the time the wreck was cleared, of the whole beautiful +fabric that enabled them to skim the seas, two ragged stumps remained. + +In these vast and solitary waters, to be dismasted is perhaps the worst +calamity. Let the ship turn turtle and go down, and at least the pang is +over. But men chained on a hulk may pass months scanning the empty +sea-line and counting the steps of death's invisible approach. There is +no help but in the boats, and what a help is that! There heaved the +_Currency Lass_, for instance, a wingless lump, and the nearest human +coast (that of Kauai in the Sandwiches) lay about a thousand miles to +south and east of her. Over the way there, to men contemplating that +passage in an open boat, all kinds of misery, and the fear of death and +of madness, brooded. + +A serious company sat down to breakfast; but the captain helped his +neighbours with a smile. + +"Now, boys," he said, after a pull at the hot coffee, "we're done with +this _Currency Lass_ and no mistake. One good job: we made her pay while +she lasted, and she paid first-rate; and if we were to try our hand +again, we can try in style. Another good job: we have a fine, stiff, +roomy boat, and you know who you have to thank for that. We've got six +lives to save, and a pot of money; and the point is, where are we to +take 'em?" + +"It's all two thousand miles to the nearest of the Sandwiches, I fancy," +observed Mac. + +"No, not so bad as that," returned the captain. "But it's bad enough; +rather better'n a thousand." + +"I know a man who once did twelve hundred in a boat," said Mac, "and he +had all he wanted. He fetched ashore in the Marquesas, and never set a +foot on anything floating from that day to this. He said he would rather +put a pistol to his head and knock his brains out." + +"Ay, ay!" said Wicks. "Well, I remember a boat's crew that made this +very island of Kauai, and from just about where we lie, or a bit +further. When they got up with the land they were clean crazy. There was +an iron-bound coast and an Old Bob Ridley of a surf on. The natives +hailed 'em from fishing-boats, and sang out it couldn't be done at the +money. Much they cared! there was the land, that was all they knew; and +they turned to and drove the boat slap ashore in the thick of it, and +was all drowned but one. No; boat trips are my eye," concluded the +captain gloomily. + +The tone was surprising in a man of his indomitable temper. "Come, +captain," said Carthew, "you have something else up your sleeve; out +with it." + +"It's a fact," admitted Wicks. "You see there's a raft of little bally +reefs about here, kind of chicken-pox on the chart. Well, I looked 'em +all up, and there's one--Midway or Brooks they call it, not forty mile +from our assigned position--that I got news of. It turns out it's a +coaling station of the Pacific Mail," he said simply. + +"Well, and I know it ain't no such a thing," said Mac. "I been +quartermaster in that line myself." + +"All right," returned Wicks. "There's the book. Read what Hoyt +says--read it aloud and let the others hear." + +Hoyt's falsehood (as readers know) was explicit; incredulity was +impossible, and the news itself delightful beyond hope. Each saw in his +mind's eye the boat draw in to a trim island with a wharf, coal-sheds, +gardens, the Stars and Stripes, and the white cottage of the keeper; saw +themselves idle a few weeks in tolerable quarters, and then step on +board the China mail, romantic waifs, and yet with pocketsful of money, +calling for champagne, and waited on by troops of stewards. Breakfast, +that had begun so dully, ended amid sober jubilation, and all hands +turned immediately to prepare the boat. + +Now that all spars were gone, it was no easy job to get her launched. +Some of the necessary cargo was first stowed on board: the specie, in +particular, being packed in a strong chest and secured with lashings to +the after-thwart in case of a capsize. Then a piece of the bulwarks was +razed to the level of the deck, and the boat swung thwart-ship, made +fast with a slack line to either stump, and successfully run out. For a +voyage of forty miles to hospitable quarters, not much food or water was +required but they took both in superfluity. Amalu and Mac, both +ingrained sailor-men, had chests which were the headquarters of their +lives; two more chests with handbags, oilskins, and blankets supplied +the others; Hadden, amid general applause, added the last case of the +brown sherry; the captain brought the log, instruments, and +chronometer; nor did Hemstead forget the banjo or a pinned handkerchief +of Butaritari shells. + +It was about three P.M. when they pushed off, and (the wind being still +westerly) fell to the oars. "Well, we've got the guts out of _you_!" was +the captain's nodded farewell to the hulk of the _Currency Lass_, which +presently shrank and faded in the sea. A little after a calm succeeded, +with much rain; and the first meal was eaten, and the watch below lay +down to their uneasy slumber on the bilge under a roaring shower-bath. +The twenty-ninth dawned overhead from out of ragged clouds; there is no +moment when a boat at sea appears so trenchantly black and so +conspicuously little; and the crew looked about them at the sky and +water with a thrill of loneliness and fear. With sunrise the Trade set +in, lusty and true to the point; sail was made; the boat flew; and by +about four in the afternoon, they were well up with the closed part of +the reef, and the captain standing on the thwart, and holding by the +mast, was studying the island through the binoculars. + +"Well, and where's your station?" cried Mac. + +"I don't someway pick it up," replied the captain. + +"No, nor never will!" retorted Mac, with a clang of despair and triumph +in his tones. + +The truth was soon plain to all. No buoys, no beacons, no lights, no +coal, no station; the castaways pulled through a lagoon and landed on an +isle, where was no mark of man but wreckwood, and no sound but of the +sea. For the sea-fowl that harboured and lived there at the epoch of my +visit were then scattered into the uttermost parts of the ocean, and had +left no traces of their sojourn besides dropped feathers and addled +eggs. It was to this they had been sent, for this they had stooped all +night over the dripping oars, hourly moving further from relief. The +boat, for as small as it was, was yet eloquent of the hands of men, a +thing alone indeed upon the sea, but yet in itself all human; and the +isle, for which they had exchanged it, was ingloriously savage, a place +of distress, solitude, and hunger unrelieved. There was a strong glare +and shadow of the evening over all; in which they sat or lay, not +speaking, careless even to eat, men swindled out of life and riches by a +lying book. In the great good-nature of the whole party, no word of +reproach had been addressed to Hadden, the author of these disasters. +But the new blow was less magnanimously borne, and many angry glances +rested on the captain. + +Yet it was himself who roused them from their lethargy. Grudgingly they +obeyed, drew the boat beyond tidemark, and followed him to the top of +the miserable islet, whence a view was commanded of the whole wheel of +the horizon, then part darkened under the coming night, part dyed with +the hues of the sunset, and populous with the sunset clouds. Here the +camp was pitched, and a tent run up with the oars, sails, and mast. And +here Amalu, at no man's bidding, from the mere instinct of habitual +service, built a fire and cooked a meal. Night was come, and the stars +and the silver sickle of new moon beamed overhead, before the meal was +ready. The cold sea shone about them, and the fire glowed in their faces +as they ate. Tommy had opened his case, and the brown sherry went the +round; but it was long before they came to conversation. + +"Well, is it to be Kauai, after all?" asked Mac suddenly. + +"This is bad enough for me," said Tommy. "Let's stick it out where we +are." + +"Well, I can tell ye one thing," said Mac, "if ye care to hear it: when +I was in the China mail we once made this island. It's in the course +from Honolulu." + +"Deuce it is!" cried Carthew. "That settles it, then. Let's stay. We +must keep good fires going; and there's plenty wreck." + +"Lashings of wreck!" said the Irishman. "There's nothing here but wreck +and coffin-boards." + +"But we'll have to make a proper blyze," objected Hemstead. "You can't +see a fire like this, not any wye awye, I mean." + +"Can't you?" said Carthew. "Look round." + +They did, and saw the hollow of the night, the bare, bright face of the +sea, and the stars regarding them; and the voices died in their bosoms +at the spectacle. In that huge isolation, it seemed they must be visible +from China on the one hand and California on the other. + +"My God, it's dreary!" whispered Hemstead. + +"Dreary?" cried Mac, and fell suddenly silent. + +"It's better than a boat, anyway," said Hadden. "I've had my bellyful of +boat." + +"What kills me is that specie!" the captain broke out. "Think of all +that riches--four thousand in gold, bad silver, and short bills--all +found money too!--and no more use than that much dung!" + +"I'll tell you one thing," said Tommy. "I don't like it being in the +boat--I don't care to have it so far away." + +"Why, who's to take it?" cried Mac, with a guffaw of evil laughter. + +But this was not at all the feeling of the partners, who rose, clambered +down the isle, brought back the inestimable treasure-chest slung upon +two oars, and set it conspicuous in the shining of the fire. + +"There's my beauty!" cried Wicks, viewing it with a cocked head; "that's +better than a bonfire. What! we have a chest here, and bills for close +upon two thousand pounds; there's no show to that--it would go in your +vest-pocket--but the rest! upwards of forty pounds avoirdupois of coined +gold, and close on two hundredweight of Chile silver! What! ain't that +good enough to fetch a fleet? Do you mean to say that won't affect a +ship's compass? Do you mean to tell me that the look-out won't turn to +and _smell_ it?" he cried. + +Mac, who had no part nor lot in the bills, the forty pounds of gold, or +the two hundredweight of silver, heard this with impatience, and fell +into a bitter, choking laughter. "You'll see!" he said harshly. "You'll +be glad to feed them bills into the fire before you're through with ut!" +And he turned, passed by himself out of the ring of the firelight, and +stood gazing seaward. + +His speech and his departure extinguished instantly those sparks of +better humour kindled by the dinner and the chest. The group fell again +to an ill-favoured silence, and Hemstead began to touch the banjo, as +was his habit of an evening. His repertory was small: the chords of +"Home, Sweet Home" fell under his fingers; and when he had played the +symphony, he instinctively raised up his voice, "Be it never so 'umble, +there's no plyce like 'ome," he sang. The last word was still upon his +lips, when the instrument was snatched from him and dashed into the +fire; and he turned with a cry to look into the furious countenance of +Mac. + +"I'll be damned if I stand this!" cried the captain, leaping up +belligerent. + +"I told ye I was a voilent man," said Mac, with a movement of +deprecation very surprising in one of his character. "Why don't he give +me a chance then? Haven't we enough to bear the way we are?" And to the +wonder and dismay of all, the man choked upon a sob. "It's ashamed of +meself I am," he said presently, his Irish accent twenty-fold increased. +"I ask all your pardons for me voilence; and especially the little +man's, who is a harmless craytur, and here's me hand to'm, if he'll +condescend to take me by't." + +So this scene of barbarity and sentimentalism passed off, leaving behind +strange and incongruous impressions. True, every one was perhaps glad +when silence succeeded that all too appropriate music; true, Mac's +apology and subsequent behaviour rather raised him in the opinion of his +fellow-castaways. But the discordant note had been struck, and its +harmonics tingled in the brain. In that savage, houseless isle, the +passions of man had sounded, if only for the moment, and all men +trembled at the possibilities of horror. + +It was determined to stand watch and watch in case of passing vessels; +and Tommy, on fire with an idea, volunteered to stand the first. The +rest crawled under the tent, and were soon enjoying that comfortable +gift of sleep, which comes everywhere and to all men, quenching +anxieties and speeding time. And no sooner were all settled, no sooner +had the drone of many snorers begun to mingle with and overcome the +surf, than Tommy stole from his post with the case of sherry, and +dropped it in a quiet cove in a fathom of water. But the stormy +inconstancy of Mac's behaviour had no connection with a gill or two of +wine; his passions, angry and otherwise, were on a different sail-plan +from his neighbours'; and there were possibilities of good and evil in +that hybrid Celt beyond their prophecy. + +About two in the morning, the starry sky--or so it seemed, for the +drowsy watchman had not observed the approach of any cloud--brimmed over +in a deluge; and for three days it rained without remission. The islet +was a sponge, the castaways sops; the view all gone, even the reef +concealed behind the curtain of the falling water. The fire was soon +drowned out; after a couple of boxes of matches had been scratched in +vain, it was decided to wait for better weather; and the party lived in +wretchedness on raw tins and a ration of hard bread. + +By the 2nd February, in the dark hours of the morning watch, the clouds +were all blown by; the sun rose glorious; and once more the castaways +sat by a quick fire, and drank hot coffee with the greed of brutes and +sufferers. Thenceforward their affairs moved in a routine. A fire was +constantly maintained; and this occupied one hand continuously, and the +others for an hour or so in the day. Twice a day all hands bathed in the +lagoon, their chief, almost their only, pleasure. Often they fished in +the lagoon with good success. And the rest was passed in lolling, +strolling, yarns, and disputation. The time of the China steamers was +calculated to a nicety; which done, the thought was rejected and +ignored. It was one that would not bear consideration. The boat voyage +having been tacitly set aside, the desperate part chosen to wait there +for the coming of help or of starvation, no man had courage left to look +his bargain in the face, far less to discuss it with his neighbours. But +the unuttered terror haunted them; in every hour of idleness, at every +moment of silence, it returned, and breathed a chill about the circle, +and carried men's eyes to the horizon. Then, in a panic of self-defence, +they would rally to some other subject. And, in that lone spot, what +else was to be found to speak of but the treasure? + +That was indeed the chief singularity, the one thing conspicuous in +their island life; the presence of that chest of bills and specie +dominated the mind like a cathedral; and there were besides connected +with it certain irking problems well fitted to occupy the idle. Two +thousand pounds were due to the Sydney firm; two thousand pounds were +clear profit, and fell to be divided in varying proportions among six. +It had been agreed how the partners were to range; every pound of +capital subscribed, every pound that fell due in wages, was to count for +one "lay." Of these Tommy could claim five hundred and ten, Carthew one +hundred and seventy, Wicks one hundred and forty, and Hemstead and Amalu +ten apiece: eight hundred and forty "lays" in all. What was the value of +a lay? This was at first debated in the air, and chiefly by the strength +of Tommy's lungs. Then followed a series of incorrect calculations; from +which they issued, arithmetically foiled, but agreed from weariness upon +an approximate value of L2 7s. 7-1/4d. The figures were admittedly +incorrect; the sum of the shares came not to L2,000, but to L1,996 +6s.--L3 14s. being thus left unclaimed. But it was the nearest they had +yet found, and the highest as well, so that the partners were made the +less critical by the contemplation of their splendid dividends. Wicks +put in L100, and stood to draw captain's wages for two months; his +taking was L333 3s. 6-3/4d. Carthew put in L150; he was to take out L401 +18s. 6-1/2d. Tommy's L500 had grown to be L1,213 12s. 9-3/4d.; and Amalu +and Hemstead, ranking for wages only, had L22 16s. 0-1/2d. each. + +From talking and brooding on these figures it was but a step to opening +the chest, and once the chest open the glamour of the cash was +irresistible. Each felt that he must see his treasure separate with the +eye of flesh, handle it in the hard coin, mark it for his own, and stand +forth to himself the approved owner. And here an insurmountable +difficulty barred the way. There were some seventeen shillings in +English silver, the rest was Chile; and the Chile dollar, which had been +taken at the rate of six to the pound sterling, was practically their +smallest coin. It was decided, therefore, to divide the pounds only, and +to throw the shillings, pence, and fractions in a common fund. This, +with the three pound fourteen already in the heel, made a total of seven +pounds one shilling. + +"I'll tell you," said Wicks. "Let Carthew and Tommy and me take one +pound apiece, and Hemstead and Amalu split the other four, and toss up +for the odd bob." + +"O, rot!" said Carthew. "Tommy and I are bursting already. We can take +half a sov. each, and let the other three have forty shillings." + +"I'll tell you now, it's not worth splitting," broke in Mac. "I've cards +in my chest. Why don't you play for the lump sum?" + +In that idle place the proposal was accepted with delight. Mac, as the +owner of the cards, was given a stake; the sum was played for in five +games of cribbage; and when Amalu, the last survivor in the tournament, +was beaten by Mac it was found the dinner-hour was past. After a hasty +meal they fell again immediately to cards, this time (on Carthew's +proposal) to Van John. It was then probably two P.M. of the 9th of +February, and they played with varying chances for twelve hours, slept +heavily, and rose late on the morrow to resume the game. All day on the +10th, with grudging intervals for food, and with one long absence on the +part of Tommy, from which he returned dripping with the case of sherry, +they continued to deal and stake. Night fell; they drew the closer to +the fire. It was maybe two in the morning, and Tommy was selling his +deal by auction, as usual with that timid player, when Carthew, who +didn't intend to bid, had a moment of leisure and looked round him. He +beheld the moonlight on the sea, the money piled and scattered in that +incongruous place, the perturbed faces of the players. He felt in his +own breast the familiar tumult; and it seemed as if there rose in his +ears a sound of music, and the moon seemed still to shine upon a sea, +but the sea was changed, and the Casino towered from among lamp-lit +gardens, and the money clinked on the green board. "Good God!" he +thought, "am I gambling again?" He looked the more curiously about the +sandy table. He and Mac had played and won like gamblers; the mingled +gold and silver lay by their places in the heap. Amalu and Hemstead had +each more than held their own, but Tommy was cruel far to leeward, and +the captain was reduced to perhaps fifty pounds. + +"I say, let's knock off," said Carthew. + +"Give that man a glass of Buckle," said some one, and a fresh bottle was +opened, and the game went inexorably on. + +Carthew was himself too heavy a winner to withdraw or to say more, and +all the rest of the night he must look on at the progress of this folly, +and make gallant attempts to lose, with the not uncommon consequence of +winning more. The first dawn of the 11th February found him well-nigh +desperate. It chanced he was then dealer, and still winning. He had +just dealt a round of many tens; every one had staked heavily. The +captain had put up all that remained to him--twelve pounds in gold and a +few dollars,--and Carthew, looking privately at his cards before he +showed them, found he held a natural. + +"See here, you fellows," he broke out, "this is a sickening business, +and I'm done with it for one." So saying, he showed his cards, tore them +across, and rose from the ground. + +The company stared and murmured in mere amazement; but Mac stepped +gallantly to his support. + +"We've had enough of it, I do believe," said he. "But of course it was +all fun, and here's my counters back. All counters in, boys!" and he +began to pour his winnings into the chest, which stood fortunately near +him. + +Carthew stepped across and wrung him by the hand. "I'll never forget +this," he said. + +"And what are ye going to do with the Highway boy and the plumber?" +inquired Mac, in a low tone of voice. "They've both wan, ye see." + +"That's true!" said Carthew aloud.--"Amalu and Hemstead, count your +winnings; Tommy and I pay that." + +It was carried without speech; the pair glad enough to receive their +winnings, it mattered not from whence; and Tommy, who had lost about +five hundred pounds, delighted with the compromise. + +"And how about Mac?" asked Hemstead. "Is he to lose all?" + +"I beg your pardon, plumber. I'm sure ye mean well," returned the +Irishman, "but you'd better shut your face, for I'm not that kind of a +man. If I t'ought I had wan that money fair, there's never a soul here +could get it from me. But I t'ought it was in fun; that was my mistake, +ye see; and there's no man big enough upon this island to give a present +to my mother's son. So there's my opinion to ye, plumber, and you can +put it in your pockut till required." + +"Well, I will say, Mac, you're a gentleman," said Carthew, as he helped +him to shovel back his winnings into the treasure-chest. + +"Divil a fear of it, sir, a drunken sailor-man," said Mac. + +The captain had sat somewhile with his face in his hands; now he rose +mechanically, shaking and stumbling like a drunkard after a debauch. But +as he rose, his face was altered, and his voice rang out over the isle, +"Sail ho!" + +All turned at the cry, and there, in the wild light of the morning, +heading straight for Midway Reef, was the brig _Flying Scud_ of Hull. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +A HARD BARGAIN + + +The ship which thus appeared before the castaways had long "tramped" the +ocean, wandering from one port to another as freights offered. She was +two years out from London, by the Cape of Good Hope, India, and the +Archipelago; and was now bound for San Francisco in the hope of working +homeward round the Horn. Her captain was one Jacob Trent. He had retired +some five years before to a suburban cottage, a patch of cabbages, a +gig, and the conduct of what he called a Bank. The name appears to have +been misleading. Borrowers were accustomed to choose works of art and +utility in the front shop; loaves of sugar and bolts of broadcloth were +deposited in pledge; and it was a part of the manager's duty to dash in +his gig on Saturday evenings from one small retailer's to another, and +to annex in each the bulk of the week's takings. His was thus an active +life, and, to a man of the type of a rat, filled with recondite joys. An +unexpected loss, a lawsuit, and the unintelligent commentary of the +judge upon the bench, combined to disgust him of the business. I was so +extraordinarily fortunate as to find, in an old newspaper, a report of +the proceedings in Lyall _v._ The Cardiff Mutual Accommodation Banking +Co. "I confess I fail entirely to understand the nature of the +business," the judge had remarked, while Trent was being examined in +chief; a little after, on fuller information--"They call it a bank," he +had opined, "but it seems to me to be an unlicensed pawn-shop"; and he +wound up with this appalling allocution: "Mr. Trent, I must put you on +your guard; you must be very careful, or we shall see you here again." +In the inside of a week the captain disposed of the bank, the cottage, +and the gig and horse; and to sea again in the _Flying Scud_, where he +did well, and gave high satisfaction to his owners. But the glory clung +to him; he was a plain sailor-man, he said, but he could never long +allow you to forget that he had been a banker. + +His mate, Elias Goddedaal, was a huge Viking of a man, six feet three, +and of proportionate mass, strong, sober, industrious, musical, and +sentimental. He ran continually over into Swedish melodies, chiefly in +the minor. He had paid nine dollars to hear Patti; to hear Nilsson, he +had deserted a ship and two months' wages; and he was ready at any time +to walk ten miles for a good concert or seven to a reasonable play. On +board he had three treasures: a canary bird, a concertina, and a +blinding copy of the works of Shakespeare. He had a gift, peculiarly +Scandinavian, of making friends at sight; and elemental innocence +commended him; he was without fear, without reproach, and without money +or the hope of making it. + +Holdorsen was second mate, and berthed aft, but messed usually with the +hands. + +Of one more of the crew some image lives. This was a foremast hand out +of the Clyde, of the name of Brown. A small, dark, thick-set creature, +with dog's eyes, of a disposition incomparably mild and harmless, he +knocked about seas and cities, the uncomplaining whiptop of one vice. +"The drink is my trouble, ye see," he said to Carthew shyly; "and it's +the more shame to me because I'm come of very good people at Bowling, +down the wa'er." The letter that so much affected Nares, in case the +reader should remember it, was addressed to this man Brown. + +Such was the ship that now carried joy into the bosoms of the castaways. +After the fatigue and the bestial emotions of their night of play, the +approach of salvation shook them from all self-control. Their hands +trembled, their eyes shone, they laughed and shouted like children as +they cleared their camp: and some one beginning to whistle "Marching +Through Georgia," the remainder of the packing was conducted, amidst a +thousand interruptions, to these martial strains. But the strong head of +Wicks was only partly turned. + +"Boys," he said, "easy all! We're going aboard of a ship of which we +don't know nothing; we've got a chest of specie, and seeing the weight, +we can't turn to and deny it. Now, suppose she was fishy; suppose it was +some kind of a Bully Hayes business! It's my opinion we'd better be on +hand with the pistols." + +Every man of the party but Hemstead had some kind of a revolver; these +were accordingly loaded and disposed about the persons of the castaways, +and the packing was resumed and finished in the same rapturous spirit as +it was begun. The sun was not yet ten degrees above the eastern sea, but +the brig was already close in and hove-to, before they had launched the +boat and sped, shouting at the oars, towards the passage. + +It was blowing fresh outside with a strong send of sea. The spray flew +in the oarsmen's faces. They saw the Union Jack blow abroad from the +_Flying Scud_, the men clustered at the rail, the cook in the +galley-door, the captain on the quarter-deck with a pith helmet and +binoculars. And the whole familiar business, the comfort, company, and +safety of a ship, heaving nearer at each stroke, maddened them with joy. + +Wicks was the first to catch the line, and swarm on board, helping hands +grabbing him as he came and hauling him across the rail. + +"Captain, sir, I suppose?" he said, turning to the hard old man in the +pith helmet. + +"Captain Trent, sir," returned the old gentleman. + +"Well, I'm Captain Kirkup, and this is the crew of the Sydney schooner +_Currency Lass_, dismasted at sea January 28th." + +"Ay, ay," said Trent. "Well, you're all right now. Lucky for you I saw +your signal. I didn't know I was so near this beastly island, there must +be a drift to the south'ard here; and when I came on deck this morning +at eight bells, I thought it was a ship afire." + +It had been agreed that, while Wicks was to board the ship and do the +civil, the rest were to remain in the whaleboat and see the treasure +safe. A tackle was passed down to them; to this they made fast the +invaluable chest, and gave the word to heave. But the unexpected weight +brought the hand at the tackle to a stand; two others ran to tail on and +help him, and the thing caught the eye of Trent. + +"'Vast heaving!" he cried sharply; and then to Wicks: "What's that? I +don't ever remember to have seen a chest weigh like that." + +"It's money," said Wicks. + +"It's what?" cried Trent. + +"Specie," said Wicks; "saved from the wreck." + +Trent looked at him sharply. "Here, let go that chest again, Mr. +Goddedaal," he commanded, "shove the boat off, and stream her with a +line astern." + +"Ay, ay, sir!" from Goddedaal. + +"What the devil's wrong?" asked Wicks. + +"Nothing, I daresay," returned Trent. "But you'll allow it's a queer +thing when a boat turns up in mid-ocean with half a ton of specie and +everybody armed," he added, pointing to Wicks's pocket. "Your boat will +lay comfortably astern, while you come below and make yourself +satisfactory." + +"O, if that's all!" said Wicks. "My log and papers are as right as the +mail; nothing fishy about us." And he hailed his friends in the boat, +bidding them have patience, and turned to follow Captain Trent. + +"This way, Captain Kirkup," said the latter. "And don't blame a man for +too much caution; no offence intended; and these China rivers shake a +fellow's nerve. All I want is just to see you're what you say you are; +it's only my duty, sir, and what you would do yourself in the +circumstances. I've not always been a ship-captain: I was a banker once, +and I tell you that's the trade to learn caution in. You have to keep +your weather-eye lifting Saturday nights." And with a dry, business-like +cordiality, he produced a bottle of gin. + +The captains pledged each other; the papers were overhauled; the tale of +Topelius and the trade was told in appreciative ears and cemented their +acquaintance. Trent's suspicions, thus finally disposed of, were +succeeded by a fit of profound thought, during which he sat lethargic +and stern, looking at and drumming on the table. + +"Anything more?" asked Wicks. + +"What sort of a place is it inside?" inquired Trent, sudden as though +Wicks had touched a spring. + +"It's a good enough lagoon--a few horses' heads, but nothing to +mention," answered Wicks. + +"I've a good mind to go in," said Trent. "I was new rigged in China; +it's given very bad, and I'm getting frightened for my sticks. We could +set it up as good as new in a day. For I daresay your lot would turn to +and give us a hand?" + +"You see if we don't!" said Wicks. + +"So be it, then," concluded Trent. "A stitch in time saves nine." + +They returned on deck; Wicks cried the news to the Currency Lasses; the +foretopsail was filled again, and the brig ran into the lagoon lively, +the whaleboat dancing in her wake, and came to single anchor off Middle +Brooks Island before eight. She was boarded by the castaways, breakfast +was served, the baggage slung on board and piled in the waist, and all +hands turned to upon the rigging. All day the work continued, the two +crews rivalling each other in expense of strength. Dinner was served on +deck, the officers messing aft under the slack of the spanker, the men +fraternising forward. Trent appeared in excellent spirits, served out +grog to all hands, opened a bottle of Cape wine for the after-table, and +obliged his guests with many details of the life of a financier in +Cardiff. He had been forty years at sea, had five times suffered +shipwreck, was once nine months the prisoner of a pepper rajah, and had +seen service under fire in Chinese rivers; but the only thing he cared +to talk of, the only thing of which he was vain, or with which he +thought it possible to interest a stranger, was his career as a +money-lender in the slums of a seaport town. + +The afternoon spell told cruelly on the Currency Lasses. Already +exhausted as they were with sleeplessness and excitement, they did the +last hours of this violent employment on bare nerves; and, when Trent +was at last satisfied with the condition of his rigging, expected +eagerly the word to put to sea. But the captain seemed in no hurry. He +went and walked by himself softly, like a man in thought. Presently he +hailed Wicks. + +"You're a kind of company, ain't you, Captain Kirkup?" he inquired. + +"Yes, we're all on board on lays," was the reply. + +"Well, then, you won't mind if I ask the lot of you down to tea in the +cabin?" asked Trent. + +Wicks was amazed, but he naturally ventured no remark; and a little +after, the six Currency Lasses sat down with Trent and Goddedaal to a +spread of marmalade, butter, toast, sardines, tinned tongue, and +steaming tea. The food was not very good, and I have no doubt Nares +would have reviled it, but it was manna to the castaways. Goddedaal +waited on them with a kindness far before courtesy, a kindness like that +of some old, honest countrywoman in her farm. It was remembered +afterwards that Trent took little share in these attentions, but sat +much absorbed in thought, and seemed to remember and forget the presence +of his guests alternately. + +Presently he addressed the Chinaman. + +"Clear out," said he, and watched him till he had disappeared in the +stair.--"Now, gentlemen," he went on, "I understand you're a joint-stock +sort of crew, and that's why I've had you all down; for there's a point +I want made clear. You see what sort of a ship this is--a good ship, +though I say it, and you see what the rations are--good enough for +sailor-men." + +There was a hurried murmur of approval, but curiosity for what was +coming next prevented an articulate reply. + +"Well," continued Trent, making bread pills and looking hard at the +middle of the table, "I'm glad of course to be able to give you a +passage to 'Frisco; one sailor-man should help another, that's my motto. +But when you want a thing in this world, you generally always have to +pay for it." He laughed a brief, joyless laugh. "I have no idea of +losing by my kindness." + +"We have no idea you should, captain," said Wicks. + +"We are ready to pay anything in reason," added Carthew. + +At the words, Goddedaal, who sat next to him, touched him with his +elbow, and the two mates exchanged a significant look. The character of +Captain Trent was given and taken in that silent second. + +"In reason?" repeated the captain of the brig. "I was waiting for that. +Reason's between two people, and there's only one here. I'm the judge; +I'm reason. If you want an advance you have to pay for it"--he hastily +corrected himself--"If you want a passage in my ship, you have to pay my +price," he substituted. "That's business, I believe. I don't want you; +you want me." + +"Well, sir," said Carthew, "and what _is_ your price?" + +The captain made bread pills. "If I were like you," he said, "when you +got hold of that merchant in the Gilberts, I might surprise you. You had +your chance then; seems to me it's mine now. Turn about's fair play. +What kind of mercy did you have on that Gilbert merchant?" he cried, +with a sudden stridency. "Not that I blame you. All's fair in love and +business," and he laughed again, a little frosty giggle. + +"Well, sir?" said Carthew gravely. + +"Well, this ship's mine, I think?" he asked sharply. + +"Well, I'm of that way of thinking myself," observed Mac. + +"I say it's mine, sir!" reiterated Trent, like a man trying to be angry. +"And I tell you all if I was a driver like what you are, I would take +the lot. But there's two thousand pounds there that don't belong to you, +and I'm an honest man. Give me the two thousand that's yours, and I'll +give you a passage to the coast, and land every man-jack of you in +'Frisco with fifteen pounds in his pocket, and the captain here with +twenty-five." + +Goddedaal laid down his head on the table like a man ashamed. + +"You're joking," cried Wicks, purple in the face. + +"Am I?" said Trent. "Please yourselves. You're under no compulsion. This +ship's mine, but there's that Brooks Island don't belong to me, and you +can lay there till you die for what I care." + +"It's more than your blooming brig's worth!" cried Wicks. + +"It's my price anyway," returned Trent. + +"And do you mean to say you would land us there to starve?" cried Tommy. + +Captain Trent laughed the third time. "Starve? I defy you to," said he. +"I'll sell you all the provisions you want at a fair profit." + +"I beg your pardon, sir," said Mac, "but my case is by itself. I'm +working me passage; I got no share in that two thousand pounds, nor +nothing in my pockut; and I'll be glad to know what you have to say to +me?" + +"I ain't a hard man," said Trent; "that shall make no difference. I'll +take you with the rest, only of course you get no fifteen pound." + +The impudence was so extreme and startling that all breathed deep, and +Goddedaal raised up his face and looked his superior sternly in the eye. + +But Mac was more articulate. "And you're what ye call a British sayman, +I suppose? the sorrow in your guts!" he cried. + +"One more such word, and I clap you in irons!" said Trent, rising +gleefully at the face of opposition. + +"And where would I be the while you were doin' ut?" asked Mac. "After +you and your rigging, too! Ye ould puggy, ye haven't the civility of a +bug, and I'll learn ye some." + +His voice did not even rise as he uttered the threat; no man present, +Trent least of all, expected that which followed. The Irishman's hand +rose suddenly from below the table, an open clasp-knife balanced on the +palm; there was a movement swift as conjuring; Trent started half to his +feet, turning a little as he rose so as to escape the table, and the +movement was his bane. The missile struck him in the jugular; he fell +forward, and his blood flowed among the dishes on the cloth. + +The suddenness of the attack and the catastrophe, the instant change +from peace to war, and from life to death, held all men spellbound. Yet +a moment they sat about the table staring open-mouthed upon the +prostrate captain and the flowing blood. The next, Goddedaal had leaped +to his feet, caught up the stool on which he had been sitting, and swung +it high in air, a man transfigured, roaring (as he stood) so that men's +ears were stunned with it. There was no thought of battle in the +Currency Lasses; none drew his weapon; all huddled helplessly from +before the face of the baresark Scandinavian. His first blow sent Mac to +ground with a broken arm. His second dashed out the brains of Hemstead. +He turned from one to another, menacing and trumpeting like a wounded +elephant, exulting in his rage. But there was no counsel, no light of +reason, in that ecstasy of battle; and he shied from the pursuit of +victory to hail fresh blows upon the supine Hemstead, so that the stool +was shattered and the cabin rang with their violence. The sight of that +post-mortem cruelty recalled Carthew to the life of instinct, and his +revolver was in hand and he had aimed and fired before he knew. The +ear-bursting sound of the report was accompanied by a yell of pain; the +colossus paused, swayed, tottered, and fell headlong on the body of his +victim. + +In the instant silence that succeeded, the sound of feet pounding on +deck and in the companion leaped into hearing; and a face, that of the +sailor Holdorsen, appeared below the bulkheads in the cabin doorway. +Carthew shattered it with a second shot, for he was a marksman. + +"Pistols!" he cried, and charged at the companion, Wicks at his heels, +Tommy and Amalu following. They trod the body of Holdorsen under foot, +and flew upstairs and forth into the dusky blaze of a sunset red as +blood. The numbers were still equal, but the Flying Scuds dreamed not of +defence, and fled with one accord for the forecastle scuttle. Brown was +first in flight; he disappeared below unscathed; the Chinaman followed +head-foremost with a ball in his side; and the others shinned into the +rigging. + +A fierce composure settled upon Wicks and Carthew, their fighting second +wind. They posted Tommy at the fore and Amalu at the main to guard the +masts and shrouds, and going themselves into the waist, poured out a box +of cartridges on deck and filled the chambers. The poor devils aloft +bleated aloud for mercy. But the hour of any mercy was gone by; the cup +was brewed and must be drunken to the dregs; since so many had fallen +all must fall. The light was bad, the cheap revolvers fouled and carried +wild, the screaming wretches were swift to flatten themselves against +the masts and yards, or find a momentary refuge in the hanging sails. +The fell business took long, but it was done at last. Hardy the +Londoner was shot on the fore-royal yard, and hung horribly suspended +in the brails. Wallen, the other, had his jaw broken on the +maintop-gallant crosstrees, and exposed himself, shrieking, till a +second shot dropped him on the deck. + +This had been bad enough, but worse remained behind. There was still +Brown in the forepeak. Tommy, with a sudden clamour of weeping, begged +for his life. "One man can't hurt us," he sobbed. "We can't go on with +this. I spoke to him at dinner. He's an awful decent little cad. It +can't be done. Nobody can go into that place and murder him. It's too +damned wicked." + +The sound of his supplications was perhaps audible to the unfortunate +below. + +"One left and we all hang," said Wicks. "Brown must go the same road." +The big man was deadly white and trembled like an aspen; and he had no +sooner finished speaking than he went to the ship's side and vomited. + +"We can never do it if we wait," said Carthew. "Now or never," and he +marched towards the scuttle. + +"No, no, no!" wailed Tommy, clutching at his jacket. + +But Carthew flung him off, and stepped down the ladder, his heart rising +with disgust and shame. The Chinaman lay on the floor, still groaning; +the place was pitch dark. + +"Brown!" cried Carthew; "Brown, where are you?" + +His heart smote him for the treacherous apostrophe, but no answer came. + +He groped in the bunks: they were all empty. Then he moved towards the +forepeak, which was hampered with coils of rope and spare chandlery in +general. + +"Brown!" he said again. + +"Here, sir," answered a shaking voice; and the poor invisible caitiff +called on him by name, and poured forth out of the darkness an endless, +garrulous appeal for mercy. A sense of danger, of daring, had alone +nerved Carthew to enter the forecastle; and here was the enemy crying +and pleading like a frightened child. His obsequious "Here, sir," his +horrid fluency of obtestation, made the murder tenfold more revolting. +Twice Carthew raised the pistol, once he pressed the trigger (or thought +he did) with all his might, but no explosion followed; and with that the +lees of his courage ran quite out, and he turned and fled from before +his victim. + +Wicks sat on the fore hatch, raised the face of a man of seventy, and +looked a wordless question. Carthew shook his head. With such composure +as a man displays marching towards the gallows, Wicks arose, walked to +the scuttle, and went down. Brown thought it was Carthew returning, and +discovered himself, half-crawling from his shelter, with another +incoherent burst of pleading. Wicks emptied his revolver at the voice, +which broke into mouse-like whimperings and groans. Silence succeeded, +and the murderer ran on deck like one possessed. + +The other three were now all gathered on the fore hatch, and Wicks took +his place beside them without question asked or answered. They sat close +like children in the dark, and shook each other with their shaking. The +dusk continued to fall; and there was no sound but the beating of the +surf and the occasional hiccup of a sob from Tommy Hadden. + +"God, if there was another ship!" cried Carthew of a sudden. + +Wicks started and looked aloft with the trick of all seamen, and +shuddered as he saw the hanging figure on the royal-yard. + +"If I went aloft, I'd fall," he said simply. "I'm done up." + +It was Amalu who volunteered, climbed to the very truck, swept the +fading horizon, and announced nothing within sight. + +"No odds," said Wicks. "We can't sleep...." + +"Sleep!" echoed Carthew; and it seemed as if the whole of Shakespeare's +_Macbeth_ thundered at the gallop through his mind. + +"Well, then, we can't sit and chitter here," said Wicks, "till we've +cleaned the ship; and I can't turn to till I've had gin, and the gin's +in the cabin, and who's to fetch it?" + +"I will," said Carthew, "if any one has matches." + +Amalu passed him a box, and he went aft and down the companion and into +the cabin, stumbling upon bodies. Then he struck a match, and his looks +fell upon two living eyes. + +"Well?" asked Mac, for it was he who still survived in that shambles of +a cabin. + +"It's done; they're all dead," answered Carthew. + +"Christ!" said the Irishman, and fainted. + +The gin was found in the dead captain's cabin; it was brought on deck, +and all hands had a dram, and attacked their further task. The night was +come, the moon would not be up for hours; a lamp was set on the main +hatch to light Amalu as he washed down decks; and the galley lantern was +taken to guide the others in their graveyard business. Holdorsen, +Hemstead, Trent, and Goddedaal were first disposed of, the last still +breathing as he went over the side; Wallen followed; and then Wicks, +steadied by the gin, went aloft with the boathook and succeeded in +dislodging Hardy. The Chinaman was their last task; he seemed to be +light-headed, talked aloud in his unknown language as they brought him +up, and it was only with the splash of his sinking body that the +gibberish ceased. Brown, by common consent, was left alone. Flesh and +blood could go no further. + +All this time they had been drinking undiluted gin like water; three +bottles stood broached in different quarters; and none passed without a +gulp. Tommy collapsed against the mainmast; Wicks fell on his face on +the poop ladder and moved no more; Amalu had vanished unobserved. +Carthew was the last afoot: he stood swaying at the break of the poop, +and the lantern, which he still carried, swung with his movement. His +head hummed; it swarmed with broken thoughts; memory of that day's +abominations flared up and died down within him like the light of a lamp +in a strong draught. And then he had a drunkard's inspiration. + +"There must be no more of this," he thought, and stumbled once more +below. + +The absence of Holdorsen's body brought him to a stand. He stood and +stared at the empty floor, and then remembered and smiled. From the +captain's room he took the open case with one dozen and three bottles of +gin, put the lantern inside, and walked precariously forth. Mac was once +more conscious, his eyes haggard, his face drawn with pain and flushed +with fever; and Carthew remembered he had never been seen to, had lain +there helpless, and was so to lie all night, injured, perhaps dying. But +it was now too late; reason had now fled from that silent ship. If +Carthew could get on deck again, it was as much as he could hope; and +casting on the unfortunate a glance of pity, the tragic drunkard +shouldered his way up the companion, dropped the case overboard, and +fell in the scuppers helpless. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +A BAD BARGAIN + + +With the first colour in the east, Carthew awoke and sat up. A while he +gazed at the scroll of the morning bank and the spars and hanging canvas +of the brig, like a man who wakes in a strange bed, with a child's +simplicity of wonder. He wondered above all what ailed him, what he had +lost, what disfavour had been done him, which he knew he should resent, +yet had forgotten. And then, like a river bursting through a dam, the +truth rolled on him its instantaneous volume: his memory teemed with +speech and pictures that he should never again forget; and he sprang to +his feet, stood a moment hand to brow, and began to walk violently to +and fro by the companion. As he walked he wrung his hands. +"God--God--God," he kept saying, with no thought of prayer, uttering a +mere voice of agony. + +The time may have been long or short, it was perhaps minutes, perhaps +only seconds, ere he awoke to find himself observed, and saw the captain +sitting up and watching him over the break of the poop, a strange +blindness as of fever in his eyes, a haggard knot of corrugations on his +brow. Cain saw himself in a mirror. For a flash they looked upon each +other, and then glanced guiltily aside; and Carthew fled from the eye of +his accomplice, and stood leaning on the taffrail. + +An hour went by, while the day came brighter, and the sun rose and drank +up the clouds: an hour of silence in the ship, an hour of agony beyond +narration for the sufferers. Brown's gabbling prayers, the cries of the +sailors in the rigging, strains of the dead Hemstead's minstrelsy, ran +together in Carthew's mind with sickening iteration. He neither +acquitted nor condemned himself: he did not think he suffered. In the +bright water into which he stared, the pictures changed and were +repeated: the baresark rage of Goddedaal; the blood-red light of the +sunset into which they had run forth; the face of the babbling Chinaman +as they cast him over; the face of the captain, seen a moment since, as +he awoke from drunkenness into remorse. And time passed, and the sun +swam higher, and his torment was not abated. + +Then were fulfilled many sayings, and the weakest of these condemned +brought relief and healing to the others. Amalu the drudge awoke (like +the rest) to sickness of body and distress of mind; but the habit of +obedience ruled in that simple spirit, and, appalled to be so late, he +went direct into the galley, kindled the fire, and began to get +breakfast. At the rattle of dishes, the snapping of the fire, and the +thin smoke that went up straight into the air, the spell was lifted. The +condemned felt once more the good dry land of habit under foot; they +touched again the familiar guide-ropes of sanity; they were restored to +a sense of the blessed revolution and return of all things earthly. The +captain drew a bucket of water and began to bathe. Tommy sat up, watched +him a while, and slowly followed his example; and Carthew, remembering +his last thoughts of the night before, hastened to the cabin. + +Mac was awake; perhaps had not slept. Over his head Goddedaal's canary +twittered shrilly from its cage. + +"How are you?" asked Carthew. + +"Me arrum's broke," returned Mac; "but I can stand that. It's this place +I can't aboide. I was coming on deck anyway." + +"Stay where you are, though," said Carthew. "It's deadly hot above, and +there's no wind. I'll wash out this----" and he paused, seeking a word +and not finding one for the grisly foulness of the cabin. + +"Faith, I'll be obloiged to ye, then," replied the Irishman. He spoke +mild and meek, like a sick child with its mother. There was no violence +in the violent man; and as Carthew fetched a bucket and swab and the +steward's sponge, and began to cleanse the field of battle, he +alternately watched him or shut his eyes and sighed like a man near +fainting. "I have to ask all your pardons," he began again presently, +"and the more shame to me as I got ye into trouble and couldn't do +nothing when it came. Ye saved me life, sir; ye're a clane shot." + +"For God's sake, don't talk of it!" cried Carthew. "It can't be talked +of; you don't know what it was. It was nothing down here; they fought. +On deck--O, my God!" And Carthew, with the bloody sponge pressed to his +face, struggled a moment with hysteria. + +"Kape cool, Mr. Cart'ew. It's done now," said Mac; "and ye may bless God +ye're not in pain, and helpless in the bargain." + +There was no more said by one or other, and the cabin was pretty well +cleansed when a stroke on the ship's bell summoned Carthew to breakfast. +Tommy had been busy in the meanwhile; he had hauled the whaleboat close +aboard, and already lowered into it a small keg of beef that he found +ready broached beside the galley door; it was plain he had but the one +idea--to escape. + +"We have a shipful of stores to draw upon," he said. "Well, what are we +staying for? Let's get off at once for Hawaii. I've begun preparing +already." + +"Mac has his arm broken," observed Carthew; "how would he stand the +voyage?" + +"A broken arm?" repeated the captain. "That all? I'll set it after +breakfast. I thought he was dead like the rest. That madman hit out +like----" and there, at the evocation of the battle, his voice ceased +and the talk died with it. + +After breakfast the three white men went down into the cabin. + +"I've come to set your arm," said the captain. + +"I beg your pardon, captain," replied Mac; "but the firrst thing ye got +to do is to get this ship to sea. We'll talk of me arrum after that." + +"O, there's no such blooming hurry," returned Wicks. + +"When the next ship sails in ye'll tell me stories!" retorted Mac. + +"But there's nothing so unlikely in the world," objected Carthew. + +"Don't be deceivin' yourself," said Mac. "If ye want a ship, divil a +one'll look near ye in six year; but if ye don't, ye may take my word +for ut, we'll have a squadron layin' here." + +"That's what I say," cried Tommy; "that's what I call sense! Let's stock +that whaleboat and be off." + +"And what will Captain Wicks be thinking of the whaleboat?" asked the +Irishman. + +"I don't think of it at all," said Wicks. "We've a smart-looking brig +under foot; that's all the whaleboat I want." + +"Excuse me!" cried Tommy. "That's childish talk. You've got a brig, to +be sure, and what use is she? You daren't go anywhere in her. What port +are you to sail for?" + +"For the port of Davy Jones's Locker, my son," replied the captain. +"This brig's going to be lost at sea. I'll tell you where, too, and +that's about forty miles to windward of Kauai. We're going to stay by +her till she's down; and once the masts are under, she's the _Flying +Scud_ no more, and we never heard of such a brig; and it's the crew of +the schooner _Currency Lass_ that comes ashore in the boat, and takes +the first chance to Sydney." + +"Captain, dear, that's the first Christian word I've heard of ut!" cried +Mac. "And now, just let me arrum be, jewel, and get the brig outside." + +"I'm as anxious as yourself, Mac," returned Wicks; "but there's not wind +enough to swear by. So let's see your arm, and no more talk." + +The arm was set and splinted; the body of Brown fetched from the +forepeak, where it lay stiff and cold, and committed to the waters of +the lagoon; and the washing of the cabin rudely finished. All these were +done ere mid-day; and it was past three when the first cat's-paw ruffled +the lagoon, and the wind came in a dry squall, which presently sobered +to a steady breeze. + +The interval was passed by all in feverish impatience, and by one of the +party in secret and extreme concern of mind. Captain Wicks was a +fore-and-aft sailor; he could take a schooner through a Scotch reel, +felt her mouth and divined her temper like a rider with a horse; she, on +her side, recognising her master and following his wishes like a dog. +But by a not very unusual train of circumstance, the man's dexterity was +partial and circumscribed. On a schooner's deck he was Rembrandt, or (at +the least) Mr. Whistler; on board a brig he was Pierre Grassou. Again +and again in the course of the morning he had reasoned out his policy +and rehearsed his orders; and ever with the same depression and +weariness. It was guess-work; it was chance; the ship might behave as he +expected, and might not; suppose she failed him, he stood there +helpless, beggared of all the proved resources of experience. Had not +all hands been so weary, had he not feared to communicate his own +misgivings, he could have towed her out. But these reasons sufficed, and +the most he could do was to take all possible precautions. Accordingly +he had Carthew aft, explained what was to be done with anxious patience, +and visited along with him the various sheets and braces. + +"I hope I'll remember," said Carthew. "It seems awfully muddled." + +"It's the rottenest kind of rig," the captain admitted: "all blooming +pocket-handkerchiefs! and not one sailor-man on deck! Ah, if she'd only +been a brigantine now! But it's lucky the passage is so plain; there's +no manoeuvring to mention. We get under weigh before the wind, and run +right so till we begin to get foul of the island; then we haul our wind +and lie as near south-east as may be till we're on that line; 'bout ship +there and stand straight out on the port tack. Catch the idea?" + +"Yes, I see the idea," replied Carthew, rather dismally, and the two +incompetents studied for a long time in silence the complicated gear +above their heads. + +But the time came when these rehearsals must be put in practice. The +sails were lowered, and all hands heaved the anchor short. The whaleboat +was then cut adrift, the upper topsails and the spanker set, the yards +braced up, and the spanker sheet hauled out to starboard. + +"Heave away on your anchor, Mr. Carthew." + +"Anchor's gone, sir." + +"Set jibs." + +It was done, and the brig still hung enchanted. Wicks, his head full of +a schooner's mainsail, turned his mind to the spanker. First he hauled +in the sheet, and then he hauled it out, with no result. + +"Brail the damned thing up!" he bawled at last, with a red face. "There +ain't no sense in it." + +It was the last stroke of bewilderment for the poor captain, that he had +no sooner brailed up the spanker than the vessel came before the wind. +The laws of nature seemed to him to be suspended; he was like a man in a +world of pantomime tricks; the cause of any result, and the probable +result of any action, equally concealed from him. He was the more +careful not to shake the nerve of his amateur assistants. He stood there +with a face like a torch; but he gave his orders with _aplomb_, and +indeed, now the ship was under weigh, supposed his difficulties over. + +The lower topsails and courses, were then set, and the brig began to +walk the water like a thing of life, her forefoot discoursing music, +the birds flying and crying over her spars. Bit by bit the passage began +to open and the blue sea to show between the flanking breakers on the +reef; bit by bit, on the starboard bow, the low land of the islet began +to heave closer aboard. The yards were braced up, the spanker sheet +hauled aft again; the brig was close hauled, lay down to her work like a +thing in earnest, and had soon drawn near to the point of advantage, +where she might stay and lie out of the lagoon in a single tack. + +Wicks took the wheel himself, swelling with success. He kept the brig +full to give her heels, and began to bark his orders: "Ready about. +Helm's a-lee. Tacks and sheets. Mainsail haul." And then the fatal +words: "That'll do your mainsail; jump for'ard and haul round your +foreyards." + +To stay a square-rigged ship is an affair of knowledge and swift sight: +and a man used to the succinct evolutions of a schooner will always tend +to be too hasty with a brig. It was so now. The order came too soon; the +topsails set flat aback; the ship was in irons. Even yet, had the helm +been reversed, they might have saved her. But to think of a sternboard +at all, far more to think of profiting by one, were foreign to the +schooner-sailor's mind. Wicks made haste instead to wear ship, a +manoeuvre for which room was wanting, and the _Flying Scud_ took ground +on a bank of sand and coral about twenty minutes before five. + +Wicks was no hand with a square-rigger, and he had shown it. But he was +a sailor and a born captain of men for all homely purposes, where +intellect is not required and an eye in a man's head and a heart under +his jacket will suffice. Before the others had time to understand the +misfortune, he was bawling fresh orders, and had the sails clewed up, +and took soundings round the ship. + +"She lies lovely," he remarked, and ordered out a boat with the +starboard anchor. + +"Here! steady!" cried Tommy. "You ain't going to turn us to, to warp her +off?" + +"I am though," replied Wicks. + +"I won't set a hand to such tomfoolery for one," replied Tommy. "I'm +dead beat." He went and sat down doggedly on the main hatch. "You got us +on; get us off again," he added. + +Garthew and Wicks turned to each other. + +"Perhaps you don't know how tired we are," said Carthew. + +"The tide's flowing!" cried the captain. "You wouldn't have me miss a +rising tide?" + +"O, gammon! there's tides to-morrow!" retorted Tommy. + +"And I'll tell you what," added Carthew, "the breeze is failing fast, +and the sun will soon be down. We may get into all kinds of fresh mess +in the dark and with nothing but light airs." + +"I don't deny it," answered Wicks, and stood a while as if in thought. +"But what I can't make out," he began again, with agitation, "what I +can't make out is what you're made of! To stay in this place is beyond +me. There's the bloody sun going down--and to stay here is beyond me." + +The others looked upon him with horrified surprise. This fall of their +chief pillar--this irrational passion in the practical man, suddenly +barred out of his true sphere--the sphere of action--shocked and daunted +them. But it gave to another and unseen hearer the chance for which he +had been waiting. Mac, on the striking of the brig, had crawled up the +companion, and he now showed himself and spoke up. + +"Captain Wicks," said he, "it's me that brought this trouble on the lot +of ye. I'm sorry for ut, I ask all your pardons, and if there's any one +can say 'I forgive ye,' it'll make my soul the lighter." + +Wicks stared upon the man in amaze; then his self-control returned to +him. "We're all in glass houses here," he said; "we ain't going to turn +to and throw stones. I forgive you, sure enough; and much good may it do +you!" + +The others spoke to the same purpose. + +"I thank ye for ut, and 'tis done like gentlemen," said Mac. "But +there's another thing I have upon my mind. I hope we're all Prodestans +here?" + +It appeared they were; it seemed a small thing for the Protestant +religion to rejoice in! + +"Well, that's as it should be," continued Mac. "And why shouldn't we say +the Lord's Prayer? There can't be no hurt in ut." + +He had the same quiet, pleading, childlike way with him as in the +morning; and the others accepted his proposal, and knelt down without a +word. + +"Knale if ye like!" said he. "I'll stand." And he covered his eyes. + +So the prayer was said to the accompaniment of the surf and sea-birds, +and all rose refreshed and felt lightened of a load. Up to then, they +had cherished their guilty memories in private, or only referred to them +in the heat of a moment, and fallen immediately silent. Now they had +faced their remorse in company, and the worst seemed over. Nor was it +only that. But the petition "Forgive us our trespasses," falling in so +apposite after they had themselves forgiven the immediate author of +their miseries, sounded like an absolution. + +Tea was taken on deck in the time of the sunset, and not long after the +five castaways--castaways once more--lay down to sleep. + +Day dawned windless and hot. Their slumbers had been too profound to be +refreshing, and they woke listless, and sat up, and stared about them +with dull eyes. Only Wicks, smelling a hard day's work ahead, was more +alert. He went first to the well, sounded it once and then a second +time, and stood a while with a grim look, so that all could see he was +dissatisfied. Then he shook himself, stripped to the buff, clambered on +the rail, drew himself up, and raised his arms to plunge. The dive was +never taken. He stood, instead, transfixed, his eyes on the horizon. + +"Hand up that glass," he said. + +In a trice they were all swarming aloft, the nude captain leading with +the glass. + +On the northern horizon was a finger of grey smoke, straight in the +windless air like a point of admiration. + +"What do you make it?" they asked of Wicks. + +"She's truck down," he replied; "no telling yet. By the way the smoke +builds, she must be heading right here." + +"What can she be?" + +"She might be a China mail," returned Wicks, "and she might be a +blooming man-of-war, come to look for castaways. Here! This ain't the +time to stand staring. On deck, boys!" + +He was the first on deck, as he had been the first aloft, handed down +the ensign, bent it again to the signal halliards, and ran it up union +down. + +"Now hear me," he said, jumping into his trousers, "and everything I say +you grip on to. If that's a man-of-war, she'll be in a tearing hurry; +all these ships are what don't do nothing and have their expenses paid. +That's our chance; for we'll go with them, and they won't take the time +to look twice or to ask a question. I'm Captain Trent; Carthew, you're +Goddedaal; Tommy, you're Hardy; Mac's Brown; Amalu--hold hard! we can't +make a Chinaman of him! Ah Wing must have deserted; Amalu stowed away; +and I turned him to as cook, and was never at the bother to sign him. +Catch the idea? Say your names." + +And that pale company recited their lesson earnestly. + +"What were the names of the other two?" he asked. "Him Carthew shot in +the companion, and the one I caught in the jaw on the main top-gallant?" + + +"Holdorsen and Wallen," said some one. + +"Well, they're drowned," continued Wicks; "drowned alongside trying to +lower a boat. We had a bit of a squall last night; that's how we got +ashore." He ran and squinted at the compass. "Squall out of +nor'-nor'west-half-west; blew hard; every one in a mess, falls jammed, +and Holdorsen and Wallen spilt overboard. See? Clear your blooming +heads!" He was in his jacket now, and spoke with a feverish impatience +and contention that rang like anger. + +"But is it safe?" asked Tommy. + +"Safe?" bellowed the captain. "We're standing on the drop, you +moon-calf! If that ship's bound for China (which she don't look to be), +we're lost as soon as we arrive; if she's bound the other way, she comes +from China, don't she? Well, if there's a man on board of her that ever +clapped eyes on Trent or any blooming hand out of this brig, we'll all +be in irons in two hours. Safe! no, it ain't safe; it's a beggarly last +chance to shave the gallows, and that's what it is." + +At this convincing picture fear took hold on all. + +"Hadn't we a hundred times better stay by the brig?" cried Carthew. +"They would give us a hand to float her off." + +"You'll make me waste this holy day in chattering!" cried Wicks. "Look +here, when I sounded the well this morning there was two feet of water +there against eight inches last night. What's wrong? I don't know; might +be nothing; might be the worst kind of smash. And then, there we are in +for a thousand miles in an open boat, if that's your taste!" + +"But it may be nothing, and anyway, their carpenters are bound to help +us repair her," argued Carthew. + +"Moses Murphy!" cried the captain. "How did she strike? Bows on, I +believe. And she's down by the head now. If any carpenter comes +tinkering here where'll he go first? Down in the forepeak, I suppose! +And then, how about all that blood among the chandlery? You would think +you were a lot of members of Parliament discussing Plimsoll; and you're +just a pack of murderers with the halter round your neck. Any other ass +got any time to waste? No? Thank God for that! Now, all hands! I'm going +below, and I leave you here on deck. You get the boat-cover off that +boat; then you turn to and open the specie chest. There are five of us; +get five chests, and divide the specie equal among the five--put it at +the bottom--and go at it like tigers. Get blankets, or canvas, or +clothes, so it won't rattle. It'll make five pretty heavy chests, but we +can't help that. You, Carthew--dash me!--You, Mr. Goddedaal, come below. +We've our share before us." + +And he cast another glance at the smoke, and hurried below with Carthew +at his heels. + +The logs were found in the main cabin behind the canary cage; two of +them, one kept by Trent, one by Goddedaal. Wicks looked first at one, +then at the other, and his lip stuck out. + +"Can you forge hand of write?" he asked. + +"No," said Carthew. + +"There's luck for you--no more can I!" cried the captain. "Hullo! here's +worse yet--here's this Goddedaal up to date; he must have filled it in +before supper. See for yourself: 'Smoke observed.--Captain Kirkup and +five hands of the schooner _Currency Lass_.' Ah! this is better," he +added, turning to the other log, "The old man ain't written anything for +a clear fortnight. We'll dispose of your log altogether, Mr. Goddedaal, +and stick to the old man's--to mine, I mean; only I ain't going to write +it up for reasons of my own. You are. You're going to sit down right +here and fill it in the way I tell you." + +"How to explain the loss of mine?" asked Carthew. + +"You never kept one," replied the captain. "Gross neglect of duty. +You'll catch it." + +"And the change of writing?" resumed Carthew. "You began; why do you +stop and why do I come in? And you'll have to sign anyway." + +"O! I've met with an accident and can't write," replied Wicks. + +"An accident," repeated Carthew. "It don't sound natural. What kind of +an accident?" + +Wicks spread his hand face up on the table, and drove a knife through +his palm. + +"That kind of an accident," said he. "There's a way to draw to windward +of most difficulties if you've a head on your shoulders." He began to +bind up his hand with a handkerchief, glancing the while over +Goddedaal's log. "Hullo!" he said; "this'll never do for us--this is an +impossible kind of yarn. Here, to begin with, is this Captain Trent, +trying some fancy course, leastways he's a thousand miles to south'ard +of the great circle. And here, it seems, he was close up with this +island on the sixth, sails all these days, and is close up with it again +by daylight on the eleventh." + +"Goddedaal said they had the deuce's luck," said Carthew. + +"Well, it don't look like real life--that's all I can say," returned +Wicks. + +"It's the way it was, though," argued Carthew. + +"So it is; and what the better are we for that, if it don't look so?" +cried the captain, sounding unwonted depths of art criticism. "Here! try +and see if you can tie this bandage; I'm bleeding like a pig." + +As Carthew sought to adjust the handkerchief, his patient seemed sunk in +a deep muse, his eye veiled, his mouth partly open. The job was yet +scarce done when he sprang to his feet. + +"I have it," he broke out and ran on deck. "Here, boys!" he cried, "we +didn't come here on the eleventh; we came in here on the evening of the +sixth, and lay here ever since becalmed. As soon as you've done with +these chests," he added, "you can turn to and roll out beef and +water-breakers; it'll look more ship-shape--like as if we were getting +ready for the boat voyage." + +And he was back again in a moment, cooking the new log. Goddedaal's was +then carefully destroyed, and a hunt began for the ship's papers. Of all +the agonies of that breathless morning this was perhaps the most +poignant. Here and there the two men searched, cursing, cannoning +together, streaming with heat, freezing with terror. News was bawled +down to them that the ship was indeed a man-of-war, that she was close +up, that she was lowering a boat; and still they sought in vain. By what +accident they missed the iron box with the money and accounts is hard to +fancy, but they did. And the vital documents were found at last in the +pocket of Trent's shore-going coat, where he had left them when last he +came on board. + +Wicks smiled for the first time that morning. "None too soon," said he. +"And now for it! Take these others for me; I'm afraid I'll get them +mixed if I keep both." + +"What are they?" Carthew asked. + +"They're the Kirkup and _Currency Lass_ papers," he replied. "Pray God +we need 'em again!" + +"Boat's inside the lagoon, sir," hailed down Mac, who sat by the +skylight doing sentry while the others worked. + +"Time we were on deck, then, Mr. Goddedaal," said Wicks. + +As they turned to leave the cabin, the canary burst into piercing song. + +"My God!" cried Carthew, with a gulp, "we can't leave that wretched bird +to starve. It was poor Goddedaal's." + +"Bring the bally thing along!" cried the captain. + +And they went on deck. + +An ugly brute of a modern man-of-war lay just without the reef, now +quite inert, now giving a flap or two with her propeller. Nearer hand, +and just within, a big white boat came skimming to the stroke of many +oars, her ensign blowing at the stern. + +"One word more," said Wicks, after he had taken in the scene. "Mac, +you've been in China ports? All right; then you can speak for yourself. +The rest of you I kept on board all the time we were in Hong Kong, +hoping you would desert; but you fooled me and stuck to the brig. +That'll make your lying come easier." + +The boat was now close at hand; a boy in the stern sheets was the only +officer, and a poor one plainly, for the men were talking as they +pulled. + +"Thank God, they've only sent a kind of a middy!" ejaculated +Wicks.--"Here you, Hardy, stand for'ard! I'll have no deck hands on my +quarter-deck," he cried, and the reproof braced the whole crew like a +cold douche. + +The boat came alongside with perfect neatness, and the boy officer +stepped on board, where he was respectfully greeted by Wicks. + +"You the master of this ship?" he asked. + +"Yes, sir," said Wicks. "Trent is my name, and this is the _Flying Scud_ +of Hull." + +"You seem to have got into a mess," said the officer. + +"If you'll step aft with me here, I'll tell you all there is of it," +said Wicks. + +"Why, man, you're shaking!" cried the officer. + +"So would you, perhaps, if you had been in the same berth," returned +Wicks; and he told the whole story of the rotten water, the long calm, +the squall, the seamen drowned, glibly and hotly, talking, with his head +in the lion's mouth, like one pleading in the dock. I heard the same +tale from the same narrator in the saloon in San Francisco; and even +then his bearing filled me with suspicion. But the officer was no +observer. + +"Well, the captain is in no end of a hurry," said he; "but I was +instructed to give you all the assistance in my power, and signal back +for another boat if more hands were necessary. What can I do for you?" + +"O, we won't keep you no time," replied Wicks cheerily. "We're all +ready, bless you--men's chests, chronometer, papers, and all." + +"Do you mean to leave her?" cried the officer. "She seems to me to lie +nicely; can't we get your ship off?" + +"So we could, and no mistake; but how we're to keep her afloat's another +question. Her bows is stove in," replied Wicks. + +The officer coloured to the eyes. He was incompetent, and knew he was; +thought he was already detected, and feared to expose himself again. +There was nothing further from his mind than that the captain should +deceive him; if the captain was pleased, why, so was he. "All right," he +said. "Tell your men to get their chests aboard." + +"Mr. Goddedaal, turn the hands to to get the chests aboard," said Wicks. + +The four Currency Lasses had waited the while on tenter-hooks. This +welcome news broke upon them like the sun at midnight; and Hadden burst +into a storm of tears, sobbing aloud as he heaved upon the tackle. But +the work went none the less briskly forward; chests, men, and bundles +were got over the side with alacrity; the boat was shoved off; it moved +out of the long shadow of the _Flying Scud_, and its bows were pointed +at the passage. + +So much, then, was accomplished. The sham wreck had passed muster; they +were clear of her, they were safe away; and the water widened between +them and her damning evidences. On the other hand, they were drawing +nearer to the ship of war, which might very well prove to be their +prison and a hangman's cart to bear them to the gallows of which they +had not yet learned either whence she came or whither she was bound; and +the doubt weighed upon their heart like mountains. + +It was Wicks who did the talking. The sound was small in Carthew's ears, +like the voices of men miles away, but the meaning of each word struck +home to him like a bullet. "What did you say your ship was?" inquired +Wicks. + +"_Tempest_, don't you know?" returned the officer. + +"Don't you know?" What could that mean? Perhaps nothing: perhaps that +the ships had met already. Wicks took his courage in both hands. "Where +is she bound?" he asked. + +"O, we're just looking in at all these miserable islands here," said the +officer. "Then we bear up for San Francisco." + +"O yes, you're from China ways, like us?" pursued Wicks. + +"Hong Kong," said the officer, and spat over the side. + +Hong Kong. Then the game was up; as soon as they set foot on board, they +would be seized: the wreck would be examined, the blood found, the +lagoon perhaps dredged, and the bodies of the dead would reappear to +testify. An impulse almost incontrollable bade Carthew rise from the +thwart, shriek out aloud, and leap overboard: it seemed so vain a thing +to dissemble longer, to dally with the inevitable, to spin out some +hundred seconds more of agonised suspense, with shame and death thus +visibly approaching. But the indomitable Wicks persevered. His face was +like a skull, his voice scarce recognisable; the dullest of men and +officers (it seemed) must have remarked that tell-tale countenance and +broken utterance. And still he persevered, bent upon certitude. + +"Nice place, Hong Kong?" he said. + +"I'm sure I don't know," said the officer. "Only a day and a half there; +called for orders and came straight on here. Never heard of such a +beastly cruise." And he went on describing and lamenting the untoward +fortunes of the _Tempest_. + +But Wicks and Carthew heeded him no longer. They lay back on the +gunwale, breathing deep, sunk in a stupor of the body; the mind within +still nimbly and agreeably at work, measuring the past danger, exulting +in the present relief, numbering with ecstasy their ultimate chances of +escape. For the voyage in the man-of-war they were now safe; yet a few +more days of peril, activity and presence of mind in San Francisco, and +the whole horrid tale was blotted out; and Wicks again became Kirkup, +and Goddedaal became Carthew--men beyond all shot of possible suspicion, +men who had never heard of the _Flying Scud_, who had never been in +sight of Midway Reef. + +So they came alongside, under many craning heads of seamen and +projecting mouths of guns; so they climbed on board somnambulous, and +looked blindly about them at the tall spars, the white decks, and the +crowding ship's company, and heard men as from far away, and answered +them at random. + +And then a hand fell softly on Carthew's shoulder. + +"Why, Norrie, old chappie, where have you dropped from? All the world's +been looking for you. Don't you know you've come into your kingdom?" + +He turned, beheld the face of his old schoolmate Sebright, and fell +unconscious at his feet. + +The doctor was attending him, a while later, in Lieutenant Sebright's +cabin, when he came to himself. He opened his eyes, looked hard in the +strange face, and spoke with a kind of solemn vigour. + +"Brown must go the same road," he said, "now or never." And then paused, +and his reason coming to him with more clearness, spoke again: "What was +I saying Where am I? Who are you?" + +"I am the doctor of the _Tempest_," was the reply. "You are in +Lieutenant Sebright's berth, and you may dismiss all concern from your +mind. Your troubles are over, Mr. Carthew." + +"Why do you call me that?" he asked. "Ah, I remember--Sebright knew me! +O!" and he groaned and shook. "Send down Wicks to me; I must see Wicks +at once!" he cried, and seized the doctor's wrist with unconscious +violence. + +"All right," said the doctor. "Let's make a bargain. You swallow down +this draught, and I'll go and fetch Wicks." + +And he gave the wretched man an opiate that laid him out within ten +minutes, and in all likelihood preserved his reason. + +It was the doctor's next business to attend to Mac; and he found +occasion, while engaged upon his arm, to make the man repeat the names +of the rescued crew. It was now the turn of the captain, and there is no +doubt he was no longer the man that we have seen; sudden relief, the +sense of perfect safety, a square meal, and a good glass of grog, had +all combined to relax his vigilance and depress his energy. + +"When was this done?" asked the doctor, looking at the wound. + +"More than a week ago," replied Wicks, thinking singly of his log. + +"Hey?" cried the doctor, and he raised his head and looked the captain +in the eyes. + +"I don't remember exactly," faltered Wicks. + +And at this remarkable falsehood the suspicions of the doctor were at +once quadrupled. + +"By the way, which of you is called Wicks?" he asked easily. + +"What's that?" snapped the captain, falling white as paper. + +"Wicks," repeated the doctor; "which of you is he? That's surely a plain +question." + +Wicks stared upon his questioner in silence. + +"Which is Brown, then?" pursued the doctor. + +"What are you talking of? what do you mean by this?" cried Wicks, +snatching his half-bandaged hand away, so that the blood sprinkled in +the surgeon's face. + +He did not trouble to remove it; looking straight at his victim, he +pursued his questions. "Why must Brown go the same way?" he asked. + +Wicks fell trembling on a locker. "Carthew told you," he cried. + +"No," replied the doctor, "he has not. But he and you between you have +set me thinking, and I think there's something wrong." + +"Give me some grog," said Wicks. "I'd rather tell than have you find +out. I'm damned if it's half as bad as what anyone would think." + +And with the help of a couple of strong grogs, the tragedy of the +_Flying Scud_ was told for the first time. + +It was a fortunate series of accidents that brought the story to the +doctor. He understood and pitied the position of these wretched men, and +came whole-heartedly to their assistance. He and Wicks and Carthew (so +soon as he was recovered) held a hundred councils and prepared a policy +for San Francisco. It was he who certified "Goddedaal" unfit to be +moved, and smuggled Carthew ashore under cloud of night; it was he who +kept Wicks's wound open that he might sign with his left hand; he who +took all their Chile silver and (in the course of the first day) got it +converted for them into portable gold. He used his influence in the +ward-room to keep the tongues of the young officers in order, so that +Carthew's identification was kept out of the papers. And he rendered +another service yet more important. He had a friend in San Francisco, a +millionaire: to this man he privately presented Carthew as a young +gentleman come newly into a huge estate, but troubled with Jew debts +which he was trying to settle on the quiet. The millionaire came readily +to help; and it was with his money that the wrecker gang was to be +fought. What was his name, out of a thousand guesses? It was Douglas +Longhurst. + +As long as the Currency Lasses could all disappear under fresh names, +it did not greatly matter if the brig were bought, or any small +discrepancies should be discovered in the wrecking. The identification +of one of their number had changed all that. The smallest scandal must +now direct attention to the movements of Norris. It would be asked how +he who had sailed in a schooner from Sydney had turned up so shortly +after in a brig out of Hong Kong; and from one question to another all +his original shipmates were pretty sure to be involved. Hence arose +naturally the idea of preventing danger, profiting by Carthew's +new-found wealth, and buying the brig under an _alias_; and it was put +in hand with equal energy and caution. Carthew took lodgings alone under +a false name, picked up Bellairs at random, and commissioned him to buy +the wreck. + +"What figure, if you please?" the lawyer asked. + +"I want it bought," replied Carthew. "I don't mind about the price." + +"Any price is no price," said Bellairs. "Put a name upon it." + +"Call it ten thousand pounds then, if you like!" said Carthew. + +In the meanwhile, the captain had to walk the streets, appear in the +consulate, be cross-examined by Lloyd's agent, be badgered about his +lost accounts, sign papers with his left hand, and repeat his lies to +every skipper in San Francisco; not knowing at what moment he might run +into the arms of some old friend who should hail him by the name of +Wicks, or some new enemy who should be in a position to deny him that of +Trent. And the latter incident did actually befall him, but was +transformed by his stout countenance into an element of strength. It was +in the consulate (of all untoward places) that he suddenly heard a big +voice inquiring for Captain Trent. He turned with the customary sinking +at his heart. + +"_You_ ain't Captain Trent!" said the stranger, falling back. "Why, +what's all this? They tell me you're passing off as Captain +Trent--Captain Jacob Trent--a man I knew since I was that high." + +"O, you're thinking of my uncle as had the bank in Cardiff," replied +Wicks, with desperate _aplomb_. + +"I declare I never knew he had a nevvy!" said the stranger. + +"Well, you see he has!" says Wicks. + +"And how is the old man?" asked the other. + +"Fit as a fiddle," answered Wicks, and was opportunely summoned by the +clerk. + +This alert was the only one until the morning of the sale, when he was +once more alarmed by his interview with Jim; and it was with some +anxiety that he attended the sale, knowing only that Carthew was to be +represented, but neither who was to represent him nor what were the +instructions given. I suppose Captain Wicks is a good life. In spite of +his personal appearance and his own known uneasiness, I suppose he is +secure from apoplexy, or it must have struck him there and then, as he +looked on at the stages of that insane sale and saw the old brig and her +not very valuable cargo knocked down at last to a total stranger for ten +thousand pounds. + +It had been agreed that he was to avoid Carthew, and above all Carthew's +lodging, so that no connection might be traced between the crew and the +pseudonymous purchaser. But the hour for caution was gone by, and he +caught a tram and made all speed to Mission Street. + +Carthew met him in the door. + +"Come away, come away from here," said Carthew; and when they were clear +of the house, "All's up!" he added. + +"O, you've heard of the sale, then?" said Wicks. + +"The sale!" cried Carthew. "I declare I had forgotten it." And he told +of the voice in the telephone, and the maddening question: "Why did you +want to buy the _Flying Scud_?" + +This circumstance, coming on the back of the monstrous improbabilities +of the sale, was enough to have shaken the reason of Immanuel Kant. The +earth seemed banded together to defeat them; the stones and the boys on +the street appeared to be in possession of their guilty secret. Flight +was their one thought. The treasure of the _Currency Lass_ they packed +in waistbelts, expressed their chests to an imaginary address in British +Columbia, and left San Francisco the same afternoon, booked for Los +Angeles. + +The next day they pursued their retreat by the Southern Pacific route, +which Carthew followed on his way to England; but the other three +branched off for Mexico. + + + + +EPILOGUE + + + + +EPILOGUE + +TO WILL H. LOW + + +Dear Low,--The other day (at Manihiki of all places) I had the pleasure +to meet Dodd. We sat some two hours in the neat little toy-like church, +set with pews after the manner of Europe, and inlaid with +mother-of-pearl in the style (I suppose) of the New Jerusalem. The +natives, who are decidedly the most attractive inhabitants of this +planet, crowded round us in the pew, and fawned upon and patted us; and +here it was I put my questions, and Dodd answered me. + +I first carried him back to the night in Barbizon when Carthew told his +story, and asked him what was done about Bellairs. It seemed he had put +the matter to his friend at once, and that Carthew had taken to it with +an inimitable lightness. "He's poor and I'm rich," he had said. "I can +afford to smile at him. I go somewhere else, that's all--somewhere +that's far away and dear to get to. Persia would be found to answer, I +fancy. No end of a place, Persia. Why not come with me?" And they had +left the next afternoon for Constantinople, on their way to Teheran. Of +the shyster, it is only known (by a newspaper paragraph) that he +returned somehow to San Francisco and died in the hospital. + +"Now there's another point," said I. "There you are off to Persia with a +millionaire, and rich yourself. How come you here in the South Seas, +running a trader?" + +He said, with a smile, that I had not yet heard of Jim's last +bankruptcy. "I was about cleaned out once more," he said; "and then it +was that Carthew had this schooner built and put me in as supercargo. +It's his yacht and it's my trader; and as nearly all the expenses go to +the yacht, I do pretty well. As for Jim, he's right again; one of the +best businesses, they say, in the West--fruit, cereals, and real estate; +and he has a Tartar of a partner now--Nares, no less. Nares will keep +him straight, Nares has a big head. They have their country places next +door at Saucelito, and I stayed with them time about, the last time I +was on the coast. Jim had a paper of his own--I think he has a notion of +being senator one of these days--and he wanted me to throw up the +schooner and come and write his editorials. He holds strong views on the +State Constitution, and so does Mamie." + +"And what became of the other three Currency Lasses after they left +Carthew?" I inquired. + +"Well, it seems they had a huge spree in the city of Mexico," said Dodd; +"and then Hadden and the Irishman took a turn at the gold-fields in +Venezuela, and Wicks went on alone to Valparaiso. There's a Kirkup in +the Chilean navy to this day; I saw the name in the papers about the +Balmaceda war. Hadden soon wearied of the mines, and I met him the other +day in Sydney. The last news he had from Venezuela, Mac had been knocked +over in an attack on the gold train. So there's only the three of them +left, for Amalu scarcely counts. He lives on his own land in Maui, at +the side of Hale-a-ka-la, where he keeps Goddedaal's canary; and they +say he sticks to his dollars, which is a wonder in a Kanaka. He had a +considerable pile to start with, for not only Hemstead's share but +Carthew's was divided equally among the other four--Mac being counted." + +"What did that make for him altogether?" I could not help asking, for I +had been diverted by the number of calculations in his narrative. + +"One hundred and twenty-eight pounds nineteen shillings and +elevenpence-halfpenny," he replied with composure; "that's leaving out +what little he won at Van John. It's something for a Kanaka, you know." + +And about that time we were at last obliged to yield to the +solicitations of our native admirers, and go to the pastor's house to +drink green cocoanuts. The ship I was in was sailing the same night, for +Dodd had been beforehand and got all the shell in the island; and though +he pressed me to desert and return with him to Auckland (whither he was +now bound to pick up Carthew) I was firm in my refusal. + +The truth is, since I have been mixed up with Havens and Dodd in the +design to publish the latter's narrative, I seem to feel no want for +Carthew's society. Of course, I am wholly modern in sentiment, and think +nothing more noble than to publish people's private affairs at so much a +line. They like it, and if they don't they ought to. But a still small +voice keeps telling me they will not like it always, and perhaps not +always stand it. Memory besides supplies me with the face of a pressman +(in the sacred phrase) who proved altogether too modern for one of his +neighbours, and + + _Qui nunc it per iter tenebricosum_ + --_nos praecedens_-- + +as it were, marshalling us our way. I am in no haste to be that man's +successor. Carthew has a record as "a clane shot," and for some years +Samoa will be good enough for me. + +We agreed to separate, accordingly; but he took me on board in his own +boat with the hardwood fittings and entertained me on the way with an +account of his late visit to Butaritari, whither he had gone on an +errand for Carthew, to see how Topelius was getting along, and, if +necessary, to give him a helping hand. But Topelius was in great force, +and had patronised and--well--out-manoeuvred him. + +"Carthew will be pleased," said Dodd; "for there's no doubt they +oppressed the man abominably when they were in the _Currency Lass_. It's +diamond cut diamond now." + + * * * * * + +This, I think, was the most of the news I got from my friend Loudon; and +I hope I was well inspired, and have put all the questions to which you +would be curious to hear an answer. + +But there is one more that I daresay you are burning to put to myself; +and that is, what your own name is doing in this place, cropping up (as +it were uncalled-for) on the stern of our poor ship? If you were not +born in Arcadia, you linger in fancy on its margin; your thoughts are +busied with the flutes of antiquity, with daffodils, and the classic +poplar, and the footsteps of the nymphs, and the elegant and moving +aridity of ancient art. Why dedicate to you a tale of a cast so +modern:--full of details of our barbaric manners and unstable morals; +full of the need and the lust of money, so that there is scarce a page +in which the dollars do not jingle; full of the unrest and movement of +our century, so that the reader is hurried from place to place and sea +to sea, and the book is less a romance than a panorama--in the end, as +blood-bespattered as an epic? + +Well, you are a man interested in all problems of art, even the most +vulgar; and it may amuse you to hear the genesis and growth of "The +Wrecker." On board the schooner _Equator_, almost within sight of the +Johnstone Islands (if anybody knows where these are), and on a moonlit +night when it was a joy to be alive, the authors were amused with +several stories of the sales of wrecks. The subject tempted them; and +they sat apart in the alleyway to discuss its possibilities. "What a +tangle it would make," suggested one, "if the wrong crew were aboard. +But how to get the wrong crew there?"--"I have it!" cried the other; +"the so-and-so affair!" For not so many months before, and not so many +hundred miles from where we were then sailing, a proposition almost +tantamount to that of Captain Trent had been made by a British skipper +to some British castaways. + +Before we turned in, the scaffolding of the tale had been put together. +But the question of treatment was as usual more obscure. We had long +been at once attracted and repelled by that very modern form of the +police novel or mystery story, which consists in beginning your yarn +anywhere but at the beginning, and finishing it anywhere but at the end; +attracted by its peculiar interest when done, and the peculiar +difficulties that attend its execution; repelled by that appearance of +insincerity and shallowness of tone, which seems its inevitable +drawback. For the mind of the reader, always bent to pick up clues, +receives no impression of reality or life, rather of an airless, +elaborate mechanism; and the book remains enthralling but insignificant, +like a game of chess, not a work of human art. It seemed the cause might +lie partly in the abrupt attack; and that if the tale were gradually +approached, some of the characters introduced (as it were) beforehand, +and the book started in the tone of a novel of manners and experience +briefly treated, this defect might be lessened and our mystery seem to +inhere in life. The tone of the age, its movement, the mingling of races +and classes in the dollar hunt, the fiery and not quite unromantic +struggle for existence, with its changing trades and scenery, and two +types in particular, that of the American handy-man of business and that +of the Yankee merchant sailor--we agreed to dwell upon at some length, +and make the woof to our not very precious warp. Hence Dodd's father, +and Pinkerton, and Nares, and the Dromedary picnics, and the railway +work in New South Wales--the last and unsolicited testimonial from the +powers that be, for the tale was half written before I saw Carthew's +squad toil in the rainy cutting at South Clifton, or heard from the +engineer of his "young swell." After we had invented at some expense of +time this method of approaching and fortifying our police novel, it +occurred to us it had been invented previously by some one else, and was +in fact--however painfully different the results may seem--the method of +Charles Dickens in his later work. + +I see you staring. Here, you will say, is a prodigious quantity of +theory to our halfpenny-worth of police novel; and withal not a shadow +of an answer to your question. + +Well, some of us like theory. After so long a piece of practice, these +may be indulged for a few pages. And the answer is at hand. It was +plainly desirable, from every point of view of convenience and contrast, +that our hero and narrator should partly stand aside from those with +whom he mingles, and be but a pressed-man in the dollar hunt. Thus it +was that Loudon Dodd became a student of the plastic arts, and that our +globe-trotting story came to visit Paris and look in at Barbizon. And +thus it is, dear Low, that your name appears in the address of this +epilogue. + +For sure, if any person can here appreciate and read between the lines, +it must be you--and one other, our friend. All the dominos will be +transparent to your better knowledge; the statuary contract will be to +you a piece of ancient history; and you will not have now heard for the +first time of the dangers of Roussillon. Dead leaves from the Bas Breau, +echoes from Lavenue's and the Rue Racine, memories of a common past, let +these be your bookmarkers as you read. And if you care for naught else +in the story, be a little pleased to breathe once more for a moment the +airs of our youth. + + + + +END OF VOL. XIII + + +PRINTED BY CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED, LA BELLE SAUVAGE, LONDON, E.C. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - +Swanston Edition Vol. 13 (of 25), by Robert Louis Stevenson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WORKS OF STEVENSON *** + +***** This file should be named 30954.txt or 30954.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/9/5/30954/ + +Produced by Marius Masi, Jonathan Ingram and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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